Apparatus and system for providing device configuration via a battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11552340-B2
Application number	US-202117499104-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2021
Priority date	Feb 25, 2016
Publication date	Jan 10, 2023
Grant date	Jan 10, 2023

Abstract

A battery pack may be configured to power any of a plurality of different outdoor power equipment device types. The battery pack may include one or more rechargeable battery cells configured to power a device to which the battery pack is operably coupled, and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry may include at least a processor and memory. The processing circuitry may be configured to enable configuration of the device or another device of a same device type as the device based on a set of configuration settings stored in the memory.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1. A battery pack comprising:
at least one rechargeable battery cell configured to power one of a plurality of outdoor power equipment devices to which the battery pack may be installed; and
processing circuitry operably coupled to the at least one rechargeable battery cell, the processing circuitry programmed to:
store, in a memory, a plurality of sets of configuration settings, each set of configuration settings corresponding to a profile within a plurality of profiles, each profile being a device profile or a user profile;
detect insertion of the battery pack into an outdoor power equipment device of the plurality of outdoor power equipment devices;
determine identification information indicating a selected profile, the identification information indicating that the selected profile is a device profile for the outdoor power equipment device or the selected profile is a user profile for a user of the outdoor power equipment device;
retrieve, from the memory, a selected set of configuration settings for the selected profile, the selected set of configuration settings being one of the plurality of sets of configuration settings stored in the memory; and
transmit, to the outdoor power equipment device, the selected set of configuration settings to configure the outdoor power equipment device to operate in accordance with the selected set of configuration settings.

2. The battery pack of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of profiles comprises a plurality of device profiles;
wherein each device profile within the plurality of device profiles is associated with an outdoor power equipment device type; and
wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information from the outdoor power equipment device, the identification information indicating the outdoor power equipment device type for the outdoor power equipment device.

3. The battery pack of claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the outdoor power equipment device type in response to insertion of the battery pack into the outdoor power equipment device.

4. The battery pack of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of profiles comprises a plurality of user profiles;
wherein each user profile within the plurality of user profiles is associated with one of a plurality of different users; and
wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating an identification of the user.

5. The battery pack of claim 4 further comprising a user interface; and
wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the identification of the user via a user interaction with the user interface.

6. The battery pack of claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the identification of the user in response to detecting insertion of the battery pack into the outdoor power equipment.

7. The battery pack of claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the identification of the user based on an electronic communication between the outdoor power equipment device and the battery pack.

8. The battery pack of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further programmed to extract current configuration settings from the outdoor power equipment device to which the battery pack is operably coupled for storage with the plurality of sets of configuration settings.

9. The battery pack of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry programmed to extract the current configuration settings is further programmed to receive the current configuration settings via a communication responsive to a change in the current configuration settings on the outdoor power equipment device.

10. The battery pack of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry programmed to extract the current configuration settings responsive to initiating removal of the battery pack from the outdoor power equipment device.

11. An outdoor power equipment device comprising:
an electric motor;
a working element operably coupled to the electric motor to be powered by the electric motor; and
a battery pack comprising:
at least one rechargeable battery cell configured to power the outdoor power equipment device as one of a plurality of outdoor power equipment devices to which the battery pack may be installed; and
processing circuitry operably coupled to the at least one rechargeable battery cell, the processing circuitry programmed to:
store, in a memory, a plurality of sets of configuration settings, each set of configuration settings corresponding to a profile within a plurality of profiles, each profile being a device profile or a user profile;
detect insertion of the battery pack into the outdoor power equipment device;
determine identification information indicating a selected profile, the identification information indicating that the selected profile is a device profile for the outdoor power equipment device or the selected profile is a user profile for a user of the outdoor power equipment device;
retrieve, from the memory, a selected set of configuration settings for the selected profile, the selected set of configuration settings being one of the plurality of sets of configuration settings stored in the memory; and
transmit, to the outdoor power equipment device, the selected set of configuration settings to configure the outdoor power equipment device to operate in accordance with the selected set of configuration settings.

12. The outdoor power equipment device of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of profiles comprises a plurality of device profiles;
wherein each device profile within the plurality of device profiles is associated with an outdoor power equipment device type; and
wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information from the outdoor power equipment device, the identification information indicating the outdoor power equipment device type for the outdoor power equipment device.

13. The outdoor power equipment device of claim 12 , wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the outdoor power equipment device type in response to insertion of the battery pack into the outdoor power equipment device.

14. The outdoor power equipment device of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of profiles comprises a plurality of user profiles;
wherein each user profile within the plurality of user profiles is associated with one of a plurality of different users; and
wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating an identification of the user.

15. The outdoor power equipment device of claim 14 wherein the battery pack further comprises a user interface; and
wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the identification of the user via a user interaction with the user interface.

16. The outdoor power equipment device of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the identification of the user in response to detecting insertion of the battery pack into the outdoor power equipment device.

17. The outdoor power equipment device of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to determine the identification information indicating the identificat

Assignees

• Husqvarna Ab

Inventors

• Funk Jon
• Tse Eric
• Albinger Matthew
• Burns Jr Duncan K

Classifications

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H01M50/267

  having means for adapting to batteries or cells of different types or different sizes · CPC title

• H01M2220/30

  Batteries in portable systems, e.g. mobile phone, laptop · CPC title

• H01M10/488

  Cells or batteries combined with indicating means for external visualization of the condition, e.g. by change of colour or of light density · CPC title

• H01M2010/4278

  Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller · CPC title