BATTERY CHARGER WITH AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE DETECTION

摘要

A battery charger is disclosed that is configured to be connected to an external battery by way of external battery cables. In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, the battery charger is configured with automatic voltage detection which automatically determines the nominal voltage of the battery connected to its battery charger terminals and charges the battery as a function of the detected nominal voltage irrespective of the nominal voltage selected by a user. Various safeguards are built into the battery charger to avoid overcharging a battery. For battery chargers with user-selectable nominal battery voltage charging modes, battery charger is configured to over-ride a user-selected battery voltage mode if it detects that the battery connected to the battery charger terminals is different than the user-selected charging mode.

主权项

1. A battery system comprising: an automatic voltage detection system for automatically determining a nominal voltage of a battery connected across a pair of terminals by measuring a first voltage of the battery across the pair of terminals and, if the first voltage of the battery is less than a first predetermined value, determining the nominal voltage of the battery by measuring a second voltage across the pair of terminals and comparing the second voltage of the battery to a second predetermined value.