Emergency system with brown-out detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9711996-B2
Application number	US-201614991128-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 8, 2016
Priority date	Jan 9, 2015
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

An emergency system including an auxiliary power supply, a charging circuit, a brown-out circuit, and a controller unit. The auxiliary power supply connected to a device. The charging circuit having an input voltage, provided by a mains power supply, and an output, configured to provide power to the auxiliary power supply. The brown-out circuit operably connected to the charging circuit and configured to sample the input voltage. The control unit receiving the sampled input voltage and activating the device when a brown-out condition is detected, the detection based on the sampled input voltage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An emergency system comprising:
an auxiliary power supply connected to a device;
a charging circuit including a primary side receiving an input voltage provided by a mains power supply, the charging circuit further including a secondary side having an output configured to provide power to the auxiliary power supply;
a brown-out circuit operably connected to the secondary side of the charging circuit and configured to sample the input voltage; and
a control unit receiving the sampled input voltage and activating the device when a brown-out condition is detected, the detection based on the sampled input voltage.

2. The emergency system of claim 1 , wherein the charging circuit further includes a flyback transformer isolating the primary side and the secondary side from each other.

3. The emergency system of claim 1 , wherein the brown-out circuit scales the input voltage to a proportional DC voltage.

4. The emergency system of claim 1 , wherein the brown-out circuit includes a level-shifter circuit and a peak-detector circuit.

5. The emergency system of claim 4 , wherein the peak-detector circuit utilizes a dual operational amplifier connected to the output of the level-shifter circuit.

6. The emergency system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit establishes a first brown-out level if the input voltage is below a first value and a establishes a brown-out level if the input voltage is above a second value.

7. The emergency system of claim 6 , wherein the first brown-out level is associated with a 120V supply and the second brown-out level is associated with a 277V supply.

8. The emergency system of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary power supply includes a battery and the device includes a lamp.

9. An emergency system comprising:
a housing containing a lamp and a driver supplying power to the lamp;
a battery selectively supplying power to the driver;
a charging circuit including a primary side receiving an input voltage from a mains power supply, the charging circuit further including a secondary side having an output to provide power to the battery;
a brown-out circuit operably connected to the charging circuit to sample the input voltage; and
a control unit receiving the sampled input voltage and activating the lamp when a brown-out condition is detected, the detection based on the sampled input voltage.

10. The emergency system of claim 9 , wherein the charging circuit includes a flyback transformer isolating the primary side and the secondary side from each other.

11. The emergency system of claim 9 , further comprising a brown-out threshold and a brown-in threshold.

12. The emergency system of claim 11 , wherein the control unit activates the lamp when the input voltage is at or below the brown-out threshold and deactivates the lamp when the input voltage is at or above the brown-in threshold.

13. The emergency system of claim 11 , further comprising a brown-out state and a normal state, and wherein the system switches from a normal state to a brown-out state when the input voltage is below the brown-out threshold and the system switches from the brown-out state to the normal state when the input voltage is at or above the brown-in threshold.

14. A method of operating an emergency system comprising:
receiving an AC input voltage from a charging circuit, the charging circuit including a primary side receiving the AC input voltage and a secondary side having an output configured to provide power to an auxiliary power supply;
selecting between a first brown-out threshold and a second brown-out threshold based on the input voltage; and
initiating a brown-out condition if the input voltage is below the selected brown-out threshold.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
associating a first brown-in threshold with the first brown-out threshold; and
associating a second brown-in threshold with the second brown-out threshold.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the second brown-out threshold is selected if the voltage is higher than the second brown-in threshold.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second brown-out threshold is maintained until a reset event occurs.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first brown-out threshold is approximately 77% of 120V and the first brown-in threshold is approximately 83% of 120V, and the second brown-out threshold is approximately 77% of 277V and the second brown-in threshold is approximately 83% of 120V.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first brown-out threshold is associated with 120 V and the second brown-out threshold is associated with 277 V.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein the charging circuit further includes a flyback transformer isolating the primary side and the secondary side from each other.

Assignees

• Hubbell Inc

Inventors

• Han Lei
• Lane John

Classifications

• H05B47/10

  Controlling the light source · CPC title

• H02J9/061 Primary

  for DC powered loads · CPC title

• H05B37/0209

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02J9/062 Primary

  for AC powered loads · CPC title

• H05B45/3725

  Switched mode power supply [SMPS] · CPC title