Patent ID: 8879225

Claim:
A protective circuit for an arrangement having a plurality of individual cells in a battery pack, wherein a predetermined number of individual cells are connected in series via cell connectors so as to form a cell row and at least two cell rows are arranged in parallel, each of the individual cells of one cell row having a position which corresponds to the position of a corresponding one of the individual cells in the other cell row, each of the cell connectors of one cell row having a position therein which corresponds to the position of a corresponding one of the cell connectors in the other cell row, a plurality of compensation lines electrically interconnecting corresponding ones of the cell connectors of the different rows, the cell connectors being at respective potentials (U nr , U nl ), the protective circuit comprising: an evaluation unit; a circuit device configured to detect the potential (U nr ) of the cell connector connected to the compensation line of one of the cell rows and the potential (U nl ) of the corresponding cell connector connected to said one compensation line of the other parallel cell row; and, said circuit device being further configured to output the detected potentials (U nl , U nr ) to said evaluation unit.