Charger Calibrating Device and Calibrating Method Thereof

• US 20130082665A1
• Filed: 12/28/2011
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Altek Corporation
• Original Assignee: Altek Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Pei-Shin, Lo, Wei-Chun, Chen, Yueh-Chang, Tsai, Chao-Tsung
• Granted Patent: US 8,896,274 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/164
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2207/20 Charging or discharging characterised by the power electronics converter
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007 Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage

Abstract

A charger calibrating device and a calibrating method thereof. The device comprises a control module and a processing module. The control module controls a charger to be calibrated to perform a first stage charging and a second stage charging on an electronic device. The processing module performs an adjusting process according to the second stage charging time for adjusting the high level period of the PWM signal in the charging circuit of the charger. In the adjusting process, generating an updated high level period by adding or decreasing a preset adjusting amplitude, and decrease the preset adjusting amplitude by half to generate an updated adjusting amplitude. The processing module terminates the calibrating process after repeating the aforementioned calibrating loop a preset number of times.

Claims

1. A charger calibrating device, comprising:

a control module, arranged for controlling a charger to be calibrated to execute a first stage charging and a second stage charging to an electronic device, and then controlling the electronic device to execute a discharging process, and

a processing module, arranged for executing an adjusting process to add or subtract a preset adjusting amplitude in a predetermined high level period of a switch in a charging circuit of the charger respectively when a second stage charging time is greater than or smaller than a typical charging time to generate an updated high level period and an updated adjusting amplitude, and then substitute the predetermined high level period and the preset adjusting amplitude by the updated high level period and the updated adjusting amplitude respectively, and then terminate calibration until a loop of the adjusting process is repeated for a predetermined number of times.

2. The charger calibrating device of claim 1, further comprising a determination module, arranged for terminating calibration if an error condition or a termination condition occurs.

3. The charger calibrating device of claim 1, further comprising a fine-tune module, arranged for determining whether the second stage charging time is matched with a fine-tune condition when a first calibrating loop is executed;

if yes, then executing a fine-tune procedure and then performing the adjusting process, or else executing a table lookup analysis procedure and then performing the adjusting process.

4. The charger calibrating device of claim 3, wherein the fine-tune procedure decrease the preset adjusting amplitude to generate a fine-tune adjustment amplitude to substitute the preset adjusting amplitude.

5. The charger calibrating device of claim 3, wherein the table lookup analysis procedure looks up an inductance of an inductor stored in a corresponding charging circuit according to the second stage charging time and an estimated high level period by using a table lookup, and substitutes the updated high level period by the estimated high level period and the updated adjusting amplitude by a reduced adjustment amplitude when entering into the adjusting process of a next calibrating loop.

6. The charger calibrating device of claim 1, wherein the electronic device performs a full discharge or a partial discharge in the discharging process, and the voltage thereof is smaller than a first stage saturation voltage after the electronic device is discharged.

7. The charger calibrating device of claim 1, wherein the processing module decrease the preset adjusting amplitude by half to generate the updated adjusting amplitude.

8. A charger calibrating device, comprising:

a control means, arranged for controlling a charger to be calibrated to execute a first stage charging and a second stage charging to an electronic device, and then controlling the electronic device to execute a discharging process;

an adjustment means, arranged for adding or subtracting a predetermined high level period of a switch in a charging circuit of the charger to be calibrated from a preset adjusting amplitude to generate an updated high level period and an updated adjusting amplitude if a second stage charging time is greater than or smaller than a typical charging time; and

a repeated substitution means, arranged for substituting the predetermined high level period and the preset adjusting amplitude by the updated high level period and the updated adjusting amplitude respectively, and terminating calibration when the aforementioned calibrating loop is repeated for a predetermined number of times.

9. The charger calibrating device of claim 8, further comprising a determination means for terminating calibration when an error condition or a termination condition occurs.

10. The charger calibrating device of claim 8, further comprising a fine-tune means for determining whether the second stage charging time is matched with a fine-tune condition when a first calibrating loop is executed;

if yes, then executing a fine-tune procedure and then performing the adjusting process, or else executing a table lookup table lookup analysis procedure and then performing the adjusting process.

11. The charger calibrating device of claim 8, wherein the adjustment means decrease the preset adjusting amplitude by half to generate the updated adjusting amplitude.

12. A charger calibrating method, comprising the steps of:

using a control module to control a charger to be calibrated to perform a first stage charging and a second stage charging to an electronic device;

using the control module to control the electronic device to execute a discharging process;

if a second stage charging time is greater than or smaller than a typical charging time, using a processing module to execute an adjusting process to add or subtract a predetermined high level period of a switch in a charging circuit of the charger to be calibrated from a preset adjusting amplitude to generate an updated high level period and an updated adjusting amplitude; and

using the processing module to substitute the predetermined high level period and the preset adjusting amplitude by the updated high level period and the updated adjusting amplitude respectively, and then terminating calibration when the aforementioned calibrating loop is repeated for a predetermined number of times.

13. The charger calibrating method of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

terminating calibration by a determination module, if an error condition or a termination condition occurs.

14. The charger calibrating method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the second stage charging time is matched with a fine-tune condition by a fine-tune module when a first calibrating loop is executed;

if yes, then executing a fine-tune procedure and then performing the adjusting process, or else executing a table lookup analysis procedure and then performing the adjusting process.

15. The charger calibrating method of claim 14, wherein the fine-tune procedure reduces the preset adjusting amplitude to generate a fine-tune adjustment amplitude to substitute the preset adjusting amplitude.

16. The charger calibrating method of claim 14, wherein the table lookup table lookup analysis procedure looks up an inductance of an inductor stored in a corresponding charging circuit according to the second stage charging time and an estimated high level period by using a table lookup, and substitutes the updated high level period by the estimated high level period and the updated adjusting amplitude by a reduced adjustment amplitude when entering into the adjusting process of a next calibrating loop.

17. The charger calibrating method of claim 12, wherein the electronic device performs a full discharge or a partial discharge in the discharging processing, and the voltage is smaller than a first stage saturation voltage after the electronic device is discharged.

18. The charger calibrating method of claim 12, wherein the processing module decrease the preset adjusting amplitude by half to generate the updated adjusting amplitude.