Charging monitor

• US 8,278,882 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2008
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Gotou, Kiyoshi, Koshin, Hiroaki, Ooya, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Drew A
• Assistant Examiner(s): PELTON, NATHANIEL R
• Application Number:
  US12/669,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20100194354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,532 Days
• Field of Search: 320/163, 320/111
• US Class Current: 320/163
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/30 AC to DC converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/527 Voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/529 Current
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/003 relating to inverters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0069 relating to the isolation, e.g. ground fault or leak current
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/04 Cutting off the power supply under fault conditions protective devices and circuit arrangements in general H01H; H02H
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/16 with provision for separate direct mechanical propulsion
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 8/003 Converting light into electric energy, e.g. by using photo-voltaic systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 8/006 Converting flow of air into electric energy, e.g. by using wind turbines
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 83/144 with differential transformer
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 3/33 using summation current transformers H02H3/347 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0031 using battery or load disconnect circuits H02J9/002 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles

Abstract

A charging monitor has a switch disposed between a load section having a storage battery and an external AC power supply supplying a current to the load section via a plurality of lines and interrupts the supply of the current from the external AC power supply to the load section; a current detection circuit; a suppression circuit that suppresses a DC component contained in the detection signal; a filter circuit that filters a plurality of frequency components contained in the detection signal so that attenuation increases as a frequency becomes high; a rectifier smoothing circuit that rectifies and smoothens an output signal; and an electric leakage determination circuit that detects an electric leakage and shuts off the switch.

Claims

1. A charging monitor, comprising:

a switch that is disposed between a load section having a storage battery and an external AC power supply supplying a current to the load section via a plurality of lines and interrupts the supply of the current from the external AC power supply to the load section;

a current detection circuit that outputs a detection signal corresponding to a difference in level between currents flowing through the lines;

a suppression circuit that suppresses a DC component contained in the detection signal;

a filter circuit that filters a plurality of frequency components contained in the detection signal so that attenuation increases as a frequency becomes high;

a rectifier smoothing circuit that rectifies and smoothens an output signal obtained when the detection signal passes through the filter circuit and the suppression circuit; and

an electric leakage determination circuit that detects an electric leakage and shuts off the switch when the level of the signal smoothened by the rectifier smoothing circuit exceeds a preset reference level,

wherein the frequency characteristic of the filter circuit is set such that a frequency characteristic of an entire path that reaches the electric leakage determination circuit via the filter circuit, the suppression circuit and the rectifier smoothing circuit corresponds to the relationship between a frequency of a current flowing through a human and a current value perceived by the human.

2. The charging monitor according to claim 1, wherein

a frequency characteristic of the filter circuit is set so as to correspond to a relationship between a frequency of the current flowing through a human body and a current value perceived by the human.

3. The charging monitor according to claim 1,

wherein in the filter circuit,

a first input terminal is connected to a first output terminal via a first resistor,

a series circuit composed of a first capacitor and a second resistor is connected between a second output terminal connected to a second input terminal and the first output terminal,

the filtered signal by the filter circuit is output between the first and second output terminals, and

the current detection circuit outputs the detection signal between the first and second input terminals.

5. The charging monitor according to claim 1,

wherein the suppression circuit is a DC component cut circuit for interrupting the DC component.

6. The charging monitor according to claim 1,

wherein the current detection circuit is a zero-phase-sequence current transformer that has a detection coil wound around a circular core.

7. The charging monitor according to claim 6,

wherein the suppression circuit is a circuit in which both terminals of the detection coil are connected to a ground via resistors respectively.

8. The charging monitor according to claim 6, further comprising:

a differential amplifier circuit that amplifies a difference voltage between each terminal of the detection coil and the ground.

12. The charging monitor according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of lines include two AC lines, the charging monitor further has a contact state detector that detects a voltage between the AC lines closer to the storage battery than the switch when an instruction is sent to bring the switch into an opened state, and

the contact state detector has, at an input stage thereof, a DC component interrupting circuit for interrupting a DC component.

13. The charging monitor according to claim 12,

wherein the switch has relay contacts that individually open/close the two AC lines, and

the contact state detector has a circuit that detects a voltage between each of the AC lines and a ground line.

15. The charging monitor according to claim 13, further comprising:

a welding determination part that detects the presence/absence of welding on each of the relay contacts on the basis of the voltage detected by the contact state detector, and

a control circuit that inhibits charging of the storage battery in the load section, when welding on either one of the relay contacts is detected by the welding determination part.

4. A charging monitor, comprising:

a switch that is disposed between a load section having a storage battery and an external AC power supply supplying a current to the load section via a plurality of lines and interrupts the supply of the current from the external AC power supply to the load section;

a current detection circuit that outputs a detection signal corresponding to a difference in level between currents flowing through the lines;

a suppression circuit that suppresses a DC component contained in the detection signal;

a filter circuit that filters a plurality of frequency components contained in the detection signal so that attenuation increases as a frequency becomes high;

a rectifier smoothing circuit that rectifies and smoothens an output signal obtained when the detection signal passes through the filter circuit and the suppression circuit; and

an electric leakage determination circuit that detects an electric leakage and shuts off the switch when the level of the signal smoothened by the rectifier smoothing circuit exceeds a preset reference level,

wherein in the filter circuit,

a first input terminal is connected to a first output terminal via a first resistor,

a series circuit composed of a first capacitor and a second resistor is connected between a second output terminal connected to a second input terminal and the first output terminal,

the filtered signal by the filter circuit is output between the first and second output terminals, and

the current detection circuit outputs the detection signal between the first and second input terminals, and

wherein the frequency characteristic of the filter circuit is set such that a frequency characteristic of an entire path that reaches the electric leakage determination circuit via the filter circuit, the suppression circuit and the rectifier smoothing circuit corresponds to the relationship between a frequency of a current flowing through a human and a current value perceived by the human.

9. A charging monitor, comprising:

a switch that is disposed between a load section having a storage battery and an external AC power supply supplying a current to the load section via a plurality of lines and interrupts the supply of the current from the external AC power supply to the load section;

a current detection circuit that outputs a detection signal corresponding to a difference in level between currents flowing through the lines;

a suppression circuit that suppresses a DC component contained in the detection signal;

a filter circuit that filters a plurality of frequency components contained in the detection signal so that attenuation increases as a frequency becomes high;

a rectifier smoothing circuit that rectifies and smoothens an output signal obtained when the detection signal passes through the filter circuit and the suppression circuit; and

an electric leakage determination circuit that detects an electric leakage and shuts off the switch when the level of the signal smoothened by the rectifier smoothing circuit exceeds a preset reference level,

wherein the current detection circuit is a zero-phase-sequence current transformer that has a detection coil wound around a circular core, and

the plurality of lines include one ground line and two AC lines,

the switch has relay contacts for individually opening/closing the two AC lines,

a sub-ground line splitting from the ground line and the two AC lines are inserted into the circular core of the current detection circuit, on a side closer to the external current power supply than the switch,

the charging monitor further has a contact state detector that detects a voltage between each of the AC lines and the sub-ground line inserted into the core, on the side closer to the storage battery than the switch in a state where the switch is opened, and

the contact state detector returns an AC component of a current flowing out of each of the AC lines from the sub-ground line to the ground line via the core.

10. The charging monitor according to claim 9,

wherein the contact state detector has, at an input stage thereof, a DC component interrupting circuit that interrupts a DC component of each of the AC lines.

11. The charging monitor according to claim 10,

wherein the contact state detector has two voltage monitor circuits, each of which detects a voltage between each of the AC lines and the sub-ground line inserted into the core, and

in each of the voltage monitor circuit circuits, each of the AC lines is connected to a voltage detection circuit via a third capacitor, a third resistor and a diode, a connection point between the third resistor and the diode is connected to the sub-ground line via a fourth resistor, and a connection point between the diode and the voltage detection circuit is connected to the sub-ground line via a fourth capacitor.

14. The charging monitor according to claim 9, further comprising:

a welding determination part that detects the presence/absence of welding on each of the relay contacts on the basis of the voltage detected by the contact state detector, and

a control circuit that inhibits charging of the storage battery in the load section, when welding on either one of the relay contacts is detected by the welding determination part.

16. A charging monitor, comprising:

a switch that is disposed between a load section having a storage battery and an external AC power supply supplying a current to the load section via a plurality of lines and interrupts the supply of the current from the external AC power supply to the load section;

a current detection circuit that outputs a detection signal corresponding to a difference in level between currents flowing through the lines;

a suppression circuit that suppresses a DC component contained in the detection signal;

a filter circuit that filters a plurality of frequency components contained in the detection signal so that attenuation increases as a frequency becomes high;

a rectifier smoothing circuit that rectifies and smoothens an output signal obtained when the detection signal passes through the filter circuit and the suppression circuit; and

an electric leakage determination circuit that detects an electric leakage and shuts off the switch when the level of the signal smoothened by the rectifier smoothing circuit exceeds a preset reference level,

wherein the plurality of lines include one ground line and two AC lines,

the switch has relay contacts for individually opening/closing the two AC lines,

a sub-ground line splitting from the ground line and the two AC lines are inserted into a circular core of the current detection circuit, on a side closer to the external current power supply than the switch,

the charging monitor further has a contact state detector that detects a voltage between each of the AC lines and the sub-ground line inserted into the core, on the side closer to the storage battery than the switch in a state where the switch is opened, and

the contact state detector returns an AC component of a current flowing out of each of the AC lines from the sub-ground line to the ground line via the core.

17. The charging monitor according to claim 16,

wherein the contact state detector has, at an input stage thereof, a DC component interrupting circuit that interrupts a DC component of each of the AC lines.

18. The charging monitor according to claim 17,

wherein the contact state detector has two voltage monitor circuits, each of which detects a voltage between each of the AC lines and the sub-ground line inserted into the core, and

in each of the voltage monitor circuits, each of the AC lines is connected to a voltage detection circuit via a third capacitor, a third resistor and a diode, a connection point between the third resistor and the diode is connected to the sub-ground line via a fourth resistor, and a connection point between the diode and the voltage detection circuit is connected to the sub-ground line via a fourth capacitor.

19. The charging monitor according to claim 16 further comprising:

a welding determination part that detects the presence/absence of welding on each of the relay contacts on the basis of the voltage detected by the contact state detector, and

a control circuit that inhibits charging of the storage battery in the load section, when welding on either one of the relay contacts is detected by the welding determination part.