Texas Instruments BQ41Z50 Evaluation Module - Unboxing | DigiKey

We take a look at the BQ41Z50 Evaluation Module from Texas Instruments. It’s a single-chip two to four cell battery pack manager with Dynamic Z-track technology to provide high-accuracy cell stats and battery safety functions. Inside the box, you’ll find the BQ41Z50 evaluation module, which is loaded with test points so you can easily monitor virtually any aspect of operation. In this demo, we’re going to connect the evaluation module to a PC via TI’s EV2400 USB interface board and monitor battery charging and discharging. Connect the board to the SMBus interface on the EV2400 and connect the EV2400 to your PC via USB. The board is pre-programmed for 3 series lithium ion cells, so we’ll connect three cells on the battery connector terminal block, and short 3P to 4P since we don’t have a fourth cell. We also need to connect a power supply to PACK plus and PACK minus on the J1 block and short the system-present pin to ground. Launch the bqStudio. It should auto-detect the setup and show a status dashboard and register status for the BQ41Z50. From here we can toggle the charge FET and monitor current flow and voltage changes. You can also toggle the discharge FET, perform calibration, select manufacturer-specific battery chemistry profiles, and more.