Dec 12, 2023

Dec 2023 - Article

As Christmas nears, the temperature in the northern hemisphere is getting cooler and this often leads to problems starting a car. In 2010, ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club) published a report of typical vehicle failures with these common breakdowns: 42% Battery, alternator, starter 20% Motor management 7.6% Motor mechanical 6% ... Read More

Nov 16, 2023

Nov 2023 - Article

Spectro™ was developed to test starter batteries in cars; however, the full potential of this advanced technology will not be fully utilized in automotive alone. The consumer auto market is crowded with low-cost battery testers that only check the battery on sufficient power to crank the engine. Meanwhile, most... Read More

Oct 18, 2023

Oct 2023 - Article

Innovators are idealistic entrepreneurs with some common sense and pragmatism. Simon Sinek, writer and inspirational speaker, adds by saying: “Pure pragmatism can’t imagine a bold future. Pure idealism can’t get anything done. It is the delicate blend of both that drives innovation.” Bringing line products (LP) to market after a... Read More

Sep 22, 2023

Sep 2023 - Article

The Golden Years (1998-2009) proceeded with many years of solid planning. After gravitating heavily into OEM, we are getting ready again for a repeat of the Golden Years with innovative products pioneering in Diagnostic Battery Management. But before we can celebrate another season, we need to build infrastructure as standalone... Read More

Aug 22, 2023

Aug 2023 - Article

A battery charger is no longer an afterthought but provides risk management in battery. The Universal Supervisor Charger (USC) verifies battery performance and asks for replacement when the FCC (Full Charge Capacity) of a smart battery falls below the Target Selector setting. The USC Series comes in one, two and... Read More

Jul 21, 2023

July 2023 - Article

The Brick reads capacity, CCA and SoC The starter battery is the most service prone part in a vehicle. A “No Go” happens suddenly without warning. How can we make the starter battery more reliable? The secret lies in capacity measurement When a German luxury car maker tested a large... Read More

Jun 12, 2023

Newsletter - June 2023

A product must serve multiple markets to get a strong return on investment. The Spectro Modular (Brick) fits this model as illustrated in Figure 1. We go beyond Consumer Auto and including Industrial Auto with large starter batteries. We also develop model-specific matrices for specialty batteries and Research finds... Read More

May 18, 2023

Newsletter - May 2023

In support of battery electrification, Cadex is entering a new era offering products that provide "Deep Battery Diagnostics" (DBD). Clean energy must deliver similar transparency in performance evaluation as traditional power sources using fossil fuel, but we realize that battery diagnostics has been lagging behind other technologies Without a mature... Read More

Apr 20, 2023

Newsletter - April 2023

With governments pushing electrification despite immature technologies, battery diagnostics is gaining importance. Diagnostics involves revealing "Usable Battery Energy," a performance assessment that becomes essential as battery fade often goes unnoticed. While new batteries are developed from lab-to-market, Cadex complements manufacturers by caring for batteries from workforce-to-retirement by providing risk management... Read More

Mar 24, 2023

Newsletter - March 2023

The transportation industry has experienced significant advancements in recent years, with innovations improving vehicle efficiency, safety, and performance. However, one area that still requires further progress is battery diagnostics. TMC 2023, a Transportation Technology Exhibition held in Orlando, showcased new systems that detect vehicle anomalies and alert drivers to upcoming... Read More

Feb 21, 2023

Newsletter - February 2023

Last week I spoke at the MD&M, a large medical conference in Anaheim, California. The title of my presentation was How to make a Smart Battery Trustworthy: Improving system-reliability with Diagnostic Battery Management. The international conference was well attended. I had the FDA in mind while preparing my presentation. In... Read More

Jan 24, 2023

Newsletter - January 2023

This year we are developing two new Cadex products. Additional products are on the drawing board with a plan to launch one new line product (LP) per year between now and 2027. Brian Stachniak, our new head of Product Management, will assist in getting the products to market. Spectro Modular... Read More

Dec 21, 2022

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (AABC 2022)

We attended AABC 2022 in San Diego, USA, a conference and exhibition that focuses on the Li-ion battery for EVs. Previous participations provided me with material that is now shared in Battery University. We also joined tutorials serving as refreshers. Here are a few highlights of interest.The graphite anode in... Read More

Nov 25, 2022

Universal Supervisor Chargers (USC)

Our next-gen Universal Supervisor Chargers (USC) are hybrid chargers with ability to charge regular (dumb) and smart batteries side-by-side. This new charger series will be available in one-, two- and six-bays with prototype preview at IWCE in Las Vegas in March 2023. The USC will replace the tried-and proven Universal... Read More

Oct 21, 2022

What causes Companies to Lead and Surrender?

Motorola was the largest mobile phone manufacturer before Nokia took over in 1998. Before this, Motorola was the leading manufacturer of two-way radios with the first radios installed in police cars in 1930. Nokia had been in mining, produced rubber galoshes and went into telephony in the 1960s. In 1999... Read More

Sep 21, 2022

Cadex C7 Adapters

Modern products rely on infrastructure, and this also applies to Cadex products. An analogy is cars needing roads, airplanes landing at airports, and smartphones requiring micro-towers to talk. Our last mile for battery analyzer and chargers is the battery adapter, of which we have designed over 4,000 versions. Battery Adapters... Read More

Aug 23, 2022

Cadex C7 Battery Analyzer

Going back to the early Cadex days in the 1980s, we sold battery analyzers mainly to public safety, oil & gas, railways and airlines. In the 1990s we expanded into defense and healthcare before providing battery analyzers to point of sale at storefronts testing cellular phones batteries. Figure 1: Since... Read More

Jun 21, 2022

Battery Management System (BMS)

Battery Management System (BMS) Larger batteries, including all Li-ion, are managed by a BMS. This battery control ciruit monitors voltage, current and temperature of a battery, sets limits and detect anomalies. Typical iregularities are low voltage caused by cell failure and high internal resistance due to aging or sulfation of... Read More

May 13, 2022

Use of RUBY in drone batteries

Figure 1: Drone in medical service A drone carrying critical blood samples took off from city of Meerut and landed in Delhi, India after a successful one hour flight. Drone had to stop midway for a scheduled battery swap. But by road, same journey would have taken more than... Read More

May 13, 2022

Spectro™ - May Update

In this Newsletter we discuss matrix development to test deep-cycle lead acid and Li-ion batteries with a Spectro™ test device. Because of shared architecture, starter batteries use an automotive-tuned generic matrix with pass/fail classification. Li-ion and deep-cycle lead acid batteries are more distinctive and need a model-specific matrix. A well-developed... Read More

The Cadex Blog