Capacity Testing
A system used to test the capacity of a battery is called a Dummy Battery Tester. It operates by drawing a constant load (amps) from the battery until either the battery's capacity (voltage) is depleted, or the battery's PCM/BMS shuts the battery down. The battery's capacity is then calculated by multiplying the time taken to "deplete" the battery's capacity by the load (amps) that were applied.
For instance, if it took 9.5 hours to deplete the capacity with a load of 1.115amps, then the battery's capacity is calculated to be 9.5 x 1.115 = 10.6Ah.
Dummy Battery Testers are available in South Africa at exorbitant prices, or one can import them at a lower cost, but with no warranty and no backup service. This presented a dilemma for RELECTRO. The only viable option for a small company like ours, was to build our own test jig. We started off with a small prototype system (photo on the left) which, when tested successfully, led us to build the final product (photo on the right).
For instance, if it took 9.5 hours to deplete the capacity with a load of 1.115amps, then the battery's capacity is calculated to be 9.5 x 1.115 = 10.6Ah.
Dummy Battery Testers are available in South Africa at exorbitant prices, or one can import them at a lower cost, but with no warranty and no backup service. This presented a dilemma for RELECTRO. The only viable option for a small company like ours, was to build our own test jig. We started off with a small prototype system (photo on the left) which, when tested successfully, led us to build the final product (photo on the right).
RELECTRO's Test Jigs were developed by Tshwarelo Mothole, the company's Lithium Ion battery expert
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The prototype test jig can be seen in the bottom left hand corner of the picture on the left. It applied a constant load of 1.15amps and too approximately 10 hours to test an 11Ah battery.
The final product (above) can operate at 2.5, 3.65 or 5.2amps. It can thus test an 11Ah battery in around 2 hours. On the extreme left is the battery being tested. The blue multimeter measures the load (amps) while the red multimeter measure the declining voltage of the battery. The program on the computer logs the duration of the test and charts the declining voltage of the battery. |
We hope that the development of this Test Jig demonstrates RELECTRO's expertise and competence when it comes to Lithium Ion batteries, their assembly and their testing.
RELECTRO offers a capacity testing service to customers and prospective customers at a reasonable price.
RELECTRO offers a capacity testing service to customers and prospective customers at a reasonable price.
Warning: under no circumstances should you open the battery case or attempt to "investigate", "inspect" or "repair" a lithium-ion battery yourself - these batteries, if not handled by an expert, can very easily catch fire or even explode.
