Abstract:
A battery pack (62) comprises cells (74), and is charged by a charger (64) providing a current level. The charger (64) is a typical nickel-cadmium battery charger providing a first charge current level in excess of an optimum charge current level. The battery pack (62) further comprises a thermal sensing element (76) and an overcurrent charge protection circuit having an overcurrent switch (78), current sense circuit (80), comparator circuit (82), and temperature signal switch (84). If the current level through the cells (74) exceeds the optimum charge current level, the current sense circuit (80) provides a signal to comparator circuit (82) which actuates the temperature signal switch (84), simulating a hot battery pack. The charger (64) then switches to a second charge current level which does not exceed the optimum charge current level. If the charger (64) does not change current levels, a switch delay (86), after a brief period, accumulates enough voltage to actuate a driver switch (88) which opens the overcurrent switch (78), disconnecting the cells (74) from the charger (64).
Abstract:
A digitally modulated signal is conditioned, such as to facilitate amplification. The digitally modulated signal is derived from an information signal (110, 115) which is mapped (120) onto a symbol constellation to generate a sequence of channel symbols (125). The sequence of channel symbols (125) is processed (410) to provide a conditioned signal (415) having a signal envelope that avoids signal envelope magnitudes below a threshold value (500). From a signal envelope representing the sequence of channel symbols, symbol interval minimum values are determined as the signal envelope transitions through successive channel symbols of the sequence (510). The conditioned signal (415) is represented by localized adjustment of the signal envelope, such as the insertion of an adjustment pulse, to increase a particular symbol interval minimum value, when that value is below the threshold value (520, 530, 540, 545, 555).