Moeller Gmbh

Guido Voellmar

Bernd Wolff

Juergen Volberg

Hans-Juergen Hoegener

A mechanical-electronic position sensor in which the wiper voltage of a potentiometer actuated by a plunger is measured, processed by a microcontroller, and is available as an analog output signal via an output stage. In the event that watchdog signals fail to appear because of a malfunction of the microcontroller, two monitoring stages deactivate the output stage. The monitoring stages themselves are tested by regularly interrupting the watchdog signals for a short time while the output stage is maintained active.

Mechanical-electronic position sensor

In a method for function monitoring of an electronic-mechanical position switch in which the wiper voltage of a potentiometer acted upon by an actuation tappet is evaluated in comparison to a threshold value in order to activate or deactivate electronic contacts, during first or second test intervals a microcontroller interrupts watchdog signals or contact-closing control signals and checks the state of the switching contacts. If the expected state transition of the switching contacts from the closed into the open state does not occur, then the control signals make the transition to the contact-opening signal level or the watchdog signals are discontinued.

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Cologne, Germany

Guido Voellmar