Device and method for detecting state of health of batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9255971-B2
Application number	US-201213722406-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2012
Priority date	Sep 21, 2012
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

A device for detecting state-of-health (SOH) of batteries has a detection module, a computation control module and an output module. The computation control module is electrically connected to the detection module and the output module. The detection module detects voltage values of a battery at multiple test points. The computation control module converts the voltage values at the test points into a ratio and maps the ratio to a SOH value in a SOH curve of the battery indicative of a state of health of the battery and the SOH value is outputted through the output module. The present invention can easily detect the SOH of a battery within a short period of time to solve the existing problems of being time-consuming and complicated in determining the SOH of batteries and causing incorrect determination of battery capacity and additional maintenance cost.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting state of health of batteries performed by a device for detecting state of health of batteries having a detection module, an input module and a computation control module, the method comprising steps of:
providing a state-of-health (SOH) curve for a battery through the input module of the device;
performing a voltage detection procedure for detecting and recording voltage values of the battery at multiple test points set up in the voltage detection procedure through the detection module of the device,
wherein
when the voltage detection procedure is a discharging test, the test points respectively correspond to one test point when the battery either stops or starts discharging and another test point when the battery reaches a stable state, and the voltage values of the test points respectively correspond to those when the battery either stops or starts discharging and when the battery reaches the stable state; and
when the voltage detection procedure is a charging test, the test points respectively correspond to one test point when the battery either stops or starts charging and another test point when the battery reaches a stable state, and the voltage values of the test points respectively correspond to those when the battery either stops or starts charging and when the battery reaches the stable state; and
calculating a ratio of a voltage difference between the voltage values at two of the test points over an original voltage difference and using the ratio to map to a SOH value in the SOH curve through the computation control module of the device;
wherein
when the voltage detection procedure is a discharging test, the ratio is equal to a voltage difference between the voltage values of the battery at the test points when the battery stops or starts discharging and when the battery reaches the stable state over the original voltage difference of the battery; and
when the voltage detection procedure is a charging test, the ratio is equal to a voltage difference between the voltage values of the battery at the test points when the battery stops or starts charging and when the battery reaches the stable state over the original voltage difference of the battery.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein when the voltage detection procedure is a charging test, multiple slopes are obtained at multiple initial test points on a charging curve of the battery and are used to map to a corresponding SOH value of the battery from the SOH curve defined by the slopes.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein when the voltage detection procedure is a discharging test, multiple slopes are obtained at multiple initial test points on a discharging curve of the battery and are used to map to a corresponding SOH value of the battery from the SOH curve defined by the slopes.

4. A device for detecting state of health (SOH) of batteries, comprising:
a detection module having:
a measuring unit adapted to connect to a battery;
a charge and discharge control unit serving to control a discharge current and a discharge time of the battery measured by the measuring unit, configure multiple test points of the battery, and obtain voltage values at the test points, wherein the voltage values at the test points respectively correspond to a voltage value when the battery stops discharging and a voltage value when the battery reaches a stable state;
a filtering control unit electrically connected to the charge and discharge control unit and filtering voltage of the battery at the test points; and
a data-measuring unit electrically connected to the filtering control unit and converting the filtered voltage into digital signals;
a computation control module receiving the digital signal of the voltage at each test point from the charge and discharge control unit, calculating a ratio of a voltage difference of the voltage values at two of the test points over an original voltage difference of the battery, and using the ratio to map to a corresponding SOH value from a SOH curve of the battery; and
an output module electrically connected to the computation control module and outputting the corresponding SOH value obtained by the computation control module.

5. The device as claimed in claim 4 , further comprising a recording module and an input module, wherein the computation control module is connected to the recording module and the input module, the recording module serves to record the digital signals transmitted from the the data-measuring unit and data of the input module or the computation control module, and the input module serves to input a type or a model number of the battery and the SOH curve corresponding to the battery.

6. The device as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the input module has a scanning unit or a data input unit.

Assignees

• Automotive Res & Testing Ct

Inventors

• Hu Tsung-Hsien
• Chiou Yi-Chau

Classifications

• G01R31/3835 Primary

  involving only voltage measurements · CPC title

• G01R31/392

  Determining battery ageing or deterioration, e.g. state of health · CPC title

• G01R31/367

  Software therefor, e.g. for battery testing using modelling or look-up tables · CPC title

• G06F15/00

  Digital computers in general (details G06F1/00 – G06F13/00); Data processing equipment in general · CPC title

• G01R31/3679

  Physics · mapped topic