Method, arrangement and interface system to enable electrical batteries of different kinds to be charged by means of the same charger device

An arrangement including a battery made up of rechargeable cells connected in series and a charger device able to provide at least one constant regulation voltage for charging said battery, which is associated with:

• an individual interface for each rechargeable cell of said battery, including a first voltage measuring circuit connected to terminals of the rechargeable cell concerned to control a current shunt circuit connected in parallel with it in order to shunt at least some of the charging current that is supplied to it if said voltage measured at said terminals of said rechargeable cell exceeds a particular regulation minimum threshold value fixed as a function of the nature of said cell, said individual battery interfaces each including a second voltage measuring circuit for determining if a balancing maximum threshold value is exceeded at said terminals of the associated rechargeable cell to which said individual interface is assigned, on the basis of a voltage measured across a measuring resistor in series with said shunt device of said interface between said terminals of said associated rechargeable cell, and a circuit constituting a transmission AND logic gate which transmits a binary indication as to whether said balancing maximum threshold value is exceeded or not at said terminals of said associated rechargeable cell;
• a common interface to which said individual interfaces are connected and to which each supplies at least one indication of said measured voltage for the associated rechargeable cell, said indication being used to control charging by said charger device, said common interface translating any indication relating to said balancing maximum threshold value being exceeded supplied to it by means of a transmission chain into which said transmission gates of said individual interfaces are inserted in series in the form of a charge characteristic switching control signal;
• and
• a charger device which has at least one battery charge characteristic which is modified either in said charger device itself or in an associated auxiliary device as a function of said characteristic switching control signal.

An interface system for a battery made up of rechargeable cells, which system includes:

• an individual interface for each rechargeable battery cell, each individual interface including a voltage measuring circuit connected to terminals of one of said rechargeable cells to control a current shunt circuit connected in parallel with said cell in order to shunt at least some of the charging current applied to it if the voltage measured at said terminals of said cell exceeds a particular regulation minimum threshold value fixed as a function of the nature of said cell, said individual battery interfaces each including a second voltage measuring circuit for determining if a balancing maximum threshold value is exceeded at said terminals of the associated rechargeable cell, to which said individual interface is assigned, on the basis of a voltage measured across a measuring resistor in series with said shunt device of said interface between said terminals of said associated rechargeable cell, and a circuit constituting a transmission logic AND gate which transmits a binary indication as to whether said balancing maximum threshold value is exceeded or not at said terminals of said associated rechargeable cell;
• and
• a common interface to which said individual interfaces are connected for each to supply at least one indication relating to the voltage measured for said associated rechargeable cell, said indications being used by a charger device to control charging, said common interface translating any indication relating to said balancing maximum threshold value being exceeded, supplied to it by means of a transmission chain into which said transmission gates of said individual interfaces are inserted in series, in the form of a charge characteristic switching control signal for use by a charger device either directly or via an associated auxiliary device.