Battery power supply system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10644518-B2
Application number	US-201815921699-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2018
Priority date	Feb 2, 2018
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

A battery power supply system and a battery power supply method for a main system are provided. The battery power supply system includes a power supply processor, an expansion slot module with plural slots, and plural battery units. The plural battery units are docked with the corresponding slots. Moreover, plural control switches are electrically connected between the corresponding slots and the power supply processor. A voltage value of one battery unit is defined as a fiducial voltage value. If the difference between the fiducial voltage value and the voltage value of at least one battery unit of the rest of the battery units is within a predetermined value, the control switch corresponding to the at least one battery unit is turned on. The battery unit with the fiducial voltage value and the at least one battery unit are connected with each other in parallel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A battery power supply system for a main system, the battery power supply system comprising:
a power supply processor electrically connected with the main system;
an expansion slot module electrically connected with the power supply processor, and comprising plural slots; and
plural battery units docked with the corresponding slots,
wherein the slots comprise respective control switches, and the control switches are electrically connected with the power supply unit, wherein the power supply processor defines one of the plural battery units as a fiducial battery unit and defines a voltage value of the fiducial battery unit as a fiducial voltage value, wherein if a difference between the fiducial voltage value and a voltage value of at least one battery unit of the rest of the plural battery units is within a predetermined value, the power supply processor defines the at least one battery unit as at least one selected battery unit, wherein the at least one control switch connected with the at least one selected battery unit is turned on, so that the fiducial battery unit and the at least one selected battery unit are connected with each other in parallel.

2. The battery power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the power supply processor periodically and actively performs a polling process to acquire the voltage values of the plural battery units, or the expansion slot module periodically and actively provides the voltage values of the plural battery units to the power supply processor.

3. The battery power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein if the power supply processor judges that the difference between the fiducial voltage value and the voltage value of the at least one battery unit of the rest of the plural battery units is within the predetermined value, the power supply processor generates a control signal and the at least one control switch connected with the at least one battery unit is turned on in response to the control signal.

4. The battery power supply system according to claim 3 , wherein when the fiducial battery unit and the at least one selected battery unit are connected with each other in parallel, the fiducial battery unit and the at least one selected battery unit simultaneously perform a charging/discharging operation on the main system.

5. The battery power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the control switches are IC-type circuit switches that are built in the power supply processor, or the control switches are circuit switches that are mounted on a circuit board of the battery power supply system.

6. The battery power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the fiducial battery unit is the battery unit having the highest priority to be electrically connected with the power supply processor among the plural battery units, or the fiducial battery unit with is the battery unit having the highest voltage value or the lowest voltage value among the plural battery units.

7. The battery power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined value is a voltage value difference between 0.01V and 0.2V.

8. The battery power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the main system is a mobile device, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a host of a desktop computer or a host of a point-of-sale (POS) device.

9. A battery power supply system for a main system, the battery power supply system comprising:
a power supply processor electrically connected with the main system;
plural control switches electrically connected with the power supply processor;
plural slots electrically connected with the power supply processor and the corresponding control switches, wherein each of the plural slots is connected with the corresponding control switch of the plural control switches; and
plural battery units docked with the corresponding slots,
wherein the power supply processor defines one of the plural battery units as a fiducial battery unit and defines a voltage value of the fiducial battery unit as a fiducial voltage value, wherein if a difference between the fiducial voltage value and a voltage value of at least one battery unit of the rest of the plural battery units is within a predetermined value, the power supply processor defines the at least one battery unit as at least one selected battery unit, wherein the at least one control switch connected with the at least one selected battery unit is turned on, so that the fiducial battery unit and the at least one selected battery unit are connected with each other in parallel.

10. The battery power supply system according to claim 9 , further comprising an expansion slot module, wherein the plural slots and the corresponding control switches are electrically connected with each other and included in the expansion slot module, or the plural slots comprise the corresponding control switches and are included in the expansion slot module.

11. The battery power supply system according to claim 9 , wherein the power supply processor periodically and actively performs a polling process to acquire the voltage values of the plural battery units, or the expansion slot module periodically and actively provides the voltage values of the plural battery units to the power supply processor.

12. The battery power supply system according to claim 9 , wherein if the power supply processor judges that the difference between the fiducial voltage value and the voltage value of the at least one battery unit of the rest of the plural battery units is within the predetermined value, the power supply processor generates a control signal and the at least one control switch connected with the at least one battery unit is turned on in response to the control signal.

13. The battery power supply system according to claim 12 , wherein when the fiducial battery unit and the at least one selected battery unit are connected with each other in parallel, the fiducial battery unit and the at least one selected battery unit simultaneously perform a charging/discharging operation on the main system.

14. The battery power supply system according to claim 9 , wherein the control switches are IC-type circuit switches that are built in the power supply processor, or the control switches are circuit switches that are mounted on a circuit board of the battery power supply system.

15. The battery power supply system according to claim 9 , wherein the fiducial battery unit is the battery unit having the highest priority to be electrically connected with the power supply processor among the plural battery units, or the fiducial battery unit with is the battery unit having the highest voltage value or the lowest voltage value among the plural battery units.

16. The battery power supply system according to claim 9 , wherein the predetermined value is a voltage value difference between 0.01V and 0.2V.

17. A battery power supply method for use in a main system through a battery power supply system, the battery power supply system comprising a power supply processor, an expansion slot module and plural battery units, the expansion slot module being electrically connected with the power supply processor and comprising plural slots, the plural battery units being docked with the corresponding slots, plural control switches being electrically connected between the corresponding slots and the power supply processor, the battery power supply method comprising steps of:
defining one of the plural battery units as a fiducial battery unit and defining a voltage value of the fiducial battery unit as a fiducial voltage

Assignees

• Flytech Technology Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ting Yao-Cheng
• Lin Shih-Hsuan

Classifications

• G06F1/266

  Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips · CPC title

• H02J7/34

  Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other DC sources, e.g. providing buffering (H02J7/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F1/263 Primary

  Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC (G06F1/30 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02J7/0026 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02J2105/44

  Portable electronic devices · CPC title