CN209088569U - Power control device - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model provides a power control device for supply power in load, including main battery, auxiliary battery, charging circuit, control circuit. The main battery is used for supplying power to a load. The volume, the storage capacity and the output voltage of the auxiliary battery are all smaller than those of the main battery. The charging circuit is electrically connected to a power supply network through the power adapter to receive a power input signal of the power supply network and charge the main battery and the auxiliary battery. When the charging circuit is switched from a first state of receiving the power input signal to a second state of not receiving the power input signal, the charging circuit correspondingly generates a protection signal. When the control circuit receives the protection signal, the control circuit sets the auxiliary battery to supply power to the load through the booster circuit, wherein the second output voltage output by the auxiliary battery through the booster circuit is greater than or equal to the first output voltage output by the main battery. Therefore, the system can avoid the obvious difference of system efficiency sensed by the user and the computer system can be prevented from being shut down without early warning.

Description

Power control device

technical field

The utility model relates to a power control device.

Background technique

Based on the booming business opportunities in the e-sports market, the e-sports systems developed by manufacturers all pursue the design of extreme performance to meet the needs of various players. When the hardware performance improves, the power consumption of the system also increases. For example, high-performance portable devices such as gaming notebook computers that have both high performance and portability are widely praised by the market. In order to achieve the two purposes of high performance and portability, the portable device can operate efficiently when connected to the power supply of the power grid (eg, connected to a socket of the power grid through a power adapter). When using the built-in battery for power supply, the power supply capacity of the battery is limited, and the portable device operates in a less efficient manner to save power and prevent the system from shutting down without warning due to insufficient power.

When users use a portable device, they often switch between two power modes. When the portable device is switched from the mode connected to the power grid to the mode powered by the built-in battery, the built-in battery often cannot provide enough power in an instant. power, causing the system to shut down without warning.

Specifically, FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are schematic diagrams of waveforms of a voltage signal and a current signal of a conventional computer system with respect to time, respectively, wherein the signal 110 is the system voltage, the signal 120 is the voltage provided by the protection mechanism of the charger, and the signal 130 The voltage provided by the protection mechanism of the software, and the signal 140 is the system current. Here, at the moment when the AC-DC adapter is removed, the performance degradation of the charger and software is not large enough, causing the system voltage to drop to 3.8V and the power consumption of the system to 0, which in turn makes the system shut down without warning. However, if the aforesaid performance reduction mechanism is activated immediately after detecting that the system current increases instantaneously to ensure that the system does not need such a large current and enters shutdown, the user will noticeably experience the difference in system performance.

Utility model content

In view of this, the present invention provides a power control device, which can prevent the computer system from degrading the performance so much that the user can clearly feel the difference in system performance when the charging circuit stops obtaining power. Avoid the computer system's lack of performance degradation and cause the system to shut down without warning.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned power control device is used to supply power to a load, and includes a main battery, an auxiliary battery, a booster circuit, a charging circuit, and a control circuit. The main battery is used to power the load. The volume, storage capacity and output voltage of the auxiliary battery are all smaller than those of the main battery. The booster circuit is electrically connected to the auxiliary battery. The charging circuit is electrically connected to the main battery and the auxiliary battery, and is used for being electrically connected to the power supply network through the power adapter, so as to receive the power input signal of the power supply network, and to charge the main battery and the auxiliary battery. The control circuit is electrically connected to the charging circuit, the boosting circuit and the auxiliary battery, wherein: when the charging circuit switches from the first state of receiving the power input signal to the second state of not receiving the power input signal, the charging circuit will correspondingly generate Protection signal; when the control circuit receives the protection signal, the control circuit will set the auxiliary battery to supply power to the load through the boost circuit, and the second output voltage output by the auxiliary battery through the boost circuit is greater than or equal to the first output output by the main battery Voltage.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present utility model more obvious and easy to understand, the following examples are given and described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings as follows.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1A is a schematic waveform diagram of a voltage signal with respect to time in a conventional computer system;

FIG. 1B is a schematic waveform diagram of a current signal relative to time in a conventional computer system;

2A is a block diagram of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2B is a block diagram of an auxiliary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a power control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference numerals

110, 120, 130, 140: signal;

t: time;

200: computer system;

205: power adapter;

210: power control device;

212: charging circuit;

214: main battery;

216: auxiliary battery;

218: control circuit;

220: load;

P: boost enable pin;

2162: boost circuit;

B+CHG: charging pin;

B+DSG: discharge pin;

B-: ground pin;

2164: battery cell;

S302 to S310: steps.

Detailed ways

Part of the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in the following. The component symbols quoted in the following description, when the same component symbols appear in different drawings, will be regarded as the same or similar components. These embodiments are only a part of the present invention, and do not disclose all possible implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. To simplify the drawing for clearer description, other elements of the computer system 200 are not shown in FIG. 2A .

Referring to FIG. 2A , the computer system 200 includes a power adapter 205 , a power control device 210 and a load 220 . The computer system 200 herein may be a portable electronic device such as a notebook computer, a tablet computer, and a smart phone.

In this embodiment, the power adapter 205 may have functions such as AC-DC conversion or DC-DC conversion. In other embodiments, the power adapter 205 may also be in the form of a car adapter or a mobile power adapter.

In this embodiment, the power control device 210 includes a charging circuit 212 , a main battery 214 , an auxiliary battery 216 and a control circuit 218 . The charging circuit 212 is electrically connected to the main battery 214 and the auxiliary battery 216 , and the control circuit 218 is electrically connected to the charging circuit 212 , the main battery 214 and the auxiliary battery 216 . The charging circuit 212 has an adapter socket for receiving the input power from the power adapter 205 to charge the main battery 214 and the auxiliary battery 216 . The main battery 214 and the auxiliary battery 216 are lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that can be charged and discharged multiple times, the details of which will be described later. The control circuit 218 may be a processing chip or an integrated circuit element such as an embedded controller (EC), a microcontroller (microcontroller), a power management integrated circuit (PMIC), etc., so as to realize the power control device 210 . management and operation.

In this embodiment, the components in the computer system 200 that need to be powered by the power control device 210 are integrally shown as loads 220 . The load 220 is electrically connected to the power control device 210. For example, the load 220 may include components such as a motherboard, a processor, a display card, a hard disk, and a screen.

In this embodiment, the computer system 200 will be described by taking a notebook computer as an example, wherein the power control device 210 and the device body 220 are located in the casing of the notebook computer, and the power adapter 205 can be plugged into or removed from the power control device 210 the charging circuit 212.

In this embodiment, the main battery 214 includes a first number of battery cells, and the battery cells may be 18650 lithium batteries or battery cells of other suitable specifications. For example, when the battery cells can provide a voltage of 3.7 volts and the main battery 214 needs to provide an output voltage of about 14 volts, the main battery 214 can use four 3.7 volt battery cells connected in series to provide an output voltage of 14.8 volts. The auxiliary battery 216 contains a second number of battery cells, and the second number of battery cells is smaller than the first number of battery cells of the main battery 214 to save hardware space. For example, the auxiliary battery 216 can use only one 3.7V battery cell to save volume. Taking the block diagram of the auxiliary battery 216 shown in FIG. 2B according to an embodiment of the present invention as an example, the auxiliary battery 216 may include a boost circuit 2162 , a battery cell 2164 , a boost enable pin P, and a ground pin B -, the charging pin B+CHG and the discharging pin B+DSG. The control circuit 218 can transmit an enable signal through the boost enable pin P to set the operation mode of the auxiliary battery 216 . The control circuit 218 can generate the enable signal according to the conversion between the low voltage signal and the high voltage signal. After the control circuit 218 enables the auxiliary battery 216, since the number of battery cells 2164 is small, the booster circuit 2162 can be used to set the output voltage of the auxiliary battery 216 to be greater than or equal to the output voltage of the main battery 214 to avoid causing the main battery 214 instead requires powering the auxiliary battery 216 . Here, the auxiliary battery 216 obtains power from the charging circuit 212 through the charging pin B+CHG, and then charges the battery cell 2164, and supplies power to the load 220 through the discharging pin B+DSG. It should be noted that FIG. 2B is only one of the embodiments, and in other embodiments, the booster circuit may not be included in the auxiliary battery, but the auxiliary battery is set in a structure that is electrically connected to the auxiliary battery. The output voltage is greater than or equal to the output voltage of the main battery.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a power control method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the flowchart of FIG. 3 is applicable to the computer system 200 of FIG. 2A .

Please refer to FIG. 2A , FIG. 2B and FIG. 3 at the same time, the control circuit 218 of the power control device 210 will detect the protection signal from the charging circuit 212 (step S302 ). Here, the protection signal is mainly a response when the computer system 200 has an overcurrent event. Taking a charger with Narrow Voltage Direct Current as an example, the protection signal is the PROCHOT signal. The protection signal may be triggered when the charging circuit 212 stops obtaining power from the power adapter 205 , eg, when the power adapter 205 is removed from the charging circuit 212 or when a power failure occurs. In another embodiment, when the firmware or software of the computer system 200 detects that the power input signal of the power supply grid has disappeared, a protection signal can be generated accordingly. From another viewpoint, the protection signal is generated when the charging circuit 212 transitions from the first state in which the power input signal is received to the second state in which the power input signal is not received.

When the control circuit 218 detects the protection signal, it will enable the auxiliary battery 216 through the boost enable pin P (step S304 ), so as to simultaneously supply power to the load 220 through the main battery 214 and the auxiliary battery 216 (step S306 ) ), so as to prevent the computer system 200 from being degraded too much so that the user can clearly feel the difference in system performance, and it can also prevent the computer system 200 from being shut down without warning due to insufficient degrade. During the discharging process of the main battery 214 and the auxiliary battery 216 , the control circuit 218 will determine whether the output voltage of the auxiliary battery 216 is lower than a preset voltage (step S308 ). The preset voltage is, for example, 3V. If so, the control circuit 218 will disable the auxiliary battery 216 and end the power control process.

On the other hand, when the control circuit 218 does not detect the protection signal, the auxiliary battery 216 will not be enabled, that is, only the main battery 214 is used to supply power to the load 220 in a normal manner (step S310 ) to end the power control process .

To sum up, the power control device proposed by the present invention can use the main battery and the auxiliary battery to supply power to the load at the same time when the charging circuit stops obtaining power. In this way, the computer system can be prevented from being degraded too much and users can clearly feel the difference in system performance, and the computer system can be prevented from being shut down without warning due to insufficient degrading, thereby improving user experience.

Although the present utility model has been disclosed above with examples, it is not intended to limit the present utility model. Any person skilled in the art can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present utility model. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the claims.

Claims (3)

1. A power control device, characterized in that, for supplying power to a load, comprising: a main battery for powering the load; Auxiliary battery, whose volume, storage capacity and output voltage are all smaller than the main battery; a booster circuit, electrically connected to the auxiliary battery; A charging circuit, electrically connected to the main battery and the auxiliary battery, is used for being electrically connected to a power supply network through a power adapter to receive a power input signal of the power supply network, and to the main battery and the auxiliary battery to charge; and a control circuit, electrically connected to the charging circuit, the boosting circuit and the auxiliary battery, wherein: When the charging circuit transitions from a first state in which the power input signal is received to a second state in which the power input signal is not received, the charging circuit correspondingly generates a protection signal; When the control circuit receives the protection signal, the control circuit sets the auxiliary battery to supply power to the load through the boost circuit, and the auxiliary battery uses the second output voltage output from the boost circuit The output voltage is greater than or equal to the first output voltage output by the main battery. 2 . The power control device of claim 1 , wherein the main battery contains a first number of battery cells, the auxiliary battery contains a second number of battery cells, and the first number is greater than the second quantity. 3 . The power control device according to claim 1 , wherein when the second output voltage is less than a preset voltage value, the control circuit sets the auxiliary battery to stop supplying power to the load. 4 .