Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated

David W Messersmith

Andrew John Jaap

Haihui Lu

Randall S Langer

Kun Wei

Ping Soon Lee

William T Glaser

Michael J Lemberger

A system may include a power source. The power source supplies a first voltage. The system may also include a voltage regulator that receives the first voltage and supply a second voltage. Additionally, the system may include a microcontroller that receives the second voltage and output the second voltage via an output pin. Further, the system may include a switching element that receives the second voltage from the output pin of the controller at a first terminal and receives the first voltage from the power supply at a second terminal. The switching element selectively charges a first capacitor based on a difference between the first voltage and the second voltage.

Relay circuitry with self regulating charging

An apparatus includes a switch module that selectively turns on a switch to connect an input power conductor connected to a voltage source to a motor in a sequence. The switch for each phase is turned on for a portion of a cycle of a fundamental frequency of the voltage source. A source phase module determines a phase of the AC voltage source, a back-EMF phase module determines a phase of a back-EMF of the motor, and a torque module determines when a phase difference between the phase of the AC voltage source and the phase of the back-EMF is within a phase range indicative of a positive motor torque. A pulse module enables the switches in response to the phase difference having a phase within the phase range and disables the switches in response to the phase difference having a phase not in the phase range.

Quasi vector motor controller

A motor controller includes a motor winding heater function. The motor controller applies a predefined current to one or more of the motor windings without the use of additional dedicated motor winding heater devices. The motor controller serves to control the operation of the motor, while the motor windings serve both as a heater at times and to produce torque at times.

Motor winding heater systems and methods

An apparatus for a quasi variable frequency motor controller is includes a DFC module that applies a first frequency to a motor as part of a discrete frequency control ('DFC') method for motor starting. The first frequency includes a discrete frequency in a plurality of discrete frequencies of the DFC method and each discrete frequency includes a frequency lower than a fundamental frequency of an alternating current ('AC') voltage source providing power to the motor. The apparatus includes a torque module that determines when motor torque generated by the motor reaches a negative torque threshold and a next frequency module that applies a second frequency to the motor in response to the torque module determining that the motor torque has reached the negative torque threshold. The second frequency is a next frequency in the DFC method.

Quasi variable frequency motor controller

A method and apparatus for operating a motor controller to cause balanced positive and negative current half-cycles in a motor phase, the method comprising the steps of, for an occurring half-cycle, identifying the most recently obtained valid shut-off angle, identifying the fire angle immediately preceding the identified shut-off angle, mathematically combining the identified fire angle and the identified shut-off angle to identify a next virtual zero crossing (VZC) angle, mathematically combining the next VZC angle and the notch angle to determine a fire angle for the occurring half-cycle and repeating the method for the next half-cycle.

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Kenosha, WI, United States of America

David W Messersmith