With the improvement of people’s living standards, secondary batteries, especially high-current batteries (lead-acid batteries, nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries), have been used in more and more applications in the power sector, railways, and the military. However, battery energy Whether the power supply is reliable and reaches the life specified by the manufacturer is closely related to the correctness of routine maintenance and management such as battery charging and discharging.

　　With the improvement of people’s living standards, secondary batteries, especially high-current batteries (lead-acid batteries, nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries), have been used in more and more applications in the power sector, railways, and the military. However, battery energy Whether the power supply is reliable and reaches the life specified by the manufacturer is closely related to the correctness of routine maintenance and management such as battery charging and discharging. Since the batteries that are widely used nowadays are not equipped with intelligent detection devices, that is, they are not digital batteries, the charging and discharging current, terminal voltage, charging and discharging time, number of charging and discharging, charging and discharging capacity, remaining capacity, internal temperature and Basic parameters such as service life can only be measured manually or roughly estimated. Once errors occur, they will have unpredictable consequences for our normal production and life, and cause irreparable losses to the electrical performance and life of the battery.

　　With the development of microprocessor technology, mobile electronic devices have developed rapidly in terms of their own functions. At present, most of the digital, intelligent, and internal control circuits are more or less completed by CPU chips. But its power supply part is very primitive. Generally, it only supplies the direct current provided by a battery to the electronic device, and the battery's own characteristics, status and other parameters cannot be provided to the electronic device, that is, it cannot be used for data with the related electronic device. Communication. This has brought new problems to the improvement of the intelligence of electronic equipment.

　　If the battery can store, record, analyze, control, print and display various state parameters through a microprocessor, and provide it to relevant personnel intuitively, and realize data communication with related electronic equipment, that is, digitalization can be achieved. Reduce human error and prolong the service life of the battery, and can realize the intelligent control and unattended operation of related electronic equipment. Therefore, the research and development of battery digitization is a subject of great significance.

　　The concept of digital battery

　　The exact definition of digital battery has not yet been unified. This concept comes from the rapid development of the information industry, which mainly comes from the world-renowned notebook computer design, production, and supplier. In practical applications, once the battery is out of power at a critical time, it will inevitably produce unpredictable losses. The concept of digital battery is put forward under this situation. With it, we can grasp the working status of battery power supply in time. Prepare in advance and replace in time. The working conditions mentioned here should include the following aspects:

　　(1) The current terminal voltage of the battery, the charge and discharge current, and the charge and discharge time;

　　(2) The current battery's internal resistance, remaining capacity, remaining charge and discharge time, battery temperature;

　　(3) Current battery charge and discharge times and service life.

　　In the actual development, the researchers found that only knowing the working state of the battery cannot meet our requirements for the battery. The battery is also required to be able to transmit data with related electronic equipment to achieve automatic control of battery switching and battery charging.

　　It can be seen from the above: the so-called digital battery, which contains a common rechargeable battery, a digital battery control module, and a communication interface to complete various measurement and control management and data communication functions of the digital battery. In addition to the intuitive and accurate display (or provision) of the above-mentioned working conditions in digital form, the background information and identity data of the battery (such as the date of manufacture of the battery, manufacturer data, etc.) should also be provided; correspondingly during the charging process Protection and alarm measures (such as over-voltage protection, over-temperature alarm, etc.); at the same time, it should conform to a certain communication protocol (such as the system management bus SMBus), have a communication interface with the host, intelligent charge controller, etc., and be able to communicate with control.

　　The status quo of digital batteries and their development and application value

　　The digital battery was first developed abroad. As early as 1995, the U.S. military already had digital battery equipment units, but these batteries were not highly digitized and not very versatile. According to the limited information collected on the Internet, the digital battery developed abroad is mainly composed of rechargeable batteries and control modules, among which the software part of the control module should conform to a specific communication protocol. The digital battery system hardware composed of digital batteries includes: system host, digital batteries (one or several), intelligent charge controller, AC/DC converter and data transmission bus network.

　　The software includes the communication protocol for data transmission, the data processing platform and the embedded operating system as well as the corresponding programs. Many foreign companies and enterprises participate in the research and development of digital batteries. Intel and Duracell jointly produce digital batteries. This product is named PowerSmart and conforms to the SBS (Smart Battery System) standard. Motorola is also developing digital batteries that can be accepted by the majority of users. German battery giant Varta and Duracell are working together to develop a new generation of digital batteries, which will be available soon.

　　According to the tenth five-year plan of the battery industry, the United States, Japan, and Europe account for 70% of the global battery market. Among the consumed batteries, the average per capita in the United States reaches 25 per person per year; the average per capita in Japan reaches 20 per person per year. However, China consumes less than 7 batteries per capita each year. Therefore, batteries have a large market in China. China’s battery industry focuses on the development and production of mercury-free alkaline manganese batteries, nickel-hydrogen power batteries, lithium-ion batteries, fully sealed maintenance-free lead-acid batteries, automotive power batteries, fuel cells, and solar cells. In the army, secondary batteries such as nickel-cadmium and nickel-hydrogen batteries are used in a large number of equipment, and military lithium-ion batteries are also being developed. The army will soon be equipped. In the future, three types of batteries will coexist.

　　Up to now, only a very small number of units or research institutions are conducting research and development on digital batteries. There are only a few digital battery research products, and a complete digital battery system has not been developed. Therefore, the digitalization of secondary batteries in my country has a lot of room for development. At the same time, after the secondary battery is digitized, when people use the digitized battery for power supply, they will not suddenly lose power during normal work, which will affect the work and cause a certain loss; the battery can be used reasonably or more scientifically, and the battery will not be overwhelmed. Discharge and overcharge can effectively extend the service life of the battery; accurately display battery data and provide data to the host, which can effectively control and process the various states of the battery; there will also be warnings for the final aging of the battery; Therefore, the battery correspondingly has the ability to shut down; a digital battery system can be used to remotely monitor the battery usage and use reliable data for efficient energy management. Therefore, the digital battery also has high promotion and application value.

　　The famous PowerSmart company listed ten reasons for the implementation of digital batteries:

　　(1) Prevent accidental battery loss and power loss;

　　(2) Enhance battery life (30% increase);

　　(3) More accurate indication of charging status, operating residual time and regular full charging requirements, etc.;

　　(4) Provide an efficient and advanced alarm system through comprehensive monitoring of battery status changes caused by environmental, aging, wear and other factors;

　　(5) makes the battery have the ability to predict battery performance and diagnosis;

　　(6) Ensure that the battery controls intelligent charging to obtain the saturation of each charge and minimize overcharge;

　　(7) Improve cycle life;

　　(8) High-efficiency energy management system obtained by using the accurate information provided by the battery;

　　(9) Independent design of chemical battery;

　　(10) Allow remote monitoring of battery

　　Digital battery related technology

　　Because the digital battery has a built-in smart chip, through data exchange with the smart charger, functions such as battery model identification, remaining capacity and cycle number display can be realized, which greatly improves the performance and service life of the battery. Intelligent nickel-cadmium battery series, intelligent nickel-hydrogen battery series and intelligent lithium-ion battery series will be important development directions. However, the intelligent and non-intelligent cadmium-nickel battery series and the nickel-hydrogen battery series will coexist for a period of time, until the intelligent battery completely replaces the non-intelligent battery. Therefore, the development of digital batteries should be started as soon as possible, in order to improve the level of my country's battery industry as much as possible, so as to synchronize with foreign countries. After consulting a large number of foreign digital battery research related materials, and conducting discussions with relevant experts and manufacturers, the author believes that the research and development of digital batteries should focus on the following aspects:

　　(1) Related standards for digital batteries. Foreign digital batteries have initially formed certain industry standards, such as the communication protocol between digital batteries and other control equipment. For our digital batteries to be compatible, we must fully understand the relevant standards and protocols. If we can formulate our own complete system standards, it will be more conducive to the development and formation of a series of products for my country's digital batteries. If there is a unified digital agreement, battery manufacturers can develop their own or entrust other companies to develop digital batteries, with less investment and quicker results, and at the same time, it will also increase the added value of battery products. A unified battery digitization agreement will help them reduce product varieties, relatively increase production, and reduce product prices. A unified battery digitization agreement will benefit all relevant manufacturers and achieve a win-win situation in the market.　　(2) Research on the characteristics of cadmium-nickel, nickel-hydrogen storage batteries and lithium-ion storage batteries. Only when we have a detailed understanding of the characteristics of these batteries, we can detect and control their various performance indicators, provide first-hand information for the digitization of batteries, and at the same time, can also provide intelligent charge controllers and other related electronic equipment Provide reference for the design and development of the company.

　　(3) Dynamic data acquisition and processing technology for digital batteries. It mainly collects battery voltage, current, temperature and other data, and after digital quantization processing, the accurate voltage, capacity, internal resistance, and temperature data are displayed on LCD or used for communication transmission.

　　(4) Data communication technology. Data communication is an important part of the realization of battery digitization. The existing foreign digital battery communication standard is: SMBusV2.0. After the dynamic data of the battery is processed, it transmits the data continuously with the CPU of other electronic devices (or host) through the interface through the transmission driver according to the standard format. If it is a digital battery system, the host can take corresponding actions according to the current status of the battery. Measures.

　　(5) Intelligent charging control technology for digital batteries. The intelligent charging technology matched with the digital battery must be able to communicate with the digital battery and realize automatic fast charging control. At present, advanced chargers have realized digitization and intelligence. The various operations of the charger are completed by the microprocessor, which can realize battery type judgment, select charging current according to user requirements, multiple full judgment methods, multiple protection measures, Battery charging capacity display, multi-channel battery charging at the same time or sequentially, battery full sound and light prompts, etc. The charging method can be constant current, constant current and constant voltage with auxiliary negative pulse mode, which can increase the maintenance function of the battery. By maintaining the battery to improve the battery life, and can be used as an AC adapter to directly power mobile electronic devices.

　　Digital battery is a brand-new subject in the development and application of secondary power supply. The advantages of digital battery are unmatched by other non-digital batteries. Its research, development and promotion and application will not only inject new vitality into the battery industry, but also People's production and life provide a lot of convenience, which has important practical significance.