Motor starter apparatus with start-up fault detection capability

Abstract

A motor starter apparatus includes at least one semiconductor switch configured to selectively couple a power source to a motor, at least one current sensor configured to generate a current sense signal indicative of a current provided via the at least one semiconductor switch, and a control circuit coupled to the at least one current sensor and configured to cause the at least one semiconductor switch to momentarily couple the power source to the motor and identify a fault based on a behavior of the current sense signal in response to the momentary coupling. The control circuit may be configured to identify the fault responsive to detecting that a rate of change of the current in response to the momentary coupling meets a predetermined criterion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.