The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 26, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 29, 1995
Daniele C Brotto, Baltimore, MD (US);
William F Hilsher, Baltimore, MD (US);
Black & Decker Inc., Newark, DE (US);
Abstract
A battery charger for simultaneously charging a plurality of batteries from a single power source includes a microcontroller-based circuit that is programmed to multiplex full charging current sequentially to each battery in the charger. Charge termination in the preferred embodiment is determined by monitoring total charge time and by detecting a predetermined drop in battery voltage--i.e., 'minus .DELTA.V'. The microcontroller is programmed to individually track the actual charge time of each battery in the charger and to adjust the clock rate of each battery accordingly when multiple batteries are charged at the same time. In addition, the minus .DELTA.V charge termination criteria is temporarily disabled for any battery in the charging process when one or more batteries are inserted into the charger to prevent erroneous detection of a full charge condition.