Our patent-pending, low-cost, easy-to-install and intuitively evaluable battery monitoring concept convinced many customers from the very first minute - not least because it is the first functional "black box" for the operation of batteries over their entire service life and at the same time a perfect tool for the battery service technician!
The "black box" (recording function for up to 10 years) is particularly interesting for manufacturers of stationary batteries, and is therefore also used as an integrated version in the SMARTBATTERY.
The SMARTLOGGER is also designed for temporary use on site and offers the advantage to collect and evaluate measurement data with little effort. The integrated version of the SMARTBATTERY additionally offers the possibility to retrofit a full-fledged BACS via the iBACS interface by slot insertion.
Users of the external SMARTLOGGER can collect and examine the battery data "offline" and contactless without interfering with the battery operation, e.g. to check the usage behaviour or to identify causes of battery problems. Warranty services or recourse claims would no longer be questionable, but can be clarified transparently with the customer.
These new functions are especially aimed at battery service technicians and those who use the SMARTLOGGER for quick, temporary service on site.
The firmware of the SMARTLOGGER in conjunction with the new APP has been expanded to include the option of defining individual threshold values for a battery.
Usage Example:
An enormous amount of effort is often put into testing or otherwise measuring the capacity of the batteries. Sometimes even a load generator has to be connected to simulate the “standard” load which in the process actually consumes the current instead of the actual load; we’ve also seen the use of a transfer switch which switches the load via a 2nd UPS for the duration of the test. Service technicians must also record the measured values of the individual batteries as quickly as possible on-site during the discharge test for later evaluation - precisely this requirement is personnel-intensive, and it can be difficult to justify from a costs perspective.
A UPS system can easily have 200 or more batteries - the reliable collection of all data within the necessarily short time window is often not only an error-prone and difficult to perform process, but also a costly one due to the high demand for trained personnel - and in the end there are often only vague answers to important core questions such as:
The effort traditionally required for a capacity test is enormous - and usually delivers questionable results due to the lack of a possibility to measure IN REAL TIME.
A capacity test can be carried out faster, easier and, above all, more reliably with the SMARTLOGGER 2, as it can simply be clamped to the poles of the batteries with its crocodile clips during control operation. Before a capacity test, the service technician determines for each battery which voltage or temperature should be considered “OK” for this discharge.
To do this, the limit values are set in the SMARTLOGGER APP 2.0 and the NFC (Near Field Communication) chip of the mobile phone is "placed" once over each battery to transfer the limit values. This process only takes 1-2 seconds and then the capacity test can begin.
If these threshold values are exceeded during the test, the APP will visually indicate the exceedance for the respective battery: YELLOW for a warning that the threshold has been exceeded slightly or only briefly. RED is displayed if the set threshold value has been exceeded massively or for a longer period of time.
The SMARTLOGGER APP shows each limit value exceeded in colour directly after the end of the test and offers the download of the log file for analysis in order to graphically display the duration of the exceedance. The SMARTLOGGER provides the measured values for voltage and temperatures for each battery at the same time, so that the discharge measured values of all batteries can be recorded and compared at the same time, representative of every second. No battery technician can compete by measuring these values in the usual, "manual" way...
Capacity measurement was already introduced in the first version of SMARTLOGGER, but it has for some reason been often overlooked.
Because of the precise timestamp data associated with the given voltage measurement values, a capacity measurement can be very accurately undertaken if the load is known. This makes it possible to calculate the individual "performance" - i.e. the ampere hours delivered during a discharge - of a given battery. By comparing the nominal ampere hours of the battery and the ampere hours actually delivered, conclusions can be drawn about the state of health (SOH) of the battery - and it can be checked whether the battery has lost capacity (SOC) over time due to normal ageing - compared to the other batteries.
In addition, the capacity measurement can lead to a significantly more precise bridging time for the user (UPS) if the manufacturer uses the data of the individual SMARTBATTERY via iBACS for the calculation.
A new feature of the SMARTLOGGER 2.0 and the SMARTLOGGER APP 2.0 is the user defined recording speed.
Many technicians report having been pleased with the intuitively understandable diagrams fetaured in the iBACS/SMARTBATTERY APP, and that they can easily export the measurement data via the "SHARE" button. Until now, only a data sheet with raw data was transmitted with "SHARE"; this raw data had to be compiled by the recipient.
New with the SMARTLOGGER APP 2.0 is that a software tool is delivered which automatically translates these data and prepares them directly with EXCEL as understandable and useful diagrams, which look like the following pictures:
Clearly visible on the graphs: The measured voltage values and temperatures of a SMARTLOGGER, as compared with the permissible warning thresholds (in orange) and alarm thresholds (in red).
The new iBACS/SMARTBATTERY APP 2.0 can be used for both first and second generation SMARTLOGGERs. You can find it in the GOOGLE PLAY STORE from May 2022!
You already own a SMARTLOGGER module of the first generation and would like to be able to use the new functions? Then use our UPDATE service!
Send us your 1st generation SMARTLOGGER for an upgrade; we will do a technical check, install the new firmware and reset the unit to factory default - "as new" - with the new features of SMARTLOGGER 2.0.
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