Battery Charging Report By Lambton College

Non-Technical Report Summary

After 20 minutes of charging, the battery voltage increased by 2.5% more using edeX versus a regular charger. This means that with edeX the battery charged more in the same amount of time.

Furthermore, edeX was able to charge the battery to 100% of the rated voltage in 60 minutes, while a regular charger took 104 minutes. This means edeX was 73% faster.

edeX accumulated more charge in the battery in comparison with the regular charger. This was observed from the discharging pattern. Furthermore, using edeX the battery took 23 minutes longer for the charging current to drop by 15% versus a regular charger. What this means is that the battery lasted longer using edeX.

The regular chargers could only charge the batteries up to 80-85% of its full capacity. edeX provides 100% capacity.

Under edeX, the maximum charging current was limited to 1.6A to ensure a safe charging level while the regular charger started at 2.2A, which causes more damage to the battery cells. What this means is that edeX is safer.

edeX provides flexibility in controlling the initial charging current and therefore was used safely to charge different stacks of cells assembly.

Furthermore, the edeX’s data logging function allows it to provide more options for safety as it can monitor both over and under voltage levels of the battery and prevent battery form damages.

Technical Report Summary

The battery voltage increased by more than 10% after 20 minutes with the regular charger. While under the edeX control the voltage increased by 12.5%.

Using Li-Charger, the battery voltage reached 98% of the rated voltage (11.8 V) in 67 minutes, while under edeX it took only 56 minutes, i.e. 10 minutes less, which is 15% faster than the regular charger. This means around 15% energy savings.

Furthermore, experiments showed that it took the battery voltage 104 minutes to reach 100% of the rated voltage level when the battery charged under the Li-Chg charger. Meanwhile, it took only 60 minutes under the edeX charging controller.

Under edeX, the maximum charging current was limited to 1.6A for almost 60 minutes to ensure a safe charging level. Meanwhile with the Li-Charger it was not possible to have control of the initial charging current that started at 2.2A and remained at 2.2A around 12min. Hence, edeX provides flexibility in controlling the initial charging current and therefore can be used safely to charge different stacks of cells assembly.

During the discharging cycle, the battery voltage dropped by 14.6% from its no load level meanwhile, it dropped by 10.4% from the no load level with edeX. This indicated that edeX accumulated more charge in the battery in comparison with the regular charger. When the load was applied to the battery the battery voltage dropped due to the load. This was observed from the discharging pattern.

Also, it took 52 minutes for the charging current to drop by 15% under the regular controller. Meanwhile, it took 75 minutes with the edeX controller. This allowed an increase in accumulated battery capacity and provided more operational time for the connected load. The battery accumulated more charge to supply under edeX and the load was supplied longer than when the battery was charged with Li-Chg charger.

edeX provided a fast and safe charging profile to meet different stacks of Li-ion cells without compromising the battery life and safety.

The regular chargers could only charge the batteries up to 80-85% of its full capacity and the operator had no control on the initial charging current. edeX provided 100% capacity under a controlled charging current once tuned to the battery pack.

Furthermore, the edeX’s data logging function provided more options for safety as it can monitor both over and under voltage levels of the battery and prevent battery form damages.