Patent ID: 7986128

Claim:
A battery charger, comprising: an attachment portion capable of being connected to a plurality of battery packs; a connection unit for connecting one of the battery packs connected to the attachment portion to a charging path; a state detection unit for detecting a state of each of the battery packs; a remaining capacity detection unit for detecting a remaining capacity of each of the battery packs connected to the attachment portion based on the state of the battery pack detected by the state detection unit after each of the battery pack is charged for a specified period of time; a charging control unit for assigning priorities to the battery packs such that one of the battery packs whose remaining capacity detected by the remaining capacity detection unit is closer to a fully charged state thereof has a higher priority, and controlling the connection unit to charge the battery packs according to the assigned priorities; a battery type detection unit for determining a pack type specified by at least one of a type of each of the battery packs connected to the attachment portion, the number of cells in said each of the battery packs, and a rated capacity of said each of the battery packs; and a table storage unit for storing therein tables predefined according to the pack type to indicate a relationship between the state of each of the battery packs and the remaining capacity, wherein the remaining capacity detection unit elects a table from the tables stored in the table storage unit based on the pack type determined by the battery type detection unit, and detects the remaining capacity of each of the battery packs by referring to the elected table, wherein the state detection unit detects a voltage of each of the battery packs and a current flowing through the charging path as the state of the battery pack, and, if the pack type determined by the battery type detection unit is a specific type, the charging control unit charges the battery pack at a constant current until the voltage of the battery pack reaches a specified value, and then at a constant voltage after the voltage of the battery pack exceeds the specified value, and wherein the table indicates relationships between the voltage, the current and the remaining capacity in case of charging the battery pack of the specific type initially at the constant current and then at the constant voltage, and the remaining capacity detection unit specifies the remaining capacity based on the voltage and the current detected by the state detection unit by referring to the table.