Power saving apparatus in an appliance

• US 6,975,947 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2004
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Oh, Jang Geun
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoff, Marc S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Desta, Elias
• Application Number:
  US10/833,323
• Publication Number:
  US 20040199344A1
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• Field of Search: 702/57, 702 60- 65, 702/183, 702/188, 702/189, 340/855.8, 340/455, 307/24, 307/31, 307/126, 700/22, 700/286, 700/29, 320/110, 320/122, 327/104, 713/330, 713/340
• US Class Current: 702/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Disclosed a system and method of lengthening a life span of a battery power supply in an appliance such as a portable appliance, notebook computer or the like. A power saving method in an appliance includes displaying a user set-up menu for a power saving on a screen by respectively checking systems in the appliance, outputting a control command to a micro-controller in accordance with power saving contents determined on the user set-up menu by a user, and executing a power saving program set up by the user in accordance with the control command of the micro-controller.

Claims

1. A power saving apparatus in an appliance, comprising:

a DC power supply output unit that outputs a DC voltage of a predetermined level by converting an AC power supply or a battery voltage;

a main DC/DC converter that supplied a plurality of operating voltages to a corresponding plurality of devices by converting the DC voltage or the battery voltage;

a micro-controller that receives user entered power management data;

a plurality of power switches controlled by the micro-controller that selectively disconnect each of the plurality of devices to carry out a power saving function;

a CPU DC/DC converter that supplies a CPU voltage to a CPU by converting the DC voltage or the battery voltage outputted from the DC power supply output unit; and

an LCD inverter that supplies a LCD with a driving voltage by converting the DC voltage or the battery voltage,

wherein the CPU voltage and the driving voltage are each adjusted according to a user'"'"'s selections in order to carry out the power saving function.

2. The power saving apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a clock generator supplying the CPU with clocks, wherein the clocks supplied to the CPU are adjustable by a selection of the user.

3. The power saving apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of power switches is one of a transistor, a thyristor, an insulated gate bipolar transistor, or a gate turn-off-thyristor.

4. A power saving apparatus in an appliance, comprising:

a DC power supply output unit that outputs a DC voltage of a predetermined level by converting an AC power supply or a battery voltage;

a main DC/DC converter that supplied a plurality of operating voltages to a corresponding plurality of devices by converting the DC voltage or the battery voltage;

a micro-controller that receives user entered power management data; and

a plurality of power switches controlled by the micro-controller that selectively disconnect each of the plurality of devices to carry out a power saving function,

wherein the plurality of devices in the appliance are checked, and wherein the user entered power management data selects at least one of the devices from a power-off recommendation list of the devices based on the checked devices.

5. The power saving apparatus of claim 4, wherein the selection of said at least one of the power-off recommendation list of the devices comprises selecting a CPU state and LCD brightness.

6. The power saving apparatus of claim 4, wherein the devices are checked for a frequency of user in the appliance and a remaining capacity of the battery.

7. The power saving apparatus of claim 6, wherein the frequency of use of the devices is measured by the number of times the devices are used.

8. The power saving apparatus of claim 6, wherein the frequency of use of the devices is measured from a moment that a power of the appliance becomes turned on.

9. The power saving apparatus of claim 6, wherein the frequency of use of the devices is determined by accumulating measured values for each user of the appliance.

10. The power saving apparatus of claim 4, wherein the user entered power management data is entered using a user selectable menu that comprises an item for selecting at least one device to be disconnected from the battery power.

11. The power saving apparatus of claim 10, wherein the user selectable menu comprises an item for establishing a clock throttling rate of a CPU or a brightness of a LCD in the portable appliance.

12. A power saving apparatus in an appliance, comprising:

a DC power supply output unit that outputs a DC voltage of a predetermined level by converting an AC power supply or a battery voltage;

a main DC/DC converter that supplied a plurality of operating voltages to a corresponding plurality of devices by converting the DC voltage or the battery voltage;

a micro-controller that receives user entered power management data; and

a plurality of power switches controlled by the micro-controller that selectively disconnect each of the plurality of devices to carry out a power saving function,

wherein the user entered power management data selects devices on the user set-up menu to be disconnected from the battery power based on remaining capacity of a battery and frequency of use of the devices in the appliance.

13. A power saving apparatus in an appliance, comprising:

a DC power supply output unit that outputs a DC voltage of a predetermined level by converting an AC power supply or a battery voltage;

a main DC/DC converter that supplied a plurality of operating voltages to a corresponding plurality of devices by converting the DC voltage or the battery voltage;

a micro-controller that receives user entered power management data; and

a plurality of power switches controlled by the micro-controller that selectively disconnect each of the plurality of devices to carry out a power saving function,

wherein respective devices in the appliance are checked, and wherein the checked information for at least one of the respective devices is displayed in a user selectable menu on a screen when a remaining capacity of a battery is smaller than a first reference value set up previously by a user.

14. The power saving apparatus of claim 13, wherein the user selectable menu comprises:

an item configured to select a respective device installed in the appliance for which power will be turned off;

an item configured to select a clock throttling rate of CPU and a brightness of LCD; and

an item configured to select a predetermined battery level, below which the power saving program is executed.

15. A power saving apparatus in an appliance, comprising:

a controller configured to prompt a user of the appliance to disable any one of a plurality of power using devices of the appliance when a remaining capacity of a battery supplying power to the devices falls below a predetermined level; and

a plurality of power switches controlled by the controller that selectively disconnect each of the plurality of power using devices of the appliance to carry out a power saving function.

wherein the controller receiver user entered power management data to be used in computing a power saving recommendation to be displayed to the user.

16. The power saving of apparatus claim 15, wherein the prompt comprises a Graphical User Interface (GUI) including a list of devices recommended to disable when the remaining capacity of the battery supplying power falls below the predetermined level.

17. The power saving apparatus of claim 16, wherein the list of devices are ranked according to a frequency of use by the user.

18. The power saving apparatus of claim 17, wherein the frequency of use of the devices is measured by a number of times the devices are used.

19. The power saving apparatus of claim 17, wherein the frequency of use of the devices is measured from a moment that a power of the appliance becomes turned on.

20. The power saving apparatus of claim 17, wherein the frequency of use of the devices is determined by accumulating measured values for each user of the appliance.

21. The power saving apparatus of claim 15, wherein the GUI further comprises an item for establishing a clock throttling rate of a CPU or a brightness of a LCD in the appliance.