Adapters for rechargeable battery packs

Abstract

Control portion (26) of battery charger (10), for example, may control power source circuit (24) upon receipt of instructions from control portion (41) of adapter (30). Based upon these instructions, adapter (30) can enable charging operations for battery pack (50B) that does not have a memory storing charging parameters and/or information. Moreover, battery charger (10) also may be designed to charge a battery pack (50B) even though battery charger (10) was not originally designed to charge battery pack (50B). Adapter (30) also may enable charging operations for battery pack (50) that contains memory (61) storing charging parameters and/or battery identification information. In this case, adapter (30) can read information stored in memory (61) and generate optimal charging instructions based upon a charging program stored in control portion (41).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.