摘要 |
<p>A serial communication interface including a bus voltage level translator and voltage safety interlock system is disclosed. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a voltage level translation interface (VLTI) is used to send Uplink and Downlink serial commands and data to a string of battery modules (5) that result in large offset voltages. Through implementation of the VLTI design according to the various exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the addition of as many modules as required to form the desired battery voltage can be accommodated, while using low cost components. No optical couplers are required or other traditional DC blocking devices such as transformers, capacitors, or special isolation amplifiers in order to accommodate the large offset voltages. This is accomplished by level shifting each bit stream of commands up to the high potential of next module in the uplink data stream. Similarly in the downlink each bit stream is level shifted from the present potential to the high potential of the next lower module. <IMAGE></p> |