BQ40Z60: After completing a learning cycle, what are the exact steps to save a golden file that can be applied to other BQ40Z60 chips?

Hello Aaron,

Let me check this for you.

By the way, what phase of the design are you in? Is it too late to switch over to the bq40z50?

Hi Kang,

We are going to production with this part, but unfortunately it has been the main problem on our PCB and we have not been able to get much expert help from TI. Batt has responded as well as he can to some other of my unresolved posts, but we seem to get no response from the experts on this part. I am understanding that TI is not able to provide much support for battery management chips, so if we were to change parts we would likely look at other vendors so that we can get support for any issues that come up.

I appreciate your response and hope that you can help us in creating a golden file.

Thanks,

      Aaron

Hi, Aaron

    For how to modify the data flash after learning cycle, it has already be described in slua903, you can access via the link of "http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slua903/slua903.pdf"

    After this is done, you can extract the golden srec file, then use the tool bqProduction to download the data flash image to the target device, this tool is downloadable from the TI website.

    For how to use this tool, please refer to the file attached below:7433.0550.Taking your fuel gauge from design to production.pdf

Steven,

As I already stated above in my request...

The instructions I have found refer to a tab on bqStudio that does not exist. There is no "golden image tab" in bqStudio as is indicated in SLUA903-July 2018, page 7. The only way to save an image file appears to be the firmware tab and this saves an SREC file that does not carry the data memory parameters, as I have discovered by trial and error.

 

Please ask an battery management expert at TI and let me know specifically how to extract the golden file SREC for the BQ40Z60.

Thanks in advance,

      Aaron

Hello Aaron,

I have seen your issue. I've submitted an internal ticket. I will take this offline. Will update you via DM.

I am seeing from another post that the GG.CSV file may be sufficient to program certain BQ parts, so perhaps the SREC "golden file"is not needed in my case???

Is this appropriate for production on the BQ40Z60 ?

Thanks,

       Aaron

Kang,

      Please DM me as soon as possible about the plugin.

Thanks,

Aaron

Kang,
I have acknowledged your "friend request" on DM and have emailed you through that interface, but I have not seen a response from you. Please check DM. This is an urgent production issue.

Thanks,
Aaron

Hi, Aaron

   Sorry for not address your statement explicitly.

   My understanding is that you need a golden file for production, like conventional dataflash image(DFI) or something similar, one thing i shall point out is that the SREC file actually contain every thing including both FW and Dataflash information. when you select this file in bqProduction software, you have an option to determine whether to download the entire FW or the DFI it includes.

   Hope above information can help.

   Sorry for any disturbance it may incur if you think I have not understand your question.

Steven,

Thanks, I appreciate your response.  So it looks like bqStudio using the Firmware tab produces the srec file with everything we need (firmware + data flash parameters) but bqStudio cannot be used for programming the entire srec file back into the BQ40Z60.

So bqProduction is required for this. Do you know if we can use bqProduction with the EV2300 to program the BQ40Z60 over the SMBus connector?  Or do we need also to purchase the bqMTester hardware?  I am hoping that we only need the EV2300 for programming the part.

Thanks,

      Aaron

Hi, Aaron

    The bqMtester hardware facilitates VIT calibration, it is needed if you have no solution for VIT calibration for production

Regards

Steven