Tutorial 1 (ION board): Implementing 3 states of the ION board – IDLE, DISCHARGE, and CHARGE mode.

Preconfiguration:

Hardware Setup:

1. Plug the ION shield on the arduino.
2. Connect the 5V supply on the microUSB port on the ION-shield.
3. Connect the arduino to your PC and download/open the Arduino IDE.

Software setup:

1. Open your git client (For ex. GitBash) & Download/clone the code from github

You may also go this link and click on “Clone or download”, download the .zip file in the desired location & extract the contents.

1. Open the folder MakerMax_ion and open the Arduino sketch.
   
2. Now we will go over some basic tutorials that will help you understand how the code works and help you interact more efficiently with your ION board.

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Tutorial 1: Changing Modes.

The ION board comes with three pre-configured modes. These are:

1. Charging
2. Discharging
3. Idle

In this tutorial we will show you how to switch between these three modes. 

1. You will need to goto function “mode_change(uint8_t mode)” 

1. Press SW1 and SW2 simultaneously to switch between the 3 modes.

1. After reaching the desired mode release both the switches at the same time.
2. Notice the Charging or the discharging current on the OLED display.
3. We have set a median value of 500mA for both Charge and discharge on startup.
   You may change these startup values by configuring these variables.
4. It is advisable not to increase the current value more than 1.15A i.e 1150mA.

1. IDLE mode – In this mode, the cell is neither charging, nor discharging. This is the default state of the board on startup. Other than putting the cell in idle, this mode can also be used for running tests for characterising the capacity loss over time.
   
   

CHARGE mode – In this mode, we are charging the lithium ion cell by providing it a    charging current.

DISCHARGE mode – In this mode, we are discharging the lithium ion cell by providing it a discharging current
To learn more on how the State of Charge (SOC) algorithm & various other things work with practical examples check out our courses makermax.ca/courses