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:
Jul. 17, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 03, 1999
Alan Joseph Messerli, Bristol, CT (US);
Mark Frederick Culler, Glastonbury, CT (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A circuit breaker trip unit with user-adjustable sensitivity to current spikes (,) includes a user-adjustable switch (,), a current sensor (,), an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter (,), a microprocessor (,), and a power supply (,). The current sensor (,) is electrically connected to the distribution circuit (,) and provides analog signals indicative of current measurements in the distribution circuit (,) to the A/D converter (,). The A/D converter (,) converts the analog signal to a digital line signal and presents the digital line signal, via a bus (,), to the microprocessor (,). The user-adjustable switch (,) is arranged to provide a signal indicative of a limit value, via a bus (,), to the microprocessor (,). The microprocessor (,) comprises a plurality of registers (,) and ROM (,) internal thereto. The ROM (,) includes trip unit application code, e.g., main functionality firmware, including initializing parameters, boot code, and a short circuit protection algorithm. The short circuit protection algorithm compares the line signal stored in the threshold register (,) to a predetermined threshold value stored in the ROM (,). If the line signal exceeds the threshold value, the microprocessor increments a peak count value stored in the peak count register (,). When the peak count reaches the limit value stored in the peak count register (,), a trip signal is generated by the microprocessor (,).