Circuit arrangement for operating at least one relay

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10896794-B2
Application number	US-201815893332-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2018
Priority date	Feb 10, 2017
Publication date	Jan 19, 2021
Grant date	Jan 19, 2021

Abstract

A circuit arrangement comprises: an electronic switch; at least one relay including a relay coil; a shunt resistor; a voltage supply device to supply an operating voltage to the at least one relay, wherein the electronic switch, the relay coil of the at least one relay, and the shunt resistor are electrically connected in series to one another between the operating voltage and ground; a current regulator to drive the electronic switch with a pulse width modulation to adjust a control current that flows through the relay coil; at least one sensor to generate sensor data indicative of shocks, impacts or vibrations acting on the at least one relay; and an evaluating unit to evaluate the sensor data, wherein the current regulator is configured to adjust the control current based on the sensor data evaluated by the evaluating unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A circuit arrangement comprising:
an electronic switch;
at least one relay including a relay coil;
a shunt resistor;
a voltage supply device to supply an operating voltage to the at least one relay, wherein the electronic switch, the relay coil of the at least one relay, and the shunt resistor are electrically connected in series to one another between the operating voltage and ground;
a current regulator to drive the electronic switch with a pulse width modulation to adjust a control current that flows through the relay coil;
at least one acceleration sensor to detect an acceleration acting on the at least one relay in at least one spatial direction and to generate sensor data indicative of shocks, impacts or vibrations acting on the at least one relay; and
an evaluating unit to evaluate the sensor data to determine a jerk (j) prevailing in a region of the at least one relay by differentiating measured acceleration values over time, wherein the current regulator is configured to adjust the control current based on the sensor data evaluated by the evaluating unit.

2. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the acceleration sensor is configured to detect the acceleration acting on the at least one relay in at least two spatial directions.

3. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the acceleration sensor is configured to detect the acceleration acting on the at least one relay in three spatial directions.

4. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the acceleration sensor includes nine axes and comprises a gyroscope and a magnetometer.

5. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the acceleration sensor has a scan rate of at least 1 kHz.

6. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the acceleration sensor has a scan rate of at least 3 kHz.

7. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the acceleration sensor has a scan rate of at least 5 kHz.

8. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the current regulator is configured to increase the control current flowing through the relay coil in response to j≥j krit , where j krit is a critical threshold value of the jerk.

9. The circuit arrangement of claim 8 , wherein the current regulator is configured to decrementally decrease the control current flowing through the relay coil in response to j<j krit .

10. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the electronic switch is a bipolar transistor.

11. The circuit arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the relay coil has a coil voltage that is less than half of the operating voltage provided by the voltage supply device.

Assignees

• Pilz Gmbh & Co Kg

Inventors

• Pullmann Jürgen
• Neuschwander Bernd
• Scharpf Frieder

Classifications

• H01H47/04 Primary

  for holding armature in attracted position, e.g. when initial energising circuit is interrupted; for maintaining armature in attracted position, e.g. with reduced energising current {(with switching regulator H01H47/325)} · CPC title

• H01H47/325

  by switching regulator · CPC title

• H01H47/002

  Monitoring or fail-safe circuits · CPC title

• G01P15/14

  by making use of gyroscopes (gyroscopes per se G01C19/00) · CPC title

• G01P15/18

  in two or more dimensions · CPC title