Verfahren und Schaltung zur Steuerung und Überwachung einer Last

摘要

A method and circuit is provided which controls and monitors a load (18) through a single I/O pin (12) of a microprocessor (12). A predriver circuit (10) including a level shifter (20) responds to a driver control signal from the microprocessor (14) to control energisation of a power driver connected in a load circuit. The predriver circuit also includes a monitor stage (22) for detecting fault conditions of the load circuit. The output of the monitor stage (22) is connected with the I/O pin (12) which is configured as either an input or an output pin under microprocessor program control.