Battery charging apparatus

Abstract: A charging apparatus is provided, in which a secondary battery is charged by a constant voltage and a charging amount is detected. This charging apparatus is characterized in that a voltage setting value for charging the secondary battery by the constant voltage is varied at every predetermined period and changes of current at the varied timing points are detected to detect the charging amount.

Description: The present invention generally relates to charging apparatus and, more particularly, is directed to an apparatus for displaying a charging state of a re-chargeable battery, such as a lead storage battery or the like. Conventionally, in a charging apparatus for charging a secondary battery, such as a lead storage battery, a charging current of the secondary battery is detected and a charging amount is displayed in order to display the charging state of the secondary battery. However, in such a secondary battery, as shown by a charging voltage characteristic curve 20 in Fig. 1, after a predetermined period of time, the charging voltage is placed in a saturated condition 20a before the charging state reaches the fully charged state (100 %) as shown by a charging state characteristic curve 21 so that, even when the charging voltage is detected, if the charging voltage is less than a predetermined voltage, then the charging condition cannot be displayed. That is, in the ordinary charging apparatus, only about 70 to 80 % of the charging condition is displayed. To solve this problem, as shown in Fig. 1, when the charging voltage approaches the saturated condition 20a, a charging current characteristic curve 22 which is constant up to that time begins to decrease, and for this reason, a decreasing charging current 22a is detected in order to display the charging condition. Fig. 2 shows an example of an arrangement of a conventional charging amount display apparatus. Referring to Fig. 2, an AC power source voltage from an AC plug 1 which is inserted into a commercially available AC power supply source is filtered out by a filter section 2 and fed to a switching section 3. A switch timing of the switching section 3 is controlled by a control signal which results from converting control data of a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as a central processing unit (CPU)) 10A into an analog signal. A switching signal, which is controlled to have a predetermined pulse width by the switching section 3, is supplied to a primary side of a conversion transformer 4, and an increasing voltage (decreasing voltage) conversion signal developed at the secondary side of the conversion transformer 4 is rectified and smoothed by a rectifying and smoothing circuit 5, converted into a DC voltage and is then fed to a positive terminal 13 to which an anode terminal of a secondary battery 12 to be charged is connected. A negative terminal 14 is connected with a cathode terminal of the secondary battery 12 and also with one end of a charging current detection resistor 15 and the other end of this resistor 15 is grounded. A charging voltage detecting circuit 19 is connected to the positive terminal 13 while a charging current detecting circuit 18 is connected to the negative terminal 14, whereby the charging voltage and the charging current detected by the two detecting circuits 19 and 18 are converted to digital data by analog-to-digital (A/D) converter circuits 17 and 16 respectively and charging voltage data and charging current data are supplied to the CPU 10A. The CPU 10A generates data corresponding to the charging voltage or charging current and supplies the same to similarly two digital-to-analog (D/A) converter circuits not shown. By outputs of these D/A converter circuits, the switching section 3 is controlled and a charging state is displayed on a display section 11. According to the prior-art charging amount display apparatus shown in Fig. 2, when the secondary battery 12 is charged, during the increasing region of the charging voltage characteristic curve 20 shown in Fig. 1, the charging voltage is detected by the charging voltage detecting circuit 19 to thereby control the switching section 3. Under the condition that the charging voltage becomes constant, the charging current 22a in which the charging current characteristic curve 22 shown in Fig. 1 is decreased is detected by the charging current detecting circuit 18 to thereby control the switching section 3. As a consequence, when the switching section 3 is controlled by the CPU 10A or the like, not only the two A/D converter circuits 16 and 17 and the two D/A converter circuits are needed but also the charging current detecting circuit 18 and the charging voltage detecting circuit 19 are needed, which provides a complicated circuit arrangement of the charging amount display apparatus. Further, in a re-chargeable secondary battery and so on, when a charging state in the charging-process of the secondary battery is measured, if a correlation shown by a characteristic curve 30 in Fig. 3 is established between a secondary battery release voltage (V) and a charging amount (%), then the charging amount of the secondary battery can be detected by measuring release voltages V1, V2, ..., V4 of the secondary battery. As shown in a circuit diagram of Fig. 4A, when a secondary battery 42 to be charged is connected through a switching means 32 to an output terminal of a battery charger 31 having a plug 41 which is inserted into a commercially available AC power source and a release voltage of the secondary battery 42 in the charging-process is measured, the switching means 32 is turned OFF and the release voltage of the secondary battery 42 is measured by using a voltmeter 33 or the like. Generally, when the secondary battery 42 is rapidly charged, a constant current charging is performed and a charging current of, for example, a relatively large current value of 1A to 2A is supplied to the secondary battery 42. Therefore, a large current switch is required as the switching means 32 which turns ON and OFF this large current, and such large current switch increases the manufacturing cost of the charging amount display apparatus and also reduces the reliability thereof. Furthermore, a voltage drop occurs due to an interconnection resistance and a contact resistance between the battery charger 31 and the secondary battery 42, and an inside resistance of the secondary battery 42, when it is rapidly charged by the large current. Particularly, in a video camera or the like in which a secondary battery is housed in a housing and treated as one of the video camera accessories, positive and negative polarity terminals of the secondary battery for the mounting and/or dismounting process are formed as contact structures, and the secondary battery is connected to the battery charger 31 by means of the contact structures. Although the contact resistance of that contact structure is usually in a range of from about 50 mΩ to 100 mΩ, if the secondary battery is connected to and disconnected from the battery charger repeatedly, the contact resistance is changed to about 200 mΩ. More specifically, the contact resistance is changed each time the secondary battery is connected to and disconnected from the battery charger, and the amount of the change of release voltage of the secondary battery in the charging-process is 0.4V if the charging current is 2A and the contact resistance is 200 mΩ. If the charging current is 2A and the contact resistance is 100 mΩ, the amount of the change of the release voltage is 0.2V, and thus, the amount of the change of the voltage is increased. More precisely, as shown by a graph of charging characteristic curves of Fig. 5, a difference of voltage occurs between a battery voltage characteristic curve 45 in the rapid charging process and a secondary battery release voltage characteristic curve 46 as shown by a broken line 46. In Fig. 5, reference numeral 47 designates a charging current characteristic curve of the rapid charging process. If the release voltage is detected by the aforementioned method of Fig. 4A without being affected by the change of the release voltage as described above, then unavoidably the switching means 32 of large capacity must be provided to cause the earlier noted disadvantages. To solve such problem, as shown in Fig. 4B, a plurality of contacts 43, 44, 43a and 44a are provided in a housing 48 which houses the secondary battery 42, and the secondary battery 42 is connected between the contacts 43 and 44 and the voltmeter 33 or the like is connected to the contacts 43a and 44a to thereby detect the voltage. As described above in the examples of the prior art, the charging apparatus shown in Fig. 4A needs the switching means 32 of large capacity to turn ON and OFF the current of large value 1A to 2A in the rapid charging process, and the switching means 32 which can endure such a large current is not only expensive but also of low reliability. Furthermore, the charging apparatus of Fig. 4B is disadvantageous in terms of size and cost, and also, the voltage is detected while the inner resistance of the secondary battery is involved, which reduces accuracy in measuring the release voltage of the secondary battery. EP-A-0174445 discloses a system for rapid charging of batteries in which there are three different limit values set for the battery voltage for different time periods after the start of the charging operation, and rapid charging is switched to normal charging, with a reduced charging current, when the limit value for the second time period is reached, the charging then continuing until the higher limit value for the third time period is reached. EP-A-0349995 discloses a charging system having a first charging phase in which a first voltage level is applied to the battery and a high charging current flows, and a second charging phase in which a second, higher voltage level is applied to the battery and the current is switched to a lower level. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved charging apparatus which can eliminate the aforenoted shortcomings and disadvantages encountered with the prior art. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a charging apparatus in which a charging state can be displayed with a simplified circuit arrangement utilising only a charging current detecting circuit. Another object of the present invention is to provide a charging apparatus in which the voltage of a secondary battery can be detected with high accuracy. Embodiments of the present invention provide a charging apparatus in which the charging time can be reduced considerably. A further object of the present invention is to provide a charging apparatus in which the circuit arrangement can be simplified. According to the present invention there is provided charging apparatus for constant voltage charging of a secondary battery, the apparatus comprising voltage setting means for setting the constant voltage for charging the battery to a plurality of different values, in order of increasing voltage, characterised in that each said voltage value is associated with a predetermined charging state of the battery to be detected, and in that the apparatus includes detection means for detecting a predetermined drop in the charging current, during constant voltage charging at each voltage value, indicating that the associated charging state has been reached, wherein, in response to detection that a said charging state has been reached, the detection means controls a display to indicate the charging state and if the fully charged state has not been reached, the voltage setting means changes the constant voltage value to the next, higher value. The above, and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals are used to identify the same or similar parts in the several views. Fig. 1 is a graph of the characteristics of voltage, charging state, and current versus time to which reference will be made in explaining a conventional charging state display apparatus for a secondary battery; Fig. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of the conventional apparatus; Fig. 3 is graph of the characteristics of charging state versus battery release voltage to which reference will be made in explaining another conventional charging apparatus for a secondary battery; Fig. 4A and 4B are schematic diagrams showing examples of conventional charging condition display apparatus; Fig. 5 is a graph of the characteristics of time versus battery voltage to which reference will be made in explaining the operation of the apparatus shown in Figs. 4A and 4B; Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram showing a first embodiment of a charging apparatus embodying to the present invention; Fig. 7 is a schematic circuit diagram showing a main portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is a graph of the characteristics of time versus voltage and current to which reference will be made in explaining the operation of the charging apparatus shown in Figs. 6 and 7; Fig. 9 is a schematic circuit diagram of a second embodiment of charging apparatus according to the present invention and illustrating another example of the main portion of Fig. 6; and Figs. 10A and 10B are graphs of the characteristics of time versus battery voltage and charging current used to explain the operation of the circuit shown in Fig. 9. A first embodiment of charging apparatus embodying the present invention will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to Figs. 6 to 8. Fig. 6 is a systematic block diagram showing an overall arrangement of the first embodiment. Fig. 7 is a circuit diagram of a main portion of Fig. 6 and illustrating the case where a charging control circuit is realized by a central processing unit (CPU), and Fig. 8 is a graph of charging characteristics used to explain operation of the apparatus. In this embodiment, like parts corresponding to those of the prior art shown in Fig. 2 are marked with the same references and therefore need not be described in detail. As shown in Fig. 6, the AC voltage from the AC plug 1 inserted into the commercially available AC power supply source is converted into a DC voltage via the input filter 2, the switching section 3, the conversion transformer 4 and the rectifying and smoothing circuit 5 and supplied to the positive terminal 13 which is connected with the anode terminal of the secondary battery 12 such as a lead storage battery to be charged. A cathode terminal of the secondary battery 12 is connected to the negative terminal 14, and a charging current detection resistor 15 is connected between the negative terminal 14 and the ground. A charging current developed at a junction 60 between the charging current detection resistor 15 and the negative terminal 14 is supplied to a current-to-voltage converting circuit 9, in which the charging current is converted to a charging voltage and is fed to a charge control circuit 10. A display unit 11 is connected to the charge control circuit 10 and a charge control voltage from the charge control circuit 10 is supplied to an output control circuit 8. Accordingly, a reference voltage of the output voltage supplied from the rectifying and smoothing circuit 5 is switched by the output control circuit 8 in response to the charging control voltage. An output of this output control circuit 8 is supplied to a light emitting element (not shown) of a photo coupler 7. Light emitted from the light emitting element of the photo coupler 7 is converted into an electrical signal by a light receiving element and fed to the control circuit 6 to thereby control the switching timing of the switching section 3. Fig. 7 shows an example of a specific circuit arrangement of the current-to-voltage converting circuit 9, the output control circuit 8 and the photo coupler 7 wherein the charge control circuit 10 is replaced with the CPU 10A. As shown in Fig. 7, the DC voltage from the rectifying and smoothing circuit 5 is supplied to an anode of a light emitting element CD1 such as a light emitting diode forming the photo coupler 7. A cathode of the light emitting element CD1 is connected to one end of a resistor R1 whose other end is connected to the output terminal of a voltage comparing operational amplifier AMP1. A light receiving element Tr₁ such as the photo transistor forming the photo coupler 7 is connected to the control circuit 6. An inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier AMP₁ is connected through a variable resistor VR1 to a signal line to which the DC voltage is supplied. A feedback resistor R2 is connected between the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier AMP1 and the output of the operational amplifier AMP1, and a resistor R3 is connected between the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier AMP₁ and the ground. A reference voltage V REF is supplied to a non-inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier AMP₁ from a reference terminal T1 through serially-connected dividing resistors R4 and R5, and one end of the resistors R5 is grounded. Collectors of transistors Tr₂ and Tr₃ constructing the output control circuit 8 are connected to a junction 70 between the dividing resistors R4 and R5 by way of resistors R6 and R9, and emitters of the transistors Tr₂ and Tr₃ are grounded, respectively. Also, resistors R8 and R11 are connected to the base-emitter path of the transistors Tr₂ and Tr₃, and bases of the transistors Tr₂ and Tr₃ are connected through base resistors R7 and R10 to, for example, a 50% setting port and a 70% setting port of the CPU 10A, respectively. The display unit 11 is controlled by the CPU 10A, and a light emitting diode (LED) 11a indicating 50% is lit when the charging state of 50% is set and the 50% charging state is achieved. When the charging state of 70% is set and the 70% charging state is achieved, an LED 11b indicating 70% is lit. In a like fashion, when the charging state of 100% is set and the 100% charging state is achieved, an LED 11c indicating 100% is lit. The secondary battery 12 such as the lead storage battery or lithium battery to be charged by constant voltage charging is connected between the positive and negative terminals 13 and 14, and the current-to-voltage converting circuit 9 is composed of a differential amplifier AMP2, a resistor R12 and a variable resistor VR2. A current across the charging current detection resistor 15 is supplied to the non-inverting and inverting input terminals of the differential amplifier AMP2 via the variable resistor VR2 and is thereby converted to a voltage. This voltage is supplied to an analog-to-digital converting circuit 16, in which it is converted into digital data and the charging voltage thus converted to digital data is supplied to the CPU 10A. The operation of the thus constructed charging apparatus will be explained with reference to the charging characteristic graph forming Fig. 8. In this case, a circuit for making the charging current constant will not be described. In this embodiment, the secondary battery 12 might be re-chargeable batteries, such as a lead storage battery and a lithium battery which are charged by a constant voltage. If the secondary battery is charged by, for example, 10V and 2A, the CPU 10A initially sets the charging voltage at a low voltage, for example, 5V in accordance with a detection point of the charging state. More specifically, in the range in which the charging voltage characteristic curve 120 is increasing as shown in Fig. 8, the charging voltage is selected to be, for example, a setting voltage 120b of 5V and 2A corresponding to 50 % of the saturation voltage. In that case, the 50 % setting port 11a and the 70 % setting port 11b are placed in the high level state so that the transistors Tr₂ and Tr₃ are turned ON. Although a constant charging current flows as shown by a charging current characteristic curve 122 in Fig. 8 until the secondary battery 12 reaches the 50 % setting voltage, if the secondary battery 12 reaches the 50 % setting voltage 120b, the constant current mode is changed to a constant voltage mode so that a charging current begins to decrease as shown by the characteristic curve 122b. A - ΔI at that time is detected by means of the charging current detection resistor 15 and fed to the current-to-voltage converting circuit 9, in which it is converted into a voltage. This voltage is converted to digital data and input to the CPU 10A. When the CPU 10A detects - ΔI, the CPU 10A causes the LED 11a of the display unit 11 to light, indicating that the secondary battery 12 is fully charged to the 50 % setting voltage. Next, the 50 % setting port of the CPU 10A is set to low level so that the transistor Tr₂ is turned OFF. Then, the voltage at the non-inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier AMP₁ is changed by changing a dividing ratio of the reference voltage supplied to a reference voltage terminal T1. As described above, the light emission of the light emitting element CD₁ of the photo coupler 7 is changed and the switching timing of the switching section 3 is changed, whereby the charging voltage is set to a setting voltage 120c of 7V and 2A corresponding to 70 % of the saturation voltage. Under this setting condition, the secondary battery 12 is charged one more time, and a charging current flows in the constant current mode as shown by the charging current characteristic curve 122 of Fig. 8. When the charging state reaches the 70 % setting, the constant current mode changes to a constant voltage mode, and the charging current begins to decrease as shown by the characteristic curve 122c of Fig. 8. As a consequence, the CPU 10A detects - ΔI one more time and causes the display unit 11 to indicate that the secondary battery 12 is charged to the 70 % setting voltage. Then, the 70 % setting port of the CPU 10A is placed at low level so that the transistor Tr₃ is turned OFF, whereby the reference voltage of the operational amplifier AMP₁ is switched and the switching section 3 is switched at a predetermined timing. As described above, the CPU 10A shifts up the setting of the charging voltage so that the charging voltage reaches, for example, a charging voltage setting value where the charging voltage characteristic curve 120 enters a saturation region 120a shown in Fig. 8 and the charging voltage becomes constant. For example, with a setting voltage 120d of 10V and 2A, the charging current characteristic curve 122 lies within a decreasing region 122a. Therefore, under the condition that 100 % charging of a final setting voltage is effected, - ΔI (122d) of the charging current is detected and the 100 % LED 11c is lit. At that time, the CPU 10A turns OFF the transistors Tr₂ and Tr₃ and a voltage, which results from dividing the reference voltage V REF by the resistors R4 and R5, is supplied to the non-inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier AMP₁. According to the above embodiment, it is sufficient that - ΔI of the charging current is detected until the charging state reaches the charging state of 100 %, which requires only the charging current detecting means. Therefore, in the control operation of the CPU 10A, only a single A/D converter circuit is needed and thus the circuit arrangement can be simplified considerably. While the setting values are 50 %, 70 % and 100 % in the above embodiment, these setting values may be changed and set at desired levels. In the charging apparatus of the embodiment, as compared with the prior art in which the charging current and the charging voltage are both detected to display the charging condition, the charging state can be displayed by detecting only the charging current so that the circuit arrangement can be simplified considerably. Fig. 9 shows another example of a specific circuit arrangement of the main portion of Fig. 6, and in Fig. 9, like parts corresponding to those of Figs. 6 and 7 are marked with the same references and therefore need not be described in detail. Referring to Fig. 9, one end of the primary side winding of the conversion transformer 4 is connected to the rectifying circuit 5 and the other end thereof is connected to the collector of an output transistor Tr₁ which forms the control circuit 6. The emitter of the transistor Tr₁ is grounded and the base thereof is connected to an output terminal of a pulse width modulation control circuit (hereinafter referred to as a PWM control circuit) 6a. The collector of the transistor Tr₂ such as the photo transistor forming the photo coupler 7 is connected to the input terminal of the PWM control circuit 6a and the emitter thereof is grounded. Light from a light emitting element CD₁ formed of the light emission diode or the like forming the photo coupler 7 is supplied to the base of the transistor Tr₂. An anode of a light emitting element CD₁ is connected to the positive terminal 13 to which the anode of the secondary battery 12 to be charged is connected. A cathode of the light emitting element CD₁ is connected through the resistor R1 to anodes of diodes CD₁₉ and CD₂₀ the cathodes of which are respectively connected to output terminals of an output voltage error detecting operational amplifier 17 and an output current error detecting operational amplifier 18 forming the output control circuit 8. A smoothing circuit 5a formed of the diode CD₁₈, a capacitor C1 or the like is provided at the secondary winding side of the conversion transformer 4. One end of its secondary winding is grounded and the other end thereof is connected to the anode of the diode CD₁₈. The cathode of the diode CD₁₈ is connected to one end of the capacitor C1 and is also connected to the positive terminal 13 to which the secondary battery 12 is connected. The other end of the capacitor C1 is grounded, and the charging current detection resistor 15 is connected to the negative terminal 14 to which the cathode of the secondary battery 12 is connected. One end of the resistor 15 is grounded, and a charging current developed at a junction 71 between the resistor 15 and the negative terminal 14 is supplied to non-inverting input terminals of the output current error detection operational amplifier 18 forming the constant current control means and the charging current detection operational amplifier 19. Reference current sources E3 and E4 are connected to the inverting input terminals of these operational amplifiers 18 and 19. A voltage developed at a junction 72 between the diode CD₁₈ and the positive terminal 13 is divided by the resistors R16 and R17 and fed to the non-inverting input terminal of the output voltage error detection operational amplifier 17 which forms the constant voltage control means. An inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 17 is connected through a switch SW to, for example, two reference voltage sources E1 and E2. The number of the reference voltage sources E1 and E2 is not limited to two and a plurality of reference voltage sources may be provided depending on the number of the charging state detection points as will described later. Further, the two reference voltage sources E1 and E2 need not be selectively switched by the switch SW, and alternatively, it is possible to provide a voltage varying means which continuously varies the voltage of one reference voltage source. The switch SW or the voltage varying means is controlled by the output of a CPU 10B. Though not shown, the CPU 10B incorporates therein a digital-to-analog converting means, an analog-to-digital converting means or the like, whereby the control signal which controls the switch SW is converted to an analog control signal and an analog charging current from the charging current detection operational amplifier 19 is converted to a digital signal and fed to the CPU 10B. The outputs of the operational amplifiers 17 and 18 are supplied to cathodes of the diodes CD₁₉ and CD₂₀, respectively. The operation of the second embodiment of the present invention will now be described below with reference to characteristic graphs of Figs. 10A and 10B. Referring to Fig. 9, an AC voltage from the commercially available AC power supply source is converted to a DC voltage by means of the input filter 2, the rectifying circuit 5, the switching section 6, the conversion transformer 4 and the smoothing circuit 5a and this charging voltage is supplied to the secondary battery 12. The operational amplifier 18 compares the charging current flowing through the resistor 15 with the reference current of the reference current source E3, and an output error current from the operational amplifier 18 is supplied to the light emitting element CD₁ forming the photo coupler 7 through the diode CD₂₀ to drive the apparatus in a constant current in such a fashion that, as shown by a constant current curve 227a of a rapid charging current characteristic curve 227 in Fig. 10A, a constant current becomes 2A. Similarly, the operational amplifier 17 compares the rectified DC voltage (output voltage) supplied to the secondary battery 12 with the reference voltage of the second reference voltage source E2, and supplies an output error voltage thereof to the light emitting element CD₁ forming the photo coupler 7 through the diode CD₁₉ to drive the apparatus in the constant voltage fashion such that, as shown by, for example, a rapid charging battery voltage characteristic curve 225, an output voltage 225a becomes 8.3V. The error signals of the two operational amplifiers 17 and 18 are supplied through the light receiving element Tr₁ to the PWM control circuit 6a connected to the primary winding side of the conversion transformer 4 by the photo coupler 7 so as to control the outputs of the charging voltage and the charging current to become constant via the conversion transformer 4. The operational amplifier 19 detects the charging current flowing through the charging resistor 15 and compares the detected charging current with the reference current of the reference current source E4 to thereby supply a very small charging current to the CPU 10B. The CPU 10B determines whether this very small charging current is less than a predetermined value, e.g., 0.1A or not. In this embodiment, let it be assumed that the output voltage 225a supplied to the secondary battery 12 is 8.3 V when the voltage of the second reference voltage source E2 connected to a second fixed contact c of the switch SW connected to the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 17 is V2 volts. Also, let it be assumed that the battery release voltage is 7.5V when the secondary battery 12 is charged to the 50% charging state. Then, the voltage of the first reference voltage source E1 to which the movable contact a of the switch SW is connected via a first fixed contact b is selected to be V1 volts and this voltage V1 of the first reference voltage source E1 is selected such that the output voltage 225b supplied to the secondary battery 12 becomes nearly equal to 7.5V. In order to detect the charging state of 50 % after the voltage of the first reference voltage source E1 is selected, the CPU 10B derives a control signal 10a which changes over the switch SW at a predetermined cycle as shown in Fig. 10A. As a consequence, the smoothing circuit 5a derives the output voltage 225b and 225a in which V1 = 7.5V and V2 = 8.5V are established. When the output voltage 225b is 7.5V (the reference voltage source E1 side), the operational amplifier 19 detects the charging current and the detected charging current is supplied to the CPU 10B. If the charging current is higher than 0.1 A, the CPU 10B changes the movable contact a of the switch SW to the V2 volt (output voltage 8.5V) side, ie reference voltage source E2 side, to thereby charge the secondary battery 12 by a charging current 2A during a predetermined period of time. After a predetermined period of time, when the movable contact a of the switch SW is switched again to the fixed contact b to which the reference voltage source E1 is connected, if the CPU 10B examines the charging current detected by the operational amplifier 19 under the condition that the output voltage is 7.5V and detects a charging current 227b shown in Fig. 10A in which the charging current is less than 0.1A, then the detected value indicates the battery release voltage 7.5V = output voltage 7.5V in the 50 % charging state. More specifically, as shown by the rapid charging current characteristic curve 227 of Fig. 10A, the charging current with the battery release voltage of 7.5V corresponding to the 50 % charging state gradually decreases from 2A and when it decreases to 0.1A, it can be determined that the secondary battery 12 is charged to the 50 % charging state. Also, when a plurality of charging states, such as a 30% charging state, a 70% charging state and so on are detected in addition to the detection of the 50% charging state, the voltage of the reference voltage source E2 is set to an appropriate value and the switch SW is switched accordingly, in a similar fashion to that described above. According to the above-mentioned arrangement, the charging amount detection voltage corresponding to a predetermined charging state (%) is set and it is determined whether the charging current at this setting voltage drops to zero or a very small charging current. Therefore, if the very small current is 0.1A as in the second embodiment, even when the contact resistance is considerably changed to 200 mΩ, 0.1A x 200 mΩ = 0.02V is established. Thus, as compared with the case where a charging current of 2A is switched, the secondary battery voltage detection accuracy can be increased by about 20 times. Further, when the output voltage is repeatedly changed between 7.5V and 8.5V in a predetermined cycle, the charging time for achieving the 50% charging state can be reduced. For example, let it be assumed that the secondary battery has the rapid charging battery voltage characteristic curve 225 and the rapid charging current characteristic curve 227 shown in Fig. 10B. Then, the charging time is similar to that of the charging method shown in Fig. 10A when the charging current is 2A, and it takes a lot of time for the charging current to decrease to 0.1A. Accordingly, if the secondary battery is charged by the charging voltage higher than 7.5V, i.e., 8.5V until the charging current begins to decrease and reaches 0.1A, then the charging current recovers to 2A. As a consequence, the time T₅₀ of Fig. 10B can be considerably reduced by the time in which the charging voltage is selected to be 8.5V. According to the arrangement of the second embodiment, the switching means of large current capacity shown in Figs. 4A and 4B are not needed and detection accuracy in detecting the battery voltage can be increased. Further, while the battery voltage measuring circuit and the charging current detecting circuit for detecting the end of charging operation are both required in order to detect the release voltage of the secondary battery and to detect or display the charging state in the prior art, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, a circuit for detecting the voltage is not needed because the output voltage is merely set and only the charging current detecting circuit of the operational amplifier 19 is required. Also, the charging state can be detected by the charging current detecting circuit which detects the end of the charging operation so that the circuit arrangement can be simplified. According to the charging apparatus described above, the battery voltage can be detected with high accuracy and the circuit arrangement can be simplified considerably.

Claims: Charging apparatus for constant voltage charging of a secondary battery (12), the apparatus comprising voltage setting means (8) for setting the constant voltage for charging the battery to a plurality of different values, in order of increasing voltage, characterised in that: each said voltage value is associated with a predetermined charging state of the battery (12) to be detected, and in that the apparatus includes detection means (10) for detecting a predetermined drop in the charging current, during constant voltage charging at each voltage value indicating that the associated charging state has been reached, wherein, in response to detection that a said charging state has been reached, the detection means (10) controls a display (11) to indicate the charging state and if the fully charged state has not been reached, the voltage setting means (8) changes the constant voltage value to the next, higher value. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, at each voltage value the voltage setting means (8) is arranged to switch the voltage level between a voltage level allowing rapid charging and the said voltage value for constant voltage charging, and the detection means (10) detects the charging state when the voltage level is switched to the said voltage value. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, including output voltage error detecting means (17) for controlling constant voltage charging of the battery (12). Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, including output current error detecting means (18) for controlling constant current charging of the battery (12). Apparatus according to claim 3 or claim 4, wherein a reference voltage source (E₁, E₂) of the output voltage error detecting means (17) is switched to effect switching of the voltage level by the voltage setting means (8).

Inventors: SAMESHIMA TSUGIO, SASAKI MASAYOSHI, UMETSU KOJI, SAMESHIMA, TSUGIO, SASAKI, MASAYOSHI, UMETSU, KOJI
Applicants: SONY CORP, SONY CORPORATION
Application year: 1991
Main classification: H02J7
IPC codes: H02J7, G01R31