Intelligent Connector and Bus Controller

• US 20150127862A1
• Filed: 01/16/2015
• Published: 05/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tyco Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (TE Connectivity Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tyco Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (TE Connectivity Limited)
• Inventors: Fan, Mingjie, Song, Yuming, Liu, Junying, Feng, Yulin
• Granted Patent: US 9,934,186 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/287 Multiplexed DMA G06F13/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/364 using independent requests or grants, e.g. using separated request and grant lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4068 Electrical coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5416 by adding signals to the wave form of the power source
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5483 using coupling circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/542 the information being in digital form

Abstract

An intelligent connector is disclosed having a signal processing unit, a first port, and a second port. The signal processing unit communicates signals between a bus and a slave module. The first port is coupled between the bus and the signal processing unit, and is connected to a power supply line. The second port is coupled between the signal processing unit and the slave module, and is positioned to provide a power supply to the slave module.

Claims

1. An intelligent connector comprising:

a signal processing unit for communicating signals between a bus and a slave module;

a first port coupled between the bus and the signal processing unit, and being connected to a power supply; and

a second port coupled between the signal processing unit and the slave module, and being positioned to provide power to the slave module.

2. The intelligent connector of claim 1, wherein the signal processing unit includes

a filtering sub-unit;

a signal amplifying sub-unit;

a digital/analog converting sub-unit;

an analog/digital converting sub-unit;

or

a modulating/demodulating sub-unit;

or any combination thereof.

3. The intelligent connector of claim 1, further comprising:

a power control unit coupled between the first port and the second port, and being coupled to the signal processing unit for switching connection of the slave modules with the power supply under a control of the signal processing unit.

4. The intelligent connector of claim 3, wherein the power control unit includes a relay or a controllable switch.

5. The intelligent connector of claim 3, wherein the power control unit further comprises an AC-DC converter sub-unit.

6. The intelligent connector in of claim 3, wherein the power control unit further comprises a DC-DC converter sub-unit.

7. The intelligent connector of claim 1, wherein the bus is a power line carrier communication circuit.

8. The intelligent connector of claim 7, further comprising:

a second modem unit coupled to the signal processing unit for signal modulation and/or demodulation; and

a second coupling unit coupled between the second modem unit and the first port for communicating the modulated signals between the second modem unit and the bus.

9. The intelligent connector of claim 1, wherein the bus is a DC power line communication bus.

10. The intelligent connector of claim 9, further comprising a second modem unit coupled between the signal processing unit and the first port for signal modulation and/or demodulation.

11. The intelligent connector in accordance with claim 9, wherein the first port is a PSI5 bus port.

12. The intelligent connector of claim 1, wherein the first port is a RS-485 bus port or a LIN bus port.

13. The intelligent connector of claim 1, wherein the second port is coupled to the slave modules through direct contact or indirect contact.

14. The intelligent connector of claim 1, further comprising an extended interface for coupling an extended unit to the signal processing unit.

15. A bus controller for coupling a bus with a master control module, comprising:

a control unit for communicating signals between the bus and the master control module, and being connected to add a destination address to a control signal from the master control module.

16. The bus controller of claim 15, wherein the destination address is an address of an intelligent connector coupled to the bus corresponding to the control signal.

17. The bus controller of claim 16, further comprising:

a first modem unit for signal modulation and/or demodulation; and

a first coupling unit coupled to the first modem unit for communicating the modulated signal between the first modem unit and the bus.

18. The bus controller in accordance with claim 17, wherein

the bus comprises multiple bus branches;

the first coupling unit further comprising multiple coupling sub-units, each sub-unit being coupled to one of the multiple bus branches; and

the bus controller further comprises a multiplexing unit having multiple data signal channels and being positioned to select a data signal channel from the multiple data signal channels for communicating signals between the first modem unit and the control unit.

19. The bus controller of claim 18, wherein each coupling sub-unit includes:

a primary coil; and

a secondary coil coupled to one bus branch through a coupling capacitor.

20. The bus controller of claim 18, wherein

the first coupling unit includes a primary coil,

each coupling sub-unit includes a secondary coil coupled to a bus branch through a coupling capacitor;

and

each coupling sub-unit shares the primary coil.

21. The bus controller of claim 15, wherein the bus controller couples to the bus through a RS-485 bus interface, a LIN bus interface or a PSI5 bus interface.