BATTERY CHARGER WITH AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE DETECTION

• US 20110012561A1
• Filed: 07/16/2009
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schumacher Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Schumacher Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Whiting, John, Heins, Matthew A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,575,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/149
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3835 involving only voltage measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00041 in response to measured battery parameters, e.g. voltage, current or temperature profile
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00047 with provisions for charging different types of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0047 with monitoring or indicating devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/005 Detection of state of health [SOH]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A battery charger is disclosed that is configured to be connected to an external battery by way of external battery cables. In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, the battery charger is configured with automatic voltage detection which automatically determines the nominal voltage of the battery connected to its terminals and charges the battery as a function of the detected nominal voltage irrespective of the nominal voltage selected by a user. Various safeguards are built into the battery charger to avoid overcharging a battery. For battery chargers with user selectable nominal battery voltage charging modes, battery charger is configured to over-ride a user selected battery voltage mode if it detects that the battery connected to the battery charger terminals is different than the user selected charging mode.

Claims

1. A battery charger comprising:

a pair of battery terminals;

a measuring system for measuring the voltage of a battery connected across said battery terminals;

a determining system for automatically determining the nominal voltage of the battery connected across the battery terminals; and

a charging system for automatically charging the battery as a function of the nominal voltage determined by said determining system.