With Automatic Starting And/or Stopping Patents (Class 318/277)
  • Patent number: 8847523
    Abstract: An electronic drive includes an electro-mechanical brake associated with a direct-current motor. A first valve or diode connects one of the terminals of the direct-current motor with the first electrical terminal of the brake in a forward direction. A second valve or diode connects the other terminal of the direct-current motor with the first electrical terminal of the brake. A second electrical terminal of the brake is at least indirectly connected with a reference voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Aktiebolaget SLF
    Inventors: Remy Bringold, Klaus Pfeffer
  • Patent number: 8436713
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a door drive, in particular a garage door drive, with a door control and with a programming unit for programming the door control during operation and/or maintenance of the door drive. In accordance with the invention, the programming unit is configured as an external device, wherein for operation and/or maintenance of the door drive a data transmission connection can be established between the programming unit and the door control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Marantec Antriebs-und Steuerungstechnik GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventor: Michael Hormann
  • Patent number: 8288973
    Abstract: A telescoping mast with a cabling system configured to cover and store cable within the structure of the mast and able to efficiently extend and retract multiple telescoping sections without jar and minimal energy. The telescoping mast has a hollow mast housing. A telescoping section is nested within the interior of the mast housing. A set of upper pulleys affixed to the upper end of the mast housing, while a set of lower pulleys affixed to the lower end of the telescoping section. A cable is threaded through the first upper pulleys and first lower pulleys such that a first end of the cable is attached to the mast housing and the cable remains taut when the telescoping section is raised or lowered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: NS Microwave
    Inventor: Thomas Davidson Ford
  • Patent number: 8278863
    Abstract: A telescoping mast able to efficiently extend and retract multiple telescoping sections without jar and minimal energy. The telescoping mast has multiple telescoping sections, a position feedback sensor, a motor, a spring motor, and a computation unit. The position feedback sensor is coupled to at least one telescoping section and configured to identify a position of the telescoping sections. The motor is also coupled to the telescoping sections, and raises and lowers the telescoping sections. The computation unit controls the motor based on the position of the telescoping sections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: NS Microwave
    Inventor: Thomas Davidson Ford
  • Patent number: 8258726
    Abstract: A system for cooling a battery mounted on a vehicle using air within a vehicle, independently of the travelling state of the vehicle. The air within a vehicle compartment is guided to a battery mounted on a vehicle to cool the battery. A controller determines a basic fan speed v of the cooling fan based on a battery temperature and an ambient temperature. Further, the controller calculates an increment ?v of the fan speed in accordance with the vehicle speed and the degree of window opening and determines a final fan speed V according to V=v+?v, to drive the cooling fan. By controlling the fan speed to increase, it is possible to cool the battery even when the base pressure of the inlet-side static pressure of the cooling fan becomes negative pressure compared to when the windows are closed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignee: Panasonic EV Energy Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jun Okuda, Toshiaki Nakanishi, Norihito Yuno
  • Patent number: 8232754
    Abstract: A control device for an electrically driven door is provided that can enhance the sensitivity of detection of a door pinch state and that can prevent a passenger from being pressed when the door pinch state occurs. The control device includes a driving force instruction value producing unit that outputs a driving force instruction value of the electrically driven door, a state observing unit that estimates a mechanical resistant force to a door driving system, a reference model that determines a dynamic characteristic of the electrically driven door to the mechanical resistant force estimated by the state observing unit, a gain compensator that computes a control compensation value that makes an output of the reference model coincide with an actual speed of the electrically driven door; and an adder that adds the control compensation value computed by the gain compensator to the driving force instruction value outputted by the driving force instruction value producing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Satoru Ozaki
  • Patent number: 8115438
    Abstract: An aperture closure member control arrangement includes a disc which rotates as the aperture closure member moves. The disc has a ring of teeth. A sensor, such as a Hall effect sensor and permanent magnet, detect the passage of teeth as a cyclic waveform of amplitude and frequency determined by the spacing of the teeth, and the speed of rotation of the disc. An irregularity in the form of a missing tooth creates an irregularity in the output of the sensor, in the form of a pulse of greater amplitude and lower frequency. Accordingly, pulses from the irregularity can be discriminated and counted to provide a coarse indication of position, or pulses from the teeth can be counted, to provide a fine indication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Inventor: Bruce Stanley Gunton
  • Patent number: 8115424
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of controlling the speed of rotation of a piezoelectric motor comprising at least one step of determining the variation of the speed of rotation as a function of the frequency of the excitation voltages of the piezoelectric motor for the actual temperature of the piezoelectric material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Sagem Defense Securite
    Inventors: Julien Aragones, Jacques Robineau
  • Patent number: 8044616
    Abstract: A system for controlling a disk in a disk drive includes a motor control circuit and a first circuit that retrieves firmware speed control instructions from non-volatile memory. During retrieval of the firmware speed control instructions, at least one of the motor control circuit determines a position of the disk, one of the first circuit and the motor control circuit spins up the disk and the motor control circuit ramps up a speed of the disk. The first circuit performs speed control of the disk based on the firmware speed control instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Ravishanker Krishnamoorthy, Foo Leng Leong
  • Patent number: 7710053
    Abstract: A motor driving apparatus including inverter apparatuses, inverter control circuits, and a plurality of inverter control apparatuses for performing variable-speed driving of a single motor, breakers each of which being provided between each inverter apparatus and the motor, the inverter control circuits being connected in parallel to each other. Here, a motor rotation frequency/phase detection circuit of each inverter control circuit is set up on a closer side to the motor than the breakers, then frequency and phase of a terminal voltage at the motor are detected and inputted into failure-time input frequency/phase setting circuits regardless of close/open of each breaker. This feature allows computation by the failure-time input frequency/phase setting circuits to be carried out at all times, thereby making it possible to shorten a computation time needed for computing inverter-apparatus start frequency/phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Daisuke Tan, Hirohisa Satomi, Shigetoshi Okamatsu
  • Patent number: 7619379
    Abstract: A motor control device includes a recording module and a controlling module. The recording module has a revolution speed table recording a plurality of predetermined revolution speed values. The controlling module receives a reference revolution speed control signal and measures the reference revolution speed control signal to correspondingly generate a reference measuring value. The recording module records the reference measuring value corresponding to one of the predetermined revolution speed values in the revolution speed table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2009
    Assignee: Delta Electronics, Inc.
    Inventors: Hong-Jen Chen, Keittipermsak Rungcharoen, Sukudom Saravut
  • Patent number: 7468590
    Abstract: A motor controller comprises an angular position module that determines an angular position of a disk. A spin-up module performs a spin-up of the disk. A ramp-up module ramps up a speed of the disk after the spin-up. A speed control module controls the speed of the disk based on a control program that is downloaded to the motor controller during a boot-up operation of a disk drive. The angular position module determines the angular position of the disk before handover of control to the control program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2008
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Ravishanker Krishnamoorthy, Foo Leng Leong
  • Patent number: 7332883
    Abstract: Disk drives such as hard (magnetic) disk drives take a certain amount of time to initialize and “spin up” to the operational rotational speed of the disk or disks, thereby creating a time lapse from power up to when data can first be read from or written to the disk drive. This time lapse can be reduced, whereby some tasks conventionally done sequentially instead are performed in parallel. For example, the motor controller that controls the spindle motor can perform its portion of the initialization beginning at the same time that the remaining electronic components, including the hard disk controller, begin their initialization process including downloading firmware. Additionally, other portions of the initialization process typically performed by firmware can be performed by dedicated circuitry or a bootstrap program in the motor controller and hard disk controller, thereby not requiring the relatively slow downloading of system firmware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Ravishanker Krishnamoorthy, Foo Leng Leong
  • Patent number: 6906493
    Abstract: In an electronic system, motor braking is accomplished by applying direct current (DC) voltage, developed across a capacitive element during a run mode operation, across terminals of an alternating current (AC) or an induction motor. While the motor is ON, i.e. during the run mode operation, a diode rectifies an AC input voltage applied across a capacitor for charging thereof. Resistive elements in series with the capacitor control a charging rate thereof. When a relay or switch flips over to a STOP or OFF mode, i.e. a braking mode operation, all of the stored DC voltage, which was charged across the capacitor during the run mode operation, is dropped across a coil of the motor. This DC voltage creates an electric force applied to stop quickly and efficiently the motor shaft rotation. In preferred embodiments of the invention, it was found that the higher the capacitance of the electrolytic capacitor, the faster and more efficient the stopping action will be for the motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2005
    Assignee: Molon Motor and Coil Corporation
    Inventors: Emilio A. Ramirez, Jr., Athanase N. Tsergas
  • Patent number: 6286108
    Abstract: With respect to the disk drives provided power from a single power source in a disk drive system, start up power is first supplied to a first start-up group of the disks, preferably comprising all of the master disks, with the size of the group being selected so that the required current does not exceed the capacity of the power source. When the disk drives of the first group have substantially reached steady state, start-up is conducted with respect to a second start-up group of the disk drives so that the current required during start-up for the second group and the current required for steady state drive of the first start-up group does not exceed the capacity of the power source. With respect to each start-up group, the number of disk drives is the maximum integer value and decreases or remains the same with respect to subsequent start-up groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshihisa Kamo, Hitoshi Kakuta, Atsushi Tanaka, Yosuke Seo
  • Patent number: 6283543
    Abstract: An improved motor vehicle roof is provided which includes a roof opening provided in a fixed roof surface, at least one closing element for selectively at least partially closing the roof opening, an electrical adjusting drive for driving the closing element and a sensor engineering system for detecting a situation which adversely affects the safety of the passengers and for producing a corresponding danger signal. Importantly, the roof includes a quick-action closing device coupled to the sensor engineering system which causes the closing element to close from its open or partially open position when a danger signal is present. The closing device includes means for producing an electrical voltage which exceeds the normal feed voltage (rated voltage) of the adjusting drive by several times, and for applying the voltage to the electric adjusting drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Assignee: Webasto Karosseriesysteme GmbH
    Inventors: Ferdinand Hahn, Thomas Ganz, Thomas Kraus, Horst Schulz
  • Patent number: 6131142
    Abstract: With respect to the disk drives provided power from a single power source in a disk drive system, start up power is first supplied to a first start-up group of the disks, preferably comprising all of the master disks, with the size of the group being selected so that the required current does not exceed the capacity of the power source. When the disk drives of the first group have substantially reached steady state, start-up is conducted with respect to a second start-up group of the disk drives so that the current required during start-up for the second group and the current required for steady state drive of the first start-up group does not exceed the capacity of the power source. With respect to each start-up group, the number of disk drives is the maximum integer value and decreases or remains the same with respect to subsequent start-up groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2000
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshihisa Kamo, Hitoshi Kakuta, Atsushi Tanaka, Yosuke Seo
  • Patent number: 5650699
    Abstract: A remote starting control circuit for a polyphase motor includes a controller, a zero-crosspoint detector, a power switch, a commutation circuit and a motor drive output circuit. The controller controls an excitation current applied to the motor. When the motor starts normally, it is accelerated in accordance with a detected zero-crosspoint. If the zero-crosspoint detector indicates that the motor has not started under optimal conditions, the controller adjusts a power-OFF interval and an excitation pulse width and re-starts the motor accordingly. Because of the ability to controllably adjust the starting of the motor under various excitation conditions, the motor can be started successfully without such problems as torque dead-point, head sticking and insufficient starting torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 1995
    Date of Patent: July 22, 1997
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shi Ming Tang, Sang Woo Lee, Sang Yong Lee
  • Patent number: 5581168
    Abstract: A synchronous generator usable in both a starting mode of operation and a generating mode of operation includes a permanent magnet generator having a permanent magnet and an armature winding rotatable with respect to the permanent magnet, an exciter portion having an exciter armature winding and an exciter field winding rotatable with respect to the exciter armature winding, and a main generator portion having a main generator armature winding and a main generator field winding rotatable with respect to the main generator armature winding. An inverter is coupled to supply power to the main generator portion armature winding via a DC link during the starting mode of operation, and a controller is coupled to the DC link for controlling the magnitude of the DC link current provided to the inverter during the starting mode of operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1996
    Assignee: Sundstrand Corporation
    Inventors: Gregory I. Rozman, Albert L. Markunas, Alexander Cook, Vietson Nguyen
  • Patent number: 5512806
    Abstract: A device is described for controlling the operation of an electric motor for driving the arm of a windshield wiper of an opening window, particularly the rear window of an automotive vehicle. The device has a control unit for supplying power to the motor. The operation of the motor is controlled by a key contact of the vehicle and a control element. The key contact and the control element are under user control and are connected in series between a power supply source, the control unit, and a contact for detecting the opening or closing of the window. The device is further characterized in that the open window detection contact is connected to a control unit data input so that it controls restarting the motor only after opening and closing of window and only after reinitialization of the control element by interruption of the control element and by a new user action on the control element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 30, 1996
    Assignee: Valeo Systemes D'Essuyage
    Inventors: Samuel Papazian, Eric Douville
  • Patent number: 5359272
    Abstract: A doubly-fed reluctance motor (10) has a primary winding set (20) and a secondary winding set (22). A drive control (32) for the motor includes a connection (36) to the primary winding so primary winding current and voltage signals (i.sub.p, V.sub.p) can be developed. A further signal representing the phase relationship (.PHI..sub.p) between the primary winding current and voltage is developed using these signals. A processor module (42) is responsive to these signals to determine the magnitude and phase of a secondary winding current (I.sub.s) of the motor for a predetermined motor operating speed (w.sub.r). The desired current value is as a function of the primary winding current and the phase relationship between the primary winding current and voltage. A switching module (60) operates to regulate the secondary winding currents and opening and closing of switching elements of the module is controlled by an output from the control module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 25, 1994
    Assignee: Emerson Electric Co.
    Inventor: Yuefeng Liao
  • Patent number: 4980621
    Abstract: A control arrangement for controlling the power supplied to an electric motor connected to a rotary member to drive same in rotation by way of a belt drive, to accelerate the rotary member to a given speed and to brake it in a slip-free manner provides that a signal which is proportional to the speed of rotation of the rotary member is compared to a signal which is proportional to the speed of rotation of the motor. The supply of power to the electric motor is correspondingly controlled in dependence on the result of the comparison operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 1989
    Date of Patent: December 25, 1990
    Assignee: Gebruder Hofmann GmbH & Co. KG Maschinenfabrik
    Inventor: Richard Muller
  • Patent number: 4775823
    Abstract: According to a method for controlling an automatic door of the present invention, even when an accidental condition occurs due to some obstacle clogging a traveling lane of the door, the door can move at a high speed to its deceleration point so as to immediately enable a man to go through the door opening, while the door is prevented from colliding at a high speed against the obstacle repeatedly to make it possible to increase both the durability and safety of the door.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 4, 1988
    Assignee: Yoshida Kogyo K. K.
    Inventors: Yukio Yoshida, Akiyoshi Takimoto, Kenzo Ono, Kiyotada Nishikawa, Toshio Oura
  • Patent number: 4443745
    Abstract: Disclosed is a rotation signal detection device for use with a circuit for driving a DC motor with brushes, the device comprises a differential amplifier for detecting a pulse signal component of a waveform of the current supplied to the motor, a circuit for shaping an output of the differential amplifier, thereby actuating a logic circuit for controlling rotation of the motor by a DC level signal obtained from said shaped waveform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1981
    Date of Patent: April 17, 1984
    Assignee: Tokyo Shibaura Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akira Seino, Kazuo Takamori, Kaoru Morinaga