Abstract:
A wireless system for monitoring rechargeable and single-use batteries. The wireless system is usable with existing batteries that implement a smart battery standard and/or an analog port. The wireless system may be installed in the battery, in a battery-powered device, in a battery mount plate, in an attachment that connects to an analog port and/or in a battery charging station or charging device. The wireless system transmits the battery&#39;s status to a remote user device, which may be a tablet, smartphone or other wireless device. The system allows a user to monitor one or more batteries remotely.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to rechargeable battery systems such as those used for electronic devices including, without restriction, cameras, computers, medical and audiovisual equipment. 
         [0002]    The present invention is a wireless communication system for batteries and battery-powered systems that includes a network connection element that transmits information regarding the battery to one or more electronic devices. The present invention may be integrated into the battery, integrated into an electronic device powered by a battery or may be an attachment for such an electronic device that interoperates with the battery powering the device. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Many devices, including computers, cameras, lights, phones, radios and other equipment, use rechargeable batteries for power. These batteries typically attach to the device by mechanical latches or connections. In particular, in many items of audiovisual recording equipment, a rechargeable battery attaches to a battery mount plate which is attached to the device, which incorporates the power terminals that receive power from the battery and data terminals for communication between the battery and the device. Such battery mount plates are attached semi-permanently to the audiovisual recording equipment and provide an industry-standard mounting surface which a rechargeable battery may be quickly and easily attached to or detached from. Such industry-standard mounting surfaces include, without restriction, 3-stud mounts and V-mounts. Some rechargeable batteries may be recharged through the device, while others may be recharged through a dedicated charging device, and some batteries may be recharged either through the device or through a dedicated charging device. 
         [0004]    Many currently available rechargeable batteries include sub-systems that enable battery management, reporting or other features referred to as smart battery features. Such smart battery features may report the current battery charge, power and other state information. Such smart battery features may also report information such as current battery load, time until the battery is charged when charging, or time until the battery is discharged when in use. Smart battery features may also allow the user to manage the battery by monitoring its output voltage, reserve power, or alerts. Dedicated charging devices may also incorporate smart battery features. 
         [0005]    Smart battery features are usually implemented using the System Management Bus (“SMBus”) standard, which allows communication between a computer processor and computer hardware. In addition to the SMBus standard, other standards including, without restriction, the Power Management Bus (“PMBus”), Smart Battery System (“SBS”), HDQ and Inter-Integrated Circuit (“I2C”) are used by various manufacturers to allow communication between a battery and a computer processor or device. These standards may be referred to as smart battery management standards. As used herein, the term smart battery management standards also includes analogue connections that communicate only one battery attribute such as voltage and/or amperage. 
         [0006]    Current smart battery management standards all rely on a directly wired connection between the smart battery and the device receiving the information regarding smart battery features and/or managing the smart battery. This architecture is acceptable when a single device is powered by the battery and manages the battery. In an environment, however, where the device powered by the battery is not directly attended by a user or where a user is using multiple battery-powered devices at once, this can result in a device unexpectedly shutting off as its battery runs out of power. Additionally, it prevents the use of smart battery features on devices that do not incorporate computer processors and/or displays. Current smart battery features and systems cannot report or otherwise communicate battery status to device other than a device the battery is connected to by a wired connection. Further, multiple smart batteries or smart battery systems do not aggregate the statuses of their batteries or offer an interface where a user can review the status of multiple batteries at once. This can be a problem in a workplace or other setting where multiple devices, each powered by one or more rechargeable batteries, are all continuously or intermittently operating, and the loss of power to one device can interrupt work or other tasks. Additionally, devices that do not implement fully-featured smart battery communication systems may only communicate particular attributes, such as voltage or amperage, via an analogue port or connector. The current invention solves these problems. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The current invention is a wireless smart battery communication system, incorporating a processor, a connector complying with a smart battery management standard and a wireless communication system. The wireless smart battery connector allows a user to view the status of one or more smart batteries using a wireless device. Multiple smart battery communication systems, each connected to and/or incorporating one smart battery, may be connected to a single wireless device. The preferred embodiment of the invention is a smart battery connector incorporated into a battery mount plate that connects a device and a smart battery. The current invention allows a user to remotely and wirelessly monitor and manage multiple smart batteries powering multiple devices and/or being recharged in devices or dedicated charging devices. 
         [0008]    The preferred embodiment of the invention is a battery mount plate that includes a battery power terminal, a device power terminal, a battery communication terminal, a device communication terminal, a processor, a wireless communication system and a battery mounting system. All of the foregoing are incorporated into a housing having two sides, which is configured to semi-permanently attach to a device requiring power, such as by screws, and releasably attach to a rechargeable battery, such as by, without restriction, latches or other mechanical mounting. The battery power terminal, battery communication terminal and battery mounting system are disposed on a battery side of the housing and the device power terminal and device communication terminal are disposed on a device side of the housing. In this configuration, the invention is semi-permanently affixed to the device and a smart battery is releasably attached to the invention such that electrical power flowing from the battery to the device or from the device to the battery passes through the invention and communications passing from the battery to the device or from the device to the battery pass through the invention. In a related embodiment, the processor and wireless communication system are directly incorporated into the battery housing and receive battery information and/or communications directly from the internal battery systems. 
         [0009]    Information regarding power and/or communications passing through the invention may then be processed by the processor and transmitted using the wireless communication system to any system or device capable of receiving wireless communications. Such a device may be a computer, tablet or smartphone device with an application installed for presenting the received information to a user. 
         [0010]    Another embodiment of the invention is a battery charger with a processor, wireless communication system, battery power terminal, battery communication terminal and battery mounting system integrated into the battery charger. In this embodiment, information regarding battery power and/or communications between the charger and a connected battery may then be processed by the processor and transmitted using the wireless communication system to any system or device capable of receiving wireless communications. 
         [0011]    A third embodiment of the invention is a smart battery module attachable to a battery by a standard analogue port. In this embodiment, the module incorporates a processor, wireless communication system and battery connector into a housing. When the module is connected to a battery 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the drawings herein, of which: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1A  is a rear view of the preferred embodiment of the current invention configured for v-mount batteries; 
           [0014]      FIG. 1B  is a rear cutaway view of the preferred embodiment of the current invention configured for v-mount batteries; 
           [0015]      FIG. 2A  is a rear view of the preferred embodiment of the current invention configured for 3-stud batteries; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2B  is a rear cutaway view of the preferred embodiment of the current invention configured for 3-stud batteries; 
           [0017]      FIG. 3A  is a schematic view of multiple battery charging devices incorporating the current invention; and 
           [0018]      FIG. 3B  is a plan view of a tablet communicating with the current inventions depicted in  FIG. 3A ; 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  is a schematic view of a workplace using multiple devices incorporating the current invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 5  is a front view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0021]      FIG. 6  is a front view of the embodiment of  FIG. 2A ; 
           [0022]      FIG. 7A  is a rear view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0023]      FIG. 7B  is a rear view of the embodiment of  FIG. 2A ; 
           [0024]      FIG. 8A  is a perspective view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1A  attached to a powered device; 
           [0025]      FIG. 8B  is a perspective view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1B  attached to a powered device 
           [0026]      FIG. 9  is a perspective view of a dongle embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0027]      FIG. 10  is a cutaway view of the dongle embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0028]      FIG. 11  is a side perspective view of an alternate embodiment of the embodiment of  FIG. 3A ; and 
           [0029]      FIG. 12  is an exploded view of a battery pack embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0030]    In a first embodiment, as depicted in  FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B , the present invention comprises a mount plate housing  10 , a battery attachment mount  20 , a battery power terminal  30 , a battery communication terminal  40 , a wireless communication systems  50 , a processor  60 , a device power terminal  70  and a device communication terminal  80 . The mount plate housing  10  is of similar size, shape and design to the battery mount plates known to those skilled in the relevant art and used in the audiovisual recording industry. The battery attachment mount  20  may be an industry-standard V-mount  20  as shown in  FIG. 1A  and  FIG. 1B , a 3-stud mount  20 ′ as shown in  FIG. 2A  and  FIG. 2B  or any other system or mechanism for attaching a battery to a mount plate. The battery power terminal  30  is located and configured as standard for the type of battery attachment mount  20  used. The battery power terminal  30  is a plurality of connectors such as, without restriction, prongs, contacts or sockets that connect to connectors on a rechargeable battery  110  as shown in  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 . Preferably, the battery power terminal  30  is a negative and a positive connector. The battery communication terminal  40  is located and configured as standard for the type of battery attachment mount  20  used. The battery communication terminal  40  is one or more connectors such as, without restriction, prongs, contacts or sockets that connect to connectors on a rechargeable battery. Preferably, the battery communication terminal  40  is an SMBus-compliant DATA connector and CLOCK connector. The battery communication terminal  40  may also be, without restriction, a single-wire connection such as HDQ or an analog voltage output. The wireless communication system  50  is disposed inside the battery mount plate housing  10  and may be any wireless communication device including, without restriction, a chip or chipset implementing any version of the Bluetooth standard and/or any version of the WiFi standard, but is preferably a chip implementing the Bluetooth 4.0 (also known as Bluetooth Low Energy or Bluetooth Smart) standard. The processor  60  is disposed inside the battery mount plate housing  10  and may be any microprocessor capable of receiving data from the battery communication terminal  40 . The processor  60  is connected to the battery power terminal  30 , the battery communication terminal  40  and the wireless communication system  50 . The processor  60  may be disposed on the same circuit board or in the same chip or chipset as the wireless communication system  50 . As depicted in  FIG. 7A  and  FIG. 7B , the present invention further comprises a device power terminal  70 , a device communication terminal  80  and device attachment means  90 .  FIG. 7A  and  FIG. 7B  also show alternative positions of the wireless communication systems  50  and the processor  60  inside the mount plate housing  10 . 
         [0031]    Turning now to  FIG. 8A , when the battery mount plate housing  10  is attached to a device  100  by device attachment means  90 , the device power terminal  70  and the device communication terminal  80  connect to the device  100 . When a rechargeable battery  110  is mounted on the battery mount plate housing  10  by the battery attachment mount  20 , the battery power terminal  30  and the battery communication terminal  40  connect to the rechargeable battery  110 . The battery power terminal  30  and the device power terminal  70  are connected so that a power circuit  120  is created between the rechargeable battery  110  and the device  100 . The processor  60  is connected to power circuit  120  and powered by power circuit  120 . The battery communication terminal  40  and the device communication terminal  80  are connected so that a communication circuit  130  is created between the rechargeable battery  110  and the device  100 . The processor  60  is connected to communication circuit  130  and receives all information sent between the rechargeable battery  110  and the device  100 . The processor  60  is connected to the wireless communication system  50 . The wireless communication system  50  is connected to power circuit  120  and powered by power circuit  120 . The processor  60  processes information sent between the rechargeable battery  110  and the device  100  and transmits the result of said processing to the wireless communication system  50  and/or relays information sent between the rechargeable battery  110  and the device  100  to the wireless communication system  50  without processing it first. The wireless communication system  50  transmits information regarding the rechargeable battery  110  to a user device  140  to which it is wirelessly connected. 
         [0032]    In another embodiment of the invention as shown in  FIG. 3A , the battery power terminal  30 , the battery communication terminal  40 , the wireless communication system  50  and the processor  60  are incorporated into a charger housing  150 . The charger housing  150  also incorporates a power connector  160 .  FIG. 11  shows an alternate configuration of the battery charger embodiment of the invention shown in  FIG. 3A . In preferred embodiments of the battery charger embodiment of the invention, power connector  160  plugs directly into a power outlet, preferably a standard U.S. 110 volt power outlet, but this embodiment may, without restriction, connect to a DC converter, be configured for any power outlet or connect to any other power source, including large batteries, generators, solar power, or any other source of power that may be connected to provide power to the invention. The power connector  160  is connected to the battery power terminal  30  and provides power at the correct voltage and amperage to charge the rechargeable battery  110 . When the rechargeable battery  110  is seated in the charger housing  150  so that it connects to the battery power terminal  30  and the battery communication terminal  40 , it can receive power from through the battery power terminal  30  and communicate status through the battery communication terminal  40 . The processor  60  processes status information communicated by the rechargeable battery  110  and transmits the result of said processing to the wireless communication system  50  and/or relays information to the wireless communication system  50 . The wireless communication system  50  transmits information regarding the rechargeable battery  110  to a user device  140  to which it is wirelessly connected. 
         [0033]    In another embodiment of the invention, as shown in  FIG. 9  and  FIG. 10 , a dongle  180  is comprised of a housing  190  formed to connect to a battery analog port of a rechargeable battery  110 . Said analog port may, without restriction, also function as an auxiliary power output. The housing  190  encloses an analog connector  200  disposed in the portion of the housing  190  formed to connect to the battery analog port, a processor  60  connected to said analog connector  200  and a wireless communication system  50  connected to said processor. The analog connector  200  may receive information from the battery analog port in the form of, without restriction, voltage levels and amperage. 
         [0034]    In another embodiment of the invention, as shown in  FIG. 12 , the processor  60  and wireless communication system  50  are disposed inside of the housing  170  of a battery  110 . The housing includes one or more battery cells  210  that are connected to a power circuit  220 , which terminates at a power terminal  230 . By attaching a device  100  to the battery  110  by connecting to power terminal  230 , the battery  110  provides power to the device  100 . The processor  60  and wireless communication system  50  are attached to and receive power from power circuit  220 . The processor  60  detects and processes information regarding the battery  110  from the power circuit  220 . Such information can include current voltage, amperage, charge level and/or any other information that can be determined by an electrical connection to a battery cell. As in the other embodiments of the invention, the wireless communication system  50  receives said information from the processor  60  and transmits information regarding the rechargeable battery  110  to a user device  140  to which it is wirelessly connected. 
         [0035]    In all embodiments of the invention, the user device  140  may be any device capable of receiving wireless signals, preferably a tablet capable of acting as a Bluetooth 4.0 client as depicted in  FIG. 3B . The user device  140  may also be, without restriction, a smartphone, a desktop computer or a wireless hub. Each user device  140  may connect wirelessly to multiple wireless communication systems  50 , each such wireless communication system  50  incorporated into a battery mount plate housing  10 , charger housing  150 , dongle housing  190  or other housing incorporating a wireless communication system  50  and connecting to a rechargeable battery  110 . 
         [0036]    The user device  140  displays to the user the status of each battery attached to each wireless smart battery connector. The status can include, without restriction, the current charge of each rechargeable battery  110 , whether each device  100  is current operating, the time until charged for any rechargeable batteries  110  that are charging, and the time until discharge for any rechargeable batteries  110  that are powering devices  100 . The user device  140  may also act as a network hub and allow a user to connect to it via a network to view the foregoing information. The user is thereby enabled to view the status of multiple rechargeable batteries  110  without needing to examine each rechargeable batteries  110  and/or devices  100  and, furthermore, can obtain such information while at a single location, whereas the rechargeable batteries  110  and/or devices  100  may be spread across a workplace. 
         [0037]    While the foregoing description and drawings represent the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.