JPS63174285A - Charging equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely prevent dry cell from undergoing fault charge by detecting the presence of conducting current between contact parts allocated in a charging circuit, to discriminate between dry cell and rechargeable cell so that charging current does not flow even if a dry cell is mounted by mistake. CONSTITUTION:A rechargeable cell B is charged by collector current from a transistor Q1. A contact part 7 is connected with a constant voltage circuit 13. The contact parts 7, 8, a little extruded from a window part 16 formed on the bottom surface of installation part 3, make contact with a conduction part 20 of the rechargeable cell B mounted on the installation part 3. The conduction part 20 is allocated at forward or backward position deviated from the center in axial direction of rechargeable cell B. By the arrangement, if the cell B is adversely set on the installation part 3 facing the rate side in place of the front side, the situation is the same as that a dry cell having no conduction part 20 is mounted on the installation part 3 so that the contact part 7 does not conduct with the contact part 8, therefore, a charging circuit does not work and no charging current flows in the dry cell.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field of the Invention) The present invention relates to a charging device for a rechargeable battery, and by providing means for identifying a rechargeable battery and a dry battery, even if a dry battery is mistakenly installed in the charging device, the charging circuit is designed so that it is not driven.

(Background of the Invention) A known charging device is one in which a rechargeable battery is attached to a mounting portion of a main body case in which a charging circuit is disposed, and the charging circuit is driven to charge the rechargeable battery. Incidentally, rechargeable batteries and dry batteries are generally formed into the same shape for ease of attachment to electrical equipment, and are difficult to distinguish visually. For this reason, users may mistakenly insert a dry cell battery into a charging device as a rechargeable battery, and if the charging circuit is activated and a current of charge flows to the dry cell battery, it may cause leakage into the car, causing deterioration and damage to the dry cell battery. (There is a risk of explosion, so charging batteries incorrectly must be prevented as much as possible.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a charging device that can distinguish between rechargeable batteries and dry batteries and reliably prevent erroneous charging of dry batteries. .

(Summary of the Invention) According to the present invention, a pair of contact portions are provided in a charging circuit provided in a main body case. Further, the rechargeable battery charged by the charging device according to the present invention is provided with a four-electrode portion on its outer wall surface, with which the above-mentioned contact portion comes into contact. When the rechargeable battery is attached to the attachment part of the main body case and the contact parts are electrically connected via the conductive part, the conduction current drives the charging circuit to charge the rechargeable battery. Furthermore, if a dry battery without a conductive part is mistakenly attached to the mounting part, the contact part will not be electrically conductive and the charging circuit will not be driven. In this way, by detecting the presence or absence of conduction current between the contact parts provided in the charging circuit, it is possible to identify whether the battery installed in the mounting part is a rechargeable battery or a dry battery, and to prevent incorrectly installing a dry battery. However, it is designed to prevent current from flowing through it.

(Example) Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2, 1 is a box-shaped main case consisting of an upper case 1a and a lower case 1b;
A recessed portion 2 is formed by cutting out a large portion on the upper surface of a. Reference numeral 3 denotes a mounting part for the rechargeable battery B, which is recessed in the shape of a groove in the center of the recessed part 2, and terminal members 4.5 that come into elastic contact with the anode and cathode of the rechargeable battery B are provided on both sides of the mounting part 3. It is being A conductive portion 20 is provided on the peripheral wall surface of the rechargeable battery B by pasting a conductive tape or the like so that it can be identified as a dry battery by means described later.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a power supply plug blade protruding from the lower case 1b.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a wiring board disposed inside the main body case 1.Next, the charging circuit wired to the board 10 will be explained with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 6 represents the plug blade, 12 represents a transformer or inverter type step-down circuit that steps down the commercial power supply voltage to the voltage required for charging, and 13 represents a constant voltage circuit comprising a Zener diode D1 and a capacitor C. Ql is a transistor connected to the constant voltage circuit 13, R1 is a bias resistor thereof, and the rechargeable battery B is charged by the collector current of the transistor Q1. 7 and 8 are a pair of contact parts made of a plate-shaped, linear, needle-shaped, or coil-shaped spring material, and the contact part 7
is connected to the constant voltage circuit 13. The contact portion 7.8 slightly protrudes from the window portion 16 formed on the bottom surface of the mounting portion 3 (see FIG. 2(b)), and is connected to the conductive portion 20 of the rechargeable battery B mounted on the mounting portion 3. come into contact with. Note that the conductive portion 20 is located in front of the axial center of the rechargeable battery B.

It is provided at a position offset to the rear side (protruding electrode side or cathode side), and by giving directionality in the axial direction of the rechargeable battery B to the formation position of the conductive part 20 in this way, the rechargeable battery B If you set it in the mounting part 3 with the front and back reversed,
This prevents the charging circuit from operating.

Q2 is a transistor connected to the contact part 8, Q3 is a transistor connected to the collector of the transistor Q3 and the base side of the transistor Q1, and R2 is a resistor provided between the base side of the transistor Q3 and the 0 line. be. D2 is a light emitting element for displaying charge, and emits light from the window 17 (see FIG. 1) of the main body case 1. D3 is a light-emitting element for indicating improper charging, and if a dry battery is incorrectly installed in the mounting part 3 or a rechargeable battery B is installed in the wrong direction, it emits light from the window part 18 to warn you. do. Note that in place of the light emitting element D3, a sounding element such as a buzzer or a display section such as a liquid crystal may be provided.This charging device has the above-mentioned configuration, and when charging the rechargeable battery B, is attached to the attachment part 3, and the plug blade 6 is inserted into an outlet (not shown) to supply power to the charging circuit. Then, the contact parts 7 and 8 become conductive via the conductive part 20, and the conduction current becomes the base current of the transistor Q2, making the transistor Q2 conductive.The base potential of the transistor Q3 rises due to the resistor R2, and the transistor Q2 becomes conductive.
3 is cut off, the base current of the transistor Q1 flows through the resistor R1, the transistor Q1 becomes conductive, and the rechargeable battery B is charged by the collector current.

By the way, dry batteries and rechargeable batteries are generally formed into exactly the same shape for ease of attachment to electrical equipment, and for this reason, users may mistakenly attach a dry battery to the attachment part 3 as a rechargeable battery and charge it. There may be cases where it is not possible. However, even if a dry battery having no conductive part 20 is attached, the contact part 7 and the contact part 8 are not electrically connected, so the charging circuit is not driven, and no charging current flows to the dry battery. Incidentally, in recent years, in order to improve the appearance of dry batteries, an increasing number of dry batteries are using metal jackets, but in this case, if the jackets are conductive, false detection may occur.

For this purpose, as shown in FIG.
What is necessary is to lower the potential to the base of the transistor to outside the bias region.

(Other embodiments) In FIG. 5, E is a quick charging battery, and the conductive part 20
．． Two 20 are provided, and a corresponding contact portion 7 is provided.
．． 8 are also arranged, two each. Contact part 8, 8
is transistor Q4. Q5, and each transistor Q4. The output side of Q5 is connected to the base side of transistor Q1.

When the rechargeable battery E is attached to the attachment part 3 of the main body case 1, each conductive part 7, 8 becomes conductive, and each transistor Q4. Q5 is conductive, and the respective output currents become Hess currents IBI and IB2 of transistor Q1, and transistor Q1 is conductive and rechargeable battery E is charged. In this case, two base currents IBI and IB2 flow through the transistor Q1, so the transistor Q1 is heavily biased and the quick charging battery E is rapidly charged. When only one normal rechargeable battery B is set (see Fig. 5(b)), only one contact portion 7.8 is conductive, transistor Q4 is conductive, but the other contact portion 7.8 is conductive. Since the transistor Q5 remains cut-off, only one base current IBI flows, the transistor Q1 is weakly biased, and the rechargeable battery B is slowly charged. In this way, this device has a conductive part 2.
By changing the number of contact parts 7 and 8 that come into contact with the normal rechargeable battery B and the quick rechargeable battery E, it is also possible to distinguish between the normal rechargeable battery B and the quick rechargeable battery E. Note that the conductive portions 20.20 of this rechargeable battery E are also formed at positions where axial directionality can be obtained.

Furthermore, in the case shown in FIG. 5(c), three conductive parts 20 and three contact parts 7 and 8 are provided, and the number of conductive parts 20 and contact parts 7 and 8 can be set appropriately in this way. Accordingly, it is also possible to identify the capacity of the rechargeable battery, etc., and to flow a charging current suitable for the rechargeable battery B.

Furthermore, various types of conductive parts and contact parts are conceivable. For example, as shown in FIG. 2
2.23 may be brought into contact with the rechargeable battery B. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. It may be installed by burying it so as not to damage it. Furthermore, characters or symbols may be printed with conductive paint, or a portion of the insulating protection material provided on the outer wall of the rechargeable battery may be removed to expose the peripheral wall electrode of the rechargeable battery, which may be used as a conductive part. .

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably distinguish between the rechargeable battery B and the dry battery (even if they have the same shape), and when the rechargeable battery B is attached to the attachment part 3. In addition to driving the charging circuit only to charge the dry battery, even if the dry battery is mistakenly installed in the mounting part 3, it is possible to prevent the charging current from flowing to the dry battery and causing an explosion, liquid leakage, etc.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show an embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the charging device, Fig. 2 (a) and (b) are side views, Fig. 3 is a charging circuit diagram, and Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the charging device. Charging circuit diagram of other embodiments, No. 5
Figures (a), (b), and (C) are charging circuit diagrams of other embodiments,
FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b) are perspective views of the rechargeable battery. 1... Main body case 7.8, 22.23... Contact part 20.21.25... Conductive part B, E... Rechargeable battery

Claims (1)

[Claims] This is a charging device in which a rechargeable battery B having a conductive part 20 provided on the outer wall surface is attached to a mounting part 3 of a main body case 1 in which a charging circuit is disposed, and the rechargeable battery B is charged. , a pair of contact portions 7 in contact with the conductive portion 20 in the charging circuit;
8, and the charging circuit is controlled by the conduction current between the contact portions 7 and 8.