Dci Technology

Gardenamerica Corporation

Other

David T Carroll

A teething brush for an infant or child is disclosed which has a body in the shape of closed ring. The body ring has a forward curved portion which is dimensioned to fit within a child's opened mouth and a rearward curved portion which is wider than a child's opened mouth so as to prevent the body from being inserted fully into a child's mouth. The rearward curved portion forms a handle for gripping by a child and has a plurality of protrusions which extend from the upper and lower surfaces of the rearward portion to form teething bumps for biting engagement with a child's teeth and gums. The teething brush has a brush head formed of a plurality of upstanding bristles which extend from the forward curved portion of the body. The brush head is curved to conform to the curve of the forward body portion. The teething brush has smooth sides and rounded edges and is dimensioned to avoid trauma to a child's throat and mouth to permit unsupervised use by infants and small children.

Teething brush

A controller for outdoor lighting systems turns lights on and off at predetermined times during the day which are designated by a user. The turn on time is set when the user first turns on the lights. The turn off time is fixed by allowing the user to specify the amount of time that the lights will stay lit. The controller repeats the on-off sequence every 24 hours unless it is reprogrammed. Accurate timing is maintained by counting the pulses in standard 120 V, 60 Hz, line current. A manual override is provided which does not interfere with the programmed time sequence.

Controller for outdoor lighting systems

A power supply for outdoor lighting systems accepts ordinary household alternating current of 120 volts at 60 hertz. The power supply uses a digital switching means to convert this current into a lower voltage at a higher frequency. Typically, these values are 28 volts at 20 kHz. This high frequency signal is then supplied to the lights through a transformer. The use of a higher voltage than that normally used for such systems improves the operating efficiency of the lighting system and allows lights to be placed at a greater distance from the power supply. The higher frequency signal reduces the bulk and cost of the transformer. The voltage and current supplied to the lights can be altered by changing the frequency of the signal entering the transformer. A feedback circuit monitors the signal supplied to the lights and automatically varies the frequency so as to keep the voltage and current within predetermined operating limits.

Power supply for outdoor lighting systems using high frequency

An inventive oscillator, inter alia, is disclosed which can be used to generate a frequency modulated control signal or a pulsewidth modulated control signal for application to a switching means in a switching power supply. The output voltage of a power supply is used to control the magnitude of a high bias voltage and a low bias voltage applied to a plus terminal of a voltage comparator, wherein when the output of the voltage comparator is high, the high bias voltage is applied to the plus terminal, and when the output of the voltage comparator is low, the low bias voltage is applied to the plus terminal. A capacitor, coupled to the output of the voltage comparator via a resistor, is coupled between the minus terminal of the voltage comparator and a ground so that when the output of the voltage comparator is high the capacitor charges. When the voltage across the capacitor exceeds that of the high bias voltage, the output of the voltage comparator goes low, discharging the capacitor until the voltage across the capacitor reaches the low bias voltage now applied to the plus terminal of the voltage comparator. The output of the voltage comparator then goes high, and the cycle repeats, thus generating a squarewave output corresponding to the output voltage of the power supply.

Switching power supply VCO

A control circuit is disclosed which provides a pulsewidth modulated, quasi-squarewave control signal to a switching transistor in a non-symmetrical switching power supply. A primary winding of a sense transformer is coupled in series with a switching transistor and a first winding of a magnetic device, such as a power transformer. A load resistor is placed across a secondary winding of the sense transformer so that the voltage across the secondary winding of the sense transformer ramps up with the current through the first winding of the magnetic device. This increasing voltage is compared by a voltage comparator to a feedback signal corresponding to the output voltage of the power supply so that when the voltage across the secondary winding of the sense transformer exceeds that of the feedback signal, the output of the voltage comparator will be low, turning the switching transistor off. The magnetic device now dumps its stored energy into the output load. After the magnetic device has dumped its energy, the switching transistor is once again enabled. Thus, the duty cycle of the switching transistor is being constantly adjusted to keep the power supply output voltage at a predetermined level.

PWM control circuit for a non-symmetrical switching power supply

An inventive voltage regulator is herein described to provide voltage regulation while maintaining electrical isolation between the input and output sections of a power supply. In a switching regulator for a power supply, a core of the sense transformer is charged until the sense transformer becomes saturated. The charging power is then removed from, for example, the primary winding, and the voltages across the primary and secondary windings reverse polarity and begin to rise. The voltage across the primary winding rises until it forward biases a low power diode connected between a non-grounded output terminal of the power supply, at an output voltage of V.sub.out, and the primary winding of the sense transformer. Thus, the voltage across the primary winding is clamped to the output voltage plus a diode voltage drop. As the energy in the sense transformer dissipates into an output load connected to the output terminals of the power supply, a voltage corresponding to V.sub.out is generated across the secondary winding of the sense transformer. This voltage is applied to a peak detector and the output of the detector applied to a controlling means which compares the voltage to a reference voltage and adjusts the power supply output voltage accordingly.

Growing community of inventors

Sonoma, CA, United States of America

David T Carroll