Appeal No. 96-0656
Application 08/099,277
battery. The higher voltage indicating that an improper battery type is present in the
charger and the charger would operate in a non-charging mode. The measured voltage is
compared to a reference voltage or threshold. (See col. 3, paragraph 3.) Hodgman ('144)
further disclose various other methods of measuring impedance and ripple voltage for
battery type discrimination. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at
the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Hodgman ('243) and Hodgman ('144)
since each is related to recharging of rechargeable battery cells. Hodgman ('144) teaches
discrimination of battery type rather than using conducive bands on rechargeable
batteries. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the
invention to modify the apparatus of Hodgman ('243) with the disclosed method of
Hodgman ('144) using the known relationship of cell voltages between primary and
secondary battery types to obviate the need for conductive bands. With the removal of the
conductive bands the skilled artisans would have also needed to provide for the sensing of
reverse polarities and disabling the charger as taught by Hodgman ('243). The skilled
artisan would have
found the Dey reference. Dey teaches a methodology to detect reverse polarity in a
battery recharging system. The Dey patent also disclose a battery charging system which
provides a signal to an operator in the occurrence of a reverse polarity situation rather than
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