EE344 Electronic Design Lab Project Report, EE Dept, IIT Bombay, March 2021

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Project Title: State of Charge (SoC) measurement of all the batteries in a string of
lead-acid batteries

Group 15
Prashant Shettigar – 18D070063
Jay Sawant – 18D070050
Chinmay Bharti – 18D070043

Faculty Mentor: Prof Kushal Tuckley

Abstract:
Battery stacks based on Lead-acid cells are used in many applications such as electric motors,
emergency power on nuclear submarines, electric forklifts, and backup power sources for
computer appliances. In these applications, it is important to measure the state of charge
(SOC) of the cells, which reflects the battery performance. So, accurate estimation of SoC
will help us in protecting the battery by preventing overcharge or discharge conditions and
thus improve battery life.
In this project, we aim to design a complete circuit to accurately measure the voltages and
currents of each of the 12V lead-acid batteries and continuously provide these measurements
to the Pt-51 microcontroller via an interfacing circuit consisting of ADCs. The
microcontroller uses the ‘Coulomb counting’ method to precisely estimate the SoC of the
battery (assuming that the SoH of the battery is known) for discharging cycles. If time
permits, we aim to enhance the functionality of the project by including charging cycles and
the effect of temperature in the calculation.

1. Block diagram

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EE344 Electronic Design Lab Project Report, EE Dept, IIT Bombay, March 2021

2. Project details

2.1 Project goal

The goal of this project is to calculate the SoC of all the batteries in a string of lead-acid
batteries. We plan to achieve this by using the ‘Coulomb counting’ method, in order to
precisely estimate the SoC of the battery (assuming that the SoH of the battery is known)
for discharging cycles. Also, it is assumed that the batteries are used in an application
where the maximum current is 6A - 8A. The battery we are using is LC-RA1212P by
Panasonic.

2.2 Project description and methodology (or approach)

Subsystems

A. Hardware
1. Voltage and current sensing unit
We are going to implement an ‘Op-Amp-based circuit’ in order to measure the voltages of
four batteries along with a precise estimation of the current passing through each one of
them. Appropriate gains will be selected for voltage and current to ensure the inputs are in
accordance with ADC ratings.

2. Sampling and quantization of voltage and current

We’ll be using ‘10-bit ADCs’ in order to sample and quantize the voltage as well as the
current received from the above unit. These received values will be redirected to the
microcontroller using the SPI serial interface to estimate the SoC.

B. Software

1. Microcontroller code interface

We will be using SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) in the ‘Pt-51 microcontroller’ in order
to receive the data from each of the voltage as well as current sensing units. The serial
data (bits) received from the sensing units will be remodelled to an analog value in the
microcontroller so that these values can be used for further processing.

2. Main SoC Calculating block

This particular block will receive the analog values of the current and voltage from the
Serial Peripheral Interface and use the ‘Coulomb Counting’ method for the calculation of
SoC.

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EE344 Electronic Design Lab Project Report, EE Dept, IIT Bombay, March 2021

2.3 Project design

2.3.1 Subsystem designs

A. Hardware

1. Voltage and current sensing unit

The voltage will be measured using ‘Op-Amp’ as a ‘differential amplifier’ with inputs
connected across a single battery. Suitable voltage gain will be selected for this network
to ensure that the output voltage is in the proper range to be safely passed as input to the
ADCs. Four such circuits will be implemented in order to measure the voltages of four
12V batteries.
A shunt-based current measurement system will be implemented to measure the current
through each battery. A low-valued shunt resistor will be selected to guarantee low power
consumption. The voltage across this shunt resistor would form input to an Op-Amp,
again used as a differential amplifier (we can also try to use an instrumentation amplifier
based on further analysis). Appropriate amplification of the voltage would be ensured so
that it can be properly given as an input to the ADCs
Besides an RC low pass filter would be added between the Op-Amp output and the ADCs
to reject the unnecessary noise if any.

2. Sampling and quantization of voltage and current

A 10-bit 8-channel ADC (MCP3008) with SPI serial interface and maximum sample
frequency 200ksps is used to encode analog values received from the voltage and current
measurement units into a 10-bit digital output. This is done because the microcontroller
can only take digital inputs. This block requires control bit input via a serial interface so
as to select which channel output is to be sent using SPI protocol. Other inputs like Serial
CLK, Chip Select (~CS) are also needed which can be provided by the microcontroller.

B. Software

1. Microcontroller code interface

Channel control input, Serial CLK, and some other signals have to be provided by the
microcontrollers. The received data has to be sent to the appropriate section of code to
calculate the SoC of the battery from which the data has occurred. Also, since we will be
using SPI communication, we have to select which data we have to receive at a particular
time. This is done by sending 3-bit data into the ‘Din’ pin of the ADC. The strategy or the
sequence that will be followed is: V1 - I - Send to SoC Algo - V2 - I - Send to SoC Algo
- V3 - I - Send to SoC Algo - V4 - I - Send to SoC Algo (Vi is the voltage of the ith
battery and I is the current).

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EE344 Electronic Design Lab Project Report, EE Dept, IIT Bombay, March 2021

2. Main SoC Calculating block

In the discharging mode, the coulomb counter is represented by 𝑄𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 which represents the
amount of charges losses in the operating period

𝑄𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡(𝑡 + 𝜏) = 𝑄𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡(𝑡) + Δ𝑄

The Depth of Discharge (DoD) is calculated using the above relation as:
𝑄𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡(𝑡+𝜏)
𝐷𝑜𝐷(𝑡 + 𝜏) = 𝐷𝑜𝐷(𝑡) + 𝑄𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑
* 100%

And finally, the State of Charge (SoC) is calculated as :

𝑆𝑜𝐶(𝑡) = 𝑆𝑜𝐻 − 𝐷𝑜𝐷(𝑡)

In the above calculations, we have made the following assumptions:

1. The State of Health (SoH) of each of the batteries is known
2. All the batteries are at a constant temperature
3. Power loss during the measurement of the current and voltage itself is negligible

2.3.2 Work plan

Till March 26:

- Build a preliminary circuit to measure the voltage and current.
- Get ready with a microcontroller-ADC interfacing code.

March 27 - April 2:
- First Iteration of circuit design - with analysis, calculations, etc.
- Get ready with the initial version of the SoC code for all four batteries and perform
validation using test data.

April 3 - April 9
- Final Circuit design - with analysis, calculations, and simulations
- 70% Progress in PCB design
- Finish testing of SoC algorithm(for discharge cycle)
- Start working on charging cycle SoC estimation code and include temperature
variation also (need to implement temperature sensing circuit as well)

April 10 - April 16
- Complete all technical parts
- Start working on report and presentation

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EE344 Electronic Design Lab Project Report, EE Dept, IIT Bombay, March 2021

2.4 Project Milestones

Milestone 1: March 22 (Mon)

Submission of Project proposal

Milestone 2: April 2 (Fri)

Complete the first iteration of circuit design and perform the
required analysis. Code the initial version of the SoC algorithm. Validate its accuracy on test
data.

Milestone 3: April 9 (Fri)

Final Circuit design with all calculations and analysis. Complete PCB design as well.
Complete the testing of the basic SoC algorithm (only for the discharge cycle) and start
working on the charging cycle and temperature effect code (Finish this by 10th or 11th April).