Device and method for electrical battery type recognition

The present invention relates to a device and a method for electrically recognizing if a battery is of a rechargeable or non-rechargeable type. The invention is also related to a portable electronic device equipped with a charging device according to the invention. The inventive devices and the method of the invention allow the detection of the battery type in a simple and very economic way by measuring the actual charging current and comparing it with a predetermined reference value. As the charging currents of primary and secondary batteries display a completely different behavior the discrimination of the two battery types is readily achieved. Additional circuitry for measuring the actual battery voltage is not required for this purpose.