System for Field-Programmed Determination of Illumination Set Points in Ballasts
OwnerTony O'Gorman, Dennis Stephens +1inventors
InventorsTony O'Gorman, Dennis Stephens, Steven Purdy
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Abstract
A system for programming control of ballast illumination includes receiving a power stage input current through a first ballast input, receiving a level switch control signal at a second ballast input, entering a ballast illumination program mode, adjusting said level switch control signal to select a ballast lamp illumination and saving a field-programmed ballast lamp illumination indication in a ballast memory as representative of said ballast lamp illumination.
Claims25
A method for programming control of ballast illumination, comprising:
- receiving a power stage input current through a first ballast input;
- receiving a level switch control signal at a second ballast input;
- entering an illumination program mode for said ballast;
- adjusting said level switch control signal to select a ballast lamp illumination;
- and
- saving a field-programmed ballast lamp illumination indication in a ballast memory as representative of said ballast lamp illumination.
A ballast apparatus, comprising:
- a lamp drive to drive a ballast lamp, when a ballast lamp is present;
- a ballast inverter stage to drive said lamp drive with a frequency-varying ballast inverter stage output signal;
- and
- an input conditioning and isolation circuit to receive a level switch control signal and to output a pulse-width modulated (PWM) ballast control signal representative of said level switch control signal to a microcontroller, said microcontroller configured to:
- i) enter a program mode to determine a field-programmed ballast lamp illumination in response to detection of a plurality of level switch control signal transitions;
- ii) save said field-programmed ballast lamp illumination in a ballast memory;
- and
- iii) drive said ballast inverter stage with a ballast inverter stage control signal;
- wherein said ballast apparatus saves a field-programmed ballast lamp illumination for later use.
A method for programming ballast illumination set points for an installed ballast assembly, comprising:
- transitioning a level switch control signal received by an installed ballast assembly a plurality of predetermined transition patterns to enter a program mode for determination of a maximum illumination set point;
- adjusting said level switch control signal provided to said ballast assembly to select said maximum illumination set point;
- and
- saving said maximum illumination set point in a ballast memory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.