Cell tester for my school's FSAE team
One of last year's senior design project proposals from my school's FSAE team was a cell tester that could be used to characterize the cells we use in our high-voltage accumulator. The main requirements for this project were to measure the cell voltage, the temperature of the cell at various locations, and the pressure generated by the cell as it was being charged and discharged at various rates. The group assigned to this project produced a safety enclosure with a thermistor array and a set of load cells for collecting data, as well as a circuit for charging and discharging the cell. While the sensor array circuit worked reasonably well, the charging and discharging circuit was poorly designed and could not handle the desired loads. The circuit also changed several timed throughout the project, and the end result was poorly document. The circuit, as I found it, is shown below: This circuit has several major issues. First, the circuit was supposed to...