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:
Sep. 23, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 19, 1995
Ronika A Bennet, Freeport, IL (US);
Jeffrey S Hall, Rockford, IL (US);
Perry A Holman, Jr, Freeport, IL (US);
Lyle D Johnsen, Freeport, IL (US);
Matthew D Kirkwood, Monroe, WI (US);
Honeywell Inc., Minneapolis, MN (US);
Abstract
A switch is provided with the ability to diagnose its own operation and provide signals that represent the actuation of the switch and various diagnostic outputs that indicate fault conditions or potential fault conditions with regard to either the switch or related machinery. A magnetically sensitive component, such as a Hall element, is used to provide an analog output signal that is representative of the position of an actuator to which a magnet structure is rigidly attached. As the actuator moves in response to an external force, the magnet structure moves with respect to a stationary magnetically sensitive component. The analog output from the magnetically sensitive component can be used to determine the position of the switch. Based on this information, a microprocessor provides a binary output signal indicating whether the switch is actuated or deactuated. In addition, the movement of the actuator can be compared to various thresholds to determine the operate point, the overtravel point, the total travel and the velocity of the switch plunger.