JPH0424762Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] "Industrial Application Field" This invention relates to a charging device for charging a storage battery by rectifying alternating current power, and particularly to a portion that displays the state of charge.

"Prior Art" Conventionally, voltage detection circuits were provided to detect when the storage battery voltage reached a plurality of different values, and when the voltage detection circuit detected, the corresponding one of the plurality of indicator lights was turned on in sequence. This is shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 169550/1983. In addition, when the voltage of the storage battery reaches the inflection point voltage of the charging characteristics, a device that detects this and displays it as the charging state was developed in 1983.
This is shown in Publication No.-63637.

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" In the former case where a large number of voltage detectors are provided, the number of voltage detectors increases and the configuration becomes complicated. Furthermore, even if a large number of indicator lights are provided, in the conventional ones, it is difficult to predict when charging will end from the display state.

In the latter case where only the inflection point voltage is detected, the configuration is simple, but the state of charge cannot be predicted at all until the light is turned on. Even if this is displayed as an inflection point voltage,
All you can tell is that the battery is fully charged, and you can't predict how long it will take to finish charging just by looking at the display.

"Means for solving the problem" According to this invention, the initial charging voltage V ₁ of the storage battery is
In addition, first and second voltage detection circuits are provided to respectively detect the inflection point voltage V ₂ in the charging characteristics of the storage battery, a plurality of display elements are arranged in a row, and a control section with a built-in timer is provided. provided. The control section lights one end of the indicator light at the start of charging, counts the time _t1 from the start of charging to the detection of the first voltage detection circuit, and at this detection turns on the one end of the indicator light arranged in the array. Light up the next one. Thereafter, each time _t1 elapses, the plurality of indicator lights are turned on one by one in the order of their arrangement. When the second voltage detection circuit detects the voltage, one predetermined intermediate indicator light in the indicator light array is lit;
Further, the elapsed time t ₂ from the start of charging to the detection by the second voltage detection circuit is measured, and thereafter, the indicator lamps are sequentially turned on one by one every time αt ₂ (α is a number smaller than 1) elapses.

By using such a display, the indicator light can be turned on at approximately equal time intervals, and the state of charge of the storage battery can be relatively well understood with a relatively simple configuration and a small number of voltage detection circuits. It is possible to display the

"Embodiment" FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the charging device according to this invention. The output of an AC power source 11 such as a commercial power source is connected to the magnetic contactor contact 1 through the input terminal 12 of the charging device.
3. Further, the current is supplied to the transformer 15 through the overcurrent detection thermal relay contact 14. The AC power converted to a predetermined voltage by the transformer 15 is rectified by the rectifier 16, and is supplied to the storage battery 21 to be charged through the fuse 18 and the output terminal 19 of the charging device.

A charging control device 22 is provided, and an input terminal 23 of the charging control device 22 is connected to a connection point between the rectifier 16 and the fuse 18 . A power supply circuit 24 is connected to this input terminal 23, and the power supply circuit 24 is connected to the storage battery 21.
DC power is input to supply the necessary operating power to each part in the charging control device 22.

In this invention, a first voltage detection circuit 25 and a second voltage detection circuit 26 are connected to the input terminal 23, respectively. The first voltage detection circuit 25 is a circuit that detects when the voltage V _b of the storage battery 21 reaches the initial charging voltage V ₁ . The second voltage detection circuit 26 is a circuit that detects when the voltage V _b of the storage battery 21 reaches the inflection point voltage V ₂ in its charging characteristics.

First voltage detection circuit 25, second voltage detection circuit 26
The detection output is supplied to the control section 27. Control part 2
7 has a built-in timer and is generally composed of a microcomputer. A plurality of display elements L ₁ to L ₆ are provided, which are arranged in a line as shown in FIG. 2, for example. In this example, indicator lights L ₁ to L ₄ are arranged almost diagonally on each side,
The indicator lights L ₄ to L ₆ are arranged substantially horizontally, continuous with the upper end of the diagonal arrangement, that is, arranged so as to approximately represent the charging characteristic curve. The indicator lights L ₁ to L ₆ are controlled to be turned on by the control unit 27 via the drive circuit 28 .

In addition, in this example, an AC detection circuit 31 connected to the input terminal 12 is provided in the charging control device 22, and the AC detection circuit 31 detects when AC power is input, and also detects when AC power is input. When the supply of AC power is stopped, this is detected, and these detection states are provided to the control unit 27. Further, the control section 27 is provided with a switch 32 for setting the normal charging mode and a switch 33 for setting the equal charging mode. When charging is completed, the control unit 27 drives the SSR relay 34 via the drive circuit 28, thereby cutting off the current to the coil 35 of the electromagnetic contactor and turning off the contact 13. Next, the operation of the control section 27 will be explained with reference to the charging characteristic curve 36 of the storage battery shown in FIG. 3 and the flow chart of the operation of the control section 27 shown in FIG. The input terminal 12 is connected to the AC power supply 11, and when one of the switches 32, 33, for example, the normal charging mode switch 32, is turned on in this state, a charging start state is established (step _P1 ). The control section 27
Turn on the SSR relay 34 and turn on the contact 13. As a result, charging of the storage battery 21 is started. Also, set the built-in timer to operation state,
Furthermore, the leftmost indicator light _L1 lights up to indicate that charging has started. (Step P ₂ ).

The control unit 27 sets the storage battery voltage V _b to the initial charging voltage V ₁
The first voltage detection circuit 25 detects whether V 6 has become V 1 (step P ₃ ), and when V ₆ becomes V ₁ , the timer determines the time t ₁ from the start of charging until V 1 becomes V ₁ .
is measured (step _P4 ). Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the next indicator light _L2 is turned on (step _P5 ).

Next, it is checked whether the timer time has reached 2t ₁ , that is, whether time t ₁ has elapsed since the storage battery voltage V _b reached V ₁ ( _step P ₆ ).
As shown in the figure, the next indicator light _L3 is lit (step _P7 ).

Next, it is checked whether the storage battery voltage V _b has reached the inflection point voltage V ₂ , that is, it is checked whether the second voltage detection circuit 26 has detected it (step P ₈ ). The time t ₂ is
In other words, the time from the start of charging until the inflection point voltage _V2 is reached is measured (step _P9 ). Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the next indicator light _L4 is turned on (step _P10 ). Note that when V _b =V ₂ is detected, the indicator light L ₄ at the bending point of the indicator light array is lit.

From this, it is checked whether the time has elapsed by αt ₂ , in this example α=0.35, that is, if the timer is 1.35t ₂
When the timer reaches _1.35t2 , _the next indicator light _L5 is turned on (step _P12 ). Thereafter, it is checked whether αt ₂ has elapsed, that is, whether the timer has reached 1.70t ₂ (step P ₁₃ ), and when the timer reaches 1.70t ₂ , the next indicator light L ₆ is turned on and the SSR relay 34 is turned off. Therefore, the contact 13 is turned off and charging ends (step P ₁₄ ).

By the way, when the storage battery voltage V _b reaches the inflection point voltage V ₂ , the storage battery 21 is almost 90% charged, and the time for further charging is the time t from the start of charging until the inflection point voltage V ₂ is reached. It is generally known that 0.7t ₂ for ₂ . Therefore, as in this example, when the light is turned on once after reaching the inflection point voltage V ₂ until the end, the time 0.35t ₂ obtained by dividing 0.7t 2 by ₂ is added to t ₂ . It is only necessary to turn on the indicator light _L5 at the point where the time has elapsed, and if more indicator lamps are to be lit, the period from _t2 to _1.7t2 may be evenly divided and turned on sequentially depending on the number of indicator lights.

Further, until the inflection point voltage V ₂ is reached, the indicator light is turned on every time t ₁ elapses, so the lighting interval of the indicator lamp becomes uniform. In order to make the lighting time intervals of all indicator lights substantially uniform, the initial charging voltage V ₁ may be experimentally determined so that t ₁ is approximately equal to 0.35t ₂ . According to experiments, it has been confirmed that the value of V ₁ is almost constant when charging a storage battery that has been discharged from 100% to 20%.

When the equal charging mode switch 33 is turned on, each cell of the storage battery 21 can be sufficiently evenly charged, and charging continues for two hours longer than the voltage end time when the normal charging mode switch 32 is turned on. do. That is, when the timer reaches 1.35t ₂ +1 hour, the indicator light L ₅ lights up, and when the timer reaches 1.7t ₂ +2 hours, the indicator light L ₆ lights up, and the SSR relay 34 is turned off to complete charging. Further, the end of charging may be announced by operating as shown in the dotted line in FIG. That is, for example, it is checked whether the timer has reached 1.7t ₂ -0.5 hours (steps P ₁₅ and P ₁₈ ), and when the timer reaches this time, indicator lights L ₅ and L ₆ are turned on alternately to notify that the end of charging is near. . (Step P ₁₉ ). Note that the timer
When it reaches 1.35t ₂ before 1.7t ₂ −0.5 hours (step P ₁₆ ), the indicator light L ₅ is turned on (step P ₁₇ ).
Next, it is checked whether the timer has reached 1.7t ₂ (step P ₂₀ ), and when the timer reaches 1.7t ₂ , it is processed as charging is completed, the SSR relay 34 is turned off, and both indicator lights L ₅ and L ₆ are turned on. , charging is completed (step _P21 ). In other words, in this case, when indicator lights L ₅ and L ₆ light up alternately, there is a lot of time remaining until charging is complete.
It turns out that it takes less than 30 minutes.

"Effects of the invention" As mentioned above, according to this invention, only two voltage detection circuits are required, and moreover, it is possible to display a large number of indicator lights, and by performing arithmetic processing, the indicator lights can be turned on in sequence. The intervals can be made almost uniform, and therefore the state of charge of the storage battery can be known by looking at the display state of this indicator light, and the time until charging is completed can be predicted. Note that when the second voltage detection circuit 26 detects that the voltage has reached _V2 ,
A predetermined indicator light _L4 is always lit. As described above, according to this invention, the state of charge of the storage battery and the time until completion of charging can be easily predicted with a relatively simple configuration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the charging device according to this invention, Figure 2 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of indicator lights, Figure 3 is a diagram showing the charging characteristic curve and the lighting state of the indicator lights, and Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of indicator lights. is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the control unit 27.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] A charging device that rectifies alternating current power to charge a storage battery, comprising: a first voltage detection circuit that detects when the voltage of the storage battery reaches an initial charging voltage _V1 ; is the inflection point voltage of charging characteristics V ₂
a second voltage detection circuit for detecting that the voltage has reached 0, a plurality of indicator lights arranged in a row, means for lighting one end of the indicator light at the start of charging; means for measuring the time t ₁ until detection by the first voltage detection circuit; means for lighting the next indicator light at one end of the indicator light in response to the detection by the first voltage detection circuit; means for sequentially turning on the indicator lamps _one by one every time t 1 elapses; and means for turning on the indicator lamp next to the indicator lamp lit every time t ₁ elapses when the second voltage detection circuit detects it; Means for measuring the elapsed time t ₂ until the second voltage detection circuit detects the voltage, and αt ₂ (α is a constant) after the detection by the second voltage detection circuit.
A charging device comprising: a control section having means for sequentially lighting up the indicator lights one by one as time passes;