Category Archives: Discharge tester – Arduino and perl code

Improved battery discharger current accuracy

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Jim

I swapped in a 0.9Ω resistor for the old 0.1Ω current sense resistor, giving 9X better current accuracy without reducing the 2A design max discharge current.  The original was just a poor choice. Since that resistor will dissipate 9X more … Continue reading →

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Update to battery discharger Arduino code

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Jim

Added test for per-cell voltage < 0.95V (not configurable).  Aborts loop thru cells when one cell is done.  Prints message with capacity, guilty cell (though it’s obvious from the aborted line.)  I left the old overall battery voltage check in … Continue reading →

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Arduino code for discharger updated

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Jim

I tweaked the Arduino code a little more.  Deleted some debug leftovers, added some comments and restructured a subroutine.  I did a couple of several-minute tests with 1 and 15 cells to compute some timing fudge factors so the time … Continue reading →

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Discharger Arduino code thoughts

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Jim

One of my biggest fears for the Arduino code is that a bug will turn on inappropriate analog switches, resulting in a short or other undesired connection, probably damaging either the mux chip or the Arduino itself.  To help avoid … Continue reading →

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