Batteries are a continuous conveyor belt in which some packs departing early while others overstay and cause failures. Batteries as power source remain an issue and a U.S. FDA survey said: “Up to 50% of issues in hospitals are battery related,” while a commander in the U.S. Army hinted; “We checked batteries with voltmeters the night before so soldiers don’t need to carry rocks to combat.” Cadex is releasing the Universal Supervisor Charger (USC), a system that validates the performance of smart batteries with a green SoH Light; orange calls for calibration to bring the digital capacity in line with the measured capacity. If correction is not possible, the battery will need to be replaced or reassigned. Figure 2: Pre-checking smart battery in charger when inserting

Figure 1: Lightening the soldier’s load

A further benefit of the USC is displaying the Fishbowl icon when connecting to a PC as illustrated in Figure 3. The outer ring reveals battery state-of-charge tDhat moves clock-wise during charge and counter-clockwise on discharge. The hanging black ceiling inside the Fishbowl tracks capacity fade that gradually drops to the Target Selector redline with age. Smart battery data are available by tapping on the Dome. The Fishbowl also reveals Leftover Charge at the end of a shift set to 80%, a default value that can be adjusted by user and supervisor through the host.

Figure 3: Fishbowl reflects battery performance

Cost-savings with greenhouse gas setting urge operators to keep batteries in service longer. Although capacities on older batteries will be lower, many packs still have sufficient capacity to continue serving lower level duties. Of important is knowing battery performances provided by the USC.

Quality batteries share performance values that remind us of a sports athlete. Modern chargers are no longer a necessary evil but serve as a supervisor to reveal battery reading to users and administrators. Cloud Analytics close the loop by providing energy resources as illustrated in Figure 4 by putting the horse before the carriage.

Conclusion

Every year, millions of good batteries are recycled that could further be deployed powering electronic devices, while lack of battery diagnostics enables weak batteries to stay in service for too long. Battery Tracking with intelligent chargers is a new era that will make batteries more transparent by recording Leftover Charge at the end of day and enticing continued use on lower duties when the original goal can no longer be met. Similar to reduced driving range in an electric vehicle over time, attaining measured capacities with a charger gives confidence to extend battery applications beyond the intended duty to fully use our valuable energy resources. Chargers with capacity evaluation give a battery a new lease in life by knowing how the horses feel.