KR20030062549A - Battery charging/discharging apparatus for controlling battery calibration - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An automatic charging/discharging apparatus for controlling residual quantity information of a battery is provided to improve the accuracy of residual quantity of battery by automatically performing a complete charging/discharging loop when a predetermined condition is meet regardless of a usage condition of a user. CONSTITUTION: A first controlling unit(313) detects a charging/discharging current or a voltage of a battery to recognize a charging/discharging state and measures a residual quantity of the battery. A discharging unit consumes a charging energy of the battery under the control of the first controlling unit(313) to discharge it. A switching unit(311) switches paths of power provided from an alternating current adaptor(30) or the battery to a system. A second controlling unit(333) controls the switching operation of the switching unit(311) based on a full charging requirement signal received through a communication with the first controlling unit(313). The second controlling unit(333) provides a charging start signal or a charging stop signal to a charging unit(310) and sends a full discharging requirement signal to the first controlling unit(313) in a full charge state.

Description

Battery charging / discharging apparatus for controlling battery calibration

The present invention relates to an automatic charging / discharging device for controlling the remaining battery information, and more particularly, in order to accurately display the remaining battery information of the battery in full charge (discharge) and full discharge during irregular charge / discharge of the battery The present invention relates to an automatic charging / discharging device for controlling the remaining battery power information, which automatically executes a loop.

In general, a battery that uses a Gauge IC in a battery pack such as a notebook battery, when used in an irregular charge / discharge state without full charge and full discharge, is provided with a metering power included in the battery pack. Since the integrated circuit has the error capacity data rather than the actual battery capacity, the battery usage time is shortened or the display remaining capacity temporarily drops compared to the displayed capacity, which is often provided in the battery pack. This is because of the characteristics of the weighing integrated circuit which checks the battery capacity.

As the battery is used, its capacity is continuously changed, and the metering circuit must update the capacity data of the battery in real time, and this update is made accurately only when the battery is fully discharged.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a general battery pack 10. In the same figure, the measurement integrated circuit 12 measures the capacity of the battery cell 11 and stores the measured capacity data of the battery cell 11. The memory 13 is stored in the same memory 13 as the EEPROM. Unexplained reference numeral 14 denotes a protect circuit.

Upon packing of the battery pack 10, the metering integrated circuit 12 records any battery capacity in the memory 13 as initial capacity data, which is fully charged and then fully discharged. Only when the data is updated correctly, the actual capacity is stored in real time.

In other words, if the battery is not fully charged or fully discharged, the actual battery capacity is not updated and the error capacity data is retained. Therefore, the actual usage time is shorter than the display capacity or the remaining capacity is suddenly dropped.

Therefore, in the past, the battery was fully charged with an AC adapter, and then the AC adapter was removed and the system was operated to update the remaining capacity while the battery was fully discharged. This will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional charger. In the same drawing, when the AC adapter 21 is input and the battery 27 is input, the AC IN Dector 23 is connected to the first switch 22. ON and the second switch 24 is turned OFF, and the microcomputer 28 as a control unit turns on the battery charger 25 to charge the battery 27. When the battery 27 is fully charged, the battery charger integrated circuit 25 sends a full charge signal to the microcomputer 28, and the microcomputer 28 turns on a light emitting diode (LED) 29 for charging display. . The user separates the AC adapter 21 from the system and the commercial power supply when the light emitting diode 29 becomes large, and the AC input detector 23 detects this and turns off the first switch 22. The battery 27 is fully discharged by turning on the second switch 24 so that the power source of the battery 27 is used on the system side. In this manner, the battery capacity is displayed by fully charging and discharging the battery 27.

As such, in the related art, in order to accurately display the remaining battery capacity, the battery is charged for about 2-3 hours and then fully charged, and after setting the system conditions for the battery to be fully discharged, the adapter is removed by removing the adapter. Discharge over time. After discharging was completed, the battery was inserted again to charge the battery, and then a battery calibration was performed. By manually performing this process, the user has to wait for the full charge and full discharge loop process, which takes much time and consumes about 7-8 hours.

Based on the technical background described above, a conventional problem is summarized as follows.

Existing battery level information has a sudden increase in error rate due to aging of the battery, irregular charging / discharging of the user, leakage current of the battery pack and system, etc. As a result, the user may obtain error level data that does not match the actual battery level. Despite the fact that the actual battery life is sufficient, problems such as misleading as the end of life.

In order to compensate for this, a method of displaying the remaining battery information of the battery by changing the compensation coefficient according to the temperature, the discharge current, the discharge voltage and / or the life cycle of the battery has been proposed. Such a method may improve the accuracy. In addition, there are still disadvantages in that accurate information cannot be obtained under irregular charging / discharging use conditions of the user.

After all, in order to accurately display the current battery level information, it must be discharged again after seeing the counted amount as 100 after the complete charge / discharge loop, but the actual user rarely uses the full charge / discharge loop and discharges irregularly Therefore, there was a problem in that the correct remaining amount display information was not obtained.

The present invention was created to solve the above problems, the purpose of which is to ensure that the correct remaining data by automatically performing a full charge / discharge loop when a certain condition regardless of the user's use conditions, An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic charging / discharging device for controlling battery remaining information.

1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a typical battery pack,

2 is a block diagram of a conventional charger,

3 is a block diagram of an automatic charge / discharge device for controlling the remaining battery information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

※ Explanation of code for main part of drawing

30: AC adapter 31: DC / DC converter

310: charging device 311: power interrupting unit

312: battery charging unit 313: control unit

330: battery pack 331: battery cell

332: discharge unit 333: control unit

SW1, SW2, SW3: Switch

In order to achieve the above object, the automatic charging / discharging device for controlling the remaining battery information according to the present invention charges a battery built in / to a system through an AC adapter, and uses the battery or commercial power through the AC adapter. A charging device for providing power to the system, the charging device comprising: first control means for detecting a charge / discharge current or voltage of the battery to recognize a charge / discharge state and calculate a residual amount; Discharge means for consuming and discharging charging energy of the battery according to the control of the first control means based on the full discharge request signal; Interrupting means for interrupting a path of power provided from the AC adapter or the battery to the system side, respectively; And charging means for controlling the interruption operation of the interruption means based on the full charge request signal received in communication with the first control means and providing the commercial power through the AC adapter as a charging power source of the battery. And a second control means for providing a charge start signal or a charge stop signal to the battery, and providing the full discharge request signal.

The discharging means comprises a load element connected between both ends of the battery, and a switch element for intermittently controlling a current flow between one end of the load element and a connection point between the battery under the control of the first control means.

The control means comprises a first switch connected between the output terminal of the AC adapter and the power input terminal of the system, a second switch connected between the output terminal of the switch and the common connection point of the power input terminal and the output terminal of the battery.

The first control means provides the full charge request signal to the second control means when the full charge / full discharge loop is not performed for a predetermined number of times based on the detection result. Upon receiving the full charge request signal, the first switch is turned on and the second switch is turned off to charge the charging means to fully charge the battery, and the detection means is configured to charge the battery after generation of the full charge request signal. When the full charge is detected, the discharge means is controlled according to the full discharge request signal, and the remaining amount is calculated while fully discharging the battery.

Hereinafter, an automatic charging / discharging device for controlling battery remaining information according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a block diagram of an automatic charging / discharging device for controlling remaining battery information according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the AC adapter 30 is provided in a system such as a notebook PC. A charging device 310 that provides the commercial power provided through the power of the corresponding system or the charging power of the battery; And a battery pack 330 mounted on the system to be electrically connected to the charging device 310 and charged by the provided charging power and providing the charged energy to the power of the system.

The battery pack 330 may include a battery cell 331; The first switch SW1 connected between the load resistor R1 having one end connected to the positive electrode + of the battery cell 331, the other end of the resistor R1, and the negative electrode − of the battery cell 331. A discharge unit 332 configured to consume and discharge energy of the battery cell 331 according to an intermittent state of the first switch SW1; And a first controller 333 that detects the charge / discharge current and voltage of the battery cell 331, recognizes the charge / discharge state, calculates the remaining amount, and controls the intermittent operation of the first switch SW1. It is.

The charging device 310, the second switch (SW2) for intercepting the power provided from the AC adapter 30 to the DC / DC conversion unit 31 provided to provide a stable DC power to the system, A power interrupter 311 including a third switch (SW3) for intercepting power provided from the battery cell 331 of the battery pack 330 to the DC / DC converter 31; A battery charger 312 for charging the battery cells 331 of the battery pack 330 with a commercial power provided through the AC adapter 30; Communication with the first control unit 333 via SMBUS, and controls the intermittent operation of the second switch (SW2) and the third switch (SW3) based on the communication and of the battery charging unit 312 It is comprised by the 2nd control part 313 which controls a charge start and end. Unexplained reference numeral 313a is an NAND gate 333a for inverting the intermittent signal output from the second control unit 313 and applied to the third switch SW3 to provide the intermittent signal of the second switch SW2. Indicates.

Next, an operation of the apparatus of the present invention configured as shown in FIG. 3 will be described.

First, the first control unit 333 provided in the battery pack 330 inspects the charge / discharge state of the battery cell 331. As a result of the inspection, the charge / discharge state of the battery cell 331 is determined. When the irregular charge / discharge loop is performed without performing the full charge / discharge loop for a predetermined number of times, the charging device provided with the system for the detected irregular charge / discharge recovery information and the generated full charge request signal accordingly. Transfer to the second control unit 313 of (310).

The second control unit 313 applies a charging signal to the battery charging unit 312 based on the received full charge request signal, and the battery charging unit 332 supplies the AC adapter 30 according to the charging signal. A commercial power supply is provided to the battery cell 331 to fully charge the battery cell 331.

The second controller 333 turns on the second switch SW2 of the intermittent part 311 based on the full charge request signal when the battery cell 331 is fully charged and turns on the third switch ( SW3 is turned off so that the DC / DC converter 31 continuously receives power through the AC adapter 30, and then transmits a full discharge request signal to the first controller 313. .

The first control unit 313 turns on the first switch SW1 of the discharge unit 332 based on the received full discharge request signal, thereby allowing the battery cell 331 to pass through the load resistor R1. In addition to discharging, the time at which the discharge is started is set to 100% charge amount to start calculating the remaining amount.

The calculated remaining amount information is transmitted to the second control unit 313, and the second control unit 313 displays the remaining amount through the display unit 314.

As described in detail above, according to the automatic charging / discharging device for controlling the remaining battery information according to the present invention, when the irregular charging / discharging of the battery is automatically performed, the charging / discharging loop is automatically performed to calculate the remaining amount of the remaining information. By improving the reliability, it is possible to solve the existing problems such as user inconvenience and / or battery life miscalculation caused by the remaining error indication of the battery.

Claims (6)

A charging device for charging a battery mounted / removed in a system through an AC adapter and providing the battery power or commercial power through the AC adapter as a power source of the system, First control means for detecting a charge / discharge current or voltage of the battery to recognize a charge / discharge state and calculate a residual amount; Discharge means for consuming and discharging charging energy of the battery according to the control of the first control means based on the full discharge request signal; Interrupting means for interrupting a path of power provided from the AC adapter or the battery to the system side, respectively; And A charging for controlling an interruption operation of the interruption means based on the full charge request signal received according to communication with the first control means and providing the commercial power through the AC adapter as a charging power source of the battery And a second control means for providing a charge start signal or a charge stop signal to the means, and thereby providing the full discharge request signal to the first control means when the battery is fully charged. For automatic charging / discharging device. The method of claim 1, The discharge means comprises a load element connected between both ends of the battery, and a switch element for intermittently controlling the current flow between one end of the load element and a connection point between the battery under the control of the first control means. Automatic charge / discharge device for battery level information control. The method of claim 1, The control means comprises a first switch connected between an output terminal of the AC adapter and a power input terminal of the system, a second switch connected between a common connection point between the output terminal of the switch and the power input terminal and an output terminal of the battery. Charge / discharge device for battery level information control. The method of claim 3, wherein The first control means provides the full charge request signal to the second control means when the full charge / full discharge loop is not performed for a predetermined number of times based on the detection result. Upon receiving the full charge request signal, the first switch is turned on and the second switch is turned off to charge the charging means to fully charge the battery, and the detection means is configured to charge the battery after generation of the full charge request signal. And controlling the discharging means according to the discharging request signal received when the full charge is detected to calculate the remaining amount while discharging the battery. The method of claim 1, And the first control means and the control means are provided in the pack of the battery, and the control means and the second control means are provided in the system. The method according to any one of claims 1, 4 and 5, Communication between the first control means and the second control means is an automatic charge / discharge device for controlling the remaining battery information, characterized in that via the SMBUS.