Other

Graham-white Mfg. Co.

Jerry Deane Crane

Charles L Thomas

Scott G Edwards

Kathryn M Edwards

Alan R Granger

Donald J Bowman

William E Masek

Sven R Englund

The present invention discloses and claims a test device and method for testing a rail car brake system. The test device includes a pneumatic circuit and electronic circuit connecting a supply of test air to the rail car brake system being tested. The pneumatic and electronic circuits operate to selectively supply and vent the test air to or from the rail car brake system according to programmed instructions. The test device further includes a web server interface for communicating with a predetermined web page or other source external to the rail car brake system test device to retrieve and download additional programming instructions.

Test device and method for testing a rail car brake system

A fire protection system for determining the existence of hazardous conditions within a building. The system includes a central monitor node for monitoring and displaying system status information. At least one zone node is located remote from the monitor node, and defines a plurality of fire protection zones within the building. A plurality of detectors are arranged within each zone at respective predetermined address locations. Each of the detectors includes a microcontroller for detecting and storing information indicating an occurrence of a hazardous event. The detectors have a normal negative state wherein no occurrence of a hazardous event is detected, and a positive state wherein the occurrence of a hazardous event is detected. The zone node includes detector interrogation circuitry for interrogating the plurality of detectors to determine their respective positive or negative states, and for determining the address location for each of the plurality of detectors in a positive state indicating the occurrence of a hazardous event. A communication line electronically interconnects the zone node and the monitor node for relaying information from the zone node to the monitor node indicating the address location for each of the plurality of detectors in a positive state. The address location of all detectors in a positive state is displayed to a system user at the monitor node.

Fire protection system

A distributed digital telephone system is provided wherein a plurality of telephone consoles have instant access to a plurality of telephone lines wherein in all of the connections within such a system are non-blocking. The system architecture is that of a reverse ratio PBX in which the number of lines exceed the number of consoles and each handset has a reserved time slot on time division multiplex (TDM) highways for internal node or group connections. Accordingly, each handset is guaranteed access to idle lines within any given switching node. The distributed architecture is distinguished from central processing where all call processing is directed through a centralized point. In this decentralized system, all signal conditioning, protection, sensing and control are provided by the resource interface with the TDM highways. Resource data reporting is continually provided to all the resources connected to the system that require it. Redundancy of critical resources is provided in such a manner that only the portion of the system where a fault occurs is disabled while the remainder of the system continues to operate.

Modular digital telephone system with fully distributed local switching

Growing community of inventors

Anderson, SC, United States of America

Jerry Deane Crane