KR19980027429A - Battery type discrimination / charging device, method and electronic system using same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a battery type discrimination / charging device for charging or preventing charging according to the type of a battery from an external power source, wherein one side is connected to a power supply line for supplying external power to control the application of the power. Power charging control means, charging means connected to the power supply control means, means for controlling battery charge / discharge that is connected to a connection point between the charging means and the battery to determine a battery type, and the battery charge Charge path forming means connected to the discharge control means and connected to the battery to form a charging path, and controlling the means, and determining the type of battery by reading the voltage of the battery according to the operation of the battery charge / discharge control means. As intended to be coupled to one side of the battery and the plurality of means It consists of a controller. The controller allows the battery to be charged and discharged a number of times, so that when the magnitude of each battery output voltage difference is smaller or larger than a predetermined range, the controller can determine and charge the battery, thereby providing a reliable method of determining the type of battery. do.

Description

Battery type discrimination / charging device, method thereof, and electronic system using the same

1 is a detailed configuration of the battery recognition unit according to the prior art.

2 is a graph showing the characteristics of the battery according to the load applied to the system according to the prior art, (a) is a graph showing the voltage difference of the alkaline battery according to the load applied, (b) is a graph Table showing voltage difference of nickel-cadmium battery.

3 is a table showing the voltage difference of alkaline / nickel-cadmium batteries according to the load applied to the system.

4 is a graph showing discharge characteristics of alkaline batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries.

5 is a signal flow diagram for explaining the operation of the prior art.

6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic system having a battery type discrimination / charging device according to the present invention.

7 and 6, a block diagram showing the configuration of the battery type discrimination / charging device according to the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for battery type determination / charging according to the present invention.

9 (a) and (b) are graphs showing discharge characteristics of batteries and rechargeable batteries, respectively.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

10: System 1: AC Adapter

12: DC-DC converter 13: battery

14: battery charging block 15: microcomputer

16: Charge circuit SW1-SW4: Switch

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery type discrimination / charging device for performing charging or charging prevention according to a battery type (charger, battery) from an external power source. In particular, the present invention provides a battery type discrimination / charging device, a method thereof, and an electronic system using the same, which are configured to charge or prevent charging by determining the type of a battery without an error without using a load of the system.

In portable electronic devices such as camcorders, mobile phones, DSCs, notebook PCs, and the like, power is required to supply power for performing these operations. To this end, various types of batteries that can be supplied with power in various ways have emerged, for example nickel-cadmium or alkaline batteries. Nickel-cadmium batteries are used for common cellular phones, ie portable cordless phones. However, it may be advantageous to use alkaline batteries that are more economical and readily available than nickel-cadmium batteries, so that such nickel-cadmium-only systems allow the use of other types of alkaline batteries. For example, Patent Application Publication No. 95-2762 provides a technique for a nickel-cadmium / alkaline battery recognition method and a recognition device. This will be described briefly using the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings, FIG. 1 is a detailed configuration diagram of a battery recognition unit according to the prior art, and FIG. 2 is a graph showing the characteristics of a battery according to a load applied to a system according to the prior art, and (a) is a load. Figure 2 shows the voltage difference of alkaline batteries according to the table, (B) shows the voltage difference of nickel-cadmium batteries according to the load applied, and Figure 3 shows the voltage of alkaline / nickel cadmium batteries according to the load applied to the system. 4 shows a table showing a difference, a graph showing discharge characteristics of an alkaline battery and a nickel-cadmium battery, and FIG. 5 is a signal flowchart for explaining the operation of the prior art. However, the accompanying drawings are taken from the published literature, and details other than related matters will be omitted.

In the above-mentioned prior art, as shown in FIG. 4, by using the difference in the internal impedance of the battery, as shown in FIG. (See Figure 1) detects and converts it into digital data and applies it to the microcomputer 4a so that the system can automatically detect and recognize nickel-cadmium batteries and alkaline batteries. That is, the system configuration of FIG. 1 distinguishes between when the system is in operation and when it is not. The battery power is sensed when the system is not operating first by the resistors R1 and R2 connected to the battery side. The unit 4b transmits the voltage to the microcomputer 4a as digital data and stores it in the memory. Subsequently, as the system operates, the battery power sensor 4b senses the voltage of the battery at regular intervals. To store in memory. At this time, the data storage of the memory is arbitrarily determined by a certain number of counters, and the sum or difference of the voltage values at the time of load on / off among the digital data representing the battery voltage stored in the memory is different from that of the nickel-cadmium battery. The operation is performed by distinguishing the battery case. Then, the average values of the voltages of the two types of batteries at the time of load-off are set to compare the calculation results of the difference between the sum of the voltage values of the nickel-cadmium batteries and the calculation results of the differences between the sum of the alkaline batteries and the difference of these two batteries. Make sure to distinguish between different types of batteries.

Using this result, the user can recognize the detected battery type as voice information in the system, and when the system is used, the cut-off voltage of nickel-cadmium battery and the alkaline battery By setting the cut-off voltage differently, the use of alkaline batteries in the system prevents the system from going down due to the application of the cut-off voltage applied in the case of nickel batteries when the capacity of the battery remains.

As such, the conventionally developed technology is limited to preventing the system from erroneously judging the battery replacement time, even though it can be used more in using alkaline batteries, and distinguishing between rechargeable and non-chargeable batteries. There is nothing provided. In addition, according to the related art, the basic point of interest in determining the battery is to use the load characteristics of the system. Therefore, when the system is not operating, there is no way to distinguish the type of battery. Another problem was that it was difficult to accurately determine the battery voltage difference due to different loads on the system. And, as shown in FIG. 5, the description is omitted, but the processing was complicated. In addition, the use of the impedance of the battery applied in the prior art does not consider the sudden change in the impedance when the battery is almost consumed, there is a problem that there is no reliability for the correct operation.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve these problems.

Disclosure of Invention An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for determining a battery type by determining the type of battery with a rechargeable battery and a battery so that the rechargeable battery can be charged without error and the battery is not charged.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a battery type discriminating apparatus and method capable of efficiently discriminating types of batteries without using more power than necessary by instantly using a load.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a battery type discrimination and charging device and method for charging a battery by activating a charging circuit immediately after detection in the case of a battery for charging.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a battery type discriminating apparatus and method capable of reliably discriminating a battery type even if the battery is almost consumed in distinguishing the battery type.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic system using such a battery type discrimination and charging device.

The above objects, advantages and the like according to the present invention reliably change the impedance of the battery by allowing the same load to be applied at any time through any discharge path without utilizing the system as a load on the battery. Can be achieved by obtaining.

According to one aspect of the invention, the battery type determination / charging device for charging or preventing charging according to the type of the battery from the external power supply, one side is connected to the power supply line for supplying the external power is applied to the power supply Power supply control means for controlling the; Charging means connected to said power application control means; Means for controlling battery charge / discharge connected to the connection point between the charging means and the battery to determine a battery type; Charging path forming means connected to the battery charge / discharge control means and connected to the battery to form a charging path; And determining the type of battery by reading the voltage of the battery according to the operation of the battery charge / discharge control means, and determining a battery type including a controller coupled to one side of the battery and the plurality of means. A charging device is provided.

According to another feature of the invention, each means according to the first feature consists of switching means which are on / off controlled.

In addition, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic system having a battery type discrimination / charging device according to the first or second feature. There is also provided an electronic system which connects the battery type discriminator / charger to a power converter converting the system from an AC power source to a direct current, and determines whether the battery is a rechargeable battery or a battery, thereby charging or not charging. do.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a battery type discrimination / charging device for charging or preventing charging according to a type of battery from an external power source, the first switch having one side connected to a power supply line; A charging circuit connected to the other side of the first switch; A battery coupled to the charging circuit; A third switch having one side connected to a connection node between the charging circuit and the battery; A second switch connected to one side of the third switch through a resistor and connected to the battery and the other side connected to a ground through another resistor; A fourth switch connected at one side to a connection node between the charging circuit and the battery, and at the other side to the power supply line; And a microcomputer coupled to the one side of the battery and the plurality of switches to control the first to fourth switches and to read the voltage of the battery.

In addition, according to still another aspect of the present invention, in the battery type determination / charge method for performing charging or charging prevention according to the type of battery from an external power source, the battery is repeatedly charged and discharged for a predetermined time, respectively. Obtaining a difference of values provided with a battery voltage during the operation of; Counting a frequency at which the values of these differences fall outside of a predetermined range; And a determination step of determining the rechargeable battery or the battery based on the count value counted in the counting step.

According to the present invention, the voltage drop of the rechargeable battery can be automatically determined by repeating the charge charge load on / off control on the battery. In addition, it automatically detects small voltage fluctuations while minimizing the consumption of battery power to determine the type of battery. Therefore, by providing a convenience to the user by determining the type of battery and automatically switching the charge and discharge, it is possible to use the charger and the battery without distinction.

The apparatus and method of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following preferred embodiments according to the present invention using the accompanying drawings.

6 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a state in which a battery type discrimination / charging device according to the present invention is coupled to a system.

In the drawing, a battery type discrimination / charging device 14 is coupled to the system 10, and a battery, that is, a rechargeable battery or a battery 13, that supplies power is coupled to the battery type detection / charging device 14. The AC (AC) adapter block 11 is connected to the DC-DC (DC-DC) conversion block 12 and coupled to the battery type discrimination / charging device 14. The control microcomputer 15 is coupled to the AC adapter block 11, the battery type discrimination / charging device 14, the battery 13, and the system 10.

As mentioned above, the system 10 may be a portable electronic device such as a camcorder, a mobile phone, a DSC, a notebook PC, or the like. In order to supply power to the electronic device, the battery 13 is connected as shown in FIG. However, since such a battery 13 may be a rechargeable battery or a battery, the present invention intends to reliably determine the type of such a battery. In this case, the battery 13 may be discriminated while using a minimum battery power, and the battery may also be charged in the case of charging. will be. That is, in the present invention, by providing a means for determining whether the battery is a rechargeable battery or a battery as a type of battery built in the main body (system capable of accommodating the battery) by the power supplied from the AC adapter 11, Turn off the power supply from the AC adapter if it turns out to be uncharged, and if it's backed by a rechargeable battery, it provides power to the battery so it can always be charged while the system is in use. And battery power source can be switched arbitrarily.

In FIG. 6, the power supplied from the AC adapter 11 is converted into the power required by the system 10 via the DC-DC converter 12. At this time, while supplying the power required for the system as shown, in the case of a rechargeable battery to supply power to charge the battery (13). Power from the AC adapter 11 operates the system 10 and charges the rechargeable battery.

However, according to the present invention, since the battery 13 may be a battery, the battery type determination / charging device 14 may be used to determine whether the battery is a rechargeable battery or a battery to prevent charging.

The battery type discrimination / charging device 14 for this purpose may be composed of a current limiting circuit, a power on / off switch, and the like, which is configured as shown in FIG. 7 shown in a block diagram. .

As shown in FIG. 7, the battery type discrimination / charging device 14 is connected to a first switch SW1 having one side connected to a power supply line 18, and to the other side of the first switch SW1. The charging circuit 16, the battery 13 coupled to the charging circuit 16, the third switch SW3 having one side connected to the connection node between the charging circuit 16 and the battery 16, and the third switch. A second switch SW2, the charging circuit 16 and the battery, connected to the battery and the other side connected to the battery through the resistor R2 on the other side of the SW3, and connected to the ground through the resistor R1. One side is connected to a connection node between the first and second sides, and the other side controls the fourth switch SW4 and the first to fourth switches connected to the power supply line, and the battery is read to read the voltage of the battery. It includes a controller, ie a microcomputer 15, coupled to one side and the plurality of switches.

When the power is initially turned on, the microcomputer 15 turns on the second switch SW2 in response. Then, the battery 13 is at the same potential level as the system ground by connecting one end to ground. At this time, although not shown, the microcomputer 15 detects whether the battery 13 is currently inserted through the AD input terminal of the microcomputer 15. When it is determined that the battery is inserted, the first switch SW1 is turned off. Then, the power supply line is disconnected from the charging circuit 16 to cut off the power supply. At the same time, the microcomputer periodically repeats the on / off of the third switch SW3 for a predetermined time to determine the type of the battery. During this time, the microcomputer 15 receives the battery voltage from the battery 13 via the line 17 as the AD input of the microcomputer 15. The AD input is analyzed from the microcomputer 15. In other words, the microcomputer 15 uses the input battery voltage as data to grasp the type of battery.

Upon completion of the battery type judgment processing, the microcomputer turns on the first switch SW1 and charges the power supply VCC from the power supply line 18 at this time in order to perform charging when the battery 13 is the rechargeable battery. To be supplied to the circuit 16. That is, the microcomputer 15 turns on the first switch SW1 and the second switch SW2 to lead to the power supply VCC, the charging circuit 16, the battery 13, the second switch SW2, and the ground. The battery for charging is charged by forming a power charging path.

On the other hand, as a result of determining the battery type, in the case of a battery, the first switch SW1 is turned off to cut off the power supply to the battery 13.

Next, with regard to the battery type determination / charging device, with reference to FIGS. 9A and 9B which show the battery discharge characteristics of the battery and the rechargeable battery, respectively, the method of distinguishing the battery and the rechargeable battery will be described. Explain.

In Fig. 7, the microcomputer 15 receives the voltage of the battery as data through its AD input terminal and determines the type of battery. To this end, the microcomputer is based on the following principle. First, in the case of a lithium-based rechargeable battery, for example, since the battery voltage is 2 V or 3.6 V or more, this can be easily distinguished from the rechargeable battery 1.5 V and the 1.2 V battery of the nickel cell. In the case of the nickel rechargeable battery and the dry battery, battery discharge characteristics are significantly different as shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 9, and thus the type of batteries can be determined by comparing the inputted data using these characteristics. However, when the cell is used as a reference, the voltage drop is about 0.7 V for a battery under instantaneous load, and 0.3 V for a nickel rechargeable battery. This particular example is an example of a load that is half the weight of a battery. If the load is increased, the change is more noticeable. That is, in the case of a battery, the same change is shown on the entire time axis as shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the rate of change in voltage enhancement of a = b = c is shown. On the other hand, in case of a rechargeable battery, the variation is slow as shown in FIG. 9 (B). However, if the capacity of the battery is small, the voltage drop is much larger than that of the battery as shown in C2 of FIG. 9 (B). see.

Based on the characteristics of such a battery, the battery type can be determined according to the device configuration of FIG. 7 and the processing method according to the present invention described below. Furthermore, by detecting the small voltage fluctuation automatically while minimizing the consumption of the battery, The type of battery can be determined, and even when the battery is almost consumed, it can be determined and charged. According to the characteristics of the battery, if the voltage drop of the battery is 0.3V to 0.5V or less, the counting means described below is increased one by one, and if the voltage drop is 1V or more, the counting means is increased, and then the voltage among the total counting means set arbitrarily. When the number of counting means increased when the drop is 0.3V to 0.5V or less or 1V or more reaches 90%, the battery is judged to be the rechargeable battery.

Next, referring to FIG. 8, a battery type determination and charging method according to the present invention will be described.

First, when the processing process starts in step S1, the flow advances to step S2 to determine whether or not the battery has been inserted into the system. This is done by turning on the fourth switch SW4 of FIG. If there is no battery, VCC is input to the microcomputer 15 as an AD voltage, and if there is a battery, the battery voltage is applied as an AD voltage to the microcomputer 15 via the line 17. The microcomputer determines the presence of a battery in response to the input voltage.

If the battery is not in the system, the process goes to step S3 to return. If the battery is inserted into the system, the process proceeds to step S4 to determine the type of battery.

In step S4, it is determined whether the AD value of the microcomputer is 2 or more as a predetermined reference value. Two or more as predetermined reference values are for identifying whether the inserted battery is a lithium battery or another battery. If the AD value is 2 or more, it is a lithium rechargeable battery, and therefore, the flow proceeds to step S5 to be recognized as a lithium rechargeable battery. When a negative response is found in step S4, which is a determination step, the process proceeds to step S6 as a next step to determine whether the battery is a rechargeable battery or a battery.

In step S6, the timer time is set to the predetermined time t, and the microcomputer 15 turns on the second switch SW2 and turns off the first and fourth switches SW1 and SW4. At this time, the voltage of the battery is controlled by repeating the on / off control of the third switch SW3 for a predetermined time t through the AD input terminal of the microcomputer 15 so that data is input. At this time, when SW3 is off, the battery voltage is applied to the AD voltage, and when SW3 is on, the battery is subjected to a constant load to generate a voltage drop, and the battery voltage is applied as the AD voltage. In this case, when the battery is a battery, the internal impedance changes rapidly (see FIG. 9A). However, when the load is applied, the voltage drop is large (for example, 0.7 to 0.8 V). The rechargeable battery of the system has a small voltage drop (for example, 0.3 to 0.4 V) because the conversion of internal impedance is slow (see FIG. 9 (b)).

After step S6, the process proceeds to step S7 as a next step, where the difference in AD value at the time of turning off / on the third switch SW3 is calculated in consideration of the characteristics of FIG. At this time, the number of times when the difference voltage between the AD voltage when the third switch SW3 is on and the third voltage when the third switch SW3 is on for a predetermined time t becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined set value. It determines how many times the number of AD operations is counted from the number of AD operations during the setting time t. For example, if the set time t is 10 s and AD is calculated for 0.5 seconds, the number of calculations for the AD difference value is 10 times, once with no load AD and once with AD. If the discrimination allowable range is 90% at this time, the counter when the value exceeds the arbitrary value is nine. This processing is as shown in step S8 to step S12. If the counter value is increased for a value other than the predetermined value (corresponding to the case of a1, b1, and c1 of FIG. 9 (b)) and is within the predetermined value (the case of FIG. 9 (a)), the counter is held. do. In this way, it is determined whether or not the value of the counter is greater than an arbitrary number as in step S12.

If the counter greater than the allowable range is increased in step S12, the battery is determined as a rechargeable battery, otherwise it is determined as a dry battery (see step S13 and step S14). In the case of the rechargeable battery in step S13, the process goes to step S15 to perform charging.

Subsequently, the procedure proceeds to step S8 to determine whether or not the difference between the obtained AD values is less than a predetermined value.

Therefore, it is determined whether the battery placed in the battery insertion unit provided in the system powered by the AC adapter is a rechargeable battery or a battery, and the battery is charged if the battery is a rechargeable battery, and the battery is not charged. Of course, if the battery is missing, it will automatically recognize it and allow power directly from the AC adapter to the system.

Next, the AC adapter may not be supplied with power. In this case, the microcomputer 15 turns off the first switch SW1, turns on the second switch SW2, and controls the switches to turn on the fourth switch SW4 so that the microcomputer 15 is inserted regardless of whether the battery or the rechargeable battery is used. Allows power from the battery to strike the system.

According to the present invention, the types of batteries, for example, lithium ions, nickel, cadmium, nickel hydrogen, and the like, are discriminated without errors and batteries. In addition, in the present invention, even when the rechargeable battery is almost consumed in using the impedance change of the battery, it is possible to determine whether the rechargeable battery is error free, and the user can conveniently use the device. In addition, since the present invention does not use the load of the system, it is possible to determine the type of battery even when the system does not operate.

It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described so far but various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, this invention should be defined only by the matter described in the following claims.

Claims (7)

In the battery type discrimination / charging device for charging or preventing charging according to the type of battery from an external power source, A first switch having one side connected to a power supply line; A charging circuit connected to the other side of the first switch; A battery coupled to the charging circuit; A third switch having one side connected to a connection node between the charging circuit and the battery; A second switch connected to one side of the third switch through a resistor and connected to the battery and the other side connected to a ground through another resistor; A fourth switch connected at one side to a connection node between the charging circuit and the battery, and at the other side to the power supply line; And A microcomputer connected to one side of the battery and the plurality of switches to control the first to fourth switches and to read the voltage of the battery. Battery type discrimination / charging device comprising a. The method of claim 1, The microcomputer performs charging and discharging for a predetermined time by the first switch to obtain a difference of values provided with a battery voltage during each operation, counting a frequency at which the values of these differences fall out of a predetermined value range, and counting the counting. A battery type discrimination / charging device, characterized in that the battery is charged or prevented from charging by determining a rechargeable battery or a battery based on a value. The method of claim 2, The predetermined value range is a battery type discrimination / charging device, characterized in that between 0.5V to 1V. The method of claim 1, And a further switching means for supplying the battery as a power source when there is no external power source. In the battery type discrimination / charge method for charging or preventing charging according to the type of battery from an external power source, Repeatedly charging and discharging the battery for a predetermined time to obtain a difference between the values provided with the battery voltage during each operation; Counting a frequency at which the values of these differences fall outside of a predetermined range; And And determining a rechargeable battery or a battery based on a count value counted in the counting step. The method of claim 5, If the frequency is more than a predetermined number, the battery is determined as a rechargeable battery in the determination step, If the frequency is less than a predetermined number battery type determination / charging method characterized in that the battery is determined in the determination step. The method of claim 6, If it is determined that the battery is a rechargeable battery by the determining step, the battery type determination / charging method, characterized in that the battery is charged from an external power source.