Would anyone be interested in a universal charge monitor??

[Sunkmail`]

Just wanting to get a feel for something here ...

After reading all about how Battery life is maximized by not fully charging, at least until near when you plan to use it; And hearing about people suggesting the Satiator or Luna chargers that offer the ability to stop charging at a lower value (ie, 80%); And people using simple timers to turn off their chargers after a best guess at how long it will take to charge to a target value ...

I'm designing myself a small device that will sit between my charger and the battery pack to monitor the charge and turn off power to the battery once a (variable) setpoint has been reached. The device will have a small screen displaying the target percentage / Voltage and the Current % / Voltage. (I'm working around standard pack sizes of 36, 48, 52, 60, & 72V.

Initially, this is all the device will do, but I am planning on adding timing features, supplied power for the current charge (ie, mAHrs, Watts), and other features as I think of them / figure out how to implement.

I've got a fairly robust and flexible initial schematic design figured out and a good portion of the firmware already written.



My biggest question now is - Should I design the physical circuit (and parts) to be something just for myself, or are enough people interested that it could warrant the time to design a custom PCB and design for production optimization?


(My current charger is only for 48V @ 2A, but the design can easily be changed to allow virtually any combination and should be Virtually charger independent. )

Thoughts?


Thanks

 

[Ann M.]

@Sunkmail, ultimately the answer would be both. However, if you start with your prototype for your own bike and test it for a bit to see if it works the way you want it to and come up with a not too bulky design at a reasonable cost, you might have something there. Right now Grin Technologies already has a monitoring/data system that is universal, their Cycle Analysts and does more than what you're looking for but does not have charging cutoff feature rather an active "state of charge" info. If you search Alibaba you'll also find some less featured, less expensive monitoring systems that you might be able to modify for the charging feature you want.

It sounds a bit like you're looking to merge a scaled down version of the Cycle Satiator with a small analyst.

 

[Sunkmail`]

Thanks for the feedback!

I really started the project with the idea of just reading the voltage and electrically disconnecting the charger when it hit the defined value.

All the other features have been more of a "Why Not?" - Since they are mostly firmware additions. (as long as I have some basic hardware parts available.)

Free time for implementation is my biggest problem at the moment. I work in healthcare and most of my patients are from the ER, so on a slow night I can do a fair amount of planning. It's the physical production of the device that's difficult to fit.
As a result, I can think of all these neat little features to add, which, if they work, doesn't really add much, if any, actual part cost to the final product.

I'm hoping to find time to get a prototype for the most basic, and primary, feature(s) done sometime in the next couple of weeks.

 

[ebikemom]

Have fun!