KR100513193B1 - Battery Exchange Device, Battery Exchange Method and Electromechanical Device - Google Patents

Abstract

When replacing a rechargeable battery of a portable device such as a notebook personal computer, a battery replacing mechanism is proposed without the need of providing a power holding function.

A method of replacing a battery stored in a battery storage unit having a main body side electrode, the first step of moving in a first direction while feeding the battery to be replaced stored in the battery storage to the main body portion parallel to the first direction From a second direction other than the second direction, a second step of inserting a new battery into the battery compartment, a third step of starting feeding of the new battery into the main body portion, and further moving the battery to be replaced in the first direction And a fourth step of removing from the battery storing section and a fifth step of storing the new battery in the battery storing section in a state where the new battery is fed to the main body section.

Description

Battery Exchange Device, Battery Exchange Method and Electronic Device {Battery Exchange Device, Battery Exchange Method and Electromechanical Device}

TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to electronic devices, such as a notebook type personal computer, and especially relates to the battery exchange mechanism.

Rechargeable batteries used in portable devices, such as conventional notebook personal computers, have to be switched off after replacement at the time of battery operation, which hinders continuous work.

As prior arts to solve such problems, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-3699, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-61959, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-162077 are disclosed. The battery replacing mechanism disclosed in these publications relates to a narrow portable device such as a mobile phone. As an example, when replacing the battery, slide the old battery from the left side of the battery retainer to the right side, and at the same time, the new battery slides from the left side of the old battery, thereby removing the old battery from the right side of the battery retainer. To pull out. According to this technique, both or one side of a new and old battery can necessarily be contacted with the electrode provided in the apparatus main body. Therefore, even when the battery is replaced, the power supply of the apparatus main body can be performed without interruption.

However, the battery replacement mechanism as described above cannot be used for a portable device having a wide housing such as a notebook personal computer.

Therefore, in the conventional portable devices such as notebook-type personal computers, when the batteries are replaced while the batteries are being driven, the devices must be turned off and exchanged once, which hinders continuous work.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to propose a battery exchange mechanism capable of continuously using a device without installing a special power retention function when replacing a rechargeable battery of a wide portable device such as a notebook personal computer. will be.

The battery replacing mechanism of the present invention includes a guide means for guiding the mounting and discharging of a battery, a storage portion having a body side electrode, a battery storing therein, a battery side electrode for contacting the body side electrode, and A battery having a boss guided to the guide means is provided. The guide member is configured to differ in the direction in which the replaced battery is discharged from the direction in which the new battery is mounted. When replacing the battery, at least one of the battery side electrode of the battery to be replaced and the battery side electrode of the new battery is configured to contact the main body side electrode.

<Embodiment of the invention>

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Next, embodiment of this invention is described in detail with reference to drawings. Referring to Fig. 1, the notebook personal computer main body is provided with a bottom base 1 on the bottom surface, main body electrodes 13 and 14 on the bottom surface in a battery insertion hole provided in the bottom base, and left and right sides of the battery insertion hole. The grooves 11 and 12 and the lid 15 which presses the battery when the battery 2 is inserted are provided. The body electrodes 13 and 14 are made of a conductive spring material, and a force acts in the direction in which the battery 2 is pressed.

Next, the battery 2 is provided on the left and right sides of the battery 2 and is in contact with the cylindrical bosses 21 and 22 that slide the grooves 11 and 12 and the main body electrodes 13 and 14. At the same time, the battery-side electrodes 23 and 24 are L-shaped.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to Figs.

Referring to Fig. 2, the bosses 21 and 22 have rails of the grooves 11 and 12 in the battery insertion opening, and the battery 2 is held by the lid 15. The battery side electrodes 23 and 24 contact the main body side electrodes 13 and 14 to supply electricity to the main body.

Next, referring to Fig. 3, in the case of replacing the battery 2A in which the remaining battery amount is small, first, when the lid 15 is slightly removed from the main body, the lid 15 is kept horizontal.

Next, the battery 2A is pulled in the discharge direction. At this time, the bosses 21 and 22 of the battery 2A move with the grooves 11 and 12 as rails. During this series of operations, the main body side electrodes 13 and 14 are constantly being pressed and the battery 2A is being fed.

As shown in Fig. 3, the used battery 2A is slightly moved to the position where the boss of the charged battery 2B can be inserted into the grooves 11 and 12. At this time, the lid 15 serves to stabilize the slightly transferred battery 2A. Also at this time, the electrodes 23 and 24 of the battery 2A are still in contact with the main body side electrodes 13 and 14, and the remaining power continues to be supplied to the main body.

Next, in the space created by shifting the used battery 2A, the charge finished battery 2B is mounted using the grooves 11 and 12 as rails. When the boss of the battery 2B moves along the grooves 11 and 12 and hits the bottom surface of the groove, the L-shaped electrodes 23 and 24 provided in the battery 2B are the main body side electrodes 13 and 14. ) That is, power feeding from the battery 2B is started. At this time, the main body is supplied with power from both batteries.

After the battery 2B starts feeding, the battery 2A held by the lid 15 is further drawn out and removed. The grooves 11 and 12 have an open structure at the terminal portion so as to be taken out above the battery 2A.

Next, the battery 2B is completely attached to the battery insertion opening. Specifically, the battery 2B is attached to the battery insertion port by moving the cylindrical boss with the groove as a guide and moving the groove in the inward direction while maintaining contact with the main body side electrode. When the battery 2B is held horizontally with the main body, the battery 2B is fixed with the lid 15 as shown in FIG.

In addition, in this embodiment, although the battery in which the residual amount of electric power was limited was removed from the cover 15 side, you may remove from the opposite direction to the cover 15 on the contrary. In this case, the new battery is mounted from the lid 15 side.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

Since the electrode of the battery 2 described above is L-shaped, the battery-side electrode 23 and the electrode 24 (not shown) are the main body-side electrode 13 even when the battery 2 is mounted on the main body with the battery 2 upright. And an electrode 14 (not shown).

Referring to Fig. 4, the grooves 11 and 12 (not shown) provided on the side of the main body are used as the rails, and the battery 2A is attached to the main body by the bosses 21. Then, the batteries 2B, 2C, and 2D having the same shape as the battery 2A are attached to the empty space of the battery insertion port as the battery 2A, respectively.

The side surface of each battery has an accommodating portion, and the convex portion of the lid 16 on the main body side is inserted into the accommodating portion to fix the battery.

Here, since the battery is in an upright position, the base unit 3 is attached to the body bottom surface to flatten the body bottom surface.

Thus, since the electrodes 13 and 14 of the main body have a sufficient length, even when a plurality of batteries are attached, the electrodes 13 and 14 can contact the electrodes of all these batteries, and the main body can receive power from a plurality of batteries.

When replacing the old and new batteries of the rechargeable battery, first, the lid 16 is removed from the battery compartment. And the old battery which needs to be replaced is taken out from the cover 16 side. In this state, the remaining battery electrodes are in contact with the electrodes 13 and 14 of the main body, so that power feeding to the main body is maintained. Then, the new battery is mounted from the side opposite to the lid 16.

In addition, in this embodiment, although the battery in which the electric power residual quantity was limited was removed from the cover 16 side, you may remove from the opposite direction to the cover 16 on the contrary. In this case, a new battery is to be mounted from the cover 16 side.

According to the present invention, since the battery can be replaced without turning off the main power supply of a portable device such as a notebook personal computer once, the user can continue to work. In addition, in the present invention, there is no need to install a special power holding function or the like for replacing the battery in the main body, so that the main body becomes inexpensive.

1 is a bird's eye view showing the overall configuration of the present invention;

2 is a perspective side view showing a battery mounted on a portable device;

Fig. 3 is a diagram explaining exchange of a used battery and a charged battery.

4 is an overall view of another embodiment of the present invention.

<Code Description of Main Parts of Drawing>

1: bottom base

2: battery

3: base unit

11, 12: home

13, 14 body electrode

15, 16: cover

21, 22: boss

23, 24: battery electrode

Claims (8)

A guide means for guiding the mounting and discharging of a battery, a main body side electrode, a storing portion for storing the battery, a battery side electrode for contacting the main body side electrode, and a boss guided to the guide means. With a battery, The guide means is configured to differ in the direction of discharging the replaced battery and the direction of mounting the new battery, When replacing the battery, at least one of the battery side electrode of the battery to be replaced and the battery side electrode of the new battery is configured to be in contact with the main body side electrode. The said guide means has a 1st groove provided in parallel with the said main body side electrode, and a 2nd groove which is continuous to this 1st groove and is not parallel to a 1st groove, and is completely stored in a storage part. The boss of the battery is located in the first groove, characterized in that the battery exchange mechanism. The battery of claim 2, wherein when replacing the battery, the boss of the new battery is inserted from the second groove and configured to pass through a point where the first groove and the second groove cross each other. Exchange mechanism. The battery of claim 3, wherein the battery side electrode of the new battery is configured to contact the main body side electrode when the boss of the new battery is positioned at a point where the first groove and the second groove cross each other. Exchange mechanism. The point at which the boss of the battery to be replaced crosses the first groove and the second groove when the boss of the battery to be replaced is discharged from the second groove in order to replace the battery. And the boss of the new battery can be inserted into the first groove when positioned at. An electronic device comprising the battery replacing mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 5. A method of replacing a battery stored in a battery storage unit having a body side electrode, Moving the battery to be replaced, stored in the battery compartment, to the main body while moving in the first direction; Inserting a new battery into the battery compartment from a second direction that is not parallel to the first direction; The new battery starting to feed the main body; Moving the battery to be replaced further in a first direction to remove it from the battery compartment; And storing the battery compartment in the state where the new battery is supplied to the body portion. The battery replacement method according to claim 7, wherein the battery to be replaced and the new battery each have a boss, the boss being guided by guide means provided in the battery compartment.