ONBOARD CHARGING CONTROL APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING CHARGE TO SECONDARY BATTERY

• US 20110210698A1
• Filed: 01/05/2011
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: SAKAI, Naoto
• Granted Patent: US 8,704,495 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/109
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/46 by self learning
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/58 Departure time prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/11 DC charging controlled by the charging station, e.g. mode 4
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/16 responding to battery ageing, e.g. to the number of charging cycles or the state of health [SoH]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/126 the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A vehicle has an ECU, a battery being chargeable with off-board electricity and a motor driven by electric power of the battery. The ECU has a microcomputer to receive an operation time each time a user sets the ECU in an operation state, prepare a frequency of operation times for each time zone, and set a time of the time zone corresponding to the high frequency as a charging end target time. When the microcomputer receives a signal from an onboard charger connected with an off-board power source, the microcomputer sets a charging schedule such that the battery charged by the charger according to the schedule is set in a fully-charged state at the charging end target time. The microcomputer controls the charger to charge the battery according to the schedule and to set the battery in the fully-charged state at the charging end target time.

Claims

1. An onboard charging control apparatus which is mounted on a vehicle having a secondary battery being chargeable with off-board electricity, a motor driven by electric power of the secondary battery, and a charger outputting a charging start signal in response to reception of the off-board electricity, comprising:

a present time outputting unit that outputs a time signal indicating a present time;

a charging start signal receiving unit that receives the charging start signal outputted from the charger;

an operation signal receiving unit that receives an operation signal indicating an operation state of the vehicle;

a charging end target time setting unit that receives the time signal from the present time outputting unit in response to the reception of the operation signal in the operation signal receiving unit and sets a charging end target time based on the present time of the received time signal; and

a charging control unit that receives the time signal from the present time outputting unit in response to the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit, sets a charging schedule, based on the charging end target time and the present time of the time signal received in response to the reception of the charging start signal, such that the secondary battery charged according to the charging schedule is set in a state of charge, denoting a predetermined charging rate, in a charging end target time zone including the charging end target time, produces a charging control signal indicating the charging schedule according to the time signal of the present time outputting unit, and outputs the charging control signal to the charger such that the charger performs charging of the secondary battery according to the charging schedule.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging end target time setting unit obtains the present time of the time signal as an operation time each time the operation signal receiving unit receives the operation signal, calculates a frequency of the operation times for each of a plurality of operation time zones, and sets a time of the operation time zone corresponding to the high frequency as the charging end target time.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a charging mode setting unit that sets a charging mode in response to a charging mode setting signal,

wherein the charging control unit sets the charging schedule, when the charging mode setting unit sets the charging mode, such that the charging of the secondary battery is started at the present time of the time signal received in response to the reception of the charging start signal.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging control unit sets the charging schedule such that a charging power level of the charge to the secondary battery is changed during the charge.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a relay driving unit that turns on a relay in response to the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit; and

a relay signal receiving unit that receives a relay signal which is outputted from the relay when the relay is turned on by the relay driving unit,

wherein the charging control unit sets the charging schedule in response to one of the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit and the reception of the relay signal in the relay receiving unit or in response to both the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit and the reception of the relay signal in the relay receiving unit.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a relay driving unit that turns on a relay in response to the reception of the operation signal in the operation signal receiving unit; and

a relay signal receiving unit that receives a relay signal which is outputted from the relay when the relay is turned on by the relay driving unit,

wherein the charging end target time setting unit sets the charging end target time in response to one of the reception of the operation signal in the operation signal receiving unit and the reception of the relay signal in the relay signal receiving unit or in response to both the reception of the operation signal in the operation signal receiving unit and the reception of the relay signal in the relay signal receiving unit.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a microcomputer acts as the charging start signal receiving unit, the operation signal receiving unit, the charging end target time setting unit and the charging control unit, the operation signal receiving unit can receive each of a plurality of operation signals indicating respective operation states of the vehicle, the microcomputer and the present time outputting unit receive electric power from a battery of the vehicle to be activated at anytime, regardless of the operation states, the microcomputer is set in a sleep mode in response to satisfaction of a sleep condition in the vehicle so as to stop operations of the charging end target time setting unit and the charging control unit of the microcomputer, and the sleep mode in the microcomputer is released in response to the reception of one reception signal in the operation signal receiving unit or the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit so as to start operations of the charging end target time setting unit and the charging control unit.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the present time outputting unit is a real time clock.

9. An onboard charging control apparatus which is mounted on a vehicle having a secondary battery being chargeable with off-board electricity, a motor driven by electric power of the secondary battery, and a charger outputting a charging start signal in response to reception of the off-board electricity, comprising_:

a present time outputting unit that outputs a time signal indicating a present time;

a charging start signal receiving unit that receives the charging start signal outputted from the charger; and

a charging control unit that sets a specific time zone, sets a charging schedule, in response to the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit, such that a charge to the secondary battery is performed in the specific time zone to set the secondary battery in a state of charge denoting a predetermined charging rate, produces a charging control signal indicating the charging schedule according to the time signal of the present time outputting unit, and outputs the charging control signal to the charger such that the charger performs a charge to the secondary battery in the specific time zone according to the charging schedule.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a charging mode setting unit that sets a charging mode in response to a charging mode setting signal,

wherein the charging control unit receives the time signal from the present time outputting unit in response to the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit, sets a midnight power time zone placed at midnight as the specific time zone when the charging mode setting unit sets the charging mode, sets the charging schedule such that the charge to the secondary battery is started at a start time of the midnight power time zone when the present time of the time signal received in response to the reception of the charging start signal is earlier than the start time of the midnight power time zone and is started at the present time of the time signal received in response to the reception of the charging start signal when this present time is coincident with or later than the start time of the midnight power time zone, and outputs the charging control signal to the charger such that the charger starts the charge to the secondary battery according to the charging schedule.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a first charging mode setting unit that sets a first charging mode in response to a first charging mode setting signal; and

a second charging mode setting unit that sets a second charging mode in response to a second charging mode setting signal,

wherein the charging control unit sets a midnight power time zone placed at midnight as the specific time zone when the first charging mode setting unit sets the first charging mode, sets the charging schedule, in response to the setting of the first and second charging modes in the first charging mode setting unit and the second charging mode setting unit, such that the secondary battery charged according to the charging schedule is set in the state of charge, denoting the predetermined charging rate, at an end time of the midnight power time zone, and outputs the charging control signal indicating the charging schedule to the charger such that the charger ends charging of the secondary battery at the end time of the midnight power time zone.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the charging control unit sets the charging schedule such that the charge to the secondary battery is started at a start time of the midnight power time zone when the present time of the time signal received in response to the reception of the charging start signal is earlier than the start time of the midnight power time zone.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the charging control unit sets the charging schedule such that the charging of the secondary battery is started at the present time of the time signal received in response to the reception of the charging start signal when this present time is coincident with or later than the start time of the midnight power time zone.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the charging control unit sets the charging schedule such that a charging power level of the charge to the secondary battery is changed during the charging.

15. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a relay driving unit that turns on a relay in response to the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit; and

a relay signal receiving unit that receives a relay signal which is outputted from the relay when the relay is turned on by the relay driving unit,

wherein the charging control unit sets the charging schedule in response to one of the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit and the reception of the relay signal in the relay receiving unit or in response to both the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit and the reception of the relay signal in the relay receiving unit.

16. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a microcomputer acts as the charging start signal receiving unit and the charging control unit, the microcomputer and the present time outputting unit receive electric power from a battery of the vehicle to be activated at any time, the microcomputer is set in a sleep mode in response to satisfaction of a sleep condition in the vehicle so as to stop an operation of the charging control unit of the microcomputer, and the sleep mode in the microcomputer is released in response to the reception of the charging start signal in the charging start signal receiving unit so as to start operating the charging control unit of the microcomputer.

17. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the present time outputting unit is a real time clock.