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. 27, 2010
Filed:
May. 09, 2007
Todd M. Shaak, Presto, PA (US);
Harry J. Carlino, Export, PA (US);
Todd M. Shaak, Presto, PA (US);
Harry J. Carlino, Export, PA (US);
Eaton Corporation, Cleveland, OH (US);
Abstract
A circuit breaker includes for each neutral and phase power conductor, a current sensor sensing an alternating current flowing in a corresponding power conductor, a comparator determining whether the sensed alternating current is positive or negative, a rectifier rectifying the sensed alternating current to provide a rectified current value, and an analog-to-digital converter converting the rectified current value to a signed digital value having a positive sign. A processor cooperates with the comparators and the analog-to-digital converters and includes a routine that changes the positive sign of the signed digital value to a negative sign if the sensed alternating current is negative, adds the signed digital value for each power conductor to provide a sum, and employs the sum to determine whether to output a ground fault signal. The processor further cooperates with an operating mechanism to trip open separable contacts responsive to the ground fault signal.