Battery test equipment for cells, modules and packs

A battery cycler is a programmable instrument that charges and discharges a cell, module or pack on a defined schedule while measuring voltage, current, capacity and energy. Beyond the electrical channel, a test-grade cycler also coordinates temperature, auxiliary measurements, BMS communication and simulated load profiles, so the data reflects the conditions the battery will actually see.

The voltage of the device under test (DUT) is the deciding factor. Cell systems here run at ±5 to 20 V and compete on measurement quality or channel density. Module systems run 20 to 200 V and compete on current and integration. Pack systems run 300 to 1,500 V, are regenerative by necessity at that power, and are bought largely on CAN and BMS integration and on facility fit. A pack tester is not a cell tester scaled up: resolution drops from 24-bit to 16-bit at pack scale, which is why the specification is published per class.

Accuracy is how close a reading is to the true value; precision is how repeatable it is. They are different numbers and should be published separately, never merged into one figure. For degradation work precision usually matters more, because the question is whether a small change between cycle 400 and cycle 500 is real. Resolution is a third thing again: the number of counts the converter can express, which sets the floor on what either figure can mean.

Three ways, and the right one depends on whether cells need to be at different temperatures at the same time. A third-party chamber under MITS control gives one condition to everything inside the chamber. The Arbin system can control multiple chambers at once, with cells inside the chamber synchronized to transition together. Any system can be paired with Arbin's MZTC stand-alone mini chambers for individual climate zones. The LBTS-MZTC provides an integrated cycler + chamber system with sixteen thermally isolated mini-chambers from 10 to 60 °C at ±0.5 °C. The SBTR puts a thermoelectric plate against each cell, for per-cell surface temperature on cylindrical formats.

When current or power is high and the duty cycle is long. A linear system dissipates discharge energy as heat, which the facility then has to remove. A regenerative system returns it, at 80 to >90% for the RBT-Module and Pack series. For short characterization runs the saving rarely justifies it; for channels cycling at high rate for months, it changes both the electricity bill and the cooling load.

Start with the maximum charge and discharge current, then check the lowest current you need to measure accurately, because that is what most specifications hide. A system with two or four auto-switching ranges per channel keeps the measurement meaningful across both ends of the same test.

Yes. Every system on this page is written and run in MITS, across Windows, macOS and Linux, so a schedule developed on a benchtop research channel runs on a pack tester without being rebuilt. Data from all of them lands in one format, and the Central Data Solution aggregates it across a facility rather than leaving files on individual machines.