JPH06259169A - Battery pack and portable electronic equipment system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To use a battery pack whose battery capacity and battery classification or the like are different by providing the control information of the battery pack necessitated by the power source circuit control part of a portable electronic equipment by the battery pack side. CONSTITUTION:The control information peculiar to a battery such as the classification, battery capacity, and charging amounts of a battery 30 is stored in a ROM 31 of a battery pack 1 attachable and detachable to a portable electronic equipment 20 as the information optimized to a power source circuit control part 32 of the portable electronic equipment 20. The power source circuit control part 32 reads the control information from the ROM 31 through a bus 36, and controls a discharging circuit 38 at the time of judging that the battery pack 1 can be used as a driving source, and uses the battery pack 1 as the driving source of the portable electronic equipment 20. Also, at the time of fixing the battery pack 1 whose battery classification is different, the power source circuit control part 32 reads the control information from the ROM 31, judges the classification of the battery, and operates the control suitable to the classification of the battery.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to portable electronic devices and battery packs for portable electronic devices and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a battery pack has a battery body,
It was equipped with contacts, and in some cases, a battery capacity display mechanism and a temperature detection circuit. When the connected portable electronic device uses a microcomputer for power supply circuit control, it has unique control information for the specified battery in the drive electronic device main body.

However, in the conventional method, since the power supply control microcomputer has control information for only a specific battery, the control information is not suitable for batteries having different battery capacities and battery types. For this reason, it is difficult to drive an electronic device having control information for a specific battery with a battery pack including batteries having different battery capacities and battery types.

[0004]

As described above, the control information provided in the body of the portable electronic device only corresponds to the specific battery pack. For this reason,
It was difficult to connect electronic devices with batteries having different battery capacities and battery types.

The present invention eliminates the above drawbacks and provides a battery pack which is detachably connected to a portable electronic device.
Having optimized control information in the battery pack,
The purpose is to eliminate restrictions on use of battery packs having different battery capacities, battery types, etc. to be connected.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a portable electronic device having a detachable battery pack as a drive source and a microcomputer for controlling a power supply circuit is provided inside the battery pack, Storage means for storing control information unique to the battery such as battery type and battery capacity, delivery means for delivering control information between the portable electronic device and the battery pack, and storage means for control information There is provided a battery pack and a portable electronic device system characterized by comprising a reading means for further reading.

[0007]

With such a configuration, the control circuit such as the battery type of the battery pack required for the power supply circuit control microcomputer to control the power supply circuit is provided from the battery pack side to the control microcomputer side. It becomes possible to connect battery packs having different control information to the portable electronic device.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a battery pack according to this embodiment. On the back surface of the battery pack 1 having a battery (not shown) inside the box-shaped housing, + terminal rows 3a and 3b and − terminal rows 4a and 4b are provided. The battery pack 1 is attached to a battery pack attachment portion of a portable electronic device described later. The + terminals 3a and b and the-terminals 4a and b provided on the back surface of the battery pack 1 are grouped one terminal each. One set of + terminal 3a and-terminal 4a is used for discharging to the portable electronic device, and another set of + terminal 3b and-terminal 4b is used for charging the battery pack 1. These + terminals 3 are on the back of the battery pack 1.
A connector 5 is provided at the end where a, b and-terminal rows 4a, b are provided. The connector 5 is a connector for transmitting control information, which will be described later, included in the battery pack 1 to the portable electronic device when the battery pack 1 is attached to the portable electronic device. Battery pack 1
On the wall surface 7 at the end where the terminals and the connectors 3, 4, 5 are provided, a convex portion 6a for attaching to a battery pack attachment portion, which will be described later, provided in the portable electronic device,
6b is provided.

FIG. 2 is a mounting view of the battery pack and the portable electronic device according to this embodiment. Portable electronic device 2
Reference numeral 0 is a personal computer, which can perform data processing. The portable electronic device 20 includes a lid body that can be opened and closed and a device body. A display surface 25 is provided on the back surface of the lid, and a keyboard 26 is provided on the top surface of the device body. In addition, a connector group (not shown) is provided on the back surface of the device body to connect the expansion unit. A CPU, a memory, a hard disk unit, a floppy disk, etc. are housed inside the portable electronic device 20. (Detailed description is omitted)

A battery pack mounting portion 21 for mounting the battery pack 1 is provided on the upper surface of the device body. The battery pack mounting portion 21 has a shape that is substantially the same as the external dimensions of the battery pack 1. The battery pack mounting portion 21 has terminals 22 corresponding to the terminals of the battery pack 1 and the connectors 3a, b, 4a, b and 5, respectively.
a, b, 23a, b and a connector 24 are provided.
When the battery pack 1 is attached to the battery pack attachment portion 21, the terminals and connectors of the battery pack 1 and the portable electronic device 20 are electrically connected. When the battery pack 1 is attached to the battery pack attachment portion 21, the surface 8 of the battery pack 1 is
Forms the same surface as the surface of the portable electronic device 20. When the battery pack 1 is attached to the battery pack attachment portion 21, the battery pack 1 is fixed to the battery pack attachment portion 21 by a lock mechanism (not shown).
The lock mechanism prevents the battery pack 1 from falling off the portable electronic device 20. FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the battery pack and the portable electronic device system according to the present embodiment.

A battery 30 and a power supply circuit (not shown) are built in the battery pack 1. The power supply circuit is provided with a ROM 31 which is a storage means for storing control information described later. Inside the portable electronic device 20, a power supply circuit control unit 32 and a power supply circuit 33 configured by a power supply control microcomputer or the like are built in. The power supply circuit 33 has a discharging circuit 38 for discharging the driving power of the battery 30 and a charging circuit 39 for charging the battery 30.

Information specific to the battery 30, that is, information specific to the battery such as the type of the battery 30, the battery capacity, and the charge amount (hereinafter referred to as control information) is stored in the ROM 31 in the power supply circuit controller of the portable electronic device 20. It is stored as information optimized to 32.

The power supply circuit 33 is controlled by the power supply circuit controller 32. When the battery pack 1 is attached to the battery pack attachment portion 21, the terminal groups 3a, b, 4a, b provided on the battery pack 1 and the connector 5 are attached to the terminal group 22a provided on the battery pack attachment portion 21, b, 24a, b and the connector 24, respectively. The power supply circuit controller 32 is a ROM
The control information is read from 31 via the bus 36 and the connectors 5 and 24, and the power supply circuit 33 is controlled via the bus 37.

When the power supply circuit control unit 32 determines from the control information read from the ROM 31 that the battery pack 1 can be used as a drive source, the power supply circuit control unit 32 controls the discharge circuit 38 and the battery pack 1 is portable. It is used as a drive source of the electronic device 20. When the battery pack 1 supplies drive power to the portable electronic device 20, the + terminal 3
Driving power is supplied from the battery 30 in the battery pack 1 to the power supply circuit 33 via the terminals a, 22a, the terminals 4a, 23a and the signal line 35. The driving power is supplied to the CPU, hard disk, etc. (not shown) via the power supply circuit 33.

When the battery pack 1 is not used as a drive source according to the control information read by the power supply circuit controller 32, that is, when the battery pack 1 needs to be charged,
The power supply circuit control unit 32 charges the battery pack 1 by the charging circuit 39. Batteries 30 in battery pack 1
When the battery is charged, the battery 30 is charged through the terminal groups 3a, 4a, 22a, 24a and the signal line 35. Further, when the battery packs 1 having different battery types are attached to the battery pack attaching portion 21, the power supply circuit control portion 32 causes the R
The control information is read from the OM 31 and the type of battery is recognized. The power supply circuit control unit 32 determines the type of battery from the read control information and performs control suitable for the type of battery. The control information peculiar to the different types of batteries is the power supply circuit control unit
It is stored in the ROM 31 as information optimized for. Therefore, the battery pack 1 with different types of batteries
When the battery pack 1 is used in the portable electronic device 20, the battery pack 1 can be used because the power supply circuit control unit 32 has the optimized control information unique to the battery. Since the control information optimized for the power supply circuit controller 32 is stored on the side of the battery pack 1 as described above, the battery packs 1 of various battery types can be used as a drive source of the portable electronic device 20. There is an effect.

[0016]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION By adopting a system in which the power supply circuit control unit of a portable electronic device provides the necessary information for controlling the battery pack on the side of the battery pack, a battery option having a large capacity is provided for the purpose of extending the driving time. Made possible. The use of primary batteries and batteries using the latest materials, which has been difficult until now, will be realized. It is possible to provide a battery pack with optimized control information for portable electronic devices,
Has the effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a battery pack according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a mounting view of the battery pack and the portable electronic device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Battery pack 30 ... Battery 2 ... Back surface 31 ... ROM 3a, b ... + terminal 32 ... Power supply circuit control part 4a, b ...- Terminal 33 ... Power supply circuit 5 ... Connector 34 ... Signal line 6a, b ... Convex part 35 ... Charge / discharge signal line 7 ... Wall surface 36 ... Bus 8 ... Surface 37 ... Signal line 20 ... Portable electronic device 38 ... Discharge circuit 21 ... Battery pack mounting part 39 ... Charging circuit 22a, b ... Terminal 23a, b ... Terminal 24 ... connector

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A battery pack, which is detachably provided in a portable electronic device having a power supply circuit control microcomputer and is used as a drive source of the portable electronic device, for controlling a battery type and a battery capacity of the battery pack. A battery pack having a storage means for storing usage information. 2. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein the storage means is a ROM. 3. A battery pack and a portable electronic device system, comprising a reading unit which is driven by the battery pack according to claim 1 and which reads out the control information from the ROM. 4. A portable electronic device having a detachable battery pack as a drive source and a microcomputer for controlling a power supply circuit, which is provided inside the battery pack and is specific control information for a battery such as battery type and battery capacity. Storage means for storing the control information, a transfer means for transferring the control information between the portable electronic device and the battery pack, and a reading means for reading the control information from the storage means. Characteristic battery pack and portable electronic device system. 5. The battery pack and portable electronic device system according to claim 4, wherein the storage means is constituted by a ROM.