Charging and discharging high voltage batteries
If we work with electric and hybrid vehicles the HV battery charger and discharger is a key piece of equipment for such a workshop. Charging and then discharging the cell or the entire battery pack allows us to determine the condition of the battery, its capacity. However, this is a time-consuming test, and sometimes it is enough to perform a quick internal resistance test, which you can read about in our previous article on testing HV batteries.
BK Precision model XLN60026-GL - HV battery charger
The BK Precision XLN60026-GL is an advanced multipurpose charger that offers many capabilities, making it an indispensable tool for a variety of industries and applications. It can be used for electronics testing and quality control. Because of its accuracy, it is used in testing laboratories for electronic components. For laboratory applications, these power supplies offer built-in voltage and current meters that display settings and output values simultaneously. For us, its most important application is battery testing. This charger is therefore dedicated to all types of electrochemical batteries, including nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion, which are most often used in electric and hybrid vehicles.
For a detailed description of the parameters of this device, please refer to the product description in our store sklep.hybrydyelektryki.pl
What do we use this device for?
First of all, this device serves us as a HV battery charger. This charger can deliver an output voltage of up to 600V, which makes it ideal for charging whole packs of high-voltage batteries but also single cells. The HV battery charger allows us to raise the battery after a deep discharge, which is particularly harmful to the life of the battery. In such situations, charging the battery with a very low current can help such a battery.
BK Precision discharger model 8602
This discharger has a voltage range up to 500 V and the current reaches 240 V. DC electronic loads can operate in constant current (CC), constant voltage (CV), constant resistance (CR) and constant power (CW) modes. This discharger has additional measuring cables which allows accuracy of up to 0.001 V. Such accuracy will allow precise balancing of high-voltage battery packs.
Device software
Urządzenie to posiada oprogramowanie do jego obsługi, które stworzone jest w środowisku LabVIEW. Oprogramowanie to pozwala na rozładowanie ogniw według własnych cykli, gdzie dobierać można parametry, jak i warunki kończące rozładowanie i nie tylko. Posiada bardzo intuicyjny interface oraz wyświetla dane rzeczywiste podczas użytkowania. Dodatkowo dane uzyskane podczas balansowania, testowania czy rozładowania baterii są zapisywane w dokumencie Excel. Jest to przydatna funkcja, gdy na przykład chcemy przechowywać i segregować baterie w celu jej sprzedaży lub dobrania do nowego pakietu.
Balancing the battery pack is extremely important and provides:
- battery life – differences in capacity, impedance and aging can cause some cells to operate at extreme voltage ranges leading to excessive wear and overheating
- capacity optimization (driving range) – unevenness in voltage between cells leads to the fact that the actual capacity of the entire battery pack may be limited to the capacity of the lowest cell. This means that the user is not using the full potential of the battery pack. By balancing, each cell reaches its full capacity, which increases the overall capacity and performance of the battery.
- safety – unevenness in voltage between cells can lead to excessive voltage on some cells, which in turn increases the risk of overheating and even thermal runaway. Balancing minimizes these imbalances and reduces the risk of battery failure.
For a detailed description of the parameters of this device, please refer to the product description in our store sklep.hybrydyelektryki.pl
What do we use this device for?
We use the discharger in our workshop most often for cell balancing. Balancing the battery of electric and hybrid vehicles is important because of the available capacity of such a battery (which translates into driving range) and its life. This device will allow you to discharge individual cells as well as the entire battery pack. The HV battery charger is complementary to the discharger , so that we can not only balance the battery, but also perform a test of the capacity and internal resistance while determining its degree of wear.
Assistance and training in the use of HV battery charger and discharger
If you decide to purchase a device from our website sklep.hybrydyelektryki.pl we will be happy to share our experience and demonstrate how to use the described charger and discharger.
In addition, as a company specializing in all kinds of training related to electric and hybrid vehicles, we also provide training courses, where the applications of these devices are demonstrated and discussed in detail and how they can expand the offerings of the garage.
If you have any questions, contact us by email, at hybrydyelektryki@gmail.com or call +48 511 671 050.
In addition, join our community – visit our forum related to electric and hybrid vehicles: hybridelectricforum.com!
