A dual power supply system with first to third system terminals is disclosed. The dual power supply system includes a first battery cell stack interconnected between first and second stack nodes and providing a first operation voltage and a second battery cell stack interconnected between the second stack node and a third stack node and providing a second operation voltage. The dual power supply system further includes a DC/DC converter with first to third converter nodes and configured to convert a voltage of the first or second battery cell stack. Each of the system terminals is connected to the respective stack node or converter node in parallel. The DC/DC converter can provide redundant power supply and active balancing. The application further relates to a vehicle including the above dual power supply system.

Methods of charging a vehicle battery pack are disclosed. Example methods may include determining a voltage imbalance between at least two parallel strings of a battery pack exceeds a threshold magnitude. Methods may further include electrically reducing the voltage imbalance between the at least two parallel strings using a series circuit including a first group of one or more of the battery cells of a first one of the parallel strings, and reconnecting the parallel strings in an electrical circuit in parallel to each other, in which configuration the strings of the battery pack may supply power to the vehicle.

A battery pack including a communication terminal insulation function with an external system connected to the battery pack and a control method thereof.

A method and an apparatus for charge equalization of batteries, and a battery pack using such a method are provided. A method of charge equalization of batteries involves determining a ratio between first state difference information for each of the batteries and second state difference information calculated based on values of items included in the first state difference information, and defining an output value for each converter corresponding to each of the batteries based on the ratio.

The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for hot-plugging, a control device for hot-plugging, and a method and device for voltage balance. In one aspect, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, when there is a battery unit to be replaced in a plurality of parallel battery units, a branch in which the battery unit to be replaced locates may be cut off. Therefore, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may solve a contradictory problem between the replacement of the battery unit and the normal operation of the power supply system in the related art and a problem caused thereby that the safety and stability of the power supply system are low.

A battery system includes battery modules connected in parallel Each battery modules includes a battery, a first and second output terminals, a switch arrangement connected between the battery and the first output terminal, and a battery manager. The battery manager is to detect a current of the battery, determine whether an overcurrent condition exists based on the detected current, and control the switch arrangement. The battery manager to transmit module state information to the battery managers in remaining ones of the battery modules, and the battery managers in the battery modules control their switch arrangements based on the module state information.

A method and system for charging multi-cell lithium-based batteries. In some aspects, a battery charger includes a housing, at least one terminal to electrically connect to a battery pack supported by the housing, and a controller operable to provide a charging current to the battery pack through the at least one terminal. The battery pack includes a plurality of lithium-based battery cells, with each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells having an individual state of charge. The controller is operable to control the charging current being supplied to the battery pack at least in part based on the individual state of charge of at least one battery cell.

Described herein are systems and methods that allow for automatic detection of the highest available cell voltage and/or location of the top voltage in a battery stack, in real-time, without having to use separate, dedicated PCBs for different battery stack configurations, and without having to manually configure PCBs based on the number of cells each battery stack has. In certain embodiments, automatic detection is accomplished by a software-configurable battery management circuit that supports any battery pack size without the need to perform hardware modifications or the added cost of customizing boards for battery stacks that have different numbers of cells. In addition, a novel diode-OR analog multiplexer circuit allows the chip to be powered prior to the selection of the top cell.

An apparatus and a method of equalizing a battery module supplies an equalization current to a battery module which is diagnosed to have abnormality via an equalization current supply circuit when an abnormality is generated in a state of charge (SoC) of one or more battery modules, and equalize the SoC of the one or more battery modules.

The present invention relates to a device (200, 800) for active balancing of a battery (B), the battery (B) comprising a plurality of units (U.sub.1-U.sub.N) connected in series at a plurality of nodes (N.sub.1-N.sub.N?1), the device comprising at least one DC/DC converter (210, 610, 710, 810.sub.1-810.sub.N) configured to transfer charges between a first group (G.sub.1) of the plurality of units (U.sub.1-U.sub.N) and a second group (G.sub.2) of the plurality of units (U.sub.1-U.sub.N), at least one of the first group (G.sub.1) and second group (G.sub.2 comprising a plurality of the units (U.sub.1-U.sub.N).