A method and system for charging multi-cell lithium-based batteries. In some aspects, a battery charger includes a housing, at least one terminal to electrically connect to a battery pack supported by the housing, and a controller operable to provide a charging current to the battery pack through the at least one terminal. The battery pack includes a plurality of lithium-based battery cells, with each battery cell of the plurality of battery cells having an individual state of charge. The controller is operable to control the charging current being supplied to the battery pack at least in part based on the individual state of charge of at least one battery cell.

Present embodiments include a control system for one or more battery cells. The control system includes a bi-stable relay configured to switch a state of the bi-stable relay upon receiving a control signal to electrically connect or electrically disconnect the one or more battery cells to a bus and to remain in the state after receiving the control signal. The control system includes a controller configured to be operatively coupled to the bi-stable relay and configured to send the control signal indicative of instructions to control operation of the bi-stable relay based on the state.

A modular management system for balancing, testing and protecting rechargeable energy storage cells connected in series. Different energy storage cell technologies can be connected in the same battery pack and they can be completely balanced by using one or both of two balancing modes. In addition, the modular management system includes bidirectional and unidirectional switches optionally connected to a single ohmic device such as a resistor to efficiently execute a Dual Function Process (DFP) (i.e., passive/active balancing, and testing mode for SoH/SoC estimation) preferably without using any extra or external components (i.e., capacitor or inductor or DC/DC converter or power supply). The systems and methods decrease the balancing time, energy loss, heat loss and complexity needed to monitor, protect and balance energy storage cell systems such as battery systems, and thus decreasing the overall cost.

A method of controlling an electric system including electric cells. The method includes the steps of: a) determining a first (second) priority table including first (second) cell priority levels for a system charge (discharge) operation; b) determining the average current exchanged by each cell over a time window according to the cell implementation number in a cell connection sequence; c) determining a classification of the cell implementation numbers by increasing or decreasing order of the average current; d) assigning the implementation numbers according to the order of the classification to the cells by increasing or decreasing number of the priority levels of the first or second priority table; and e) connecting or disconnecting the cells according to the order of the assigned implementation numbers.

The present invention relates to a device (10) for powering a rotating electrical machine (13) of a motor vehicle, comprising: —an amplifier (15) capable of being electrically powered by the first electrical energy storage unit (11) and capable of electrically powering the second electrical energy storage unit (12), characterised in that the amplifier (15) comprises an oscillating circuit (16), the oscillating circuit (16) comprising a capacitance (C) of value C′ and an inductive assembly comprising an inductance (L) of value L′ and a resistance (R) of value R′, —the oscillating circuit (16) having a specific angular frequency ω such that ω=I/√(L′×C′) and a natural frequency f such that f=ω(2π), and in that the value of the inductance (L) is variable in a predetermined manner, in particular so as to increase an electric current, supplied by the first electrical energy storage unit (11) to the oscillating circuit (16), into an amplified current supplied by the oscillating circuit (16) to the second electrical energy storage unit (12).

The present disclosure provides an unmanned vehicle comprising a device to be powered; a capacitor energy storage system (CESS) and controller board for at least temporarily powering and operating the device to powered. Further, the CESS includes one or more metacapacitors as an energy storage medium. Additionally, the disclosure provides a capacitor energy storage cell composed of the at least one metacapacitor and a DC-voltage conversion device, where the output voltage of the metacapacitor is the input voltage of the DC-voltage conversion device. Still further, the CESS may be comprised of a module of said capacitor energy storage cells, or a system of modules of said capacitor energy storage cells.

A method for controlling earphone switching and an earphone are provided. The method includes the following. A first earphone acquires a first remaining power and a first operating parameter of the first earphone and a second remaining power and a second operating parameter of a second earphone. The second earphone serves as a slave earphone. The first earphone predicts a first battery life of the first earphone according to the first remaining power and the first operating parameter and a second battery life of the second earphone according to the second remaining power and the second operating parameter. The first earphone predicts switches the second earphone to serve as a master earphone and the first earphone to serve as a slave earphone, when a difference between the second battery life and the first battery life is greater than a first preset threshold.

A reconfigurable rotating electric machine having a rotor to rotate in association with a stator. Coils are arranged to form the windings of one or more phases. Each coil or group of coils has a pair of terminals to receive an electrical input. Switches are arranged to connect each coil or group of coils in series or parallel with another coil or group of coils to form defined coil topology configurations. A processor has memory storing settings to determine a state of each of the switches for each of the defined coil topology configurations. The switches are controllable to connect the coils into a force expansion topology configuration to form an electrical machine having two, four, or more virtual poles.

A battery operated hair dryer includes a battery management and control module to control how to efficiently dry a user's hair while maintaining the health and charge of the battery.

A storage battery (21) is configured of a plurality of cells (22A) to (22N) series-connected to each other. A battery controller (27) receives power supplied from a lead battery (31). The battery controller (27) executes balancing control that reduces variation in cell voltages (VcA) to (VcN) of the plurality of cells (22A) to (22N). The battery controller (27) executes the balancing control in a time range during which a voltage of the lead battery (31) becomes equal to or more than a predetermined given voltage value (V1) and a charging rate of the storage battery (21) becomes equal to or more than a predetermined given charging rate value (SOC1) after a key switch (16) is switched from an on state to an off state.