Author Topic: Mimicking a coin-cell battery  (Read 2105 times)

davegravy

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Mimicking a coin-cell battery
« on: May 18, 2016, 04:11:11 PM »
I'd like to test how my hardware&software will perform on a coin cell without burning through many of them throughout said testing.

Interested if there are any tricks to mimicking a coin cell battery from a lab supply. Putting a resistor in series is obviously a good first step, but doesn't behave quite like a battery in the sense that voltages recover from current pulses almost immediately. I assume one could add a capacitor to smooth the recovery, but the same capacitor might also prevent voltage from dropping as quickly as it would in reality.

I'm guessing this is a wheel that's been invented already, but my googling revealed nothing obvious. Anyone here done anything like this?

davegravy

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Re: Mimicking a coin-cell battery
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2016, 04:15:38 PM »
Found this

https://www.element14.com/community/groups/internet-of-things/blog/2015/01/05/building-a-battery-simulator-project-morpheus--part-3

...which is way more elaborate than what I was thinking. Was hoping for something limited to analog electronics that's a reasonable approximation!

TomWS

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Re: Mimicking a coin-cell battery
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2016, 05:38:10 PM »
Found this

https://www.element14.com/community/groups/internet-of-things/blog/2015/01/05/building-a-battery-simulator-project-morpheus--part-3

...which is way more elaborate than what I was thinking. Was hoping for something limited to analog electronics that's a reasonable approximation!
LOL!  I think it would be cheaper to use up a bunch of eBay purchased coin cells!

I actually do like the simulator and might prod Joe into building a couple.

Coin cells are actually quite complicated profile, probably much more that LiPo.  If you look at the early threads related to coin cell work, you'll find Joe referenced a number of very good papers on the subject.

Tom

joelucid

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Re: Mimicking a coin-cell battery
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2016, 05:45:58 PM »
Hey cool project! You might want to tread carefully though - the coin cell topic can easily take weeks out of your life :-). As I said back then to Tom, first order of business is NOT get drawn into extensive battery studies. It's a strangely attractive subject.

There's pretty good literature on all of this so you can avoid doing it all yourself. Speaking from a purely practical standpoint I don't think I burned through more than 2 cells during my experiments.

Joe