April 2024 - Article

A dog owner must always have enough dog food. When reserves get low, pressing the Amazon button gets a new bag to keep the dog happy. If this action is possible with such ease on dog food, replacing faded batteries requires equal ease and attention.

A new generation of charger is arising that checks the capacity of a smart battery and calls for service or replacement when the Minimum Operational Reserve Energy (MORE) is no longer met. The MORE level in the charger is adjustable to get a sweet-spot between solid reliability and good economics, a feature made possible with the Target Selector. The Universal Supervisor Charger (USC) offers these features in standalone mode and when connected to a host to enable Cloud Analytics.

Figure 2: SoH Light

When inserting a smart batteryinto the USC, the charger validates the available capacity with a green SoH Light as shown as in Figure 2; amber calls for calibration or replacement. Battery performance is evaluated by reading the Leftover Charge before charge. An analogy is an aircraft carrying enough fuel for a safe landing. Leftover Charge will also be affected as the battery fades with use and time.

Leftover Charger at the end of a day should be 10–20%. Increasing the target allows more capacity; ample reserve permits lower settings to keep a battery in service longer. Such a system enables full use of each battery with call for replacement before failure.

Connecting the USC to a host forms the Battery Endurance Plan (BE- Plan) as shown in Figure 3. The charger serves as ‘Amazon button’ in identifying batteries destined for replacement. The service can be automated by sending batteries just in time through supply chain.

Managing Battery Inventory

One of the special features of the USC is checking batteries at user-level. With a lit orange SoH Light, the encumbered battery calls for calibration in the charger or is placed into the Service Box for outside service. Packs that recover ae reinstated; failing packs are replaced or assigned to lesser duties.

Cloud Analytics displays fleet batteries as illustrated in Figure 5 revealing Leftover Charge, Energy Consumed and the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) estimated in years. As can be seen, the Target Capacity setting plays a critical role in the life expectancy of a battery, information that is essential in budgeting and inventory management.