Low-cost programmable battery dischargers and application in battery model identification

This paper describes a study where a low-cost programmable battery discharger was built from basic electronic components, the popular MATLAB programming environment, and an low-cost Arduino microcontroller board. After its components and their function are explained in detail, a case study is performed to evaluate the discharger's performance. The setup is principally suitable for any type of battery cell or small packs. Here a 7.2 V NiMH battery pack including six cells is used. Consecutive discharge current pulses are applied and the terminal voltage is measured as the output. With the measured data, battery model identification is performed using a simple equivalent circuit model containing the open circuit voltage and the internal resistance. The identification results are then tested by repeating similar tests. Consistent results demonstrate accuracy of the identified battery parameters, which also confirms the quality of the measurement. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the identification method is fast enough to be used in real-time applications.