Patent ID: 6664000
Filing Date: 2003-12-16
Classification: H01M,Y02E

Abstract:
A battery pack arranged to make a decision concerning a loss of functional status and to perform selectively charge-and-discharge control and forced discharge control according to the decision, said battery pack comprising:charge-and-discharge control means for charging and discharging a battery; forced discharge control means for forcedly discharging each cell; function detecting means for detecting a functional status of said battery pack; judging means for making a decision concerning a loss of functional status detected by said function detecting means; and control means for selectively controlling said charge-and-discharge control means and forced discharge control means according to the decision concerning a loss of functional status made by said judging means, whereby charge-and-discharge control and forced discharge control are selectively performed according to the decision concerning a loss of functional status, wherein the loss of functional status is when a usable life of the battery pack is determined as approaching an end as determined by an elapsed time since manufacture of the battery pack or a number of charge-discharge cycles exceeds a predetermined number.