FR2779304A1 - Battery charger control method for mobile telephone - Google Patents

Abstract

The method of transmitting data between a mobile telephone (21) and an associated charger (1) to feed a current across contacts (16,17) of a circuit involves transmitting the data between the telephone and charger using the circuit.

Description

Method for transmitting data between portable equipment and a

  battery charger and portable equipment

  for the implementation of the process.

  A portable terminal, such as for example a radiotelephony handset, requires, at the end of manufacture, a certain number of adjustments. In particular, the gain level of the microphone and the earpiece is adjusted. These settings are made by command data which is stored in the terminal when the optimal setting value is

reached.

  It is therefore necessary to have, between a development equipment and the terminal, a data link, which can also be used to regulate the operation of the terminal by updating the operating software thereof, by

  example in the case of a payment terminal.

  Such a data link is of no use to the end user of the terminal and therefore represents a manufacturing cost which increases the price of

comes back from the terminal.

  Until now, this link was a wired link through a

  third contact pad of a charger (base) of the terminal.

  The present invention aims to reduce the equipment necessary for this connection.

  To this end, the invention relates first of all to a method of transmitting data between a portable data processing equipment and an associated equipment arranged to receive it and supply it with current through contact pads of a link. scent of feeding, process characterized by the fact that the data is transmitted between the two

  equipment via the power supply link.

  Thus, the recharge link is also used for data transmission, which avoids any specific link, the serial composite interface as well

  incorporated replacing the parallel recharge-data interface.

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  Advantageously, the electrical state of the link is modulated by the data to be transmitted by opening, at least partially, the latter, for example

  by command to switch to a slow recharging regime.

  Existing means of recharging are thus used, which further limits the

volume of material required.

  The invention also relates to a terminal for implementing the method of the invention, comprising demodulation means, connected to a current supply link of the terminal from a charging base, and means for storing data from

means of demodulation.

  The invention will be better understood using the following description of a

  preferred embodiment of the method of the invention, with reference to the attached drawing, in which: - Figure 1 is a block diagram of a portable radiotelephone terminal and a base for recharging it, for setting implementation of the method, and - Figure 2, formed of Figures 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D and 2E, is a diagram

  showing the transmission of data.

  The base, generally referenced 1, includes a current charger 2,

  here direct current, supplied, not shown, by the sector.

  The charger 2 is connected at the output to a base for receiving mobile equipment and more precisely here a portable terminal 21, here a radiotelephony handset. More precisely, the charger 2 is connected, by a positive terminal, to a pad 17 of the base 1, supplying the terminal 21, a second associated pad 16 of the base 1 being connected to ground, which serves as a reference for the various circuits . The terminal 21 includes a pair of recharging pads 36, 37 arranged to come into contact with the

pads 16 and 17.

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  A switch 5, here a relay contact, connects the pad 17 to the charger 2.

  The relay 5 is controlled by a data transmission circuit 4, receiving the data from a memory 3 and controlled by a central microprocessor unit 11 whose operation is punctuated by a time base 10. When receiving data from the terminal 21, through the pads 37 and 17, a detector 6 for modulation, or demodulator, of the electrical state (current or voltage) of the wired link comprising the pads 17, 37 is connected at output to a data memory 8 , through a data receiver 7, both controlled by the central unit 11, which also receives

the receiver output 7.

  The data memory 3 is used for example to remote control, in the terminal 21, gain settings of a microphone and a speaker, in the final manufacturing phase or even in operation, the base 1 then being put on the market. . One can also memorize, in memory 3, operating software and their updates (directories, and others) and the

  Download. Memory 3 can be removable (EEPROM) to be

  even easily loaded on an external programmer.

  The terminal 21 has a structure similar to that of the base 1, the homologous elements thereof bearing the same reference as in the

  base 1, increased by two tens. The description will therefore not be

  repeated. It will simply be specified that the charger 2 corresponds to a battery 22, which it recharges when necessary. The memory 28 receives the above data transmitted by the memory 3. The switch elements 5, and detectors 6, 26 here belongs to two respective sets of charge current regulation, controlled by the central units.

respectively 11 and 31.

  Data transmission, digital in this example, will now

be explained.

  To transmit data from base 1 to terminal 21, the central unit

  It first controls the closing of contact 5, if this was not the case.

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  Contact 25 is closed at rest. The central unit 11 can in particular arm a forced load control delay, so that the data transmission has the necessary time without risk of opening of the link 5, 25 (or 2, 22) by circuits of load regulation. We thus pass into a current transfer phase from the charger 2 to the battery 22. The memory 3 then controls calibrated openings of the relay 5 according to a time pattern representing a sequence of bits to be transmitted. The detector 26, made up here of a low series resistance (the connection diagram on the link is only functional) and of an amplifier circuit of the DC voltage, or current, detected, then reproduced

  the pattern sent, which is stored in memory 28.

  The data transmission is here mastered by the central unit 11, which has started the transmission procedure, the terminal (31) being a slave in this phase. Each central unit 11, 31 dialogues with the transmitter 4, 24 and the receiver 7, 27 associated to exchange, with the other

  central processing unit 31, 11, procedure management data.

  As regards the time control of the receiver 27 on the transmitter 4, an asynchronous transmission can be provided, with bit (s) of START and / or STOP. There may also be provided, at the detector 26, a frequency and phase servo circuit, of the phase servo loop type, on the detected signals, to servo a clock for sampling these signals, such as a clock. shift register or simple flip-flop D (27). The receiver 27 thus ensures the logical shaping and the synchronization of the signals received. The modulation (5) of the supply current can be of the No Return to Zero (NRZ) type, a logic "0" corresponding to an interruption of the current for a predetermined bit duration T and a logic "1" corresponding to the passage of the current throughout this bit T duration. However, if a synchronous transmission is more efficient than asynchronous transmission, this modulation is preferably

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  chosen to cyclically provide state transitions

  electric facilitating a frequency and phase control of the receiver.

  For example, the modulation is then of the Return to Zero (RZ) type, that is

  that is, a logic "0" corresponds to a pulse during, for example, only the first half of the bit duration T (FIG. 2B), while a logic "1" corresponds to a pulse during the second half. The modulation therefore corresponds to a phase jump of 180 degrees, the bit 0 or 1 therefore corresponds here to the high or low state of the current in the second half of the duration bit T. It will be noted that it is sufficient, to transmit the data, to modulate the amplitude or intensity of the current or voltage supplied, without having to completely interrupt the link. In other words, the relay 5 could be an attenuator, equivalent to a contact in parallel with a resistor, or equivalent circuit, for maintaining a minimum current (slow recharging). Similarly, an inductive element such as a transformer secondary could produce, in place of the relay contact 5, positive or negative pulses detected by the detector 26, a serial element such as 25 then being inductive to prevent the battery 22, at low impedance, only short circuits the pulses. One can likewise envisage a modulation by parallel action on the link 17, 37, and no longer serial, by a relay contact which would energize a load, such as resistance, causing the voltage of the charger 2 to drop, and therefore the current transmitted to the battery 22. In general, it is therefore sufficient to modulate the electrical state of the battery charging link 22. It will be understood that the transmission of the data from the memory 23 of the

  terminal 21 in memory 8 of base 1 follows the principles set out above

  above, contact 5 being permanently closed and contact 25 being open depending on the data pattern to be transmitted. The central unit 31

  is then master and the central unit 11 is slave.

  As a variant of the unidirectional transmission mode, half duplex,

  exposed above, a full-

  duplex. Indeed, when one of the two devices 1, 21 emits

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  data, it rereads them on the link 17, 37, in particular to verify that this connection is established, that is to say that the terminal 21 is placed on the pads 16, 17 of the base 1 and that the relay 5 or 25 of the equipment

recipient is closed.

  Therefore, if one of the items of equipment 1, 21 detects that the modulation, or pulses, of the current which it controls is effectively transmitted only during part of the duration envisaged, it can deduce therefrom that the temporary distortion that '' detects it thus actually corresponds to an emission coming from

  other equipment, which it can then detect.

  For example, and to resume a transmission in RZ code from base 1 (180 degree phase jumps), the terminal 21 can, having previously slaved on the transmission of base 1, transmit, in bit time T of base 1, twice the same bit (fig. 2E) in RZ code (fig. 2D),

  therefore at twice the speed of base 1.

  FIG. 2A represents a three-bit pattern, 001, to be sent from memory 3 and FIG. 2B represents them after RZ coding (relay 5), the

time t being plotted on the abscissa.

  FIG. 2E represents a three-bit pattern, 100, to be transmitted from the memory 23 and FIG. 2D represents them after RZ coding and doubly

bits (relay 25).

  FIG. 2C represents the open or closed state of the link 17, 37, which results from the two commands 5 and 25. As these are two switches in series, the open (low) state has priority: OR function for the low state (three quarters of the time T), AND function for the high, closed state (the remaining quarter), shown in heavy line in FIGS. 2B and 2D). A bit is therefore unambiguously detectable when only one of the switches 5, 25 is open, the detector equipment (1, 21) knowing the times during which its own switch 5, 25 is closed and can therefore deduce that the other switch 25, 5 is closed or

  open, depending on whether or not it detects current.

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  The bit transmitted twice by terminal 21 (fig 2D) is therefore detected only once, when it interferes (double arrows F1, F2, F3) on the closed state of the first or second half of the bit T time of base 1, to force it into the open state half the time, therefore a quarter of period T (top state in line not reinforced in FIG. 2B). Thus, in FIG. 2C, the first two bits, 1 and 0, of FIG. 2E are detected (F1, F2) on their first transmission since the memory 3 emitted a "0" (relay 5 closed in the first half of the period T), while the

  third bit, "0", of FIG. 2E is detected (F3) on its second transmission.

  Similarly, according to FIG. 2C, the terminal 21 detects the first "0" transmitted by the base 1 during the fourth quarter of the period T during which there is a discrepancy (double arrow F21) between what it transmits ( Figure 2D) and

what it detects (Figure 2C).

  The double arrows F22 and F23 likewise indicate the quarter periods (respectively 3rd and 1st), in the two following periods T, during which the 0 and 1 at the end of the pattern of FIG. 2A are detected by the terminal 21. Symmetrically, base 1 detects this kind of discrepancy, between FIGS. 2B and 2C, during the first quarter of the first period T

  (F1), during the second quarter (F2) and during the fourth quarter (F3).

  It will be noted that a modulation RZ of the bits of the memory 23 of the terminal 21 at the rate T of the base 1, without doubling it, would also be suitable, insofar as the bit period of FIG. 2E is not exactly in phase, or offset 180 degrees from the bit T period of the

  base 1, thus making it possible to detect the discrepancy mentioned above.

  In general, it is possible to provide modulations of different types or amplitudes for the electrical state of the link, therefore discernible from one another in the event of superposition of these modulations, which makes it possible to establish two data streams by a full-duplex link, without the need to synchronize these modulations with each other. In the case of the above modulation example, by link opening, it suffices that the chosen coding and the two relative modulation speeds exclude

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  any risk that an open state of the link, of transmission of a bit, lasts too long and masks the simultaneous modulation representing a bit of

reverse.

  It will also be noted that the base 1 could comprise only a simple charger 2, associated with the switch 5 and / or the detector 6, that is to say the hardware means of input interface and / or output, the logic circuits of

  control and / or exploitation of data being external, like a PC.

  The data link can furthermore be only one-way, in one direction or the other, the transmission circuits then superfluous being omitted in this case. Likewise, an analog data transmission can be provided. In addition, in other application examples, provision may be made to immediately use the data transmitted, for example by viewing them, by restoring them audibly, or by changing the state of an organ of the receiving equipment, which can possibly avoid the need for means of memorizing this data.

Claims (13)

  1.- Method for transmitting data between portable data processing equipment (21) and associated equipment (1) arranged to receive it and supply it with current through contact pads (16, 17) of a wired power supply link, method characterized in that the data is transmitted between the two devices (1, 21) by the power supply link. 2. A method according to claim 1, in which the electrical state of the induction link is modulated by the data to be transmitted and, in   reception, the data is recognized by demodulation.   3.- Method according to claim 1, wherein one modulates, by the data to be transmitted, the electrical state of the link by opening (5, 25), at less partial, of it.   4.- Method according to claim 3, wherein the transition to the state of partial opening is controlled by command to switch to a regime of slow charging.   5.- Method according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein,   prior to data transmission, the connection is established by   control for recharging portable equipment (21).   6.- Method according to claim 5, wherein one arms a   forced load control delay.   7.- Method according to one of claims 2 to 6, wherein one performs   modulation by action on switch means (5, 25), for controlling load, link.   8.- Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein one establishes a   dialogue between the two devices (1, 21) by a protocol managed by master by one of them. io 2779304   9.- Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein it transmits   simultaneously data flows of opposite directions, by respectively two different modulations.   10.- Terminal (21) for implementing the method of claim 1, comprising means (26) for demodulation, connected to a link (37) for supplying current to the terminal (21) from a charging base (1), and means (28) for storing data from the demodulation means (26).   11. Terminal according to claim 10, in which means (25) are provided arranged to modulate the electrical state of the link (37).   data function (23) to be transmitted to the base (1).   12.- Terminal according to one of claims 10 and 11, wherein the   demodulation means (26) belong to a regulation assembly charging current.   13.- Terminal according to one of claims 10 to 12, in which it is   provided means (31) for managing a data exchange protocol.