ION Energy’s latest Battery Management Platform: 6 things you should know

ION Energy, a battery technology company that specializes in battery management and intelligence recently launched their latest Battery Management Platform “FS-XT” targeted at Electric Vehicles and Grid-Scale Storage Systems.

Here we bring 6 things that you should know about the latest Battery Management Platform

Before we start let us introduce you to BMS! A Battery Management System (BMS) is the “brain” of the battery pack. It measures crucial information about the operation of the individual cells, evaluates key parameters and manages the battery from operating outside its boundaries.

High voltage applications like EVs, ESS, Military Drones etc demand BMS that can deliver high performance and extreme precision. In order to efficiently manage these high voltage batteries, the FS-XT has a modular design based on a Master-Slave Configuration. This allows it to be relevant for any application between 100-1000V.

The Master BMS contains 4 channels, each of which can be connected to 10 Slave BMS in a daisy chain formation.

FS-XT can be scaled up to manage upto 720 cells in series.

This versatility allows it to be used across a wide variety of next generation of electric vehicles – Cars, buses, trucks and even industrial moving equipment.

ION Energy is currently working with leading Battery Pack Makers and OEMs from Germany, France, India, Poland, Africa, USA and More. The FS-XT is already pre-ordered for use in commercial applications by India’s largest automobile manufacturer and Germany’s largest construction equipment maker. Both of whom will be using the platform for high voltage applications.

By 2020, ION plans on having upwards of 1GWh of batteries under management, with 60% of this being managed by the FS-XT platform.

Speaking at the launch Akhil Aryan, CEO & Co-Founder, ION Energy said “Battery power is finding all sorts of applications from forklifts and cars to grid-scale energy storage systems. To be ahead of the curve of this acceleration in adoption of Li-Ion batteries, we’ve launched the FS-XT, our battery management system for high power applications.”

Features

  • Stackable architecture based on Master (SMU) slave configuration (BMU)
  • A distributed architecture provides higher resistance to EMI and increased accuracy
  • Bluetooth 4.1 BLE monitoring capabilities with Android application FreeView TM
  • State of Charge (SOC) and State of Health (SOH) estimations based on advanced algorithms
  • Stores up to 20 years of data history on an 8GB micro SD card
  • Sleep mode current of SMU <1mA and for BMU <10uA
  • Redundant overvoltage protection (optional)
  • Customized features can be added on each BMU (additional temperature measurements, a current sensor, balancing current up to 1A, heater)

Product Specification

  • Supports multiple battery chemistries and supercapacitors
  • Supports 6 to 180 Cells in series and can handle 4 such parallel series, taking the total cell count to 720 cells
  • Total pack voltages from 13V to 900V.
  • 4 pack voltage sensing channels for smart pre-charge and contactor weld check detection
  • Full automotive operating temperature range (-40°C to 85°C).
  • Individual cell voltage rating 1V to 5V
  • Cell Voltage resolution of up to 1.5mV
  • Balancing current of up to 420mA ( can be increased with extension board )
  • 3 temperature measurement units per BMU ( can be increased with extension board )
  • Supports 2 external hall effect current sensor
  • 8 channels for driving contactors and auxiliary controls ( cooling fan, pump, heater etc )
  • 8 channels for driving contactors and auxiliary controls ( cooling fan, pump, heater etc )
  • 3 additional analog input
  • 4 isolated digital input
  • 2 digital isolated CAN bus
  • Supports insulation monitoring devices ( Bender isometer IR155-3204 and iso165C-1 )
  • Supports PWM based Interlock loop