Storage drive activity monitor
AssigneeLenovo (United States) Inc.
InventorsJames Michael Dupuy, Omar Ali, P. Daniel Kangas, Jean J. Xu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus, system, and method for outputting status information of an internal storage drive. One apparatus includes a mounting tray configured to hold a storage drive, a light pipe coupled to a light-emitting diode (LED) of the storage drive, and a light sensing module coupled to the light pipe. The light sensing module is configured to receive a light signal from the LED, generate a serialized electrical signal based on the light signal, and output the serialized electrical signal to a bus controller, where the serialized electrical signal indicates status information of the storage drive.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a mounting tray configured to hold a storage drive;
- a light pipe coupled to a light-emitting diode (LED) of the storage drive;
- and
- a light sensing module coupled to the light pipe and configured to:
- receive a light signal from the LED,
- generate a serialized electrical signal based on the light signal, and
- output the serialized electrical signal to a bus controller, wherein the serialized electrical signal indicates status information of the storage drive,
- wherein the light pipe is affixed to the mounting tray and comprises a first coupling member located at a first end of the light pipe, wherein the first coupling member surrounds the LED and isolates the light signal, and
- wherein the mounting tray comprises a second coupling member that aligns a second end of the light pipe with the light sensing module, wherein the second coupling member prevents ambient light from reaching the light sensing module.
A system comprising:
- at least one drive unit, each drive unit comprising:
- a mounting tray configured to hold a storage drive;
- a light pipe coupled to a light-emitting diode (LED) of the storage drive;
- and
- a light sensing module coupled to the light pipe and configured to:
- receive a light signal from the LED, and
- generate a serialized electrical signal based on the light signal, wherein the serialized electrical signal indicates activity of the storage drive,
- wherein the light pipe is affixed to the mounting tray and comprises a first coupling member located at a first end of the light pipe, wherein the first coupling member surrounds the LED and isolates the light signal, and
- wherein the mounting tray comprises a second coupling member that aligns a second end of the light pipe with the light sensing module, wherein the second coupling member prevents ambient light from reaching the light sensing module;
- a display element;
- and
- a controller communicatively coupled to at least one light sensing module and configured to:
- receive a respective serialized electrical signal from each light sensing module;
- generate status information based on the respective serialized electrical signals;
- and
- output the status information via the display element.
A method comprising:
- receiving, at a light sensing module, a light signal from a light-emitting diode (LED) of a storage drive, wherein the light signal is received via a light pipe coupled to the LED and affixed to a mounting tray associated with the storage drive,
- wherein the light pipe comprises a first coupling member which surrounds the LED and isolates the light signal from the storage drive, and
- wherein the mounting tray comprises a second coupling member that aligns the light pipe with a plurality of light sensing modules, wherein the second coupling member prevents ambient light from reaching the light sensing module;
- generating a serialized electrical signal based on the light signals, wherein the serialized electrical signal indicates activity of the storage drive;
- and
- outputting the serialized electrical signal to a bus controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.