System for monitoring electric loads and for monitoring driving apparatuses of said electric loads

Abstract

A washing and/or drying appliance () includes an electric load () and a driving apparatus () for driving the electric load (). The driving apparatus () includes: —a TRIAC () comprising a first anode terminal (M) coupled with a first terminal (TN) of an AC electric power supply and a second anode terminal (M) coupled with a first terminal of the electric load (). The electric load () includes a second terminal coupled with a second terminal (TL) of the AC electric power supply; —a microcontroller () configured to generate a driving signal, and —a triggering circuit () for activating the TRIAC () by providing triggering pulse signals to a gate terminal (G) of the TRIAC () based on the driving signal. A monitoring circuit () includes: —the microcontroller (), and —a feedback circuit branch () connected between the gate terminal (G) of the TRIAC () and an input terminal of the microcontroller () for providing the voltage at the gate terminal (G) of the TRIAC () to the microcontroller (). The monitoring circuit () is configured to monitor the driving signal and the voltage at the gate terminal (G) of the TRIAC () and to assess an operating condition of the electric load (), the TRIAC () and the triggering circuit () based on a monitored value of said driving signal and on a monitored value of the voltage at the gate terminal (G) of the TRIAC ().