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BQ78PL116: Battery pack leaking detection

Part Number: BQ78PL116
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: BQWIZARD

Hi there,

I am running the production of battery pack using BQ78PL116, there are several complain on battery leaking.

The known bad cell will have voltage drop after 1 week, wondering Is there any way to check for battery leaking by any tester?

  • Hi Ted,
    Thank you for your interest in our products. A BMS expert has been assigned to your question.

    Regards,
    David
  • Hi Ted,
    I'm not clear if you have self discharge of the cells or leakage on the PCB or damage to the circuitry.
    At board test you could measure current into the circuit board. In this way you would have known good boards going to pack assembly. Follow the recommendation on connection sequence to avoid any damage or power up issues with the bq78PL116 system. If you have leakage on the PCB it may take some analysis to find the current paths and implement something to avoid the issue, extra cleaning or voltage limits on test or other.
    If it is self discharge of the cells testing and re-testing after time is the only thing that comes to mind. You might check with your cell supplier for other ideas. You could check the pack assemblies after time and that would check both the cells and circuit, but that would take more investment in assembly.
  • Thanks foe your replied, i did sent out the bad IC for failure analysis, the vendor advice the same as you mention, follow the sequence to power up the board. My problem now is, how can i stop the leak cell from my production? Any parameter i can check? I notice the cell balancing is good indicator but is there any command to query that instead of using bqwizard?
  • Hi Ted,
    It is a difficult issue. The circuit for the bq78PL116 does not have input resistors which could be measured for current detection. The part does not measure its input currents. Whether the loss is on the board or in the cells, the bq78PL116 does not have a trend monitor. As you indicate the balancing may be a good indication of an issue. Watching cell status registers and voltages over time would allow monitoring through the comm path.
    Any SMB host should be able to read the gauge registers, bqWizard should not be needed.