Patent ID: 8638199

Claim:
A method for communicating information to a direct current (DC) powered electronic device, the method comprising: receiving alternating current (AC) power with an AC information signal modulated thereon; converting the received AC power to DC power defined by a DC voltage value corresponding to a nominal DC voltage used by the DC powered electronic device; demodulating the received AC information signal to determine information; modulating the information onto the transmitted DC power as a transmitted DC voltage defining a DC information signal representing a first binary number and a second binary number, wherein the DC information signal corresponds to a series of the first binary number and the second binary number, and wherein the modulating comprises: changing a current value of the transmitted DC voltage of the DC power by a predefined percent change corresponding to the nominal DC voltage, wherein a second binary value corresponds to a value of the current transmitted DC voltage of the DC power, and wherein the DC information signal comprises the first binary number and the second binary number that are identifiable by the predefined percent difference in the values of the transmitted DC voltage of the DC power; modulating an AC signal onto the DC power onto the transmitted DC power, wherein a first frequency shift in the AC signal corresponds to a first bit, wherein a second frequency shift in the AC signal corresponds to a second bit, and wherein the information corresponds to a series of the first frequency shift and the second frequency shift; transmitting the DC power with the DC information signal over a DC connector to the DC powered electronic device; detecting the value of the transmitted DC voltage of the DC power to identify the DC information signal on the modulated DC power at the DC powered electronic device, wherein the first binary number corresponds to detecting the value of the transmitted DC voltage being the predefined percent change of the current value of the transmitted DC voltage, and wherein the second binary number corresponds to detecting the current value of the transmitted DC voltage; demodulating the DC information signal from the received DC power; and determining the information at the DC powered electronic device based upon the demodulated DC information.