Electricity: motive power systems inventions 07/09

20090189550 - Method and apparatus for controlling a plurality of motors: Apparatus, having multiple motor modules, has an MCU module. Each motor module has an electronically controlled motor. The MCU module has an MCU and an interface for connecting to a bus from a CPU. In use the MCU module receives control signals from the CPU and in turn instructs a... Agent: Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, PLLC

20090189551 - Method and apparatus for stopping servo motor: The servo motor is controlled by a control signal from a control circuit. A common branch line is separated from a positive common line in accordance with information that a safety door is opened. Thus, a first gate drive circuit group is made inoperative. Then, a second gate drive circuit... Agent: Sughrue-265550

20090189554 - Motor sensing circuit with transient voltage suppression: A motor sensing circuit with transient voltage suppression includes a sensing unit and an impulse absorber. The sensing unit has an electrical switch generating a pulse sensing signal when switching and a signal output terminal electrically connecting to the electrical switch and outputting said pulse sensing signal. The impulse absorber... Agent: Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, PLLC

20090189555 - Electric motor control device and drive unit: An electric motor control device includes a power supply unit that supplies power to a three-phase electric motor; a three-phase current sensor that individually detects three respective phase currents of the three-phase electric motor; a summing unit that calculates a three-phase sum by adding the three phase currents detected by... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20090189552 - Motor drive unit and optical apparatus: A motor drive unit includes a controller configured to drive a motor to a target position by using a first driving mode in which a state of energization of coils of the motor is switched in accordance with outputs from rotor position detectors and a second driving mode in which... Agent: Cowan Liebowitz & Latman P.C. John J Torrente

20090189556 - Motor drive device and semiconductor integrated circuit device: The disclosed invention achieves a significant reduction in the noise and vibration of a brushless motor from a startup up to the number of steady revolutions. To drive the brushless motor from stop up to the number of steady revolutions, when the arithmetic sequencer detects a rise of a clock... Agent: Mattingly & Malur, P.C.

20090189557 - Method and arrangement for controlling an electric drive: A method for controlling an electric drive is proposed, in which, in the event of a fault, a motor control unit of an electric motor implements a safety measure to change over to a secure operating condition, such that when a faulty three-phase current feed to the electric motor is... Agent: Davis & Bujold, P.l.l.c.

20090189553 - Method and system for multiphase current sensing: A multiphase current sensing method wherein the sum of the phase currents is zero including: sensing a.c. and/or d.c. currents in first and second phases; sensing a.c. current in a predetermined a.c. frequency range in a third phase; and combining the current sensed in the first and third phases and... Agent: Iandiorio Teska & Coleman

20090189558 - Actuator position homing method and apparatus: An electric actuator motor drives an actuator leg between inner and outer limits of an actuator stroke relative to an actuator base. A controller detects when the actuator leg is at one of the inner and outer stroke limits by monitoring and comparing actuator motor power draw to known actuator... Agent: Reising, Ethington, Barnes, Kisselle, P.C.

20090189559 - Electric motor protection system: An electric motor protection system for protecting an electric motor of a household appliance includes a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of the electric motor, a motor speed sensor for sensing a speed of the electric motor, a current sensing circuit for sensing an electric current supplied to the... Agent: Byip, Ltd.

20090189560 - High torque gearless actuation at low speeds for swing gate, roll-up gate, slide gate, and vehicular barrier operators: The invention is a system for gearless operation of a movable barrier utilizing Lorentz forces, and in particular, a movable barrier operator retrofitted with a gearless motor capable of high torque at very low speeds. Eliminating a gear system in accordance with the present invention lowers maintenance requirements, increases efficiency,... Agent: Jafari Law Group, P.C.

20090189561 - Electric motor stator winding temperature estimation: A temperature estimation controller and methods are provided for controlling a torque command to prevent overheating of one or more of a plurality of phases of a permanent magnet motor. The temperature estimation controller includes a low speed temperature estimation module, a transition module and a temperature dependent torque command... Agent: Ingrassia Fisher & Lorenz, P.C. (gm)

20090184672 - Motor driving apparatus and motor driving method: One terminal of a first capacitor is set to a fixed electric potential. A charging/discharging circuit charges/discharges the first capacitor using a current that corresponds to an input signal which specifies the revolution of a motor. A comparator compares a voltage at the first capacitor with a predetermined voltage. A... Agent: Cantor Colburn, LLP

20090184673 - Motor driving system and method of protecting motor driver: A motor driver system includes an excess current sensing device configured to compensate a sensing value depending on a temperature of a motor, and to output the compensated sensing value, the sensing value being obtained from a current value associated with the motor; and a controller configured to stop the... Agent: Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch

20090184674 - Drive apparatus for a washing machine: A drive apparatus for a washing machine includes an electric motor, a drive shaft connected to the electric motor for rotary drive purposes and electronics for controlling operation of the electric motor. In order to achieve a compact construction, the electric motor and the electronics are integrated in a common... Agent: Lerner Greenberg Stemer LLP

20090184675 - Motor position signal processing apparatus: A motor position signal processing apparatus electrically connected to a signal processor and an optical encoder of a motor control system includes a first switch, a second switch, a first signal integration amplifier, a first separator, a second signal integration amplifier, a second separator, a third signal integration amplifier, a... Agent: Hdls Patent & Trademark Services

20090184676 - Method and apparatus for position-accurate triggering of a machine part: A machine part, such as a laser, is moved along at least one axis of movement relative to a workpiece. Position pulses are generated by means of an incremental encoder, with the number of position pulses in a position pulse train being representative of the movement position of the machine... Agent: Harness, Dickey & Pierce, P.L.C

20090184677 - System and method for using a stepper motor as a rotary sensor: A method and apparatus for driving a stepper motor and using the stepper motor as a rotary sensor when the stepper motor is not being driven.... Agent: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

20090184678 - Permanent magnet ac motor systems and control algorithm restart methods: Permanent magnet alternating current (PMAC) motor systems and methods for starting or restarting PMAC motor system sensorless control algorithms are provided. One system includes a PMAC motor including a rotor, an inverter, and a controller. The controller includes control logic, start/restart logic, drive logic, current detect logic, and estimation logic... Agent: Ingrassia Fisher & Lorenz, P.C. (gm)

20090179600 - Dual ring dedicated drive control system for medium voltage variable frequency drives: The present invention provides a motor drive system that is substantially more robust than those of the prior art. Generally, the motor drive system provides a redundant communication topology with the drives, thereby greatly reducing the chance of failure by a fault in the drive-to-drive communication link. Specifically, the motor... Agent: Rockwell Automation, Inc./bf

20090179601 - Transition wiring system for multiple traction generators: A transition wiring system is provided. The transition wiring system may include one or more traction motors, a first generator, and a second generator. The transition wiring system may also include a first device, a second device, and a third device, each device configured to block reverse current flow. The... Agent: Caterpillar/finnegan, Henderson, L.L.P.

20090179602 - Rotary electric machine control device, rotary electric machine control method, and rotary electric machine control program: A rotary electric device control device is formed substantially by three signal process flows. A first component is a part generating a 3-phase drive signal supplied from a torque instruction value to an inverter circuit. This is the part from d,q current map to a PWM conversion. A second component... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20090179603 - Control apparatus for starting a direct current brushless motor and method thereof: An apparatus for starting a direct current brushless motor and a method thereof are provided. The direct current brushless motor comprises a plurality of windings. The control apparatus comprises a sense amplifier, a differential circuit, and a control circuit. The sense amplifier is configured to detect a first back electromotive... Agent: Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley, LLP

20090179604 - Electric motor: An electric motor (10) which includes an armature (11) with at least two armature phase pair windings (12) and salient pole rotor arrangement (15) having field windings (17) terminating in a selective electrical switch which determines the electrical continuity of said field windings (17). Also included is control means which... Agent: Patti, Carmen B. Patti, Hewitt & Arezina

20090179605 - Resolver abnormality detection circuit: An abnormality detection circuit for a resolver outputs a rotation angle signal corresponding to a rotation angle of a rotor from a resolver winding. In the abnormality detection circuit, the resolver abnormality detection circuit applies a specified signal to one terminal of the resolver winding, determines whether the specified signal... Agent: Crowell & Moring LLP Intellectual Property Group

20090179606 - Circuit arrangement and method for controlling an electrical consumer: The invention relates to a circuit arrangement for controlling an electrical consumer (M), said arrangement being provided with a bridge circuit which comprises four electronic switches (V1, V2, V3, V4) and the consumer (M) which is arranged in the transversal leg of the bridge circuit, and a control circuit (uC)... Agent: Fish & Richardson PC

20090179607 - Motor absolute position signal processing apparatus: A motor absolute position signal processing apparatus connected to a signal processor and an optical encoder of a motor control system includes first and second switches, a signal integration amplifier, first and second separators and an inverter. The first switch is connected with the optical encoder, the second switch with... Agent: Hdls Patent & Trademark Services

20090179608 - Method and system for controlling a power inverter in electric drives: Methods and systems for controlling a power inverter in an electric drive system of an automobile are provided. A signal controlling the power inverter is modified utilizing a first voltage distortion compensation method if a modulation index of the signal is less than a first modulation index value. The signal... Agent: Ingrassia Fisher & Lorenz, P.C. (gm)

20090174349 - Motor drive apparatus equipped with dynamic braking circuit fault detection capability: A motor drive apparatus 1 having a dynamic braking circuit 5 for producing a deceleration torque utilizing a braking force caused by a synchronous motor 4 acting as a generator when the synchronous motor 4 is deenergized, is equipped with a dynamic braking circuit fault detection capability, and comprises: a... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Ham & Berner, LLP

20090174350 - Control system for multiphase electric rotating machine: A control system controls a multiphase rotating machine by a 120° energization process and a PWM process. In the 120° energization process, respective ones of switching elements of a high side arm and switching elements of a low side arm of a power conversion circuit are turned on. In the... Agent: Posz Law Group, PLC

20090174351 - Method for determining the magnet temperature in synchronous machines: A method for determining the magnet temperature of a permanent magnet electrical machine. The magnet temperature is able to be determined particularly simply and accurately if a phase voltage and the rotational speed of the electrical machine are measured, and the magnet temperature is determined from this.... Agent: Kenyon & Kenyon LLP

20090174352 - Computer controlled brushless synchronous motor: A brushless synchronous motor includes a controller producing a plurality of current vectors having different directions, applied to the synchronous motor. The synchronous motor control system includes a sensor for sensing the rotational angle of a synchronous motor, and a computer for generating data describing a plurality of current vectors... Agent: Wilson Daniel Swayze, Jr.

20090174353 - Motor control device: A motor control device has a drive circuit that is respectively provided on arms of an inverter circuit supplying current to an AC motor, and that drives a switching element included on the arms; and a power source control circuit that performs a control of a power supply circuit for... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20090174354 - Method for determining the position of a rotor of an electric motor without sensors: Disclosed is a method for detecting the current position of a rotor, in particular the angle of rotation of the rotor, an electromotor and a method for detecting the speed and/or the angle of rotation of an electromotor. The speed of the electromotor is hereby implied inter alia from the... Agent: Continental Teves, Inc.

20090174355 - Starting apparatus for a direct current brushless motor and method thereof: A starting apparatus for a direct current (DC) brushless motor and a method thereof are provided. The DC brushless motor comprises a plurality of windings presenting a joint connection via a common connection. The starting apparatus provides current to two of the three windings and rotates the DC brushless motor... Agent: Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley, LLP

20090174356 - Starting circuit for single-phase ac motor: A starting circuit for a single-phase AC motor, comprising a main winding, a detecting circuit, a rectifying and filtering circuit, a triggering circuit, a switching circuit and a starting winding. The detecting circuit is connected in series to the main winding for transforming current parameters thereof into detecting signals. The... Agent: Matthias Scholl

20090174357 - Servo motor controller: A servo motor controller having: a frequency identification section that performs analysis based on a frequency response method and identifies the frequency of a disturbance exhibiting a specified phase lag; an input/output gain identification section that identifies the input/output gain at the frequency identified by the frequency identification section; and... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Ham & Berner, LLP

20090174358 - Method and apparatus for high speed stepper motor stall detection: A detector device and a method for detecting a stall condition in a stepper motor, wherein the accumulated value of the back EMF is compared to a stall threshold when the stepper motor has exceeded a pre-determined rotational velocity threshold, the accumulated value of the back EMF representing a condition... Agent: Fraser Clemens Martin & Miller LLC

20090174359 - Control of a triac for the starting of a motor: A method and a circuit for controlling a triac intended to be series-connected with a resistive element of positive temperature coefficient or a capacitive element, and a winding for starting an asynchronous motor, for supply by an A.C. voltage, the present invention including the steps of: detecting a voltage representative... Agent: Stmicroelectronics Inc. C/o Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.

20090174360 - Method and device for reducing the influence of a dc component in a load current of an asynchronous three-phase motor: A method for reducing the influence of a DC component in a load current of an asynchronous three-phase motor, in which the voltages of two of the three phases are controlled by adjusting firing angles of semiconductor devices of the type turning-off at zero-crossing of the current therethrough comprises the... Agent: St. Onge Steward Johnston & Reens, LLC

20090167214 - Electrical actuator: An electric actuator includes a motion conversion mechanism and a position detector. The motion conversion mechanism converts rotation of a rotary shaft of a motor into linear motion of an output shaft. The position detector detects a permanent magnet M, which moves integrally with the output shaft. A motor control... Agent: Marsh, Fischmann & Breyfogle LLP

20090167215 - Displacement-preventing device for coilable shade: A displacement-preventing device includes a control device electrically connected to an AC power source. The control device includes an upward movement contact, a downward movement contact, and a common contact. A power circuit is electrically connected to the common contact and converts the AC power source into a DC power... Agent: Dr. Banger Shia Int''l Patent Office Of Bang Shia

20090167216 - Vehicle power controller: A power controller alleviating change of braking feeling caused by reduced regenerative braking force is provided. Energy generated by regenerative braking is used for charging a capacitor. The charging power P(C) is calculated and whether P(C) has reached a maximum value WMAX of predetermined limit control value WIN(C) or not... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20090167217 - Vehicle power controller: An ECU executes a program including the steps of: calculating regenerative power value P based on a brake pressure (S100); calculating limit charging power WIN(B) to a battery (S102); calculating limit charging power WIN(C) to a capacitor (S104); when it is determined that regenerative power value P is larger than... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20090167218 - Method and apparatus for braking a motor: The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for braking a synchronous motor (4) used with a frequency converter (2). The braking current of the motor (4) is controlled by connecting only the negative changeover contacts (10) of the inverter (16) of the frequency converter (2) or alternatively by... Agent: Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch

20090167220 - Motor control apparatus, vehicle fan drive apparatus, and motor control method: A motor control apparatus has a start control section. When the motor control apparatus receives a motor start command from a host control unit when a motor is in a stop state or a low-speed rotating state where a sensorless control cannot be applied, the control section starts the motor... Agent: Posz Law Group, PLC

20090167219 - Motor drive circuit, fan motor, electronic device, and notebook personal computer: A motor drive circuit includes: a pulse generation circuit configured to generate a pulse signal whose duty ratio of one logic level is increased as a drive voltage is increased in accordance with a target rotation speed of a motor; and a drive control circuit that configured to drive the... Agent: SocalIPLaw Group LLP

20090167221 - Method and device for generating signals for controlling a multi-phased rotating electric motor according to speed: A method wherein the signals (SW1,Sw2,Sw3) controlling the power supply (10) of the phase windings (4) of the motor consist of signals (So1,So2,So3) that are out-of-phase by a phase angle (f) which is continuously variable in relation to synchronisation signals (Si1,Si2,Si3) generated by sensors (1) detecting the position of the... Agent: Berenato, White & Stavish, LLC

20090167222 - Method and device for determining the torque of an electric machine: A method for determining the torque of an electric machine, in particular a permanently energized electric machine. The torque is determined by a particularly simple and accurate method by measuring a phase voltage and the rotational speed of the electric machine and calculating the torque based on these values.... Agent: Kenyon & Kenyon LLP

20090167223 - Inverter: An inverter contains the following structure: an inverter circuit having upper-arm switching elements connected on the positive side of a DC power source and lower-arm switching elements connected on the negative side of the DC power source; a current sensor that detects current flowing between the DC power source and... Agent: Ratnerprestia

20090167224 - Motor control device and motor-driven power steering system using the same: An object of the present invention is to provide a motor control device capable of suppressing voltage composite vector fluctuation to increase the output of a brushless motor, and a motor-driven power steering system using this device. The present control device calculates motor phase current command values based on a... Agent: Crowell & Moring LLP Intellectual Property Group

20090167225 - Motor drive architecture with active snubber: A method and apparatus is disclosed for controlling a system comprising at least one electric motor. The motor drive circuit includes a reconfigurable active snubber. Under given resonance conditions, the active snubber is configured to use a resistive element to dissipate electrical transients across the commutation circuit.... Agent: Bachman & Lapointe, P.C. (pwc)

20090167226 - Method for controlling a direct current brushless motor, and control circuit: A method for controlling a direct current (DC) brushless motor, and a control circuit thereof are provided. The DC brushless motor is sensorless. In response to a digital output signal that is applied to drive the direct current brushless motor, detection of a back electromotive force (BEMF) is ceased in... Agent: Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley, LLP

20090167227 - Method and control device for monitoring and limiting the torque in a drive train of a road motor vehicle: A method for monitoring and limiting the output or the torque of a drive motor in a drive train of a road motor vehicle, including the steps of: determining a permissible maximum value of the output or the torque as a function of a signal from a driver input sensor;... Agent: Kenyon & Kenyon LLP

20090167228 - Apparatus, system, and method for controlling speed of a cooling fan: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for controlling fan speed. A power sensing module senses input voltage and current of a power supply. The power supply includes one or more stages and regulates at least one output bus. A power calculation module calculates input power from the input voltage... Agent: Kunzler & Mckenzie

20090167229 - Ac motor bypass with fault annunication, serial communication and fault tolerant coil control: A motor bypass is controlled by a digital signal processor (DSP) with embedded control software that allows fault detection and annunciation, serial communications between both a variable frequency drive (VFD) and a bypass controller and the bypass controller and a host computer. The use of the DSP and embedded control... Agent: Abb Inc. Legal Department-4u6

20090167230 - Motor driving circuit and motor driving method: A motor driving circuit includes a detecting unit, a signal control unit, a comparing unit and a driving unit. The detecting unit detects a rotation speed of a motor and thus outputs a detecting signal. The signal control unit generates a reference signal. The comparing unit electrically connected with the... Agent: Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, PLLC

20090167231 - System and method for controlling electric motors to simulate a mechanical differential: System and methods of controlling a plurality of motors based on a motor motion attribute, such as rotor position, velocity, or acceleration, which simulate the properties of a mechanical differential, including a pure differential, a limited slip differential, and/or a locking differential. The method may be employed in a number... Agent: Pitney Bowes Inc.

20090167232 - Drive control device for a stepper motor and drive control method of the stepper motor: A stepper motor control device includes a sensor that detects physical quantities and a control device that operates a stepper motor based on data corresponding to the physical quantities sent from the sensor in which the said control device implements a target rotational angle computation process that calculates a target... Agent: Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.

20090167233 - method of manufacturing a starting device for a three phase electric motor, and a starting device: When manufacturing a starting device for a three-phase electric motor, especially a soft starter, in at least one embodiment an arc quenching system is at least partly removed from a commercially available contactor that so becomes to a modified contactor. In at least one embodiment, a modified contactor is used... Agent: Harness, Dickey & Pierce, P.L.C

20090167234 - Converter device, rotating electrical machine control device, and drive device: A converter device includes a converter circuit that includes a reactor connected to a primary side power supply, and a step-up feeding device that has a step-up switching element connected to the reactor and that boosts electric power of the primary side power supply by on/off switching the step-up switching... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20090167235 - Apparatus for controlling inverter: The apparatus for controlling an inverter is disclosed which detects a rotation angle of a load using a current supplied to the load when the inverter utilizes a voltage/frequency control to control the driving of the load, and accurately drives the load using the detected rotation angle, where the current... Agent: Lee, Hong, Degerman, Kang & Waimey

20090167236 - Control apparatus for ac rotary machine and control method for ac rotary machine: A control apparatus for an AC rotary machine, comprising a VVVF inverter 1 which exchanges electric power between it and the AC rotary machine, a voltage detector 16 which detects voltage information of a DC side of the inverter 1, current detectors 3 which detect current information items of an... Agent: Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney PC