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:
Feb. 04, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 02, 1994
Walter Whipple, III, Amsterdam, NY (US);
Hunt A Sutherland, Saratoga Springs, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A household appliance having a serial bus control system includes a system controller, a plurality of slave nodes, and a serial bus connector. Each slave node is a sensor, an actuator, or the like, that is coupled to the serial bus connector and is responsive to a particular slave node address code generated by a master communications module that is part of the system controller. The serial bus connector is a loop of conductor which is attached at each end of the loop to the master communication module, with the slave nodes coupled to the loop at intermediate positions along the loop. The master communications module includes an interrogation circuit for generating digital transmissions to one or more of said slave node address codes and a receiver circuit for receipt of digital transmissions from the slave nodes coupled to said serial bus connector. The system controller further includes a processor for receiving sensor signals from slave nodes addressed by the communications module and for generating respective control signals to govern operation of actuators coupled to the serial bus connector.