Today was the first day of the actual Texas Instruments Battery Management Systems event. To my surprise, a couple hundred of people showed up from TI employees, a lot of customers (representatives from various companies like Bose, Google, and many others), and me as well. 🙂

The first day was a basic but still detailed introduction to the inner workings of Li-Ion technology as well as its limitations, failure modes (the gas coming from a Li-Po [lithium-ion polymer] cell contains carbon monoxide, hydrogen and a bunch of other gases), with this leading towards battery fuel gauges and why just measuring the voltage is not enough to accurately determine how full a battery is.

The day ended with a lab showcasing TI’s new Gauge Development Kit (GDK), which, in layman’s terms, is a “battery lab on a board”. It includes PC communication hardware, an adjustable charger, adjustable load and an on-board fuel gauge (but it’s set to use an external fuel gauge by default). I even got a chance to talk the TI battery management team, and even had a dinner with a few key TI guys including the one who made THE design for the GDK.