Uninterruptible power system and operation method thereof

An uninterruptible power system and an operation method thereof are provided. The uninterruptible power system has a plurality of function blocks which form a topology structure of the uninterruptible power system. The uninterruptible power system comprises a sensing circuit and a control circuit. The sensing circuit is configured to sense the function blocks and to generate a sensing data accordingly. The control circuit is configured to determine, according to the sensing data, whether an event occurs in any of the function blocks. When the determination is yes, the control circuit generates an event code corresponding to the event and outputs a control command accordingly. The control command is used to control a display interface to display the event code, and is used to control the display interface to send a prompt message through a function block graphic symbol corresponding to the event code in the displayed topology structure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the technical field of power supply, and more particularly, to an uninterruptible power system.

Description of Related Art

An uninterruptible power system (UPS) is used to provide backup power to required devices (e.g., computers, servers, or medical equipment) when AC mains fails, so that the devices can still in normal operation in this case.

However, the traditional uninterruptible power system does not provide intuitive information to the user in the event of a malfunction or an event that requires warning to the user, so that the user cannot quickly troubleshoot or respond. Therefore, how to solve the above problems has become an important issue.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide an uninterruptible power system, which can provide intuitive information to the user in the event of a malfunction or an event that requires warning to the user, so that the user can quickly troubleshoot or respond.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an operation method corresponding to the aforementioned uninterruptible power system.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an uninterruptible power system. The uninterruptible power system has a plurality of function blocks, and the function blocks form a topology structure of the uninterruptible power system. The uninterruptible power system comprises a sensing circuit and a control circuit. The sensing circuit is configured to sense the function blocks and to generate a sensing data accordingly. The control circuit is configured to determine, according to the sensing data, whether an event occurs in any of the function blocks. When the determination is yes, the control circuit generates an event code corresponding to the event and outputs a control command accordingly. The control command is used to control a display interface to display the event code, and is used to control the display interface to send a prompt message through a function block graphic symbol corresponding to the event code in the displayed topology structure.

To achieve the above another object, the present invention further provides an operation method of an uninterruptible power system, wherein the uninterruptible power system has a plurality of function blocks that form a topology structure of the uninterruptible power system. The operation method comprises the following steps: sensing the function blocks through a sensing circuit and generating a sensing data accordingly; determining whether an event occurs in any of the function blocks according to the sensing data; and when the determination is yes, enabling a control circuit to generate an event code corresponding to the event and accordingly output a control command for controlling a display interface to display the event code, and for controlling the display interface to send a prompt message through a function block graphic symbol corresponding to the event code in the displayed topology structure.

In order to make the above objects, technical features and gains after actual implementation more obvious and easy to understand, in the following, the preferred embodiments will be described with reference to the corresponding drawings and will be described in more detail.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The characteristics, contents, advantages and achieved effects of the present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present disclosure.

As required, detailed embodiments are disclosed herein. It must be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of and may be embodied in various and alternative forms, and combinations thereof. As used herein, the word “exemplary” is used expansively to refer to embodiments, that serve as illustrations, specimens, models, or patterns. The figures are not necessarily to scale and some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. In other instances, well-known components, systems, materials, or methods that are known to those having ordinary skill in the art have not been described in detail in order to avoid obscuring the present disclosure. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art.

FIG. 1shows an uninterruptible power system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 1, the uninterruptible power system100is an on-line uninterruptible power system, which has a plurality of function blocks that form the topology structure of the uninterruptible power system100. The function blocks comprise an input unit102, a first voltage conversion unit108, a second voltage conversion unit118, an output unit120, and a battery126. In this embodiment, the input unit102comprises a filtering unit104and a switch unit106. The first voltage conversion unit108comprises a power factor correction circuit (PFC circuit)110, a charging circuit112, and a DC-DC conversion circuit114. The second voltage conversion unit118comprises a DC-AC conversion circuit118-1. The output unit120comprises a switch unit122and a filtering unit124. In addition, the uninterruptible power system100further comprises a sensing circuit128, a control circuit130, and a display interface140.

The sensing circuit128is electrically coupled to the input unit102, the first voltage conversion unit108, the second voltage conversion unit118, the output unit120, and the battery126, so as to measure these function blocks to obtain voltage information, current information, power information, temperature information, and other related information. The control circuit130is electrically coupled to the sensing circuit128, so as to receive the sensing data outputted from the sensing circuit128. In addition, the control circuit130is electrically coupled to the input unit102, the first voltage conversion unit108, the second voltage conversion unit118, the output unit120, the battery126, and the display interface140, so as to control their operations. For example, the control circuit130is configured to control the switch unit106to provide the output of the filtering unit104to the bypass path132, or to provide the output of the filtering unit104to the input of the power factor correction circuit110. The control circuit130is further configured to control the switch unit122to electrically couple the input of the filter unit124to the output of the DC-AC conversion circuit118-1, or to electrically couple the input of the filter unit124to the bypass path132, so as to supply power required by the backend devices through the output terminal180of the uninterruptible power system100.

After measuring the function blocks and generating a sensing data accordingly, the control circuit130determines, according to the sensing data, whether an event occurs in any of the function blocks (i.e., an event of a malfunction or an event that requires warning to the user occurs). When the determination is yes, the control circuit130generates an event code corresponding to the event, and outputs a control command accordingly. The control command is used to control the display interface140to display the event code, and is used to control the display interface140to send a prompt message through a function block graphic symbol corresponding to the event code in the displayed topology structure.

The event code comprises at least two characters, and the characters may comprise letters, numbers, punctuation marks, other symbols, and the like. These characters are divided into two parts, and a part of the characters are used to represent an index.FIG. 2shows one of the images displayed by the display interface140. As can be seen from the image200shown inFIG. 2, the display interface140is used to display related information of the uninterruptible power system100, and is used to display the topology structure of the uninterruptible power system100(as indicated by the reference numeral220) and the aforementioned event code (as indicated by the reference numeral210). The topology structure220displayed by the display interface140comprises a plurality of function block graphic symbols, including an input unit graphic symbol226, a first voltage conversion unit graphic symbol225, a second voltage conversion unit graphic symbol224, an output unit graphic symbol223and a battery graphic symbol221. In addition, the topology structure220displayed by the display interface140also comprises a load graphic symbol222. As shown inFIG. 2, in this embodiment, the event code is represented by two numbers. The digit in tens of the event code represents the aforementioned index, and the digit in ones of the event code represents a status number. It should be noted that the information in the image shown inFIG. 2is for example only and is not intended to limit the present invention.

After the control circuit130generates an event code corresponding to the event, the control circuit130searches out a function block corresponding to the index from a lookup table, and accordingly generates the control command. The lookup table records the correspondence between the function blocks and a plurality of different indexes, as shown in Table 1 below:

TABLE 1EventStatusStatusCodeIndexFunction BlockNumberInformation00~090Battery1Overcharge2Charger failure4Battery voltageis too low5Battery failure6Battery is notconnected7Replace thebattery8Battery voltageis too highOtherReserved10~191LoadSkipped20~292Output unitSkipped30~393Second voltageSkippedconversion unit40~494First voltageSkippedconversion unit50~595Input unitSkipped
For the sake of brevity, the status numbers and their corresponding status information of index 1 to index 5 in Table 1 are omitted. In addition, the status numbers and their corresponding status information of index 0 are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the present invention. Certainly, the lookup table may record the information of the indexes and the function blocks only. In addition, the aforementioned lookup table is stored in an internal memory space of the control circuit130, or stored in an external memory (not shown) electrically coupled to the control circuit130.

Assume that the control circuit130generates an event code 01. The control circuit130determines that the index of the event code 01 is the number 0, searches out the battery which is the function block corresponding to the number 0 from the lookup table, and generates a control command accordingly. Then, the control circuit130outputs the control command to the display interface140, so as to control the display interface140to display the event code 01, and control the display interface140to send a prompt message through the displayed battery graphic symbol221. For example, the display interface140can, according to the aforementioned control command, send the prompt message by emitting light through the battery graphic symbol221or its surroundings, or by flashing the battery graphic symbol221or its surroundings. In this way, the uninterruptible power system100can provide intuitive information to the user in the event of a malfunction or an event that requires warning to the user, so that the user can quickly troubleshoot or respond.

The display interface140can be implemented by a liquid-crystal display (LCD), an electrophoretic display (EPD), a plasma display, or an organic light-emitting diode display (OLED display). In addition, the aforementioned LCD can be implemented by a graphic LCD, which comprises a patterned transparent film and a monochrome LCD. In this embodiment, the patterned transparent film has a plurality of graphic symbols to display related information of the uninterruptible power system100. For example, it may have the graphic symbols as shown inFIG. 2.

In addition, the uninterruptible power system100further comprises a communication interface150, and the control circuit130further transmits the control command to a terminal (not shown) through the communication interface150, so as to display the event code through the display interface of the terminal, and control the display interface to send a prompt message through a function block graphic symbol corresponding to the event code in the displayed topology structure. The communication interface150can be implemented by a Bluetooth communication module, a Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) communication module, a network communication module, a USB (universal serial bus) communication module, an RS232 communication module, a CANbus (controller area network bus) communication module, or a Modbus communication module. The terminal comprises a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer or a mobile phone. Certainly, in the case of having the communication interface150, the uninterruptible power system100may not adopt the display interface140.

It is worth mentioning that although the uninterruptible power system100adopts the filtering units104and124, whether or not to adopt the two filtering units can be determined according to actual design requirements. In addition, the battery126and the bypass path132may be disposed inside or outside of the uninterruptible power system100depending on actual design requirements.

Although in the foregoing description, an on-line uninterruptible power system is taken as an example, this is not intended to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should know that an off-line uninterruptible power system and a line-interactive uninterruptible power system can also be operated as described above.

FIG. 3shows an uninterruptible power system according to another embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 3, the same reference numerals as those inFIG. 1are denoted as the same members. Referring toFIG. 3, the uninterruptible power system300is an off-line uninterruptible power system, which has a plurality of function blocks that form the topology structure of the uninterruptible power system300. The function blocks comprise an input unit102, a first voltage conversion unit308, a second voltage conversion unit118, an output unit120, and a battery126. In this embodiment, the first voltage conversion unit308comprises a charging circuit112and a DC-DC conversion circuit114. Since the first voltage conversion unit308does not have a power factor correction circuit, the status numbers and their corresponding status information in the lookup table used by the uninterruptible power system300need to be modified correspondingly.

FIG. 4shows an uninterruptible power system according to still another embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 4, the same reference numerals as those inFIG. 1are denoted as the same members. Referring toFIG. 4, the uninterruptible power system400is a line-interactive uninterruptible power system, which has a plurality of function blocks that form the topology structure of the uninterruptible power system400. The function blocks comprise an input unit102, a first voltage conversion unit408, a second voltage conversion unit118, an output unit120, a battery126, and an automatic voltage regulation circuit (AVR circuit)134. In this embodiment, the first voltage conversion unit408comprises only the charging circuit112. Since the first voltage conversion unit408does not have a power factor correction circuit and a DC-DC conversion circuit, and the uninterruptible power system400is additionally configured with the automatic voltage regulation circuit134, the status numbers and their corresponding status information in the lookup table used by the uninterruptible power system400need to be modified correspondingly.

According to the description of the above embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should be able to summarize some basic operational steps of the uninterruptible power system according to the present invention, as shown inFIG. 5.FIG. 5shows the operation flow of an operation method of an uninterruptible power system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The uninterruptible power system has a plurality of function blocks that form the topology structure of the uninterruptible power system. The operation method comprises the following steps: sensing the function blocks through a sensing circuit and generating a sensing data accordingly (as shown in step S502); determining whether an event occurs in any of the function blocks according to the sensing data (as shown in step S504); and when the determination is yes, enabling a control circuit to generate an event code corresponding to the event and accordingly output a control command for controlling a display interface to display the event code, and for controlling the display interface to send a prompt message through a function block graphic symbol corresponding to the event code in the displayed topology structure (as shown in step S506). In addition, in step S504, when the determination is no, enabling the display interface to display normal contents (as shown in step S508). That is, in this case, the display interface does not display the event code, and the display interface does not send a prompt message through any of the displayed function block graphic symbols.

In summary, by the above operation, the uninterruptible power system of the present invention can provide intuitive information to the user in the event of a malfunction or an event that requires warning to the user, so that the user can quickly troubleshoot or respond.