State of charge indicator for a battery charger
AssigneeBlack & Decker Inc.
InventorsRegina G. C. Cunanan, Brian K. Wohltmann, Dustin Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is provided for indicating state of charge of a battery being charged by a charger. The method includes: supplying a charging current from a battery charger to a battery pack; determining voltage of battery cells residing in the battery pack; and illuminating a visual indicator on the battery charger to indicate state of charge of the battery pack, where brightness of the visual indicator correlates to the voltage of the battery cells in the battery pack.
Claims16
A method for indicating state of charge of a battery being charged by a charger, comprising:
- supplying a charging current from a battery charger to a battery pack;
- determining voltage of one of more battery cells residing in the battery pack;
- and
- illuminating an LED on the battery charger to indicate a state of charge of the battery pack, where brightness of the LED correlates to the voltage of the battery cells in the battery pack.
A battery charger that charges a battery pack coupled thereto, comprising:
- an LED;
- a power supply module operable to supply a charging current from the battery charger to the battery pack;
- a voltage monitoring module operable to determine voltage of one or more battery cells in the battery pack;
- and
- a charge control module configured to receive the voltage of the battery cells from the voltage monitoring module and illuminate the LED to indicate state of charge of the battery pack while the charging current is being delivered to the battery pack, where brightness of the LED correlates to the voltage of the battery cells in the battery pack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.