Patent ID: 7466042

Claim:
A power converter capable of providing a range of DC power, comprising: a supply circuit for receiving a request for DC power from at least one external device and for providing the requested DC power to the at least one external device, wherein the external device comprises: a device controller circuit for communicating the requested DC powers using a communications protocol selected from a plurality of communications protocols including a simple protocol and a complex protocol, wherein the simple protocol is identified when a capacitive load of the external device is greater than a threshold capacitive value and the complex protocol is identified when the capacitive load is less than the threshold capacitive value; and first and second conductors for connecting the at least one external device to the power converter, wherein the first conductor provides a path for the at least one external device to communicate the requested DC output power to the power converter and for the power converter to supply the requested DC output voltage to the at least one external device, and wherein the second conductor provides a common reference for conducting return current to the power converter.