Specifications

EATON Pulsar Series and Powerware Series Product Catalogue

ABM Technology

ABM cycle and operation – how does it work?

The basic idea of ABM is to leave a fully charged battery in rest

mode for most of the time, and then apply charge current only at

certain intervals. Initially, in order to charge up a fully or partly dis-

charged battery, the charger starts at a constant current appropri-

ate for the battery type used. When the battery voltage reaches a

set level, the operation is changed to float mode using a constant

but lower voltage, thus providing an optimum recharge time. The

battery is kept at this voltage for 24 hours until it comes to the

first test point. This takes approximately one minute, and during

this period voltage drop measurements are taken while loading the

battery, giving an indication of battery condition. The float charging

is continued for an additional 24 hours, plus a period equal to 1.5

BatteryvoltageduringoneABMchargingcycle.

times the constant current charging time, before the rest mode is

initiated. At this point, charging is discontinued for a maximum of

28 days – as if the batteries were disconnected. During the first 10

days the battery voltage is continuously monitored, and if it drops

below 2.1 V/cell, the ABM restarts in charge mode and the user

gets a notification of improper battery operation. If it drops below

this limit after the 10-day period, charging is resumed without an

alarm being raised. In short, the algorithm uses three charging

stages in its operation. Thus, the batteries experience much less

stress than in the case of traditional charging. A typical battery

charging cycle without power interruptions is shown in the graph

below.

For convenience, the user has the facility to disable the ABM and

instead select continuous ‘constant voltage’ charging whereby

the charger uses a constant float voltage. ‘ABM enabled’ is the

default setting. The charger voltage levels are (by default setting)

programmed to be dependent on an internal temperature sen-

Temperaturecompensatedchargerbetween±0°C...+50°Cinternal/

externalmeasurements.

OptionalWeb/SNMPcardwithEMP

probefortemperaturemeasurementof

anexternalbatterycabinetorrack.

sor measurement, thus providing further enhancement to battery

health. The external batteries can be also provided with tempera-

ture dependent charger voltage. For this purpose a Web/SNMP

card with Environmental Monitoring Probe (EMP) is required.