Battery charging controller for a battery powered device and method for using the same
First Claim
1. A method of charging a rechargeable battery for a battery powered device using an external charging source, said method comprising the steps of:
- periodically determining device functions active during a predetermined time interval;
recovering a value for the energy consumed by the active device functions during the predetermined time interval;
accumulating a value for the energy consumed for the active device functions during the predetermined time interval;
accumulating a measure of the energy consumed by adding the values for the energy consumed during each predetermined time interval since the battery was previously charged; and
controlling the charging from the external charging source in response to the measure of the energy consumed by the device.
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Abstract
A battery charging controller which can be integrated within a battery powered device having a rechargeable battery includes a circuit for monitoring the energy consumption of the device from the battery, and for accumulating a measure of the energy consumed since the battery was previously charged. Energy consumption is determined based on the number of device functions being active during predetermined sampling time intervals. When the battery powered device is coupled to an external charging source, the charging of the battery, including the charging rate, is controlled by the energy monitoring circuit within the battery powered device. Rapid charging, slow charging, and discharging of the battery before charging are all readily controlled using an external charging source which requires no circuits for monitoring the battery charging process.
111 Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method of charging a rechargeable battery for a battery powered device using an external charging source, said method comprising the steps of:
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periodically determining device functions active during a predetermined time interval; recovering a value for the energy consumed by the active device functions during the predetermined time interval; accumulating a value for the energy consumed for the active device functions during the predetermined time interval; accumulating a measure of the energy consumed by adding the values for the energy consumed during each predetermined time interval since the battery was previously charged; and controlling the charging from the external charging source in response to the measure of the energy consumed by the device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A battery powered device capable of being recharged from an external charging source, said device comprising:
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a rechargeable battery; a plurality of selectively activated device functions; memory means for storing a value of the energy consumed by each of the plurality of selectively activated device functions; timing means for periodically generating timing signals at predetermined time intervals, monitoring means, responsive to the timing signals, for periodically sampling the device functions to enable accumulating a value for the energy consumed for the device functions active during each predetermined time interval, said monitoring mean further accumulating a measure of the energy consuming by the device by adding the values for the energy consumed during each predetermined time interval since the battery was previously charged; and controller means, for controlling the charging from the external charging source in response to the measure of the energy consumed by the device. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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23. The battery powered device according to claim 23, wherein the third predetermined charging rate is the same as the second predetermined charging rate.
Specification