System and method for preservation of battery power during reconditioning

• US 6,239,578 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2000
• Issued: 05/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Dube, Shawn Joel, Schnell, Arnold Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Peter S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TIBBITS, PIA FLORENCE
• Application Number:
  US09/604,242
• Time in Patent Office: 336 Days
• Field of Search: 329/119, 329/139, 329/131, 329/128, 329/127
• US Class Current: 320/119
• 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 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/061 for DC powered loads

Abstract

A battery reconditioning circuit for a computer system is disclosed. The battery reconditioning circuit comprises a battery charger, a battery reconditioner and at least two sets of batteries. While one set of batteries is being reconditioned by the battery charger and the battery reconditioner, at least one set of batteries remains connected to the load. Therefore, even if the computer system suffers power loss while one set of batteries is being reconditioned, there is at least one battery available to provide backup power.

Claims

1. A circuit for supplying battery voltage power to a load comprising:

a plurality of batteries;

a battery charger circuit suitable for supplying current to at least one of the batteries to charge the battery;

a battery reconditioning circuit suitable for draining current from at least one of the batteries to discharge the battery; and

a plurality of switches wherein a state of the switches may be changed such that at least one battery is electrically coupled to the load, while at least another battery may be electrically coupled to the battery charging circuit or the battery reconditioning circuit.

2. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising a regulator to decrease the voltage power delivered to the load.

3. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising a control logic circuit electrically coupled to the switches, wherein the control logic circuit can change the states of the switches.

4. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising a memory component.

5. The circuit of claim 4, wherein the memory component is a DIMM.

6. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising a RAID controller.

7. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising a charge pump to increase the voltage power delivered to the load.

8. A computer system comprising:

a system component;

a plurality of batteries;

a battery charging circuit suitable for supplying current to at least one of the batteries to charge the battery;

a battery reconditioning circuit suitable for draining current from at least one of the batteries to discharge the battery; and

a plurality of switches wherein a state of the switches may be changed such that at least one battery is electrically coupled to a load of the system component, while at least another battery may be electrically coupled to the battery charging circuit or the battery reconditioning circuit.

9. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising a regulator to decrease a voltage power delivered to the load.

10. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising a control logic circuit electrically coupled to the switches wherein the control logic circuit can change the states of the switches.

11. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the computer system is a server system.

12. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the system component is a memory cache of a RAID subsystem.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the RAID subsystem employs write-back caching while at least one battery is electrically coupled to the load and at least another battery is electrically coupled to the battery charging circuit or the battery reconditioning circuit.

14. The computer system of claim 8, wherein every battery that is not electrically coupled to the battery reconditioning circuit is electrically coupled to the battery charging circuit.

15. The computer system of claim 8, wherein a specified number of batteries that can collectively provide sufficient voltage to the load are always electrically coupled to the load.

16. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising a charge pump to increase the voltage power delivered to the load.

17. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising a utility program wherein the utility program notifies a user of the computer system when a battery has not been reconditioned for a predetermined amount of time.

18. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising a utility program wherein the utility program automatically couples the battery that has not been reconditioned for a predetermined amount of time to the battery reconditioning circuit until the battery has been drained and then subsequently electrically couples the battery to the battery charging circuit until the battery has been charged.

19. A method for providing auxiliary backup power to a load while reconditioning bank of batteries comprising the steps of:

providing a first battery bank comprising one or more batteries;

providing a second battery bank comprising one or more batteries;

providing a battery charger circuit suitable for supplying current to at least one bank of batteries to charge the batteries therein;

providing a battery reconditioning circuit suitable for draining current from at least one bank of the batteries to discharge the batteries therein;

providing a plurality of switches wherein a state of the switches may be changed such that at least one bank of batteries is electrically coupled to the load, while at least another bank of batteries may be electrically coupled to the battery charging circuit or the battery reconditioning circuit;

changing the states of the switches such that the first bank of batteries is electrically coupled to the load;

changing the states of the switches such that the second bank of batteries is electrically coupled to the battery reconditioning circuit;

draining the charge from the second bank of batteries;

changing the states of the switches such that the second bank of batteries is coupled to the battery charging circuit instead of to the battery reconditioning circuit; and

charging the second bank of batteries.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising a step of providing a regulator to decrease the voltage power delivered to the load.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising a step of providing a control logic circuit electrically coupled to the switches, wherein the control logic circuit can change the states of the switches.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising a step of providing a charge pump to increase the voltage power delivered to the load.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising a step of providing notice to a user that a bank of batteries is being reconditioned.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the method is automatically initiated when a battery has not been reconditioned for a predetermined amount of time.