POWCOM: a system for battery and rectifier surveillance

Since the condition of sealed batteries cannot be measured as easily as it can be done with open lead acid batteries, where the acid weight gives a good indication of the battery condition, it is necessary to perform capacity tests of the battery at least 1 or 2 times a year to ensure that the battery has the capacity needed. Other problems usually associated with sealed batteries is the danger of thermal runaway that may cause destruction of the battery. In addition the latest developments in telecom has resulted in a more distributed system with many smaller stations. The maintenance costs should therefore be greatly reduced if battery testing and temperature surveillance could be automated. A system for automated battery tests has been made. Either as a standalone unit or as a intergrated part of the rectifier control unit, this system provides automated battery tests at a low cost. To make transfer of data to PC uncomplicated a PC program, POWCOM, has been developed. This uses the Windows graphical user interface (GUI) to provide an easy to use connection between the rectifier control unit and the user. From this program the rectifiers can be controlled completely. Alarm limits can be set, alarms can be read together with all other data in the control unit. Voltages may be set and special functions like the test function may be activated manually. The program adjusts menus and windows to the type of control unit it has been connected to. Data from tests can be transferred and saved to files for later analyses