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battery monitor

I would like to monitor the voltage of 25 battery cells, also charge and discharge them to condition them. I have designed a hardware system but would like to improve upon this by using Labview i.e displays voltages, condition of each cell, idication when charging/discharging. Any information would be appreciated / where to start.
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This application would be well served by using a combination of National Instruments data acquisition hardware and switch hardware, both of which can be controlled seamlessly with LabVIEW.
The NI 4060 is a 5.5 digit, 24 bit Digital Multimeter (DMM) which can be used to digitize the 25 battery voltages in your application. Like all DMMs, it is a one channel device, so some switching mechanism will be required.
The SCXI-1127 is a multiplexer(MUX)/matrix switch module. As a MUX, it can switch 32 2-wire (differential) signals. The SCXI-1127 can also be configured to act as a 4 row , 8 column matrix (4x8). Your application will be better suited for a matrix solution since you want to charge/discharge your batteries in addition to making voltage measurements.
You can cascade 4 SCXI-1127 modules together to create a 4x32 matrix, giving you 32 columnns for your battery cells and 4 rows to connect current sources and loads for the charging and discharging of your batteries.
Perhaps a better solution is the SCXI-1129 high density matrix module. One SCXI-1129 can be configured to act as a 8x32 matrix. It will be the same as 4 SCXI-1127 modules (with 4 additional rows), and you will save real estate in your application.
If you choose either of the above SCXI solutions, you will require a SCXI-1000 4 slot chassis to house the SCXI modules. The NI 4060 DMM can control this SCXI-1000 chassis and also integrates well with the SCXI-1127 and SCXI-1129 by being able to do hardware handshaking and scanning with the above SCXI switches.
The software involved in this application will be LabVIEW, NI-DMM, and NI-SWITCH. NI-DMM is the instrument driver used to program the NI 4060 DMM, and NI-SWITCH is the instrument driver used to program the SCXI-1127 and SCXI-1129. LabVIEW is the application development environment, so you will write LabVIEW code which calls NI-DMM and NI-SWITCH functions to control the DMM and switches. Another nice feature is that the NI-DMM and NI-SWITCH instrument drivers come with several examples in LabVIEW showing how to program these pieces of hardware. This is in addition to even more examples which are located on our website.
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Any code samples available as VI's on the NIDMM and NISWITCH?

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Hi Don,

 

Yes, there are many example VIs for how to program NI DMMs and NI Switches.  Many of them are found in the NI Example Finder.  Within LabVIEW go to Help»Find Examples.  Browse to Hardware Input and Output»Modular Instruments»NI-DMM and NI-SWITCH for examples of each.

 

You can also program NI Switches with DAQmx, and those examples are found in the example finder also, under Hardware Input and Output»DAQmx»Switches

 

What type of measurements and how many (which DMM and which switch are you using)?  If you have questions about any of those examples please let us know.

Eric S.
AE Specialist | Global Support
National Instruments
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