TWI857748B - Electronic device and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic device and a control method thereof are provided. The electronic device includes a primary system and an auxiliary system. In the primary system, a primary display is configured to display a primary screen. A first voltage generator is configured to generate a first backlight voltage to the primary display. A voltage dividing circuit receives the first backlight voltage and divides the first backlight voltage to generate a divided voltage. In the auxiliary system, an auxiliary display is configured to display an auxiliary screen. A controller controls a second voltage generator to generate a second backlight voltage to the auxiliary display according to the divided voltage.

Description

Electronic device and control method thereof

The present invention relates to an electronic device and a control method thereof, and in particular to an electronic device and a control method thereof which can effectively achieve power saving effect.

In the current laptops on the market, a main screen is generally used for users to view the system screen. However, in some laptops with special needs or designs, an auxiliary screen is usually embedded in the laptop shell, so that users can customize some pictures to be displayed on this auxiliary screen.

In view of this, when a laptop is additionally equipped with an auxiliary screen, how to effectively improve the overall power consumption of the laptop will be an important issue for relevant technical personnel in this field.

The present invention provides an electronic device and a control method thereof, which can enable a controller of an auxiliary system to adjust the operation mode of an auxiliary display according to the backlight voltage of a main display, thereby effectively improving the power consumption of the electronic device.

The electronic device of the present invention includes a main system and an auxiliary system. The main system includes a main display, a first voltage generator and a voltage divider circuit. The main display is used to display a main screen. The first voltage generator is coupled to the main display and is used to generate a first backlight voltage to the main display. The voltage divider circuit receives the first backlight voltage and divides the first backlight voltage to generate a divided voltage. The auxiliary system is coupled to the main system. The auxiliary system includes an auxiliary display, a second voltage generator and a controller. The auxiliary display is used to display an auxiliary screen. The second voltage generator is coupled to the auxiliary display. The controller is coupled between the voltage dividing circuit and the second voltage generator, wherein the controller controls the second voltage generator to generate a second backlight voltage to the auxiliary display according to the voltage dividing voltage.

The control method of the electronic device of the present invention includes: enabling a first voltage generator of a main system to generate a first backlight voltage to a main display; enabling the main display of the main system to display a main picture; enabling a voltage divider circuit of the main system to divide the first backlight voltage to generate a divided voltage; enabling a controller of an auxiliary system to control a second voltage generator of the auxiliary system to generate a second backlight voltage to an auxiliary display of the auxiliary system according to the divided voltage; and enabling the auxiliary display of the auxiliary system to display an auxiliary picture.

Based on the above, the electronic device and control method described in various embodiments of the present invention can detect the voltage of the divided voltage through the controller of the auxiliary system, and can judge the operating state of the main display according to the voltage of the divided voltage. In this way, when the controller determines that the main display is operating in the standby mode, the controller can control the voltage of the backlight voltage generated by the voltage generator of the auxiliary system, so that the auxiliary display can also stop the display action and operate in the standby mode, thereby improving the overall power consumption of the electronic device.

Some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. When the same element symbols appear in different drawings, they will be regarded as the same or similar elements. These embodiments are only part of the present invention and do not disclose all possible implementations of the present invention. More precisely, these embodiments are only examples of methods and devices within the scope of the patent application of the present invention.

It is understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it may be directly connected or coupled to the other element, or other intervening elements may be present. In other words, unless specifically limited otherwise, the terms "connected" and "coupled" include direct and indirect connections and couplings between two elements.

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG1 , the electronic device 100 can be divided into a main system 200 and an auxiliary system 300. The main system 200 can include a voltage generator 210, a main display 220, a voltage divider circuit 230, and a processor 240.

In this embodiment, the voltage generator 210 is coupled to the main display 220, the voltage divider circuit 230 and the processor 240. The voltage divider circuit 230 includes a resistor R1 and a resistor R2. The first end of the resistor R1 is coupled to the voltage generator 210, and the second end of the resistor R1 is coupled to the voltage divider node PD. The first end of the resistor R2 is coupled to the voltage divider node PD, and the second end of the resistor R2 is coupled to the reference ground GND. The resistance value of the resistor R2 can be greater than the resistance value of the resistor R1.

On the other hand, the auxiliary system 300 may include a transmission interface 310, a controller 320, a transmission interface 330, a voltage generator 340, and an auxiliary display 350. In the present embodiment, the transmission interface 310 is coupled between the processor 240 and the controller 320. The controller 320 is coupled to the voltage dividing circuit 230, the transmission interface 310, the transmission interface 330, and the voltage generator 340. The transmission interface 330 is coupled between the controller 320 and the auxiliary display 350. The voltage generator 340 is coupled between the controller 320 and the auxiliary display 350, and the voltage generator 340 receives the power supply voltage VDD.

In this embodiment, the electronic device 100 may be, for example, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, or a personal digital assistant (PDA), but the present invention is not limited thereto. The main display 220 and the auxiliary display 350 may be, for example, a device with a display function such as a liquid crystal display panel (LCD) or an organic light-emitting diode panel (OLED). The processor 240 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), or other programmable general-purpose or special-purpose microprocessor (Microprocessor), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or other similar components or a combination of the above components, but is not limited thereto.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the transmission interface 310 may be, for example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, and the transmission interface 330 may be, for example, a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), but not limited thereto. Furthermore, the controller 320 of the present embodiment may be, for example, a microcontroller unit (MCU), but not limited thereto. The voltage generators 210 and 340 of the present embodiment may be, for example, a power integrated circuit (Power IC), but not limited thereto.

In this regard, the present embodiment will be described by taking the electronic device 100 as a notebook computer. Specifically, the user can operate through one or more peripheral devices (not shown) (such as keyboard, mouse, touch panel and other input devices) of the main system 200 of the electronic device 100. Then, the processor 240 can generate display data DS1 to the main display 220 according to the user's operation behavior or display requirements, so that the main display 220 displays the main screen. Among them, the main screen displayed by the main display 220 can be, for example, the display screen of the user operating the main system 200.

In some requirements or operations, the user can customize some pictures to be displayed on the auxiliary display 350. In this case, the processor 240 can generate display data DS2 according to the display requirements, and transmit the display data DS2 to the controller 320 through the transmission interface 310 (such as a USB interface) of the auxiliary system 300. Then, the controller 320 can convert the display data DS2 into SPI format through the transmission interface 330 (such as SPI), and then transmit it to the auxiliary display 350, so that the auxiliary display 350 displays the auxiliary screen according to the display data DS2. Among them, the auxiliary screen displayed by the auxiliary display 350 can be, for example, a user-customized picture screen.

It is worth mentioning that the electronic device 100 of the present embodiment can be operated in the display mode or the standby mode according to the user's operation behavior or requirements. For example, when the electronic device 100 is operated in the display mode, the processor 240 can generate a voltage indication signal IS to the voltage generator 210 according to the display requirements. Then, the voltage generator 210 can generate the backlight voltage VB1 corresponding to the display mode to the main display 220 according to the voltage indication signal IS, so that the main display 220 can display the main screen according to the backlight voltage VB1 and the display data DS1 and operate in the display mode.

On the other hand, in the display mode, the voltage divider circuit 230 of the main system 200 can receive the backlight voltage VB1 and perform a voltage divider operation on the backlight voltage VB1 to generate a divided voltage VD1 having a second voltage value (e.g., 3.3V) at the voltage divider node PD to the controller 320 of the auxiliary system 300.

In this case, the controller 320 of the auxiliary system 300 can determine that the main display 220 of the main system 200 operates in the display mode according to the divided voltage VD1 having the second voltage value. Then, the controller 320 can generate a control signal CS to the voltage generator 340 to instruct the main display 220 to operate in the display mode according to the divided voltage VD1.

Furthermore, the voltage generator 340 can generate a backlight voltage VB2 having a third voltage value (e.g., 16V) to the auxiliary display 350 according to the power voltage VDD and the control signal CS, so that the auxiliary display 350 can display an auxiliary image according to the backlight voltage VB2 and the display data DS2 and operate in the display mode.

On the other hand, when the electronic device 100 operates in the standby mode, the processor 240 can generate a voltage indication signal IS to the voltage generator 210 according to the display requirement. Then, the voltage generator 210 can generate a backlight voltage VB1 corresponding to the standby mode to the main display 220 according to the voltage indication signal IS, so that the main display 220 can stop the display action and operate in the standby mode according to the backlight voltage VB1 and the display data DS1.

On the other hand, in the standby mode, the voltage divider circuit 230 of the main system 200 can receive the backlight voltage VB1 and perform a voltage divider operation on the backlight voltage VB1 to generate a divided voltage VD1 having a first voltage value (e.g., 0V) at the voltage divider node PD to the controller 320 of the auxiliary system 300.

In this case, the controller 320 of the auxiliary system 300 can determine that the main display 220 of the main system 200 operates in the standby mode according to the divided voltage VD1 having the first voltage value. Then, the controller 320 can generate a control signal CS to the voltage generator 340 to instruct the main display 220 to operate in the standby mode according to the divided voltage VD1.

Furthermore, the voltage generator 340 can generate a backlight voltage VB2 having a first voltage value (e.g., 0V) to the auxiliary display 350 according to the power voltage VDD and the control signal CS, so that the auxiliary display 350 can stop displaying according to the backlight voltage VB2 and the display data DS2 and operate in a standby mode. The third voltage value can be greater than the second voltage value, and the second voltage value can be greater than the first voltage value.

Similarly, when the controller 320 of the auxiliary system 300 again detects that the voltage magnitude of the divided voltage VD1 changes from the first voltage value (e.g., 0V) to the second voltage value (e.g., 3.3V), the voltage generator 340 can generate a backlight voltage VB2 having a third voltage value (e.g., 16V) to the auxiliary display 350 according to the power voltage VDD and the control signal CS, so that the auxiliary display 350 can be awakened to display the auxiliary screen and operate in the display mode.

According to the description of the embodiment of FIG. 1 above, the electronic device 100 of this embodiment can detect the voltage of the divided voltage VD1 through the controller 320 of the auxiliary system 300, and can determine the operating state (i.e., display mode or standby mode) of the main display 220 in the main system 200 according to the voltage of the divided voltage VD1 (or the backlight voltage VB1).

In this way, when the controller 320 determines that the main display 220 operates in the standby mode, the controller 320 can control or adjust the voltage of the backlight voltage VB2 generated by the voltage generator 340, so that the auxiliary display 350 in the auxiliary system 300 can also stop the display action and operate in the standby mode, thereby improving the overall power consumption of the electronic device 100.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a control method of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 simultaneously. In step S210, the electronic device enables the first voltage generator of the main system to generate a first backlight voltage to the main display. In step S220, the electronic device enables the main display of the main system to display the main screen. In step S230, the electronic device enables the voltage divider circuit of the main system to divide the first backlight voltage to generate a divided voltage. In step S240, the electronic device enables the controller of the auxiliary system to control the second voltage generator of the auxiliary system to generate a second backlight voltage to the auxiliary display of the auxiliary system according to the divided voltage. In step S250, the electronic device enables the auxiliary display of the auxiliary system to display an auxiliary image.

The implementation details of each step are fully described in the aforementioned embodiments and implementation methods, and will not be elaborated here.

In summary, the electronic device and control method described in various embodiments of the present invention can detect the voltage of the divided voltage through the controller of the auxiliary system, and can determine the operating state of the main display according to the voltage of the divided voltage. In this way, when the controller determines that the main display is operating in the standby mode, the controller can control the voltage of the backlight voltage generated by the voltage generator of the auxiliary system, so that the auxiliary display can also stop displaying and operate in the standby mode, thereby improving the overall power consumption of the electronic device.

100: Electronic devices

200:Main system

210, 340: Voltage generator

220: Main display

230: Voltage divider circuit

240:Processor

300: Auxiliary system

320: Controller

310, 330: Transmission interface

350: Auxiliary display

CS: Control signal

DS1, DS2: Display data

GND: Reference ground

IS: Voltage indication signal

PD: voltage divider node

R1, R2: Resistors

S210～S250: Steps

VB1, VB2: backlight voltage

VD1: Divider voltage

VDD: power supply voltage

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG2 is a flow chart of a control method of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

100: Electronic devices

200:Main system

210, 340: Voltage generator

220: Main display

230: Voltage divider circuit

240:Processor

300: Auxiliary system

320: Controller

310, 330: Transmission interface

350: Auxiliary display

CS: control signal

DS1, DS2: Display data

GND: reference ground terminal

IS: voltage indication signal

PD: voltage divider node

R1, R2: resistors

VB1, VB2: backlight voltage

VD1: Divider voltage

VDD: power supply voltage

Claims (8)

An electronic device includes: a main system, including: a main display, used to display a main picture; a first voltage generator, coupled to the main display, and used to generate a first backlight voltage to the main display; and a voltage divider circuit, receiving the first backlight voltage and dividing the first backlight voltage to generate a divided voltage; and an auxiliary system, coupled to the main system, the auxiliary system including: an auxiliary display, used to display an auxiliary picture; a second voltage generator, coupled to the auxiliary display; and a controller, coupled between the voltage divider circuit and the second voltage generator, wherein the controller The controller controls the second voltage generator to generate a second backlight voltage to the auxiliary display according to the divided voltage, wherein when the voltage magnitude of the divided voltage is a first voltage value, the controller controls the second voltage generator to generate the second backlight voltage with the first voltage value to the auxiliary display according to the divided voltage, and when the voltage magnitude of the divided voltage is a second voltage value, the controller controls the second voltage generator to generate the second backlight voltage with a third voltage value to the auxiliary display according to the divided voltage, wherein the third voltage value is greater than the second voltage value, and the second voltage value is greater than the first voltage value. An electronic device as described in claim 1, wherein the auxiliary display operates in a standby mode according to the second backlight voltage having the first voltage value, and the auxiliary display operates in a display mode according to the second backlight voltage having the third voltage value. The electronic device as described in claim 1, wherein the main system further comprises: a processor coupled to the first voltage generator, the main display and the auxiliary system, the processor is used to generate a voltage indication signal to the first voltage generator according to a display requirement, and to generate display data to the main display and the auxiliary display according to the display requirement. An electronic device as described in claim 1, wherein the voltage divider circuit comprises: a first resistor, a first end of which is coupled to the voltage generator, and a second end of which is coupled to a voltage divider node; and a second resistor, a first end of which is coupled to the voltage divider node, and a second end of which is coupled to a reference ground terminal, wherein the resistance value of the second resistor is greater than the resistance value of the first resistor. A control method for an electronic device, comprising: causing a first voltage generator of a main system to generate a first backlight voltage to a main display; causing the main display of the main system to display a main screen; causing a voltage divider circuit of the main system to divide the first backlight voltage to generate a divided voltage; causing a controller of the auxiliary system to control a second voltage generator of the auxiliary system to generate a second backlight voltage to the auxiliary display of the auxiliary system according to the divided voltage; causing the auxiliary display of the auxiliary system to display an auxiliary screen; When the voltage magnitude of the divided voltage is a first voltage value, the controller controls the second voltage generator to generate the second backlight voltage with the first voltage value to the auxiliary display according to the divided voltage; and when the voltage magnitude of the divided voltage is a second voltage value, the controller controls the second voltage generator to generate the second backlight voltage with a third voltage value to the auxiliary display according to the divided voltage, wherein the third voltage value is greater than the second voltage value, and the second voltage value is greater than the first voltage value. The control method as described in claim 5, wherein the control method further comprises: operating the auxiliary display in a standby mode according to the second backlight voltage having the first voltage value; and operating the auxiliary display in a display mode according to the second backlight voltage having the third voltage value. The control method as described in claim 5, wherein the control method further comprises: Enabling a processor of the main system to generate a voltage indication signal to the first voltage generator according to a display requirement, and enabling the processor to generate display data to the main display and the auxiliary display according to the display requirement. A control method as described in claim 5, wherein the control method further comprises: providing a first resistor of the voltage divider circuit coupled between the voltage generator and a voltage divider node; and providing a second resistor of the voltage divider circuit coupled between the voltage divider node and a reference ground terminal, wherein the resistance value of the second resistor is greater than the resistance value of the first resistor.

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