Patent ID: 7525290

Claim:
A charge control device including a charger for charging a battery, and executing a plurality of charge stages starting with an initial charge stage and ending with a final charge stage, one after another, in such a manner that a charge current value at each charge stage is set to be equal to or less than a charge current value of an immediately preceding charge stage, comprising: a battery voltage detector arranged to detect a voltage of the battery; a battery temperature detector arranged to detect a temperature of the battery; a controller configured to set an upper time limit of each charge stage based at least in part on the battery temperature detected by the battery temperature detector; a voltage determining circuit for determining whether the battery voltage detected by the battery voltage detector reaches a change voltage; a controller for determining whether the upper time limit of each of the respective charge stages has elapsed by counting an elapsing time from a start moment of each charge stage to the upper time limit of each charge stage; and a stage change control module configured to change the charge stage that precedes the final charge stage at least one turn to the final charge stage when the battery voltage has reached the change voltage or the upper time limit has elapsed.