smart charger (3)

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We are building an open protocol smart charger for lithium batteries. BatCha can charge BATMON enabled batteries without have to set the parameters for each battery. BatCha is WiFi enabled and monitors the charge against over-temperature, over-voltage etc. Charging using BatCha is extremely simple and dumb proof.

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BATMON is a lightweight BMS for drone batteries. 9476989069?profile=RESIZE_710x

We launched a Kickstarter Campaign to build the charger https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/batmon/batcha-and-batmon-smart-charger-and-battery. Please donate and support our campaign.

 

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Customizable open source smart charger (2-12s) : BatCha

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We built BatMon for making smart batteries. BatMon can now talk with Ardupilot, Pixhawk, and ROS and enables safe and robust operation of robot using smart batteries. But there is a missing piece, a smart charger that can safely charge batteries with a peace of mind for customers.

So, we are building exactly that, and a lot more, to future proof your workflow as they scale. Below is a sneak peek of the most foolproof futureproof smart charger we know of: BatCha

BatCha features

  • Opensource Firmware
  • 2-12S LiPo Charge
  • Smart battery data interfaces:
    • I2C: Two wire based protocol such as SMBUS
    • CAN BUS: Two wire differential pair robust protocol for UAVCAN, CANaerospace etc
    • LIN BUS : Single wire communication protocol for micro drones
  • Two ports. Charge two battery simultaneously.
  • 500 watt total power. Shareable to either ports
  • Max charging current per port: 20A
  • Measures battery temperature and voltage for safe charging limits for each battery
  • Optional: expansion puck to charge 4x smart batteries per port
  • Optional: Puck for 2-12S dumb battery charging and balancing
  • USB interface for monitoring and controlling charge workflow from PC
  • Optional: Integrated Raspberry Pi Compute module for Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity
  • OLED screen for monitoring and outdoor viewing
  • User Interface engineered for speed and safety. Plug-in to charge-start in less than 4 seconds
  • Zero effort to train customers on battery charging and safety. Customer have two options: Regular charging / Fast Charging
  • Mechanical design optimized for robustness and repairability

Sign up here for more details.

 

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BatMon is a module that connects to you batteries to "smartify" them. BatMon reads the cell voltage, current and relays it to autopilot or the onboard computers. We made a quite a bit of improvements in the latest v3 devkit. The most important is the support for 3 different protocols :

  • SMBUS(I2C based two wire protocol)
  • CAN (CAN based differential two wire protocol) 
  • LIN (a robust single wire data communication protocol invented for automotive application)

SMBUS is currently supported in the stock firmware. We have added support for Ardupilot, Pixhawk and Raspberry Pi (ROS) environment. 

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The features of Batmon are: 

  1. Inbuilt Coulomb counting for accurate power draw (and State-Of-Charge) for the pack
  2. Accurate monitoring of individual cell voltage ( precise to 50mV ) 
  3. Onboard temperature monitoring + extra optional temperature probes for accurate measurement of battery temperature in harsh weather.
  4. Stock firmware connects to Pixhawk, Ardupilot, Raspberry Pi (ROS) 
  5. Onboard cell balancing
  6. Switchable low-power LED indicators display for convenient display of battery SOC
  7. Optional OLED display and warning buzzer
  8. Optional safety cutoff FET

The first batch of boards are available for pre-order till Oct 31 here: https://rotoye.com/batmon/

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