CN111162521A

CN111162521A - Power supply equipment and power supply method

Info

Publication number: CN111162521A
Application number: CN201911425065.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张烨
Original assignee: Lenovo Beijing Ltd
Current assignee: Lenovo Beijing Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-31
Filing date: 2019-12-31
Publication date: 2020-05-15
Anticipated expiration: 2039-12-31
Also published as: CN111162521B

Abstract

The application provides a power supply device and a power supply method, the power supply device comprises a conductive unit array and a processing unit, two conductive units in the conductive unit array are contacted by a powered device, the powered device can be powered by the powered device based on the two conductive units which are conducted, when the two conductive units are contacted by the powered device, one conductive unit in the two conductive units corresponds to a first signal, the other conductive unit in the two conductive units corresponds to a second signal, the processing unit determines a power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal, the two conductive units contacted by the powered device supply power to the powered device according to the power supply parameter, the power supply parameter is determined according to the first signal and the second signal corresponding to the two conductive units contacted with the powered device, and thus the powered device is not required to send the power supply parameter to the power supply device, the structure of the powered device and the interaction between the powered device and the power supply device are simplified.

Description

Power supply equipment and power supply method

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of charging, and particularly relates to power supply equipment and a power supply method.

Background

When the current power supply equipment supplies power to the power receiving equipment, the power receiving equipment sends power supply parameters to the power supply equipment, and then the power supply equipment supplies power to the power receiving equipment according to the power supply parameters.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, an object of the present application is to provide a power supply apparatus and a power supply method for determining a power supply parameter according to a first signal and a second signal corresponding to two conductive units in contact with a power receiving apparatus.

The application provides a power supply apparatus, including:

an array of conductive units, two conductive units of which are contacted by one powered device, enabling the powered device to be powered by the power supply device based on the two conductive units being turned on; when the two conductive units are contacted by a power receiving device, one conductive unit of the two conductive units corresponds to a first signal, and the other conductive unit of the two conductive units corresponds to a second signal;

and the processing unit is used for determining power supply parameters according to the first signal and the second signal, and the two conductive units supply power to the power receiving equipment according to the power supply parameters.

Optionally, the processing unit is configured to determine, according to the first signal and the second signal, a first conductive unit and a second conductive unit in the conductive unit array, which are contacted by the power receiving device, and determine the power supply parameter according to a distribution parameter of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit.

Optionally, the distribution parameter of the first conductive element and the second conductive element is a parameter representing a distance between the first conductive element and the second conductive element;

the power supply equipment further comprises a storage unit, wherein the storage unit is used for storing the corresponding relation between the distance and the power supply parameter;

and the processing unit searches the power supply parameter matched with the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit from the corresponding relation according to the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit.

Optionally, the conductive unit includes a transmitting component and a receiving component; the transmitting component of one of the two conductive units transmits the first signal, and the receiving component of the other conductive unit receives a second signal matched with the first signal;

the processing unit determines the power supply parameter according to the difference between the first signal and the second signal.

Optionally, the difference between the first signal and the second signal is caused by a conductive member of the powered device.

Optionally, the power supply device further includes: the storage unit is used for storing the corresponding relation between the difference and the power supply parameter;

and the processing unit searches a power supply parameter matched with the difference between the first signal and the second signal from the corresponding relation according to the difference between the first signal and the second signal.

Optionally, a first conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a first signal with a first signal parameter, and the processing unit is configured to determine that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by a first powered device if the second conductive unit receives a second signal with the first signal parameter;

or

A first conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter, a second conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a fifth signal having a third signal parameter, and the processing unit is configured to determine that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by a first power receiving device if the first conductive unit receives a sixth signal having the third signal parameter and the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter.

Optionally, at least some of the conductive elements in the conductive element array emit signals, and the signals emitted by the at least some of the conductive elements have different signal parameters.

Optionally, the processing unit is further configured to assign the first signal parameter to the first conductive unit and assign the fifth signal parameter to the second conductive unit when the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by a first powered device.

The present application further provides a power supply method, including:

when two conductive units in the conductive unit array are contacted by a power receiving device, enabling one conductive unit in the two conductive units to correspond to a first signal, and enabling the other conductive unit in the two conductive units to correspond to a second signal;

determining a power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal;

and controlling the two conductive units to supply power to the powered device according to the power supply parameters.

As can be seen from the above technical solution, a power supply apparatus includes an array of conductive units and a processing unit, two conductive units in the array of conductive units are contacted by one power receiving apparatus, enabling the power receiving apparatus to supply power to the power supply apparatus based on the two conductive units being turned on, wherein when the two conductive units are contacted by a powered device, one conductive unit of the two conductive units corresponds to a first signal, the other conductive unit of the two conductive units corresponds to a second signal, the processing unit determines a power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal, the two conductive units contacted by the powered device supply power to the powered device according to the power supply parameter, so as to determine the power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal corresponding to the two conductive units contacted with the powered device, therefore, the power receiving equipment is not required to transmit power supply parameters to the power supply equipment, and the structure of the power receiving equipment and the interaction between the power receiving equipment and the power supply equipment are simplified.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a power supply device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a first signal and a second signal provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another relationship between a first signal and a second signal provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a connection between a processing unit and a conductive unit provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another connection between a processing unit and a conductive unit provided in embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a connection between multiple processing units according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of another connection of multiple processing units provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of minimum and maximum distances provided by embodiments of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a distribution of conductive elements in an array of conductive elements provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between a first signal and an eighth signal provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another power supply device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a power supply unit provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of another power supply device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a multiplexing provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of another multiplexing scheme provided by embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 16 is a schematic of a prior art power supply;

fig. 17 is a schematic diagram of supplying power to two powered devices simultaneously according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 and fig. 19 are schematic diagrams of power supply to three powered devices simultaneously according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 20 is a schematic diagram of power supply to three powered devices simultaneously according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 21 is a schematic diagram of simultaneously supplying power to three powered devices according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 22 is a flowchart of a power supply method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 23 is a flow chart of another power supply method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 24 is a flowchart of another power supply method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic structural diagram of a power supply device according to an embodiment of the present application is shown, where the power supply device may include: an array of conductive elements 10 and a processing unit 20, wherein the processing unit is shown in dashed lines to illustrate that the processing unit is located inside the power supply device without affecting the operation of the array of conductive elements 10.

The conductive unit array 10 includes at least two conductive units 101, two conductive units 101 in the conductive unit array 10 are contacted by a powered device, which enables the powered device to be powered by the powered device based on the two conductive units being conducted, that is, when two conductive units 101 are contacted with a powered device, the two conductive units 101 are conducted under the action of the contacted powered device, for example, the two conductive units can communicate by means of the powered device, and at the time, the two conductive units 101 contacted with the powered device supply power to the powered device, for example, the powered device is charged by the two conductive units contacted with the powered device and power support is provided for operating components (such as a processor and a communication device of the powered device) in the powered device, that is, the power is supplied to the operating components in the powered device.

In this embodiment, the powered device includes two powered units, where the two conductive units 101 are in contact with the powered device means that the two conductive units 101 are in contact with the two powered units of the powered device respectively, so that the conductive units 101 and the powered units are in one-to-one contact relationship, and power supply to the powered device is realized by supplying power to the powered units, where the two powered units of the powered device may be in the form of, but are not limited to: the electrode, two electrodes of powered device can set up in the bottom of powered device, so set up in the bottom of powered device because in the powered device with the corresponding one side of bottom can set up to display area or user operation region usually, if set up the electrode in the corresponding one side of bottom and then can influence the display of display area and user operation and increase the setting degree of difficulty of electrode, and can show the one side corresponding with the bottom usually when the powered device demonstrates, avoid the electrode to influence the pleasing to the eye of powered device. The shape of the electrode for the powered device may be, but is not limited to: the thickness of the electrode used in the same power receiving device may be the same, but the shape, thickness, and the like of the electrode are not limited in this embodiment.

When two conductive units 101 in the conductive unit array 10 are contacted by one power receiving apparatus, one conductive unit 101 of the two conductive units corresponds to a first signal, and the other conductive unit 101 of the two conductive units corresponds to a second signal. In this embodiment, the relationship between the first signal and the second signal may be, but is not limited to, the following:

one way is as follows: one conductive unit 101 transmits a first signal, and the other conductive unit 101 receives a second signal matched with the first signal, where the matching indicates that the second signal is triggered by the first signal, for example, when one conductive unit 101 transmits the first signal, after a powered device in contact with the conductive unit 101 receives the first signal, the powered device receives the second signal to the other conductive unit 101 in contact under the trigger of the first signal, and signal parameters of the first signal and the second signal may be the same or different.

In another mode: one of the two conductive units 101 transmits a first signal, the other transmits a second signal, signal parameters of the first signal and the second signal transmitted by the two conductive units 101 may be the same or different, and when both conductive units 101 transmit signals, both conductive units 101 also receive signals transmitted by the conductive unit 101 at the opposite end.

When the signal parameters of the first signal and the second signal are different, they may be: some of the signal parameters of the first signal and the second signal are different, such as the signal parameters of the first signal and the second signal include, but are not limited to: voltage and frequency, then at least one of the voltage and frequency of the first and second signals may be different. As shown in fig. 2, it is illustrated that, in two conductive units 101 in contact with the same power receiving device, one conductive unit 101 transmits a first signal, and the other conductive unit receives a second signal matched with the first signal, and the voltages of the first signal and the second signal are different; as shown in fig. 3, it is illustrated that one of two conductive units 101 contacting with the same power receiving device transmits a first signal, and the other transmits a second signal, where the frequencies of the first signal and the second signal are different, then the two conductive units 101 receive the signal transmitted by the conductive unit 101 at the opposite end, and the specific conductive unit 101 transmitting the first signal receives the second signal, and the conductive unit 101 transmitting the second signal receives the first signal.

In this embodiment, the timing of the signal transmission of the conductive unit 101 may be transmission when the conductive unit is in contact with the powered device, or transmission after a preset time of contact to transmit after the conductive unit is in contact with the powered unit stably, so as to avoid the signal transmission when the powered unit rubs (at this time, the powered unit is not powered by the rubbed conductive unit) the conductive unit. If two conductive units 101 in contact with the same powered device both transmit signals, the two conductive units 101 may transmit signals simultaneously or at a time interval.

The processing unit 20 is configured to determine a power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal, and two conductive units in contact with the powered device supply power to the powered device according to the power supply parameter, so that the power supply device can determine the power supply parameter by itself, and the powered device does not need to transmit the power supply parameter to the power supply device, which simplifies the structure of the powered device. And the power receiving equipment does not need to send power supply parameters to the power supply equipment, so that data of interaction between the power receiving equipment and the power supply equipment is reduced, and the interaction between the power receiving equipment and the power supply equipment is simplified.

In the present embodiment, the relationship between the processing unit 20 and the conductive elements 101 in the conductive element array 10 includes, but is not limited to, the following relationship:

a relationship between the processing unit 20 and the conductive unit 101: the processing units 20 are in a one-to-many relationship with the conductive units 101, that is, one processing unit 20 controls each conductive unit 101 in the conductive unit array 10, and the signal transmission of each conductive unit is controlled by one processing unit 20, and which conductive unit receives the signal can be detected.

One way of connecting the processing unit 20 and the conductive units 101 is shown in fig. 4, each pin of the processing unit 20 is connected to one conductive unit 101, so as to interact with the conductive units 101 through the pin, for example, a control signal is sent to the conductive units through the pin to control the conductive units to transmit a signal, and a determination is made through the pin as to which conductive unit receives the signal, so as to determine which conductive unit interacts with the pin.

Another way of connection between the processing unit 20 and the conductive units 101 is shown in fig. 5, the processing unit 20 communicating with each conductive unit 101 through a bus: sending a control signal to the conductive unit 101 through the bus, where the control signal carries an identifier of the conductive unit to be controlled (for example, the number of the conductive unit is different, and the numbers of different conductive units are different); the bus may further receive signals corresponding to the conductive units, such as the first signal and the second signal, and if one of the two conductive units in contact with the same powered device transmits the first signal and the other receives the second signal, the first signal and the second signal both need to carry the identifier of the conductive unit, so as to determine which conductive unit in the conductive unit array the first signal and the second signal correspond to.

Another relationship between the processing unit 20 and the conductive unit 101: the processing units 20 and the conductive units 101 are in a one-to-one relationship, that is, one processing unit is provided for each conductive unit 101, and the processing units 20 corresponding to different conductive units 101 are controlled by the respective processing units 20, and the processing units 20 corresponding to different conductive units 101 communicate with each other in a bus manner, but not limited to, as shown in fig. 6, so that data interaction can be performed between the processing units 20 through the bus, and thus which two conductive units 101 in the conductive unit array 10 are in contact with the same power receiving device can be determined through the data interaction between the processing units 20. For each conductive element 101, it can communicate with its corresponding processing element 20 by, but not limited to, a pin or bus, as described above.

A further relationship between the processing unit 20 and the conductive unit 101: the processing units 20 and the conductive units 101 are in a many-to-many relationship, that is, one processing unit 20 can control a plurality of conductive units 101, and different processing units 20 communicate with each other in a bus manner, so that the control of the conductive unit array is realized by cooperation of the plurality of processing units 20, for example, pairing of the conductive units (that is, which two conductive units are in contact with the same power receiving device), control of a transmission signal, control of power supply, and the like are realized by cooperation of the plurality of processing units 20. For each conductive element 101, it can communicate with its corresponding processing element 20 by, but not limited to, a pin or bus, as described above.

Of course, when a plurality of processing units 20 are in many-to-many or one-to-one, the plurality of processing units 20 may be connected by pins, as shown in fig. 7, and since any processing unit 20 can send data to other processing units and receive data sent by other processing units, if the sending and receiving multiplex the same pin, the data needs to be identified by the identification of the processing unit, and if the sending and receiving use different pins, as shown in fig. 7, the data source may be indicated by defining the data transmission direction.

In the present embodiment, the manner in which the processing unit 20 determines the power supply parameter includes, but is not limited to, the following manners:

one way to determine the power supply parameters is to: the processing unit 20 determines a first conductive unit and a second conductive unit in the conductive unit array, which are contacted by the powered device, according to the first signal and the second signal, and determines a power supply parameter according to distribution parameters of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit.

That is, the processing unit 20 first determines which two conductive units in the conductive unit array are in contact with the powered device, and then determines the power supply parameter according to the distribution parameters of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in contact with the powered device.

The distribution parameters of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit contacting with the powered device refer to the distribution of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the conductive unit array, for example, the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are respectively the first conductive unit in the conductive unit array, so that the distribution parameters of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are a parameter capable of representing the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit, and the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit is calculated according to the distribution parameters.

In this embodiment, the individual conductive elements in the array of conductive elements are numbered sequentially in a row or column distribution, as shown in fig. 8 by row. In fig. 8, if each conductive element is the same in shape, e.g., each conductive element is a square with a width of 3cm, and the gap between each conductive element is also the same, e.g., the gap a is 0.2cm, then when determining that the first conductive element and the second conductive element are the second conductive element in the conductive element array, the number X of conductive elements spaced apart in the horizontal direction by the first conductive element and the second conductive element and the number Y of conductive elements spaced apart in the vertical direction by the second conductive element can be determined, and the minimum distance and the maximum distance between the first conductive element and the second conductive element are calculated by the following formulas:

the minimum distance is shown in dashed lines in fig. 8 and the maximum distance is shown in solid lines in fig. 8.

As can be seen from the above calculation formulas for the minimum distance and the maximum distance in fig. 8, regardless of whether the shape of each conductive unit is the same, whether the gap between the conductive units is the same, and regardless of whether the conductive units in the conductive unit array are sequentially numbered in order or in a row or column distribution, the minimum distance and the maximum distance can be calculated as long as the number X of conductive units spaced in the horizontal direction and the number Y of conductive units spaced in the vertical direction of two conductive units currently contacted by the same power receiving apparatus can be determined. The minimum distance is the distance between the two closest points of the two conductive elements and the maximum distance is the distance between the two furthest points of the two conductive elements.

The principle of calculation of the minimum distance is: calculating the minimum horizontal distance of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the horizontal direction and the minimum vertical distance of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the vertical direction, and squaring the minimum horizontal distance and the minimum vertical distance according to the pythagorean theorem to obtain the minimum distance; the minimum horizontal distance is the sum of the widths of the conductive units at which two points closest to the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are spaced in the horizontal direction and the sum of the gaps from the first conductive unit to the second conductive unit in the horizontal direction, and the minimum vertical distance is the sum of the heights of the conductive units at which two points closest to the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are spaced in the vertical direction and the gaps from the first conductive unit to the second conductive unit in the vertical direction.

The principle of calculating the maximum distance is as follows: calculating the maximum horizontal distance of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the horizontal direction and the maximum vertical distance of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the vertical direction, and squaring the maximum horizontal distance and the maximum vertical distance according to the pythagorean theorem to obtain the maximum distance; the maximum horizontal distance is the sum of the widths of the conductive units spaced by the two points farthest from the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the horizontal direction and the sum of the gaps between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the horizontal direction, and the maximum vertical distance is the sum of the heights of the conductive units spaced by the two points farthest from the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the vertical direction and the gaps between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the vertical direction.

For any two conductive units, the processing unit may calculate a minimum distance and a maximum distance between the two conductive units, so that the distribution parameters of any two conductive units in this embodiment may represent one of the minimum distance, the maximum distance, the average distance, and a distance range from the minimum distance to the maximum distance between the two conductive units and the second conductive unit, and the distribution parameters of two different conductive units need to correspond to the same distance type, such as the minimum distances, so that the power supply parameter can be determined according to the minimum distance.

In the present embodiment, the way for the processing unit 20 to determine the power supply parameter according to the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit is: and searching a power supply parameter matched with the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit from the corresponding relation between the distance and the power supply parameter according to the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit.

The corresponding relationship between the distance and the power supply parameter indicates the power supply parameter corresponding to the distance, and if the minimum distance is adopted, the corresponding relationship indicates the power supply parameter corresponding to the different minimum distances, and if the distance range from the minimum distance to the maximum distance is adopted, the corresponding relationship indicates the power supply parameter corresponding to the different distance ranges, as shown in table 1 below.

TABLE 1 distance Range and Power supply parameter correspondence

Range of distances	Power supply parameter
		20cm～25cm	20V 45W
12cm～16cm	15V 30W
		8cm～11cm	9V 18W
4cm～7cm	5V 10W

Therefore, after the processing unit calculates the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit, the processing unit can search the matched power supply parameter from the corresponding relation between the distance and the power supply parameter, wherein the corresponding relation between the distance and the power supply parameter can be stored in the storage unit of the power supply equipment, or the corresponding relation between the distance and the power supply parameter can also be stored in the storage equipment communicated with the power supply equipment, so that the structure and the size of the power supply equipment can be simplified, but the efficiency can be reduced.

In this embodiment, another way to determine the power supply parameter is: the processing unit 20 determines the power supply parameter according to a difference between a first signal transmitted by the transmitting component of one of the two conductive units in contact with the same powered device and a second signal received by the receiving component of the other conductive unit and matched with the first signal.

Wherein the second signal matches the first signal indicating that the second signal and the first signal have the same signal parameter but the same signal parameter does not characterize the difference between the first signal and the second signal, and the second signal and the first signal also have a different signal parameter that characterizes the difference between the first signal and the second signal. The same signal parameter may be, but is not limited to, the frequency of the first signal, so as to indicate that the second signal is obtained according to the first signal, for example, the first signal is obtained after being processed by the powered device; the different signal parameter may be, but is not limited to, a voltage difference between the first signal and the second signal, for example, the voltage in the second signal is decreased or increased relative to the voltage in the first signal after the first signal is processed by the powered device, so that it is known that the difference between the first signal and the second signal is caused by a conducting member of the powered device, the conducting member of the powered device includes, but is not limited to, two powered units in the powered device and a circuit for connecting the two powered units, so that the first signal can be received by the conducting member, and the second signal is obtained according to the first signal and transmitted to the other powered unit.

After obtaining the difference between the first signal and the second signal, the processing unit searches for the power supply parameter matched with the difference between the first signal and the second signal from the corresponding relation between the difference and the power supply parameter. Wherein the correspondence of the difference and the power supply parameter indicates the power supply parameter to which the difference corresponds, whereby the corresponding power supply parameter can be obtained upon determination of the difference between the first signal and the second signal.

For example, the difference between the first signal and the second signal is represented by a voltage drop, and the correspondence between the difference and the power supply parameter is shown in table 2, which illustrates that the voltage drop corresponds to different power supply parameters, so that the power supply parameter can be matched by determining how much the voltage drop is determined by the difference between the first signal and the second signal.

TABLE 2 correspondence of differences and supply parameters

Difference in	Power supply parameter
		-1.2V	20V 45W
-0.9V	15V 30W
		-0.6V	9V 18W
-0.3V	5V 10W

Where "-" indicates that the voltage value is reduced, the correspondence between the difference and the power supply parameter may be stored in a storage unit of the power supply apparatus, or the correspondence between the difference and the power supply parameter may be stored in a storage apparatus in communication with the power supply apparatus, which may simplify the structure and volume of the power supply apparatus but may reduce efficiency. In addition, the difference between the first signal and the second signal may be a voltage value increase, or a difference between other parameters in the first signal and the second signal, such as a current difference, and the like, and the detailed description of the embodiment is omitted.

With reference to fig. 1 to 8, a power supply apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application is described below, where two conductive units in the conductive unit array 10 are in contact with one powered device, and the processing unit 20 determines two conductive unit arrays in contact with the same powered device from the conductive unit arrays:

the above power supply apparatus includes: an array of conductive elements 10 and a processing unit 20. Two conductive units in the conductive unit array 10 are contacted by one power receiving apparatus, enabling the power receiving apparatus to be powered by the power supply apparatus based on the two conductive units being turned on.

The processing unit 20 is configured to determine that two conductive units are contacted by the same powered device according to a first signal corresponding to one of the two conductive units and a second signal corresponding to the other of the two conductive units, where the first signal and the second signal have a first signal parameter, determine two conductive units contacted by the same powered device in a signal parameter manner, and pair the two conductive units contacted by the same powered device from the conductive unit array.

The first signal parameter of the first signal and the first signal parameter of the second signal can be used as the identifier of the first signal and the second signal, and can be distinguished from the signals corresponding to other conductive units in the conductive unit array, that is, the first signal parameter of the first signal and the first signal of the second signal are unique, and in the process that two conductive units in contact with the same powered device use the first signal parameter, two conductive units in contact with other powered devices use other signal parameters different from the first signal parameter, so that the conductive units in contact with the powered device can be distinguished through the signal parameters.

In this embodiment, a first signal corresponding to one of the two conductive elements and a second signal corresponding to the other of the two conductive elements is in the form of: one conductive unit transmits a first signal, and the other conductive unit receives a second signal, wherein the first signal and the second signal are two signals with completely same signal parameters, and the signal parameters of the two signals are the first signal parameters, for example, the first signal and the second signal comprise frequency parameters and/or voltage parameters, and if the first signal and the second signal are the same, the frequency parameters and/or the voltage parameters are the same; or the first signal and the second signal are two different signals but have the same first signal parameter in the first signal and the second signal, for example, if the first signal and the second signal include a frequency parameter and a voltage parameter, the frequency parameter or the voltage parameter in the two signals is the same when the first signal and the second signal are different, as shown in fig. 2.

The points to be explained here are: if the signals corresponding to each conductive element in the array of conductive elements include a frequency parameter and a voltage parameter, the first signal parameter is a signal parameter capable of distinguishing a first signal and a second signal from a plurality of signals, for example, the first signal is transmitted at 3.3V 2kz, the second signal is received at 3.0V 2kz, and the first signal parameter is 2kz, the frequency parameters of the signals corresponding to other conductive elements are different from the frequency parameters of the first signal, so that the first signal and the second signal can be distinguished from the plurality of signals, for example, the other signals may be: a 3.3V 1kz signal or a 6.0V 3kz signal, and if the first signal and the second signal are both 3.3V 2kz signals, the first signal parameters are 3.3V and 2kz, and the voltage parameters and the frequency parameters of the other signals are different from those in the first signal parameters.

In addition to two conductive elements of the array of conductive elements being able to contact one powered device, the conductive elements of the array of conductive elements may also be able to contact other powered devices, for example, in the present embodiment, a first conductive element in the array of conductive elements corresponds to a first signal, a second conductive element in the array of conductive elements corresponds to a second signal, the first conductive element and the second conductive element are contacted by a first powered device, in this process, the processing unit 20 is further configured to determine that the third conductive element and the fourth conductive element are contacted by the second powered device according to a third signal corresponding to the third conductive element in the array of conductive elements and a fourth signal corresponding to the fourth conductive element in the array of conductive elements, to simultaneously power the first powered device and the second powered device through the first through fourth conductive units in the array of conductive units.

Wherein the third signal and the fourth signal have a second signal parameter, the second signal parameter is different from the first signal parameter, so that the third signal and the fourth signal can be distinguished from the first signal and the second signal by the second signal parameter and the first signal parameter, thereby specifying that the second signal parameter can be used as an identifier of the third signal and the fourth signal and that the second signal parameter is unique, so that the third signal and the fourth signal can be distinguished from signals corresponding to other conductive units by the second signal parameter, thereby specifying, from the conductive unit array, the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in contact with the first powered device and the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit in contact with the second powered device by the first signal parameter and the second signal parameter, for the description of the second signal parameter, refer to the above description of the first signal parameter, and will not be described in detail herein.

For the first to fourth conductive elements, the relationship between the first to fourth conductive elements may be: the first and second conductive units are the same or different, and the second and fourth conductive units are the same or different, that is, when the conductive unit array is in contact with the first and second powered devices, the first and second powered devices may share the same conductive unit, if the first and second powered devices are in contact with the first conductive unit at the same time, the third conductive unit is the same as the first conductive unit, but here, it should be noted that: under the condition that power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device are different, if the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same, and the power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device are different, the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are different, and if the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are the same, the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are different, so that power is supplied to the two powered devices through the three conductive units.

In this embodiment, at least some of the conductive units of the conductive unit array emit signals, and signal parameters corresponding to the signals emitted by at least some of the conductive units are different, or each of the conductive units of the conductive unit array emits information, and signal parameters corresponding to the signals emitted by each of the conductive units are different, which may be specifically divided into the following four cases:

in the first case: part of the conductive units in the conductive unit array have a signal transmitting function, part of the conductive units have a signal receiving function, and the processing unit allocates different signal parameters (such as frequency) to each conductive unit with the signal transmitting function in advance, so that the transmitted signals have different signal parameters; the conductive units with the signal transmitting function can transmit signals once at a certain interval, and can also transmit signals once after contacting the power receiving equipment; if a part of the conductive units have a signal transmitting function, the part of the conductive units may be distributed at the edge of the conductive unit array, for example, at least one of the left edge, the right edge, the upper edge and the lower edge of the conductive unit array is provided with a conductive unit having a signal transmitting function, as shown in fig. 9, each side edge of the conductive unit array is provided with a conductive unit having a signal transmitting function (as shown by a dashed box in fig. 9), and the other areas are provided with conductive units having a signal receiving function, so as to meet the power supply requirements for different powered devices at the same time and reduce the probability of errors in the placement of the powered devices.

In the second case: part of the conductive units in the conductive unit array have a signal transmitting function, part of the conductive units have a signal receiving function, the processing unit distributes signal parameters to the conductive units with the signal transmitting function when monitoring that the conductive units are in contact with the powered device, and if the conductive units are not in contact with the powered device, the distributed signal parameters can be distributed to other conductive units in contact with the powered device, so that the signal parameters are dynamically distributed and reused;

for the first case and the second case, the conductive units may include a transmitting component or a receiving component, where the transmitting component is used to transmit signals, and the receiving component is used to receive signals, and when the conductive units are arranged in the conductive unit array, the conductive units may be arranged with reference to fig. 9, or the conductive units may be arranged in other manners, which is not described in this embodiment. Of course the conductive elements for the first and second case may comprise a transmitting component and a receiving component, and then part of the conductive elements may be controlled by the processing unit 20 to be able to transmit signals and part of the conductive elements may be able to receive signals.

In the third case: the conductive units in the conductive unit array have a signal transmitting function and a signal receiving function, and the processing unit distributes different signal parameters to each conductive unit in advance to enable the transmitted signals to have different signal parameters;

in a fourth case: the conductive units in the conductive unit array have a signal transmitting function and a signal receiving function, but the processing unit allocates signal parameters to the conductive units when the conductive units are detected to be in contact with the powered device, and if the conductive units are detected to be not in contact with the powered device any more, the signal parameters allocated to the conductive units can be allocated to other conductive units in contact with the powered device.

For the third and fourth cases, the conductive units may include a transmitting component and a receiving component, and both of the conductive units may transmit signals and both of the signals transmitted by the conductive units may be received by the conductive unit of the opposite end in the process of being contacted by the same powered device.

For the above four cases, the present embodiment determines two conductive units in contact with the same power receiving apparatus as follows:

for the first case: the first conductive element transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter, the third conductive element transmits a third signal having a second signal parameter, and the processing element 20 is configured to determine that the first conductive element and the second conductive element are contacted by the first powered device if the second conductive element receives the second signal having the first signal parameter, and to determine that the third conductive element and the fourth conductive element are contacted by the second powered device if the fourth conductive element receives the fourth signal having the second signal parameter, such that the conductive element pairing is achieved via the first signal parameter and the second signal parameter.

After the conductive unit pairing is achieved through the signal parameter, the present embodiment also needs to determine the positions of the paired two conductive units in the conductive unit array, so as to determine that the paired conductive unit is the second conductive unit in the conductive unit array through the positions in the conductive unit array, in other words, through the positions of the conductive units in the conductive unit array, the processing unit 20 instructs the conductive unit at the position to supply power to the powered device.

In the first case, the processing unit 20 allocates signal parameters to the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit in advance, specifically, the processing unit 20 allocates a first signal parameter to the first conductive unit in advance, and allocates a second signal parameter to the third conductive unit in advance, and the processing unit 20 allocates the signal parameters in advance so that the signal parameters and the conductive units are in a one-to-one relationship, and therefore, in the process of allocating the signal parameters to the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit, the processing unit 20 can know which conductive unit in the conductive unit array is allocated with the signal parameters, and can further determine the positions of the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit in the conductive unit array.

Since the second conductive unit receives the second signal by the first powered device and the fourth conductive unit receives the fourth signal by the second powered device, if the processing unit 20 determines the positions of the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array, it needs to acquire information indicating the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit, for example, one way is: the processing unit is connected with the conductive units in a one-to-one mode through pins, a first pin of the processing unit is connected with the first conductive unit, a second pin of the processing unit is connected with the second conductive unit, therefore, in the process that the first conductive unit transmits a first signal and the second conductive unit receives a second signal, the first signal can be received by the first pin, the second signal can be received by the second pin, the position of the second conductive unit in the conductive unit array can be determined through the second pin, and the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit can be paired.

In the same way, the third pin of the processing unit is connected with the third conductive unit, and the fourth pin of the processing unit is connected with the fourth conductive unit, so that in the process of transmitting a third signal by the third conductive unit and receiving a fourth signal by the fourth conductive unit, the third signal can be received by the third pin, the fourth signal can be received by the fourth pin, and the position of the fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array can be determined through the fourth pin, and the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit can be paired.

If the second conductive element and the fourth conductive element include a transmitting component, the second conductive element may transmit an identification of the second conductive element (e.g., a number in the array of conductive elements) to the processing unit after receiving the second signal, and the processing unit may determine the location of the second conductive element in the array of conductive elements based on the identification of the second conductive element. For the fourth conductive element, the identity of the fourth conductive element may also be fed back to the processing unit to determine the position of the fourth conductive element in the array of conductive elements.

For the second case: in the second case, the processing unit 20 determines that the first and second conductive units are contacted by the first powered device and that the third and fourth conductive units are contacted by the second powered device in the same manner as in the first case, but differs in that the first signal parameter used by the first conductive unit and the second signal parameter used by the third conductive unit are assigned when the processing unit detects that the first and third conductive units are respectively contacted by the powered device.

In the second case, the positions of the two conductive elements in the conductive element array may also be determined, because the processing unit 20 dynamically allocates the signal parameters, for example, the processing unit 20 allocates the first signal parameter to the first conductive element and allocates the second signal parameter to the third conductive element, and this way of dynamically allocating the signal parameters cannot make the signal parameters uniquely correspond to one conductive element, so the processing unit 20 cannot know the positions of the first conductive element and the third conductive element in the conductive element array during the process of dynamically allocating the signal parameters. In the second case, the positions of the first to fourth conductive elements in the conductive element array may be determined with reference to the manner in which the positions of the second and fourth conductive elements in the conductive element array are determined in the first case.

For the third case: the first conductive element transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter; the second conductive element transmits a fifth signal having a third signal parameter; the third conductive element transmits a third signal having a second signal parameter; the fourth conductive element transmits a seventh signal having a fourth signal parameter;

a corresponding processing unit 20 for determining that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device if the first conductive unit receives a sixth signal having a third signal parameter and the second conductive unit receives a second signal having a first signal parameter, and for determining that the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are contacted by the second powered device if the third conductive unit receives an eighth signal having a fourth signal parameter and the fourth conductive unit receives a fourth signal having a second signal parameter.

As shown in fig. 10, a first conductive element in the array of conductive elements transmits a first signal of 1kz, a second conductive element receives a second signal of 1kz, a second conductive element transmits a fifth signal of 2kz, and a first conductive element receives a sixth signal of 2 kz; if a third conductive element of the array of conductive elements transmits a third signal of 3kz, a fourth conductive element receives a fourth signal of 3kz, a fourth conductive element transmits a seventh signal of 4kz, and a third conductive element receives an eighth signal of 4kz, the processing unit 20 determines that the first conductive element and the second conductive element are contacted by the first powered device and determines that the third conductive element and the fourth conductive element are contacted by the second powered device.

Fig. 10 is only an exemplary illustration of various signals, and in this embodiment, please refer to the above description of the first signal parameter and the second signal parameter for the description of the third signal parameter and the fourth signal parameter, which is not further described in this embodiment.

After determining that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device and determining that the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are contacted by the second powered device, the processing unit 20 may further determine the positions of the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array, because the processing unit 20 assigns the respective corresponding signal parameters to the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit in advance, so that the signal parameters and the conductive units are in a one-to-one relationship, in the process of assigning the signal parameters to the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit in advance, the processing unit 20 may know which conductive unit in the conductive unit array the signal parameters are assigned, and may further determine the positions of the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit in the conductive unit array.

For the fourth case: in the fourth case, the processing unit 20 determines that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device and that the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are contacted by the second powered device in the same manner as in the third case, but the difference is that the signal parameters adopted by the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit are distributed when the processing unit monitors that the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit are respectively contacted by the powered device, such dynamic distribution may be a random disorder distribution, and then the processing unit 20 cannot know which conductive unit in the conductive unit array is distributed with the signal parameters in the process of distributing the signal parameters, so that the manner of determining the position of the conductive unit in the conductive unit array needs to be referred to the first case and the second case.

If only two conductive elements of the array of conductive elements are in contact with the powered device, such as the first conductive element and the second conductive element are in contact with the first powered device, then the processing unit 20 determines that: the first conductive unit transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter, and if the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, the processing unit 20 determines that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are in contact with the first powered device; if the first conductive element transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter and the second conductive element transmits a fifth signal having a third signal parameter, the processing unit 20 determines that the process includes: if the first conductive unit receives a sixth signal having the third signal parameter and the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, it is determined that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device. The processing unit 20 may also set the signal parameters and determine the position of the conductive unit in the conductive unit array with reference to the first to fourth cases during the contact between only two conductive units and the powered device, which is not described in detail herein.

The process for pairing the conductive units: if the processing unit 20 is in one-to-many relationship with each conductive element in the conductive element array, that is, one processing unit 20 controls all conductive elements in the conductive element array, the processing unit 20 can monitor signal transmission of any conductive element and signal reception of any conductive element, thereby enabling pairing of conductive elements and the respective positions of the paired conductive elements in the conductive element array to be completed by one processing unit 20; if the relationship between the processing unit 20 and each conductive unit in the conductive unit array is many-to-many or one-to-one, that is, if the plurality of processing units 20 control all conductive units in the conductive unit array, it may happen that two conductive units contacted by the same powered device correspond to different processing units, information interaction between the plurality of processing units 20 is required to determine the paired conductive units and the respective positions of the paired conductive units in the conductive unit array through cooperation of the plurality of processing units 20.

Through above-mentioned technical scheme, the processing unit determines two electrically conductive units in the electrically conductive unit array and same powered device contact through the first signal parameter that first signal and second signal have, realizes the pairing to electrically conductive unit in electrically conductive unit array and powered device contact process.

In the process of pairing the conductive units, the positions of the two conductive units in the conductive unit array can be determined according to the first signal and the second signal, so that the distance between the two conductive units can be calculated, and the mode of determining the power supply parameter according to the distance between the first signal and the second signal can be assisted.

In this embodiment, the power supply apparatus is capable of supplying power to at least two power receiving apparatuses simultaneously in a manner of supplying voltage, and the structure of the corresponding power supply apparatus may include, as shown in fig. 11: an array of conductive elements 10 and a power supply unit 30.

Two conductive units in the conductive unit array 10 are contacted by one power receiving apparatus, so that the power receiving apparatus is powered by the power supply apparatus based on the conducted two conductive units.

And a power supply unit 30 for setting voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit when the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the conductive unit array are contacted by the first power receiving apparatus, and setting voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit when the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array are contacted by the second power receiving apparatus, so that the power supply apparatus can simultaneously supply power to the first power receiving apparatus and the second power receiving apparatus.

In the present embodiment, the voltage setting of the first to fourth conductive units by the power supply unit 30 needs to follow a little requirement: the voltage difference between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit is not greater than the voltage of the power supply parameter required by the first powered device, and the voltage difference between the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit is not greater than the voltage of the power supply parameter required by the second powered device, so as to ensure the power supply safety, for example, the voltage required by the first powered device is 25V, the voltage difference between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit is not more than 25V, the voltage required by the second powered device is 10V, the voltage difference between the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit is not greater than 10V because the voltage required by the first powered device and the second powered device is the maximum voltage that the first powered device and the second powered device can withstand, and if power is supplied with a voltage greater than the maximum voltage, the powered device may be damaged or even an explosion or other dangerous event may occur, the present embodiment sets the voltages of the first to fourth conductive units in compliance with the above requirements.

The currents of the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit may affect the power supply rate, and in this embodiment, a larger current may be provided for the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit, but power consumption in the power supply process needs to be considered when the larger current is provided, and since the larger current is, the power consumption may also be larger, the power consumption and the power supply rate of the power supply device need to be comprehensively considered in the process of providing the current, which is not described in this embodiment.

The types of the first powered device and the second powered device may be the same or different, for example, the types of the first powered device and the second powered device are the same, and the first powered device and the second powered device are both one of a mobile phone, a computer, a mouse, and the like, so that when the power supply unit supplies power to two powered devices of the same type, if the power supply parameters required by the two powered devices of the same type are the same, the power supply unit may set the voltages of the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit to be the same voltage value at the same time, and set the voltages of the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit to be the same voltage value at the same time, thereby saving time. For example, the voltages of the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are 0, and the voltages of the second conductive unit and the third conductive unit are voltages in the power supply parameters required by the two power receiving devices of the same type.

If the types of the first powered device and the second powered device are different, one of the first powered device and the second powered device may be one of a mobile phone, a computer, a mouse, and the like, and the other powered device may be a different one of the devices, so that the different types of powered devices can be simultaneously powered by the power supply device. And because the required power supply parameter of different types of powered devices is different, the power supply unit needs to set up the voltage for first electrically conductive unit to fourth electrically conductive unit respectively, increases time.

For the first to fourth conductive elements, the relationship between the first to fourth conductive elements may be: the first conductive element and the second conductive element are the same or different, and the second conductive element and the fourth conductive element are the same or different.

That is, the conductive unit array is in contact with the first powered device and the second powered device, the first powered device and the second powered device may share the same conductive unit, if the first powered device and the second powered device are in contact with the first conductive unit at the same time, the third conductive unit is the same as the first conductive unit, but here, it should be noted that: under the condition that power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device are different, if the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same, and the power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device are different, the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are different, and if the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are the same, the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are different, so that power is supplied to the two powered devices through the three conductive units. In the case that the power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device are the same, the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same, and the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are the same, so that the two powered devices with the same power supply parameters are supplied with power through the two conductive units.

In the present embodiment, the relationship between the power supply unit 30 and the conductive units in the conductive unit array 10 includes, but is not limited to, the following relationship:

a relationship between the power supply unit 30 and the conductive unit: the power supply unit 30 and the conductive units are in a one-to-many relationship, that is, one power supply unit 30 controls the voltage settings of each conductive unit in the conductive unit array 10, because different conductive units in the conductive unit array 10 may need different voltages when in contact with the powered device, the power supply unit 30 needs to have the function of providing different voltages, for example, an optional structure of the power supply unit 30 is as follows: the supply voltage 30 includes the same number of voltage control circuits (e.g., step-up and step-down circuits) as the number of conductive elements and at least one voltage generation circuit, one voltage control circuit being connected to one conductive element, as shown in fig. 12. The voltage generating circuit generates a reference voltage (the reference voltage cannot be 0), then the reference voltage is input into the voltage control circuit, and the voltage control circuit adjusts the reference voltage according to the current required voltage of the corresponding conducting unit.

Another relationship between the power supply unit 30 and the conductive unit: the power supply unit 30 is in one-to-one or many-to-many relationship with the conductive elements to control the voltage settings of each conductive element in the conductive element array 10 by a plurality of power supply units. In the control process of multiple power supply units, two conductive units in contact with the same powered device correspond to different power supply units, and it is necessary to enable the multiple power supply units 30 to cooperatively set the voltages of the two conductive units in contact with the same powered device through information exchange between the multiple power supply units 30. If the power supply unit and the conductive unit are in a many-to-many relationship, an optional structure of the power supply unit is shown in fig. 12, which is not described again in this embodiment; if the power supply unit and the conductive unit are in a one-to-one relationship, the power supply unit may include a voltage generation circuit and a voltage control circuit, and the voltage control circuit is adopted because the voltage required by the conductive unit is also affected by the voltage of the power receiving device in contact with the conductive unit and/or the voltage of another conductive unit in contact with the power receiving device, and therefore the power supply unit also needs to have a voltage adjustment function.

The relationship between the power supply unit and the conductive unit is similar to the relationship between the processing unit and the conductive unit, and the connection between the power supply units is similar to the connection between the processing units, so that the relationship between the power supply unit and the conductive unit and the connection between the power supply units are schematically illustrated in fig. 4 to 7, which will not be described in detail in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, the power supply unit needs to determine which two conductive units are set with voltages in the voltage setting process, so the power supply unit can pair the conductive units before setting the voltages, the pairing process can be described in the above description of the processing unit 20, the present embodiment can write the pairing function of the processing unit into the power supply unit, or the power supply apparatus includes: an array of conductive elements 10, a processing unit 20 and a power supply unit 30, as shown in fig. 13. A processing unit 20 for determining two conductive units in the conductive unit array 10 when the two conductive units are in contact with the same power receiving apparatus; the processing unit 20 sends the determined information of the two conducting units to the power supply unit 30, the power supply unit 30 sets the voltages of the two conducting units, and the information interaction process between the processing unit 20 and the power supply unit 30 can be realized by at least one of pins or buses, and for the description of the processing unit and the power supply unit, please refer to the above description, and the detailed description is omitted here.

According to the technical scheme, when the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the conductive unit array are contacted by the first power receiving device, the power supply unit sets the voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit, and when the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array are contacted by the second power receiving device, the power supply unit sets the voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit, so that the power supply device can simultaneously supply power to the first power receiving device and the second power receiving device; the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same or different, and the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are the same or different, so that one conductive unit from the first conductive unit to the fourth conductive unit can be multiplexed, the purpose of simultaneously supplying power to two powered devices through three conductive units in the conductive unit array is achieved, and the power supply device can simultaneously supply power to more powered devices.

The following is a description of how the power supply unit sets the voltage and the setting of the voltage when multiplexing one conductive unit:

a power supply unit 30, configured to obtain a power supply parameter of the first powered device when it is determined that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device, set voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device, and configured to obtain a power supply parameter of the second powered device when it is determined that the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are contacted by the second powered device, set voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device, so that the voltage of the conductive unit contacted by the powered device matches the power supply parameter of the powered device.

One setting mode is as follows: the power supply unit 30 determines a voltage difference between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit as a first voltage difference according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device, and sets voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit according to the first voltage difference; for example, the first voltage difference determined according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device is not greater than the voltage required by the first powered device, if the power supply parameter of the first powered device indicates that the voltage required by the first powered device is 5V, the difference between the voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit is set to be 5V, and if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 5V and the voltage of the second conductive unit is 0V or 10V, it is preferable that a point requirement is satisfied while the voltage difference between the second conductive unit and the first conductive unit is the first voltage difference: the voltage of the first conductive unit and the voltage of the second conductive unit make the power consumption of the power supply device lowest, and the power consumption of the power supply device at this time is the sum of the power consumption of the first conductive unit and the power consumption of the second conductive unit, and as described above, the power consumption of the power supply device when the voltage of the second conductive unit is 0V is smaller than the power consumption of the power supply device when the voltage of the second conductive unit is 10V, and therefore the voltage of the second conductive unit is preferably 0V.

The manner of setting the power supply unit 30 according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device is similar to the above, for example, the power supply unit 30 determines the voltage difference between the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit as the second voltage difference according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device, sets the voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit according to the second voltage difference, and the requirements met by the voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are as follows: the voltage difference between the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit is a second voltage difference, the power consumption of the power supply device is the lowest due to the voltage of the third conductive unit and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit, and the power consumption of the power supply device is the sum of the power consumptions of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit.

The other setting mode is as follows: the power supply unit 30 determines a voltage difference between two conductive units in contact with the same powered device according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the power supply parameter of the second powered device, in a manner of selecting a small power supply parameter from the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the power supply parameter of the second powered device, and setting the voltage difference according to a voltage required by the small power supply parameter. For example, if the power supply parameter of the first powered device is 10V and the power supply parameter of the second powered device is 20V, the voltage difference is set according to 10V, and the set voltage difference is not greater than 10V. The further power supply unit 30 sets the voltages of the first to fourth conductive units according to the set voltage difference, and the set voltages satisfy the requirements as described above, which will not be described again in this embodiment. Of course, in the process of setting the voltage difference according to the voltage required by the small power supply parameter, the first voltage difference may be set for the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit, and the second voltage difference may be set for the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit, respectively.

As can be seen from the above arrangement, the first voltage difference and the second voltage difference may be the same or different. If the power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device are the same, the first voltage difference and the second voltage difference may be the same, so that the two conductive units may be multiplexed, for example, the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit (i.e., the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same, and the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are the same) are multiplexed to simultaneously supply power to the two powered devices, as shown in fig. 14, where both the first voltage difference and the second voltage difference are equal to the voltage required by the power supply parameters; if the power supply parameters of the first and second powered devices are different, the first and second voltage differences may be different to simultaneously power both powered devices by multiplexing one conductive unit, as shown in fig. 15. Of course, if the power supply parameters of the first power receiving device and the second power receiving device are different, the first voltage difference and the second voltage difference may also be the same, and for a specific description, reference is made to the above description, and description of this embodiment is not repeated. The power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device may be determined by the above manner according to the first signal and the second signal, or the power supply parameters of the first powered device and the second powered device may be sent to the power supply device by the powered device, and at this time, the powered device needs to have a carrier generation circuit to send the power supply parameters to the power supply device through the carrier generation circuit.

The following describes a power supply unit by multiplexing a conductive unit, where the first conductive unit is the same as the third conductive unit, and the power supply unit 30 is configured to set a voltage difference between the second conductive unit and the first conductive unit to match a power supply parameter of the first powered device, and set a voltage difference between the fourth conductive unit and the first conductive unit to match a power supply parameter of the second powered device. Wherein the matching is used to characterize a voltage difference between the two arrival units as being equal to or not greater than a voltage in the power supply parameter of the contacted powered device.

In this embodiment, it is preferable that the voltage difference between the two conductive units is the same as the voltage in the power supply parameters of the contacted powered device, so that the voltage provided by the conductive unit matches the voltage required by the contacted powered device, thereby improving the power supply efficiency.

For example, if the power supply parameter indication voltage of the first power receiving device is 10V and the power supply parameter indication voltage of the second power receiving device is 20V, one setting is: the voltage of the first conductive unit is 0V, the voltage of the second conductive unit is 10V, and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is 20V; the other setting mode is as follows: if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 10V, the voltage of the second conductive unit is 0V, and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is 30V, as long as the voltage difference between the second conductive unit and the first conductive unit matches the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the voltage difference between the fourth conductive unit and the first conductive unit matches the power supply parameter of the second powered device.

Referring to the drawings, in the prior art, if a first powered device and a second powered device multiplex a conductive unit, a power supply unit may sequentially supply power to the first powered device and the second powered device according to a placement order, if the first powered device is placed on the power supply device first, a voltage difference between two conductive units in contact with the first powered device is a voltage required by the first powered device, as shown in fig. 16, after power supply of the first powered device is finished (fig. 16 shows that power supply of the first powered device is finished by a dotted line), a voltage of the multiplexed conductive unit may be changed according to a voltage required by the second powered device, so as to supply power to the second powered device. In this embodiment, the voltages of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit can be set according to the voltages required by the first powered device and the second powered device, and power can be supplied to the first powered device and the second powered device at the same time, and regardless of whether the first powered device and the second powered device are placed in sequence, the voltages of the conductive units in contact with each other can be set to supply power to two powered devices at the same time, as shown in fig. 17, certainly, power can be supplied to three or more powered devices at the same time, and a schematic diagram of supplying power to three powered devices at the same time is shown in fig. 18 or fig. 19, and power supply to three powered devices is realized in different multiplexing modes.

However, as can be seen from the above example, the power consumption of the power supply apparatus when the voltage of the first conductive unit is 0V is greater than the power consumption of the power supply apparatus when the voltage of the first conductive unit is 10V, wherein the power consumption of the power supply apparatus is the power consumption of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit, so the power supply unit 30 may follow a point when setting the voltages of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit: the sum of the power consumptions of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit, which is set by the power supply unit 30 according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the power supply parameter of the second powered device, is the lowest, so that the power consumption of the power supply device is the lowest after being ensured and the power consumption of the power supply device is reduced in the process of simultaneously supplying power to different powered devices.

The first conductive unit is a multiplexing conductive unit, the power supply unit can determine the voltages of the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the power supply parameter of the second powered device after the voltage of the first conductive unit is set, so that the processing efficiency is improved, if the power supply unit is firstly set with the second conductive unit, the voltage of the first conductive unit needs to be determined according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device, and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit can be determined according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device, so that the processing time is prolonged and the processing efficiency is reduced compared with a mode of firstly setting the voltage of the first conductive unit; otherwise, if the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are simultaneously configured, after the voltage of the first conductive unit is configured, the voltage difference between the first conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit or the voltage difference between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit does not meet the requirement of the power supply parameter of the contacted powered device, and the configuration needs to be repeated.

Based on the above analysis, the power supply unit 30 is configured to determine a first setting direction of a voltage of the second conductive unit with respect to a voltage of the first conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the voltage of the first conductive unit, set the voltage of the second conductive unit according to the first setting direction, determine a second setting direction of a voltage of the fourth conductive unit with respect to the voltage of the first conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device and the voltage of the first conductive unit, and set the voltage of the fourth conductive unit according to the second setting direction.

The first setting direction is used for indicating the voltage magnitude relation between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit, and the second setting direction is used for indicating the voltage magnitude relation between the first conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit. The setting direction indication can increase the setting if the voltage magnitude relation indication can be larger than the first conductive element; the setting direction indication can reduce the setting if the voltage magnitude indication can be smaller than the first conductive element.

Still taking the power supply parameter indication voltage of the first powered device as 10V and the power supply parameter indication voltage of the second powered device as 20V as an example, if the voltage of the first conductive unit is not greater than 10V, the voltages of the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit can only be greater than the voltage of the first conductive unit, and both the first setting direction and the second setting direction indicate the incremental setting, for example, the voltage of the first conductive unit is 0V, the voltage of the second conductive unit is 10V, and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is 20V; if the voltage of the first conductive unit is greater than 10V, the voltage of the second conductive unit may be less than or greater than the voltage of the first conductive unit, but the voltage of the fourth conductive unit needs to be greater than the voltage of the first conductive unit, the first setting direction indicates an increase setting or a decrease setting, and the second setting direction indicates a decrease setting, for example, the voltage of the first conductive unit is 10V, the voltage of the second conductive unit may be 0V or 20V, and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is 30V.

In this embodiment, the voltage of the power supply unit with respect to the first conductive unit is set to decrease if at least one of the first setting direction and the second setting direction indicates that the setting can be increased and decreased. As in the above example: the power supply parameter of the first powered device indicates that the voltage is 10V, the voltage of the first conductive unit is 10V, the voltage of the second conductive unit may be 0V or 20V, and the power supply unit sets the voltage of the second conductive unit to 0V to reduce the sum of the power consumptions of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit.

While some ways of setting the voltage by the power supply unit are described above, for example, the way of setting the voltage by the power supply unit 30 is described based on the fact that the sum of the power consumptions of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit is the lowest, other ways of setting the voltage by the power supply unit in this embodiment are as follows:

if the power supply parameter of the first powered device is larger than the power supply parameter of the second powered device, the power supply unit 30 sets the voltage in a manner that: if the voltage of the first conductive unit is greater than the voltage of the second conductive unit, setting the voltage of the fourth conductive unit in a mode of being less than the voltage of the first conductive unit; if the voltage of the first conductive unit is less than the voltage of the second conductive unit, the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is set in a manner of being less than the voltage of the second conductive unit, so as to set the voltage of the fourth conductive unit by combining the voltage relationship between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit and the relationship between the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the power supply parameter of the second powered device.

For example, if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 25V and the voltage of the second conductive unit is 0V, the power supply unit sets the voltage of the fourth conductive unit to 15V, and the fourth conductive unit is set to be lower than the voltage of the first conductive unit and higher than the voltage of the first conductive unit, the power consumption is reduced; if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 0V and the voltage of the second conductive unit is 25V, the power supply unit sets the voltage of the fourth conductive unit to 10V, or if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 5V and the voltage of the second conductive unit is 30V, the power supply unit sets the voltage of the fourth conductive unit to 20V. From these voltage settings, a voltage of 0V for the first conductive element may reduce the sum of power consumptions among the first conductive element, the second conductive element, and the fourth conductive element in the power supply device relative to other manners.

If the power supply parameter of the first powered device is less than the power supply parameter of the second powered device, the power supply unit 30 may set the voltage of the fourth conductive unit to be greater than the voltage of the first conductive unit; for example, the power supply parameter of the first powered device indicates that the voltage is 5V, the power supply parameter of the second powered device indicates that the voltage is 10V, and if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 5V and the voltage of the second conductive unit is 0V, the power supply unit sets the voltage of the fourth conductive unit to 15V; if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 0V, the voltage of the second conductive unit is 5V, and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is 10V.

If the power supply parameter of the first powered device is less than the power supply parameter of the second powered device, the power supply unit 30 sets the voltage of the fourth conductive unit to 0 and modifies the voltages of the first and second conductive units according to the voltage of the fourth conductive unit, which may reduce power consumption. Still taking the above-mentioned power supply parameter indication voltage of the first powered device as 5V and the power supply parameter indication voltage of the second powered device as 10V as an example, if the voltage of the first conductive unit is 5V and the voltage of the second conductive unit is 0V, the power supply unit sets the voltage of the fourth conductive unit as 15V, but if the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is set to 0V, the voltage of the first conductive unit is corrected to 10V and the voltage of the second conductive unit is corrected to 5V, which is reduced relative to the sum of the previously set voltages, thereby reducing power consumption.

As can be seen from the voltage setting manner of the power supply unit explained in the three aspects of the aforementioned lowest sum of the power consumptions of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit, the power supply parameter of the first powered device being greater than the power supply parameter of the second powered device, and the power supply parameter of the first powered device being less than the power supply parameter of the second powered device, the power supply unit can arbitrarily set the voltage of the first conductive unit and the voltage of the second conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device, and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is set according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device and the voltage of the first conductive unit, alternatively, the power supply unit may optionally set the voltage of the first conductive unit and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device, and the voltage of the second conductive unit may be set according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the voltage of the first conductive unit. However, in view of different examples of the above three aspects, the power consumption of the power supply device is relatively lowest when the voltage of the first conductive element is 0, so that in the process of randomly setting the voltage, the power supply unit of the present embodiment may follow a setting strategy that the voltage of the multiplexed conductive element is smaller than that of the non-multiplexed conductive element.

If the number of the multiplexed conductive units is greater than 1 while supplying power to at least three powered devices, it is only necessary that the voltage of one multiplexed conductive unit satisfies the setting policy, and power consumption may be increased if the voltages of a plurality of multiplexed conductive units all satisfy the setting policy, as shown in fig. 20. When the voltage of one multiplexed conductive unit meets the setting strategy, the corresponding power consumption is obviously smaller than that when the voltages of a plurality of multiplexed conductive units all meet the setting strategy, even if the voltages of the plurality of multiplexed conductive units all meet the setting strategy, a situation of power supply error can occur simultaneously, as shown in fig. 21, the conductive unit corresponding to the bold font is powered by 5V powered equipment, but the voltage of the conductive unit can be set to be larger than 30V if the setting strategy is met, and the powered equipment is powered by a mode that the voltage difference between the two conductive units is larger than 5V, so that the problem of power supply error occurs, and even danger can occur.

In this embodiment, the power supply unit 30 may set the voltage of the multiplexed first conductive unit in the following manner: and the power supply unit is used for setting the voltage of the first conductive unit as a preset voltage if the power supply parameter of the first powered device meets a preset condition, wherein the preset voltage indicates that the power supply parameter of the second powered device is greater than the power supply parameter of the first powered device, the voltage of the second conductive unit and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit can be reduced relative to the first conductive unit, so that when the first conductive unit is multiplexed and the power supply parameter is greater than the power supply parameter of the first powered device, the voltage of the second conductive unit and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit can be directly downwards adjusted (namely the voltage of the first conductive unit is reduced) by taking the voltage of the first conductive unit as a reference, and the voltage setting of the second conductive unit and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is simplified.

The power supply parameter of the first powered device meets the preset condition, which indicates that the first conductive unit contacts a powered device with a small power supply parameter first, and at this time, the voltage of the first conductive unit can be set to a larger value, so that even if the first conductive unit is multiplexed, the voltage on the first conductive unit can also support the requirement of the powered device with the largest power supply parameter. For example, the current requirements of powered devices are: 5V, 10V and 25V, and if the power supply parameter of the first powered device is 5V or 10V, the voltage of the first conductive unit is set to be greater than or equal to 25V, so that even if the first conductive unit is multiplexed to contact a powered device of which the power supply parameter indicates that the voltage is 25V, the conductive unit can be directly multiplexed, and the voltage of the conductive unit with which the same powered device is set can be reduced relative to the conductive unit.

If it is determined that the power supply parameter of the first powered device satisfies the preset condition, the power supply unit may further set the voltage of the first conductive unit to be the voltage indicated by the power supply parameter of the first powered device or set the voltage of the first conductive unit to be 0V. Still illustrated by the above example, the current requirements of the powered device are: 5V, 10V and 25V, if the power supply parameter of the first powered device is 5V, the voltage of the first conductive unit is set to be less than or equal to 5V, so that even if the first conductive unit is in multiplexing contact with a powered device with a power supply parameter indication voltage of 25V, the conductive unit can be directly multiplexed, the voltage of the conductive unit which is in contact with the same powered device as the conductive unit is increased, and the power consumption can be reduced compared with the mode of setting to be the preset voltage. If it is determined that the power supply parameter of the first powered device is the maximum power supply parameter, the power supply unit may set the voltage of the first conductive unit to the voltage indicated by the power supply parameter of the first powered device or set the voltage of the first conductive unit to 0V.

Corresponding to the above power supply device, an embodiment of the present application further provides a power supply method, a flow of which is shown in fig. 22, and the power supply method may include:

201: when two conductive units in the conductive unit array are contacted by a powered device, one of the two conductive units corresponds to a first signal, and the other conductive unit corresponds to a second signal.

202: and determining a power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal.

In this embodiment, one way to determine the power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal is to: determining a first conductive unit and a second conductive unit contacted by the power receiving equipment in the conductive unit array according to the first signal and the second signal; and determining power supply parameters according to the distribution parameters of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit.

Wherein the distribution parameter of the first conductive element and the second conductive element is a parameter characterizing a distance between the first conductive element and the second conductive element. Determining the power supply parameter according to the distribution parameters of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit comprises: and searching a power supply parameter matched with the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit from the corresponding relation between the distance and the power supply parameter according to the distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit.

In this embodiment, another way to determine the power supply parameter according to the first signal and the second signal is to: the power supply parameter is determined as a function of the difference between a first signal and a second signal, wherein one of the two conductive elements emits the first signal and the other conductive element receives the second signal matched to the first signal.

The difference between the first signal and the second signal is caused by the conductive member of the powered device, and then the power supply parameter is determined according to the difference between the first signal and the second signal by: and according to the difference between the first signal and the second signal, searching the power supply parameter matched with the difference between the first signal and the second signal from the corresponding relation between the difference and the power supply parameter.

For a description of the two ways of determining the power supply parameter, reference is made to the above device embodiments, and details thereof are not described herein.

203: and controlling the two conductive units to supply power to the powered device according to the power supply parameters.

In this embodiment, when two conductive units in the conductive unit array are contacted by one powered device, two conductive units contacting the same powered device need to be determined, and the process may be: a first conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter, and if the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, it is determined that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device;

or

A first conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter, a second conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a fifth signal having a third signal parameter, and if the first conductive unit receives a sixth signal having the third signal parameter and the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, it is determined that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device.

Wherein at least some of the conductive elements in the array of conductive elements all emit signals, the signals emitted by at least some of the conductive elements having different signal parameters. Or the power supply method provided by this embodiment further includes: when the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first power receiving apparatus, the first conductive unit is assigned a first signal parameter and the second conductive unit is assigned a fifth signal parameter.

Referring to fig. 23, a flow of another power supply method provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown, which may include the following steps:

301: when two conductive units in the conductive unit array are contacted by a power receiving device, one conductive unit in the two conductive units corresponds to a first signal, and the other conductive unit in the two conductive units corresponds to a second signal.

302: determining that the two conductive units are contacted by the same powered device according to a first signal corresponding to one of the two conductive units and a second signal corresponding to the other of the two conductive units, the first signal and the second signal having a first signal parameter.

In this embodiment, the manner of determining that two conductive units are contacted by the same power receiving apparatus may include, but is not limited to, the following manner:

one way is as follows: a first conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter, and if the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, it is determined that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device.

In another mode: a first conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter, a second conductive unit of the two conductive units transmits a fifth signal having a third signal parameter, and if the first conductive unit receives a sixth signal having the third signal parameter and the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, it is determined that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device.

In this embodiment, a first conductive element in the array of conductive elements corresponds to a first signal, a second conductive element in the array of conductive elements corresponds to a second signal, and the first conductive element and the second conductive element are contacted by a first powered device.

The corresponding power supply method may further include: determining that the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are contacted by the second powered device according to a third signal corresponding to a third conductive unit in the conductive unit array and a fourth signal corresponding to a fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array, the third signal and the fourth signal having a second signal parameter; the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same or different, and the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are the same or different, so that the multiplexing conductive unit can simultaneously supply power to a plurality of powered devices.

In this embodiment, at least some of the conductive units of the conductive unit array emit signals, and the signal parameters corresponding to the signals emitted by at least some of the conductive units are different.

For example, the first conductive element emits a first signal having a first signal parameter. The third conductive element transmits a third signal having the second signal parameter. Correspondingly, when the conductive unit array is simultaneously contacted with the first power receiving device and the second power receiving device, the process of determining the conductive unit comprises the following steps: determining that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device if the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, and determining that the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are contacted by the second powered device if the fourth conductive unit receives a fourth signal having the second signal parameter.

Because at least part of the conductive units transmit signals, the power supply method provided by the embodiment may further include: and allocating a first signal parameter to the first conductive unit and allocating a second signal parameter to the third conductive unit to realize the dynamic allocation of the signal parameters.

After the conductive units are paired, the power supply method provided by this embodiment may further determine the positions of the paired conductive units in the conductive unit array, where the determining the positions includes: determining the positions of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the conductive unit array according to the first pin in the processing unit and the second pin in the processing unit; determining the positions of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array according to a third pin in the processing unit and a fourth pin in the processing unit; the first pin receives a first signal, the second pin receives a second signal, the third pin receives a third signal, and the fourth pin receives a fourth signal.

In this embodiment, each conductive unit in the conductive unit array transmits a signal, and the signal parameters corresponding to the signals transmitted by each conductive unit are different.

For example, the first conductive element transmits a first signal having a first signal parameter; the second conductive element transmits a fifth signal having a third signal parameter; the third conductive element transmits a third signal having a second signal parameter; the fourth conductive element transmits a seventh signal having a fourth signal parameter. Correspondingly, when the conductive unit array is simultaneously contacted with the first power receiving device and the second power receiving device, the process of determining the conductive unit comprises the following steps: the method further includes determining that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by the first powered device if the first conductive unit receives a sixth signal having a third signal parameter and the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter, and determining that the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are contacted by the second powered device if the third conductive unit receives an eighth signal having a fourth signal parameter and the fourth conductive unit receives a fourth signal having the second signal parameter.

Referring to fig. 24, a flow chart of another power supply method provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown, which may include the following steps:

401: the power supply unit in the power supply apparatus is controlled to set voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit if the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit in the conductive unit array in the power supply apparatus are contacted by the first powered apparatus, the power supply unit corresponding to the conductive unit array.

402: if the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit in the conductive unit array are contacted by the second power receiving device, controlling the power supply unit to set the voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit so that the power supply device can simultaneously supply power to the first power receiving device and the second power receiving device; the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same or different, and the second conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are the same or different.

In this embodiment, the process of controlling the power supply unit in the power supply apparatus to set the voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit, and controlling the power supply unit to set the voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit includes:

when the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are determined to be contacted by the first powered device, acquiring power supply parameters of the first powered device, and setting voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit according to the power supply parameters of the first powered device;

when the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit are determined to be contacted by the second powered device, acquiring power supply parameters of the second powered device, and setting voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit according to the power supply parameters of the second powered device;

the voltage difference between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit is a first voltage difference, the voltage difference between the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit is a second voltage difference, and the first voltage difference and the second voltage difference are the same or different.

The following explains that the multiplexing conductive unit simultaneously supplies power to a plurality of powered devices, for example, the first conductive unit and the third conductive unit are the same; controlling the power supply unit in the power supply apparatus to set the voltages of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit and controlling the power supply unit to set the voltages of the third conductive unit and the fourth conductive unit includes: setting a voltage difference between the second conductive unit and the first conductive unit to match power supply parameters of the first powered device, and setting a voltage difference between the fourth conductive unit and the first conductive unit to match power supply parameters of the second powered device.

In this embodiment, the voltage setting of the conductive element needs to follow a point: in setting the voltages of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit, a sum of power consumptions of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit, which are set according to the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the power supply parameter of the second powered device, is the lowest.

In this embodiment, the voltages of the first conductive unit, the second conductive unit, and the fourth conductive unit may be set in the following manner:

one way is as follows: the method includes the steps of determining a first setting direction of a voltage of a second conductive unit relative to a voltage of a first conductive unit according to a power supply parameter of the first powered device and the voltage of the first conductive unit, setting the voltage of the second conductive unit according to the first setting direction so that a voltage difference between the second conductive unit and the first conductive unit matches the power supply parameter of the first powered device, determining a second setting direction of a voltage of a fourth conductive unit relative to the voltage of the first conductive unit according to the power supply parameter of the second powered device and the voltage of the first conductive unit, and setting the voltage of the fourth conductive unit according to the second setting direction so that the voltage difference between the fourth conductive unit and the first conductive unit matches the power supply parameter of the second powered device.

If at least one of the first setting direction and the second setting direction indicates that the setting can be increased and decreased, the setting is decreased with respect to the voltage of the first conductive unit.

In another mode: if the power supply parameter of the first powered device is larger than the power supply parameter of the second powered device; in this case, if the voltage of the first conductive unit is greater than the voltage of the second conductive unit, the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is set to be less than the voltage of the first conductive unit; if the voltage of the first conductive unit is less than the voltage of the second conductive unit, the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is set in a manner of being less than the voltage of the second conductive unit, so that the voltage difference between the fourth conductive unit and the first conductive unit is matched with the power supply parameter of the second powered device.

In another way: if the power supply parameter of the first powered device is smaller than the power supply parameter of the second powered device; in this case, the voltage of the fourth conductive unit is set to be greater than the voltage of the first conductive unit so that a voltage difference between the fourth conductive unit and the first conductive unit matches the power supply parameter of the second powered device; alternatively, the voltage of the fourth conducting unit is set to 0, and the voltages of the first conducting unit and the second conducting unit are corrected according to the voltage of the fourth conducting unit, so that the voltage difference between the second conducting unit and the first conducting unit matches the power supply parameter of the first powered device and the voltage difference between the fourth conducting unit and the first conducting unit matches the power supply parameter of the second powered device.

In another way: if the power supply parameter of the first powered device is determined to meet the preset condition, setting the voltage of the first conductive unit as a preset voltage, wherein the preset voltage indicates that the voltage of the second conductive unit and the voltage of the fourth conductive unit can be downwards set relative to the first conductive unit when the power supply parameter of the second powered device is larger than the power supply parameter of the first powered device.

For the description of the power supply method shown in fig. 22 to fig. 24, reference is made to the above device embodiment, and this embodiment is not described again.

It should be noted that, in the present specification, the embodiments are all described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments may be referred to each other. For the method class embodiment, since it is basically similar to the apparatus embodiment, the description is simple, and for the relevant points, reference may be made to the partial description of the apparatus embodiment.

Finally, it should also be noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present application. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. Thus, the present application is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

The foregoing is only a preferred embodiment of the present application and it should be noted that those skilled in the art can make several improvements and modifications without departing from the principle of the present application, and these improvements and modifications should also be considered as the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A power supply apparatus comprising:

2. The power supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine a first conductive unit and a second conductive unit in the conductive unit array, which are contacted by the power receiving apparatus, according to the first signal and the second signal, and determine the power supply parameter according to a distribution parameter of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit.

3. The power supply apparatus according to claim 2, the distribution parameter of the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit being a parameter that characterizes a distance between the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit;

4. The power supply apparatus according to claim 1, the conductive unit including a transmitting component and a receiving component; the transmitting component of one of the two conductive units transmits the first signal, and the receiving component of the other conductive unit receives a second signal matched with the first signal;

5. The power sourcing equipment of claim 4, the difference between the first signal and the second signal being caused by a conductive member of the powered device.

6. The power supply apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising: the storage unit is used for storing the corresponding relation between the difference and the power supply parameter;

7. The power supply apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, a first conductive unit of the two conductive units transmitting a first signal having a first signal parameter, the processing unit being configured to determine that the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit are contacted by a first powered device if the second conductive unit receives a second signal having the first signal parameter;

or

8. The power supply apparatus of claim 7, at least some of the conductive elements in the array of conductive elements each transmit a signal, the signals transmitted by the at least some of the conductive elements having different signal parameters.

9. The power sourcing equipment of claim 8, the processing unit further to assign the first signal parameter to the first conductive unit and assign the fifth signal parameter to the second conductive unit when the first and second conductive units are contacted by a first powered device.

10. A method of supplying power, comprising: