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Power adapter capable of communicating digitally with electronic

1. 019 089 as 49 9 809 al TSAA lt vasi a 91507 980 c vaska gt Jomo nn oa mer PEIN 9919 19 Ssocind Sn ngA escudng HINW F sngA 08 od Joyeinbay Jopauuog Kouba Jemod 4 1emod 5 219 E SS ee cys 069 209 909 v9 Sls saree aa er ee ae x cx NE NT A S A 2 oe N 29 019 029 929 9919 as a919 809 829 N 198 0 19S Q0 JOSS800Jd OJOI A oibo 1960 VaS 0 vasi ad N 11 9 Jamoq 9sodind BIN Jomog asoding ninw 2919 sn es sngA 2 a JoyeinBay peo le eod 497703 II Il TIT 1 9 909 v29 1709 09 U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 6 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 700 Receive power from a power source at an input port Communicate digitally with the device Determine the power requirements of the communication module Convert the power from the power source in accordance with the power requirements of the device Deliver the converted power to the device through an output port FIG 7 U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 7 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 800 Receive an initial predetermined voltage from the external power adapter Communicate digitally with the external power adapter to communicate at le
2. 9902 O a 902 S a q90c gt 90 v 91607 2160 029 dow C en 599 pig IQON iaa N lt 197404 Joyein ay em L 219 909 US 8 261 100 132 Sheet 3 of 13 Sep 4 2012 U S Patent 802 N PLE Old A uoneoiunuiuoo gen LLE 170 DEZE u y M i IS 960 JOSS9201dO0JOI A lu i F ZLE e npoyy BjnpoW A 1 y P jenen 1 zol i i w qeo 961 90 i d D gt ane a gt ejnpojy uopeaunwwog IBLE ale 60 i PSS i i OLE sowed F i einpow jt m uopenbey t JOHUCD SMO Kiowan zez l j pr d A qzce qoo 90 99 PALE i i i i i ex 1 94 0 H i Jojjenuo5 Dd nd eurer ee enu U H 1 coe 12001 Hi e H H a ezze H Er egie 30E OZE 109 901 anog Jemod 801 Ae ds q Okc 90c U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 4 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 Device 102a1 317a 4 Microprocessor s To Power Adapter lt 319 106 Memory 408 S Battery 404 Temperature 319c Multi Purpose Power Connector Legacy Connector 317c 502 504 506 Microprocessor 508 FIG 5 US 8 261 100 132 Sheet 5 of 13 Sep 4 2012 U S Patent 029 T 229
3. munication between the power adapter and the client The power adapter is initially in an idle state 1002 with respect to a client For example while the client is not elec trically coupled to the power adapter the power adapter is in the idle state 1002 with respect to the client While the power adapter is in the idle state 1002 the power adapter is passively waiting for a message from the client It should be appreciated that the power adapter may be in the idle state 1002 with respect to a client that is electrically coupled to the power adapter It should further be appreciated that while a power adapter is in the idle state 1002 with respect to one client it may be in another state with another client that is electrically coupled to the power adapter After a message from the client is received by the power adapter the power adapter performs error detection on the message from the client by verifying the checksum 910 1006 If there is an error a NACK message is sent to the client 1004 and the power adapter returns to the idle state 1002 to wait for the next message from the client If the message does not contain errors the contents of the mes sage including the vendor code 904 and the payload 908 is inspected 1008 If the message is unrecognized for example because it is a proprietary message and the vendor or manufacturer code 904 is an unrecognized vendor or manufacturer e g because the power adapter has not been pr
4. 6 The power adapter according to claim 5 wherein the plurality of operating modes includes standby mode charg ing mode priority charging mode and fully operational mode 7 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the determined power requirements include at least a voltage requirement and a current requirement and wherein the at least a voltage requirement includes at least one from a group consisting of a nominal voltage a negative tolerance and a positive tolerance 8 The power adapter according to claim 1 further com prising a user interface wherein the user interface includes a display an input device for providing entry of user input and a control menu with one or more control functions 9 The power adapter according to claim 1 further com prising 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 24 a power signal line to deliver power from the regulator to the output port a modulator demodulator module coupled to the program mable microprocessor and the power signal line to send and receive the digital communication of the program mable microprocessor 10 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the programmable microprocessor is configured to program the regulator to deliver a predefined amount of power to the communication module associated with the device when the device is connected to the output port to allow the communi cation module associated with the device to communicate
5. C46 and D15 which will provide a voltage exceeding the turn off threshold of the SD pin of U1 Other US 8 261 100 B2 21 protection includes over voltage protection provided by R14 and R34 and short circuit protection provided by the Vsense pin and the tertiary winding pins 4 amp 6 of transformer T1 This front end stage provided by for example PFC Con troller 304 serves as a single stage of power conversion that performs the task ofproviding a conversion ofan AC voltage to a transformer isolated DC voltage while at the same time regulating the input AC current to take the shape of a sinu soid By performing this function high power factor and low current harmonic content is achieved This single stage of Power Factor correction and an isolated AC DC conversion also allows for higher conversion efficiency with lower com ponent parts count FIG 13 is a circuit schematic illustrating regulators in accordance with some embodiments As shown in FIG 13 DC power is supplied to regulators 1304a 13045 and 1304c via power lines 1302a 13025 and 1302c respectively The DC power may be provided from an AC DC converter such as PFC Controller 304 a DC DC converter or an external DC power source The DC power is supplied to two fixed regula tors i e regulators 1304a and 13045 which is outputted to current sense amplifiers 1306a and 13067 respectively Fixed regulators 1304a and 13045 can be a single dual output 5V fixed DC DC c
6. In some embodiments power adapter 106 emails to the user information that would normally be displayed on for example display 208 Furthermore power adapter 106 may be a conduit for access to the computer network or the Internet for devices 102 or legacy adapter 104 or 630 This access to the computer network or Internet may be provided by way of communication lines 317 signal lines 616 or one or more separate network communication lines In some embodiments a central power management unit not shown could have control over multiple power adapters 106 connected to the central power management unit over a computer network Technigues such as Wake On LAN WOL could be employed to power on one or more of the connected power adapters 106 For example in a corporation where such adapters are used the Information Technology TI department could save power by directing all power adapters 106 to standby mode When a group of laptops not shown utilizing adapters 106 need to beupgraded in software at off peak hours the IT department can easily awaken the power adapters 106 using WOL and upgrade the software on the laptops In some embodiments power adapter 106 may be pro grammed via a flash drive or USB connection to a computer This programming may include operating power adapter 106 602 636 or updating the firmware for power adapter 106 any devices 102 connected to power adapter 106 or any con nected legacy device 104 or 630 F
7. a 4 byte vendor manufacturer identifier segment a 1 byte message type segment a payload segment a 2 byte checksum segment and a 1 byte transmission end segment 37 The power adapter according to claim 36 further com prising a plurality ofswitches coupled between the input port and each of the one or more regulators the plurality of switches being controlled by the programmable microproces sor 38 The power adapter according to claim 37 wherein when activated a respective switch of the plurality of switches prevents a respective regulator from being electri cally connected to the input port 39 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein one or more of the plurality of devices is configured to operate in one of a plurality of operating modes and a respective regu lator of the one or more regulators converts power from the power source in accordance with the determined power requirements of the respective device the power adapter maintained information and the operating mode of the respective device 40 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the programmable microprocessor receives a digital communi cation from one or more of the plurality of devices where at least one of the one or more of the plurality of devices includes a rechargeable battery the digital communication including one or more of the following device information device identification information power requirement infor mation proprietary
8. 319 There is a separate power line 319a 3195 or 319c associ ated with each regulator 318 and conseguently with each device 102 Each regulator 318a 3185 and 318c is indepen dent of each other and can provide the specific power reguire ments of the device 102 associated with the respective regu lator 318 Power control module 308 instructs each regulator 318 separately via the control line 309 associated with the regulator e g 309a 3095 and 309c Thus for example power control module 308 instructs regulator 318a via con trol line 309a to provide the specific power reguirements of device 102 1 through power line 319a Similarly legacy device 1025 will receive the power reguirement of legacy device 1027 through legacy adapter 104 based on the digital communication between communication module 310 and legacy adapter 104 Legacy adapter 104 will be discussed in more detail below with respect to FIG 5 In some embodiments communication line 317 and power line 319 are both contained in the same power cord 322 to connectpoweradapter 106 to device 102a poweradapter 106 to legacy device 1025 cord not shown or power adapter 106 to legacy adapter 104 which connects to legacy device 1025 In some embodiments microprocessor 306 includes tem perature module 312 Temperature module 312 can be used to monitor the temperature of power adapter 106 Temperature module 312 communicates with a temperature sensor not shown contained in
9. The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the power adapter maintained information includes user input data 73 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the power adapter maintained information includes adjusted device information stored in the memory or information asso ciated with one or more statuses of the adapter 74 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the device information includes predefined power profiles that include one or more of the following a constant voltage value a constant current value a wattage value an upper limit current value and a battery type 75 A method of adapting power to a plurality of devices comprising receiving power from a power source at an input port communicating digitally with a communication module associated with a respective device of the plurality of devices to receive device information of the respective device the digital communications comprising trans mission of information using a packet based protocol via a packet consisting of a 1 byte transmission start segment a 4 byte vendor manufacturer identif er seg ment a 1 byte message type segment a payload seg ment a 2 byte checksum segment and a 1 byte transmis sion end segment determining the power reguirements of the respective device based on the received device information and on power adapter maintained information stored in a memory associated with a microprocessor converting power from the
10. a power port of the electrical device the digital communications compris ing transmission of information using a packet based protocol via a packet consisting of a 1 byte transmission start segment a 4 byte vendor manufacturer identifier segment a 1 byte message type segment a payload segment a2 byte checksum segment and a 1 byte trans mission end segment determining the power requirements of the electrical device based on the received device information and power adapter maintained information stored in a memory associated with a microprocessor receiving power supplied by the external power adapter based on the determined power requirements of the elec trical device wherein the power requirements include a voltage requirement and a current requirement
11. adapter that can communicate digitally with and be used to power a wide variety of devices SUMMARY The above deficiencies and other problems associated with power supplies are reduced or eliminated by the disclosed power adapter and an electronic device that are capable of digital communications with each other According to some embodiments a power adapter to pro vide power to a device includes an input port to receive power from a power source a regulator to convert the received power from the power source an output port configured to deliver power from the regulator to the device and a micro processor configured to communicate digitally with a com munication module associated with the device to determine power reguirements of the device The regulator converts the power from the power source in accordance with the power requirements of the device According to some embodiments a method of adapting power to a device includes receiving power from a power source at an input port communicating digitally with a com munication module associated with the device to determine power requirements of the device converting the power from 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 the power source in accordance with the power requirements ofthe device and delivering the converted power to a device through an output port According to some embodiments a power adapterincludes an input port to receive power from a pow
12. as described above display 208 may show information about the devices currently and or previously connected to power adapter 106 such as device battery identification information and device battery condi tion information etc In some embodiments the background color of display 208 will change depending on the operating mode of the power adapter 106 The background color of display 208 may also indicate how environmentally friendly the operation of power adapter 106 is being For example if devices 102 are being charged during off peak time the back ground color of display 208 may be green When devices 102 are being charged during an on peak time the background of display 208 may be amber In further embodiments each battery 404 in an attached device 102 has a unique identifier associated with it that may be stored in memory 307 so that power adapter 106 will be able to determine information about battery 404 such as whether attached device 102 is using a different battery 404 since the last time device 102 was attached to power adapter 106 By using and storing this device battery identification information power adapter 106 can also determine device battery condition information such as the number of times battery 404 has been charged the amount of time battery 404 has held a charge the length of time since the last time battery 404 has been charged and US 8 261 100 B2 13 whether battery 404 needs replacement In some other
13. includes a binary encoded whole 0 jak 5 20 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 18 number that corresponds to a wattage parameter or value The second power segment includes a binary encoded decimal number that corresponds to a fraction of a watt For example in some embodiments when device 102 communicates power requirements of 1 3 watts the payload 908 includes a first power segment that includes an encoded 1 and the second power segment includes an encoded 3 Alterna tively the voltage and current requirements can each be rep resented as 16 bit binary quantities e g 1 mV bit for the voltage requirement and 1 mA bit for the current require ment In other embodiments payload 908 includes the volt age and current requirements of device 102 as UTF 8 Uni code Transformation Format or ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange values to the nearest tenth ofa volt and the nearest milliamp respectively In addition the payload 908 may include other information about device 102 for example battery identification infor mation battery condition information device identification information whether the device 102 includes a battery 404 the type of battery 404 in the device 102 e g lithium ion nickel metal hydride etc whether the desired voltage for the device is positive or negative and operating mode of device 102 As mentioned above in some embodiments the digital com
14. information operating mode battery identification information and battery condition information 41 The power adapter according to claim 40 further com prising a display to present at least a part of the battery condition information to a user 42 The power adapter according to claim 40 further com prising a user interface to alert a user when the battery needs US 8 261 100 B2 27 replacement based at least in part on one or more of the battery identification information and battery condition infor mation 43 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the programmable microprocessor receives a digital communi cation from one or more ofthe plurality of devices where at least one of the one or more of the plurality of devices includes a rechargeable battery the digital communication including battery condition information and the battery con dition information includes one or more of number oftimes the battery has been charged amount of time the battery has held a charge length of time since last charge and tempera ture of the battery 44 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the device information of the respective device includes a record of the number of times a battery has been charged or the total amount of time the battery has been charged based on battery identification information and the power adapter maintained information includes an estimate of the remaining life of the battery based on th
15. mine that device 102 is malfunctioning is overheating is in need of upgrading or has updates available e g new firm ware etc based on proprietary information The proprietary information may also be used to determine the power reguire ments of the device and determine whether the device is genuine FIG 6A is a schematic illustrating an exemplary embodi ment ofa power adapter 602 and device 604 In some embodi ments power adapter 602 includes a regulator 606 digital logic 608 and a multi purpose power connector 610 As described herein a connector could be a plug a receptacle a socket or a magnetic power connector Regulator 606 simi lar to regulators 318 receives DC power from e g PFC Controller 304 and outputs regulated DC power on power line 612 and or VBus line 614 Digital logic 608 communi 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 cates digitally with device 604 via signallines 616a and 6167 However as described below with reference to FIG 6C in some embodiments the communication can be over the power line instead of one or more signal lines The power line 612 VBus line 614 and signal lines 616 are electrically connected to multi purpose power connector 610 along with ground 620 Multi purpose power connector 610 is coupled with multi purpose power connector 622 thereby connecting power adapter 602 and device 604 Device 604 includes a multi purpose power connector 622 microproces
16. or more devices in accordance with some embodiments US 8 261 100 B2 3 FIG 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of receiving power from an external power adapter external to an electrical device in accordance with some embodiments FIG 9 is a diagram illustrating a packet structure of a digital communication between the power adapter and a legacy adapter or a device in accordance with some embodi ments FIG 10 is a state diagram illustrating digital communica tion states of a power adapter in accordance with some embodiments FIG 11 is a state diagram illustrating digital communica tion states of a client in accordance with some embodiments FIGS 12A C are circuit schematics illustrating a PFC Controller in accordance with some embodiments FIG 13 is a circuit schematic illustrating regulators in accordance with some embodiments FIG 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating a power adapter including AC DC converters and regulators in accordance with some embodiments Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the drawings DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying draw ings In the following detailed description numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understand ing of the present invention However it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the presen
17. power adapter 106 The temperature sensor in power adapter 106 measures the temperature of the power adapter 106 Temperature module 312 receives the temperature information from the temperature sensor This temperature information can then be displayed to the user through for example display 208 In some embodiments the temperature information obtained by temperature module 312 is used in connection with the round robin charging mode described below The user interface module 311 is connected to the status lights 206 button 210 and display 208 The user interface module 311 processes the input provided by the user through for example button 210 As explained above the user can select different modes of power adapter 106 or select to dis play various information about the power adapter 106 or the devices 102 This information can be displayed on display 208 and or by activating status lights 206 and may be storedin memory 307 FIG 3 illustrates two devices 102 and 102a2 and a legacy device 1025 coupled to power adapter 106 It should be noted that power adapter 106 is not limited to this configura 20 40 45 50 55 65 8 tion power adapter 106 could have one or more output ports 204 e g more than 3 each with a device 102a or a legacy device 1024 coupled thereto FIG 4 is a schematic of device 102a1 in accordance with some embodiments As shown in FIG 4 power line 319a and communication line 317a couple po
18. power adapter 106 include for example active use mode standby mode and off peak charging mode Active use mode is the normal operating mode of power adapter 106 While in active use mode when power adapter 106 senses that its output current is reduced to below a predefined level e g 100 mA it inter rogates attached devices 102 for their status If devices 102 do not reply or reply that their batteries 404 are fully charged power adapter 106 transitions into standby mode Standby mode may include two types of standby modes maintenance mode and no load mode which are selectable by power port No load mode is the standby mode used when devices 102 are not connected to power adapter 106 Microprocessor 306 opens switches 320 to disable the regulators 318 which dis connects the regulators from PFC power lines 305 In another embodiment microprocessor 306 disables the output of regu lators 318 via an ENABLE DISABLE pin not shown of the regulators 318 which disables most of its own functions thereby reducing the power consumed by regulators 318 and thus power adapter 106 to almost zero e g approximately 0 5 W When a user connects device 102 to power adapter 106 device 102 sends an interrupt signal to power adapter 106 to awaken the processor and transition power adapter 106 to active mode Alternatively the user can also manually wake up power adapter 106 through its user interface Maintenance mode is the standby mode u
19. screen and thus allow input from a user Other forms of input devices include a scroll wheel dial knob joystick trackball and 5 way switch FIG 3 is a schematic diagram of power adapter 106 includ ing devices 102 power source 108 power cords 322 and legacy adapter 104 in accordance with some embodiments Power adapter 106 is connected to devices 102a and legacy adapter 104 via power cords 322a 322b and 322c respec tively In some embodiments power cords 322 have a multi purpose power connector on each end Power adapter 106 receives electrical power from power source 108 into op tional surge protector 302 The optional surge protector 302 which is well known in the art may be included in power adapter 106 for protection against power surges or electrical spikes In some embodiments power source 108 supplies AC elec trical power that is fed into Power Factor Correction PFC Controller 304 which converts the power from AC to DC An exemplary circuit for PFC Controller 304 is illustrated in 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 FIGS 12A C PFC Controller outputs DC power through switches 320 to regulators 318a 3185 and 318c via PFC power lines 305a 3055 and 305c respectively In some embodiments switches 320 are internal to regulators 318 and operate as an ENABLE DISABLE line to disconnect the output of regulators 318 An example of this embodiment is described in more detail below wi
20. to access information about power adapter 106 any ofthe attached devices and or to program or otherwise interact with power adapter 106 For example display 208 may provide information about the operating mode or charge mode of power adapter 106 current load and capacity information of each output port 204 and or of power adapter 106 the current time etc Display 208 may also show information about the devices currently and or previously connected to power adapter 106 such as device identification information device power reguirements device battery identification information device battery con dition information etc When a battery in device 102 is being charged display 208 may indicate the amount of time left until the battery is fully charged Button 210 could also be used to set the operating mode or the charge mode of power adapter 106 the operating mode and charge modes are described below with reference to FIGS 1 5 Although only one button 210 is shown it is contemplated that multiple buttons or other control interfaces could be used for example to allow a user to more easily interact with power adapter 106 or to provide access to more features or information For example the user interface of power adapter 106 may include multiple control menus each with one or more control functions In some embodiments other input devices are used in place of or in conjunction with button 210 For example display 208 could be a touch
21. voltage requirement and a current requirement and wherein the at least a voltage requirement includes at least one from a group consisting of a nominal voltage a negative tolerance and a positive toler ance 65 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein at least one ofthe plurality of devices is a portable legacy device and the power adapter maintained information includes information associated with the at least one portable legacy device 66 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the power adapter is configurable to delay delivery of power to one or more of the plurality of devices until an off peak time 67 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the programmable microprocessor is further configured to update the power adapter maintained information in response to the received device information from the respective device 68 The power adapter according claim 36 further com prising a network communication module for communicating with a network 69 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the packet layer protocol includes at least four message types and the at least four message types include at least one of a flow control message type and a power statement message type 70 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the payload segment is encrypted US 8 261 100 B2 29 71 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the payload segment includes proprietary information 72
22. 606 also provides a predefined wake up voltage via VBus line 614 to device 604 The wake up voltage may facilitate the powering on of a device 604 and or digital com munication between the device 604 and power adapter 602 In some embodiments the wake up voltage directly powers the microprocessor 626 via VBus line 614 facilitating the micro processor 626 to initiate digital communications with digital logic 608 to communicate the power requirements of the device 604 to power adapter 602 on signal lines 616 The wake up voltage may be only initially applied to facilitate the communication of the power requirements of device 604 and then shut off e g go to 0 volts or it may be supplied con tinuously even after the initial power requirements have been communicated The regulated power supplied via power line 612 is used to power the load 624 of the device 604 The load 624 includes the active components of device 624 and may also include such components as a battery and another microprocessor not shown In some embodiments microprocessor 626 is dedicated to communicating with device 602 In other embodiments microprocessor 626 is used to operate device 604 in addition to communicating the power needs of the device 604 Therefore device 604 may also include a com munication line 628 connecting microprocessor 626 with load 624 to control other aspects of device 604 FIG 6B is a schematic illustrating a power adapter 602 and legacy adapte
23. 65 10 adapter 106 Similarly the wake up voltage may facilitate digital communication between the legacy adapter 104 and power adapter 106 and thus be provided before digital com munications take place The wake up voltage may be pro vided directly to microprocessor 402 or microprocessor 506 of legacy adapter 104 The wake up voltage powers the microprocessors 402 or 506 facilitating the microprocessors 402 or 506 to initiate digital communications with commu nication module 310 to communicate the power reguirements of the devices 102 to power adapter 106 via communication line 317 With reference to FIGS 1 5 power adapter 106 may pro vide power to multiple devices 102 simultaneously to operate the devices 102 and or charge batteries 404 of the devices 102 It is possible that the total power requirements of all of the attached devices 102 exceeds the amount of power that power adapter 106 can provide thus causing an overload condition Power adapter 106 may operate in multiple differ ent charge modes either on user reguest or to handle an overload condition such as priority charging reduced power charging and or round robin charging modes In some embodiments power adapter 106 operates in more than one of these modes simultaneously In priority charging mode power adapter 106 supplies power to one or more of the attached devices 102 that have a higher priority than the other attached devices 102 In some embodiments each devic
24. O Ed A4 220k 22912 bois R11 47 R9 22k 100 C23 lt R10 R8 R41 R43 R42 27 127 047 1047 10470 70472 C25 t 68nF R6 RT1 OTP 10K NJ ww nn i 114148 C46 SR37 C19 0 1uF 6 2k O 1uF 4 From FIG 12A FIG 1 2B To FIG 12C U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 12 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 C9 470pF R16 200V VCC 24V R52 00 1 8W Axial C20 O 1uF From FIG 128 FIG 12C U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 13 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 1302a 1304a 1306a DC In Fixed Regulaior 3 m isene m 1304b 1308a 1302b 1306b Fixed Regulator 4 m Isene 1 13080 1302c 1304c 1306c Adjustable Regulator sense I From Microprocessor 1312 PWM In FIG 13 VREF ER 1416a G 1414a m Fixed Regulator Adjustable Regulator i H GE AC In Poo 1414b 1416b 7 Fixed Regulator i 1408 i i I i 1414 1416c Mu 1406 Digital Control To Device US 8 261 100 B2 1 POWER ADAPTER CAPABLE OF COMMUNICATING DIGITALLY WITH ELECTRONIC DEVICES USING PACKET BASED PROTOCOL RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to and is a continuation in part of U S patent application Ser No 11 513 687 now abandoned titled Power Supply Capable of Receiving Digi tal Communications from Electronic Devices filed Aug 30 2006
25. a gt United States Patent US008261100B2 10 Patent No US 8 261 100 B2 Paniagua Jr et al 45 Date of Patent Sep 4 2012 54 POWER ADAPTER CAPABLE OF 56 References Cited COMMUNICATING DIGITALLY WITH ELECTRONIC DEVICES USING U S PATENT DOCUMENTS PACKET BASED PROTOCOL 5 488 572 A 1 1996 Belmont 6 029 215 A 2 2000 Watts et al 1 7 394 676 B2 7 2008 363 142 75 Inventors Frank Paniagua Jr San Ramon ag 7531986 B2 5 2009 Fager et al 390 116 US Parag Mody Oakland CA US 7 646 107 B2 1 2010 Smith een 307 11 Hossein Yassaie Bucks GB 2006 0046653 Al 3 2006 Kirbas 2006 0223579 Al 10 2006 Whitaker et al 73 Assignee Green Plug Inc San Ramon CA US 2010 0264875 A1 10 2010 Hoffman et al 320 111 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 American Power Conversion 90 Watt Hour Universal Notebook U S C 154 b by 1115 days Battery UPB90 User s Manual 2007 PCT International Search Report PCT US2009 30149 This patent is subject to a terminal dis PCT Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority PC T claimer US2009 30149 Do 21 Appl No 11 969 163 cited by examiner Primary Examiner Albert Wang sat 74 Attorney Agent or Firm DLA Piper LLP Andrew B 22 Filed Jan 3 2008 Schwaab Blake W Jackson 57 ABSTRACT 65 Prior Publication Data en sera ul A power adapter capab
26. ained information in response to the received device information 22 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the programmable microprocessor includes a temperature mod ule configured to receive temperature information from a temperature sensor in the device or a temperature sensor in the power adapter and the power adapter maintained infor mation includes the temperature information from the tem perature module 23 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the power delivered to the device is DC 24 The power adapter according to claim 1 further com prising a user interface wherein the programmable micropro cessor is configured to control the user interface 25 The power adapter according to claim 24 wherein the user interface includes a display 26 The power adapter according to claim 24 wherein the display is one of a liquid crystal display a LED display or an OLED display 27 The power adapter according to claim 24 wherein the user interface is configured to display information regarding the determined power requirements of the device 28 The power adapter according to claim 24 wherein the user interface is configured to display a state of the output port 29 The power adapter according to claim 28 wherein the state includes a voltage level indicator 30 The power adapter according to claim 24 wherein the user interface includes an input device for receiving user input and displaying the received u
27. and a current reguirement According to some embodiments a method of receiving power from an external power adapter external to an electrical device includes receiving an initial predefined voltage to facilitate communication between the external power adapter and the electrical device communicating digitally with the external power adapter to communicate power reguirements of the electrical device to the external power adapter through a power port of the electrical device and receiving power supplied by the external power adapter based on the power reguirements of the electrical device The power reguire ments include a voltage reguirement and a current reguire ment BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a block diagram of a power adapter coupled to a power source and devices in accordance with some embodi ments FIG 2 is a schematic illustrating a power adapter in accor dance with some embodiments FIG 3 is a schematic diagram of a power adapter coupled to devices a power source and a legacy adapter in accordance with some embodiments FIG 4 is a schematic illustrating a device in accordance with some embodiments FIG 5 is a schematic illustrating a legacy adapter in accor dance with some embodiments FIGS 6A 6C are schematics illustrating a power adapter coupled to a device a legacy adapter or a client in accordance with some embodiments FIG 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of adapting power to one
28. art different devices and batteries have different power requirements for operation and or battery charging Thus the power adapter 106 needs to know the power requirements of the devices 102 in order to supply the proper amount of power FIG 5 is a schematic of legacy adapter 104 in accordance with some embodiments Legacy adapter 104 includes a multi purpose power connector 502 microprocessor 506 and legacy connector 504 Multi purpose power connector 502 is adapted to connect with another multi purpose power connector not shown which does not mate electrically and or physically with the connector on legacy device 1027 Legacy device 102b has a legacy power connector that is device or manufacturer specific and thus does not conform to the standard that is used by power adapter 106 e g the multi purpose power connector Legacy connector 504 is adapted to connect to the device or manufacturer specific connector of legacy device 1025 Microprocessor 506 com municates digitally with communication module 310 of power adapter 106 via communication line 317c in order to provide power adapter 106 with the power reguirements of legacy device 1027 In some embodiments legacy adapter 104 includes memory 508 to store the power reguirements of legacy device 1025 and possibly other information relating to legacy device 1025 Memory 508 could be flash memory an EEPROM or may be embedded in microprocessor 506 Because legacy adapter 104 is dev
29. ast a voltage reguirement and a current reguirement Receive power supplied by the external power adapter based on the power reguirements of the device Provide the received power to the electrical device FIG 8 900 902 904 906 908 910 912 Transmission Vendor Message Transmission k k A A A A J Sr v v v v b 1 byte 4bytes 1 byte Variable 2 bytes 1 byte size FIG 9 U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 8 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 1000 1002 5 m id EY BN Receive message 1004 1006 Error OK 100 Proprietary message Unrecognized 1012 1010 Power statement FIG 10 U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 9 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 1100 Enter communication Receive Transmission attempts 8 Receive message Backoff timeout Contents of Message NACK ACK Exit communication FIG 11 U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 10 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 39212500000 1 STBV42 Preps 06 100 D6 D9 gt gt 1N4148 114148 5 1k R38 6 98k 1 d VCC SENSE o C14 1uF IW2202 FIG 12A To FIG 12B U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 11 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 L2 90 120 uH C3 C1 C2 C18 630V V 0 22uF 0 1uF 1uF lt 200k 200 400V 400V 400V rig orig S 100 100 D1 HER207 f HER104 R15 100 Q5 C4 4622 D7 2N3904 100uF 1uF 9 R17 25V 50V 1N4148 6 8k er z2 13V SMD R7 10k SPP20N60C3 R51 D13
30. ce 84 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the packet layer protocol includes at least four messages types and the at least four message types include at least one of a flow control message type and a power statement message type 85 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the payload segment is encrypted 86 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the payload segment includes proprietary information 87 The communication module according to claim 76 wherein the power adapter maintained information includes user input data 88 The communication module according to claim 76 wherein the power adapter maintained information includes adjusted device information stored in the memory or infor mation associated with one or more statuses of the adapter 89 The communication module according to claim 76 wherein the device information includes predefined power profiles that include one or more of the following a constant voltage value a constant current value a wattage value an upper limit current value and a battery type 90 A method of receiving power from an external power adapter external to an electrical device comprising receiving an initial predefined voltage to facilitate commu nication between the external power adapter and the electrical device communicating digitally with the external power adapter to communicate device information of the electrical device to the external power adapter through
31. dapter according to claim 15 further com prising a user interface to alert a user when the battery needs replacement based at least in part on one or more of the battery identification information and the battery condi tion information 18 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the programmable microprocessor receives via the communica tion module a digital communication from the device which includes a battery the digital communication including bat tery condition information and the battery condition infor mation includes one or more of number of times the battery has been charged amount of time the battery has held a charge length of time since last charge and temperature of the battery 19 The power adapter according to claim 18 further com prising a display to present one or more of the number of times the battery has been charged the amount of time the battery has held a charge the length of time since last charge and the temperature of the battery 20 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the programmable microprocessor includes a power control module configured to generate a power control signal in US 8 261 100 B2 25 response to the determined power requirements by the pro grammable microprocessor to control the power outputofthe regulator 21 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the programmable microprocessor is further configured to update the power adapter maint
32. disposed in the power adapter to determine and communicate the power require ments of the electrical device 79 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the electrical device includes a rechargeable battery and the pro grammable microprocessor communicates one or more of the following device information device identification informa 20 30 40 45 30 tion power requirements proprietary information operating mode battery identification information and battery condi tion information 80 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the electrical device includes a rechargeable battery and the pro grammable microprocessor communicates battery identifica tion information and battery condition information 81 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the battery condition information includes one or more of num ber of times the battery has been charged amount of time the battery has held a charge length of time since last charge and temperature of the battery 82 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the electrical device is a portable legacy device and the power adapter maintained information includes information associ ated with the portable legacy device 83 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the programmable microprocessor is further configured to update the power adapter maintained information stored locally in response to the received device information from the electri cal devi
33. e 102 has a different priority level associated with it which has been pre programmed into power adapter 106 In some other embodiments there may be a set number of priority levels e g 2 or 5 or there may be a separate priority level for each output port 204 In some embodiments a user specifies priority levels for respective output ports 204 for example by using an input device such as a button 210 Power adapter 106 provides power to as many attached devices as it can in order of priority level and based on the power reguirements of each device In further embodi ments each device 102 has either a high priority or a low priority and power adapter 106 provides power to each attached device 102 with high priority Once the power reguirements of the devices 102 with high priority has low ered for example because battery 404 of device 102 has completed charging power adapter 106 will begin to provide power to the attached devices 102 with low priority In reduced power charging mode power adapter 106 pro vides a reduced amount of power to each of the attached devices 102 For example if an attached device 102 is in a standby mode as opposed to being fully operational and the power reguirements of the device are mainly associated with charging of the battery 404 of the attached device 102 then the attached device 102 is capable of receiving a reduced amount of power compared to the power that the device 102 is reguesting The reduced p
34. e USB On The Go Host Peripheral Controller Switch MUX 316 connects commu nication module 310 directly to communication lines 317 or USB communication interface adapter 314 to communication lines 317 depending on whether USB communication is needed in order to communication with device 102a or legacy adapter 104 Alternatively USB communication module 310 could be contained within communication module 310 or US 8 261 100 B2 7 could replace communication module 310 if only USB com munications were needed In which case switch MUX 316 would not be needed Communication lines 317a and 3175 are in digital com munication with devices 102a and communication line 317c is in digital communication with legacy adapter 104 The devices 102a and legacy adapter 104 communicate the power reguirements of devices 102a and legacy devices 1027 respectively to microprocessor 306 The power reguirements can include one or more of voltage current or wattage reguirements of the devices 102 In some embodiments the voltage reguirements include three values a nominal voltage a negative tolerance and a positive tolerance which creates a window of voltage values Similarly the current and or watt age reguirements can include nominal values and negative and positive tolerances Based on the power reguirements of each device 102 power control module 308 instructs regula tors 318 to deliver the reguested power output to the device through power lines
35. e art that power adapters 602 and 636 are not so limited Power adapt ers 602 and 636 could have one or more multi purpose power connectors 610 and 646 for use with one or more devices 604 legacy adapters 630 or a combination thereof Still referring to FIGS 6A 6B and 6C in some embodi ments multi purpose power connector 610 or 646 is a plug that mates with multi purpose power connector 622 or 648 which is a receptacle In another embodiment multi purpose power connector 610 or 646 and 622 or 648 are both recep tacles and are connected by a power cord with a multi pur pose power plug on both ends FIG 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of adapting power to one or more devices in accordance with some embodiments 700 In order to supply powerto a device e g device 102 or 604 power is received from a power source e g power source 108 at an input port 701 When a device is first connected to a power adapter e g power adapter 106 or 602 the power adapter communicates digitally with the device 704 Based on the digital communication between the power adapter and the communication module the power reguirements of the device are determined 706 In some embodiments the digital communication includes a voltage a current and or a wattage reguirement of the device In other embodiments the digital communication includes a selection code to select the power reguirements from a set of available power reguirements Th
36. e available power reguirements are stored for example in a look up table in the device Power received from the power source is converted based on the power reguirements of the device 708 The converted power is delivered to the device through an output port 710 in order to power the device for operation In some embodiments the device contains a battery and the power delivered to the device is used to charge the battery ofthe device in addition to powering the device for operation or in place of powering the device for operation The method 700 provides the ability to deliver power to a wide range of devices FIG 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of receiving power from a power adapter external to an electrical devicein accordance with some embodiments 800 When a device or legacy adapter e g device 102 or 604 and legacy adapter 104 or 630 is f rst electrically coupled to an external power adapter it receives an initial predefined voltage from the exter nal power adapter e g power adapter 106 or 602 802 The initial predefined voltage facilitates communication between the external power adapter and the legacy adapter or the device by providing enough power for the legacy adapter or the device to communicate digitally with the external power adapter to communicate at least a voltage reguirement and a current reguirement 804 Power is received by the legacy adapter or the device based on the digital communication with th
37. e embodiments legacy adapter 630 can be programmed by power adapter 602 for example through signal lines 616 to update or change the power requirements ofthe associated legacy device stored in memory 633 VBus line 614 is used to provide a wake up voltage to microprocessor 632 as described above with refer ence to FIG 6A and microprocessor 626 In some embodi ments legacy adapter 630 does not include microprocessor 632 In these embodiments memory 633 stores the power requirements ofthe associated legacy device and digital logic 608 of regulator 602 reads the power requirements of the associated legacy device directly from memory 633 oflegacy adapter 630 FIG 6C is a schematic illustrating a power adapter 636 and a client 650 Client 650 illustrates a device e g device 604 or a legacy adapter e g legacy adapter 630 that uses modu lator demodulator 638 In some embodiments the number of wires between the power adapter 602 and device 604 or power adapter 602 and legacy adapter 630 may be reduced by having the digital communications travel over the power lines Power adapter 636 is similar to power adapter 602 except power adapter 636 includes a modulator demodulator 638 in between the regulator 606 and digital logic 608 and multi purpose power connector 646 to drive data onto the power line and receive data from the power line The modulator demodulator 638 operates the same in power adapter 636 and client 650 The modulator dem
38. e embodiments all or part of the proprietary or manufacturer specific message may be encrypted The encryption algorithm used may be RSA DSA or other encryption algorithms now known or later developed In further embodiments power adapter 106 sends an encrypted challenge message to device 102 based on the device identification information in order to authenticate the device 102 For flow control messages such as ACK NACK and CAN the payload 908 may be omitted i e 0 bytes For power statement messages the payload 908 may include the power requirements information or information from which power requirements may be identified In an embodiment where the power adapter 106 can accept messages containing propri etary information from the device the payload 908 may include the proprietary information structured in a manufac turer specified format and size In some embodiments the payload 908 is a binary encoded segment containing voltage and current requirements of device 102 For example the payload 908 is a binary encoded segment that specifies the nominal value and corresponding window of the output voltage and the nominal value and corresponding window of the current to be supplied by the power adapter 106 In other embodiments the payload 908 may contain one or more of voltage current and wattage parameters In an exemplary embodiment payload 908 includes a first power segment and a second power segment The first power segment
39. e external power adapter 806 The legacy adapter provides the received power to the electrical device 808 The method 800 provides the ability of a device to receive power specific to the needs of the device FIG 9 is a diagram illustrating a packet structure of a digital communication between the power adapter and the legacy adapter or device in accordance with some embodi ments The digital communication between the power adapter 106 or 602 and devices 102 or 604 or legacy adapter 104 or 630 may conform to a predefined packet based protocol Communications may be initiated by power adapter 106 or 602 device 102 or 604 or legacy adapter 104 or 630 An US 8 261 100 B2 17 exemplary digital message packet 900 includes a 1 byte transmission start segment 902 indicating the start of the message a 4 byte vendor manufacturer identifier 904 which may be used as an address a 1 byte message type segment 906 indicating the type of message a variable size payload 908 a 2 byte checksum 910 and a 1 byte transmission end segment 912 indicating the end of the packet It should be appreciated that the sizes of the packet segments described above are merely exemplary and that alternate segment sizes may be used For example the transmission start segment 902 and the transmission end segment 912 may each be less than 1 byte long As another example the vendor manufacturer identifier 904 may be 2 bytes rather than 4 bytes The checksum 910 is u
40. e record 45 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein a voltage and a current delivered to a respective device is inde pendent of voltages and currents delivered to each of the other devices 46 The power adapter according to claims 36 wherein the power adapter delivers power according to one of a plurality of charge modes when the sum of the power reguirements of each of the plurality of devices exceeds a pre defined maxi mum 47 The power adapter according to claim 46 wherein the charge modes include priority charging where the plurality of devices are charged in order of a preprogrammed prefer ence determined by the programmable microprocessor 48 The power adapter according to claim 46 wherein the charge modes determined by the programmable micropro cessor include reduced power charging where the regulator delivers a reduced power to each of the plurality of devices which is lower than the power reguirements of each of the devices 49 The power adapter according to claim 46 wherein the charge modes include round robin charging where the regu lator delivers power to each of the plurality of devices one device at a time 50 The power adapter according to claim 36 further com prising a plurality of power signal lines to deliver power from the one or more regulators to the plurality of output ports and one or more encoder decoder modules coupled to the pro grammable microprocessor and the plurality of pow
41. ely In further embodiments a user can input by what time the user would like the battery 404 of device 102 to be charged Microprocessor 306 will calculate how long it will take to charge the device 102 and determine what time charging will need to start in order to have the device com pletely charged by the time entered by the user and so that as much of the charging as possible is performed during off peak time In some other embodiments standby modemay be used in conjunction with off peak operating mode In these embodiments power adapter 106 will remain in standby mode until an off peak time at which point power adapter 106 will go into a fully powered state and operate in the off peak operating mode described above In some embodiments all of the aforementioned operating modes namely active mode standby mode and off peak operating mode operate on a per output port 204 basis In other words each of the output ports 204 can be in different modes simultaneously and have no impact on the operating mode of any of the other output port 204 For example output port 204a could be in the maintenance mode of standby mode because an attached device 102 is connected to output port 204a and is in its own standby mode Output port 2045 could be in no load mode of standby mode because nothing is attached to output port 2045 while output port 204c is in active mode with an attached device 102 charging its battery 404 Referring again to FIG 2
42. embodiments device 102 determines some or all of the device battery condition information and communicates this information to power adapter 106 where it may be displayed on display 208 and or stored in memory 307 One way device 102 may determine some or all of the battery condition infor mation is by storing the battery identification information ina memory 408 in device 102 along with at least some of the aforementioned battery condition information In some embodiments memory 408 is embedded in microprocessor 402 The device battery condition information may be presented to the user on display 208 In addition status lights 206 may be used to alert the user of device battery condition informa tion In some embodiments when battery 404 of device 102 is charged above a pre determined level power adapter 106 gueries the user as to whether the user still wants to charge the battery This pre determined level may be chosen by the user For example the user may reguest to be alerted when battery 404 reaches 8090 of its total charge In some embodiments the user interface of power adapter 106 includes a speaker not shown or the like to produce sound which also may be used to alert the user of device battery condition information such as whether battery 404 needs replacement or that battery 404 has reached a per determined level of charge It is contemplated that other aspects of device 102 may be monitored by power adaptor 106 and or commun
43. ent will suspend transmission of information that invoked the CAN response i e the client will not send messages with proprietary information to the power adapter although other communications may take place FIGS 12A C are circuit schematics illustrating PFC Con troller 304 in accordance with some embodiments As shown in FIGS 12A C the input circuitry includes several filtering components that serve to keep electrical noise from the power supply from exiting via the connector JLA This filtering includes a common mode choke L1 a capacitor CX1 and another stage of filtering composed of C1 L2 C2 and C18 The AC mains are rectified by component BR1 and imposed across the primary of transformer T1 The power circuitry includes MOSFET switch O2 that during an ON state draws current directly from a rectified sinusoid voltage and supplies energy to the primary winding magnetizing inductanceof T1 The secondary diodes D12 and D14 are reverse biased in this ON state and the output current is supplied by capacitor 127 When O2 turns OFF diodes D12 and D14 conduct and the stored energy from the primary inductance T1 is delivered to the output The control of O2 is achieved by U1 a control IC e g IW2202 iWatt Digital Single Stage PFC Controller which has the function of modulating the freguency and duty cycle of the gate drive pulse to Q2 in such a fashion as to ensure the average of the primary current is sinusoidal and in phase with i
44. entage of the capacity of battery 404 or the amount of time until battery 404 is fully charged Microprocessor 402 may perform this calculation based on the present voltage and current drawn by battery 404 and the charging profile of battery 404 which may be pre programmed into microprocessor 402 In addition micropro cessor 402 and memory 408 can be used to keep track of the number of times battery 404 has been fully charged in order to adapt the charge profile of battery 404 over the life of the battery The number of times battery 404 has been fully charged may also be used to estimate the remaining life of the battery Microprocessor 402 may communicate all of this battery condition information to power adapter 106 In other embodiments a separate integrated circuit such as a gas gauge IC not shown may be in communication with micro processor 402 and perform the aforementioned functions namely read the voltage on battery 404 calculate the charge level of battery 404 calculate the amount of time until battery 404 is fully charged and store the charging profile of battery 404 In some embodiments the battery condition information includes a temperature measured by a temperature sensor 410 in the device 102a1 The temperature sensor 410 may be a discrete component or may be integrated into another com ponent such as the microprocessor 402 or another IC In some embodiments the power adapter 106 determines the level of power
45. ents in order to conserve energy the output of regulators 1304a 13047 and 1304c may be dis abled by ENABLE DISABLE lines 1308a 13085 and 1308c respectively For example microprocessor 306 can be configured to send ENABLE and DISABLE signals to regu lators 1304 via ENABLE DISABLE lines 1308 FIG 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating a power adapter including AC DC converters and regulators in accordance with some embodiments As shown in FIG 14 AC power is supplied to AC DC converters 1402 and 1404 The AC power may be received from a source external to power adapter 1420 AC DC converter 1404 is a low power converter that can be used to power digital control 1406 Digital control 1406 can be used to control the input switch 1409 and switches 1418 and to communicate with an attached device not shown via signal line 1412 Digital control 1406 may be similar to digital logic 608 or microprocessor 306 which are described above The primary AC DC converter 1402 is used 0 40 45 50 55 22 to provide DC power to regulators 14162 14165 and 1416c via power lines 1414a 14147 and 1414c respectively The output of regulators 1416 may be for example output ports 204 Switches 1418 may operate similarly to switches 320 described above with respect to FIG 3 As described above with respect to power adapter 106 power adapter 1420 may operate in a standby mode that includes a no load mode In no load mode when there a
46. eptacles the power adapter 106 can serve as a universal power adapter to any device that is designed to include a standardized plug or receptacle such as a multi purpose power connector In some other embodiments the power adapter 106 and legacy device 1025 use different types of power connectors For example a device that is not designed to use the multi purpose power connector e g an older device may have a legacy power connector that is device or manufacturer spe cific and not conforming to the standard that is used by the power adapter 106 In such embodiments the use of a legacy adapter 104 may be used to interface the power adapter 106 with the legacy device 1022 In some embodiments the legacy adapter 104 is a part of a cord that includes the multi purpose power connector on one end and legacy adapter 104 on the other end which includes a device or manufacturer specific connector Accordingly the power adapter 106 may be coupled directly to legacy device 1025 via a cord that includes the multi purpose power connector on one end and legacy adapter 104 on the other end In other words the cord is customized to the connector on the device because at least one connector on the cord is device or manufacturer specific In some other embodiments an attachment such as a dongle may be coupled to legacy device 1025 The dongle includes legacy adapter 104 to convert the connector on legacy device 1025 to the standardized co
47. er signal lines operable to send and receive the digital com munication of the programmable microprocessor 51 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the one or more regulators are configured to deliver a predefined amount of power to the communication module associated with the respective device when the respective device is con nected to one of the output ports to allow the communication module associated with the respective device to communicate with the power adapter 52 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the programmable microprocessor includes a power control module configured to generate one or more power control signals in response to the determined power requirements of the respective device by the programmable microprocessor to control the power output of the one or more regulators 53 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the programmable microprocessor includes a communication 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 28 module to communicate digitally with the communication module associated with each of the plurality of devices to determine the power requirements of each of the plurality of devices 54 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the programmable microprocessor includes a temperature mod ule configured to receive temperature information from a temperature sensor in the device or a temperature sensor in the power adapter and the power adapter mai
48. er source one or more regulators to convert power from the power source a plurality of output ports configured to deliver power from the one or more regulators to a plurality of devices and a micro processor configured to communicate digitally with a respec tive communication module associated with a respective device to determine power reguirements of the respective device One of the one or more regulators converts the power from the power source in accordance with the power reguire ments of the respective device According to some embodiments a method of adapting power to a plurality of devices includes receiving power from a power source at an input port communicating digitally with a communication module associated with a respective device of the plurality of devices to determine the power reguire ments of the respective device converting power from the power source in accordance with the power reguirements of the respective device and delivering the converted power to the respective device through one of a plurality of output ports According to some embodiments a communication mod ule for use with an electrical device includes a microproces sor housed in the electrical device configured to communi cate digitally with an external power adapter to communicate power reguirements of the electrical device to the power adapter through a port of the electrical device the power reguirements including at least a voltage reguirement
49. icated from device 102 to power adapter 106 For example power adapter 106 may be able to determine that device 102 is malfunction ing is overheating is in need of upgrading or has updates available e g new firmware etc either as part of normal communication between the power adapter 106 and device 102 or based on the communication of proprietary informa tion Power adapter 106 may also determine what operating mode device 102 is in e g standby charging fully opera tional etc In addition information about these different aspects of device 102 may be displayed to the user via for example display 208 and or status lights 206 In some embodiments power adapter 106 will determine the amount of power to provide to device 102 based on device battery condition information the operating mode of device 102 and or other aspects of device 102 Beyond what power adapter 106 may be able to determine for the attached devices 102 in some embodiments device 102 communicates pro prietary information to power adapter 106 Proprietary infor mation is information outside of the standard information communicated between power adapter 106 and device 102 and is device and or manufacturer specific information about device 102 For example some or all of the information described above may be based on the proprietary information instead of normal communication between the power adapter 106 and device 102 Power adapter 106 may be able to deter
50. ice or manufacturer spe cific it can be pre programmed with the power requirements of legacy device 1025 In some embodiments legacy adapter 104 can be programmed by power adapter 106 to update or change the power reguirements of the associated legacy device 1025 In some embodiments legacy adapter 104 does not include microprocessor 506 In these embodiments memory 508 stores the power reguirements of legacy device 1025 and microprocessor 306 of power adapter 106 reads the power requirements of legacy device 1025 directly from memory 508 of legacy adapter 104 After the power reguirements are communicated to power adapter 106 as described above power control module 308 adjusts the power output of regulator 318c to deliver the reguested amount of power Thus regulator 318c delivers the reguired power to legacy device 1027 through legacy adapter 104 via power line 319c in accordance with the power reguirements of legacy device 1027 In some embodiments as discussed above the power output of regulator 318c is adjusted on a real time basis With reference to FIGS 4 and 5 in some embodiments regulator 318a of FIG 3 also provides a predefined wake up voltage to devices 102a and or legacy adapter 104 In some embodiments the predefined voltage is 5 V The wake up voltage may facilitate the powering on of a device 102a and or digital communication between the device 102a and power 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
51. le of communicating digitally with a US 2008 0222431 A1 Sep 11 2008 device or a legacy adapter associated with a device is mn described The power adapter includes an input port to receive Related U S Application Data power from a power source a regulator to convert the 63 Continuation in part of application No 11 513 687 received POWEE from the power source an output port gan filed on Aug 30 2006 now abandoned figured to deliver power from the regulator toa device and a microprocessor configured to communicate digitally with a 51 Int Cl communication module associated with the device to deter G06F 1 26 2006 01 mine the power requirements of the device The regulator x converts the power from the power source in accordance with 52 U S El ee UN 713 300 320 114 455 573 the power reguirements of the device A related method of 58 Field of Classification Search 320 114 adapting power to a device is also described 455 573 713 300 See application file for complete search history 90 Claims 13 Drawing Sheets Power Adapter U S Patent Sep 4 2012 Sheet 1 of 13 US 8 261 100 B2 Legacy Device Legacy Adapter 102a 102b Device 104 106 Power Adapter Power Source FIG 1 US 8 261 100 132 Sheet 2 of 13 Sep 4 2012 U S Patent 029 cy9 GOW osram gt IT v 8 9 gt q919 esoding nini esoding niniN 809 E as ul
52. munication between the power adapter 106 or 602 and devices 102 or 604 or legacy adapter 104 or 630 may take place over the USB protocol For example the USB stack can include a configuration specific to power adapter 106 Thus when this configuration is set active the command control transfer parser will be able to interpret commands specific to power adapter 106 The processing of the commands specific to power adapter 106 would happen after Chapter 9 enumera tion of the USB protocol i e Chapter 9 of the USB Imple menters Forum Inc Universal Serial Bus Specification Revi sion 2 0 2000 which is incorporated by reference The standard device request SET_DESCRIPTOR would set the configuration specific to power adapter 106 active This con figuration is identified by using a string descriptor specific to configuration of power adapter 106 e g power adapter Furthermore when the bmRequestType 0x00 standard USB commands such as SET_DESCRIPTOR or GET_DE SCRIPTOR will behave as normal By setting the bmRe questType field equal to 0x40 this value is interpreted by the standard USB stack as a mode where the bytes in bRequest are user defined Accordingly 256 possible encodings are available for commands specific to power adapter 106 In other embodiments memory 307 stores a database of predefined power profiles A power profile is a predefined set of data that specifies power requirements or more particu larly a predefined c
53. n some embodiments the user interface comprises a status light 206 e g 206a 2067 and 206c associated with each output port 204 that may US 8 261 100 B2 5 indicate whether a device is being powered whether the device is being provided reduced power or other statuses of power adapter 106 or devices 102 connected to the power adapter 106 Status lights 206 can indicate one or more sta tuses by blinking changing colors or the like The user inter face of power adapter 106 may also include display 208 which may be an LCD screen an LED or an OLED display for displaying information to a user In some embodiments status information can be displayed on display 208 in addition to or in place of status lights 206 For example the back ground color of display 208 could change colors or blink based on the status of the devices 102 or the power adapter 106 In other embodiments where device 102 includes a display 406 as illustrated in FIG 4 power adapter 106 may instruct device 102 to display certain information on the display 406 of device 102 Display 406 may be an LCD screen an LED or an OLED display Furthermore additional information about power adapter 106 may be displayed on display 208 The user interface of power adapter 106 may also include an input device so that a user can interact with power adapter 106 An example of an input device is button 210 Button 210 may be used in con nection with display 208 to allow a user
54. nnector utilized by power adapter 106 i e the multi purpose power connector When using a dongle that includes legacy adapter 104 a cord with a multi purpose power connector on both ends may be used One end ofthe cord couples to the multi purpose power connector of power adapter 106 and the other end couples to a dongle that includes legacy adapter 104 The other end of the dongle contains the device or manufacturer specific con nector for coupling to legacy device 1025 In other words the dongle with legacy adapter 104 contains both a multi purpose power connector and a device or manufacturer specific con nector thereby allowing coupling of the power adapter 106 and legacy device 1025 via a cord having the multi purpose power connector on the device end of the cord FIG 2 illustrates power adapter 106 of some embodiments Power adapter 106 includes an input port 202 for receiving power from a power source e g power source 108 Power adapter 106 has multiple output ports 204 e g 204a 2047 and 204c Input port 202 and output ports 204 can be any combination of plugs receptacles sockets magnetic power connectors non detachable cords etc In one embodiment the output ports 204 include a receptacle for receiving the multi purpose power connector In another embodiment one or more cords are non detachably fixed to one or more output ports 204 Power adapter 106 may also include a user inter face for interaction with a user I
55. nput sinusoidal voltage such as to achieve a high Power Factor and to achieve low total harmonic distortion THD Cycle by cycle current limiting is provided by sense resistors R8 R41 R42 and R43 feeding a voltage to pin ISENSE of U1 Regulation against AC line voltage changes is achieved via bridge rectifier circuit BR2 and associated resistor ca pacitor voltage attenuation and f ltering which provide the DC value of the input AC voltage to the Vin DC pin of U1 Additionally BR2 and its associated circuitry also provide a sense signal representing the AC line voltage which is used to regulate the input current sinusoidal shaping Output voltage regulation and control is achieved by sens ing the output voltage via a tertiary winding pins 4 amp 6 of transformer T1 This voltage is applied after filtering and attenuation to the Vsense pin of U1 By using this method of feedback the need for opto coupler feedback is eliminated reducing component count and cost A discretely implemented linear regulator including Q5 2 and C5 fed by the tertiary winding pins 4 amp 6 of trans former T1 provides a constant DC bias to the control IC U1 via pin 1 VCC when steady state operation is achieved During start up operation of U1 a transistor switch Q6 and its associated circuitry of R21 R20 C10 R22 and C5 provide the needed energy to properly start the operation of U1 Over temperature protection is provided by a thermistor RT1 R35 R37
56. ntained infor mation includes the temperature information from the tem perature module 55 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the programmable microprocessor is configured to have informa tion about the power adapter displayed on a display of the device 56 The power adapter according to claim 36 further com prising a user interface wherein the programmable micropro cessor is configured to control the user interface 57 The power adapter according to 56 wherein the user interface includes a display 58 The power adapter according to claim 57 wherein the display is one of a liquid crystal display a LED display or an OLED display 59 The power adapter according to claim 56 wherein the user interface is configured to provide information regarding the power requirements of one or more of the plurality of devices 60 The power adapter according to claim 56 wherein the user interface is configured to display a state of one or more of the plurality of output ports 61 The power adapter according to claim 60 wherein the state includes a voltage level indicator 62 The power adapter according to claim 56 wherein the user interface includes an input device for providing entry of user input 63 The power adapter according to claim 62 wherein the input device includes at least one of a push button and a touch screen 64 The power adapter according to claim 36 wherein the power requirements include at least a
57. ntrollers integrated circuits and or microprocessors For example memory 307 may be imple mented as a separate memory device Furthermore the func tions associated with each of the above identified modules which are described below may be implemented in hardware firmware or software and may correspond to sets of instruc tions for performing the functions The above identified mod ules need not be implemented as separate modules proce dures or software programs instead two or more of the modules may be implemented in a single module procedure or software program Various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re arranged in various embodi ments Microprocessor 306 may be for example PIC24FJ64GA004 VPT Microchip Technology Inc PIC24 16 bit Microcontroller Communication module 310 communicates digitally with devices 102a e g 102a1 and 102a2 or legacy adapter 104 via communication lines 317 Communication module 310 could be designed to use I2C or any other physical layer bus known in the art The specific physical layer bus used is not important to the invention If the power adapter 106 is con nected to a device 102a through the device s Universal Serial Bus USB port then the digital communication of the device 102a is directed through USB communication inter face adapter 314 The USB communication interface adapter 314 may be for example CY7C67200 Cypress Semicon ductor EZ OTGTM Programmabl
58. o transmit messages until a new power adapter connection is established Ifa response message is received the client performs error detection on the message from the power adapter by verifying the checksum 910 1106 If there is an error the client backs off in accordance with a backoff timer 1104 After the backoff timer has timed out the message is resent 1102 If the message does not have errors the contents of the message particularly the message type is inspected 1108 If the message is an ACK message the client exits the com munication mode If the message is a NACK message the 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 20 client backs off in accordance with backoff timer 1104 and then resends the message 1102 Of course the client may enter the communication mode later to send another mes sage if needed If the message is a CAN message the client enters the suspend state 1110 In embodiments where the client can send messages containing proprietary information a CAN message means that the power adapter does not rec ognize the vendor manufacturer of the client as indicated by the vendor manufacturer identifier 904 This means that any message containing proprietary information will not be prop erly processed by the power adapter since the power adapter will not know the proper format of the proprietary informa tion payload Therefore the client enters into the suspend state 1110 where the cli
59. odula tor 638 receives power line 612 VBus line 614 and signal lines 616a and 6165 and also provides a ground 620 The modulator demodulator 638 modulates the digital data from the signal lines 616 to combine the data and power signals into a single wire for each power signal combination There fore first modulated line 640 includes the power from power line 612 and the signal from signal line 616a and second modulated line 642 includes the power from VBus line 614 and the signal from signal line 6165 The modulator demodu lator 638 also does the reverse by splitting the power and signal information from first modulated line 640 to powerline 612 and signal line 616a and from second modulated line 642 to VBus line 614 and signal line 6165 Each modulator demodulator 638 of power adapter 636 and client 650 operate in both directions i e modulate and demodulate the power and signal information In some embodiments the Home Plug specification for communication over a power line is used for the digital communication The HomePlug 1 0 speci fication HomePlug Powerline Alliance Inc HomePlug 1 0 Technical White Paper and the HomePlug AV specification 25 40 45 16 HomePlug Powerline Alliance Inc HomePlug AV White Paper 2005 are hereby incorporated by reference FIGS 6A 6B and 6C illustrate power adapters 602 and 636 with a single multi purpose power connector 610 and 646 However it is appreciated by one of skill in th
60. ogrammed to recognize the proprietary message a CAN message is sent 1010 and the power adapter returns to the idle state 1002 If the message is recognized an ACK mes sage is sent 1012 and the power adapter returns to the idle state 1002 to wait for further messages from the client It may be the case that once the power adapter recognizes the message and sends an ACK message the power adapter may configure itself to supply power to the client A client when coupled to a power adapter may enter into a communication mode and send a message 1102 For example when the client is first connected to the power adapter the client may draw power from the wake up voltage to power its microprocessor e g microprocessor 402 506 626 or 632 and initiate digital communications by sending a message such as a power statement message After a message is sent the device or legacy device waits for a response message from the power adapter If no response is received after a predefined receive timeout the message is resent 1102 If after a predefined number of attempts e g 8 attempts to transmit the same message no response is received the client goes into a suspend state 1110 In some embodiments while in the suspend state a client will no longer attempt to send a proprietary message although non proprietary information may still be sent In other embodi ments for example after a receive timeout a client will no longer attempt t
61. ombination of power requirement param eters In some embodiments a power profile includes one or more of the following a constant voltage value a constant current value a wattage value an upper limit current value and a battery type The power profiles may be organized as a lookup table in memory 307 with each power profile refer enced by an identifier A device 102 may communicate in a digital message the identifier of the desired profile to the microprocessor 306 The microprocessor 306 retrieves from memory 307 the power profile corresponding to the identifier provided by the device 102 Parameters in the retrieved power profile are used to configure regulators 318 It should be appreciated however that the packet protocol and encodings described above are merely exemplary The protocol may take on an alternative format and may include more or less information that that described above Further more the parameters may specified by an alternative format or encoding other than those described above US 8 261 100 B2 19 FIGS 10 and 11 are state diagrams illustrating digital communication states of a power adapter and of a client respectively in accordance with some embodiments A client can be for example device 102 or 604 or legacy adapter 104 or 630 The power adapter state diagram 1000 and the client state diagram 1100 illustrate the states of the power adapter and the client respectively with respect to the digital com
62. onverter such as LTC3826 Linear Technology 30 uA IQ Dual 2 Phase Synchronous Step Down Control ler The current sense amplifiers 1306 may be for example LTC6102 Linear Technology Zero Drift High Side Current Sense Amplifier The fixed regulators 1304a and 13045 sup ply a fixed 5 volts The output of current sense amplifiers 1306a and 13065 may be to output ports 204a and 2045 respectively DC power is also supplied to adjustable regulator 1304c which can be a high efficiency DC DC converter across a wide range of loads ranging from 0 5 W to 100 W such as LTC3845 Linear Technology High Voltage Synchronous Current Mode Step Down Controller with Adjustable Oper ating Freguency The output voltage of adjustable regulator 1304c is adjustable e g between 5V to 19V using control line 1312 Operational amplifier op amp 1310 is driven by a pulse width modulated PWM signal which is con trolled by for example microprocessor 306 of power adapter 106 The duty cycle of the PWM input at op amp 1310 con trols the output of adjustable regulator 1304c via control line 1312 The output of adjustable regulator 1304c is to current sense amplifier 1306c which is outputted to for example output port 204c Accordingly the output current at each output port 204 is measured using the current sense amplifiers 1306 In addition the output voltage at each port could be measured using a voltage divider circuit not shown In some embodim
63. or example the user could enter information and or program power adapter 106 and the attached devices 102 through the computer connected via the USB connection The foregoing description for purpose of explanation has been described with reference to specific embodiments How ever the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms dis US 8 261 100 B2 23 closed Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and vari ous embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated What is claimed is 1 A power adapter to provide power to a device compris ing an input port configured to receive power from a power source a regulator configured to convert the received power from the power source an output port configured to deliver power from the regu lator to the device and a programmable microprocessor configured to communi cate digitally with a communication module associated with the device to determine power reguirements of the device the power reguirements of the device being determined based on power adapter maintained infor mation stored in a memory associated with the micro proce
64. ower may cause battery 404 of device 102 to take longer to charge but the attached device 102 can still function even at a reduced power Sometimes an attached device 102 will need all of the power it is requesting to operate In some embodiments power adapter 106 will determine whether an attached device 102 can handle reduced power and only supply reduced power to the attached devices 102 that are able to handle the reduced power For example the attached device 102 may provide power adapter 106 with two power reguirements a preferred power reguirement and aminimum power reguirement e g a power reguirement for operating device 102 and charging battery 404 and a power reguirement for just operating device 102 Alternatively attached device 102 may provide voltage and current reguire ments that include a nominal value a negative tolerance and a positive tolerance thereby creating a window for the power US 8 261 100 B2 11 requirement In other embodiments power adapter 106 que ries attached device 102 to determine if attached device 102 can reduce its power requirements By reducing the power supplied to some of the attached devices 102 power adapter 106 may be able to provide power to more of the attached devices at one time Inround robin charging mode power adapter 106 provides power to one or more attached devices 102 at one time but less than all of the attached devices 102 Once one or more of the attached devices 102
65. power source in accordance with the determined power reguirements of the respec tive device and delivering the converted power to the respective device through one of a plurality of output ports 76 A communication module for use with an electrical device comprising a programmable microprocessor housed in the electrical device configured to communicate digitally with an external power adapter to communicate device informa tion of the electrical device to the power adapter through a port of the electrical device and configured to determine power requirements of the electri cal device based on power adapter maintained informa tion stored in a memory associated with a microproces sor and the communicated device information the determined power reguirements including at least a volt age reguirement and a current reguirement wherein the communication module and power adaptor communicate digitally using a packet layer protocol via a packet consisting of a 1 byte transmission start seg ment a 4 byte vendor manufacturer identifier segment a 1 byte message type segment a payload segment a 2 byte checksum segment and a 1 byte transmission end segment 77 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the power port of the electrical device is configured to receive a male USB plug 78 The communication module of claim 76 wherein the programmable microprocessor is configured to communicate digitally with a second microprocessor
66. r 630 Power adapter 602 in FIG 6B is described above with reference to FIG 6A Legacy adapter 630 includes a multi purpose power connector 622 micro processor 632 and legacy connector 634 Legacy connector 634 is a legacy power connector that is device or manufac turer specific and not conforming to the standard that is used US 8 261 100 B2 15 by the power adapter 602 i e the multi purpose power con nector and therefore the legacy device cannot directly mate physically and or electrically with multi purpose power con nector 610 Legacy connector 634 is adapted to connect to the device or manufacturer specific connector of a legacy device not shown Microprocessor 632 communicates digitally with digital logic 608 of power adapter 602 via signal lines 616a and 6165 in order to provide power adapter 602 with the power reguirements of the legacy device associated with legacy adapter 630 Legacy adapter 630 includes a memory 633 to store the power reguirements of the associated legacy device In some embodiments memory 633 is embedded in microprocessor 632 As described above once the power reguirements are communicated to power adapter 602 regu lator 606 provides the required power to the legacy device through power line 612 which is connected to legacy con nector 634 Because legacy adapter 630 is device or manufacturer specific it can be pre programmed with the power reguire ments of an associated legacy device In som
67. re no devices attached to power adapter 1420 input switch 1409 may be opened to disconnect primary AC DC converter 1402 from receiving AC power In this situation only AC DC converter 1404 would be receiving AC power AC DC converter 1404 has significantly lower power dissipation than AC DC converter 1402 Accordingly in no load mode power adapter 1420 may be able to conserve a significant amount of energy In some embodiments power adapter 106 602 636 or 1420 reference herein to power adapter 106 shall be assumed to include power adapter 602 636 and 1420 may be further configured to communicate with a computer net work such as the Internet When connected to a computer network power adapter 106 may be able to retrieve data or software or firmware updates for power adapter 106 any devices 102 connected to power adapter 106 or any con nected legacy device 104 or 630 The user interface of power adapter 106 may also be accessible via a web server con nected to the internet thereby allowing a user to view infor mation that would normally be displayed on for example display 208 In other words a user could interact with power adapter 106 by viewing information about power adapter 106 and the connected devices 102 on a computer connected to the internet In addition the user could enter information and or program power adapter 106 and the attached devices 102 through a web server by using a computer connected to the internet
68. reduces its power reguirements because for example battery 404 of attached device 102 has completed charging power adapter 106 will begin providing power to another attached device 102 to which it is not cur rently providing power or will increase the power provided to another attached device 102 to which itis currently providing reduced power In some embodiments power adapter 106 will stop providing power to the attached device 102 once it has reduced its power reguirements and therefore only one device at a time is being provided power In some other embodiments one attached device 102 is powered at a time for a predefined time period Once the predefined time period ends the next attached device 102 is powered and the pow ering of the previous device 102 is stopped In further embodiments a temperature sensor contained in power adapter 106 measures the temperature of power adapter 106 and communicates this information to temperature module 312 Temperature module 312 monitors the temperature of power adapter 106 If power adapter exceeds a predetermined temperature e g 70 degree Celsius power adapter 106 throttles charging partially charging the devices 102 attached to each output port 204 before moving on to the next output port 204 until the temperature gradient and the surface tem perature are low enough to enable simultaneous charging Power adapter 106 may also operate in one or more oper ating modes The operating modes of
69. sed for error detection The check sum 910 as used herein refers generally to any kind of redundancy check for error detection The checksum 910 may be implemented using any of a variety of error detection technologies now known or later developed including but not limited to cyclic redundancy checks checksum algorithms and hash functions In an exemplary embodiment the protocol includes at least four message types The message types may include three flow control message types and a power statement message type The flow control message types serve to signal success or error in the receipt of messages In some embodiments the flow control message types include the acknowledgement message ACK the non acknowledgement message NACK and the cancel message CAN These messages are further described below in relation to FIGS 10 11 A power statement message type specifies the power requirements of the device In some embodiments the power statement includes e g voltage current and or battery type param eters In some other embodiments the power statement includes more or less parameters than described above If a manufacturer wishes to enable exchange of proprietary infor mation via the digital messages a proprietary or manufac turer specific message type may also be included The con tents of the proprietary or manufacturer specific messages are described above with reference to communicating propri etary information In som
70. sed when devices 102 are connected to power adapter 106 but power adapter 106 is providing a reduced amount of power because for example attached devices 102 are in their own standby mode In some embodiments when power adapter 106 is transi tioned to maintenance mode power adapter 106 instructs the attached devices to go into their own standby mode or to otherwise reduce their power requirements For example 0 5 20 40 45 65 12 power adapter 106 may only provide the power needed to operate the attached devices 102 and not enough to charge the batteries 404 of the attached devices 102 Power adapter 106 may also operate in an off peak oper ating mode In this mode the power adapter 106 determines if any ofthe attached devices 102 do not require power imme diately because for example the primary reason the attached device 102 needs power is to charge battery 404 of attached device 102 For these attached devices 102 power adapter 106 will delay providing the requested power until an off peak time e g after 10 p m In some embodiments the user can set the time of charging manually through the user inter face of power adapter 106 The internal clock not shown of power adapter 106 is then compared to the value entered by the user to control startup time In some embodiments power adapter 106 will delay providing power to each attached device 102 regardless of whether the device reguires power immediat
71. ser input on a display 31 The power adapter according to claim 30 wherein the input device includes at least one ofa push button and atouch screen 32 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the power adapter maintained information includes user input data 33 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the power adapter maintained information includes adjusted device information stored in the memory or information asso ciated with one or more statuses of the adapter 34 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the device information includes predefined power profiles that include one or more of the following a constant voltage value a constant current value a wattage value an upper limit current value and a battery type 35 A method of adapting power to a device comprising receiving power from a power source at an input port communicating digitally with a communication module associated with the device to receive device information of the device the digital communications comprising transmission ofinformation using a packet based proto col via a packet consisting ofa 1 byte transmission start segment a 4 byte vendor manufacturer identifier seg ment a 1 byte message type segment a payload seg ment a 2 byte checksum segment and a 1 byte transmis sion end segment determining the power requirements of the device based on the received device information and on power adapter maintained information s
72. sor 626 and the load 624 of device 604 Device 604 is also provided with power line 612 VBus line 614 signal lines 616a and 6167 and ground 620 Digital logic 608 communicates digitally with micropro cessor 626 via signal lines 616 The signal lines 616 could operate in accordance with the I2C physical layer bus and or be compatible with the USB protocol As shown in FIG 6 the D and the D shown on signal lines 616 represent a differential signal D D The SDA and SCL are used in an I2C bus and stand for serial data line and serial clock line respectively The I2C Bus Specification Philips Semi conductors The I2C BUS specification Version 2 1 Janu ary 2000 and the Universal Serial Bus Specification USB Implementers Forum Inc Universal Serial Bus Specification Revision 2 0 2000 are hereby incorporated by reference In some embodiments a single signal line replaces signal lines 616 and is used for the digital communication All of these implementations are well known in the art and which method being used is not important to the present invention Micro processor 626 communicates the power reguirements of device 604 The power reguirements can include one or more of voltage current or wattage reguirement of device 604 Based on the power reguirements of device 604 digital logic 608 instructs regulator 606 to provide the reguested power to device 604 through power line 612 Regulator
73. ssor and device information communicated to the programmable microprocessor from the device via the communication module wherein the regulator is con figured to convert the power from the power source in accordance with the determined power reguirements of the device and wherein the power adaptor communi cates digitally with the device using a packet layer pro tocol via a packet consisting of a 1 byte transmission start segment a 4 byte vendor manufacturer identifier segment a 1 byte message type segment a payload segment a 2 byte checksum segment and a 1 byte trans mission end segment 2 The power adapter according to claim 1 further com prising a switch coupled between the input port and the regu lator that is controlled by the programmable microprocessor 3 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the device is a portable legacy device and the power adapter maintained information includes information of at least one associated legacy device 4 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the power adapter is configurable to delay delivery of power to the device until an off peak time 5 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the device is configured to operate in one of a plurality of oper ating modes and the regulator converts the power from the power source in accordance with the determined power requirements of the device the power adapter maintained information and the operating mode of the device
74. t invention may be practiced without these specific details In other instances well known methods procedures components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments FIG 1 is a block diagram of a power adapter coupled to a power source and devices in accordance with some embodi ments Power source 108 supplies electrical power to power adapter 106 in order to supply electrical power to devices 102 The power source 108 may provide alternating current AC or direct current DC voltage In some embodiments the power source 108 is a power outlet such as a wall outlet The power outlet voltages outside the United States In other embodiments the power source 108 is an outletin an airplane armrest or in an automobile such as a cigarette lighter socket which typically provides 12V DC In still other embodiments the power source 108 is an AC DC converter that receives an AC input and provides a DC output to the power adapter 106 In further embodiments the power source is a motor genera tor battery etc that provides electricity Depending on the particular embodiment the power adapter 106 may be con figured for coupling to only a DC power source only an AC power source or either a DC or AC power source The power adapter 106 thus functions as an AC DC converter a DC DC converter or both depending on the embodiment The power adapter 106 may be coupled to the power so
75. th reference to FIG 13 In some embodiments regulators 318 are programmable switching regulators In some other embodiments regulators 318 are programmable linear regulators The switches 320 are used to disconnect each regulator 318 that is not currently in use by a device 102 from PFC power lines 305 In some embodiments when the battery of device e g device 102a1 has completed charging device 1024 notifies power adapter 106 that the battery is fully charged and microprocessor 306 opens switch 320a to disconnect regulator 318a When dis connected the regulators 318 do not draw power from the PFC Controller 304 and thereby the switches 320 allow fora reduction in wasted electrical power In some embodiments a DC DC converter may be used instead of or in addition to PFC Controller 304 for use with a DC power source e g power source 108 In some embodiments one or more regu lators 318 are fixed voltage regulators e g operating at a fixed output of 5 volts A microcontroller e g microprocessor 306 includes memory 307 power control module 308 communication module 310 user interface module 311 and temperature module 312 However as would be appreciated by one of skill in the art memory 307 power control module 308 commu nication module 310 user interface module 311 and tem perature module 312 do not have to be in a single microcon troller but instead the functions related to each can be spread across multiple microco
76. to provide to the device 102a1 in accordance with the measured temperature For example ifthe measured temperature is below a first specified temperature a fast charge mode is enabled in which a higher than normal level of power is provided to the device 102a In another example if the measured temperature exceeds a second specified tem perature the level of power provided to the device 102a1 is reduced or terminated As described above devices 102 that can be electrically coupled to the power adapter 106 encompass a variety of US 8 261 100 B2 9 electronic devices including but not limited to consumer electronic devices cellularphones multimedia devices com puter devices and peripherals Some ofthese devices 102 may include a battery or batteries 404 and some may not The battery or batteries 404 may be rechargeable or non re chargeable Examples of rechargeable battery technologies include lithium ion batteries nickel cadmium batteries and nickel metal hydride batteries Examples ofnon rechargeable battery technologies include alkaline and lithium batteries For a device 102 that does not have a battery 404 or that has non rechargeable batteries the power supplied by the power adapter 106 merely powers the device 102 for operation For a device 102 that has a rechargeable battery 404 the power supplied by the power adapter 106 powers the device 102 for operation and or recharges the battery 404 As it is known in the
77. tored in a memory associated with a programmable microprocessor 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 26 converting the power from the power source in accordance with the determined power requirements of the device and delivering the converted power to the device through an output port 36 A power adapter comprising an input port configured to receive power from a power source one of more regulators configured to convert power from the power source a plurality of output ports configured to deliver power from the one or more regulators to a plurality of devices and a programmable microprocessor configured to communi cate digitally with a respective communication module associated with a respective device to determine power requirements of the respective device wherein the power requirements ofthe respective device is deter mined based on power adapter maintained informa tion stored in amemory associated with the program mable microprocessor and on device information communicated to the programmable microprocessor from the respective device via the respective commu nication module one ofthe one or moreregulators is configured to convert the power from the power source in accordance with the determined power requirements of the respective device and the power adaptor communicates digitally with the device using a packet layer protocol via a packet con sisting ofa 1 byte transmission start segment
78. urce 108 via a power cord cable induction or other known ways of trans mitting power The power adapter 106 may be coupled to one or more devices 102 The devices 102 may include any of a variety of electronic devices including but not limited to consumer electronic devices cellularphones multimedia devices com puter devices and peripherals Power adapter 106 may come in a variety of sizes For example power adapter 106 may be implemented in a relatively small size for ease of portability and travel convenience In some embodiments the power adapter 106 is a standa lone unit external to and distinct from devices 102 to be 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 powered by the power adapter 106 The external power adapter 106 may be electrically coupled to one or more devices 102 via power cords cables induction or other known ways of transmitting power not shown In some embodiments both the power adapter 106 and a device 102a conform to a common connector or interface standard the power cord coupling the power adapter 106 to a given device such as device 102a includes standardized connectors on one or both ends of the cord and may in some embodiments be non detachably affixed to the power adapter 106 on one end A device 102a may be designed to use the standardized con nector and be coupled to the power adapter 106 via a cord having the standardized connectors By using standardized plugs and rec
79. wer adapter 106 to device 102a1 In some embodiments power line 319a and commu nication line 317a are provided by power cord 322a Device 102a1 includes one or more microprocessors 402 and a bat tery 404 In some embodiments battery 404 is a rechargeable battery Communication line 317a is connected to micropro cessor 402 of device 102a1 Microprocessor 402 communi cates the initial power needs of device 102a1 In some embodiments microprocessor 402 communicates the power needs of device 102a1 on a near real time basis Device 102a1 communicates its power reguirements from microprocessor 402 to communication module 310 via com munication line 317a in regular communication intervals e g every 30 seconds Based on each of these communica tions regulator 318a provides the reguested amount of power to device 102a1 In some embodiments when operating on a near real time basis power adapter 106 only provides power to device 102a1 for one communication interval e g 30 seconds and will not continue to provide power unless micro processor 402 communicates the present power reguirements of device 102a1 to communication module 310 before the end of that communication interval In some embodiments microprocessor 402 can read the voltage on battery 404 and communicate that information to power adapter 106 along with other battery condition infor mation For example microprocessor 402 can calculate the charge level of battery 404 as a perc
80. which is incorporated by referenced herein in its entirety TECHNICAL FIELD The disclosed embodiments relate generally to power adapters and more particularly to a power adapter that is capable of communicating digitally with devices to be pow ered by the power adapter BACKGROUND Consumer electronic devices are ubiquitous in the world we live in today From laptop computers and personal digital assistants to multimedia players and mobile phones people today own a wide variety of electronic devices These elec tronic devices come with a wide variety of power supplies sometimes referred to as wall warts power bricks or power adapters Unfortunately these power supplies are often specific to the device type device manufacturer and or device product line and are therefore incompatible with each other If a user loses a power supply for a device the power supply of another device generally cannot be used as a sub stitute This causes many problems Travel is made more inconvenient by the prospect of having to bring multiple power supplies for various portable devices A device may be damaged and or its useful life shortened if the wrong power supply is used Furthermore as devices become obsolete and are discarded by users the power supplies for the devices may be discarded as well because users often do not have other devices that are compatible with these power supplies Accordingly what is needed is a power
81. with the power adapter 11 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the packet layer protocol includes at least four message types and the at least four messages types include at least one of a flow control message type and a power statement message type 12 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the payload segment is encrypted 13 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the payload segment includes proprietary information 14 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein com municating digitally includes communicating in accordance with a packet layer protocol encapsulated by a Universal Serial Bus protocol 15 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the programmable microprocessor receives a digital communi cation from the device which includes a battery the digital communication including one or more of the following device information device identification information power requirement information proprietary information operating mode battery identification information and battery condi tion information 16 The power adapter according to claim 1 wherein the device information includes a record ofthe number of times a battery has been charged or a total amount of time the battery has been charged based on the battery identification informa tion and the power adapter maintained information includes an estimate of the remaining life of the battery based on the record 17 The power a

Power adapter capable of communicating digitally with electronic

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