System, method, and apparatus for charging a battery-powered accessory from a primary battery-powered device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10148112-B2
Application number	US-201615278067-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2016
Priority date	Sep 28, 2016
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

A system, method, and apparatus for charging primary battery-powered devices and battery-powered accessories tethered to the primary devices are disclosed. The two devices may include batteries of different types having different nominal voltages. A processing unit on the primary device may obtain state-of-charge information and other operating parameters of the batteries and may determine when to provide power to the accessory to charge its battery. The primary device may select its own battery, power provided by a charger to which it is coupled, or conditioned power as the source of charging energy provided to the accessory to charge its battery. Processing units on the two devices may adjust charging parameters to perform energy balancing while the batteries are simultaneously charged, based on operating parameters of the batteries, operating contexts of the devices, a charging prioritization scheme, or a current distribution scheme.

First claim

We claim:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
a primary battery coupler to receive a primary battery;
an accessory interface configured to support a wired connection to a power port, a ground port, and at least one data channel of a battery-powered accessory;
a processing unit including circuitry to:
obtain, from the battery-powered accessory via the data channel, a plurality of operating parameters of an accessory battery of the battery-powered accessory, the operating parameters of the accessory battery including a state-of-charge of the accessory battery;
initiate, dependent on the state-of-charge of the accessory battery, an operation to charge the accessory battery;
determine, dependent on the plurality of operating parameters of the accessory battery, a charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery; and

circuitry to:
provide, via the wired connection, power to the battery-powered accessory to charge the accessory battery, wherein the power provided to the battery-powered accessory is dependent on the determined charging voltage.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein:
the electronic device further comprises a connector through which the primary battery is to be coupled to a battery charger;
the processing unit further includes circuitry to determine a source of the power provided to the battery-powered accessory to charge the accessory battery dependent on the determined charging voltage.

3. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein:
the processing unit further includes circuitry to:
determine whether or not the charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery is within a nominal voltage range for the primary battery;
determine whether or not the charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery is within a nominal voltage range for power supplied by the battery charger;

to provide power to the battery-powered accessory to charge the accessory battery, the electronic device further comprises circuitry to:
provide, responsive to a determination that the charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery is within the nominal voltage range for the primary battery, power from the primary battery to the battery-powered accessory;
provide, responsive to a determination that the charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery is within the nominal voltage range for power supplied by the battery charger and that the electronic device is coupled to the battery charger, power from the battery charger to the battery-powered accessory.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein:
the electronic device further comprises a connector through which the primary battery is to be coupled to a battery charger;
the processing unit further includes circuitry to:
determine whether or not the charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery is within a nominal voltage range for power supplied by the battery charger;

to provide power to the battery-powered accessory to charge the accessory battery, the electronic device further comprises circuitry to:
condition power provided by the battery charger to generate power that is substantially equivalent to the charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery, responsive to a determination that the charging voltage to be applied to charge the accessory battery is not within a nominal voltage range for power supplied by the battery charger and that the electronic device is coupled to the battery charger; and
provide the conditioned power to the battery-powered accessory.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein:
the processing unit further includes circuitry to:
determine one or more operating parameters of the primary battery, the operating parameters of the primary battery including a state-of-charge of the primary battery;
determine, dependent on the operating parameters of the primary battery, whether or not the primary battery exceeds a first threshold condition;

initiation of the operation to charge the accessory battery is further dependent on a determination that the primary battery exceeds the first threshold condition.

6. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein:
the operating parameters of the accessory battery or the operating parameters of the primary battery including a battery type, a battery topology, an available capacity, a peak charging capacity, a present charging capacity, a nominal voltage range, a temperature, an indication of battery age, a number of charge-discharge cycles, or an impedance value.

7. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein:
the processing unit further includes circuitry to:
determine, dependent on the operating parameters of the primary battery or the operating parameters of the accessory battery, a first portion of available current to be allocated to one or more operations on the electronic device and a second portion of the available current to be delivered to the battery-powered accessory; and

to provide power to the battery-powered accessory to charge the accessory battery, the electronic device further comprises circuitry to deliver the second portion of the available current to the battery-powered accessory.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein:
determination of the first portion of the available current and the second portion of the available current is further dependent on:
a parameter of the electronic device that controls a relative priority of respective charging operations for the electronic device and the battery-powered accessory;
a parameter of the electronic device that controls a simultaneous distribution of current for the respective charging operations for the electronic device and the battery-powered accessory;
an operating context of the electronic device; or
an operating context of the battery-powered accessory.

9. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein:
the processing unit further includes circuitry to:
obtain, from the battery-powered accessory via the data channel during delivery of the second portion of the available current to the battery-powered accessory, one or more updated operating parameters of the accessory battery; and
determine, dependent on one or more updated operating parameters of the primary battery or the updated operating parameters of the accessory battery, that the first and accessory portions of the available current are to be modified relative to each other; and

the electronic device further comprises circuitry to:
modify the portion of the available current delivered to the battery-powered accessory.

10. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein:
the electronic device further comprises a connector through which the primary battery is to be coupled to a battery charger;
the processing unit further includes circuitry to:
determine, dependent on the operating parameters of the primary battery or the operating parameters of the accessory battery, a first portion of current provided by the battery charger to be used to charge the primary battery and a second portion of the current provided by the battery charger to be delivered to the battery-powered accessory; and

to provide power to the battery-powered accessory to charge the accessory battery, the electronic device further comprises circuitry to deliver the second portion of the current provided by the battery charger to the battery-powered accessory.

11. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein:
the first threshold condition specifies a level of charge for the primary battery below which the battery-powered accessory is not to be charged;
the electronic device further comprises circuitry to:
determine, dependent on the o

Assignees

• Motorola Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Nunez Diego I
• Bartels Peter J
• Gurevich Vitaliy

Classifications

• H02J7/90

  Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage · CPC title

• H02J7/751 Primary

  concerning the insertion or the connection of the batteries · CPC title

• H02J7/00

  Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries · CPC title

• H02J7/342 Primary

  The other DC source being a battery actively interacting with the first one, i.e. battery to battery charging (with circuits for polarity protection H02J7/68) · CPC title

• H04B1/385

  Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets · CPC title