JPH096488A - Charge discharge controller for battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To automate entirely the evaluation preparation of a battery by conducting charging/discharging according to stored control information based on a detected residual capacity. CONSTITUTION: The controller is provided with a detection means detecting the residual capacity of a battery, a storage means storing in advance the control information of battery charging/discharging, and a charging/discharging means charging/discharging the battery according to the stored control information based on the detected residual capacity. Each function is executed by a CPU 10 or a controller 100 by using a program stored in a ROM, a RAM, a common RAM 35 or an internal memory. Furthermore, a system side battery control function in the system side (CPU 10 side) RAM or ROM acquires battery control information in the ROM through a battery control information acquisition function 300. Thus, accurate battery information and control information in response to the evaluation from the user are acquired, the charging/ discharging control of the battery attains the effect of unattended test and automation of experiment and the system evaluation can be conducted in parallel.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery charge / discharge control device, and more particularly, to a power management system management mechanism for managing energy saving of a power source in a battery-operated small portable information processing device such as a computer system. The present invention relates to a battery charge / discharge control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, nickel-hydrogen batteries have been used as batteries used as power sources for portable information processing devices. Generally, the batteries used in information processing devices are designed to maximize their efficiency by being fully charged after being completely discharged.Because the batteries are not activated at the beginning of use, the specifications are initially Often you can not get the characteristics of.

In addition, when the mainstream nickel-hydrogen battery is repeatedly charged and discharged halfway, it may cause a state called a memory effect in which the apparent capacity decreases.

Therefore, when a new battery is purchased, the battery manufacturer recommends that the battery be completely discharged and fully charged a few times. Therefore, it is clear that the same preparation is necessary when evaluating and inspecting a battery-powered information processing device, and until now, a user or the like manually performed a complete charge / discharge.

Also, lithium batteries, which are said to have no memory effect, have been used recently,
In any case, there was no system that automatically prepares for battery activation, including battery activation.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a battery charging mechanism of a conventional battery-powered information processing apparatus.

Generally, when the AC-DC adapter 504 is connected to the power supply related circuit 1 and the battery 505 is attached, the device 1 is driven by the AC power supply and the battery 505 is charged. AC-DC adapter 5
If 04 is removed, it will switch to battery drive and battery 50
The discharge state of 5 is reached.

That is, since the battery 505 can be charged and discharged even in the middle of the remaining capacity, it is rarely used up completely. At that time, a controller 500 for controlling charging / discharging often intervenes inside the main body. As an example, the battery 505 is fully charged when the voltage rises to 11V and has a capacity of 0 when the voltage drops to 7V. The controller 500 manages this voltage, and when it reaches a predetermined value, it performs electrical operation like a circuit to manage charging.

Further, recently, there is a battery in which a microcomputer is built in itself to notify the system of information such as voltage, capacity and temperature inside the battery. In this case, the control load of the controller is considerably reduced, but basically the charge / discharge control does not change. Some built-in microcomputers cut the electric circuit of the microcomputer itself to protect the battery itself from over-discharging when the voltage drops significantly. This is called shutdown. In this case, the information held by the microcomputer is once erased, which is inconvenient if there is useful information that has been stored up to now. Therefore, it is generally desirable to control so as not to shut down except when it is not necessary for battery system evaluation.

[0010]

However, the above conventional techniques have the following drawbacks in evaluation. That is, in general, a battery-powered information processing device often takes 1 hour to charge and 2 hours or more to discharge, and if this is performed for battery activation, for example, if three cycles are performed, it takes a lot of time to prepare one battery. Will spend.

Since a battery with a built-in microcomputer has a function of storing and learning useful battery information, it is necessary to repeat charging and discharging while managing the voltage so as not to shut down the microcomputer.

In any case, since the user or the like must always manage it, there is a problem in how to proceed with the evaluation. In particular, it is impossible to carry out a test that runs day and night.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and a first object thereof is to fully automate battery preparation for evaluation. The second object is to easily and flexibly perform fine control of intelligent batteries such as a microcomputer built-in type.

[0014]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a battery charge / discharge control device for an information processing device driven by a battery, wherein the battery charge / discharge control device detects the remaining capacity of the battery and the battery charge / discharge control device. It has a storage unit that stores discharge control information in advance and a charge / discharge unit that charges and discharges the battery, and charges and discharges according to the stored control information based on the detected remaining capacity.

Further, the present invention is a battery charge / discharge control device for an information processing device driven by a battery, comprising a creating means for creating battery charge / discharge control information, and a transfer means for transferring the control information. A host-side control device, storage means for storing the control information transferred from the transfer means, detection means for detecting the remaining capacity of the battery, and the storage capacity of the battery based on the control information and the detected remaining capacity. It has a controller-side control device including control means for controlling charging / discharging.

[0016]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

Although the following description describes a portable personal computer, it will be appreciated that it could be replaced by any battery-powered information processing device having a power management mechanism.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware system configuration according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 10 is a CPU, 20 is a read-only memory (ROM), and 30 is a read / write memory (R).
In AM), the program serving as the power supply management means of the present invention is stored in either memory, and in the present embodiment, either program does not matter.

Further, 40 is a video circuit section (Video) as a screen display means, 50 is an external storage device (HDD) for storing control information data, 60 is a floppy disk drive (FDD), and 65 is a timer circuit. is there.

Further, the controller 10 for managing the battery
0 exists via the shared memory 35 of the system, and receives data from the intelligent battery 80 incorporating the microcomputer. In addition, a DC-DC converter 70 for converting the electric power from the battery 80 so that it can be used by the main body and for switching the charging / discharging of the battery, and a power source from an ordinary outlet are used to charge the battery. It is composed of an AC-DC converter 90 which supplies electric power.

Here, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the relationship between the function of each element.

In the figure, each function is realized by the CPU 10 or the controller 100 executing a program stored in the ROM 20, the RAM 30, the shared RAM 35 or the internal memory.

RAM 20 on the system side (CPU 10 side)
Alternatively, the system side battery control function 310 existing in the ROM 30 acquires the battery control information existing in the ROM 30 through the battery control information acquisition function 300.

The obtained battery control information can be freely created by the user by using a file creating means such as an information processing device. An example of this is shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display screen of the information processing device when the battery control information is created.

Since such a preparation is general, its details are omitted. This description is called a script, and detailed control commands can be described in this script with time, voltage, and current as axes.

[0028] The user may select a parameter (eg CH) after the displayed control command (eg CHARGE).
Created by inputting ON after ARGE).

FIG. 5 shows what is preferably supported as an instruction at this time.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing detailed items of the battery control information. In the figure, what is described as an option is convenient because it expands the scope of evaluation.
However, some things are not directly related to battery control, so
Control functions may be slightly complicated. This information is based on the character string that the computer recognizes,
In the control information acquisition function, it is held in the RAM 30 in a form that the battery control function 310 can understand.

Next, each function will be described.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the battery control information acquisition function.

First, in step S100, the script created by the user is read. As described above, this script is created in advance and stored in the FD (floppy disk), this FD is set in the FDD 60, and the contents are transferred to the RAM 30.

Then, this instruction is converted into an intermediate code that can understand the battery control function. At this time, it is checked whether there is an instruction that cannot be converted (step S110).

If there is an instruction that cannot be converted, an error is notified to the user (step S130), and the processing is stopped.

If there is no error, the instruction described in this script is converted into an intermediate code (step S12).
0), which is stored in the RAM 30.

When all the conversions are completed (step S140), the process of the battery control information acquisition function is completed.

Next, the battery control function will be described.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation of the battery control function.

The instruction codes (intermediate codes) stored in the RAM 30 are read one by one (step S200),
Shared RAM 200 existing with the controller 100
Through the controller 10 as a charge / discharge command
0 is notified (step S210).

Further, from the system side, the controller 100
On the other hand, a report of the current battery state is appropriately received (step S220). If the battery state meets the conditions described in the script (step S230), the execution of this command has ended.

In this way, the battery control function fulfills its role by executing all the instruction codes.

Further, the charge / discharge control function of the battery existing on the controller 100 side will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the charge / discharge control function.

The controller 100, which has received a command from the battery control function 310 on the system side, calls this charge / discharge control function.

Basically, the charging / discharging control function performs the charging / discharging logic according to the charging permission / prohibition command. In other words, the charge / discharge circuit (DC-D) is now managed by managing the three states of charging, discharging, or nothing.
Directly control the C converter 70).

Further, the flow of processing will be described by taking the control information shown in FIG. 4 as an example.

Line number 1: The command for CHARGE ON is
This is to instruct the controller 100 to permit charging.

This command is sent to the system side battery control function 310.
Is sent to the controller 100 through the shared memory 35. The charge / discharge control function 320 on the slave side of the received controller 100 prepares to start charging whenever AC is connected.

Line number 2: CHARGE FULL command similarly instructs the controller 100 to be fully charged. The controller 100 uses the slave side charge / discharge control function 320 to charge / discharge a circuit (DC-DC).
The converter 70) is operated to start charging.

The determination of the end of charging varies depending on the type of battery attached to the information processing apparatus, but in general,
There is a case where a constant temperature rise is obtained or a case where a constant voltage is exceeded, and the controller 100 may judge this. In the case of a microcomputer built-in type battery, the battery itself may judge.

In this embodiment, the battery will be described using a microcomputer built-in type.

Thus, the system side battery control function 310
Waits until it receives a notification from the controller 10 that charging is completed.

When charging is completed, the system side displays line number 3: W.
Executes AIT 60 instructions. In this case, the system waits for 60 minutes. During this time, the controller 100 is doing nothing.

Next line number 4: DISCHARGE EM
The PTY command is given to the controller 100. This means "discharge until empty", and the controller 100 starts discharging. In this embodiment, the system side battery control function 310 determines that the battery is empty. How to determine the empty state also depends on the specifications of each battery itself, but in this example, it is until the voltage immediately before the microcomputer shuts down.

In terms of time, it takes 1 hour for charging, 1 hour for leaving, 2 hours for discharging, and 4 hours for 1 cycle. You will be able to do this unattended.

In order to activate the battery, the
There is no need to rely on the operator to cycle.

In this charge / discharge test, it may be desired to change the power consumed by the system. In the present embodiment, it can be realized by providing the system with means for varying the system load and giving the control information an instruction designated as an option in the table of FIG. The realization of this option is common, and therefore its details are omitted.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

As a second embodiment of the present invention, a system block configuration as shown in FIG. 3 will be given.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the hardware system configuration according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, the battery control function on the system side is installed in the controller 100 as the slave side battery control function 340. Further, the battery 103 is not an intelligent type with a built-in microcomputer.

Such a battery has an advantage that it is inexpensive because the mechanism itself is simple. However, since the battery itself does not have a remaining amount detecting mechanism, the control load (that is, the remaining amount) of the controller for detecting the remaining amount to the same degree. The quantity detection function 340) needs to be larger and more sophisticated than that of the first embodiment.

The feature of the second embodiment is that, when the battery control function is present on the system side in the first embodiment, the load of the system (for example, the light of the liquid crystal of the display device or the external device) is generated during the operation. This is done in view of the drawback that the operating system-specific application cannot be freely moved in the system, that is, comprehensively speaking, the power consumption of the storage device cannot be controlled in detail.

The system side has only means for transmitting the battery control information to the controller 100.

The same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment are used for the same functions, and the details thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart showing the slave side battery control function of the second embodiment.

First, the instructions stored in the memory inside the controller are read (step S400). Then this instruction is executed. The execution is nothing but to call the battery charge / discharge control function (step S410).

Next, the battery information is managed inside the controller 100 (step S420), and the process waits until the end condition of the command is met. If the conditions are met (step S4)
30), the previous command is canceled (S step 44)
0). In this way, all commands are executed.

Briefly, the battery control function 340 provided on the controller 100 side reads the control information stored in the memory inside the controller 100, interprets the command, and operates the charge / discharge control function 320. And operate the battery freely. In the flow of this series of processing, the system side accesses the controller side only when transmitting control information, and once the control information is passed to the controller side, the system side also releases the memory and CPU resources. Then, it becomes possible to operate another application.

As a result, the disadvantage that the system resources of the first embodiment are occupied and other applications cannot be operated is improved. The application to be operated here is an application that can significantly change the system load as described above. Conversely, it is not necessary to support the commands in the table of FIG. 5 that change the system load. Obviously, this makes the control device of the invention simple in structure and cost effective.

As described above, according to the embodiment,
In the charge / discharge control device provided in the battery-powered portable information processing device, accurate battery information and control information according to user's evaluation are acquired, and the charge / discharge control of the battery is controlled by this. It is possible to achieve great effects such as unmanned operation and automation of experiments. Therefore, it is possible to perform system evaluation of battery-powered information equipment in parallel.

[0073]

As described above, according to the present invention, the battery can be charged and discharged efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware system configuration according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a relationship between respective element functions in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware system configuration according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display screen of the information processing device when creating battery control information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing detailed items of battery control information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation of a battery control information acquisition function.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of a battery control function.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a charge / discharge control function.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a slave side battery control function of the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a conventional charging mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 CPU 20 ROM 30 RAM 35 Shared RAM 40 Video 50 HDD 55 CD-ROM drive 60 FDD 65 Timer 70 DC-DC converter 80 Battery 90 AC-DC converter 100 Controller

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A battery charging / discharging control device in an information processing device driven by a battery, comprising: detection means for detecting the remaining capacity of the battery; and storage means for storing in advance control information for charging / discharging the battery. And a charging / discharging means for charging / discharging the battery, and charging / discharging the battery according to the stored control information based on the detected remaining capacity. 2. The battery charge / discharge control device according to claim 1, wherein the control information is supplied from the outside and stored in the storage means. 3. The charge / discharge control device for a battery according to claim 1, further comprising a creation unit that creates the control information, and supplies the created control information to the storage unit to store the control information. . 4. A battery charge / discharge control device for an information processing device driven by a battery, the host side comprising a creating means for creating battery charge / discharge control information and a transfer means for transferring the control information. A control device, a storage unit that stores the control information transferred from the transfer unit, a detection unit that detects the remaining capacity of the battery, and a charge / discharge control of the battery based on the control information and the detected remaining capacity. And a controller-side control device including a control unit for controlling the charging and discharging of the battery. 5. The control means ends one of a plurality of instructions included in the control information and executes the next instruction when the remaining capacity reaches a predetermined capacity. Item 4. A battery charge / discharge control device according to item 4.