The present disclosure provides a battery charging apparatus and a battery charging protection control method. A power adapter in the battery charging apparatus performs data communication with a charging control circuit; when the power adapter determines that overvoltage and/or overcurrent occurs in the direct current output by a communication interface of the power adapter, the power adapter notifies the charging control circuit to drive a controller in the electronic device to switch off a communication interface of the electronic device and switches off the direct current output automatically; when the charging control circuit determines that overvoltage and/or overcurrent occurs upon receiving output voltage and output current of the power adapter, the charging control circuit notifies the power adapter to switch off the direct current output and drives the controller in the electronic device to switch off the communication interface of the electronic device.

Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system and method for providing a boosted voltage using a single stage dual active bridge converter. In one embodiment, the single stage dual active bridge converter is introduced for high voltage charging using phase shift and frequency control. Phase shift and frequency control can be implemented on duty cycled switches and pulse width modulated switches in order to achieve a desired output voltage. In another embodiment, the phase shift and frequency controlled single stage dual active bridge converter is replicated in modular form to provide a single-phase system that provides a voltage for charging a high voltage system. In yet another embodiment, the phase shift and frequency controlled single stage dual active bridge converter is replicated in modular form to provide a three-phase system that provides a voltage for charging a high voltage system.

A charging control method and apparatus, and a device to-be-charged are provided. The method is applicable to the device to-be-charged. The device to-be-charged includes a battery which includes multiple cells. In charging of the device to-be-charged, K stages of constant-current charging is applied to the battery, where K is a positive integer greater than or equal to one. In each of the K stages, a preset current corresponding to the stage is applied to the battery for constant-current charging until a voltage of the battery reaches a preset voltage corresponding to the stage. In each of the K stages, a charging voltage applied to the battery and a voltage across each of the multiple cells are detected. When the charging voltage and/or a voltage across any of the multiple cells is higher than the preset voltage corresponding to the stage, proceed to a next constant-current charging stage.

A Dielectric Energy Storage System (DESS), a Dielectric Energy Storage System Management System (DESS-MS), and method that stores energy for a wide variety of applications.

Apparatus for monitoring relative capacity and state of charge between at least two cells, or cell modules, A and B of a plurality of Lithium Sulfur cells arranged in series, comprising: a timer; a voltage monitoring module configured to monitor a voltage drop across each of the Lithium Sulfur cells or cell modules arranged in series based on signals received from a voltage monitoring circuit; and a cell monitoring module coupled to the timer and the voltage monitoring module and configured to, during a charging cycle in which the cells are charged at a constant current: record a time stamp T.sub.1(Cell A) at which the monitored voltage of the first cell, cell A, leading the charging reaches a first voltage V.sub.1(cell A) set to be near top of charge as the rate of change of the monitored voltage measurably increases; record a time stamp T.sub.1(Cell B) at which the monitored voltage of the cell B following the charging reaches the first voltage V.sub.1(Cell A); record a time stamp T.sub.2(Cell A) at which the monitored voltage of the leading cell A reaches a second voltage V.sub.2(Cell A) set to be substantially at a deemed top of charge; record a monitored voltage V.sub.2(Cell B) of the following cell B at T.sub.2(Cell A); and determine, based on at least T.sub.1(Cell A), T.sub.1(Cell B), V.sub.2(Cell A) and V.sub.2(Cell B), a metric indicative of a relative capacity difference between cell A and cell B.

A controller, a system including such a controller, and a method for controlling discharging of a plurality of battery packs are provided. The controller includes one or more processor and at least one tangible, non-transitory machine readable medium encoded with one or more programs configured to perform steps to minimize a corresponding voltage gradient versus charge of each battery pack to be below a predetermined threshold, and calculate a respective discharging share of each battery pack based on the charge and the voltage in an updated curve of voltage versus charge of each battery pack and the total power demand. The controller provides signals with instructions to the plurality of battery packs and/or the one or more power converters for discharging power from the plurality of battery packs based on the respective discharging share of each battery pack and/or keeping a certain battery pack idle.

A method for battery charging includes performing a first-constant-current charging the battery with a constant current having a first intensity, determining a voltage of the battery rises above a first voltage level, performing a second-constant-current charging of the battery with a constant current having a second intensity that is less than the first intensity, determining a voltage of the battery rises above a second voltage level that is higher than the first voltage level, performing a third-constant-current charging the battery with a constant current having a third intensity that is less than the second intensity, determining a voltage of the battery rises above a third voltage level that is higher than the second voltage level, performing a constant voltage charging the battery with a constant voltage having the third voltage level, determining a charging current of the battery falls to a fourth intensity that is less than the third intensity.

An electrical combination. The electrical combination comprises a battery pack configured to be interfaced with a hand held power tool, a control component, and a semiconducting switch. The transfer of power from the battery pack to the hand held power tool is controlled by the control component and the switch based on one of a battery pack state of charge and a respective state of charge of one of a plurality of battery cells. A discharge current of the battery pack is regulated based on the switch being controlled into one of a first state and a second state by the control component to selectively enable the transfer power from the plurality of battery cells to the hand held power tool.

A battery management system includes a voltage sensor to generate a voltage signal indicating a voltage of a battery, a current sensor to generate a current signal indicating a current flowing through the battery, and a control unit to record a voltage history and a current history of the battery based on the voltage signal and the current signal at a predetermined time interval during constant current charging of the battery. The control unit determines a differential capacity curve indicating a correlation between the voltage of the battery and a differential capacity in a reference voltage range. The control unit performs a first protection operation for the battery by comparing a first characteristic voltage of a main feature point with a reference voltage when the main feature point is detected from the differential capacity curve.

A charge control system includes a memory and a processing unit. The memory integrates a power consumption of the electronic device, a sleep signal, a boot signal, a hibernate signal or a shutdown signal received by the electronic device, a charge status of the charger, and a remaining power of the battery at the previous time point, as previous usage information. The processing unit creates an estimation model based on the previous usage information and an algorithm, to estimate an estimated power consumption of the electronic device, the estimated power of the battery and the charge probability of the charger corresponding to the current time point, the processing unit determines a target voltage based on the estimated power consumption, the estimated power, and the charge probability, the processing unit controls the charger to charge the battery, based on a current voltage and a target voltage.