Downhole battery control and monitoring assembly

A downhole measurement assembly comprising:

• a battery bus,
• a battery communication network.
• two or more battery packs configured on a tubing string, each of the battery packs further comprising:
• one or more batteries,
• one or more switched connections between the one or more batteries and the battery bus,
• one or more sets of battery control circuitry configured to control when the one or more battery packs provides power to the battery bus,
• one or more coulomb counters, configured to measure battery pack power output,
• one or more battery pack microcontrollers, connected to and configured to control the one or more sets of battery control circuitry,
• one or more network elements, configured such that at least one of the one or more battery pack microcontrollers can communicate with at least one of the battery pack microcontrollers of another battery pack across the battery communication network,
• non-transitory computer readable storage medium in communication with the one or more battery pack microcontrollers with an executable program stored thereon, the executable program comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more microcontrollers, causes the one or more microcontrollers to perform the operations of:
• receiving readings from the coulomb counter,
• comparing said readings to estimated battery life measurement values,
• using said comparison to determine when one of the battery packs has reached a predetermined point of depletion, and
• issuing a command to the battery bus to cause another of the battery packs to output power on the battery bus.

A method of facilitating reliable and efficient battery consumption of a downhole measurement, the method comprising the following steps:

• receiving readings from a coulomb counter connected to, and taking measurements of output from, at least one battery pack of two or more battery packs configured to output power on a battery bus as part of a downhole measurement assembly,
• comparing said readings to estimated battery life measurement values,
• using said comparison to determine when one of the battery packs has reached a predetermined point of depletion, and
• issuing a command to the battery bus to cause another of the downhole battery packs to output power on the battery bus.