General Electric Company

Veronica Kertesz

James Byron Burke

Karl D Pedersen

Lisa E Rosner

Jonathan A Wolf

Karanam Rajaiah

Edgar Yee

Mark Fredrick Culler

Indrajit Purkayastha

John S Vandevanter

Donald R Brown

Joseph E Krisciunas

Thomas A Murphy

Dana Edmond Foster

Grady W Broadnax, Jr

Jose Bscheider

B Ravi Kumar

Pradeep Kumar Tamanna

J Lakshminarayana

S Mishra

S S Lakshmi

A Rajeshwar Rao

Subhash Garg

Harshad Tanna

Don Whitehead

Sara Uecker

Mary A Doddy

Patrick G Salas

Wolfgang Meyer-Haack

M Kailashnath

A communication bus containing master and slave devices includes a monitor unit for fault tolerant communications. In the event the master is unable to communicate, the monitor automatically assumes the master communication role. When more than one monitor is connected within the communications network, the monitor with the lowest communications address assumes the master communications role. The master includes software implementation that allows an operator to obtain data from any of the slave devices via the monitor.

Fault tolerant communication monitor for a master/slave system

An interface monitor is connected with a LAN that is formatted with an RS-485 protocol and which is interconnected with a plurality of electrical distribution devices. The monitor includes a socket connection for receiving an RS-232 plug from a PC and software logic for interpreting between the RS-232 and RS-485 formats. The PC is enabled for communicating with each one of the electrical distribution devices.

Interface monitor for communicating between different communication

The power management control system comprises a computer having standard RS485 interface cards and adapters installed in its I/O slots defining multiple industry standard Modbus RTU networks. The computer contains software for monitoring and controlling selected aspects of power usage/consumption, as described in more detail hereinafter. The Modbus RTU protocol is a well known industry standard. Devices with a Modbus RTU interface can be connected directly to the Modbus and other devices which communicate on the Commnet protocol require a Modbus concentrator. The Modbus concentrator provides an interface between the Modbus RTU protocol and the Commnet protocol, whereby these other devices can communicate through the Modbus concentrator over the Modbus. Alternatively, standard Ethernet interface cards and adapters are installed in the computer's I/O slots defining multiple standard Ethernet TCP/IP networks. The Ethernet TCP/IP protocol is a well known standard, which would allow a user of the power management control system of the present invention to use its existing LAN. Ethernet gateways are connected to the Ethernet TCP/IP networks to provide an interface between the Ethernet TCP/IP protocol and the Modbus RTU protocol.

Power management control system

A dynamic data exchange (DDE) server which allows external programs to access power management data is presented. The DDE server provides a mnemonic cross reference between register items and standardized, alphanumeric parameter names. This mnemonic interface allows the user to retrieve data from a device without knowledge of the actual device register item number. Also, the DDE server automatically performs time synchronizing for all supported devices and provides a consistent waveform and event interface. The DDE server is optimized for either the Modbus RTU or Ethernet protocol. The DDE server includes toolkit functions which are used to maintain DDE communication and protocol timers and to maintain active topic and item lists. The DDE server acts as a link between a client requesting device data and a field device which can provide the data. The DDE server communicates to the field device through communication ports and to the client via DDE message link. A client sends its requests to server to read/write some device registers. The server maps each request to suitable device read/write request packets and carries out the necessary transaction with device. Then it relays the result back to the client after processing and casting the collected device data to proper format.

Dynamic data exchange server

Growing community of inventors

Bristol, CT, United States of America

Veronica Kertesz