How a Car Battery Starts a Car


The first purpose of an auto battery is to provide power for starting your vehicle. It also acts as a surge protector for the car's computer and provides power for short-term use of things like lights, stereo, GPS or wipers when the engine is off.


The car battery is part of the starting system. There are three main components in this system:



The switch controls the starter relay (also called a solenoid). When you turn the ignition, it sends a small electrical current to the starter relay. This causes a pair of contacts to close.




When those contacts close, the battery sends voltage to the starter motor, which turns some gears to start the car.



What Are Cold Cranking Amps?


Cold cranking amps (CCA) refers to the amount of power a battery can supply for 30 seconds even at low temperatures. Larger engines require more power to start, as does starting the car for the first time on a cold day.


A high CCA rating is important for standard auto batteries in areas with subzero temperatures, since deeply discharged wet cell batteries can freeze solid in such weather.


How the Car Battery Recharges


The alternator is responsible for recharging your car battery as you drive. This part also supplies power for your car’s electronics when you're underway. It is driven by the alternator belt from the engine. As the belt goes around, it generates electrical current to run your vehicle's electronics. It also sends some current back to the battery to recharge it.


A voltage regulator controls this flow of electricity to keep it even and deliver the right amount of charge to meet needs like running the AC or heater. It also protects the battery from overcharging, which can damage it.


Why Does My Battery Die?


Over the life of a battery, discharge-recharge reactions happen thousands of times. Each cycle wears out the plates a bit, and over time the lead deteriorates. As your car battery loses capacity, cold cranking amps decrease.


Deep discharging, which happens when you use the battery to run the stereo, lights or other electrical systems in your car when the engine is off, is responsible for a good portion of battery failures. Discharging most of your battery's capacity by using it in this manner for too long and then recharging it through driving can cause the sulfur in the electrolyte solution to stick to the lead and create other damage to the plates in the battery.


What Are the Different Types of Auto Battery?


The two most common auto batteries for sale today are standard wet cell batteries and absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries. Both use lead-acid technology. The differences are in the needs of the car.


Standard Wet Cell Batteries


These are also called flooded, conventional or SLI (starting, lights, ignition) batteries. Some standard batteries have vents that allow for airing out corrosive gases, steam, and condensation (these may be called vented batteries). They have removable caps for adding fluid. Other wet cell batteries are closed systems, with no removable caps.


Service needs: Occasional simple maintenance including cleaning off corrosion on terminals and topping off the fluid with distilled water if the battery has removable caps. The battery should be visually checked every year. Battery charge should be checked before road trips and after summer before temperatures fall.


Lithium ion power battery the lives of millions of people each day. From laptops and cell phones to hybrids and electric cars, this technology is growing in popularity due to its light weight, high energy density, and ability to recharge.





THE BASICS







A battery is made up of an anode, cathode, separator, electrolyte, and two current collectors (positive and negative). The anode and cathode store the lithium. The electrolyte carries positively charged lithium ions from the anode to the cathode and vice versa through the separator. The movement of the lithium ions creates free electrons in the anode which creates a charge at the positive current collector. The electrical current then flows from the current collector through a device being powered (cell phone, computer, etc.) to the negative current collector. The separator blocks the flow of electrons inside the battery.







CHARGE/DISCHARGE







While the battery is discharging and providing an electric current, the anode releases lithium ions to the cathode, generating a flow of electrons from one side to the other. When plugging in the device, the opposite happens: Lithium ions are released by the cathode and received by the anode.





What Is a Car Generator?


The Car Generator utilizes a car’s alternator to supply power to external appliances like a home furnace, refrigerator, or lights.


The Benefits of a Car Generator


The obvious benefit of using a Car Generator is that it can create 1,000W of power when needed. And because the power is coming from a car battery while its engine is running, there’s less noise and lower emissions compared to a typical gas generator. Plus, the Car Generator actually uses less fuel.


Most vehicle engines can handle long periods of idling without detriment to the auto. And as long as there’s gasoline in the tank of the vehicle, the Car Generator can transfer its power to external appliances. So, with a full tank, most users can expect 50 to 80 hours of electrical power.


The Disadvantages of a Car Generator


There are a few drawbacks to consider, however, when using a Car Generator. If, for instance, a load of over 1,000W is put on the system, damage may occur to the vehicle’s alternator. 1000W will require about 90 to 100 amps off the alternator which most can put out without problem. The problem comes when this load is used for extended periods of time. This can overheat the alternator and melt internal windings. This means that you must take care when accumulating several appliances on the electrical line.


For example, most air conditioners require more power than this device can support, as do microwaves and other high heating appliances, so check their wattage requirements before using.


The other consideration may be the wear and tear on the existing vehicle from long idling times. Regularly maintain your auto before taxing its extended running capabilities.


With the development of electric vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) for vehicle control technology and the key to raise the level of design electric vehicles the optimization control of the vehicle performance as direction. In order to achieve the rational, coordination of vehicles within the system of integrated control, based on the modular thought, through constructing the distributed control network design overall structure of the control system of pure electric vehicle, the vehicle controller is analyzed on the working principle and its function realization degree, as a pure electric vehicle control system provides the theory basis for performance evaluation.


The development of manufacturing and management, technologies over the previous decade has transformed the automotive industry. The engine management system is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent systems in today’s automobile. The purpose of this paper is to design and simulate an automotive engine management system. Based on a PIC development board, we design and implement engine control functions which include an ignition system, acceleration, deceleration, emergency brakes, hand brakes, speed, and distance travelled. The C language is chosen for the development of PIC microcontroller. Results have shown and proven the success of the proposed system.


Automotive electronics technologies such as autonomous driving, all-electric cars, and in-car infotainment are the new trends in the automotive industry. Automotive vehicles are transforming into the “ultimate electronic devices.” Automotive electronics are predicted to constitute near a third of the total cost of the entire car. The automotive transformations give rise to new features and challenges including (i) autonomous driving (ii) all-electric cars with extreme high power, and (iii) high-speed and secure communications and infotainment.



In recent years, vehicle sensor improvements have led to increasingly advanced autonomous driving technologies that enable higher awareness and visibility. The special advanced features in the vehicle include adaptive cruise control, park assistance, lane-keep assistance, pedestrian detection, and traffic-sign recognition summarizes automotive electronics technology into five main categories as shown. In all five categories, an increasing number of electronics from different function sections are integrated into complex electronic systems. These electronic systems often address multiple categories simultaneously. The transition from mechanical systems to electronic systems in the automotive platform requires both higher electrical signal performance and mechanically reliable electronic packaging