Universal Fast Charger for Any Recharageable Electrolytic Element, Alkaline Batteries and Accumulators

• US 20150069972A1
• Filed: 03/07/2008
• Published: 03/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Electromagnetic Systems
• Original Assignee: Advanced Electromagnetic Systems
• Inventors: Cornille, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 9,385,541 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/110
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0016 using shunting, discharge or bypass circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00711 with introduction of pulses during the charging process

Abstract

The invention relates to a universal quick charger for recharging primary or secondary electrolytic members, in particular alkaline batteries with a non-rechargeable reputation, that can receive and automatically recharge a variable number of members without manual switching, that further comprises a switching transistor for hashing the recharge current in order to impart thereto a pumped characteristic, and that further comprises a microprocessor for automatically detecting the number and the nature of the members to be recharged, for supervising the recharging using a routine for continuously measuring the voltage at the terminals of the members as well as the time elapsed since the beginning of the recharging, said microprocessor being further used for deciding to stop the recharging when a criterion of the supervision routine is validated.

Claims

1. Universal fast charger to recharge primary electrolytic elements as well as secondary, particularly of the alkaline batteries said to be non-refillable, characterized in that said charger comprises a circuit which can receive and recharge automatically a variable number of elements without manual commutation, and additionally comprising a transistor of commutation which chops the refill current so as to give a pulsated character to it, comprising moreover a microprocessor having as its function the automatic control of the number of elements to be recharged as well as their kind, the supervision of the refill by means of a routine allowing continuously to measure the terminal voltage of the elements, as well as the time passed since the beginning of the refill, the microprocessor having moreover the function of deciding to stop the refill when a criterion of the routine of supervision is checked.

2. Charger according to claim 1, characterized in that the circuit which can receive and recharge automatically a variable number of elements makes it possible to establish a series connection of the elements, by associating two more groups of elements of connection in series, each group itself making up of two or more elements of connection in series, and characterized moreover in that a network of six silicon diodes in groups of two elements, are connected in parallel on each group.

3. Charger according to claim 1, characterized in that the transistor of commutation is controlled by the microprocessor.

4. Charger according to claim 1, characterized in that the transistor of commutation is controlled in an independent way by a circuit made of an autonomous oscillator or astable including the aforementioned transistor, and characterized moreover by the fact that the oscillator automatically modifies its cyclic ratio according to the terminal voltage of the electrolytic elements to recharge, so as to maintain the current of charge roughly constant.

5. Charger according to claim 1, characterized in that the criterion of the routine of supervision used to stop the refill is based on the observation of the variation of terminal voltage of the elements on an interval of given time.

6. Charger according to claims 1, characterized in that the criterion of the routine of supervision used to stop the refill is based over the total duration of current flow of the refill.

7. Charger according to claim 1, characterized in that the criterion of the routine of supervision used to stop the refill is based on a logical combination of the variation of terminal voltage of the elements in a given interval of time and the total duration of current flow of the refill.

8. Charger according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a transistor of blocking connected in series with the transistor of commutation, the transistor of blocking protecting the circuit by stopping the charging current during an abnormal operation of the circuit.

9. Charger according to claim 2, characterized in that it includes circuit allowing to recharge a battery constituted by the integration of several elements in series, in particular a 9 volt battery, and characterized moreover by the fact that a transistor is placed in series with the whole group of elements connected in series, this transistor allowing adjustment of the current in these elements or to put out the diodes in parallel with these groups when those are not installed, whereas the battery is installed in the circuit in derivation, so as to optimize the current of refill in each activated branch of the circuit.

10. Process of using a universal charger to recharge primary and secondary electrolytic elements, characterized by the use of a routine programmed in the microprocessor, comprising the following stages:

the microprocessor permanently sweeps the three sites designed to install batteries to be recharged, and detects which of them requires batteries to be installed;

when batteries, in particular 1 or 2 groups of 2 1.5 V batteries of 1.5 V are detected, the charge begins for a 2 to 3 hour duration, and the terminal voltage of the batteries is measured permanently;

if the voltage exceeds 1.55 V times the number of batteries, the microprocessor considers that the batteries are alkaline, and will stop the charge either when the voltage does not increase any more after an interval of 8 to 10 minutes, or when the maximum duration of refill set in the microprocessor is reached;

if the voltage does not exceed 1.55 V times the number of batteries in 3 hours of time, the microprocessor considers that the cells are in fact of the refillable accumulators of the type NiCad or NiMH, and will stop the charge either during the detection of a reduction in the voltage, characteristic fact of a charged accumulator, or when a 12 hours total duration is reached; and

in the case of a 9 V battery, in order to discriminate if they are batteries or refillable accumulators, the latter existing into 6 or 7 elements of 1.2 V connected in series, the procedure consists in of applying the charging current and adopting as a criterion to stop the refill, the phenomenon appearing initially among the two following, either the stabilization of the voltage on an interval of 8 to 10 minutes, or the maximum duration of the refill set in the microprocessor effectively accomplished.