| abstract |
Loosely coupled inductive power for charging batteries is rectified from a first power pickup winding and the resulting current source is connected to a battery unit. Each current source is controlled by shorting a second resonant winding. Battery banks may be charged using multiple isolated position-tolerant pickups independently controlled according to the condition of the connected battery unit and by overall commands communicated over an isolated link. The battery unit may be a single cell. In a self-stabilizing bank or monoblock a primary inductive conductor is energized using all the cells, individual cells are separately monitored by control means and any below-average cell can be individually charged from the inductive conductor, thus correcting between-cell variations. The charge in all cells within a bank can be held within 30% to 70% of full charge and prevented from drifting towards full or empty during repetitive charge and discharge times. |