Friday, January 21, 2011

Computer Controlled Battery Manager

Computer Controlled Battery Manager
BattMan II is a computer controlled battery manager, intended for typical rechargeable batteries used by R/C and electronics hobbyists, as well as various consumer product batteries.

BattMan II has the following capabilities:
  • Works with Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd), Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH), Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion), Lithium-Polymer (LiPo), Lithium-Nano-Phosphate (LiNP), and Lead-Acid (Pb-Acid) batteries of 1.2 to 14.7 Volts.†
  • Discharges batteries to measure capacity at rates of 130mA to 2A.
  • Charges at rates of 130mA to 1.3A.†
  • Automatically performs repeated discharge/charge cycles to break in new batteries, or erase NiCd voltage depression in old ones.
  • Measures internal resistance.
  • Monitors self-discharge.
  • Real time graphical display lets you see problems like mismatched cells.
  • Keeps a log of all operations performed, which can be imported into any spreadsheet program.
  • Saves graphs of charge, discharge, auto-cycle, and monitor operations.
  • Connects via parallel port to any PC running Microsoft Windows (95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, or Vista).
  • Operating software, complete with source code, is available to download.
Download schematic and software
releated search: Electronic Circuit Project, Battery manager (src)