Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Means to identify cell or battery type
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-21
2001-02-27
Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Means to identify cell or battery type
C340S315000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06194866
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to arrangements, a battery pack and methods for enabling exchange of information between a first electric device and a second electric device as well as a signal conveyed between these devices.
More specifically, the invention relates to arrangements, a battery pack, methods and a signal for enabling exchange of digital information between a first device such as a battery pack, which is connected to a second portable device such as a portable communication device via a single electric communication line.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Small, portable and lightweight battery powered electrical devices with detachable accessories, such as e.g. mobile telephones, personal organizers and hand held computers, have in many fields become indispensable every-day items. Due to the rapid development of processing and memory capacity these devices now perform tasks that were almost unimaginable only a few years back in time. Nevertheless, an ever increasing demand for more powerful devices, mainly in terms of processing capability and ease of use, has led to an ever increasing demand on the most essential accessory for any electric device: the battery.
In the field of technical development of rechargeable battery packs, one of the central issues is how to enable quick and safe recharging. It is, for example, of interest to enable charging circuits and software within a processing unit of a mobile communication station, to optimize its charging procedure. That is, in essence, how to regulate charging current and voltage during the period of charging. In order to do this, it is desirable to have access to more or less detailed information about individual battery packs. Static information regarding, e.g., battery type and dynamic information such as current state of charge etc. may be of interest.
Information can be stored in, and retrieved from a battery pack using different techniques. A straight forward technique is of course to include a digital memory, such as e.g. an EEPROM according to known technique exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,765 by Kreisinger et al. Communication between the memory and a battery charger is in U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,765 realized using the I2C two-wire protocol specification which is known in the art.
It is to be noted that the solution disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,765 in fact relies entirely on the use of the I2C protocol, and is thus, relatively speaking, a complex solution in terms of need for, e.g., a synchronization clock signal.
A much more simple approach to storage of information in a battery pack, and also the means of retrieving the information from the battery pack to a device to which the battery pack is attached, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,834 by Pitkanen. Information about battery type is encoded in terms of a resistance value of a resistor. A measurement of a voltage drop across the information-carrying resistor is used to estimate its resistance, which is then interpreted in terms of battery type.
This approach requires that, in order to enable encoding of many different types of batteries, different batteries need to be equipped with different resistors. Furthermore, because this is a solution utilizing analog circuits, potentially interfering effects such as temperature changes, as manifested in a change of resistivity, must be considered when encoding information in the resistors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of prior art as discussed above, a number of problems remain to be solved regarding information storage and retrieval between an electric device and an accessory such as a battery pack attached to the device.
A problem solved by the present invention is hence how to enable a simple solution for information transfer between a first electric device, such as a battery pack, and a second electric device, such as a portable electric device like a portable communication device, where the first device contains information needed for proper utilization of the devices.
Within the framework of the general problem, there is a problem of how to enable simple information transfer via a single communication line, with no need for synchronization of the information transfer means.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the problems as stated above. This is in short achieved by providing means in the form of electric arrangements located in a first device communicating via a single communication line with circuitry in a second electric device.
In some more detail, it is shown an arrangement for transmitting digitally encoded information from a first electric device or from a battery pack to a digital processor in a second electric device or in a portable electric device. The arrangement comprises an encoder located in the first electric device or battery pack, said encoder containing the digitally encoded information, and a single communication line capable of conveying electric information signals representing the information between the electric devices, and a decoder located in the second electric device or portable electric device, where said decoder is capable of decoding the information signals into information and supplying the information to the processor in the second device.
The encoder supplies the information digitally encoded on at least one output terminal. A variable voltage generator is located in the second device or portable electric device and connected to the communication line, and is capable of supplying a sequence of voltage levels to the communication line. A voltage dependent current generator is located in the first device or battery pack and connected to the at least one output terminal of the encoder and the communication line, where said current generator is capable of outputting the information signals in the form of a sequence of current levels through the communication line. The sequence of current levels is dependent both on the voltage level as detected on the communication line and the digitally encoded information on the at least one output terminal of the connected encoder. A current detector is located in the second device or portable electric device and is connected between the communication line and the decoder.
The problem is also solved by a battery pack including the features of the first arrangement responding to a sequence of voltage levels output by a portable electric device.
The problem is also solved by a method for exchanging information between a portable electric device and a battery pack and a method of sending information from a battery pack to a portable electric device, where the battery pack receives a sequence of voltage levels from the portable electric device, selects digitally encoded information in dependence of the sequence of voltage levels and transmits the encoded information as a sequence of current levels to the portable electric device.
The problem is furthermore solved by providing a battery information signal comprising a sequence of voltage levels generated in the portable electric device and a sequence of current levels generated by the battery pack in dependence of said voltage levels and of digitally encoded information in the battery pack.
An advantage of the present invention is that only one communication line is needed for the transfer of information between the devices.
Another advantage of an arrangement according to the invention is that no electric power is consumed when the arrangement is not utilized to transfer information.
Yet another advantage is that an arrangement according to the invention is possible to implement using only a few and simple components.
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patent: 5206097 (1993-04-01), Burns et al.
patent: 5530431 (1996-06-01), Wingard
patent: 5534765 (1996-07-01), Kreisinger et al.
patent: 5656917 (1997-08-01), Theobald
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patent: 5870615 (1999-02-01), Bar-on et al.
patent: 5907795 (1999-05-01), Hwang
patent: 6005489 (
Jenkens & Gilchrist
Telefonatiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ)
Tibbits Pia
Wong Peter S.
LandOfFree
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