System and method for providing information to and/or obtaining information from a component of an electrical distribution system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9331746-B2
Application number	US-201213719477-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2012
Priority date	Dec 19, 2012
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

An electrical distribution system wherein information is communicated to and/or from an electrical component of the electrical distribution system using near-field communications. The information may be communicated to and/or from the electrical component using an electronic device such as a dedicated near-field device, a smartphone or a configuration card device. Also, a method of obtaining information from an electrical component of an electrical distribution system, such as a circuit interrupter, includes generating a machine readable element that comprises first information in encoded form, the first information relating to the operation and/or status of the circuit interrupter, displaying the machine readable element on the circuit interrupter, capturing an image of the machine readable element, obtaining the first information based on the image, and displaying second information based on the obtained first information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrical distribution system, comprising:
a circuit interrupter having a first near-field communications chip coupled to a first near-field communications coupling element; and
a configuration card device having a second near-field communications chip coupled to a second near-field communications coupling element and a non-volatile memory, wherein the configuration card device comprises a card having a housing and the second near-field communications chip and the non-volatile memory embedded in the housing, wherein the configuration card device is structured to transmit first information to the first near-field communications chip over a near-field communications interface established between the first near-field communications coupling element and the second near-field communications coupling element, wherein the first information comprises a set of predetermined functional trip settings for the circuit interrupter preprogrammed and stored in the non-volatile memory, the set of predetermined functional trip settings indicating a particular configuration for configuring the circuit interrupter, and wherein the configuration card device has the set of predetermined functional trip settings printed on the housing.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the configuration card device includes a power supply selectively connectable to the second near-field communications chip, wherein the configuration card device is structured to provide power to the first near-field communications chip over the near-field communications interface such that the first information may be transmitted to the first near-field communications chip over the near-field communications interface when the electrical component does not have auxiliary power.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory is part of the second near-field communications chip.

4. A method of transferring information in an electrical distribution system having a circuit interrupter having a first near-field communications chip coupled to a first near-field communications coupling element and a configuration card device having a second near-field communications chip coupled to a second near-field communications coupling element and a non-volatile memory, and wherein the configuration card device comprises a card having a housing and the second near-field communications chip and the non-volatile memory embedded in the housing, comprising:
establishing a near-field communications interface between the first near-field communications coupling element and the second near-field communications coupling element; and
transmitting first information to the first near-field communications chip over the near-field communications interface, wherein the first information comprises a set of predetermined functional trip settings for the circuit interrupter preprogrammed and stored in the non-volatile memory, the set of predetermined functional trip settings indicating a particular configuration for configuring the circuit interrupter, and wherein the configuration card device has the set of predetermined functional trip settings printed on the housing.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the configuration card device includes a power supply selectively connectable to the second near-field communications chip, wherein the method includes providing power to the first near-field communications chip over the near-field communications interface such that the first information may be transmitted to the first near-field communications chip over the near-field communications interface when the electrical component does not have auxiliary power.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the non-volatile memory is part of the second near-field communications chip.

7. A method of configuring an electrical component having a first near-field communications chip coupled to a first near-field communications coupling element:
providing a configuration card device having a second near-field communications chip coupled to a second near-field communications coupling element and a non-volatile memory, the configuration card device being preprogrammed with and storing configuration information for the electrical component in the non-volatile memory, the configuration information being a set of predetermined functional trip settings, wherein the configuration card device comprises a card having a housing and the second near-field communications chip and the non-volatile memory embedded in the housing, and wherein the configuration card device has the set of predetermined functional trip settings printed on the housing;
establishing a near-field communications interface between the first near-field communications coupling element and the second near-field communications coupling element;
transmitting the configuration information from the configuration card device to the first near-field communications chip over the near-field communications interface; and
configuring the electrical component based on the configuration information.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising providing a number of additional configuration card devices each storing additional configuration information for the electrical component and having the additional configuration information printed thereon, and selecting the configuration card device from a group consisting of the configuration card device and each of the additional configuration card devices.

9. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the configuration card device includes a power supply selectively connectable to the second near-field communications chip, wherein the method includes providing power to the first near-field communications chip over the near-field communications interface such that the transmitting step is performed when the electrical component does not have auxiliary power.

10. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the electrical component is a circuit interrupter, and wherein the configuration information comprises functional trip settings for the circuit interrupter.

11. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the non-volatile memory is part of the second near-field communications chip.

Assignees

• Eaton Corp

Inventors

• Walsh Patrick T
• Mort Deborah K
• Rohn David R

Classifications

• H04B5/26

  using coils · CPC title

• H01H9/167 Primary

  Circuits for remote indication · CPC title

• H04B5/0031 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01H2300/032

  using RFID technology in switching devices · CPC title

• G06K7/10544

  by scanning of the records by radiation in the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum · CPC title