KR19980077580A - How to prevent over discharge of rechargeable batteries in portable devices - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

The present invention relates to protecting the life of a rechargeable battery of a portable device.

I. The technical problem that the invention is trying to solve

The present invention provides a method of automatically protecting a battery from overdischarging even when the portable device is left with a rechargeable battery for a long time.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

The method for preventing over-discharge of a rechargeable battery of the portable device includes a first process of detecting a voltage level of the rechargeable battery, a second process of checking whether the portable device is spaced apart from the fixed device, and the portable device from the fixed device. A third step of checking whether or not the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value when spaced apart; and a fourth step of checking a current state if the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value; If it is determined that the current state is not a call state and is within a predetermined time after a certain key input, a fifth process of switching to the power-off state is made.

la. Important uses of the invention

When the portable device is left for a long time with a rechargeable battery installed, it is used to protect the battery life by preventing over discharge of the battery.

Description

How to prevent over discharge of rechargeable batteries in portable devices

The present invention relates to a method for protecting the life of a battery in a portable device of a cordless phone using a rechargeable battery. In particular, even if the portable device is left unattended for a long time with the battery installed, the battery is automatically protected from over discharge. It is about how to.

As user needs change and increase from wired communication to more convenient wireless communication, the demand for wireless telephones and portable telephones is also increasing. The most important consideration in such a portable terminal is a battery that provides power while moving. The performance of a portable device depends on the battery life during standby or during a call. Most wireless terminals periodically enter a power save mode to turn off the peripherals when they are idle to minimize battery usage. At this time, the central processing unit is in the idle state and the key is pressed or after a certain time, it wakes up to the normal state and performs the necessary actions such as scanning the channel and checking the received signal and then enters the power save mode again. To prevent the consumption of necessary power;

In the case of a nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) battery, for example, the maximum use time of the battery in the standby state is about 7 days. When the state of charge of the battery is below a certain voltage, a low voltage warning signal is generated, and the user who recognizes it puts the portable device back on the fixed device to recharge the battery. However, if the user has the battery installed in the portable device, If left for a long time, overdischarge may cause the cells of the nickel-cadmium battery to break and no longer be recharged. To prevent this, the switch is used to power off hardware.

However, the conventional method is a low battery (low battery), even after giving a warning display, the user does not put the portable device on the fixed device or charger, the battery is left with the battery installed and used for a long time (about 2 weeks) Otherwise, the battery cells are broken or the life of the battery is reduced until the over-discharge state. In addition, even if a portable device having a structure capable of forcibly powering off the portable device by using a switch, there is a problem in that the battery cell is not prevented from being broken during over-discharge unless the user recognizes and uses the switch as necessary.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of automatically protecting a battery from overdischarging even when the portable device is left for a long time with a rechargeable battery.

In order to achieve the above object, a method of preventing overcharge of a rechargeable battery of a portable device includes a first process of detecting a voltage level of the rechargeable battery, a second process of checking whether the portable device is spaced apart from a fixed device, and A third step of checking whether a voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value when the portable device is spaced apart from the fixed device; and checking a current state when the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value. And a fifth process of switching to a power-off state if it is determined that the current state is not a call state and is within a predetermined time after a predetermined key input.

1 is a block diagram of a wireless telephone to which the present invention is applied

2 is a flowchart illustrating a battery state check for battery overdischarge protection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a timer driving control procedure for battery over-discharge protection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details such as components of specific circuits are shown, which are provided to help a more general understanding of the present invention, and it is understood that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. It will be self-evident to those of ordinary knowledge. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

1 is a configuration diagram of a radiotelephone to which the present invention is applied and includes a fixing device 100 and a portable device 200. The fixed device 100 is connected through an exchange and a telephone line to perform a wired communication function, and the portable device 200 forms a wireless link with a wireless unit of the fixed device 100 to perform a wireless communication function.

First, the configuration and operation of the fixing device 100 will be described. The fixing device control unit 31 collectively controls the overall operation of the fixing device 100. The fixed device controller 31 is a one chip microprocessor, and includes a ROM for storing a program and a RAM for temporarily storing data generated while the program is being executed. The transmitter 33 modulates and frequency-converts the data output from the fixed device controller 31 or the voice signal output from the microphone 42 and outputs the result in the form of a wireless signal. The transmission and reception separation unit 35 separates transmission and reception of the radio signal to be transmitted or received and transmitted to the antenna 43. The receiver 14 converts and demodulates the received radio signal separated by the transmit / receive separator 35 to transmit the voice signal to the speaker 41 and the data to the fixed device controller 31. The frequency synthesizer 40 generates a frequency for designating a transmission / reception channel of the transmitter 35 and the receiver 34 under the control of the fixed device controller 31. The trunk line connecting unit 32 is connected to the switching network by wire, and interfaces signals (eg, ring signals) between the fixed device 100 and the control unit of the switching network for connection with the switching network. In addition, the trunk line connecting unit 32 interfaces a voice signal between the fixing device 100 and the switching network. The power supply unit 36 inputs the power Vc supplied by the power adapter from the outside and transfers the power Vc to each part of the fixing device 100. The reset unit 45 is connected to one port of the fixed device controller 31 to reset the fixed device controller 31 when power is applied to the power supply unit 36 when the port is in a low state. The charging unit 37 is connected to the charging unit 20 of the portable device 200 when the portable device 200 is mounted on the fixing device 100 to transfer the power Vc to the charging unit 20.

Next, the configuration and operation of the portable apparatus 200 will be described. The portable apparatus controller 11 collectively controls the overall operation of the portable apparatus 200. The data output from the portable device controller 11 or the voice signal output from the microphone 17 is modulated and frequency-converted and output in the form of a wireless signal. The transmission and reception separation unit 15 separates transmission and reception of the radio signal to be transmitted or received and transmitted to the antenna 27. The receiving unit 14 converts and demodulates the received radio signal separated by the transmitting / receiving separating unit 15 to transmit a voice signal to the speaker 18 and transmits data to the portable device controller 11. The frequency synthesizer 26 generates a frequency for designating a transmission / reception channel of the transmitter 13 and the receiver 14 under the control of the portable device controller 11. The key input unit 21 includes a plurality of keys for dialing and various keys such as a call key or a call termination key. The tone generating unit 16 generates a warning sound for notifying the user of various operating states of the portable device under the control of the portable device controller 11 and outputs it to the buzzer 25. The low voltage checker 24 informs the portable device controller 11 that the power supply unit 19 is in a low voltage state when the voltage of the power supply unit 19 reaches a specific value. The reset unit 26 is connected to one port of the portable device controller 11 and resets the portable device controller 11 when power is applied to the power supply unit 19 when the port is low. The charging unit 20 is connected to the charging unit 37 of the fixing device 100 when the portable device 200 is placed on the fixing device 100, and the power supply unit Vc is supplied through the charging unit 37 to charge the power supply unit 19.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of checking a battery state as a first control flowchart for battery overdischarge protection according to an embodiment of the present invention. The portable device controller 11 always sets a specific port related to power-off to a high state when the portable device 200 is normally initialized. The portable device control unit 11 is not reset while this port is in the high state. This is to prevent the portable device 200 from being reset every time the portable device 200 is placed on the fixed device 100 in a normal state.

In operation 201, the portable device controller 11 detects the voltage level of the power source 19 (rechargeable battery) through the low voltage checker 24. In step 202, the portable device 200 is checked whether the portable device 200 is placed on the fixed device 100. If not, it is checked in step 206 whether the voltage level of the power supply unit 19 is lower than a predetermined reference value. If the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value, the controller proceeds to step 207 to alert the low battery state. This alarm may be audible or visually made via buzzer 25 or indicator 12. After this alarm, the current state of the portable device is checked in step 208 or 209. That is, in step 208, it is checked whether it is in a call state, and in step 209, it is checked whether it is within a predetermined time after a key is input (pressed). As a result of this check, if it is not in a call state and is not within a predetermined time after inputting any key, a power-off flag is set in step 210.

If it is determined in step 202 that the portable device 200 is mounted (separated) from the fixed device 100 or the voltage level of the power supply unit 19 is not smaller than a predetermined reference value, that is, if the battery state is normal, the process proceeds to step 203. Clear the status alarm. After the low battery state alarm is released or the current state is determined to be a call state or determined to be within a predetermined time after a random key input, the flow proceeds to step 204 to clear the power-off flag. However, when the alarm is made and is determined to be in a current call state, the user is talking to a mobile device that is currently in a low voltage state, and when the call ends, the user may place the mobile device on a fixed device or replace it with a spare battery. However, without doing so, if left alone, the power-off flag is set in step 210 through step 209 as described above.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a second control flow for battery over-discharge protection according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, in step 301, the portable device controller 11 checks whether the power-off flag is set. If it is determined that the power-off flag is not set, the process proceeds to step 302 to initialize the power-off timer. On the other hand, if it is determined that the power-off flag is set, the process proceeds to step 304 and the power-off timer is increased by one. In step 305, it is checked whether the power-off timer reaches a predetermined value (for example, about 10 minutes). If the power-off timer reaches a predetermined value as a result of the check, the power-off timer is turned off in step 306. At this time, all parts except the portable device controller 11 are powered off. The main oscillator 22 and the secondary oscillator 23 are also stopped. After resetting the port related to the power-off in the portable device controller 11, the portable device controller 11 itself is also stopped. In order to operate the portable device 200 again in the stopped state, the portable device controller 11 operates normally only when the portable device 200 is reset using the charging unit 20 or the power supply unit 19 of the portable device 200. To this end, the user places the mobile device 200 in a stationary state on the fixing device 100 for a short time so that the charging unit 37 of the fixing device makes instant contact with the charging unit 20 of the mobile device 200, or by removing and reinserting the battery of the mobile device 200. You can hang it. For this reason, when the port of the portable device controller 11 is reset, the portable device controller 11 is reset by the reset unit 26 to restore the portable device 200 to the normal state. In this state of returning to the normal state, you can talk on the remaining battery capacity.

Meanwhile, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined not only by the scope of the following claims, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

The present invention as described above has the advantage that even if the user inadvertently left the portable device for a long time to prevent the battery from being over-discharged, even if left for a long time immediately after the instantaneous contact with the fixed device.

Claims (5)

In the charging battery over-discharge prevention method of a portable device, Detecting a voltage level of the rechargeable battery; A second step of checking whether the portable device is spaced apart from the fixed device; A third step of checking whether the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value when the portable device is spaced apart from the fixed device; A fourth step of checking a current state when the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value; And a fifth process of switching to a power-off state if it is determined that the current state is not a call state and is within a predetermined time after an arbitrary key input. The method of claim 1, wherein the fifth process, A first step of setting a power-off flag if it is determined that the current state is not a call state and not within a predetermined time after an arbitrary key input; A second step of checking whether a predetermined time has elapsed after the setting of the power-off flag; And a third step of switching to the power-off state when the predetermined time elapses. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And a step 4-1 of alerting a low battery state when the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than a predetermined reference value. The method of claim 3, And the mobile device is coupled to the fixed device to cancel the low battery state alarm when the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is not smaller than a predetermined reference value. The method of claim 4, wherein And disabling the low battery state alarm or resetting the power-off flag if the current state is determined to be a call state or within a predetermined time after any key input.