All these features require a Battery Toolbox License.
The Otii Battery Toolbox is a software license that extends the capabilities of the Otii Product Suite to enable battery profiling, battery simulation, battery testing and validation for low-power IoT devices and electronics.
Battery Validation provides a comprehensive view of your battery by monitoring its performance in various scenarios. You can charge and discharge the battery in one or multiple steps, repeat discharge cycles, and create custom scenarios.
To start using Battery Validation, select Battery Validation in the toolbar or press Ctrl-T/Cmd-T combination. A panel will then appear where you can view and modify the validation configuration.
Here you will see a list of connected devices where you can pick which of them you want to use for battery validation.
To start battery validation, press Start.
To stop battery validation, press Stop.
You can optionally record the ongoing battery validation session by selecting Record.
Press Add step to open the battery validation dialog.
The discarge step function is splitted by One step and Multi-step.
One step allows you to have a discharge step without specifying max time.
In the settings you can pick between Constant current, Constant power or Constant resistance and insert you value, acording bto the battery under the test.
The exit conditions for discharging a battery are the conditions under which the battery should be stopped from discharging to prevent damage to the battery. Cutoff voltage means setting a minimum voltage below which the batterry is not allowed to discharge. Check battery datasheet for this information. Time limit is optional in case of One step discharge, but recommends in case if the battery is discharging at a very low current and the voltage cutoff may not be triggered, also to prevent overdischarging or other unexpected behaviours.
To add step, press Add step button and the configured step will appear in the dialog.
A multi-step battery discharge involves discharging the battery in several steps, each with a different constant current, power, or resistance profile, depending on the desired outcome and battery type.
To create a profile with several step types for battery discharge, select the desired step types and configure the parameters for each step, including time, and press Add to add more steps. It is also possible to repeat discharge cycle by selecting Repeat discharge cycle.
The exit conditions in the multi-step discharge, besides cutoff voltage that works same principle as in one step discharge, contains a checkbox where in case if you decide to have repeated discharge cycle, you can choose between Max iterations or Max time.
To add multi-steps, press on Add step button and configured multi-steps will appear in the dialog.
A battery charging test is often used to evaluate a battery design to see if it meets its performance and safety specifications.
Before charging the battery, make sure to set up the settings according to the documentation of the tested battery, which is includes Charge voltage and Charge current.
Charge voltage is the voltage applied to a battery to overcome its internal resistance and charge it. It is typically higher than the battery's nominal voltage.
Charge current is the electric current that flows into a battery while its being charged. It's also very dependent on the type of battery, and before setting up the value, check the datasheet of the battery under test.
The exit conditions of battery charging are the Cutoff current and Max time of charging the battery.
Cutoff current is the current at which a battery will stop charging; this prevents battery's overcharging.
Max time is the longest amount of time that a battery will be charging. This ensures that the battery is not being overcharged.
Battery types will have a different cutoff current and maximum charging time, so make sure to read the documentation first.
Due to different battery types and their chemistry, battery temperature and protection security it is important to have a time sleep between charging/discharging steps. To set up sleep time between selected steps, swich to the Sleep tab and set up desired sleep time. Press Add step.
⁽¹⁾ Otii Battery Toolbox emulates the total ESR.
Connect the battery to Otii Arc main terminals, red to positive pole of battery and black to negative pole.
Find stated battery capacity in the datasheet
Decide how long time the profiling should take, this decides the average discharged current EQUATION Note: Coin cell batteries must never be profiled for a shorter time than one month (roughly 720h).
Profile setting currhigh should be set to, or slightly above, your systems peak current for coin cell and lithium thionyl chloride batteries. For alkaline batteries it could be set slightly higher and for lithium secondary cells, it could be set much higher, but check battery datasheet for information about recommended maximum discharge current.
Profile setting currlow should be set with as big difference as possible from currhigh since the battery profile resolution depends on the difference between currhigh and currlow EQUATION Note: Currlow should not be set to too low value so the battery needs to be “restarted” again, there are chemical effects in the battery that should be avoided. Check with the battery manufacturer regarding this. However, usually this value is higher to get a decent duty cycle between high and low current consumption.
Cycle time of the profiling should be set so number of iterations is reasonable (higher number of iterations might be needed for long profiling times, like for profiling coin cell batteries but the battery profile will also then be larger). EQUATION Note: A cycle time of 30s to 180s is usually a good choice.
Calculate timehigh and timelow by cycle time and average discharge current EQUATION
Check battery datasheet for when the battery is considered discharged, this gives min_ocv_voltage (V)
Check battery for nominal voltage, this gives start_voltage (V)
If you experience that you get voltage drop in your cables when discharging then you can set fourwire = true and connect sense+ and sense– to the battery, otherwise you set it to false. Usually this is set to false except for secondary cell lithium batteries.
Enter the settings above in the battery profiling window and add information about the battery.
Otii Battery Toolbox comes with a number of already profiled, real life batteries. You can find these in the drop down meny under the Supply in Project Settings. Here is also where you can find your own profiles, once created.
In addition to source current, the Arc can be set to sink current. E.g. by connecting a battery to the main connectors, you can test how the battery performs with different kind of loads.
To get started with battery profiling, choosing Battery Profiler from the toolbar will open the following pane:
Here you choose which of your connected devices you want to use for battery profiling. When the profiling is running you will see some information of the current status of the profiling for each device.
Here you configure the profiling parameters, see more below on some best practices in choosing them.
You can also choose to automatically start a recording of the profiling. Recording the profiling session is optional, and for longer profiling sessions will require a lot of free space on your computer.
Here you enter the model, manufacturer and size of the tested battery.
Scroll down the dialog to see a more detailed output from the profiling.
Start is used to start a new profiling.
Stop is used to stop an ongoing profiling.
When any of the exit conditions has been fulfilled, or the stop button has been pressed, a save button will appear after each device allowing you to save the profile for use in the battery emulator.
Battery Model Parameter | Otii Arc Pro | Otii Ace Pro |
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There is also with more battery profiles available.
Points in Emulation | as many as no of iterations | as many as no of iterations |
up to 5 kohm | up to 5 kohm |
ESR Resolution | down to 1 mohm | down to 1 mohm |
Voc Range | 0.5V to 5V | 0V to 25V |
Voc Resolution | 1 mV | 1 mV |
Capacity Range | no limit | no limit |
Capacity Resolution | 1 µAh | 1 µAh |
Otii can act as a battery, following a discharge curve. If you have reserved a Battery Toolbox license, a Supply section will appear in the Arc/Ace control settings. Press the Emulate battery button to open the battery emulation dialog. Choose the battery profile you want in the drop down list. A discharge curve will be shown for the chosen battery.
There are two curves, one shows the unloaded battery voltage over the used capacity and the other curve shows the internal resistance. Otii will adjust the output voltage depending on the load, just like a real battery with internal resistance.
Enter how many Ahs of the emulated battery's capacity that has been used if you selected Used capacity or how many percent if you selected SOC(%). To emulate a fresh battery, enter 0 for Used capacity and 100% for SOC(%).
Select Fixed to emulate the battery with a constant Used capacity as entered above. Follow will emulate a discharge over the time you are recording.
The rest of the settings are the same as when using the Arc as a constant power supply.
Click on a battery in the battery grid to set how many batteries in series and parallel to emulate.
Press to hide the battery emulation dialog. Your current settings will still be visible in your Arc/Ace control settings, as displayed below. Here you can edit the used capacity or state of charge. To update other settings, press the curve to re-open the dialog.
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