US 12,451,721 B2
Solar and battery powered long lasting tracker
Cheuk Yin Lee, Hong Kong (HK); Yam Chong, Hong Kong (HK); Shengbo Lu, Hong Kong (HK); and Chenmin Liu, Hong Kong (HK)
Assigned to Nano and Advanced Materials Institute Limited, Hong Kong (HK)
Filed by Nano and Advanced Materials Institute Limited, Hong Kong (HK)
Filed on May 18, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/319,493.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/344,050, filed on May 20, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0378800 A1, Nov. 23, 2023
Int. Cl. H02J 7/35 (2006.01); H02J 7/00 (2006.01); G01S 19/00 (2010.01)
CPC H02J 7/35 (2013.01) [H02J 7/00304 (2020.01); H02J 7/00308 (2020.01); H02J 7/007182 (2020.01); G01S 19/00 (2013.01); H02J 2207/20 (2020.01)] 9 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A solar-powered position tracker comprising:
a load including one or more of a GPS module, a GPS antenna, a GSM module, or a GSM antenna;
a rechargeable battery;
a non-rechargeable primary battery;
a solar cell;
a battery management system for powering the position tracker by controlling the solar cell, the rechargeable battery and the non-rechargeable primary battery, the battery management system charging the rechargeable battery in two stages and including a solar management and protection circuit interconnecting the solar cell and the rechargeable battery;
wherein the battery management system is configured to execute a charging process for recharging the rechargeable battery from solar cell and protect the rechargeable battery under a high pulse current discharge process to meet a high current or high pulse current discharge demand by the load,
wherein the two-stage charging process comprises:
detecting, by the battery management system, whether an output voltage of the rechargeable battery falls below a low voltage threshold;
when the output voltage of the rechargeable battery falls below the low voltage threshold:
directing, by the battery management system, a flow of electrical current to charge the rechargeable battery cells from the non-rechargeable primary battery until the output voltage of the rechargeable battery reaches a partially-charged voltage threshold indicating that the rechargeable battery is not yet fully charged; and
switching, by the battery management system, to direct a flow of electrical current from the solar cell to charge the rechargeable battery for its remaining capacity until the rechargeable battery is fully charged.