How to Repair PCB Yourself

Why You Need to Know How to Repair a Circuit Board? 

For professional electronics engineers and DIY amateurs, circuit boards (PCB) are something they must face. It is necessary to understand circuits running and 

how to repair circuit boards?

 However, most of the time we will get more than 1 circuit board, we'll feel free to throw the broken one into the dustbin, why we need to know how to repair circuit boards? Obviously, firstly, money saved, the circuit board is not a one-off product, of which most of the faults can be solved by a simple repair. While for those who are passionate about electronics, the process of "detecting to solving" brings them great psychological satisfaction. What is more important for electronics engineers is to be proficient in repair circuit boards, which will have a significant contribution to the accumulation of experience in their careers. Then, How to Repair Circuit Boards? It is necessary to know that most common faults caused by thermal distress, physical damage or overload high-voltage. For different types of circuit boards, the fault rates vary, putting PCBs in suitable environments is important.

Tools You'll Need

 ► Sharp knife or flathead screwdriver or fine sandpaper 

► Copper foil

 ► Soldering gun

 ► Hot air gun 

► Scissors 

► Pen 

► Cotton swab and rubbing alcohol 

► Tweezers 

► Paper clip 

1. Fix PCB to your work surface then remove the damaged parts.

 Sometimes, diagnosing a damaged PCB requires an oscilloscope to probe the signal strengths and waveforms at various points to test for continuity of the circuit across the board. Other times, it is just a matter of looking for a burned area that indicates that a failed component or a pad or trace needs to be replaced and rejoined to the existing track on the board. If you find that one of the components on your board is not functioning the way that it should, there is a simple process for removing and replacing it. Grab the hot air gun and turn it on. Hold it no fewer than 6 inches from the failed component, After a few seconds, take a pair of tweezers and attempt to lift the component away. If it does not come, continue to apply heat for a few more seconds and then try again. If a pad has been damaged by heat, it is best to use a sharp knife to carefully remove it. Your priority is to limit the amount of damage that you do to the track and the other nearby features while still freeing the board from any residue.

2. Clean the track and remove solder. 

Once you have removed the damaged pad, continue using your sharp knife to remove the existing solder. If you are not comfortable using a knife for this relatively delicate part of the operation, a sharp-pointed screwdriver or sandpaper with a very fine grit will work, too. No matter which tool you prefer, the result should be a fully exposed track, free of existing solder, which looks shiny and clean.

Unlike traditional FR-4, ceramic materials have good high-frequency performance and electrical performance, have high thermal conductivity, chemical stability, excellent thermal stability, and other properties that organic substrates do not have. It is a new ideal packaging material for the generation of large-scale integrated circuits and power electronic modules. 3. Place your copper tape over the track.

After you have removed the damaged track and cleaned off the area, it is time to place your adhesive copper tape over the top of the area that you are working with. Your tape should overlap with the existing track and cover the existing through-hole and a portion of the area surrounding it.

4. Solder the joints.

From here, it is a matter of carefully soldering the joints where the new copper tape joins with the existing track on your restored board. Here are a few tips and warnings about this part of the process:

Copper tape melts quickly at soldering temperatures, so do not begin until you are certain that you can finish this part of the process in one go.

Use as little heat as possible and work deliberately, but quickly, to reduce the amount of heat applied. Through the laser drilling process, the ceramic circuit board has the advantages of high ceramic and metal bonding, no shedding, blistering, etc., to achieve the effect of growing together, high surface flatness, and roughness between 0.1μm and 0.3μm. Laser drilling hole diameter is 0.15mm-0.5mm, or even 0.06mm.

5. Restore the circuit board through-hole.

Find a hard implement with a rounded-off end, like a pen or another simple tool. Press down on the area that you have just soldered and rub firmly to ensure that the copper tape is securely affixed to the entire pad area. The adhesive should still be tacky after you have applied heat to the area.

With this technique, you will be able to identify where the through-hole is, which you can then pierce with a paper clip or another similar implement.

6. Place and solder your component.

If you have followed these steps so far, you should have a PCB that has been restored to functionality and is ready to receive your component of choice.

You will want to keep your application of heat as brief as possible. The new joint that you have formed between the freshly affixed copper tape/pad and the track may be somewhat fragile.

7. Trim excess tape from the repaired area.

Using your scissors or craft knife carefully cut the adhesive copper tape down to size to finish the repair. It’s important to note that the joint that you’ve just repaired may restore your PCB to functionality, but the pad, track, and joint will never be as structurally sound as the original board.

What Else Is Needed Besides the Tools?

Knowing the theoretical knowledge of how to repair circuit boards, a series of basic soft and hard skills are required, including excellent hand-eye coordination, great patience and attention to detail. In the final analysis, the most important thing is practice, repeatedly.

References

Pinsheng Electronics Co., Ltd March 2022

IPC.org

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Wi-Fi 6 – Faster Speed

 Wi-Fi 6 – Faster Speed

Introduction 

Wi-Fi is about to get faster. That’s great news: faster internet is constantly in demand, especially as we consume more bandwidth-demanding apps, games, and videos with our laptops and phones. But the next generation of Wi-Fi, known as Wi-Fi 6, isn’t just a simple speed boost. Its impact will be more nuanced, and we’re likely to see its benefits more and more over time. This is less of a one-time speed increase and more of a future-facing upgrade designed to make sure our speeds don’t grind to a halt a few years down the road. Wi-Fi 6 is just starting to arrive this year, and there’s a good chance it’ll be inside your next phone or laptop. Here’s what you should expect once it arrives. 

WHAT IS Wi-Fi 6? 

Wi-Fi 6 is the next generation of Wi-Fi. It’ll still do the same basic thing — connect you to the internet — just with a bunch of additional technologies to make that happen more efficiently, speeding up connections in the process. 

HOW FAST IS IT? 

The short but incomplete answer: 9.6 Gbps. That’s up from 3.5 Gbps on Wi-Fi 5.The real answer: both of those speeds are theoretical maximums that you’re unlikely to ever reach in real-world Wi-Fi use. And even if you could reach those speeds, it’s not clear that you’d need them. The typical download speed in the US is just 72 Mbps, or less than 1 percent of the theoretical maximum speed. But the fact that Wi-Fi 6 has a much higher theoretical speed limit than its predecessor is still important. That 9.6 Gbps doesn’t have to go to a single computer. It can be split up across a whole network of devices. That means more potential speed for each device. Wi-Fi 6 ISN’T ABOUT TOP SPEEDS Instead of boosting the speed for individual devices, Wi-Fi 6 is all about improving the network when a bunch of devices are connected. That’s an important goal, and it arrives at an important time: when Wi-Fi 5 came out, the average US household had about five Wi-Fi devices in it. Now, homes have nine Wi-Fi devices on average, and various firms have predicted we’ll hit 50 on average within several years. Those added devices take a toll on your network. Your router can only communicate with so many devices at once, so the more gadgets demanding Wi-Fi, the more the network overall is going to slow down. Wi-Fi 6 introduces some new technologies to help mitigate the issues that come with putting dozens of Wi-Fi devices on a single network. It lets routers communicate with more devices at once, lets routers send data to multiple devices in the same broadcast, and lets Wi-Fi devices schedule check-ins with the router. Together, those features should keep connections strong even as more and more devices start demanding data.

OKAY, SO HOW FAST IS EACH DEVICE?

 Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer here.At first, Wi-Fi 6 connections aren’t likely to be substantially faster. A single Wi-Fi 6 laptop connected to a Wi-Fi 6 router may only be slightly faster than a single Wi-Fi 5 laptop connected to a Wi-Fi 5 router.The story starts to change as more and more devices get added onto your network. Where current routers might start to get overwhelmed by requests from a multitude of devices, Wi-Fi 6 routers are designed to more effectively keep all those devices up to date with the data they need. Each of those devices’ speeds won’t necessarily be faster than what they can reach today on a high-quality network, but they’re more likely to maintain those top speeds even in busier environments. You can imagine this being useful in a home where one person is streaming Netflix, another is playing a game, someone else is video chatting, and a whole bunch of smart gadgets — a door lock, temperature sensors, light switches, and so on — are all checking in at once. The top speeds of those devices won’t necessarily be boosted, but the speeds you see in typical, daily use likely will get an upgrade. Exactly how fast that upgrade is, though, will depend on how many devices are on your network and just how demanding those devices are 

HOW DO I GET WI-FI 6? 

You’ll need to buy new devices. Wi-Fi generations rely on new hardware, not just software updates, so you’ll need to buy new phones, laptops, and so on to get the new version of Wi-Fi. To be clear: this is not something you’ll want to run out to the store and buy a new laptop just to get. It’s not that game-changing of an update for any one device. Instead, new devices will start coming with Wi-Fi 6 by default. As you replace your phone, laptop, and game consoles over the next five years, you’ll bring home new ones that include the latest version of Wi-Fi. There is one thing you will have to make a point of going out and buying, though: a new router. If your router doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6, you won’t see any benefits, no matter how many Wi-Fi 6 devices you bring home. (You could actually see a benefit, though, connecting Wi-Fi 5 gadgets to a Wi-Fi 6 router, because the router may be capable of communicating with more devices at once.) Again, this isn’t something worth rushing out and buying. But if your home is packed with Wi-Fi-connected smart devices, and things start to get sluggish in a couple years, a Wi-Fi 6 router may be able to meaningfully help 

WHAT MAKES WI-FI 6 FASTER? 

There are two key technologies speeding up Wi-Fi 6 connections: MU-MIMO and OFDMA.MU-MIMO, which stands for “multi-user, multiple input, multiple output,” is already in use in modern routers and devices, but Wi-Fi 6 upgrades it. The technology allows a router to communicate with multiple devices at the same time, rather than broadcasting to one device, and then the next, and the next. Right now, MU-MIMO allows routers to communicate with four devices at a time. Wi-Fi 6 will allow devices to communicate with up to eight. You can think of adding MU-MIMO connections like adding delivery trucks to a fleet, says Kevin Robinson, marketing leader for the Wi-Fi Alliance, an internationally backed tech-industry group that oversees the implementation of Wi-Fi. “You can send each of those trucks in different directions to different customers,”

Robinson says. “Before, you had four trucks to fill with goods and send to four customers. With Wi-Fi 6, you now have eight trucks.” The other new technology, OFDMA, which stands for “orthogonal frequency division multiple access,” allows one transmission to deliver data to multiple devices at once. Extending the truck metaphor, Robinson says that OFDMA essentially allows one truck to carry goods to be delivered to multiple locations. “With OFDMA, the network can look at a truck, see ‘I’m only allocating 75 percent of that truck and this other customer is kind of on the way,’” and then fill up that remaining space with a delivery for the second customer, he says. In practice, this is all used to get more out of every transmission that carries a Wi-Fi signal from a router to your device. 

WI-FI 6 CAN ALSO IMPROVE BATTERY LIFE

 Another new technology in Wi-Fi 6 allows devices to plan out communications with a router, reducing the amount of time they need to keep their antennas powered on to transmit and search for signals. That means less drain on batteries and improved battery life in turn. This is all possible because of a feature called Target Wake Time, which lets routers schedule check-in times with devices. It isn’t going to be helpful across the board, though. Your laptop needs constant internet access, so it’s unlikely to make heavy use of this feature (except, perhaps, when it moves into a sleep state).Instead, this feature is meant more for smaller, already low-power Wi-Fi devices that just need to update their status every now and then. (Think small sensors placed around a home to monitor things like leaks or smart home devices that sit unused most of the day.) 

WI-FI 6 ALSO MEANS BETTER SECURITY

 Last year, Wi-Fi started getting its biggest security update in a decade, with a new security protocol called WPA3. WPA3 makes it harder for hackers to crack passwords by constantly guessing them, and it makes some data less useful even if hackers manage to obtain it. Current devices and routers can support WPA3, but it’s optional. For a Wi-Fi 6 device to receive certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance, WPA3 is required, so most Wi-Fi 6 devices are likely to include the stronger security once the certification program launches. 

WI-FI 6 IS JUST GETTING STARTED 

Devices supporting Wi-Fi 6 are just starting to trickle out. You can already buy Wi-Fi 6 routers, but so far, they’re expensive high-end devices. A handful of laptops include the new generation of Wi-Fi, too, but it’s not widespread just yet. Wi-Fi 6 will start arriving on high-end phones this year, though. Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 855, includes support for Wi-Fi 6, and it’s destined for the next wave of top-of-the-line phones. The Snapdragon 855’s inclusion doesn’t guarantee that a phone will have Wi-Fi 6, but it’s a good sign: Samsung’s Galaxy S10 is one of the first phones with the new processor, and it supports the newest generation of Wi-Fi.

The inclusion of Wi-Fi 6 is likely to become even more common next year. The Wi-Fi Alliance will launch its Wi-Fi 6 certification program this fall, which guarantees compatibility across Wi-Fi devices. Devices don’t need to pass that certification, but its launch will signify that the industry is ready for Wi-Fi 6’s arrival. 

References 

Article Written by Jacob Kastrenakes

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IoT project ideas 2022 and topics. Check out the project ideas below

In this article, you will get familiar with the 20 Energizing IoT Task Thoughts and Points. Take a brief look at the undertaking thoughts recorded underneath.

1. Smart Horticulture Framework
2. Weather Revealing Framework
3. Home Robotization Framework
4. Face Acknowledgment Bot
5. Smart Carport Entryway
6. Smart Morning timer
7. Air Contamination Observing Framework
8. Smart Stopping Framework
9. Smart Traffic The executives Framework
10. Smart Support Framework
11. Smart Gas Spillage Finder Bot
12. Streetlight Checking Framework
13. Smart Enemy of Burglary Framework
14. Liquid Level Checking Framework
15. Night Watch Robot
16. Health Checking Framework
17. Smart Water system Framework
18. Flood Identification Framework
19. Mining Laborer Wellbeing Head protector
20. Smart Energy Network

Peruse the full article to know more exhaustively.
IoT Venture Thoughts
We live in an astonishing time of mechanical and computerized unrest. In 10 years, we've seen an extreme change in our general surroundings. On account of the new progressions in Information Science, today, we have available to us things like artificial intelligence controlled shrewd aides, independent vehicles, careful bots, wise malignant growth identification frameworks, and obviously, the Web of Things (IoT). Everything thing you can manage is work on some constant IoT project thoughts.

We, around here at upGrad, put stock in a useful methodology as hypothetical information alone will not be of assist in a continuous with workplace. In this article, we will investigate some fascinating IoT project thoughts which fledglings can deal with to put their insight to test. In this article, you will find top IoT project thoughts for fledglings to get active experience.
Above all, how about we address the more appropriate inquiry that should prowl to you: for what reason to construct IoT projects?

With regards to vocations in programming improvement, it is an unquestionable necessity for hopeful engineers to chip away at their own ventures. Growing genuine ventures is the most effective way to level up your abilities and emerge your hypothetical information into commonsense experience. The more you try different things with various IoT projects, the more information you gain.
The Web of Things is a significant vibe of the 21st hundred years. All things considered, who might have believed that sometime we'd approach an innovation that would permit us to associate regular items - like indoor regulators, kitchen machines, entryway lock frameworks, child screens, and electrical apparatuses - over a unified and coordinated organization and control them from anyplace on the planet!
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Basically, IoT portrays an associated network containing numerous actual items that have sensors and shrewd programming implanted in them to work with the trading of information among them through the Web. Nonetheless, IoT isn't simply restricted to regular family objects - you might in fact associate complex modern items and frameworks over an IoT organization. At this point, there are north of 7 billion IoT gadgets, and this number is supposed to develop to 22 billion by 2025!
An IoT network use a blend of versatile, cloud, and Huge Information innovations alongside information examination and minimal expense processing to empower the assortment and trade of information among actual items associated inside the organization. Furthermore, what's noteworthy is that this is all cultivated with insignificant human intercession.

As you begin chipping away at IoT project thoughts, you can test your assets and shortcomings, however you will likewise acquire openness that can be gigantically useful to support your profession. Dealing with IoT reproduction projects and IoT projects for designing understudies is a phenomenal method for further developing proficiency and efficiency. In this instructional exercise, you will find fascinating IoT project thoughts for amateurs to get active experience.
As the IoT innovation keeps on picking up speed in the advanced business, analysts and tech fans are promptly putting resources into the improvement of spearheading IoT projects. Here, we'll discuss probably the best IoT project thoughts.
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Thus, the following are a couple of IoT Task thoughts which fledglings can deal with:

Top 13 Best IoT Tasks Thoughts
This rundown of IoT project thoughts for understudies is appropriate for novices and those simply beginning with IoT overall. These IoT project thoughts will get you moving with every one of the items of common sense you want to prevail in your vocation. With an objective to stay aware of propelling innovations, IoT projects for designing understudies be the outline to investigate mechanical potential outcomes, an opportunity to deliver, improve, and reproduce innovation equipped for chipping away at insignificant human mediation.

IoT research points can assist competitors with chipping away at their viable abilities and expand their subject information further through steady practice on IoT projects for designing understudies. Further, this rundown ought to get you moving in the event that you're searching for IoT project thoughts for the last year. Thus, moving right along, how about we hop straight into some IoT project thoughts that will fortify your base and permit you to scale the stepping stool.
1. Savvy Horticulture Framework
One of the most mind-blowing plans to begin testing you involved IoT projects for understudies is dealing with savvy horticulture framework. As the name proposes, this IoT-put together undertaking centers with respect to fostering a shrewd horticultural framework that can perform and try and screen a large group of cultivating errands. For example, you can plan the framework to inundate a land parcel naturally, or you can shower manures/pesticides on the harvests remotely through your cell phone.
In addition to that, this IoT-based venture can likewise effectively screen soil dampness through a dampness detecting framework, which can attempt to identify dry soil. Such a high level framework can deal with the routine agrarian undertakings, subsequently permitting ranchers and cultivators to zero in on additional manual-escalated rural errands. Students can execute a comparable IoT reproduction project or IoT research points to screen house gardens or indoor plants that frequently go untended.

2. Weather conditions Announcing Framework
This is one of the superb IoT project thoughts for fledglings. This IoT-based weather conditions announcing framework is explicitly intended to work with the detailing of climate boundaries over the Web. This is one of the most outstanding IoT projects where the framework is installed with temperature, dampness, and downpour sensors that can screen the atmospheric conditions and give live reports of climate measurements.

It is a consistently on, robotized framework that sends information by means of a microcontroller to the webserver utilizing a Wireless association. This information is refreshed live on the web-based server framework. Thus, you can straightforwardly check the climate details online without depending on the reports of weather conditions estimating organizations. The framework likewise permits you to set limit values and alarms for explicit cases and tells clients each time the climate boundaries pass the boundary esteem.

A couple of IoT projects for definite year are intending to develop productive use of gadgets to decrease carbon impression, which is a need of great importance. From steady observing of fossil fuel byproducts to upholding standard gear and energy utilization to work under limited levels, IoT's job is advancing. Designers are utilizing shrewd innovations to keep a reliable harmony among nature and innovation.
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3. Home Robotization Framework
Home robotization is maybe the most discussed IoT projects. IoT-based home computerization project means to mechanize the working of domestic devices and items over the Web. All the family protests that are associated over the IoT organization can be controlled and worked through your cell phone.
This isn't just advantageous yet in addition provides more capacity to the client to control and oversee domestic devices from any area on the planet.
This IoT-based project utilizes a touch-based home robotization framework. The parts of this venture incorporate a Wireless association, an AVR family microcontroller, inbuilt touch detecting input pins. While the microcontroller is incorporated with the WiFi modem to get orders from the client through the Web, a LCD screen shows the framework status. When the microcontroller gets an order, it processes the guidelines to work the heap as needs be and show the framework status on a LCD screen.
Nonetheless, additionally Blockchain IoT permits mortgage holders to deal with the home security framework from a distance from the cell phone. Referencing IoT undertakings can assist your resume with looking significantly more fascinating than others.

4. Face Acknowledgment Bot
This IoT project includes building a savvy simulated intelligence bot furnished with cutting edge facial acknowledgment capacities. This is one of the most outstanding IoT Ventures where the wise computer based intelligence bot is intended to perceive the essences of various individuals or a solitary individual and furthermore their remarkable voice.
The framework incorporates facial acknowledgment highlights like face location (sees faces and property a similar in a picture), individual recognizable proof (matches a person in your confidential store containing hundreds and thousands of individuals), and furthermore feeling acknowledgment (distinguishes a scope of looks including bliss, hatred, lack of bias, and dread).
This mix of cutting edge acknowledgment highlights makes for a hearty security framework. The framework likewise incorporates a camera that allows clients to see live streams through face acknowledgment.

5. Brilliant Carport Entryway
Indeed, you can utilize IoT innovation to control and work your carport entryway! The IoT-based shrewd carport entryway wipes out the requirement for conveying massive keychains. All you want is to design and coordinate your cell phone with the home IoT organization, and you can easily open or close your carport entryway with only a couple of snaps of a button.
This brilliant carport entryway framework integrates laser and voice orders and shrewd warnings for the purpose of observing, and furthermore IFTT

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What are some good ECE projects 2021-2022 Year Batch

Main topics for project :

Embedded systems

IOT

Robotics projects

Mechatronics projects

Best projects are :-

1.Smart Irrigation System using IoT

2.Weather Monitoring System using IoT

3.Automated Railway Crossing Project

4.Animatronics Hand Project

5.GPS & GSM based Tracker Device

6.Robotic Arm Project

7.Persistence of Vision Project

9.Biometric based Authentication System

Hence these are the topics which the projects are trending:-

1. Aid for blinds
2. Detect the soil moisture and provide required amount of irrigation only.
3. Build a robot which can replace farmers
4. Build a drone for spraying of pesticides
5. Build an automatic cleaning robot
6. Build an robotic chef
7. Build an shadow following wheelchair

These what I can suggest think by your self you might come up a better idea.

This is where we are lagging behind than the rest of the world or to be more precise this why we engineers don't have value than the engineer passing out from the IIT's or NIIT's because we want to be spoon Feld all the time. Hence no value for an engineer who is not studied in an IIT or NIIT.

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Alcohol Detector and Recorder for Auto Accidents

 Alcohol Detector and Recorder for Auto Accidents

Approximately 1.3 million people have their lives end every year as a result of a traffic accident. An additional 20 to 50 million people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many of them leading to disabilities as a result of their physical condition.

Download Project Document/Synopsis

High economic damages are caused by road accidents for victims, their families, and nations at large. These disasters result from the cost of medical care, lost productivity for those who die or become disabled as a result of their injuries, and time away from work or school for family members who need to obtain some much-needed rest in order to properly care for the injured. Most countries incur a 3% GDP loss as a result of traffic accidents.

As a result, we have created a system that may send an SMS to the owner of the vehicle and their loved ones whenever any signals that an accident may occur are found. Additionally, the system records all readings that preceded and occurred during the accident so that investigators may determine the precise causes of accident and prevent similar occurrences in the future.

The advantages that this system offers are as follows:

• Immediate data collection from sensors

• Instant SMS alert for Drunk Driving Detection

• Instant SMS Alert for Fire or Accident Detection

• Accident Data Storage for Investigation

The system uses a temperature sensor to detect a fire in the car, a vibration sensor to detect impacts or strong vibrations, an alcohol sensor to determine whether the driver was intoxicated, a gyroscope sensor to record data if the vehicle tilted or turned over during the accident, and a GPS and GSM modem to send an SMS with GPS coordinates about the incident. An Arduino Mega is now used to power the entire system in order to run it.

Additionally, the device features 2 motors that are utilised to simulate an automobile engine. Trimpot allows us to increase the speed of the motors. As we exceed the predetermined speed limit, the system detects overspeeding and sends an SMS message to the registered phone with an overspeeding alert and GPS data.

All sensor data is monitored by the system to look for any anomalies. When a fire is detected, the controller activates the connected GSM modem to send an SMS alerting the registered contact number of the event and begins data collection.

Similar to this, if the vibration sensor picks up strong vibrations, the controller sends an SMS to the registered phone telling the user about the incident. When the alcohol sensor is activated, the controller sends an SMS notice with alcohol information and a link to a map with GPS coordinates for simple car location monitoring.

The black box begins collecting all sensor data on a second-by-second basis in an SD card in the event that any sensor detects aberrant activity. This allows the investigative team to retrieve the data and determine exactly what happened during the accident.

Components

• Arduinu Mega

• Temperature Sensor

• Rain Sensor

• Vibration Sensor

• Gyroscope Sensor

• LCD Display

• GPS Module

• GSM Modem

• DC motors

• Trimpot

• SD Card Module and SD Card

• Regulatory Circuitry

• Switches

• LED’s

• PCB Board

• Resistors

• Capacitors

• Transistors

• Cables and Connectors

 

Block Diagram

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Foreseeing Battery Degradation with a Trinket M0 and Python Software Algorithms

 

Learn how to build a setup that will help you predict a battery's performance as it ages using a Trinket M0 and software algorithms.

In battery-powered devices, it is important to give the user insight into the condition of the battery. We've all seen examples of this in devices like phones, laptops, and even flashlights. They provide predictions of capacity and/otime remaining before the battery must be recharged. 

Another piece of information about the battery condition that can be very helpful is age; a prediction of how much longer the battery can be used before it must be replaced. It is possible to quickly incorporate battery-age into a hardware design with purpose-built chips such as the Maxim MAX17055. AAC Director of Engineering Robert Keim provides an overview of this approach in his 2017 overview of this Maxim power management IC designed for portable devices.

This article explores some straightforward software algorithms we can use to make a similar prediction. If your system design already includes a microprocessor with some spare ADC ports, this approach can avoid the cost of an additional part. We will look at the algorithms in general, then look at some real results with lithium batteries.

 

What Is Battery Capacity?

A useful battery has predictable behavior; it can supply a constant amount of power, for a predictable amount of time, within a narrow voltage range. The ‘capacity’ or ‘C rating’ for batteries is probably the most useful parameter to express this.

Capacity describes how much total energy can be delivered by the fully charged battery, in a nominal usage pattern. For small batteries such as those found in portable electronics, it is usually expressed in units of milliamp-hours (mAh). Much of this article will analyze a lithium battery with a C rating of 1300mAh. 

Notice, though, that milliamp-hours are not units of energy. Energy is the product of voltage, current, and time; milliamp-hours represent only current and time. It is inferred that the measurement is relative to a constant voltage; the nominal voltage of the battery. A nominal usage pattern will allow the battery to deliver its full C rating.

A very important part of this pattern is the discharge rate (in amps). Different battery chemistries have different limits on this. A simple and reasonable assumption to begin with is that you will get the rated amount of energy from a lithium battery if you discharge it at about 1⁄2 of the C rating, or less. So, for example, with our lithium battery rated at 1300mAh, we can only expect to draw this much energy from the battery if we keep the current flow below 650 milliamps on average. If this guideline is followed, it will take two hours or more to fully discharge the battery.

As another example of discharge-rate limits, consider NiMH AA cells. Many manufacturers specify that the nominal discharge rate for NiMH cells is 1/5 of the C rating. 

There are high-performance batteries that can exceed these typical limits; check the manufacturer’s specifications whenever possible. 

 

Estimating Battery Age and Capacity

It is common to describe battery age in terms of present capacity versus original (new) capacity, and that is what we will do here. We will continuously monitor the voltage and current at the high side of our battery while it is in use and discharging. This is the raw data on which we will apply our software algorithm.

First, we will estimate the present capacity of the battery. We can do this within the timeframe of one reasonably long discharge event. It doesn’t need to be a complete discharge event (more on this later).

Finally, the present capacity estimate can simply be compared to the manufacturer’s specified ‘new’ capacity, giving the user a percentage-degradation. 

 

Designing a Test Harness

Below is the schematic for the circuit we'll be working with:

 

 

BT1 is our lithium battery pack. We are going to use a small Atmel microprocessor, the ATSAMD21, as our monitoring and analysis system. It has the analog-to-digital ports we need, and is nicely packaged by Adafruit with CircuitPython ready to run, in the Trinket M0 development board. With one of the board’s ADC ports connected directly to the battery high-side, we will have the battery voltage monitoring we need. 

Our device load is represented by a precision power resistor (R1). This means that our instantaneous battery current can be calculated from our battery voltage; we don’t need to sense it separately. If you decide to assemble this circuit, pay close attention to the power dissipation in this part. In the most power-intensive example we give, the dissipation in this part will be 3 watts. So we use a part that is rated for a maximum of 5 watts. It still gets very hot. 

In a real product design, monitoring the load current is more complex. It could be accomplished with a Hall-effect sensor, or a precision shunt resistor in series with the battery. Both of these approaches would provide a voltage signal representing the current flowing out of the battery. That signal would be sensed by one of the other ADC ports on the microcontroller. 

The remaining aspects of the circuit are: 

1. A bypass capacitor (C1) for power stability
2. A buzzer (BZ1) that will alert us when the battery discharge cycle is complete
3. A resistor divider (R2/R3) to accommodate the limited ADC input range of the microprocessor

Here is what the system looks like on the lab workbench:

 

 

The load resistance in this case is 20 ohms; realized by two 10 ohm resistors in series. These resistors are rated for 1 watt of power dissipation. 

You can also see that the microprocessor breakout board has a USB connection. This connection has two important functions. We use it: 

1. To transfer scripts to the processor for execution
2. To access a serial port, where the processor will send output.

A full description of these mechanisms is available at Adafruit.

Here are a couple quick examples in a Linux shell to demonstrate the interactions:

cp monitor.py /media/aaron/CIRCUITPY/main.py

This shell command copies a script to the Trinket processor for execution. The processor shows up in the Linux system as a removable file system named CIRCUITPY. The script must be transferred to the top-level directory, and renamed main.py in order to execute.

./log |tee voltage_over_time.dat

This command initiates a script named log to run on the Linux system. It will connect to the serial port provided by the Trinket. Output generated by scripts running on the Trinket will be printed to the Linux console. By adding a pipe and the tee command, we duplicate the output and save it to a file. You can see the log script here.

 

Characterizing the Battery 

The first thing we will do is look at the discharge pattern of the battery over the operational range. We fully discharge the battery with four different loads. We monitor the battery voltage at 5- or 10-second intervals, with this script running on the Trinket.

Here is what we see:

 

 

Calculating Present Capacity 

The capacity of the battery is closely related to the area under the voltage lines above, from time=0, to the time when the battery voltage drops below a useful, or ‘cutoff’ level. If you want to compare your capacity estimates to the rated capacity provided by the manufacturer, you need to use the same cutoff. For a lithium battery pack with a nominal voltage of 3.7, a typical specified cutoff would be 3 volts. 

Our approach for determining present capacity could be to simply wait for a full discharge cycle to occur, and integrate all the current measurements in this range. But that would not be very helpful; the typical usage pattern might never include a full discharge. 

Instead, we will monitor the current and voltage from the beginning of a discharge cycle (t=0), until some arbitrary time Tj. We can calculate the used capacity up to that time from the measured data. 

We can observe in our characterization data that while the power being delivered by the battery is constant, the battery voltage is dropping at a constant rate. So the ratio of used capacity to total capacity can be approximated as equal to the ratio of the voltage changes over the same intervals:

 

Cmeasured / Cpredicted = (V0 - Vj) / (V0 - Vcutoff)

 

This can be solved for Cpredicted, the only unknown.

Graphically, the strategy looks a bit like this:

 

 

Comparing this to the measured data, we can see that for discharge cycles with low current, the real data and the model diverge. In the real data, rate of change in voltage becomes nonlinear near the end of the cycle. Our single-line model would result in overestimating the capacity. We can reduce this error by choosing a different cutoff voltage, as a function of the average 

current during our measurement interval. We’ll pick four points from our measured data and fit them to a line, as a function of current:

 

Nominal current (mA)	Adjusted cutoff for linear approximation (V)
740	3
370	3.1
247	3.3
185	3.2

 

And here is a least-squares linear approximation for these points: Vcutoff = -0.449 * Inominal + 3.23 

Here is the Python script used to find these line parameters, and the associated graph:

 

 

With these additional parameters in hand, we are finally ready to code a process that will estimate present capacity, from a partial discharge. The demonstration process script is here. Using it to monitor the same battery we tested above, this is what it reports after discharging the battery for one hour:

minutes 61.00, voltage = 3.849 
end monitoring; new charging cycle begun. 
capacity estimate after 61.00 minutes: 
average current = 263.11 mA 
capacity used = 267.50 mAh 
voltage monitor start = 4.06 volts 
voltage monitor end = 3.85 
volts adjusted voltage cutoff = 3.20 volts 
predicted total capacity = 1076.08 mAh

This prediction compares well with the data we gathered when we characterized the battery: If we integrate the current measurements for the full discharge with the 15 ohm load, we get a purely measured capacity of 1073 mAh. 

So finally we can estimate the battery age! Compared to the rated capacity of 1300mAh, we would conclude that this battery is at about 82% of its original capacity.

 

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Electronics Mini Projects For ECE & EEE 2021 to 2021

1. Video Calling/Recording Smartphone Stand
2. LIDAR Micro Done With Proximity Sensing
3. Android Micro Drone With Obstacle Detector
4. Wellbeing Monitoring System utilizing 7-Segment Display and Atmega Microcontroller
5. Enlistment Motor Timer Using Auto Delta Star Starter
6. Ac to High Voltage DC Using Voltage Multiplier Circuit
7. Programmed Road Reflector Light
8. Controller Plant Watering System Using 8051
9. Auto Water Pump Switcher
10. Peizo Based Visitor Sensing Welcome Mat
11. Power Efficient Mini Inverter Project
12. Fire Detection and Alarm Mini Project
13. Robotized Smoking Zone Monitoring and Alerting Project
14. Savvy Portable Cell Phone Jammer Project
15. Sun based Battery Charging With Reverse Current Protection
16. Robotized Night Lighting System
17. Remote AC Power Detector Project
18. Cut off Project
19. Week after week Task Alerting System
20. Small scale Audio Amplifier Project
21. Driver Anti Sleep Device
22. 12 Volt Battery Charging System
23. Applaud Based Fan Switching System
24. Remote Doorbell Calling System
25. Simultaneously Blinking Emergency Light
26. Sound Operated Timer Project
27. Savvy Burglar Alarm
28. Plant Moisture Monitoring System
29. Remote Cell Phone Detection System
30. Remote FM Transmitter Mic
31. Electronic Watch Dog Project
32. Scaled down FM Transmission System
33. Auto Electronic School Bell
34. Progressed Wireless Power Transfer System
35. Overvoltage And Undervoltage Protection System
36. Power Supply With Auto Switching
37. Remote Mobile Charging Project
38. Movement Based Auto Door Opener
39. Zero Contact TachoMeter (SpeedOMeter)
40. Robotized Visitor Counter With 7 Segment Display
41. Quick Voting Game Project
42. Electronic Water Level Controller Device
43. E Bicycle Locking System
44. Programmed Smoke Detector Alarm
45. Ultrasonic Distance Measurement Project
46. MC Based Line Follower Robot
47. Proficient Power Manager Project
48. Streetlamp Automatic Intensity Controller
49. Microcontroller Based 4 Quadrant DC Motor Speed Control
50. Vehicle Speed Checker With LCD Display
51. AC Power Strength Controller System
52. Load Shedding Time Management With Programmable Interface
53. Object Counting Using 7 Segment Display
54. Sunlight powered charger With Sun Position Tracking
55. Ultrasonic Object Detection System
56. DTMF Cell Phone Based Door Opener
57. BLDC Motor Speed Control Using Fuzzy Logic
58. Human Speed Detection Project
59. RPM Display For BLDC Motor With Speed Controller
60. Charging Industrial Battries Using Thyristor Angle Control
61. Far off Vehicle Control Through Cell Phone Using DTMF
62. Television Remote Controlled Robotic Vehicle Project
63. Auto Lap Time Measurement System
64. IR Based Traffic Density Detection And Signal Adjustment Project
65. Geo Location Guide Using RF
66. Load Control System Using DTMF
67. Showing Moving Message On Notice Board Using PC
68. IR Based Obstacle Detection Project
69. Testing Life Cycle Of Electrical Loads Using Down Counter
70. Configurable Password Security System
71. Downpour Sensing Automatic Car Wiper
72. Home And Industrial Safety Using Fire And Gas Detection System

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