APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING CHARGING OF STORAGE BATTERIES WITH SENSING THE D.C. OF THE ELECTROLYTE

• US 3,787,754 A
• Filed: 08/16/1972
• Issued: 01/22/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Paul L. Seabase
• Original Assignee: Paul L. Seabase
• Inventors: Seabase, Paul L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, J. D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hickey, Robert J.
• Application Number:
  US05/281,082
• Time in Patent Office: 524 Days
• Field of Search: 324/29,29.5,61 331/65,40 320/43,48,30
• US Class Current: 320/137
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00712 the cycle being controlled or terminated in response to electric parameters
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 320/21 State of charge of battery

Abstract

My invention relates to a device for the testing or analyzing of batteries to determine whether such is chargeable or unchargeable, and more particularly, it relates to an electronic sensing system for automatically conducting and providing a readout display which is instantly indicative of the state of a given battery with respect to its chargeability.

Claims

1. In combination:

a battery of the wet cell type;

a charging source for the battery;

an armature capacitively coupled to a plate of the battery through the battery electrolyte means coupled therewith for generating a variable frequency signal representative of the electrolyte'"'"''"'"'s dielectric constant;

a regulator means for limiting the the current delivered from the charging source to the battery; and

means responsive to the variable frequency signal for automatically adjusting and changing the current limit setting of the regulator means so that throughout the charge cycle the charging current is set at values which are inversely proportional to the dielectric constant of the electrolyte.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein the frequency-responsive adjusting means comprises a beat frequency oscillator system.

3. The combination of claim 2 wherein the beat frequency oscillator system comprises a fixed frequency reference oscillator powered by the aforementioned battery.

4. The combination of claim 1 wherein the frequency-responsive adjusting means comprises a beat frequency oscillator system containing a first fixed frequency reference oscillator and a second variable frequency oscillator, said second oscillator being powered by the aforementioned variable frequency signal;

said first and second oscillators being interconnected so that the output of the oscillator system represents the frequency difference of the two oscillator outputs.

5. The combination of claim 4 wherein the oscillator system is adjusted so that the beat frequency output is zero when the battery is in the discharged state.

6. The combination of claim 1 wherein the regulator means includes an input having a plurality of different narrow bandpass filters, each capable of passing a different frequency signal received from the aforementioned adjusting means;

said regulator means including an output which comprises a switching system triggered by the input signals so that the battery charging current is relatively large when the battery approaches the discharged state and relatively small when the battery nears the charged state.