Appeal No. 96-0656
Application 08/099,277
BACKGROUND
The invention is directed to a battery cell charging apparatus which is to be used
with multiple battery cells of the same size. The charging apparatus performs a polarity
check to determine if at least one battery cell is installed with reverse polarity. The
charging apparatus also performs a discrimination check to determine if only rechargeable
battery cells are present in a charging well. The charging apparatus compares the voltage
across the battery cells to reference voltages produced by a resistive network in the
determinations of polarity and battery type discrimination. In response to the
determinations, the charging apparatus will disable the charging of the battery and provide
and indication of the status of the battery cell charging.
Appellant has indicated that claims 7-18 stand or fall together as a single group.
(Brief at page 4.)
Independent claim 7 is a representative claim and reproduced as follows:
7. A battery cell charging system comprising:
a battery receiving well adapted to receive a plurality of separate
battery cells each of the same size having first and second electrical
contacts that define a battery voltage across the battery cells;
a transformer circuit that produces a transformer reference voltage
and an output charging current for simultaneously charging the
separate battery cells;
2
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