ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT AND CHARGING METHOD THEREFOR

• US 20130335019A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Katsumata, Tomoki
• Application Number:
  US14/001,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20130335019A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/108
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/443 in response to temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

An objective of the invention is to make it possible to switch between contact charging and contactless charging without involvement of an increase in the number of constituent components and complication of charge control. An electronic equipment has a main body block and a battery pack. The battery pack has a power receiving control block for determining whether or not to perform contactless charging of a battery cell, based on whether or not a constant voltage is applied to a thermistor terminal from a first charge control block of the main body block and a second charge control block that performs contactless charging of the battery cell with electric power transferred from a charging rack to a secondary coil on a basis of a determination result of the power receiving control block.

Claims

1. An electronic equipment comprising:

a main body block including an external power supply connection terminal capable of being connected to an external power supply and a first charge control block for controlling contact charging of a battery cell from the external power supply by way of the external power supply connection terminal; and

a battery pack including

a thermistor for enabling the first charge control block to monitor a temperature of the battery cell by way of a thermistor terminal,

a power receiving control block for determining whether or not to perform contactless charging of the battery cell according to whether or not a constant voltage is applied to the thermistor terminal from the first charge control block,

a second charge control block for performing contactless charging of the battery cell with the electric power transferred to a secondary coil from a charging rack, the charging rack having a primary coil for transferring electric power to the secondary coil on a basis of a determination result rendered by the power receiving control block and a power transfer control block for controlling transfer of electric power from the primary coil, and

the battery cell.

2. The electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the power receiving control block determines to perform contactless charging of the battery cell when the constant voltage is not applied from the first charge control block to the thermistor terminal;

and

the second charge control block performs contactless charging of the battery cell on a basis of a determination result of the power receiving control block by use of the electric power transferred from the primary coil to the secondary coil by the power transfer control block of the charging rack.

3. The electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the power receiving control block determines, during contactless charging of the battery cell, to halt contactless charging of the battery cell when the constant voltage is applied to the thermistor terminal from the first charge control block;

wherein the second charge control block sends to the power transfer control block a notification stating that contactless charging of the battery cell is halted;

wherein the power transfer control block of the charging rack halts transfer of electric power from the first coil to the second coil in response to the notification from the second charge control block.

4. The electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the battery pack has a charge terminal connected to the first charge control block of the main body block;

and

wherein the first charge control block performs contact charging of the battery cell by way of the charge terminal.

5. A charging method for an electronic equipment including a main body block comprising a first charge control block for controlling contact charging of a battery cell by way of an external power supply connection terminal capable of being connected to an external power supply, and a battery pack including a thermistor for monitoring a temperature of the battery cell from the main body block and a second charge control block for performing contactless charging of the battery cell with the electric power transferred to the secondary coil from a charging rack that has a primary coil for transferring electric power to a secondary coil and a power transfer control block for controlling transfer of electric power from the primary coil, the method comprising:

a determination step of determining, by means of a power receiving control block of the battery pack, whether or not a constant voltage is applied from the first charge control block to a thermistor terminal connected to the thermistor of the battery pack; and

a charging step of the second charge control block of the battery pack performing contactless charging of the battery cell with electric power that is transferred from the primary coil to the secondary coil by the power transfer control block of the charging rack when the constant voltage is determined to not be applied to the thermistor terminal from the first charge control block in the determination step.