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Monitoring-and-controlling-system-for-battery-and-battery-charger

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Details

Inventors: Langston, Charles R.; Dean, James J.; Long, Ronald E.; Hartz, Richard D.; Carrier, James L.; Jesse, Jerom James; Bauer, Mark T.; Schukar, Michael L.;
Assignee: Lester Electrical of Nebraska, Inc. (Lincoln, NE)
Primary Examiner: Wong; Peter S.
Assistant Examiner: Tibbits; Pia
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Carney; Vincent L.

In operating a battery powered vehicle, a battery charger is located at a stationary location but the battery charger control circuit is mounted on the vehicle and powered from the DC battery of the vehicle. During a charging operation, a microprocessor within the battery charger control circuit detects that a charging operation is taking place and locks the vehicle in position and when the battery charger is disconnected, the battery charger is de-energized prior to disconnecting the electrical contact between it and the vehicle to avoid arcing. The microprocessor and its memory within the battery charger control circuit records information about the energy state of the battery and controls the battery both by measuring input and output power to the battery and by measuring the rate of change of charging current. It also controls operations such as trouble lights within the vehicle and may control a speed control circuit within the vehicle as well.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In FIG.
1, there is shown a block diagram of a combination 10 including a battery-operated vehicle, a battery charger control system and a monitoring system.
This combination includes: (1) an off-board battery charging system 12; (2) a battery operated vehicle with an on-board battery charger control circuit; and (3) a portable infrared reader.
The off-board battery charger system 12 includes an off-board charger 18 and a sensing connector plug 20 which are stationary in the preferred embodiment and not carried with the battery-operated vehicle 28.
The battery-operated vehicle 28 and on-board units 14 and 24 include the vehicle itself 28 having a vehicle drive 26, an on-board computer and related control and read-out devices 22 and a battery charger receptacle 24 that cooperates with the sensing connector plug 20.
A portable IR reader 16 may be used to read the state of the battery within the vehicle 28.
The sensing connector plug 20 is connected to the off-board charger 18 and is able to provide a signal to the on-board computer and related control and read-out devices 22 when it is connected to lock the vehicle drive 26 and to provide a signal to the on board computer and related control and read-out devices 22 as it is being disconnected to shut off the off-board charger 18 and thus terminates energy flow from the battery charger 18 to the vehicle before the sensing connector plug 20 is fully electrically disengaged from the batter charger receptacle 24 so that when the prongs connecting the sensing connector 20 to the battery charger receptacle 24 are disconnected, the power has also been disconnected.
This is accomplished by having a signal prong in the plug that is longer or a signal connecting element in the receptacle that is shorter than the others so that a disconnect signal is provided for a signal while the power from the charger 18 is still being supplied.
Thus, the charger may be turned off to avoid arcing between prongs of the plug.
The vehicle has a regenerative braking system such as are commonly used in electrical operated vehicles

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