Description UNINTERRUPTED EMERGENCY LIGHT USING LI-ION OR LI-POLYMER SECONDARY BATTERY Technical Field
[1] The present invention relates to an uninterrupted emergency light, and more particularly, to an uninterrupted emergency light, which monitors the state of the secondary battery to use full capacity of the secondary battery even when external AC power supply is not provided thereto in case of emergency, and adopts a Li-Ion or Li- Polymer battery as a secondary battery adapted for such operation. Background Art
[2] A conventional emergency light has a fatal defect in that it is not normally turned on or, even if it is turned on, it is turned off in a moment when a disaster such as a fire occurs. This is caused by problems in a battery and a charging system. The life span of the battery becomes very short because the battery is excessively charged in normal times in order to maintain its full-charge state. Thus, the battery cannot fulfill its performance in an actual disaster situation.
[3] The conventional emergency light usually uses a Nickel Cadmium(Ni-Cd) secondary battery. Although it is ideal to perform charging control of -ΔV during a full-charge detecting process because of electrochemical characteristic of the battery, charging control is carried out according to over voltage cutoff because battery charging characteristic cannot be detected in the case of low-current charging over 12 to 48 hours. However, the Ni-Cd battery has characteristic that its voltage is dropped at a certain point of time as it is charged. This increases current such that the Ni-Cd battery maintains its over-charged state. Though a time cutoff function is used in order to solve this problem, recharging is carried out whenever power is on/off so that the over-charged state is still maintained. Furthermore, since charging current flows in the battery all the time in order to maintain full-charge state, the battery is further overcharged and thus it has done its time soon. Accordingly, lighting time becomes short or the emergency light is not turned on due to discharge incapability caused by deterioration of battery performance, for example, leakage due to over-charging, in case of emergency. Thus, it is meaningless to implement the present invention by using the Ni- Cd secondary battery. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem
[4] Accordingly, the present invention provides an uninterrupted emergency light, which uses a Li-Ion or Li-Polymer battery as a secondary battery such that it is
provided with power from the secondary battery to be turned on when a disaster occurs in a building, construction such as a basement, the subway or a train, which require lighting at all times, detects the state of the secondary battery and a fluorescent lamp without opening/closing the emergency light to inform an operator of the detected state, and notifies the operator of accidents. Technical Solution
[5] The uninterrupted emergency light includes: a fluorescent lamp; a driving inverter for driving the fluorescent lamp; a DC power supply for converting an external AC voltage into a DC voltage and supplying the DC voltage; a secondary battery including a Li-Ion or Li-Polymer battery, which is charged with the DC voltage supplied by the DC power supply; a battery protection unit for preventing the secondary battery from being over-charged or over-discharged; an on/off switch for deterniining whether the DC voltage supplied by the DC power supply or the DC voltage of the secondary battery, output through the battery protection unit, is provided to the driving inverter or not; a fluorescent lamp monitoring unit for monitoring a lighting state of the fluorescent lamp and outputting a monitoring signal corresponding thereto; a microprocessor provided with the DC voltage supplied by the DC power supply to be operated when the AC voltage is provided, the microprocessor being provided with the DC voltage of the secondary battery to be operated when the AC voltage is cut, the microprocessor grasping the characteristic of the secondary battery from the current and voltage applied to the battery protection unit when the secondary battery is charged and discharged and outputting an alarm signal when the secondary battery is abnormal, the microprocessor controlling the on/off switch, the microprocessor receiving the monitoring signal output from the fluorescent monitoring unit to output an abnormality signal when the fluorescent lamp is abnormal; a data modulator for receiving the abnormality signal and the alarm signal output from the microprocessor and modulating the output frequency of the driving inverter; an RF transmitter for receiving the alarm signal and the abnormality signal output from the microprocessor to generate an RF signal; and an illumination data receiver for sensing light emitted from the fluorescent lamp, and receiving the RF signal generated by the RF transmitter to detect the state of the fluorescent lamp and the state of the secondary battery.
[6] Preferably, the uninterrupted emergency light further includes a sensor and a sensor amplifier. The sensor senses whether a power line is abnormal or not, a temperature, noise, gas and smoke. The sensor amplifier converts the signal sensed by the sensor into an electric signal. The microprocessor receives the electric signal output from the sensor amplifier to output a disaster signal corresponding to the received electric signal. The data modulator receives the disaster signal and modulates the output
frequency of the driving inverter. The illumination data receiver senses light emitted from the fluorescent lamp to sense a disaster situation.
[7] Preferably, the uninterrupted emergency light further includes an RF transmitter that receives the disaster signal output from the microprocessor to generate an RF signal. Here, the illumination data receiver receives the RF signal generated by the RF transmitter to sense a disaster situation.
[8] The fluorescent lamp monitoring unit measures the current or voltage applied to the driving inverter to monitor the lighting state of the fluorescent lamp.
[9] The fluorescent lamp monitoring unit includes a light-receiving element for sensing the intensity of light emitted from the fluorescent lamp.
[10] The present invention will now be described in detail in connection with preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[11] The following embodiments will be proposed in order merely to understand the contents of the present invention. It will be appreciated that many modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the true spirit and scope of the invention should not be construed as being limited to such embodiments.
[12] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the uninterrupted emergency light using a Li-Ion or Li- Polymer secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the uninterrupted emergency light of FIG. 1.
[13] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an external AC voltage is provided to a DC power supply(30) via a surge suppressing unit(lθ) and a line filter(20). The surge suppressing unit (10) suppresses a surge voltage included in the external AC voltage and the line filter(29) removes an RF component and an electrostatic component included in the external AC voltage using an inductor and a condenser such that a power supply circuit is not damaged or erroneously operated. The DC power supply(30) includes a rectifιer(32) and a SMPS(switching mode power supply, 34). The rectifιer(32) converts the AC voltage filtered by the line fιlter(20) into a DC voltage. The SMPS(34) converts the DC voltage output from the rectifϊer(32) into a DC voltage having a level suitable for charging a Li-Ion battery(50) using a Zener Diode(ZD) to output a constant-voltage constant-current(CCCV).
[14] The DC voltage output from the SMPS(34) is provided to the Li-Ion battery(50) via a battery protection unit(40) to charge the Li-Ion battery(50). The battery protection unit(40) prevents the Li-Ion battery(50) from being over-charged and over-discharged. A transistor Tl included in the battery protection unit(40) is turned off when the Li-Ion battery(50) is over-charged and a transistor T2 is turned off when the Li-Ion battery(50) is over-discharged.
[15] A microprocessor(60) is operated by the DC voltage provided by the SMPS(34)
while the external AC voltage is supplied but operated by the power of the Li-Ion battery(50), which is output through the battery protection unit(40), when the external AC voltage is not provided. The microprocessor(60) detects a current flowing through a resistor Res of the battery protection unit(40) and a voltage applied to the resistor Res through "Self-Diagnosis" when the Li-Ion battery(50) is charged/discharged to grasp characteristic of the Li-Ion battery(50).
[16] The self-diagnosis is explained in detail. The microprocessor(60) periodically cuts the external AC voltage and turns on a fluorescent lamp(l 10) with the power of the Li- Ion battery(50). Then, the Li-Ion battery(50) is discharged. Here, the micro- processor(60) measures the voltage applied to the resistor Res to analyze a variation in the voltage when the Li-Ion battery is discharged to grasp dynamic characteristic of the Li-Ion battery(50) and, simultaneously, calculate the internal resistance of the Li-Ion battery(50). When the fluorescent lamp(l 10) is turned on with the external AC voltage, the power of the Li-Ion battery(50) is not consumed. The internal resistance of the battery can be obtained from the voltage of the battery when the fluorescent lamp(l 10) is turned on with the external AC voltage and the voltage and current of the battery when the fluorescent lamp(l 10) is turned on with the power of the Li-Ion battery(50). The internal resistance of the battery is directly connected with the life span and performance of the battery. The Li-Ion battery(50) is used as an emergency power supply, and thus it is preferable to take 3 to 5 minutes to discharge the battery(50).
[17] When discharging characteristic has been checked, the microprocessor(60) resumes the supply of the external AC voltage to convert the state of the emergency light to a normal lighting state. Here, the Li-Ion battery(50) is recharged. An increase in a rising rate of charging voltage per unit time during the recharging process represents that the capacity of the battery is gradually reduced. A decrease in a falling rate of full-charge charging current after the charging voltage reaches a target voltage 4.2V/cell means that the chemical reaction of the battery becomes slow.
[18] The Li-Ion battery(50) can be recharged 600 to 1,000 times if it is charged to a specific voltage (4.2V/cell) and charged to a specific current (1/20C of battery capacity) at the specific voltage. Thus, electrochemical activation of the Li-Ion battery is maintained when the battery is charged and discharged within a range where the charging/discharging quantity in the periodic self-diagnosis does not affect the lift span of the battery(50). A Li-Polymer battery can replace the Li-Ion battery(50).
[19] The microprocessor(60) carries out the self-diagnosis at normal times before an actual disaster occurs and outputs an alarm signal when it detects a abnormal state of the battery, such as the battery has been aged.
[20] The on/off switch(90) determines whether the DC voltage provided by the SMPS(34) or the DC voltage of the secondary battery(50), output through the battery
protection unit(40), is supplied to a driving inverter(lOO) under the control of the mi- croprocessor(60). When the on/off switch(90) is turned on, the driving inverter(lOO) converts the DC voltage input thereto into an AC voltage to turn on the fluorescent lamp (110). A fluorescent lamp monitoring unit(140) measures current or voltage applied to the driving inverter(lOO) and transmits a monitoring signal corresponding to the measurement result to the microprocessor(60). For example, if a driving voltage is approximately 400V when the fluorescent lamp is normally turned on and 220mA flows at this time, the driving voltage is increased and the current is decreased if the fluorescent lamp is aged. Furthermore, if the filament of the fluorescent lamp is cut, the fluorescent lamp is not turned on and thus the current reaches zero and the voltage becomes higher than 400V according to an open circuit. Accordingly, it can be determined whether the fluorescent lamp is normal or not by measuring the current or voltage of the driving inverter (100).
[21] When the fluorescent monitoring unit(140) measures the current or voltage of the driving inverter(lOO) and delivers the monitoring signal corresponding to the measurement result to the microprocessor(60), the microprocessor(60) outputs a fluorescent lamp abnormal signal to a data modulator(130) when it judges the fluorescent lamp(l 10) to be abnormal.
[22] The fluorescent lamp monitoring unit(140) can be composed of a light-receiving element such as CdS(Cadmium Sulfϊde), which can measure the intensity of illumination of the fluorescent lamp(llθ). In this case, the microprocessor(60) includes an analog-digital converter to convert an analog signal measured by the CdS into digital data and converts the digital data into intensity of illumination with reference to a conversion data table with respect to intensity of illumination to judge whether the fluorescent lamp(l 10) maintains a predetermined level of intensity of illumination.
[23] The data modulator(130) receives the fluorescent lamp abnormal signal and alarm signal output from the microprocessor(60) and modulates the output frequency of the driving inverter(lOO). The fluorescent lamp abnormal signal and alarm signal output from the microprocessor(60) are input to the gate of a transistor M included in the driving inverter(lOO). That is, the transistor M serves as the data modulator(130).
[24] An illumination on/off frequency of the fluorescent lamp(l 10) depends on the output frequency of the driving inverter(lOO), which is sensed by an illumination data receiver(120). Thus, the illumination data receiver(120) senses light of the fluorescent lamp(l 10) to become aware of the state of the fluorescent lamp and the state of the secondary battery.
[25] If the fluorescent lamp(lOO) is not turned on due to its own problem, the fluorescent lamp does not emit light and thus the illumination data receiver(120) cannot sense light. In consideration of this case, an RF transmitter(150) is included in the unin-
terrupted emergency light. The RF transmitted 150) receives the alarm signal and the fluorescent lamp abnormal signal output from the microprocessor(60) to output an RF signal in response to the received signals. The illumination data receiver(120) receives the RF signal to detect the turn-off of the fluorescent lamp and the state of the battery.
[26] Moreover, the uninterrupted emergency light further includes a sensor(80) for sensing whether a power line is normal or abnormal, a temperature, a voice (asking for help, scream and so on), gas and smoke, and a sensor amplifϊer(70) for converting a signal sensed by the sensor(80) into an electric signal. The microprocessor(60) receives the electric signal output from the sensor amplifιer(70) and outputs a disaster signal corresponding to the electric signal. The data modulator(130) receives the disaster signal to modulate the output frequency of the driving inverter (100), and the illumination data receiver(120) senses light emitted from the fluorescent lamp at this time to detect a disaster.
[27] It is also possible for the illumination data receiver (120) to be informed of a disaster situation by the RF transmitted 160) when the fluorescent lamp(l 10) is not turned on because of its own problem. Advantageous Effects
[28] According to the present invention, the battery can fulfil its performance almost 100% even when a disaster occurs to cut the external AC voltage. Thus, the emergency light is properly operated in case of emergency. Furthermore, it is possible to detect whether the fluorescent lamp and the battery are normal or not without dissembling the emergency light. This can solve a problem that a periodical inspection is not performed because of a cumbersome process of directly opening/closing the emergency light. Moreover, the operator can be aware of a disaster situation through the emergency light. Brief Description of the Drawings
[29] Further objects and advantages of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
[30] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an uninterrupted emergency light using a Li-Ion or Li- Polymer secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
[31] FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the uninterrupted emergency light of FIG. 1.
[32] <Explain for the reference numbers of the drawings>
[33] 10 : Surge Suppressing Unit 20 : Line Filter
[34] 30 : DC Power Supply Unit 32 : Rectifier
[35] 34 : SMPS 40 : Battery Protection Unit
[36] 50 : Li-Ion Battery 60 : Microprocessor
[37] 70 : Sensor Amplifier 80 : Sensor
[38] 90 : On/Off Switch 100 : Fluorescent Lamp Driving Inverter
[39] 110 : Fluorescent Lamp 120 : Illumination Sensor
[40] 130 : Data Modulator 140 : Fluorescent Lamp Monitoring Unit
[41] 150 : RF Transmitter Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention
[42] An uninterrupted emergency light according to the present invention uses a Li-Ion or Li-Polymer battery for a DC power supply. The uninterrupted emergency light includes a microprocessor in a battery protection unit to monitor the state of the battery and protect the battery to maintain the battery at a specific level all the time. Furthermore, the uninterrupted emergency light includes a sensor and a sensor amplifier to sense whether a power line is abnormal, a temperature, noise, gas and smoke in case of emergency. Moreover, the emergency light includes an RF transmitter such that it can easily detect whether a fluorescent lamp is abnormal and the state of the battery using the RF transmitter. Industrial Applicability
[43] While the conventional lighting device is not turned on when power supplied thereto is cut or a fire occurs because it is operated with an AC voltage, the present invention can provide illumination for a predetermined period of time in case of disaster to help rescue human life and suppress fire. Accordingly, the uninterrupted emergency light of the present invention can be used in public spaces, the subway, trains and so on, which require lighting at all times.
[44] While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.