JP4724678B2 - Electronics - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an electronic equipment using batteries.

  In an electronic device such as an imaging device such as a digital camera or a video camera or a personal computer that is carried and used by a user, it is important to predict the remaining amount of battery and remaining usable time so that the user can confirm. However, the detection accuracy of the remaining amount detection system built in the electronic device is often affected by the type of battery (internal resistance and capacity) used, and accurate remaining amount prediction is difficult.

  On the other hand, recently, a battery remaining amount (usable capacity) is self-calculated by a current integration function, and the calculated remaining amount information is communicated to an electronic device as a power supply destination (hereinafter referred to as FG (Fuel Gauge)). A battery having a function) is used (see Patent Document 1). By providing the remaining amount information from the remaining amount detection system on the battery side to the electronic device side, the remaining amount information can be accurately predicted in the electronic device. For example, by using a battery with an FG function in the imaging apparatus, the prediction accuracy of the remaining operation allowable amount such as the remaining number of times of imaging and the remaining imaging time can be increased, and user convenience can be improved.

  Further, some electronic devices can be mounted with a plurality of batteries, and the usable time is increased as compared with the case where one battery is mounted. In such an electronic device, a parallel power feeding method in which a plurality of batteries are connected in parallel and used at the same time is often used instead of a so-called independent power feeding method in which batteries are used one by one.

In addition, there is an image pickup apparatus having a battery device that can supply power from a plurality of batteries so that a user can arbitrarily switch between a parallel power supply method and an independent power supply method (see Patent Document 2).
JP 2004-294723 A (paragraph 0009, FIG. 1 etc.) JP 2001-021974 A (paragraphs 0031-0033, FIG. 15 etc.)

  However, the battery with the FG function has a characteristic that the accuracy of the current integration function is deteriorated when the power consumption is low. For this reason, if parallel power feeding from a plurality of FG batteries is performed, the power consumption of each FG battery is reduced, and the accuracy of the remaining amount detection is deteriorated.

  For example, in an imaging apparatus as disclosed in Patent Document 1, in general, a low power consumption mode such as a standby mode is entered when left for a certain period of time without any operation while the power is on. The longer the operation time in the low power consumption mode, the worse the prediction accuracy such as the remaining number of imaging.

  Further, in the imaging apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, the user has to perform a switching operation between the parallel power feeding method and the independent power feeding method, which takes time and trouble in operation.

The present invention, when the first battery and a second battery connected to the electronic device is a FG battery, when the electronic device is in a low power state, the first battery and the second it shall be the purpose of from the battery to parallel feeding is not performed.

Electronic device according to the present invention, an electronic device having a first mode that consumes first power and a second mode that consumes low There second power than the first power there are, to determine whether the first battery connected to said electronic device is a first remaining amount detection function cell has a function of calculating the remaining capacity of the first battery, the electronic A discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the second battery connected to the device is a battery with a second remaining capacity calculating function having a function of calculating the remaining capacity of the second battery ; When the battery is the battery with the first remaining amount detection function and the second battery is the battery with the second remaining amount detection function, the remaining amount of the first battery and the second battery Comparing means for comparing the remaining amount of the battery, and the electronic device is changed from the first mode to the second mode When the remaining amount of the first battery is higher than the remaining amount of the second battery, power supply from the first battery to the electronic device is not stopped, and the second battery Control means for stopping the power supply to the electronic device .

If, according to the present invention, the first battery and a second battery connected to the electronic device as a FG battery, when the electronic device is in a low power state, and the first battery can be Rukoto as parallel power from the second battery is not performed.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  1A and 1B show the appearance of a digital camera system (electronic device system) that is Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 1A shows a front view and a side view of the digital camera system, and FIG. 1B shows a rear view of the system.

  In these figures, reference numeral 1 denotes a digital camera as an image pickup apparatus (electronic device), which is simply referred to as a camera hereinafter. Reference numeral 2 denotes an interchangeable lens that can be attached to and detached from the camera 1, and is simply referred to as a lens hereinafter.

  Reference numeral 5 denotes a flash unit provided in the camera 1. Reference numeral 6 denotes a battery grip (battery device) on which a plurality of batteries can be mounted. The battery grip 6 can be attached to and detached from the camera 1. Reference numeral 7 denotes an image sensor composed of a CCD sensor, a CMOS sensor, or the like, which photoelectrically converts the subject image formed by the lens 2.

  The camera 1 is provided with the following. 3 is a release button for instructing imaging, and 4 is a mode setting dial for selecting a shooting mode. Reference numeral 19 denotes an LCD panel for displaying an image taken by the image sensor 7, and 18 denotes an optical viewfinder for observing the subject. Reference numeral 14 denotes a first function button operated to use the AE lock function and the image reduction reproduction function, and reference numeral 15 denotes an operation for selecting a focus detection area by AF or using an image enlargement reproduction function. The second function button.

  Further, 17 is a cross button operated to select a desired item from a menu displayed on the LCD panel 19, and 16 is a set button operated to perform a desired setting from the selected menu item. Reference numeral 10 denotes a menu display button operated to display a menu on the LCD panel 19, and reference numeral 11 denotes a switching button operated to switch display / non-display of file information. Reference numeral 12 denotes a skip display button operated to skip a predetermined number of images. Reference numeral 13 denotes an erase button operated to erase the recorded images.

  FIG. 2 shows a more specific configuration of the battery grip 6. Power is supplied from the battery grip 6 to the camera 1 through the power terminals 101 and 102. The contact terminals 103 and 104 are communication contacts for communicating signals or information between the battery grip 6 and the camera 1.

  The battery grip 6 is fixed to the camera 1 by screwing a tripod screw 106 rotated by a rotating operation of the dial 105 into a tripod screw hole (not shown) provided in the camera 1.

  In the battery grip 6, two batteries A including at least one of an FG battery (first battery) having a remaining amount detection (FG) function and a non-FG battery (second battery) not having an FG function, Battery chambers 109 and 110 (a plurality of battery mounting portions) in which B can be mounted are formed. The battery chamber lid 107 opens and closes the openings of the battery chambers 109 and 110. The battery chamber lid 107 is locked by a lock mechanism (not shown) in a closed state. When the batteries A and B are mounted in the battery chambers 109 and 110, the open / close knob 108 is slid to open the battery chamber lid 107.

  FIG. 3 shows the electric circuit configuration of the battery grip 6 and the camera 1. Here, it is assumed that batteries A and B which are FG batteries are mounted. The FG batteries A and B are respectively provided with battery CPUs 201 and 202 for managing the consumption capacity and charging capacity of the batteries. Resistors 203 and 204 are connected to the batteries A and B, respectively, and the battery CPUs 201 and 202 are connected to both ends of the resistors 203 and 204. With this configuration, the battery CPUs 201 and 202 can detect the consumption current and the charging current of the batteries A and B.

  Switches 205 and 206 are connected to the resistors 203 and 204. By closing both of these switches 205 and 206 (ON), parallel power feeding from the batteries A and B to the camera 1 can be performed. This state is the parallel feeding state of the battery grip 6. Further, by closing one switch and opening the other switch (OFF), independent power can be supplied to the camera 1 from the battery on the closed switch side. This state is an independent power feeding state of the battery grip 6. Here, independent power supply means that power is supplied from one battery among a plurality of batteries, and parallel power supply means that power is supplied simultaneously from a plurality of batteries.

  When the battery grip 6 is attached to the camera 1, the power from the batteries A and B is supplied to the power circuit 208 provided in the camera 1 via the power terminals 101 and 102. The power supply circuit 208 supplies specified power to the system control unit 209 and other circuits (not shown) in the camera 1. The system control unit 209 functions as a switching unit, a determination unit, and a control unit.

  The battery CPUs 201 and 202 are connected to the system control unit 209 via the communication terminals 103 and 104. Reference numerals 207 and 210 denote interfaces for transmitting and receiving signals provided in the battery grip 6.

  When the communication between the battery CPUs 201 and 202 and the system control unit 209 is established, the battery CPUs 201 and 202 transmit information on the remaining amount such as consumed capacity and charging capacity (hereinafter referred to as remaining amount information) to the system control unit 209. Based on the information, the system control unit 209 generates information related to the remaining operation allowable amount such as the remaining number of photographings and the remaining operation time by calculation or the like, and displays the information on the liquid crystal display unit 211 provided on the outer surface of the camera 1.

  The camera 1 has a normal imaging mode in which a normal imaging operation is performed and a low current operation mode such as a standby mode in which an operation with lower power (current) than in the normal imaging mode is possible. When the camera 1 is left in the normal imaging mode (no operation) exceeds a certain time, when the low current operation preparation state as the previous stage of the low current operation mode is entered, the battery CPUs 201 and 202 The remaining amount information of A and B is transmitted to the system control unit 209.

Based on the comparison result of the remaining amount information, the system control unit 209 transmits a control signal for controlling the switches 205 and 206 to the battery CPUs 201 and 202. Based on the received control signal, the battery CPUs 201 and 202 switch to the independent power supply state using the battery A or B, which is an FG battery, having the larger remaining amount. At the same time, the battery CPUs 201 and 202 transmit information such as current consumption and consumption time to the battery CPU on the battery side used for independent power feeding. The battery CPU performs current integration in the low current operation mode based on the received information. Here, the above explanation is for the case where the batteries A and B are both FG batteries. In the battery grip 6 of the example, one of the batteries A and B can be mounted as an FG battery and the other as a non-FG battery having no FG function.

  In this case, when the camera 1 is in a preparation state for the low current operation mode, the system control unit 209 determines whether one of the batteries A and B is an FG battery and the other is a non-FG battery. First, it switches to the independent power supply state using a non-FG battery.

  The above independent power supply method in the low current operation mode is summarized as shown in FIG. Case 1 shows a case where batteries A and B are both FG batteries (denoted as “F” in the figure). In this case, the system control unit 209 determines and selects the FG battery with the larger remaining amount, and sets the independent power supply state using this.

  On the other hand, Case 2 shows a case where FG batteries and non-FG batteries (indicated as “N” in the figure) are mounted as batteries A and B one by one. In this case, the system control unit 209 determines and selects a non-FG battery, and sets an independent power supply state using the non-FG battery.

  The operation of the camera 1 (system control unit 209) of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  After turning on the power of the camera 1 with the battery grip 6, when a certain period of time has elapsed, a low current operation ready state is entered in step (denoted as “S” in the figure) 301 and the process proceeds to step 302. .

  In step 302, the system control unit 209 determines whether or not the FG battery is included in the two batteries attached to the battery grip 6, and if so, the process proceeds to step 303. If an FG battery is not included (both are non-FG batteries), the low current operation is entered in step 312, the low current operation ready state is canceled in step 313, and the process proceeds to step 310 to shift to the normal shooting mode. To do.

  In step 303, the system control unit 209 determines whether or not both of the two batteries performing parallel power feeding are FG batteries. If yes, go to Step 304. Otherwise (one is an FG battery and the other is a non-FG battery), the process proceeds to step 311.

  In step 304, the system control unit 209 controls the control signal (independent power supply signal) for turning on the switch on the FG battery side with the larger remaining amount of the switches 205 and 206 and turning off the switch on the battery side with the smaller remaining amount. Is transmitted to the battery CPUs 201 and 202. Thereby, as shown in the case 1 of FIG. 4, an independent power feeding state using the FG battery with the larger remaining amount is obtained. Accordingly, the system control unit 209 transmits current / time information to the battery CPU that controls the FG battery with the larger remaining amount. Then, the process proceeds to step 305 to enter the low current operation mode.

  On the other hand, in step 311, the system control unit 209 sends a control signal (independent power supply signal) for turning on the non-FG battery side switch of the switches 205 and 206 and turning off the FG battery side switch to the battery CPUs 201 and 202. Send to. Thereby, as shown in the case 2 of FIG. 4, it will be in the independent electric power feeding state using a non-FG battery. Then, the process proceeds to step 305 to enter the low current operation mode.

  If any operation is performed on the camera 1 and the low current operation is canceled in step 306, the process proceeds to step 307. In step 307, the system control unit 209 establishes a communication connection with the battery CPU that controls the FG battery, and in step 308, a parallel power supply signal that is a control signal for setting the battery grip to a parallel power supply state. Send.

  After that, in step 309, the system control unit 209 generates and displays information on the remaining operation allowable amount such as the remaining number of photographing based on the remaining amount information received from the FG battery, and shifts to the normal photographing mode in step 310. To do.

  Next, the operation of the battery grip (battery CPUs 201 and 202) of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When the camera 1 enters the low current operation preparation state in step 401, the process proceeds to step 402, and the battery CPUs 201 and 202 determine whether or not the mounted battery is an FG battery. If it is an FG battery, the process proceeds to step 403, and if it is not an FG battery (a non-FG battery), the process proceeds to step 412.

  In step 412, the battery CPUs 201 and 202 receive the independent power supply signal from the system control unit 209 and switch to the independent power supply state in step 413. In step 414, when the camera 1 cancels the low current operation preparation state, the process proceeds to step 415 to switch to the parallel power supply state.

  In step 403, the battery CPU transmits remaining amount information to the system control unit 209. In step 404, it is determined whether an independent power supply signal from the system control unit 209 has been received. If it has been received, the process proceeds to step 405 to switch to the independent power supply state. Thereafter, when the camera 1 cancels the low current operation ready state in step 406, a communication connection with the system control unit 209 is established in step 407, and the process proceeds to step 408.

  If an independent power supply signal is not received in step 404, communication with the system control unit 209 is disconnected in step 409 and power supply is stopped. Thereafter, when the communication connection is re-established in step 410, the process proceeds to step 411, waits for a parallel power supply signal from the system control unit 209, and then proceeds to step 408.

  In step 408, the battery CPU transmits the remaining amount information of the FG battery to the system control unit 209, and then shifts to the parallel power supply state in step 415.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when two FG batteries are installed, in the low current operation mode, the independent battery is used to supply power from the battery with the larger remaining amount, and the consumption of the camera is further increased. Information such as current is notified to the battery CPU. Thereby, the precision improvement of the current integration capability in an FG battery can be aimed at. Further, when an FG battery and a non-FG battery are mounted, independent power feeding is performed from the non-FG battery. Thereby, the accuracy degradation of the current integration capability of the FG battery can be prevented. And by these characteristics, the precision of the information regarding remaining operation | movement allowances, such as the remaining imaging frequency, can be improved rather than before.

  In each of the above embodiments, an electronic device system including a digital camera and a battery grip has been described. However, the present invention also relates to an electronic device system including a video camera, a personal computer, a mobile phone and other electronic devices and a battery device. Applicable.

  In each of the above embodiments, the case where the battery device that can be attached to and detached from the electronic device is used has been described. However, when the battery device is built in the electronic device and both microcomputers can communicate with each other. Also, the present invention can be applied.

  Moreover, although the battery apparatus which can mount | wear with two batteries was demonstrated in the said Example, it can apply also when using the battery apparatus which can mount | wear with three or more batteries.

  Furthermore, each said Example is only an example in the case of implementing this invention, and a change and a deformation | transformation are possible suitably.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The front view and side view which show the camera system which is Example 1 of this invention. The rear view of the camera system of an Example. The rear view of the battery grip which comprises the camera system of an Example. The block diagram which shows the electric circuit structure of the said battery grip and camera. The conceptual diagram which shows the independent electric power feeding state according to the kind of mounting battery in an Example. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of the camera of an Example. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of the battery grip of an Example.

Explanation of symbols

1 Camera 6 Battery grip 201, 202 Battery CPU
209 System control unit 205, 206 Switch A, B Battery

Claims (4)

A first mode that consumes first power, an electronic device and a second mode that consumes low There second power than the first power,
It determines whether the first battery connected to said electronic device is a first remaining amount detection function cell has a function of calculating the remaining capacity of the first battery, connected to the electronic device Discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the second battery being used is a battery with a second remaining capacity detecting function having a function of calculating the remaining capacity of the second battery ;
When the first battery is the battery with the first remaining amount detection function and the second battery is the battery with the second remaining amount detection function, the remaining amount of the first battery A comparison means for comparing the remaining amount of the second battery;
When the electronic device is changed from the first mode to the second mode, if the remaining amount of the first battery is higher than the remaining amount of the second battery, the first battery Control means for stopping the power supply from the second battery to the electronic device, so as not to stop the power supply from the second battery to the electronic device ;
An electronic device comprising: When the first battery is the battery with the first remaining capacity detecting function and the second battery is not the battery with the second remaining capacity detecting function, the electronic device is in the first mode. When changing from the second battery to the second mode, the control means prevents the power supply from the second battery to the electronic device from being stopped and also supplies the electronic device from the first battery to the electronic device. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein power supply is stopped. When the first battery is not the battery with the first remaining amount detection function and the second battery is not the battery with the second remaining amount detection function, the control means The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein power supply from the battery and the second battery to the electronic device is not stopped. When the electronic device is in the second mode and power is supplied to the electronic device from any one of the first battery and the second battery, the electronic device is When the mode is changed from the second mode to the first mode, the control unit supplies power from the first battery and the second battery to the electronic device. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.