The Universal Charger "Display Manager" software usage is very easy but some point must be evidenced in order to get a very quick startup. Please refer also to the user manual of this software released in the files directory.




The first step is to choose the serial port for charger connection: the COM1 - COM16 ports are displayed on the right bar, with in evidence only the ports available and active on the computer. Select the port that is phisically connected to the charger clicking on the name. Once selected the serial port the user can go to display the curves.




Edit the Universal_Charger.ini file, putting the correct values for the hardware used: this is important to show on the screen the correct values.

Universal_Charger.ini:

[Parameters]
R5=47000
R6=12000
Current scale=25000

The R5 and R6 values are in Ohm, the Current Scale is in uV/A and the typical value of sensitivity for the LTS-25NP (Isens) current pick-up is 25000uV/A.
For medium accuracy put the values as defined in the characteristics of R5,R6 and current pick-up. For high accuracy put the values as displayed in the “General manager SW” after the initial calibration process, performed directly on the charger, as described in the “Firmware user manual”.




This page shows the charge and discharge curves from the data output from the charger. The connection can be established at any moment, the action on the charger and/or the PC program can be launched in any sequence.

The serial data stream come out from the charger only during the charge and discharge process.

The three main panels shows the voltage, current and capacity charged (or discharged) from the battery pack. The actual value of these 3 panels is replicated on the bottom part of the window, with the same precision and digits as displayed in the charger. The horizontal axis of the panels is the time in seconds.

The “PWM drive” value is the driving of the charge (or discharge) mosfets during the charge (or discharge) phase (maximum value is 1023, for 10-bit PWM). This value is useful to evaluate the capability (and the safety margin) of the charger to sustain a defined charge (or discharge) current.

In the right portion of the screen, below the COM ports there is the “RECORD on FILE” button. When the user press this key is created an ASCII file that contains all the data coming from the charger. The name of this file is automatically generated:

Monitor_hhmmss_DDMMYY.txt

Where “hhmmss” is the time and “DDMMYY” is the date of the key hit. When the key is pressed a second time, the file is closed and ready to be open from the user. The content of the file is the following:

Current; Voltage; Capacity; Minutes; Seconds Drive
2.00; 7.115; 1.9; 0; 7; 817;
2.00; 7.115; 1.9; 0; 8; 819;
2.00; 7.115; 2.0; 0; 8; 819;
2.00; 7.115; 2.0; 0; 8; 819;
2.00; 7.115; 2.1; 0; 8; 819;
2.00; 7.115; 2.1; 0; 8; 817;
2.00; 7.115; 2.1; 0; 8; 819;


and each line is sampled every 16*5ms = 80ms. The format is easily importable in the spreadsheet programs to evaluate the charge or discharge characteristics by macro or direct calculation.

The “Action started from” field represents the duration of this action (from the charger point of view), expressed in minutes and seconds.

The “Clear” button cancel the main panels and restart the visualization of the curves.