Systems and methods for determining electrical connectivity

• US 8,922,222 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2010
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Anand, Anisha, Chambers, Gordon J., Hua, John, Orr, Orville H.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HOAI AN D
• Application Number:
  US13/698,002
• Publication Number:
  US 20130063153A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,656 Days
• Field of Search: 324/500, 324/537, 324/538, 324/756.01, 324/756.05, 361/611, 361/624, 361/637, 361/639, 361/648, 361/675, 361/775
• US Class Current: 324/538
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/155 Indicating the presence of voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/54 Testing for continuity
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/67 Testing the correctness of wire connections in electric apparatus or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: H02B 1/20 Bus-bar or other wiring layouts, e.g. in cubicles, in switchyards installations of bus-bars H02G5/00

Abstract

A system (10) and method (200) are disclosed for detecting electrical connectivity. The system includes at least one power distribution conductor (18) and at least one electrical power pad (20) comprising a detection pad (28) that is electrically isolated from a remaining portion of the respective at least one electrical power pad (20). A measured parameter at the detection pad (28) provides an indication of electrical connectivity between the at least one power distribution conductor (18) and the respective at feast one electrical power pad (20).

Claims

1. A system (10) for detecting electrical connectivity comprising:

at least one power distribution conductor (18); and

at least one electrical power pad (20) comprising a detection pad (28) that is electrically isolated from a remaining portion of the respective at least one electrical power pad (20), wherein a measured parameter at the detection pad (28) provides an indication of electrical connectivity between the at least one power distribution conductor (18) and the respective at least one electrical power pad (20).

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a defection circuit (30) configured to compare the measured parameter with a predetermined value to determine electrical connectivity between the at least one electrical power pad (20) and the respective at least one power distribution conductor (18).

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the measured parameter is a voltage at the detection pad (28).

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a reference voltage generator (124) powered by an auxiliary voltage that is generated separate from the main power voltage, the reference voltage generator (124) being configured to generate a reference voltage that is coupled to the detection pad (28), the detection circuit (30) detecting lack of electrical connectivity in response to measuring the reference voltage at the detection pad (28) and detecting electrical connectivity in response to measuring a voltage associated with the at least one power distribution conductor (18).

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the measured parameter that determines electrical connectivity is a main power voltage when the main power voltage is provided to the at least one power distribution conductor (18) and is a neutral voltage when the main power voltage is not provided to the at least one power distributor conductor (18).

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the power detection is configured to prevent startup of an associated computer system (12) in response to detecting a lack of the electrical connectivity between the at least one electrical power pad (20) and the respective at least one power distribution conductor (18).

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the defection pad (28) is electrically shorted to the remaining portion of the respective at least one electrical power pad (20) upon proper electro-mechanical coupling of the at least one electrical power pad (20) and the at least one power distribution conductor (28).

8. A method (200) for detecting electrical connectivity, the method comprising:

providing an electrical power pad (20) that includes a detection pad (28) that is electrically isolated from a remaining portion of an electrical power pad (20);

electro-mechanically coupling a power distribution conductor (18) to the electrical power pad (20) to electrically couple the detection pad (28) and the remaining portion of electrical power pad (20) to the power distribution conductor (18); and

monitoring the defection pad (28) to determine electrical connectivity of the electrical power pad (20) with the power distribution conductor (18).

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining electrical connectivity comprises measuring a voltage at the defection pad (28) and determining electrical connectivity of the electrical power pad (20) with the power distribution conductor (18) upon the voltage being within a desired threshold range of a voltage associated with the power distribution conductor (18).

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

generating a reference voltage based on the auxiliary voltage;

coupling the reference voltage to the detection pad (28); and

detecting a lack of the electrical connectivity of the electrical power pad (20) with the power distribution conductor (18) upon the voltage being approximately equal to the reference voltage.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising preventing startup of an associated computer system (12) using the voltage associated with the power distribution conductor (18) based on the auxiliary voltage and in response to detecting a lack of the electrical connectivity.

12. A system (10) for determining electrical connectivity comprising:

at least one busbar (152) configured to provide a voltage; and

a plurality of computer systems (154), each of the plurality of computer systems (154) comprising;

at least one electrical pad (156) that is configured to be coupled with the respective at least one busbar (152) to provide the voltage to the respective computer system (154), each of the at least one electrical power pad (156) comprising a detection pad (128) that is electrically isolated from a remaining portion of the respective at least one electrical power pad (156); and

a detection circuit (30) configured to measure a parameter associated with the detection pad (28) and compare the parameter to a desired threshold range to determine electrical connectivity between the at least one electrical power pad (156) and the respective at least busbar (152).

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the parameter is at least one voltage.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein at least one of the computer systems (154) comprises a reference voltage generator (124) configured to generate a reference voltage that is coupled to the detection pad (28), the detection circuit (30) detecting lack of the electrical connectivity in response to measuring the reference voltage and detecting electrical connectivity in response to measuring a voltage associated with the at least one busbar (152).

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the detection circuit (30) is configured to prevent startup of the respective computer system (154) in response to detecting a lack of electrical connectivity between the at least one electrical power pad (156) and the respective at least one busbar (152).