JPS61186872A - Charging type battery unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent troubles in case of overcharging by providing a means which clocks an elapsed time after full charging and a means which display its clocking contents, and knowing the remaining capacity of a battery. CONSTITUTION:A combination battery 7, a display drive circuit 8, and a control circuit 9 equipped with clocking means which clock the current time and elapsed time from full charging and a display control means which controls the display drive circuit 8 are stored in the case 2 of a charging type battery unit 1. Then, a display part 5 composed of liquid crystal and light emitting diodes is provided to the side part of the case body 2A of the case 2, and a storage characteristic curve graph 6 which has the number of storage months on the lateral axis and the remaining capacity on the longitudinal axis is displayed on the top surface of a lid body 2B. The elapsed time from the full charging which is displayed on the display part 5 is collated with a temperature curve displayed in the storage characteristic curve graph 6 to know the remaining capacity. Consequently, the necessity and the degree of charging are known accurately before use, so troubles in case of the overcharging, etc., are prevented.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention is a portable video tape recorder.

The present invention relates to a rechargeable battery unit suitable for so-called cycle use, in which charging and discharging are performed alternately, such as a rechargeable battery unit used as a power source for portable devices such as radios and cassettes.

(Prior art) Rechargeable battery units are used in so-called trickle use, in which a small charging current is constantly passed as an emergency backup power source, and in charging and discharging, as in cases where they are used as a power source for portable devices. There are uses for cycle use, which can be done alternately.

When portable devices are powered by rechargeable batteries, they often fail in that the power goes out during the process. For example, if the power goes out while a video tape recorder is recording, or a radio cassette is being checked for air, etc., and the power goes out, it will be irreparable and will cause you great discomfort. be.

By the way, conventionally, there is a rechargeable battery unit 51 as shown in FIG. In the figure, this rechargeable battery unit 51 is provided with a charging state display mechanism 52 that displays whether the rechargeable battery unit 51 is being charged or not. The charging status display mechanism 52 displays the characters "rFULL (or CHARGED)" to indicate that the battery is in a charged state and the characters "rEMP (or DISCHARGE)" to indicate that the battery is not in a discharged state. The display section 53 is displayed side by side, and by sliding on this display section 53, "rFULL" and r
It is comprised of an operator 54 provided so as to cover either one of the EMP J's. By using this operator 54, after charging, slide it to the rEMPJ side to expose rEMPJ, and when not charging, leave rEMPJ exposed as shown in the figure. When you are about to use the battery, you can check whether it is charging or not by looking at the display.

However, as is well known, batteries self-discharge,
Therefore, the longer the storage period is, the more unreliable the display on the charging state display mechanism 52 becomes. In particular, it is said that portable video tape recorders and the like are battery-powered and are generally used only once every few months. If you rely on the rechargeable battery unit 51 and use it as a power source, you are likely to make the aforementioned mistake.

In addition, some batteries are equipped with a light emitting diode that lights up using battery power, and the state of charge is indicated by the light emitting state of the light emitting diode, which shows the brightness of the light.1 For example, nickel-cadmium storage batteries, etc. Since [%] is maintained at around 1.2 [V] per cell, it is difficult to judge the state of charge.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) Therefore, in any case, it seems to be a good idea to always charge the rechargeable battery unit before using it, but this is an irrational method and requires self-control. If you try to charge a battery as quickly as possible with a large current if it is not fully discharged, it will cause performance deterioration and leakage due to overcharging.
In order to prevent this, the smaller the current is, the longer the charging time will be, and this cannot be said to be an appropriate measure.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is possible to appropriately process the rechargeable battery before using the rechargeable battery unit as a power source. The technical challenge is to prevent problems caused by power outages.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Therefore, the present invention focuses on the storage characteristics of rechargeable batteries, and provides a timer for measuring the elapsed time after full charge, and a means for displaying the time measured by the timer. shall be provided.

(Function) According to this device, since there is a predetermined relationship between the time elapsed since full charge and the remaining capacity, the remaining capacity can be known based on the time elapsed since full charge. For example, is the storage property of rechargeable batteries nickel-dominated? tJj
In the case of 1, the result is as shown in FIG. 9, and it can be seen that the longer the storage period, the more the self-discharge progresses.

(Example) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

Embodiment 1 In FIG. 1, 1 is a rechargeable battery unit according to the present invention, and 2 is a case formed by integrating a cover body 2B into a case body 2A. It houses an electric circuit including a battery pack made up of a plurality of single cells connected together, which will be described later.

Charge/discharge electrodes 3, 3 and a control signal input electrode 4 are provided on one edge of the lid 2B. The charging/discharging electrode 3.3 takes in a charging current from a charging power source and discharges the charging current to supply the power source current to a load device. The control signal input electrode 4 is used to input a control signal from a charging power source or a control circuit of a load device.

A display section 5 is provided on one side of the case body 2A.

The display section 5 displays the current time, the elapsed time after full charge, characters indicating that discharging is not possible, etc., and is composed of a liquid crystal or a light emitting diode. Figure 2 (A)
, (B) shows an example of the display on the display unit 5. First, the display in FIG. The display in FIG. 2(B) shows r EMP J , indicating that discharge is not possible.

A storage characteristic curve diagram 6 is displayed on the top surface of the lid 2B, with the horizontal axis representing the number of storage months and the vertical axis representing the remaining capacity. Curve diagram 6
The remaining capacity can be determined by comparing the . This storage characteristic curve Figure 6 shows multiple curves using temperature as a parameter, and by knowing the temperature during the storage period, the temperature of the storage location, or the temperature of the wax pond itself, it is possible to determine the remaining capacity extremely accurately. It looks like this.

The rechargeable battery unit 1 includes a power assembly i'i 17, a display drive circuit 8, and a control circuit 9, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Note that the display section 5 is driven by a display drive circuit 8.

The control circuit 9 is equipped with a clock means for measuring the current time and the elapsed time after full charge, and a display control means for controlling the display drive circuit 8, and the details of the functions thereof will be described below.

Fig. 3 shows the circuit configuration when the rechargeable battery unit 1 is connected to a charger during charging.
0 includes a charging power supply circuit 11 and a control circuit 12.

The charging power supply circuit 11 is connected to the charging/discharging electrodes 3, 3 of the rechargeable battery unit 1, and supplies charging current to the five sets of batteries 7. The control circuit 12 has a function of detecting full charge using a known voltage detection method, -ΔV method humidity temperature detection method, etc., and is connected to the control signal input electrode 4 of the rechargeable battery unit 1, and is connected to the assembled battery 7. When the battery becomes fully charged, a full charge detection signal is input from the control circuit 12 to the control circuit 9 of the rechargeable battery unit 1. When the control circuit 9 receives this full charge detection signal, it resets the timer that measures the elapsed time after full charge and starts a new timer, and in conjunction with this, the display control means causes the timer to start a new timer. The contents should be displayed on the display section 5 (the time measurement data should be transferred to the display drive circuit 8).

Next, FIG. 4 shows the circuit configuration when the rechargeable unit 1 is connected to a load device mainly as a portable device.
This load device 13 includes a power supply circuit 14 and a control circuit 15. The power supply circuit 14 charges and charges the rechargeable battery unit 1.
It is connected to the discharge electrodes 3, 3 and receives a discharge current from one set of batteries 7.

The control circuit 15 has a function of detecting a voltage drop in the battery and detecting a discharging impossible state in which overdischarging occurs if the battery discharges any further, and controls the rechargeable unit 1 (no. 3 input electrode 4
When the M battery 7 is connected to the battery pack 7 and the M battery 7 is in a non-dischargeable state, the control circuit 15 disconnects the m source circuit 14 from the assembled battery 7 and outputs a non-dischargeable state detection signal to the control circuit of the rechargeable battery unit 1. 9 is entered. When the control circuit 9 receives the discharging disabled state detection signal, it transfers the display data to the display drive circuit 8 so that the display control means causes the display section 5 to display the display shown in FIG. 2 CB).

Here, there is a concern that the assembled battery 7 may be over-discharged by using the display power to display the display shown in FIG. 2 (13). is negligible compared to the self-discharged power, so there is no need to worry about it.

Embodiment 1 has been described above, but in connection therewith, the storage characteristic curve 6 may be replaced with or otherwise.

A calculation formula representing this storage characteristic may be displayed in case 2, an instruction manual, etc., and the remaining capacity may be determined by calculation.

According to the first embodiment, the remaining capacity can be known with a simple circuit configuration, and it is possible to make the rechargeable battery unit 1 compact and to facilitate maintenance such as maintenance and inspection.

In Fig. 5, the rechargeable battery unit 1 of this embodiment is designed to display the remaining capacity on the display section 5, and like the one in Embodiment 1, the storage characteristic curve Fig. 6 is displayed. It has not been.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the rechargeable battery unit 1 of this embodiment is equipped with a charge/discharge detection circuit 16.
The discharge detection circuit 16 has a function of detecting the warm cloth state of the assembled battery 7 and a function of detecting a discharging impossible state, and has a function of detecting a discharging state of the assembled battery 7 and a control circuit 15 of the charger 10 control circuit 12 and the load device 13.
This function is the same as that for the control circuit 9, and therefore there is no need to provide the control signal input electrode 4 as in the first embodiment, and it is not provided here.

As shown in FIG. 7, the control circuit 9 includes a clock circuit 17, a temperature detector 18, an arithmetic circuit 19, and a display changeover switch circuit 2.
0.

The clock circuit 17 measures the current time and the elapsed time after full charge, and outputs the measured contents in binary.The clock circuit 17 receives a full charge detection signal from the charge/discharge detection circuit 16. It is now entered. The timing circuit I7 resets the time measurement of the elapsed time after full charge by detecting full charge (i), and starts counting the time anew from there.

The temperature detector 18 detects the temperature of the assembled battery 7 and generates a DC voltage proportional to the detected temperature.

Here, a temperature sensor IC is used, and the linearity of the characteristics between detected temperature and DC voltage is said to be extremely high.

The arithmetic circuit 19 is configured to receive the elapsed time data after full charge from the timer circuit 17 and the DC voltage from the temperature detector 18 . This arithmetic circuit 19 calculates the value of the assembled battery 7 based on the data of both the elapsed time after full charge and the temperature of the ffl battery 7.
The system calculates the remaining capacity of the circuit and outputs the calculated data.As shown in FIG.
It is composed of a digital conversion circuit 22, an adder 23, a memory 24, and a subtracter 25.

The weighting corresponds to the circuit 21 receiving the DC voltage from the temperature detector 18, and weighting the DC voltage corresponding to the amount of self-discharge per unit time (here, 1 hour) according to the temperature of the assembled battery 7. It generates DC voltage. The DC voltage from the weighting circuit 21 is converted into binary data by an analog-to-digital conversion circuit 22 and input to an adder 23.

The memory circuit 24 stores self-discharge amount data, and this self-discharge!凰 data is 6tL calculation circuit 25
The subtraction circuit 25 subtracts the self-emitted iI amount from the total dischargeable capacity to calculate the remaining capacity.

The adder circuit 23 is configured to receive elapsed time data from the timer circuit 17 after full charging. This addition circuit 23 is connected to the temperature detector 18 every hour after full charge, the weighting circuit 21 and the analog/digital conversion circuit 22.
operates to receive self-discharge amount data per unit time, use this as sampling data, simultaneously pull out the previous data from the memory circuit 24, add these sampling data and the data pulled out from the memory circuit 211, and create a new self-discharge data. Release! -1f data is created and this new self-discharge data is written into the memory circuit 24.

Returning to FIG. 7, the discharging failure detector-event of the charge/discharge detection circuit 16, the current time of the clock circuit 17, the elapsed time data after full charge, and the remaining capacity data from the arithmetic circuit 19 are the changeover switch circuit 20. The information is input to the display circuit 8 via the switch circuit 20, and the display contents on the display section 5 can be switched manually or automatically.

The second embodiment has been described above. According to the second embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, the control signal input electrode 4 and the storage characteristic curve diagram 6 are unnecessary, and the external structure is simple. In addition, the remaining capacity of the assembled battery 7 can be accurately known by direct reading.

(Effects of the Invention) As is clear from what has been described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to know the remaining capacity of a rechargeable battery, so it is possible to know whether or not charging is necessary before use, and the degree of charging required. This has the effect of preventing troubles such as power outage without causing overcharging before use or requiring charging that may take a long time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the outer R structure of the embodiment of the rechargeable battery unit according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the display of the display section of the rechargeable battery unit shown in FIG. The figure is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration when the rechargeable battery unit shown in Fig. 1 is connected to a charger, and Fig. 4 is a circuit diagram when the rechargeable battery unit shown in Fig. 1 is connected to a freight device. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the external structure of another embodiment of the rechargeable battery unit according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 shows the circuit configuration of the rechargeable battery unit shown in FIG. 5 as a charger. 7 is a block diagram of the control circuit of the rechargeable battery unit shown in FIG. 6, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the arithmetic circuit of the control circuit shown in FIG. 7. , FIG. 9 is a graph showing an example of storage characteristics of nickel-cadmium batteries, and FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing the external structure of a conventional rechargeable battery unit i-. 1. Rechargeable battery unit, 7. Control circuit (timekeeping means). Figure 1 Cause 2 (A) (B) Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 1.3 Figure 5;;; 6 Cause 10.1 Figure 7 L Figure 9 Figure 10

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A clock means for resetting the time measured by detecting a fully charged state of the rechargeable battery, and a display means for displaying the time measured by the time measuring means in relation to the remaining capacity of the rechargeable battery. A rechargeable battery unit characterized by: