JP2003178731A - Battery pack - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a battery pack freely detachably mounted to a small-sized electric apparatus 1 like a portable telephone which can independently perform an authentication of an individual or an apparatus, or payment of fee regardless of the operating state of the small-sized apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: An ID information memory means 2 and a data communication means 4 are housed in a battery case 18 of the battery pack 36, and the battery pack is made to operate independently, and it is made so that various data can be exchanged between the memory means 2 and external apparatus 3 through the communication means 4. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery pack for supplying electric power to various small electric devices such as mobile phones and portable information devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a battery pack of this type is generally designed to have its standard set individually for each small electric device to which power is to be supplied, and is designed exclusively for that device. Further, there is also proposed a battery pack integrally provided with a charging / discharging control means so that the current capacity of the battery can be determined by the battery pack alone.

[0003]

However, all the conventional battery packs have a function only as a subordinate of a small electric device to be connected, and have no function apart from the small electric device. .

On the other hand, as a result of consideration by the present inventors, the battery pack itself is provided with an information storage means and a data transfer means, and the battery pack is regarded as an accessory of a small electric device. We have found that it can be transformed into an independent entity that controls various data processing devices such as small electric devices.

The present invention has been made on the basis of the above-mentioned findings. The battery pack is provided with an information storage means and a data transfer means, and the battery pack alone can perform data transmission with an external device. By
It is an object of the present invention to provide a battery pack that can perform authentication or charge payment operation for an individual or a device, apart from the operation time of a connected small electric device.

[0006]

A battery pack 36 according to the present invention stores a battery 11 in a battery case 18 as shown in FIG. It is detachably provided in the main body case 12 of the electric device 1, and the driving time of the small electric device 1 can be regulated by supplying electric power from the internal battery 11 to the connected small electric device 1. Is.

Further, in the battery case 18, various information storage means 2, an external device 3 having a data processing means 6 and a communication means 4 capable of passing data between the storage means 2 and the storage means 2 described above. It is equipped with. Then, by turning off the main switch of the small electric device 1 or removing the battery pack 36 from the main body case 12, the power supply from the battery 11 in the battery case 18 to the small electric device 1 is restricted or stopped. Also, it is characterized in that the communication means 4 can be used to exchange data with the battery pack alone.

The information stored in the storage means 2 includes information for identifying the other party of the data communication in the external device 3 described above. In addition, the identification information includes at least one of data that specifies the battery pack 36, data that specifies the small electrical device 1 to which the battery pack 36 is connected, and data that specifies an individual who holds the battery pack 36. Is preferred. Further, the data for specifying an individual can include information for specifying the payment state of the charge such as a prepaid card or a debit card.

As the external device 3 for exchanging data with the storage means 2 described above, the small electric device 1 for supplying driving power from the battery pack 36 is set, and the battery pack 36 is set.
Is connected to the small electric device 1 via, for example, the electrodes 35, 35, and at the same time, the small electric device 1 is started and necessary information is sent from the storage means 2 to enable initialization. be able to. Further, the battery 11 may be a secondary battery, and the charge / discharge control means 5 capable of controlling charging and discharging of the battery 11 may be integrally stored in the battery case 18.

[0010]

As described above, the present invention is provided with the information storage means 2 and the data communication means 4 in the battery pack 36, and enables the data transmission with the external device 3 by the battery pack alone. As a result, it is possible to perform the authentication of individuals or devices or the payment of charges separately from the operation timing of the connected small electric device 1.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A battery pack 3 according to the present invention will be described below.
6 shows an example in which a power source for a mobile phone is implemented as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to various portable information terminals using a battery as a drive source such as a pocket type personal computer. Needless to say, the same can be done for the same.

The mobile phone 10 has a flat rectangular box-shaped main body case 12 on the front side, as shown in FIG.
A display unit 15 including a display screen 13 formed by a liquid crystal display plate and a speaker 14, and an operation unit 17 including a keyboard 33 and a microphone 34 are provided. Further, on the back side, a battery pack 36 in which the secondary battery 11 is built in the battery case 18
Is detachably attached via the electrode 35,
Electronic circuits 16 necessary for control are stored in the main body case 12 and the battery case 18 in a distributed manner.

FIG. 3 schematically shows the functions of the electronic circuit 16 built in the mobile phone 10 as hardware. The transmitter / receiver 19 has a basic transmission / reception function of the mobile phone 10. In addition, various functions to be described later are realized by the control operation using the software stored in the control unit 20 and the storage unit 21 having the one-chip microcomputer at the center of control. Since the basic circuit configuration of the mobile phone 10 is substantially the same as that of the conventional multifunctional phone, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the present embodiment, the secondary battery residual capacity monitoring section 22 is further provided in the battery case 18 described above so that the residual capacity of the secondary battery 11 can be grasped in real time.

Here, FIG. 4 is a block diagram mainly showing a structure relating to charging / discharging of the secondary battery 11 in the battery case 18 in order to clarify the structure of the battery remaining amount monitor 22 in FIG. The output voltage from the secondary battery 11 is applied to each of the above-mentioned parts via the discharge circuit 24 whose operation is controlled by the control circuit 23, so that the electronic circuit 16 normally operates with the secondary battery 11 as a driving power source. Operate.

Further, 1 output from the commercial AC power supply 25
The commercial AC voltage of 00 to 200 V is converted into a low-voltage DC voltage by the AC-DC converter 26, and then is supplied to the electronic circuit 16 in the main body case 12 via the detachable connector 27 provided on the lower surface of the main body case 12. Is applied.

The DC voltage sent from the outside of the main body case 12 makes it possible to supply drive power to each part of the electronic circuit 16 in place of the secondary battery 11, and at the same time, is charged by the charging circuit 28 controlled by the control circuit 23. By applying voltage to the secondary battery 11 while controlling the voltage and the charging current, the secondary battery can be operated up to a predetermined charging rate while grasping the accurate remaining battery capacity of the secondary battery 11 in cooperation with the discharge circuit 24 described above. 11 can be charged.

The battery remaining amount monitoring section 22 includes a charging current sensor 29 for detecting the magnitude of the charging current and a charging circuit 28.
In addition, a discharge current sensor 30 that can detect the magnitude of the discharge current is provided in each of the discharge circuits 24, and a control circuit 23 that controls the entire battery remaining amount monitor 22 is provided. The current remaining battery capacity can be calculated in real time by controlling the charge / discharge amount for the secondary battery 11 based on the above, and at the same time, for example, integrating the detected charge / discharge current.

Further, according to the present invention, the memory circuit 31 and the data communication section 37 are integrally built in the battery case 18,
It is characterized in that various ID information stored in the storage circuit 31 can be passed through the data communication unit 37 to various data processing devices provided outside the battery pack 36.

Here, the memory circuit 31 includes a rewritable memory element such as a flash memory or a RAM backed up by a battery, and data can be written into and read from the memory element by the battery pack alone and consumed. Use a circuit configuration that minimizes power consumption.

As the ID information stored in the storage circuit 31, battery pack information that can identify the battery pack itself and electrical equipment that identifies the mobile phone 10 to which the battery pack 36 is connected and driven. It is composed of information and personal information that identifies an individual who holds the mobile phone 10. The ID information is written or data is updated in the memory circuit 31 before or during the use of the battery pack 36, and any data can be taken out of the battery pack 36 as needed. There is.

Here, as the battery pack information, in addition to basic data such as the serial number, manufacturing date, or rated value of the battery pack 36, load characteristics, temperature characteristics, or temperature characteristics of the unit cells constituting the built-in secondary battery 11 or The battery case 18 is not limited to the main body case 12 during charging and discharging, such as the battery characteristic data required to calculate the charging and discharging amount such as deterioration characteristics, the battery remaining amount during charging and discharging, and the time at that time. It contains various data necessary for estimating the change in the remaining capacity of the battery even after removal.

Next, as the electric equipment information, the battery pack 3
6, basic data such as the types of devices that can be connected, an ID number that uniquely identifies the currently connected small electrical device,
It includes various data such as functions or power consumption that can identify the small electric device.

The personal information includes, in addition to bibliographic information for identifying an individual such as name and date of birth, an ID number for entering a building or room or operating a specific device,
It includes data for payment of fees for prepaid devices such as automatic ticket gate systems and vending machines.

Note that the above description of the ID information is an example, and the data content is not limited, such as storing only a part of it or storing other related data.

When the battery pack 36 having the above structure is mounted on the mobile phone 10, the memory circuit 31 in the battery pack 36 is
Initialization of the battery remaining amount monitoring unit 22 or the control unit 20 on the main body case 12 side by using the electric device information and the battery pack information stored in the storage device enables detection of full charge of the secondary battery 11 and charge / discharge amount. The accumulating operation is performed in correspondence with the mobile phone 10 and the secondary battery 11 that are actually used.

Further, the calculated remaining battery capacity and its time are constantly stored in the memory circuit 31. For example, when the battery case 18 is once removed from the main body case 12 and then attached again, it is being removed. The self-discharge amount is estimated from the elapsed time and the discharge characteristic, and the self-discharge amount is subtracted from the battery remaining capacity before the battery case 18 is removed to correct the current capacity.

Further, the ID information stored in the storage circuit 31 of the battery pack 36 can be sent to the external device 3 via the data communication section 37. Here, the data communication unit 37
It is a general-purpose or special-purpose device such as “Bluetooth” that enables data communication in a short-distance wireless state by radio waves, infrared rays, ultrasonic waves, or the like, or data transmission by wire through the electrodes 35. ,
By providing the data communication unit 37 in both the battery pack 36 and the external device 3, it is possible to exchange data with each other.

It should be noted that predetermined data processing can be performed by passing ID information such as a device requiring a prepaid function such as an automatic ticket gate or a vending machine, or an individual authentication system when entering a building or room. If possible, the type of the external device 3 or the type of ID information to be transferred is not limited.

Further, the battery remaining amount monitor 22 is connected to the battery case 1
Instead of being provided inside 8, it is also possible to house and deploy in the main body case 12 of the small electric device 1. In this case, the battery remaining amount monitoring unit 22 in the main body case 12 is
Necessary data is read into the main body case 12 from inside 8 and a predetermined control operation is performed. Of course, data other than the charge / discharge information can be read from the battery pack 36 side and used for other control.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a basic configuration of a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example in which the present invention is applied to a mobile phone.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of an electronic circuit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a battery remaining amount monitoring unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Small electrical equipment 2 storage means 3 External equipment 4 Communication means 5 Charge / discharge control means 6 Data processing means 10 mobile phones 11 Secondary battery 12 body case 13 Display screen 14 speakers 15 Display 16 electronic circuits 17 Operation part 18 battery case 19 Transmitter / receiver 20 Control unit 21 Memory 22 Battery level monitor 23 Control circuit 24 discharge circuit 25 Commercial AC power supply 26 AC-DC Converter 27 connectors 28 Charging circuit 29 Charging current sensor 30 discharge current sensor 31 Memory circuit 33 keyboard 34 microphone 35 electrodes 36 battery pack 37 Data Communication Department

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Masato Suzuki             Hitachi Ma, 1-88, Torora, Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Kucsel Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5B011 DA06 DB16 DB26 EA05 EA10                       HH02                 5H040 AA39 AS13 AY04 AY08 DD00                 5K011 DA26 DA29 JA01                 5K067 AA21 BB04 BB21 DD17 EE02                       KK05

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A battery case is accommodated in a battery case, the battery case is detachably attached to a main body case of a small electric device, and electric power is supplied from an internal battery to the connected small electric device. A battery pack capable of controlling the drive timing of the small electric device, further comprising: a storage unit for storing various information in the battery case, and an external device including a data processing unit and the storage unit. A communication unit capable of transmitting and receiving data is integrally provided, and it is possible to pass the data by the communication unit in a state in which the power supply from the battery in the battery case to the small electric device is limited or stopped. Battery pack to be used. 2. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein the information stored in the storage means includes information for identifying the other party of the data communication in the external device. 3. The identification information includes at least one of data specifying a battery pack, data specifying a small electric device to which the battery pack is connected, and data specifying an individual holding the battery pack. The battery pack according to claim 2. 4. The battery pack according to claim 3, wherein the data for specifying the individual includes information for specifying a charge payment state. 5. The external device is a small electric device to which a battery pack supplies driving power, and at the same time when the battery pack is connected to the small electric device,
The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein the small electric device is started and at the same time, necessary information is sent from the storage means to enable initialization. 6. The battery pack according to claim 5, wherein the battery is a secondary battery, and charge / discharge control means for controlling charging and discharging of the battery is further stored in the battery case.