JPH05137270A - Charging equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a charging equipment capable of charging electric power safely, reliably and quickly by changing the charging current in synchronization with the operating conditions of a main equipment and by preventing erroneous detection of the end of charging or faulty charging caused by the variation of the operating conditions of the main equipment. CONSTITUTION:If a battery 12 is connected to a charger 13 for charging operation, a charging current begins to flow. This current is detected by a current detecting circuit 16, and the operation of a current control circuit 15 is controlled by a control circuit 17. Here, if current consumption of the main body 11 the equipment increases, this information is transmitted and the current of the current control circuit 15 also increases. On the contrary, if the current consumption of the main unit 11 of the equipment decreases, the output current of the current control circuit 15 decreases in the same manner. That is, since control is so performed that the charging current is always constant, the terminal voltage of the battery 12 can continue to increase simply, so that the rapid charging can safety and reliably be completed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charging device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in devices using a battery as a power source, a non-rechargeable primary battery typified by a manganese dry battery is gradually recharged and repeatedly typified by a nickel cadmium storage battery or a small lead-sealed storage battery. Rechargeable batteries that can be used are becoming popular. Because of the nature of the device that uses a battery as a power source, there are many portable devices, and the discharge duration of the battery is the operating time of the device. Therefore, when the battery is discharged, the battery is charged or replaced with another charged battery. The device cannot operate while the battery is replaced. However, if the operation cannot be interrupted even temporarily, charging is performed while operating the main body. Hereinafter, a conventional charging device will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional charging device. 1 is a main body device, 2 is a rechargeable storage battery, 3 is a charging device, 4 is a power supply circuit for supplying power to each part of the charging device 3, 5 Is a current control circuit that controls the charging current, 6 is a current detection circuit that detects the charging current, and 7 is a control circuit that controls the operation of the current control circuit 5 based on the charging current value detected by the current detection circuit 6.

FIG. 7 shows a main unit 1 using a conventional charging device 3.
Is a change curve of each current value when the storage battery 2 is charged while operating the battery, the vertical axis represents the current value, and the horizontal axis represents the charging time. 7 is the output current curve of the current control circuit 5, 8 is the curve of the charging current flowing into the storage battery 2, and 9 is the main unit 1.
Is a curve of current consumption of. The point A in FIG. 7 is the main unit 1.
The operating state changes and the current consumption of the main body device 1 increases, and the point B is the time when the current consumption returns to the same value as before the point A.

In FIG. 8, reference numeral 10 is a change curve of the charge amount of the storage battery 2 when the main battery 1 is operated and the storage battery 2 is charged using the conventional charging device 3. The vertical axis represents the charge amount and the horizontal axis represents the charging time.

FIG. 9 shows a main unit 1 using a conventional charging device 3.
Is a change curve of the terminal voltage of the storage battery 2 when the storage battery 2 is charged while operating the, where the vertical axis represents the terminal voltage of the storage battery 2 and the horizontal axis represents the charging time.

FIG. 10 shows a conventional battery charger 3 which is used to charge the storage battery 2 while the main body 1 is being operated.
7 is a change curve of the terminal voltage of the storage battery 2 when the increase in the current consumption of the main body device 1 at the point is more remarkable than that in the case of FIG.

The operation of the conventional charging device 3 will be described below with reference to FIGS. The charging device 3 is supplied with power from the power supply circuit 4 to each block. When the storage battery 2 is connected to the charging device 3 for charging, a charging current starts to flow. This current is detected by the current detection circuit 6, the signal is transmitted to the control circuit 7, the control circuit 7 controls the operation of the current control circuit 5 according to the value, and a constant charging current flows. Here, the charging current to the storage battery 2 has a value obtained by subtracting the consumption current of the main body device 1 from the output current of the current control circuit 5. That is, the charging device 3 is controlled so that the current flowing out from the device is always kept constant. If the operating state of the charging device 3 does not change during the charging time, the charging current to the storage battery 2 also becomes a constant value, and the terminal voltage of the storage battery 2 also changes as shown in FIG. Quick charging can be safely terminated by the method such as the -ΔV method used.

[0009]

However, in the conventional charging device, when the operating state of the main body device changes and the current consumption increases as indicated by point A in FIG. 7, the charging current to the storage battery 2 decreases correspondingly. .. As can be seen from FIG. 8, the increase in the charge amount of the storage battery 2 becomes gradual. Therefore, it takes a long time to finish charging. Further, when the current consumption of the charging device 3 increases remarkably, the terminal voltage of the storage battery 3 decreases during charging as shown in FIG.
The battery voltage fluctuates as if the battery was fully charged, and the -ΔV method has a drawback that quick charging ends even though the battery is not 100% charged. It was It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a safe and reliable quick charging means even when the operating state of the charging device 3 changes and the current consumption increases.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, a main body device using a battery as a main power source,
A transmission circuit for transmitting operation information of the main body device, a rechargeable storage battery, a power supply terminal / charging terminal of the main body device,
A current control circuit that controls the charging current, a current detection circuit that detects the charging current, a control circuit that controls the operation of the current control circuit from the charging current value detected by the current detection circuit, and information about the operating status of the main unit. It is configured to have a receiving circuit for receiving, a modulation circuit for the charging current for superimposing on the charging current to transmit the operation information of the main body device, and a high frequency circuit for transmitting the operation information of the main body device by wireless communication. ..

[0011]

According to the present invention, the charging current is transmitted to the charging device in synchronization with the operating condition of the main body by transmitting the operating condition of the main body to the charging device when performing rapid charging while the main device is operating. By changing the, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection of charging termination and charging failure that occur due to changes in the charging current and battery voltage due to changes in the operating state of the main unit, and to perform safe and reliable quick charging. it can.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a charging device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 11 is a battery-powered main body device, 12 is a rechargeable storage battery, 13 is a charging device, 14 is a power supply circuit that supplies power to each block of the charging device 13, 15 is a current control circuit that controls the charging current, 1
6 is a current detection circuit that detects the charging current, 17 is a control circuit that controls the operation of the current control circuit 15 based on the charging current value detected by the current detection circuit 16, and 18 is the main body device 11
Is a receiving circuit for receiving information on the operating state of the device, 19 is a communication line connecting the main body device 11 and the charging device 13, and 20 is a transmitting circuit for transmitting the operating information of the main body device 11.

FIG. 2 is a change curve of each current value when the main body device 11 is operated and the storage battery 12 is charged using the charging device 13 of the present invention. The vertical axis represents the current value and the horizontal axis represents the charging. Indicates the time. Reference numeral 21 is an output current curve of the current control circuit 15, 22 is a curve of charging current flowing into the storage battery 12, and 23 is a curve of current consumption of the main body device 11. Point A in FIG. 2 is the time when the operating state of the main unit changes and the current consumption of the main unit increases, and point B is the time when the current consumption returns to the same value as before the point A.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 24 denotes a storage battery 12 while operating the main body device 11 using the charging device 13 according to this embodiment.
3 is a change curve of the charge amount of the storage battery 12 when the battery is charged. The vertical axis represents the charging amount and the horizontal axis represents the charging time.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the structure of the charging device in the second embodiment. 25 is a battery-powered main unit, 26 is a rechargeable storage battery, 27 is a charging device,
28 is a power supply circuit for supplying power to each block of the charging device 27, 29 is a current control circuit for controlling the charging current, 30 is a current detection circuit for detecting the charging current, 31 is a charging current value detected by the current detection circuit 30. , A control circuit for controlling the operation of the current control circuit 29, a receiving circuit 32 for taking out information on the operating state of the main body device 25 superimposed on the charging current,
Reference numeral 33 is a modulation circuit for superimposing the operation information of the main body device 25 on the charging current.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the charging device in the third embodiment. Reference numeral 34 is a main body device using a battery as a power source, 35 is a rechargeable storage battery, 36 is a charging device,
37 is a power supply circuit that supplies power to each block of the charging device 36, 38 is a current control circuit that controls the charging current, 39 is a current detection circuit that detects the charging current, and 40 is a charging current value detected by the current detection circuit. A control circuit for controlling the operation of the current control circuit 38, 41 is a receiving circuit for taking out the operation information of the main unit 34 transmitted by wireless communication, 42
Is a transmission circuit that wirelessly transmits the operation information of the main unit 34.

The operation of the charging device according to the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described below with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 1, the charging device is supplied with power from a power supply circuit 14 to each block. When the storage battery 12 is connected to the charging device 13 for charging, charging current starts to flow. This current is detected by the current detection circuit 16, and its signal is transmitted to the control circuit 17 and the control circuit 1
The operation of the current control circuit 15 is controlled by 7 and a constant charging current flows.

Here, the charging current to the storage battery 12 is detected by the current detection circuit 16, and the signal is the control circuit 17.
Then, the operation of the current control circuit 15 is controlled by the control circuit 17, and the output current increased by the consumed current is passed by the current control circuit 15, so that a constant charging current flows in the charging device 12. Further, the operating state of the main body device 11 is transmitted from the transmitting circuit 20 to the receiving circuit 18 via the communication line 19, and the control circuit 17 also controls the output current of the current control circuit 15 according to the information. Here, the charging current to the storage battery 12 is determined by the output current of the current control circuit 15 from the main unit 11
It is a value obtained by subtracting the current consumption of, and is controlled so as to always be kept constant.

When the current consumption of the main body device 11 increases like the point A in FIG. 2, the information that the current consumption of the main body device 11 increases is transmitted to the receiving circuit 18 through the communication line 19 and the current control circuit. The current of 15 also increases. If the current consumption of the main body device 11 returns to the state before the point A at the point B, the output current of the current control circuit 15 also decreases. That is, the charging current is controlled so as to always have a constant value. In this way, if the charging current is constant no matter how the operating state of the main body device 11 changes, the terminal voltage of the storage battery 12 can continue to monotonically increase as shown in FIG. The quick charge can be ended.

In the second embodiment, the main unit 2 as shown in FIG.
First, in order to superimpose and transmit the operation information of 5 on the charging current.
The communication line 19 in the above embodiment becomes unnecessary.

In the third embodiment, the main unit 3 as shown in FIG.
The communication line 19 in the first embodiment is not required because the operation information of No. 4 is transmitted by wireless communication.

According to the above first to third embodiments, the operating state of the main body device is transmitted from the charging device side by transmitting the operating state of the main body to the charging device when performing rapid charging while operating the main body device. By changing the charging current in synchronism with the above, erroneous detection of charging end and charging failure caused by changes in the charging current and battery voltage due to changes in the operating state of the main unit are prevented, ensuring safe and reliable operation. Quick charge can be performed.

In each of the first to third embodiments, the constant current charging system in which the output current of the current control circuit is controlled to be constant is used, but the terminal voltage of the storage battery, which is mainly used in the lead storage battery, is always maintained. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a constant voltage charging method in which charging is performed while holding the voltage constant.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operating state of the main body is transmitted to the charging device when performing quick charging while operating the main body device, so that the operating state of the main body device is synchronized with the charging device side. By changing the charging current, erroneous detection of charging end and charging failure caused by changes in charging current and battery voltage due to changes in the operating state of the main unit are prevented, and safe and reliable quick charging is performed. Therefore, the present invention provides a charging device which has a great effect of being capable of being practically effective.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a charging device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a charging current / time characteristic of the charging device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the same charge amount / time characteristic.

FIG. 4 is a block configuration diagram of a charging device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a charging device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional charging device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a charging current / time characteristic of the charging device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the same charge amount / time characteristic.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a terminal voltage / time characteristic of the storage battery.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a terminal voltage / time characteristic of the storage battery.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Main Device 12 Storage Battery 13 Charging Device 14 Power Supply Circuit 15 Current Control Circuit 16 Current Detection Circuit 17 Control Circuit 18 Reception Circuit 19 Communication Line 20 Transmission Circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A transmission means for transmitting an operation state of the main body of the apparatus, a current control means for controlling a charging current, a current detection means for detecting a charging current, and a charging current value detected by a current detection circuit according to the charging current value. A control means for controlling the operation of the current control means and a receiving means for receiving information on the operating state of the apparatus body are provided, and the information on the operating state of the apparatus transmitted by the transmitting means is received by the receiving means. The charging device is characterized in that the charging current is changed in synchronization with the operating state of the device. 2. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein information transmission of an operating state of the device is performed by superimposing it on a charging current. 3. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein information transmission of the operating state of the device is performed by wireless communication means.