Patent ID: 8193774

Claim:
A battery pack comprising: a protection circuit disposed in the battery pack to detect an overcharge, an overdischarge, and an overcurrent of a secondary battery and turn off a switch element disposed on a wiring line between the secondary battery and a load or a charging device; a series circuit of a thermistor and a resistor, which is disposed in the battery pack in a vicinity of the secondary battery and connected in parallel with the secondary battery; a connection detecting circuit disposed in the battery pack to detect connection between the charging device and the battery pack via a first terminal; a comparator disposed in the protection circuit to compare a voltage of a junction point of the thermistor and the resistor with a reference voltage corresponding to a predetermined temperature; and a gate circuit disposed in the protection circuit to activate an output signal of the comparator only when the connection between the charging device and the battery pack is detected by the connection detecting circuit, wherein, when a temperature of the secondary battery exceeds the predetermined temperature, the protection circuit turns off the switch element in accordance with the output signal of the comparator activated by the gate circuit, so that the secondary battery is disconnected from the changing device by the turned-off switching element on the wiring line.