Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Toru Morioka

Masato Sano

Toru Nishikawa

Atsushi Kawasumi

Shinichi Itagaki

Hitoshi Hamaguchi

Yasuo Mitani

Yutaka Kimoto

A battery charging method that charges a battery to a full charged state at a specified voltage. In the battery charging method, the battery is charged to the full charged state at the specified voltage that decreases as battery charging/discharging processes are repeated.

Battery charging method

A battery pack provided with a current cut-off device connected in series with batteries, a tamper detector to detect tampering and issue a tamper signal, and a control circuit connected to the tamper detector. If the tamper detector detects tampering with the battery pack, the control circuit switches the current cut-off device off to shut off current to the batteries, or it issues a tamper signal.

Battery pack capable of detecting tampering

The charging apparatus for charging a secondary battery by controlling the charging current on the basis of the change with time of the voltage of the secondary battery through sampling of the voltage. The voltage of the secondary battery is sampled by use of a voltage/frequency converter which converts the voltage of the secondary battery to pulses of a frequency corresponding to the voltage and a counter which counts the converted pulses for a predetermined time with a predetermined cycle. The counting time of the counter is set to be larger than half a cycle of a commercial alternating current source used as a charging power source. Short duration fluctuations in the battery voltage due to charging power source variations are compensated for because the average voltage during this time is converted to digital values, thus making it possible to sample the voltage of the secondary battery correctly without being influenced by the change of the voltage of the power source.

Charging apparatus with battery voltage monitoring circuitry

An apparatus which is capable of providing an advance warning for indicating excessive discharge of a battery, during the supply of electric power from the battery to a load, prior to the battery being unuseable for powering the load. The apparatus comprises first power supplying means for initially supplying power from the battery to the load, supervisory control means for continuously monitoring the residual or current power capacity of the battery and interrupting or reducing the supply of power to the load when a predetermined quantity of power consumption is detected, and second power supplying means for supplying, subsequently, the residual power of the battery to the load when the first power supplying means is rendered inoperative.

Battery apparatus for an electric shaver

An electric shaver is described which comprises: a housing; a fixed cutter mounted to the housing; and a movable cutter arranged to slide along the fixed cutter. A driving motor is linked to the movable cutter for slidably moving the movable cutter along the fixed cutter. A power supply circuit is electrically connected to the driving motor for supplying a selectively controllable voltage to the driving motor. The power supply circuit comprises a charging circuit and a control circuit. The charging circuit includes a voltage reducing transformer, and a rectifying element and a rechargeable battery connected in series with the secondary coil of the voltage reducing transformer. The control circuit is connected to the driving motor in parallel to the rechargeable battery. The control circuit includes a starting switch and at least one voltage drop element having a substantially constant voltage characteristic. The starting switch and the voltage drop element are connected in series with the driving motor. The control circuit further includes means for selectively providing a short circuit providing means is connected in parallel to the voltage drop element and in parallel to the voltage drop element and includes an operator controllable switch mounted to the housing for selectively shorting the voltage drop element.

Growing community of inventors

Awaji, Japan

Toru Morioka