BQ40Z50: Checking if EVM is not damaged

Are you able to see a voltage on the pins? You need to make sure that initially at least there is a charger voltage present to keep the evm turned on. If not, please press the wake button on the evm and then open up bqstudio. It will open up the registers window if it recognizes the device.

Hi Batt,

I doubled checked this morning made sure to power up the EVM and press the wake button before starting the battery management software, but the software still does not recognize the EVM.

Also concerning is that my power supply (which shows live drawn current consumption) reads 0.000 A for the active current drawn even after I press the wake button. (My setup is that I power the EVM from a power supply (set to 16.8 V, 3.0 A current limit) - the + of the power supply is connected to the PACK+ of the J3 terminal block, and the - of the power supply is connected to the PACK- of the J3 terminal block.)

So a few follow-up questions:
- Can you be more specific about which voltages I need to check?
- Do I always need a battery pack connected or can I access the registers of the Bq40Z50 even without a battery pack connected (power to the EVM provided by the power supply)?
- What is the default state of the LEDs on the EVM? If the battery is fully charged, should all of the LEDs alight by default?

Thank you,

Michael

Make sure you battery voltage is at least 9V for a 3s config. Also ensure you have a voltage at the charger pin above 9V. If you're powering via the PSU, make sure that your stack is connected across the 1N to 4p pins. For a 3s config you short 3p and 4p. Then short SYS PRES to GND.
You need power at the battery pin, otherwise the gauge will shutdown.
The LEDs are off by default.

Hi Batt,

My apologizes for not clarifying. I am using a 4-cell battery, so setting the system voltage to 16.8 is appropriate. I have shorted SYS_PRES to GND, but there is still no response from the chip.

Please see the images below for further clarification:

Image 1: Current Setup of the EVM

Image 2: Defect in the EVM? Q3 is a little off center...

Thank you,

Michael

If you're still not getting the evm to communicate when powered up both on BAT and PACK side, please open bqstudio. Open the advanced smbus comm panel and then read from word 0x0d. If it NACKS you have a bad board, if not, please flash the srec file located in the bq40z50-r1 or r2 page using the firmware tab and then click on the execute button. That should wake up your evm.

Hi Batt,

How do I open the "advanced smbus comm panel"? The welcome screen I see when I open the BQStudio doesn't show me that option. Below is the screen shot of the welcome screen.

I am under the impression I have the correct SW installed for the BatteryManagementStudio (version 1.3.54.1) - package sluc525u.zip... perhaps not?

Thank you,

Michael

Click on gauge, click next, select the bq40z50. Then you will see the register panel for the gauge open. One of the buttons in the menu is the advanced comm smbus button.

Hi Batt,

Following your instructions, I selected "Gauge" and then "bq40z50" and then clicked "Finish"

The proceed error appeared (same as in my previous post and shown below):

But I clicked "OK" anyway.

I then got to the main panel, and selected the "advanced comm smb" tab. The result from reading "0x0d" is "error" and can be seen in the screenshot below.

Does this confirm that the EVM is not working? If so how do I proceed?

Thank you,

Michael

Whom do I contact to get a replacement?