BATTERY PACK AND CHARGER

• US 20150349558A1
• Filed: 08/12/2015
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: TOYA, SHOICHI
• Granted Patent: US 10,084,330 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/46 Accumulators structurally combined with charging apparatus circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/48 Accumulators combined with arrangements for measuring, testing or indicating the condition of cells, e.g. the level or density of the electrolyte constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4278 Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 5/00 Circuit arrangements for transfer of electric power between ac networks and dc networks H02J3/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0045 concerning the insertion or the connection of the batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0049 Detection of fully charged condition
• 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

A battery pack includes a secondary battery, a connector that can be detachably connected to multiple different types of devices, control circuitry that controls power supply from the secondary battery and charge of the secondary battery, a detector that outputs the detected state of the secondary battery as secondary battery information, a first memory that stores the secondary battery information, a second memory that stores a recommendation table in which each of multiple conditions predetermined for the state of the secondary battery and a recommended device are associated with each other, a determiner that determines a recommended device from among the devices using the secondary battery information and recommendation table, and an informer that reports information indicating the recommended device determined by the determiner to the user.

Claims

1. A battery pack comprising:

a secondary battery;

a connector that can be detachably and electrically connected to a plurality of different types of devices and a charger;

control circuitry that controls power supply from the secondary battery to the devices through the connector and charge of the secondary battery by the charger through the connector;

a detector that detects a state of the secondary battery and outputs the detected state as secondary battery information;

a first memory that stores the secondary battery information outputted from the detector;

a second memory that stores a recommendation table in which each of multiple conditions predetermined for the state of the secondary battery and a recommended device suitable for each of the conditions are associated with each other;

a determiner that determines the recommended device using the state of the secondary battery indicated by the secondary battery information and the recommendation table; and

an informer that reports information indicating the recommended device determined by the determiner to a user.

2. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector detects a date and time when the secondary battery has been charged or discharged and outputs the detected date and time as the secondary battery information, and

when a period of time elapsed since the date and time is less than a predetermined value, the determiner determines the recommended device using the secondary battery information stored in the first memory and the recommendation table.

3. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector detects a date and time when the secondary battery has been charged or discharged and outputs the detected date and time as the secondary battery information, and

when a period of time elapsed since the date and time is a predetermined value or more, the determiner determines the recommended device using the secondary battery information detected by the detector when the charger is newly charging the secondary battery under the control of the control circuitry and using the recommendation table.

4. The battery pack according to claim 3, wherein when the period of time elapsed since the date and time is the predetermined value or more, the informer avoids reporting information indicating the recommended device until the charger charges the secondary battery under the control of the control circuitry.

5. The battery pack according to claim 1, further comprising an indicator that indicates information indicating the recommended device, wherein

the informer causes the indicator to indicate the information indicating the recommended device.

6. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the charger comprises an indicator, and

the informer transmits information indicating the recommended device to the charger through the connector to cause the charger to indicate the information indicating the recommended device.

7. The battery pack according to claim 1, further comprising a communicator that communicates with an external communication terminal comprising an indicator, wherein

the informer transmits information indicating the recommended device to the external communication terminal through the communicator to cause the external communication terminal to indicate the information indicating the recommended device.

8. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector detects a percentage-to-nominal-capacity SOC of the secondary battery as the state of the secondary battery and outputs the detected percentage-to-nominal-capacity SOC as the secondary battery information,

when the percentage-to-nominal-capacity SOC is a predetermined value or more, the determiner determines a first device as the recommended device, and

when the percentage-to-nominal-capacity SOC is less than the predetermined value, the determiner determines a second device, the output load of which is lower than that of the first load, as the recommended device.

9. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector detects a charge/discharge cycle number of the secondary battery as the state of the secondary battery,

when the charge/discharge cycle number is less than a predetermined value, the determiner determines a first device as the recommended device, and

when the charge/discharge cycle number is the predetermined value or more, the determiner determines a second device, the output load of which is lower than that of the first load, as the recommended device.

10. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector detects an internal resistance value of the secondary battery as the state of the secondary battery,

when the internal resistance value is less than a predetermined value, the determiner determines a first device as the recommended device, and

when the internal resistance value is the predetermined value or more, the determiner determines a second device, the output load of which is lower than that of the first load, as the recommended device.

11. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector detects a battery voltage difference of the secondary battery as the state of the secondary battery,

when the battery voltage difference is less than a predetermined value, the determiner determines a first device as the recommended device, and

when the battery voltage difference is the predetermined value or more, the determiner determines a second device, the output load of which is lower than that of the first load, as the recommended device.

12. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector detects a percentage-to-nominal-capacity SOC of the secondary battery as the state of the secondary battery,

when the percentage-to-nominal-capacity SOC is a predetermined value or more, the determiner determines a device requiring a first capacity as the recommended device, and

if the percentage-to-nominal-capacity SOC is less than the predetermined value, the determiner determines a device requiring a second capacity, which is lower than the first capacity, as the recommended device.

13. The battery pack according to claim 1, wherein

the detector further detects an abnormal state of the secondary battery, and

when the detector detects an abnormal state of the secondary battery, the informer reports information indicating the abnormal state to a user.

14. The battery pack according to claim 1, further comprising an input receiver that receives device information indicating device, wherein

the second memory stores the recommendation table in which the types of devices and the device information received by the input receiver are associated with each other, and

the determiner determines the recommended device from the devices indicated by the device information among the devices in the recommendation table.

15. A charger for charging a battery pack which comprises a secondary battery and can be used for a plurality of different types of devices, the charger comprising:

a battery connector that is detachably connected to the battery pack;

charging control circuitry that charges the battery pack through the battery connector;

a battery detector that detects a state of the secondary battery through the battery connector and outputs the detected state as secondary battery information;

a memory that is storing a recommendation table in which each of multiple conditions predetermined for the state of the secondary battery and a recommended device suitable for each of the conditions are associated with each other;

a device determiner that determines the recommended device using the state of the secondary battery indicated by the secondary battery information and the recommendation table;

an indicator; and

indication control circuitry that causes the indicator to indicate information indicating the recommended device determined by the device determiner.