Patent Application
20130099736
The invention relates generally to a vehicle battery charger, and, more particularly, to a lighted clamp for use in a vehicle battery charger.
Batteries composed of one or more electrochemical cells capable of converting chemical energy into a more readily usable form of electrical energy are widely employed in many industries and vehicles. For example, many such batteries are starting, lighting, and ignition (SLI) batteries capable of starting the internal combustion engines of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles. Vehicle batteries of this type can typically be discharged and replenished in multiple cycles before the life cycle of the battery is depleted. In addition, deep cycle batteries are capable of providing continuous electrical and/or motive power to vehicles such as golf carts. Such batteries are typically discharged slowly and nearly completely before being recharged. In many applications, a vehicle power plant (e.g., engine) and alternator serve to provide power for operation of the vehicle and to maintain a charge on the battery.
Battery chargers are also often necessary to replenish the charge stored in vehicle batteries for a number of reasons. For example, a vehicle may be stored for a long time without use, a light left on while the vehicle is no longer running, or any other electrical load may drain the battery, or the battery may simply loose charge over time and need additional charge. To properly connect a charger to a battery, it is generally desirable to connect battery terminal clamps to corresponding battery terminals in a specific order, a task that may be difficult to perform in a poorly lit environment such as a garage. Clamps and battery terminals are typically marked by positive (“+”) and negative (“−”) symbols and/or color coded to aid in correctly connecting the battery charger, but these symbols and colors may be difficult to distinguish in poor lighting.
Accordingly, a need exists for a battery charger that provides a mechanism to assist in connection of terminal clamps to battery terminals in such applications.
In an exemplary embodiment, a vehicle battery charger comprises a battery charging base unit. The vehicle battery charger also comprises a pair of battery terminal clamps that are coupled to the base unit via cabling. The clamps are configured to be secured to terminals of a vehicle battery that needs to be charged. The vehicle charger further comprises a light source disposed in one or both of the terminal clamps. The light source is configured to provide illumination of the battery, allowing a user to attach the terminal clamps to the battery terminals.
In another embodiment, a vehicle battery charger comprises a battery charging base unit, the base unit housing a battery charging power supply. The charger also comprises a pair of battery terminal clamps configured to be secured to terminals of a battery to be charged. The terminal clamps are coupled to the base unit via cabling, and the charging power supply provides power to the terminal clamps for charging the battery. The charger further comprises a light source disposed in at least one of the terminal clamps. The light source, powered by a separate power supply from the charging power supply, provides illumination of the battery for attachment of the terminal clamps to the battery terminals.
In a further embodiment, a vehicle battery charger comprises a light source disposed in at least one of a pair of battery terminal clamps. The light source is configured to provide illumination for a task of attaching the terminal clamps to terminals of a battery needing to be charged.
As described in detail below, embodiments of a lighted battery charger clamp for use in a vehicle battery charger are provided. The vehicle battery charger includes a base unit and a pair of battery terminal clamps secured to the base unit via cabling. Further, these terminal clamps are configured to be clamped onto terminals of a vehicle battery that needs to be charged. Still further, a light source disposed in one or both of the terminal clamps provides illumination of the battery so that a user may clearly see the locations of the battery terminals and correctly attach the terminal clamps to the terminals. A charging power supply disposed in the base unit provides electrical power for charging the battery, conveyed through the cabling and terminal clamps to the battery, and a separate power supply provides power to the light source. In addition, the light source may comprise a light emitting diode (LED), or other light source, that may be selectively powered by a switch disposed in the same one or both lighted clamps. Conductive wires disposed in the cabling between the lighted clamp and the base unit form a circuit between the separate power supply, the LED, and the switch. This allows for a user to selectively illuminate the battery in a dark environment using the lighted terminal clamp.
Turning now to the drawings,
The battery charger comprises a grid power cable 24 through which AC power from the grid (or another power source) is conveyed to the internal components of the base unit 10 to power battery charging operations. This allows the battery charger to function wherever a standard AC power outlet is available or reachable by coupling an extension cord to the grid power cable 24. Both the charging cable 14 and the grid power cable 24 may be made from materials suitable for use outdoors as well as indoors. Thus, the vehicle battery charger may be used to charge the battery 12 of a vehicle that is parked outside and unable to be relocated due to its depleted battery.
The base unit 10 comprises a handle 26 that allows for portability of the base unit and grips 28 to prevent the underside of the base unit 10 from damaging or sliding off a resting surface. With the grips 28, the base unit 10 may be placed on a surface of a vehicle that houses the battery 12 to be charged or on any convenient support surface with minimal slipping. In addition, the base unit 10 comprises a dashboard 30, which functions as a user interface for the battery charger, and an auxiliary outlet 32 on the surface of the base unit 10, both of which are described in further detail below.
In addition, the power conversion and regulation circuitry 40 may supply power to the battery 12 through an auxiliary battery maintainer 46, which may be coupled to the base unit 10 through an auxiliary maintainer outlet 48. The battery maintainer 46 may be a device with a set of cables that, like the battery charging cable 14, features clamps that may be secured to the positive terminal 20 and the negative terminal 22 of the battery 12. The battery maintainer may be configured to deliver a charge to the battery 12 at a low rate and stop delivering the charge automatically when the battery 12 is fully charged. This type of charging, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, may be useful for keeping the battery 12 charged on a vehicle that is not used often (e.g., a boat, a classic car, a large car used for family trips, etc.).
The power conversion and regulation circuitry 40 connects to two other components, including a clamp light emitting diode (LED) power supply 50 and an auxiliary universal serial bus (USB) power supply 52. The clamp LED power supply 50 provides electrical power to an LED conductor 54 that travels through the charging cable 14 to an LED (or other light source) positioned on one of the terminal clamps.
The charging display 56 comprises a gauge 62, which in this embodiment resembles a speedometer of a high performance automobile, with numbers from zero to one hundred and letter symbols from E (i.e., empty) to F (i.e., full). When the gauge needle points to zero and E, the battery 12 is considered fully discharged, or at some set minimum charge, typically determined from the battery voltage. However, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, vehicle batteries are typically configured to be only partially depleted while still being rechargeable. Therefore, the gauge 62 may read zero even though there is some charge remaining in the battery 12 (e.g., 11 volts), because if the charge dips below a threshold value, depending on the battery type, the battery 12 may no longer be rechargeable. Likewise, the one hundred percent charge reading on the gauge 62 may correspond to a charge (e.g., 13.8 volts) higher than one hundred percent of the charge expected for a typical twelve volt battery. In addition to the gauge 62, in the illustrated configuration, the charging display 56 comprises a voltage display 64 and a current display 66, providing digital readouts of the voltage and current being supplied to the battery 12 at a given moment.
The charging quick set selector 58 allows a user to select one of four types of vehicle batteries to charge. When a battery type is selected, an indicator light 68 may turn on in the corner of the relevant charging selection quadrant, and the corresponding input is sent to the processing circuitry to implement a charging algorithm to determine an appropriate charge to apply to the battery 12. The high performance AGM engine starting selection 70 corresponds to a high performance SLI battery used to start the internal combustion engine of a vehicle. The high performance AGM deep cycle selection 72 is also a selection for high performance batteries, although these batteries may be used to provide continuous electric and/or motive power to the vehicle and may be depleted more fully between charges. The other two selections are for standard flooded batteries, specifically, a standard motorcycle battery selection 74 for motorcycle batteries, a standard auto/marine battery selection 76 for car, truck, or boat batteries. Certain of the charging modes may be based, for example, upon the charging approaches disclosed in U.S. patent application No. 12/990,618, filed by Ronald Rizzo on May 6, 2009, entitled Battery Charging Device and Method, which is hereby incorporated into the present disclosure by reference.
The maintainer quick set selector 60 comprises four buttons which may be selected by the user to determine certain features of a vehicle battery charging process. These may be configured as charging modes, and may be adapted for different charging regimes. The battery maintainer selection 78 corresponds to a maintainer charge applied to the battery 12 through the terminal clamps. That is, the terminal clamps may be used to convey power from a charging power supply to the battery 12 at a slow trickle rate, as if the terminal clamps were battery maintainer leads. The auxiliary maintainer selection 80 may be selected when the optional battery maintainer 46 is coupled to the base unit 10 via the auxiliary maintainer outlet 48, allowing for the battery 12 to be charged slowly through a separate battery maintainer 46 that is powered by the battery charger. The battery pre-charge status selection 82 may be selected when the positive terminal clamp 16 is connected to the positive terminal 20 and the negative terminal clamp 18 is hooked up to the negative terminal 22, in order to determine the charge existing in the battery 12. This selection may be made when a user desires to know whether battery charging or battery maintaining is necessary, and when the battery pre-charge status selection 82 is chosen, the gauge 62 may display the amount of charge (e.g., voltage) available from the battery 12. The light on selection 84 restores the LCD of the dashboard 30, which powers down after the battery charger has been running for a previously determined amount of time.
The dashboard 30 comprises four additional displays that indicate the status of the battery charger and/or battery 12 throughout charging operations. The power on display 86 indicates that the base unit is receiving power from the grid power cord 24. The temperature compensation on display 88 indicates that the temperature of the battery 12 is being sensed and used to determine the most appropriate charge. The connected display 90 indicates that the positive terminal clamp 16 is connected to the positive terminal 20 and the negative terminal clamp 18 is connected to the negative terminal 22, and charging is ready to begin. The check display 92 indicates a potential error in the charging setup that may require a user's attention.
It should be noted that in other embodiments, different light sources and switches may be employed to illuminate the battery terminals. In addition, other arrangements of the switch, light source, and conductors conveying power through the circuit may be envisioned by those skilled in the art. For example, a toggle switch may be positioned at a different location on the positive terminal clamp 16 so that a user would not need to hold down a button on the positive terminal clamp 16 for an extended period of time while connecting the positive terminal clamp 16 to the positive terminal 20. In addition, an LED arrangement, complete with the LED 100, the LED wire 54, and the switch 102 may be applied to both sets of clamps and cables, instead of only the positive terminal clamp 16 and positive cable 94. This would allow for both clamps to illuminate the corresponding battery terminals in an otherwise dark environment.
A close up view of the positive terminal clamp 16 with the LED 100 illuminated is illustrated in
When the battery charger is not in use, the grid power cable 24 and battery terminal clamps may be stored with the base unit 10, as shown in the section view of
While only certain features and embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, many modifications and changes may occur to those skilled in the art (e.g., variations in sizes, dimensions, structures, shapes and proportions of the various elements, values of parameters (e.g., temperatures, pressures, etc.), mounting arrangements, use of materials, colors, orientations, etc.) without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of the subject matter recited in the claims. The order or sequence of any process or method steps may be varied or re-sequenced according to alternative embodiments. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention. Furthermore, in an effort to provide a concise description of the exemplary embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not have been described (i.e., those unrelated to the presently contemplated best mode of carrying out the invention, or those unrelated to enabling the claimed invention). It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation specific decisions may be made. Such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure, without undue experimentation.
