Abstract: Boat lift assemblies and methods. In an example embodiment, a free-standing boat lift assembly can include a width-adjustable outer frame defined by vertical towers that support upper horizontal support beams, and one or more cable winding shafts mounted to one or more of the upper horizontal support beams. In some examples, the cable winding shaft(s) is/are mounted to the upper support beam(s) with one or more multi-part bearing blocks. In an example embodiment, a bearing block portion of a boat lift assembly can include a U-shaped shaft receiving recess and a cover plate. In some examples, the U-shaped shaft receiving recess defines a grease valley at a bottom of the U-shape. In some examples, a cable retaining plate can be mounted to one or more bearing blocks to assist in retaining wound cable on a spool surrounding the cable winding shaft.

Abstract: A communications protocol that is used in a network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices includes a synchronization beacon frame that is broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network, a token frame that is broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices, a status response frame that is transmitted by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device, and a data frame. The synchronization beacon frame includes a beacon identifier that identifies a frame as the synchronization beacon frame, and a hub identifier that identifies an address of the hub device. The token frame includes a data portion that schedules a data transmission on the network, and a status response portion that schedules a status response transmission on the network.

Abstract: A personal area network includes a plurality of peripheral devices attached to the network, at least one attaching peripheral device requesting to attach to the network, and a hub device connected to the network and communicating with the plurality of peripheral devices. The hub device receives the attachment request from the attaching peripheral device, provides the attaching peripheral device with attachment approval and a time-out interval, and detaches the attaching peripheral device when the attaching peripheral device fails to communicate with the hub device for a period of time equal to the time-out interval.

Abstract: A network includes a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices. The hub device includes a send token register, a receive token register, and a communication protocol engine. The send token register contains tokens for allocation of output data bandwidth. The receive token register contains tokens for allocation of input data bandwidth. The communication protocol engine alternately transmits the tokens from the send and receive token registers to ensure a split of the output and input data bandwidth on the network.