JPH09199185A - Tester for secondary battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically and accurately judge the deterioration degree of a secondary battery by providing a battery charger charging the secondary battery, an adapter removably fitting the secondary battery, and a tester body connected with the battery charger and the adapter. SOLUTION: When a secondary battery is fitted to an adapter 4, a deep discharge is automatically applied to temporarily eliminate the residual capacity of the secondary battery via a discharge section by the controller of a tester body 2. The deeply discharged secondary battery is fully charged to the maximum by a battery charger 3 controlled by the controller. The secondary battery is then discharged to the discharge termination voltage by the discharge section controlled by the controller. The time until the second deep discharge is finished is measured by a timer and displayed on an indicator. The deterioration degree of the secondary battery can be judged, based on this display. The secondary battery can be again charged and reproduced by the battery charger 3 via the controller.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a secondary battery tester, and more particularly to a secondary battery tester capable of automatically determining the degree of deterioration of a nickel-cadmium battery used in an electric vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the degree of deterioration of a nickel-cadmium battery has been determined by the following steps. First, the battery is connected to a discharger and deeply discharged. This deep discharge is performed to eliminate the memory effect and improve the charging efficiency based on temperature. Here, the memory effect is a phenomenon in which the capacity apparently decreases in a nickel-cadmium storage battery when a charge / discharge cycle of shallow discharge is repeated. The charging efficiency is also referred to as ampere hour efficiency, and is the ratio of the amount of discharged power to the amount of charged power. nickel·
A cadmium battery generates heat when discharged and absorbs heat when charged. Therefore, the temperature of the nickel-cadmium storage battery after being discharged with a large current is rising. Further, when the amount of discharge is small, if the battery is charged as it is, the battery temperature during charging is not sufficiently lowered by the endothermic reaction due to charging, and the charging efficiency is deteriorated. Therefore, it is necessary to perform deep discharge in order to eliminate the remaining capacity of the battery before charging.

After such deep discharge, the battery is connected to a charger and fully charged. Then reconnect the battery from the charger to the discharger. Next, discharge the battery with constant current,
The stopwatch measures the discharge time until the capacity of the fully charged battery is exhausted, that is, until the discharge voltage drops to the discharge end voltage. The degree of deterioration is determined based on this measurement time.

[0004]

However, in the work of determining the degree of deterioration of the battery in the above-mentioned prior art, the worker manually puts the above-mentioned respective steps of charging and discharging sideways. Therefore, the work is troublesome and restrains the worker,
In addition, there is a possibility that wrong work or setting may be performed in the work of reconnection and the start / stop work of charging / discharging.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a tester for a secondary battery capable of automatically and accurately determining the degree of deterioration of the secondary battery. .

[0006]

To achieve the above object, in the present invention, a charger for charging a secondary battery,
An adapter to which the secondary battery is detachably attached, and a tester main body to which the charger and the adapter are connected, the tester main body includes a discharging unit for discharging the secondary battery, and discharging of the secondary battery. A timer that measures time,
There is provided a tester for a secondary battery, comprising a display for displaying the time measured by the timer and a controller for controlling them.

In a preferred embodiment, the temperature detecting means for the secondary battery is provided, and the temperature detecting means is connected to the control section.

In another preferred embodiment, the tester body further comprises a voltage detector for detecting a discharge voltage of the secondary battery and a charge state detector for detecting a charge state of the secondary battery charger. And a control unit configured to control the discharge unit, the charger and the timer based on a determination signal from the determination unit. It has a feature.

Further, in another preferred embodiment,
The operation control unit inputs the first discharge termination signal from the determination unit to stop the first discharge of the secondary battery and to start the first charge, and the first discharge from the determination unit. Input the full charge signal to stop the first charging, start the second discharging of the secondary battery, and further start the measurement by the timer, and end the second discharging from the judging unit. A signal is input to stop the second discharging by the discharging unit of the secondary battery and start the second charging by the charger of the secondary battery,
Furthermore, the second discharge measurement time by the timer is displayed on the display, and the second full charge signal from the determination unit is input to stop the second charge of the secondary battery. It is characterized by that.

According to the above structure, when the secondary battery is attached to the adapter, the control section of the tester body automatically
Deep discharge is performed through the discharge unit in order to eliminate the remaining capacity of the secondary battery. The deeply discharged secondary battery is fully charged to the maximum extent of the battery by the charger whose operation is controlled by the controller. The fully charged secondary battery is discharged to a predetermined discharge end voltage by the discharge unit whose operation is controlled by the control unit. The time until the second deep discharge is measured by the timer and displayed on the display. From this display, the degree of deterioration of the secondary battery can be determined. After the completion of the second deep discharge for determining the degree of deterioration, the controller may recharge and regenerate the secondary battery with the charger.

After the first deep discharge is completed, the temperature of the secondary battery is detected by the temperature detector, waits until the temperature drops, and then the battery is charged, so that the secondary battery can be charged at an appropriate temperature. It can be charged with high charging efficiency without adversely affecting the battery life.

[0012]

1 is an explanatory diagram showing the basic structure of a tester for a secondary battery according to the present invention.

The tester 1 comprises a tester body 2, a charger 3 and an adapter 4 connected to the tester body 2 via a connector. A battery box 6 containing a secondary battery for determining the degree of deterioration is detachably attached to the adapter 4. A nickel-cadmium storage battery is generally used as the secondary battery. The charger 3
As for the electric vehicle charger, a dedicated or normally used charger for charging the secondary battery can be used. FIG. 2 is a circuit explanatory diagram of the basic configuration of FIG. The tester body 2 is
A discharging unit 7 that discharges the secondary battery 5, a timer 8 that measures the discharging time of the secondary battery 5, a display 9 that displays the measuring time by the timer 8, a control unit 10 that controls them, and a power supply. And a switch 17.

The display 9 is a 3-digit 7-segment LE.
D (see FIG. 4), the discharge time is displayed in minutes as described later.

The control unit 10 is composed of a judgment unit 18 which is turned on when the power switch 17 is turned on, and an operation control unit 19 connected to the judgment unit 18.

The discharge section 7 has a resistor 11 for constant current discharge.
The discharge voltage is detected by the voltage detector 12 and input to the determination unit 18 of the control unit 10. Further, the discharging section 7 is connected to the battery box 6 in the adapter 4 via the discharging switch 20.

The charger 3 is connected to the determination unit 18 of the control unit 10 via a charge switch 21 and a charge state detector for detecting the charge state in the form of current or voltage.

The temperature of the secondary battery 5 itself is detected by a temperature detector 16 via a thermosensor 15.
It is input to the determination unit 18 of the control unit 10.

The timer 8 is connected to the operation control section 19 of the control section 10. This operation control section 19
Further, the charging switch 21 and the discharging switch 20 are connected to.

The judgment unit 18 receives the signal from the voltage detector 12 and judges whether the voltage of the secondary battery 5 is equal to or lower than the discharge end voltage (voltage which is a standard for ending the discharge). The determination unit 18 also receives a signal from the charge state detector 14 and determines whether the secondary battery 5 is in a fully charged state. Furthermore, the determination unit 18 uses the temperature detector 1
The signal from 6 is input to determine whether or not the secondary battery 5 is in a low temperature refresh state.

The operation control section 19 includes a discharge section 7
The discharge switch 20 interposed between the connection between the resistor 11 and the secondary battery 5 of the battery box 6 is on / off controlled based on the discharge end voltage signal from the determination unit 18, as described later.

Further, the control unit 19 closes the charging switch 21 when the discharge end voltage signal is inputted from the judging unit 18 to start charging, and the judging unit 18
This charging switch 2 when a full charge signal is input from
Open 1 to control charging. in this case,
The operation control unit 19 may control the charging switch 21 to be closed when a refresh signal that has dropped to a predetermined temperature is input from the determination unit 18.
In addition, the tester body 2 and the charger 3 are respectively plug 2
It is connected to an AC 100V power source via 2, 23.

Next, the operation of the tester for the secondary battery having the above structure will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram sequentially showing the display process of the display 9 in this flow. First, the charger 3 and the adapter 4 are connected to the tester body 2 by a connector. In addition, the tester body 2 and the charger 3 are exchanged by an alternating current 10
It is connected to the 0V power source by the plugs 22 and 23 (step S0).

After setting the battery box 6 accommodating the secondary battery 5 whose deterioration degree should be judged in the adapter 4, first, in step S1, the power switch 17 is turned on to start the operation of the tester, and the control unit Judgment part 1 of 10
8 is activated. In step S2, the determination unit 1
8 checks the remaining capacity of the secondary battery 5 in the set battery box 6. This check is performed depending on whether the signal from the voltage detector 12 is equal to or lower than a predetermined discharge end voltage. If it is lower than the discharge end voltage, that is, if there is no remaining capacity in the battery, the process proceeds to step S5 described below, and charging is immediately started.

In step S2, when the discharge end voltage is equal to or higher than,
That is, when the capacity remains in the battery, step S3
Then, the operation control unit 19 of the control unit 10 turns on the switch discharge 20 to discharge the secondary battery 5 through the resistor 11 for the first time with a constant current. This discharge is caused by the rechargeable battery 5
To force deep discharge.

This deep discharge is carried out in order to eliminate the memory effect and improve the charging efficiency as described above. In this embodiment, during this first discharge, the display 9 does not show a numerical value, and the lamp 24 at the lower right period period blinks as shown in FIG. 4 (A) to notify that it is the first discharge. .

Next, in step S4, it is determined whether the secondary battery 5 has finished deep discharge. In this case, the determination unit 18 determines whether or not the deep discharge has ended depending on whether the signal from the voltage detector 12 is equal to or lower than the discharge end voltage. When the discharge end voltage is exceeded, the discharge is further continued.

When the discharge end voltage is reached or lower, step S5
At the discharge end voltage signal from the determination unit 18,
The operation control unit 19 turns off the discharge switch 20 to stop the first discharge of the secondary battery 5. continue,
The operation control unit 19 turns on the charging switch 21 to start the first charging of the secondary battery 5.

In the display unit 9, the last digit of the display unit 9 indicates 0 as shown in FIG. 4B because the discharge is stopped. That 0
The display will continue during charging.

After the start of charging, in step S6, the determination unit 18 determines whether or not the secondary battery 5 is fully charged based on the signal from the charge state detector 14. If not fully charged, continue charging further.

When the state of full charge is reached, the process proceeds to step S7, and the operation control section 19 turns off the charge switch 21 in response to the full charge signal from the determination section 18 to stop the first charging of the secondary battery 5. Next, the discharge switch 20
Is turned on to start the second discharge of the secondary battery 5.
This second discharge is performed to determine the degree of deterioration of the secondary battery 5, and the operation control unit 19 causes the timer 8 to start measurement. When the second discharge is started, the lamp 24 at the lower right corner of the display 9 blinks as shown in FIG. 4 (C), the measured time of the discharge by the timer is displayed, and the discharge time is known by a three-digit number that increases every moment. To be done.

In step S8 after the start of discharge, the determination section 18 determines whether or not the discharge is equal to or lower than the discharge end voltage based on the signal from the voltage detector 12. When the discharge end voltage is exceeded, the discharge is further continued.

When the discharge cutoff voltage is reached or lower, step S9
At the discharge end voltage signal from the determination unit 18,
The operation control unit 19 turns off the discharge switch 20 to stop the second discharge of the secondary battery 5. continue,
The charging switch 21 is turned on to start the second charging of the secondary battery 5.

When the discharge is stopped, the discharge time from the start to the stop of the discharge measured by the timer is displayed. The measurement time of the timer 8 due to this discharge stop is
For example, the display is continued by blinking the last two digits of the display 9 as shown in FIG. During the second charging, the numbers flash and the lamp 24 at the lower right corner lights up.

The above-described second discharge measurement time indicates the degree of deterioration of the secondary battery 5 by the discharge time, and the shorter the time, the more the deterioration progresses.

FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the second discharging time and the battery capacity. In FIG. 5, the horizontal axis is the discharge time and the vertical axis is the capacity (percentage of deterioration degree relative to rated capacity).
Is shown. In this example, the value 36 of the display 9 is as shown in FIG.
Indicates that the discharge time is 36 minutes. In this case, the graph of FIG. 5 shows that the capacity of this battery is approximately 70% of the rated capacity. In the graph of FIG. 5, in the relationship between the discharge time (minutes) and the capacity (%), there is a width like a diagonal line depending on the type of the secondary battery 5
This is because there is a slight difference in the relationship between the discharge time and the capacity, and the degree of deterioration changes depending on the discharge time.

Then, in step S10, the judgment unit 1
The signal 8 from the charge state detector 14 determines whether the secondary battery 5 is fully charged and regenerated. When not in the fully charged state, the operation control unit 19 further continues charging. When the full charge signal is input from the determination unit 18, the operation control unit 19 turns off the charging switch 21 to stop the second charging of the secondary battery 5. When the charging is stopped, the display 9 lights the number blinking during charging as shown in FIG. 4E to notify the end of charging.

According to the secondary battery tester having the above structure and operation, the battery box 6 is set in the adapter 4,
By simply turning on the power switch 17, deep discharge of the secondary battery 5, full charge, discharge for judging deterioration state, charge for regeneration are sequentially performed, and those states are displayed on the display 9. Since it is displayed, judge the degree of deterioration of the secondary battery,
It is not necessary for a person to be on the side to perform various operations and settings, and there is no need to perform incorrect operations or settings.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing another example of the tester for a secondary battery according to the present invention. In this example, it is determined whether or not the temperature of the secondary battery 5 has dropped to a predetermined temperature A ° C. or lower between the end of the first discharge and the start of the first charge in the example of FIG. When it goes down,
The secondary battery 5 has a function of starting the first charging. Other configurations, operations, and effects are the same as those in the example of FIG. 3, so description of those parts will be omitted.

The characteristic part of this example will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6 and the circuit diagram of FIG. That is, in this example, steps S11 to S13 for temperature determination are added between steps S4 and S5 in the flowchart of FIG.

The judgment unit 18 inputs the discharge end voltage from the voltage detector 12, transmits it to the operation control unit 19, and the operation control unit 19 turns off the discharge switch 20 to deep discharge the secondary battery 5. To stop. In this state, the temperature signal of the secondary battery 5 is input from the temperature detector 16 to determine whether the secondary battery 5 has reached A ° C. or lower (step S11). If the temperature is A ° C. or higher, the temperature of the secondary battery 5 waits until the temperature becomes A ° C. or lower (step S
12).

In this temperature waiting state, the judgment unit 18 judges the temperature detection signal (step S13), and when it becomes A ° C. or less, the operation control unit 19 causes the charging switch 21 to be operated by the A ° C. or less signal from the judgment unit 18. Is turned on to start charging the secondary battery 5 (step S5).

Regarding the lamp display state, during the first discharge, the right end lamp 24 blinks as shown in FIG. 4A, and when the discharge is completed and the temperature is in a waiting state, this lamp 24 is turned on. While waiting for the temperature, it is turned on to notify that the battery is waiting for the temperature to drop to a predetermined temperature. When the temperature waiting is completed and the first charging is started, the lamp at the period position at the right end is turned off and the numeral 0 is turned on and fixed display is performed as shown in FIG. 4 (B). The subsequent lamp display is as described above with reference to FIGS.

When the discharge is completed, the temperature is A
If the temperature is equal to or lower than 0 ° C, the process proceeds to step S5 immediately without waiting for the temperature, and the first charging is started.

FIG. 7 is a graph showing the relationship between the charging / discharging time of the secondary battery and the temperature. FIG.
(B) shows the case where the temperature is not waited.

As can be seen from the figure, when waiting for the temperature, the first charging (charging 1) is performed at a low temperature, so that the charging efficiency is high. On the other hand, if you do not wait for the temperature,
As shown in (B), since the temperature is high at the start of charging, the temperature remains high even after charging which is an endothermic reaction, the charging efficiency is poor and a sufficient charging state cannot be obtained.

That is, if the charging is started immediately after the first discharge of the secondary battery without waiting for the temperature, the temperature of the secondary battery 5 becomes B at the second discharge as shown by the curve in FIG. 7B. As the temperature rises to or above 0 ° C., the charging efficiency deteriorates in the second charging as described above.

Therefore, in this example, charging / discharging of the secondary battery 5 is repeated as shown in FIG. 9A while waiting for the temperature after the first discharge so that the temperature does not exceed B ° C. .

In the above two embodiments, the discharge end voltage at the time of the first discharge and the discharge end voltage at the second time are set to the same value, but they can be set to different values, and the secondary batteries are connected in series. The set value can be changed according to the difference in the number of cells.

Further, the discharge end voltage can be changed to set the optimum deep discharge time according to the battery to be inspected, and the reliability of deterioration judgment can be improved. Further, it is possible to provide two or more indicators corresponding to the discharge end voltage, the temperature condition, etc. to improve the detection accuracy.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 9A to 9F are explanatory views sequentially showing the display states of the display in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, the tester is provided with two first display devices 91 and second display devices 92 arranged side by side. Thereby, the discharge voltage is measured in two stages. That is, in this embodiment, in the second discharge measurement step S7 of the flowchart of FIG. 6 described above, when the predetermined observed voltage before reaching the final discharge end voltage is reached, this is displayed (steps S14, 15). Is added. The other flow is substantially the same as the flowchart of FIG. Here, the observed voltage is, for example, a value corresponding to a voltage value at which a warning is issued when the remaining battery power becomes equal to or less than a predetermined amount. That is, in a normal electric vehicle, when the battery capacity becomes low, the display lamp blinks to warn,
When the operation is further continued and the capacity is completely exhausted, the indicator lamp is turned on or off to control the operation to end. In this example, after fully charging the battery,
Before the final voltage is reached due to discharge, the time until the observed voltage corresponding to such a battery remaining amount shortage state is measured and displayed.

After the start of processing by the tester, the first discharge is performed (steps S0 to S4), the battery temperature is waited (steps S11 to 13), and the first charge is performed (steps S5 and 6). The operation is the same as the above-described flowchart of FIG. 6 up to step S7 at which the second discharge is started. In this case, the first and second indicators 9
As shown in FIGS. 9A to 9D, both 1 and 92 are displayed in the same state. When the measurement of the discharge time is started in step S7, it is first determined whether or not the voltage is equal to or lower than a predetermined observation voltage (step S14). If the observed voltage has not been reached, the discharge continues and the time continues to be measured. At this time, in the first and second indicators 91 and 92, as shown in FIG. 9D, the LED at the period position at the right end blinks, and
The measurement time is displayed and the number increases. When the observed voltage is reached, the first indicator 91 is lit and displayed with the measurement time fixed at that time (step S15). In this example, 4
It is assumed that the observed voltage is reached in 2 minutes. After reaching this observed voltage, the discharge is continued until the discharge end voltage is reached (step S8). In this case, the first indicator 91 is 4
The display time of the second display 92 changes while being fixedly displayed in 2 minutes.

When the discharge reaches the final voltage, the measured time at the time when the discharge reaches the final voltage is fixedly displayed on the second display 92. In this example, it is assumed that the discharge end voltage is reached in 45 minutes. Then, the second charging of the battery is started (step S
9). During this charging, as shown in FIG. 9 (E), the first display unit 91 continues to maintain the fixed display state of the observed voltage arrival time (42 minutes), and the second display unit 92 displays the discharge end voltage arrival time (42 minutes). For 45 minutes, a blinking fixed display is performed, and the blinking informs that charging is in progress. When charging is completed, Fig. 9
As shown in (F), the second indicator 92 is changed from a blinking display to a lighting display to notify that charging is completed. This final lighting fixed display of the first and second indicators 91, 92 confirms the arrival time to the observed voltage and the arrival time to the discharge end voltage. In this way, by displaying the discharge voltage measurement time in two stages, for example, the time until the warning voltage of the remaining battery level is reached can be known, and based on this, the degree of battery deterioration and It becomes possible to use it for correction of the relation graph (FIG. 5) between the discharge end voltage arrival time and the degree of deterioration, or as auxiliary data. In addition to the effects of each of the above-described embodiments, the reliability and usability are further improved. Battery tester can be realized.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Just by setting the secondary battery in the adapter, it is possible to automatically determine the degree of deterioration of the secondary battery.As in the conventional technology, charging of the secondary battery is performed to determine the degree of deterioration of the secondary battery. There is no need for manual reconnection work from discharge to discharge or measurement of discharge time, there is no possibility of performing wrong work or setting, and accurate discharge time measurement without manual work is performed. It is possible to easily and accurately determine the degree of deterioration (remaining capacity) of the battery. If this is used, the service life of the secondary battery of the electric vehicle can be easily clarified at a service station or the like, and the replacement time of the secondary battery can be clarified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a basic configuration of a tester for a secondary battery according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example in which the basic configuration of FIG. 1 is shown as a circuit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the tester of FIG.

4A and 4B are explanatory diagrams sequentially showing a display process of a display unit of the tester of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between discharge time and capacity of a secondary battery.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing another example of a tester for a secondary battery according to the present invention.

7 is a diagram showing the relationship between the temperature and charge / discharge state of the secondary battery in the tester of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of another embodiment of the present invention.

9A and 9B are explanatory diagrams sequentially showing display states of the display unit of the embodiment of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Tester, 2: Tester main body, 3: Charger, 4: Adapter, 5: Secondary battery, 6: Battery box, 7: Discharge part, 8: Timer, 9: Display device, 10: Control part, 11: Resistance, 12: voltage detector, 13: charging unit, 14: charge state detector, 15: thermosensor, 16: temperature detector, 1
7: Power switch, 18: Judgment part, 19: Operation control part, 20: Discharge switch, 21: Charge switch, 2
2, 23: Plug.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroaki Takechi 2500 Shinkai, Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A charger for charging a secondary battery, an adapter for detachably mounting the secondary battery, and a tester main body to which the charger and the adapter are connected, the tester main body comprising: A secondary battery characterized by having a discharge unit for discharging the secondary battery, a timer for measuring the discharge time of the secondary battery, an indicator for displaying the measured time by the timer, and a control unit for controlling them. Battery tester. 2. The tester for a secondary battery according to claim 1, further comprising a temperature detecting unit for the secondary battery, the temperature detecting unit being connected to the control unit. 3. The tester body further comprises a voltage detector for detecting a discharge voltage of the secondary battery, and a charge state detector for detecting a charge state of the secondary battery by a charger, and the control unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a determination unit that determines a discharge state and a charge state, and an operation control unit that controls the discharge unit, the charger, and the timer based on a determination signal from the determination unit. Secondary battery tester described in. 4. The operation control unit receives the first discharge termination signal from the determination unit to stop the first discharge of the secondary battery and start the first charge to start the first charge. Input the full charge signal to stop the first charging, start the second discharging of the secondary battery, and further start the measurement by the timer, and end the second discharging from the judging unit. A signal is input to stop the second discharge of the secondary battery, and the secondary battery
The second charge is started, the time measured by the timer for the second discharge is displayed on the display, and the second full-charge signal from the determination unit is input to the second charge of the secondary battery. The tester for a secondary battery according to claim 3, wherein the tester is configured to stop charging.