If your ebike’s battery has been around for a while, you’ll probably be wondering how well it’s still doing. If you knew that, you could better estimate how long it will still offer an acceptable range and when it’s time for a replacement battery. Normally, only a specialist workshop with the appropriate analysis software can give you a well-founded answer. Akku Vision has now introduced an option for its E-Bike Vision brand batteries that allows you to easily determine the condition of the energy storage system on your ebike from the comfort of your own home.
Nowadays, there are apps for many aspects of our daily lives. E-Bike Vision is keeping up with this trend and enabling you to diagnose your battery via app. Originally developed for dealers, it is now releasing its AV-Toolbox for private individuals as well. With just a few clicks, you can find out crucial details about the technical condition of your battery. In addition, the app can be used to update the battery software. Among other things, you can view the following information in the AV-Toolbox:
- State of charge
- State of health of the battery cells
- Current temperature of the battery cells
- Number of charge cycles
What do individual values express?
This information gives you a fairly detailed picture of the condition of the battery in question. In the app, the state of the battery cells is expressed by the term ‘health’. The manufacturer understands this to mean the state of aging of the battery. Converted to a value between zero and one hundred, it expresses how much its performance still corresponds to that of a new battery. In the ideal state, this would be 100 points.
The number of charging cycles could cause some slight confusion. This is because the app does not count every single charging cycle that has been started. Instead, it summarises partial cycles into complete cycles. A full cycle corresponds to a single complete charging and discharging of the battery. In this respect, the values may differ from what you would have expected at this point.
The E-Bike Vision range includes batteries for ebike systems from Bosch, Yamaha, Panasonic and Gazelle. However, the AV toolbox is only compatible with selected batteries:
- E-Bike Vision battery for Bosch Active / Performance
- E-Bike Vision battery Lite for Bosch Active / Performance
- E-Bike Vision battery for Yamaha
- E-Bike Vision battery for Panasonic Next Generation
How to operate the app
If you want to use the AV-Toolbox, you can download it now from Apple’s App Store or Google Play Store. After installation, a short registration process follows. The app is then ready to use.
To run a diagnosis, remove the battery from the ebike and connect it to the app via Bluetooth. To do this, click on the magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the app’s home screen. As soon as you switch on the battery or connect it to the charger, it should be found by the app a little later. It will then appear in the list of devices by default with the name ‘Battery_GoBT’. You can select the battery using the ‘Connect’ button.
Once the connection has been established, you can switch to the ‘Data’ page via the menu at the bottom of the app. The information on the battery’s condition that we mentioned earlier will then appear there. You can choose to display it either graphically or in table form. You can switch between the two views using the appropriate icons.
At the far right of the menu at the bottom, you will find the ‘Update’ page. This submenu is used to update the battery’s firmware.
At the beginning of the diagnosis, the AV-Toolbox must recognise your battery. If this fails, it could be due to a low battery charge. In this case, connect it to the corresponding charger and try again. Another reason could be the type of battery. If it is a model that is compatible with the Bosch drive system from 2019-2020, the battery’s Bluetooth chip probably needs an update. Akku Vision has described how to do this in a short guide.
Pictures: Akku Vision GmbH
