JPH0424764Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] "Industrial Application Field" This invention relates to a charging device that rectifies alternating current power and charges a storage battery.

``Prior art'' Conventional charging devices normally only charge discharged storage batteries; they charge the storage battery when a new storage battery is made and a new electrolyte is added, or when the electrolyte is used for transportation. When charging a storage battery when it is filled with electrolyte again after being drained and emptied, a commonly used charging device cannot be used to charge the storage battery. When charging with a new electrolyte in this way, the battery voltage reaches the inflection point voltage of the charging characteristics relatively quickly, even though the battery is not fully charged after charging has started. , it is not possible to charge the battery with a normal charging device that controls charging by detecting that the voltage has reached the inflection point. For this reason, when charging a storage battery newly filled with electrolyte, it was generally done by a specialist.

The purpose of this invention is to be able to perform normal charging or equal charging on batteries that already contain electrolyte, which means that ordinary people who are not experts can carry out the charging operation, and it is also possible to charge batteries that already contain electrolyte. The present invention provides a charging device in which a stored storage battery can be charged by an expert.

``Means for Solving the Problems'' According to this invention, a normal charging setting switch and an equal charging setting switch are provided on the panel, and a forced charging setting switch is provided outside the panel.
Further, means for detecting the voltage of the storage battery and means for setting the charging time voltage are provided, and furthermore, a control section for controlling charging according to the settings of each of the switches is provided. When the normal charging setting switch is set, the control section automatically performs charging control according to a predetermined program while detecting the storage battery voltage. Also, when the equal charge setting switch is set, charging is performed according to a predetermined program while similarly detecting the storage battery voltage, but charging is automatically performed for a certain period of time longer than the end of normal charging. Further, when the forced charging setting switch is set, charging control is performed for only the time set by the time setting means.

In this way, with the charging device of this invention, ordinary people can charge the storage battery during discharge using this charging device, that is, in that case, the normal charging setting switch or Charging is performed by operating the equal charge setting switch, and when a new electrolyte is added and charging is performed, this can be done by an expert by operating the forced charge setting switch. In this case, the forced charging setting switch is provided outside the panel, so there is no risk of the general public accidentally operating it.

"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 a magnetic contactor contact 1 through an input terminal 12 of a 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 from the charging control device 22 to supply the necessary operating power to each part within the charging control device 22.

In this invention, the storage battery voltage of the storage battery 21 is
A first voltage detection circuit 25 and a second voltage detection circuit 26 are provided as voltage detection means for detecting that V _b has reached a predetermined voltage. First voltage detection circuit 2
5, the storage battery voltage V _b of the storage battery 21 is the initial charging voltage
This is a circuit that detects when V has reached 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. The control section 27 has a built-in timer and is generally composed of a microcomputer.

This control unit 27 includes a normal charging setting switch 26.
, an equal charge setting switch 27, and a forced charge setting switch 28 are connected. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a normal charging setting switch 26 and an equal charging setting switch 27 are arranged in the lower right half of a panel 29 of the charging device.

The panel 29 has an indicator light L ₁ that displays the charging status.
The indicator lights L 1 to L ₆ are arranged in a line, especially in this case, the indicator lights L ₁ to L ₃ are arranged diagonally from the lower left to the upper right in conjunction with the charging characteristic curve, and the indicator lights L ₄ to L ₆ continue from the upper end. are arranged almost horizontally.

In FIG. 1, the control 27 is generally composed of a microcomputer and has a built-in timer. The control unit 27 controls the indicator light via the drive circuit 31.
The lighting of _L1 to _L6 can be controlled.

Note that an AC detection circuit 32 is connected to the input terminal 12 in the charging control device 22, and the AC detection circuit 32 detects when AC power is input, and also detects when AC power input is stopped due to a power outage or the like. When this occurs, this is detected, and these detection states are provided to the control section 27. The control unit 27 via the drive circuit 31
By controlling the SSR relay 33, it is possible to further control the coil 34 of the electromagnetic contactor and turn on/off the contact 13 thereof.

When this charging device becomes operational, the control unit 27
As shown in FIG. 3, it is first checked whether the forced charging setting switch 28 is on (step S ₁ ), and if it is on, the forced charging routine R ₁ is started.
is executed. If the switch 28 is off, then it is checked whether the normal charging setting switch 26 is on (step S ₂ ), and if it is on, the normal charging routine R ₂ is executed. If this normal charge setting switch 26 is also off, the equal charge setting switch 2
7 is on (step S ₃ ); if it is on, an equal charging routine R ₃ is executed. If the switch 27 is off, the process returns to step _S1 .

This charging device is also provided with charging time setting means. The charging time setting by this charging time setting means is used only in the case of forced charging, and the charging time can be set by controlling the switches 26 and 27 in the forced charging setting state. This is a case where the switches 26 and 27 are also used to set the charging time.

Next, referring to FIG. 4, the operation of the forced charging routine _R1 in FIG. 3 will be explained. When the input terminal 12 of the charging device is connected to the AC power supply 11 and the forced charging setting switch 28 is turned on in this state, the control section 27 controls the SSR relay 33, thereby turning on the magnetic contactor contact 13. , so charging starts (step P ₁ ). Next, n is set to 1 (step P ₂ ). This n will be understood in the later explanation. Set n×10 hours as the timer time t in the subtraction timer (step P ₃ ). When this setting is made, a subtraction timer is activated and subtraction of the timer time t is started (step P ₄ ).

Next, it is checked whether the switch 26 has been pressed (step P ₅ ), and if the switch 26 has been pressed, the operation of the subtraction timer is stopped (step P ₆ ), then 1 is added to n (step P ₇ ), and then The timer time is set to n×10 (step P ₈ ), and the subtraction timer is started to subtract from the newly set time t (step P ₉ ). The time t of this subtraction timer is the charging time for the charging device, and
In the initial settings, 10 hours are automatically set, and if the switch 26 is turned on as necessary, if the number of times the switch is turned on is n, the timer time will be set to (n+1) x 10 hours. .

If the timer time setting is too high, it can be subtracted. That is, it is checked whether the switch 27 has been pressed (step _P10 ), and if the switch 27 has been pressed, the operation of the subtraction timer is stopped (step _P11 ), and then n is decremented by 1 (step P10). ₁₂ ), the new -1 value of n is multiplied by 10 and the timer time t ₁
is set (step _P13 ), and a subtraction operation is started from the newly set timer time _t1 (step _P14 ).

In this way, the timer time is set, the length of the timer time corresponds to the value of n, and the indicator lights L ₁ to L _o of the indicator lights L ₁ to L ₆ are blinked (step P ₁₅ ). Therefore, depending on which indicator light among indicator lights _L1 to _L6 is flashing, that is, depending on the number of indicator lights that are flashing, the charging time must be set for a time that is 10 times that number. This can be determined by the blinking status. If the switch 26 is not pressed at step _P5 , the process moves to step _P10 , and if the switch 27 is not pressed at step _P10 , the process moves to step _P15 .

Next, the timer time t of the subtraction timer is divided by 10, the integer value of the divided value is set to n, and the number of indicator lights corresponding to this number of n is displayed. Therefore, the number of blinking indicator lights decreases as the charging time progresses. In other words, every 10 hours of charging, the number of flashing indicator lights will go out one by one (step by step).
_P16 ). Next, it is checked whether the timer time is 0 or not (step _P17 ), and if it is not 0, the process returns to step _P5 , and if it is 0 or less than 0, the SSR relay 33 is
As a result, the electromagnetic contactor contact 13 is turned off, forced charging of the storage battery 21 is completed (step _P18 ), and all indicator lights L1 to _L1 are turned off.
Turn on L ₆ (step P ₁₉ ). This indicates that forced charging has ended.

Next, the operation of the normal charging routine _R2 in FIG. 3 will be explained with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 5 and the charging characteristic curve in FIG. 6. Input terminal 12 is AC power supply 11
is connected to the normal charge setting switch 2 in this state.
6 is turned on, a charging start state is entered (step P ₁ ). The control unit 27 turns on the SSR relay 33 and turns on the contact 13. This allows storage battery 2
1 starts charging. Also, the built-in timer is set to the operating state, and the leftmost indicator light _L1 is lit to indicate that charging has started (step _P2 ).

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 _b has become V 1 (step P ₃ ), and when V b reaches V ₁ , the timer at that time determines the time t ₁ from the start of charging until it reaches 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 ).

After that, whether αt ₂ has passed further, that is, the timer is
It is checked 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 lit.
And SSR relay 33 is turned off, so contact 1
3 turns off and charging ends (step
_P14 ).

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, in the case where the light is turned on once during the period after reaching the inflection point voltage V ₂ and ending as in this example, the 0.7t ₂
It is sufficient to turn on the indicator light L ₅ at the point where the time equal to 0.35t divided by ₂ and the time added to t ₂ has elapsed. If more indicator lights are to be lit, the number of lights is t ₂ to 1.7t. ₂
All you have to do is to divide the intervals evenly and turn on the lights in sequence.

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 tests, this happens when charging a storage battery that is 100% or 20% discharged.
It was confirmed that the value of V ₁ was almost constant.

In this normal charging control that is performed when the normal charging setting switch is turned on, charging control is performed automatically according to a predetermined program while referring to the storage battery voltage, but it is not necessarily the control shown above. For example, a simple method may be to detect when the voltage reaches an inflection point, charge the battery for a predetermined period of time, and then automatically stop the battery.

Next, when the equal charge setting switch is controlled to execute the equal charge routine _R3 , this equal charge is to charge each cell of the storage battery sufficiently evenly, and the equal charge is performed from the end time of the normal charge control. Also, charging continues for a certain period of time, for example, 2 hours. Therefore, the control is almost the same as normal charging control, and is shown in FIG. 7 in correspondence with the operation in FIG. 5. The control up to step _P10 is exactly the same as normal charging, but in step _P11 it is checked whether the timer has reached 1.35t ₂ +1 hour.
Similarly, in step P ₁₃ , the timer is 1.70t ₂ +
The temperature after 2 hours is checked, and since the control is exactly the same as other normal charging controls, other explanations will be omitted.

"Effects of the Invention" As described above, according to the charging device of this invention, the user of the storage battery can freely charge the storage battery by operating the normal charging setting switch or the equal charging setting switch. At the same time, it is possible for an expert to forcefully charge the empty storage battery by filling it with electrolyte. In this case, the switch for forced charging is installed outside the panel, for example on the back side of the charging device, and the switch cannot be operated by the general public, causing forced charging by mistake. There is no risk of it happening. In addition, in this example, the charging time during forced charging can be set using the normal charging setting switch and the equal charging setting switch.
This reduces the number of switches. Furthermore, the display for forced charging is also displayed using the same display means as the display for normal charging and equal charging, and in both cases, the state of charge of the storage battery, such as how much time is left for charging to be completed, is displayed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a charging device according to this invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of its panel.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of operation of the control unit 27;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the forced charging routine _R1 during control, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the normal charging routine _R2 in FIG.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between charging characteristics and indicator lights.
The figure is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the equal charging routine _R3 in FIG.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] In a charging device that rectifies AC power to charge a storage battery, a normal charge setting switch provided on the panel, an equal charge setting switch provided on the above panel, and a charge setting switch provided on a panel other than the above panel. a forced charging setting switch, which detects the voltage of the storage battery; a time setting means, which sets the charging time; and when the normal charging setting switch is set, detects the voltage of the storage battery, means for automatically controlling charging according to a predetermined program; and means for detecting the voltage of the storage battery when the equal charge setting switch is set, and charging according to a predetermined program; A charging device comprising a control unit having means for automatically controlling charging for a certain period of time longer than the end of charging, and means for controlling charging for the time set by the time setting means when the forced charging setting switch is set. .