Batteries and chargers are no longer an afterthought. The charger becomes an integral part in the design of a product to provide risk management by knowing when to replace a battery. State-of-health (SoH) is of growing concern because the battery is often the least reliable part in a system and may need several replacements during the life of a product. Modern chargers are advancing to provide the much needed risk management in batteries.
Batteries are perishable and need replacement while still operational. Smart batteries contain vital state-of-health (SoH) information that is often hidden from battery users. The Supervisor reads this information to derive Minimal Operational Reserve Energy (MORE) by analyzing the FCC (Full Charge Capacity).
FCC represents the “digital capacity” of a smart battery that the Supervisor compares against the built-in Target Selector. Defaulted to 80%, the green SoH Light passes the battery if the set FCC level is met, amber records low data and prompts service, and red indicates failure. Service involves calibration by cycling the battery in the Supervisor or a battery analyzer. The target settings can be changed with a host.