KR20000063303A - System for charging the battery of handy terminals by cradle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A battery charging system of cradle for handy terminal charging is provided to confirm the changes of the voltage and the temperature of a battery in the naked eye by displaying the voltage and the temperature of the battery by using graphs. CONSTITUTION: A cradle charges a battery pack, and provides a communication passage between a handy terminal and a computer. A computer provides a user interface screen, and is communicated with the cradle and the handy terminal to read the voltage data, the temperature data, and the battery information of a battery and display the data in the user interface screen. The computer accomplishes a predetermined function according to the selection of a user.

Description

System for charging the battery of handy terminals by cradle}

The present invention relates to a wireless meter reading system using wireless, and more particularly to a battery charging system of the cradle for charging the battery pack of the handy terminal for the meter reading.

In general, the amount of electricity, gas, and tap water used in each household is measured through an electricity meter, gas meter, water meter, and the like, and the meter reader reads the instructions of the meter to calculate monthly usage and charges for a fee. In this way, when the meter readers read and record the instructions of the meter every day, a lot of manpower and time are required, which increases the cost. In particular, when the meter is located where it is difficult to check the instructions with the eyes or when the customer is absent during the visit, there is a problem that the measurement is difficult to visit again.

In order to solve the difficulty of the meter reading, the remote metering technology using the telephone line has been introduced, but it has not been put into practical use due to the communication cost and the cost for additional equipment.

On the other hand, KEPCO introduces and uses a metering system that allows meter readers to enter guide values while holding hands. In other words, in the conventional meter reading system consisting of a handy terminal, a cradle, and a computer, the meter reader visits each home while carrying a handy terminal, checks and inputs the guidance value of the electricity meter, and when the meter reading is completed, the handy terminal is inserted into the cradle. In addition to charging and loading, the metered data can be transferred to a PC so that the metered data can be processed by a computer.

However, in the conventional meter reading system, the cradle for charging the battery pack of the handy terminal does not accurately diagnose the state of the battery has a problem that the failure occurs when charging. That is, the battery pack mounted on the handy terminal is equipped with a temperature sensor and Y. pyrom, and the cradle checks the temperature, battery voltage, and Y. pyrom data at the time of charging and starts charging only when it is normal. There is a problem that the cause of the error can not be known if the charging does not occur. Therefore, there is a problem in that the charging is not possible even if the data of YPIROM, which is not directly related to battery function, is broken.

In order to solve the problems described above, the present invention diagnoses charging voltage, temperature, communication function, etc., and displays the results of the progress on the monitor screen as well as displaying a graph of temperature or voltage changes. It is an object of the present invention to provide a handy terminal charging system for wireless meter reading.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a remote meter reading system to which the present invention is applied;

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a charging system according to the present invention;

3 is a circuit diagram showing a charge control circuit of the cradle shown in FIG.

4 is a circuit diagram showing a discharge control circuit of the cradle shown in FIG.

5 is an operation flowchart of the cradle shown in FIG.

6a is an overall flowchart illustrating a charging control procedure performed by a computer according to the present invention;

6b is a flow chart illustrating a procedure handled by an asynchronous message handler in accordance with the present invention;

7A is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting a communication start in FIG. 6A;

7B is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting to stop communication in FIG. 6A;

FIG. 7C is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting data write in FIG. 6A;

FIG. 7D is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting charging / discharging in FIG. 6A;

FIG. 7E is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting a power source in FIG. 6A;

8 is an example of a user interface screen according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

201,202: LED 204: Buzzer

206: charge control IC 208: charge control circuit

210: MCU 212: discharge control circuit

214: RS232C port 111: coprocessor

112: CPU 113: battery pack

114: ypyrom 115: battery cell

116: temperature sensor

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, in a charging system for charging a battery pack or a battery pack of a hand terminal equipped with a battery pack, charging the battery pack, communication between the handy terminal and the computer (PC) Cradle providing path; A computer which provides a predetermined user interface screen and communicates with the cradle and the handy terminal to read voltage data, temperature data, and battery information of the battery and display them on the user interface screen, and performs a predetermined function according to a user's selection. It is characterized by.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a remote meter reading system to which the present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 1, the remote meter reading system wirelessly detects power consumption, gas consumption, and tap water usage. For this purpose, the electricity meter 102, the gas meter 104, and the water meter 106 wirelessly measure the measured values. Must be capable of transmitting. For example, the electricity meter used in the present invention, as shown in Figure 2, the total electricity meter 202 for detecting the amount of electricity, the sensing unit 204 for detecting the metered value of the electricity meter, the power supply unit 206, wireless A transmitter 208, a control unit 210, a storage unit 212, an oscillator 214, a reset unit 216, and a display unit 218 are provided to detect power consumption and store the data in digital data. Upon receiving the request signal from the mobile station, it transmits the read data and unique number wirelessly. These meters are fixed in each user's home or company.

Handy terminal 110 is a device for measuring the amount of usage while the meter is carried by the user, conventionally the user reads the input value of the meter with the eye, but the hand terminal 110 according to the present invention wirelessly transmits the measurement data of the meter Take it and save it automatically. The data stored in this way is returned to the meter reading point is placed on the cradle 120 and transferred to the PC 130, and transmitted to the remote meter reading host system 150 through the network 140.

Cradle 120 and the docking unit 122 is a device that can put the handy terminal 110, charges a removable battery in the handy terminal 110, as well as the data stored in the handy terminal 110 PC ( 130 provides a communication path for transmission. In particular, the docking unit 122 is the same as the cradle 120, but expands the capacity to accommodate a number of handy terminals at once.

The PC 130 performs an application program for meter reading and processes the data collected by the meter reader through the handy terminal 110 and processes the data on its own, and the meter reading data is remotely read through the network 140 through the host. To the system 150. The remote meter reading host system 150 collects the entire remote meter reading data, calculates a fee according to the meter reading amount for each user, and manages the entire system.

2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a cradle according to the present invention, and a connection state between the cradle 120, the handy terminal 110, and the PC 130 is illustrated.

The cradle 120 according to the present invention is the LED1 201, LED2 202, the buzzer 204, the charge control IC 206, the charge control circuit 208, the processor 210, the discharge control circuit 212 , RS232C port 214, the processor 210 is connected to the coprocessor 111 of the handy terminal and the Ipyrom 114 of the battery pack through the I ² C bus, the CPU 112 of the handy terminal in the RS232C manner ) And the PC 130. The charge voltage V _BAT of the cradle is applied to the battery cell 115 through the power line, and the battery pack 113 is detachably attached to the handy terminal 110. The battery pack 113 has a temperature sensor 116 for sensing the temperature of the battery cell and Y pyrom 114 storing the battery information, the Y pyrom 114 is a cradle processor (I ² C bus) In communication with 210, the temperature sensor value and the battery voltage are transmitted to the processor 210 through the coprocessor 111.

LED1 201 and LED2 202 are red and green light emitting lamps indicating a charging operation state and a fault state according to the present invention, and the buzzer 204 generates a sound to identify a fault according to the present invention. The charging control IC 206 performs various controls related to charging, and the charging control circuit 208 is configured with a circuit as shown in FIG. 3 to perform a charging operation according to the control of the charging control IC 206.

Referring to FIG. 3, the charge control circuit 208 is a typical differential amplifier that amplifies the voltage difference between the negative input terminal and the positive input terminal of the operational amplifier by the ratio of the input resistance and the feedback resistance. When the input voltage to the SNS becomes 270mV, the charge control IC 206 drops the MOD output low, thereby lowering the input voltage of the SNS. When the input voltage to SNS drops to 220mV, BQ2004 makes the output of MOD high again. If this process is repeated and repeated until the charge control IC (BQ2004) is disabled, charging is performed at a pulse time, and the battery cell may not be overwhelmed.

As shown in FIG. 4, the discharge control circuit is a switch turned on / off according to the output of the processor 210. When the processor 210 outputs a discharge signal, the switch is turned on to discharge the battery voltage through the discharge resistor.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure performed by a cradle processor according to the present invention. The cradle only illuminates the green LED in standby. At this time, Cradle's processor continuously attempts I2C communication with the coprocessor in the handy terminal, the EEPROM in the battery pack, and checks for serial communication requests from the operating PC. If there is serial communication from the operating PC, it responds according to the packet format, but all the actual data are blanked (501, 502).

The cradle then requests I2C communication to the coprocessor and Ipyrom at regular intervals to detect that the handy terminal has been raised. If they respond correctly, it is determined that the handy terminal is loaded on the cradle, and the battery voltage data is taken from the coprocessor (503). When the battery voltage is lower than the reference voltage by comparing with the predetermined reference voltage, forced charging is performed, or the charging condition is searched for (504, 505).

In other words, the coprocessor and Epyrom must respond correctly in order for the cradle to recognize that the handy terminal has been raised. However, the Y pyrom 114 used in the battery pack uses the voltage of the battery cell at Vcc, and the operating voltage should be at least 2.5V. Therefore, when the battery pack is left for a long time, the ypyrom 114 may not respond due to the low voltage. Therefore, the cradle 120 communicates with the coprocessor 111 to receive voltage data of the battery cell prior to requesting communication with the ypyrom 114. Here, when the voltage is too low, the charging is forcibly performed until the Y pyrom 114 is in a voltage state in which it can operate.

While the charging condition is being searched, the green LED and the red LED are turned on alternately at 0.5 second intervals. Under normal conditions, the green and red LEDs alternately turn on five to six times before entering a charged state. In the charging condition search state, the following three conditions are searched to start charging (506).

First, check whether there are "6c" or "73" among the pyromium data. If the data is not confirmed, it stops the communication and goes back to the standby state and if it is confirmed, it reads and stores the battery information (manufacturer, serial number, charge / discharge frequency, date of manufacture) at the defined position of YPIROM.

Second, the coprocessor 111 stores the A / D converted value of the temperature data received from the thermistor mounted in the battery pack, and the cradle 120 requests this data through I2C communication. If the temperature data received from the coprocessor 111 satisfies the condition, and if it is not satisfied, the charging condition search state is maintained until the data satisfies the condition, and if the next condition is checked.

Thirdly, the controller checks whether the battery charging condition is satisfied. The charge control IC determines whether the battery is suitable for charging according to the battery voltage and battery temperature.

Subsequently, charging is performed when the charging condition is satisfied, and when charging is completed, intermittent charging is performed (507 to 510). In the charging state, the red LED is turned off and only the green LED is blinking. When DC is directly applied to the battery during fast charging, the charge control circuit is controlled in consideration of the fact that the battery is overwhelmed by overcurrent.

6A is an overall flowchart illustrating a charging control procedure performed by a computer according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6A, when the charge control program according to the present invention is executed on a computer connected to a cradle and RS232C, a screen of the user interface 601 is displayed as shown in FIG. 8. Referring to FIG. 8, the user interface screen shows a status display screen displaying the device name and state, temperature, voltage, number of charges, manufacturer, serial number, date of manufacture, start, stop, power, data write, charge / discharge, The button for selecting the setting appears.

If the user selects "Start", the procedure of FIG. 7A is executed (610), if "Stop" is selected, the procedure of FIG. 7B is performed (611), and if "Write data" is selected, the procedure of FIG. 612), if "charge / discharge" is selected, the procedure 613 of FIG. 7D is executed 613, and if "power source" is selected, the procedure of FIG. 7E is executed 614, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 6A, the task thread 603 determines whether there is a scheduled task, checks and executes a scheduled task if there is a scheduled task (604,605), requests battery information from the cradle if there is no scheduled task (606), and crays. After preparing the data for transmission, the data is sent to the framework after data transmission and data reception (607 ~ 609).

FIG. 6B is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure performed by the asynchronous message handler 602 in FIG. 6A. When the asynchronous message handler 602 is driven, after extracting information to be displayed on the screen, it is determined whether to display a graph. If the graph display is set, the temperature and voltage are displayed in a graph on the graph screen of FIG. 8, or according to the temperature voltage value. An error message is displayed, the message is displayed according to the battery state, and the screen returns to the user interface screen (615 to 619).

FIG. 7A is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting a communication start in FIG. 6A. When the user clicks the "Start" button on the user interface screen of FIG. 8, if the work thread is started, the user interface screen is returned. If the work thread is not started, the thread information is initialized, the serial port is initialized, and the work thread is started. The screen returns to the user interface screen (701 to 704).

FIG. 7B is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting to stop communication in FIG. 6A. When the user clicks the "Stop" button on the user interface screen of FIG. 8, it is determined whether the work thread is started, and if it is stopped, the screen returns to the user interface screen, and if it is started, the work thread is stopped, the serial port is returned, and the thread information is initialized. After that, the screen returns to the user interface screen (711 to 714).

FIG. 7C is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure in selecting data write in FIG. 6A. When the user clicks the “write data” button on the user interface screen of FIG. 8, the user requests battery information, prepares data, inserts the data into a reservation operation, and returns to the user interface screen (721 to 723).

FIG. 7D is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting charge / discharge in FIG. 6A. When the user clicks the "charge / discharge" button on the user interface screen of FIG. 8, the user prepares data after requesting charge / discharge time, inserts it into a reservation task, and returns to the user interface screen (731 to 733).

FIG. 7E is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure when selecting a power source in FIG. 6A. When the user clicks the "power" button on the user interface screen of FIG. 8, the program ends after performing the data writing procedure of FIG. 7C (741, 742).

As described above, according to the present invention, the battery voltage, temperature, battery information, etc. are displayed on the monitor screen of the computer when the battery of the handy terminal for the remote meter reading, and a message when a failure occurs. In particular, it is convenient to visually check the voltage and temperature changes during the charging process by displaying the voltage and temperature of the battery as a graph, and by monitoring the state of the battery, it is possible to quickly act according to the cause of the failure.

Claims (3)

A charging system for charging a battery pack or a battery pack of a hand terminal equipped with a battery pack, A cradle that charges the battery pack and provides a communication path between the handy terminal and the computer (PC); A computer which provides a predetermined user interface screen and communicates with the cradle and the handy terminal to read voltage data, temperature data, and battery information of the battery and display them on the user interface screen, and performs a predetermined function according to a user's selection. Handy terminal charging cradle battery charging system, characterized in that. The battery charging system of claim 1, wherein the computer displays the voltage and temperature data of the batter as a graph. The battery charging system of claim 1, wherein the computer records the battery information input by the user in the battery pack.