Battery Power Indicator (green/yellow/red) circuit?

[abvidledUK]

Battery Monitor Circuit

Crux

As before, this doc will not open properly in my Word (Mac)

Any chance of a PDF version ?

 

[altis]

As before, this doc will not open properly in my Word (Mac)

Any chance of a PDF version ?

You could try Adobe's free online conversion:

http://createpdf.adobe.com/?v=AHP

 

[MrAl]

Hi again,

I guess nobody is interested in a 10 LED battery indicator then?
There could also be various voltage settings which can be spaced
any way, or in steps of the same size.

 

[Stormdrane]

I bought this Rayovac Industrial light at wallyworld with the battery power indicator. I replaced the stock bulb with a PR-Base bulb SMJLED that I got from Lighthound, so I don't know how/if it'll work with the LED. It's supposed to go from green to yellow with two hours of power left then red in final stages, but that's with the krypton bulb. I'm not sure if it could be easily cannabilized for use in another light.

 

[Crux]

Altis - why didn't I think of that... here they are in .pdf format:

Battery monitor circuit #1 (MAX9042 monitor with LTC3454 buck-boost)

Battery monitor circuit #2 (MAX9017 monitor only)

MrAl - 10 leds would be neat, especially graduated color - cyan down to red, but all those holes would be tough to seal. Encircling the bezel with them could be nice.

Stormdrane - I'm not sure how accurate that 'two hours on yellow' is but I do suspect you'll get a lot more runtime than krypton with the MJ.

Crux

 

[TMorita]

Hi again,

I guess nobody is interested in a 10 LED battery indicator then?
There could also be various voltage settings which can be spaced
any way, or in steps of the same size.

I want to put a BPI in a headlamp. A 10 LED bar would use too much space, and probably eat too much battery power.

The reason I want a single tri-color LED is it only requires drilling a single 5mm hole in the headlamp body.

Toshi

 

[TMorita]

Altis - why didn't I think of that... here they are in .pdf format:

Battery monitor circuit #1 (MAX9042 monitor with LTC3454 buck-boost)

Battery monitor circuit #2 (MAX9017 monitor only)

MrAl - 10 leds would be neat, especially graduated color - cyan down to red, but all those holes would be tough to seal. Encircling the bezel with them could be nice.

Stormdrane - I'm not sure how accurate that 'two hours on yellow' is but I do suspect you'll get a lot more runtime than krypton with the MJ.

Crux

The Battery monitor circuit #2 looks like what I want...thanks!!!

Toshi

 

[MrAl]

Hi again,

Just to note, the 10 LED battery indicator doesnt have to use more power just
because it has 10 LEDs, it means if you want to use less power you just light
up one LED at a time rather than have it act as a bar graph, or alternately
use power saving techniques such as a 'test' button that keeps the display
on for three seconds and shuts off automatically.

 

[abvidledUK]

Here's a really good electronic 3 led battery level indicator, FS in UK

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/152847

 

[PEU]

Here is a very simple schematic for implementing a visual battery tester:

Rainbow LED indicates voltage with color

If someone wants the code in HEX file format, just let me know


Pablo

 

[LightBright]

Temperature, Load Current and Battery Chemistry will effect your readings too....

How about those coulomb counter IC's?

 

[chris_m]

What I'm implementing as part of my LED controller circuit is a battery gauge using a single colour LED. Since I only have a single spare pin on my uC I can't run multiple colours, however I do have a spare PWM output, so I'm simply running a 1Hz output with duty cycle corresponding to remaining battery life. I reckon this actually even makes it easier to tell at a glance the proportion of remaining battery life compared to having to decode a colour.

In order to drive it I've simply completed a run test, measuring the battery voltage every 30s, and then programmed appropriate levels in. Still got a couple more of these to do at different power levels - the only thing I'm then missing is temperature, but since the uC has a built in temperature sensor, it may even be possible to compensate for that.

 

[infinity of zero]

Temperature, Load Current and Battery Chemistry will effect your readings too....

How about those coulomb counter IC's?

Not too easy to experiment with these ICs, because they are very small and have a lot of pins. (So breadboards or experimenting prints are an option) All the ones I have seen where made for things like mobile phones and laptops, they have a lot of functions (that you won't use). Programming an uC to read out the IC will be quite a lot of work.