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:
Oct. 02, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 07, 1996
Darryl J. Bryans, Washington, DC (US);
Lance B. Jump, Gaithersburg, MD (US);
The Whitaker Corporation, Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
An electrical power control system is adapted for controlling power and lighting in a building. Switch controls have either relays or triacs, controlled by microprocessors, to switch power on electrical branch circuits. An interface device,communicates with the switches,, arranged in a multidrop configuration, with variable length data packets over serial branch circuits or data buses,. In addition to being controlled by the interface device,, the switch controls also have local switch actuators. The actuation of the local switch controls can be used by the interface device,as a control inputs to initiate other actions. Adaptive polling of switch controls is used to minimize system response time, and both transmit and receive signals are carried between the switch controls and the interface device,at different times on the same twisted pair wires. The interface device,can also communicate with a home automation system controller.