Failure detection apparatus
AssigneePanasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
InventorsDAICHI HASHIMOTO, TAKASHI NAKAZAWA, HARUHIKO SEKINO
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Abstract
A failure in any of first switches is determined based on a voltage value of a battery assembly and a predetermined threshold. The voltage value is retained in a capacitor by turning on or off the first switches and a second switch, and obtained from a voltage detector a voltage value.
Claims8
A failure detection apparatus for detecting whether or not any of at least four first switches has a failure, the at least four switches being electrically coupled to respective ends of at least two battery groups, each of the at least two battery groups including single cells connected electrically coupled in series, the at least two battery groups being electrically coupled in series, each of the at least four first switches having a first end and a second end, the first end of each of the at least four first switches being electrically coupled to a terminal of a single cell that is located at an end of the at least two battery groups, the failure detection apparatus comprising:
- a battery voltage measuring unit configured to measure a voltage value of each of the single cells in the at least two battery groups;
- a capacitor electrically coupled to the second end of each of the at least four first switches, the capacitor configured to retain a total voltage of the single cells in each of the at least two battery groups;
- a voltage detector configured to detect a voltage retained by the capacitor;
- a second switch electrically coupled between terminals of the capacitor and the voltage detector;
- and
- a failure determiner configured to determine whether or not any of the at least four first switches has a failure based on a predetermined threshold and the total voltage of the single cells in each of the at least two battery groups, the total voltage being retained in the capacitor and detected by the voltage detector by combinations of on-or-off states of the at least four first switches and the second switch,
- wherein the predetermined threshold includes a first threshold determined based on a totalized voltage of the single cells in each of the at least two battery groups and a voltage value detected by the voltage detector when any of the at least four first switches has a failure, and
- the totalized voltage is calculated by adding a voltage value of each of the single cells measured by the battery voltage measuring unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.