| Abstract |
Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries are the most frequently used in portable applications. In this papaer, a new fast charger, able to perform a full-protected charge mode, is presented for this kind of devices. In it, the control and supervision of the whole process has been entrusted to a microcontroller, which simplifies the requested circuitry, reduced to the microcontroller itself and a few additional components, and provides powerfull and intelligent tool to undertake, through the programmed algorithm, complex tasks. In fact, the resulting charger is able to work out the initial battery state (detecting deteriorated devices), decide the fit way to charge it (ensuring a long cyclic life) and determine when the charge process must be finished. This way, the state of the battery is perfectly controlled at every moment, avoiding any damage on it; including those related to an incorrect user's operation. This paper summarises the design and construction of the referred charger, as well as the experimental results obtained in the prototype tests. |
