JP2560729Y2 - Charging device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charging device for charging batteries having different capacities.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when charging battery packs having different capacities with this type of charging device, the shape and the like of the battery pack are detected to identify which capacity of the battery pack is mounted, and then the mounted battery pack is detected. By controlling the charging current or charging time according to the capacity of the pack, appropriate charging is performed for the battery packs of each capacity.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the conventional charging device. Reference numeral 1 denotes a charging device, a power supply input terminal 11 from the outside, a constant current circuit 12 for converting a power supply input from the outside into a constant current, and a timer circuit 1 for measuring a charging time.
3. LED 14 for indicating the start or completion of charging, etc.
A display circuit 15 for controlling lighting and extinguishing of the ED 14, a power supply output terminal 16 for outputting a DC current to the battery pack 2-1 (or 2-2), and a shape of the battery pack 2-1 (or 2-2) are detected. Switch 17 is provided. A battery pack 2-1 has an input terminal 21 for receiving a direct current, a battery 22, and a convex portion 23 indicating the capacity of the battery. 2-
2 is also a battery pack.
Is not provided.

First, when power is input to the charging device 1 from the power input terminal 11, the display circuit 15 detects this and turns on the LED 14 in green at the time point A in FIG. Thus, the user knows that power has been input to the charging device, and attaches the battery pack 2-1 to the charging device 1. At this time, the switch 17 is turned on by the projection 23 of the battery pack 2-1. As a result, the voltage of 5 V is input to the timer circuit 13 to notify the timer circuit 13 that the battery pack having the 2-1 type capacity has been mounted. From the point in time when the battery pack 2-1 is mounted, the constant current circuit 12
As shown in (C), a constant current of 120 mA is supplied to the battery pack 2-1. The timer circuit 13 is activated at the start of the current supply, and the display circuit 15 turns on the LED at the time of the current supply start shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B.
14 is lit red instead of stopping the green light. Thus, the user knows that the charging has started.

When the timer circuit 13 measures 11 hours,
A timing end signal is output to the display circuit 15 and the constant current circuit 12 at a time point c. The display circuit 14 which has received the end signal turns to FIG.
At time points (A) and (B), the LED 14 is lit from red to green. Thereby, the user can use the battery pack 2-1.
To know when charging is complete. The constant current circuit 12 is shown in FIG.
The supply of the direct current is stopped at the time point c indicated by.

Next, a charging pack 2-2 is connected to the charging device 1.
Is described. When power is input to the power input terminal 11, the display circuit 15 turns on the LED 14 in green at the point A in FIG. After that, even when the battery pack 2-2 is attached to the charging device 1, the switch 17 remains open because it has no projection. Thereby, the timer circuit 13 knows that the battery pack having the 2-2 type capacity has been mounted. The display circuit 15 stops the green lighting of the LED 14 and turns on the red light as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B at the time point b. At the same time, the constant current circuit 12 is connected to the battery pack 2-2 from point B in FIG.
The supply of a constant current of 0 mA is started. The timer circuit 13 starts measuring the time of 8 hours simultaneously with the start of the current supply of the constant current circuit 12, and outputs an end signal to the display circuit 15 and the constant current circuit 12 when the time measurement ends. As a result, the display circuit 15 stops turning on the red light instead of turning on the LED 14 at the time point C in FIGS. 7A and 7B. By seeing this, the user knows that the charging of the battery pack 2-2 has been completed. The constant current circuit 12 stops supplying current to the battery pack 2-2 at the time point C in FIG. 7C.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing another example of the conventional charging device. In this example, the constant current circuit 12 identifies whether the battery pack to be mounted is 2-1 or 2-2, and if it is 2-1 the constant current of 180 mA is supplied to the battery pack for 8 hours. When the battery pack is 2-2, a constant current of 120 mA is supplied to the battery pack for 8 hours. Therefore, the timer circuit 13 always counts 8 hours regardless of the type of the battery pack.

FIG. 9 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. When power is input to the power input terminal 11 at the time point A in FIG.
14 in green, and then the battery pack 2-1 (or 2)
When (2) is mounted, the LED 14 is changed from green lighting to red lighting at point (b) in FIGS. 9 (A) and 9 (B). At this time, the constant current circuit 12 starts supplying a constant current of 120 mA or 180 mA to the battery pack depending on the capacity of the battery mounted at the time point b in FIG. 9C. The constant current circuit 12 identifies the capacity of the mounted battery pack by turning on and off the switch 17. The timer circuit 13 starts counting the time when the current supply of the constant current circuit 12 is started. When the timer circuit 13 measures 8 hours thereafter, the end signal is displayed on the display circuit 15 and the constant current circuit 1.
Output to 2. As a result, the display circuit 15
At the time point (A) and (B), the LED 14 is changed from red lighting to green lighting. Thus, the user knows that the charging of the battery pack is completed. Further, the constant current circuit 12 stops supplying current to the battery pack 2-1 at the time point C in FIG.

As described above, the conventional charger requires a circuit for identifying the battery pack to be mounted and a circuit for switching the magnitude of the charging current and the length of the charging time. However, there is a drawback that the cost is high.

[0010]

As described above, the conventional charger requires a circuit for identifying the battery pack to be mounted and a circuit for switching the magnitude of the charging current and the length of the charging time. However, there is a disadvantage that the cost of the apparatus increases.

In view of the above, the present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks, and eliminates the use of a circuit for identifying a mounted battery pack and a circuit for switching the magnitude of charging current and the length of charging time without using batteries having different capacities. It is an object of the present invention to provide a charging device that can charge a pack and notify the charging completion time.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A charging device according to the invention of the present application.
Can replace any of several batteries with different capacities
The mounting part for mounting on the Noh and the mounting part
A constant current circuit that supplies a constant current to the battery
And each of the plurality of batteries having different capacities
When detecting the elapse of each time required to charge
Meter means and at least correspond to batteries of different capacities
Light-emitting means comprising light-emitting elements that emit light in a number of colors;
When the battery is installed, each time
Each time the battery has different capacities,
Switch the color of light emitted by the light emitting means according to the charging time
Control means for causing light emission.

[0013]

In the charging device according to the present invention, the light emitting means emits light in a plurality of colors. The clock means measures a plurality of predetermined times. The control means switches the emission color of the light emitting means each time the plurality of times are measured by the clock means.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the charging device of the present invention. 1 is a charging device and 2 is a battery pack. The charging device 1 includes a power input terminal 11 for inputting power from the outside, a constant current circuit 1 for supplying a constant current of 120 mA.
2. Timer circuit 13 for measuring 11 hours in total, LED 14 capable of emitting green, red, and orange light, display circuit 15 for controlling the emission color of the LED 14 and turning on and off, and outputting DC current to the battery pack 2 The current output terminal 16. The battery pack 2 has a power receiving terminal 21 for inputting a charging current from the charging device 1 and a battery 22.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When power is input to the power input terminal 11, the display circuit 15 detects this, and turns on the LED 14 in green at the point A shown in FIG. Thereafter, when the battery pack 2 is mounted on the charging device 1, the constant current circuit 12 detects this at the time point (b) in FIG. 2 (D), and supplies a DC constant current of 120 mA from the current output terminal 16 to the battery pack 2. Send out. The battery pack 2 receives the constant current from the power receiving terminal 21 and charges the battery 2 with the constant current. When notified of the start of the supply of the constant current from the constant current circuit 12, the timer circuit 13 outputs a red lighting control signal to the display circuit 15. When the display circuit 15 receives this control signal, the LED 1 is turned on at the time point (b) in FIGS.
4 is switched from green lighting to red lighting.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration example of the timer circuit 13. As shown in FIG. The timer circuit 13 includes a timer a for measuring a charging time for a battery pack having a small capacity and a timer b for measuring a charging time for a battery pack having a large capacity. In FIG. 4A, a timer a is a constant current circuit 12.
When the start of the current supply to the battery pack 2 is notified, the timer starts counting. During this time, the red lighting control signal 100 is output to the display circuit 15. Upon receiving this, the display circuit 15 switches the green lighting of the LED 14 to the red lighting as described above. After counting eight hours, the timer a stops outputting the red lighting control signal 100 at the time point C in FIG. For this reason, the display circuit 15 switches the LED 14 from the time point C in FIG.
Lights green with red. At the point in time when the timer a has finished measuring eight hours, the timer b is started and, as shown in FIG.
Is output to the display circuit 15. Thereby, the display circuit 15
Keeps the LED 14 lit in red. Therefore, 8 hours after the constant current circuit 12 starts supplying current, LED 1
4 is switched from red to orange at the time point C in FIG.
The user who has seen this knows that the battery pack 2 has been fully charged when the battery pack 2 has a small capacity.

When the timer b measures three hours, the timer stops counting at point d in FIG. 4B, and stops outputting the red lighting control signal 101 to the display circuit 15. As a result, the display circuit 15 turns on the red light of the LED 14 as shown in FIG.
Stop at the point of (d), and turn on only the green light. At the same time, when the constant current circuit 12 detects the stop of the output of the red lighting control signal 101 output from the timer b,
The constant current circuit 12 is connected to the battery pack 2 at the time point d in FIG.
The supply of constant current to is stopped. The user sees that the LED 14 has turned from orange to green again at the time point d above, and knows that charging of this battery pack has been completed when the capacity of the battery pack 2 is large.

According to the present embodiment, when the battery pack 2 is mounted on the charging device 1 and charging of the battery pack is started, the LED 14 emits red light. You can know that is being done. After 8 hours from the start of charging, the L
Since the ED 14 turns orange and emits light, the user can know that the battery pack 2 has been fully charged when the battery pack 2 has a small capacity. Further, 11 hours after the start of the charging, the LED 14 changes from orange to green and emits light. Therefore, when the battery pack 2 has a large capacity, the user knows that the charging of the battery pack 2 is completed. be able to. Therefore, the charging device 1 can determine each charging completion time of the battery packs 2 having different capacities without using the identification circuit of the mounted battery pack 2, the magnitude of the charging current, and the circuit for switching the length of the charging time. The user can be notified. In addition, since such effects can be realized by a simple circuit, the cost of the apparatus can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the case where one of the two types of battery packs is charged has been described.
In the case of charging any one of the battery packs having the above-mentioned capacity, the same configuration can notify the user of the end time of charging of each battery pack by the difference in the color of the LED emitted.

[0020]

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention,
One of the batteries with different capacities is replaceable.
Since it has a mounting part for wearing,
Any of a number of types of batteries can be charged. Ma
Further, a light emitting means including a light emitting element that emits multicolor light with one element
Can be used to identify the charging time of each battery with each capacity.
As a result, appropriate identification is possible while simplifying the configuration.
You. In addition, since the battery is installed, it has multiple capacities
Each time the battery charging time elapses,
Light emission by switching emission colors corresponding to different capacities
, So that the state of charge is properly identified by the emission color.
Constant current circuit that supplies a constant current to the battery
To properly charge batteries with different capacities
It has an effect that can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a time chart illustrating the operation of the charging device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a detailed example of a timer circuit shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a time chart illustrating an operation of the timer circuit illustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional charging device.

FIG. 6 is a time chart showing the operation of the device shown in FIG. 1 when a large-capacity battery pack is mounted on the device.

FIG. 7 is a time chart showing the operation of the device shown in FIG. 1 when a small-capacity battery pack is attached to the device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing another example of a conventional charging device.

9 is a time chart showing the operation of the charging device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Charging device 2 ... Battery pack 12 ... Constant current circuit 13 ... Timer circuit 14 ... LED 15 ... Display circuit 22 ... Battery

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-2-70237 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] A battery having a plurality of different capacities
A constant current is applied to a mounting portion for replaceably mounting the battery and a battery mounted in the mounting portion.
A constant current circuit for supplying a battery, and charging each of the plurality of batteries having different capacities.
Clock means for detecting the lapse of time of each time required for
And at least the number of colors corresponding to the different capacity batteries
A light- emitting means having a light-emitting element for emitting light, and when the battery is mounted, referring to the clock means,
Each time the time elapses, the plurality of different capacity
The emission color of the light emitting means is switched off according to the charging time of the pond.
Charging apparatus characterized by comprising a control means for Ru to perform the light emission Te Toggles.