Systems And Methods For Communicating Power State Information From An External Energy Storage Device (EESD) To An Information Handling System

• US 20190332154A1
• Filed: 04/26/2018
• Published: 10/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Thompson, Richard C., Krishnakumar, Karthikeyan
• Granted Patent: US 11,262,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1605 Multimedia displays, e.g. with integrated or attached speakers, cameras, microphones
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/305 in the event of power-supply fluctuations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3246 by software initiated power-off
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0042 Universal serial bus [USB]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Systems and methods employ an external energy storage device (e.g., intelligent battery pack) interposed between a an information handling system (IHS) and its AC-to-DC adapter. The information handling system may be a fixed compute system, may lack an internal battery and/or may execute an operating system that does not have power management capability. The external energy storage device provides power and power state information to the IHS, e.g., that is based on state of charge (SOC) of the battery and/or absence/presence of AC power. IHS may perform one or more actions based on the power state information such as automatically save data and shutdown when notified AC power is lost and/or SOC is low, and may automatically restart and restore saved data when notified AC power is restored and/or SOC is sufficiently high. The external energy storage device may actively signal or command the IHS to act or may passively supply power state information and let the IHS decide how to act. The information may be provided as different power supply identifier (PSID) values or other types of analog values corresponding to different current levels on a single conductor of a single cable between the external energy storage device and IHS, or may be included in USB vendor-defined messages sent on the single cable.

Claims

1. An information handling system, comprising:

a memory configured to store an operating system;

a processing device configured to execute the operating system;

where the information handling system is configured to receive, over one or more conductors of a cable, direct current (DC) power from an energy storage element of an external energy storage device, the external energy storage device including an AC to DC power adapter integrated with the energy storage element within a single form factor of the energy storage device, or the external energy storage device being coupled between an AC to DC power adapter and the information handling system;

where the information handling system is further configured to receive, over one or more conductors of the cable, power state information comprising information based on a state of charge (SOC) of the energy storage element of the external energy storage device and/or the presence/absence of AC wall outlet power provided to the AC to DC power adapter;

where at least one of;

the information handling system is configured without an internal energy storage element to provide power to the memory and processing device to execute the operating system;

or

the information handling system is configured to receive DC power from the external energy storage device on at least a first conductor of the cable and to receive the power state information on at least a second conductor of the cable; and

where the information handling system is configured to perform one or more actions in response to the received power state information.

2. The information handling system of claim 1,

where the operating system is configured without power management profiles used to manage rechargeable energy storage devices that would provide power to the information handling system.

3. The information handling system of claim 1,

where the one or more actions are selected from the following list:

initiating an automatic shutdown of the information handling system;

restarting the information handling system and restore system data saved during the automatic shutdown;

notifying a user of the information handling system regarding a detected absence of the AC wall outlet power;

causing the processing device to lower its executing power saving state (P-state); and

displaying to the user the SOC of the external energy storage device received from the external energy storage device.

4. The information handling system of claim 1,

where distinct analog current values on the second conductor correspond to distinct values of the power state information.

5. The information handling system of claim 4,

where the power state information is received by the information handling system as analog power supply identifier (PSID) values.

6. The information handling system of claim 1,

where the cable comprises a universal serial bus (USB) cable;

and

where the power state information is received by the information handling system in USB vendor-defined messages from the external energy storage device.

7. The information handling system of claim 1,

where the power state information is received by the information handling system from the external energy storage device as a command signal specifying the one or more actions;

and where the information handling system is configured to perform the one or more actions according to the command signal.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving, by an information handling system, over one or more conductors of a cable, direct current (DC) power from an energy storage element of an external energy storage device, the external energy storage device including an AC to DC power adapter integrated with the energy storage element within a single form factor of the energy storage device, or the external energy storage device being coupled between an AC to DC power adapter and the information handling system;

receiving, by the information handling system, over one or more conductors of the cable, power state information comprising information based on a state of charge (SOC) of the energy storage element of the external energy storage device and/or the presence/absence of AC wall outlet power provided to the AC to DC power adapter; and

performing, by the information handling system, one or more actions in response to the received power state information;

where at least one of;

the information handling system is configured without an internal energy storage element to provide power to a memory and a processing device of the information handling system to execute an operating system;

or

the information handling system is configured to receive DC power from the external energy storage device on at least a first conductor of the cable and to receive the power state information on at least a second conductor of the cable.

9. The method of claim 8,

where the operating system is configured without power management profiles used to manage rechargeable energy storage devices that would provide power to the information handling system.

10. The method of claim 8,

where the one or more actions are selected from the following list:

initiating an automatic shutdown of the information handling system;

restarting the information handling system and restore system data saved during the automatic shutdown;

notifying a user of the information handling system regarding a detected absence of the AC wall outlet power;

causing the processing device to lower its executing power saving state (P-state); and

displaying to the user the SOC of the external energy storage device received from the external energy storage device.

11. The method of claim 8,

where distinct current values on the second conductor correspond to distinct values of the power state information.

12. The method of claim 8,

where the power state information is received by the information handling system as analog power supply identifier (PSID) values.

13. The method of claim 8,

where the cable comprises a universal serial bus (USB) cable;

and

where the power state information is received by the information handling system in USB vendor-defined messages from the external energy storage device.

14. The method of claim 8,

where the power state information is received by the information handling system from the external energy storage device as a command signal specifying the one or more actions;

and where the information handling system is configured to perform the one or more actions according to the command signal.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

an energy storage element having a state of charge (SOC), and at least one of;

an AC to DC power adapter integrated with the energy storage element within a single form factor of the apparatus and having an input to receive AC wall outlet power provided to the AC to DC power adapter for charging the energy storage element and for providing power to an information handling system on a cable coupling the apparatus and the information handling system, or

an input to receive power from an AC-to-DC power adapter for charging the energy storage element and for providing power to the information handling system on the cable coupling the apparatus and the information handling system;

a controller configured to provide power state information to the information handling system over the cable; and

where the power state information is based on the SOC of the energy storage element and/or a presence/absence of AC power to the power adapter;

where the power state information comprises at least one of;

a command signal to cause the information handling system to perform one or more actions, or

analog current values corresponding to distinct values of the power state information.

16. The apparatus of claim 15,

where the power state information specifies the SOC of the energy storage element and/or the presence/absence of AC power to the power adapter.

17. The apparatus of claim 15,

where the controller is further configured to pass through on the cable to the information handling system one or more power supply identifier (PSID) values generated by the power adapter that identify one or more characteristics of the power adapter while the power adapter is providing power to the power supplying device;

and

where the PSID values generated by the power adapter are separate and different from the power state information provided by the controller.

18. The apparatus of claim 15,

where the output comprises a first conductor coupled to ground, a second conductor over which the power from the energy storage element is provided to the information handling system, and a third conductor on which distinct values of the power state information are provided as distinct analog current values.

19. The apparatus of claim 15,

where the cable comprises a universal serial bus (USB) cable;

and

where the controller is configured to provide the power state information to the information handling system on the output over the USB cable in USB vendor-defined messages.

20. The apparatus of claim 15,

where the controller is configured to provide a first predetermined value of the power state information over the cable to the information handling system when the controller detects the power adapter has stopped providing power to the power supplying device;

where the controller is configured to, after providing the first predetermined value, provide a second predetermined value of the power state information over the cable to the information handling system when the controller detects the SOC of the energy storage element has dropped to a predetermined level;

where the controller is configured to, after providing the second predetermined value, provide a third predetermined value of the power state information over the cable to the information handling system when the controller detects the power adapter has resumed providing power to the power supplying device and the SOC of the energy storage element is above the predetermined level; and

where the controller is configured to, after providing the second predetermined value, provide a fourth predetermined value of the power state information over the cable to the information handling system when the controller detects the power adapter has resumed providing power to the power supplying device and the SOC of the energy storage element is below the predetermined level.