Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
2~t~627
AN APPARATUS TO COLLECT CALLING NUMBER IDENTIFICATION
DATA (CNID) INTO A PERSONAL COMPUTER WIT~IOUT THE
NECESSITY OF MAINTAINING THE PC IN A POWERED STAT~
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
5The present application is related to the following
co-pending U.S. patent application being assigned to the
same assignee, entitled:
"A METHOD TO COLLECT CALLING NUMBER IDENTIFICATION
DATA (CNID) INTO A PERSONAL COMPUTER WITHOUT THE
NECESSITY OF MAINTAINING THE PC IN A POWERED STATE",
"(Attorney Docket No. 92-1-311)".
FIELD OE THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a PC accessory card
and to customer premises telephone call management
product. More particularly, to an accessory card that
receives Calling Number Identification Data ~CNID) data
for incoming calls and DTMF data for outgoing calls. The
hardware consists of an accessory card and an external
wall-plug power supply. The accessory card attaches to a
standard telephone line with CNID service via an RJ-ll
type connector. CNID data is collected for further
processing by the accessory card.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
CNID data is sent from a telephone company central
office over a standard telephone line to the su~scriber.
This data is sent as a burst of Bel~ 202 1200 baud asyn-
chronous data between the first and second occurrence of
ringing voltage. The most common CNID device mark~ted to
subscribers is a free-standing LED or LCD display unit.
This unit provides a display of the data and perhaps a
limited storage of incoming call data. However, these
units provide no means to export the data.
A CNID device that attaches between the CNID tele-
phone line and a PC's serial or parallel port is also
currently available. This device demodulates the CNID
1--
. ..
, ~ ' . .
. . : .
" ' ' ~ ' ~
~ .
~0~7~27
Bell 202 data and sends it into the PC for further proc
essing. Ho~ever, this device does not collect and store
information while the PC is turned off. Incoming call
data, i.e. calling number and time of call, can be used
in a number of ways by the PC user.
Prior to the present invention, PC-based computer
CNID data collection while the PC is powered down was not
supported. The user of a CNID-to-PC interface device
was required to leave the host PC constantly turned on to
have around the clock call data collection. However, it
is undesirable to leave a PC operating when unattended
due to energy consumption and wear and tear on electro-
mechanical parts such as hard disk drives, as well as,
insurance policies that may prohibit operation of major
office equipment when unattended.
Therefore it is the objective of the present inven-
tion to provide a CNID device that collects CNID data for
incoming calls and DTMF data for outgoing calls and
transfers the data to a computer. The CNID device must
collect CNID data even when the computer to which it is
attached, is turned off.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to accomplish the object of the present in-
vention there is provided a circuit for collecting infor-
~5 mation from a telephone line, where the circuit residesin a computer. The circuit continues collecting the in-
formation from the telephone line even when power is re-
moved from the computer. Collected information includes
the calling party's number and any outbound numbers
dialed.
A line interface detects ringing, an off-hook condi-
tion, and receives the information from the telephone
line. If the computer is turned off, the information is
temporarily stored in a local memory. A sequence of in-
structions is also stored in the memory. Connected tothe memory and the line interface means is a microproc-
essor. Under direction of the sequence of instructions,
the microprocessor receives the information from the line
--2--
.:
2 ~ ~ rl ~ 2 7
interface and stores it in the memory i~ the computer is
in a powered down state. When the computer is in a
powered up state, the information is transferred from the
microprocessor to the computer through a computer inter-
face. If any information was stored in the memory, themicroprocessor retrieves that information from the memory
before sending it to the computler. Power partitioning
supplies independent power to the line interface, the
memory and the microprocessor, thereby allowing them to
operate while the computer is turned off. The computer
interface receives its power from the computer.
DESCRIPTION OF T]HE DRAWINGS
A better understanding of the invention may be had
from the consideration of the following detailed descrip-
tion taken in conjunction with the accompanyillg drawings,
in which:
FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of the card's rela-
tionship to the host PC, external power supply, incoming
telephone line and extension telephones.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the major functions of
the card and the power partitioning that is employed
therein.
FIG. 3 is a detailed schematic diagram of the volt-
age regulator and reset circuit of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a detailed schematic diagram of the digi-
tal interface with the PC bus of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The present invention is part of a hardware and
software package that comprises a complete single-line
call management system. The hardware consists of a PC
card that is designed for personal computers. As shown
in FIG. 1, the present invention is a power and hardware
partitioning scheme. The general environment is a per-
sonal computer with monitor, keyboard, and mouse 101, the
card 102, and standard telephone line with CNID service
103. Extension telephones (not shown) are monitored for
outgoing call Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) (tone
--3--
`- 2~ ~62~
dialing) activity and on-hoo~/off-hook status. It is
important to emphasize that the power to most of the
internal card circuitry is not sourced from the PC's main
power supply, but rather from a plug-in power supply 105.
The plug-in power supply 105 is a low cost transformer-
rectifier-capacitor unregulated DC power supply.
Finally, 104 is a standard AC electrical outlet.
The present invention differs from existing CNID
devices in that it provides a way of collecting incoming
and outgoing call data (Call Logging) even when the PC is
not turned on. This feature is called Sleeping Call
CollectionTM (trademark of AG Communication Systems Cor-
poration). The uni~ue means of powering the card with
external power also enables other card call management
software features to operate independently of whether the
PC is "on" at the moment.
Referring to FIG. 2, the interfaces to the card con-
sist of an external power pin jack 201, telephone line
RJ-ll connection 202, and the card edge connector 203.
Externally sourced power is locally regulated to 5V on
the card and a well defined power-on-reset signal is gen-
erated to reset the card's own microprocessor at initial
power-up 204. DC isolation and lightning/power cross
protection are provided for the telephone line 205. The
portion of the card's circuitry that deals with interfac-
ing to the PC 206 receives 5V power (VCC-PC) from the PC
and is not powered when the PC is off. For the balance
of the card's circuitry, a user option is provided with
jumpers that can be configured to power the card exclu-
sively from the PC 207, receiving PC 5V power for allcircuitry and using the PC's power-on-reset 208. This
jumper setting does not enable Sleeping Call Collection.
Limiting the discussion to the configuration where
the jumpers are configured to use external power (and
external power-on-reset) so that Sleeping Call Collection
is enabled. The analog portion of the card 209 contains
an FSK demodulator to decode incoming CNID signals, an
off/on hook sensing circuit to determine telephone line
status, and a DTMF generator and decoder. The digital
--4--
; -
.: :
: , .,. .
~ .
.. , ~ -,. ':
2 ~
portion of the card 210 contains the microprocessor, ROM,
and RAM.
~ efore describing the present invention, it is use-
ful to describe the setup and use of the PC plug card and
software. Assuming that the power and reset jumpers are
set for Sleepin~ Call Collection, the card is installed
in the PC. The external wall-plug power supply is
attached to the card and pluggecl into an AC receptacle.
Finally, the CNID-equipped telephone line is attached to
the appropriate RJ-ll connector The card is ready for
the initial installation of the software. With the PC
booted up and operating, the installation routine is
executed and some of the software is downloaded into RAM
210. Now the card is ready to recsive CNID data for in-
coming calls as well as DTMF data for outgoing calls fromthe attached telephone or any extension. While the card
is powered from the external wall-plug power supply, it
executes its internally stored program, thereby allowing
the card to continue to receive CNID and DTMF data col-
lection of outgoing calls even when the PC is notpowered.
When the PC is powered-up additional software is
executed by the PC. Once the PC starts executing this
software, any incoming call r~sults in a "pop-up" window;
if CNID data is present, the pop-up window displays the
telephone number of the originating telephone. In the
case when the PC is not turned on, a Quiet Call Counter
indicator is created. When the PC is turned on, the
number of calls received is displayed. By opening a
window, the user can get details about calls received
during the powered down time.
The circuitry contained within the voltage regulator
and reset circuit is shown in FIG 3. Power and Reset
from the PC bus are available from the card edge connec-
tor 301. An open collector inverter 302, an R-C-diode
network 303, and a standard inverter 304 are used to
ensure a clean reset signal to the card to permit the
user option of not using external power and forgoing
Sleeping Call Collection. This option would involve
--5--
. , . :
,
.:
2 09 ~16~ 7
jumpering between terminals 2 and 3 for reset 305 and
power 306. To enable Sleepiny Call Collection, the
jumpers are placed between terminals 1 and 2 for reset
305 and power 306.
Support of Sleeping Call Collection requires an ex-
ternal power source. Re~erring briefly to FIG. 1, this
external power source is supplied from the wall mounted
DC power supply 105. Referring back to FIG. 3, a bypass
capacitor 307 is used for noise filtering of the unregu-
lated DC voltage from the external wall-plug power sup-
ply. IC 308 is a 5V low-dropou1: type linear regulator
that features an internal delayed reset signal. Another
bypass capacitor 309 is used for noise filtering of the
regulated 5 VDC from the regulator IC 308.
The reset signal from the IC 308 is a logic zero
when the output voltage is low and remains low for 250
msec after normal voltage is established with the timing
capacitor chosen 310. Because the system requires a
logic one reset pulse, an inverting stage with hysteresis
and undervoltage lockout is employed. Diode 311 imparts
a level shift to ensure reliable operation of the in-
verter stage. A bandgap voltage reference IC 312 with
appropriate divider resistors on the reference terminal
is used together with PNP transistor 313 and NPN transis-
tor 314 to invert of the reset pulse. This arrangementalso guarantees undervoltage lockout, such that, transis-
tor 314 is biased off (i.e. open-collector logic-one)
whenever VCC is less than 3.5V, irrespective of any
change in the output state of the reset signal from IC
308. This insures that RESET is always asserted whenever
voltage is out of tolerance, even to levels below where
IC 308 is specified.
The circuitry contained in the digital interface
with the PC bus is shown in FIG 4. Power from the PC 401
(VCCPC) powers data transceiver 402, inverting buffer
403, open-collector inverting buffer 404, and 8-bit mag-
nitude comparator 405. Address selection for the card is
made via dip switch 406. Signals involving bus address
selection and read/write select are buffered through open
.
: ,
2~97~2~
collector inverter ~0~. The open collector outputs are
pulled up with resistors 407 to CARD-VCC. These inter-
power-zone signals will be in a known, stable (logic 1)
state when the PC is off. This permits the graceful
partitioning of power when the PC is powered down and is
a key element in Sleeping Call Collection feature. The
balance of the circuitry on the card is powered from
CARD-VCC.
In summary, the present in~ention consists of a
powering scheme and circuit partitioning to enable a PC
plug card to perform data collection and call management
functions independently of the on/off status of the host
PC. A user option is provided about whether to employ
this enhanced card functionality with external power or
to use the card without the feature, employing normal
internal PC-provided power.
Although the preferred embodiment of the invention
has been illustrated, and that form described, it is
readily apparent to those skilled in the art that various
modifications may be made therein without departing from
the spirit of the invention or from the scope of the
appended claims.
--7--
,~ -
. . -
.. ~ - :
: :-
