Battery charger
First Claim
1. In a battery charger for a storage battery having circuitry including a primary charging path consisting of means to reduce the voltage of a power source to a level to be applied to a battery to be charged, means converting power from said power source to a pulsating direct current applied to an SCR and gating it on at the beginning of each selected half cycle and passing said current to the positive terminal of said battery wherein the improvement in circuitry in said charging path consists ofvoltage control and time control means of a battery charger,said voltage control means comprises a voltage low pass filter and sensing means, the same being connected to the leads of a battery as a charging input voltage source and having as its output a filtered voltage proportional to the Vmin voltage of a battery,said Vmin voltage being applied to a voltage comparator,means feeding a fixed reference voltage to said comparator, said reference voltage being proportional to an equalization voltage to be impressed upon said battery,whereby when said reference voltage is exceeded by said Vmin voltage from said battery, current flow through said SCR ceases and said voltage in said battery decreases, and when said Vmin voltage is less than said fixed reference voltage, said SCR resumes charging said battery to maintain said battery at its equalization level voltage, andmeans causing said time control means to run for the time of the equalization charge and to pause and hold its time setting in the event equalization charging ceases prior to the completion of the equalization charging cycle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention relates to a battery charger which includes a timer which becomes energized upon a battery approaching a fully charged condition and the timer then commences a preset timed equalization or finishing charge which brings each cell of the battery into a 100% fully charged condition. The battery may remain connected to the charger which includes a restart monitor which causes the charger to automatically re-charge the battery to a fully charged condition when it senses that the battery is losing its charge.
37 Citations
9 Claims
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1. In a battery charger for a storage battery having circuitry including a primary charging path consisting of means to reduce the voltage of a power source to a level to be applied to a battery to be charged, means converting power from said power source to a pulsating direct current applied to an SCR and gating it on at the beginning of each selected half cycle and passing said current to the positive terminal of said battery wherein the improvement in circuitry in said charging path consists of
voltage control and time control means of a battery charger, said voltage control means comprises a voltage low pass filter and sensing means, the same being connected to the leads of a battery as a charging input voltage source and having as its output a filtered voltage proportional to the Vmin voltage of a battery, said Vmin voltage being applied to a voltage comparator, means feeding a fixed reference voltage to said comparator, said reference voltage being proportional to an equalization voltage to be impressed upon said battery, whereby when said reference voltage is exceeded by said Vmin voltage from said battery, current flow through said SCR ceases and said voltage in said battery decreases, and when said Vmin voltage is less than said fixed reference voltage, said SCR resumes charging said battery to maintain said battery at its equalization level voltage, and means causing said time control means to run for the time of the equalization charge and to pause and hold its time setting in the event equalization charging ceases prior to the completion of the equalization charging cycle.
Specification