Trip indication using adjacent circuit breakers

A load center comprising:

• a plurality of electronic circuit breakers, each breaker being placed in alignment with an adjacent breaker of the plurality of breakers and each breaker having:
• a data transceiver having a data input side for receiving a neighboring Notice of Trip Data signal and a data output side for outputting a self-Notice of Trip Data signal;
• a visible light emitter connected to the data transceiver to output the received neighboring Notice of Trip Data signal as a trip indication comprising visible light;
• electronics for encoding and reporting a Notice of Trip Data signal to the data transceiver;
• visible light indicator windows on a top wall of the breaker case;
• a shutter for the visible light indicator windows, the shutter capable of blocking the visible light indicator windows when the trip indication comprising visible light is output from inside the breaker, and unblocking the visible light indicator windows when the breaker is tripped;
• left and right side indicator light tubes, each light tube being capable of receiving a trip indication comprising visible light from a neighboring breaker;
• left and right side light ports in the case, each light port being a light passage through the breaker case leading to a respective indicator light tube,
• left and right side data lines for transmitting the Notice of Trip Data signal from the transceiver;
• and
• each data line being connected to the data transceiver;
• and
• having at least two of the circuit breakers comprising first and second circuit breakers, respectively, placed side by side with aligned optical ports, wherein the transceiver of the first circuit breaker receives the neighboring Notice of Trip Data signal from the second circuit breaker on one of the data lines and transmits the neighboring Notice of Trip Data signal via visible LEDs through the indicator light tube(s) and the aligned optical ports.

An electronic circuit breaker with a case, separable electrical contacts, and electronic sensing/data apparatus, having:

• an optical data transceiver having a data input side for receiving a neighboring Notice of Trip Data signal and a data output side for outputting a self-Notice of Trip Data signal;
• a visible light LED connected to the data transceiver to output the received neighboring Notice of Trip Data signal as a trip indication comprising visible light;
• electronics for encoding and reporting the self-Notice of Trip Data signal to the data transceiver;
• visible light indicator windows on a top wall of the breaker case;
• a shutter for the visible light indicator windows, the shutter capable of blocking the visible light indicator windows when the trip indication comprising visible light is output from inside the breaker, and unblocking the visible light indicator windows when the breaker is tripped;
• left and right side bidirectional indicator light tubes, each bidirectional light tube being capable of receiving and displaying a trip indication comprising visible light from a neighboring breaker when the shutter is open and for transmitting and not displaying the trip indication comprising the visible light from inside the breaker when the shutter is closed;
• left and right side light ports in the case, each light port being a light passage through the breaker case leading to the respective indicator light tubes,
• left and right side data lines for receiving the neighboring Notice of Trip Data signal indicating a neighboring breaker's trip and for transmitting the self-Notice of Trip Data signal indicating the breaker's own trip data to a neighboring breaker;
• and
• each bidirectional data line being connected to the data transceiver.