Modular battery pack system with multi-voltage bus
AssigneeJoule Case Inc.
InventorsJames Wagoner, Alexander Livingston
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system provide a plurality of power cell modules. The power cell modules can be stacked together such that they are electrically connected and share a collective multi-voltage bus. Electronic appliances can be connected to one of the power cell modules to be powered by all of the connected power cell modules. Power cell modules can be easily added or removed from the bank without interrupting the supply of power to the electronic appliance.
Claims13
A modular power-cell system, comprising:
- a first power-cell module including
- a first casing having top and bottom surfaces,
- first batteries disposed within the casing,
- a first voltage-combination circuit disposed in the first casing and configured to couple the first batteries together to generate first-power-cell-module-bus voltages including a first bus voltage and to bypass at least one of the first batteries to generate a second bus voltage as one of the first-power-cell-module-bus voltages,
- a first multi-voltage bus disposed in the first casing and having lines and simultaneously carrying each of the first-power-cell-module-bus voltages on a respective one of the lines,
- first inter-module multi-voltage bus connectors disposed on the top and bottom surfaces and respectively coupled to the lines of the first multi-voltage bus,
- a first user output-power port disposed in the first casing and configured to carry a third bus voltage from one of the lines of the first multi-voltage bus and configured to connect to and to supply power to a first electronic appliance,
- a second user output-power port disposed in the first casing, configured to carry a first output voltage, and configured to connect to and to supply power to a second electronic appliance, and
- a first voltage-conversion circuit disposed in the first casing and configured to generate the first output voltage from either the first bus voltage or the second bus voltage.
A non-transient computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a control circuit, cause the control circuit, or another circuit or apparatus coupled to the control circuit:
- to couple together first batteries disposed in a first casing of a first power-cell module to generate, on a first multi-voltage bus disposed in the first casing, first-power-cell-module-bus voltages including a first bus voltage;
- to bypass at least one of the first batteries to generate, as one of the first-power-cell-module-bus voltages, a second bus voltage;
- to convert the first bus voltage or the second bus voltage to a first output voltage that is different from any of the first-power-cell-module-bus voltages;
- to couple the first output voltage to a first user output-power port disposed in the first casing and configured to connect to and to supply power to a first electronic appliance;
- and
- to coupling one of the first-power-cell-module-bus voltages to a second user output-power port configured to connect to and to supply power to a second electronic appliance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.