Batteries have been in use since before incandescent lamps. More widespread today than ever, batteries can be found in everything from cellular phones to industrial vehicles, enabling the use of electronic devices where a power source is either unfeasible or unavailable. To ensure that batteries are reliable, battery manufacturers thoroughly test their products before offering them for sale.

Application Summary
All batteries consist of one or more electro-chemical cells, which are electrically tied together to provide the correct amount of power for a specific type of application.

To test a battery, battery manufacturers connect the battery cells together exactly the way these cells would be used in the equipment to be powered. The battery cells can be connected in parallel by separately joining all the positive terminals together and all the negative terminals together. Battery cells can also be connected in series by alternating the joining of a positive terminal to a negative terminal for all the battery cells within a group. A third option is for the battery cells to be joined together via a combination of serial and parallel connections.

During the final stages of the manufacturing process, each battery is tested to ensure that it is able to hold its specified charge. For example, one leading manufacturer of lead-acid batteries conducts a charge-discharge test on hundreds of batteries at a time during the company’s final manufacturing process. To conduct a charge-discharge test, the manufacturer connects a charger to each battery and charges it until the battery’s peak capacity is reached. Then, the manufacturer connects a load to the battery to discharge it.

To evaluate each battery during its charge-discharge test, the manufacturer monitors each battery cell’s voltage, the overall battery voltage, and the current passing through the battery. In some charge-discharge tests, the manufacturer may also measure battery temperature and barometric pressure for information about a battery’s chemical reaction rate.

Monitoring all these parameters on a production quantity of batteries can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process.

Potential Solutions
One battery manufacturer used a primitive method for monitoring quantities of batteries—a technician took a series of readings using a handheld meter and recorded each battery’s parameters on paper. The manufacturer’s battery-test engineers decided to search for a method of recording the parameters that was less time-consuming, yet did not require the purchase of expensive equipment.

One method the battery-test engineers considered was using programmable digital multimeters with a custom software program that would enable them to read all the channel inputs automatically. They rejected this solution because of the development time required to write the program and integrate such a system.

IOtech’s Solution
The battery-test engineers selected the MultiScan as their battery-test solution because it enables them to easily monitor multiple parameters in several battery-test stands with very little effort or expense. The MultiScan lets them cost effectively measure temperature, voltage, and numerous inputs using a single instrument. What’s more, its included easy-to-use ChartView software, eliminates the need to create custom software.

The MultiScan enabled the battery-test engineers to automate their manual collection process without encountering the problems typically associated with integrating multiple discrete instruments. The electrically isolated MultiScan offers them the flexibility to measure up to 744 isolated channels. Its compact size allows them to fit it in a 19” rack with plenty of room left over for other equipment. The battery-test engineers especially like the unit’s included ChartView software, which they use for configuring and logging the data acquired by the MultiScan to disk. The MultiScan also includes PostView software for viewing the data after acquisition. The data stored by ChartView can be easily imported into a variety of popular data analysis software packages, such as Excel, Lotus 123, and MATLAB.

Conclusion
The MultiScan’s expandability and isolation make it an ideal solution for many battery-monitoring applications.

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