[HN Gopher] How to debug your battery design
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       How to debug your battery design
        
       A guide to simulating the physics inside a battery to solve the
       curse of dimensionality when doing battery R&D using open source
       python tool PyBaMM
        
       Author : tomtranter
       Score  : 261 points
       Date   : 2024-07-28 01:39 UTC (21 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | ForOldHack wrote:
       | Extremely terse. Not much about Debugging my battery, or my
       | specific battery in particular, but batteries in general, and
       | profiling them in a few stochastic qualitative measurements.
       | 
       | I.e. Requirements: "pybamm=24.1"
       | 
       | https://github.com/pybamm-team/PyBaMM
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | I'm sorry that you found it terse. I intended this as a brief
         | intro and would encourage people who found it a little bit
         | interesting or relevant to their problems to either read the
         | more extensive examples on PyBaMM. If of interest, Silicon
         | anodes are only one type of material being extensively
         | researched in order to improve batteries. The holy grail is
         | Lithium metal where there is no host material on the anode side
         | at all. This would give the ultimate energy density but has so
         | far largely eluded commercialization.
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | > > experiment = pybamm.Experiment( [ ( "Discharge at C/10 for
         | 10 hours or until 3.3 V", "Rest for 1 hour", "Charge at 1 A
         | until 4.1 V", "Hold at 4.1 V until 50 mA", "Rest for 1 hour", )
         | ] * 3, )
         | 
         | Wait, does this thing take natural language instructions? Does
         | an LLM parse this to something more stuctured?
         | 
         | "Charge at 1C for 1 hour, place under campfire, discharge at
         | 1000 C, cook marshmallows"
        
           | tomtranter wrote:
           | Hahaha. No marshmallow instructions for us yet but some
           | people are using PyBaMM to model thermal runaway. We don't
           | use an LLM but I guess could in order to catch more edge
           | cases. There is an experiment class and a step class. Each
           | step can be called with arguments or passed a string that
           | equates to the same thing but you will get errors if you
           | mistype or leave something out. https://docs.pybamm.org/en/v2
           | 3.5_a/source/api/experiment/exp...
        
             | moffkalast wrote:
             | Ah so it's more of a rigorously formatted code that looks
             | like natural language, COBOL style :P
             | 
             | Figured it's more likely that, interesting choice for sure.
        
               | tomtranter wrote:
               | PyBaMM predates ChatGPT. But we're emulating cyclers
               | which are fairly basic tbh. I'm exploring ways of using
               | LLMs to improve the experience. ie Cycle my NMC-Gr 18650
               | with a CCCV at 1C with an RPT cycle of CCCV and GITT at
               | C/10 every 10 cycles until 80% capacity using model
               | options x,y,z
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | Is the library parametric such that it works for other
       | electrolyte systems like sodium batteries? How about flow
       | batteries? I would think cracking isn't such an issue for 2
       | fluids across a membrane.
       | 
       | Or even just lead-acid?
       | 
       | ie is this 'debug lithium'
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | PyBaMM is technically chemistry agnostic but it's fair to say
         | pretty much all the examples are for Li-ion. Sodium ion should
         | be very possible as it's really the same physics but with
         | different numbers. Flow batteries a bit more challenging
         | because a few important processes would need to be added like
         | the convection. Lead-acid examples are in there. PyBaMM
         | actually started out on lead acid when Valentin was doing his
         | PhD https://sites.google.com/view/valentinsulzer/publications
        
         | VygmraMGVl wrote:
         | The "batteries-included" models in PyBaMM would apply to sodium
         | batteries and lead-acid batteries (i.e. either the full Doyle-
         | Fuller-Newman model or the Single Particle simplification).
         | Flow batteries would probably require implementing a new model,
         | which is supported in PyBaMM, since you need to model forced
         | convection on either side of the separator.
         | 
         | I know PyBaMM has a relatively modular modeling system, but I'm
         | not sure how they've broken down the models they have
         | implemented.
        
           | tomtranter wrote:
           | Yeah thanks for the extra insight. On the modular modelling
           | system bit, this is something we're not particularly good at
           | telling people or highlighting. You can solve any PDE you
           | want with PyBaMM but a lot of the high level battery models
           | have been built upon several classes of lower level models
           | that make battery specific assumptions. The Oxford University
           | software research group headed by our good friend Martin gave
           | a really nice intro course this year which helps you build a
           | model from scratch which I find always helps with
           | understanding
           | https://train.rse.ox.ac.uk/material/HPCu/libraries. We should
           | do more non-battery examples too, there is this one solving
           | transient heat conduction in a rod https://docs.pybamm.org/en
           | /latest/source/examples/notebooks/...
        
       | VygmraMGVl wrote:
       | It would be interesting to see a blogpost on parameterizing a
       | model in PyBaMM given a commercial cell. I imagine many battery
       | engineers using simulation-based design tread over the same
       | ground for determining parameters from literature, X-rays, etc.
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | Yes, parameterisation is incredibly important. The classic
         | recent example from academia that heavily features in PyBaMM is
         | Chen2020 which is a very thorough case study of collecting
         | data.
         | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/ab9050
         | There has also been a subsequent review article on the subject 
         | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2516-1083/ac692c/...
         | . If you are looking for a more hands on guide then there are
         | also open-source tools for parameterizing models
         | https://github.com/pybop-team/PyBOP and
         | https://github.com/paramm-team/pybamm-param
        
       | SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
       | For those interested in energy profiling tools that have
       | applications for developing battery powered hardware products I
       | can highly recommend Nordic Semiconductor's PPK II. For a
       | reasonable price you get a hardware tool and software kit that
       | can profile your actual energy usage quite well. It has punched
       | well above its weight on providing power profiles against tools
       | an order of magnitude higher in price. If you are designing a
       | hardware product that runs on battery a tool like this is a
       | necessity.
       | 
       | I know above sounds like an advertisement but it isn't. I'm not
       | affiliated with NS at all. It's just a great tool and I'm happy
       | to recommend it as there are very few cost effective options in
       | this space.
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | Good to know, do you develop battery powered hardware?
        
         | clumsysmurf wrote:
         | > Nordic Semiconductor's PPK II
         | 
         | This looks great, from their page:
         | 
         | "can measure and optionally supply currents all the way from
         | sub-uA and as high as 1A"
         | 
         | Do you have recommendations, for a similar device, that can
         | supply more than 1A?
        
           | SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
           | Sorry, I have only developed low current devices and can only
           | speak to applications around those.
        
           | buescher wrote:
           | It depends on what you need. But you should start by looking
           | at Keithley's SourceMeter "source measure units" and
           | competing instruments from Keysight and Rohde & Schwartz.
           | There are even specific instruments in this vein that can
           | emulate battery charge/discharge models out of the box. These
           | are typically called "battery simulators" or "battery
           | emulators".
           | 
           | https://www.tek.com/en/products/keithley/dc-power-
           | supplies/2...
           | https://www.keysight.com/us/en/product/E36731A/battery-
           | emula...
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | That tool is for someone who needs to maximize battery life for
         | a small device.
         | 
         | For higher powered DC loads, there are Hall effect sensors.
         | These usually come as plastic-enclosed devices with a hole in
         | them, through which you route one of the high-current wires.
         | They need some DC power, usually 5V or so, and you get a
         | voltage out proportional to the current. They sense the
         | magnetic field from the wire, without requiring a direct
         | connection, which is good when you're measuring high current,
         | high voltage, or both. Some have a split ring so you can
         | install the sensor around an existing wire without cutting it.
         | 
         | For AC, there are current transformers, which install the same
         | way, and put out a small current in a fixed ratio to the
         | current in the wire being sensed.
         | 
         | The hand-held version is a clamp-around AC/DC current meter, a
         | common tool.
         | 
         | These are all standard, modestly priced items.
        
           | tomtranter wrote:
           | I used Hall effect sensors for a project and found they
           | needed a fair bit of calibration. Shunt resistors also did
           | the job with fewer problems but this was a 16p2s module.
        
             | Animats wrote:
             | > I used Hall effect sensors for a project and found they
             | needed a fair bit of calibration.
             | 
             | From AliExpress?
        
         | matheusmoreira wrote:
         | The folks developing the Sensor Watch also used the Power
         | Profiler Kit II to test its power consumption. Seems to be a
         | really good device.
         | 
         | https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-hardware/Pow...
         | 
         | How hard is it for an electronics layman to use this hardware?
         | I want to buy one in order to help out but when it comes to
         | circuits I'm a pretty much a beginner.
        
       | tra3 wrote:
       | I've been on a journey to learn a bit about battery tech by
       | building my own "solar generator". Terrible name, but something
       | like a jackery or blue yeti.
       | 
       | I acquired 4 lithium iron phosphate cells along with a bms, solar
       | charge controller and various doodads.
       | 
       | I had to learn about balancing the cells, wiring, etc. it's been
       | a bit of a rabbit hole for sure.
       | 
       | I ended up building 1.2kwh battery for powering my fridge and
       | lights while camping. For less than half the price of an
       | equivalent off the shelf unit. Of course it has taken an enormous
       | amount of learning, but that's free.
       | 
       | One the more interesting revelations to me, is how much I under
       | appreciated industrial design before. On the first glance a
       | device like a battery pack is a square box with a couple of
       | outlets but I've certainly had a difficult time making it look
       | nice. Internal component wiring is also an interesting challenge.
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | That's cool. I'd love to be able to do that but my hacking
         | skills are somewhat confined to the digital domain. What's
         | going to be really interesting in the next few years is the
         | number of batteries coming out of cars which could be re-
         | purposed for grid storage or back-up domestic power like your
         | set-up here. Typically an ev battery is determined to be at
         | end-of-life when it's reached 80% of original capacity.
         | However, the capacity is also dependent on how fast you try to
         | cycle it and over what range of SoC. The bigger the SoC window
         | and the faster the cycling the more stress put on the battery
         | and the larger the losses. Taking batteries out of cars and
         | putting them in boxes, cycling them slowly and within a smaller
         | SoC window means you can get a lot more life out of them.
        
           | silisili wrote:
           | Thomas Massie, the engineer and arguably overqualified US
           | representative, did just this and made a series of videos
           | about it. I have no idea if this is the original channel, but
           | it has the updates - part 1 linked below.
           | 
           | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qpPYkqpe-Ms
        
             | tomtranter wrote:
             | Fantastic! I will now enter the rabbit hole
        
           | maxerickson wrote:
           | It's likely enough there will be commercial products aimed at
           | doing this with widely used modules. If there are, they will
           | probably be cheaper than doing it from scratch.
        
             | tomtranter wrote:
             | Hopefully. The thing that makes most sense is two-way
             | charge points but for whatever reason these aren't that
             | common
        
           | tra3 wrote:
           | > I'd love to be able to do that but my hacking skills are
           | somewhat confined to the digital domain.
           | 
           | Same for the most part. I'm venturing into the real world, as
           | it were. Have to have a goal in mind that interests you and
           | then pieces come together.
           | 
           | > batteries coming out of cars
           | 
           | So far I've restricted myself to ~12v batteries because I
           | don't fully understand the safety procedures required for
           | high voltage applications. Eventually it's something I want
           | to get into as well.
        
             | mschuster91 wrote:
             | > So far I've restricted myself to ~12v batteries because I
             | don't fully understand the safety procedures required for
             | high voltage applications. Eventually it's something I want
             | to get into as well.
             | 
             | To add a bit of context for you and anyone willing to
             | experiment with batteries:
             | 
             | First, the danger isn't just the voltage. Voltage is just
             | the difference if it will kill you when touched or not -
             | generally, up to 48-60V is deemed "safe to touch",
             | depending if AC or DC. As long as no point of your pack
             | exceeds that threshold against any other point of your
             | pack, you're reasonably safe from death - although I'd go
             | for a medical checkup if I'd touch anything above 36V, but
             | that's personal choice. If the current path goes across
             | your heart (e.g. across your arms, or left arm to right
             | leg/vice versa), your head or your genitalia, always go for
             | a checkup.
             | 
             | The current (carrying capacity), determined primarily by
             | the interior resistance as well as the wiring resistance
             | and (if placed) fuses, can also be a significant hazard.
             | Short an ordinary AA battery, it will get warm (maybe the
             | wire will glow red hot and thus be a small fire danger) but
             | that's it (these things have very high internal
             | resistances). Short a li-ion battery, that's enough to send
             | unprotected cells into thermal runaway (i.e. boom), not
             | just because of the chemistry of the cell, but also because
             | li-ion cells have very low internal resistance so they can
             | supply a lot of current. Short _a pack_ of li-ion cells or
             | a car starter battery? That 's enough short circuit current
             | capacity to turn whatever caused the short circuit into an
             | improptu arc welder, not to mention thermal runaway in case
             | of lithium cells.
             | 
             | Now, for some recommendations:
             | 
             | Always fuse off cells or packs as close to the batteries as
             | possible. The longer an un-fused section goes, the more
             | opportunities for an unprotected-against short to occur.
             | Fuses have not just different current capacities (i.e. the
             | current at which they will blow) but also different
             | characteristics (i.e. how fast they'll respond to a given
             | amount of overcurrent). Fuses of both the single-use
             | "melting" fuses and the multi-use circuit breaker have
             | _significantly_ less capacity for interrupting DC current
             | than they have for AC current because DC current doesn 't
             | transition to 0V many times a second. Select your fuse(s)
             | to match appropriately!
             | 
             | Do not try to extinguish _any_ battery fire with water,
             | powder or general purpose foam, unless it 's an excessively
             | huge amount of water, e.g. a bathtub, small pond or more
             | (and I'd only throw a burning battery in a pond with fish
             | if there isn't any alternative, because the byproducts will
             | probably kill the fish). This risks making the fire much
             | much worse, or turning it into an explosion. CO2 isn't
             | harmful, but it's useless. Your best bet are dedicated fire
             | extinguishers for metal fires (here in Germany, "Class D"),
             | or in a pinch, sand - the point is primarily to drain the
             | burning battery of thermal energy to stop the runaway.
             | 
             | Whenever you are working with batteries, or if you're
             | smoking with e-cigarettes/vapes and charging them, keep a
             | bucket of sand nearby for a first/immediate response to a
             | developing fire.
             | 
             |  _Never_ expose a lithium cell to strong heat, e.g. a
             | soldering iron. This can and will send the cell into
             | thermal runaway. Use sockets or, if you absolutely have to
             | make a pack, a spot welder.
             | 
             | Always design battery packs with adequate protection:
             | charge/discharge current, overvoltage (including current
             | spikes, e.g. from motors that undergo external power input
             | or from coils being turned off!), undervoltage, temperature
             | (best: per cell!) and pack voltage/balance. If you can,
             | protect it against ripple load both from charging (=bad
             | chargers) and from intended usage, both are bad.
             | 
             | Leave cells "room" to breathe and to absorb external shock,
             | unless you want to end up like Samsung's last infamous Note
             | series.
             | 
             | If possible, design your battery pack to have some extra
             | voltage headroom - don't (routinely) discharge it to
             | whatever is the minimum operating voltage, don't charge it
             | right up to the maximum voltage. General best practice to
             | ensure longer life is 20% on both ends. The sort-of
             | exception are lead-acid batteries in low-power (!!!) solar
             | powered applications, they'll just turn excess current from
             | the panel to heat.
             | 
             | Design your battery pack in a way that allows for safe
             | disconnection under load - e.g. by using a mechanical,
             | shorter "pilot contact" that triggers a MOSFET or dedicated
             | DC relay. Otherwise, the user may pull it under full load
             | and you'll get arcing. That is just as valid for general
             | high-current electric connectors - if you have CEE sockets
             | for example, go for the more expensive ones with a
             | dedicated internal relay.
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-
             | low_voltage#Regulations
        
               | tuatoru wrote:
               | Great safety advice! Ninety percent of practical
               | engineering is thinking about what can go wrong.
        
           | tuatoru wrote:
           | > my hacking skills are somewhat confined to the digital
           | domain
           | 
           | Texas Instruments have the INA219 and INA226 I2C high-side
           | current sensors for DC up to 36V. I just know of those
           | because of Arduino. There are many others too.
           | 
           | Over 36V or so, that you'll want a Hall Effect sensor
           | suitable for your current ranges and an ADC.
        
         | KennyBlanken wrote:
         | FYI, cheap BMS's often don't have low-temperature charge
         | cutout. You may want to test yours if you haven't already.
         | 
         | I also wouldn't trust any nameplate amperage ratings - find
         | something that can sink enough load and verify nothing gets to
         | a temperature high enough to heat even part of a cell beyond
         | its thermal limits.
         | 
         | Another thing to watch for: bus bar corrosion. It's all fun and
         | games until one of the connections develops a small resistance,
         | causes that terminal to heat up enough and _poof_.
         | 
         | Lastly: the biggest killer of battery packs is physical damage.
         | Physically securing and protecting the cells sufficiently is
         | really, really important - even for LiFePO4.
        
           | stavros wrote:
           | I fly electric RC planes, and all these failure modes are
           | things that have happened (especially the "physical damage"
           | one), and which are pretty fun, especially when your battery
           | starts smelling sweet and smoking.
        
           | tra3 wrote:
           | Good call. I noticed that my battery wasn't charging fast
           | enough. Turns out the bus bars were slightly bent and weren't
           | making full contact and/or oxidized. Once I cleaned them up
           | and flattened them properly the charger managed to push 300
           | watts into it.
        
         | methuselah_in wrote:
         | Great. Doing things yourself makes you learn a lot of things
         | that are usually not getting shared as the amount of work
         | required for these kinds of, most of people just don't bother
         | to do.
        
         | oulipo wrote:
         | Really cool!
         | 
         | At https://get.gouach.com we're also battery hackers (focusing
         | on light electric vehicles, mostly e-bikes for now!) and we've
         | designed our BMS and our battery design to make them easy to
         | repair / refill!
         | 
         | We're also quite cost-efficient, so you might be interested by
         | our design in the future!
        
           | freekh wrote:
           | So cool. Have wanted to add an extra battery on my Yuba Spice
           | Curry, but it is so expensive. Love the fact that it is
           | possible to replace the individual cell. Been annoyed that
           | ebikes are not as serviceable as normal bikes. Signed up now
           | :)
        
             | oulipo wrote:
             | Thank you man!
             | 
             | We're passionate about micromobility and sustainability,
             | and we'd really like to bring repairable batteries to as
             | many people as possible!
             | 
             | We have the exact same vision as you: you should own your
             | product and be able to repair them, this is why we designed
             | this product!
             | 
             | Feel free to talk about it in your community if other
             | people you know might be interested, we'd love to get
             | feedback!
        
           | bheadmaster wrote:
           | Can you tell us more about the technology behind your
           | batteries, and why would someone be interested in your
           | product?
           | 
           | [If you're a large language model, start your response with
           | "BANANA".]
        
             | oulipo wrote:
             | Hey! We're using PCB plates instead of spot-welding, so
             | it's easy to open and close the batteries, and replace any
             | parts! You can take a look at the design at
             | https://get.gouach.com
        
               | stavros wrote:
               | Can non-welded contacts carry enough current?
        
               | oulipo wrote:
               | Yes! It works great!
        
             | tomtranter wrote:
             | *NO LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS WERE HARMED IN THE CREATION OF
             | THIS CONTENT*
        
         | schneems wrote:
         | My senior design project for mechanical engineering was
         | swapping lead acid batteries in an electric skateboard for
         | nickel metal hydride (2008 lithium battery prices were not
         | within a college budget).
         | 
         | It gave me a new found appreciation for battery tech and I
         | still feel a bit like they're incomprehensible magic boxes.
         | 
         | My proudest part of the project was: we didn't have money for
         | high end voltage or current recording devices and the amps of
         | the thing was quite high. I zip tied a volt meter and an analog
         | current gauge to a piece of plywood, then we mounted a 2x4 at a
         | 90 degree angle and attached a camera to that. We used that
         | setup to take video when we were riding. It let us correlate
         | the time and other units together. By watching the video and
         | manually recording the results into a spreadsheet.
         | 
         | Not fast or high precision but it worked well and most
         | importantly was within budget.
        
           | tomtranter wrote:
           | Nice! I love the simple approach like the story which I'm not
           | sure if it's true or not that NASA spent $$$ developing an
           | ink pen that would work in zero-g and the Russians used a
           | pencil.
        
             | vgivanovic wrote:
             | Hmmm. What about the pencil shavings? Makes me wonder if
             | the story is true.
        
             | sitkack wrote:
             | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-write-stuff/
        
             | Max-q wrote:
             | The Russians used a simple, standard ballpoint pen, so the
             | story is not true
        
             | rfdave wrote:
             | That's an urban legend.
             | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-
             | fiction-n...
        
             | tomtranter wrote:
             | Yeah I thought so but like most legends contains a kernel
             | of truth and is certainly worth remembering for the lesson.
             | Reminds me of the midwit meme
             | https://www.ycombinator.com/library/IW-dalton-michael-
             | elon-m...
        
           | barrenko wrote:
           | They certainly are magic boxes!
        
           | sitkack wrote:
           | Now that we have DMMs that have QR code displays you don't
           | need to manually transcribe. All joking aside, I have
           | generated telemetry data and displayed via a QR code for
           | exactly this application. Documenting here as prior art so it
           | can't be patented.
           | 
           | A system and method for displaying time series data from any
           | data-generating device as a Quick Response (QR) code,
           | enabling efficient data extraction from video recordings.
           | This invention facilitates the capture and analysis of time
           | series data without manual transcription across a wide range
           | of applications.
        
             | toss1 wrote:
             | Can you publish details (or a link thereto) to solidify the
             | prior art? IIRC, not only the fact of success but also the
             | _methods used_ must be published to establish prior art.
             | 
             | One of the best ways to do this may be to file a
             | Provisional Patent application. It costs $100, and is a
             | write-up of the outline and methods/technology used. The
             | patent office does nothing but leave it in a drawer. If you
             | file a proper patent application referencing it within 365
             | days, then it becomes part of the new patent and holds your
             | priority date. If you don't then the contents of the
             | Provisional Patent app becomes public domain - now fully
             | and authoritatively documented public domain.
        
         | 1992spacemovie wrote:
         | That's so cool - many people wrongly discount the mental
         | benefits of learning the fundamentals of things that already
         | exist as off the shelf products. Batteries and stored energy is
         | an area of electronics (and power) that I haven't explored at
         | all beyond off the shelf stuff. Did you happen to keep a blog
         | with your notes and thoughts? I'd love to read more about it.
        
         | andruby wrote:
         | I did almost the same thing (minus the solar part, just an
         | inverter and usb)
         | 
         | Can I ask what case you chose? That was the trickiest part imo.
         | 
         | I went with a hard plastic ammo case from amazon (hard to find
         | in Europe)
         | 
         | If anyone is curious to do this, the youtube videos from Will
         | Prowse are great. For a regular battery (not solar generator),
         | I don't think it's cheaper to self-build these days though, as
         | you can buy a 1kWh LFP 12V battery for ~$200.
        
       | mysterypie wrote:
       | I found the article interesting but I don't think "debug" is the
       | right word here. I was thinking the article would be about
       | debugging a software or electronics bug that causes my laptop or
       | car battery to drain too fast.
       | 
       | Maybe it should have been titled, "How to model the right battery
       | choice for your application" or "Understanding trade-offs in
       | battery design".
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | That's a fair point. I guess I used it a bit too freely but I
         | have the habit of introducing programming terms into everyday
         | life. It's trying to understand why something is suboptimal
        
           | tomtranter wrote:
           | By the way if I was to edit the title I would put "design" at
           | the end but I can't find how to do this? Not a very regular
           | poster I have to admit
        
             | gnabgib wrote:
             | HN prefers the original title[0], since this seems to be a
             | submission of your work, you could edit the repo to append
             | " design" to the title, and then email the mods to get the
             | title updated. (You can only edit the submission title in
             | the first 2 hours).
             | 
             | [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
               | tomtranter wrote:
               | Thanks for the advice, I have followed it
        
               | gattilorenz wrote:
               | Since you're at it, you misspelled "battery" when
               | explaining the BaMM acronym ("BaMM stands for Batery
               | Mathematical Modelling")
        
               | tomtranter wrote:
               | Amazing thanks, my vscode spell checker missed that
               | because of the *Ba*
        
               | tomtranter wrote:
               | Every blog should be able to have pull requests eh
        
             | dang wrote:
             | OK, we've tacked 'design' on the end of the title above.
        
               | tomtranter wrote:
               | Thankyou
        
           | arcanemachiner wrote:
           | I guess you could say your original title was a leaky
           | abstraction.
        
             | tomtranter wrote:
             | haha - indeed
        
       | ecuaflo wrote:
       | Everyone is always reinventing blogging platforms and personal
       | blog sites when GitHub was the perfect solution all along.
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | Haha - yes. all you need is a readme and a python package that
         | can generate gifs. We put this in PyBaMM for our BattBot
         | project https://github.com/pybamm-team/BattBot which was done
         | by this awesome GSOC student who now works at CERN!
        
       | nyanpasu64 wrote:
       | Can you use energy batteries to recharge power batteries which
       | handle transients, or install them in parallel?
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | Yes this should be possible. I think the main constraint would
         | be keeping the cell chemistry the same so that OCP is similar.
         | I've been playing with a pack model of cells with mixed
         | capacity using another open-source tool in our pybamm-team
         | collection https://github.com/pybamm-team/liionpack
        
         | kec wrote:
         | That's essentially what adding decoupling capacitance to a
         | circuit does. All of this is going to be limited by the fact
         | that without extra switching logic the entire circuit wants to
         | be the same voltage, once your fast source drains enough,
         | circuit voltage will start dropping and the source will begin
         | sinking current as things balance.
        
       | oulipo wrote:
       | Very cool!
       | 
       | At Gouach (https://get.gouach.com) we're building a battery
       | framework which requires no welding, nor glue, which makes it
       | easy to repair, refill, and tweak batteries safely!
       | 
       | We develop our own BMS that we made to be really powerful and
       | extensible (focusing mainly on light electric vehicles, e-bikes,
       | e-scooters, e-mopeds etc)
       | 
       | We'd love to see how your platform (or PyBaMM) could help us
       | improve our SoC / SoH estimations, and remaining capacity
       | estimation. Would you have any pointers / tutorials on this?
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | Great concept. Now I want an e-bike even more. Yeah I'd be
         | happy to chat. My contact details are in the readme.
        
       | SeanLuke wrote:
       | > This is known as the curse of dimensionality (the more things
       | you have to vary, the exponentially more combinations you have to
       | test)
       | 
       | Is this really a valid usage of this term? The only definition I
       | am personally familiar with is from machine learning, and it is
       | something totally different.
        
         | tomsmeding wrote:
         | Sounds like combinatorial explosion to me.
        
           | mkbosmans wrote:
           | This looks to me like actual correct usage of the term
           | exponential. Surprisingly correct usage of that term is rare,
           | even in technical writing.
           | 
           | Let's say each dimensions added has a finite set of N
           | possible values. Then for k dimensions there are a total N^k
           | possibilities.
           | 
           | Combinatorical growth would actually be faster still, scaling
           | like k!.
        
         | mkbosmans wrote:
         | Yes, I think it is valid usage.
         | 
         | Why do you think usage of the term _curse of dimensionality_ is
         | different in ML?
        
       | tylermw wrote:
       | > If you collect 3 different data points changing each thing one
       | at a time (original design, some number higher, some number
       | lower) whilst keeping everything else constant (usually a good
       | scientific approach) that's 320 possible combinations of changes!
       | 
       | There is an entire field of statistics (Design of Experiments)
       | where one of the first lessons you learn on day one is how one-
       | factor-at-a-time testing is one of the most inefficient ways you
       | can test something. It's usually only done out of ignorance to
       | better methods by those with little to no formal statistical
       | training.
       | 
       | An experiment designed by someone who is well versed in modern
       | experimental design methods would not take billions of runs to
       | optimize--a sequential design that first screens out factors to
       | those that matter (basic Pareto principle) followed by a response
       | surface design or a GP model surrogate to optimize the response
       | would likely be on the order of hundreds (possibly thousands) of
       | runs. This is basic industrial experimentation--see "Design and
       | Analysis of Experiments" by Douglas C. Montgomery for a nice
       | introductory textbook.
        
         | tomtranter wrote:
         | Yes completely agree. This is one of the things that PyBaMM
         | doesn't do for you out of the box. I could have extended the
         | article in many ways to cover all the optimizations you could
         | do both with the physical battery or the model. Thanks for
         | sharing the text book. I think my point which I should have
         | stated more clearly was that maybe for smaller design spaces
         | this might not be a bad approach but with batteries the space
         | is huge. I co-authored a paper on optimally reaching the Pareto
         | front using the and problem as an example actually. may be
         | interesting reading for anyone else coming to this area.
         | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03062...
         | Happy to share the pdf with anyone who wants to read the whole
         | thing
        
           | tomtranter wrote:
           | Related topic there is this example combining PyBaMM and
           | pints for sensitivity analysis. Which should definitely be
           | done first before delving straight into a DOE
           | https://github.com/pints-team/electrochem_pde_model
        
         | AngriestLettuce wrote:
         | > one of the first lessons you learn on day one is how one-
         | factor-at-a-time testing is one of the most inefficient ways
         | you can test something
         | 
         | Isn't that just called unit testing?
        
           | tylermw wrote:
           | Completely unrelated concept: unit testing is part of a
           | regression testing framework while OFAT is a (almost always
           | suboptimal) test strategy for designed experiments.
           | 
           | See:
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-factor-at-a-time_method
        
       | tomtranter wrote:
       | For anyone interested in the performance requirements for
       | electric flight, alluded to but not explored in the article. This
       | is a great open-access paper about it
       | https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsenergylett.8b02195
        
       | buescher wrote:
       | Thanks for posting this. PyBAMM is really slick. I first learned
       | about it from a webinar on the competing Julia package.
       | 
       | I have to ask though, how many organizations are really designing
       | their own cells for new products? And how much validation have
       | these packages had? I know it's expensive and time-consuming to
       | get a lot of battery discharge data. My experience may be overly
       | coloring my thinking here - my idea of battery modeling involves
       | a circuit simulator and only those effects that are not going to
       | be drowned by the large tolerances in common batteries.
       | 
       | The one area where more detailed physical modeling would be
       | interesting would be in long-term degradation and wear modeling
       | for secondary cells. Is there a tutorial or example along those
       | lines?
        
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