Did You Know...
...that power steering was invented by independent inventor Francis W. Davis? As chief engineer in the 1920s of the truck division of the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company, he saw how hard it was to steer heavy vehicles. So that he would be able to keep the profits from his future invention, Davis left his job, rented a small engineering shop in Waltham, Mass., and developed a hydraulic power steering system that led to power steering.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8164309 | Battery charging system with trickle charging/discharging control A circuit for charging and/or discharging a battery includes a switch coupled to a battery in series, and a driving transistor coupled to the switch and operable for sensing a voltage of the battery. The driving transistor is turned on if the voltage of the battery ... | 04/24/2012 |
| 8138725 | Simulated fast recharge of power supply A fraction of the battery energy is kept in reserve during operational use of a battery-powered apparatus. The motor of the apparatus is switched off when the battery has discharged to the level of this reserve fraction. The reserve is made available again for opera... | 03/20/2012 |
| 7786703 | Electronic device, battery pack, and electronic device system An electronic device which is capable of performing high-accuracy remaining battery capacity management. The electronic device has a plurality of battery pack compartments assigned specific addresses, respectively. A remaining capacity-detecting unit detects the rem... | 08/31/2010 |
| 7782020 | Operating a non-volatile memory charger Provided is a method and system for operating a non-volatile memory charger. Specifically, during the operation of a storage system, the non-volatile memory of the storage system can temporarily store data. The temporarily stored data is flushed to disks of the stor... | 08/24/2010 |
| 7696727 | Apparatus and method for measuring the amount of the current in battery cells using a plurality of sensing resistors Disclosed is an apparatus for measuring an amount of current in battery cells. The apparatus includes: a plurality of resistors (R1, R2, and R3) connected in parallel; a main chip connected to both ends of one (R1) of the plurality of res... | 04/13/2010 |
| 7589503 | Recharging apparatus capable of selectively enabling or interrupting recharging procedure for rechargeable battery in portable electronic device and recharging method thereof A recharging apparatus applied to a portable electronic device. The recharging apparatus is capable of selectively enabling or interrupting the recharging procedure for a rechargeable battery in the portable electronic device. The recharging apparatus includes an in... | 09/15/2009 |
| 7570024 | Battery state of charge voltage hysteresis estimator A battery control module is provided for use with a battery and includes a voltage measuring module that measures battery voltage, a current measuring module that measures battery current, and a state of charge (SOC) module that communicates with said current and vo... | 08/04/2009 |
| 7554299 | Battery monitoring circuit and method A battery-monitoring circuit detects rapid changes in current drawn from a battery by a device powered thereby. The circuit includes calibrating operating modes that determine voltage-to-frequency conversion parameters, and amplifier errors at various levels of batt... | 06/30/2009 |
| 7423408 | Monitoring device and method for determining at least one characteristic variable for the state of a battery A method for determining at least one characteristic variable for the state of a battery includes: (a) determining the charge throughput of the battery per time step; having, (b) determining a first characteristic figure in order to describe the stratification of th... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7421603 | Method for monitoring the operating readiness of at least one memory element assigned to an electronic unit A method for monitoring the operating readiness of memory elements which are assigned to an electronic unit, an engine control unit for example. Furthermore, an electronic unit for executing the method and a computer program, as well as a computer program product ar... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7414381 | Charging circuit for parallel charging in multiple battery systems A charging circuit for controlling a system charging parameter provided to a host of rechargeable batteries, wherein the host of batteries includes at least a first battery and second battery that may be coupled in parallel. The charging circuit provides for fast ch... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7397217 | Measuring fuel by counting coulombs Subject matter includes an electric charge counting fuel gauge that displays an amount of fuel based on electric charges obtained from a fuel. The electric charge counting fuel gauge can display an amount of fuel used in a power source and the amount of fuel remaini... | 07/08/2008 |
| 7394224 | Charge control device A charge control device of a secondary battery that allows the use of an electronic apparatus for a long period using a single initial charging, and is capable of extending battery life. The charging device includes a charge circuit for supplying charging current to... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7382108 | Charging apparatus and charging current detecting circuit thereof A charging apparatus and a charging current detecting circuit thereof are disclosed in which it is possible to implement an electric circuit with little voltage loss by using an operational amplifier of low cost. A detecting resistor is disposed at the power voltage... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7372236 | Charger and DC-DC converter A novel charger wherein a constant electric power control is made such that an electric power feed at the output end is the same as the electric power fed by a fuel cell at the input end, thereby keeping a cell charge current constant, reducing the number of compone... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7363175 | Query based electronic battery tester An electronic battery tester for testing a storage battery provides a test output indicative of a condition of the battery. Electronic measurement circuitry provides a measurement output related to a condition of the battery. The battery condition is determined base... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7362076 | Remaining capacity calculating device and method for electric power storage It calculates a capacity difference ESOC between a reference remaining capacity SOCV based on an open-circuit voltage and a final remaining capacity SOC in a previous one calculation cycle. It calculates a proportional correction amount and an integral correction am... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7352156 | State-of-charge estimating device of secondary battery A state-of-charge (SOC) estimating device and method for a secondary battery that estimates the SOC of the battery with high precision when variation takes place in the parameters of the battery model, even if the input current is constant. A first SOC estimating pa... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7345455 | Staggered backup battery charging system A battery backup system includes a control device including a power sensing device, a discharge circuit, a charging circuit, and a plurality of battery packs. A lower threshold is established representative of a minimum acceptable effective energy capacity. Each bat... | 03/18/2008 |
| 7332892 | Method for predicting the voltage of a battery The present invention discloses a method for predicting the voltage of a battery, in particular a vehicle battery. The method according to the invention makes it possible to predict a voltage drop before it actually occurs as a result of a load. For this purpose, a ... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7321220 | Method for calculating power capability of battery packs using advanced cell model predictive techniques The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for estimating discharge and charge power of battery applications, including battery packs used in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Electric Vehicles (EV). One charge/discharge power estimating method inco... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7319304 | Shunt connection to a PCB of an energy management system employed in an automotive vehicle A method of coupling a shunt to a printed circuit board (PCB) of an energy management system is provided. The method includes coupling flexible electrical connectors to the shunt and soldering the flexible electrical connectors to connection points on the PCB of the... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7317996 | Method for determining battery capacity A method includes determining that a battery has entered a transition phase based on the occurrence of a change in direction of current flow through the battery. In response to determining that the battery is in the transition phase, a capacity of the battery is det... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7304454 | Information processing apparatus for setting charge-start criteria level based on power supply drive history An information processing apparatus driven by an AC power supply or a rechargeable battery has a charge directing unit which initiates charging of the battery from the AC power supply, provided that the remaining amount of power of the battery is lower than a predet... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7295936 | Electronic battery tester with relative test output An electronic battery tester for testing a storage battery determines a condition of the battery. The condition is a relative condition and is a function of a dynamic parameter of the battery and an empirical input variable. ... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7288917 | Transmitter for radio-controlled toy A mobile toy is described. The mobile toy includes a wheel assembly having a hubcap for removably engaging a wheel of the wheel assembly. The mobile toy may also include a transmitter having a charging pad for charging of a radio-controlled embodiment of the toy. Th... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7265520 | Electronic apparatus and method of controlling the electronic apparatus An electronic watch in which the display on a liquid crystal display 236 is prohibited when the detected output voltage of a secondary battery 220 drops to a first predefined voltage. An initialization process is performed when the detected voltage of ... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7259597 | Low-voltage detection circuit A low-voltage detection circuit detects a terminal voltage of a power supply terminal. The low-voltage detection circuit includes a first voltage-dividing circuit, a second voltage-dividing circuit, and a comparator. The second voltage-dividing circuit includes a bi... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7248022 | Method and apparatus for determining the available energy of a lithium ion battery In accordance with various embodiments, there is a method for determining the available energy of a battery. Various embodiments include the steps of applying an increasing current to the battery and measuring a response voltage of the battery when the increasing cu... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7245888 | Phone energy management for low battery voltages The present invention provides a power supply arrangement with a DC-to-DC converter (10) for providing at least one supply voltage to a load (20, 30, 40) from an energy source (11). The converter comprises means for inputting (4) a batter... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7246015 | Alternator tester An alternator tester is provided for testing an alternator of a vehicle while the alternator is coupled to the vehicle. A sensor is configured to couple to the vehicle and sense a signal related to operation of the alternator. A memory contains data related to opera... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7224132 | Portable range extender operable in automatic and manual modes A portable range extender is provided for an electric vehicle having a vehicle controller, and an electric traction motor powered by a battery. The portable range extender has an engine, a dynamoelectric machine coupled to the engine by a shaft and electrically conn... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7218079 | Electrochemical energy store and method for determining the wear to an electrochemical energy store A method for determining the wear to an electrochemical energy store and an electrochemical energy store allows for continuously determining the amounts of charge (qL) converted during charging cycles of the energy store and calculating a wear variable (Q... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7218076 | Battery charging system A battery charging system comprising: a current source; a battery; and a voltage and current regulator, which regulates voltage applied to the battery and current supplied to the battery. The battery charging system shapes the current supplied to the battery, and ma... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7212067 | Voltage regulator with bypass for multi-voltage storage system A system and method for supplying power to a peripheral device where the voltage supplied by a host device may be the voltage required for operation of the peripheral, or a higher voltage. A memory system includes a voltage regulator including an input, and output a... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7205747 | System and method for monitoring a charging period in a battery charger An apparatus and method for disabling a charging counter circuitry within a battery charger is disclosed. The apparatus includes circuitry connected to a pin associated with the charging counter circuitry of the battery charger, said circuitry receiving a signal fro... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7199537 | Voltage converter control apparatus, and method By using a target voltage Vc* of a capacitor connected to the output side of a DC/DC converter and a voltage Vb of a battery connected to the input side of the DC/DC converter, a duty ratio D as a drive instruction of the DC/DC converter is calculated. By using the ... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7196496 | Battery control circuit and electronic device A battery control circuit having a battery voltage detecting section for detecting the voltage of a battery includes a resistor and a switching element which are connected in series and which are connected to the battery in parallel, and a battery controlling sectio... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7196493 | Closed loop control of battery power limits based on voltage A controller and a control method for modifying battery discharge and charge power limits in a vehicle powertrain that includes an electric battery as a power source. The modification compensates for inaccurate estimates of battery discharge and charge power limits ... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7193421 | Method and device for determining the state of a vehicle battery A method and a device for determining the state of a vehicle battery in which the battery voltage is measured and information regarding the state of the vehicle battery is derived from the measured battery voltage by means of an integration procedure. A variable wei... | 03/20/2007 |
