US 9,208,969 B2Granted

Three terminal dispensing switch in an appliance

AssigneeGeneral Electric Company

InventorJustin Daniel Berger

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Abstract

A dispensing switch in an appliance and a method of controlling a dispensing assembly based on a plurality of outputs of the dispensing switch is provided. A dispensing assembly can dispense ice cubes and/or water from the appliance when the dispensing switch is actuated. The dispensing switch can have a plurality of outputs. For instance, the dispensing switch can provide outputs through a common terminal, a normally open terminal, and a normally closed terminal. When the dispensing switch is actuated, a controller can monitor the plurality of terminals to determine whether a change in the outputs has occurred. After the controller determines that a change in the outputs of the dispensing switch has occurred, the controller can control the dispensing assembly based on the outputs of the dispensing switch.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A method of dispensing ice cubes or water from a dispensing assembly, comprising:

receiving a first signal indicative of a first output of a first terminal of a three-terminal dispensing switch;
receiving a second signal indicative of a second output of a second terminal of the three-terminal dispensing switch;
determining a first change in both the first output and the second output of the dispensing switch such that the output of the first terminal and the output of the second terminal are indicative of a request to dispense;
controlling the dispensing assembly to dispense ice cubes or water based on the first change in both the first output and the second output of the dispensing switch;
determining a second change in one of the first output and the second output of the dispensing switch;
and
controlling the dispensing assembly to discontinue dispensing ice cubes or water based on the second change.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.