Construction Of An Arduino Based 12V Automatic Battery Charger

ABSTRACT

This project is on an arduino based 12volts automatic battery charger with LCD. This work is aimed at building an automatic battery charger which comprises of indicators that indicates charging process and charging level indicator.

Method: The device was first built on a breadboard which is later transfer to vero board and soldered.

Result: The device was completely build and coupled, the result during the test shows that the charger was able to respond to its operation when a 12volts battery was connected it.

Conclusion and Recommendation: At the end of this project – battery charger, this device was built and tested. This type of device is important because there are many rechargeable devices that use 12v battery. I recommend that device should not be used for any other device lower or higher than 12v rating.

Cover page

1. Certification

iii. Dedication

1. Acknowledgement
2. Abstract:

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study
• Problem Statement
• Hypothesis/Research Questions
• Objective of Study
• Significance of Study
• Scope of Study
• Limitations of Study
• Definitions of terms

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1      Review of Related works

2.2      Contribution to Knowledge

2.3      Proposed system’s Theories

2.4      Expected Results from Hardware &Software

CHAPTER THREE

DESIGN METHODOLOGY

3.1 Material Parts List

3.2Hardware Design Methods

3.3 Program code

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS/ANALYSIS

4.1 Testing of Hardware and software

4.2 Hardware Result/analysis

4.3 Software result/analysis

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY,CONCLUSION AND RECONMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary

5.2 Conclusion

5.3 Recommendation

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study

A battery charger is described as is a device that provides electricity to convert into stored chemical energy for storage in an electrochemical cell by running an electric current through it. [Zhang et al, 2013].

A battery charger consists of a rectifier circuit, power circuit, ripple monitoring, control circuit, regulator circuit.

A Battery charger comes in various designs and voltage.  The choice of a particular charger depends largely on the size of battery. This battery charger could be used to charge batteries whose voltage is 12 volts.

The battery charge is built in such a way that it delivers a constant value of d.c current into the battery it is charging in the opposite direction from which current flows on the batteries during discharge one cannot successfully design a battery charge without a fundamental understanding of the accumulator because it also makes up the operation according to [Zhang et al, 2013].

This work is aimed at building an automatic battery charger which comprises of indicators that indicates charging process and charging level indicator.

• Problem Statement

There is nothing that is so frustrating and dangerous as when a battery is plugged and at the end it was discovered that the battery did not charge. And nothing is as dangerous as when a battery was fully charged and the owner is not aware of the charging state. This study solve problems such as not knowing when a battery is charging and when it is fully charged which can cause the battery not to charged or to over-charge.

• Hypothesis/Research Questions

H₁: There is a significant relationship between charger and rechargeable battery.

Research Questions

1. What is the importance of battery charger?
2. Is there any disadvantage of using this type of battery charger?

• What is the operating principle of a battery charger?
  • Aim and Objective of Study

The main aim of this work is to build an automatic battery charger which comprises of LCD that indicates charging process and charging level indicator. The objectives are:

1. To build the device
2. To know when a battery is charging or not

• To know the status of a battery via LCD thereby saving the battery from over-charge
  • Significance of Study

Carrying this work will go along way teaching students how battery charger is been made and the operation of battery charger. This study will also be of great benefit to all users of charger and rechargeable devices in that it will help them to understand how their battery is been charged and hw chargers are operated.

• Scope of Study

The scope of this work focuses on the building of a 12v battery that incorporated an LCD with arduino. In this work, a voltage sensor circuit is incorporated to sense the voltage of the battery under charge. The charger has the ability to automatically switch OFF when the battery voltage reaches the required optimum level. It has the ability to indicate when the battery is charging or not, when the battery is empty or fully charged.

• Limitations of Study

This charger can only be used for 12v batteries. The final packaging of the device will compose of one LED which indicates power, and LCD that indicates charging process and charging level.

• Definitions of terms

Below are terms that are frequently used in this work and their definitions:

Battery: a container consisting of one or more cells, in which chemical energy is converted into electricity and used as a source of power.

Charger:a device for charging a battery or battery-powered equipment.

Capacitor – a charge storage device made up of two metallic plates separated by a dielectric, with equal but opposite charges. The AC impedance of a Capacitor is (1 / jWL) and acts as an open circuit in DC applications.

Circuit – a complete path that allows electrical current from one terminal of a voltage source to the other terminal.

Alternating (AC) Current – currents that have a harmonic time dependence.

Ampere (A) – the unit of measurement for electrical current in coulombs per second.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY,CONCLUSION AND RECONMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary

Having carefully selected the entire component that are required for the construction of the charger and built according to the circuit diagram we were able to design and construct a workable battery charger.

This charger is not designed for battery whose emf is beyond 12 volts; otherwise the charge output voltage will not be sufficient to carry out any meaniful charging operation.

As with any charger it must be housed in a clean environment and operations should be by will trained individual.

Protective materials should be worn while charging batteries to avoid danger to health as a result of the gassing from the battery as the gas are highly inflammable.

5.2 Conclusion

In the implementation of this project what has proved most difficulties is the selection of the right value of components some were using two diode (the maraine value), in order to have a perfect full wave rectification, we made use of four diodes and the and a functional portable battery is been designed and constructed.

The charger is very single to use, ever to a Longman all he needs is just a little instruction and it will be accustomed to its method of working.

There is still further improvement demanded from use, mostly in the area of building a work complex and functions charger that could charge cells of higher voltage that might ranges to 48 volts and is able to charge more than two or three battery at the same time having more than one terminal.

In fact, this actually performed us to take even challenges to this kind of coincidence and commitment.

Due to the possibility of this, it has surely put smiles on the face of most people like some motorist who has long been finding it difficult charging their own batteries at their homes and at their convenient time.

5.3 Recommendation

The device has been designed, tested and system was able to respond to its operation.This work was built with quality wiring and contains many connections, I recommend that if failure occur, it should be troubleshoot by a qualify personnel along with the circuits diagram.

Working on this topic as my project is a good idea and it comes at the right time. I am suggesting that this particular topic should also be given to other students both in higher and lower class.