System and method for monitoring current consumption from current share components
First Claim
1. A method for monitoring current in a distributed power supply system consisting of a number of parallel power supplies, comprising the steps of:
- extracting an error voltage from a current load share control device;
receiving a “
device present”
current associated with each power supply;
combining the “
device present”
current from each power supply to obtain a total present current;
calculating the number of power supplies from the total present current dividing the error voltage by a current gain to determine an output current per power supply; and
multiplying the output current per power supply by the number of power supplies to determine a total output current.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for monitoring current in a power supply system including multiple parallel power supplies and current load sharing devices for each power supply. The error voltage generated by the current load sharing devices, in the process of balancing the power supply outputs, is proportional to current provided by a single power supply. The total number of power supplies may be determined by including a small current source with each power supply, and using the current sources to drive a “present” line, the current on this line indicating the number of power supplies present. The error voltage and the present line signal are used by a control circuit that includes analog-to-digital conversion and a CPU to calculate the total current drawn by the supply, and to trigger a circuit breaker if the total current exceeds a predetermined limit.
141 Citations
7 Claims
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1. A method for monitoring current in a distributed power supply system consisting of a number of parallel power supplies, comprising the steps of:
-
extracting an error voltage from a current load share control device;
receiving a “
device present”
current associated with each power supply;
combining the “
device present”
current from each power supply to obtain a total present current;
calculating the number of power supplies from the total present current dividing the error voltage by a current gain to determine an output current per power supply; and
multiplying the output current per power supply by the number of power supplies to determine a total output current. - View Dependent Claims (2)
triggering a circuit breaker when the total output current exceeds a predetermined threshold.
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3. A distributed power supply system with automatic current control, comprising:
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a plurality of power supplies connected in parallel, each power supply including a “
device present”
current output, the “
device present”
current output for each power supply driving a present current bus;
a current share controller device connected to the power supplies, the current share controller device driving a share bus;
at least one analog to digital converter device with a first input connected to the present current bus, a first output providing a digital present signal, a second input connected to the share bus, and a second output providing a digital error signal;
a central processing unit for receiving and processing the digital present signal and the digital error signal, and providing a computation of the total current output by the distributed power supply. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification