Intelligent fuse-holder
AssigneeOptisolar, Inc., A Delaware Corporation
InventorsEdward Robert Nelson, Stephen Yeung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In high-current electrical devices protected by fuses, additional performance data besides whether or not a fuse is blown is useful for diagnostics, repair, and preventing emerging failures from reaching a level that damages the device. An intelligent fuse-holder includes a built-in current sensor. The current sensor signals are passed through an A/D converter and analyzed by a microcontroller. Through an interface, a user can program the fuse-holder to periodically degauss the current sensor coil to improve performance or turn the sensor power off to conserve power. The user may also control various I/O signals carrying information about the fuse, the intelligent electronics, or the host board on which the fuse-holder is mounted.
Claims20
An intelligent fuse-holder to hold a fuse for a host board, comprising:
- an electromechanical holder for a fuse,
- a current sensor configured to monitor source current circulating in the host board,
- a microcontroller configured to read and analyze measurements from the current sensor,
- an alerting indicator configured to generate alerts when the microcontroller detects a problem in the analyzed measurements, and
- an insulated housing containing the holder, current sensor, microcontroller, and alerting indicator, attached to a high-current connection to the host board and a power/signal port connection to the host board.
A method of protecting a high-current host board from electrical damage, comprising:
- connecting a replaceable fuse in a current path of the host board,
- monitoring a source current circulating in the host circuit board,
- analyzing the monitored current to detect present or developing problems in the host circuit board, and
- activating an alert when a problem is detected,
- where the connecting of the fuse, monitoring, analyzing, and activating of the alert are performed by components of an interchangeable, self-contained intelligent fuse-holder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.