JP2003022127A - Power control unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a power unit capable of informing a user of its replacement period and to enable replacement at proper time prior to a failure occurrence by integrating actual operating time with a power on and monitoring operating environment such as ambient temperature. SOLUTION: The power unit is provided with a power supply to generate or convert the power, a temperature measuring means to monitor the ambient temperature of a power control unit, a nonvolatile storage readable and writable from the outside, a control part, to which a first piece of data to indicate an on/off state of the power supply, a second piece of data to indicate the temperature monitored by the temperature measuring means and a third piece of data to indicate integrated operating time of the power supply stored in the storage are supplied, to recalculate the operating time of the power supply for a fixed period by using the pieces of data, to rewrite its result in the storage and to create display data regarding the integrated operating time of the power supply and a display part to display the display data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a power supply management unit capable of managing the operating time of a power supply unit and thereby notifying the replacement time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an electronic device, the life of a power supply unit is shorter than that of an electronic component such as a semiconductor device used inside, which is a factor that determines the life of the entire electronic device. Conventionally, as a means for avoiding a failure in the system due to a failure of a power supply, the electronic device has a replaceable structure with an independent power supply unit, and a predetermined replacement before the failure occurs. Depending on the cycle, you can replace the parts of the power supply unit with new ones, or you can have two power supply units so that if one fails, the other backs up.
During this time, a method of replacing a failed part has been adopted.

[0003]

In the conventional method as described above, when replacing with a new power source before a failure,
Managing the actual operating time of the power supply unit is very complicated, and in fact, it was necessary to replace the power supply unit with a new one every predetermined period including the stop time.

Further, it is difficult to control the ambient temperature of the power supply unit, and in practice, the power supply unit operating in a high temperature environment has a relatively low temperature with a replacement cycle set on the basis of a high temperature environment where the life is shortened. The power supply unit operating in the environment also had to be replaced. Furthermore, even with the method of providing a backup power source, since normally both two power sources are operated in parallel, if one fails, the other often fails at approximately the same time, resulting in high reliability. From the point of view, it was not a sufficient method.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in response to a failure of a power supply, the power supply itself accumulates an actual operating time in which the power supply is on and an operating environment such as an ambient temperature. An object of the present invention is to provide a power supply unit that has a function of monitoring and notifies the user of the replacement time, and can replace it at an appropriate time before a failure occurs.

[0006]

The invention according to claim 1 is
A replaceable power management unit that is mounted on a device and supplies power to each unit in the device, the power management unit including a power supply unit that supplies or converts power.
An externally readable and writable non-volatile storage unit and the power supply unit supply first data indicating the on / off state thereof, and the storage unit internally stores the operation of the power supply unit. The second data indicating the time is supplied, the operating time of the power supply unit is recalculated at regular intervals by using the first and second data, and the result is rewritten in the storage unit, and A power supply comprising: a management unit that creates display data regarding the operating time of the power supply unit according to the result; and a display unit that is supplied with the display data from the management unit and that displays the data. It is a management unit. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the power management unit according to the first aspect, a temperature measurement unit that measures an ambient temperature of the power management unit is further provided, and the management unit is measured by the temperature measurement unit. Third showing temperature
Is further supplied with the above data, and adding the third data,
It is characterized in that the operating time of the power supply unit is recalculated at regular intervals, the result is rewritten in the storage unit, and display data regarding the operating time of the power supply unit is created according to the result. The invention described in claim 3 is claim 1
Alternatively, the power management unit according to 2, further comprising a current measuring unit that measures a value of an output current from the power supply unit, and the management unit also uses this current value to calculate the operating time of the power supply unit. It is characterized by that. Claim 4
The described invention is the power management unit according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the management unit is connected to a network to which a terminal is connected, and the same data as the display data supplied to the display unit is supplied to the network. It is possible to display the same data as the display data on the terminal.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A power supply unit according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1
It is a block diagram showing an example of composition of a power supply unit by the embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, reference numeral 10 indicates a power supply unit which is a target of the present invention and is incorporated in a device. Reference numeral 11 denotes a power supply unit, and the electric power generated here is supplied singly to the power supply unit 10 and the entire device in which the power supply unit is mounted. Reference numeral 12 is a temperature sensor, which is a power supply unit 10.
The ambient temperature during use is measured and the temperature data is sent to the following management unit.

Reference numeral 13 is a display unit, which is a management unit 1 described below.
Based on the data supplied from No. 5, the remaining life of the power supply unit 10 is displayed, a message indicating that the life time has been reached, and the like are displayed. Reference numeral 15 is a management unit, which calculates the operating time and life of the power supply unit 10 based on the data such as power on / off from the power supply unit 11 and the temperature data from the temperature sensor 12, and the result Sends a display message to the display unit 13. Reference numeral 14 is a non-volatile memory that writes and reads data on the operating time of the power supply unit 10 with the management unit 15.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the power supply unit according to the embodiment of the present invention. At first,
When the power supply unit 11 is turned on and the supply of electric power to the entire device in which the power supply unit 10 is mounted and each unit in the power supply unit 10 is started, the management unit 15 determines in step S100 that the power supply unit 11 has a predetermined fixed cycle. At the time of day, check whether the current time is the measurement time in order to perform the following measurement and processing. At the measurement time, step S200
Then, the management unit 15 reads the data of the accumulated operating time stored in the nonvolatile memory 14. Further, in step S300, the management unit 15 receives the measured temperature data from the temperature sensor 12.

Next, in step S400, the management section 15 uses the integrated operating time data read from the nonvolatile memory 14 in step S200 and the temperature data acquired in step S300 to calculate the integrated operating time of the power supply unit. Calculate and update. Specifically, the operating time is weighted by the temperature data with respect to the time of the fixed cycle that is the cycle of the measurement time. Behind this, in general, when the ambient temperature rises by 10 ° C., the life of the power supply is halved, and therefore the life may not be predicted accurately only by the actual operating time. For example,
Assuming that the operating time is integrated as one unit time every 24 hours when the ambient temperature is 40 ° C., it is integrated as one unit time every 12 hours when the ambient temperature is 50 ° C. The operating time thus corrected by weighting is calculated by the management unit 15
Is added to the accumulated operating time data read in step S200, and the final data and the data used for measurement and calculation of the temperature measurement time and the like are calculated in step S500.
In, the data is stored in the non-volatile memory 14.

Then, in step S600, the management section 15 calculates the remaining usable time of the power supply unit from the data stored in step S500, and sends the data to the display section 13 for display. The remaining usable time is obtained by subtracting the integrated operating time after the correction by the weighting from the predetermined total operating time set for the power supply unit 10. The cumulative operating time here is the nonvolatile memory 1 in step S500.
It has the same value as the data stored in 4. Further, the predetermined total operating time is assumed to be a reference value of operating time in a general environment where the power supply unit is placed.

Next, in step S700, the management unit 1
5 compares the integrated operating time with the predetermined total operating time, and if the integrated operating time has not reached the predetermined total operating time, the process returns to step S100. If the integrated operating time has reached the predetermined total operating time, the process proceeds to the next step S800, and the management unit 15 causes the display unit 13 to display an alarm,
Since the user has reached the end of the life of the power supply unit, the user is urged to replace it, and the series of processing is completed.

As described above, since both the power supply unit and the device on which the power supply unit is mounted are supplied with power from the same power supply unit 11, the power supply unit 11 is turned on when the device is used. Power supply unit 10 at the same time
The management unit 15 therein also operates, and the operating time of the power supply unit 11 is constantly monitored.

If the power switch is turned off normally or abnormally during use of the device and the power supply from the power supply unit 11 is interrupted, the corrected operating time data is the final data of which is non-volatile. Since it is stored in the memory 14, the operating time is continuously accumulated from the final data even when the power is turned on again and the processing is restarted.

In the configuration of the first embodiment described above, the non-volatile memory 14 can be replaced by another type of storage medium such as a hard disk or MO. Further, the management unit 15 may be a unique circuit for fixed processing, or may be a processing unit or predetermined data that can be changed by rewriting software, such as a microprocessor. When the microprocessor is used for the management unit 15, necessary peripheral devices for that purpose are also mounted on the power supply unit 10.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, in addition to following the configuration of the first embodiment, not only the display on the display unit 13 in the first embodiment, but also the output from the management unit 15 can be applied to a LAN network not shown in FIG. Installed and SNMP (Single N
etwork Management Protocol: A protocol generally used for network management of LAN devices) is used to notify or display the integrated value of the power supply operating time to a management terminal connected to the network. According to the second embodiment, even when the power supply unit of the present invention is placed at a remote place, it is possible to monitor the usage state of the power supply by connecting the terminal to the network.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. Here again, in addition to following the configuration of the first embodiment,
In addition to that, a current measuring unit for measuring the output current value from the power supply unit 11 is added, and the current value measured here is used as the management unit 1
In addition to the temperature data, it is used for weighting when calculating the operating time. Generally, the larger the output current, the shorter the life of the power supply.
In the embodiment, it is possible to further improve the accuracy of life prediction of the power supply unit.

The various embodiments of the invention described above include AC / AC
The present invention can be applied to various exchangeable power supply units that perform DC conversion or DC / DC conversion.

Further, an example in which the temperature sensor 12 is removed and correction by weighting of the temperature is not performed, which is common to the above-mentioned respective embodiments, is also possible. In such an example, a place where temperature control is thoroughly considered can be considered as a use environment. In such a case, the temperature is constant throughout the year, correction by weighting the temperature is not necessary, and accurate life prediction is possible by giving a constant temperature as an initial value. In an example without such a temperature sensor, the cost, space, etc. required for the equipment can be reduced, the load of the data management software can be reduced, and the reliability can be improved.

As an application example of the present invention other than the power supply unit, there is an application to an optical device such as a laser. The time during which the laser emits light can be integrated and the ambient temperature and the like can be taken into account for highly accurate life prediction.

[0021]

As described above, according to the power supply unit of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. 1. Since the operating time of the power supply is managed in the power supply unit equipped with the power supply, it is possible to reliably turn on / off the power supply and manage its operating time. 2. Further, accurate management of operating time enables prediction and notification of power source life. 3. It is more effective for a system in which a serious failure may occur due to a power supply failure by performing a power supply replacement earlier by predicting the power supply life. 4. By measuring the ambient temperature of the power supply and using it to correct the operating time, the accuracy of the power supply life can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a power supply unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the power supply unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Power supply unit 11 ... Power supply unit 12 ... Temperature sensor 13 ... Display 14 ... Nonvolatile memory 15 ... Administration Department

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A replaceable power management unit that is mounted on a device and supplies power to each unit in the device, the power management unit including a power supply unit that supplies or converts power. An externally readable and writable non-volatile storage unit, and the power supply unit supplies first data indicating its on / off state, and the storage unit internally stores the operation of the power supply unit. The second data indicating the time is supplied, the operating time of the power supply unit is recalculated at regular intervals by using the first and second data, and the result is rewritten in the storage unit, and A power supply comprising: a management unit that creates display data regarding the operating time of the power supply unit according to the result; and a display unit that is supplied with the display data from the management unit and displays the data. Management Tsu door. 2. A temperature measuring unit for measuring an ambient temperature of the power management unit, wherein the management unit is further supplied with third data indicating the measured temperature from the temperature measuring unit, Add the third data, recalculate the operating time of the power supply unit at a fixed cycle,
A power management unit, which rewrites the result in the storage unit and creates display data regarding the operating time of the power supply unit according to the result. 3. The current measuring unit for measuring the value of the current output from the power supply unit is further provided, and the management unit calculates the operating time of the power supply unit also using this current value. The power management unit according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The management unit is connected to a network to which a terminal is connected, and outputs the same data as the display data supplied to the display unit to the network, whereby the display data is displayed on the terminal. The power management unit according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the same data can be displayed.