referring now to fig1 reference numeral 10 indicates a block diagram of the circuit used in the present invention . the circuit is basically comprised of a first comparator 11 used to compare a portion of the battery potential at 12 with a first reference potential 13 . a number of comparators 14 are also provided to compare the individual cell potentials 15 with second reference potentials 16 . the circuit also includes a switch 17 connected between the battery 19 and a load 18 . the switch 17 is responsive to an output signal provided by any one of the cell potential comparators 14 or battery potential comparator 11 . if one of the comparators 11 or 14 detects a decrease of potential below the specified voltage reference potential 13 or 16 , then an output signal is transmitted from the comparator having detected such a decrease to switch 17 which will then electrically disconnect the load 18 from the battery 19 . as is shown in fig1 and 2 , the battery protection circuits 10 and 20 are connected in a manner that permits the monitoring of all cells 15 which form part of the battery 19 . however , as shown at the dotted line on fig2 the circuit can also monitor the battery condition when only one cell potential 21 along with the battery potential 12 is connected . referring to the schematic drawing of fig2 it can be seen that the li / so 2 battery voltage monitor is a relatively simple circuit . the circuit is comprised of a number of comparators , transistors , diodes and resistors . in this circuit , the outputs of comparators 22 are all connected to resistor r1 and transistor q1 via diode d4 . in normal operation , all cells 15 are charged to a potential greater than 1 . 50 volts , the outputs of comparators 22 are open and r1 provides base current to q1 via d4 . should any cell potential fall below the threshold voltage , one of the above outputs will go to ground potential causing q1 to turn off . diodes d4 and d6 are used to ensure that q1 and q2 turn off should the saturation voltage of the output transistor ( not shown ) in the comparators 22 , 23 , 24 and 27 exceed the base - emitter voltage of the transistor . connected to q2 via d6 are the outputs of comparators 23 and 24 . q1 and q2 are connected in a &# 34 ; wire - and &# 34 ; configuration . that is , both q1 and q2 must be on to enable the load driver q3 and q4 . the outputs of comparators 23 and 24 , connected to q2 , were separated from the other outputs of comparator 22 to allow the circuit to be used with two types of battery configurations . a type i battery configuration has all the cell voltages available for monitoring . as shown in fig2 cells 15 and battery 19 are all connected to the circuit . the type ii battery configuration , as is shown by a dotted line in fig2 has only the most negative cell , as well as the total battery voltage , available for monitoring . to prevent false triggering , a detecting circuit formed by r14 r22 and comparator 27 , is used to distinguish between the two battery types . when the first type of battery is used , the output of comparator 27 is open . if the detecting circuit detects the presence of the second type of battery , the output of comparator 27 turns on , shorting the collector of q1 to ground . the circuit will then ignore any inputs to q1 thus preventing false triggering . the outputs to q2 are always required . the output of comparator 24 is driven by the overall battery monitor circuit indicated at 26 . this operates as a safety valve . if one or more of the cell monitors should fail , this circuit will turn off the load connected to lead 28 when the total battery voltage reaches a specified level or less . comparator 23 is connected to q2 and is also connected to the only cell 21 that is available for monitoring in both types of batteries . diodes ( d1 , d2 , d3 , d7 , d8 and d5 ) connected to the inputs of comparators 22 , 23 and 24 are all used as voltage references . the voltage at the diodes is held constant to approximately one - half of the cell shut - off voltage . the output driver stage 29 for the load is a pnp darlington pair . a darlington pair configuration was chosen in this design to provide sufficient gain for driving the load . each cell of the battery is connected across a voltage divider whose output is compared to a diode reference connected to the most negative terminal of the cell . when the output of the cell voltage divider falls below the diode reference voltage , the comparator connected to both voltages switches causing the load connection 28 to be turned off preventing further discharge of the battery 19 . the overall battery monitor circuit 26 ensures the battery load will be disconnected if the total potential falls below a preset level . this circuit is used as a backup when used with a type i battery should one of the cell monitors fail . when used with a type ii battery , this circuit is the only means of monitoring battery voltage . the circuit consists of resistors r15 , r16 and r17 , zener diode d5 and comparator 24 . the zener diode d5 was selected to be approximately one - half of the battery cutoff voltage required to ensure reliable operation of the circuit . the comparator 24 will switch when the voltage at the junction of r15 and r16 falls below the zener voltage .