Patents by Inventor Donald M. Stumpf

Donald M. Stumpf 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: 5185558
    Abstract: A vehicle's input switches relating to ignition, lights and moisture or rain provide responsive inputs that feed through a digital logic circuit to outputs of an electronic switching device for automatically activating the vehicle's lights and wipers.An alarm may be activated if certain input switches are turned on when the ignition is off.The digital logic circuit may be discrete, a programmable read only memory (PROM) or a programmable logic array (PLA).The electronic switching device may constitute a driver circuit and an integrated circuit which includes both a relay switching circuit and a switched circuit, for example a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) driver and a power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor (MOSFET) integrated circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 1991
    Date of Patent: February 9, 1993
    Assignee: Benedict Engineering Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Charles E. Benedict, Donald M. Stumpf
  • Patent number: 5136209
    Abstract: A control system for automatically turning on the headlights (and parking lights) of a vehicle has an input section that includes the ignition switch, the manually operated windshield wiper switch, and condition responsive light sensor and moisture sensor switches. These switches operate through a logic circuitry through an output section to turn on and to keep turned on the lights when any of certain switch combinations are turned on:a) ignition, windshield wiper, light sensor and moisture sensor;b) ignition, windshield wiper and light sensor;c) ignition, windshield wiper and moisture sensor;d) ignition and windshield wiper;e) ignition, light sensor and moisture sensor;f) ignition and light sensor; org) ignition and moisture sensor.In the event that the windshield wiper is turned off the light level sensor causes the lights to be turned off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 1990
    Date of Patent: August 4, 1992
    Assignee: Benedict Engineering Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Charles E. Benedict, Donald M. Stumpf
  • Patent number: 4956562
    Abstract: A control system for turning on the headlights (and parking lights) of an automobile when the windshield wipers are turned on, has a gating circuit that operates relay circuits to the headlights, the gating circuit electronically latching "in" the headlight relay circuit so that the headlights remain on when the windshield wiper is turned off in order to avoid inadvertent turning off of the hedlights at night time and the gate circuit electronically turning off the headlight (and parking light) relay circuits whenever the headlight switch is turned on or whenever the ignition is turned off, thus assuring that the headlights will remain on until the headlights and ignition switches are turned off. The relay circuits controlled by the gating circuit may operate a mechanically or electrically latched relay device to hold the headlights (and parking lights) on until the relay circuit controlled by the gating circuit operates the mechanically or electrically latched relay device to turn the headlights off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 1989
    Date of Patent: September 11, 1990
    Assignee: Benedict Engineering Co. Inc.
    Inventors: Charles E. Benedict, Donald M. Stumpf