TWI866618B - Charging method and power system - Google Patents

Abstract

A charging method and a power system are provided. The power system includes a plurality of batteries, a plurality of charging integrated circuits and a processor. The charging integrated circuits are coupled to the batteries, respectively. The charging method includes the following steps: obtaining a plurality of remaining capacities ​​of the batteries, respectively; selecting the battery with the lowest remaining capacity as a target battery, and using the charging integrated circuit coupled to the target battery as a target charging integrated circuit; and configuring the target charging integrated circuit to charge the target battery according to a first total power, and configuring each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power that is less than the first total power.

Description

Charging method and power supply system

The present invention relates to a charging method and a power supply system, and more particularly to a charging method and a power supply system capable of using a plurality of charging integrated circuits (ICs) to charge a plurality of batteries at the same time.

The existing power supply system includes multiple rechargeable batteries, and the existing charging method and power supply system usually adopt a one-by-one method to charge the batteries. However, in order to meet the technical requirements of charging multiple batteries at the same time, the existing charging method and power supply system urgently need a new alternative.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a charging method and a power supply system that can use multiple charging integrated circuits to charge multiple batteries at the same time in view of the shortcomings of the existing technology.

In order to solve the above technical problems, one of the technical solutions adopted by the present invention is to provide a charging method. The charging method is applicable to a power system including multiple batteries, multiple charging integrated circuits and a processor. The charging integrated circuits are respectively coupled to the batteries, and the charging method is executed by the processor and includes the following steps: obtaining multiple remaining capacities respectively possessed by the multiple batteries; selecting the battery with the lowest remaining capacity as the target battery, and using the charging integrated circuit coupled to the target battery as the target charging integrated circuit; and configuring the target charging integrated circuit to charge the target battery according to a first total power, and configuring each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power that is less than the first total power.

In order to solve the above technical problems, another technical solution adopted by the present invention is to provide a power supply system. The power supply system includes multiple batteries, multiple charging integrated circuits and a processor. The charging integrated circuits are coupled to the batteries respectively. The processor is coupled to the charging integrated circuit and is configured to perform the following steps: obtaining multiple remaining capacities respectively possessed by the multiple batteries; selecting the battery with the lowest remaining capacity as the target battery, and using the charging integrated circuit coupled to the target battery as the target charging integrated circuit; and configuring the target charging integrated circuit to charge the target battery according to a first total power, and configuring each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power that is less than the first total power.

To further understand the features and technical contents of the present invention, please refer to the following detailed description and drawings of the present invention. However, the drawings provided are only used for reference and description and are not used to limit the present invention.

The following is a specific embodiment to illustrate the implementation of the present invention. The technical personnel in this field can understand the advantages and effects of the present invention from the content provided in this specification. The present invention can be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments. The details in this specification can also be modified and changed in various ways based on different viewpoints and applications without deviating from the concept of the present invention. In addition, the drawings of the present invention are only for simple schematic illustration and are not depicted according to actual size. Please note in advance. The following implementation will further explain the relevant technical content of the present invention in detail, but the content provided is not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention.

Please refer to Figures 1 and 2 together. As shown in Figure 1, the power system 1 of this embodiment includes a plurality of batteries 11_1~11_n, a plurality of charging integrated circuits 13_1~13_n and a processor 15, that is, n is an integer greater than 1. Batteries 11_1~11_n are all rechargeable batteries, and each battery may include at least one battery cell. However, the present invention does not limit the specific implementation of each battery. The charging integrated circuits 13_1~13_n are respectively coupled to the batteries 11_1~11_n. Each charging integrated circuit may include an AC to DC power converter, and have the functions of step-up and step-down and voltage regulation, etc. Similarly, the present invention does not limit the specific implementation of each charging integrated circuit.

In this embodiment, the charging integrated circuits 13_1 to 13_n can also be coupled to a power supply device (e.g., an AC adapter, etc., but not shown in FIG. 1 ), and are configured to charge the batteries 11_1 to 11_n. In addition, the processor 15 can be implemented by hardware (e.g., a central processing unit and a memory) in combination with software and/or firmware. However, the present invention does not limit the specific implementation of the processor 15. The processor 15 is coupled to the charging integrated circuits 13_1 to 13_n, and is configured to execute the charging method of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2 , the charging method of this embodiment includes the following steps.

Step S110: Obtaining a plurality of remaining capacities of a plurality of batteries respectively.

Specifically, the remaining capacity of each battery can be represented by a state of charge (SOC) in percentage form. In addition, the processor 15 can read the gauge data of the batteries 11_1 to 11_n through the charging integrated circuits 13_1 to 13_n, and the gauge data of each battery includes the state of charge of the battery.

Step S120: Select the battery with the lowest remaining capacity as the target battery, and use the charging integrated circuit coupled to the target battery as the target charging integrated circuit.

Step S130: configuring the target charging integrated circuit to charge the target battery according to the first total power, and configuring each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power less than the first total power.

For example, in response to the battery 11_1 having the lowest remaining capacity at this time, the processor 15 may select the battery 11_1 as the target battery, and use the charging integrated circuit 13_1 coupled to the battery 11_1 as the target charging integrated circuit. Then, the processor 15 may configure the charging integrated circuit 13_1 to charge the battery 11_1 according to a first total power (not shown in FIG. 1 ), and configure each charging integrated circuit other than the charging integrated circuit 13_1 to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power (also not shown in FIG. 1 ) that is less than the first total power.

Specifically, each charging integrated circuit may have a total power, and provide a charging current (not shown in FIG. 1 ) according to the total power to charge the coupled battery. In addition, the processor 15 may be, for example, an embedded controller (EC), but the present invention is not limited thereto. Therefore, in step S130, the processor 15 may set the total power of the target charging integrated circuit to a first total power, and set the total power of each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to a second total power less than the first total power.

It can be seen that, compared with other charging integrated circuits, the target charging integrated circuit can be configured to provide the maximum charging current to charge the target battery, so that the target battery can significantly increase the remaining capacity compared with other batteries. In addition, other charging integrated circuits can be configured to provide a smaller charging current to charge the coupled battery to meet the technical requirements of charging multiple batteries at the same time.

Furthermore, the charging integrated circuits 13_1-13_n can also be coupled to a system load (not shown in FIG. 1 ), and the aforementioned power supply device can supply power to the system load through the charging integrated circuits 13_1-13_n. In this case, the first total power can be calculated by the processor 15 using the following mathematical formula: .

is the first total power, is the battery voltage of the target battery, is the charging current provided by the target charging integrated circuit to the target battery, and is the system load power for the system load. In addition, it should be understood that is the charging power used for the target battery.

In this embodiment, the processor 15 can also obtain the charging current and the battery voltage of the target battery by reading the measurement data of the target battery, and obtain the system load power for the system load by charging the integrated circuits 13_1-13_n. In addition, the second total power can be the first total power minus the preset power.

For example, the default power may be 5 watts. Therefore, taking the above content as an example, the processor 15 may set the total power of the target charging integrated circuit in step S130 to , and set the total power of each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to However, when multiple charging integrated circuits are used to charge multiple batteries simultaneously, the charging current may be unbalanced.

Specifically, the charging current will change with the system load. In addition, if one of the charging integrated circuits always maintains the maximum charging current to allow the coupled battery to complete charging as quickly as possible, the charging current of other batteries will change with the system load, resulting in a longer charging time for the entire battery. Therefore, in order to improve the phenomenon of unbalanced charging current and effectively shorten the charging time of the entire battery, the charging method and power system 1 of this embodiment can also alternately select batteries 11_1~11_n and charging integrated circuits 13_1~13_n as target batteries and target charging integrated circuits. As shown in FIG2, the charging method of this embodiment can also include the following steps.

Step S140: Obtain charging parameters of the target battery.

Step S150: Determine whether the charging parameters of the target battery meet the predetermined parameters. If yes, in response to determining that the charging parameters of the target battery meet the predetermined parameters, the charging method returns to step S110; if no, the charging method returns to step S140.

In one embodiment, the charging parameter of the target battery may be the duration of the target charging integrated circuit charging the target battery, and the predetermined parameter may be a specified time. Therefore, in response to determining that the duration of charging the target battery meets the specified time, the processor 15 may execute step S110 of obtaining the remaining capacity again.

For example, the specified time may be 10 minutes, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Therefore, the processor 15 may obtain the remaining capacity of the batteries 11_1 to 11_n at regular intervals. Since the subsequent details are the same as those described above, they will not be described in detail here. Therefore, the processor 15 may select the batteries 11_1 to 11_n and the charging integrated circuits 13_1 to 13_n as the target batteries and the target charging integrated circuits in turn to improve the imbalance of the charging current and effectively shorten the charging time of the entire battery.

In another embodiment, the charging parameter of the target battery may be the increased capacity of the target battery when being charged, and the predetermined parameter may be the specified capacity. Therefore, in response to determining that the increased capacity of the target battery when being charged meets the specified capacity, the processor 15 may again execute step S110 of obtaining the remaining capacity.

Furthermore, both the increased capacity and the designated capacity can be expressed in percentage form. For example, the designated capacity can be 10%. Therefore, the processor 15 can obtain the remaining capacities of the batteries 11_1 to 11_n again when the remaining capacity of the target battery is increased by 10% each time. However, the present invention is not limited to the above example. Since the subsequent details are the same as the above content, they will not be elaborated here.

In summary, one of the beneficial effects of the present invention is that the charging method and power system provided by the present invention can meet the technical requirement of charging multiple batteries at the same time by the technical means of "configuring the target charging integrated circuit to charge the target battery according to a first total power, and configuring each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power less than the first total power".

Furthermore, the charging method and power system provided by the present invention can also alternately select a battery and a charging integrated circuit as a target battery and a target charging integrated circuit to improve the phenomenon of charging current imbalance and effectively shorten the charging time of the entire battery.

The contents provided above are only preferred feasible embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the patent application of the present invention. Therefore, all equivalent technical changes made using the contents of the specification and drawings of the present invention are included in the scope of the patent application of the present invention.

1: Power system

11_1~11_n:Battery

13_1~13_n: Charging integrated circuit

15: Processor

S110~S150: Steps

FIG1 is a functional block diagram of a power supply system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the steps of the charging method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

S110~S150: Steps

Claims (10)

A charging method is applicable to a power system, the power system includes a plurality of batteries, a plurality of charging integrated circuits and a processor, the charging integrated circuits are respectively coupled to the batteries, the charging method is executed by the processor and includes the following steps: obtaining a plurality of remaining capacities respectively possessed by the batteries; selecting the battery with the lowest remaining capacity as a target battery, and using the charging integrated circuit coupled to the target battery as a target charging integrated circuit; and configuring the target charging integrated circuit to charge the target battery according to a first total power, and configuring each charging integrated circuit other than the target charging integrated circuit to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power less than the first total power. The charging method as described in claim 1, wherein the first total power is calculated by the following mathematical formula: P1=(Battery_Vol * Charger_I)+Sys_P; wherein P1 is the first total power, Battery_Vol is a battery voltage of the target battery, Charger_I is a charging current, and Sys_P is a system load power. A charging method as described in claim 1, wherein the second total power is the first total power minus a preset power. The charging method as described in claim 1 further includes: in response to determining that a duration of charging the target battery meets a specified time, executing the step of obtaining the remaining capacities again. The charging method as described in claim 1 further includes: in response to determining that an increased capacity of the target battery during charging meets a specified capacity, executing the step of obtaining the remaining capacity again. A power supply system includes: a plurality of batteries; a plurality of charging integrated circuits, respectively coupled to the batteries; and a processor, coupled to the charging integrated circuits, and configured to perform the following steps: obtaining a plurality of remaining capacities respectively possessed by the batteries; selecting the battery with the lowest remaining capacity as a target battery, and using the charging integrated circuit coupled to the target battery as a target charging integrated circuit; and configuring the target charging integrated circuit to charge the target battery according to a first total power, and configuring each of the charging integrated circuits other than the target charging integrated circuit to charge the coupled battery according to a second total power less than the first total power. The power system as described in claim 6, wherein the first total power is calculated by the following mathematical formula: P1=(Battery_Vol * Charger_I)+Sys_P; wherein P1 is the first total power, Battery_Vol is a battery voltage of the target battery, Charger_I is a charging current, and Sys_P is a system load power. A power supply system as described in claim 6, wherein the second total power is the first total power minus a preset power. A power supply system as described in claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the following steps: in response to determining that a duration of charging the target battery meets a specified time, executing again the step of obtaining the remaining capacities. A power supply system as described in claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the following steps: in response to determining that an increased capacity of the target battery during charging meets a specified capacity, executing again the step of obtaining the remaining capacities.

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