A battery system includes a battery receiving device and a plurality of battery units. Each battery unit can be coupled bidirectionally and inductively to one another and/or to the receiving device for charging/discharging. The receiving device can be connected to an external electrical energy source and/or sink. Each battery unit includes a coil unit. The receiving device has a storage seat for each battery unit removable with a magnetically complementary connectable coil unit for inserting/removing a battery unit without tools. The coil unit has a single coil which is substantially shaped as an elliptical, elongated flat coil, arranged in a half-shell housing and embedded in a ferrite core half-shell of ferrite elements, with a coil unit ratio of thickness to length/width of at least 1:5. The coil unit of the battery unit and receiving device are formed mechanically separable with a maximum distance between the coil units of 110 mm.

A power unit operable to power equipment, the power unit including an electric motor, multiple removable and rechargeable battery packs, multiple switching elements, and a control unit. Each of the switching elements is connected between one of the battery packs and the electric motor and operate in one of an open position or a closed position. The control unit is operable to manage the position of the switching elements. The control unit is configured to determine whether one or more battery packs are supplying power for the electric motor, measure a voltage of each of the battery packs, determine whether each of the voltage measurements is within a predetermined value to each other, calculate a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal for each of the switching elements, assign each PWM signal to one of the switching elements, and apply each of the PWM signals to the assigned switching element.

The present disclosure provides a circuit for balancing voltages of battery packs to be connected in parallel, comprising: IN-side switches and OUT-side switches; a DC-DC converter with an IN terminal connected to the IN-side switches and an OUT terminal connected to the OUT-side switches; and a controller to operate an IN-side switch to connect a V.sub.max battery pack to the IN terminal, operate an OUT-side switch to connect a V.sub.min battery pack to the OUT terminal, and activate the DC-DC converter to transfer energy from the V.sub.min battery pack to the V.sub.min battery pack. The controller responds to an IN terminal voltage being sufficiently close to a voltage of a first battery pack by operating an IN-side switch to connect the first pack to the IN terminal, and responds to an OUT terminal voltage being sufficiently close to a voltage of a second battery pack by operating an OUT-side switch to connect the second battery pack to the OUT terminal.

A system and method for charging battery packs is provided. The system may include a charging pad comprising a power supply, a charging pad surface, and a microcontroller unit. The power supply may provide charging power. The charging pad surface may include a first charging region and a second charging region. The microcontroller unit may control delivery of charging power to the first charging region and the second charging region such that a device placed in contact with the first charging region is given a higher charging priority than a device placed in contact with the second charging region.

A battery pack management device capable of reducing power consumption while transmitting and receiving data between a master BMS and a slave BMS by using a wireless communication method. The battery pack management device according to the present disclosure includes: a master BMS including an external communicator, an internal communicator, and a master controller and a slave BMS including a power supply, a state measurement sensor, a slave wireless communicator, and a slave controller.

An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a voltage divider circuit, a first battery electrically connected to a first point of the voltage divider circuit, and a second battery connected in series to the first battery. A second point different from the first point of the voltage divider circuit is electrically connected from a first node on an electric path through which the first battery and the second battery are electrically connected.

A power unit operable to power equipment, the power unit including an electric motor, multiple removable and rechargeable battery packs, multiple switching elements, and a control unit. Each of the switching elements is connected between one of the battery packs and the electric motor and operate in one of an open position or a closed position. The control unit is operable to manage the position of the switching elements. The control unit is configured to determine whether one or more battery packs are supplying power for the electric motor, measure a voltage of each of the battery packs, determine whether each of the voltage measurements is within a predetermined value to each other, calculate a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal for each of the switching elements, assign each PWM signal to one of the switching elements, and apply each of the PWM signals to the assigned switching element.

An apparatus for communication and balancing in a battery system includes a battery pack connected to a management network. The management network is configured to communicate with a master controller via a communication bus. The apparatus is configured to operate in a communication mode and a balancing mode.

In a power supply system and a method for controlling the same, at least one battery from among a plurality of batteries is designated as a charging-side battery, and the remaining batteries are designated as discharging-side batteries. Next, the difference in current between the current flowing from the discharging-side batteries and the current flowing into the charging-side battery is determined on the basis of currents measured by a plurality of current measuring instruments. Next, the transformation rate of a voltage transformer connected to the discharging-side batteries is determined on the basis of the determined difference in current.

A method to control storage into and depletion from multiple energy storage devices. The method enables an operative connection between the energy storage devices and respective power converters. The energy storage devices are connectible across respective first terminals of the power converters. At the second terminals of the power converter, a common reference is set which may be a current reference or a voltage reference. An energy storage fraction is determined respectively for the energy storage devices. A voltage conversion ratio is maintained individually based on the energy storage fraction. The energy storage devices are stored individually with multiple variable rates of energy storage through the first terminals. The energy storage is complete for the energy storage devices substantially at a common end time responsive to the common reference.