The Close Relationship Between Charger and Battery
Chargers are a great investment, whether you're looking to keep your car running for longer or you need to jump-start a dead battery. You'll want one that can handle whatever type of battery you have, from lead acid to lithium ion.
Many chargers feature specialized modes that can "maintain" a battery between uses, helping it not to slowly discharge or become damaged. Others offer jump start capabilities, too, though these are rare.
Voltage
The close relationship between a charger and a battery is crucial for the safety, life, efficiency, and reliability of both. Chargers provide a means of putting energy into the batteries and they have to work in conjunction with battery types, capacities, technology, and specifications as well as power factor correction (PFC), and dc-dc converters.
Battery charging is a complex process that involves the conversion of chemicals within the battery. The time it takes for this to happen depends on the type of chemical used and the construction of the cell.
A high-current fast charger can pump electrical energy into the battery faster than the chemical process can convert it. This can cause damage to the battery.
Fortunately, there are methods for detecting when the chemical conversion of the active chemicals is complete and stopping the charge before it causes any harm to the battery. This is called cut off point detection and it is vital for preserving battery life.
Another important feature is -dV detection which monitors the voltage of the battery, comparing it to a set value that is preset in the battery presence detector M15 in Figure 1. The circuit makes use of switching noises that occur only very slowly when compared to the battery’s actual voltage change.
The charge voltage of the battery is lower than that of the charger’s output terminals because there is a certain amount of resistance between the charger and the batteries. This loss can be compensated by connecting sense wires between the charger and the batteries, so that the voltage at the battery is directly measured instead of being taken from the output terminals. This helps to ensure that the batteries are charged quickly and effectively without wasting too much of the voltage.
Current
The current is the flow of electrical charge carriers, like electrons, from one point to another. The SI unit of current is the ampere (A).
A battery uses a lot of energy to charge, so the charger needs to provide it with enough power to keep up with the voltage. There is a close relationship between charger and battery that affects the way they operate.
When a charger is connected to a battery, it converts an AC input voltage to a DC supply voltage, VDD. The DC voltage is then used to supply the loads in a circuit.
The charger has several functions, including power monitoring, ripple detection, and control of charge. It should also have a fault detection circuit to ensure the battery is not overcharged or shorted.
To prevent excessive load transients from affecting the PROG pin during charging in constant voltage mode, a simple RC low-pass filter can be used. Connect a 1k resistor to the PROG pin and then connect the other end of the resistor to a 0.1mF capacitor with its other end grounded.
This enables the PROG pin to remain at 1.5V as the charger is in constant current mode. The charger's programming resistor (R1) is set by dividing 1.5V by the desired current through R1.
When charging is complete, the IC shuts down the charge cycle based on the current going into the battery dropping below a threshold during the CV phase. This is done to save power, since the amount of charge going into the battery exponentially decreases during CV charging.
Amps
Amps are units of measurement that show how much current, or electricity, flows through a wire or electrical cable. Similar to the flow of water through a pump's hose, voltage pushes the current through the wire.
Amperes and volts are measured by a multimeter. A multimeter uses strong iron clamps to concentrate the magnetic field around the conductor and generate a voltage that is converted into a digital reading on the meter.
The watts rating on your charger is another way to measure the amount of power it delivers. To calculate watts, divide the power consumption of your device by its supply voltage.
Similarly, the amps rating on your battery tells you how much power it can deliver to your device. Knowing this information can help you determine the size of your wires and cables to ensure your device receives adequate power without overloading them, which could cause damage or create a fire.
Volts and amps are not dangerous on their own, but small changes in either one can increase the danger of an electric shock. That's why knowing how to calculate both volts and amps can save you time in the long run.
Weight
The weight of the battery is an important consideration if you want to maximize the life of your EV. A battery that weighs too much may shortchange the driver in terms of performance and safety. The most efficient batteries are not the lightest in the room. The best way to measure the weight of your eVgo is to use a battery weight calculator to determine exactly how many pounds or kilograms are needed to provide the desired power. The next step is to compare your results with similar sized batteries of the same brand and model to ensure you are not purchasing a defective unit. The battery might be the most expensive component in your EV, so you will want to keep it in top notch condition.
Temperature
Temperature is an important element of any battery as it affects the rate and type of chemical reactions that occur inside a cell. Higher temperatures allow more power to be extracted from a battery, however it also increases the risk of thermal runaway.
Chargers have the ability to sense the temperature of a battery and use this information to adjust their output voltage and current to provide optimal charging for your batteries. This improves battery life and performance as well as ensures that the batteries do not overheat.
The main reason for this is that heat adds additional resistance to the battery which is countered by a lower voltage supply from the charger. This is the only way to charge batteries at the proper voltage without causing them to overheat.
Another issue is that as batteries age, they have a tendency to increase their temperature, this can be due to a number of reasons. It can be due to internal corrosion and deterioration of the cells, which leads to an increased amount of internal resistance.
This in turn causes charger currents to rise and raise the temperature of the battery, it’s a vicious cycle. The temperature can get so high that it is unrecoverable and the battery starts to fail.
This is why the best practice for all batteries is to keep the temperature as low as possible. This is especially true of older lead acid batteries that have lost some of their capacity due to aging.
