Patents by Inventor Donal Baker

Donal Baker has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7755208
    Abstract: An electrical starter-generator system includes a first starter-generator and a second starter-generator. A single drive controls both the first starter-generator and the second starter-generator such that their electrical current and power inputs are minimized and balanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation
    Inventors: Byron R. Mehl, Donal Baker
  • Publication number: 20100013222
    Abstract: An electrical starter-generator system includes a first starter-generator and a second starter-generator. A single drive controls both the first starter-generator and the second starter-generator such that their electrical current and power inputs are minimized and balanced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2007
    Publication date: January 21, 2010
    Inventors: Byron R. Mehl, Donal Baker
  • Patent number: 7242105
    Abstract: An electrical starter-generator system includes a first starter-generator and a second starter-generator. A single drive controls both the first starter-generator and the second starter-generator such that their electrical current and power inputs are minimized and balanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation
    Inventors: Byron R. Mehl, Donal Baker
  • Publication number: 20070086125
    Abstract: An auto-transformer rectifier unit includes circuitry for eliminating DC ground faults. Generally, a capacitor is added in series between each of the input AC feeder lines. Consequently a fault on a DC rail to ground or a faulted diode will prevent or eliminate a DC current ground fault condition entirely. It will, however, retain a significant (detectable) increase in current for differential faults, which would let the protective device trip the unit off line. Large magnitude fault currents are also eliminated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2005
    Publication date: April 19, 2007
    Inventor: Donal Baker
  • Publication number: 20070085526
    Abstract: An unbalanced current detection circuit determines when a multi-phase, normally-balanced load is unbalanced. The detection circuit of the present invention includes a plurality of current-squaring circuits, each squaring a sensed current of one of the phases. A summing circuit produces a sum of the squares of the currents. If the load is balanced, this sum should be relatively constant, perhaps changing only slowly over time, with little or no ripple from that relatively constant value. In an unbalanced current condition, the sum of the current squares would consist of an average (dc) component plus a ripple (ac) component. If the amplitude of the ripple current exceeds a threshold, it is determined that the currents are unbalanced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2005
    Publication date: April 19, 2007
    Inventor: Donal Baker
  • Publication number: 20070063708
    Abstract: An open diode detection circuit for use with an auto-transformer rectifier unit includes a plurality of first diodes each connecting one of a plurality of transformer nodes to a detector rail. A comparator compares the detector rail to a rectifier rail, which is also connected by a plurality of diodes to the plurality of transformer nodes. If one of the diodes in the rectifier circuit fails, the voltage on the rail in the rectifier circuit will differ from the voltage on the rail in the detection circuit. This difference will exceed a threshold that is detected by a comparator, which then generates an indication that a diode has failed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2005
    Publication date: March 22, 2007
    Inventor: Donal Baker
  • Publication number: 20070040383
    Abstract: An electrical starter-generator system includes a first starter-generator and a second starter-generator. A single drive controls both the first starter-generator and the second starter-generator such that their electrical current and power inputs are minimized and balanced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2005
    Publication date: February 22, 2007
    Inventors: Byron Mehl, Donal Baker
  • Publication number: 20060043922
    Abstract: An improved motor controller for driving polyphase alternating current dynamoelectric machines from a direct current power source that employs two inverter bridges controlled with a state vector modulation symmetrical state sequence that has a desired “chop” frequency so that each of their outputs produce a fundamental component that is exactly in phase but chop frequency components that are exactly 180 degrees out of phase with each other, with their outputs combined through respective interphase transformers to average the potentials of the chop frequency components.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2004
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventors: Donal Baker, Byron Mehl
  • Publication number: 20060043920
    Abstract: A motor controller having a damper that dampens resonance in a motor drive of a common mode filter to prevent it from becoming over excited by operation of the motor drive at a resonant frequency of the common mode filter. The damper is connected to an output feeder line of a motor drive in the motor controller and provides a common mode path to ground for the common mode filter. Thus, even if the motor drive is operating at a resonant frequency of the common mode filter, the resulting resonance in the common mode filter is attenuated by rather than amplified by the common mode filter, thereby preventing the common mode filter from excessive excitation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2004
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventor: Donal Baker
  • Publication number: 20060044710
    Abstract: A generator feeder fault detection system includes a ground fault detector transformer that monitors the sum of forward and return currents from and to a generator. During normal operation, the sum of the currents in the ground fault detector equals zero. If there is a fault, however, the ground fault detector will detect a non-zero current sum. Because the ground fault detector measures the sum of the currents traveling through it, the current sensor in the detection circuit can be selected to measure small amounts of current and does not need to have a high threshold, even for generators that output high levels of current.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2004
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventors: Bruce Beneditz, Donal Baker, Wayne Oldenburg, John Defenbaugh, Massoud Vaziri
  • Publication number: 20060043923
    Abstract: A motor controller of the sort having both a transformation function for transforming three-phase feedback information into two components, and then changing an error signal for each of the two components back into three-phase correction numbers is provided with an ARCTAN correction function. The ARCTAN correction function takes in the time derivative of the changing angular position of the motor rotor, and creates a correction factor that is supplied back to the transformation function for changing the two error signals back into three. By supplying this correction ARCTAN function, the control eliminates a disturbance that may have occurred in the prior art at higher frequencies wherein both of the control loops for the two components needed to come into play to correct an error on either of the two loops.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2004
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventors: Donal Baker, Curtis Plude, Gary Miles, Mark Pfeiffer