Linear or rotational motor driver identification
AssigneeAllegro MicroSystems, LLC
InventorsMichael G. Ward, David J. Haas, William P. Taylor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mechanism for assigning unique addresses to identical devices attached to a serial bus is presented. Each device has at least one output and is provided with a storage device to provide a configurable portion of a bus address having a fixed portion and a configurable portion. The device is further provided with circuitry, coupled to the storage device and the output, to determine a state of the output and use the state to configure the configurable portion. Once the configurable portion is configured, the bus address uniquely identifies the device. Such configuration allows more than one such device to be coupled to the same serial bus, e.g., an I2C bus.
Claims24
A device for use as a slave device in a system having a master device and at least one slave device coupled to a serial bus comprising:
- an interface, to connect to a serial bus to receive a communication from a master device over the serial bus and generate signals in response thereto, the interface comprising a storage device to provide a bus address by which the master device addresses the device, wherein the bus address has a fixed base portion and a configurable portion;
- an output at which an output signal of the device is provided in response to the interface generated signals;
- a comparator circuit, coupled to the output, to determine a state of the output and having a comparator circuit output at which the state of the output is provided;
- and
- control circuitry, coupled between the storage device and the comparator circuit output, to use the state provided at the comparator circuit output to configure the configurable portion as a unique identifier for the device.
A system having a master device and at least one slave device coupled to the serial bus comprising:
- a serial bus;
- a master device coupled to the serial bus;
- and
- at least one slave devices coupled to the serial bus, each comprising:
- an interface, to connect to the serial bus to receive a communication from the master device over the serial bus and generate signals in response thereto, the interface comprising a storage device to provide a bus address by which the master device addresses the slave device, wherein the bus address has a fixed base portion and a configurable portion;
- at least one output at which an output signal of the at least one slave device is provided in response to the interface generated signals;
- a comparator circuit, coupled to the at least one output, having a comparator circuit output at which a state of the at least one output is provided;
- and
- control circuitry, coupled between the storage device and the comparator circuit output, to use the state provided at the comparator circuit output to configure the configurable portion as a unique identifier for the at least one slave address.
A device for use as a motor driver slave device in a system having a master device and at least one motor driver slave device coupled to a serial bus comprising:
- an interface to receive a communication from a master device, over a serial bus and generate signals based on the communication, the interface comprising control circuitry and a bus interface with bus inputs to connect to the serial bus, and the bus interface including a storage device to provide a bus address by which the master device addresses the device, the bus address having a fixed base portion and a configurable portion;
- a coil driver, coupled to the interface, to generate a coil driver output signal in response to the interface generated signals;
- an output at which the coil driver output signal is provided to drive a coil of an external motor;
- a comparator circuit, coupled to the output, to determine a state of the output and having a comparator circuit output at which the state of the output is provided;
- and
- control circuitry, coupled between the storage device and the comparator circuit output, to use the state provided at the comparator circuit output to configure the configurable portion as a unique identifier for the device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.