A portable charger capable of jump starting a 12 V car battery includes a charger battery, a jump start circuit operatively electrically connected with the charger battery and with an ignition power outlet, and a microcontroller for coordinating safety functions to establish or interrupt the operative electrical connection of the jump start circuit with the ignition power outlet. The ignition power outlet comprises a positive power socket, a negative power socket, a positive sensing socket and a negative sensing socket. The sensing sockets are electrically isolated from the power sockets, and the microcontroller senses voltage across the sensing sockets and is configured to interrupt the operative electrical connection of the jump start circuit to the ignition power outlet until proper voltage is sensed across the sensing sockets.

Provided is a management device that manages a power storage module configured by connecting in series a plurality of parallel cell groups in which a plurality of cells are connected in parallel. In the management device, a voltage detection circuit detects a voltage of each of the plurality of parallel cell groups connected in series. A plurality of equalizing circuits are connected in parallel to the plurality of parallel cell groups, respectively. A controlling circuit controls the plurality of equalizing circuits based on the voltage detected by the voltage detection circuit and executes an equalizing process. The controlling circuit determines whether or not an abnormal cell is included in each of the parallel cell groups based on a voltage change of each of the parallel cell groups during discharging to the equalizing circuit or charging from the equalizing circuit.

An eco-friendly vehicle using a charging control method improves the wireless charging efficiency and efficiently manages the charge/discharge of a battery of the vehicle. The eco-friendly vehicle includes: a wireless power receiver to wirelessly receive an electric power from an external charging device; a memory to store state information of each of a plurality of battery cells; and a controller to control a charging order of each of the plurality of battery cells by using the state information stored in the memory when an engine of the vehicle is in an off state.

A method for controlling an exchange power between a charging infrastructure and an electricity supply grid, wherein multiple power units can be connected to the charging infrastructure for delivering or taking up electrical power, in order to exchange electrical power between the power units and the electricity supply grid via the charging infrastructure, and a number of the power units are in each case formed as electric vehicle, and so multiple electric vehicles can in each case be connected to the charging infrastructure in order to exchange electrical power between the electric vehicles and the electricity supply grid via the charging infrastructure and thereby charge or discharge the electric vehicles, each power unit has a variable state of charge, which can in each case be taken into consideration as an individual state of charge when the power unit is connected to the charging infrastructure, from the individual states of charge of the power units, an overall state of charge can be determined, for the overall state of charge, a flexibility range which spans a range, in dependence on time, in which the overall state of charge may occur can be predefined for a control time period, wherein the flexibility range is spanned by a progression over time of an upper limit of the overall state of charge and a progression over time of a lower limit of the overall state of charge for the control time period, and the flexibility range has range points which can in each case be defined by a value of the overall state of charge and a point in time in the control time period, a range point is in each case assigned an overall power interval, which predefines in relation to the point in time and in relation to the overall power of the range point a range to be maintained for an overall exchange power to be exchanged between the charging infrastructure and the electricity supply grid, and the overall power intervals of all of the range points span an overall power space over the flexibility range that is to be maintained for the overall exchange power, wherein the overall power interval of a range point depends on the individual states of charge of the power units on which the overall state of charge of the range point is based.

Systems and methods for performing low voltage charging of a high voltage, series-connected string of battery modules are disclosed. A battery pack system may include a plurality of battery cells, including one or more groups of battery cells coupled in parallel. A processor may be configured to select a sub-group of battery cells from a group of battery cells for charging separately from other battery cells of the selected group of battery cells. The group of battery cells may be reconfigured to allow charging of the sub-group of battery cells separate from the other battery cells. The sub-group of battery cells may be charged, and then the group of battery cells may be reconfigured to allow operation of the sub-group of battery cells with the other battery cells. During charging, the sub-group of battery cells may be unavailable but other battery cells may continue to discharge.

A battery management apparatus includes a processor configured to collect sensing data of a battery using a sensor, and infrared (IR) communicators located to face a neighboring battery management apparatus of the battery management apparatus. The processor is configured to transmit the collected sensing data to the neighboring battery management apparatus using one of the IR communicators.

A charger integrated circuit for charging a battery device including a first battery and a second battery connected to each other in series. The charger integrated circuit includes a first charger to be connected to a connection node between the first and second batteries, a second charger to be connected between the input voltage terminal and a high voltage terminal of the battery device, and a balancing circuit to balance voltages of the first and second batteries. The first charger is to provide a first charge current to the connection node in a first charge mode. The second charger is to directly charge the battery device by providing a second charge current to the high voltage terminal in a second charge mode.

An apparatus including a monitoring unit including a voltage detection circuit which detects a voltage of the plurality of battery cells, a balancing unit including a first common resistor element and a switching module, the first common resistor element connected between a first common node and a second common node, and a control unit operably coupled to the monitoring unit and the switching module, the control unit determining a balancing target including at least one of the plurality of battery cells based on the voltage of each of the plurality of battery cells, and controlling the switching module to form a current channel between the first common resistor element and the balancing target.

There is fear that some battery cells among battery cells which are serially connected may consume electric power all the time, thereby causing expansion of unbalance in voltage of the battery cells and hindering electric discharge of a battery system. When a second battery has a sufficient voltage, an electric current control board supplies operating power to a battery control unit and a relay via an external minus line and an external plus line. On the other hand, when the voltage of the second battery has decreased, the electric current control board supplies the operating power from a first battery to the battery control unit and the relay via an internal minus line and an internal plus line. A first electric current control unit and a second electric current control unit control the supply of the operating power according to, for example, the decrease in voltage of the second battery.

Module-based energy systems are provided having multiple converter-source modules. The converter-source modules can each include an energy source and a converter. The systems can further include control circuitry for the modules. The modules can be arranged in various ways to provide single phase AC, multi-phase AC, and/or DC outputs. Each module can be independently monitored and controlled.