Battery charge management using usage profiling

• US 9,197,092 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2012
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Verdun, Gary, Thompson, Richard C.
• Primary Examiner(s): DIAO, M BAYE
• Application Number:
  US13/663,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20140117945A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 320/162, 320/106
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 5/00 Circuit arrangements for transfer of electric power between ac networks and dc networks H02J3/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A battery management system calculates expected run time for the information handling system from either an average or instantaneous power consumption and the remaining battery capacity. When power is attached to the battery, the battery management system compares an expected run time with a current usage day profile. If the information handling system is operating in a non-active use period or if system run time can extend sufficiently into the non-use period then a slow charge rate is applied which will charge the batteries up to a substantially charged state (e.g., 80-95% of full capacity) and top off of the battery is deferred such that battery is fully charged somewhat before the average beginning of the next day (e.g., approximately one to two hours before the average beginning of the next day).

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a data bus coupled to the processor; and

a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code interacting with a plurality of computer operations and comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for;

calculating an expected run time for the system;

determining a system run start value and a system run end value;

determining whether the expected run time of the system extends beyond the system run end value; and

when the expected run time of the system extends beyond the system run end value charging the battery to a substantially charged state by topping off the battery to a fully charged state slightly before the system run start value of a next subsequent period.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the system run start value comprises a beginning of day value and the system run end value comprises an end of day value; and

,

the next subsequent period comprises a next day.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the substantially charged state corresponds to at least 80 percent of the fully charged state.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the system run start value and the system run end value are determined based upon system usage profiling.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the system usage profiling for the system run start value comprises averaging a plurality of system start values; and

,

the system usage profiling for the system run end value comprises averaging a plurality of system end values.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the topping off the battery to a fully charged state slightly before the system run start value of the next subsequent period comprises starting a topping off operation less than two hours before the start of the next period.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein:

the topping off the battery to a fully charged state slightly before the system run start value of the next subsequent period comprises starting a topping off operation less than two hours before the start of the next period.

7. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the computer program code comprising computer executable instructions configured for:

calculating an expected run time for a system;

determining a system run start value and a system run end value;

determining whether the expected run time of the system extends beyond the system run end value; and

when the expected run time of the system extends beyond the system run end value charging the battery to a substantially charged state by topping off the battery to a fully charged state slightly before the system run start value of a next subsequent period.

8. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein:

the system run start value comprises a beginning of day value and the system run end value comprises an end of day value; and

,

the next subsequent period comprises a next day.

9. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein:

the substantially charged state corresponds to at least 80 percent of the fully charged state.

10. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein:

the system run start value and the system run end value are determined based upon system usage profiling.

11. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein:

the system usage profiling for the system run start value comprises averaging a plurality of system start values; and

,

the system usage profiling for the system run end value comprises averaging a plurality of system end values.