Patent ID: 6043625
Filing Date: 2000-03-28
Classification: H02J

Abstract:
A multiple battery charging system comprising:a battery receiving well adapted to receive a plurality of separate batteries capable of including a mixture of primary and secondary batteries having the same size and shape devoid of external physical and electrical characteristics indicative of battery type, the well having first and second electrical contacts that define a battery voltage across the plurality of batteries;a transformer circuit that produces a transformer reference voltage and an output charging current for simultaneously charging the separate batteries;a reference network that produces a plurality of reference network voltages in response to the transformer reference voltage;a reverse polarity detector circuit that determines if the battery voltage is of correct polarity but less than a first predetermined one of the reference network voltages, thereby indicating at least one of the batteries was received in the battery receiving well with an incorrect electrical polarity;a battery type discriminating circuit that determines if the battery voltage is greater than a second predetermined one of the reference network voltages, thereby indicating at least one of the batteries in the receiving well is not a rechargeable battery cell; anda charging circuit coupled to the transformer circuit and to the batteries that operates in a non-charging mode if the reverse polarity detector circuit determines that at least one of the batteries was received in the battery receiving well with an incorrect polarity or if the battery type discriminating circuit determines that at least one of the batteries is not a rechargeable battery and otherwise operates in a charging mode for charging the batteries.