Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works Power Tools Co., Ltd.

Masaki Ikeda

Hiroshi Matsumoto

Tatsuya Miwa

Atsumasa Kubota

Naoki Tsuruta

Norihiro Iwamura

Akira Kawai

Naoki Shimizu

Masaaki Sakaue

Motoharu Muto

Kazuhiko Nishii

Toshiharu Ohashi

Yoichi Masuda

Hiroshi Miyazaki

Masaaki Okada

Naotake Tanaka

Hidenori Shimizu

Hisao Kawaguchi

Hirotatsu Shinomiya

Keiji Sakaguchi

Kazuto Toyama

Seiji Nimura

Teruhisa Innami

Masamichi Nakamura

Tomoya Watanabe

Yu Ota

A charging system is configured to charge a battery pack including one or more battery cells. The charging system includes an acquirer and a controller. The acquirer is configured to acquire, as an acquisition voltage, a voltage between terminals or a cell voltage of each of the one or more battery cells in the battery pack which is being charged. The controller is configured to, when the voltage between the terminals or the cell voltage reaches a target voltage, cause a first charging mode allowing fast charging to transition to a second charging mode in which a charge current is lower than in the first charging mode. The controller is configured to stop charging operation when the acquisition voltage acquired by the acquirer decreases and an aspect of a decrease in the acquisition voltage satisfies a predetermined condition in the second charging mode.

Charging system, charging method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium for terminating of charge based on decreaser battery voltage

The tool system includes a body, a driver, and a tool sensing unit. To the body, a tool is attachable. The driver is configured to drive the tool attached to the body. The tool sensing unit is configured to perform identification of a type of the tool attached to the body.

Tool system

A power tool charging device includes a charging unit that charges a rechargeable battery of a power tool, a condition detection unit that detects condition information of the rechargeable battery, and an information processing unit that receives the condition information of the rechargeable battery from the condition detection unit and outputs the received condition information of the rechargeable battery to a communication unit capable of performing near field communication with another device.

Power tool charging device and power tool charging system

A battery pack includes a rechargeable battery, a battery information memory unit configured to store battery type information relating to a type of the rechargeable battery, and an information output unit configured to output the battery type information from the battery pack.

Battery pack and electric device including battery pack

An electric power tool that receives driving power from a rechargeable battery includes loads and a control circuit that controls supply of the driving power from the rechargeable battery to the loads. The control circuit sets and stores for each of the loads a reference voltage value of the rechargeable battery used for stopping or issuing a notification in order to obviate over-discharging of the rechargeable battery.

Electric power tool

A battery pack for an electric power tool is adapted for attachment in a removable manner to a tool body of the electric power tool. The battery pack includes an outer shell and a rechargeable battery unit accommodated in the outer shell. The rechargeable battery unit includes at least one rechargeable battery cell, a battery case that is sealed accommodating the at least one rechargeable battery cell, and a relief valve arranged on the battery case. The relief valve is configured to open when the at least one rechargeable battery cell generates gas and builds up pressure in the battery case to a predetermined value or greater.

Battery pack for electric power tool

A power tool system includes a battery pack, a charger connectable to the battery pack, and a power tool body connectable to the battery pack. The battery pack includes a battery pack memory that stores identification information in a smallest unit allowing for communication with the charger and the power tool body. Each of the charger and the power tool body includes a device memory that stores at least one piece of identification information of a usable battery pack. Each of the charger and the power tool body or the battery pack includes a determination unit that determines whether or not the at least one piece of identification information stored in the device memory includes the identification information stored in the battery pack memory.

Electric tool system

The battery pack includes a battery cell for supplying electric power to an external device connected thereto, a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of a place on which the temperature sensor is arranged, a switch member for making and breaking an electric path between the external device and the battery cell; and a controller configured to control the switch member to turn on and off according to the temperature sensed by the temperature sense. The temperature sensor is arranged on a position between the battery cell and the switch member so as to be affected by the temperatures of both of the battery cell and the switch member.

Battery pack

A communication device according to the present invention aims to restart data transmission/reception between communication devices in a short amount of time, without performing key sharing again, even when a communication device of a transmitting side is rebooted. The communication device includes a volatile memory storing a count value, a generator generating data including a count value, a communicator transmitting data to another communication device, a storage instructor, each time the communicator transmits data, updating the volatile memory with a count value, and a nonvolatile memory. A count value is incremented each time the communicator transmits data, the storage instructor causes the nonvolatile memory to store a count value at certain intervals, and the generator, when the communication device is rebooted, includes in data a sum of a certain value and a count value stored in the nonvolatile memory.

Communication device, communication system and communication method

An electric tool adaptor is configured to be disposed between an electric tool and a battery pack and attached detachably with respect to the electric tool and the battery pack. This adaptor includes a DC-DC converter configured to increase or reduce a voltage of the battery pack to convert the voltage to a drive voltage of the electric tool and supply the drive voltage to the electric tool.

Electric tool adaptor and electric tool system using same

An electric power tool includes a drive source, a rechargeable battery that supplies power to the drive source, a voltage meter that measures voltage of the rechargeable battery, a temperature meter that measures temperature of the rechargeable battery, and a drive control unit that regulates the power supplied to the drive source from the rechargeable battery to drive the drive source. If the battery temperature measured by the temperature meter is lower than or equal to a predetermined temperature when the battery voltage measured by the voltage meter is lower than or equal to a predetermined voltage, the drive control unit drives the drive source differently from normal driving that is performed if the battery temperature is higher than the predetermined temperature when the battery voltage is higher than the predetermined voltage.

A power tool system includes a plurality of tool devices. Each of the tool devices includes a condition detection unit that detects condition information of the tool device and a communication unit capable of performing bidirectional wireless communication with a further one of the tool devices. The communication unit is configured to obtain the condition information of the tool device from the condition detection unit and transmit the obtained condition information of the tool device to the further one of the tool devices.

Power tool system

The charger includes: a connector to be connected to a battery; an identification unit configured to perform an identification process of judging whether the battery being connected to the connector is a compliant battery allowed to be directly connected to the connector or a non-compliant battery allowed to be indirectly connected to the connector, and output a result of the identification process; a main charging unit configured to charge the compliant battery according to a main charging condition appropriate to the compliant battery; an auxiliary charging unit configured to charge the non-compliant battery according to an auxiliary charging condition which does not cause a harmful effect on the non-compliant battery; and a control unit configured to receive the result from the identification unit, and, when the result indicates the compliant battery, activate the main charging unit, and, when the result indicates the non-compliant battery, activate the auxiliary charging unit.

Charger, adapter and charging system

The battery pack includes: a charging terminal receiving power from a charger while connected to the charger; a battery connected to the charging terminal and recharged by power from the charger via the charging terminal; a protective circuit performing a protective operation of detecting an overcharge of the battery by using power from the battery while receiving a driving signal, and terminating the protective operation when receiving no driving signal; an activation terminal receiving an activation signal from the charger while connected to the charger; an activation circuit connected to the activation terminal and configured to output the driving signal to the protective circuit while receiving the activation signal from the charger via the activation terminal; and an auxiliary activation circuit connected to the charging terminal and configured to provide the driving signal to the protective circuit while the battery receives power from the charger via the charging terminal.

A charger includes an output circuit unit to output a charging current to a secondary battery, a voltage detection unit to detect a voltage of the secondary battery, and a control unit to control the output circuit unit, whereby constant current charging and constant voltage charging are performed. The control unit decreases a constant current value of the charging current by stages during the constant current charging and determines that the secondary battery has deteriorated by using a first voltage drop value of the secondary battery occurring upon first conversion and a second voltage drop value of the secondary battery occurring upon second conversion.

Growing community of inventors

Mie, Japan

Masaki Ikeda