CN114651379A

CN114651379A - A charger

Info

Publication number: CN114651379A
Application number: CN202080071114.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 金军骞; 林宋荣; 李鹏
Original assignee: SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-09
Filing date: 2020-11-09
Publication date: 2022-06-21
Also published as: WO2022095013A1

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a charger (100), the charger (100) being for charging a battery (300), the charger (100) comprising: a main control module (101) and a plurality of power supply modules (102); each power supply module (102) in the plurality of power supply modules (102) comprises an input interface (103), and the input interface (103) of each power supply module (102) is used for obtaining electric quantity from different external power supplies (200) and supplying power to the power supply module (102) to which the input interface (103) belongs; the main control module (101) is used for controlling the plurality of power supply modules (102) to charge the battery (300).

Description

A charger

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of charging technology, and more particularly, to a charger.

Background

Due to the particularity of the application scene, the capacity requirement of the large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle, the high-power electric vehicle and other equipment on the battery is large, and therefore the battery of the equipment often has large rated charging power. However, the charger in the related art charges such batteries at a slow speed, which affects the operation efficiency and operation time of the large-sized unmanned aerial vehicle and the large-power electric vehicle.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to overcome the problem that exists among the correlation technique, realize carrying out high-power charging to the battery of equipment such as large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle, high-power electric motor car, the present disclosure provides a charger.

According to a first aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a charger for charging a battery, the charger comprising: the system comprises a main control module and a plurality of power modules; each power supply module in the plurality of power supply modules comprises an input interface, and the input interface of each power supply module is used for acquiring electric quantity from different external power supplies and supplying power to the power supply module to which the input interface belongs; the main control module is used for controlling the plurality of power supply modules to charge the battery.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can have the following beneficial effects:

in the embodiment of the disclosure, a plurality of power modules and a main control module are integrated into the same charger, and the main control module controls the output power of the plurality of power modules to charge the battery. Because every power module all has certain charging power, the integration of consequently a plurality of power modules can realize the stack of a plurality of charging power, and then can adopt under civilian power cord and the low-voltage circumstances, realize with the charging efficiency of high-voltage under the equivalence. The charging efficiency of charging the battery of the high-power equipment is improved.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without inventive labor.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a charger in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is another block diagram of the charger in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a power module according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the thermal pad, the host module and the frame;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of another configuration of a charger in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is another block diagram of the charger in an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic perspective view of a charging box according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, like numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the exemplary embodiments below are not intended to represent all implementations consistent with the present disclosure. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with certain aspects of the present disclosure, as detailed in the appended claims.

The terminology used in the disclosure is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used in this disclosure and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It is to be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various information, such information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "when … …" or "in response to a determination", depending on the context.

Currently, with the continuous development and progress of the technology in the battery field, many special batteries have a larger rated charging power, allowing them to be charged with a larger charging power. However, in the prior art, the charging power of the charger to the battery is small, which results in low battery charging rate and long charging time, and affects the working time and working efficiency of the equipment using the special batteries. For example, in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, large unmanned aerial vehicles, including agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles (e.g., plant protection machines), industrial unmanned aerial vehicles, logistics unmanned aerial vehicles, etc., have a large power amplification at work. Therefore, after unmanned aerial vehicle discharges, need charge the battery with higher charge power to the work of large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle is resumeed fast, guarantees large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle's continuity work. The lower charging power of current charger leads to large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle's continuity work to be unable to guarantee, is a pain point of present trade always. For example, in the field of high-power electric vehicles, the high-power electric vehicles, including agricultural unmanned vehicles, electric vehicles, logistics unmanned vehicles, etc., often have long one-time operation time and high battery discharge power, and when the batteries are charged by using the existing chargers, the charging speed is slow, the charging time is long, a large amount of time is spent on charging the batteries, and further the operation efficiency of the devices is very low.

In order to solve the problem that the charging power is lower that exists among the current charger, this disclosure provides a charger. The following description will be given with reference to specific examples.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a charger according to an embodiment of the disclosure: the charger 100 includes a main control module 101 and a plurality of power supply modules 102, each power supply module 102 including an input interface 103. Each input interface 103 draws power from a plurality of external power sources 200 and supplies power to the power module 102 to which it belongs. The main control module 101 controls some or all of the power modules in the charger 100 to charge the battery 300 to be charged.

Wherein, host system 101 includes main control chip, main control chip includes the treater, the treater can be Micro control Unit (Micro-controller Unit, MCU), Central Processing Unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU) or Digital Signal Processor (Digital Signal Processor, DSP) etc. in addition, host system still includes the communication Unit for communicate with other modules of charger, the communication Unit can adopt wired communication mode or wireless communication mode to communicate.

The power module 102 includes an AC-DC (alternating Current-Direct Current) power module having a communication function, and the AC-DC power module may specifically include a communication logic interface circuit, a communication transceiving self-checking circuit, and the like connected to the main control module 101. In addition, the power module 102 also has a characteristic of adjusting the magnitude of the output power signal, and can output voltages and/or currents with different magnitudes to meet the user requirement. In the present disclosure, the power module may be an AC-DC power module designed by a person skilled in the art to implement the above functions, or may also be an AC-DC voltage module in the prior art, for example, an existing communication base station power supply may be used, and the output power is generally between 2000W and 5000W, which is not limited in the present disclosure.

The battery 300 to be charged may be a power supply battery of the terminal device. The terminal device may be a high-power supply device, such as a high-power electric vehicle like an agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle, a logistics unmanned aerial vehicle, an electric vehicle, and a logistics unmanned vehicle, or may be other devices requiring a high-power battery for power supply, which is not limited herein. In some embodiments, the high power described in the present disclosure may be a power above 5000W.

The charger in the embodiment of the disclosure has a plurality of power modules, and can allow a plurality of external power supplies to supply power to the corresponding power modules through the input interface, so as to finally realize high-power output. The charger disclosed by the invention is used for charging the battery to be charged, and the problem that the charging power of the charger in the prior art is smaller can be solved.

In some embodiments, the external power source 200 shown in fig. 1 may be a household charging power source, for example, in china, a household power source with an output voltage of 220V and a frequency of 50 HZ; in the united states, there may be a residential electric power source having an output voltage of 120V and a frequency of 50HZ, and the like. Accordingly, each input interface of the plurality of power supply modules in the present disclosure is connected with a corresponding external power supply through a domestic power line. For example, the domestic power line may be a 16A AC power line.

Taking the charger of the present disclosure as an example, when two paths of 16A AC wires are used as the input wires of the charger of the present disclosure, the charger of the present disclosure can output 7000W charging power to the battery to be charged by externally connecting two external power supplies, of which the output current is 16A and the output power is 3500W. In the present disclosure, by using a domestic power line as a charging input wire, it is possible to adapt to a wide distribution range of residential power sources. When the charger disclosed by the invention is used for charging the battery to be charged, the charger has the advantages of convenience in application, low cost and safety in use.

In the prior art, the maximum power supported by the civil plug is small, taking a 16A AC power line as an example, and under the condition that the civil voltage is 220V, the maximum power supported by the civil plug is the product of the voltage and the current, and is about 3500W. In order to meet the charging requirement of the high-power device, an industrial power supply with a large output voltage is often required to charge the battery of the high-power device. Since the charging power of the industrial power supply is large and far exceeds the upper limit of the power supported by the civil plug, the industrial plug is required to be used in the charging process. However, the industrial plug has disadvantages of high price, few power supply places, and small application range due to the material, safety performance, and the like. By adopting the plurality of power supply modules, the plurality of power supply modules can acquire electric energy from an external power supply in parallel, the total input power of the charger is the superposition of the input power of the plurality of power supply modules, the total input power of the charger is improved, and further the charging efficiency equal to that of the high voltage can be realized under the condition of adopting a civil power line and a low voltage. The charging efficiency of charging the battery of the high-power equipment is improved.

In some embodiments, the input interface of each power module includes a residential outlet that is compatible with a residential power cord. Therefore, the power supply for residents, which is the power supply for the battery to be charged, can be connected with the civil socket on the charger disclosed by the invention through the civil power line, so that the input of the power supply for the charger is realized, and the battery to be charged is charged.

In some embodiments, the domestic sockets may be various standard sockets, such as C20 sockets, and may also be C13, C19, C22, and the like. These sockets differ in the current rating and in the specifications of the plug and the female socket. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the type of the household outlet may be appropriately selected according to the number of various types of plugs in a specific application site, parameters of a battery to be charged, and the like, and the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

Set up civilian socket at the input interface department through the aforesaid, provide the standard for civilian power cord inserts this disclosed charger and inserts the mouth, consequently, the charger of this disclosed embodiment can obtain the electric energy from arbitrary civilian power, has improved the application scope of charger, also is convenient for simultaneously remove the charger to suitable position and charge, and need not to charge through special industrial power supply, use this disclosure the charger when treating rechargeable battery and carry out high-power charging, have convenient to use, application scope wide, low cost's advantage.

It should be noted that the charger of the embodiment of the present disclosure may implement not only high power charging, but also normal power (e.g., below 3500W) charging. In the using process, only part of the power supply modules in the plurality of power supply modules can be accessed to an external power supply according to the charging power required by the battery to be charged, so that the compatibility of a common power charging scene is realized.

In the process of charging the battery with high power by adopting the charger, the charging safety problem is a difficult problem of the high-power charger because the charging current is large.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, each of the plurality of power modules is controlled to gradually increase the output current value according to a preset step length, so as to avoid safety problems such as damage to a charger and tripping of an external power supply due to sudden change of a charging current.

Typically the power supply modules comprise an inductive impedance, such as an inductance. In the process of charging the battery to be charged by using the charger, if a large charging current is suddenly input to the charger through the input interface, the power module easily generates spike voltage, which may cause damage to components on the charger. In order to solve this problem, in the present disclosure, the main control module of the charger may be configured to control the power module to gradually increase the current value of the output current according to a preset step length. The power module and the main control module are provided with communication submodules, and can realize the mutual communication between the power module and the main control module. The power module may be a power module in the prior art, or a power module designed by a person skilled in the art, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a charger according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Alternatively, before the charger 100 of the present embodiment is used to charge the battery 300 to be charged, the first step value of the power module current increase may be set in advance through the main control module. The first step value may be directly set as an empirical value, or may be obtained by calculation according to a relationship between the charging current of the battery and the current charging environment parameter, and the like, which is not limited in this disclosure. In each charging starting process, the main control module 101 communicates with the communication submodule 104 of the power supply module 102 through its own communication submodule C, and informs the power supply module 102 to gradually increase the current value of the output current according to a preset first step value. The communication may be wired communication or wireless communication, which is not limited by this disclosure.

Or alternatively, before the charger 100 of the present embodiment is used to charge the battery 300 to be charged, the second step value, the third step value, and the first threshold of the power module current may be set in advance through the main control module (i.e., different step sizes may be adopted in different charging phases). In each charging start process, the main control module 101 communicates with the power supply module 102 to inform the power supply module 102 to gradually increase the current value of the output current according to a preset second step value. In the current increasing process, the main control module detects whether the output current of the power supply module is greater than a first threshold, if the output current of the current power supply module is greater than the first threshold, the main control module 101 communicates with the power supply module 102 to inform the power supply module 102 to gradually increase the current value of the output current to the rated charging current of the battery to be charged according to a preset third step length value. Wherein the third step size is greater than the second step size.

In an embodiment, the preset step values may be the same or different for a plurality of power modules of the rechargeable battery, and those skilled in the art may determine the preset step values according to actual situations, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

In the disclosure, the power module of the charger is controlled to charge the rechargeable battery with a smaller charging current at the initial stage of charging start by increasing the charging current step by step, and the charging current is further increased after reaching a certain magnitude, so that the damage of the charger and the battery caused by the sudden change of the charging current is avoided.

In an embodiment, the main control module is configured to control the power module to gradually increase the current value of the output current according to a preset step by adjusting a duty ratio of a switch control signal of the power module.

As shown in fig. 3, the power module 102 includes a switch control sub-module 105 in addition to the input interface 103 and the communication sub-module 104. The switching control sub-module may vary the output current of the power module 102 by varying the duty cycle of its switching control signal. In the process of charging the battery to be charged by using the charger of this embodiment, the communication submodule of the main control module 101 communicates with the communication submodule of the power supply module 102 to inform the power supply module 102 of gradually increasing the current value of the output current according to the preset first step value, the communication submodule 104 of the power supply module 102 sends the information to the switch control submodule 105, and the switch control submodule 105 gradually increases the current value of the output current according to the preset step value by changing the duty ratio of the switch control signal of the switch control submodule 105.

In the present disclosure, the step-wise increase of the charging current is realized by adjusting the duty ratio of the switching control signal of the power module, which is beneficial to avoid the damage of the charger and the battery caused by the sudden change of the charging current.

Adopt the charger to charge to the battery, when the connecting wire of charger is ageing, have the risk of burning in charging process. In one embodiment, the master control module of the charger determines the aging state of the connecting line of the charger by acquiring the relationship between the current and the voltage of the connecting line of the charger, so as to eliminate the combustion risk in the charging process. The connecting line of the charger comprises an internal connecting line between a main control module and a power supply module of the charger, a first external connecting line between an input interface and an external power supply of the charger, and a second external connecting line between the power supply module and a battery to be charged. The relationship between the current and the voltage of the connecting line can be represented by the impedance of the connecting line or the variation relationship of the voltage of the connecting line along with the current. The following description is made in detail with reference to various embodiments.

In an embodiment, for an internal connection line between a main control module and a power module of a charger, the main control module obtains an output voltage of the power module and an input voltage of the main control module at a plurality of different moments, and further obtains a voltage on the internal connection line through a voltage difference between the input voltage and the output voltage. And on the basis of the current on the corresponding internal connecting line obtained by monitoring the main control module at the corresponding moment, judging whether the voltage of the internal connecting line is reduced along with the increase of the current, and if so, determining that the internal connecting line is aged and has safety risks such as combustion.

The main control module obtains the input voltage and the output voltage of the power module at a plurality of different moments, and the input voltage and the output voltage can be realized through a sampling circuit, and the sampling circuit can be a conventional circuit for realizing a sampling function, and is not repeated here. The plurality of different times may be times of the same time interval or times of different time intervals, and the disclosure is not limited.

In an embodiment, for an internal connection line between a main control module and a power module of a charger, the main control module obtains an output voltage of the power module and an input voltage of the main control module, and obtains an impedance on the internal connection line by combining a current on the internal connection line monitored by the main control module according to a difference value between the input voltage and the output voltage, that is, a voltage on the internal connection line, and compares the obtained impedance on the internal connection line with an impedance on a standard internal connection line to determine whether an error between the impedance on the internal connection line and the impedance on the standard internal connection line is within an abnormal range, and if so, determines that the connection line is aged, and has safety risks such as burning. The obtained impedance on the internal connection line may be a single obtained impedance value, or may be an average value of impedances obtained multiple times, which is not limited in this disclosure.

In an embodiment, for a first external connection line between an input interface of a charger and an external power supply, a main control module obtains a voltage of the input interface of the charger at a plurality of different moments, and obtains a voltage on the first external connection line according to an output voltage of the external power supply. And on the basis of the current at the corresponding input interface, which is obtained by monitoring by the main control module at the corresponding moment, judging whether the voltage on the first external connecting line is reduced along with the increase of the current, and if so, determining that the first external connecting line is aged or is an inferior wire, so that the safety risks of combustion and the like are caused.

In an embodiment, for a first external connection line between the input interface of the charger and the external power supply, the main control module obtains the voltage of the input interface of the charger, and obtains the voltage on the first external connection line according to the obtained input voltage of the charger when the charger starts to start (i.e. when the input current of the charger is approximately equal to 0). The impedance on the first external connecting line can be obtained based on the current at the corresponding input interface monitored and obtained by the main control module, the obtained impedance on the first external connecting line is compared with the impedance on the standard first external connecting line, whether the error between the impedance on the first external connecting line and the impedance on the standard first external connecting line is within an abnormal range or not is determined, and if yes, the first external connecting line is determined to be aged or poor-quality electric wire, so that safety risks such as burning are caused. The obtained impedance on the first external connection line may be a single obtained impedance value, or may be an average value of impedances obtained multiple times, which is not limited by the present disclosure.

In an embodiment, for a second external connection line between the power module and the battery to be charged, the main control module obtains the output voltage of the main control module and the voltage of the battery to be charged at a plurality of different moments, and obtains the voltage on the second external connection line based on the difference between the two voltages. And based on the input current of the corresponding battery to be charged, which is monitored and obtained by the main control module at the corresponding moment, judging whether the voltage on the second external connecting line is reduced along with the increase of the current, if so, determining that the second external connecting line is aged or is an inferior wire, and having safety risks such as burning.

In an embodiment, for a second external connection line between the power module and the battery to be charged, the main control module obtains the output voltage of the main control module and the voltage of the battery to be charged, and obtains the output voltage of the second external connection line based on a difference between the two voltages, and obtains the voltage on the second external connection line. The impedance on the second external connecting line can be obtained based on the input current of the corresponding battery to be charged, which is obtained by monitoring of the main control module, the obtained impedance on the second external connecting line is compared with the impedance on the standard second external connecting line, whether the error between the impedance on the second external connecting line and the impedance on the standard second external connecting line is within an abnormal range is determined, and if yes, the second external connecting line is determined to be aged or poor-quality wire, so that safety risks such as burning are caused. The obtained impedance on the second external connection line may be a single obtained impedance value, or may be an average value of impedances obtained multiple times, which is not limited in this disclosure.

The above describes that the main control module of the charger determines the aging state of the connecting line of the charger by obtaining the relationship between the current and the voltage of the internal connecting line, the first external connecting line and the second external connecting line of the charger. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the aging state of only one of the internal connection line, the first external connection line and the second external connection line of the charger may be determined, the aging states of any two or three of the connection lines may be determined, and even the aging states of other connection lines in the charger may be determined, which is not limited in the present disclosure.

Through the impedance detection of the connecting lines inside and outside the charger, whether the impedance value is normal or not, whether the impedance value is changed or not and the like can be determined, whether the charger and the internal and external connecting lines of the charger are aged or damaged or whether the charger and the internal and external connecting lines of the charger are poor products or not can be determined, and therefore when the charger of the embodiment is used for charging the rechargeable battery with high power, risks such as burning can be avoided, and charging safety is guaranteed.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the division of each functional module is only one logical functional division, and the actual implementation may be implemented by another division manner, for example, the switch control sub-module is divided into the main control module for implementing the adjustment of the output current of the power supply module; for another example, the input interface is used as an input module for receiving power from an external power source.

In some embodiments, at least one of the plurality of power modules of the charger and/or the master module is detachable. For the design of the charger, part or all of the functional modules in the charger can be designed into detachable modules so as to be convenient to replace.

Generally, each power module is provided with a power fan for dissipating heat of the power module. The traditional charger for high-power charging does not fully utilize the heat dissipation capacity of a power supply fan, but an additional system fan is arranged in the charger to dissipate heat of the whole charging device, so that the hardware cost is increased on one hand, and the size of the charger is increased on the other hand.

In order to solve the above problem, the charger of the present disclosure further includes a thermal pad, one end of the thermal pad contacts with the main control module, and the other end contacts with a frame of the charger, so as to conduct heat generated by the main control module to the frame.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the charger according to the present disclosure. One end of the thermal pad 106 is connected to the main control module 101, and the other end is connected to the frame 107 of the charger. Because power module 102 is from taking the fan module for self heat dissipation to guarantee power module's normal work, the heat conduction pad links to each other host system and frame, can be with the heat conduction of host system production to the frame. When the charger works, the fan module of the power supply module is started to work, so that heat can be dissipated from the machine frame, and the heat dissipation of the main control module is further realized.

Wherein, the heat conduction pad can be the silica gel heat conduction pad, also can be the synthetic graphite flake, still can be other materials that have better heat conductivility, and this disclosure does not do the restriction to this.

In this disclosure, through the heat conduction pad, with the heat conduction on the host system to the frame of charger, utilize the fan of power module from taking to dispel the heat to the charger, can reduce the volume of charger under the prerequisite that reduces the charger cost to improve the whole reliability of system.

To equipment such as plant protection unmanned aerial vehicle, its operational environment is often comparatively abominable. Under extreme environments, such as low-temperature or high-temperature scenes, the external power supply is prone to have problems of tripping, wire burning and the like, and further causes problems of circuit breaking, short circuit and the like of a power module of the charger, and even irreversible damage is caused to a battery to be charged.

Before the charger works, a user may configure a voltage threshold corresponding to each current value in advance on the main control module, or may configure a mathematical relationship between the current value and the voltage threshold, and a voltage threshold corresponding to the current value may be obtained from a certain current value, or may configure other information, so as to obtain the voltage threshold corresponding to the current value according to the current value, which is not limited in this disclosure. In some embodiments, when the charger operates, the main control module of the charger first obtains the voltage of the input power line of the charger and then compares the obtained voltage value with the voltage threshold corresponding to the current of the input power line. When the voltage of the input wire is larger than the voltage threshold value corresponding to the current of the input power line, the main control module sends a control instruction to the power module corresponding to the power line, so that the output current of the power module corresponding to the power line is reduced, the power reduction of the charger is realized, and the safety of the charger and the battery to be charged is ensured.

The output current of the power module corresponding to the power line is reduced, the main control module may send a control instruction to the corresponding power module to change a duty ratio of a switching control signal of the power module, so as to reduce the output current of the power module, or other manners, which is not limited in this disclosure.

In some embodiments, the voltage threshold may be determined based on an amount of temperature increase of the master module. Under extreme scenes, when the power supply has the problems of tripping, wire burning and the like, the temperature of the main control module can be changed. Therefore, the voltage threshold may be set to increase or decrease by a certain amount according to the temperature variation of the main control module, so as to achieve the limitation of the input power of the charger.

In some embodiments, the voltage threshold is positively correlated with an amount of temperature increase of the master module. When the power supply has the problems of tripping, wire burning and the like, the temperature of the main control module is often increased, the resistance value of the power line is increased, and therefore the voltage value corresponding to the power line is also increased. The voltage threshold may be set to be positively correlated with the temperature increase of the main control module when configured in advance.

By configuring the charger, the input power of the charger can be timely adjusted, so that the input power of the charger is limited. Therefore, even if the external power supply is tripped or burnt in some extreme scene applications, the damage of the charger and the battery to be charged can be avoided as much as possible.

In some embodiments, the charger further comprises a voltage conversion module. As shown in fig. 5, an input end of the voltage conversion module 108 is connected to one power module 102 of the plurality of power modules, and is configured to perform voltage reduction processing on the voltage output by the power module, and output the processed voltage to the main control module 101, so as to supply power to the main control module.

When the charger 100 of the present disclosure is connected to the external power source 200 to realize high-power charging of the battery 300 to be charged, the voltage output by the power module 102 is generally higher than the power supply voltage required by the main control module 101. In the prior art, an additional power supply module is usually used to provide operating voltage for the main control module 101. In the present disclosure, a voltage conversion module 108 is introduced into the main control module 101 and the power supply module 102 to perform voltage reduction processing on the output voltage of the power supply module 102, so that the processed voltage can supply power to the main control module 108. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the voltage converting module may be a voltage dropping module in the prior art, or may be a voltage converting module designed according to voltage dropping parameters, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

The voltage conversion module directly reduces the output voltage of the power supply module to realize the power supply of the main control module, so that the charger can charge the rechargeable battery with high power and supply power to the main control module, the introduction of an additional auxiliary power supply module is reduced, the cost of the charger is reduced, and the overall reliability of the charger is improved.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 6, the charger 100 further includes an interaction module 109, where the interaction module 109 is respectively connected to the main control module 101 and each power module 102 of the plurality of power modules, and is configured to send a switch control signal to the main control module 101 and each power module 102.

In some embodiments, the interactive module includes a switching circuit that is a master switch of the charger for controlling the switching of the master control module and each of the plurality of power modules. When a user performs a first interaction action with the interaction module, the switch circuit is switched on, or a starting signal is sent to the main control module and each power supply module, and the main control module and each power supply module are in a starting state; when the user performs a second interaction with the interaction module, the switch circuit is disconnected, or a closing signal is sent to the main control module and each power module, and the main control module and each power module in the plurality of power modules are in a closing state. The first interaction may be the pressing of an "on" key on the interactive module and the second interaction may be the pressing of an "off" key on the interactive module in response. In addition, the first interaction may be to switch a key on the interaction module to a first state, and the second interaction may be to switch the key on the interaction module to a second state. Of course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing is merely exemplary and that the present disclosure is not limited to the first interaction and the second interaction.

In some embodiments, the current information is saved when the master control module receives the switch control signal. For example, when the main control module receives the switch control signal to turn off the main control module, the main control module stores current setting information, where the setting information may be a step length of current increase during charging start, a preset voltage threshold of the input interface for safe charging, and the like.

In some embodiments, the interaction module includes an indication unit, and the indication unit is configured to output different indication states based on the state information output by the main control module.

The indication unit is an indicator light and may comprise, for example, an LED display unit. The LED display unit may include a plurality of LED indicators, and the plurality of LEDs may use the same color or different colors. Therefore, a plurality of LEDs and the like of the LED display unit are combined to form a plurality of different lighting modes, and the plurality of lighting modes are used for indicating the state information output by the current main control module. The state information may be charging capacity information, such as charging and charging completion, and may also be information on the number of power modules used for charging, and the like.

As shown in table one, the LED display unit may include three LED lamps, each LED lamp corresponds to a different label, for example, the LED1, the LED2, and the LED3, and the three LED lamps may be combined into different lighting manners to indicate the status information output by the main control module, where the charger includes two power modules for example.

Table 1 shows the correspondence between the lighting mode of the indicating unit and the status information outputted by the main control module

Of course, the LEDs may also display different colors to represent different status information output by the main control module. And will not be described in detail herein.

Furthermore, the indicated indication unit may also be a buzzer. Before the charger leaves a factory, technical personnel or users preset the sounding mode of the buzzer, including sounding time, sounding frequency, sounding interval and the like, and the sounding mode is used for indicating different state information output by the main control module.

Of course, the LED display unit may be combined with a buzzer or other devices to jointly represent different status information output by the main control module. And will not be described in detail herein.

By introducing the interaction module, the output state information of the main control module can be obviously indicated, and the user can judge the charging state of the high-power charging of the battery to be charged currently. When a problem occurs, the user can timely find the problem, and the damage of equipment and the waste of resources are avoided.

When in a harsh environment, the environmental information may have an effect on the charging current, the charging voltage, and the charging power of the charger. If this effect is ignored, damage to the charger and the rechargeable battery may occur.

Thus, in some embodiments, the main control module of the charger is further configured to control the output current of each of the plurality of power modules based on the environmental information and/or the state information of the battery. The method for controlling the output current of each power module may adjust the output current of the power module by controlling the duty ratio of the switching control signal of the power module, as described above.

In some embodiments, some sensor modules may be integrated in the charger to obtain charging environment information. The environment information may include: ambient temperature, ambient humidity, etc. The information such as the ambient temperature, the ambient humidity and the like can be obtained through a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor respectively.

In some embodiments, when the main control module obtains the temperature information of the current charging environment through a temperature sensor or the like, the main control module determines whether the environment temperature is lower than a preset temperature, and when the environment temperature is lower than the preset temperature, the main control module controls each power module to output an output current smaller than a preset current value.

Through the output current of the power module of the charger according to the environmental temperature, the phenomenon that the charging current is too large due to the influence of environmental parameters can be effectively avoided, and further the damage to the charger and the battery to be charged is reduced.

In some embodiments, the master control module controls the output current of each of the plurality of power modules based on status information of a battery to be charged, wherein the status information of the battery includes at least one of a present voltage of the battery, a present temperature of the battery, and an output current requested by the battery.

In some embodiments, the battery to be charged has a communication function, and can establish communication with the charger and send the current voltage of the battery and the requested output current value to the main control module of the charger. In addition, the battery to be charged can also be provided with a temperature sensing module, and the battery to be charged can send the acquired temperature information to the main control module by acquiring the current temperature of the battery to be charged and utilizing the communication function of the battery to be charged. When the main control module obtains the current voltage, the current temperature, the output current requested by the battery and other state information of the battery, the main control module can charge the battery to be charged based on a preset charging strategy. For example, when the current voltage of the battery to be charged is higher than the preset voltage threshold value at the main control module or the current temperature of the battery to be charged is higher than the preset temperature threshold value, the main control module controls each of the plurality of power modules to charge the battery to be charged with a lower output current. When the main control module receives an output current request sent by the battery to be charged, the main control module charges the battery to be charged by the output current requested by the battery to be charged.

When the charger is based on the environmental information and/or the state information of the battery, the output current of each power supply module in the plurality of power supply modules is controlled, so that the high-power charging can be carried out on the battery to be charged with the charging power which is safer and more reasonable, the safety of the charger and the battery to be charged is ensured, and the damage to equipment is avoided.

In some embodiments, the charger further comprises a plurality of slots, each slot for receiving one power module. The power supply module is placed in the slot, so that the charger is convenient to mount and dismount. When a certain power module in the plurality of power modules is damaged or fails, the damaged or failed power module can be conveniently taken out from the corresponding slot position to be replaced or maintained.

In some embodiments, at least one power module of the plurality of power modules is hot-pluggable in a corresponding slot. The hot plug means that the charger can also carry out module power supply replacement when in work. For example, if a module power supply fails during the operation of the charger, a user can pull out one failed module power supply and replace the failed module power supply during the charging process of the charger on the battery; this can save the charging time of the user greatly. The power module may be secured in the slot by screws. When a certain power module breaks down, the power module with the fault can be pulled out and replaced by rotating the screw in the process of charging the battery by the charger, so that the charging time of a user is effectively saved.

In some embodiments, an ID resistor is disposed on a main control module of the charger, and the main control module is further configured to invoke a charging control strategy to control output currents of the plurality of power modules based on a resistance value of the ID resistor. The corresponding relation between the ID resistor and the charging control strategy can be stored in the storage unit in advance, and after the main control module detects the resistance value of the ID resistor, the corresponding charging control strategy can be found and the found charging control strategy can be called. The charging control strategies may include control parameters for controlling output currents of the plurality of power modules, and each charging control strategy corresponds to a set of control parameters. In some embodiments, the ID resistor is removable and replaceable. By replacing the ID resistor, the same charger can output different output currents, so that the charger is adaptive to batteries to be charged of different models.

In some embodiments, a storage unit is disposed on the main control module and is configured to store a plurality of charging control policies for the main control module to call.

The storage unit may be an internal storage unit of the charger, such as a hard disk or a memory of the charger. The storage unit may also be an external storage device of the charger, such as a plug-in hard disk, a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) Card, a Flash memory Card (Flash Card), and the like provided on the charger. Further, the storage unit may also include both an internal storage device and an external storage device of the charger. The storage unit is used for storing the computer program and other programs and data required by the device. The storage unit may also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output. The storage unit further includes a storage medium, and the storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like.

The charge control strategy includes: controlling a charging current in a charging starting process; in an extreme environment, controlling the charging current according to the voltage value of the input interface; control of charging current based on environmental information and status information of the battery to be charged, etc. These control strategies have been described in detail above and will not be described in further detail here.

The main control module of the charger charges the battery to be charged by calling the proper charging strategy stored in the storage unit, can allow the battery to be charged with proper charging current, and can avoid the damage of the charger and the battery to be charged caused by improper charging parameters.

In some embodiments, the main control module is further configured to output alarm information when the state of the charger and/or the battery is abnormal. The main control module communicates with each module (such as a power supply module, a communication sub-module, an input power line and the like) in the charger and the battery, and can obtain the state information of the charger and the battery. When the main control module judges that an abnormal condition exists, the main control module can output alarm information to remind a user, so that the problems of the charger and the battery can be checked in time, and safety accidents are avoided. The alarm information can be displayed through an LED display unit of an interaction module of the charger, for example, the alarm information is warned through a certain specific lighting mode of the LED display unit; and a buzzer of the interactive module can give out a specific alarm sound for warning. In addition, the charger can also comprise an LCD panel, the main control module directly sends alarm information to the LCD panel, and the alarm information is displayed on the LCD panel in a text form after being coded by the LCD coding module.

The main control module outputs alarm information when the charger and/or the rechargeable battery are abnormal, so that a user can be reminded of potential safety hazards of current equipment in time, the user can check the problems in time, and various safety accidents are avoided.

In one embodiment, the charger is a charging box, that is, the charger is integrated into a box type and can be moved to an external power source to charge the battery to be charged. Most charging stations all adopt the fixed mode of filling electric pile to charge to high-power battery at present, and the embodiment of this disclosure adopts the mode of charging case, and the weight of complete machine is lighter, and convenient the removal can only solve the problem that can only charge in the fixed place among the prior art effectively.

In one embodiment, the input interface of each power module is used for obtaining commercial power from different external power sources. In the present disclosure, the charger includes a plurality of power supply modules, each of which can obtain commercial power from a different external power supply through an input interface. The charging places of the commercial power are widely distributed, so that the charger has a very wide application place. In addition, a plurality of different external power supplies simultaneously supply power to the charger, so that high-power charging of the battery to be charged can be realized, the charging time of the battery can be shortened, and the working time and the working efficiency of equipment using the battery to be charged are improved.

Referring to fig. 7, an exemplary perspective view of a charging box of the present disclosure is shown. The charging box comprises a main control module, two power supply modules (a power supply module A and a power supply module B), a machine frame, a heat conducting pad and the like.

When the charging box is used for charging the battery to be charged, the input of the two power supply modules can simultaneously acquire electric energy from an external power supply to charge the battery to be charged, the charging power is the sum of the output power of the two power supply modules, the high-power charging of the battery to be charged can be realized, and the charging time is saved.

The two power modules used may have their own power fans (not shown in fig. 7) for dissipating heat from the frame. To the heat dissipation of host system module, the charging case utilizes the heat conduction pad, is connected host system module and frame for on heat transfer to the frame that host system module produced, utilize the power fan of power module self-carrying to dispel the heat to host system module, reduced the volume of charging case, the cost is reduced.

In addition, the charging box integrates the main control module, the power supply module and the like into a box-type structure, is light and flexible, and is convenient for a user to move the charging box to various charging places for charging, such as a household.

The above structure of the charging box is only an exemplary illustration, and it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the charging box of the present disclosure may also adopt other structures, and the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

The foregoing description of specific embodiments of the present disclosure has been presented. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions or steps recited in the claims may be performed in a different order than in the embodiments and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In some embodiments, multitasking and parallel processing may also be possible or may be advantageous.

Other embodiments of the present disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. This disclosure is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following, in general, the principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

It will be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the precise arrangements described above and shown in the drawings and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

The above description is meant to be illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure and not to be taken as limiting the disclosure, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like that are within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure are intended to be included therein.

Claims

A charger, for charging a battery, the charger comprising:

the system comprises a main control module and a plurality of power modules;

each power supply module in the plurality of power supply modules comprises an input interface, and the input interface of each power supply module is used for acquiring electric quantity from different external power supplies and supplying power to the power supply module to which the input interface belongs;

the main control module is used for controlling the plurality of power supply modules to charge the battery.
The charger according to claim 1, wherein the input interface of each power module is connected to the corresponding external power source via a household power cord.
The charger according to claim 2, wherein the input interface of each power module comprises a household outlet adapted to the household power cord.
The charger of claim 3, wherein the domestic outlet is a C20 outlet.
The charger of claim 1, wherein the master control module is configured to:

and controlling a first power supply module in the plurality of power supply modules to gradually increase the current value of the output current according to a preset step length.
The charger according to claim 5, wherein the main control module is configured to:

and controlling the first power supply module to gradually increase the current value of the output current according to a preset step length by adjusting the duty ratio of the switch control signal of the first power supply module.
The charger of claim 1, wherein the master control module is further configured to:

acquiring the relation between the current and the voltage of a connecting line of the charger;

determining an aging state of the connection line based on a relationship between the current and the voltage of the connection line.
The charger of claim 7, wherein the master control module is further configured to:

and if the voltage of the connecting line is reduced along with the increase of the current of the connecting line, judging that the connecting line is aged.
The charger according to claim 8, wherein the main control module is configured to:

determining the impedance of a connection line of the charger based on the current and the voltage of the connection line;

and if the impedance of the connecting line is increased along with the increase of the current of the connecting line, judging that the connecting line is aged.
Charger as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that the impedance of the charger comprises the impedance of an external connection line of the charger and/or the impedance of an internal connection line of the charger.
The charger of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of power modules and/or the master module is removable.
The charger of claim 1, further comprising a thermal pad, one end of the thermal pad being in contact with the master control module and the other end being in contact with a frame of the charger to conduct heat generated by the master control module to the frame;

each of the plurality of power modules includes a power fan for dissipating heat for the frame.
The electrical charger according to claim 12, wherein the thermal pad is a silicone thermal pad.
The charger of claim 1, wherein the master control module is further configured to:

acquiring the voltage of an input power line of the charger;

and if the voltage of the input power line is greater than the voltage threshold corresponding to the current of the input power line, sending a control instruction to the power module corresponding to the power line so as to reduce the output current of the power module corresponding to the power line.
The charger of claim 14, wherein the voltage threshold is determined based on an amount of temperature increase of the master module.
The charger according to claim 15, wherein the voltage threshold is positively correlated to an amount of temperature increase of the master module.
The charger of claim 1, further comprising:

and the voltage conversion module is used for carrying out voltage reduction processing on the voltage output by a second power supply module in the plurality of power supply modules and outputting the processed voltage to the main control module so as to supply power to the main control module.
The charger of claim 1, further comprising:

and the interaction module is respectively connected with the main control module and each power supply module in the plurality of power supply modules and is used for respectively sending the switch control signal to the main control module and each power supply module.
The charger according to claim 18, wherein the interaction module includes an indication unit configured to:

and outputting different indication states based on the state information output by the main control module.
The charger according to claim 19, wherein the indication unit is an indicator light.
The charger of claim 18, wherein the master control module is further configured to:

and under the condition of receiving the switch control signal, saving the current information.
The charger of claim 1, wherein the master control module is further configured to:

controlling an output current of each of the plurality of power modules based on environmental information and/or state information of the battery.
The charger of claim 22, wherein the environmental information includes an ambient temperature; the main control module is used for:

and when the environment temperature is lower than the preset temperature, controlling each power supply module to output an output current smaller than a preset current value.
The charger according to claim 22, wherein the state information of the battery includes at least one of a present voltage of the battery, a present temperature of the battery, and an output current requested by the battery.
The charger of claim 1, further comprising:

and each slot is used for placing one power supply module.
The charger of claim 25, wherein at least one of the plurality of power modules is hot-pluggable in a corresponding slot.
The charger according to claim 1, wherein an ID resistor is provided on the main control module, and the main control module is further configured to:

and calling a charging control strategy based on the resistance value of the ID resistor to control the output current of the plurality of power supply modules.
The charger according to claim 27, wherein the main control module is provided with a storage unit for storing a plurality of charging control strategies for the main control module to call.
The charger of claim 1, wherein the master control module is further configured to:

and outputting alarm information when the state of the charger and/or the battery is abnormal.
The charger according to any one of claims 1 to 29, wherein the charger is a charging box.
The charger according to any one of claims 1 to 29, wherein the input interface of each power module is configured to receive mains power from a different external power source.