The device is developed by Bondan Ari Rahmawan, Charlie Tahar, and M. Salman Galileo to prevent sudden energy drop which is undetectable by drivers. The device was displayed in Electrical Engineering Days 2019, an exhibition of final assignments of Electrical Engineering students of ITB held at Aula Timur of ITB.

“The device is developed because many car drivers know their battery condition only after they bring it to service depot, Charlie said.

Another reason to develop this device is because the current checker which is sold on market can only monitor the voltage; that mere feature is not enough to test whether the battery is still usable or not to start a car. Existing current testers are also dangerous to use.

“That could be dangerous because it draws high current and it will deteriorate a near damaged battery based on our experience. In addition, that device is also difficult to use,” Charlie said.

This device have major benefit for drivers in that the users can check the condition of their car battery by themselves without going to service depot. Using this device, users can prevent time and financial losses caused by sudden battery drop when driving their car.

The leading features of this device are car battery diagnosis, easy use, additional info such as battery voltage and capacity, reversible installation, display of last 1000 results, synchronization with android for notifications and access to diagnosis data, and easy care where it only needs to be keep on dry place and does not need battery replacement.

There are three kind of battery indicators in this device, they are Safe, Caution, and Danger. If the device says Safe, battery is good for starting a car for a long period; if the device says Caution, user shall prepare to change battery in the near future; and if the device says Danger, users should immediately replace the battery because it is indicated as dangerous.

This device use resistance measurement technology in the battery. In its modeling, the battery is modeled as a source of voltage and internal resistance. This resistance is measured and becomes the reference to the condition of car battery, considering that ignition process draws high currents from the battery. Charging and discharging on the battery will create sulfation effect due to imperfect reaction. Hence, resistance in the battery will increase, reducing conduction current in the battery.

“We consider that the device should be portable and safe for users. Hence, we decided to use this method,” Charlie said.

Next, they hope their device can be used and beneficial for daily use. They also plan to develop CbDiag on its capability to predict battery life, which surely is helpful for drivers.

Reporter: Verdyllan Nurendra Agusta (Industrial Engineering 2016)