BATTERY RECHARGE NOTIFICATION AND AUTOMATIC RECHARGE

• Main Authors: SYMANOW, David Anthony, HARTL, Derek
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 17.05.2018
• Subjects: CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT OR PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLEDVEHICLES; ELECTRICITY; ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES, IN GENERAL; GENERATION; MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

A vehicle includes a low-voltage battery, a high-voltage battery, and a converter that decreases voltage provided from the high-voltage battery to the low-voltage battery. A system controller of the vehicle is programmed to use the converter, in a key-off cycle, to charge the low-voltage battery a calibrated number of times that the low-voltage battery drops below a predefined state-of-charge threshold, and send a wireless notification a subsequent time the low-voltage battery drops below the threshold. A notification is sent to a predefined contact address when a periodically computed state of charge of a low-voltage battery of a vehicle falls below a predefined threshold. Using a converter, voltage provided from a high-voltage battery of the vehicle to the low-voltage battery is decreased to charge the low-voltage battery responsive to receipt from the contact address of a response indicating approval of the charge.