Power management system for a floor care appliance

A power management system for processing an alternating electrical current supplied to an appliance and configured to communicate with a communication network, said system comprising:

• a zero cross detector circuit for generating an output indicating when the alternating current crosses a zero threshold;
• at least two load devices:
• a microprocessor maintaining one or more operational parameters for controlling the performance of said at least two load devices, said microprocessor configured to receive the output from the zero cross detector circuit and generating an output;
• a data port coupled to said microprocessor, said data port configured to be associated with the communication network, wherein said operational parameters maintained by said microprocessor may be changed via said data port;
• at least one current sensing circuit for sensing the amount of current consumed by one of said at least two load devices and generating an input to said microprocessor corresponding to the amount of current consumed;
• and
• at least two load device trigger circuits, wherein one of said at least two load device trigger circuits is associated with one each of said at least two load devices;
• wherein each of said at least two load device trigger circuits turns on the current to the associated load device upon receiving said output from said microprocessor, said microprocessor generating said output to each of said at least two load device trigger circuits such that a change in the amount of current being consumed by said one load device associated with said at least one current sensing circuit will cause the microprocessor to adjust the output to each of said at least two load devices such that the total current consumed by all of said at least two load devices does not exceed a predetermined amount.

A power management system to process an alternating electrical current supplied to a floor care appliance, said system comprising:

• a zero cross detector circuit configured to generate an output indicating when the alternating current crosses a zero voltage threshold;
• at least two load devices;
• and
• a microprocessor coupled to said at least two load devices and to said zero cross detector circuit, said microprocessor configured to receive the output from the zero cross detector circuit;
• wherein in response to the receipt of said output generated by said zero cross detector, said microprocessor controls the amount of current supplied to said at least two load devices by monitoring the amount of time the current is turned on to each of said load devices after said zero cross detector generates said output indicating said zero voltage threshold, such that the total current applied to each said at least two load devices does not exceed a pre-determined level.

A method of managing the power supplied to an appliance via a microprocessor controlling at least two load devices, the microprocessor maintaining a data port for communicating with a network, the method comprising the steps of:

• maintaining at the microprocessor at least one operational parameter for controlling the performance of the at least two load devices;
• detecting at the microprocessor
• when the alternating current of the power supplied to the appliance crosses the zero voltage threshold;
• detecting the amount of current drawn at each of the at least two load devices;
• controlling the average voltage applied to the at least two load devices based upon when the alternating current crosses the zero voltage threshold such that the total amount of current consumed by the at least two load devices does not exceed the value associated with said operational parameter;
• and
• modifying said operational parameter maintained by the microprocessor via the data port.

A power management system for processing an alternating electrical current supplied to an appliance configured to communicate with a communication network, said system comprising:

• a zero cross detector circuit to generate an output indicating when the alternating current crosses a zero voltage threshold;
• at least two load devices;
• a microprocessor maintaining one or more operational parameters for controlling the performance of said at least two load devices, said microprocessor configured to receive the output from the zero cross detector circuit and to generate an output to control the voltage applied to each of said at least two load devices;
• and
• a data port coupled to said microprocessor, said data port configured to be associated with the communication network, wherein said operational parameters maintained by said microprocessor may be changed via said data port;
• wherein said microprocessor controls the voltage applied to each of said at least two load devices such that the total current consumed by said at least two load devices does not exceed a pre-determined level, and said microcontroller is configured to collect performance data associated with the operation of the appliance, said microprocessor enabling at least one of said one or more operational parameters to be modified based on said collected performance data output from said data port.