JPH0742201Y2 - Electronics - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to various electronic devices such as a handheld computer, a personal word processor, and a personal computer, and more particularly to a portable small electronic device that uses a battery as a power source.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional electronic devices that use batteries as the power source,
For example, most cassette cassette recorders with a radito or flashlights do not detect the degree of battery consumption at all, and such electronic devices suddenly stop running due to running out of battery during operation. Even if the battery is discharged and exhausted while not in use, it does not notice and there is a problem that it cannot be used when necessary.

Therefore, in order to improve such a problem, detect when the battery voltage reaches the default value near the operable limit.
There are also things that let the user know by blinking an LED or sounding a buzzer (for example, a personal computer or a camera).

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, even in such an electronic device, the power consumption changes depending on the usage condition. Therefore, if the default value for detecting the limit of the battery voltage is high, the battery can withstand use with low power consumption. However, if the default value is low, on the other hand, there is a problem that the operation will stop as soon as it is used with high power consumption (printer drive, strobe lighting, etc.).

This invention has been made in view of the above points, predicts the degree of battery consumption to the user, and enables replacement and charging of the battery at an appropriate time according to the usage status of the device,
The purpose is to prevent a decrease in work efficiency.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an electronic device using a battery as a power source, which is displayed by means for predicting the degree of battery consumption, means for displaying the prediction result, and means for displaying the prediction result. In addition to the above, a means for individually instructing the standard of the operable range of the whole device or a part of the device is provided.

Furthermore, it is preferable to display the prediction result in a graph.

[Action]

According to the electronic device configured in this manner, the degree of consumption of the battery is predicted and displayed, so that the user can prepare in advance for exchanging or charging the battery according to the degree of consumption. it can.

Moreover, since the replacement and charging of the battery can be performed between the works, it is possible to prevent the work efficiency from being lowered.

In addition, since the indication of the operating range of the entire device or a part of the device (for example, a printer) is individually indicated in the display content of the battery consumption, the user needs to replace the battery at the optimum time according to the usage condition of the device. Alternatively, charging becomes easy.

Further, by displaying the battery consumption level in a graph, the user can recognize it at a glance.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of a hand-held computer which is an embodiment of the present invention.

This handheld computer 1 is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped having a comparatively thin thickness, and an electronic consumption level display key 2 for displaying the consumption level of a battery, which will be described later, as an input device on the upper surface thereof.
A keyboard 3 having a large number of key groups for inputting various information including is included.

Further, a liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as “LCD”) 4 for displaying various information as an output device, and a roll paper holder 5 in which roll-shaped paper is loaded are detachably mounted, and various information is stored in the roll paper holder. A printer 6 for printing out the paper P from 5 by a thermal method or a dot impact method is provided.

Further, a paper cutter 7 for cutting the paper is provided at the paper exit of the printer 6, and a power switch 8 and other various connectors (not shown) are provided on the side surface of the handheld computer 1.

Furthermore, the inside of the handheld computer 1 is provided with a substrate of a control unit for controlling the entire device, and a removable battery pack accommodating a nickel cadmium (NiCd) battery for charging.

The AC charger 9 takes in AC power from a general household power source, converts the AC power into a predetermined DC power, and supplies the DC power to the battery pack in the handheld computer 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control unit of this handheld computer.

The control unit includes a keyboard controller 10 that controls key information input from the keyboard 3, an LCD controller 11 that controls display information on the LCD 4, a parallel interface 12 that controls the printer 6, and a modulator / demodulator (modem). It is provided with a serial interface 14 that controls the transmission and reception of signals to and from 13.

In addition, this control unit also functions as an external interface, such as a memory card interface 15 for connecting to a memory card.
And an expansion bus interface 16 for connecting to an external device such as a personal computer.

The control unit is composed of a microcomputer (hereinafter abbreviated as “CPU”) 17, ROM 18, two types of RAMs 19, 20, 2
It is provided with various types of voltage detection circuits 21, 22 and a timepiece device 23.

In addition, each memory (including a memory card) and the CPU 17 are connected to each peripheral device (including an external device) by the memory bus 25.
The CPUs 17 are connected to each other by a system bus 26.

Further, the handheld computer 1 can be connected to an external device by using a handset of a telephone by connecting an acoustic coupler to the expansion bus interface 16.

The LCD controller 11 has a built-in video RAM (VRAM) therein, the CPU 17 expands the display data therein, and sequentially displays it on the LCD 4.

The modem 13 is used when connecting to another terminal device using a public line such as a telephone line, and modulates / demodulates the input / output signal.

The CPU 17 is, for example, a CPU, ROM, RAM, interval timer and I
A 16-bit microcomputer composed of / O, etc., which controls the entire control unit and executes various controls according to the system program stored in the ROM 18 and the external program stored in the RAM 19.

The ROM 18 is a read-only memory, and stores system programs and application programs, various work menus, a battery information table, graph data, font data, and character information such as a kana-kanji conversion dictionary.

RAM19 is a random access memory, keyboard 3
It is used for a storage area for storing input information from the memory card, an external program from a memory card, and a system area used by the CPU 17.

The application program may be owned by a memory card instead of the ROM 18, and may be loaded and stored in the storage area of the RAM 19.

The RAM 20 is a backup memory, and is used as a storage area for storing the estimated remaining capacity of the battery 24 described later and time information (date and time) at the time of updating, and other external font data from the memory card. It Since this RAM 20 is backed up by battery, its stored contents are not lost even if the power is turned off, and are retained as they are.

The voltage detection circuit 21 is composed of a comparator or the like, detects the voltage of the battery 24 in the battery pack described above, and outputs an interrupt request signal to the NMI (non-maskable interrupt) input terminal of the CPU 17 when the voltage becomes equal to or lower than a predetermined voltage value.

Although not shown, the battery 24 is connected to each unit in the control unit and supplies electric power to each unit.

The voltage detection circuit 22 is composed of a comparator and the like like the voltage detection circuit 21, and is for detecting the voltage generated from the AC charger 9 and checking whether the AC charger 9 is connected to the battery 24 or not. .

The clock device 23 generates time information including date and time.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of this embodiment.

The input unit 30 inputs various kinds of key information including designation of display of battery consumption level. The input unit 30 corresponds to the keyboard 3 shown in FIG.

The input discrimination unit 31 discriminates various key information from the input unit 30 and branches the various key information to each unit according to the discrimination result and outputs the branched key information. The input discrimination unit 31 corresponds to the keyboard controller 10 and the CPU 17.

When the first voltage detection unit 32 detects the output voltage V _P of the AC charger 9, it outputs a confirmation signal to that effect to the battery remaining capacity calculation processing unit 33. The first voltage detecting section 32 is a voltage detecting circuit.
Equivalent to 22.

The second voltage detector 34 detects the output voltage V _S of the battery 24,
When the voltage value falls below the default value, the remaining battery charge calculation processor
Outputs an unconditional interrupt request (NMI) signal to 33. The second voltage detection unit 34 corresponds to the voltage detection circuit 21.

The interrupt processing unit 35 makes an interrupt request (INT) at regular time intervals.
Output a signal. The interrupt processing unit 35 corresponds to the interval timer in the CPU 17.

The clock unit 36 outputs time information including date and time, and this corresponds to the clock device 23.

The battery information table 37 corresponds to the type of the battery 24 and is the fourth
Various data regarding the battery 24, such as data showing the characteristics of the charging rate with respect to the charging time and the data showing the spontaneous discharge characteristics as shown in the figure, are stored in the ROM 18 in a table format.

The remaining battery capacity storage unit 38 stores the estimated remaining capacity of the battery 24 and time information at the time of updating, and uses the RAM 20.

The battery remaining capacity calculation processing unit 33 includes a first voltage detecting unit 32, a second voltage detecting unit 32, and a second voltage detecting unit 32.
Voltage detector 34, interrupt processor 35, battery remaining capacity memory 38,
Battery based on signals and information from battery information table 37
The consumption level of 24 is predicted and calculated, and the battery remaining capacity value stored in the battery remaining capacity storage unit 38 is updated according to the prediction result.

Further, the battery remaining capacity calculation processing unit 33 receives the time information from the clock unit 36 along with the update processing, and accordingly, the time information stored in the battery remaining capacity storage unit 38 as well as the battery remaining capacity value. Will also be updated.

When the battery remaining capacity change processing unit 39 receives the information such as the charging time and the remaining battery capacity from the input unit 30 via the input determination unit 31, it retrieves the corresponding information from the battery information table 37, and based on it, the battery The battery remaining capacity value stored in the remaining capacity storage unit 38 is changed, and the time information stored in the battery remaining capacity storage unit 38 is updated by receiving the time information from the clock unit 36.

The percentage calculation processing unit 40 includes the input unit 30 via the input determination unit 31.
When receiving the command signal from, the remaining battery capacity value stored in the remaining battery capacity storage unit 38 is converted into a percentage and output to the display data generation processing unit 42.

The display information storage unit 41 stores various work menus, graph data, and information for individually instructing an approximate range in which the whole or a part of the equipment can operate in the ROM 18.

The display data generation processing unit 42, based on the key information input via the input determination unit 31 and the data from the percentage calculation processing unit 40, various work menus, graph data, instruction information, etc. from the display information storage unit 41. Are taken in and output to the display control unit 43 as display data.

The display control unit 43 expands the display data from the display data generation processing unit 42, and based on the expanded data, the display unit 44.
Is controlled to display various information on the display unit 44. The display control unit 43 corresponds to the CPU 17 and the LCD controller 11,
The display unit 44 corresponds to the LCD 4.

The functions of the remaining battery capacity calculation processing unit 33, the remaining battery capacity change processing unit 39, the percentage ratio calculation processing unit 40, and the display data generation processing unit 42 described above are all performed by the CPU 17 of FIG. .

Next, the operation of this embodiment thus configured will be described with reference to a specific example.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the calculation processing relating to the prediction of the battery consumption level according to this embodiment.

In this routine, the power is turned on (the power switch 8 in FIG. 2 is
When turned on, the CPU 17 shown in FIG. 3 reads the system program stored in the ROM 18 and starts it. First, the interval timer is started in step 1, and the CPU 17 is interrupted at regular intervals.

Next, in step 2, from the estimated remaining capacity value of the battery 24 stored in the RAM 20, the power-off time (current time information from the clock device 23 is subtracted from the power-off time information stored in the RAM 20). Subtract the value according to the discharge amount of (time).

The value corresponding to the discharge amount is obtained by referring to the data indicating the natural discharge characteristics of the battery information table stored in the ROM 18.

Then, when an interrupt request (INT) is issued in step 3, the process proceeds to step 4 and it is determined whether or not the AC charger 9 (see FIG. 2) is connected.

Then, if the AC charger 9 is connected, a predetermined value (for example, 5) is added to the battery remaining capacity value stored in the RAM 20 in step 5, and then the process proceeds to step 6.

If the AC charger 9 is not connected, a predetermined value (for example, normally 1, 1 at the time of printing 3) is subtracted from the battery remaining capacity value stored in the RAM 20 at step 6, and then the process proceeds to step 7.

In step 7, the time information is updated, that is, the time information stored in the RAM 20 is erased and the current time information from the clock device 23 is written therein.

Next, if there is no unconditional interrupt (NMI) in step 8, it is determined in step 9 whether the battery consumption level display key 2 has been pressed.

If the battery consumption level display key 2 is not pressed, the process directly returns to step 3, and when the key 2 is pressed, the step is performed.
The application is started at 10, that is, the CPU 17 starts reading the application program stored in the ROM 18, displays a work menu relating to the battery consumption degree described later on the LCD 4, and then returns to step 3 to perform this processing. repeat.

On the other hand, if there is an unconditional interrupt, proceed to step 11
The battery capacity value stored in is erased, and the battery capacity value corresponding to this unconditional interrupt is written.

Further, in step 12, the time information is updated as in step 7, and in step 13, the operation of the entire apparatus is stopped and the processing is ended.

Next, the display operation when the application is started will be specifically described with reference to the display examples of FIGS.

When the battery level indicator key 2 is pressed, the LC shown in Fig. 2
First, three types of work menus 1 to 3 are displayed on D4 as main menus as shown in FIG.

Here, when the work menu 1 "Battery remaining capacity graph display" is selected, the battery remaining capacity value (corresponding to the degree of wear) stored in the RAM 20 shown in FIG. 3 is displayed as shown in FIG. 6B. Is converted into a percentage and is a bar graph (the remaining battery capacity is 25% in the figure.
Is displayed).

In addition, an arrow indicating "stop operation" and "printing is not possible" is displayed above the bar graph, and indicates the standard of the operable range of the entire handheld computer 1 and the printer 6.

On the other hand, in the main menu display of FIG. 6 (a), if the work menu 2 “change data” is selected, four types of work menus 1 as shown in FIG. 6 (c) are displayed as submenus.
~ 4 is displayed.

Here, when the work menu 1 “charged when the power is off.” Is selected, as shown in FIG.
Please enter how many hours you have charged at F. Is displayed.

Then, the operator inputs the charging time for the battery 24 of this device (handheld computer 1) by the AC charger 9 using the keyboard 3 shown in FIG.

When the charging time is entered with the keyboard 3, the CPU 17 shown in FIG. 3 refers to the data showing the relationship between the charging time and the charging rate shown in FIG. 4 in the battery information table stored in the ROM 18. Then, the remaining capacity of the battery 24 after charging is predictively calculated from the battery remaining capacity value stored in the RAM 20 and the charging time, and the battery capacity value stored in the RAM 20 is calculated based on the calculation result for the charging time. Add the battery capacity value.

Return to the sub-menu in Fig. 6 (c), and then select the work menu "Battery replaced." In 2 as shown in Fig. 6 (e), "Battery remaining capacity is 100%. Are you sure? (Yes / No). ”Is displayed.

Then, the operator inputs either "Y" or "N" with the keyboard 3, but when "Y" is input, the battery remaining capacity value stored in the RAM 20 is updated to a value corresponding to 100%. It

Return to the submenu in Fig. 6 (c) again, and then select the work menu 3 "Direct correction of data." As shown in Fig. 6 (f), for example, "The current remaining capacity is 25%.
Please enter what percentage to change. Is displayed.

Then, the operator inputs an appropriate numerical value with the keyboard 3. Accordingly, the CPU 17 erases the battery capacity value stored in the RAM 20 and writes the battery capacity value corresponding to the input numerical value.

When returning to the sub menu shown in Fig. 6 (c) again and then selecting the work menu 4 "Return to main menu.", The display switches to the main menu display shown in Fig. 6 (a), and in the main menu display, 3 When the work menu "end" is selected, the display screen relating to the battery consumption level disappears and the normal screen is restored.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the battery consumption level can be predicted and the remaining capacity of the battery can be displayed on the LCD 4 as a bar graph as shown in FIG. It is possible to make preparations for battery replacement, charging, etc., and prevent a decrease in work efficiency.

In addition, the bar graph also indicates the guideline of the operating range of the entire device (hand belt computer 1) and a part thereof (particularly the part with a large power consumption). Very convenient to judge.

In addition, in this embodiment, the printer is described as the part for instructing the guideline of the operable range, but other than that, the guideline of the operable range of each of a plurality of peripheral devices including the display device is also provided. Can be similarly instructed.

Further, the embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the handheld computer has been described, but the present invention can be applied to a personal word processor, a personal computer, and other various electronic devices using a battery as a power source.

[Effect of device]

As described above, according to the present invention, the user can be informed of the degree of consumption of the battery in the electronic device, so that replacement of the battery and preparation for charging can be made in advance, and a decrease in work efficiency can be prevented.

In addition, it becomes easy to replace or charge the battery at the optimum time according to the usage status of the device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of a handheld computer which is an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the control unit thereof. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the charging time and the charging rate, FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the calculation processing relating to the prediction of the degree of battery consumption according to this embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a table also provided for its concrete description. It is explanatory drawing of an example. 1 ... Handheld computer 2 ... Battery consumption indicator key, 3 ... keyboard 4 ... LCD display 6 ... Printer, 9 ... AC charger 17 ... CPU (microcomputer) 18 ... ROM (read-on memory) 19 …… RAM (random access memory) 20 …… RAM (back-up memory) 21,22 …… voltage detection circuit 23 …… clock device, 24 …… battery 32 …… first voltage detection unit 33 …… battery remaining Capacity calculation processing unit 34 …… Second voltage detection unit 35 …… Interrupt processing unit 36 …… Clock unit 37 …… Battery information table 38 …… Battery remaining capacity storage unit 39 …… Battery remaining capacity change processing unit 40 ...... Percentage calculation processing unit 41 ...... Display information storage unit 42 ...... Display data generation processing unit 43 ...... Display control unit 44 ...... Display unit

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. In an electronic device using a battery as a power source, means for predicting the degree of consumption of the battery, means for displaying the prediction result, and the whole or a part of the equipment displayed by the means. An electronic device is provided with means for individually instructing the standard of the operable range. 2. In an electronic device using a battery as a power source, means for predicting the degree of battery consumption, means for displaying the prediction result in a graph, and a graph displayed by the means for the entire device and An electronic device, characterized in that it is provided with means for individually instructing a standard of a part of the operable range.