Battery management system
AssigneeLithium Balance A/S
InventorIvan Loncarevic
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for a Battery Management System (BMS) for the controlling of the charging and discharging of a plurality of battery cells (12). Each battery cell has an associated plurality of control circuits (32, 36) which monitor and control the charging of individual battery cells. These units are controlled by a central microcontroller (14) which shunts current around the battery cell if fully charged and stops discharge if a battery cell is fully discharged in order to prevent damage to the other cells.
Claims14
A battery management system for the controlling and monitoring of a plurality of battery cells in a battery connected to a load, the system comprising:
- a central controlling microcontroller;
- and
- a plurality of control circuits, each connected to an associated cell of the plurality of battery cells and operable to individually monitor the charging of the associated cell, and, when a maximum charging state is reached, to establish a shunt across the associated cell for allowing a continued charging of the remaining battery cells, while communicating to the central controlling microcontroller a message representing that the maximum charging state has been reached, and further operable during discharging of the associated cell to monitor the state of the associated cell and to inform the central controlling microcontroller when a minimum charging state has been reached, so as to cause the central controlling microcontroller to disconnect the associated cell from the load, thereby preventing excessive discharging of the associated cell.
A method for controlling and monitoring a plurality of battery cells in a battery connected to a load, the method comprising:
- (i) during charging of said cells:
- (a) adjusting at least one of the voltage and current with respect to the condition of each of the cells to achieve optimum charge performance and bypassing one or more individual cells for allowing continued charging of the remaining cells when said one or more individual cells has reached a maximum voltage;
- and
- (ii) during discharging of said cells:
- (b) monitoring the voltage of each individual cell until a minimum voltage has been reached in one or more individual cells, at which time all the cells are shut down to prevent said one or more cells having reached the minimum voltage level from being harmed or ruined by continued discharging.
A modular battery management system comprising a central control system and a plurality of individual cell control systems for controlling and monitoring charging and/or discharging of individual cells, the plurality of individual cell control systems being in operable communication with the central control system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.