Industrial tablet computer low-power-consumption circuit and standby control method

Abstract

The invention relates to an industrial tablet computer low-power-consumption circuit and a standby control method, and belongs to the technical field of circuit design. According to the low-power-consumption circuit of the industrial tablet computer, after the power consumption management chip used for power consumption management is additionally arranged between the battery and the power supply chip, the power supply output end of the power consumption management chip is connected with the power supply input end of the power supply chip through the switching circuit, and meanwhile the power consumption management chip is in direct communication connection with the power supply chip; on the basis of ensuring that the industrial panel can complete the existing standby operation, the overall power-off of the mainboard comprising all power-consuming working parts can be additionally realized, and the relatively large standby current still existing in the industrial panel after the existing standby operation is remarkably reduced, so that the power consumption is further reduced, and the overall working time of the industrial panel can be remarkably prolonged.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention is applicable to the technical field of circuit design, and in particular relates to an industrial flat panel low-power consumption circuit and a standby control method. Background Art

[0002] Everyday consumer tablets are powered by ultra-thin single-cell lithium batteries. The output voltage of a single lithium battery is low, so it is easy to achieve low power consumption design for consumer tablets. However, the control board power supply voltage requirement of industrial tablets is generally 12V, so they mostly use dedicated 3-series 2-parallel lithium batteries, which cannot achieve low power consumption design as easily as consumer tablets.

[0003] The working principle of the industrial tablet is as follows: 3 series and 2 parallel lithium batteries provide 12V working voltage, and the 12V voltage is divided into 5V and 3.3V basic voltages. A dedicated power chip (power IC) generates VCC5V0_SYS required by the CPU from 5V and supplies it to the HDMI interface, camera, SSD hard disk, fingerprint recognition module, LCD, speaker (spk) and other parts, and a dedicated power chip (power IC) generates VCC3V3_SYS from 3.3V and supplies it to the network PHY (Port Physical Layer) chip, peripherals such as WiFi modules and other parts, and also generates VCC1.21V to power the DDR memory chip, and generates VCC0.76V to power the graphics card (GPU). After the 12V 3-series-2-parallel lithium battery is powered on, the above-mentioned power supplies are turned on in sequence. When there is no operation for a long time or the power button is pressed, the display (5V) power supply and GPU (0.76V) power supply are turned off, and the peripheral power supply is turned off. However, the 12V is still supplying power at this time. The energy saving of the power supply is limited to the screen display part and some peripherals. After turning off the screen display part and some peripherals, the system current is still at least 40mA, and the power consumption is still large. When powered by battery, even if it is in standby mode for a long time, it can only standby for a maximum of 2 days.

[0004] It can be seen that the current industrial tablets have the problem of high standby energy consumption resulting in too short overall working time. Summary of the invention

[0005] In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a low-power consumption circuit and a standby control method for an industrial tablet to solve the technical problem that the overall working time of the current industrial tablet is too short due to the large standby energy consumption.

[0006] In a first aspect, an industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit is provided, comprising a mainboard, a switch circuit and a control board, wherein the mainboard comprises a power chip, and the control board comprises a battery, a power consumption management chip and a power button; The power button controls the connection to the power consumption management chip, the battery supplies power to the power consumption management chip, the power consumption management chip supplies power to the power supply chip through the switch circuit, and the power consumption management chip is communicatively connected to the power supply chip.

[0007] In a second aspect, a standby control method applied to the above-mentioned industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit is provided, the method comprising: When the power button is pressed for a first time, the power management chip sends a standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard to complete the standby operation of the industrial tablet; When the power button is pressed for a second time period greater than the first time period, the power consumption management chip sends the standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard, continues to control the switch circuit to turn off, and then controls itself to sleep, completing the sleep operation of the industrial tablet.

[0008] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects: The industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit of the present invention adds a power consumption management chip for power consumption management between the battery and the power supply chip, connects the power supply output terminal of the power consumption management chip with the power supply input terminal of the power supply chip through a switch circuit, and directly communicates with the power supply chip. This ensures that the industrial flat panel can complete the existing standby operation, and can additionally power off the entire mainboard including all power-consuming working components, thereby significantly reducing the large standby current that still exists in the industrial flat panel after the existing standby operation, thereby further reducing power consumption and significantly improving the overall working time of the industrial flat panel. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative labor.

[0010] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the power supply structure of an existing industrial flat panel; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a power supply structure of an industrial flat panel provided by an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a structural schematic diagram of a switch circuit provided by an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the peripheral connection relationship of the power consumption management chip provided by an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5It is a flowchart of a standby control method provided in Embodiment 2 of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0011] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0012] It should be understood that the present invention can be implemented in different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. On the contrary, providing these embodiments will make the disclosure thorough and complete and fully convey the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art. In the accompanying drawings, the sizes and relative sizes of layers and regions may be exaggerated for clarity. The same reference numerals throughout represent the same elements.

[0013] It should be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being "on, adjacent to, connected to or coupled to other elements or layers, it may be directly on, adjacent to, connected to or coupled to other elements or layers, or there may be intervening elements or layers. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly on, directly adjacent to, directly connected to or directly coupled to other elements or layers, there may be no intervening elements or layers. It should be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and / or parts, these elements, components, regions, layers and / or parts should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or part from another element, component, region, layer or part. Therefore, without departing from the teachings of the present invention, the first element, component, region, layer or part discussed below may be represented as a second element, component, region, layer or part.

[0014] Spatially relative terms such as "under," "beneath," "below," "under," "above," "above," and the like may be used herein for ease of description to describe the relationship of an element or feature shown in the figures to other elements or features. It should be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to include different orientations of the device in use and operation in addition to the orientations shown in the figures. For example, if the device in the accompanying drawings is flipped, then the elements or features described as "under other elements" or "under" or "under" will be oriented as "above" the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary terms "under" and "under" may include both upper and lower orientations. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or other orientations) and the spatial descriptors used herein are interpreted accordingly.

[0015] The purpose of the terms used herein is only to describe specific embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. When used herein, the singular forms "one", "an" and "said / the" are also intended to include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the terms "consisting of" and / or "comprising", when used in this specification, determine the presence of the features, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or parts, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, parts and / or groups. When used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of the relevant listed items.

[0016] In order to fully understand the present invention, detailed structures and steps will be presented in the following description to illustrate the technical solutions proposed by the present invention. The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below, but in addition to these detailed descriptions, the present invention may also have other implementations.

[0017] like Figure 2 As shown, an industrial flat panel low-power circuit provided in Embodiment 1 of the present invention includes a mainboard, a switch circuit and a control board. The mainboard includes a power chip, and the control board includes a battery, a power management chip and a power button.

[0018] Among them, the power button controls the connection to the power consumption management chip, the battery supplies power to the power consumption management chip, the power consumption management chip is powered by the switch circuit and connected to the power chip, and the power consumption management chip is communicatively connected to the power chip.

[0019] The schematic diagram of the power supply structure of the existing industrial flat panel is as follows: Figure 1 As shown, the battery supplies power to the power chip (power IC) through the charging chip (charging IC), and the power chip outputs voltages of various specifications to power internal devices such as CPU, GPU and external devices such as LCD and camera. When the industrial tablet is not used for a long time or the operator actively operates the power button, the LCD display power and GPU power are turned off to save energy. However, at this time, the power chip is actually still supplying power to other parts except the display and GPU, resulting in a large current in the standby state of the existing industrial tablet and a low battery life.

[0020] The industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit in this embodiment of the present invention is as follows Figure 2 As shown, compared to Figure 1The power supply structure of the existing industrial flat panel shown first includes two parts, a control board and a main board, and a power management chip for power consumption management is specially added to the control board part. In this embodiment, the power management chip is preferably an MCU, and then the power button control is connected to the MCU to realize the reception and recognition of external operations. At the same time, the battery voltage power supply is transmitted in series to the power chip (power IC) on the main board through the MCU and the switch circuit in sequence, and at the same time, the MCU is directly connected to the power chip (power IC) on the main board without passing through the switch circuit.

[0021] With such a configuration, the low-power circuit of the industrial tablet of the present invention can realize the existing standby operation by the MCU directly sending a standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard through the communication interface after the power button sends the key operation corresponding to the standby mode to the MCU; more importantly, the operator can further use the power button to perform a key operation different from the standby mode, that is, press the button for a longer time, and after the MCU sends the standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard through the communication interface, it continues to control the switch circuit to shut down and completely shut down the power supply to the mainboard, and puts itself into sleep mode, thereby realizing the specific sleep operation in this embodiment. Compared with the existing standby operation, the sleep operation reduces power consumption to a greater extent, thereby significantly extending the overall working time of the industrial tablet.

[0022] Among them, during the above-mentioned sleep operation, the reason why the MCU first sends a standby command to the power chip on the mainboard through the communication interface and then turns off the switch circuit is to ensure that the parts on the mainboard that have data preservation requirements can save data normally, avoiding data loss caused by direct power failure.

[0023] In addition, in this embodiment, the industrial flat panel low-power circuit is preferably implemented based on the RK3568 development board, and by modifying the configuration parameters, it can be determined which specific devices need to be shut down and which devices do not need to be shut down during the standby operation. For example, on the basis of turning off the LCD display power and GPU power, the wired network, wireless network, Bluetooth, etc. can also be turned off.

[0024] The industrial flat panel low-power circuit shown in this embodiment of the present invention adds a power management chip for power consumption management between the battery and the power chip, connects the power supply output end of the power management chip with the power supply input end of the power chip through a switching circuit, and directly communicates with the power supply chip at the same time. On the basis of ensuring that the industrial flat panel realizes the existing standby operation, it can also realize the complete power-off of the mainboard part, eliminate the large standby current that still exists in the industrial flat panel after the existing standby operation, thereby further reducing power consumption and significantly improving the overall working time of the industrial flat panel.

[0025] Further, in a preferred embodiment, the switch circuit includes a MOS switch, such as Figure 3 as well as Figure 4 As shown, the control output end of the power management chip is connected to the control end of the MOS tube, the power supply output end of the power management chip is connected to the input end of the MOS tube, and the output end of the MOS tube is connected to the power chip.

[0026] Based on the good conduction characteristics of the MOS tube, the switch circuit can have better on-off capability, thereby improving the sleep operation response effect.

[0027] Furthermore, in a more preferred embodiment, it also includes a resettable fuse F1, the resettable fuse is as follows: Figure 2 as well as Figure 3 The power supply output terminal (i.e. Figure 3 The MOS tube is an N-channel + P-channel MOS tube Q2, and the model is preferably AO4606.

[0028] The resettable fuse can quickly disconnect the battery power supply when one or some parts inside the mainboard of the industrial tablet are short-circuited due to a fault, so as to protect the safety of the industrial tablet and prevent current overload. It can also recover by itself after the fault is repaired, and does not need to be replaced like a conventional fuse after it is blown, which is more convenient.

[0029] The MOS tube especially adopts the N-channel + P-channel MOS tube type, which can reduce the power consumption of the switch and provide sufficient working current carrying capacity for the industrial flat panel during operation. When the switch circuit, that is, the MOS tube, is turned off and the industrial flat panel is powered on again, it maintains the correct logic level state after the previous shutdown, that is, ensures that the industrial flat panel is in the off state after being powered on again.

[0030] In one embodiment, if Figure 2 As shown, the control board also includes a power detection chip, the power detection chip detects and is connected to the battery, and the power detection chip is communicatively connected to the power consumption management chip.

[0031] The power management chip, which is the preferred MCU, can determine the current power level of the industrial tablet battery through the power information detected by the power detection chip (power IC), so that it can automatically perform standby or hibernation operations by setting the threshold in advance without the user having to manually press the power button, further improving the convenience of standby and hibernation.

[0032] In one embodiment, if Figure 2 As shown, the control board also includes a charging chip (charging IC) and a charging interface. The battery is powered by the charging chip and connected to the power consumption management chip, and the charging chip is connected to the charging interface.

[0033] By setting a charging chip, the voltage supply structure of the battery and the charging interface to the power management chip can be integrated to save space for the industrial tablet. In this embodiment, the preferred battery uses 3 series and 2 parallel lithium batteries to form a 12V 5200mAh battery, and uses a pw4000 chip as a charging chip to realize the charging of a 12V lithium battery, and has the function of preventing overcharge and over-discharge. Due to the use of the BUCK-BOOST step-up and step-down circuit, the input supports a power supply range of 5V-20V 3A. By changing the resistance, it can support 1-4 lithium batteries, and the power supply has a wide range of application.

[0034] like Figure 5 , which is a flow chart of a standby control method applied to the above-mentioned industrial flat panel low-power consumption circuit provided in the second embodiment of the present invention, and the method comprises the following steps.

[0035] Step S201: When the power button is pressed for a first time period, the power management chip sends a standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard to complete the standby operation of the industrial tablet.

[0036] Still, the power management chip is preferably MCU for explanation, such as Figure 2 as well as Figure 4 As shown, the user can send instructions to the MCU to perform a regular standby operation by short-pressing the power button for a short first time, wherein the specific content of the standby operation can be consistent with the existing standby operation of the industrial tablet, or can be adaptively set according to the specific usage scenario, and no specific examples are given in this embodiment.

[0037] Step S202, when the power button is pressed for a second time period greater than the first time period, the power consumption management chip sends the standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard, continues to control the switch circuit to turn off, and then controls itself to sleep, completing the sleep operation of the industrial tablet.

[0038] When the user does not expect to use the industrial tablet for a longer period of time and wants to further save energy, the user can press and hold the power button for a second time greater than the first time based on the first time, so that the MCU can continue to shut down the switch circuit after sending a regular standby command to the motherboard to complete the standby operation. Figure 4 The MOS tube shown cuts off all power supply to the mainboard and puts itself into sleep mode. Such sleep mode can further reduce the overall working current of the industrial tablet compared to the conventional standby mode, greatly reduce the standby power consumption of the industrial tablet, and extend the working time several times.

[0039] In one embodiment, the control board further includes a power detection chip, the power detection chip detects and is connected to the battery, and the power detection chip is communicatively connected to the power consumption management chip.

[0040] The low-power circuit based on the industrial tablet also includes a power detection chip structure. The power consumption management chip can detect the power of the battery through the power detection chip. When the power of the battery is lower than a first threshold, the standby operation is performed. When the power of the battery is lower than a second threshold, the sleep operation is performed. The first threshold is greater than the second threshold.

[0041] Therefore, the industrial tablet can be automatically and timely put into standby or hibernation operation according to the battery power, thereby further improving the energy saving effect and extending the working time of the industrial tablet.

[0042] Further, in a preferred embodiment, limiting the power consumption management chip to issue a standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard includes: After the power management chip sends a standby instruction to the mainboard, Figure 4 It also detects whether the specific working voltage of the mainboard exists, and if so, issues the standby instruction again; otherwise, it is considered that the mainboard has entered the standby mode, and the power consumption management chip stops sending the standby instruction to the mainboard; The specific operating voltage refers to a voltage that exists when the industrial tablet is working but does not exist when it is on standby. In this embodiment, the specific operating voltage is preferably a 3.3V operating voltage of one or more components on the main board. In other embodiments, the operating voltage of one or more components on the main board with an operating voltage of 5V can of course be selected as the specific operating voltage, or the voltage of the main board that feeds back a set voltage value to the power consumption management chip can be directly set as the specific operating voltage.

[0043] After the standby instruction is issued, this embodiment can confirm whether the mainboard has successfully executed the standby instruction by setting the power consumption management chip to detect the specific operating voltage, thereby forming a closed-loop control for the issuance and execution of the standby instruction, improving the control accuracy and ensuring the energy-saving effect.

[0044] In another embodiment, if Figure 4 As shown, the power consumption management chip determines whether the battery is in a charging state by detecting the voltage of the battery. If so, the power consumption management chip stops executing the standby operation and the sleep operation.

[0045] The reason is that industrial chips are used in industrial production, and their frequency of use is more frequent than that of consumer-grade tablets. Therefore, when the industrial tablet is connected to an external power supply for charging, in order to ensure industrial production efficiency, it is preferably not to perform standby or sleep operations at this time.

[0046] The embodiments described above are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit the same. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments may still be modified, or some of the technical features may be replaced by equivalents. Such modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, and should all be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit, characterized in that: It includes a main board, a switch circuit and a control board, wherein the main board includes a power chip, and the control board includes a battery, a power management chip and a power button; The power button controls the connection to the power consumption management chip, the battery supplies power to the power consumption management chip, the power consumption management chip supplies power to the power supply chip through the switch circuit, and the power consumption management chip is communicatively connected to the power supply chip.

2. The industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit according to claim 1, characterized in that: The switch circuit includes a MOS tube, the control output end of the power management chip is connected to the control end of the MOS tube, the power supply output end of the power management chip is connected to the input end of the MOS tube, and the output end of the MOS tube is connected to the power chip.

3. The industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit according to claim 2, characterized in that: It also includes a self-recovery fuse, which is connected in series between the power supply output end of the power consumption management chip and the input end of the MOS tube.

4. The industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that: The MOS tube is an N-channel + P-channel MOS tube.

5. The industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit according to claim 1, characterized in that: The control board also includes a power detection chip, the power detection chip detects and is connected to the battery, and the power detection chip is communicatively connected to the power consumption management chip.

6. The industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit according to claim 1, characterized in that: The control board also includes a charging chip and a charging interface. The battery is powered by the charging chip and connected to the power consumption management chip. The charging chip is connected to the charging interface.

7. A standby control method, characterized in that: Applied to the industrial flat panel low power consumption circuit of claim 1, the method comprises: When the power button is pressed for a first time, the power management chip sends a standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard to complete the standby operation of the industrial tablet; When the power button is pressed for a second time period greater than the first time period, the power consumption management chip sends the standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard, continues to control the switch circuit to turn off, and then controls itself to sleep, completing the sleep operation of the industrial tablet.

8. The standby control method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The control board also includes a power detection chip, the power detection chip detects and connects to the battery, and the power detection chip is communicatively connected to the power consumption management chip; The power consumption management chip detects the battery power through the power detection chip. When the battery power is lower than a first threshold, the standby operation is performed. When the battery power is lower than a second threshold, the sleep operation is performed. The first threshold is greater than the second threshold.

9. The standby control method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that: The power consumption management chip sends a standby instruction to the power chip on the mainboard, including: After the power consumption management chip issues a standby instruction to the mainboard, it detects whether the specific working voltage of the mainboard exists. If so, it issues the standby instruction again. Otherwise, it is considered that the mainboard has entered the standby mode, and the power consumption management chip stops sending the standby instruction to the mainboard. The specific working voltage refers to a voltage that exists when the industrial tablet is working but does not exist when it is in standby mode.

10. The standby control method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The power consumption management chip determines whether the battery is in a charging state by detecting the voltage of the battery. If so, the power consumption management chip stops executing the standby operation and the sleep operation.

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