Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Battery or cell discharging – With charging
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-14
2001-11-13
Toatley, Jr., Gregory J (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Battery or cell discharging
With charging
C324S430000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06316914
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electronic battery testers. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technique for determining the condition of a battery electrically connected in a bank of storage batteries.
Storage batteries, such as lead acid storage batteries of the type used in the automotive and standby power industries, have existed for many years. However, understanding the nature of such storage batteries, how such storage batteries operate and how to accurately test such batteries has been an ongoing endeavor and has proved quite difficult. Storage batteries consist of a plurality of individual storage cells electrically connected in series. Typically each cell has a voltage potential of about 2.1 volts. By connecting the cells in series, the voltages of the individual cells are added in a cumulative manner. For example, in a typical automotive storage battery, six storage cells are used to provide a total voltage when the battery is fully charged of 12.6 volts.
There has been a long history of attempts to accurately test the condition of storage batteries. A simple test is to measure the voltage of the battery. If the voltage is below a certain threshold, the battery is determined to be bad. However, this test is inconvenient because it requires the battery to be charged prior to performing the test. If the battery is discharged, the voltage will be low and a good battery may be incorrectly tested as bad. Furthermore, such a test does not give any indication of how much energy is stored in the battery. Another technique for testing a battery is referred as a load test. In a load test, the battery is discharged using a known load. As the battery is discharged, the voltage across the battery is monitored and used to determine the condition of the battery. This technique requires that the battery be sufficiently charged in order that it can supply current to the load.
More recently, a technique has been pioneered by Dr. Keith S. Champlin and Midtronics, Inc. of Willowbrook, Ill. for testing storage batteries by measuring the conductance of the batteries. This technique is described in a number of United States patents, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,911, issued Mar. 25, 1975, to Champlin, entitled ELECTRONIC BATTERY TESTING DEVICE; U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,708, issued Sep. 30, 1975, to Champlin, entitled ELECTRONIC BATTERY TESTING DEVICE; U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,768, issued Mar. 28, 1989, to Champlin, entitled ELECTRONIC BATTERY TESTING DEVICE; U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,170, issued Apr. 25, 1989, to Champlin, entitled ELECTRONIC BATTERY TESTING DEVICE WITH AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE SCALING; U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,038, issued Nov. 14, 1989, to Champlin, entitled ELECTRONIC BATTERY TESTING DEVICE WITH AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE SCALING TO DETERMINE DYNAMIC CONDUCTANCE; U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,416, issued Mar. 27, 1990, to Champlin, entitled ELECTRONIC BATTERY TESTING DEVICE WITH STATE-OF-CHARGE COMPENSATION; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,269, issued Aug. 18, 1992, to Champlin, entitled ELECTRONIC TESTER FOR ASSESSING BATTERY/CELL CAPACITY.
In some installations, such as for use in backup power supplies or in certain types of automotive vehicles, multiple storage batteries are connected together to form a bank of storage batteries. These batteries can be connected in series, parallel or in a combination of series and parallel connections. Performing an electrical battery test on a battery in such a bank of batteries can be difficult due to the various electrical paths through the series and/or parallel connections of batteries which form the bank of batteries. A single bad battery can be masked by the other good batteries which make up the band of batteries. This has frequently made it difficult to accurately identify a bad battery without electrically disconnecting the batteries prior to performing a battery test.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An apparatus is provided for testing a first storage battery in a bank of storage batteries, the bank formed of at least two storage batteries electrically coupled together. The apparatus includes a first Kelvin connection configured to couple to the bank of storage batteries, the first Kelvin connection including a first and second electrical connection and a second Kelvin connection configured to couple to the bank of storage batteries, the second Kelvin connection including a first and a second electrical connection, the first and second Kelvin connections configured to couple across at least the first battery. A time varying forcing function source is configured to apply a forcing function between the first electrical connection of the first Kelvin connection and the first electrical connection of the second Kelvin connection. A voltage sensor is configured to sense a voltage between the second electrical connection of the first Kelvin connection and the second electrical connection of the second Kelvin connection and provide a sensed voltage output which is at least partially a function of the forcing function. A current sensor senses an electrical current in the bank of storage batteries related to the first battery and provides a sensed current output which is at least partially a function of the forcing function. A microprocessor determines a condition of the first battery as a function of the sensed voltage and the sensed current.
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Midtronics Inc.
Toatley Jr. Gregory J
Westman Champlin & Kelly P.A.
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