Operating Principle; Quick Start Procedure - Linear Technology DC2100A Demo Manual

DEMO MANUAL DC2100A

operating principle

The DC2100A has a five window GUI, pictured in Figure 25.
The Control Panel is the primary window, which displays
information about the ICs in the stacked system, the state
of the cells on each DC2100A board, and allows manual
control of the balancing mode of the LTC3300-1. The Con-
trol Panel can spawn three more windows: a Calibration
Data window to calibrate cell and balancer characteristics,
an Error Log window to display logged errors, and a Graph
View window to graphically display characteristics of the
stacked system over time. The Graph View window also
spawn a Graph View Option window that controls the set-
tings of the Graph View window. The LTC3300-1 Active
Balancer is a power stage control IC. The LTC3300-1 does
not have a balancer algorithm built into it. The determination
of the balancing times and directions are performed at a
system level and conveyed to the LTC3300-1 through its
SPI interface. The LTC3300-1 only accepts cell charge or
discharge commands. Charge is transferred to/from a cell

Quick start proceDure

The demonstration circuit is set up per Figure 31 to evalu-
ate the performance of the DC2100A-C Bi-Directional Cell
Balancer using the LTC3300-1.
Using short twisted pair leads for any power connections,
refer to Figure 31 for the proper measurement and equip-
ment setup. When installing the cells start with Cell 1 and
progress to Cell 12. Remove cells in the reverse order.
The DC2100A will support a system of 4 to 12 cells (See
Figures 31 and 34 to 41).
A 4 bit board ID code is set by the A0 through A3 jump-
ers on the DC2100A-C must be set to 0000. The jumpers
on the DC2100A-D boards must be set to unique values
between 0001 and 1111.
To use the DC2100A, the PC must first have the proper
driver and software installed. To do this, download
the QuikEval™ software from Linear Technology, at
www.linear.com:
http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/quick_eval.
jsp
4
from/to the stack, a series connection of adjacent cells,
through a flyback converter that is operating in boundary
mode. During discharge of a cell the current in the primary
of a coupled inductor transformer with a turns ratio of 1:2,
ramps up to 10A at which point the primary switch turns
off. The charge in the primary inductor is transferred to the
secondary inductor which is connected across the 12 cell
sub-stack. This sub-stack current then passes through the
series connected cells thus distributing the charge equally
across each cell. When charging a cell, the current in the
secondary of the coupled inductor transformer ramps
up to 5.0A at which point the secondary switch turns off.
The charge in the secondary inductor is transferred to the
primary inductor which is connected across the cell. The
secondary current is drawn from the series connected
cells thus removing charge equally across each cell. The
efficiency through the fly-back converter is 90%.
1) Install the QuikEval software by running the execut-
able ltcqev.exe. Follow the instructions to connect the
DC2100A.
If you fail to unplug the DC2100A, the DC2100A driver
will not install!
2) When installation of QuikEval is complete, close the
QuikEval program.
3) Reopen QuikEval. If properly installed, QuikEval will show
the following message until the DC2100A is connected:
If not properly installed, QuikEval will be unable to connect
to the DC2100A. Please retry the software installation, with
the DC2100A disconnected.
4) Now connect the DC2100A. The QuikEval software will
dc2100afa