JPH05227671A - Battery charger equipped with reconditioning function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize positive recovery of battery function by perfectly discharging an objective NiCd battery and eliminating memory effect before starting the charging operation. CONSTITUTION:When a battery charger 1 is connected with an NiCd battery 2, a voltage detecting section 3 measures the terminal voltage of the battery 2 which is then compared with a reference voltage A. If the terminal voltage of the battery 2 is higher than the voltage reference A, a relay driving section 4 makes a switching of a charge/discharge switching relay 5 and a reconditioning resistor 6 is connected to start discharge of the battery 2. When the voltage detecting section 3 checks the terminal voltage of the battery 2 to equalize the terminal voltage of the battery 2 to the voltage reference A, the driving section 4 connects the switching relay 5 with a smoothing/rectifying section 7 to start charging of the battery 2. When the terminal voltage of the battery 2 subsequently increases over a predetermined level, the switching relay 5 is switched to the open side thus finishing the charging operation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery charger with a reconditioning function, and more particularly to a battery charger with a reconditioning function for a nickel-cadmium battery which is widely used for consumer use.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of charger has only a battery charging function and an automatic charging stop function for preventing overcharging by continuing charging any more when charging is completed. Was.

[0003]

Generally, as is well known, nickel-cadmium batteries have a unique characteristic that when they are repeatedly charged and discharged at a shallow depth of discharge (degree of discharge), It exhibits a so-called memory effect in which the voltage drops sharply.

In the state of this memory effect, although electric energy actually remains inside the battery, it cannot be sufficiently extracted due to the voltage drop.

It is also well known that, in order to eliminate this memory effect, reconditioning to sometimes completely discharge the battery may be performed.

However, since the conventional battery charger has only the battery charging function and the automatic charging stop function and does not have the reconditioning function, the battery having the memory effect once is reconditioned by some method. If it does not, the original performance will not be restored and the original performance will not be exhibited.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks,
An object of the present invention is to provide a battery charger having a reconditioning function and having a reconditioning function.

[0008]

A battery charger with a reconditioning function of the present invention is a battery charger for a nickel-cadmium storage battery, and has a reconditioning function of completely discharging a battery to be charged before starting charging. Composed together.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a partial block diagram of the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the embodiment of FIG.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is a battery charger 1
And nickel-cadmium battery 2 to be charged
The battery charger 1 includes a voltage detector 3 for detecting a terminal voltage of the nickel-cadmium battery 2.
And a relay driving unit 4 driven based on the output of the voltage detecting unit 3, a charging / discharging switching relay 5 that is switched by the relay driving unit 4 and sets the charging / discharging state of the battery charger 1, and reconditioning. Reconditioning resistor 6, rectifying / smoothing unit 7, and transformer 8
And a power plug and a power cord 9.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

When the nickel-cadmium battery 2 is connected to the battery charger 1, the terminal voltage of the battery 2 is measured by the voltage detector 3 in the battery charger 1, and the reference voltage A (for example, 0.1 volt). It is determined whether it is higher or lower. This is shown in step 101.

When the terminal voltage of the nickel-cadmium battery 2 is high, the charge / discharge switching relay 5 is switched by the relay driving unit 4 and is connected to the reconditioning resistor 6 to start discharging the nickel-cadmium battery 2. This is shown in step 102.

At this time, the terminal voltage of the nickel-cadmium battery 2 is constantly checked by the voltage detecting section 3, and when it becomes equal to the reference voltage A, the relay driving section 4 charges / charges it.
The discharge switching relay 5 is connected to the rectifying / smoothing unit 7, and charging of the nickel-cadmium battery 2 is started. This is shown in step 103.

Also at this time, the nickel-cadmium battery 2
The terminal voltage of is constantly checked by the voltage detection unit 3 to determine whether it is higher or lower than the reference voltage B (for example, 1.5 V), and when it becomes equal or higher, the charge / discharge switching relay 5
Is switched to the open side, and charging of the nickel-cadmium battery 2 is completed. This is shown in step 104.

If the terminal voltage of the nickel-cadmium battery 2 is equal to or lower than the reference voltage A in the step 1 in the above-mentioned processing steps, the discharge of step 103 is performed immediately after step 2 is performed.

In this way, charging with a reconditioning function is possible.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the nickel-cadmium battery to be charged is almost completely discharged, the memory effect is canceled, the charging is started, and the charging is automatically stopped. As a result, there is an effect that the battery performance can be reliably restored to the original performance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a partial block of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Battery Charger 2 Nickel / Cadmium Battery 3 Voltage Detection Unit 4 Relay Drive Unit 5 Charge / Discharge Switching Relay 6 Reconditioning Resistor 7 Rectifying / Smoothing Unit 8 Transformer 9 Power Plug and Power Cord

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A battery charger for a nickel-cadmium storage battery, which also has a reconditioning function for completely discharging a battery to be charged before starting charging.