JP2015216705A - Non-contact charger, program thereof and vehicle mounted with a non-contact charger - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a convenient non-contact charger capable of reducing interruption of power charge and capable of preventing a portable apparatus from frequently emitting charge start sound.SOLUTION: The non-contact charger includes: a charging coil 12 for charging a portable apparatus 16; a charge control section 14 that controls the power supply to the charging coil 12; and a communication section 15 that communicates with the portable apparatus 16. The charge control section 14 is configured so as, when the power level acquired by the communication section 15 exceeds a predetermined value after starting the power supply to the charging coil 12, to control to change to a lower power frequency.

Description

  The present invention relates to a contactless charging apparatus that charges a portable device in a non-contact manner, a program thereof, and an automobile equipped with the contactless charging apparatus.

  This type of contactless charging apparatus includes a charging coil that charges a mobile device (for example, a mobile phone) and a charging control unit that controls energization of the charging coil, and supplies magnetic flux from the charging coil to the charging coil of the mobile device. However, non-contact (non-contact) charging can be performed on the portable device (as similar to this, for example, Patent Document 1 below).

JP 2010-104203 A

  The non-contact charging device can increase or decrease the power supply by changing the charging (resonance) frequency. In the conventional example, when charging is started from a charging frequency with a large amount of power supply from the beginning, since there are portable devices that cannot be supported, charging starts from a charging frequency with a small amount of power supply, and the power supply amount gradually increases. Changed to a lower charging frequency.

  At this time, in the conventional example, in response to a request for an increase in power supply from the portable device, the power supply of the non-contact charging device may not catch up and an error may occur. When an error occurred during charging, the power supply amount increased, and the charging frequency was changed to a lower charging frequency, and charging was performed again from the beginning (retry).

  However, if charging is performed again from the beginning as in the conventional example, a charging start sound is emitted from the portable device every time charging is started, which is cumbersome and unusable.

  Therefore, the present invention aims to improve usability.

  In order to achieve this object, a contactless charging apparatus according to the first aspect of the present disclosure includes a charging coil that charges a portable device, a charging control unit that controls energization of the charging coil, and a communication unit that communicates with the portable device. The charging control unit is configured to change to a lower charging frequency when the insufficient power amount acquired through the communication unit is greater than or equal to a predetermined value after starting energization of the charging coil. It achieves its purpose.

  As described above, the contactless charging apparatus according to the first aspect of the present disclosure includes a charging coil that charges a portable device, a charging control unit that controls energization of the charging coil, and a communication unit that communicates with the portable device. The charging control unit is configured to change to a low charging frequency when the insufficient power amount acquired via the communication unit is greater than or equal to a predetermined value after starting energization of the charging coil, so that charging is performed again. Therefore, the charging start sound from the portable device is not frequently emitted, and the usability can be improved.

  That is, by checking the insufficient power amount acquired via the communication unit, the charging frequency is changed to a lower charging frequency with a larger amount of power supply before the power supply becomes insufficient during charging, so that charging is started again from the beginning. There is nothing.

  Therefore, charging is not interrupted due to power shortage from the portable device, so that a charging start sound is not frequently emitted from the portable device every time charging is performed again from the beginning, and it becomes easy to use.

  Furthermore, since no interruption of charging occurs, the time until charging is completed can be shortened.

The perspective view which shows the inside of the motor vehicle carrying the non-contact charging device concerning one Embodiment of this invention Front view of in-vehicle electronic devices installed in the car Control block diagram of the car The figure which shows the portable apparatus charged with the non-contact charging device concerning one Embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the communication content between the non-contact charging device and portable apparatus concerning one Embodiment of this invention The figure explaining the various portable devices charged with the non-contact charging device concerning one embodiment of the present invention. Flowchart of operation of contactless charging apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
In FIG. 1, a handle 3 is arranged in front of a car interior 2.

  An in-vehicle device 4 is provided on the left side of the handle 3 between the driver seat and the passenger seat in the vehicle 2. Further, a contactless charging device 5 is provided below the in-vehicle device 4.

  The in-vehicle device 4 is typically a navigation device that provides route guidance from a departure place to a destination or an audio device that has a CD playback and radio reception function.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the in-vehicle device 4 is a general device having a display 6, a radio receiver 7, an audio output unit 8, and a control unit 9 thereof. A speaker 10 is connected.

  The contactless charging apparatus 5 includes a charging coil 12 that charges the portable device 16 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and a charging control unit 14 that is connected to the charging coil 12 via a charging drive circuit 13.

  Furthermore, the communication part 15 connected to the charge control part 14 is provided. The communication unit 15 communicates with the communication unit 24 via the charging coil 12 and the charging coil 17 of the mobile device 16. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and communication using Bluetooth (registered trademark) or NFC (abbreviation of Near Field Communication, which is wireless communication over an extremely short distance of about 1 meter to several centimeters) may be used.

  Furthermore, the charging control unit 14 of the contactless charging device 5 is connected to the control unit 9 of the in-vehicle device 4.

  On the other hand, the mobile device 16 is typically a mobile phone (including a smartphone), and as is well known, a charging coil 17, a control unit 18 connected to the charging coil 17, a charging battery 19, A display 20, an operation unit 21, an image processing unit 22, and an audio output unit 23 connected to the control unit 18 are provided.

  The portable device 16 normally emits a charging start sound notifying the start of charging from the audio output unit 23. For example, when charging while driving an automobile, charging is often performed with the mobile device 16 placed nearby, and thus it can be very annoying when the charging start sound is emitted many times.

  Moreover, the communication part 24 is connected to the control part 18 of this portable apparatus 16, and various information is transmitted / received with the communication part 15 connected to the charge control part 14 as mentioned above.

  In the above configuration, a procedure for charging the mobile device 16 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 5 shows communication contents between the contactless charging device 5 and the portable device 16 (the terminals A1 to A9 are portable devices 16 of different types such as power required during charging) From this information, the amount of insufficient power can be calculated.

  FIG. 6 shows how the mobile devices 16 of the terminals A1 to A9 enter the charged state after the start of charging. That is, the power required for charging the portable device 16 differs depending on the capacity and type of the rechargeable battery to be mounted and the charging circuit. For example, even if the same power is supplied at the start of charging, a certain terminal stops charging due to excessive power supply, but there is also a terminal that stops charging due to insufficient power supply.

  In the example of FIG. 6, the terminals A1 to A7 indicate that charging is possible at a charging frequency of 140 kHz. On the other hand, the terminal A8 and the terminal A9 have insufficient power at a charging frequency of 140 kHz, and charging is interrupted if charging is continued as it is. It is shown that charging can be continued by changing the charging frequency to 110 kHz.

  As described above, the operation procedure of the contactless charging apparatus 5 that does not interrupt charging even in various types of portable devices 16 will be described below.

  FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart of the contactless charging apparatus 5.

  First, the driver seated in the driver's seat starts the engine and turns on the ACC power.

  Then, the contactless charging device 5 is also activated, and the activated state is maintained unless the power switch (not shown) of the contactless charging device 5 is turned off.

  The driver wears the contactless charging device 5 to charge his / her portable device 16. At this time, the charging coil 12 of the contactless charging device 5 and the charging coil 17 of the portable device 16 are set to face each other. The charging coil 12 of the contactless charging device 5 is automatically moved, and the charging coil 17 of the portable device 16 is in a facing state. In detail, it is realizable by the structure known by Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2009-247194, for example.

  In this state, since the impedance of the charging coil 12 of the contactless charging device 5 changes, the charging control unit 14 understands that the portable device 16 is attached.

  Next, the charging control unit 14 starts charging at a charging frequency of 140 kHz (step S1). Here, the charging frequency is not limited to 140 kHz as long as it is possible to avoid the charging stop of the portable device 16 of the kind that stops charging due to excessive power supply.

  For example, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the terminals A1 to A7 can start charging at a charging frequency of 140 kHz, but the terminals A8 and A9 have insufficient power to be supplied at the charging frequency of 140 kHz. Charging will be interrupted.

  After the start of charging, the charging control unit 14 acquires the power supply ratio (%) from the portable device 16 via the communication unit 15 and the communication unit 24 (step S2). The power supply ratio is the ratio of the supplied power to the power expected by the portable device 16 (the receiver in FIG. 7) (see also FIG. 5).

  As in step S2, the charging control unit 14 acquires the maximum receivable power from the portable device 16 (see also step S3 and FIG. 5).

  Then, the charging control unit 14 calculates an insufficient power amount from the acquired power supply ratio (%) and the maximum receivable power (step S4).

  Next, the charging control unit 14 determines whether or not the power supply amount is sufficient from the insufficient power amount (step S5).

  For example, in the example illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, the terminal A1 to the terminal A7 can continue charging without changing the charging frequency because the power supply amount is appropriate.

  On the other hand, if the charging frequency is lowered to 110 kHz or the like, the terminals A8 and A9 can continue charging without interruption (step S7).

  Therefore, in the example shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, if the insufficient power amount is 3 W or less, the charging frequency is not changed, and if the insufficient power amount is 3 W or more, if the charging frequency is lowered to 110 kHz or the like, the terminal A1 To charging any terminal A9, the charging is not interrupted.

  At this time, it is preferable that the charging control unit 14 acquires the reception frequency currently received from the radio reception unit 7 so that the vicinity of an integer multiple of the charging frequency to be changed does not become this reception frequency. By doing so, the influence on the radio sound can be reduced even while the radio is being viewed, and charging is not interrupted.

  Note that the operation flow of FIG. 7 has been described as a program installed in the contactless charging device 5, but this program can be installed in any of the in-vehicle device 4, the contactless charging device 5, and the portable device 16. It is.

  As described above, the contactless charging apparatus 5 according to the first aspect of the present embodiment includes the charging coil 12 that charges the portable device 16, the charging control unit 14 that controls energization of the charging coil 12, and the portable device. 16, the charging control unit 14 starts to energize the charging coil 12, and then the charging frequency is low when the insufficient power amount acquired through the communication unit 15 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. Since the charging is not repeated, the charging start sound from the mobile device 16 is not frequently emitted and the usability can be improved.

That is, the charging control unit 14 confirms the insufficient power amount acquired through the communication unit 15 and changes the charging frequency to a lower charging frequency with a larger amount of power supply before power supply becomes insufficient during charging. Therefore, charging does not have to be performed again from the beginning.

  Therefore, charging is not interrupted due to power shortage from the mobile device 16, so that a charging start sound is not frequently emitted from the audio output unit 23 of the mobile device 16 every time charging is performed again from the beginning. It becomes.

  Furthermore, since no interruption of charging occurs, the time until charging is completed can be shortened.

  As described above, the contactless charging apparatus of the present invention includes a charging coil for charging a portable device, a charging control unit that controls energization of the charging coil, and a communication unit that communicates with the portable device. Since, after starting energization of the charging coil, the amount of insufficient power acquired via the communication unit is a predetermined value or more, it is configured to change to a low charging frequency, so charging does not need to be repeated. The charging start sound from the mobile device is not frequently emitted, and the usability can be improved.

  Therefore, utilization as a non-contact charging apparatus which charges various kinds of portable devices is expected.

2 In-car 3 Handle 4 In-vehicle device 5 Contactless charging device 6 Display 7 Radio receiving unit 8 Audio output unit 9 Control unit 10 Speaker 12, 17 Charging coil 13 Charging drive circuit 14 Charge control unit 15, 24 Communication unit 16 Portable device 18 Unit 19 rechargeable battery 20 display 21 operation unit 22 image processing unit 23 audio output unit

Claims (5)

A charging coil for charging the portable device, a charging control unit for controlling energization of the charging coil, and a communication unit for communicating with the portable device,
The said charge control part is a non-contact charging device which changes to a low charge frequency, when the insufficient electric energy acquired via the said communication part is more than predetermined value after starting energization of the said charging coil.   The contactless charging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging control unit acquires a reception frequency currently received from a radio reception unit, and changes the vicinity of an integral multiple of the charging frequency to a charging frequency that does not become the reception frequency.   The contactless charging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging control unit starts energization of the charging coil at a charging frequency of 140 kHz. Starting energization of a charging coil for charging the mobile device;
Obtaining a power shortage of the portable device;
When the insufficient power amount is a predetermined value or more, changing to a low charging frequency;
A program that causes a computer to execute.   An automobile in which the contactless charging device according to claim 1 is installed in a vehicle.