JPS63110918A - Battery-driven electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to electrically driven electronic equipment, more specifically, to electrically driven electronic devices, such as electronic still cameras, which have a function of checking the remaining battery capacity. Machine 2: Regarding ;

[Conventional technology] In recent years, electronic still cameras and portable VTRs have become popular.

Alternatively, in battery-powered electronic devices such as tape recorders, the batteries that serve as the power source include manganese batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries (hereinafter referred to as nickel-cadmium batteries),
Various batteries are used, such as lead batteries and lithium batteries. Furthermore, devices that hold these various batteries by type (in which several types of battery units are selectively attached to the main body of an electronic device for use) are beginning to become popular.

On the other hand, as inexpensive and highly reliable compact DC-DC converters have come into use, these electronic devices are able to operate normally even when the electromotive force of the battery decreases over time due to power consumption. It has become possible to maintain a constant power supply voltage value for a relatively long period of time. This has the advantage that during the battery consumption process, the operation of electronic equipment driven by this DC-DC converter continues to operate normally for a relatively long period of time without any modulation. However, on the other hand, it also means that the degree of battery consumption cannot be estimated from the degree of modulation of the electronic device. On the other hand, as electronic devices that use batteries become lighter, thinner, and shorter, there is a tendency for battery life to be designed just to the limit to meet the general needs of users, so it is important for users to know the extent of battery consumption. has become an almost indispensable requirement. For this reason, many recent electronic devices are equipped with a means for checking the remaining battery capacity.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventional battery capacity checking means detects and displays the electromotive force of the battery, or compares this electromotive force with a standard value and issues a warning display. It was common to be configured to do so. On the other hand, regarding the means of displaying the remaining battery capacity, the current remaining capacity of the battery is when it is fully charged (
There is a desire to be able to intuitively recognize the remaining amount by displaying how far it corresponds between the remaining RI (100%) and the unusable depleted state (40% remaining).

However, it is difficult to directly or intuitively determine the remaining capacity of the battery from the electromotive force value itself, and the above warning display does not accurately indicate the level of battery consumption during use. It's impossible to know. In particular, the relationship between the change in electromotive force and the degree of depletion varies depending on the type of battery, such as manganese battery, NiCd battery, lead battery, or lithium battery, as well as various specifications such as the number of cells and capacity. Therefore, even if the electromotive force of the battery is detected, it will not be possible to perform a uniform and effective remaining amount detection display that does not depend on the specifications of the battery. This will be further explained using figures. First, when we examine the relationship between the remaining energy E of the battery and the electromotive force of the battery, that is, the terminal voltage V, we find that, for example, in manganese batteries, lithium batteries, lead batteries, etc., the relationship is shown by curve a in Figure 6 (A). As shown, as the energy E decreases, approximately -
However, in NiCd batteries, as shown in the curve in Figure 6 (B), the terminal voltage V remains relatively high and approximately constant until the energy E drops significantly. It has a characteristic that the terminal voltage V suddenly decreases when there is little energy remaining. In FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B), the curve a l + b t shown by the broken line and the curve a 2 shown by the dashed-dotted line
, b2 is the range in which the relationship between energy E and voltage V fluctuates due to temperature changes;
As is clear from A) and (B), in the case of manganese batteries, etc., the error amount ΔEl of energy E due to temperature change at a certain arbitrary terminal voltage v1 is small, whereas in the case of NiCd batteries, , at a certain terminal voltage v2, the energy error amount ΔE2 due to temperature change is extremely large. Therefore, in the case of manganese batteries etc., the remaining amount of energy E can be known by detecting the terminal battery V.
In the case of NiCd batteries, it is difficult to know the remaining energy from the terminal voltage V. NiCd batteries can detect errors due to temperature changes because their residual energy is almost 0%.
Therefore, although it is possible to warn that the remaining amount is close to 0, it is extremely difficult to constantly display the remaining amount.

Next, regarding the battery unit that combines multiple batteries,
The fact that the characteristics differ depending on the type of battery, the number of cells, and the capacity will be explained using the graph shown in FIG. 7. In Figure 7, A, B, and C1 show the battery-residual energy characteristics of each battery unit. C is a unit of 6 x 3-inch NiCd (secondary) batteries, C is a unit of 4 x AA-size lithium (secondary) batteries, and D is a unit of 6 x AA-size manganese (primary) batteries. Note that the point "." at one end of each of the above characteristic lines corresponds to a state of 100% remaining (primary battery; new; secondary battery; fully charged). Further, in this example, the lower limit of the operable voltage of the device is 5V. It is clear from the graph shown in Figure 7 that the characteristics of each battery unit are all different, and in particular, as seen in the characteristics of A and D, even when using the same number of batteries of the same type, batteries with different capacities It can be seen that it is impossible to properly display the remaining amount simply by checking the terminal voltage because the characteristics of the two are different. Furthermore, the usable energy of the battery varies depending on, for example, the load current, so this graph will be different for each device. The example shown in Fig. 7 corresponds to a device with a discharge rate of approximately 0.20 (C is a unit that expresses the discharge current of the battery as a relative value to the capacity, and the nominal capacity W [A h ). The performance of batteries is constantly evolving, and there are many batteries of the same type with different performance. The above graph is a typical example.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a battery-powered electronic device that can appropriately detect the remaining battery power according to the specifications of the battery to which it is applied.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The battery-powered electronic device of the present invention includes a plurality of types of battery units that hold battery specification information including at least information regarding the type of the battery. When a battery unit is installed in the main body of an electronic device, the above-mentioned battery specification information is received from the installed battery unit, and the content of the information is identified by an identification means. Ru. Then, in accordance with the result of this identification, the remaining capacity detection means for detecting the remaining battery capacity of the battery unit is activated, and a warning display or a remaining capacity display operation is performed as appropriate in accordance with the battery specification information.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is an electrical circuit diagram of a battery-powered electronic device showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which a battery unit 2 containing a manganese battery is attached to an electronic device main body 1. This battery-powered electronic device is used by attaching a battery unit 3 shown in FIG. 2, which includes a rechargeable NiCd battery, to the electronic device body 1 as a standard type, for example. When the battery is used up, the above-mentioned battery unit 2 for manganese batteries, which is easy to handle, can be used anywhere as an option. The standard type battery unit 3 has six built-in NiCd batteries 4N1, and when installed in the electronic device body 1, the terminal 3a.

3b is connected to terminals 1a and lb of the electronic device main body, so that power is supplied to the electric circuit of the electronic device main body 1. In addition, the optional battery unit 2 has six manganese batteries 'Mn built-in, and is included in the electronic device body 1.
When installed in the electronic device, the terminals 2a and 2b for power supply are connected to the terminals 1a and lb of the electronic device main body 1, and
In this battery unit 2, short-circuited terminals 2c and 2d for battery type detection are connected to terminals 1c and ld of the electronic device main body 1.

Regarding the electric circuit in the electronic device main body 1, when the power switch 5 is turned on with the battery unit 2 or 3 installed, a load resistor 6 connected between the terminals 1a and 1b is connected via the switch 5. Electric current flows and electronic devices operate. Regarding the load resistor 6, the original electric circuit of the electronic device main body l is an electronic still camera, V
T.R.

Alternatively, tape recorders and the like have complex circuit configurations, but in the present invention, their original electric circuits simply serve as load circuits, so these electric circuits are represented by the load resistor 6 above. It is expressed as follows. A circuit portion 7 surrounded by a broken line is a circuit portion according to the present invention, and includes resistors 8, 9 . Comparator 10 and light emitting diode 11
a warning display circuit 12 comprising a pull-up resistor 14, an inverter 15, and an analog switch 1.6.17.
and a battery type identification circuit 19 having a reference voltage generation circuit 18 and the like. That is, the warning display circuit 12 divides the power supply voltage applied to the load resistor 6 using resistors 8 and 9, inputs this divided voltage to the inverting input terminal of the comparator 10, and sets the reference voltage applied to the non-inverting input terminal. compared to
When the power supply voltage drops below the base voltage, the comparator 10
The light emitting diode 11 outputs a higher level signal.
It lights up as a warning.

The battery type identifying circuit 19 applies one of the two reference voltages vrcf'l and vrQr2 generated from the reference voltage generating circuit 18 to the non-inverting input terminal of the comparator 10 through the analog switch 16 or 17. The control terminal of the analog switch 16 is connected to the terminal IC, and is also connected to the power switch 5 via the pull-up resistor 14, and the inverter 15 is connected between the control terminal of the analog switch 17 and the resistor 14. ing.

Terminal 1d is grounded.

By the way, the terminal 1c of the electronic device main body 1.

16 is in an electrically open state when the electronic device main body 1 alone is used, but when the battery unit 2 for manganese batteries is installed in the electronic device main body 1 as shown in Fig. 1, a short circuit occurs. Since the terminals 2c and 2d connected to the terminals 1c and 1d are respectively connected to the terminals 1c and 1d, at this time, the terminal 1c becomes the ground level, that is, the low level, and therefore the analog switch 16 is turned off and the analog switch 17 is turned on, and the reference voltage generation circuit is turned off. 18 is applied to the comparator 10. Therefore, this battery unit 2
When the manganese battery 'Mn is attached, the terminal voltage decreases due to energy consumption of the manganese battery 'Mn, and when the voltage at the comparator 10 becomes lower than the reference voltage vreft, the light emitting diode 11 lights up to display a warning.

Furthermore, when the battery unit 3 for NiCd batteries is installed in the electronic device main body 1, since the battery unit 3 is not provided with terminals to be connected to the terminals 1c and ld of the main body 1, .

It remains open for 16 minutes, and the terminal IC becomes high level. Therefore, the analog switch 16 is turned on and the analog switch 17 is turned off, so that at this time, the reference voltage V is applied to the non-inverting input terminal of the comparator 10. r2 is applied. Therefore, when the battery unit 3 is attached, the terminal voltage decreases due to energy consumption of the NiCd battery 4Nl, and the reference voltage at the comparator 10 becomes . When the value becomes lower than r2, a warning is displayed by the light emitting diode 11.

In this way, the voltage at which the terminal voltage of a power supply battery decreases to determine that the battery's energy has been exhausted depends on the characteristics of each type of battery, as described above, so the above-mentioned warning display circuit The reference voltage applied to the twelve comparators 10 is switched by a battery type identification circuit 19. Two types of signals for identifying the battery type are given depending on the presence or absence of shorting terminals 2c and 2d on the battery unit side, which are connected to the terminals 1c and ld. Therefore, when using battery unit 2 and battery unit 3, when the respective batteries are exhausted, a warning is displayed when the voltage drops to a value suitable for NiCd batteries and manganese batteries respectively. This allows the user to know the appropriate replacement time for each battery.

By the way, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1.2, it is detected when the nickel-cadmium battery and the manganese battery have fallen to their respective usable limit values, and a warning is given that it is time to replace them. However, as mentioned above, before the warning is displayed and it is still fully usable,
You may want to know how much energy remains.

Next, an embodiment that takes this point into consideration will be described.

FIG. 3 is an electric circuit diagram of a battery-driven electronic device showing another embodiment of the present invention, in which a battery unit 22 containing six NiCd batteries 26Ni for quick charging is attached to an electronic device main body 21. is in a state of being

This battery-driven electronic device is, for example, a standard type battery unit 23 shown in FIG. The battery unit 22, the battery unit 24 containing six AA manganese batteries 26Mn3 for emergency use as shown in FIG. 4(B), or the fourth Six large-capacity AA manganese batteries 2”M as shown in Figure (C)
Any of the battery units 25 having a built-in nl can be used.

In FIG. 3, a terminal 22a for power supply.

22b are connected to the terminals 21a and 21b of the electronic device body 21, and are terminals 22c and 22d for detecting battery information.

22e are terminals 21c and 21d of the electronic device main body 21.

21e. In the battery unit 22 incorporating the NiCd battery 26Nl, the terminals 22c and 22e are short-circuited.

The electric circuit within the electronic device main body 21 includes a power switch 27 and a load resistor (load circuit) 28 connected between power supply terminals 21a and 21b, and a circuit portion 29 shown surrounded by a broken line. It is composed of The circuit portion 29 includes resistors 30 and 31 for dividing the power supply voltage,
The A/D converter 32 converts the analog voltage divided by the resistor 30°31 into a digital value, and the A/D converter 32
A remaining power detection and display circuit 35 is provided, which includes a microcomputer 33 that calculates the remaining energy of the power battery by calculating the D-converted voltage, and a dot matrix module 34 that displays the calculated battery energy. At the same time, a battery information identification circuit 39 for providing a battery information identification signal to the microcomputer 33 connects the pull-up resistors 37 and 38, the terminals 21C and 21d connected to these resistors, the ground terminal 21e, and the battery unit 22 side. It is composed of terminals 22cc to 22e.

As shown in FIG. 3 above, when the power switch 27 is turned on with the battery unit 22 attached to the electronic device main body 21, a current for operating the electronic device main body 21 is supplied to the load resistor 28. and the resistance is 30.31
A divided voltage value of the terminal voltage of the battery 26N1 is input to the A/D converter 32, and a digital value proportional to the terminal voltage is input to the microcomputer 33. In the microcomputer 33, as shown in FIG.
Sent to 1. On the other hand, since the battery information identification signal inputted to the microcomputer 33 by the battery information identification circuit 39, that is, the level of the terminal 21C321d, is at the ground level due to the installation of the battery unit 22, the battery information identification signal is (“0#,” “11). This (“0
”.

“1”) battery information identification signal is the microcomputer 3
3, this identification signal is input to a battery type discrimination circuit 43 shown in FIG. The data selection means 44 selects and extracts the characteristics of the NiCd battery stored in advance in the data memory 45 from the battery characteristics data memory 45, and sends this to the remaining amount calculation circuit 41. The remaining capacity calculation circuit 41 calculates the output of the voltage detection circuit 40 while referring to the characteristics of the NiCd battery sent through the data selection means 44. In the case of a NiCd battery, it has the characteristics shown in FIG. 6 (13), so if the terminal voltage of the NiCd battery is, for example, sufficiently higher than the voltage v2, the remaining amount calculation circuit 41 calculates the amount of remaining energy E. is calculated, and when the voltage becomes lower than v2, the amount of remaining energy E is calculated and a warning display output is also detected. Then, when the output of this remaining amount calculation circuit 41 is input to the display drive circuit 42, the output of the display drive circuit 42 causes the dot matrix module 34 to
is driven, and the amount of remaining energy E is numerically displayed by the dot matrix module 34, and a warning is displayed when the terminal voltage of the Nirakado 7 falls below the voltage V2.

The lithium battery 26 shown in FIG. 4(A) can be used instead of the battery unit 22 for the NiCd battery. When the battery unit 23 containing built-in battery units 23 is attached to the electronic device main body 21, the terminals 23a to 23e of the battery unit 23 are connected to the terminals 21a to 21e of the electronic device main body 21, respectively. Terminals 23a and 23b are for power supply;
c, 23d.

23e is for detecting battery information. In this battery unit 23 for lithium batteries, none of the terminals 23c to 23e for detecting battery information are short-circuited. Therefore, even if the battery unit 23 is attached to the electronic device main body 21, the terminals 21c to 21e on the main body 21 side are not short-circuited, and the battery type discrimination circuit 43 of the microcomputer 33 is connected to the resistor 37.38. (“1”, “1”
) is input. Then, in this case, data selection means 4 is selected from battery characteristic data memory 45.
4, the characteristics of the lithium battery stored in advance in the data memory 45 are sent to the remaining capacity calculation circuit 41,
The calculation circuit 41 calculates the terminal voltage of the lithium battery from the voltage detection circuit 40. In the case of a lithium battery, since it has the characteristics shown in FIG. 6(A) above, the remaining energy calculating circuit 41 calculates the amount of remaining energy E from the characteristics of the lithium battery and the terminal voltage. This amount is displayed numerically by the dot matrix module 34. When m of the remaining energy E approaches 0%, a warning is detected from the corresponding terminal voltage, and the dot matrix module 34 displays a warning.

Furthermore, since AA and AA manganese batteries have different capacities even if they are of the same type, a battery unit 24 containing AA manganese batteries 26Mn3 as shown in FIG. Figure 4 (C)
The battery information input from the battery unit to the electronic device main body 21 is different depending on the case where the battery unit 25 containing a single manganese battery 26Mn1 is installed as shown in FIG. That is, in the battery unit 24, among the battery information detection terminals 24c, 24d, and 24e, the terminals 24d and 248 are short-circuited, so when the battery unit 24 is attached to the electronic device main body 21, the device main body 2
1 terminal 21d is short-circuited with the ground terminal 21e.

Therefore, in this case, a battery identification signal of (“1”, “0”) is manually input to the battery type discrimination circuit 43 of the microcomputer 33. Further, the battery unit 25 has terminals 25C and 25d for detecting battery information.

25e are all connected to each other, so when this battery unit 25 is attached to the main body 21, the terminals 21c and 21d of the main body 21 are both short-circuited to the ground terminal 21e.

Therefore, in this case, a battery identification signal of (“0”, “0”) is manually input to the battery type discrimination circuit 43. In addition, in FIGS. 4(B) and (C), the terminals 24a and 24b
Or 25a and 25b are the terminals 21a of the electronic device main body 21,
This is a power supply terminal connected to 21b. As described above, the battery type discrimination circuit 43 sends an output corresponding to the battery identification signal to the data selection means 44 and the remaining m calculation circuit 41. Arithmetic processing is performed on the terminal voltage of the AA manganese battery or the AA manganese battery characteristic stored in advance in the battery characteristic data memory 45. As a result, the amount of remaining energy E of the AA or D manganese battery is calculated, and the same amount of energy is displayed numerically in the dot matrix module 34. Also, single
Or the energy of AA manganese battery is consumed and almost 0%
, a warning voltage is detected in the remaining amount calculation circuit 41 based on these characteristics, and a warning is displayed in the dot matrix module 34.

In this way, in the above embodiment, the remaining energy is displayed according to the characteristics of each battery used, and the user can determine how much energy is left in the electronic device main body 21.
You can find out what you can use. When the remaining energy approaches 0%, a warning is displayed so that the user can know when it is time to replace the battery. Furthermore, in terminal voltage ranges such as NiCd batteries, where the residual energy is calculated from the terminal voltage but the error in the amount of energy is extremely large and difficult to display, the remaining energy is not displayed and only a warning is displayed. will be carried out.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately detect the remaining battery power according to the specifications of the battery. The equipment can continue to operate.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an electric circuit diagram of a battery-powered electronic device showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram of another battery unit attached to the main body of the electronic device in place of the battery unit shown in FIG. 1 above. FIG. 3 is an electric circuit diagram of a battery-powered electronic device showing another embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 5 is a block diagram showing the details of the functions within the microcomputer shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 (A) , (B
) are characteristic curve diagrams representing the characteristics of battery terminal voltage with respect to residual energy in manganese batteries, etc. and NiCd batteries, respectively, and FIG. 7 is each characteristic curve diagram representing the characteristics of terminal voltage with respect to residual energy for various battery units. It is a line diagram. 1.21・・・・・・Electronic device body 2.3.22
~25...Battery unit 4 26
．． 26Mn1... Manganese battery Mn'' Mn
3 'N1''Ni・・・・・・Nicad battery 12・
...... Warning display circuit (remaining amount detection means) 19.
...Battery type identification circuit (battery information identification means) 26Ll...Lithium battery 35...Remaining amount detection display circuit (remaining amount detection means) 39. ...Battery information identification circuit (battery information identification means)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A battery-powered electronic device that is used by selectively mounting a plurality of types of battery units to an electronic device main body, each of which holds battery specification information including at least information regarding the type of the battery. a battery information identification means that receives the battery specification information from the installed battery unit and identifies the content of the information; and an operation for detecting the remaining battery capacity of the battery unit according to the result of this identification. A battery-powered electronic device characterized by comprising: a remaining amount detecting means for performing the following.