This chapter gives general information on Battery Management Systems (BMS)
required as a background in later chapters. Section 2.1 starts with the factors that
determine the complexity of a BMS and shows a general block diagram. The
function of each part in a BMS is discussed in more detail in section 2.2 and
examples of adding BMS intelligence are given. The BMS aspects of two types of
portable devices are discussed in section 2.3. This serves to illustrate the theory
presented in sections 2.1 and 2.2.