The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 16, 1994
Filed:
Sep. 24, 1992
David F Fleming, Palmyra, PA (US);
James M Raudenbush, Middletown, PA (US);
Raymond M Carlisle, Loysville, PA (US);
The Whitaker Corporation, Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
A cable length indicating arrangement which utilizes the capacitance of a two wire cable (10) to determine its length. The arrangement includes an oscillator stage (14) having a frequency setting capacitor (16) across which the cable is connected. The frequency of oscillation is converted into a voltage which is provided as the input to a comparator network (70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80) which compares this voltage against voltages derived from a voltage divider network (96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, 108). The comparator network includes a 'ladder' of comparators each having their non-inverting inputs coupled to receive the frequency dependent voltage and their inverting inputs each connected to a respective point in a resistive divider string. The outputs of the comparators are connected to respective light emitting diodes (82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92). As the length of the cable is increased and its capacitance increases, the frequency of oscillation decreases, the frequency dependent voltage decreases, and the light emitting diodes are energized one by one, to provide a bar graph display indicative of cable length.