Patent ID: 7795843
Filing Date: 2010-09-14
Classification: G01R,H02J

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting shorts in battery cells in a system comprising: powering a mobile computing system with a battery pack, the battery pack being rechargeable, the battery pack including a management unit communicatively coupled to the system and a plurality of battery cell blocks, each cell block including one or more battery cells; monitoring, with the management unit, a voltage of each cell block of the plurality; logging, with the management unit, the voltage of each cell block of the plurality prior to the system shutting down to generate a set of logged voltage values in response to determining the system is to shut down; restarting the system after the shut down and, after restarting the system, measuring a start-up voltage value of each cell block of the plurality; determining an amount of self-discharge for each cell block based at least in part on a comparison of the start-up voltage value with the logged voltage value; and shutting down operation of the battery pack or sending a warning from the management unit to the system in response to a determination that the amount of self-discharge is indicative of a nascent short circuit in a cell.