BATTERY OPERATED PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING DUAL BATTERIES

• US 20080179957A1
• Filed: 01/30/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Perception Digital Limited (Atom Xquare Corp. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Perception Digital Limited (Atom Xquare Corp. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Tsui, Chi-Ying, Fung, Fuk Sheung
• Granted Patent: US 7,573,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/66
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/342 The other DC source being a battery actively interacting with the first one, i.e. battery to battery charging with circuits for polarity protection H02J7/0034

Abstract

A battery-operated portable electronic device has a primary battery to provide energy to low current circuitry of the portable device, and a supplemental battery to provide intermittent bursts of energy to other components of the portable device. A charging device charges the supplemental battery from the primary battery. An electronic device employing the battery system may have a battery compartment for the primary battery, which can be an AAA, AA, C, or D size battery.

Claims

1. A portable device that is battery operated and stores data for retrieval, the portable device comprising:

a hard disk drive having a first storage capacity for storing data in the portable device,

a solid-state memory module having a second storage capacity, smaller than the first storage capacity, for temporarily storing blocks of data being retrieved,

a output module for the blocks of data temporarily stored by the solid-state memory module,

a copy module for intermittently copying blocks of data from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module for outputting by the outputting module,

a primary battery providing energy to the portable device, but not directly to the hard disk drive,

a supplemental energy storage device providing energy in intermittent periods to the hard disk drive during copying of the blocks of data from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module, and

a charger module for charging the supplemental energy storage device, from the primary battery, between the copying of the blocks of data.

2. The portable device claim 1 wherein the output module and the copy module are functions of a microcontroller.

3. The portable device of claim 1 wherein the primary battery has a first energy storage capacity and the supplemental battery has a second energy storage capacity, smaller than the first energy storage capacity.

4. The portable device of claim 3 wherein the second energy storage capacity is sufficient to supply only a single intermittent period of energy to the hard disk drive for copying a single block of media data from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module, and, thereafter, the supplemental battery must be charged from the primary battery before further copying of a block of media data from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module.

5. The portable device of claim 4 wherein the supplemental battery is a super capacitor.

6. The portable device of claim 1 wherein the supplemental battery is a battery having a high energy characteristic.

7. The portable device of claim 1 wherein the primary battery is selected from the group consisting of a rechargeable nickel-cadmium (NiCd) battery, a rechargeable nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH), and a rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.

8. The portable device of claim 1 wherein the primary battery is selected from the group consisting of a non-rechargeable carbon-zinc battery, a non-rechargeable zinc-chloride battery, and a non-rechargeable alkaline battery.

9. The portable device of claim 8 further comprising a battery compartment accessible by a user of the portable device for holding the primary battery, wherein the battery compartment is configured to receive a non-rechargeable battery to function as the primary battery.

10. The portable device of claim 1 which is a portable media player.

11. A portable media player comprising:

a hard disk drive having a first storage capacity for storing media data in the media player,

a solid-state memory module having a second storage capacity, smaller than the first storage capacity, for temporarily storing blocks of media data,

a player module for playback of the blocks of media data temporarily stored by the solid-state memory module,

a copy module for intermittently copying blocks of media data from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module during the playback,

a primary battery providing energy to the portable media player, but not directly to the hard disk drive,

a supplemental energy storage device providing energy in intermittent periods to the hard disk drive during copying of the blocks of media data from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module, and

a charger module for charging the supplemental energy storage device from the primary battery between the copying of the blocks of media data.