Patent ID: 8013476

Claim:
A power controller for at least one piece of external equipment, the power controller being connected to the external equipment, comprising: a main unit for determining if an abnormality has occurred in the external equipment at preset regular intervals or at a preset time point and for controlling supply of power to the external equipment; and an expansion unit for resetting power of the external equipment when determined by the main unit as being in an abnormal status; wherein the main unit comprises: a console port unit for providing connection to the external equipment through a serial port; a network adaptor unit for providing connection to the external equipment through a Local Area Network (LAN); an expansion unit interface for providing an interface to transmit signals to and receive signals from the expansion unit; and a control unit for controlling operation of the console port unit, the network adaptor unit, and the expansion unit interface, and for controlling supply of power to the external equipment; wherein the expansion unit comprises: at least one power connection unit for supplying power to the external equipment; a switch driving unit for switching supply of power from the power connection unit to the external equipment under control of the control unit of the main unit; and a power connection determination unit for determining whether the power connection unit supplies power to the external equipment, and consequently for transmitting a power connection determination signal to the main unit; and wherein the control unit of the main unit transmits an external equipment status checking request signal to the external equipment through the console port unit or the network adaptor unit at preset regular intervals or at a preset time point; determines that an abnormality has occurred in the external equipment when an abnormality is present in an external equipment status checking signal received from the external equipment through the console port unit or the network adaptor unit in response to the external equipment status checking request signal or when no external equipment status checking signal is received; and transmits a power reset request signal to the expansion unit through the expansion unit interface, and the switch driving unit of the expansion unit resets power of the external equipment in response to the power reset request signal.