Evaluation Software Details
Because the ISO-COMMS circuit section fully isolates the PC, Aardvark, and wall adapter from the EVM
“
battery
”
side, the Aardvark is insensitive to the powering of the EVM, which receives its
’
power from the
battery cells or power supply used for evaluation.
The grounds (VSS) are fully isolated; please keep this in mind when using an oscilloscope or meter. Do
not inadvertently connect the EVM VSS to the PC/Aardvark VSS by connecting two probe grounds or
otherwise forming a ground loop through external wiring, including the building wiring.
4.3
Quick Check
The first step in communicating with the bq76PL536 is to set a unique address for each device in the
stack. This is required even if you are only using a single device. This occurs automatically when the
Evaluation software is first started. To do this manually, select COMMAND | AUTO ADDRESS (shortcut
key CTRL + A). This will cause the software to interrogate the stack of
‘
536 devices, find all available
devices, and assign each a unique address beginning with address 0x01. Address 0x00 is reserved for
un-addressed devices.
After addressing is complete, you should see the number of devices found and the total combined voltage
of all cells being monitoring displayed in the STACK HEIGHT and V STACK windows.
5
Evaluation Software Details
5.1
Main Screen
The main screen is divided into 4 major areas, plus the menu and status bars. The software is referred to
as the
“
Windows Graphical User Interface
”
, or abbreviated to WinGUI.
VBRIC K
The voltage measured by the bq76PL536 between the BATx and VSS pins
VCELLn
the voltage measured between the pair of pins VCn
–
VCn-1 (i.e. VCELL2 = VC2 -
VC1).
ADDR
displays the address of the device being monitored in the measurement result area.
LOG DEVICE
Checking this box will add the contents of the device at this address to the log file.
TSn
The voltage measured between the TSn+ and TSn- inputs, converted by the WinGUI
to temperature based on the characteristics of the thermistor used in the EVM design.
The EVM and WinGUI are configured to measure this voltage as a ratio of REG50,
which removes any offset or gain errors introduced by drift in the REG50 output.
VIEW AS...
Shows the ratio of the measured input voltage to REG50 as a percentage.
7
SLUU437B
–
October 2010
–
Revised May 2011
bq76PL536 EVM Quick Start Guide
Copyright
©
2010
–
2011, Texas Instruments Incorporated
