Staggered Multi-Battery Charging Profiles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional multi-battery chargers use the same charge profile for all batteries, leading to inefficiencies and high power draw, as they decrease charging current as batteries heat up, and require pulsing the current to control temperature, resulting in periods of uncharged batteries and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
Generating unique charge profiles for each battery based on factors like capacity, state, temperature, and priority, allowing staggered charging currents to optimize efficiency and reduce power consumption, with the charger's circuitry adjusting current according to these profiles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the same charge profile is used for all batteries, then the charging process is simple to control, but the maximum current draw increases and charging efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the charging process by creating individual charge profiles for each battery based on their specific characteristics (capacity, state, temperature, priority). This allows each battery to be charged optimally according to its own needs rather than using a single unified profile, thereby improving charging efficiency while maintaining manageable control complexity through systematic profile generation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by tailoring the charging current profile to each specific battery's characteristics. Each battery receives a customized charge profile that matches its individual capacity, state, temperature, and priority level, ensuring optimal charging conditions for each battery while reducing overall system power requirements.
2Temperature
If charging current is decreased as batteries heat up, then battery temperature is controlled, but the charging time increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic charge profiles that adapt in real-time to each battery's temperature, capacity, and state of charge. The charging current is continuously adjusted based on feedback from battery conditions, allowing the system to maintain optimal charging speed while preventing overheating through intelligent, dynamic current modulation rather than simple linear reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes charging parameters (current, voltage, time) based on battery state, temperature, and capacity. By dynamically modifying these parameters according to real-time battery conditions, the system maintains high charging productivity while ensuring temperature control through parameter optimization rather than blanket current reduction.
3Temperature
If current is pulsed to control battery temperature, then temperature control is achieved, but periods of uncharged batteries occur and energy efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates idle periods in the charging process by generating continuous, optimized charge profiles for each battery. Instead of pulsing the current with idle intervals, the system maintains continuous charging action tailored to each battery's real-time needs, ensuring that useful charging action occurs continuously without energy-wasting idle periods while still controlling temperature through profile optimization.
4Device complexity
If multiple batteries are charged simultaneously with the same profile, then the charger design is simpler, but the maximum current draw increases and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the charging control into individual profiles for each battery, allowing the charger to manage multiple batteries with different current requirements simultaneously. This segmentation enables more efficient power distribution across multiple batteries, reducing the peak current draw compared to uniform charging, while the systematic profile generation approach keeps control complexity manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
A battery charging method includes generating a plurality of charge profiles, each for a different one of a plurality of batteries, wherein a charge profile indicates a charge current as a function of charge time, and at least two of the charge profiles have a different charge current at a same charge time, and concurrently charging each of the plurality of batteries based on a corresponding charge profile.