Communication bus overvoltage protection
AssigneeHamilton Sundstrand Corporation
InventorsChristopher Charles Eberts, Joseph A. James
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An overvoltage protection arrangement includes a signal lead, a switch, and a comparator. The signal lead has a device segment and a bus segment. The switch is connected in series between the device segment and the bus segment. The comparator is operably connected to the switch to open the switch in response to sustained application of overvoltage to the bus segment of the signal lead. Aircraft electrical systems and methods of controlling voltage applied to electrical devices in electrical systems are also described.
Claims22
An overvoltage protection arrangement, comprising:
- a circuit configured to temporarily disconnect and automatically reset itself by reconnecting a device segment from a bus segment of a signal lead in response to detection of sustained application of overvoltage to the signal lead bus segment, the circuit including:
- a switch connected in series between the device segment and the bus segment;
- and
- a comparator operably connected to the switch to open the switch in response to sustained application of overvoltage to the signal lead bus segment;
- and
- a timing circuit, wherein the timing circuit applies a delay to a voltage signal received from the bus segment so that the voltage signal is received at the comparator with an overvoltage only if it is not a transient.
A method of controlling voltage applied to an electrical device, comprising:
- applying a timing delay to a voltage signal received from a bus segment of a signal lead;
- comparing the voltage signal to a reference signal after the voltage signal was delayed by the applied timing delay, wherein due to the applied delay, only sustained application of overvoltage by the voltage signal to the bus segment is compared;
- as a function of comparing the voltage signal to the reference signal, temporarily opening a switch connected in series between a device segment of the signal lead and the bus segment for temporarily disconnecting the device segment from the bus segment;
- and
- automatically closing the switch to reconnect the device segment to the bus segment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.