CA1201163A - Rechargeable battery system - Google Patents

Rechargeable battery system

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Publication number
CA1201163A
CA1201163A CA000425668A CA425668A CA1201163A CA 1201163 A CA1201163 A CA 1201163A CA 000425668 A CA000425668 A CA 000425668A CA 425668 A CA425668 A CA 425668A CA 1201163 A CA1201163 A CA 1201163A
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
battery
connection
cells
casing
bridge rectifier
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
CA000425668A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Peter F. Barker
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to CA000425668A priority Critical patent/CA1201163A/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1201163A publication Critical patent/CA1201163A/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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  • Charge And Discharge Circuits For Batteries Or The Like (AREA)
  • Battery Mounting, Suspending (AREA)

Abstract

Abstract of the Invention Rechargeable Battery System A rechargeable battery comprises a casing intended to f it into the space occupied by one or more dry batteries, the casing containing one or more nickel cadmium cells, a charging unit for the cells and means for connecting the charging unit to a supply of electricity.

Description

Rechar~eable ~attery System This invention relates to a rechargeable battery system.

There are a large number of applications today in which dry cells are used. Such applications include lanterns and torches, various transistorised apparatus such as radios, cassette recorders, radio-controlled models.

One of the major problems existing with dry batteries is the fact that they have a short life and are relatively expensive to replace, particularly at short regular intervals. Another disadvantage of the dry cell resides in its use in apparatus which are not operated regularly but are merely used for standby purposes. With these the problem resides in the fact that when a dry cell gets old, there is a significant tendency for it to leak, thus not only making a nasty mess, but also causing signific~nt destruction to the apparatus in which it is situated.

One proposal for getting round both these problems is the replacement of dry batteries by nickel cadmium cells of similar capacity. These cellq are rechargeable and thus do not require to be replaced when they become di~charged. As a result the cells have a particularly long life, an~ are not sub~ect, due to their different construction, to the leaking of dangerous chemicals as they age. ~owever, s~ch replacements are not entirely satisfactory since, if they are to be used as straight dry battery replacements, they require to be removed and individually recharged in an exterior ch3rger provided for this purpose. Particularly, where a nu~ber of ce]ls are required, this increases substantially the time necessary to recharge the batteries and the time in which the particular piece of apparatus is non-operational. The provision of individual batterycharges is expensive and, if travelling is involved by the user of the apparatus, either the charger must be carried around as well as the apparatus or the risk of discharging the batteries rendering the apparatus un-useable occurs. Furthermore, where the user of the apparatus travels between countries, a different charger is required on ~any occasions in the different countries since the electricity supply provided varies from country to country.
Another proposed solution has been to provide apparatus in which the nickel c~dmium batteries are built into the apparatus and a charging arrangement has also been built in. This however has the disadvantage tha~ if one wishes to change over from battery operated apparatus to rechargeable apparatus, then it is neces~ary to scrap the original apparatus an~ buy new ones. Thus perfectly good apparatus has to be s~rapped for an apparat~s which is considerably more expens;ve and which is totally vulnerable to any failure on any part of the cell and charging ~ystem. Furthermore, ~recharging can normally only be carried out with a specific mains supply.

The present invention seeks to provided a rechargeable battery in which some or all of the above disadvantages are obviated or reduced.

According to the invention, there is provided a rechargeable battery comprising ~ casing designed to fit into a space occupied at present by one or more batteries; one or more nickel cadmium cells in said caqing, a ~harging unit in said casing connected to said nickel cadmium cell or cells and connecting means for connecting said charging unit to a supply of electricity.

Preferably the casing is dlvided into two compartments by a partition, one compartment housing the nickel cadmium cells and the other comPartment housing the charging unit. The connecting means ~or the charging unit may comprise a connector socket opening to the exterior of the casing.
Preferably the charging circuit is of the constant current type and may be constructed to operate either on a.c or d.c.

The construction may also be such that the charger is able to work on virtually any known electricity supply, for example ranging from 12volts d.c. up to 250volts aDc.

Where the construction of the apparatus permits, the rechargeable ba~teries may be charged in situ without the necessity of removing them from the apparatus.

The invention will now be desceibed ln greater detail, by way of example, with re~erence to the drawings in which -Figuee 1 is a diagrammatic view showing thelayout of a rechargeable battery in accordance with the invention which is intended to replace 2 U2 type dry cells;

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view showing a suitable layout of a rechargeable battery in accordance with the invention intended to replace a type 996 lantern battery:

Figure 3 is a circuit diagram showing a suitable form of charging circuit for use with the rechargeable batteries in accordance with the invention, and Figure 4 is a fragmentary view of one ~oem of inductive coupling ~or connection of the charging circult with the mains.

Referrin~ firstly to Figure 1, the rechargeable battery comprises an exterior casing 1 of insulating material, for example, havin~ the shape of two series connected U2 dry cells. To this end the casing has a positive bubble type terminal 2 a~ one end and a negative flat terminal 3 at the other end. The casing 1 is divided into two, by a partitioning wall 4.
To one side of this parti~ion wall ~the left side of the drawing) two series connected nickel cadmium cells 6 are housedO Because of the increase in efficiency of the nickel cadmium cells, the two cells 6 wlll provide the effective equivalent of the dry batteries which they are replacing. This capability enables the nickel cadmium cells 6 to be located in only one half of the casing. ~ne other half of the casing carries recharging system 8 for the nickel cadmium cell 6. As can be seen, the charger 8 is arranged on a circuit board lO which lie~ longitudinally in the casing and has at one end a mains socket 11 ex~ending to the exterior of the casing 1 in the middle area thereof. This socket is connectable to the mains supply by a suitable ~lex. The circuit board 10 also mounts all the components necessary for providing the charging operation, the circuit details of which will be described in connection with Figure 3. In the charger illustrated diagrammatically, in Figure 1, there can be seen a transformer 14 a regulatlng transistor 15 and other components.

Figure 2 shows the invention as applied to a different type of battery, in this case a type 9~6 square section battery which is usually used as a lantern battery. In this case, four nickel cadmium cells 6 are used, only two of which are shown. The arrangement is generally similar to the battery shown in figure 1, comprising a casing 1 divided by a partition 4, the upper part housing the nickel cadmium cells 6 and the lower part housing the charging circuit 8.

In the present battery, both positive and negative terminals are in the form ~f spring contacts 20 and 21 respectively extending from the top 22 of the casing 1. As a result, the mains socket 11 is si~ua~ed in the base 23 of the battery and is located in the middle of the circuit board 10.

Figure 3 shows a suitable circuit for charging the nickel cadmium cells 6 of the batteeies shown in figures 1 and 2. In this respect~ however, it will be noted that the circuit shown has an additional feature of being also chargeable from a d.c. source.

In the circuit shown, a main~ input 30 is connected to the primary of a step down transformer 32 (shown in figures 1 and 2 at 14). The secondary of this transformer 32 is connected to opposite corners o~ a bridge rectifier 33. The positive corner of ~he rectifier is connected through a diode 34 to the positive terminal of the nickel cadmium cells, one of which is shown at 35, this positive terminal al~o being connected to the positive terminal 36 of the battery.
The negative corner of the bridge rectifier 33 is connected to t~e emitter of a control transistor 38 (shown in figures 1 and 2 at 15) via an emitter resistor 39, the collector of the transistor 3~ being connected to the nega~ive terminal of the nickel cadmium cell~ 35 and thus on to the negative terminal 40 of the battery. The base of the transistor 3~ is connected to the series connection of a pre-set variable resist~r 41 and two diodes 42 and 43, which series connection i5 connected directly across the d.c.
output corners of the bridge rectifier 33.

A d.c. input 46 is also provided for enablin~
charging from a d.c. source. This input i5 in the form 3Q of a coaxial jack socket with an associated switch 47 which isolates the secondary of the transformer from the d.c. source when the jack plug is in position. The input leads from the d.c. input are thu~ connected to the a.c. corners of the bridge rectifier, thus ensuring that, whichever way the d.c. input is poled, the nickel ~admium cells are still charged with the correct polarity.

It will be seen that with suitable values of the components, the circuit provides constant current charging ~nd will enable the battery to be charged from almost any available supply of electricity. Thus, for e~ample, 240 and llOv a.c. mains can be used as well as a 12volt d~cO source.

It is desirable if, dueing the condu~tion o~
the battery the cells and the charging apparatus are potted in a suitable resin for both security and stabil ity.

Figure 4 shows one example~ schematically of the possibility of providing an inductive mains connection for the charging circuit instead of the necessity of providing a lead connection with this arrangement, the mains transformer 32 (Fig.3) is 3plit into two, only the secondary winding being present in the battery, the prîmary winding being separated from the secondary winding and being provided in a mains connection unit.

Thus, as shown in Figure 4, a mains unit Sl is provided with a seating 52 which i5 surrounded by the primary winding 53 of the transformer. The seating 52 is shaped to receive the bottom end 54 of the battery housing 55. As seen a secondary winding 56 is located at this point of the battery housing together with the transformer core 57.

As an alternative to the arrangement shown, it is possible to provide an upstanding core of the ma~ns unit which extends into a recess in the battery housing so as to locate the ~wo halves of the transformer. In another example, two partial cores are prov$ded, one for each winding and the two cores are merely juxtaposed for charging purposes.

As stated previously, the present rechargeable battery may take the place of a single ba~tery where the apparatus use~ a single battery or may take up the area of two or more or~ginal dry batteries in an - arrangement which occupies ~he same shape as the original dry cells. Where the apparatus require a number of dry cells in certain circumstances, these may be replaced by an equal number of rechargeable nickel cadmium cells, each with their built-in charger as referred to above.

2Q It will be appreciated that various modifications can be made to t~e above described embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the invention may be u~ed in any circumstances where one or more dry batteries are used provided that the dry battery or the combination of batteries provides sufficient room ~or housing the nickel cadmium cells and the charging apparatus. While it may be usual to remove the batteries for recharging, where the apparatus in which they are used permits, they may be charged in situ without harming the appa r a tus .

~n auto~atic circui~ breaker would be provided to guard 3gainst overloads~ This could operate on a 9 ~

thermal basis if required. So as to avoid the necessity of manual resetting, the breaker could be constructed to reset once the overload condition is removed.

The switch contact 47 of the charging unit can be omitted, thus cutting out all mechanical moving parts. In this case two bridge rectlfiers would be provided, connected in parallel, ~he low voltage input being connected, for example to the aOc. input of the second bridge rectifier. In this way it can be ensured that the load is automatically isolated.

The exact charging circuit can of course be varied as circumstances dictate, there being a number of possible variations in known charging circuits which could be applied here. The location of the various parts of the rechargeable battery can be varied in respect to the casing and casing of any desired shape may be used.

Claims (8)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property of privilege is claimed, are defined as follows:
1. A rechargeable electric battery comprising a casing with external terminals of standard dry-battery dimensions, the casing containing one or more nickel-cadmium cells and a constant-current charging unit connected to the cell or cells; wherein first terminal means for a.c. external supply are connected to a step-down transformer, the output of which, and a second terminal means for d.c. external supply, is connected to a bridge rectifier, and wherein the charging unit employs a feedback circuit to maintain constant current charging.
2. A battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein the casing is divided into two compartments by a partition, one compartment housing the nickel cadmium cells and the other compartment housing the charging unit.
3. A battery as claimed in claim 2 wherein a d.c. connection is provided having means for disconnecting the a.c. connection when the d.c.
connection is made.
4. A battery as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the d.c.
connection comprises a jack connection incorporating a cut off switch for the a.c. connection.
5. A battery as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the a.c. connection is inductive and comprises the core and secondary winding of the transformer, the primary winding being carried by a mains connection element.
6. A battery as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the feed-back circuit comprises a transistor whose collector-emitter path is connected between the negative pole of the bridge rectifier and the negative terminal of the nickel cadmium cell or cells, the base of the transistor being connected to a series connection of a preset variable resistor and two diodes between the resistor and the diodes, the series connection being connected directly across the d.c.
output from the bridge rectifier.
7. A battery as claimed in claim 1 wherein the output of one bridge rectifier, and the second terminal means is connected to the input of a second bridge rectifier, the outputs of the two rectifiers supplying the charging unit.
8. A battery as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the contents of the casing are potted in resin.
CA000425668A 1983-04-12 1983-04-12 Rechargeable battery system Expired CA1201163A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA000425668A CA1201163A (en) 1983-04-12 1983-04-12 Rechargeable battery system

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA000425668A CA1201163A (en) 1983-04-12 1983-04-12 Rechargeable battery system

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1201163A true CA1201163A (en) 1986-02-25

Family

ID=4124994

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA000425668A Expired CA1201163A (en) 1983-04-12 1983-04-12 Rechargeable battery system

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CA (1) CA1201163A (en)

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