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1 | Linux power supply class | ||
2 | ======================== | ||
3 | |||
4 | Synopsis | ||
5 | ~~~~~~~~ | ||
6 | Power supply class used to represent battery, UPS, AC or DC power supply | ||
7 | properties to user-space. | ||
8 | |||
9 | It defines core set of attributes, which should be applicable to (almost) | ||
10 | every power supply out there. Attributes are available via sysfs and uevent | ||
11 | interfaces. | ||
12 | |||
13 | Each attribute has well defined meaning, up to unit of measure used. While | ||
14 | the attributes provided are believed to be universally applicable to any | ||
15 | power supply, specific monitoring hardware may not be able to provide them | ||
16 | all, so any of them may be skipped. | ||
17 | |||
18 | Power supply class is extensible, and allows to define drivers own attributes. | ||
19 | The core attribute set is subject to the standard Linux evolution (i.e. | ||
20 | if it will be found that some attribute is applicable to many power supply | ||
21 | types or their drivers, it can be added to the core set). | ||
22 | |||
23 | It also integrates with LED framework, for the purpose of providing | ||
24 | typically expected feedback of battery charging/fully charged status and | ||
25 | AC/USB power supply online status. (Note that specific details of the | ||
26 | indication (including whether to use it at all) are fully controllable by | ||
27 | user and/or specific machine defaults, per design principles of LED | ||
28 | framework). | ||
29 | |||
30 | |||
31 | Attributes/properties | ||
32 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ||
33 | Power supply class has predefined set of attributes, this eliminates code | ||
34 | duplication across drivers. Power supply class insist on reusing its | ||
35 | predefined attributes *and* their units. | ||
36 | |||
37 | So, userspace gets predictable set of attributes and their units for any | ||
38 | kind of power supply, and can process/present them to a user in consistent | ||
39 | manner. Results for different power supplies and machines are also directly | ||
40 | comparable. | ||
41 | |||
42 | See drivers/power/ds2760_battery.c and drivers/power/pda_power.c for the | ||
43 | example how to declare and handle attributes. | ||
44 | |||
45 | |||
46 | Units | ||
47 | ~~~~~ | ||
48 | Quoting include/linux/power_supply.h: | ||
49 | |||
50 | All voltages, currents, charges, energies, time and temperatures in µV, | ||
51 | µA, µAh, µWh, seconds and tenths of degree Celsius unless otherwise | ||
52 | stated. It's driver's job to convert its raw values to units in which | ||
53 | this class operates. | ||
54 | |||
55 | |||
56 | Attributes/properties detailed | ||
57 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ||
58 | |||
59 | ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Charge/Energy/Capacity - how to not confuse ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | ||
60 | ~ ~ | ||
61 | ~ Because both "charge" (µAh) and "energy" (µWh) represents "capacity" ~ | ||
62 | ~ of battery, this class distinguish these terms. Don't mix them! ~ | ||
63 | ~ ~ | ||
64 | ~ CHARGE_* attributes represents capacity in µAh only. ~ | ||
65 | ~ ENERGY_* attributes represents capacity in µWh only. ~ | ||
66 | ~ CAPACITY attribute represents capacity in *percents*, from 0 to 100. ~ | ||
67 | ~ ~ | ||
68 | ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | ||
69 | |||
70 | Postfixes: | ||
71 | _AVG - *hardware* averaged value, use it if your hardware is really able to | ||
72 | report averaged values. | ||
73 | _NOW - momentary/instantaneous values. | ||
74 | |||
75 | STATUS - this attribute represents operating status (charging, full, | ||
76 | discharging (i.e. powering a load), etc.). This corresponds to | ||
77 | BATTERY_STATUS_* values, as defined in battery.h. | ||
78 | |||
79 | HEALTH - represents health of the battery, values corresponds to | ||
80 | POWER_SUPPLY_HEALTH_*, defined in battery.h. | ||
81 | |||
82 | VOLTAGE_MAX_DESIGN, VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN - design values for maximal and | ||
83 | minimal power supply voltages. Maximal/minimal means values of voltages | ||
84 | when battery considered "full"/"empty" at normal conditions. Yes, there is | ||
85 | no direct relation between voltage and battery capacity, but some dumb | ||
86 | batteries use voltage for very approximated calculation of capacity. | ||
87 | Battery driver also can use this attribute just to inform userspace | ||
88 | about maximal and minimal voltage thresholds of a given battery. | ||
89 | |||
90 | CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN, CHARGE_EMPTY_DESIGN - design charge values, when | ||
91 | battery considered full/empty. | ||
92 | |||
93 | ENERGY_FULL_DESIGN, ENERGY_EMPTY_DESIGN - same as above but for energy. | ||
94 | |||
95 | CHARGE_FULL, CHARGE_EMPTY - These attributes means "last remembered value | ||
96 | of charge when battery became full/empty". It also could mean "value of | ||
97 | charge when battery considered full/empty at given conditions (temperature, | ||
98 | age)". I.e. these attributes represents real thresholds, not design values. | ||
99 | |||
100 | ENERGY_FULL, ENERGY_EMPTY - same as above but for energy. | ||
101 | |||
102 | CAPACITY - capacity in percents. | ||
103 | CAPACITY_LEVEL - capacity level. This corresponds to | ||
104 | POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL_*. | ||
105 | |||
106 | TEMP - temperature of the power supply. | ||
107 | TEMP_AMBIENT - ambient temperature. | ||
108 | |||
109 | TIME_TO_EMPTY - seconds left for battery to be considered empty (i.e. | ||
110 | while battery powers a load) | ||
111 | TIME_TO_FULL - seconds left for battery to be considered full (i.e. | ||
112 | while battery is charging) | ||
113 | |||
114 | |||
115 | Battery <-> external power supply interaction | ||
116 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ||
117 | Often power supplies are acting as supplies and supplicants at the same | ||
118 | time. Batteries are good example. So, batteries usually care if they're | ||
119 | externally powered or not. | ||
120 | |||
121 | For that case, power supply class implements notification mechanism for | ||
122 | batteries. | ||
123 | |||
124 | External power supply (AC) lists supplicants (batteries) names in | ||
125 | "supplied_to" struct member, and each power_supply_changed() call | ||
126 | issued by external power supply will notify supplicants via | ||
127 | external_power_changed callback. | ||
128 | |||
129 | |||
130 | QA | ||
131 | ~~ | ||
132 | Q: Where is POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_XYZ attribute? | ||
133 | A: If you cannot find attribute suitable for your driver needs, feel free | ||
134 | to add it and send patch along with your driver. | ||
135 | |||
136 | The attributes available currently are the ones currently provided by the | ||
137 | drivers written. | ||
138 | |||
139 | Good candidates to add in future: model/part#, cycle_time, manufacturer, | ||
140 | etc. | ||
141 | |||
142 | |||
143 | Q: I have some very specific attribute (e.g. battery color), should I add | ||
144 | this attribute to standard ones? | ||
145 | A: Most likely, no. Such attribute can be placed in the driver itself, if | ||
146 | it is useful. Of course, if the attribute in question applicable to | ||
147 | large set of batteries, provided by many drivers, and/or comes from | ||
148 | some general battery specification/standard, it may be a candidate to | ||
149 | be added to the core attribute set. | ||
150 | |||
151 | |||
152 | Q: Suppose, my battery monitoring chip/firmware does not provides capacity | ||
153 | in percents, but provides charge_{now,full,empty}. Should I calculate | ||
154 | percentage capacity manually, inside the driver, and register CAPACITY | ||
155 | attribute? The same question about time_to_empty/time_to_full. | ||
156 | A: Most likely, no. This class is designed to export properties which are | ||
157 | directly measurable by the specific hardware available. | ||
158 | |||
159 | Inferring not available properties using some heuristics or mathematical | ||
160 | model is not subject of work for a battery driver. Such functionality | ||
161 | should be factored out, and in fact, apm_power, the driver to serve | ||
162 | legacy APM API on top of power supply class, uses a simple heuristic of | ||
163 | approximating remaining battery capacity based on its charge, current, | ||
164 | voltage and so on. But full-fledged battery model is likely not subject | ||
165 | for kernel at all, as it would require floating point calculation to deal | ||
166 | with things like differential equations and Kalman filters. This is | ||
167 | better be handled by batteryd/libbattery, yet to be written. | ||