JP2002190327A - Battery pack - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a battery pack which enables easily-recognizable display by using only one display element. SOLUTION: The battery pack contains a display element LED to display the use conditions of a battery including at least its remaining capacity, and also has a switch SW selecting display to blink the display element LED by the number of blinking times prescribed depending on the utilization conditions, displaying the remaining capacity. Thus it enables easier recognition for how much display level is achieved, by using only one display element LED as compared to the case of status display by changing the brightness, emission frequency, emission intervals, etc., or the extent of its variation from its previous level. Since it detects the number of times that the switch has been depressed continuously including its life or number of cycles as its own use conditions to select and display any one of the use condition depending on the switch- depressed number of times, the switch operation times clarifying the user's optional intent can be reflected to display plural states via one switch and one display element, without causing confusion.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery pack having a display element and displaying a use state of a battery including at least a remaining capacity.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Battery packs containing non-aqueous electrolyte batteries, such as nickel-metal hydride batteries and lithium-ion secondary batteries, which are small, large-capacity sealed batteries, are used in mobile phones, notebook computers, and video recorders integrated with cameras. It is widely used as a power source for portable electronic devices. In such a portable electronic device, if the remaining capacity of the battery in the battery pack is exhausted, malfunction or malfunction may occur, causing problems such as inability to secure or lose valuable information. Therefore, in the battery pack,
It is required to inform the user of the remaining capacity of the battery.

For this reason, many ordinary battery packs have a function of monitoring the remaining capacity and a function of displaying the remaining capacity. Conventional battery packs use one or more light emitting diodes to indicate the remaining capacity, and change the light emission brightness of one light emitting diode depending on the duty ratio, light emission frequency, light emission interval, etc. There have been proposed ones that display the capacity, those that display the remaining capacity by the number of light emitted by a plurality of light emitting diodes, and those that display the remaining capacity by light emission of different colors (for example, JP-A-10-16).
2862, JP-A-2000-260485).

[0004]

However, in the conventional remaining amount display method as described above, when the remaining capacity is displayed by changing the brightness of one light emitting diode or the like, it is analog and moreover, For example, when the remaining capacity is 70% and when the remaining capacity is reduced to 40%, the time is too long to compare, so there is a problem that it is difficult to recognize the previous image and the remaining image only because they are compared. .

Further, when a plurality of light emitting diodes are used, a problem arises in that a large space is required as a power source for a portable electronic device which is required to be miniaturized.
In a conventional battery pack, for example, four or more light emitting diodes were required.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display so that it can be easily recognized by one display element.

For this purpose, the present invention provides a battery pack having a display element and displaying a use state of a battery including at least a remaining capacity, including a switch for selecting a display, and selecting the display to enter the use state. The display element is turned on and off to display the remaining capacity according to the number of flashes set in accordance with the number of times the switch is continuously pressed, including the life and the number of cycles as the use state. Is detected, and one of the use states is selected and displayed according to the number of times the button is pressed.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a battery pack according to the present invention, wherein 1 is a secondary battery, LED is a light emitting diode, AMP is an amplifier, RS is a current detection resistor, Q1 is a discharge FET, Q2 is a charge FET, μP indicates a control unit, and SW indicates a switch.

In FIG. 1, a current detecting resistor RS detects a charging / discharging current I flowing through the secondary battery 1, and an amplifier AMP amplifies a minute voltage detected by the current detecting resistor RS. . The control unit μP includes an amplifier AM
The arithmetic processing for calculating the remaining capacity is performed on the basis of the minute voltage amplified by the P, and communication with an external host device is performed.
And discharge FET Q1 to control charging and discharging. The charge FET Q2 controls charging by a signal from the control unit μP, and the discharge FET Q1 controls the charge
The discharge is controlled by a signal from the controller. The light emitting diode LED displays the remaining capacity, the life, and the number of cycles by the number of blinks.
W is for selecting information displayed by the light emitting diode LED.

Next, display control will be described. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of display control of the battery pack according to the present invention. The control unit μP detects how many times the switch SW is pressed during a predetermined period as shown in FIG. 2 (Steps S11 to S13), and selectively acquires display information according to the number of times (Steps S14 to S16). The lighting control of the display element (light emitting diode LED) is performed so that each display information is displayed by the number of times of blinking (step S17).

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when the button is pressed once, the display information of the remaining capacity is obtained, and when the button is pressed twice, the display information of the life is obtained. When the button is pressed twice, the display information of the cycle number is obtained, and the lighting control of the light emitting diode LED is performed according to each display information. The lighting control displays the percentage of the remaining capacity within the range, the life within the years, and the number of cycles within the range of the number of blinks according to the display information.

For example, in the display of the remaining capacity, the remaining capacity is 0
1 blink at 25%, 2 blinks at 25-50%, 3 blinks at 50-75%, 75-100%
In this case, four blinks are assumed. In addition, in the display of the life, one blink when the life is less than one year, two blinks when less than two years, three blinks when less than three years, and four blinks when less than four years. . In the display of the number of cycles, one blink at 1 to 100 times, two blinks at 101 to 200 times, 2
Three flashes are performed when the number is from 01 to 300, four times when the number is from 301 to 400, and five times when the number is from 401 to 500. Of course, these numbers may be reversed so that, for example, when the remaining capacity decreases, the number of blinks increases.

Generally, the discharge capacity of a battery can be represented by the product of a discharge current and a discharge time. Accordingly, the total discharge capacity is obtained by converting the charging / discharging current I into a voltage by the current detection resistor RS, detecting the voltage by dividing it at predetermined time intervals Δt by the amplifier AMP, and integrating the detected current I with the control unit μP. Σ = discharge current I × time Δt). Therefore, the remaining capacity of the secondary battery 1 can be obtained by subtracting the time-integrated discharge capacity from the full charge capacity obtained by the time integration of the charging current or the full charge capacity given in advance. In the above example, the remaining capacity is divided by the full charge capacity to obtain a value of 25.
If it is ５０50%, the light emitting diode LED is set to the low level twice, and blinked twice for display.

The service life of the battery pack is calculated by subtracting the elapsed years from five years by providing a means for storing the date of manufacture of the battery pack and a means for measuring the elapsed years and setting the service life at the time of manufacture to, for example, five years. It is only necessary to calculate the service life and display according to the calculated service life.

For the number of cycles, a reference discharge capacity is set in advance, and when the battery is discharged, the discharge capacity is integrated every time the battery is discharged to calculate a total discharge capacity, and the total discharge capacity is calculated by the reference discharge capacity. Divide to calculate the number of cycles.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. For example, in the above embodiment, the light emitting diode LED is used as the display element.
Sound may be used.

[0017]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, in a battery pack having a display element and displaying a use state of a battery including at least a remaining capacity, a switch for selecting a display is provided. Since the display element is turned on and off to display the remaining capacity by the number of flashes set according to the use state by the selection operation of the switch,
Even if the number of display elements is used, it is easier to recognize how much it has changed and how much it has changed since the last time compared to displaying the state by changing the brightness, emission frequency, emission interval, etc. become. The use state includes the life and the number of cycles, detects the number of times the switch is continuously pressed, and selects and displays the use state according to the number of times the switch is pressed. It is possible to correspond to the number of times of operation of the switch having a clear intention of selection, and a plurality of states can be displayed without confusion by one switch and one display element.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a battery pack according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of display control of a battery pack according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Secondary battery, LED: Light emitting diode, AMP: Amplifier, RS: Current detection resistor, Q1: Discharge FET, Q2: Charge FET, μP: Control unit, SW: Switch

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A battery pack having a display element and displaying a use state of a battery including at least a remaining capacity includes a switch for selecting a display, and a switch set according to the use state by a selection operation of the switch. The display element is turned on and off by the number of times of blinking to display the remaining capacity. 2. The use state includes a life, detects the number of times the switch is continuously pressed, and selects and displays one of the use states according to the number of times the switch is pressed. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The use state includes a cycle number, and detects the number of times the switch is continuously pressed,
2. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein one of the use states is selected and displayed according to the number of times the button is pressed.