Battery Chargers

What is Battery Chargers

Battery charger is a kind of electric devices used to put energy into a secondary cell or (rechargeable) battery by forcing an electric current through it.
The charge current depends upon the technology and capacity of the battery which isbeing charged. For example, the current that should be applied to recharge a 12 V car battery will be very different from the current for a mobile phone battery.

The battery charger includes a first charging circuit controlling input power to charge an external battery detachably mounted to the charger; A charger configured to charge batteries includes a housing including a plurality of battery storage chambers accommodating the batteries, the battery storage chambers being aligned in a horizontal direction such that depth directions of the battery storage chambers are parallel to each other.nternal secondary battery charged by the input power; a charge/discharge control circuit charging the internal battery by the input power and controlling a charge of the internal battery; and a control circuit controlling an operative state of the first charging circuit and the charge/discharge control circuit. The charger serves to charge the detachably mounted external battery both by the input power and by the internal battery. The charger is so structured that when the input power is not in a inputted state, the control circuit supplies the electric power from the internal battery to the charge/discharge control circuit into an operative state, where an operative state of the internal battery is controlled, thus discharging the internal battery to charge the external battery by the discharged electric power.

Types of battery chargers

Simple battery charger

A simple charger works by connecting a constant DC power source to the battery being charged. The simple charger does not alter its output based on time or the charge on the battery. This simplicity means that a simple charger is inexpensive, but there is a tradeoff in quality. Typically, a simple charger takes longer to charge a battery to prevent severe over-charging. Even so, a battery left in a simple charger for too long will be weakened or destroyed due to over-charging. These chargers can supply either a constant voltage or a constant current to the battery.

Trickle battery charger

A trickle charger is a kind of simple charger that charges the battery slowly, at the self-discharge rate. A trickle charger is the slowest kind of battery charger. A battery can be left in a trickle charger indefinitely. Leaving a battery in a trickle charger keeps the battery "topped up" but never over-charges.

Timer-based

The output of a timer charger is terminated after a pre-determined time. Timer chargers were the most common type for high- capacity Ni-Cd cells in the late 1990s for example (low-capacity consumer Ni-Cd cells were typically charged with a simple charger).

Often a timer charger and set of batteries could be bought as a bundle and the charger time was set to suit those batteries. If batteries of lower capacity were charged then they would be overcharged, and if batteries of higher capacity were charged they would be only partly charged. With the trend for battery technology to increase capacity year on year, an old timer charger would only partly charge the newer batteries.

Timer based chargers also had the drawback that charging batteries that were not fully discharged, even if those batteries were of the correct capacity for the particular timed charger, would result in over-charging.

Intelligent Battery Charger

Output current depends upon the battery's state. An intelligent charger may monitor the battery's voltage, temperature and/or time under charge to determine the optimum charge current at that instant. Charging is terminated when a combination of the voltage, temperature and/or time indicates that the battery is fully charged. For Ni-Cd and NiMH batteries, the voltage across the battery increases slowly during the charging process, until the battery is fully charged. After that, the voltage decreases, which indicates to an intelligent charger that the battery is fully charged. Such chargers are often labeled as a ΔV, or "delta-V," charger, indicating that they monitor the voltage change.

However, the magnitude of "delta-V" can become small or even nonexistant if (very) high capacity rechargable batteries are recharged. This can cause even an intelligent battey charger to not sense that the batteries are actually already fully charged, and continue charging. Overcharging of the batteries result.

A typical intelligent charger fast-charges a battery up to about 85% of its maximum capacity in less than an hour, then switches to trickle charging, which takes several hours to top off the battery to its full capacity.

Fast Charger

Fast chargers make use of control circuitry in the batteries being charged to rapidly charge the batteries without damaging the cells' elements. Most such chargers have a cooling fan to help keep the temperature of the cells under control. Most are also capable of acting as a standard overnight charger if used with standard NiMH cells that do not have the special control circuitry. Some fast chargers, such as those made by Energizer, can fast-charge any NiMH battery even if it does not have the control circuit.

Pulse battery charger

Some chargers use pulse technology in which a pulse is fed to the battery. This DC pulse has a strictly controlled rise time, pulse width, pulse repetition rate (frequency) and amplitude. This technology is said to work with any size, voltage, capacity or chemistry of batteries, including automotive and valve-regulated batteries. With pulse charging, high instantaneous voltages can be applied without overheating the battery. In a Lead-acid battery, this breaks-down stubborn lead-sulfate crystals, thus greatly extending the battery service life.

Some chargers use pulses to check the current battery state when the charger is first connected, then use constant current charging during fast charging, then use pulse charging as a kind of trickle charging to maintain the charge。
Some chargers use "negative pulse charging", also called "reflex charging" or "burp charging".[10] Such chargers use both positive and brief negative current pulses. Such chargers don't work any better than pulse chargers that only use positive pulses.

Inductive Type Charger

Inductive battery chargers use electromagnetic induction to charge batteries. A charging station sends electromagnetic energy through inductive coupling to an electrical device, which stores the energy in the batteries. This is achieved without the need for metal contacts between the charger and the battery. It is commonly used in electric toothbrushes and other devices used in bathrooms. Because there are no open electrical contacts, there is no risk of electrocution.

USB-based battery charger

Pay-per-charge kiosk, illustrating the variety of mobile phone charger connectors.

Since the Universal Serial Bus specification provides for a five-volt power supply, it's possible to use a USB cable as a power source for recharging batteries. Products based on this approach include chargers designed to charge standard NiMH cells[13], and custom NiMH batteries with built-in USB plugs and circuitry which eliminate the need for a separate charger. []Moixa Energy patented a design of batteries, branded USBCELL, that incorporate their own USB chargers internally, complete with their own plugs. In the currently available AA battery design, the positive end of the battery doubles as a flip-cap for the built-in USB plug.