Battery pack, and abnormality monitoring method for same
AssigneePanasonic Energy Co., Ltd.
InventorsAtsushi Suyama, Junpei Ito
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A battery pack includes a current detector configured to detect a charging current to secondary battery, a drive circuit configured to drives a charge switch based on the charging current detected by the current detector, a charge controller configured to control operation of the charge switch by the drive circuit, a monitoring unit configured to monitor operation of charge controller, and a judging unit configured to instruct, based on the charge controller and the monitoring unit, the charge switch to be able to or unable to operate.
Claims11
A battery pack configured to charge a secondary battery, the battery pack comprising:
- a charge switch connected in series with the secondary battery, the charge switch being configured to adjust a charging current charging the secondary battery;
- a current detector configured to detect the charging current flow to the secondary battery;
- a drive circuit configured to drive the charge switch based on the charging current detected by the current detector;
- a charge controller configured to control an operation of the charge switch by the drive circuit;
- a monitoring unit configured to monitor an operation of the charge controller;
- and
- a judging unit configured to instruct whether to operate the charge switch or not based on the charge controller and the monitoring unit, wherein
- the charge controller is configured to generate a charge signal for the charge switch,
- the charge controller is configured to output a monitoring signal to the monitoring unit,
- the monitoring unit configured to monitor the monitoring signal and output a determination result of whether the monitoring signal is normal or abnormal as a determination signal, and
- the judging unit is configured to instruct the charge switch to be able to or unable to charge the secondary battery based on the charge signal from the charging controller and the determination signal from the monitoring unit;
- wherein, during charging the secondary battery, in response to the monitoring unit detecting that the monitoring signal from the charge controller is abnormal, the monitoring unit outputs the determination signal as a reset signal output to the charge controller for resetting the charge controller, and the determination signal is also output to the judging unit to instruct the charge switch to stop charging the secondary battery for controlling the charge signal.
A method of monitoring abnormality of a battery pack which includes:
- a charge switch connected in series with a secondary battery,
- a current detector configured to detect a charging current to the secondary battery,
- a drive circuit configured to drive the charge switch based on the charging current detected by the current detector,
- a charge controller configured to control operation of the charge switch by the drive circuit,
- a monitoring unit configured to monitor operation of the charge controller, and
- a judging unit configured to instruct the charge switch to be able to or unable to charge the secondary battery based on the charge controller and the monitoring unit, the method comprising:
- outputting, by the charge controller, a monitoring signal to the monitoring unit;
- outputting, by the monitoring unit, a determination result of whether the monitoring signal is normal or abnormal as a determination signal by monitoring, by the monitoring unit, the monitoring signal;
- and
- instructing, by the judging unit, the charge switch to be able to or unable to charge the secondary battery based on a charge signal from the charge controller and the determination signal from a monitoring unit;
- wherein, during charging the secondary battery, in response to the monitoring unit detecting that the monitoring signal from the charge controller is abnormal, the monitoring unit outputs the determination signal as a reset signal output to the charge controller for resetting the charge controller, and the determination signal is also output to the judging unit to instruct the charge switch to stop charging the secondary battery for controlling the charge signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.