Apparatus for jump starting a vehicle and jump start system

An apparatus (100) for jump starting a vehicle, comprising:

• a first ignition clamp (102) and a second ignition clamp (104) configured to connect to a vehicle battery, the vehicle battery having positive and negative polarities and a first terminal and a second terminal respectively connected to the positive and negative polarities;
• a sampling circuit (106), connected to the first and the second ignition clamps (102, 104), the sampling circuit (106) configured to sample polarity output signal from the vehicle battery when each of the first and the second ignition clamps (102, 104) is connected to a respective one of the first and the second terminals of the vehicle battery;
• a polarity determining circuit (108), connected to the sampling circuit (106), the polarity determining circuit (108) configured to receive the sampled polarity output signal from the sampling circuit (106), and determine, based on the sampled polarity output signal, a polarity of the first terminal and a polarity of the second terminal of the vehicle battery;
• and
• a clamp polarity switching circuit (110), connected to the polarity determining circuit (108), the clamp polarity switching circuit (110) configured to connect the first and the second ignition clamps (102, 104) to a portable power supply, and to automatically switch on, in response to the determined respective polarities of the first and the second terminals of the vehicle battery, to enable a polarity on the first ignition clamp (102) to be the same as the polarity of the corresponding terminal connected thereto and enable a polarity on the second ignition clamp (104) to be the same as the polarity of the corresponding terminal connected thereto, to thereby boost the vehicle battery;
• wherein the apparatus (100) is implemented only by hardware circuits.