Laundry apparatus and method of controlling such

Laundry apparatus comprising:

• means operable generally in a washing mode for agitating water and fabircs to be laundered therein and operable generally in a spin mode for thereafter spinning the fabrics to effect centrifugal displacement of water from the fabrics;
• an electronically commutated motor including a stationary assembly having a plurality of winding stages adapted to be selectively commutated, and rotatable means associated with said stationary assembly in selective magnetic coupling relation with said winding stages for driving said agitating and spinning means in the washing mode operation and in the spin mode operation thereof upon the commutation of said winding stages;
• first and second conductors for supplying power;
• means for commutating said winding stages by selectively switching said winding stages to said supply conductors in response to a pattern of control signals;
• means coupled to said winding stages for converting the voltages across said winding stages to digital form thereby to digitize the voltages;
• means operable generally for switching said winding stages from a first connection arrangement to a second connection arrangement;
• and
• means for producing successive patterns of the control signals in at least one preselected sequence to rotate said rotatable means, for subsequently producing a pattern of the control signals which causes said commutating means to leave all of said winding stages temporarily unpowered during switching of said winding stages from the first connection arrangement to the second connection arrangement, for sensing the digitized voltages while said winding stages are temporarily unpowered and then resuming producing the successive patterns of the control signals in sequence beginning with a pattern of the control signals determined from the sensed digitized voltages.

A method of controlling laundry apparatus comprising means operable generally in a washing mode for agitating water and fabrics to be laundered therein and operable generally in a spin mode for thereafter spinning the fabrics to effect centrifugal displacement of water from the fabrics, an electronically commutated motor including a stationary assembly having a plurality of winding stages adapted to be selectively commutated, and rotatable means associated with the stationary assembly in selective magnetic coupling relation with the winding stages for driving the agitating and spinning means in the washing mode operation and in the spin mode operation thereof upon the commutation of the winding stages, and first and second conductors for supplying power, the method comprising the steps of:

• converting the voltages across the winding stages to digital form thereby to digitize the voltages;
• commutating the winding stages by selectively switching the winding stages to the supply conductors in at least one preselected sequence;
• temporarily interrupting the commutating to leave the winding stages temporarily unpowered;
• switching the winding stages from a first connection arrangement to a second connection arrangement;
• sensing the digitized voltages while the winding stages are temporarily unpowered;
• and
• resuming the commutating beginning at a point in the sequence determined from the sensed digitized voltages.