Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Serially connected batteries or cells
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-24
2002-05-21
Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Serially connected batteries or cells
C320S160000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06392384
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery charger for simultaneously charging multiple storage batteries, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for simultaneously charging the multiple storage batteries loaded in the multiple charging pockets of the apparatus by controlling the charging voltage and current according to the voltage types and current capacities of the batteries.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional battery charger for charging the storage batteries such as a Li-Ion battery used in a mobile phone must be provided with multiple DC power sources in order to simultaneously charge multiple batteries. Referring to
FIG. 1
, the conventional battery charger includes an input terminal
10
for connecting with a power source of AC 110V to 220V, and a full-wave rectifier
12
consisting of bridge diodes D
91
-D
94
and a capacitor C
2
for full-wave rectifying the AC power from the input terminal
10
to produce a smoothed DC voltage. A Zener diode ZD
1
, resistor R
1
and diode D
2
serve to block a higher voltage exceeding a prescribed voltage. The DC voltage from the full-wave rectifier
12
causes a primary coil L
1
of a transformer
14
to induce a secondary voltage in secondary coils L
2
, L
3
and L
4
. A power switch
16
is switched on/off to control the level of the secondary voltage induced in the secondary coils L
2
, L
3
and L
4
according to a switching control signal.
The secondary voltage induced in the secondary coil L
2
is rectified by a first rectifying circuit
18
consisting of a resistor R
3
, diode D
3
and capacitor C
3
to stabilize the DC voltage supplied to the power switch
16
. The secondary voltage induced in the secondary coil L
3
is rectified by a second rectifying circuit
20
consisting of a diode D
31
and capacitor C
31
. The rectified voltage from the second rectifying circuit
20
is smoothed by a smoothing circuit
24
consisting of a choke coil L
31
, capacitor C
32
and resistor R
31
, charging the storage batteries. The secondary voltage induced in the secondary coil L
4
is rectified by a third rectifying circuit
22
consisting of a diode D
21
and capacitor C
21
, supplied to a chopper circuit
26
, which consists of a first regulator U
22
, capacitor C
22
, coil L
21
and diode D
22
, to adjust the rectified voltage of the third rectifying circuit
22
to a prescribed level.
A first charging voltage control circuit
40
consists of resistors R
30
, R
71
, capacitor C
26
, transistor Q
24
, and field effect transistor FET Q
23
to supply or block the charging voltage to a first battery loaded in a pocket ‘A’ according to a charging on/off control signal generated by a microprocessor
46
. A second charging voltage control circuit
42
consists of resistors R
44
, R
72
, capacitor C
35
, transistor Q
34
, and field effect transistor FET Q
25
to supply or block the charging voltage to a second battery loaded in a pocket ‘B’ according to a charging on/off control signal generated by the microprocessor
46
.
A first charging voltage selection circuit
36
consists of resistors R
27
, R
28
, R
29
, variable resistor VR
1
, diode D
23
, capacitor C
50
, and transistor Q
22
, to set a first charging voltage fit for the voltage type of the battery loaded in the pocket ‘A’ according to a charging voltage selection control signal generated by the microprocessor
46
. A second charging voltage selection circuit
38
consists of resistors R
41
, R
42
, R
47
, variable resistor VR
2
, diode D
32
, and transistor Q
33
, to set a second charging voltage fit for the voltage type of the battery loaded in the pocket ‘B’ according to a charging voltage selection control signal generated by the microprocessor
46
.
A first charging current control circuit
32
consists of resistors R
34
, R
36
, R
37
, R
38
, R
88
, R
99
, operational amplifier U
23
A, and transistors Q
31
, Q
88
, Q
99
, to regulate the DC current from the smoothing circuit
24
, and to control the charging current according to first and second current control signals generated by the microprocessor
46
detecting the voltage type of the battery. The microprocessor
46
recognizes the voltage types of the first and second batteries loaded in the respective pockets ‘A’ and ‘B’ by detecting the different resistance values of both batteries across resistors R
62
and R
63
respectively connected between the source voltage VCC and the C/F terminals of both batteries, to generate the first and second charging voltage selection control signals according to the voltage types of the batteries, and the switching control signals for supplying the charging voltages to the pockets ‘A’ and ‘B’. It also generates first, second, third, and fourth current control signals according to the current capacities of the batteries, charging on/off control signal by detecting the value of the voltage corresponding to the current detected from the first charging current control circuit
32
, and display control signal to indicate the charged state of the first and second batteries.
A charging current/voltage control circuit
34
consists of resistors R
32
, R
40
, R
69
, R
70
, operational amplifiers U
24
A, U
24
B, transistor Q
37
, capacitors C
39
, C
44
, C
45
, C
46
, C
47
, and photo-coupler PC
1
, to compare the charging voltage set by the second charging voltage selection circuit
38
with a prescribed reference voltage to generate a switching control signal for regulating the charging voltage corresponding to the voltage type of the battery, and a switching control signal for controlling the power switch
16
according to the charging current detected from the first charging current control circuit
32
. A charging voltage control circuit
30
consists of a resistor R
25
, operational amplifier U
26
A, diode D
24
, and capacitor C
24
, to compare the charging voltage selected by the first charging voltage selection circuit
36
with a prescribed reference voltage so as to regulate the charging voltage supplied to the battery.
A second charging current control circuit
28
consists of resistors R
20
, R
21
, R
22
, R
23
, R
24
, R
80
, capacitor C
23
, operational amplifier U
23
B, and transistor Q
21
to regulate the DC current from the chopper circuit
26
, and to control the charging current according to the fourth current control signal generated by the microprocessor
46
detecting the current capacity of the battery.
First and second LED devices
48
and
50
each consist of a pair of green LED for signaling the battery fully charged and red LED for the battery not fully charged. In addition, simultaneously charging both batteries of the pockets ‘A’ and ‘B’, both red and green LEDs are turned on to indicate that the second charging voltage is lower than the first charging voltage. A first regulator
44
adjusts the rectified voltage of the first rectifying circuit
22
to a predetermined level to generate a source voltage Vcc supplied to the charging apparatus.
Such a conventional battery charger requires multiple current sources, and thus, separate chopper circuits and voltage and current control circuits for controlling the current sources, so that its circuit is complicated to increase the size together with the cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a battery charger for simultaneously charging multiple storage batteries, which employs a single source voltage to alternately charge the multiple storage batteries at different time intervals alternately predetermined according to their current capacities, thus reducing the size and cost of the battery charger.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a battery charger for charging at least two storage batteries, comprises: a first charging pocket for receiving a first storage battery; a second charging pocket for receiving a second storage battery; a main controller for generating a power supply control signal, a charging voltage setting control signal according to the voltage types of the batteries insert
Bo Sang-Moo Hwang
Gwak Dong-Wook
Park Chang-Sik
Dilworth & Barrese LLP
Luk Lawrence
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
Wong Peter S.
LandOfFree
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