Method enabling communications between an electronic device...

Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Cell or battery charger structure – For battery pack

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C340S634000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06211647

ABSTRACT:

The invention relates to a method enabling digital, serial communication over an interface between an electronic device and a battery attached thereto, said digital, serial communication comprising transmission of bytes consisting of a number of bits. Further, the invention relates to an apparatus comprising an electronic device and a battery attached thereto, and to a battery.
In recent years the cellular telephone technology has developed rapidly and thus created a similar need for development in the area of batteries and battery packs, and more specifically, for communicating between a battery and an electronic device, such as a cellular telephone. Cellular telephones must utilize batteries in order to provide mobile capabilities. The battery is critical to the user of a cellular telephone, since the battery provides the ability to move about freely without being tied to a stationary power source.
Thus, in order to maximize the use of a cellular telephone, and other portable electronic devices, it is important that a user achieves maximum performance from the attached battery. This may be achieved by correctly charging the battery and always being able to identify the exact charging status of the battery. This enables the user to know how much standby time is left on the phone. This type of information enables the user to intelligently whether if the charge in a battery is sufficient for his needs, or whether charging of the battery is required.
Recent developments of battery and battery pack related technologies have provided users with so-called
smart
batteries which can provide a user with a power source for an electronic device and further provide data transmission capabilities between the battery and the attached electronic device. This type of batteries may include storage means containing various data representing information which may be presented to a user, e.g. in a display of the portable device. The information in a battery may include an identification number, the maximum capacity, the present capacity, etc.
Some information from the battery is only used internally in the portable electronic device, while other information from the battery can be presented to the user, e.g. after having been processed by a processor in the battery or in the portable electrical device. For example, the stored information about the maximum capacity of the battery can be used in the electronic device only, while the current capacity may be calculated by the electronic device using the maximum capacity (or a previous value of the current capacity) and knowledge about the power consumption of the electronic device.
Therefore, information is exchanged between the electronic device and the battery by means of e.g. digital, serial communication over an interface between an electronic device and a battery attached thereto.
Such communication also needs some sort of error handling in order to ensure that the exchanged information is correct. Many error handling procedures are known from the computer technology. However, these techniques, while satisfactory in a computer environment, are too complex and expensive for use with smaller and cheaper electronic devices, such as a cellular telephone.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a method of the above-mentioned type which can overcome the described limitations, i.e. a method that is simple and cheap to implement.
In accordance with the invention, this object is accomplished in that the method comprises the steps of transmitting a byte from a first one of said electronic device and said battery, receiving said byte in the other of said electronic device and said battery, and retransmitting said received byte unchanged.
When a byte transmitted from a sending party to a receiving party is just returned or echoed unchanged to the sending party, it is possible for this party (which could be either the electronic device or the battery) to compare the contents of the returned byte with the contents of the byte originally transmitted, and thus ensure that the byte was transmitted correctly. This simple procedure makes other error handling procedures such as parity bits unnecessary.
As stated in claim
2
, the step of retransmitting may further comprise the steps of receiving a byte from said interface, storing the received byte in a non-volatile memory, retrieving the stored byte from said non-volatile memory, and transmitting the retrieved byte via said interface. In this way, not only the transmission over the interface, but also the transfer to the non-volatile memory is checked.
As stated in claim
3
, the method may further comprise the steps of receiving in the first one of said electronic device and said battery the retransmitted byte, comparing the contents of the received retransmitted byte to the contents of the byte that was previously transmitted, detecting a transmission error, if the contents of the two bytes do not coincide. This enables a simple error detection.
As mentioned, the invention further relates to an apparatus comprising an electronic device, a battery attached thereto, and means enabling digital, serial communication over an interface between the electronic device and the battery, and comprising first communications circuitry in the electronic device and second communications circuitry in the battery, said digital, serial communication comprising transmission between said first and second communications circuitry of bytes consisting of a number of bits.
When at least one of said first and second communications circuitry is adapted to retransmit a received byte unchanged, an apparatus of the above-mentioned type which can overcome the described limitations is provided, i.e. an apparatus that is simple and cheap to implement.
Expedient embodiments of the apparatus are described in claims
5
and
6
having the benefits mentioned above. Further, as stated in claim
7
, the electronic device may expediently be a cellular telephone.
As mentioned, the invention further relates to a battery comprising means enabling digital, serial communication over an interface between the battery and an electronic device, and comprising communications circuitry in the battery, said digital, serial communication comprising transmission between said communications circuitry and the electronic device of bytes consisting of a number of bits.
When said communications circuitry is adapted to retransmit a received byte unchanged, a battery of the above-mentioned type which can overcome the described limitations is provided, i.e. a battery that is simple and cheap to implement.
Expedient embodiments of the battery are described in claims
9
and
10
having the benefits mentioned above.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4709202 (1987-11-01), Koenck et al.
patent: 5159684 (1992-10-01), Kroll et al.
patent: 5541489 (1996-07-01), Dunstan
patent: 5659299 (1997-08-01), Williamson et al.
patent: 5796239 (1998-08-01), van Phuoc et al.
patent: 6085576 (1999-03-01), Sunshine et al.

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