Detection diagnostic for communication loss between a battery system manager controller and a plurality of battery cell sensing boards

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9612289-B2
Application number	US-201414317771-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2014
Priority date	Jun 27, 2014
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

A method of identifying a non-communicative battery Cell Sensing Board (CSB) within a plurality of battery CSBs arranged in a serial chain includes sequentially reconfiguring the serial chain of the battery CSBs to sequentially define each of the plurality of battery CSBs as a last battery CSB in a temporary test serial chain. Communication with the last battery CSB of each temporary test serial chain is sequentially established with a loopback feature of the battery CSBs. When a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery CSB of the current temporary test serial chain is detected, the last battery CSB of the current temporary test serial chain is identified as the non-communicative battery CSB.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of identifying a non-communicative battery cell sensing board within a plurality of identically configured battery cell sensing boards arranged in a serial chain and connected to a battery system manager controller, the method comprising:
detecting a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the plurality of battery cell sensing boards;
sequentially reconfiguring the serial chain of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards with the battery system manager controller to sequentially define each of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards as a last battery cell sensing board in a temporary test serial chain;
sequentially establishing communication with the last battery cell sensing board of each temporary test serial chain with a loopback feature of the battery cell sensing boards;
detecting a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of a current temporary test serial chain; and
identifying the last battery cell sensing board of the current temporary test serial chain as the non-communicative battery cell sensing board when a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of the current temporary test serial chain is detected.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein sequentially reconfiguring the serial chain of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards includes sequentially defining the last battery cell sensing board in the temporary test serial chain in a sequential order moving from nearest to the battery system manager controller to farthest from the battery system manager controller.

3. A method as set forth in claim 2 wherein sequentially establishing communication with the last battery cell sensing board of each temporary test serial chain includes routing a signal through each temporary test serial chain, to the last battery cell sensing board of the respective temporary test serial chain, and back to the battery system manager controller to confirm communication with all of the battery cell sensing boards in the respective temporary test serial chain.

4. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein sequentially reconfiguring the serial chain of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards to sequentially define each of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards as the last battery cell sensing board in a temporary test serial chain includes defining a first temporary test serial chain in which the battery cell sensing board disposed within the serial chain of battery cell sensing boards, nearest the battery system manager controller, is defined as the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain.

5. The method as set forth in claim 4 wherein sequentially establishing communication with the last battery cell sensing board of each temporary test serial chain includes establishing communication with the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain.

6. The method as set forth in claim 5 wherein identifying the last battery cell sensing board of the current temporary test serial chain as the non-communicative battery cell sensing board when a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of the current temporary test serial chain is detected includes identifying the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain as the non-communicative battery cell sensing board when a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain is detected.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein sequentially reconfiguring the serial chain of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards to sequentially define each of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards as the last battery cell sensing board in a temporary test serial chain includes defining a second temporary test serial chain in which the battery cell sensing board disposed within the serial chain of battery cell sensing boards, second nearest the battery system manager controller, is defined as the last battery cell sensing board of the second temporary test serial chain, when no disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain occurs.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7 wherein:
sequentially establishing communication with the last battery cell sensing board of each temporary test serial chain includes establishing communication with the last battery cell sensing board of the second temporary test serial chain;
identifying the last battery cell sensing board of the current temporary test serial chain as the non-communicative battery cell sensing board when a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of the current temporary test serial chain is detected includes identifying the last battery cell sensing board of the second temporary test serial chain as the non-communicative battery cell sensing board when a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of the second temporary test serial chain is detected; and wherein
sequentially reconfiguring the serial chain of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards to sequentially define each of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards as the last battery cell sensing board in a temporary test serial chain includes defining a third temporary test serial chain in which the battery cell sensing board disposed within the serial chain of battery cell sensing boards, third nearest the battery system manager controller, is defined as the last battery cell sensing board of the third temporary test serial chain, when no disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the last battery cell sensing board of the second temporary test serial chain occurs.

9. A method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising signaling which of the plurality of battery cell sensing boards is identified as the non-communicative battery cell sensing board.

10. A method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising initiating an individual battery cell sensing board diagnostic algorithm with the battery system manager controller to identify the non-communicative battery cell sensing board when a disruption in communication between the battery system manager controller and the plurality of battery cell sensing boards is detected.

11. A method of diagnosing a communication disruption between a battery system manager controller and a plurality of battery cell sensing boards arranged in a serial chain and connected to the battery system manager controller through a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) protocol, the method comprising:
defining a first temporary test serial chain, with the battery system manager controller, in which the battery cell sensing board disposed within the serial chain of battery cell sensing boards nearest the battery system manager controller is defined as the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain;
attempting to establish communication with the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain, with the battery system manager controller; and
identifying the last battery cell sensing board of the first temporary test serial chain as a non-communicative battery cell sensing board when a disruption in com

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Novak Voytek A
• Shripathy Vivekananda
• Grenn Daniel P
• Baughman Andrew C

Classifications

• H01M10/482

  for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially · CPC title

• G01R35/00

  Testing or calibrating of apparatus covered by the other groups of this subclass · CPC title

• H01M10/4257

  Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries · CPC title

• H02J7/0021

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01M2010/4278

  Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller · CPC title