Different Electronic Communication Systems
Ben Winstanley • June 12, 2020
This BLOG post is A Beginner's Guide to different types of Electronic Communication Systems, you may of heard of SMBus or CANBus before and not know what they stand for or what they do, well read this BLOG for a little more info!
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We like our batteries ‘intelligent’, and by that we do not mean that they are able to ace the pub quiz, but that they are good communicators instead!
Battery packs require good communication for them to work effectively within themselves and with external systems. This communication can come in many different forms, from data links for performance managing to diagnostics and system parameters. These communication systems are known as Data buses and they come in a variety of different forms.
Controller Area Network - CANBus
This is the industry standard for on-board vehicle communications. The CAN bus is identified as a two-wire communication bus designed especially for networking intelligent sensors and controlling the movement in a centralised multiplexing system. This bus allows higher voltages to move around the system or vehicle on a single-track allowing power to flow to each application, as necessary. Due to the nature of the devices connected to the CAN bus and the intelligence of that device, all the stations within the device can be independently monitored and errors can be identified individually.
The CAN bus communication is used in our Electric Powertrain
which is created to be used within electric vehicles,
such as go-karts, Tuk Tuks, mopeds etc...
Inter Integrated Circuit - I²C Bus:
This bus goes a bit slower than the others; it is designed to communicate within the battery pack rather than externally. The I²C is used to allow multiple subservient circuits to communicate with one or more dominant chips. This communication is intended over a short distance and communicates simple exchanges of information. Some practical applications you may see one of these being used in is LCD displays, real-time clocks and GPS receivers.
System Management Bus - SMBus
The SMBus is derived from the I2C bus, the main application is to monitor the essential boundaries of motherboards and embedded systems. This bus is compatible with low power smart battery systems that are of a low power. It is a two-wire system which interconnects smart batteries with their appropriate chargers. This type of bus can be in simple vehicle applications with limited capabilities.
Most of our Li-Ion packs do come with a SMBus option, check out our 5S2P
for example!
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