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:
Jun. 17, 2008
Filed:
Mar. 21, 2005
Takeshi Kato, Saitama, JP;
Yoshiki Tatsutomi, Saitama, JP;
Mitsuaki Hirakawa, Saitama, JP;
Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Minato, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In discharging a smoothing capacitor connected to DC sides of first and second switching circuits, a DC-DC converter is first turned on to charge a battery for an auxiliary, thereby discharging the smoothing capacitor. Therefore, an electric charge of the smoothing capacitor can be effectively utilized to the maximum. When the voltage of the smoothing capacitor detected by a voltage detector is reduced to a predetermined value or less, and as a result the DC-DC converter is brought into an inoperable state, electric charge of the smoothing capacitor is consumed by at least one of a motor/generator and an LC filter connected to AC sides of the first and second switching circuits by driving at least one of the first and second switching circuits. Therefore, the smoothing capacitor can be completely discharged without need for a special discharging circuit.