MOBILE TERMINAL, DC-CHARGING POWER SOURCE ADAPTOR, AND CHARGING METHOD

• US 20170040812A1
• Filed: 02/24/2016
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hisense International Company Limited (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation (Group) Co., Ltd.), Hisense USA Corporation (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation (Group) Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hisense Mobile Communications Technology Co., Ltd. (Qingdao Huatong State-Owned Capital Operation (Group) Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: YU, Maoxue, LI, Chunqian, ZHANG, Naifeng, DU, Wenjuan
• Granted Patent: US 10,050,460 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2207/30 Charge provided using DC bus or data bus of a computer
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00714 in response to battery charging or discharging current
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007182 in response to battery voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3827 Portable transceivers

Abstract

This disclosure provides a mobile terminal, a DC-charging power source adaptor, and a charging method, where firstly the DC-charging power source adaptor is configured to communicate with the mobile terminal in a UART communication mode, and then a strategy to identity the type of charging is designed in the mobile terminal dependent upon configuration of communication pins of a different charging device, so that the mobile terminal identifies automatically the type of the external device. Also a specialized rapid charging mode is designed for the DC-charging power source adaptor, the battery of the mobile terminal being charged is DC-charged at large current by charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor, and the volt value of the charging voltage is adjusted dynamically according to the varying voltage of the battery.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal, comprising:

a battery configured to store electric energy;

a USB interface configured to have an external device inserted there into; and

a microprocessor configured to judge whether two differential data pins of the USB interface are shorted, upon detecting an external device being inserted into the USB interface;

if the two differential data pins of the USB interface are not shorted, to conduct USB communication with the inserted external device;

if the USB communication fails, to conduct UART communication with the inserted external device;

if the UART communication succeeds, to determine the inserted external device as a DC-charging power source adaptor; and

to detect voltage of the battery, and if the voltage of the battery is in a range delimited by preset DC-charging thresholds, to control charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor to DC-charge the battery, and to determine a charging voltage value of the DC-charging power source adaptor according to the current voltage of the battery.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, further comprising:

a gating switch, connected between the USB interface and the microprocessor, configured to have by default the two differential data pins of the USB interface connected with differential data interfaces of the microprocessor for USB communication between the microprocessor and the external device; and

if the USB communication fails, to be controlled by the microprocessor to be switched to have the two differential data pins of the USB interface connected with UART interfaces of the microprocessor for UART communication with the external device.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, further comprising:

a DC-charging switch, connected between the USB interface and the battery, configured to be controlled by the microprocessor to be closed, when the microprocessor detects that the voltage of the battery is in the range delimited by the preset DC-charging thresholds, to transmit the charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor directly to the battery to DC-charge the battery; and

a power managing chip, connected between the USB interface and the battery, configured to be controlled by the microprocessor to receive the charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor and to charge the battery, when the microprocessor detects that the voltage of the battery is out of the range delimited by the preset DC-charging thresholds.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 2, further comprising:

a DC-charging switch, connected between the USB interface and the battery, configured to be controlled by the microprocessor to be closed, when the microprocessor detects that the voltage of the battery is in the range delimited by the preset DC-charging thresholds, to transmit the charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor directly to the battery to DC-charge the battery; and

a power managing chip, connected between the USB interface and the battery, configured to be controlled by the microprocessor to receive the charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor and to charge the battery, when the microprocessor detects that the voltage of the battery is out of the range delimited by the preset DC-charging thresholds.

5. A DC-charging power source adaptor, comprising:

a charging interface configured to be externally connected with a mobile terminal, and comprising two communication pins disconnected from each other;

an AC to DC converting unit configured to convert an AC input power source into charging voltage required for the mobile terminal, and to output the charging voltage via the charging interface; and

a controlling unit, connected with the charging interface, configured to conduct UART communication with the mobile terminal through the communication pins, after the charging interface is connected with the mobile terminal, to adjust the charging voltage output by the AC to DC converting unit.

6. The DC-charging power source adaptor according to claim 5, further comprising:

a current detecting unit configured to detect in real time charging current Ichg output via the charging interface, and to feed back the charging current to the controlling unit; and

a switch circuit connected between the AC to DC converting unit and the charging interface, wherein;

the controlling unit is configured, upon detecting Itarg−

Ie≦

Ichg<

Itarg, to control the AC to DC converting unit to progressively adjust up the charging voltage output by the AC to DC converting unit at a span of Δ

V so that the charging current Ichg output via the charging interface approaches a target charging current value Itarg; and

if it is detected that the absolute value of the difference between Ichg and Itarg is more than Ie or Ichg is more than a charging current maximum value Imax, to control the switch circuit to disconnect a charging voltage transmission line between the AC to DC converting unit and the charging interface;

wherein Ie represents a controllable range of the difference between the real charging current value of the DC-charging power source adaptor and the target charging current value; and

the controlling unit communicates with the mobile terminal to obtain the target charging current value Itarg and the charging current maximum value Imax;

or the controlling unit searches a preset reference table using voltage of a battery sent by the mobile terminal for the target charging current value Itarg and the charging current maximum value Imax corresponding to the current voltage of the battery.

7. A method for charging a mobile terminal, comprising:

detecting, by the mobile terminal, an external device being inserted into a USB interface thereof, and judging whether two differential data pins of the USB interface are shorted;

if the two differential data pins of the USB interface are not shorted, then conducting USB communication with the inserted external device;

if the USB communication fails, then conducting UART communication with the inserted external device;

if the UART communication succeeds, then determining the inserted external device as a DC-charging power source adaptor; and

detecting voltage of a battery of the mobile terminal, and if the voltage of the battery is in a range delimited by preset DC-charging thresholds, then DC-charging the battery using charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor, and determining a charging voltage value of the DC-charging power source adaptor according to the current voltage of the battery.

8. The method for charging a mobile terminal according to claim 7, wherein the voltage of the battery is core voltage Vbat_real of the battery, and the battery is DC-charged by the charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor in one of the following three DC-charging processes:

the mobile terminal searches a preset reference table using the detected core voltage Vbat_real for a target charging voltage value Vout corresponding to an interval in which Vbat_real lies, and sends the target charging voltage value to the DC-charging power source adaptor to determine the charging voltage value output by the DC-charging power source adaptor;

the mobile terminal sends the detected core voltage Vbat_real to the DC-charging power source adaptor, searches a preset reference table through the DC-charging power source adaptor for a target charging voltage value Vout corresponding to an interval in which Vbat_real lies, and receives target charging voltage output by the DC-charging power source adaptor as a result of adjusting; and

the mobile terminal determines a charging current maximum value Imax according to maximum terminal voltage supported by the battery, and inner resistance of the battery, determines from Imax a target charging current value Itarg corresponding to the current core voltage Vbat_real, calculates a target charging voltage value Vout from Itarg as well as a resistance value on a charging line, a resistance value on a circuit board of the mobile terminal, and the inner resistance of the battery, and sends the target charging voltage value to the DC-charging power source adaptor to determine the charging voltage value output by the DC-charging power source adaptor.

9. The method for charging a mobile terminal according to claim 7, wherein the range delimited by the DC-charging thresholds is [S1, S12] which is the same as a range of the voltage of the battery corresponding to a constant-current charging phase in a standard DCP charging mode;

if the voltage of the battery is less than S1, the battery is pre-charged by a power source managing chip at small current; and

if the voltage of the battery is more than S2, the battery is charged by the power source managing chip at constant voltage; and

if the voltage of the battery is out of the range delimited by the DC-charging thresholds, then the mobile terminal instructs the DC-charging power source adaptor to output constant charging voltage output by default.

10. The method for charging a mobile terminal according to claim 7, wherein:

the mobile terminal determines the inserted external device as a normal power source adaptor, and starts a standard DCP charging mode, upon determining that the two differential data pins of the USB interface thereof are shorted; and

the mobile terminal determines the inserted external device as a host, and starts a standard SDP charging mode, upon determining that the two differential data pins of the USB interface thereof are not shorted, and the USB communication with the inserted external device succeeds.

11. The method for charging a mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein:

the mobile terminal determines the inserted external device as a normal power source adaptor, and starts a standard DCP charging mode, upon determining that the two differential data pins of the USB interface thereof are shorted; and

the mobile terminal determines the inserted external device as a host, and starts a standard SDP charging mode, upon determining that the two differential data pins of the USB interface thereof are not shorted, and the USB communication with the inserted external device succeeds.

12. The method for charging a mobile terminal according to claim 9, wherein

the mobile terminal determines the inserted external device as a normal power source adaptor, and starts a standard DCP charging mode, upon determining that the two differential data pins of the USB interface thereof are shorted;

and

the mobile terminal determines the inserted external device as a host, and starts a standard SDP charging mode, upon determining that the two differential data pins of the USB interface thereof are not shorted, and the USB communication with the inserted external device succeeds.