path: root/Documentation/power/power_supply_class.rst

========================
Linux power supply class
========================

Synopsis
~~~~~~~~
Power supply class used to represent battery, UPS, AC or DC power supply
properties to user-space.

It defines core set of attributes, which should be applicable to (almost)
every power supply out there. Attributes are available via sysfs and uevent
interfaces.

Each attribute has well defined meaning, up to unit of measure used. While
the attributes provided are believed to be universally applicable to any
power supply, specific monitoring hardware may not be able to provide them
all, so any of them may be skipped.

Power supply class is extensible, and allows to define drivers own attributes.
The core attribute set is subject to the standard Linux evolution (i.e.
if it will be found that some attribute is applicable to many power supply
types or their drivers, it can be added to the core set).

It also integrates with LED framework, for the purpose of providing
typically expected feedback of battery charging/fully charged status and
AC/USB power supply online status. (Note that specific details of the
indication (including whether to use it at all) are fully controllable by
user and/or specific machine defaults, per design principles of LED
framework).


Attributes/properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Power supply class has predefined set of attributes, this eliminates code
duplication across drivers. Power supply class insist on reusing its
predefined attributes *and* their units.

So, userspace gets predictable set of attributes and their units for any
kind of power supply, and can process/present them to a user in consistent
manner. Results for different power supplies and machines are also directly
comparable.

See drivers/power/supply/ds2760_battery.c and drivers/power/supply/pda_power.c
for the example how to declare and handle attributes.


Units
~~~~~
Quoting include/linux/power_supply.h:

  All voltages, currents, charges, energies, time and temperatures in µV,
  µA, µAh, µWh, seconds and tenths of degree Celsius unless otherwise
  stated. It's driver's job to convert its raw values to units in which
  this class operates.


Attributes/properties detailed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|               **Charge/Energy/Capacity - how to not confuse**            |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **Because both "charge" (µAh) and "energy" (µWh) represents "capacity"   |
| of battery, this class distinguish these terms. Don't mix them!**        |
|                                                                          |
| - `CHARGE_*`                                                             |
|	attributes represents capacity in µAh only.                        |
| - `ENERGY_*`                                                             |
|	attributes represents capacity in µWh only.                        |
| - `CAPACITY`                                                             |
|	attribute represents capacity in *percents*, from 0 to 100.        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Postfixes:

_AVG
  *hardware* averaged value, use it if your hardware is really able to
  report averaged values.
_NOW
  momentary/instantaneous values.

STATUS
  this attribute represents operating status (charging, full,
  discharging (i.e. powering a load), etc.). This corresponds to
  `BATTERY_STATUS_*` values, as defined in battery.h.

CHARGE_TYPE
  batteries can typically charge at different rates.
  This defines trickle and fast charges.  For batteries that
  are already charged or discharging, 'n/a' can be displayed (or
  'unknown', if the status is not known).

AUTHENTIC
  indicates the power supply (battery or charger) connected
  to the platform is authentic(1) or non authentic(0).

HEALTH
  represents health of the battery, values corresponds to
  POWER_SUPPLY_HEALTH_*, defined in battery.h.

VOLTAGE_OCV
  open circuit voltage of the battery.

VOLTAGE_MAX_DESIGN, VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN
  design values for maximal and minimal power supply voltages.
  Maximal/minimal means values of voltages when battery considered
  "full"/"empty" at normal conditions. Yes, there is no direct relation
  between voltage and battery capacity, but some dumb
  batteries use voltage for very approximated calculation of capacity.
  Battery driver also can use this attribute just to inform userspace
  about maximal and minimal voltage thresholds of a given battery.

VOLTAGE_MAX, VOLTAGE_MIN
  same as _DESIGN voltage values except that these ones should be used
  if hardware could only guess (measure and retain) the thresholds of a
  given power supply.

VOLTAGE_BOOT
  Reports the voltage measured during boot

CURRENT_BOOT
  Reports the current measured during boot

CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN, CHARGE_EMPTY_DESIGN
  design charge values, when battery considered full/empty.

ENERGY_FULL_DESIGN, ENERGY_EMPTY_DESIGN
  same as above but for energy.

CHARGE_FULL, CHARGE_EMPTY
  These attributes means "last remembered value of charge when battery
  became full/empty". It also could mean "value of charge when battery
  considered full/empty at given conditions (temperature, age)".
  I.e. these attributes represents real thresholds, not design values.

ENERGY_FULL, ENERGY_EMPTY
  same as above but for energy.

CHARGE_COUNTER
  the current charge counter (in µAh).  This could easily
  be negative; there is no empty or full value.  It is only useful for
  relative, time-based measurements.

PRECHARGE_CURRENT
  the maximum charge current during precharge phase of charge cycle
  (typically 20% of battery capacity).

CHARGE_TERM_CURRENT
  Charge termination current. The charge cycle terminates when battery
  voltage is above recharge threshold, and charge current is below
  this setting (typically 10% of battery capacity).

CONSTANT_CHARGE_CURRENT
  constant charge current programmed by charger.


CONSTANT_CHARGE_CURRENT_MAX
  maximum charge current supported by the power supply object.

CONSTANT_CHARGE_VOLTAGE
  constant charge voltage programmed by charger.
CONSTANT_CHARGE_VOLTAGE_MAX
  maximum charge voltage supported by the power supply object.

INPUT_CURRENT_LIMIT
  input current limit programmed by charger. Indicates
  the current drawn from a charging source.
INPUT_VOLTAGE_LIMIT
  input voltage limit programmed by charger. Indicates
  the voltage limit from a charging source.
INPUT_POWER_LIMIT
  input power limit programmed by charger. Indicates
  the power limit from a charging source.

CHARGE_CONTROL_LIMIT
  current charge control limit setting
CHARGE_CONTROL_LIMIT_MAX
  maximum charge control limit setting

CALIBRATE
  battery or coulomb counter calibration status

CAPACITY
  capacity in percents.
CAPACITY_ALERT_MIN
  minimum capacity alert value in percents.
CAPACITY_ALERT_MAX
  maximum capacity alert value in percents.
CAPACITY_LEVEL
  capacity level. This corresponds to POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL_*.

TEMP
  temperature of the power supply.
TEMP_ALERT_MIN
  minimum battery temperature alert.
TEMP_ALERT_MAX
  maximum battery temperature alert.
TEMP_AMBIENT
  ambient temperature.
TEMP_AMBIENT_ALERT_MIN
  minimum ambient temperature alert.
TEMP_AMBIENT_ALERT_MAX
  maximum ambient temperature alert.
TEMP_MIN
  minimum operatable temperature
TEMP_MAX
  maximum operatable temperature

TIME_TO_EMPTY
  seconds left for battery to be considered empty
  (i.e. while battery powers a load)
TIME_TO_FULL
  seconds left for battery to be considered full
  (i.e. while battery is charging)


Battery <-> external power supply interaction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Often power supplies are acting as supplies and supplicants at the same
time. Batteries are good example. So, batteries usually care if they're
externally powered or not.

For that case, power supply class implements notification mechanism for
batteries.

External power supply (AC) lists supplicants (batteries) names in
"supplied_to" struct member, and each power_supply_changed() call
issued by external power supply will notify supplicants via
external_power_changed callback.


Devicetree battery characteristics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drivers should call power_supply_get_battery_info() to obtain battery
characteristics from a devicetree battery node, defined in
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/power/supply/battery.txt. This is
implemented in drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery.c.

Properties in struct power_supply_battery_info and their counterparts in the
battery node have names corresponding to elements in enum power_supply_property,
for naming consistency between sysfs attributes and battery node properties.


QA
~~

Q:
   Where is POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_XYZ attribute?
A:
   If you cannot find attribute suitable for your driver needs, feel free
   to add it and send patch along with your driver.

   The attributes available currently are the ones currently provided by the
   drivers written.

   Good candidates to add in future: model/part#, cycle_time, manufacturer,
   etc.


Q:
   I have some very specific attribute (e.g. battery color), should I add
   this attribute to standard ones?
A:
   Most likely, no. Such attribute can be placed in the driver itself, if
   it is useful. Of course, if the attribute in question applicable to
   large set of batteries, provided by many drivers, and/or comes from
   some general battery specification/standard, it may be a candidate to
   be added to the core attribute set.


Q:
   Suppose, my battery monitoring chip/firmware does not provides capacity
   in percents, but provides charge_{now,full,empty}. Should I calculate
   percentage capacity manually, inside the driver, and register CAPACITY
   attribute? The same question about time_to_empty/time_to_full.
A:
   Most likely, no. This class is designed to export properties which are
   directly measurable by the specific hardware available.

   Inferring not available properties using some heuristics or mathematical
   model is not subject of work for a battery driver. Such functionality
   should be factored out, and in fact, apm_power, the driver to serve
   legacy APM API on top of power supply class, uses a simple heuristic of
   approximating remaining battery capacity based on its charge, current,
   voltage and so on. But full-fledged battery model is likely not subject
   for kernel at all, as it would require floating point calculation to deal
   with things like differential equations and Kalman filters. This is
   better be handled by batteryd/libbattery, yet to be written.