Did You Know...
...that one person who claimed to be the inventor of the television is Russian emigre Vladimir Zworykin? In 1929 David Sarnoff, founder of RCA, asked Zworykin what it would take to develop TV for commercial use. He said: a year and a half and $100,000. In reality, it took 20 years and $50 million! Before his death in 1982 at the age of 92, Zworykin said of his invention: "The technique is wonderful. It is beyond my expectations. But the programs! I would never let my children even come close to this thing."
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5939862 | Adaptive power battery charging apparatus An adaptive battery charger for charging batteries used in portable electronic devices. The battery charger monitors power provided from an AC adapter to the portable electronic device, and adaptively utilizes all available power from the AC adapter for c... | 08/17/1999 |
| 5920180 | Battery charger for preventing memory effect A battery charger, for preventing deterioration from the memory effect, that includes a switching circuit with first and second reference voltages. The second reference voltage is lower than the first reference voltage. The switching circuit forcibly disc... | 07/06/1999 |
| 5914869 | Ac/dc transformerless voltage converter A voltage converter transforms a high voltage alternating current (ac) input source into a lower voltage direct current (dc) output voltage. The line frequency of the ac current switches an electronic switch to alternately reconfigure a combination of cap... | 06/22/1999 |
| 5909360 | Uninterruptible power supplies An uninterruptible power supply which is advantageous for use with a computer receives power alternatively from a utility main power source or a rechargeable battery. The uninterruptible power supply includes an input for receiving AC utility power, an AC... | 06/01/1999 |
| 5903136 | Method for charging secondary batteries During the charging of a secondary battery, the charging current is maintained, but the value of the current is changed for a short time, and the internal resistance of the battery is calculated from the voltage and the current before and after the changi... | 05/11/1999 |
| 5903764 | Smart battery selector offering power conversion internally within a portable device A controller for a smart battery selector included in a portable device has a plurality of switch-drivers at least equal to a plurality of smart batteries. The batteries provide battery-state data via a bus to a host computer included in the portable devi... | 05/11/1999 |
| 5898234 | Power supply unit with simplified circuitry A power supply unit includes a charger composed of a switch for enabling and disabling a charge current and a charge control unit for controlling the switch in accordance with the charge current, the switch being provided in a path shared by the charge cu... | 04/27/1999 |
| 5883495 | Bidirectional current control circuit suitable for controlling the charging and discharging of rechargeable battery cells A bidirectional current control circuit suitable for use in controlling the charging and discharging of rechargeable battery cells includes two serially connected metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) with respective body diodes, a ... | 03/16/1999 |
| 5870615 | Automatic cellular phone battery charging by mobile personal computer using configuration write data and storage element for charging in accordance to battery charging parameter A PCMCIA card having cellular phone battery charging circuitry, and an adapter cable having a PCMCIA card connector equipped with a battery characteristic encoder, are provided to charge a cellular phone battery, using power supplied by a mobile PC, in ac... | 02/09/1999 |
| 5870685 | Mobile station operations management based on battery capacity The present invention provides a method and apparatus for controlling the operations of a battery-powered mobile station based on the capacity of its battery. In accordance with the present invention, the mobile station monitors the capacity of its batter... | 02/09/1999 |
| 5869948 | Unidirectional battery charge/discharge controller for a regulated electrical bus system with a solar current source In a satellite experiencing alternate periods of light and eclipse, an electrical power control system utilizing direct energy transfer battery charging in a fully regulated electrical bus system to provide and control the system power over both the charg... | 02/09/1999 |
| 5864222 | Charging apparatus A charging apparatus for charging a secondary battery, arranged in such a manner that the terminal voltage of the battery being charged is measured and then correlated with remaining charging time and usable time of the battery being charged. The remainin... | 01/26/1999 |
| 5861732 | Battery charging apparatus A charging apparatus for charging a secondary battery arranged in such a manner that the interterminal voltage of the battery, which is being charged, is measured so that the charging status of the battery is detected in accordance with the measured inter... | 01/19/1999 |
| 5834921 | Safety device for a portable battery-powered electric apparatus A safety device for a portable battery-powered electric apparatus having a battery unit with one or more battery cells for supplying power to electric circuitry in the apparatus. The apparatus is connectable to a charging device for charging the battery u... | 11/10/1998 |
| 5831350 | System using interchangeable nickel-based and lithium ion battery packs A computer system is powered by a battery pack, the battery pack including either nickel-based batteries or lithium-ion based batteries. Either of the two battery packs can be interchanged without modification to the system.... | 11/03/1998 |
| 5818203 | Power supply unit and an electronic apparatus having same Disclosed is an electronic apparatus which includes a power supply unit and a constant voltage rechargeable battery. The power supply unit activates a dedicated charging circuit, which is located near the battery, only at the charging end stage after the ... | 10/06/1998 |
| 5805998 | Cordless telephone apparatus A cordless telephone apparatus includes a radio transceiver for cordless communication with a slave unit. A controller is operative for controlling the radio transceiver. A main power supply is operative for generating electric power from commercial ac po... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5798985 | Electronic watch and method of driving the same An electronic watch comprises a power supply 1 for generating electric energy by using external energy, a booster portion 2 having at least two booster circuits for sequentially repeating charging by the power supply 1 and boosting and discharging a charg... | 08/25/1998 |
| 5798671 | Charge coupled, silicon controlled power supply/battery charger A series or shunt configured battery charger/power supply circuit employs capacitors for charge coupling to the AC line and semiconductors as low power dissipation control elements to achieve good DC output voltage and current regulation with increased ef... | 08/25/1998 |
| 5786682 | Battery charging circuit including a current limiter which compares a reference current to a charging current to ensure operation of a load In a system including a power supply, such as a rectifier, which supplies power to a load and in which a back-up battery is arranged between the power supply and load, a current controller is configured to control the recharging current supplied to the ba... | 07/28/1998 |
| 5784626 | Battery connecting device for a computer system and a method of switching batteries Two batteries can be selectively coupled to a computer, each through a separate pair of serially coupled transistors. Each of the four transistors is shunted by a diode, and each transistor can be individually controlled by a control circuit. To couple on... | 07/21/1998 |
| 5777456 | NiCad deep cycle charging/discharging system A charging/discharging apparatus uses constant charging current and constant discharging current to reduce the possibility of building memory in the cells of a battery. Memory reduces battery capacity and eventual failure will result since the cells will ... | 07/07/1998 |
| 5764025 | Vehicle battery A base plate includes a planar member. Two rods extend from the planar member, each of the rods having a free end. A battery includes two bores there-through, the bores positioned and configured to receive the rods when the battery is positioned on the pl... | 06/09/1998 |
| 5764063 | Monitor for battery pack For measuring a temperature with a thermistor, an electrical circuit including the thermistor and resistors for voltage division has to be maintained in the normally energized state and a variation in the voltage caused by resistance variation is detected... | 06/09/1998 |
| 5764027 | Method and apparatus for battery charge balancing In the embodiment of the present invention, a method for balancing charges of a plurality of batteries coupled in series includes determining actual or estimated rates of self-discharge of the batteries and individually shunting across one or more of the ... | 06/09/1998 |
| 5760570 | Rechargeable battery apparatus The invention provides a rechargeable battery apparatus wherein, when secondary batteries having different terminal voltages are used in parallel connection, a back current is prevented and a loss which is produced in a diode for prevention of back curren... | 06/02/1998 |
| 5760568 | Method and apparatus for charging a battery and for determining a voltage of the battery during charging The invention is related to a charging device (1) in which the charging current (Ich) used for charging a battery (2) is chopped according to a certain duty cycle (η). A certain charging voltage reference value (Vch), which equals t... | 06/02/1998 |
| 5754028 | Charger for electrical energy accumulator An electrical energy accumulator charger having a charging circuit for each cell or group of accumulator cells. Each charging circuit contains a flyback converter (CV1) which is supplied by a power source (5 to 12) providing continuous voltage having a si... | 05/19/1998 |
| 5754027 | Battery pack and associated charging system A battery pack (12) comprises current sensor (28) for sensing the charge current through a battery cell (26), and generating a DC voltage which is sensed by a charger (14). The charger can then provide an output current that satisfies both the need for a ... | 05/19/1998 |
| 5751133 | Charge/discharge control method, charge/discharge controller, and power generation system with charge/discharge controller In a charge/discharge control system for a charging the output of a storage battery from a solar cell, the output voltage of the storage battery connected to a node between the solar cell output and a load is detected. If the detected voltage is less than... | 05/12/1998 |
| 5747966 | Battery charging/discharging apparatus with serial battery connection A battery charging/discharging apparatus has batteries, a charger, diodes and switches. The diodes are respectively connected in parallel with the batteries. The cathode of each diode is connected to the positive side of the corresponding battery and the ... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5747965 | Battery pack for powered motion furniture A battery pack for providing a standby power source for use with powered motion furniture having an electric motor. The battery pack includes a housing defining a cavity within which a first battery and a second battery are disposed and electrically conne... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5742148 | Charge/discharge control circuit and chargeable electric power source apparatus A chargeable power supply which has a charge/discharge control circuit is provided in which the service life of a secondary cell is prolonged. A voltage dividing circuit, an overcharge voltage detection circuit, an overdischarge detection circuit and a co... | 04/21/1998 |
| 5739596 | Power supply for an electronic device and power delivery method therefor An electronic apparatus comprises a main circuit having a main CPU and a power supply system which includes plural main batteries for supplying operating power to said main circuit, a back-up battery, a switching circuit connected between each main batter... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5739674 | Method of transmitting and receiving signal indicative of remaining capacity of storage battery for propelling electric vehicle A signal indicative of the remaining capacity of a storage battery for propelling an electric vehicle is transmitted and received between a portable control unit and a communication unit on the electric vehicle. A display request signal for displaying the... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5739669 | Electric battery management device The device 1 for the management of a plurality electric battery elements 2 connected in series, comprises a plurality of battery management modules 4, each management module being connected in parallel to the terminals of a respective battery element 2 an... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5739667 | Control system for charging batteries and electronic apparatus using same A control system for charging enabling efficient charging of rechargeable batteries in an electronic apparatus which charges its rechargeable batteries by using a charger circuit when driving the apparatus by using an external power source, including firs... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5736836 | Battery discharge gas control system A battery discharge gas control system, which releases a hydrogen gas generated from the battery assembly when the battery assembly is charged and discharged, is capable of keeping the battery structure highly resistant to water or humidity. The battery d... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5736832 | Multiple function battery charger, self-configuring as supply voltage regulator for battery powered apparatuses Regulation of the output supply voltage to a load powered by a rechargeable battery of a portable apparatus, typically a telephone, is advantageously implemented by exploiting the switching STEP-DOWN REGULATOR of an in-built battery charger. The regulator... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5731685 | Battery management system A battery management chip which controls charging and discharging currents of a rechargeable battery. Another significant teaching of the presently preferred embodiment is a battery manager integrated circuit which includes an on-chip bandgap voltage refe... | 03/24/1998 |
