JPH09257886A - Apparatus for measuring life of product with battery as power source - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To conduct the life confirmation test of a battery in a short time by providing the battery for supplying power to load means such as solenoid or motor, switch means for connecting or disconnecting the battery to or from the load means, and drive means for driving the switch means according to the set conditions. SOLUTION: This life measuring apparatus comprises a controller 1 made of a personal computer, an input unit 2 made of a keyboard, a monitor 3 made of a CRT, an A-D conversion unit 4 formed of A-D converters 44 to 44 and a memory 45 made of flip-flops for temporarily storing the data of the converters, and a measuring unit 5 having a battery to be measured, load and a connecting relay controlled by the controller. Measuring conditions such as measurement starting date, operating time and type of load are input, and actual measurement is conducted according to the input conditions. The measured data are stored in the storage of a personal computer, and a graph is formed and displayed on the monitor 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a test device for predicting battery life of products using primary batteries or secondary batteries.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to suppress variations in manufacturing batteries, one of the lots manufactured at the same time is extracted and the actual life or the battery voltage is measured with the resistor always connected to the battery. Then, it is confirmed whether the measured value matches the theoretical value, so that the battery life does not vary.

For products using a battery as a power source, a recommended period is specified in a catalog or the like as a guideline for how long the user of the product should replace the battery. However, in order to determine this recommended period, reliability cannot be ensured with a value obtained by theoretical calculation (that is, a value obtained by simply dividing the amount of charge accumulated in the battery by the load resistance value). This is because the load is rarely always connected in actual use, and the load is intermittently connected and used in many cases. That is, since transient states such as load connection and disconnection frequently occur, even if the accumulated charge amount of the battery is the same, the charge consumption in the transient state differs due to the structural variation of the battery itself. , Battery life when installed in a product may change.

Therefore, a test is conducted using a plurality of actual products with batteries set therein, and the recommended period is determined based on the test results. This test drives the product, sets the assumed conditions or acceleration conditions (uses a shortened time, not real time) assuming actual use, drives the product, and changes the actual life of the battery or the time transition of the battery voltage. Is done by measuring. Then, after grasping the difference between the measured value and the theoretical value and the factors thereof, the average life is calculated and is determined as the recommended period.

[0005]

By the way, for example, in the above-mentioned test in an automatic faucet installed in a washbasin or the like, a battery is set in an actual product, and the closed circuit voltage and the open circuit voltage of the battery are measured. However, for that purpose, it is necessary to solder a measurement signal line to the battery terminal and connect a relay, a timer, a counter, and an oscilloscope to the measurement signal line.

[0006] In addition, the operation interval with a timer and a counter,
Number of operations, operation pause time, load connection time, switching time,
Set the charging time etc., drive the product with the relay based on the setting, the measurer measures the voltage and current with the oscilloscope at every predetermined time, and then draws the graph etc. using the data , The life expectancy, the failure event is estimated, and the prevention is performed from the graph. The battery terminal and the measurement signal line are soldered in order to prevent the contact resistance from changing. Also, the operation interval, the number of operations,
Settings such as the operation pause time, load connection time, opening / closing time, and charging time are determined using data such as past usage frequency of similar products in order to approximate actual usage conditions.

Therefore, the measurer had to take data periodically at a predetermined time, which was a work that was very tired both mentally and physically.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, in the present invention, a load means such as a solenoid or a motor, a battery for supplying electric power to the load means, and the battery and the load means are connected. The switch means is to be released, the setting means for setting the condition for driving the switch means, and the driving means for driving the switch means according to the condition set in the setting means.

The load means is composed of a load component of a product using a battery as a power source.

Further, a measuring means for measuring the battery voltage when the switch means is connected and the battery voltage when the switch means is disconnected is provided.

[0011]

According to the present invention, it is possible to perform a life test on a product using a battery as a power source without intervention of a measurer. Therefore, automatic measurement can be performed even at night, and the battery life confirmation test can be performed in a short period of time.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a product life measuring device using a battery as a power source according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a control unit including a personal computer or the like, 2 is an input unit including a keyboard attached to the personal computer or the like, 3 is a monitor including a CRT, and 4 is a measured voltage, current, or temperature. A / D converters 41 and 4 for converting an analog amount such as a digital amount into a digital amount
2, 43 and 44, and an A / D conversion device 5 including a storage unit 45 including a flip-flop circuit that temporarily stores the data of the A / D converter, a battery to be measured, a load, and the control unit. Is a measuring device consisting of a connection relay controlled by. The measuring device also includes a temperature sensor for measuring the ambient temperature. Further, a data processing device 6 including a notebook personal computer or the like for separately processing the measurement data accumulated in the control unit 1, and a graph of the data accumulated in the control unit 1 over time are printed. The printing machine 7 for connecting to the control unit is connected to the control unit by an interface. In this embodiment, as a personal computer, a PC manufactured by NEC is used.
RS232 as the interface using 9801
C was used. The A / D conversion device 4 is capable of processing four measurement data in parallel at the same time, and the data processed in parallel is temporarily stored in the storage unit 45, and the control unit 1
Are sequentially transferred serially.

FIG. 2 shows the relationship among the battery under test, the load and the connection relay of FIG. In the figure, 9 is a battery to be measured which is a primary battery or a secondary battery, and 10 is
Load configured by the load component of the product that uses the battery as the power source, 1
Reference numeral 1 is a standard resistance for measuring the current flowing in the circuit when the connection relay 81 (switch means) is connected. In addition,
The current flowing through the circuit when the connection relay 81 (switch means) is connected is measured by the A / D converter 41 connected to both ends of the standard resistor 11 via the connection relay 82. In addition, the voltage across the battery (O
CV) and the voltage across the battery (CCV) at the time of connection,
This is performed by the A / D converter 41 connected to both ends of the measured battery 9 via the connection relay 82. The voltage and the current are supplied by the same A / D converter 41. Further, it is desirable to use the standard resistor 11 which is of a level that can be ignored as compared with the load 10 and which does not fluctuate in resistance value depending on the ambient temperature and has higher accuracy.

FIG. 3 shows an outline of the control flow of the control unit shown in FIG. The control flow is composed of a measurement condition setting flow, a measurement flow, and a graph display flow. Then, in the measurement condition setting flow, as shown in FIG. 4, the measurement start date and time, the operation time, the operation interval, the measurement pause time, the number of operations, the measurement interval, and the type of load are input. It is possible to input the year, month, and day as the measurement start date and time, and set the operation time and operation interval in seconds. For the measurement pause time, the time from one day to the time of rest is input, and the total number of operations is input for the number of operations. (Or
If the operation interval is not input, the number of operations per day can be input to automatically determine the operation interval. ) In the measurement interval, enter whether to measure data for each motion or once for a plurality of motions. Further, as the type of load, it is possible to select three types of resistance load, an opening / closing load including a latching solenoid and the like, and an endurance load for instructing the measurement timing by itself. If the type of load is an opening / closing load such as a latching solenoid, the open energization time, the close energization time, and the open holding time are further input. The open energization time and the close energization time can be set in milliseconds, and the open holding time can be set in seconds. Further, in the case of a durable load, the current value, voltage value, etc. at that time are measured when there is a measurement request signal from the durable load. When the measurement is completed, an end signal is sent to the endurance load, and the endurance load is in a standby state until the next measurement timing based on the signal. According to the conditions input in the measurement condition setting flow, actual measurement is performed in the measurement flow. The measured data is stored in the storage unit (not shown) of the personal computer, and by the graph display flow,
It is made into a graph and displayed on the monitor-3. If necessary, the screen displayed on the monitor can be printed on the printing machine.

FIG. 6 shows that the operation time is 1 second (= open holding time-open energization time-close energization time), operation interval is 6.5 seconds, and operation rest time is from 23:00 to 5:00 on the next day. A time chart is shown in which the measurement interval is 200,000 times, the measurement interval is once every 150 operations, the load type is a switching load, and the open energization time and the close energization time are 100 ms. Since the number of operations is set to 200,000, the measurement ends 24 days after the start of the measurement. If the measurement is continued, the number of operations can be input again and the measurement can be continued.

FIG. 7 shows an example of data measured by the life measuring apparatus for a product using a battery as a power source according to the present invention. Microcomputers are usually used for the control part of the product which uses a battery as a power source, so if the CCV voltage, which is the minimum guaranteed operating voltage of the microcomputer, falls below 4.4V, the microcomputer may run out of control. Although it is used as a guide for running out of battery, in Fig. 7, the product maintains a voltage of 4.4 V or more even after operating 200,000 times, so this product is guaranteed to be used 200,000 times without battery replacement. be able to. The battery life of the product is determined by back-calculating the 200,000 times from the expected usage frequency and the like. In the present embodiment, the CCV voltage of 4.4V was used as a guideline for battery exhaustion, but the minimum guaranteed operating voltage differs depending on the microcomputer used in the product, so the voltage used as a guideline for battery exhaustion depends on the microcomputer used. The values are different. Also, looking at the safety factor,
The voltage = which is a measure of battery exhaustion may be set to be slightly higher than the operation guaranteed minimum voltage.

[0018]

According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically perform a life test on a product using a battery as a power source without intervention of a measurer. Therefore, automatic measurement can be performed even at night, and the battery life confirmation test can be performed in a short period of time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a product lifespan measuring apparatus using a battery as a power source according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows the relationship among the battery under test, the load, and the connection relay of FIG.

FIG. 3 shows an outline of a control flow of a control unit in FIG.

FIG. 4 shows an input flow for setting measurement conditions in FIG.

5 shows the measurement flow of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an example of a measurement time chart of a lifespan measuring device for a product using a battery as a power source according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a graph based on the measured data according to the time chart shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Control unit, 2: Input unit, 3: Monitor, 4: A / D converter, 41-44: A / D converter, 45: Storage unit,
5: Measuring device, 6: Data processing device, 7: Printing machine, 8
1, 82: connection relay, 9: battery to be measured, 10: load,
11 standard resistance

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A load means such as a solenoid or a motor, a battery for supplying electric power to the load means, a switch means for connecting and disconnecting the battery and the load means, and a condition for driving the switch means are set. Lifetime measuring device for a product using a battery as a power source, which comprises a setting means and a driving means for driving the switch means according to the conditions set in the setting means 2. The life measuring apparatus for a battery-powered product according to claim 1, wherein the load means is a load component of a battery-powered product. 3. A life measuring device for a battery-powered product according to claim 1, further comprising a measuring means for measuring a battery voltage when the switch means is connected and a battery voltage when the switch means is disconnected.