Lithium-Ion batteries age rapidly if they are kept above 80% SOC (State Of Charge) most of the time. TAO EMS has a new feature to manage charge cycles and extend battery life. Just set it up and forget about it.

The best way to use a lithium-ion battery and keep it healthy:

1. charge it
2. stop charging when it is full
3. do not start charging again until the the battery is close to empty

Lithium-ion batteries do not need a full (100%) charge every time.

No onboard chargers are designed to do that. They charge to 100% SOC, then switch to “float”, and start charging again the next day until 100% SOC. That was good for lead-acid/AGM batteries, but it will shorten the life of any new lithium-ion battery.

TAO EMS has a new feature to manage the charge cycle and do what is best for the battery (the current shunt option is required to enable this function). There are just a few parameters to set and you are good to go.

How it works:

1. To start, TAO EMS lets the chargers do their job until the battery is fully charged (100% SOC is defined in the SOC parameters).
2. The “relays to disable charge” are then activated (and/or a CAN message is sent to the chargers to stop them; this requires a TAO monitor and CAN-compatible chargers).
3. The chargers stay disabled until the battery is discharged to the set “low SOC” value (35% in the example above), at which point TAO EMS enables the chargers (relays and/or CAN).
4. The chargers stay enabled until the charge of the battery reaches the set “high SOC” value (80% in the example above), then it repeats steps 2, 3, and 4 until the condition for step 5 is true.
5. When the number of days since the last full charge reaches the set “time between full charges” value (30 days in the example above), TAO EMS will proceed with a full charge (step 1).

This is possible because:

• TAO EMS keeps accurate state of charge information using self-learning algorithms.
• State of charge relies on high-precision current measurements (using a current shunt with a self-ranging amplifier that is accurate to within 5 mA).
• TAO EMS can control up to 6 independent relays or external units of equipment/chargers.
• TAO EMS, with the TAO Monitor option, can directly control external