A battery made up of nickel-cadmium cells includes an indicator for displaying a state of charge comprising sensors for performing continuous measurements of voltage and current and of temperature of the battery, a memory storing at least a history of charge/discharge, a predefined reference voltage, current and temperature, and the measurements and history determined, and a control unit for determining an operation mode of the battery and determining a correction to be applied to the voltage and current measured, calculating a theoretically available capacity of the battery depending on the operating mode and the correction, determining a need for recalibration of the theoretically available capacity of the battery enabling a capacity actually available of the battery to be calculated, and based on the capacity actually available, defining the state of charge of the battery.

A state of charge of a battery is estimated by a battery model specific to the battery. The battery model provides a section-wise defined correlation of terminal voltage values depending on state of charge values. Each of sections of the battery model delimits a monotonic dependence of the correlation from others of the sections. By segmenting the correlation of terminal voltage values depending on a state of charge value into sections, each segment within such the section-wise defined correlation of terminal voltage values depending on state of charge values is mathematically spoken a bi-unique function suitable for transformation into an inverse function defined within the section.

The estimated state of charge may be continuously refined by an iterative feedback loop including coulomb counting for estimating a battery charge value, where refined estimated battery charge values state of charge values at a previous cycle are projected forward to the current cycle.

A battery charger and method is disclosed for detecting when a battery has a low state of health while simultaneously charging or maintaining the battery. A battery charger includes a processor; a non-transitory memory device; a power management device to receive an input power and to output a charging current; a pair of electrical conductors to electrically couple with a battery, and a display electrically coupled to the processor. The display being configured to indicate a bad battery indicator when the battery has a low state of health and whether the battery is good to start.

The present disclosure relates to a battery test system for a vehicle that includes a camera configured to capture an image of a vehicle identification number located on the vehicle, the camera being coupled to a processor which determines characters of the vehicle identification number from the image of the camera and correlates the characters of the vehicle identification number to a vehicle identification number database to receive battery parameters for the vehicle, a battery tester that is removably connected to terminals of a battery of the vehicle and configured to receive battery test results, and a display which conveys information relating to the battery parameters and the battery test results.

The present disclosure relates to a battery test system for a vehicle that includes a camera configured to capture an image of a vehicle identification number located on the vehicle, the camera being coupled to a processor which determines characters of the vehicle identification number from the image of the camera and correlates the characters of the vehicle identification number to a vehicle identification number database to receive battery parameters for the vehicle, a battery tester that is removably connected to terminals of a battery of the vehicle and configured to receive battery test results, and a display which conveys information relating to the battery parameters and the battery test results.

A battery pack includes a rechargeable battery, a battery information memory unit configured to store battery type information relating to a type of the rechargeable battery, and an information output unit configured to output the battery type information from the battery pack.

A battery pack includes a rechargeable battery, a battery information memory unit configured to store battery type information relating to a type of the rechargeable battery, and an information output unit configured to output the battery type information from the battery pack.

Provided is a method for determining a micro short circuit of a lithium ion secondary battery which is capable of determining the presence or absence of a micro short circuit of the lithium ion secondary battery in a short time.

A relaxation process after the interruption of a discharging current or a charging current is analyzed and a voltage fluctuation component due to micro short circuit is separated and used in the determination.

Specifically, a method for determining a micro short circuit that determines presence or absence of the micro short circuit in a lithium ion secondary battery is provided which includes: a relaxation decomposition step of decomposing a change of a cell voltage in a relaxation process after interrupting charging current during charging or discharging current during discharging into a plurality of decomposition relaxation components; and a micro short circuit determination step of determining presence or absence of micro short circuit by determining presence or absence of a component in which a voltage drop has occurred due to the micro short circuit, among the plurality of decomposition relaxation components.

Provided is a method for determining a micro short circuit of a lithium ion secondary battery which is capable of determining the presence or absence of a micro short circuit of the lithium ion secondary battery in a short time.

A relaxation process after the interruption of a discharging current or a charging current is analyzed and a voltage fluctuation component due to micro short circuit is separated and used in the determination.

Specifically, a method for determining a micro short circuit that determines presence or absence of the micro short circuit in a lithium ion secondary battery is provided which includes: a relaxation decomposition step of decomposing a change of a cell voltage in a relaxation process after interrupting charging current during charging or discharging current during discharging into a plurality of decomposition relaxation components; and a micro short circuit determination step of determining presence or absence of micro short circuit by determining presence or absence of a component in which a voltage drop has occurred due to the micro short circuit, among the plurality of decomposition relaxation components.

In one aspect the invention provides an assessment apparatus which includes two terminal connectors configured to electrically connect the assessment apparatus to the positive and negative terminals of a battery being assessed. The apparatus also includes a response measurement system configured to measure the terminal voltage and current of the battery when supplied with at least one alternating test current having a frequency less than 1 Hz and/or less than an impedance transition frequency associated with the battery being assessed. Also provided is a processor in communication with the response measurement system and being configured to output a performance assessment indicator for the battery being assessed by calculating at least one impedance for the battery using terminal voltage and current measurements communicated by the response measurement system.