Abstract: A power distribution and protection system and method where an electrical power source distributes power to different load circuits and provides protection that changes on the fly as required by sensing the characteristics of the loads. This is accomplished by a central processing node that is connected to multiple point of use nodes. The characteristics over an initial period of time of the current drawn by the loads are detected and compared to references that determine whether a load is inductive, resistive or is in arcing condition. One of the techniques used involves counting the zero crossings over a predetermined period of time. If the voltage applied to the loads is AC, a high pass filter is used to extract the ringing characteristics to be compared.

Abstract: An apparatus an method for dynamically allocating, controlling and self-assigning addresses in a network for protecting circuit loads. The loads to be protected are powered through load outputs in a master Point-Of-Use (POU) module and the load outputs of one or more slave Point-Of-Use (POU) modules. These load outputs are microprocessor controlled and linked to Remote-Access-Switch (RAS) modules. All of these modules are microprocessor programmable and addressable and connected in series network branches that contain a master Point-Of-Use (POU) module's control signal output with serially connected slave Point-Of-Use (POU) and remote access switch (RAS) modules. At configuration power start up, the master Point-Of-Use (POU) module assigns ID No. 0 to itself and starts issuing additional identification designations to the module that is physically connected to its output and subsequently issuing identification designations to the rest.