Battery Pack Precharge Resistor Protection Using Penalty Timing

The patent implements a penalty point system that accumulates failure information from previous precharging attempts. Before allowing a new precharging attempt, the system checks the accumulated penalty points to determine whether the precharge resistor has exceeded its tolerance threshold. This preliminary assessment prevents harmful repeated attempts that could damage the resistor, while still allowing multiple attempts when the resistor is healthy and can tolerate them.

The patent employs a feedback mechanism where the result of each precharging attempt is recorded as penalty points in an accumulation register. This feedback loop continuously monitors the thermal stress history of the precharge resistor and uses it to control future precharging attempts. When the accumulated penalty points indicate excessive temperature rise, the system automatically prevents further attempts, thus protecting the resistor from thermal damage while maximizing successful charging within safe operating limits.