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US 6,445,135 B1Granted
Electric-discharge lamp control apparatus and electric-discharge lamp control method
AssigneeMitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHidehiko Kinoshita
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flickering number in an electric-discharge lamp 7 is counted in a flickering number counting unit 23a, a flickering number in an electric-discharge lamp 8 is counted in a flickering number counting unit 23b, and the lighting of the electric-discharge lamp 7 or 8 is inhibited by a lamp-lighting inhibiting unit 24a or 24b in cases where the flickering number in the electric-discharge lamp 7 or 8 exceeds a regular number.
Claims7
An electric-discharge lamp control apparatus, comprising:
- lamp-lighting control means for monitoring a voltage applied to a stabilizer of an electric-discharge lamp, outputting a light-out instruction to turn off the electric-discharge lamp when the voltage is out of an allowed voltage range and outputting a re-lighting instruction to again turn on the electric-discharge lamp when the voltage is returned within the allowed voltage range;
- counting means for monitoring a change of the instruction output from the lamp-lighting control means and for counting a number of the changes of the instruction by incrementing the number when the instruction changes from at least one of (a) the light-out instruction to the re-lighting instruction, and (b) the re-lighting instruction to the light-out instruction;
- and
- lamp-lighting inhibiting means for inhibiting the lighting of the electric-discharge lamp when the number counted by the counting means exceeds a predetermined number.
1 more element
An electric-discharge lamp control method, comprising the steps of:
- monitoring a voltage applied to a stabilizer of an electric-discharge lamp;
- outputting a light-out instruction to turn off the electric-discharge lamp when the voltage is out of an allowed voltage range and a re-lighting instruction to again turn on the electric-discharge lamp when the voltage is returned within the allowed voltage range;
- turning off the electric-discharge lamp when the light-out instruction is output in the outputting step;
- turning on the electric-discharge lamp when the re-lighting instruction is output the outputting step;
- monitoring a change of the instruction output in the outputting step;
- counting a number of the changes of the instruction by incrementing the number when the instruction changes from at least one of (a) the light-out instruction to the re-lighting instruction, and (b) the re-lighting instruction to the light-out instruction;
- and
- inhibiting the lighting of the electric-discharge lamp when the number counted in the counting step exceeds a predetermined number.
5 more elements
An electric-discharge lamp control apparatus, comprising:
- a lamp-lighting control unit which monitors a voltage applied to a stabilizer of an electric discharge lamp, outputs a light-out instruction to turn off the electric-discharge lap when the voltage is out of an allowed voltage range and outputs a re-lighting instruction to again turn on the electric-discharge lamp when the voltage is returned within the allowed voltage range;
- a number counting unit which monitors a change of the instruction output from the lamp-lighting control unit and counts a number of the changes of the instruction by incrementing the number when the instruction changes from at least one of (a) the light-out instruction to the re-lighting instruction, and (b) the re-lighting instruction to the light-out instruction;
- and
- a lamp-lighting inhibiting unit which inhibits the lighting of the electric-discharge lamp when the number counted by the counting unit exceeds a predetermined number.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.