The Spectro CA-12 is the first hand-held battery tester that reads reserve capacity (RC), CCA, and state-of-charge (SoC) in a single, non-invasive 15-seconds test.
Review various Lead Acid charging methods and examine why some systems work better than others. Find also simple guidelines for charging Lead Acid batteries. Learn how to optimize charging conditions to extend service life.
With the move from analog to digital, new demands are placed on the battery. Unlike analog portable devices that draw a steady current, the digital equipment loads the battery with short, heavy current spikes. One of the urgent requirements of...
Battery users want state-of-charge (SoC) and remaining runtime clearly displayed on their devices. Smartphones apps do this in an amazing way, but one questions the resource on which the information is based on. While data can easily be digitized for...
During the last 20 years, three basic battery rapid test methods have emerged: DC load, AC conductance and multi-frequency electro-chemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). All methods are resistance based, a characteristic that reveals the battery's ability to deliver load current. Internal...
Learn how extreme cold and high heat reduce charge acceptance, and the battery must be brought into moderate temperature conditions before charging. Learn how to extend battery life by moderating ambient temperatures.
Understand the differences in battery chemistries and ratings and how they apply. We distinguish batteries by chemistry, voltage, size, capacity, specific power and more.
Discover advancements made in lead acid batteries and how they benefit industry. Batteries covered are: Firefly Energy, Altraverda Bipolar, Axion Power and more.
When studying the characteristics relating to battery state-of-health (SoH) and state-of-charge (SoC), some interesting and disturbing effects can be observed - the properties are cumbersome and not linear. Worst of all, the parameters are unique for every battery type. This...
Welcome to the Leaning Tools section of BatteryUniversity.com. Here you find practical experience and gossip from many conferences and academic institutions summarized in entertaining and easy-to-read presentations. Guys don’t want to read too much, so enjoy the engaging graphics as...
A device manufacturer must over-size a battery to allow for capacity to fade. Systems work well when new but concerns arise as battery capacity decreases, a loss that often happens in an uncontrolled way. Chargers are available that offer Minimum...
Removing the “black-box” stigma by making performance transparentBattery users imagine a battery pack being an energy storage device that resembles a fuel tank dispensing liquid fuel. For simplicity reasons, a battery can indeed be perceived as a vessel storing electrical...
After fewer than 100,000 flight hours, two main batteries in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner failed. This contradicts Boeing’s estimate as part of certification that a smoke event involving the new Li-ion battery should only occur once in 10 million flight hours.
Battery testing is the product of electrochemical evidence and data analysis with artificial intelligence. A battery cannot be “measured,” only estimated by analyzing its symptoms. These symptoms change with state-of-charge (SoC), temperature, agitation, storage and age. As an example, a...
From basic Voltage to Electrochemical Impedance SpectroscopyFrom 2013 to 2020, experts predict a 3.7 fold increase in the demand of lithium-ion batteries. This growing dependency on batteries requires advancements in diagnostics to observe capacity loss to maintain reliability as the...
The saying goes: “So you can start the car, but will the battery crank the engine again tomorrow?” With rapid electrification in vehicles, concerns also arise with steering and breaking drawing draw 100 amperes from the battery. The battery is...
Global production of Li-ion batteries was roughly 35 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2013; experts predict the demand will grow to 130GWh by 2020, a 3.7 fold increase. This presents a challenge as batteries need care in the hands of common...
Many perceive a battery as being an energy storage device that is similar to a fuel tank dispensing liquid fuel. This is a fallacy because measuring stored energy from an electrochemical device is far more complex. The article describes pros and cons of the battery fuel gauge and introduces new developments in battery management systems.
Consumer market put aside, the largest users of primary (non-rechargeable) batteries are the military, specialty emergency services and forest fire fighters. High energy density, long storage and operational readiness are among their strong attributes. No charging and priming is required...
The market offers a wide choice of battery testers, all providing correct predictions when the battery is dead, but so does the user. The challenge is tracking the capacity of a working battery that is in normal use but will...
Lead and cadmium-based batteries pose the largest environmental concerns, so much so that the nickel-cadmium battery was banned in Europe. Efforts are made to also replace the lead-based battery but no suitable replacement is available as was the case by...
Learn what causes Li-ion to fail and what to do in case of fire. Battery makers are obligated to meet safety requirements, but less reputable firms may cheat.
Knowing the health of a battery is important, but no quick method exists to test them with certainty. State-of-health (SoH) cannot be measured per se, only estimated to various degrees of accuracies based on available symptoms. A battery behaves much...
Starter batteries have two end-of-life modes: Heat failure and capacity fade. Heat failure is caused by corrosion that appears early in life and manifests itself in poor cranking caused by high internal resistance. This deficiency can easily be measured with...
As the world electrifies, new demands are placed on the battery. Clean energy must have the same performance transparency as traditional power sources burning fossil fuel, but we realize that battery diagnostics is lagging behind. Without mature ways to assess...
Discover the power of the “smart” battery when making historic performance data visibleA new frontier is opening that allows downloading historic data from a “smart” battery to estimate battery state-of-health (SoH) based on field events. While smart batteries have been...
Discovering Damage before Danger Arises with the Three-prong Battery TestThe media is quick to report mishaps with lithium-ion batteries. A failed Li-ion gets higher attention than an accident with an older battery chemistry. Electric hoverboards have been recalled because of...
Explore how batteries can be charged with solar power or a wind turbine. This is an exciting way to step outside our four walls and use renewable energy. Learn about charging your batteries from renewable resources and what it costs.
The numbers of battery conferences are growing, but the agendas are similar — portraying a super battery that does not yet exist. With a grant of $120 million from the US Department of Energy, the Joint Centre for Energy Storage...
Medical technicians have discovered that most defibrillators batteries had over 90% capacity left when the two-year expiry date called for replacement. This had led to discarding perfectly good batteries, escalating operational costs and stressing the environment. A manager of the...
Electrolyte serves as catalyst to make a battery conductive by promoting the movement of ions from the cathode to the anode on charge and in reverse on discharge. Ions are electrically charged atoms that have lost or gained electrons. The...
The 4th edition of Batteries in a Portable World contains large volumes of firsthand information that is not available in the 3rd edition of the book with same title. The 4th edition would have grown beyond 360 pages had the...
Review simple guidelines on charging Nickel-based batteries such as; Do not charge at high or freezing temperatures, do not use chargers that cook batteries and more. Know how to apply the correct charge to moderate heat and prevent overcharge.
No other part in a vehicle is as failure-prone as the starter battery. According to ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club), battery problems have risen four times between 1996 and 2010. ADAC, Europe’s largest automotive club, says further that each third breakdown...
Battery packs using Li-ion require a mandatory protection circuit to assure safety under (almost) all circumstances. Governed by IEC 62133, the safety of Li-ion cell or packs begins by including some or all of the following safeguards. Built-in PTC (positive...
The Tesla battery that Elon Musk announced gets much media attention, and rightly so. The Powerwall, as the Tesla battery is called, can store energy from renewable sources from solar panels and wind turbines to supplement energy needs and reduce...
There are more mobile phones in the world than people. No other products have taken off so quickly — faster than the automobile, television, the PC and the Internet. Advancing from a clunky and expensive box in the 1990s to...
Learn about modern Lead battery systems such as; the Firefly Energy battery, the Altraverda, the Axion Power e3 Supercell, CSIRO Ultrabattery and the EEStor.
Find information about charging Nickel-cadmium batteries, full-charge detection by temperature & voltage signature and charging flooded Nickel-cadmium batteries. Learn how to maximize charge, minimize heat and reduce memory.
Learn about the up-and-coming batteries such as Li-air and Li-metal. Some systems show good potential, but many are years away from becoming commercially viable.
Many warehouse and 3PL IT Managers and Operations Managers are faced with the daunting task of keeping battery replacement costs down and system reliability high.
Batteries are critical components in medical devices. As more instruments are computerized and become mobile, systems performance and reliability depends heavily on the battery. Improvements in battery reliability are necessary, and at a recent workshop with Cadex Electronics, the US...
Invented by the French physician Gaston Planté in 1859, lead acid was the first rechargeable battery for commercial use. Early models were flooded, and during the mid-1970s the sealed or maintenance-free versions emerged in which the liquid electrolyte is transformed...
Learn about primary batteries. They fill an important niche market in applications such as wristwatches, remote controls, electric keys and children’s toys.
Tesla Motors expects to consume two billion Li-ion cells by 2017. Both the Tesla Model S and Model X electric vehicles (EV) get their electrical energy from the 18650 cell, a format that also powers laptops and medical devices. The...
How to Meet Field Integrity and AirworthinessDuring an external pre-flight inspection before takeoff, the pilot notices heavy white smoke billowing from the cargo hold of the Boeing 737 and declared “Mayday.” Emergency crews arrived and uncovered 28 batteries in a...
The fuel cell enjoyed the height of popularity in the1990s when scientists and stock promoters envisioned a world run on clean and inexhaustible resource – hydrogen. They predicted cars running on fuel cells and households generating electricity from back-yard fuel...
Learn what is the C-rate; created by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, today the battery industry uses C-rate to scale the charge and discharge current of a battery.
This article provides an honest opinion of today's battery technologies and what new inventions might bring. Rechargeable batteries perform well for portable applications but the electrochemical energy storage system may not work equally well for large-scale propulsion.
Review simple guidelines for charging Lithium-based batteries and prolong battery life such as; a portable device should be turned off while charging and more. Find out how to prolong battery life by using correct charge methods.
Discover how the battery surpasses or lacks behind other power sources on: Energy storage, capacity, responsiveness, power bandwidth, environment and more.
Know the limitations when charging a battery with a USB charger. The USB port has become one of the most widespread and convenient interfaces for electronic devices. Become familiar with the limitations when charging a battery with a USB charger.
Learn about the differences within the lead acid battery family; the sealed lead acid (SLA), also known as gel cell, and the valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA).
Learn how to make batteries safe with built-in protection circuits. Batteries can release high power, and most packs include protection against malfunction.
Learn how portable devices can be charged without wire by adding a transmitting and receiving coil to transfer magnetic power from the base to the receiver. Find out about energy loss and higher temperature when charging on a pad.
Become familiar with the many different types of lithium-ion batteries: Lithium Cobalt Oxide, Lithium Manganese Oxide, Lithium Iron Phosphate and more.
Review battery charge and discharge rates and read about different discharge signatures and explores how certain patterns can affect battery life. Learn how certain discharge loads will shorten battery life.
Read an essay on the sharing of battery knowledge and share your opinions. This interface gives me an advantage in learning how the battery behaves in the field.
Regulations made easy to UnderstandBattery shipment has come under strict transportation regulation and this is especially critical with lithium-based products. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Dangerous Goods Regulation (DGR) are trusted resources to help prepare and document dangerous...
Learn about the lithium-ion battery; its advantages, such as high energy density and low maintenance, and its limitations, such as transportation restrictions.
Explore why some battery packs pose odd voltages and how this affects the user. The voltage varies depending on the metals and acid solution (electrolyte) used.
Watch for limitations when using a battery at adverse temperatures and how to overcome the effects. Explore the limitations when operating a battery at adverse temperatures and learn how to minimize the effects.
Examine the requirement for agency approval when building a Li-ion pack. Manufacturers do not supply lithium-ion cells to uncertified battery assemblers.
Last Updated: 25-Oct-2021
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