TWM617506U - Electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

A electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a battery module, a controller, a storage device, and a processor. The battery module is configured to supply power to the electronic device. The controller is coupled to the battery module and configured to communicate with the battery module through a communication protocol. The storage device is configured to store computer programs. The processor is coupled to the controller and the storage device, loads and executes the computer programs to detect a power supply operation that performed by the electronic device and estimate power consumption of the power supply operation; determine an operation situation of the electronic device; adjust a new protection power consumption threshold value of the battery module according to the estimated power consumption and the determined operation situation; and transmit the new protection power consumption threshold value to the controller to set the new protection power consumption threshold value to the battery module through the communication protocol.

Description

Electronic device

This new creation is about an electronic device.

Today's consumer electronic devices (for example, desktop computers, notebook computers, mobile phones, digital cameras, tablet computers) are mostly assembled with rechargeable battery modules. In order to avoid danger, most of the current battery modules are equipped with protection functions, so that when the system power consumption of the electronic device is too large and exceeds the battery safety value, the battery module actively stops power supply.

However, the current battery safety value setting only considers the safety of the battery module itself, and does not consider the power consumption of the electronic device system in various situations. As a result, when the system is in a low-power-saving power-saving situation, even if the system is abnormal, its power consumption is not enough to reach the preset battery safety value, and the system abnormality cannot be detected in real time. Therefore, there is a risk of insufficient system security.

The present invention provides an electronic device, which includes a battery module, a controller, a storage device and a processor. The battery module is used to supply power to the electronic device. The controller is coupled to the battery module for communicating with the battery module through the communication protocol. The storage device is used for storing computer programs. The processor is coupled to the controller and the storage device, and loads and executes a computer program to: detect the power supply operation performed by the electronic device, and estimate the power consumption of the power supply operation; determine the operation situation of the electronic device; according to the estimated power consumption Adjust the new protection power consumption threshold value of the battery module according to the power and the judged operation situation; and send the new protection power consumption threshold value to the controller to set the new protection power consumption threshold value to In the battery module.

Based on the above, the electronic device created by the present invention can dynamically adjust the protection power consumption threshold value set in the battery module according to the current operating situation and state. Therefore, it is possible to smoothly detect system abnormalities of the electronic device and perform protection system actions (for example, stop the electronic device from supplying power) in various operating situations.

1, the electronic device 100 of this embodiment is, for example, a personal computer, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a personal digital assistant phone, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, or a smart TV, etc. , This embodiment does not limit the type. As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic device 100 includes components such as a battery module 110, a controller 120, a storage device 130, and a processor 140. The functions of these components will be described later.

The battery module 110 can supply power to the electronic device 100. The battery module 110 includes, for example, a battery cell group and a control circuit. The battery cell group is composed of, for example, a single or multiple battery cells (battery cell monomers). The control circuit includes, for example, a battery gauge IC (Battery gauge IC) or a microcontroller (Microcontroller), which can calculate the stored power and power consumption of the battery module 110.

The controller 120 is coupled to the battery module 110. The controller 120 is, for example, an embedded controller (EC) or a microcontroller (Microcontroller) that can communicate with the battery module 110 through a communication protocol. The communication protocol is, for example, System Management Bus (SMBus) or Inter-Integrated Circuit (I ² C), but this embodiment is not limited to this.

The storage device 130 is, for example, any type of fixed or removable random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), flash memory (Flash memory), hard disk A disk or similar components or a combination of the above components are used to store computer programs that can be executed by the processor 140 and the data used by them.

The processor 140 is coupled to the controller 120 and the storage device 130. The processor 140 is, for example, a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), or other programmable general-purpose or special-purpose microprocessors, microcontrollers, or digital signal processors. Processor, DSP), programmable controller, application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuits, ASIC), programmable logic device (Programmable Logic Device, PLD) or other similar devices or a combination of these devices, but this implementation Examples are not limited to this. In this embodiment, the processor 140 can load a computer program from the storage device 130 to execute the power control method of the creative embodiment of the present invention.

Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 at the same time. The method of this embodiment is applicable to the electronic device 100 of FIG. 1, and the steps are as follows:

First, the processor 140 detects the power supply operation performed by the electronic device 100, and estimates the power consumption of the power supply operation (step S202). In this embodiment, the power supply operation is, for example, the power supply of the electronic device 100 to the external device. For example, when a user connects external devices such as smartphones and tablet computers to the electronic device 100 via interfaces such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), the electronic device 100 will automatically power the external device. To charge external devices or provide device power. At this time, the processor 140 that has detected the power supply operation can estimate the power consumption (power consumption wattage) of the power supply operation according to the type of the external device.

Next, the processor 140 determines the operation context of the electronic device 100 (step S204). In this embodiment, the operation scenario is, for example, the S0 mode, the S3 mode, the S4 mode, or the S5 mode specified by the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). The S0 mode is a normal mode that can perform actions including word processing and three-dimensional image processing, and is regarded as a non-power-saving situation in the creation of the present invention. The S3 mode and the S4 mode are sleep modes, and the S5 mode is the off mode. The S3 mode, S4 mode, and S5 mode are regarded as power saving scenarios in the creation of the new model.

Then, the processor 140 adjusts the new protection power consumption threshold value of the battery module 110 according to the estimated power consumption and the determined operation situation (step S206). Specifically, the electronic device 100 presets different initial protection thresholds for the power consumption of various operating scenarios, and the processor 140 can correspond to the initial power consumption of the operating scenario according to the estimated power consumption for supplying power to the external device. The protection threshold is raised to a new protection power consumption threshold.

Taking the S3 mode as an example, when the processor 140 detects the power supply operation and determines that the operation situation is the S3 mode, the processor 140 can adjust the initial protection threshold corresponding to the S3 mode to the power consumption estimated in the S3 mode The new protection power consumption threshold. In this embodiment, both the initial protection threshold and the new protection power consumption threshold are limited to the battery safety value of the battery module 110.

Then, the processor 140 may transmit the new protection power consumption threshold value to the controller 120 to set the new protection power consumption threshold value to the battery module 110 through the communication protocol (step S208). For example, the controller 120 can communicate with the control circuit in the battery module 110 through a communication protocol to set a new protection power consumption threshold.

In this way, when the power consumption of the battery module 110 is greater than the new protection power consumption threshold, the control circuit of the battery module 110 can suspend the power supply function of the battery module 110, and then when the power consumption of the battery module 110 is When it is less than or equal to the new protection power consumption threshold and lasts for a specified time (for example, 30 seconds), the control circuit of the battery module 110 can resume the power supply function of the battery module 110, thereby achieving the protection of the electronic device 100 system effect.

Through the above steps, the protection power consumption threshold value set in the battery module 110 can be dynamically adjusted according to the current operating situation and status, so that the system abnormality of the electronic device 100 can be detected smoothly in various operating situations. Measurement.

In addition, in some embodiments, when the processor 140 determines that the operation situation is the S0 mode (non-power saving situation), the processor 140 may control the controller 120 to cancel the battery mode through the communication protocol due to the large change in power consumption. The new protection power consumption threshold value in the group 110 is restored to use the original protection threshold value to avoid malfunction. The new protection power consumption threshold will be less than the initial protection threshold.

In summary, the electronic device created by the present invention can dynamically adjust the protection power consumption threshold value set in the battery module according to the current operating situation and state. In this way, even when the system of the electronic device is in a low-power-saving power-saving situation, the battery module can also have a corresponding protection power consumption threshold, so as to smoothly detect system abnormalities of the electronic device and perform protection system actions. (For example: stop the external power supply of electronic devices).

100: electronic device 110: battery module 120: Controller 130: storage device 140: processor S202~S208: steps

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention. Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a power control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

100: electronic device

110: battery module

120: Controller

130: storage device

140: processor

Claims (6)

An electronic device, including: A battery module for supplying power to the electronic device; A controller, coupled to the battery module, for communicating with the battery module through a communication protocol; Storage device for storing computer programs; and The processor, coupled to the controller and the storage device, loads and executes the computer program to: Detect the power supply operation performed by the electronic device, and estimate the power consumption of the power supply operation; Determine the operating context of the electronic device; Adjusting the new protection power consumption threshold of the battery module according to the estimated power consumption and the determined operation situation; and The new protection power consumption threshold value is transmitted to the controller to set the new protection power consumption threshold value to the battery module through the communication protocol. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the processor increases the initial protection threshold corresponding to the operation situation to the new protection power consumption threshold according to the estimated power consumption . The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein when the power consumption of the battery module is greater than the new protection power consumption threshold, the battery module suspends its power supply function. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein when the power consumption of the battery module is less than or equal to the new protection power consumption threshold value and continues for a specified time, the battery module resumes its power supply function. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein when the operation situation is a non-power saving situation, the processor controls the controller to cancel the new battery module in the battery module through the communication protocol. Protect the power consumption threshold value and restore the use of the initial protection threshold value, where the new protection power consumption threshold value is less than the initial protection threshold value. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the power supply operation includes powering an external device by the electronic device.

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