Rechargeable battery with memory that contains charging sequence data

A rechargeable battery, said battery having:

• a housing;
• at least one rechargeable cell disposed in said housing;
• a memory disposed in said housing, said memory including data for establishing a charging sequence for applying a charging current to said at least one rechargeable cell, the charging sequence data including data indicating the power required to charge said cell, the charging sequence data indicating the sequence in which charging current is applied to said at least one rechargeable cell based on the power available to charge said at least one rechargeable cell;
• and
• a plurality of terminals attached to said housing wherein said terminals are connected to said rechargeable cell so that the charging current can be applied to said cell and current can be drawn from said cell and said terminals are connected to said memory so that the charging sequence data in said memory can be read from said memory.

A rechargeable battery, said battery having:

• a housing;
• at least one rechargeable cell disposed in said housing;
• a memory disposed in said housing, said memory including data for establishing a charging sequence for applying a charging current to said at least one rechargeable cell, the charging sequence data including:
• a first data field that contains data indicating if, as part of the charging of said at least one rechargeable cell, said rechargeable cell is subjected to a periodic discharging;
• a second data field that contains data indicating after how many chargings of said at least one rechargeable cell said rechargeable cell should be subjected to discharging;
• a third data field that contains data indicating, after how many chargings of said at least one rechargeable cell, said rechargeable cell must be subjected to a mandatory discharging;
• a fourth data field that contains data indicating the number of times said at least one rechargeable cell has been charged after a last discharging of said rechargeable cell;
• and
• a plurality of terminals attached to said housing wherein said terminals are connected to said rechargeable cell so that a charging current can be applied to said cell and current can be drawn from said cell and said terminals are connected to said memory so that the charging sequence data in said memory can be read from said memory and data indicating the number of times said rechargeable cell has been charged can be written to said fourth data field.

A rechargeable battery pack, said battery pack including:

• a housing;
• a plurality of terminals mounted to said housing;
• at least one rechargeable cell disposed in said housing and connected to at least one said terminal;
• and
• a memory disposed in said housing, said memory connected to said terminals and containing data for determining a sequence for applying a charging current to said at least one cell, the charging sequence data including:
• a first data field in which data are stored that indicates the number of times the charging current has been applied to said cell after the discharging of said cell;
• a second data field in which data are stored that indicates, after how many chargings of said cell, said cell should be subjected to an optional discharging prior to said charging of said cell;
• and
• a third data field in which data are stored that indicates, after how many chargings of said cell, said cell must be subjected to a mandatory discharging prior to said charging of said cell.

A method of charging a battery, said method including the steps of:

• reading charging sequence control data from a memory internal to the battery, the charging sequence control data including discharge cycle decision data;
• applying a charging current to the battery;
• performing a discharge cycle evaluation on the battery to obtain battery discharge data;
• comparing the battery discharge data to the discharge cycle decision data;
• and
• based on said comparison, selectively connecting the battery to a load so as to discharge the battery and, after said discharging of said battery, applying a charging current to the battery.