Charging System

• US 20170373522A1
• Filed: 06/09/2017
• Published: 12/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Pelosi, Alessandro, Sherman, Thomas, Murphy, James C.
• Application Number:
  US15/619,315
• Publication Number:
  US 20170373522A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/402 the two or more transmitting or the two or more receiving devices being integrated in the same unit, e.g. power mats with several coils or antennas with several sub-antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

A system may have a power adapter with multiple ports for supplying power to electronic devices. The electronic devices may include devices such as cellular telephones, wristwatch devices, laptop computers, and tablet computers. The power adapter may supply power using wired links and wireless links. An online user account that is maintained on computing equipment in the system can communicate with the electronic devices or power adapter over a communications network. The power adapter and other components of the system may gather information such as user device charging priority settings, battery charge state information, device type information, usage history information, calendar information, and other information. This gathered information may be used in identifying an optimum power transfer strategy for the power adapter to use in transmitting different amounts of power to each of the electronic devices.

Claims

1. A power adapter configured to supply power from a power source to electronic devices, comprising:

power transfer circuitry that is configured to supply power to a plurality of electronic devices over respective power transfer links;

communications circuitry that is configured to receive information from the plurality of electronic devices including device usage history information; and

control circuitry that is configured to direct the power transfer circuitry to transfer power to at least one of the electronic devices over at least one of the respective power transfer links in an amount that is based at least partly on the device usage history information.

2. The power adapter defined in claim 1 further comprising:

an alternating-current-to-direct-current converter that is configured to receive alternating-current power from the alternating-current power source and that is configured to supply power to the power transfer circuitry, wherein the information from the plurality of electronic devices further comprises battery charge state information and device identifier information and wherein the control circuitry is further configured to direct the power transfer circuitry to transfer the power to the at least one of the electronic devices over the at least one of the respective power transfer links in an amount that is based at least partly on the battery charge state information and device identifier information.

3. The power adapter defined in claim 2 wherein the power transfer circuitry comprises a plurality of power transfer circuits each of which is configured to supply power to a respective one of the electronic devices.

4. The power adapter defined in claim 3 wherein the power transfer links include at least one wired link that is coupled to at least one of the electronic devices and wherein the power transfer circuitry comprises a wired power transfer circuit coupled to the wired link.

5. The power adapter defined in claim 3 wherein the power transfer links include at least one wireless power transfer link and wherein the power transfer circuitry includes a wireless power transmitter that is coupled to a coil that is configured to wirelessly transmit power over the wireless power transfer link.

6. The power adapter defined in claim 2 wherein the power transfer circuitry comprises a plurality of transmitters coupled to a plurality of respective coils.

7. The power adapter defined in claim 6 wherein the communications circuitry comprises wireless communications circuitry.

8. The power adapter defined in claim 7 wherein the information includes battery charging test results gathered by supplying power to the electronic devices and wherein the control circuitry is further configured to direct the power transfer circuitry to transfer power to the at least one of the electronic devices over the at least one of the respective power transfer links in an amount that is based at least partly on the battery charging test results.

9. The power adapter defined in claim 7 wherein the information includes device charging priority information from a user of the electronic devices and wherein the control circuitry is further configured to direct the power transfer circuitry to transfer power to the at least one of the electronic devices over the at least one of the respective power transfer links in an amount that is based at least partly on the device charging priority information.

10. A method of prioritizing wireless charging of batteries in electronic devices, comprising:

with control circuitry in a power adapter having wireless power transmitter circuitry coupled to a plurality of wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils, gathering information that includes battery charge state information for each of the batteries, device type for each of the electronic devices, and user device charging priority information for the electronic devices; and

with the control circuitry, directing the wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils to supply different amounts of power to each of the electronic devices based on the gathered information.

11. The method defined in claim 10, wherein the supplied amounts of power comprise a first amount of power for a first electronic device of the electronic devices and wherein the first amount of power is less than a maximum rated charging power supported by the first device.

12. The method defined in claim 10, wherein the supplied amounts of power comprise a second amount of power for a second electronic device of the electronic devices and wherein the second amount of power is a maximum rated charging power supported by the second device.

13. The method defined in claim 10, wherein directing the wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils to supply different amounts of power comprises:

in accordance with a determination, based at least in part on the user device charging priority information, that a user prefers to charge a first electronic device over a second electronic device, supplying a higher amount of power to the first electronic device than the second electronic device, wherein the first electronic device has a higher battery state-of-charge than the second electronic device.

14. The method defined in claim 10 wherein gathering the information comprises gathering calendar information and wherein directing the wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils to supply different amounts of power to each of the electronic devices comprises directing the wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils to supply different amounts of power to each of the electronic devices based at least partly on the calendar information.

15. The method defined in claim 10 wherein gathering the information comprises gathering device usage history information and wherein directing the wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils to supply different amounts of power to each of the electronic devices comprises directing the wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils to supply different amounts of power to each of the electronic devices based at least partly on the device usage history information.

16. The method defined in claim 15 wherein the device usage history information includes historical information on device power consumption at different times of day.

17. Apparatus that is configured to provide power to a plurality of electronic devices each of which has a battery and each of which has communications circuitry that is configured to transmit battery charge state information for the battery and device type identification information, comprising:

circuitry that is configured to receive power from a power source; and

circuitry that is configured to receive the transmitted battery charge state information and device type identification information from the plurality of electronic devices, wherein the circuitry is configured to supply each of a plurality of electronic devices with the power in respective amounts that are based at least partly on the battery charge state information and device type identification information.

18. The apparatus defined in claim 17 wherein the circuitry that is configured to receive the power from the power source comprises an alternating-current-to-direct-current converter that receives alternating-current power and wherein the circuitry that is configured to receive the transmitted battery charge state information and device type identification information comprises a plurality of wireless power transmitters and a plurality of corresponding wireless power transmission coils that are configured to wirelessly supply the power to the plurality of electronic devices.

19. The apparatus defined in claim 18 wherein the circuitry that is configured to receive the transmitted battery charge state information and device type identification information is further configured to receive device usage information from the plurality of electronic devices, wherein the device usage information includes information on power consumption for each of the electronic devices over multiple days of a week, and wherein the plurality of wireless power transmitters and the plurality of corresponding wireless power transmission coils are configured to wirelessly supply the power to the plurality of electronic devices based at least partly on the device usage information.

20. The apparatus defined in claim 19 wherein the circuitry that is configured to receive the transmitted battery charge state information and device type identification information is further configured to receive calendar information, wherein the calendar information includes information on calendar entries for a user of the electronic devices, and wherein the plurality of wireless power transmitters and the plurality of corresponding wireless power transmission coils are configured to wirelessly supply the power to the plurality of electronic devices based at least partly on the calendar information.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising instructions for:

gathering battery charge state information at a power adapter for batteries in electronic devices that communicate with the power adapter;

gathering user device charging priority information for the electronic devices at the power adapter; and

directing wireless power transmitters and associated wireless charging coils at the power adapter to wirelessly supply different amounts of power to each of the electronic devices based on the battery charge state information and the user device charging priority information.