JPH07336902A - Battery life detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To judge the life of a battery easily by summing up the number of times of charging and discharging of a storage battery each time the charging discharging condition is detected, and indicating it. CONSTITUTION:A voltage detecting circuit 92 detects the charging state of a battery 91, on the basis of the voltage at discharging, and outputs a pulse signal, which serves as the basis for counting the number of charges of a battery 91, to a counter 95. A stabilizing power circuit 94 receives the DC voltage from the battery 91 and supplies the counter 95 with power. According to this stabilizing power circuit 94, the counter 95 operates stably even if the DC voltage of the battery 91 drops. The counter 95 adds it one by one by the pulse signal of the voltage detecting circuit 92, and preserves the total value. Moreover, the output side of the counter 95 is connected to an A terminal, and the results of total are outputted to outside.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a storage battery life detecting device for detecting the life of a storage battery which supplies electric power to electronic equipment such as a handy terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-88653 has been used to detect the life of a storage battery mounted on an electronic device such as a handy terminal. In this method, the time during which the storage battery is supplying power to the electronic device, that is, the cumulative use time is counted, and the life of the storage battery is detected by comparing the counted cumulative use time with the life time of the storage battery. It is a thing.

[0003]

However, since the above-mentioned conventional method for detecting the life of the storage battery is displayed only by the cumulative use time of the storage battery, when the storage battery is used in an electronic device such as a handy terminal, the storage battery is not used. There is an inconvenience that it is not possible to easily determine how long it can be used. For example, if the cumulative time of the storage battery is 9910 hours and the life of the storage battery is 10,000 hours, the storage battery can be used for another 90 hours. However, if the storage battery is used for different times every day, it is difficult for the user to determine how many days the storage battery can be used. Further, when the remaining usage time of the storage battery is short, the user needs to use the storage battery while paying attention to how long the storage battery can be used, which is very troublesome.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a storage battery life detecting device capable of easily knowing the life of a storage battery.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 provides a storage battery life detecting device for detecting the life of a storage battery for supplying electric power to an electronic device,
Based on the voltage at the time of charging or discharging the storage battery, the charging / discharging detection unit that detects the charging / discharging state of the storage battery, and the total number of times the charging / discharging of the storage battery is performed each time the charging / discharging state is detected by this charging / discharging detection unit. And a display unit for displaying the results accumulated by the accumulating unit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a storage battery life detecting device for detecting the life of a storage battery that supplies electric power to an electronic device, the charging / discharging state of the storage battery is determined based on the voltage when the storage battery is charged or discharged. Set the maximum chargeable / dischargeable frequency value that indicates the life of the storage battery and the charge / discharge detection section to detect, and subtract a predetermined value from the above frequency value each time the charge / discharge state is detected by the charge / discharge detection section. And a display unit that displays the result of the subtraction performed by the subtraction unit.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the charge / discharge detection unit detects the charge / discharge state of the storage battery based on the voltage at the time of charging or discharging the storage battery. Upon detecting this charging / discharging state, the accumulating unit accumulates the number of times of charging / discharging of the storage battery, and the display unit displays the accumulated result of the number of times. In this way, by accumulating the charging / discharging state in the accumulator, it is possible to know how many times the storage battery has been charged and discharged, and if the maximum chargeable / dischargeable frequency value indicating the life of the storage battery is predetermined. It is possible to determine how many times the storage battery in use can be charged and discharged. In this way, the life of the storage battery can be easily determined from the currently displayed charge / discharge frequency value of the storage battery.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the maximum charge / discharge count value is set, and a predetermined value is calculated from the maximum charge / discharge count value each time the charge / discharge state is detected by the charge / discharge detection unit. By subtracting the number and displaying how many times the battery can be charged and discharged, it is possible to immediately determine how many times the storage battery in use can be charged and discharged by looking at the display.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a battery pack according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram showing a configuration of a voltage detection circuit of the battery pack. FIG. 3 shows an example in which the battery pack is used in an actual electronic device, and is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a handy terminal. As shown in FIG. 1, the battery pack 9 which is the storage battery life detecting device includes a battery 91, a voltage detecting circuit 92, a stabilizing power supply circuit 94, and a counter 95.
It consists of and. The battery 91 is the battery 91
Is connected to the B terminal for connecting the external circuit of the battery pack 9, and the negative (-) terminal is connected to the C terminal of the battery pack 9 for connecting the external circuit. The battery 91 is, for example, an alkaline storage battery, is charged with a DC voltage from the positive terminal and the negative terminal, and supplies electric power from these terminals to an electronic device such as a handy terminal by discharging.

In the voltage detection circuit 92, the positive terminal on the input side is the positive terminal of the battery 91 or B of the battery pack 9.
The negative terminal on the input side is connected to the terminal and the negative terminal of the battery 91 or the C terminal of the battery pack 9. Further, the voltage detection circuit 92 detects the charge state of the battery 91 with reference to the voltage at the time of discharging, and outputs a pulse signal to the counter 95, which is a basis for accumulating the number of times the battery 91 is charged. Further, the voltage detection circuit 92 includes a comparison circuit 92a, a reference voltage circuit 92b, and a measured voltage input circuit 9 as shown in FIG.
2c.

The comparison circuit 92a has a voltage (for example, 5.0 volts) when the battery 91 of the reference voltage circuit 92b is discharged.
When the voltage of the measured voltage input circuit 92c is higher than the voltage of the reference voltage circuit 92b, "H" is compared with the voltage at the time of charging (for example, 5.1 volts) input from the measured voltage input circuit 92c. Output a pulse signal of level. The reference voltage circuit 92b is composed of a Zener diode or the like, and outputs 5.0 volt which is a reference for comparison by the comparison circuit 92a. This reference voltage is the voltage at the time of discharging the battery 91, but if the number of times the battery 91 is charged can be detected, the voltage at charging 5.1 volts may be used as the reference. The reference voltage circuit 92b converts the voltage input from the battery 91 into a voltage that can be input to the comparison circuit 92a. The reference voltage circuit 92b insulates the power supply circuit of the battery 91 from the control circuit inside the voltage detection circuit 92.

The stabilized power supply circuit 94 inputs a DC voltage from the battery 91 and supplies power to the counter 95. The stabilized power supply circuit 94 allows the counter 95 to operate stably even if the DC voltage of the battery 91 drops. The counter 95 is composed of a flip-flop, adds "1" by a pulse signal from the voltage detection circuit 92, and holds the added cumulative value. The output side of the counter 95 is A for the output signal of the battery pack 9.
It is connected to the terminal and outputs the accumulated result to the outside. Further, since the pulse signal output from the voltage detection circuit 92 is output from the voltage detection circuit 92 every time the battery 91 is charged, it is possible to determine how many times the battery 91 has been charged up to now.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, the handy terminal is composed of a handy terminal body 1 and a touch scanner 2. The handy terminal body 1 has an operating section 3, a liquid crystal display 4, a power supply circuit 5, and a power supply circuit 5. CPU
(Central processing unit) 6, ROM 7, RAM 8, battery pack 9, touch scanner 11, transmission / reception circuit 1
It consists of 2. The touch scanner 2, for example, reads the barcode of the product while the touch scanner 2 is applied to the product, converts the read data into a predetermined code (for example, BCD code), and then the touch scanner interface 11 To the CPU 6 via. The operation unit 3 instructs the CPU 6 to start reading the barcode by the touch scanner 2. The liquid crystal display 4
The CPU is controlled by the display controller 10.
The data designated by 6 is displayed at a predetermined location on the screen of the liquid crystal display 4.

During charging, the power supply circuit 5 inputs an AC voltage from an AC power supply (commercial power supply) via a power cord connected to the connector 5a, rectifies the AC voltage and converts it into a DC voltage, The battery 91 in the battery pack 9 is charged with this DC voltage. At the time of discharging, the DC voltage input from the battery 91 is supplied to each circuit of the handy terminal body 1 and the touch scanner 2. In the battery 91, the above-mentioned B terminal is connected to the plus (+) terminal of the power supply circuit 5 and the C terminal is connected to the minus (−) terminal of the power supply circuit 5, and the battery 91 is connected to the power supply circuit 5 via these terminals. Charging and discharging are performed between. Also,
The battery pack 9 outputs the number of times of charging (cumulative value) of the battery 91 to the CPU 6 via the A terminal. CPU6
Displays the accumulated value on the liquid crystal display 4 via the display controller 10. The user can check the number of times the battery 91 has been charged up to the present from the display on the liquid crystal display 4. For example, in the case of a battery that can be charged 500 times, if the liquid crystal display 4 displays 555 times, the battery can be charged 45 more times.

Next, a battery life detecting operation of the storage battery life detecting apparatus according to the first embodiment will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart explaining the same life detecting operation. When the battery pack 9 (FIG. 3) is housed in the handy terminal body 1, the number of times of charging displayed on the liquid crystal display 4 is cleared to “0”. The display of "0" is displayed at a predetermined position on the screen of the liquid crystal display 4. Next, when the user uses the battery pack 9 and the voltage of the battery 91 in the battery pack 9 drops to the final discharge voltage (a voltage that cannot be recovered even if the battery is charged when discharged to a voltage value below this). , One end of the power cord is connected to the connector 5a, and the other end of the power cord is connected to an AC power source (commercial power source) for charging. At this time, the AC voltage input through the power cord is rectified by the power circuit 5 and converted into a DC voltage,
The battery pack 9 is supplied from the positive terminal and the negative terminal of the power supply circuit 5 through the B terminal and the C terminal. The DC voltage at this time is higher than the voltage of 5.0 V when the battery pack 9 is discharged, and is 5.1 V, for example.

The battery 91 of the battery pack 9 is charged by the power supply circuit 5 and at the same time, the voltage detection circuit 92.
Detects the charging voltage (step S11). In the voltage detection circuit 92 (FIG. 2), the reference voltage circuit 92b is set in advance to a voltage value of 5.0 volts during discharge. The comparison circuit 92a includes a measurement voltage input circuit 92c from the battery 91.
The voltage value of 5.1 volt at the time of charging detected through the battery and the voltage value of 5.0 volt at the time of discharging of the reference voltage circuit 92b are compared, and the detected voltage value (voltage value at the time of charging) is compared with the reference voltage (discharge voltage value). If it is higher than the hour voltage value (YE in step S12)
S), a pulse having a predetermined pulse width is output to the counter 95, the process proceeds to step S13, and if the voltage value is lower than the reference voltage (NO in step S12), the voltage value is continuously monitored (steps S11 and S12). .

The counter 95 receives the pulse output from the comparison circuit 92a of the voltage detection circuit 92 and outputs "1".
Is added to the current cumulative value "0" to set the cumulative value to "1" (step S13), and the cumulative value of "1" is added to the CPU 6 of the handy terminal body 1 via the A terminal.
Output to. The CPU 6 displays the cumulative value “1” of the counter 95.
Is displayed on the liquid crystal display 4 via the display controller 10 (step S14). If the life of the battery is determined to be the maximum number of times the battery can be charged, for example, 500 times, the life of the battery can be determined only by the number of times of charging.
The accumulated value displayed on the liquid crystal display 4 is the battery 9
"1" is added for each charging of 1 and is added up to 500 times (steps S11 to S15).

After that, the battery 91 is charged 500 times.
When it is turned (YES in step S15), the CPU
6 determines that the life of the battery 91 has expired and clears the display of the liquid crystal display 4 via the display controller 10, that is, sets it to "0" (step S16). The user determines that the battery 91 has reached the end of life and replaces the battery 91 with a new one.

According to the configuration of this example, by counting the number of times the battery 91 has been charged by the counter 95, it is possible to know how many times the battery 91 has been charged, and the maximum number of times the battery 91 can be charged (the life of the battery 91 By determining the number of times, it is possible to easily determine how many times the battery 91 in use can be charged by simply looking at the display.

Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Figure 5
FIG. 6 is a circuit block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a battery pack which is a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart explaining a battery life detection operation in the battery pack. In FIG. 5, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. The storage battery life detecting device of this example is a battery 9
This is different from the above-described first embodiment in that the number of times of charge of 1 is displayed by subtracting it from the number of times of life for each charge, and that the display plate is built in the battery pack 90. In FIG.
The subtraction circuit 96 subtracts one from the maximum charge count value (lifetime count value) of the battery 91 by one in response to the pulse from the voltage detection circuit 92. Initial setting circuit 98
Sets the maximum charging number of the battery 91, for example 500 times, in the subtraction circuit 96 by the input of the reset switch 98a. Further, the liquid crystal display board 97 displays the value of the subtraction circuit 96.

Next, a battery life detecting operation of the storage battery life detecting apparatus according to the second embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the same life detecting operation. First, the user presses the reset switch 98a after replacing the battery 91 with a new one. When the reset switch 98a is pressed, the initialization circuit 98 causes the subtraction circuit 96 to display the maximum charge count value of the battery 91 of the battery 91,
For example, 500 times is set (step S21). The battery 91 is fully charged every time the power is supplied to the electronic device such as the handy terminal body 1 and the final discharge voltage is reached. The voltage detection circuit 92 detects and compares the charging voltage of the battery 91 (steps S22 and S23), and outputs a pulse to the subtraction circuit 96 for each detection.

Each time the subtraction circuit 96 inputs a pulse from the voltage detection circuit 92, the maximum charge count value of the battery 91, for example, "1" is subtracted from 500, and the subtraction result (count value) is displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 97. To display. Then, the battery 91 is repeatedly charged until the display becomes 0 (steps S21 to S26), and when the display on the liquid crystal display plate 97 becomes 0 (YES in step S26), the number of times value of the liquid crystal display plate 97 is displayed. Is set to 0 (step S27), and the user replaces the battery 91 with a new one.

According to the configuration of this example, the maximum charge count value of the battery 91 is set, and every time the voltage detection circuit 92 detects the charge state, the maximum charge count value is set to 1 from the maximum charge count value.
Is subtracted from the display to show how many times the battery 91 can be charged, so it is possible to immediately determine how many times the battery 91 in use can be charged and discharged by looking at the display. .

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, the specific structure is not limited to this embodiment, and there are design changes and the like within the scope not departing from the gist of the present invention. Also included in the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the example of the handy terminal is described, but not only the handy terminal but also other electronic devices may be used.
As for the display unit, when the electronic device has the display unit as in the embodiment, the display unit of the electronic device may be used, but when the electronic device does not have the display unit, it is incorporated in the battery pack itself. But good.

Further, when the charge state of the battery is detected, the voltage when the battery is discharged may be used as the reference as in the embodiment, but the voltage when the battery is charged may be used as the reference. When determining the life of the battery, the number of times the battery is charged may be used as a reference, or the number of times the battery is discharged may be used as a reference. In addition, the liquid crystal display panel described in the above embodiment is not limited to this, and LED (light emitting diode)
But good. Furthermore, the calculation of the number of times the battery is charged is not limited to adding or subtracting 1 depending on the usage state,
Depending on the state of use, 2 or 3, other numbers may be added or subtracted.

[0026]

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, the number of times of charge / discharge of the storage battery is accumulated and displayed on the display unit, so that the life of the storage battery in use can be easily determined. . Further, while presetting the maximum number of times the battery can be charged and discharged, which indicates the life of the storage battery, each time the charge and discharge state is detected by the charge and discharge detection unit, a predetermined number is subtracted from the number of times, and how many times after that, Since it is displayed whether charging or discharging is possible, the life of the storage battery in use can be immediately determined by looking at the display of the number of times.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a battery pack that is a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram showing a configuration of a voltage detection circuit of the battery pack.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a handy terminal using the battery pack.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a battery life detection operation in the battery pack.

FIG. 5 is a circuit block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a battery pack which is a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a battery life detection operation in the battery pack.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 Liquid crystal display (display unit) 9 Battery pack 91 Battery 92 Voltage detection circuit (charge / discharge detection unit) 95 Counter (cumulative unit) 96 Subtraction circuit (subtraction unit) 97 Liquid crystal display plate (display unit)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A storage battery life detecting device for detecting the life of a storage battery that supplies electric power to an electronic device, comprising: a charge / discharge detection unit for detecting a charge / discharge state of the storage battery based on a voltage when the storage battery is charged or discharged. The charging / discharging detection unit includes a cumulative total unit that accumulates the number of times of charging / discharging of the storage battery each time the charging / discharging state is detected, and a display unit that displays the cumulative results of the cumulative unit. Storage battery life detector. 2. A storage battery life detecting device for detecting the life of a storage battery that supplies electric power to an electronic device, and a charge / discharge detection unit for detecting a charge / discharge state of the storage battery based on a voltage when the storage battery is charged or discharged. A subtracting unit that presets a maximum chargeable / dischargeable number of times indicating the life of the storage battery and subtracts a predetermined numerical value from the number of times each time the charge / discharge state is detected by the charge / discharge detecting unit; A storage battery life detecting apparatus comprising: a display unit that displays a result of subtraction by the subtraction unit.