Electronic lube gun with low battery protection

A method of dispensing an amount of lubricating liquid, the method comprising:

• manually actuating a valve from a closed position to an open position;
• momentarily energizing an electrically operated latching device to hold open the valve for starting a flow of the liquid;
• measuring a parameter of the flow of the liquid;
• and
• in response to the parameter equaling a preset amount, momentarily energizing the latching device again to allow the valve to return to a closed position and stop the flow of liquid,
• wherein the momentary energizing results from discharging a charged capacitor;
• and
• whereby the momentary energizing of the latching device conserves the life of at least one electrical battery.

A device for delivering a preset volume of liquid lubricant, the device being characterized by:

• a valve including a valve member situated to control liquid flow through a supply passage to an outlet;
• an electrically operable latching mechanism for holding the valve member in an open position in which the supply passage is open to the flow of liquid;
• a manually operable member for moving the valve member from a closed position to the open position;
• a metering device operable to measure a parameter of flow of the liquid;
• and
• a control circuit for sensing the movement of the manually operable member and responsive thereto for energizing the electrically operable latching mechanism for a first time for holding the valve member in the open position for a dispensing cycle;
• and
• further characterized in that the control circuit is operably connected to the metering device to measure units of the flow parameter, and in response to the flow parameter equaling a preset amount, the control circuit causes energization of the latching mechanism for a second time to allow the valve member to return to a closed position and end the dispensing cycle.

A device for delivering a preset volume of liquid lubricant, the device comprising:

• a valve including a valve member situated to control liquid flow through a supply passage to an outlet;
• an electrically operable latching mechanism for holding the valve member in an open position in which the supply passage is open to the flow of liquid;
• a manually operable member for moving the valve member from a closed position to the open position;
• a metering device operable to measure a parameter of flow of the liquid;
• and
• a control circuit for sensing the movement of the manually operable member and responsive thereto for energizing the electrically operable latching mechanism for holding the valve member in the open position;
• and
• wherein the control circuit is operably connected to the metering device to measure units of the flow parameter, and in response to the flow parameter equaling a preset amount, the control circuit causes energization of the latching mechanism to allow the valve member to return to a closed position;
• and
• further comprising a capacitor that is discharged in response to a control signal from the processor for energizing the latching mechanism.

A method of dispensing an amount of lubricating liquid, the method comprising:

• manually actuating a valve to move from a closed position to an open position;
• momentarily energizing an electrically actuated, mechanically latched mechanism to latch the valve in the open position;
• overriding the latching device to close the valve and interrupt the flow of liquid;
• manually actuating the valve a second time to open the valve again;
• momentarily energizing the electrically actuated, mechanically latched mechanism a second time to latch the valve in the open position;
• and
• in response to a flow parameter equaling a batch preset amount, momentarily energizing the latching mechanism again for releasing the mechanically latched mechanism to allow the valve to return to a closed position and stop the flow of liquid.