Advancements in battery rapid-testing

Batteries are commonly checked with hand-held testers injecting a single frequency of 83-90 Hertz. The readings are reasonably accurate, provided the battery is fully charged and the capacity resides between 0-75%. However, the accuracy is reduced with batteries performing at 80% and higher. This creates a problem because the replacement boundary resides in the region in which the single frequency technique is only marginally reliable.

Spectro™ promises to overcome some of the inherent shortcomings of the single-frequency method. One of the fundamental differences of Spectro™ is the use of multi-frequencies between 20-2000 Hertz. The complexity in processing the additional data is handled by a high-speed digital signal processor. This enables a test time of about 20 seconds for most batteries.

Spectro™ injects a sinusoidal waveform rather than pulses. Using voltage-controlled excitation enables testing large and small batteries while staying within the linear band of the thermal battery. This is similar to an audio amplifier where the signal level must reside within the linear portion of the input stage or else distortion will occur.

Spectro™ has primarily been tested on lead-acid batteries, automotive in particular. This is done due to ready availability of these batteries to prove the concept. The technology can also be used on nickel and lithium-based batteries. In the future, Spectro™ will be able to check specialty batteries and fuel cells.

For more information, see batteries for laptop computer.

About The Author:

Adalie Schnider is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-batteries.com. A great resource for batteries of all kinds including camcorder, laptop,cell phone and more.