Patent ID: 8439939

Claim:
A method for powering surgical instruments, the method comprising: removably inserting a cordless battery assembly into a handle of one of a set of cordless, electrically powered ultrasonic surgical instruments, the instruments having handles with a battery chamber and operable to be coupled to different ultrasonic waveguide types, the cordless battery assembly comprising: at least one energy storage cell operable to power an ultrasonic-signal-generation assembly of the surgical instruments, wherein the ultrasonic-signal-generation assembly is operable to dynamically produce a resonant wave along an ultrasonic waveguide; a battery/handle interface having a plurality of connectors shaped to mate with a plurality of corresponding connectors within the battery chamber; and a voltage-control circuit operable to: communicatively couple with and provide power to the ultrasonic-signal-generation assembly; detect which one of the ultrasonic waveguide types is coupled to the handle; provide a first output in response to a detection of a first waveguide type; and provide at least a second output in response to a detection of at least a second waveguide type; as the cordless battery assembly is removably inserted into the handle, coupling at least one of the plurality of connectors of the battery/handle interface with at least one of the connectors within the battery chamber to: communicatively couple the voltage-control circuit to the ultrasonic-signal-generation assembly; and provide power to the ultrasonic-signal-generation assembly; detecting the waveguide type of the ultrasonic waveguide coupled to the handle with the voltage-control circuit; and dependent upon the detected waveguide type, providing at the battery/handle interface one of: the first output; and the second output.