Method and apparatus for automotive battery condition indication

Abstract

The present invention concerns a system and an apparatus for monitoring the electrical condition of an automotive battery [2] in use. The main purpose of this invention is to monitor and indicate automotive battery conditions, namely liquid electrolyte level and level of battery plate deterioration using the concept of ripple voltage. The present invention utilises ripple voltage present in battery supply line [4] as reference to deduce the condition of the said battery [2]. The method comprises the steps of first measuring the ripple voltage present in battery supply line [4] when engine is running, comparing the ripple voltage to a range of acceptable values determined by how bad the deterioration of battery is before issuing a signal or by nominal setting that best fit automotive vehicles and lastly providing indication when the ripple voltage exceeds the range of pre-set values. The said apparatus comprises a ripple voltage detector, having the acceptable range setting, connected to battery supply line [4] and an indicator connected to the ripple voltage detector which gives indication when the ripple voltage exceeds the acceptable range set.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.