Battery pack

• US 20030076072A1
• Filed: 07/29/2002
• Published: 04/24/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsui, Takatoshi, Tojo, Masaaki
• Granted Patent: US 6,771,491 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/134
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3648 comprising digital calculation means, e.g. for performing an algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/42 Methods or arrangements for servicing or maintenance of secondary cells or secondary half-cells H01M10/60 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/46 Accumulators structurally combined with charging apparatus circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

Firmware of a battery pack (2) is stored in a rewritable storage device such as a flash memory (8). When troubleshooting or performance improvement is needed, a personal computer main body (host equipment) (1) obtains up-to-date firmware from a storage medium or the Internet, and transmits it to a battery pack (2) via an SMBus (5) using a firmware transfer device (12). A firmware rewriting device (11) of the battery pack (2) rewrites the firmware stored in the flash memory (8) on the basis of the up-to-date firmware.

Claims

1. A battery power source device for performing data transmission and reception between a battery pack (2), which includes a rechargeable battery (3) and a battery management function for controlling charging and discharging of the rechargeable battery, and host equipment (1) in which the battery pack is mounted, the battery pack and the host equipment being connected to each other by a communication path (5),

wherein the battery pack further comprises:

a rewritable storage device (8) for storing firmware of the battery pack; and

a firmware rewriting device (11) for rewriting the firmware stored in the storage device, and

the host equipment comprises a firmware transfer device (12) for transferring up-to-date firmware inputted from a data input device (13) to the battery pack via the communication path.

2. A battery power source device for performing data transmission and reception between a battery pack (2), which includes a rechargeable battery (3) and a battery management function for controlling charging and discharging of the rechargeable battery, and host equipment (1) in which the battery pack is mounted, the battery pack and the host equipment being connected to each other by a communication path (5),

wherein the battery pack further comprises:

a rewritable storage device (8) for storing firmware of the battery pack; and

a firmware rewriting device (11) for rewriting the firmware stored in the storage device, and

the host equipment comprises;

an Internet access device (15) for providing access to the Internet;

an up-to-date firmware retrieval device for retrieving, after reading URL information stored in the storage device, up-to-date firmware from an appropriate server (16) listed in the URL information; and

a firmware transfer device (12) for transferring the up-to-date firmware to the battery pack via the communication path.

3. The battery power source device according to claim 2, further comprising a temporary storage device (18) for temporarily storing the up-to-date firmware retrieved by the up-to-date firmware retrieval device over the Internet.