Abstract:
A power supply device enabling an interactive display control that can transfer the electricity data, the rotation speed data and the temperature data generated by the power supply to an interactive display module is disclosed. In addition, the interactive display module may implement prompt adjustment to output voltage and fan rotation speed in the power supply by minimal human operations.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a power supply device; in particular, it relates to a power supply device enabling interactive display control that can show in real-time power condition, fan rotation speed condition and temperature condition in use, and also adjust and compensate output voltage and fan rotation speed thereof. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    A power supply is virtually an indispensible component for a computer system. Operating status of the power supply, however, is generally beyond the control of human operators. Taking the personal computer (PC) as an example, the power output conditions regarding the power supply installed therein can be reflected by the output values indicating various voltage rating (e.g. 3.3, 5 or 12 Volts) shown in the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) for user&#39;s reference. However, the information provided by BIOS may not be obtained all the time. 
         [0005]    Besides, most advanced motherboards are mostly provided with built-in monitoring mechanisms presenting information of the operating status of the power supply such as internal temperature, input power condition and fan rotation speed. Such information may not be accessible until after being intentionally accessed as, for example, it typically lies in the background of an interface of an operating system. 
         [0006]    Consequently, information of occurrences of undesirable increase in the internal temperature and abnormal fan rotation speed of the power supply are not immediately available to the human operators before certain damages such as burn-down of the components have already been caused, shortening lifespan of the power supply and potentially increasing maintenance cost associated with the damaged power supply or the computer system having the power supply. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    Accordingly, the present invention provides a power supply device enabling an interactive display control that is capable of detecting operating status of the power supply. And the present invention also further provides a mechanism allowing for prompt fan rotation speed adjustment and output voltage compensation. 
         [0008]    The power supply device enabling the interactive display control according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a detecting module, a signal converting circuit, a first communication driver, a second communication driver and an interactive display module. The detecting module outputs at least one analog signal. The signal converting circuit is coupled to the detecting module in order to convert the detection signal into a digital signal. The first communication driver is coupled to the signal converting circuit in order to compress the digital signal into a data packet. The second communication driver is coupled to the first communication driver and is configured in accordance with a first communication protocol on basis of which the first communication driver is configured as well. The second communication driver receives and decompresses the data packet. The interactive display module is coupled to the second communication driver in order to operate on the decompressed digital signal, and presents the display data. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  shows a perspective view of a power supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  shows a circuit block diagram of the power supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  shows another circuit block diagram of the power supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  shows a circuit block diagram of the interactive display module according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  shows a diagram of application status for the embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0014]    Refer now to  FIG. 1 , wherein a perspective view of a power supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. The power supply device according to the present embodiment includes a power supply  1  and an interactive display device  2  communicatively coupled to the power supply  1 . Input units (B 1  and B 2 ) that are installed on the interactive display device  2  may be manipulated to adjust fan rotation speed of the power supply  1  and compensate an output voltage of the power supply  1 . In addition, the power supply  1  also compresses electricity data, rotation speed data or temperature data into a data packet before the data packet is delivered to the interactive display device  2  in order to be presented on a liquid crystal display (LCD) device  224  of the interactive display device  2 . 
         [0015]    The interactive display device  2  in the present invention is to provide an interactive operation interface so that the operational condition of the power supply such as the internal fan rotation speed of the power supply  1  may be controlled through the interactive display device  2 . Meanwhile, compensating the output voltage from the power supply  1  may be implemented through the interactive display device  2  as well. 
         [0016]    Refer to  FIG. 2  in conjunction with  FIG. 1 .  FIG. 2  shows a circuit block diagram of the power supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The power supply  1  in the present embodiment essentially includes a detecting module  11 , a signal converting circuit  13 , and a first communication driver  14 . The interactive display device  2  generally includes a second communication driver  24  and an interactive display module  22 . The detecting module  11  outputs at least one analog signal Sa to the signal converting circuit  13  where the detection signal Sa may be converted into a digital signal Sd. The digital signal Sd may be further transferred to the first communication driver  14 . 
         [0017]    The first communication driver  14  is configured to compress the digital signal Sd into a data packet Dp and send the data packet Dp to the second communication driver  24 . It is worth noting that the second communication driver  24  is configured in accordance with a first communication protocol on basis of which the first communication driver  14  is configured. The second communication driver  24  decompresses the data packet Dp and passes the generated digital signal Sd to the interactive display module  22 . The interactive display module  22  is configured to operate on the received digital signal Sd and present a display data (not shown) accordingly. 
         [0018]    Refer to  FIG. 3  in conjunction with  FIG. 2 .  FIG. 3  shows another circuit block diagram of the power supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The detecting module  11  in the power supply  1  includes a voltage detecting circuit  110 , a current detecting circuit  112 , a fan rotation speed detecting circuit  114  and a temperature detecting circuit  116 . Also, the power supply  1  further includes a power transforming circuit  10 , a fan driving circuit  17  along with a fan  15 . 
         [0019]    Herein the voltage detecting circuit  110  and the current detecting circuit  112  are employed to detect an electricity supplied by the power transforming circuit  10  and generate a first analog signal S 1  and a second analog signal S 2 . The fan rotation speed detecting circuit  114  detects the rotation speed of the fan  15  in the power supply  1  and accordingly outputs a rotation speed signal S 3 . The temperature detecting circuit  116  detects the temperature in the power supply  1  and thus outputs a temperature signal S 4 . 
         [0020]    The signal converting circuit  13  is coupled to the voltage detecting circuit  110 , the current detecting circuit  112 , the fan rotation speed detecting circuit  114  and the temperature detecting circuit  116 . The signal converting circuit  13  is configured to convert the first analog signal S 1 , the second analog signal S 2 , the rotation speed signal S 3  and the temperature signal S 4  into a first digital signal S 1 ′, a second digital signal S 2 ′, a digital rotation speed signal S 3 ′ and a digital temperature signal S 4 ′, respectively. 
         [0021]    The first communication driver  14  is coupled to the signal converting circuit  13  in order to compress the first digital signal S 1 ′, the second digital signal S 2 ′, the digital rotation speed signal S 3 ′ and the digital temperature signal S 4 ′ into a data packet Dp. The data packet Dp is then delivered to the interactive display device  2  to be presented the interactive display device  2 . 
         [0022]    The second communication driver  24  is coupled to the first communication driver  14  and both of them are configured with the same communication protocol (e.g., the first communication protocol) for facilitating the reception of the data packet Dp. The first communication protocol may be USB, I2C, RS-232, RS-485, IEEE 1394 or Device Bay communication protocol specifications. Besides, the interactive display module  22  may be a touch screen display. 
         [0023]    Refer to  FIG. 4  in conjunction with  FIG. 3 .  FIG. 4  shows a circuit block diagram of the interactive display module according to an embodiment of the present invention. The interactive display module  22  is coupled to the second communication driver  24  and may include a wind speed adjusting circuit  220 , a voltage compensation adjusting circuit  222 , an LCD device  224 , and a processor  226 . The second communication driver  24  receives and decompresses the data packet Dp, and transfers the decompressed first digital signal S 1 ′, the decompressed second digital signal S 2 ′, the decompressed digital rotation speed signal S 3 ′ and the decompressed digital temperature signal S 4 ′ to the processor  226 . 
         [0024]    The processor  226  operates on decompressed signals including the decompressed first digital signal S 1 ′, the decompressed second digital signal S 2 ′, the decompressed digital rotation speed signal S 3 ′ and the decompressed digital temperature signal S 4 ′ to generate electricity data D 1 , rotation speed data D 2 , and temperature data D 3 . The processor  226  then sends the electricity data D 1 , the rotation speed data D 2 , and the temperature data D 3  to the LCD device  224  for presentation. In one implementation, the electricity data D 1  may be the voltage data, the current data, or the power data. 
         [0025]    The input units (B 1  and B 2 ) shown as  FIG. 1 , e.g., buttons knobs, may be utilized to cause the wind speed adjusting circuit  220  to output a first control signal SC 1  to the processor  226 , which may in turn send the first control signal SC 1  to the second communication driver  24  for compression. And the second communication driver  24  then transmits the compressed first control signal SC 1 ′ to the first communication driver  14 . Upon reception of the first control signal SC 1 ′, the first communication driver  14  decompresses the first control signal SC 1 ′ and transfers the decompressed first control signal SC 1  to the signal converting circuit  13 . The signal converting circuit  13  converts the first control signal SC 1  into a first analog control signal S 5  which is then transferred to the fan driving circuit  17  for the control of the rotation speed of the fan  15 . As such, the rotation speed of the fan  15  in the power supply  1  may be adjusted and immediately presented on the LCD device  224 . 
         [0026]    The input units (B 1  and B 2 ) shown as  FIG. 1  may be employed to cause the voltage compensation adjusting circuit  222  to output a second control signal SC 2  to the processor  226 , which in turn send the second control signal SC 2  to the second communication driver  24 . And the second communication driver  24  then passes the compressed second control signal SC 2 ′ to the first communication driver  14 . Upon the reception of the second control signal SC 2 ′, the first communication driver  14  decompresses the second control signal SC 2 ′ and transfers the decompressed second control signal SC 2  to the signal converting circuit  13 . The signal converting circuit  13  converts the second control signal SC 2  into a second analog control signal S 6  which is then transferred to the power transforming circuit  10  for the control of the compensation of the output voltage by the power transforming circuit  10 . Consequently, the output voltage from the power transforming circuit  10  in the power supply  1  may be adjusted to a desired level, and immediately shown on the LCD device  224 . 
         [0027]    Refer again to  FIG. 4  in conjunction with  FIG. 3 . The LCD device  224  in the interactive display module  22  may further include a light source module  2240 . In one implementation, the light source module  2240  may be an LED light source module used to provide at least one colored light, such as red light. Also, the processor  226  may further include a temperature comparing circuit  2260  for comparing the digital temperature signal S 4 ′ with a threshold signal Vth and outputting a light source control signal SC 3  to the light source module  2240 . 
         [0028]    Hence, when the internal temperature of the power supply  1  reaches at a predetermined threshold temperature, the light source control signal SC 3  from the processor  226  controls the light source  2240  to emit the colored light indicating an occurrence of an overly high temperature. In addition, in the event that the internal temperature of the power supply  1  is under normal condition, the light source control signal SC 3  from the processor  226  may control the light source  2240  to emit another colored light indicative of the normal internal temperature. 
         [0029]    Since the interactive display device  2  may be externally connected with the power supply  1 , the interactive display device  2  may be installed in an expansion slot  31  on a front panel of the host computer  3 , as shown in  FIG. 5 . Thus, as long as the system is powered, the interactive display device  2  may properly present operating status of the power supply  1  independent of operating status of the computer system. 
         [0030]    In summary, the power supply  1  and the interactive display device  2  in the present embodiment utilize the same communication protocol to carry out data transmissions between them. More specifically, the power supply  1  sends the electricity data, the temperature data and the rotation speed data to the interactive display device  2  in accordance with the communication protocol that facilitates the communication between the power supply  1  and the interactive display device  2 . Meanwhile, the interactive display device  2  may transfer the rotation speed control signal and the voltage compensation control signal to the power supply  1  through the same communication protocol as well. 
         [0031]    Accordingly, from the interactive display device according to the present embodiment operating status of the power supply may be observed in a real-time manner, thereby eliminating the occurrences of component failure or burn-down as well as overly high or undesirable fluctuating input voltage and input current, thus resolving the undesired consequences such as shortened lifespan and increased costs in maintenance for internal components and peripherals. Besides, the rotation speed of fan and the output voltage may be adjusted by manipulating the interactive display module so as to achieve the objectives of enhancing heat dissipation and maintaining the temperature of the power supply device in a predetermined level. 
         [0032]    It should be noted that the detailed descriptions and drawings set forth hereinbefore illustrate only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all variations and modifications that those skilled in the art can conveniently consider in the field of the present invention should therefore be encompassed by the following claims of the present invention.