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Article: Simple circuit indicates health of lithium-ion batteries.
- Article from:
- EDN
- Article date:
- May 14, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Fritz Weld, Friedberg, Germany
Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville
Lithium-ion batteries are sensitive to bad treatment. Fire, explosions, and other hazardous condition may occur when you charge the cell below the margin that the manufacturer defines. Modern battery chargers can manage the hazardous conditions and deny operation when illegal situations occur. This fact doesn't mean, however, that all cells are bad. In most cases, you can replace the discharged battery and increase your device's lifetime. Figure 1 shows the circuit for testing battery packs.
When the supply voltage is lower than 2.6V, no current drives the base of the ...