Patent ID: 8042633

Claim:
A discharging system comprising: a discharging section, connected to a battery block to be discharged among battery blocks forming a battery pack, for discharging the battery block to be discharged; a discharge control unit connected in parallel with the discharging section to both ends of the battery block to be discharged, the discharge control unit is configured to operate from power supplied from the battery block to be discharged and to issue a command to the discharging section to discharge the battery block to be discharged in response to start of the power being supplied; a discharge request section that measures the amount of variation of remaining capacity between battery blocks and starts power supply to the discharge control unit connected to the battery block to be discharged, if amount of variation of remaining capacity between battery blocks forming the battery pack is larger than a predetermined value with at least a battery block having the largest remaining capacity among the battery blocks as the battery block to be discharged; a first switch in a line connecting the discharge control unit to the battery block to be discharged, wherein the switch is activated by the discharge request section; and a second switch in the discharging section that is activated by the discharge control unit to allow current flow from the battery block to be discharged, wherein the discharge control unit includes a microprocessor that receives power from the battery block to be discharged when the first switch is activated, and the discharge control unit issues a command to the discharging section to stop discharging of the battery block to be discharged and further stops power supply from the battery block to be discharged if remaining capacity of the battery block to be discharged becomes less than a predetermined value.