A charger circuit for use in controlling charge of a battery pack, which includes a charge control switch and a control unit. The charger circuit has at least one power output terminal and one connection terminal for coupling the battery pack. The charge control switch is arranged to selectively provide a power from a power source to the battery pack through the power output terminal. The control unit is coupled to the charge control switch and the connection terminal, and determines whether to turn off the charge control switch according to a signal based on the connection terminal, wherein the signal based on the connection terminal indicates at least one of an over-voltage condition and an over-temperature condition.

A jump-start kit includes a control unit with a safety circuit and a portable power bank. The power bank and control unit are capable of jump-starting a 12 V car battery as well as charging at least one 5 V portable electronic device. The safety circuit includes a jump-start relay operatively connecting a power supply of the portable power bank to positive and negative jumper cable jacks, a microprocessor, and a voltage input analyzer of the control unit to enable or disable the jump-start relay.

A charge control device includes a voltage detector that detects a voltage of a battery, a temperature detector that detects a battery temperature, a voltage setting unit that sets at least one of a charge completion voltage and an abnormality determination voltage to a high temperature time voltage that is lower than a normal voltage when the battery temperature detected by the temperature detector is or is above a high temperature determination threshold set in advance, and a charging current limiting unit that reduces a charging current a charger supplies to the battery when the battery temperature is in a temperature range between a set temperature that is lower by a predetermined temperature than the high temperature determination threshold and the high temperature determination threshold and the battery voltage detected by the voltage detector is in a voltage range between the normal voltage and the high temperature time voltage.

An electrical consumer system includes an electrical consumer with a first mating interface and a first plurality of electrical contacts, and a removable battery pack including a second mating interface and a second plurality of electrical contacts, the second mating interface configured to removably mate with the first mating interface such that the second plurality of contacts contact the first plurality of contacts. At least one of the first and second mating interfaces includes a temperature sensor configured to detect at least one of a temperature of the at least one of the first and second mating interfaces, and a temperature of the first or second electrical contacts of the at least one of the first and second mating interfaces.

Provided are a battery assembly and charging method thereof, and an electronic cigarette; the battery assembly is used for combining with a vaporizer to form an electronic cigarette; the battery assembly comprises a charging port, a battery module, a charging control module, and a temperature monitoring module used for measuring the temperature value of said battery module; the charging control module is separately connected to the charging port, the battery module, and the temperature monitoring module; the charging control module is used for receiving DC power via the charging port so as to charge the battery module via an external power supply, and controlling the charging input of the battery module in accordance with the temperature value of the battery module, measured by the temperature monitoring module. The battery assembly monitors in real time the temperature of the battery module, effectively preventing explosion, burning, and other hazardous situations from occurring.

A battery pack includes a battery including at least one battery cell, a switching element including a charging switch and a discharging switch arranged on a high current path via which a charging current and a discharging current flow, a battery manager configured to monitor a voltage and a current of the battery, and to controlling charging and discharging of the battery based on the voltage of the battery, and a switch driver configured to output a second driving signal for driving the charging switch according to a control signal from the battery manager, wherein the battery manager is further configured to set a charging current limit based on a deterioration degree of the battery, and to control the charging switch by using the switch driver so that a magnitude of the charging current applied to the battery is equal to or less than the charging current limit.

A secondary battery system includes a battery having an electrode body impregnated with an electrolyte containing lithium ions; and an ECU configured to permit charge and discharge of the battery when battery temperature is equal to or more than a threshold temperature and to restrict the charge and discharge of the battery when the battery temperature is less than the threshold temperature. The ECU is configured to obtain a value related to minimum concentration of the lithium ions (minimum salt concentration) caused by a deviation of concentration distribution of the lithium ions in the electrode body, and to set the threshold temperature to be higher as the related value representing the minimum salt concentration becomes lower.

A system for determining an operating mode of a battery includes a voltage sensor configured to detect a present voltage across terminals of the battery. The system further includes a non-transitory memory configured to store previously detected voltages across the terminals of the battery, and a previous operating mode of the battery. The system further includes a processor coupled to the voltage sensor and the non-transitory memory and configured to determine the operating mode of the battery by comparing the present voltage across the terminals of the battery to the previously detected voltages of the battery and based on the previous operating mode of the battery.

A power brick includes a power module configured to convert AC to DC, an interface coupled to a computing device and configured to communicate with the computing device, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive a modified power setting and at least one modified error threshold value via the interface, control a modification of a power setting associated with the power module, and control a modification of a protection value of the power brick based on the at least one modified error threshold value.

A battery balancing system for parallel connected batteries for balancing batteries that are at dissimilar voltages. The system has first and second buses, connected by a current limiter. A high bus takes energy from the highest voltage battery or batteries in the system and transfers the energy through the current limiter to the low bus, which in turn delivers energy to the lowest voltage battery or batteries in the system.