POWER SUPPLY AND PROTECTION METHOD THEREOF

• US 20110219255A1
• Filed: 08/01/2010
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Ever Light Technology Limited
• Inventors: HSIEH, PING-CHENG, LIN, JUI-HSIU, LIU, HAO-CHIEH, LU, CHENG-TUAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,286,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring

Abstract

A power supply includes a power supply module, a microcontroller, a setting unit, a number of switch units, a number of current detection units, and a number of output connectors. Each switch unit is connected to one output connector via one current detection unit. The power supply module converts an alternating current (AC) voltage into a direct current (DC) to power electronic devices connected to each output connector by the corresponding switch unit, and the corresponding current detection unit. Each current detection unit detects a current passing through the output connector. The microcontroller calculates a total power of the power supply module according the detected currents and the DC voltage, and turns off all the switch units when the total power is greater than a predetermined current according to a protection mode set in the setting unit.

Claims

1. A power supply comprising:

a plurality of switch units;

a plurality of output connectors to be respectively connected to a plurality of electronic devices;

a plurality of current detection unit, each current detection unit connected between one of the switch units and one of the output connectors;

a power supply module to convert an alternating current (AC) voltage into a direct current (DC) voltage to power the electronic devices via the switch units, the current detection unit, and the output connectors, wherein the current detection units are respectively used to detect currents passing through the output connectors respectively connected to the electronic devices and output the currents;

a microcontroller connected to the switch units and the current detection units to receive the currents and calculate a total power of the power supply module according the currents and the DC voltage, wherein when the total power of the power supply module is greater than a first predetermined power, the microcontroller is used to turn off all the switch units; and

a setting unit to set a protection mode, wherein when the total power of the power supply module is less than the first predetermined power and greater than a second predetermined power, the microcontroller alternatively powers the electronic devices which are in a low-load state or turns off the switch unit corresponding to the output connector which is not connected to an electronic device.

2. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the first predetermined power is a power rating of the power supply module, the second predetermined power is equal to the power rating of the power supply module subtracting a power rating of the electronic device.

3. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is further to determine whether the current passing through the output connector is greater than a predetermined current, if the current is greater than the predetermined current, it indicates the electronic device connecting to the output connector is in an over-current state, the microcontroller is further to determine whether number of occurrences of the over-current of the electronic device in a specified time period is more than predetermined times, if the number of occurrences is more than the predetermined times, the microcontroller is to turn off the switch unit connecting to the corresponding electronic device.

4. The power supply of claim 1, further comprising a temperature sensing unit to sense temperatures of the microcontroller, the plurality of switch units, and the plurality of current detection units, and output the sensed temperatures to the microcontroller, the microcontroller is used to determine whether each of the sensed temperatures are greater than a temperature, if one of the temperatures is greater than the predetermined temperature, the microcontroller turns off all the switch units.

5. The power supply of claim 1, further comprising a display unit, the display unit is used to display the protection mode and a power state of the electronic device.

6. A power supply protection method comprising:

setting a protection mode for a power supply connected to a plurality of electronic devices;

powering the plurality of electronic devices connected, and detecting a current of each electronic device and outputting the detected current;

calculating a total power according the detected current and a voltage output from the power supply, and determining whether the total power is greater than a first predetermined power;

turning off all the switch units to stop powering the electronic devices if the total power is greater than the first predetermined power;

determining whether the total power is greater than a second predetermined power if the total power is not greater than the first predetermined power;

alternatively powering the electronic devices in a low-load state if the total power is greater than the second predetermined power and the protection mode is an alternative power mode; and

turning off the switch units corresponding to the output connector which is not connected to an electronic device if the total power is greater than the first predetermined power and the protection mode is a limitation output mode.

7. The power supply protection method of claim 6, wherein the first predetermined power is a power rating of the power supply module, the second predetermined power is equal to the power rating of the power supply module subtracting a power rating of the electronic device.

9. The power supply protection method of claim 6, further comprising:

sensing temperatures of a microcontroller, a plurality of current detection units, and a plurality of switch units which are received the power supply, and output the temperatures;

determining whether each of the sensed temperatures is greater than a predetermined temperature; and

turning off all the switch units if one of the temperatures is greater than the predetermined temperature.

8. The power supply protection method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether the detected current is greater than a predetermined current, if the detected current is greater than the predetermined current, the electronic device is in an over-current state;

determining whether number of occurrences of the over-current of the electronic device in a period is more than predetermined times; and

turning off the switch unit corresponding to the corresponding electronic device if the number of occurrences of the over-current is more than the predetermined times.