This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. ยง119(a) on Patent Application No. 095138042 filed in Taiwan, Republic of China on Oct. 16, 2006, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a driving control device, and more particularly to a fan system and a driving control device of a motor.
2. Related Art
The heat dissipating problem of an electronic device is more and more important nowadays due to the increase of the data processing information and the processing speed of the electronic device. In addition, the integrated process had become advanced so that more electronic elements can be contained in the same electronic device. The major heat dissipating method is to provide a fan in or on the electronic device for inducing the air convection so as to achieve the heat dissipating effect.
Accordingly, the thermal controlled fan, which can sense the environment temperature by a sensing element and adjusts the rotation speed thereof in accordance with the temperature, is disclosed. The sensing element can be a thermal resistor, which is sensitive to the temperature variation and can change its resistance value according to different temperatures. In addition, the thermal resistors include a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) resistor and a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) resistor. The resistance of the PTC resistor increases and that of the NTC resistor decreases when the temperature increases. Now, the thermal resistor is widely applied as the sensing element in the electronic device for facilitating the control and compensation of other circuits in the electronic device.
The temperature sensing circuit 11 has a resistor R and a thermal resistor RT, which are connected in series so as to divide the operating voltage VCC. The thermal resistor RT generates a resistance in accordance with the environment temperature. The variation of the resistance causes a node voltage value V1 with variation between the thermal resistor RT and the resistor R so as to output the temperature sensing signal S11. The driving circuit 12, which is a chip or a microprocessor, receives the temperature sensing signal S11 and transfers it into the driving signal S12 so as to drive the motor 131 of the fan 13.
As mentioned above, the driving circuit 12 of the conventional fan system 1 must receive and transfer the temperature sensing signal S11 into the driving signal S12 with a high voltage level or a high current level so as to drive the fan 13.
In order to adjust the driving signal S12 in accordance with the temperature variation immediately, the chip of the present driving circuit 12 is usually integrated in a chip with multiple functions and the chip is expensive. In this way, the expensive chip also raises the cost of the whole electronic system. The expensive chip thus limits its application fields. Therefore, it is an important subject to provide a driving control device having low cost and suitable for more application fields.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention is to provide a fan system and a driving control device of a motor, which having low cost and are suitable for more application fields. The fan system and driving control device of the present invention also have two stages of rotation speeds in accordance with the environment variation.
To achieve above, the invention discloses a driving control device of a motor. The driving control device includes a temperature sensing circuit, a comparing circuit, a rotation speed control circuit and a driving circuit. The temperature sensing circuit senses an environment temperature to generate a sensing signal. The comparing circuit is electrically connected to the temperature sensing circuit and compares the sensing signal with a reference voltage signal to output a comparing signal. The rotation speed control circuit is electrically connected to the comparing circuit and has a first threshold value and a second threshold value. The rotation speed control circuit generates a rotation speed control signal after comparing the comparing signal with the first and the second threshold values. The driving circuit generates a driving signal to drive the motor in accordance with the rotation speed control signal.
To achieve above, the invention also discloses a fan system having a driving control device and a fan. The driving control device includes a temperature sensing circuit, a comparing circuit, a rotation speed control circuit and a driving circuit. The temperature sensing circuit senses an environment temperature to generate a sensing signal. The comparing circuit is electrically connected to the temperature sensing circuit and compares the sensing signal with a reference voltage signal to output a comparing signal. The rotation speed control circuit is electrically connected to the comparing circuit and has a first threshold value and a second threshold value. The rotation speed control circuit generates a rotation speed control signal after comparing the comparing signal with the first and the second threshold values. The driving circuit generates a driving signal to drive the motor in accordance with the rotation speed control signal. The fan has a motor electrically connected to the driving control device. The motor receives the driving signal so that the rotation speed of the motor can be controlled according to the driving signal.
As mentioned above, the fan system and driving control device of the invention utilizes the comparing circuit to transfer the sensing signal generated by the temperature sensing circuit into the comparing signal, which is then inputted into the rotation speed control circuit so as to generate the rotation speed control signal. When the comparing signal achieves the first threshold value, the rotation speed control circuit outputs a rotation speed control signal indicating a first rotation speed. When the comparing signal achieves the second threshold value, then the rotation speed control circuit outputs another rotation speed control signal indicating a second rotation speed. Therefore, the rotation speed control of the temperature controlled fan can be carried out by the simple design of the comparing circuit and the rotation speed control circuit. Accordingly, the manufacturing cost can be decreased and the rotation speed control circuit can then be applied in more application fields with the fan system or the driving control device of the motor.
The invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and accompanying drawings, which are given herein below for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same references relate to the same elements.
The temperature sensing circuit 211 senses an environment temperature variation to generate a sensing signal S21. The comparing circuit 212 receives the sensing signal S21 and compares the sensing signal S21 with a reference voltage signal S22 to output a comparing signal S23.
The rotation speed control circuit 213 has a first threshold value VU and a second threshold value VL. The rotation speed control circuit 213 generates a rotation speed control signal S24 after receiving the comparing signal S23 and comparing the comparing signal S23 with the first threshold value VU and the second threshold value VL.
The driving circuit 214 receives the rotation speed control signal S24 outputted by the rotation speed control circuit 213 to generate a driving signal S25 for controlling the motor 221 of the fan 22.
Please referring to
The temperature sensing circuit 211 has a first resistor R1 and a sensing element RT1. The sensing element RT1 is electrically connected to the first resistor and a ground. The first resistor R1 and the sensing element RT1 divide an operating voltage VCC to generate the sensing signal S21. The sensing element RT1 generates different sensing signal S21 in accordance with the variation of the environmental temperature. In the embodiment, the sensing element RT1 is a thermal resistor, and the sensing signal S21 is a voltage signal divided by the first resistor R1 and the sensing element RT1.
In addition, the sensing element RT1 can be a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) thermistor, a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor or a thermocoupler. Each of the PTC thermistor, NTC thermistor and thermocoupler can generate the sensing signal S21 in accordance with the variation of the environmental temperature.
The comparing circuit 212 includes a comparator U1, which has a first input terminal in1, a second input terminal in2 and a first output terminal. The first input terminal in1 receives the sensing signal S21, the second input terminal in2 receives a reference voltage signal S22, and the output terminal outputs the comparing signal S23 after comparing the sensing signal S21 with the reference voltage signal S22. In the embodiment, the comparator U1 is an operational amplifier or any element or circuit with the comparing function. In addition, each of the reference voltage S22 and the comparing signal S23 is a voltage signal. Moreover, when the reference signal S22 is greater than the sensing signal S21, the comparing signal S23 will be a high level signal (high voltage signal); otherwise, when the reference signal S22 is smaller than the sensing signal S21, the comparing signal S23 will be a low level signal (low voltage signal).
Furthermore, the comparing circuit 212 further includes a voltage divided circuit 2121, which includes a top resistor Rtop and a third resistor R3. One end of the top resistor Rtop is electrically connected to the operating voltage VCC, and the other end of the top resistor Rtop is electrically connected to one end of the third resistor R3 and the second input terminal in2. The other end of the third resistor R3 is electrically connected to the ground. The voltage divided circuit 2121 divides the operating voltage VCC so as to generate the reference voltage signal S22, which is inputted into the second input terminal in2 of the comparator U1.
The rotation speed control circuit 213 generates the rotation speed control signal S24 after receiving the comparing signal S23 and comparing the comparing signal S23 with the first threshold value VU and the second threshold value VL. The rotation speed control circuit 213 can be a Schmitt Trigger circuit, a comparator with a delay function or any circuit or element with a delay function. In the embodiment, the rotation speed control circuit 213 is a Schmitt Trigger circuit and the rotation speed control signal S24 is a voltage signal. The Schmitt Trigger circuit has an operational amplifier U2, a fourth resistor R4 and a fifth resistor R5. The operational amplifier U2 has a third input terminal in3, a fourth terminal in4 and a second output terminal. The third input terminal in3 receives the comparing signal S23, and the fourth terminal in4 is electrically connected to one end of the fourth resistor R4 and one end of the fifth resistor R5. The second output terminal is electrically connected to the other end of the fourth resistor R4 and outputs the rotation speed control signal S24. The other end of the fifth resistor R5 is electrically connected to the ground.
Referring to
Referring to
The driving control circuit 214 includes a driving chip (not shown), which receives the rotation speed control signal S24 outputted by the rotation speed control circuit 213 for generating the driving signal S25 and controlling the rotation speed of the motor 221 of the fan 22 in accordance with the driving signal S25. In the embodiment, the driving signal S25 is a voltage signal.
The driving chip of the driving circuit 214 can be a microprocessor or any circuit or element with the same function.
In addition, the driving circuit 214 further includes a hall element (not shown), which is electrically connected to the driving chip so as to receive the voltage signal of the driving signal S25. The hall element then transfers the voltage signal into a current signal for driving the motor 221 of the fan 22.
Moreover, each of the sensing signal S21, the reference voltage signal S22, the comparing signal S23, the rotation speed control signal S24 and the driving signal S25 can be a transmitted signal, like a voltage signal or a current signal.
Furthermore, the first resistor, the top resistor, the third resistor, the fourth resistor, the fifth resistor and the second resistor with reference to the drawings are described as the equivalent resistances. Actually, each of the resistors can be implemented by one or more resistors.
In the embodiment, the driving control device of the motor is the above-mentioned driving control device 21. The function, structure and configuration of the driving control device are described hereinabove, so the detailed descriptions are omitted.
In summary, the fan system and the driving control device of the motor utilizes the comparing circuit and the rotation speed control circuit to achieve the two stages of the rotation speed control of the fan. Therefore, the chip with the complex operation function in the driving circuit of the related art is unnecessary so that the manufacturing cost of the driving control device can be decreased.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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95138042 A | Oct 2006 | TW | national |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20080088463 A1 | Apr 2008 | US |