Balancing a power load among USB ports

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10996729-B2
Application number	US-201616097799-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2016
Priority date	Jul 12, 2016
Publication date	May 4, 2021
Grant date	May 4, 2021

Abstract

Example implementations relate to balancing a power load among USB ports. For example, an apparatus according to the present disclosure, may include a plurality of USB ports, and an embedded controller coupled to the plurality of USB ports. The embedded controller may determine that a first device is coupled to a USB port of the plurality of USB ports, and determine a power draw of the first device relative to a type of the USB port. The embedded controller may balance a power load among a remainder of the plurality of USB ports based on the power draw of the first device relative to the type of the USB port.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of universal serial bus (USB) ports; and
an embedded controller coupled to the plurality of USB ports, the embedded controller to:
determine that a first device is coupled to a USB port of the plurality of USB ports;
determine a power draw of the first device relative to a type of the USB port;
determine a power draw of devices coupled to a remainder of the plurality of USB ports based on a type of the remainder of the plurality of USB ports; and
balance a power load among the remainder of the plurality of USB ports based on the power draw of the first device relative to the type of the USB port, wherein to balance the power load is to reduce an amount of power provided to the remainder of the plurality of USB ports such that the power load provided to the plurality of USB ports does not exceed a particular allocation of power.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to determine the power draw of the first device relative to a type of the USB port includes the embedded controller to:
determine that the USB port is a type-A USB port; and determine when the first device is requesting a power supply exceeding a particular amount relative to a power capacity of the type-A USB port.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to determine the power draw of the first device relative to a type of the USB port includes the embedded controller to:
determine that the USB port is a type-C USB port; and determine when the first device is requesting a power supply exceeding a particular amount relative to a power capacity of the type-C USB port.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , the embedded controller:
determine that the first device is no longer coupled to the USB port;
wherein to balance the power load is to increase an amount of power provided to a second USB port in response to the determination that the first device is no longer coupled to the USB port.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , the embedded controller to:
determine that the first device is no longer coupled to the USB port;
wherein to balance the power load is to increase an amount of power provided to the remainder of the plurality of USB ports in response to the determination that the first device is no longer coupled to the USB port.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to determine a power draw of the first device relative to a type of the USB port includes the embedded controller to:
determine that the first device is requesting a particular amount of power supported by the USB port, based on the type of the USB port.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a processor of a computing device to:
determine that a first device is coupled to a first universal serial bus (USB) port among a plurality of USB ports;
determine that the first device is requesting charging or high wattage use from a host module; and
balance a power load among the plurality of USB ports based on the determination that the first device is requesting charging or high wattage use by:
providing an upper threshold amount of power to the first USB port; and
providing a lower threshold amount of power to a remainder of the plurality of USB ports.

8. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions to determine that the first device is requesting charging or high wattage use include instructions to:
determine a type of the first USB port;
determine a power output threshold of the first USB port based on the type of the first USB port; and
determine that the first device is requesting an amount of power meeting the determined power output threshold.

9. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions to balance the power load include instructions to:
reduce an amount of power provided to a remainder of the plurality of USB ports such that the power load of the plurality of USB ports does not exceed a particular allotted load reserved for the plurality of USB ports.

10. A method comprising:
determining that a first device is coupled to a first universal serial bus (USB) port among a plurality of USB ports on a modular computing device, and a second device is coupled to a second USB port among the plurality of USB ports;
determining that the first device and the second device are requesting charging or high wattage use; and
balancing a power load among the plurality of USB ports based on the determination that the first device and the second device are requesting charging or high wattage use by:
providing an upper threshold amount of power to the first USB port; and
providing a lower threshold amount of power to a remainder of the plurality of USB ports, wherein the remainder includes the second USB port.

11. The method of claim 10 , further including:
determining a type of the first USB port and the second USB port;
wherein determining that the first device is requesting charging or high wattage use includes determining that the first device is requesting charging or high wattage use based on the determined type of the first USB port; and
wherein determining that the first device is requesting charging or high wattage use includes determining that the first device is requesting charging or high wattage use based on the determined type of the first USB port.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining that a third device is coupled to a third USB port among the plurality of USB ports; and
determining that the third device is requesting charging or high wattage use;
wherein balancing the power load among the plurality of USB ports includes providing an upper threshold amount of power to the third USB port and providing a lower threshold amount of power to the first USB port and the second USB port.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining that the first device is no longer requesting charging or high wattage use;
wherein balancing the load includes increasing an amount of power provided to the second USB port based on the determination that the first device is no longer requesting charging or high wattage use.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Piwonka Mark A
• Durham Michael R
• Nguyen Nam H
• Brooks Robert C
• So Chi

Classifications

• G06F13/38

  Information transfer, e.g. on bus (G06F13/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F1/28

  Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision · CPC title

• G06F13/4282

  on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus (on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247) · CPC title

• G06F2213/0042

  Universal serial bus [USB] · CPC title

• G06F1/266 Primary

  Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips · CPC title