Emerson Electric Company

Coin Acceptors, Inc.

Douglas M Petty

Pradeep K Sood

James L Skinner

Ronald A Hoormann

A device and method for controlling change payout from a plurality of coin tubes of a vending machine, each of which plurality of coin tubes has a particular coin type stored therein, including a processor for processing data and controlling vend operations and counters for maintaining a count of the coins in each of the plurality of coin tubes, the processor programmed to determine the amount of change payback and whether a particular coin type available for payout is desired to be saved and the identity of such coin type, and further programmed to generate a payout array in which the number of coins of the coin type desired to be saved has been reduced from the number that would otherwise be specified and the number of coins of other coin types are adjusted accordingly.

Coin payout method and control means

A dynamoelectric machine, for example, a brushless permanent magnet motor (M) has a plurality of stator windings (S) and a rotor (T) which rotates with respect to the windings. Apparatus (10) is provided for controlling winding commutation with respect to the rotor. A DC bus (14) supplies current to the windings. The current waveshape has characteristics which are a function of the commutation angle with respect to the windings. Current magnitude and waveshape are sensed by a sensing unit (22) and the sensed waveshape is sampled to obtain commutation information. An inverter (20) successively energizes and de-energizes the respective stator windings. A controller (26) obtains samples of the waveshape, and processes the information obtained by the sampling to control winding commutation. The controller controls the inverter operation to provide a commutation angle which optimizes motor performance and efficiency for a particular set of motor operating conditions. To do this, the processor evaluates slope and amplitude information from the sampled DC bus current waveshape, determines if the waveshape corresponds to a desired waveshape representing a desired commutation angle, and adjusts the commutation frequency produced by the inverter, if necessary, to obtain the desired waveshape.

Method and apparatus of operating a dynamoelectric machine using DC bus

Load unbalance in an inverter driven washing machine is detected by examining the ripple in the DC inverter bus current. Ripple above a predetermined level is indicative of load unbalance. If the ripple indicates the load is unbalanced, the distribution cycle of the washing machine is attempted again in an attempt to more nearly balance the clothes. After a certain number of tries, if the load is still unbalanced the spin cycle is aborted. If the ripple falls below a predetermined level before the maximum number of tries is reached, the spin cycle is started. The frequency of operation is checked during the spin cycle to adjust the cycle time to the particular degree of load balance achieved.

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Clayton, MO, United States of America

Douglas M Petty