Vending machine for charging a secondary battery of a mobile phone

• US 5,744,933 A
• Filed: 11/13/1996
• Issued: 04/28/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Marukan Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: KN Technos Company Limited
• Inventors: Numa, Katsuya, Inoue, Katsuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Peter S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TOATLEY, GREGORY J
• Application Number:
  US08/746,568
• Time in Patent Office: 531 Days
• Field of Search: 320/2, 320/20, 320/21, 320/22, 320/23, 320/39, 320/40, 320/110, 320/48, 320/151, 320/116, D20/1-9, 221/92, 221/97, 221/100, 221/123, 221/124, 221/125, 221/135
• US Class Current: 320/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/127 Shopping or accessing services according to a time-limitation
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/003 for electricity
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0014 for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere else in G07F17/00 meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas or electricity G07F15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/08 with current supply sources at the substations generating ringing current H04M19/04

Abstract

A vending machine for charging a secondary battery of a mobile phone is provided with a plurality of charging blocks, each conforming to a specification of a mobile phone and a secondary battery of the mobile phone, for charging plural kinds of secondary batteries used in plural kinds of mobile phones, charging time selection buttons for instructing a charging time corresponding to each of the plurality of charging blocks, lock/unlock mechanism for locking/unlocking a key on a door provided in each of the plurality of charging blocks, a stocker for receiving at least one coin and/or at least one banknote, a calculator for calculating an amount of money of said coin and/or bill which have been received in the stocker, and a charging control circuit for controlling each of the plurality of charging blocks to charge a secondary battery of a mobile phone attached in one of the plurality of charging blocks, in accordance with the amount of money calculated by the calculator and the charging time instructed by the selection buttons.

Claims

1. A vending machine for charging a secondary battery of a mobile phone, comprising:

a plurality of charging means, each conforming to a specification of a mobile phone and a secondary battery of the mobile phone, for charging plural kinds of secondary batteries used in plural kinds of mobile phones;

instruction means for instructing a charging time corresponding to each of said plurality of charging means;

lock/unlock means for locking/unlocking a key on a door provided in each of said plurality of charging means;

reception means for receiving at least one coin and/or at least one banknote;

calculation means for calculating an amount of money of said coin and/or bill which have been received in said reception means; and

charging control means for controlling each of said plurality of charging means to charge a secondary battery of a mobile phone attached in one of said plurality of charging means, in accordance with the amount of money calculated by said calculation means and the charging time instructed by said instruction means.

2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein said calculation means includes:

comparison means for comparing the amount of money of said coin and/or banknote received in said reception means with an amount of money equivalent to the charging time instructed by said instruction means and outputting a compare result; and

change control means for controlling to make change in accordance with the comparison result from said comparison means.

3. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of charging means includes:

a quick charger conforming to a predetermined type of mobile phone and a predetermined type of secondary battery, for quickly charging the secondary battery attached to the corresponding charging means; and

display means for displaying status of charging operation of said quick charger.

4. The vending machine according to claim 3, wherein

said quick recharger includes at least two electrodes through which the electric power is to be supplied to the secondary battery, and

positions of said electrodes, a shape of each of said electrodes and a charging voltage of said quick charger are uniquely defined according to a specification of said mobile phone and said secondary battery attached thereto.

5. The vending machine according to claim 3, wherein said display means includes a plurality of LEDs (light emitting devices), each of which lights in a different color, and is turned on in accordance with progress of charging operation.

6. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein

said plurality of secondary batteries include at least Ni--Cd battery, Ni--MH battery and Li-ION battery.

7. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein said charging control means includes:

sensing means for sensing whether or not the door in said charging means is locked by said lock/unlock means and for outputting a sensing result; and

start control means for controlling start of charging the secondary battery of the mobile phone which has been attached in said charging means in accordance with the sensing result from said sensing means.

8. The vending machine according to claim 3, wherein said quick charger includes:

a holder for holding an electric contact with electrodes of said secondary battery;

a voltmeter for measuring a terminal voltage of said secondary battery;

a differentiation circuit for measuring a change rate in time of the terminal voltage;

a constant current charging circuit for quickly charging the secondary battery;

a first comparator for comparing the terminal voltage measured by said voltmeter with a predetermined charging voltage defined for the secondary battery;

a second comparator for measuring the change rate in time of the terminal voltage measured by said differentiation circuit with a predetermined threshold;

a register for setting the predetermined threshold; and

a controller for performing control in accordance with the comparison results by said first and second comparators such that charging operation in said constant current charging circuit is halted before the secondary battery reaches full-charged condition.

9. The vending machine according to claim 8, wherein

said controller further performs control such that charging operation is halted when it is determined that the secondary battery reaches within a range from approximately 60% to approximately 90% of the full-charged condition.

10. The vending machine according to claim 8, wherein

said second comparator employs a value very close to "0" as the predetermined threshold.

11. The vending machine according to claim 3, wherein said quick charger includes:

a holder for holding an electric contact with electrodes of the secondary battery;

measuring means for measuring a terminal voltage of said secondary battery;

comparison means for comparing the terminal voltage measured by said first measuring means with a predetermined limited voltage defined for said secondary battery;

charging means for quickly charging the secondary battery; and

charging control means for performing control in accordance with the comparison results by said comparison means such that charging operation in said charging means is halted when it is determined in accordance with the comparison result by said comparison means that the terminal voltage exceeds to a predetermined limited voltage before the secondary battery reaches full-charged condition.

12. The vending machine according to claim 11, wherein

said predetermined limited voltage is defined within a range from approximately 60% to approximately 90% of the maximum charging voltage defined for said secondary battery.

13. A charging apparatus for charging a secondary battery, comprising:

a holder for holding an electric contact with electrodes of the secondary battery;

first measuring means for measuring a terminal voltage of said secondary battery;

second measuring means for measuring a change rate in time of the terminal voltage;

charging means for quickly charging the secondary battery;

a first comparison means for comparing the terminal voltage measured by said first measuring means with a predetermined charging voltage defined for the secondary battery;

a second comparison means for comparing the change rate in time of the terminal voltage measured by said second measuring means with a predetermined threshold; and

charging control means for performing control in accordance with the comparison results by said first and second comparing means such that charging operation in said charging means is halted before the secondary battery reaches full-charged condition.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

said charging means includes a constant current charging circuit for quickly charging the secondary battery.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

a register for setting the predetermined threshold.

16. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

said first measuring means includes a voltmeter, and said second measuring means includes a differentiation circuit.

17. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

said charging control means performs control such that charging operation is halted when it is determined in accordance with the comparison result by said first comparison means that the terminal voltage exceeds the predetermined charging voltage.

18. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

said second comparison means employs a value very close to "0" as the predetermined threshold.

19. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

said secondary batteries include at least Ni--Cd battery, Ni--MH battery and Li-ION battery.

20. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

said charging control means performs control such that charging operation is halted when it is determined that the secondary battery reaches within a range from approximately 60% to approximately 90% of the full-charged condition.

21. A charging apparatus for charging a secondary battery, comprising:

a holder for holding an electric contact with electrodes of the secondary battery;

measuring means for measuring a terminal voltage of said secondary battery;

comparison means for comparing the terminal voltage measured by said first measuring means with a predetermined limited voltage defined for said secondary battery;

charging means for quickly charging the secondary battery;

charging control means for performing control in accordance with the comparison results by said comparison means such that the charging operation in said charging means is halted before the secondary battery reaches full-charged condition.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein

said charging means includes a constant current charging circuit for charging at a constant current.

23. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein

said measurement means includes a voltmeter.

24. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein

said secondary batteries include at least Ni--Cd battery, Ni--MH battery and Li-ION battery.

25. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein

said charging operation is halted when it is determined that the terminal voltage measured by said measuring means reaches approximately 60% to 90% of the maximum charged voltage defined for said secondary battery.

26. A vending system composed of at least one first unit which includes a plurality of charging means, each conforming to a specification of a mobile phone and a secondary battery of the mobile phone, for charging plural kinds of secondary batteries used in plural kinds of mobile phones, and a second unit which performs charging control on each of the plurality of charging means, comprising:

first extension means for electrically connecting at most a first predetermined number of the first units to the second unit; and

second extension means for mechanically connecting plural number of sets, each composed of the first predetermined number of the first units and one second unit, with each other.

27. The system according to claim 26, wherein

said second unit includes:

display means for displaying a guidance concerning with the charging operation with respect to each of said plurality of charging means;

instruction means for instructing a charging time corresponding to each of said plurality of charging means;

lock/unlock means for locking/unlocking a key on a door provided in each of said plurality of charging means; and

output means for outputting an information for unlocking the key on the door.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein

said display means includes an LCD liquid crystal device,

said instruction means includes ten keys, and

said output means includes a printer.

29. The system according to claim 27, wherein

said second unit further includes:

reception means for receiving at least one coin and/or at least one banknote;

calculation means for calculating an amount of money of said coin and/or bill which have been received in said reception means; and

change control means for calculating a change based on the amount of money calculated by said calculation means and the charging time instructed by said instruction means, and controlling change return in accordance with the calculation result if necessary.

30. The system according to claim 26, wherein

said plurality of secondary batteries include at least Ni--Cd battery, Ni--MH battery and Li-ION battery.

31. The system according to claim 26, wherein

each of said plurality of charging means in said first unit includes LEDs, each of which lights in a different color, and is turned on in accordance with progress of charging operation.