Battery Pack Communication Bus Disabling During Mode Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery management systems often require external components and do not efficiently manage battery cells across multiple packs, leading to suboptimal performance and reduced battery life in industrial and commercial applications.
Innovation Solution
A battery system with internal battery management systems (BMS) in each pack, allowing for communication and coordination across packs via a communication channel, enabling dynamic mode switching, and optimizing charge, discharge, and balancing processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a battery management system uses external components for managing battery cells, then the system can provide basic battery management functionality, but the system complexity increases and coordination efficiency across multiple battery packs decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the battery management system directly into each battery pack, combining previously separate external management components with the battery cells. This integration reduces the number of external components needed and simplifies the overall system architecture while maintaining reliable battery management functionality across multiple packs.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated battery management system within each pack is designed to perform multiple functions including monitoring, control, and communication. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate external components for each function, thereby reducing system complexity while maintaining comprehensive battery management capability.
2Ease of manufacture
If battery packs operate independently without communication, then each pack is simpler to manufacture, but the overall system performance and battery life are suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into independent battery packs, each with its own integrated management system that can be manufactured separately. This segmentation maintains manufacturing simplicity while enabling flexible assembly configurations. The communication interface is integrated into each segment, allowing coordinated operation without compromising individual pack manufacturability.
Solution Approach 2:
A communication channel acts as an intermediary between battery packs, enabling coordination and data exchange. This intermediary facilitates optimal system performance and battery life management through centralized control algorithms while preserving the manufacturing independence of individual packs.
3Reliability
If the communication bus remains enabled during battery switching, then communication continuity is maintained, but electrical transients and noise interfere with communication reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The system disables the communication bus before switching battery packs and re-enables it after switching is complete. This preliminary and follow-up action prevents electrical transients and noise from interfering with communication, ensuring communication reliability occurs during the periods when the system is stable and interference-free.
Solution Approach 2:
The communication bus operates in periodic cycles, being enabled during stable operation periods and disabled during battery switching events. This periodic enable/disable pattern synchronizes communication activity with system stability, avoiding periods of high electrical interference while maintaining overall communication continuity.
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein is a battery system that allows a battery pack to operate in different modes at different times. Each of the different modes may provide its own set of functionality that affects how the battery pack operates and/or reacts to external input signals. A mode may change how the battery pack discharges power by, for example, altering whether terminals are enabled or disabled. A mode may change how the battery pack's hardware operates by, for example, disabling or enabling portions of the battery pack's hardware. A mode may change what battery-related services are provided by the battery pack and available to an end user by, for example, enabling or disabling the sending of battery status information from the battery pack.