JPH08251098A - Portable communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent a battery from becoming suddenly depleted during a conversation by switching only a transmission which consumes a current most to an auxiliary battery when residual change of a main battery drops. CONSTITUTION: When the battery charge of the main battery 16 becomes small, a changeover switch 14 is switched according to a voltage drop caused with a large current at the time of transmission and only the transmission part 4 which consumes the current most is switched from the main battery 16 to the auxiliary battery 12. At the same time, a message urging electric charging is displayed at a display part 9 and is shown to the user. The remaining conversation time of the transmission part 4 which is calculated from the charging quantity of the auxiliary battery 12 which is fully charged and the elapsed time from the switching is shown to the user through the display part 9, etc. Then the main battery 16 begins to be charged after the auxiliary battery 12 is completely charged so that the auxiliary battery 12 begins to be used in the fully charged state without fail when the main battery is switched to the auxiliary battery 12. Consequently, the auxiliary battery can be reduced in size having small capacity or make the remaining conversation time long with the same capacity.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable battery having a rechargeable main battery serving as a main power source and an auxiliary battery serving as an auxiliary power source which is switched when the remaining battery level of the main battery falls below a predetermined value. The present invention relates to a portable communication device such as a telephone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional portable communication device disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-38057, in which (1) is an antenna, (2) is a receiving section, (3)
Is a speaker that is a receiver, (4) is a transmitter, (5) is a microphone that is a transmitter, (6) is an operation unit, (7) is a control microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as CPU), and (8) is A memory such as a RAM, (9) a display unit such as a liquid crystal display, (10) a power circuit, a main battery (11), an auxiliary battery (12), a charging circuit (13) for charging the auxiliary battery (12), It has a changeover switch (14) and a voltage regulator (15) for changing over between the main battery (11) and the auxiliary battery (12).

Next, its operation will be described. Normal,
If the main battery (11) has sufficient battery power, the main battery (11)
Is connected to the voltage regulator (15) by the change-over switch (14) and is supplied to each circuit as a power source to perform normal communication operation. The remaining battery level of this main battery (11) depends on the voltage regulator (15).
The output voltage of the CPU is monitored by the CPU (7), and when the remaining battery capacity falls below the specified value, the signal from the CPU (7) indicates that the remaining battery capacity is low and is displayed on the display unit (9), etc. At the same time, the selector switch (14) is switched to the auxiliary battery (12) side. This allows the auxiliary battery (12)
Supplies power to each circuit.

While power is supplied from the auxiliary battery (12),
When the main battery (11) is replaced with a new battery by the user or when charging from the commercial power supply circuit via another charging circuit is completed, this is detected by the CPU (7) and the changeover switch (14) is detected. Is switched to the main battery (11) side again and power is supplied from the main battery (11) to start normal operation. At the same time as the charging circuit
The auxiliary battery (12) is charged via (13).

[0005]

The conventional portable communication device is configured as described above, and the detection accuracy for detecting the remaining battery level of the main battery or less is low. Therefore, if this predetermined value is set too low, However, there was a problem that the main battery was exhausted during the call and the call was cut off during the call. Also,
If the above predetermined value is set too high, the remaining battery level of the main battery is detected to be less than the predetermined value due to the voltage drop caused by flowing a large current during transmission, and the remaining battery level of the main battery still remains. There has been a problem that the amount of electricity stored in the main battery cannot be fully consumed because the battery is switched to the auxiliary battery.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and even if the accuracy of detecting the remaining battery level of the main battery is not so high, the remaining battery level of the main battery is exhausted during the call. It is an object of the present invention to obtain a portable communication device in which the main battery does not run out and the amount of electricity stored in the main battery is sufficiently consumed.

[0007]

In the portable communication device according to the present invention, only the power source of the transmitting unit is supplied from the main battery or the auxiliary battery via the battery switching unit according to the remaining amount of the main battery, and other than the transmitting unit. The power source is configured to be supplied only from the main battery. Further, a charging means for charging the main battery after the auxiliary battery is fully charged is provided. Further, the remaining discharge time calculated from the battery capacity of the auxiliary battery is displayed on the display unit as the remaining talk time after the battery is switched by the battery switching unit, or the remaining talk time notification unit for notifying by the speaker of the receiver is provided. It is a thing.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in response to the voltage drop due to the consumption of a large current during transmission, only the power source of the transmitter is switched to the auxiliary battery when the remaining amount of the main battery remains, and the power sources other than the transmitter are Then, it is supplied from the main battery. Thereby,
It is possible to avoid disconnection of the call during the call, and further, it is possible to reduce the capacity of the auxiliary battery as compared with the conventional one in which all power is supplied from the auxiliary battery.

Further, after the auxiliary battery is used, the main battery is always charged after the auxiliary battery is fully charged. Therefore, when the auxiliary battery is switched to, the auxiliary battery is always in a fully charged state, and after switching. The discharge time during which the call can be made becomes constant and clear. Furthermore, since the remaining discharge time calculated from the battery capacity of the auxiliary battery is notified to the user by the remaining call time notification means, it is not suddenly cut off during the call.

[0010]

【Example】

Example 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, (1) is an antenna, (2) is a receiving section, and (3)
Is a speaker, (4) is a transmission unit, (5) is a microphone, (6) is an operation unit, (7) is a CPU, (8) is a memory, (9) is a display unit, (1
Reference numeral (0) is a power supply circuit, (12) is an auxiliary battery, and (14) is a changeover switch which is a battery changing means. The above is the same as the conventional example shown in FIG. (16) is the main battery which is a rechargeable secondary battery, (17) is the charging terminal (18) connected to the output terminal of the charger.
a) A charging circuit that supplies the charging current from (18b), and (19) is a changeover switch that connects the charging circuit (17) to the main battery (16) and the auxiliary battery (12) and charges together with the charging circuit (17). Constitutes a means. (20) is a voltage detection unit that detects the voltage of the main battery (16) and auxiliary battery (12) and inputs it to the CPU (7), and (21) is a transmission unit
Other than (4), the voltage regulator for the power source for the power source, and (22) is the voltage regulator for the power source for the transmitter (4).

Next, the operation will be described. Antenna (1)
The received radio waves are detected by the receiving unit (2) and output as voice from the speaker (3). Also, the voice input from the microphone (5) is radiated from the antenna (1) after being modulated by the transmitting unit (4) and converted into a specified frequency and output power. On the other hand, this portable communication device uses the CP based on various information input by the user through the operation unit (6).
It is controlled by U (7) to control the communication operation. further,
Some information for the user is displayed from the CPU (7)
It is output to (9) and displayed. The above is the operation of the normal portable communication device.

Next, the power supply operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment. First, when the main battery (16) has a sufficient remaining battery capacity, the changeover switch (14) is connected to the side a and all the power is supplied by the main battery (16). Then, communication is performed in step (S1), and in step (S2), the voltage of the main battery (16) detected by the voltage detection unit (20) and input to the CPU (7) is read out to the CPU (7). Then, in step (S3), it is determined whether or not the read main battery voltage is equal to or higher than a prescribed value and there is a sufficient battery remaining amount (main battery remaining amount detecting means). If the main battery (16) has enough battery power,
Returning to step (S1), normal communication operation is performed.

The main battery (16) becomes low in battery power, and a large voltage drop occurs due to a large current by the transmitter (4) during transmission, which is detected by the voltage detector (20) and the detected voltage is regulated. If it is less than the value, step (S3) to step (S4)
The changeover switch (14) is switched from the a terminal to the b terminal, and only the power source of the transmitter (4) with a large current consumption is the main battery.
(16) is switched to the auxiliary battery (12) (battery switching means). At the same time, in step (S5), the CPU (7) displays a message such as "charge the battery" on the liquid crystal display of the display unit (9), or the receiving unit (2) causes the speaker (3).
The user is notified by voice. At this time, the power source other than the transmitting unit (4) is still supplied from the main battery (16). Therefore, unlike the conventional case, the instantaneous power failure of the CPU (7) at the time of battery switching does not occur.

Next, in step (S6), the CPU (7) calculates in advance from the charge amount (battery capacity) of the auxiliary battery (12) when it is fully charged, and the transmitter () stored in the memory (8). The power supply available time of 4), that is, the remaining call time is read, and the step (S
In 7), the remaining call time is displayed on the display unit (9) and the user is notified by voice through the speaker (3) (remaining call time notification means). This remaining call time is subtracted with the passage of time in the CPU (7), and until the remaining call time 0 is detected in step (S8) or the end of communication is detected in step (S9), the display unit (9) Or the speaker (3). When the remaining call time 0 is detected, the power supply from the auxiliary battery (12) cannot be performed anymore, so the call end is notified to the user through the display unit (9) and the speaker (3) in step (S10), In step (S11), the communication line is cut off.

On the other hand, when charging, the changeover switch (19)
Is always connected to the b side, and the auxiliary battery (12) is always charged when the charging terminals (18a) and (18b) are connected to the charger. When the auxiliary battery (12) is charged to full charge, the full charge voltage of this auxiliary battery (12) is detected by the voltage detection unit (20).
Is detected and input to the CPU (7), the selector switch (19) is switched to the side a, and charging of the main battery (16) is started. That is, the auxiliary battery (12) is always in a fully charged state after use, and the auxiliary battery (12) is depleted due to a decrease in the battery level of the main battery (16).
When it is switched to, the use is always started from the fully charged state, so the remaining call time at the time of switching can be calculated in advance and stored in the memory (8).

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, only the power source of the transmitting unit is switched to the auxiliary battery when the remaining amount of the main battery remains due to the voltage drop due to the consumption of a large current during transmission. Since the power supply other than the transmitter is configured to be continuously supplied from the main battery, it is possible to avoid disconnection during a call, and to use the same capacity as the conventional one in which all power is supplied from the auxiliary battery. There is an effect that the callable time after switching to the auxiliary battery can be extended, and the capacity of the auxiliary battery can be reduced and downsized for the same callable time after switching.

Further, after the auxiliary battery is used, the main battery is always charged after the auxiliary battery is fully charged. Therefore, when the auxiliary battery is switched to, the auxiliary battery is always fully charged. Therefore, there is an effect that the remaining battery level of the battery is clear and the discharge time during which communication is possible after switching is clear.

Further, since the remaining discharge time after switching to the auxiliary battery, which is calculated from the battery capacity of the auxiliary battery, is configured to be informed to the user by a display or voice, it may be suddenly cut off during a call. It has the effect of disappearing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional portable communication device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 antenna, 2 receiving unit, 3 speaker, 4 transmitting unit, 7 CPU (control unit), 9 display unit, 10 power supply circuit, 11, 16 main battery, 12 auxiliary battery, 14 changeover switch (battery changing means), 17 charging Circuit (charging means), 19 Changeover switch (charging means), 20 Voltage detector.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A transmission unit, a reception unit, a control unit, a display unit, a rechargeable main battery, a rechargeable auxiliary battery having a smaller capacity than this main battery, and a battery remaining amount of the main battery or less is detected below a predetermined value. In the portable communication device provided with the main battery remaining amount detecting means and the battery switching means for switching the output terminal from the main battery to the auxiliary battery in response to the detection of the main battery remaining amount less than a predetermined value by the means, the transmitting unit The portable communication device is characterized in that the power source is supplied from the main battery or the auxiliary battery via the battery switching means, and the power source other than the transmitting unit is supplied only from the main battery. 2. The portable communication device according to claim 1, further comprising charging means for charging the main battery after the auxiliary battery is fully charged. 3. A remaining call time notification means for displaying the remaining discharge time calculated from the battery capacity of the auxiliary battery as a remaining call time after battery switching by the battery switching means on the display unit or for notifying by a speaker of the receiving unit. The portable communication device according to claim 2, further comprising: