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TECH NOTE 065

Product : Z.ONEUltra

Category: Hardware

Assembly: SmartCart
Title : Z-Pak Battery Charging Diagnostic Information
Date: 12/21/11
Type: Safety Repair Performance General Information

1 PURPOSE:
To assemble information provided by the Zonare HW Engineering group, consisting of detailed technical
data on the Z-PAK charging processes and a associated charging status variables for monitoring in the
diagnosis of battery charging issues on customer systems in the field.
2 SCOPE:
Technical highlights on Z-PAK charging processes and troubleshooting
3 EQUIPMENT/TOOLS REQUIED:
4.7 Software (minimum for detailed diagnostic info)
4 CONTENT:
- FACTORS/CONSIDERATIONS ON Z-PAK CHARGING :

(1) Temperature: (causes/factors)

a. The battery gets hots, either through a charge cycle or if nearly completely drained (< 10-20% charge)
b. System is left plugged in and imaging on AC, the battery remains warm (> 35 to 40C) for a long time
c. Rapid cool off of Z-PAK (i.e., 40 C down to 30 C in 15 mins) by running system on Z-PAK battery power (AC
disconnected), due to transferred heat from AC power supply keeping the battery warm
d. Possibly some charge termination algorithm issue, but I have no data for this

(2) Current Limit: (causes/factors)

a. Toggling the circuit breaker off can cause the PIC to detect the drop in charge current before the charger detects
the official loss of AC power. The PIC aborts rapid charge and sets this flag.
NOTE: CART_PIC firmware version “11”, addresses the above behavior by resetting flag on AC connect

065-Tech Note (Z-PAK Battery Charging Diagnostic Info).doc 1 of 2 ZONARE

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- CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS TO NON RAPID-CHARGING :

- Lack of AC power

- Fuel gauge reports pack is full (> 94%)

o Fuel gauge needs “Reconditioning”

- Pack temperature is out of range (< 5 C or > 35C)

o Unsafe to charge. If temp between 0 to 5C, or 35C to 40C, PS will enter soft start charging but not rapid
charge
o If the pack ever goes above 40C in soft start or 45C in rapid, it bails out and goes to cool down state

- Pack voltage above maximum (18.9V) for starting to charge (enters top off charge, should already be charged)
o Fuel gauge could be mis-calibrated saying there is 12% but the pack is really charged
o After the top off completes (2 hours), the gauge should get reset to 100% (but capacity could be off w/out
recondition) as long as it doesn’t abort due to going over 45 C

- Pack voltage is below the minimum (13.0V)

- Charger in current limited state (thinks the system is pulling close to 250W when charging, so throttles back)
o This also gets set unexpectedly when toggling the circuit breaker. In PIC 10, only reset when power
button is pressed. In PIC 11, this gets reset whenever AC state changes

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- TRIGGER EVENTS TO ARBORTED RAPID-CHARGING :

- Pack temperature goes > 45C

- AC power removal
- Current Limit detected (falls back to either soft start or top off)

065-Tech Note (Z-PAK Battery Charging Diagnostic Info).doc 2 of 2 ZONARE