WO2020244589A1

WO2020244589A1 - Charging method and charging device

Info

Publication number: WO2020244589A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/094427
Authority: WO
Inventors: 秦威
Original assignee: 深圳市道通智能航空技术有限公司
Priority date: 2019-06-05
Filing date: 2020-06-04
Publication date: 2020-12-10
Also published as: CN110233508B; CN110233508A

Abstract

A charging method and a charging device, relating to the technical field of batteries. The charging method is used for charging at least two batteries. The method comprises: determining a battery to be charged and a charged battery (S410); when the current of the charged battery is in a stable state, starting to charge the battery to be charged (S420); obtaining a power change of the charged battery (S430); and controlling a charging state of the battery to be charged according to the power change of the charged battery (S440). Multiple batteries can be automatically charged, and operating is simple and convenient.

Description

Charging method and charging equipment

This application claims the priority of a Chinese patent application filed with the Chinese Patent Office, the application number is 201910487729.9, and the application name is "a charging method and charging equipment" on June 5, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated into this application by reference .

Technical field

This application relates to the field of battery technology, and in particular to a charging method and charging equipment.

Background technique

The operation of electronic equipment relies on batteries to provide power. For example, taking aircraft such as drones as an example, the realization of functions such as flying and aerial photography of drones cannot be achieved without battery power. At present, with the continuous improvement of drone technology, drones are becoming more and more popular among people. At the same time, people's requirements for drones are getting higher and higher. Among them, for UAVs, its endurance is an important indicator to measure UAV performance. Due to the limitation of the energy density of its battery, the drone's battery life has been increasing slowly. At present, the endurance of drones that do a good job in endurance is usually only about 30 minutes. If you want the drone to fly longer, many users carry more spare batteries to replace the batteries when the battery power is low.

At present, in order to charge multiple batteries, users generally use multiple chargers to charge multiple batteries, but this method requires multiple chargers to be plugged in, and the operation is relatively cumbersome. In addition, most of the battery management on the market adopts a centralized battery management method. This method does not individually control each battery, so it cannot finely control each battery separately, and it cannot adapt to the power of different input power sources.

Summary of the invention

The embodiments of the present invention aim to provide a charging method and a charging device, which can automatically charge multiple batteries, and the operation is simple and convenient.

The embodiments of the present invention disclose the following technical solutions:

In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a charging method for charging at least two batteries, the method includes: determining a battery to be charged and a battery in charge; when the current of the battery in charge is in a stable state When the time, start to charge the battery to be recharged; obtain the power change of the battery to be recharged; control the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery to be recharged; wherein, the battery to be recharged is not A battery being charged and about to be charged, the battery being charged is a battery being charged, and the steady state means that within a preset period of time, the current fluctuation range of the battery being charged is not greater than the preset current range Threshold.

In some embodiments, the determining the battery to be charged includes: obtaining the battery temperature of each battery; determining whether the battery temperature of each battery is within a preset temperature range; if so, it is in a chargeable state; if not, It is a non-chargeable state; the battery to be charged is selected from the batteries in the rechargeable state.

In some embodiments, the determining the battery to be charged further includes: obtaining the remaining power of each battery in the rechargeable battery that is not in the charging state; The remaining power determines the charging priority of each battery; the battery whose charging priority meets the preset charging condition is selected as the battery to be charged.

In some embodiments, the determining the charging priority of each battery according to the remaining power of each battery in the battery in the chargeable state includes: determining the charging priority of each battery according to the order of the remaining power The charging priority, wherein the charging priority of the battery with high remaining power is higher than the charging priority of the battery with low remaining power.

In some embodiments, the selecting the battery whose charging priority satisfies the preset charging condition as the battery to be charged includes: traversing the battery with the highest charging priority from the batteries as the battery to be charged.

In some embodiments, the starting to charge the battery to be charged includes: charging the battery to be charged with a maximum allowable charging current and a maximum allowable charging voltage.

In some embodiments, the controlling the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery to be recharged includes: obtaining the power corresponding to every two adjacent moments of the rechargeable battery; The power corresponding to the two moments is subtracted to obtain a subtraction result, and the subtraction result is used as the power change of the rechargeable battery.

In some embodiments, the controlling the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the rechargeable battery includes: determining whether the power change of the rechargeable battery is greater than or equal to a preset power change threshold; If yes, stop charging the battery to be charged; if not, continue charging the battery to be charged.

In some embodiments, the current state includes a current steady state and a current fluctuating state; the calculating the power change of the rechargeable battery according to the current state of the charging current of the rechargeable battery includes: The current state of the charging current of the rechargeable battery is the current steady state, and the power change of the rechargeable battery is calculated; when the current state of the charging current of the rechargeable battery is the current fluctuation state, the power change of the rechargeable battery is not calculated , And continue to charge the rechargeable battery.

In some embodiments, the current stable state is that within a preset time period, the fluctuation amplitude of the charging current is less than or equal to a preset amplitude threshold; the current fluctuation state is that within a preset time period, the charging current fluctuates The fluctuation amplitude is greater than the preset amplitude threshold.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a charging device for charging at least two batteries, the charging device includes: a charging circuit, the charging circuit is connected to an input power source and the battery, wherein the The charging circuit includes a number of buck-boost circuits connected to the input power supply, the buck-boost circuit is used to adjust the voltage of the input power supply to output a suitable output voltage, and a number of main loop switches, each of which is The input terminal of the loop switch is connected to a corresponding buck-boost circuit, and the output terminal of each main loop switch is connected to a corresponding battery. The main loop switch is used to control the charging connection or Disconnected; and the controller is connected to each of the buck-boost circuits, each of the main circuit switches, and each of the batteries in the charging circuit, for controlling the charging circuit, wherein The controller includes: at least one processor, and a memory communicatively connected with the at least one processor, wherein the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor, and the instructions are controlled by the at least one processor. The processor executes, so that the at least one processor can control the charging circuit for executing the charging method described above.

In each embodiment of the present invention, by determining the battery to be recharged and the battery in charge, applying a charging current to charge the battery to be recharged, obtain the power change of the rechargeable battery, and control the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the rechargeable battery , So that each battery is charged and managed, so that at least two batteries can be automatically charged, without plugging in multiple chargers, and the operation is simple and convenient. And each battery is finely controlled, and at the same time it is adaptive to the power of different input power sources, and the power of the input power source is utilized to the greatest extent, which is flexible and convenient.

Description of the drawings

One or more embodiments are exemplified by the pictures in the corresponding drawings. These exemplified descriptions do not constitute a limitation on the embodiments. Elements with the same reference numbers in the drawings are represented as similar elements. Unless otherwise stated, the figures in the attached drawings do not constitute a limitation of scale.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an unmanned aerial vehicle to which a charging method and a charging device provided by an embodiment of the present invention can be applied;

2 is a schematic diagram of an application environment of a charging device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the controller of the charging device in FIG. 2;

4 is a schematic flowchart of a charging method provided by one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a specific flowchart of step S410 in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a specific flowchart of step S414 in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a specific flowchart of step S440 in FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of an application scenario of a charging method provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a charging device provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the present invention clearer, the following describes the present invention in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described here are only used to explain the present invention, but not to limit the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative work shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being "fixed to" another element, it may be directly on the other element or a central element may also exist. When an element is considered to be "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or an intermediate element may be present at the same time. The terms "vertical", "horizontal", "left", "right" and similar expressions used herein are for illustrative purposes only and do not mean the only implementation.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the technical field of the invention type. The terms used in the description of the invention herein are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the invention. The term "and/or" as used herein includes any and all combinations of one or more related listed items. In addition, the technical features involved in the various embodiments of the present invention described below can be combined with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other.

The battery as an energy source is an essential component for the operation of various electronic devices. However, due to the limitation of the energy density of the battery, the time that the battery can provide electrical energy for the electronic device is limited. For example, take an aircraft such as an unmanned aerial vehicle as an example, which relies on batteries to provide electrical energy for various systems of the unmanned aerial vehicle to ensure the flight and aerial photography of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Among them, the power supply time of the battery determines the endurance of the drone, that is, the endurance, and the endurance and endurance of the drone are an important factor to measure the performance of the drone. Due to the limitation of the battery, the drone's battery life has been increasing slowly. Normally, the endurance time of drones that are currently doing better in terms of endurance performance is only about 30 minutes.

Therefore, in order for the drone to increase the flight time of the drone and make it fly longer, it is usually to carry a few spare batteries to replace the battery when the battery power is low to achieve endurance.

In order to charge multiple batteries, current users generally use multiple chargers to charge multiple batteries. However, this method requires multiple chargers to be connected separately, which is cumbersome to operate. For example, if the user needs to charge three batteries, and a general wall socket has only one plug port, the user needs to find three wall sockets and charge the three batteries through the three chargers, which is cumbersome.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present invention provide a charging method and a charging device. By determining the battery to be recharged and the battery under recharge, when the current of the rechargeable battery is in a stable state, start charging the battery to be recharged, and obtain the power change of the rechargeable battery. , According to the power change of the rechargeable battery, the charging state of the battery to be recharged is controlled, so that each battery can be charged and managed to automatically charge at least two batteries without plugging in multiple chargers. The operation is simple and convenient. In addition, the charging method can also automatically charge at least two batteries with different powers without plugging in multiple different chargers, and the operation is simple and convenient.

The charging method and charging equipment provided by the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an unmanned aerial vehicle to which the charging method and the charging device provided by an embodiment of the present invention are applicable.

The structure of the unmanned aerial vehicle 1000 includes a fuselage 200, four arms 300 extending from the fuselage 200, a power assembly 100 respectively installed on each arm 300, and a battery installed on the fuselage 200. That is, the unmanned aerial vehicle 1000 in the embodiment of the present invention is a four-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle, and the number of power components 100 is four. In other possible embodiments, the unmanned aerial vehicle 1000 may be any other suitable type of rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle, such as a double-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle, a hexa-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle, and the like. When the power assembly 100 is applied to other types of unmanned aerial vehicles, the number of the power assembly 100 can be changed according to actual needs, which is not limited.

In other possible embodiments, the unmanned aerial vehicle 1000 may also include a pan/tilt (not shown), which is installed at the bottom of the fuselage 200. The pan/tilt is used to carry a high-definition digital camera or other imaging devices to eliminate high-definition digital cameras. The disturbance of the camera or other imaging devices ensures the clarity and stability of the video captured by the camera or other imaging devices.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the arm 300 and the body 200 are fixedly connected, and preferably, the arm 300 and the body 200 are integrally formed. In other possible embodiments, the arm 300 may also be connected to the body 200 in a manner that can be expanded or folded relative to the body 200.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the power assembly 100 includes a driving device 20 and a propeller assembly 10 driven by the driving device 20. The propeller assembly 10 is installed on the output shaft of the driving device 20. The propeller assembly 10 is driven by the driving device 20. Rotate to generate lift or thrust that makes UAV 1000 fly. The driving device 20 may be any suitable type of motor, such as a brush motor, a brushless motor, a DC motor, a stepping motor, an AC induction motor, and so on. The power assembly 100 of the present invention also includes an electronic speed governor (not shown) arranged in the cavity formed by the fuselage 200 or the arm 300, and the electronic speed governor is used to generate power according to the throttle controller or the throttle generator The throttle signal generates a motor control signal used to control the motor speed to obtain the required flight speed or flight attitude of the UAV.

In one implementation, the throttle controller or the throttle generator may be a flight control module of an unmanned aerial vehicle. The flight control module perceives the surrounding environment of the UAV through various sensors and controls the flight of the UAV. The flight control module may be a processing unit (processing unit), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field programmable gate array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA).

The battery of the drone is connected to the flight control module and the motor respectively to provide power for the flight control module and the motor, so as to ensure the flight and control of the drone. In addition, the flight control module communicates with the motor so as to send a control command to the motor to control the turning on or off of the motor. Generally, in order to meet the power requirements for the lift-off of the unmanned aerial vehicle's motor, the battery generally adopts a multi-string battery structure. For example, the unmanned aerial vehicle's battery is composed of 3 or 4 single batteries in series. Among them, the number of batteries that make up the drone is not limited here. Moreover, it can be understood that the above-mentioned naming of the components of the drone is only for identification purposes, and should not be understood as a limitation to the embodiments of the present invention.

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of an application environment of a charging device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the application environment includes: an input power source 100, a charging device 200, and at least two batteries 300. The input power source 100 is connected to the charging device 200, and the charging device 200 is connected to the battery 300.

The input power source 100 can be any device that can input a voltage to charge the battery 300, for example, a 220v AC power source, a car battery, a power bank, a charger, and so on. The input power source 100 is used to provide an input voltage, and the input voltage is adjusted by the charging device 200 to charge the battery 300. For example, the adjustment of the input voltage by the charging device 200 may be: step-up and step-down adjustment of the input voltage, so that the voltage output by the charging device 200 to the battery 300 matches the charging voltage of the battery 300, thereby realizing the charging of the battery 300.

The battery 300 can be a battery of various electronic devices with various powers. The battery described in the present invention refers to a smart battery that can communicate with the host system, and can tell the host system the battery voltage, current, temperature, power, and maximum charge. Data such as current and maximum charging voltage. For example, the battery 300 may be an aircraft battery, an electric bicycle battery, or the like. The battery 300 may be a lithium battery, a nickel-cadmium battery, or other storage batteries. Among them, the aircraft may include: airships, drones, unmanned ships, and so on. The following uses drones as an example of aircraft.

The charging device 200 may be a hardware circuit constructed by various hardware devices, chips, etc., and the hardware device may include a buck-boost chip, a pressurizing chip, a protection circuit, and the like. In this embodiment, the charging device 200 includes a charging circuit 240 and a controller 230 connected to each other.

The charging circuit 240 includes a number of buck-boost circuits 210 and main circuit switches 220, and the numbers of the buck-boost circuits 210 and the main circuit switches 220 are correspondingly equal (in Figure 2 the numbers of the buck-boost circuits 210 and the main circuit switches 220 All 3 examples). The charging circuit 240 is connected to the input power source 100 and the battery 300 respectively. Specifically, the input terminal of each buck-boost circuit 210 is used to connect the input power supply 100, the input terminal of each main loop switch 220 is connected to the output terminal of a corresponding buck-boost circuit 210, and each main loop switch 220 The output terminals are used to connect a battery 300. The buck-boost circuit 210 is used to buck-boost the input voltage to output a suitable output voltage, so that different input power sources 100 can meet the charging requirements of the battery 300, so that the battery 300 can be charged through various input power sources And, charging each battery with the maximum allowable charging current and maximum allowable charging voltage of each battery can also shorten the charging time to the greatest extent to improve the charging speed of the battery. Among them, the buck-boost circuit 210 can adjust the input and output voltages according to the buck-boost chip and the used switch MOS tube. The main circuit switch 220 is used to connect the buck-boost circuit 210 and the battery 300 when it is turned on, so that the buck-boost circuit 210 charges the battery 300, and when it is off, disconnect the buck-boost circuit 210 and the battery 300. The buck-boost circuit 210 and the main loop switch 220 adopt buck-boost circuits and switches commonly used in the prior art.

The controller 230 is respectively connected to each buck-boost circuit 210, each main circuit switch 220, and each battery 300 in the charging circuit 240. The controller 230 is used to read the data of each battery 300, and is also used to control the output voltage of each buck-boost circuit 210 and the switching state of each main loop switch 220 respectively.

As shown in FIG. 3, specifically, the controller 230 includes: one or more processors 231 and a memory 232. In FIG. 3, one processor 231 is taken as an example. The processor 231 and the memory 232 may be connected by a bus or other methods. The bus connection is taken as an example in FIG. 3.

As a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium, the memory 232 can be used to store non-volatile software programs, non-volatile computer-executable programs and modules, such as program instructions corresponding to the charging method in the embodiment of the present invention. unit. The processor 231 runs the non-volatile software programs, instructions, and units stored in the memory 232 to thereby implement the charging method in the embodiment of the present invention. The memory 232 may include a storage program area and a storage data area. The storage program area may store an operating system and an application program required by at least one function; the storage data area may store data created according to the use of the charging device. In addition, the memory 232 may include a high-speed random access memory, and may also include a non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, a flash memory device, or other non-volatile solid-state storage devices. In some embodiments, the memory 232 optionally includes a memory remotely arranged with respect to the processor 231, and these remote memories may be connected to a network. Examples of the aforementioned networks include, but are not limited to, the Internet, corporate intranet, local area network, mobile communication network, and combinations thereof.

The controller 230 is used to determine the battery to be charged and the battery in charge. Wherein, the battery to be charged is a battery that has not been charged and is about to be charged, and the battery under charge is a battery that is being charged.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the controller 230 for determining the battery to be charged includes:

First, the controller 230 is used to obtain the battery temperature of each battery; determine whether the battery temperature of each battery is within a preset temperature range; if it is, it is in a chargeable state; if not, it is in a non-chargeable state; Select the battery to be charged from the batteries in the chargeable state.

Then, the controller 230 is used to obtain the remaining power of each battery in all the batteries that are not in the charging state; determine the charging priority of each battery according to the remaining power of each battery; select the charging priority to meet the preset The battery under the charging condition is the battery to be charged.

Among them, the "charging priority" of each battery in all batteries that are not in the charging state is determined according to the order of the remaining power, wherein the charging priority of the battery with high remaining power is higher than that of the battery with low remaining power priority. In addition, other methods of determining priority can also be set. "Preset charging conditions" are preset charging conditions of the battery, which can be set freely by the user. For example, since the batteries that are not in the charging state may include some fully charged batteries, the fully charged batteries need to be excluded when charging. For example, suppose that the remaining power of each battery that is not in the charging state is obtained as 100%, 95%, 90%, 50%, 10%, the charging priority is expressed as 1, 0.95, 0.9, 0.5, 0.1, the preset priority condition is that the charging priority is less than 1, then the battery with the priority of 0.95 is selected as the battery to be charged battery. Or, in order to avoid overcharging, the user wants to charge only the battery whose power is below a certain threshold range. For example, suppose that the remaining power of each battery that is not in the charged state is 100%, 95%, 90%, 50%, respectively. %, 10%, the charging priority is expressed as 1, 0.95, 0.9, 0.5, 0.1, the preset priority condition is that the charging priority is less than or equal to 0.9, and the battery with the priority of 0.9 is selected as the battery to be charged.

Finally, the controller 230 is configured to traverse the batteries with the highest charging priority from the batteries as the batteries to be charged.

The controller 230 is also used to detect whether the current of the rechargeable battery is in a stable state, and when the current of the rechargeable battery is in a stable state, start to charge the battery to be recharged.

Wherein, the stable state means that within a preset time period, the fluctuation amplitude of the current of the rechargeable battery is not greater than a preset current amplitude threshold. Because only when the state of the rechargeable battery is stable, you can start to charge the rechargeable battery, otherwise it will affect the normal charging of the rechargeable battery.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the starting to charge the battery to be recharged further includes that the controller 230 controls the buck-boost circuit 210 to adjust the voltage and current from the power supply 100 to the maximum charging voltage and current of the battery, The battery to be charged is charged with the maximum allowable charging current and the maximum allowable charging voltage. The maximum allowable charging current and the maximum allowable charging voltage can be read from the battery 300 by the controller 230. Charge the battery to be recharged with the maximum allowable charging current and maximum allowable charging voltage. The output of the buck-boost circuit 210 corresponding to the battery can be adjusted by the controller. For example, the controller can modify the register of the buck-boost chip through I2C, serial port and other communication means. , Can also be achieved by adjusting the hardware circuit. This ensures the utilization of the power source 100 and improves the efficiency of charging the battery pack, so that the battery can be fully charged at the fastest speed.

The controller 230 is also used to obtain the power change of the rechargeable battery.

Wherein, the controller 230 acquiring the power change of the rechargeable battery specifically includes: acquiring the power corresponding to each two adjacent moments of the rechargeable battery; subtracting the power corresponding to the two moments to obtain the subtraction result , And use the subtraction result as the power change of the rechargeable battery.

In addition, the controller 230 is also used to control the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery in charge.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the controller 230 controls the charging state of the battery to be charged according to the power change of the battery under recharge, specifically including: determining whether the power change of the battery under recharge is greater than or equal to a preset If it is, the controller 230 controls the main circuit switch 220 to open and stops charging the battery to be charged; if not, it controls the main circuit switch 220 to keep closed and continue to charge the battery to be charged.

In this embodiment, the reason why the controller 230 controls the charging circuit 240 in this way is that when the power change of the rechargeable battery is greater than or equal to the preset change threshold, it means that the power of the input power supply does not support simultaneous charging of the rechargeable battery and the standby battery. Battery charging. At this time, it is necessary to stop charging the battery to be recharged to give priority to the charging speed of the rechargeable battery; when the power change of the rechargeable battery is less than the preset change threshold, it means that the power of the input power can support the charging of the battery at the same time And the battery to be recharged, you can continue to charge the battery at this time.

Therefore, the charging device 200 in this embodiment can perform charging management for each battery 300 to automatically charge at least two batteries 300 without plugging in multiple chargers, and the operation is simple and convenient, and it can also automatically charge at least two batteries. The battery 300 of different powers can be charged without connecting multiple different chargers, and the operation is simple and convenient.

For example, taking the input power source 100 as 220v AC power, one battery 300 as the battery of the aircraft, and the other battery 300 as the battery of the remote controller, the voltage range of the aircraft battery is different from the voltage range of the remote controller battery. When the two batteries 300 are charged, the two batteries 300 are respectively connected to the charging device 200, and the charging device 200 is connected to the input power source 100. The charging device 200 first charges one battery, and then applies a charging current to charge the other battery. And according to the power change of one of the batteries, it is controlled whether to continue charging the other battery, so that at least two batteries 300 can be automatically charged without connecting multiple chargers, and the operation is simple and convenient.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned charging device 200 can be further expanded to other suitable application environments, and is not limited to the application environment shown in FIG. 2. Moreover, in the actual application process, the application environment may also include more or fewer batteries.

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a charging method provided in an embodiment of the present invention. The charging method is executed by the charging device 200 in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 4, the charging method includes:

S410: Determine the battery to be charged and the battery in charge.

In this embodiment, the determination of the battery to be charged and the battery in charge is executed by the controller 230.

Among them, the "battery to be charged" refers to the battery connected to the charging device that is not being charged and is about to be charged, and the "battery in charge" refers to the battery being charged to the charging device.

In an embodiment of the present invention, "determine the battery to be charged" in S410 further specifically includes steps S411-S414 as shown in FIG. 5. A detailed description will be made below with reference to FIG. 5.

Referring to FIG. 5, "determine the battery to be charged" in S410 specifically includes:

S411: Obtain the battery temperature of each battery;

"Battery temperature" is the temperature of the battery at the current moment. The controller 230 can communicate with the battery to read the temperature data of the battery in real time, or set a temperature sensor at the position where the battery is placed to obtain the temperature of the battery.

S412: Determine whether the battery temperature of each battery is within a preset temperature range;

S413. If yes, the battery is in a chargeable state; if not, the battery is in a non-chargeable state;

Determine whether the battery temperature of each battery is within the preset temperature range; if not, the controller 230 controls the charging circuit 240, turns off the main circuit switch 220, and stops charging the over-temperature battery; if so, it is controlled by the controller 230 The charging circuit 240 closes the main circuit switch 220 and continues to charge the battery. Among them, the "preset temperature range" is a preset temperature range that enables the battery to be safely charged. The normal charging temperature of the battery is generally 0-45°C. Charging beyond the battery temperature range will cause safety hazards to the battery. The preset temperature threshold can be 0-45°C. When the battery temperature is greater than or equal to 45°C or less than 0°C, When the battery temperature is less than 45°C and greater than 0°C, it is in a rechargeable state.

S414: Select a battery to be charged from batteries in a chargeable state.

Referring to Figure 6, S414 specifically includes:

S4141: Obtain the remaining power of each battery in the rechargeable battery that is not in the charging state;

Among them, "all batteries that are not in a charging state" refer to all batteries that are not charged by the charging device among several batteries connected to the charging device; "remaining power" refers to the current power of the battery, which can be expressed as a percentage of power, for example. For example, assuming that the charging device is connected to 3 batteries A, B, and C, the charging device is charging battery A, but not charging batteries B, C, then all the batteries that are not in the charging state are battery B and battery C, and obtain battery B and The remaining power of battery C is 30% and 10%, respectively. For another example, suppose the charging device is connected to three batteries A, B, and C, and batteries A, B, and C are not being charged, then all the batteries that are not in the charging state are batteries A, B, and C, and obtain batteries A, B, and C The remaining power is 20%, 30%, and 10%. In this embodiment, the remaining power of each battery in all the batteries that are not in the charging state is obtained, and the battery power data can be read by communicating with the battery through the controller.

S4142, according to the remaining power of each battery, determine the charging priority of each battery;

Among them, "charging priority" refers to the priority level of battery charging, with the higher priority level being charged first, and the lower priority level being charged later. In this embodiment, S414 includes: determining the charging priority of each battery according to the order of the remaining power, wherein the priority of the battery with high remaining power is higher than the priority of the battery with low remaining power. For example, assuming that the remaining power of battery B and battery C are respectively 30% and 10%, and the remaining power of battery B is greater than that of battery C, the charging priority of battery B is higher than the charging priority of battery C.

S4143: Select the battery whose charging priority meets the preset charging condition as the battery to be charged.

Among them, the "preset charging condition" is the preset charging condition of the battery, which can be freely set by the user. Since the batteries that are not in the charging state may include some fully charged batteries, the fully charged batteries need to be excluded when charging. For example, suppose that the remaining power of each battery that is not in the charged state is 100% and 95% respectively. , 90%, 50%, 10%, the charging priority is expressed as 1, 0.95, 0.9, 0.5, 0.1, the preset priority condition is that the charging priority is less than 1, then the battery with the priority of 0.95 is selected as the battery to be charged. Or, in order to avoid overcharging, the user wants to charge only the battery whose power is below a certain threshold range. For example, suppose that the remaining power of each battery that is not in the charged state is 100%, 95%, 90%, 50%, respectively. %, 10%, the charging priority is expressed as 1, 0.95, 0.9, 0.5, 0.1, the preset priority condition is that the charging priority is less than or equal to 0.9, and the battery with the priority of 0.9 is selected as the battery to be charged.

In an embodiment of the present invention, S4143 specifically includes: traversing the battery with the highest priority from each battery as the battery to be charged. For example, if the charging priority of batteries A, B, and C is B>A>C, then battery B with the highest charging priority is selected as the battery to be charged.

Optionally, S4143 may also include: after the input power supply is connected to the charging device, the charging priority of the battery is re-determined every time the battery is plugged in or unplugged.

Referring back to FIG. 4, in S410, after determining the battery to be charged and after the battery is charged, the method proceeds to S420.

S420: When the current of the battery under charge is in a stable state, start to charge the battery to be recharged.

Wherein, the stable state means that within a preset time period, the fluctuation amplitude of the current of the rechargeable battery is not greater than a preset current amplitude threshold. Among them, the current state can include the current stable state and the current fluctuating state. If the fluctuation amplitude of the charging current is less than or equal to the preset current amplitude threshold within the preset time period, it is the current stable state; if within the preset time period, the charging current If the fluctuation amplitude of is greater than the preset current amplitude threshold, it is a fluctuating state. For example, assuming that the preset current amplitude threshold is 10% and the preset duration is 5s, if the charging current of the battery fluctuates by 3% within 5s, the current state of the battery charging current is determined to be the current stable state; if the battery is charged If the current fluctuation amplitude is 13% within 5s, it is determined that the current state of the charging current of the battery is the current fluctuation state.

In this embodiment, when the current of the rechargeable battery is in a stable state, applying a charging current to charge the battery to be recharged can be achieved by adjusting the charging circuit 240 by the controller 230. Specifically, adjusting the output of the buck-boost circuit 210 is appropriate. Output voltage and current, and turn on the main loop switch 220 to charge the battery to be recharged. For example, please refer to Figure 2 together. Assuming that the rechargeable battery is battery A and the battery to be recharged is battery B, when the charging current is applied to charge battery B, the controller 230 controls the buck-boost circuit 2 to adjust to a suitable charging voltage, And control the main loop switch 2 to close, thereby charging the battery B.

Among them, charging the battery to be recharged specifically includes: charging the battery to be recharged with the maximum allowable charging current and the maximum allowable charging voltage. "Maximum allowable charging current" is the maximum charging current that the battery can withstand, and "maximum allowable charging voltage" is the maximum charging voltage that the battery can withstand. The maximum allowable charging current and maximum allowable charging voltage can be read from the battery through the controller . Charge the battery to be charged with the maximum allowable charging current and maximum allowable charging voltage. The output of the buck-boost circuit corresponding to the battery can be adjusted by the controller. For example, the controller can modify the register of the buck-boost chip through I2C, serial port and other communication means. It can also be achieved by adjusting the hardware circuit. By charging the battery to be charged with the maximum allowable charging current and maximum allowable charging voltage, the battery can be fully charged at the fastest speed, so that the user can get a fully charged battery as soon as possible.

S430: Obtain the power change of the rechargeable battery.

After the charging current is applied to charge the battery to be recharged, the power change of the rechargeable battery is calculated to obtain the power change of the rechargeable battery. Among them, calculating the power change in the rechargeable battery may specifically include: obtaining the respective power corresponding to each two adjacent moments of the rechargeable battery; subtracting the respective powers corresponding to the two moments to obtain the subtraction result, and subtracting The result is a change in the power of the rechargeable battery. Among them, the power calculated in the rechargeable battery can be calculated by the product of the battery voltage and current. For example, assuming that the power of the rechargeable battery is calculated every △t time, the power of the rechargeable battery is calculated to be 40 at the time before the △t time, and the power of the rechargeable battery is calculated to be 45 at the time after the △t time. The power change of the battery is 45-40=+5.

S440: Control the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery under charge. S440 also specifically includes the steps shown in FIG. 7, which will be described in detail below.

Referring to FIG. 7, specifically, S440 may include:

S4401: Determine whether the power change of the rechargeable battery is greater than or equal to a preset power change threshold;

Among them, the "preset power change threshold" can be a specific value or percentage, which can be specifically defined according to specific usage conditions. When the preset power change threshold is a percentage, the power change value in the rechargeable battery can be divided by the previous moment The percentage of power change is obtained from the power value, so that the power change in the rechargeable battery is compared with the preset power change threshold. For example, assuming that the preset power change threshold is 10%, if the power change in the rechargeable battery is 5%, the power change in the rechargeable battery is less than the preset power change threshold; if the power change in the rechargeable battery is 15%, Then the power change in the rechargeable battery is greater than the preset power change threshold.

S4402, if yes, stop charging the battery to be charged;

S4403. If not, continue to charge the battery to be charged.

In this embodiment, when the power change of the rechargeable battery is greater than or equal to the preset change threshold, it means that the power of the input power does not support simultaneous charging of the rechargeable battery and the battery to be recharged. At this time, the charging of the battery to be recharged needs to be stopped. , In order to give priority to meeting the charging speed of the rechargeable battery; when the power change of the rechargeable battery is less than the preset change threshold, it means that the power of the input power can support the charging of the rechargeable battery and the battery to be recharged at the same time. Charge the rechargeable battery.

It should be noted that if the power of the input power multiplied by the conversion efficiency is greater than the total power required by all batteries, all batteries can be charged at the same time; if the power of the input power multiplied by the conversion efficiency is less than the total power required by all batteries, It is not possible to charge all batteries at the same time.

In this embodiment, the charging method determines the battery to be recharged and the battery under recharge. When the current of the rechargeable battery is in a stable state, the charging current is applied to charge the battery to be recharged, and the power change of the rechargeable battery is obtained. The power of the rechargeable battery changes, and the charging state of the battery to be recharged is controlled to manage the charging of each battery. When the input power is large enough, multiple batteries are charged at the same time, and only one battery is charged when the input power is insufficient. , It can automatically charge at least two batteries without plugging in multiple chargers. The operation is simple and convenient, and it can also use the power of the input power to the greatest extent to automatically charge at least two batteries with different powers. To shorten the charging time.

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of an application scenario of a charging method provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The charging method is implemented in the application scenario in Figure 2. The input power source 100 is connected to the battery A through the buck-boost circuit 1 and the main circuit switch 1, and is connected to the battery B through the buck-boost circuit 2 and the main circuit switch 2. The step-down circuit 3 and the main circuit switch 3 are connected to the battery C, and the controller 230 is respectively connected to the step-up and step-down circuits 1, 2, 3 and the main circuit switches 1, 2, 3 and the batteries A, B, and C. When the input power source 100 is connected to the charging device 200, each buck-boost circuit is in a standby state, and each main circuit switch is in an off state.

As shown in Figure 8, the charging method includes:

S801. Obtain the battery temperatures of batteries A, B, and C as 10°C, 20°C, and 30°C respectively;

S802. According to the battery temperature of batteries A, B, and C, the preset temperature range is 0-45℃, and it is determined that the charging status of batteries A, B, and C are all rechargeable;

S803: Obtain the remaining power of all batteries A, B, and C that are not in a charging state as 80%, 30%, and 10%, respectively;

S804: According to the remaining power of batteries A, B, and C, determine that the charging priorities of batteries A, B, and C are respectively 0.8, 0.3, and 0.1;

S805, applying a charging current to charge battery A, specifically: controlling and adjusting the buck-boost circuit 1, and controlling the main loop switch 1 to open, and charge battery A with the maximum charging voltage and maximum charging current;

S806. At this time, it is determined that battery A is a battery being charged, and according to the charging priority of batteries B and C, battery B is determined to be a battery to be charged;

S807. Determine the current state of the charging current of battery A, specifically: acquiring the charging current of battery A with a fluctuation range of 3% within a preset time of 5s, which is less than the preset current amplitude threshold, then determine the current state of the charging current of battery A Is a stable state;

S808. Apply a charging current to start charging the battery B to be recharged, specifically: controlling and adjusting the buck-boost circuit 2 and controlling the main circuit switch 2 to open, and charge the battery B with the maximum charging voltage and the maximum charging current;

S809. Obtain the power change of battery A;

S810. Control the charging state of battery B according to the power change of battery A, specifically: judging whether the power change of battery A is greater than or equal to a preset power change threshold, and if so, stop charging battery B, that is, control the main circuit switch 2 Disconnect; if not, continue to charge battery B.

In this embodiment, the charging method determines the battery to be charged and the battery to be charged, applies a charging current to charge the battery to be charged, obtains the power change of the charged battery, and controls the charging of the battery to be charged according to the power change of the charged battery. Status, so as to charge management for each battery. When the power of the input power supply is large enough, multiple batteries are charged at the same time. When the power of the input power supply is insufficient, only one battery is charged to automatically charge at least two batteries. Plug in multiple chargers, the operation is simple and convenient, and it can also use the power of the input power to the greatest extent to automatically charge at least two batteries of different power, which can shorten the charging time to the greatest extent.

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a charging device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The charging device setting can be executed by the controller 230. As shown in FIG. 9, the charging device 600 includes a determining module 610, a charging module 620, a power change acquiring module 630, and a control module 640. Wherein, the determining module 610 is used to determine the battery to be charged and the battery in charge; the charging module 620 is used to start charging the battery to be charged when the current of the battery in charge is in a stable state; the power change acquisition module 630 is used to Obtain the power change of the rechargeable battery; the control module 640 is used to control the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the rechargeable battery.

The determining module 610 is used to determine the battery to be charged and the battery in charge, and includes:

Obtain the battery temperature of each battery; determine whether the battery temperature of each battery is within a preset temperature range; if it is, it is in a chargeable state, if not, it is in a non-chargeable state; from the rechargeable state Select the battery to be charged in the battery.

Wherein, "battery temperature" is the temperature of the battery at the current moment. The controller 230 can communicate with the battery to read the temperature data of the battery in real time, or set a temperature sensor at the position where the battery is placed to obtain the temperature of the battery. The "preset temperature range" is a preset temperature range that enables the battery to be charged safely. For example, the normal charging temperature of the battery is generally 0-45℃. Charging beyond the battery temperature range will cause safety hazards to the battery. The preset temperature threshold can be 0-45℃. When the battery temperature is greater than or equal to 45℃ or less than 0 ℃, it is not rechargeable, when the battery temperature is less than 45℃ and greater than 0℃, it is rechargeable. The "preset temperature range" may also be other suitable temperature ranges.

Obtain the remaining power of each battery in the rechargeable battery that is not in the charging state; determine the charging priority of each battery according to the remaining power of each battery; select the battery whose charging priority meets the preset charging condition For the battery to be recharged.

Wherein, the determining the charging priority of each battery includes determining the charging priority of each battery according to the order of the remaining power, wherein the charging priority of the battery with high remaining power is higher than the battery with low remaining power Charging priority. The battery with the highest charging priority is traversed from the batteries as the battery to be charged.

The charging module 620 is used to determine the current state of the charging current of the rechargeable battery, and if the current is in a stable state, start to charge the battery to be recharged.

Wherein, the stable state means that within a preset time period, the fluctuation amplitude of the current of the rechargeable battery is not greater than a preset current amplitude threshold. Among them, the current state can include the current stable state and the current fluctuating state. If the fluctuation amplitude of the charging current is less than or equal to the preset current amplitude threshold within the preset time period, it is the current stable state; if within the preset time period, the charging current If the fluctuation amplitude of is greater than the preset current amplitude threshold, it is a fluctuating state. For example, assuming that the preset current amplitude threshold is 10% and the preset duration is 5s, if the charging current of the battery fluctuates by 3% within 5s, the current state of the battery charging current is determined to be the current stable state; if the battery is charged If the current fluctuation amplitude is 13% within 5s, it is determined that the current state of the charging current of the battery is the current fluctuation state. And the charging module 620 is used to charge the battery to be charged with the maximum allowable charging current and the maximum allowable charging voltage.

The power change obtaining module 630 is used to obtain the power change of the rechargeable battery.

Wherein, the power change obtaining module 630 is configured to obtain the respective powers corresponding to each two adjacent moments of the rechargeable battery; subtract the respective powers corresponding to the two moments to obtain the subtraction result, and combine the phase The subtraction result is used as the power change of the rechargeable battery.

The control module 640 is configured to control the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery under charge.

The control module 640 is used to determine whether the power change of the battery under charge is greater than or equal to a preset power change threshold; if so, stop charging the battery to be recharged; if not, continue to charge the battery to be recharged Recharge.

The "preset power change threshold" can be a specific value or a percentage, which can be specifically defined according to specific usage conditions. When the preset power change threshold is a percentage, the power change value at the rechargeable battery can be divided by the power at the previous moment The value obtains the percentage of power change, so that the power change in the rechargeable battery is compared with the preset power change threshold. For example, assuming that the preset power change threshold is 10%, if the power change in the rechargeable battery is 5%, the power change in the rechargeable battery is less than the preset power change threshold; if the power change in the rechargeable battery is 15%, Then the power change in the rechargeable battery is greater than the preset power change threshold.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the continuing to charge the battery to be charged specifically includes: charging the battery to be charged with a maximum allowable charging current and a maximum allowable charging voltage.

In this embodiment, the charging device 600 manages the charging of each battery through the determining module 610, the charging module 620, the power change obtaining module 630, and the control module 640. When the power of the input power source is large enough, multiple batteries are charged at the same time. When the power of the input power source is insufficient, only one battery is charged to automatically charge at least two batteries. There is no need to plug in multiple chargers. The operation is simple and convenient And, it can also make full use of the power of the input power source to automatically charge at least two batteries of different power, which can minimize the charging time.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, not to limit them; under the idea of the present invention, the technical features of the above embodiments or different embodiments can also be combined. The steps can be implemented in any order, and there are many other variations of different aspects of the present invention as described above. For the sake of brevity, they are not provided in the details; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, the ordinary The technical personnel should understand that: they can still modify the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalently replace some of the technical features; and these modifications or substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the implementations of this application Examples of the scope of technical solutions.

Claims

A charging method, characterized in that it is used to charge at least two batteries, the method comprising:

Determine the battery to be charged and the battery in charge;

When the current of the rechargeable battery is in a stable state, start to charge the battery to be recharged;

Acquiring the power change of the rechargeable battery;

Controlling the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery in charge;

Wherein, the battery to be recharged is a battery that has not been charged and is about to be charged, the battery under recharge is a battery that is being charged, and the steady state refers to the current of the rechargeable battery within a preset period of time. The fluctuation amplitude of is not greater than the preset current amplitude threshold.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the battery to be charged further comprises:

Obtain the battery temperature of each battery;

Determining whether the battery temperature of each battery is within a preset temperature range;

If it is, it is in a chargeable state;

If not, it is in a non-chargeable state;

The battery to be charged is selected from the batteries in the chargeable state.
The method according to claim 2, wherein the determining the battery to be charged further comprises:

Acquiring the remaining power of each battery in the rechargeable battery that is not in a charging state;

Determining the charging priority of each battery according to the remaining power of each battery in the battery in the chargeable state;

The battery whose charging priority meets the preset charging condition is selected as the battery to be charged.
The method according to claim 3, wherein the determining the charging priority of each battery according to the remaining power of each battery in the battery in the chargeable state comprises:

The charging priority of each battery is determined according to the order of the remaining power, wherein the charging priority of a battery with a high remaining power is higher than that of a battery with a low remaining power.
The method according to claim 3, wherein the selecting a battery whose charging priority satisfies a preset charging condition as a battery to be charged comprises:

The battery with the highest charging priority is traversed from the batteries as the battery to be charged.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the starting to charge the battery to be recharged comprises:

The battery to be charged is charged with the maximum allowable charging current and the maximum allowable charging voltage.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the controlling the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery in charge comprises:

Acquiring the corresponding power at every two adjacent moments of the rechargeable battery;

Subtract the power corresponding to the two moments to obtain a subtraction result, and use the subtraction result as the power change of the rechargeable battery.
The method according to any one of claims 1-7, wherein the controlling the charging state of the battery to be recharged according to the power change of the battery in charge comprises:

Determining whether the power change of the rechargeable battery is greater than or equal to a preset power change threshold;

If yes, stop charging the battery to be charged;

If not, continue to charge the battery to be charged.
A charging device, characterized in that it is used to charge at least two batteries, and the charging device comprises:

A charging circuit, the charging circuit is connected to the input power source and the battery, wherein the charging circuit includes:

A number of buck-boost circuits connected to the input power supply, and the buck-boost circuit is used to adjust the voltage of the input power supply to output a suitable output voltage, and

Several main loop switches, the input end of each main loop switch is connected to a corresponding buck-boost circuit, and the output end of each main loop switch is connected to a corresponding battery, and the main loop switch is used for To control the connection or disconnection of the charging of the battery; and

The controller is respectively connected to each of the buck-boost circuits, each of the main loop switches, and each of the batteries in the charging circuit, and is used to control the charging circuit, wherein the controller includes :

At least one processor, and

A memory communicatively connected to the at least one processor, wherein the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor, and the instructions are executed by the at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to execute The charger can control the charging circuit for executing the charging method according to any one of claims 1-8.