The disclosure relates to a rechargeable battery pack for a hand-held power tool, having an interface for establishing an electrical connection of the rechargeable battery pack to a hand-held power tool and/or a charging device. The interface has contact elements for electrically contacting corresponding mating contact elements on the hand-held power tool and/or on the charging device. One contact element is a signal contact element which is electrically connected to an encoder element of the rechargeable battery pack. A rechargeable battery pack electronics is configured to provide information relating to the rechargeable battery pack via the signal contact element, said information relating to the rechargeable battery pack being stored, at least in part, in the at least one encoder element, wherein in the rechargeable battery pack electronics, the encoder element is connected, in an electric parallel circuit, in parallel with a dynamic current path.

A method of estimating a charging time of a battery, includes: estimating an SOC of the battery by measuring at least one parameter of the battery; estimating an internal resistance of the battery based on the at least one parameter of the battery, the SOC of the battery, and SOC-OCV data; estimating a time length of a constant current (CC) charging section based on the SOC, the internal resistance, and the at least one parameter of the battery; and estimating a time length of a constant voltage (CV) charging section based on the SOC, the internal resistance, and the at least one parameter of the battery. The estimating of the time length of the CV charging section includes: estimating a charging current of the battery in a unit of an SOC step; and calculating the time length of the CV charging section in the unit of the SOC step.

A handheld device includes an electronic instrument and a capacitive power supply for storing and delivering power to the electronic instrument. The capacitive power supply includes at least one capacitor, and an electronic circuit operable to boost a voltage from the capacitor to a higher voltage for use by the electronic instrument. The capacitive power supply can be rapidly recharged. Some configurations include an accelerometer which permits the handheld device to detect movement and perform various operations responsive to detected movement. A dual charging station is also disclosed.

A charge control device of one example of the present invention comprises a temperature detection unit, a storage unit, and an upper limit setting unit. The storage unit stores a reference current characteristic and at least one of a first current characteristic and a second current characteristic as a charging current characteristic, and stores a reference voltage characteristic and at least one of a first voltage characteristic and a second voltage characteristic as a charging voltage characteristic. The upper limit setting unit selects a characteristic used to set upper limits of a charging current and a charging voltage to the battery from among a plurality of the charging current characteristics and a plurality of the charging voltage characteristics stored in the storage unit.

A battery pack and charger platform including a voltage coupling circuit comprising an input that receives an input voltage and an output that sends an output voltage, a voltage monitoring circuit having an input coupled to the voltage coupling circuit output and an output, and a power source having an input coupled to the voltage monitoring circuit output, the power source input receives an input voltage representative of a charge instruction.

A system is provided with a set of removable battery packs and a set of power tools each including a motor, a controller, and a battery receiving portion. For each power tool, the controller is configured to identify a type of battery pack coupled to the battery receiving portion and limit a maximum amount of electric current drawn from the battery pack by the motor based on the identified type of the battery pack. The greater a ratio of an impedance of the motor to an impedance of the battery pack, the less the controller limits the maximum amount of electric current drawn from the battery pack such that for a given battery pack of the set of removable battery packs, the lower the impedance of the motor, the more current the motor draws from the given battery pack.

Provided is a storage for used battery units capable of economically storing a plurality of used battery units of various manufacturers while suppressing the deterioration of the used battery units during storage. The storage for used battery units includes: a selection unit that selects a discharge target battery unit and a charge target battery unit from among the plurality of used battery units on the basis of the current values and the voltage values of the plurality of used battery units in storage and the predetermined SOC range of each of the plurality of used battery units; and a charge/discharge control unit which causes a discharge target battery unit to be discharged and charges the discharged power into a charge target battery unit such that the SOCs of the discharge target battery unit and the charge target battery unit reach a predetermined SOC range.

Single, internally adjustable modular battery systems are provided, for handling power delivery from and to various power systems such as electric vehicles, photovoltaic systems, solar systems, grid-scale battery energy storage systems, home energy storage systems and power walls. Batteries comprise a main fast-charging lithium ion battery (FC), configured to deliver power to the electric vehicle, a supercapacitor-emulating fast-charging lithium ion battery (SCeFC), configured to receive power and deliver power to the FC and/or to the EV and to operate at high rates within a limited operation range of state of charge (SoC), respective module management systems, and a control unit. Both the FC and the SCeFC have anodes based on the same anode active material and the control unit is configured to manage the FC and the SCeFC and manage power delivery to and from the power system(s), to optimize the operation of the FC.

A system and method for variable power transfer in an inductive charging or power system. In accordance with an embodiment the system comprises a pad or similar base unit that contains a primary, which creates an alternating magnetic field. A receiver comprises a means for receiving the energy from the alternating magnetic field from the pad and transferring it to a mobile device, battery, or other device. In accordance with various embodiments, additional features can be incorporated into the system to provide greater power transfer efficiency, and to allow the system to be easily modified for applications that have different power requirements. These include variations in the material used to manufacture the primary and/or the receiver coils; modified circuit designs to be used on the primary and/or receiver side; and additional circuits and components that perform specialized tasks, such as mobile device or battery identification, and automatic voltage or power-setting for different devices or batteries.

A charging control method includes: monitoring a real-time temperature of the battery during charging a battery with a first real-time charging current; reducing the first real-time charging current to a second real-time charging current at a specified current reduction rate, when the real-time temperature of the battery is greater than a first temperature threshold, the second real-time charging current being a real-time charging current corresponding to that the real-time temperature of the battery is less than the first temperature threshold; and charging the battery according to the second real-time charging current. As such, the temperature rise problem during high-current high-power fast charging can be alleviated, and excessive fluctuations due to instantaneous current adjustment can be prevented from affecting the charging rate thereby improving user experience.