Patent Application
20070063675
This invention relates to battery management in a portable computing system, and more particularly to providing battery related information to a user of such a system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems (IHS). An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Portable information handling systems, such as portable notebook computers, typically utilize rechargeable batteries for power when the system is not plugged into a powered socket. One parameter that is often monitored in such portable systems is the amount of charge left in the battery before it will need to be recharged. This parameter is often deemed a measure of the battery life. A wide range of prior systems and solutions also provide battery power management techniques for extending the battery life as long as possible before recharging is required.
The usable life of a rechargeable battery, however, is a different parameter from what is often deemed “battery life.” This battery end-of-life parameter addresses the point at which a rechargeable battery can no longer hold a useful charge and does not address how much charge is left in a particular charging cycle. Based upon current technology, rechargeable batteries can only be recharged a certain number of times before they will no longer hold charge. And over time, the charging capacity of the battery is reduced. Thus, once a rechargeable battery is put into use, it is inevitable that its performance will degrade over time and will ultimately have to be replaced. Many users and purchasers of portable computers, however, do not understand this end-of-life limitation on rechargeable batteries. In fact, many users often expect the batteries that are installed in purchased portable computers, or the batteries they purchase as accessories, to have a usable life that is as long as the life for the portable computer itself. Unfortunately, based upon current battery technology, this is an unreasonable expectation.
When a user begins to experience degraded performance, the user may contact technical support. Because the user may have unreasonable expectations concerning the performance of the rechargeable battery, the user may request or demand a new battery believing the existing battery to be defective in some way. The technical support person may then have few options in order to satisfy the user other than to provide the user a new battery. This action, however, only starts the process again.
As indicated above, many hardware and software implementations exist for providing indications of battery charge status (i.e., how much longer the battery has until it needs to be re-charged). However, providing feedback on battery end-of-life is not currently done in an effective manner. Hewlett-Packard systems have provided power management information about the battery via a Battery Optimizer application. Similarly, IBM systems have provided information about power management in a Battery MaxiMiser application. The information in both applications includes things such as cycle count, device chemistry, design voltage, full charge capacity, and design capacity. With respect to end-of-life information, U.S. Pat. No. 6,545,488 (assigned to INTEL) does provide an indication that a battery has reached a critical state such that it is no longer holding a charge. In addition, the system of this patent provides an indication of the battery capacity, allows a user to select notification times, and discusses the use of multiple windows and information boxes.
Although these prior solutions have attempted to provide battery life (charge remaining) information and critical warnings when end-of-life has been reached, prior solutions have not adequately informed the user of the health of rechargeable batteries and their operational condition throughout the operational life of the rechargeable battery. In addition, prior solutions have not provided adequate tools to technical support persons to handle rechargeable battery complaints.
The present invention provides systems and methods for providing battery health information to users of portable information handling systems. As described herein, battery health information is displayed to a user along with information concerning the limited life of a rechargeable battery. The battery health information may include, for example, a good condition indicator, a critical condition indicator and one or more intermediate condition levels. In addition, battery health information, customer battery usage information and other battery health related data can also be logged for later use in troubleshooting by users or remote technicians or for other desired purposes.
In one embodiment, the present invention is a method for informing a user of battery usable life information for an information handling system including determining a current usable life condition for at least one rechargeable battery within an information handling system, displaying normal level condition information to a user when the usable life condition is above a normal threshold level where the normal level condition information includes usable life expectation information, displaying critical level condition information to a user when the usable life condition below is a critical threshold level, and displaying caution level condition information to a user when the usable life condition is below the normal threshold level and above the critical threshold level. The condition level information can also be automatically displayed, if desired. In addition, the usable life expectation information can include information informing the user that the rechargeable battery has a limited usable life and at some point will have to be replaced. In addition, the method can include storing battery usage data related to the battery. Still further, the method can include obtaining information from the battery and determining a percentage of usable life remaining as a representation for the current usable life condition for the rechargeable battery. And the user can be allowed to select the percentages used for the threshold levels. Furthermore, the method can include determining a percentage of usable life remaining by obtaining a number of actual recharge cycles used for the battery and comparing it to an expected number of total recharge cycles for the battery, or by obtaining a current charge capacity for the battery and comparing it to a full charge capacity for the battery, or by doing both.
In another embodiment, the present invention is a battery health monitor for informing a user of battery usable life information for a rechargeable battery within an information handling system including normal level condition screen information configured to be displayed to a user when a current usable life condition for a rechargeable battery is above a normal threshold level where the normal level condition screen information includes usable life expectation information, critical level condition screen information configured to be displayed to a user when the current usable life condition below is a critical threshold level, and caution level condition screen information configured to be displayed to a user when the current usable life condition is below the normal threshold level and above the critical threshold level. A selectable menu can also be provided to allow a user to select one of a plurality of rechargeable batteries for which battery usable life information will be displayed. Still further, the usable life expectation information can include information informing the user that the rechargeable battery has a limited usable life and at some point will have to be replaced. In addition, the current usable life condition for the rechargeable battery can be based upon a percentage of usable life remaining for the rechargeable battery. Furthermore, the percentage of usable life remaining can be dependent upon a comparison of a number of actual recharge cycles used and an expected number of total recharge cycles for the battery, or upon a comparison of current charge capacity and a full charge capacity for the battery, or upon both.
It is noted that the appended drawings illustrate only exemplary embodiments of the invention and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
For purposes of this disclosure, an information handling system may include any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operable to compute, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, manifest, detect, record, reproduce, handle, or utilize any form of information, intelligence, or data for business, scientific, control, or other purposes. For example, an information handling system may be a personal computer, a server computer system, a network storage device, or any other suitable device and may vary in size, shape, performance, functionality, and price. The information handling system may include random access memory (RAM), one or more processing resources such as a central processing unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic, ROM, and/or other types of nonvolatile memory. Additional components of the information handling system may include one or more disk drives, one or more network ports for communicating with external devices as well as various input and output (I/O) devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a video display. The information handling system may also include one or more buses operable to transmit communications between the various hardware components.
The present invention provides systems and methods for providing battery health information to users of portable information handling systems.
As discussed herein, there is a significant amount of confusion from customers regarding expectations of a batteries usable life. The first issue is that users do not necessarily understand that a rechargeable computer battery is a consumable item and that the performance will degrade over the battery's life cycle. The second issue is that users currently do not have an application to tell them whether the battery is performing normally. The battery health meter application of the present invention helps to educate users over time on battery usable life cycles and normal expected performance throughout that usable life cycle, as well as giving users a tool to check the current battery performance at any given time. The solution of the present invention provides this battery information in such a way that users can easily understand the battery end-of-life status and make decisions about whether they should purchase a replacement battery. Rather than providing information in terms of things like design capacity and cycle count, users are provided simple normal, cautionary, and critical icons with easy-to-understand messaging. The battery health monitor thereby provides customer experience enhancements (including proactive notification of need for new battery, easy online purchase process, and education on rechargeable battery behavior over time) and warranty benefits (including use as a technical support tool to assess remaining battery life). The battery health monitor of the present invention can operate within an appropriate tool running on the system. It is noted that in a DELL system, the battery health monitor can be housed within DELL QuickSet tool. The battery health window, or tab, within this tool can then contain different messaging, depending on the status of the battery, as discussed further below.
As also indicated below, different BHM condition information screens can be displayed to the user based upon battery end-of-life projections. In particular, percentages of battery usable life remaining can be used to set the levels at which the different conditions are deemed to exist. A number of different techniques and implementations can be used to determine such percentages. It is further noted that the condition levels can be user selectable through the BHM tool, if desired.
For example, these percentages can be determined by obtaining the number of recharge cycles that battery has been through and by comparing this actual number recharge cycles to the number of recharge cycles expected for that battery, according to the following equation:
ULRP=(Expected Cycles−Actual Cycles)/(Expected Cycles),
where ULRP represents the usable life remaining percentage, Expected Cycles represents the total number of expected recharge cycles for battery, and Actual Cycles represents the actual recharge cycles that have been used already. The total number of recharge cycles for any given battery can be information provided by the battery manufacturer and can be stored in appropriate look-up tables that can be accessed by the BHM tool.
In addition, percentage values for use by the BHM tool can be calculated using battery capacity parameters, if desired. While the number of cycles discussed above is an indirect measure of battery usable life, battery capacity can be used as a direct measure of battery usable life. In such an implementation, percentages can be utilized according to the following equation:
ULRP=(Full Charge Capacity−Current Charge Capacity)/(Full Charge Capacity),
where ULRP represents the usable life remaining percentage, Full Charge Capacity represents the full charge amount for battery when new, and Current Charge Capacity represents the current charge capacity for the batter. The full charge capacity for any given battery can be information provided by the battery manufacturer and can be stored in appropriate look-up tables that can be accessed by the BHM tool. It is noted that cycle measurements and charge measurements can be combined, if desired, to determine a percentage for the usable life remaining. In addition, as stated above, other parameters could be utilized as desired to determine a usable life remaining percentage.
It is further noted that with respect to the percentages of usable life remaining, the percentage values can be used but not displayed to the user. These percentage values can represent threshold trigger points that change the content and behavior of the BHM tool and the information screens. Because a battery begins to degrade exponentially and not linearly, exposing the percentage of remaining usable life to a user could be confusing. If desired, however, these percentages could nevertheless be displayed to the user. It is further noted that other parameters could be used, if desired, to trigger when each usable life condition level is reached and associated information screens could be displayed.
The following table provides one example for condition levels, thresholds used for determining when condition levels are reached, and the actions taken and information displayed for each example condition level.
Looking now to
In addition, customer usage data 108 can be stored by the battery health monitor and can be transferred across a network connection for the IHS 150, if desired. This customer usage data 108 can include information such as battery usage profiles, battery health data, and other battery related data. This customer usage data 108 can be utilized for troubleshooting by the user or a remote technician, for real-life customer usage models when aggregated with customer usage data from other users, and/or for any other desired data analysis purposes.
In the embodiment depicted, BHM information screens 110 have been selected to be four different screen displays depending upon operational performance parameters determined for the relevant battery. Screen display 200 is labeled GREEN and represents an operational level at which the battery is performing in a good or normal range. Screen display 500 is labeled CRITICAL and represents an operational level at which the battery is performing in inadequate manner and should be replaced. Screen display 300 is labeled CAUTION LEVEL 1 and represents an operational level at which the battery is performing satisfactorily but is below the good/normal range. Finally, screen display 400 is labeled CAUTION LEVEL 2 and represents an operational level at which the battery is performing satisfactorily but is just above the CRITICAL level 500.
It is noted that the two battery example of
With respect to “Battery Health” tab 128 which has been selected, a drop down box 210 is provided for selection of the battery for which information will be displayed. In
In the embodiment of
Further modifications and alternative embodiments of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of this description. It will be recognized, therefore, that the present invention is not limited by these example arrangements. Accordingly, this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the manner of carrying out the invention. It is to be understood that the forms of the invention herein shown and described are to be taken as the presently preferred embodiments. Various changes may be made in the implementations and architectures. For example, equivalent elements may be substituted for those illustrated and described herein, and certain features of the invention may be utilized independently of the use of other features, all as would be apparent to one skilled in the art after having the benefit of this description of the invention.
