VOICE COUNTING OF EACH BATTERY UNDER TEST

• US 20150241522A1
• Filed: 02/04/2015
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fluke Precision Measurement Ltd. (Fortive Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Danaher (Shanghai) Industrial Instrumentation Technologies R&d Co., Ltd. (Danaher Corporation)
• Inventors: Cheek, Steven L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,393,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/371 with remote indication, e.g. on external chargers
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/385 Arrangements for measuring battery or accumulator variables for monitoring G01R31/382

Abstract

A method and apparatus for testing batteries uses an audible voice prompt 35, 64 to enunciate the battery label or identifier that will be stored with the battery measurement in memory. Since the battery test technician must pay careful attention to the placement of the probes onto the battery terminal, the use of a voice prompt, rather than a visual prompt, allows the technician to keep his/her eyes on the test probes. If the label enunciated by the voice prompt does not match the label of the battery under test, the label on the tester can be reset to match the battery under test. In particular, a battery tester has a program which displays sequential numbers of battery labels that are stored with each battery'"'"'s measurement data in memory. The sequence of labels corresponds to the sequential numbers marked on batteries in a string, array or matrix.

Claims

1. A method for testing a plurality of batteries, comprising:

connecting an instrument to terminals of a battery under test, wherein said battery under test is one of a number of batteries, and wherein each battery of the number of batteries is associated with an image representative of one of a set of unique, sequential phonemes;

providing a corresponding number of labeled memory locations for holding test results, wherein each labeled memory location is labeled with an image corresponding to one of the images associated with the batteries;

displaying on a display a graphical representation of a labeled memory location corresponding to the battery under test;

testing the battery and recording test results in the labeled memory location shown on the display; and

generating an audible voice prompt for providing information a user may interpret to confirm whether the test results for the battery under test were correctly stored.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the audible voice prompt expresses phonemes representative of the labeled memory location on the display where the test results are stored for the battery under test.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the audible voice prompt expresses phonemes for the next sequential battery to be tested.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the phonemes are a sequence of numbers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the instrument has a controller and a memory with labeled memory locations identified by characters corresponding to said phonemes, wherein the controller stores the test results in the labeled memory location corresponding to the phonemes of the battery under test.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the phonemes are one or more of the group consisting of letters, words, numbers, and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising resetting the labeled memory location corresponding to the battery under test and retesting the battery if the audible voice prompt of the labeled memory location is different from the phonemes corresponding to the battery under test.

8. A method for testing a bank of batteries, comprising:

connecting a test instrument to a battery in a bank of batteries, wherein each battery in the bank of batteries is associated with a sequential number from a set of sequential numbers;

providing a corresponding number of labeled memory locations for holding test results, wherein each labeled memory location is labeled with a sequential number corresponding to the sequential number of a battery in the bank of batteries;

displaying a graphical representation of a labeled memory location corresponding to the battery under test;

testing the battery and recording test results in the labeled memory location shown on the display; and

generating an audible voice prompt for providing information a user may interpret to confirm whether the test results for the battery under test were correctly stored.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the audible voice prompt expresses a number of the labeled memory location on the display where the test results are stored for the battery under test.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the audible voice prompt expresses the next sequential number for the next sequential battery to be tested.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the instrument has a controller and a memory holding the labeled memory locations, wherein the controller stores the test results in the labeled memory location corresponding to the sequential number of the battery under test.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising resetting the labeled memory location corresponding to the battery under test and retesting the battery if the audible voice prompt of the labeled memory location is different from the sequential number corresponding to the battery under test.

13. An instrument for testing batteries, comprising:

a controller configured to perform one or more tests on batteries;

a memory coupled to the controller, said memory having a plurality of labeled memory locations, wherein each memory location corresponds to a battery identified by a unique phoneme;

a display configured to show an image corresponding to the phoneme of a battery under test;

a module configured to generate a signal representative of an audible voice prompt to audibly identify the labeled memory location on the display corresponding to the battery under test where test results of the battery under test are stored; and

a speaker coupled to the module for generating said audible voice prompt.

14. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the phonemes are a sequence of numbers.

15. The instrument of claim 13, further comprising a controller and a memory with memory locations identified by characters corresponding to said phonemes, wherein the controller is configured to store the test results in the memory location corresponding to the phonemes of the battery under test.

16. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the phonemes are one or more of the group consisting of letters, words, numbers, and combinations thereof.

17. The instrument of claim 15, wherein the controller in combination with a software program and an input member is adapted to reset the memory location and retest the battery under test if the phoneme of the audible voice prompt of the labeled memory location is different from the image corresponding to the phoneme of the battery under test shown on the display of the instrument.

18. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the speaker is mounted on a body of the instrument.

19. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the speaker is mounted on a probe coupled to the instrument.

20. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the speaker is mounted on a headset or an ear bud.