I'm a patent researcher looking for examples, before 2002, of controlling a point-of-load (POL) regulator by use of a microprocessor. In this case, a serial bus is used to communicate between a power controller and a POL regulator. The power controller is actually performing calculations instead of merely enabling/disabling or monitoring. I' happy to clarify or answer any questions you may have. For additional info you can look at US patent 6,949,916; I believe what is discussed in this patent actually existed before 2002. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Asking the experts - Controlling a point-of-load regulator
Jan 03, 2006
2 Replies
The closest analogy I can think of are HP remotely-programmable power supplies. These were usually controlled and monitored by GPIB interfaces (not serial by the conventional definition but not exactly "broadside-load" either.) Date back to the 1970's.
I'm sure that there were lesser-known brands that were controlled/sensed via serial bus.
On a larger scale, SCADA systems have used serial bus communication for power control and parameter reading since the 1960's (probably before, too...)
Tim.
Many inverters use micro controllers to generate a 'real' sine wave and regulate it's amplitude under varying load and battery conditions. These are the higher end versions for off-grid solar installations, not the cheap 'simulated sine wave' versions for the travel trailer. "Trace" was an early brand, much older than 2002. I believe that brand and many others are now owned by Xantrex:
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A serial bus connection would be rather trivial. It can be found on larger units. One that I have seen is a Siemens inverter to feed solar power into the grid and monitor the delivered energy. AFAIK it could be controlled via that link and also send it's delivery data to a PC for revenue tracking.
Regards, Joerg
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