Patent Application
20050253590
The present invention relates to a testing apparatus which may be used to determine whether a battery is adequately charged.
There are various battery charge testing apparatus which provide a visual indication as to whether a battery is adequately charged. U.S. Pat. No. 2,081,656 (Anthony 1937) discloses a carton for holding batteries, which was developed so that the batteries could be tested without removing them from the carton. The battery charge testing apparatus illustrated for testing the batteries illuminates a light bulb. The intensity of light from the light bulb being indicative of the strength of the battery's charge. A drawback of such a tester is that there can sometimes be difficulty in distinguishing the relative strength of the light in bright daylight conditions. U.S. Pat. No. 1,337,160 (Reibeth 1920) discloses a battery charge testing apparatus having a needle, which moves along a scale to give an indication as to the strength of the battery's charge. A drawback of such a tester is that it is not suitable for use by the vision impaired or under poor lighting conditions.
According to the present invention there is provided a method of testing a charge of a battery, comprising the step of connecting a battery which is to be tested to a device which generates at least one of tactile vibrations or auditory vibrations and determining a magnitude of a charge of the battery by a magnitude of vibrations generated by the vibrator.
With the above described method and the battery charge testing apparatus, as described above, the person testing the battery receives a tactile or auditory sensation. The person can determine the strength of the charge of the battery from the strength of the sensation. The tester is suitable for use with persons having impaired vision and the results of the test can be interpreted by persons having good vision without regard to ambient lighting conditions.
These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to in any way limit the scope of the invention to the particular embodiment or embodiments shown, wherein:
The preferred embodiment, a battery charge testing apparatus generally identified by reference numeral 10, will now be described with reference to
Structure and Relationship of Parts:
Referring now to
Battery charge testing apparatus 10 comprises a body 12 with a vibrator 14 mounted to body 12. An electrical circuit (not shown) is in body 12 to supply power to vibrator 14. External contacts 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 are connected to the electrical circuit. External contacts 16 and 18, which may be referred to as a first and second contact, respectively, are positioned on an external surface 26 of body 12. External contacts 20 and 22, which may also be referred to as a first and second contact, respectively, are positioned on a first umbilical cord 28 extending from body 12 and a second umbilical cord 30 extending from body 12, respectively. When either first external electrical contact 16 or 20 is in contact with a first pole 32 of a battery 34 and either second external electrical contact 18 or 22 is in contact with a second pole 35 of battery 34, vibrator 14 vibrates with a magnitude of a charge of battery 34 determining a magnitude of the vibrations. As shown in
Battery charge testing apparatus 10 may also includes more than one electrical circuit (not shown) with a selector switch 36 positioned on external surface 28 of body 12 to select one of the electrical circuits depending upon the type of battery to be tested. While selector switch 36 is shown to be rotatable, it could also be a switch that slid laterally. If the tester is intended for use by someone visually impaired, the selector switch may have raised indications on body 12.
Operation:
The method of operation of battery charge testing apparatus will now be discussed with reference to
Variations:
Referring to
The overall inventive concept is to generate vibrations that a person with limited vision or in poor lighting conditions can sense. The first embodiment generated tactile vibrations, that a person using the device can feel. This second embodiment generates auditory vibrations, that a person using the device can hear. To facilitate the generation of auditory vibrations, a sound generator 38 is shown replacing vibrator 14. In all other respects the device is the same. Of course, both tactile and auditory vibrations may be generated to provide the benefits of both.
In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements.
It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined in the Claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,470,516 | May 2004 | CA | national |
