Electronic – Low battery detection circuit that can tell if temporary voltage dip or actual low battery

analogbatteriesdetectionlow-power

I am currently using a schmitt trigger to turn off power to non essential circuits when the battery voltage dips below a certain threshold.

The problem with this circuit is that it is dumb, i.e., it cannot tell the difference between a temporary voltage drop across the battery due to a high current load being switched on, and when the battery is actually low.

What kind of analog circuit can I add to differentiate between these two events?

Edit: I have a 12V LA battery that dips to around 8V for approx. 1 sec when I turn on a high current load.

Best Answer

What you want is a low pass filter.

A temporary dip is a high frequency event, while a real low battery is a low frequency event. If you pass this signal through a low pass filter, it will remove the high frequency events, and allow the low frequency one to pass.

Low pass filter

Increasing the value of the capacitor and resistor increases the time constant, thus decreasing the frequency threshold.

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