2034results about "Power supply lines" patented technology

A medical robotic system comprises a number of components that may be monitored to determine their preventive maintenance needs by recording usage-related information for the monitored components into associated non-volatile memories. When usage of the component exceeds a specified usage threshold, the system displays a warning message on its display screen to have preventive maintenance performed for the component. If the usage continues without such maintenance and exceeds a higher usage threshold, the system displays an error message on its display screen and the system transitions into an error state during which medical procedures are not allowed to be performed. The usage-related information may also be communicated to a remote computer which gathers and processes usage-related information from a number of medical robotic systems to estimate resource requirements for timely performing preventive maintenance on the medical robotic systems, and anticipated service revenues from such maintenance.

A medical device-powering wireless receiver for use with a first electromagnetic resonator coupled to a power supply. The wireless receiver includes a load configured to power an implantable medical device using electrical power, and a second electromagnetic resonator adapted to be housed within the medical device and configured to be coupled to the load, wherein the second electromagnetic resonator is configured to be wirelessly coupled to the first electromagnetic resonator to provide resonant, non-radiative wireless power to the second electromagnetic resonator from the first electromagnetic resonator, the area circumscribed by the inductive element of at least one of the electromagnetic resonators can be varied to improve performance.

A method and system allow a lighting device having light sources with multiple color temperatures to vary a color temperature of the lighting device in response to changing dimming levels. The light sources are non-incandescent light sources, such as light emitting diodes and / or gas-discharge lights. A dimmer circuit provides a dimming signal that indicates a selected dimming level. The lighting device includes a light source driver and a light source driver controller that cooperate to vary drive currents to the light sources in response to the selected dimming level. By varying the drive currents in different relative amounts, the color temperature of the lighting device changes in response to dimming level changes. In at least one embodiment, changes in the color temperature of the lighting device in response to the dimming level changes simulates the color temperature changes of an incandescent light source.

The invention relates to a conditioning circuit that measures operating points of a power supply to deduce therefrom the current-voltage characteristic thereof and to determine directly the voltage corresponding to its maximum power point, without using any kind of tracking algorithm that causes the operating point of the power unit to oscillate about the maximum power point. The maximum power point voltage VMPP is supplied to a controller which regulates a power cell by slaving it to the input voltage until the output voltage of the supply is equal to the maximum power point voltage VMPP. The invention also relates to a solar generator and an associated conditioning method. One particular application is to high-power satellites.

The present invention discloses power extractor circuit used to capture the power of a solar cell array during its less-than-optimum conditions. Under reduced incident solar radiation, the low power level supplied by the solar cell array normally would not be adequate to operating a load, but with the presence of the power extractor circuit, the low power generated by the solar panel would be accumulated to a high enough level to overcome the energy barrier of the battery or the load. The power extractor circuit preferably comprises a voltage and current booster circuit, and is designed to operated at all power levels of the solar cell array: low power level to provide the booster function during the low power period of the solar cell array, and high power level to prevent component failure during the normal operation of the solar cell array. Many power extractor circuits can also be installed in series to cover a wide range of power level of the solar cell array. The present invention power extractor circuit can also be used in other power sources to utilize the portion of power which normally would have been lost.

The present invention is a system for providing power from solar cells whereby each cell or cell array is allowed to produce its maximum available power and converted by an operatively connected DC / DC converter. Each cell or cell array has its own DC / DC converter. In one form the system for providing power from solar cells includes one or more solar generators wherein each of said solar generators has one to nine solar cells; a maximum power tracker operatively associated with each solar generator, each of said maximum power tracker includes a buck type DC / DC converter without an output inductor, each of said maximum power trackers are operatively connected in series with each other; an inductor operatively connected to the series connected maximum power trackers; and means for providing electrical power from the inductor to load means, wherein each of said maximum power trackers is controlled so that the operatively associated solar generator operates at its maximum power point to extract maximum available power.

The present invention focuses on the development of a high-performance solar photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion system. The power circuit of the invention is made of a two-stage circuit, connecting a step-up DC-DC converter and a full-bridge inverter in serial. The present invention uses an adaptive perturbation and observation method to increase tracking speed of maximum power position and at the same time reduces energy loss. In addition, the full-bridge inverter's output has to have the same phase with the utility power in order to achieve unit power factor and increase the system efficiency. The present invention uses voltage type current control full-bridge inverter to achieve the goal of merging into utility grid. The present invention provides an active Sun tracking system, by utilizing the character of changing in open circuit output voltage with Sun radiation strength to follow the Sun, and decreases the system cost and increases system effectiveness.

A modular apparatus for and method of alternating current photovoltaic power generation comprising via a photovoltaic module, generating power in the form of direct current; and converting direct current to alternating current and exporting power via one or more power conversion and transfer units attached to the module, each unit comprising a unitary housing extending a length or width of the module, which housing comprises: contact means for receiving direct current from the module; one or more direct current-to-alternating current inverters; an alternating current bus; and contact means for receiving alternating current from the one or more inverters.

A solar cell regulator in a nanosatellite includes a pulse width modulated DC-DC boost converter and a peak power tracking controller for converting solar cell power to bus power for charging of system batteries and powering loads while the controller controls the pulse width modulation operation of the converter for sensing solar cell currents and voltages along a power characteristic curve of the solar cell for peak power tracking, for determining any power data point, including a peak power point, an open circuit voltage point, and a short circuit current point along the power characteristic curve of the solar cell, and for communicating the power data to a satellite processor for monitoring the performance of the solar cell during operational use of the satellite.

The object is to reliably detect a ground fault of a solar battery. To detect a ground fault position to take an efficient measure against the ground fault, DC power input from a solar battery is converted into AC power and supplied to a system. In a system interconnection inverter (utility connected inverter) having non-insulated input and output, the input voltage of a converter circuit and / or the intermediate voltage between the converter circuit and an inverter circuit are varied to control the potential to ground at each portion of the solar battery to a value other than a value close to zero.

The AC output from a source is rectified and applied to a resistor / Zener diode circuit connection which determines the magnitude of the rectified voltage applied via a circuit to a first MOSFET device. The inverted output of the first MOSFET device is applied to the gate electrode of a second MOSFET device in a manner such that the second MOSFET device is ON even when the AC output passes through zero. The output of the second MOSFET device is connected to a resistor which determines the magnitude of the load applied to the dimmer.

A circuit for conditioning a power supply whose graph of the power supplied as a function of the voltage at the terminals of the supply features a maximum comprises a DC / DC converter with an input to which power is supplied by the power supply and an output from which power is supplied to a load. A control circuit controls the converter in accordance with a power set point applied to the converter. The set point is a rising set point when the time derivative of the converter input voltage is higher than a negative first threshold value and a falling set point when the time derivative of the converter input voltage is lower than a positive second threshold voltage. The rate of variation of the average power when the set point is a rising set point is lower than the opposite of the rate of variation of the average power when the set point is a falling set point. The conditioning circuit enables the supply to deliver power at the maximum power point and is simple to implement.

Reliability enhanced systems are shown where an short-lived electrolytic capacitor can be replaced by a much smaller, perhaps film type, longer-lived capacitor to be implemented in circuits for power factor correction, solar power conversion, or otherwise to achieve DC voltage smoothing with circuitry that has solar photovoltaic source (1) a DC photovoltaic input (2) internal to a device (3) and uses an enhanced DC-DC power converter (4) to provide a smoothed DC output (6) with capacitor substitution circuitry (14) that may include interim signal circuitry (28) that creates a large voltage variation for a replaced capacitor (16). Switchmode designs may include first and second switch elements (17) and (18) and an alternative path controller (21) that operates a boost controller (22) and a buck controller (23) perhaps with a switch duty cycle controller (32).

A maximum power point tracking method, applied to a tracking device, employs a DC / DC converter connecting with a solar cell array, and including a controller actuating the DC / DC converter to perform an active resistance characteristic; a maximum power point tracking circuit adjusting the active resistance of the DC / DC converter; monitoring a change of an output power of the solar cell array in determining a direction for adjusting the active resistance of the DC / DC converter; and the maximum power point tracking circuit repeatedly adjusting the active resistance of the DC / DC converter. If the change of the output power of the solar cell array is positive, the active resistance of the DC / DC converter is adjusted in the same direction; but, conversely, if the change of the output power of the solar cell array is negative, the active resistance of the DC / DC converter is adjusted in an opposite direction.

A control circuit for a switching DC / DC Converter comprising: an input for an indicator signal indicative of an output current level from said converter; a peak detector for detecting and storing a maximum value of said indicator signal; a comparator element for comparing an instantaneous value of said indicator signal with said stored maximum value, and for generating a switching signal when said instantaneous value becomes less than a predetermined fraction of said stored value; reinitializer means for reinitializing said peak detector in response to said switching signal; and means for generating a control signal that switches between a state in which it increases over time and a state in which it decreases over time in response to said switching signal. A control module for photovoltaic generator, the module including such a control circuit, and a photovoltaic generator system comprising a plurality of such modules, each controlling a respective photovoltaic generator.

The invention relates to a conditioning circuit that measures operating points of a power supply to deduce therefrom the current-voltage characteristic thereof and to determine directly the voltage corresponding to its maximum power point, without using any kind of tracking algorithm that causes the operating point of the power unit to oscillate about the maximum power point. The maximum power point voltage VMPP is supplied to a controller which regulates a power cell by slaving it to the input voltage until the output voltage of the supply is equal to the maximum power point voltage VMPP. The invention also relates to a solar generator and an associated conditioning method. One particular application is to high-power satellites.

An object of the present invention is to provide a photovoltaic power generation system which is capable of achieving system linkage of a plurality of solar cell strings having different output voltages to a commercial electric power system with ease, and which enables efficient use of the maximum output electric power. It is a photovoltaic power generation system characterized by disposing voltage regulating means that regulates a DC voltage outputted from non-standard solar cell string between a standard solar cell string and electric power converting means, and regulating an output voltage of the non-standard solar cell string to the side of an output voltage of the standard solar cell string by the use of the voltage regulating means.

An analog control circuit is coupled to an apparatus having a variable characteristic over an operating range. A sensing circuit is coupled to the apparatus and the control circuit during the range of operation of the apparatus and is operative to sense the variable characteristic. The operating parameter of the apparatus is controlled to be set at a level corresponding to a prescribed criterion, which may be a maximum or minimum, of the characteristic sensed over the range of operation.

Described herein is a system for generating electric power, comprising: an electric-power source (1) having a preferential point of operation; a double-stage inverter (3A, 3B), which transfers the energy from said source to an external a.c.-voltage electrical network (9); a block (5) for identification of the preferential point of operation, which supplies a reference signal according to the conditions of operation of the electric-power source and to the preferential point of operation of said source; a corrector block (10), provided for setting the parameter for control of the boost converter (3A) of the double-stage inverter (3A, 3B) as a function of the reference signal and of a signal of actual operation of said electric-power source, and for maintaining the source in the proximity of the preferential point of operation.

A method and apparatus for converting Direct Current (DC) to Alternating Current (AC). The method comprises performing system analysis on at least one of a DC current, DC voltage, or an AC voltage; utilizing the system analysis for selecting at least one conversion parameter; and converting DC to AC utilizing the at least one conversion parameter.

A photovoltaic (PV) control system generates a power output rate control signal based on a monitored rate of change of collective power output generated via a plurality of PV subsystems and a desired collective output power change rate for the plurality of PV subsystems and communicates the power output rate control signal to the plurality of PV subsystems to control a rate of change of one or more operating parameters of individual PV subsystems in order to control a rate of change of collective output power of the plurality of solar PV subsystems.

An AC controller which provides programmable switching of AC power flow, together with producing a source of DC power for operating the AC controller. The AC controller is connected in series with only one side of the AC power source and the AC load. The AC controller utilizes a thyristor for AC power control switching. During the operation, the AC controller steals a small portion of each half-cycle of the AC power to provide DC power to the AC controller. The AC controller enables the flow of AC current by providing a gate current pulse at any predetermined time during the half cycle. Once the thyristor is ON, the AC current flows through the thyristor until the AC cycle is at or near zero. To provide an OFF state, the AC controller does not provide a gate current pulse. The AC controller uses an microcontroller for the programmable capability. The AC controller can be programmed to provide a flashing light function, a time delay off mode, an automatic fade mode, a dimming function, a burglar deterrent function, and a time delay dim function. With a three-position switch which can replace existing types of wall switches, three modes of operation are achieved: ON, OFF, and MODE. The mode position initiates operation of the special function of the controller.

A low voltage ceiling or wall mounted light fixture for residential and commercial lighting includes a plurality of high lumen white LED lights incorporated within the fixtures, a light color diffusion panel and a household current to low voltage DC converter within the fixture to convert the AC current to low voltage DC current, reducing the power required for illumination without replacement of the LED lights.

An apparatus and method for generating slow rise-time, high voltage electrical pulses to a load, preferably using an existing transformer / rectifier set or power supply to charge an inversion or high voltage switching circuit to produce the pulsed voltage. An energy recovery circuit (100, 102) is used to return unused energy from the load (24) back to the means for producing pulsed voltage (110, 130). A load matching circuit (120) uses a blocking diode and a capacitor for charging the load. An additional blocking diode (32) inhibits load voltage discharge back through the slow pulse generating circuit. A transformer (20) can be used to step-up voltage from the inversion circuit, or high voltage switching circuit, to the load. One or more magnetic switch stages are used to transfer energy from the inversion circuit, or high voltage switching circuit, to the load matching circuit. A fire-on voltage controller (66) triggers the inversion or high voltage switching circuit.

Methods and apparatus for power supply load dump compensation according to various aspects of the present invention may operate in conjunction with a power stage system, such as a power stage system comprising a bootstrapped driver circuit and a power stage responsive to the driver circuit. The power stage system may further include a load dump compensation circuit connected to the driver circuit, wherein the load dump compensation circuit is configured to remove a bias current generated by the bootstrapped driver circuit. Various aspects of the present invention may be implemented in conjunction with any appropriate power supply, such as a switching regulator, for example a buck converter.