JP6924640B2 - Batteries, mobile terminals and chargers - Google Patents

Description

Embodiments of the present invention relate to batteries, mobile terminals and chargers.

Conventionally, as a portable terminal such as a handy terminal that receives an order at a restaurant, a type in which a removable rechargeable battery is mounted in a housing to supply power is often used. Such mobile terminals are often used in an environment where dirt such as oil, food pieces, and dust easily adheres, but the dirt may cause poor contact of the battery terminals and, in some cases, a short circuit. be. Therefore, a battery capable of stably supplying power even in such an environment is desired.

An object to be solved by the present invention is to provide a battery, a mobile terminal and a charger capable of stably supplying power in an environment susceptible to dirt.

The battery of the embodiment is a battery in which at least two pairs of positive terminals and negative terminals are provided, and terminals having the same polarity are arranged separately on the left and right sides of the front surface of the flat plate-shaped main body. A first side surface, a second side surface adjacent to the left side of the first side surface, and a third side surface adjacent to the right side of the first side surface are provided, and the first side surface and the second side surface are provided as the positive terminals. It is provided with two positive terminals, a first positive terminal provided at the corner to be joined and a second positive terminal provided at the corner where the first side surface and the third side surface are joined. As the negative terminal, two negative terminals, a first negative terminal provided on the second side surface and a second negative terminal provided on the third side surface, are provided.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a mobile terminal equipped with the battery of the first embodiment as viewed from the back side. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an arrangement example of the positive terminal and the negative terminal of the battery. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the terminal on the battery side and the terminal on the mobile terminal side. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the charger according to the second embodiment. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA'of FIG. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB'of FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a positive terminal in the third embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a positive terminal according to the fourth embodiment.

Hereinafter, the battery, mobile terminal, and charger of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In the embodiment shown below, an example is shown in which a handy terminal that receives an order at a restaurant or the like is applied as a mobile terminal. The embodiment of the mobile terminal is not limited to this, and other mobile terminals operating on a rechargeable battery may be applied. Further, similar configurations shown in a plurality of figures may be indicated with the same reference numerals, and duplicate description thereof may be omitted.

(First Embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the mobile terminal 1 equipped with the battery 10 of the first embodiment as viewed from the back surface side. A touch panel type display and a plurality of operation keys are provided on the surface of the mobile terminal 1. The mobile terminal 1 receives information such as menus and order quantities via a touch panel or operation keys, and transmits the information to an order management device, a slip printer, or the like connected by a wireless network.

As shown in FIG. 1, a cover 3 for the battery 10 is fitted on the back surface 2 of the mobile terminal 1. An accommodating portion 30 for accommodating the battery 10 is provided inside the cover 3. The operator removes the cover 3 and removes the battery 10 from the accommodating portion 30, and charges the battery 10 with a dedicated charger 100 (see FIG. 4). Further, the operator removes the cover 3 of the mobile terminal 1, attaches the charged battery 10 to the accommodating portion 30, fits the cover 3, and then turns on the power to operate the mobile terminal 1. The mobile terminal 1 operates by receiving electric power from the battery 10. The mobile terminal 1 has a control unit including a CPU, ROM, RAM, etc., and the CPU controls input / output of a touch panel, operation keys, a display, a battery 10, etc. by a program stored in the ROM.

As the battery 10, for example, a lithium ion secondary battery is used as the rechargeable secondary battery. The type of the secondary battery is not particularly limited, and other types of secondary batteries such as nickel-metal hydride batteries may be used. Next, an example of arranging the terminals in the battery 10 and the mobile terminal 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an arrangement example of the positive terminal and the negative terminal of the battery 10. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the terminal on the battery 10 side and the terminal on the mobile terminal 1 side. FIG. 3 shows a front view when the cover 3 (see FIG. 1) of the mobile terminal 1 is removed and the battery 10 is attached to the mobile terminal 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the battery 10 has a flat plate-shaped, that is, a rectangular parallelepiped main body, and has two positive terminals 11a and 11b (also referred to as positive electrode terminals) and two negative terminals 12a and 12b (also referred to as negative electrode terminals). ) Are arranged symmetrically with respect to the front surface 13 of the battery 10. The front surface 13 is an upper surface (front side) exposed to the outside when the battery 10 is attached to the mobile terminal 1 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the side surfaces of the rectangular parallelepiped adjacent to the front surface 13 are the first side surface 14, the second side surface 15, the third side surface 16, and the fourth side surface 17, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 3, the first side surface 14 is an end face on the upper side when the battery 10 is attached to the mobile terminal 1, that is, an end face on the back side when viewed from the operator's hand. As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of a second side surface 15 which is a side surface on the left side when facing the front surface 13 and a third side surface 16 which is a side surface on the right side when facing the front surface 13 sandwiches the first side surface 14 from both left and right sides. It can be said that it is an aspect of. The fourth side surface 17 is a side surface facing the first side surface 14, and is an end surface that becomes a lower side when the battery 10 is attached to the mobile terminal 1, that is, an end surface that becomes a hand side of an operator as shown in FIG. be.

Arrangement of Terminals on the Battery 10 Side As shown in FIG. 2, the positive terminal 11a (first positive terminal) is provided at the corner portion 18 where the first side surface 14 and the second side surface 15 are joined. Further, the positive terminal 11b (second positive terminal) is provided at the corner portion 19 where the first side surface 14 and the third side surface 16 are joined. By providing both positive terminals 11a and 11b on the corners 18 and 19 in this way, electrical contact can be secured from three sides of the first side surface 14, the second side surface 15, and the third side surface 16, and the electrical contact can be achieved. Stabilization can be achieved.

Note that FIG. 2 shows an example in which L-shaped positive terminals 11a and 11b straddling the corners 18 and 19 are provided, but the shape of the terminals is not limited to this. For example, the positive terminal 11a may be provided separately at an end portion adjacent to the corner portion 18 of the first side surface 14 and an end portion adjacent to the corner portion 18 of the second side surface 15. Further, the positive terminal 11b may be separately provided at an end portion adjacent to the corner portion 19 of the first side surface 14 and an end portion adjacent to the corner portion 19 of the third side surface 16. Even if each of the positive terminals 11a and 11b is divided into two in this way, the same terminal shape can be used on the positive terminals 21a and 21b (see FIG. 3) on the mobile terminal 1 side without changing the design. ..

As described above, the battery 10 of the present embodiment includes at least two pairs of positive terminals and negative terminals. The pair of positive terminal and negative terminal is a pair of positive terminal 11a and negative terminal 12a, and a pair of positive terminal 11b and negative terminal 12b. Then, in the present embodiment, the terminals having the same polarity, that is, the positive terminal 11a and the positive terminal 11b, and the negative terminal 12a and the negative terminal 12b are divided into the left and right sides of the front surface 13 of the flat battery 10 main body, respectively. Placed.

In other words, the battery 10 has two positive terminals arranged on each of the left and right sides toward the front surface 13 of the main body and two negative terminals arranged on each of the left and right sides toward the front surface 13 of the main body. And have.

By arranging the terminals in this way, even if one terminal pair becomes poorly contacted due to oil, food, dust, etc., causing one side of the mobile terminal 1 to become dirty over a large area, the other terminal becomes poor. If the pair is in electrical contact, the power supply to the mobile terminal 1 can be maintained.

It should be noted that terminals having the same polarity may be arranged on both the upper and lower sides of the main body instead of on the left and right sides. However, when the battery 10 is inserted into the mobile terminal 1, the first side surface 14 is pressed against the side wall of the accommodating portion 30 of the mobile terminal 1 to be attached. , It is preferable to provide a set of negative terminals 12a and 12b so that the terminals can be reliably contacted at the time of mounting.

-Arrangement of Terminals on the Mobile Terminal 1 Side As shown in FIG. 3, a housing portion 30 is provided on the back surface side of the mobile terminal 1. The accommodating portion 30 is formed as a substantially rectangular parallelepiped-shaped opening that is one size larger than the battery 10. On the left side wall surface 31 of the four inner wall surfaces of the accommodating portion 30, a minus terminal 22a on the mobile terminal 1 side connected to the minus terminal 12a of the battery 10 is provided. Further, a negative terminal 22b on the mobile terminal 1 side connected to the negative terminal 12b of the battery 10 is provided on the side wall surface 32 on the right side of the accommodating portion 30. The negative terminals 22a and 22b are provided symmetrically with respect to the front surface of the accommodating portion 30.

A positive terminal 21a on the mobile terminal 1 side is provided at a corner where the upper side wall surface 33 of the accommodating portion 30 and the left side wall surface 31 are joined. Further, a positive terminal 21b on the mobile terminal 1 side is provided at a corner where the upper side wall surface 33 and the right side wall surface 32 are joined.

The positive terminals 21a and 21b are each provided in an L shape straddling the above-mentioned corners. A convex portion 211 is provided on the side wall surface 33 side of the positive terminal 21a, and a convex portion 212 is provided on the side wall surface 31 side. Similarly, the convex portion 213 is provided on the side wall surface 33 side of the positive terminal 21b, and the convex portion 214 is provided on the side wall surface 32 side. Similarly, the negative terminals 22a and 22b also have convex portions 221 and 222, respectively. These convex portions 211, 212, 213, 214, 221 and 222 are composed of pin portions in which a part of each terminal is projected, for example, to stabilize the electrical contact between the terminals even if the battery 10 is slightly tilted. be able to.

The convex portions 211, 212, 213, 214, 221, 222 may be formed of a leaf spring, a conical spring, or the like, and the battery 10 may be urged inside the accommodating portion 30 by its elasticity.

Leaf springs 230a and 230b for urging the battery 10 are symmetrically provided on the side wall surface 34 on the lower side (front side when viewed from the operator) of the accommodating portion 30. The convex portions 211, 212, 213, 214, 221 and 222 and the leaf springs 230a and 230b urge the battery 10 from all sides to keep the electrical connection tight and prevent it from coming off even if it receives an impact. It is supposed to be. When the convex portions 211 and 213 have elasticity, a non-elastic convex portion may be provided on the side wall surface 34 instead of the leaf springs 230a and 230b.

As described above, the mobile terminal 1 according to the present embodiment includes the accommodating portion 30 accommodating the battery 10. Further, the mobile terminal 1 includes at least two positive terminals 21a and 21b and at least two negative terminals 22a and 22b. The positive terminals 21a and 21b are separately arranged on the left and right sides on at least one surface of the inner wall surface of the accommodating portion 30, and electrically contact the positive terminals 11a and 11b of the battery 10, respectively. The negative terminals 22a and 22b are separately arranged on the left and right sides on at least one surface of the inner wall surface of the accommodating portion 30, and electrically contact the negative terminals 12a and 12b of the battery 10, respectively. By arranging the terminals in this way, even if one side of the mobile terminal 1 becomes dirty over a large area due to oil, food, dust, etc., and one of the terminal pairs becomes poorly contacted. If the other terminal pair is in electrical contact, the power supply from the battery 10 can be maintained.

(Second Embodiment)
-Application to a battery charger The position of the terminal on the mobile terminal 1 described above may be applied to the battery charger. The charger may be a charger that charges one battery 10 or a charger that can charge two or more batteries 10 in parallel. Hereinafter, an example of a charger having 10 charging slots and capable of charging up to 10 batteries 10 will be described.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the charger 100 according to the second embodiment. The charger 100 includes charging slots 70a to 70j. Each of the charging slots 70a to 70j functions as an accommodating portion of the battery 10, and has a charging terminal on the inner wall surface. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the battery 10 is inserted into one of the charging slots (an example of the charging slot 70d is shown in FIG. 4) with the fourth side surface 17 (see also FIG. 2) facing up. ..

Further, the charging slots 70a to 70j are provided with LEDs 80a to 80j for notifying the charging state of the battery 10 inserted in each charging slot. Further, the charger 100 includes a power switch 91 and an LED 81 that lights up when the power switch 91 is turned on to notify the operating status of the charger 100.

The charge control unit 90 includes a control circuit, a microcomputer, and the like, and controls charging of the battery 10 in each of the charge slots 70a to 70j. That is, the charge control unit 90 switches the lighting color or lighting pattern of the LEDs 80a to 80j according to the charging state of the battery 10 inserted into the charging slots 70a to 70j. Further, the charge control unit 90 monitors the potential of the battery 10 and stops the power supply to the charge slot when the charge is completed.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA'of FIG. Since the charging slots 70a to 70j all have the same structure, the configuration of the charging slot 70a shown in FIG. 5 is also applied to the other charging slots 70b to 70j. As shown in FIG. 5, on the inner wall of the charging slot 70a, positive terminals 4021a and 4021b (first terminals) for charging are provided at positions corresponding to the positive terminals 11a and 11b of the battery 10. Further, on the inner wall of the charging slot 70a, negative terminals 4022a and 4022b (second terminal) for charging are provided at positions corresponding to the negative terminals 12a and 12b of the battery 10.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, a positive terminal 4021a for charging is provided at the corner portion 45 to which the bottom surface 44 and the side wall surface 41 of the charging slot 70a are connected. Further, a positive terminal 4021b for charging is provided at the corner portion 46 to which the bottom surface 44 and the side wall surface 42 are connected. The cross-sectional shape of the positive terminals 4021a and 4021b is L-shaped. Further, the side wall surface 41 of the charging slot 70a is provided with a negative terminal 4022a for charging, and the side wall surface 42 is provided with a negative terminal 4022b for charging.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB'of FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, when the battery 10 is inserted into the charging slot 70a with the first side surface 14 facing down and the fourth side surface 17 facing up, the charging slot 70a side facing the front surface 13 of the battery 10 The inner wall surface of the above is the inner wall surface 55. Further, the inner wall surface on the opposite side facing the inner wall surface 55 is referred to as the inner wall surface 56. The positive terminals 4021a and 4021b and the negative terminals 4022a and 4022b of the charging slot 70a are separately arranged on the left and right sides with respect to the inner wall surface 55 or the inner wall surface 56.

As described above, the charger 100 of the present embodiment has charging slots 70a to 70j that function as accommodating portions for accommodating the battery 10. The charging slots 70a to 70j each include at least two first terminals (positive terminals 4021a and 4021b for charging) and at least two second terminals (minus terminals 4022a and 4022b for charging). The positive terminals 4021a and 4021b are separately arranged on the left and right sides with respect to the inner wall surfaces 55 and 56 of the charging slot, and electrically contact the positive terminals 11a and 11b of the battery 10, respectively. The negative terminals 4022a and 4022b are separately arranged on the left and right sides with respect to the inner wall surfaces 55 and 56 of the charging slot, and electrically contact the negative terminals 12a and 12b of the battery 10, respectively.

With such a terminal arrangement, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained in each of the charging slots 70a to 70j of the charger 100.

The configuration of the positive terminal is not limited to the above-mentioned example. Hereinafter, an example of arranging the positive terminals according to the third embodiment and the fourth embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. An example of terminal arrangement on the battery side will be described below, but the arrangement can also be applied to the terminal arrangement on the mobile terminal side or the terminal arrangement on the charger side.

(Third Embodiment)
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a positive terminal in the third embodiment. As another configuration example, the positive terminal on the battery side may be configured not to straddle the two sides of the battery. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the battery 2010 of the third embodiment includes positive terminals 2011a and 2011b on the left and right ends of the first side surface 14. The positive terminals 2011a and 2011b do not extend to the second side surface 15 side or the third side surface 16 side. The positive terminals 2021a and 2021b of the mobile terminal 2001 may be provided on the left and right ends of the upper side wall surface 33.

At this time, the positive terminals 2021a and 2021b may be provided with convex portions 211 and 213, as in the configuration shown in FIG. Further, convex portions 2212 and 2214 may be formed on the surfaces of the side wall surfaces 31 and 32 on which the positive terminal is not provided so that a part of the side wall surfaces 31 and 32 is projected. By providing the convex portions 2212 and 2214, it is possible to disperse the stress related to the other convex portions.

(Fourth Embodiment)
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a positive terminal according to the fourth embodiment. As another configuration example, all the terminals on the battery side may be arranged on the left and right side surfaces of the main body. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the battery 3010 of the fourth embodiment includes a positive terminal 3011a at the upper end of the second side surface 15 and a positive terminal 3011b at the upper end of the third side surface 16. The positive terminals 3011a and 3011b do not extend to the first side surface 14 side. Further, in this embodiment, the positive terminals 3021a and 3021b of the mobile terminal 3001 are provided on the left side wall surface 31 and the right side wall surface 32, respectively.

At this time, the positive terminals 3021a and 3021b may be provided with convex portions 212 and 214 as in the configuration shown in FIG. Further, the convex portions 2211 and 2213 may be provided on the surface of the side wall surface 33 on which the positive terminal is not provided, as in the case of the convex portions 2212 and 2214 described above.

Even in the case of the above configuration, since the positive terminals and the negative terminals are arranged on both the left and right sides, even if one terminal has a poor contact, the other side is similar to the above. It is possible to maintain electrical contact with the terminals of.

Although some embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other embodiments, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the gist of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are also included in the scope of the invention described in the claims and the equivalent scope thereof.

For example, the arrangement configuration may be such that the above-mentioned positive terminal and negative terminal are interchanged. Further, in the above description, the number of positive terminals is two and the number of negative terminals is two, but the number of each terminal is not limited to this. May be good. At that time, an even number of terminals may be arranged symmetrically, or an odd number of terminals may be arranged symmetrically.

As described above, according to the above embodiment, even if one of the terminals provided on both the left and right sides has a poor contact, the other terminal can maintain electrical contact, so that the influence of dirt can be affected. It is possible to provide a battery, a mobile terminal and a charger that can be stably supplied with power in a susceptible environment.

1 ... Mobile terminal, 10 ... Battery, 11a, 11b, 21a, 21b ... Positive terminal, 12a, 12b, 22a, 22b ... Minus terminal, 13 ... Front, 14 ... 1st side, 15 ... 2nd side, 16 ... 3 side surfaces, 17 ... 4th side surface, 30 ... accommodating portion, 100 ... charger, 211, 212, 213, 214, 211, 222 ... convex portion.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2015-171227

Claims (4)

It is a battery that has at least two pairs of positive and negative terminals, and terminals of the same polarity are arranged separately on the left and right sides of the front of the flat plate-shaped main body.
The main body includes a first side surface, a second side surface adjacent to the left side of the first side surface, and a third side surface adjacent to the right side of the first side surface.
As the positive terminal, a first positive terminal provided at a corner where the first side surface and the second side surface are joined, and a corner portion where the first side surface and the third side surface are joined are provided. Equipped with a second positive terminal and two positive terminals,
A battery having two negative terminals, a first negative terminal provided on the second side surface and a second negative terminal provided on the third side surface, as the negative terminal . The two positive terminals of being arranged symmetrically with respect to the front of the body, the two negative terminal each other are arranged symmetrically with respect to the front of the body, a battery according to claim 1. The accommodating portion for accommodating the battery according to claim 1 or 2.
At least two positive terminals that are separately arranged on the left and right sides on at least one surface of the inner wall surface of the accommodating portion and that electrically contact the two positive terminals of the battery, respectively.
At least two negative terminals that are separately arranged on the left and right sides on at least one surface of the inner wall surface of the accommodating portion and that electrically contact the two negative terminals of the battery, respectively.
Mobile terminal equipped with. The accommodating portion for accommodating the battery according to claim 1 or 2.
At least two first terminals, which are separately arranged on the left and right sides with respect to the inner wall surface of the accommodating portion and electrically contact the two positive terminals of the battery, respectively.
At least two second terminals, which are separately arranged on the left and right sides with respect to the inner wall surface of the accommodating portion and electrically contact the two negative terminals of the battery, respectively.
A charge control unit that controls charging of the battery via the first terminal and the second terminal.
Charger with.

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