Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8159196 | Apparatus and method of power control The present disclosure is related to a power control apparatus and a method for controlling power, more specifically to a power control apparatus that controls the risk of overcurrent in a power generator when the voltage in the power grid is low. In accordance with... | 04/17/2012 |
| 7825640 | Connecting a prime mover driven alternator to a circuit with an existing alternating current Apparatus and method are provided, for connecting prime mover driven alternator to circuit that has an existing alternating current. Alternator is connected to circuit when minimum current flows to or from alternator. The actual current is measured by controller fol... | 11/02/2010 |
| 7560906 | Electrical power generation system An electrical power generation system and method for generating electrical power are provided. The electrical power generation system utilizes a master controller for controlling operation of devices coupled to an AC electrical grid and DC electrical grid based on p... | 07/14/2009 |
| 7405541 | Control apparatus for automotive alternator having capability of reliably detecting disconnection between alternator and battery According to the present invention, there is provided a control apparatus for an automotive alternator which includes a switch, a target voltage setter, a voltage regulator, and a disconnection detector. The switch is configured to be selectively turned on and off s... | 07/29/2008 |
| 7365518 | Ion engine power supply A power supply for an ion engine comprises a multiphase alternator and a power converter comprising a voltage multiplier coupled to each phase of the alternator. Each voltage multiplier comprises one or more staged voltage doublers. The alternator phases may be coup... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7363175 | Query based electronic battery tester An electronic battery tester for testing a storage battery provides a test output indicative of a condition of the battery. Electronic measurement circuitry provides a measurement output related to a condition of the battery. The battery condition is determined base... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7348764 | Coil switching of an electric generator An electric generator includes multiple coil sections and switches connected to the multiple coil sections for selectively interconnecting the coil sections in series, or in parallel, or in a series-parallel configuration across first and second power terminals for ... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7340879 | Locally powered water distillation system A system for distributed utilities including electrical power and water. A generation device is provided for converting an available resource to a desired utility; the resource may be water, in which case the generator is a purifier for purifying untreated water, or... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7335998 | Device for supplying voltage to the loads of an onboard electrical system of a motor vehicle, using a plurality of generators A device for supplying voltage to the loads of an onboard electrical system of a motor vehicle includes a first generator, a regulator allocated to the first generator, a second generator, a regulator allocated to the second generator, and a control apparatus. The c... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7319307 | Power balancing of multiple synchronized generators Power balancing techniques for a synchronous power generation system are provided. One exemplary method for balancing power in a synchronous generator system includes determining an output power characteristic of a synchronous generator driven by a prime mover and c... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7319304 | Shunt connection to a PCB of an energy management system employed in an automotive vehicle A method of coupling a shunt to a printed circuit board (PCB) of an energy management system is provided. The method includes coupling flexible electrical connectors to the shunt and soldering the flexible electrical connectors to connection points on the PCB of the... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7304455 | Power generation controller The power generation controller includes a control command receiving section receiving a control command transmitted from an external control unit for controlling an internal combustion engine, a control command holding section holding the control command received b... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7295936 | Electronic battery tester with relative test output An electronic battery tester for testing a storage battery determines a condition of the battery. The condition is a relative condition and is a function of a dynamic parameter of the battery and an empirical input variable. ... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7292008 | Electric generation control apparatus for vehicle alternator An electric generation control apparatus for a vehicle alternator receives an electric generation control signal transferred from an ECU placed apart from the control apparatus through a data transfer line. The control apparatus has a voltage comparator, a communica... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7292006 | Controlled DC power supply for a human powered vehicle A DC power supply apparatus used with a power storage element comprises a rectifier circuit that converts AC current from an alternating current generator into a DC current; an input current adjusting circuit that receives DC current from the rectifier circuit to ad... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7289920 | Method and apparatus for capture of grid characteristics corresponding to fluctuation events The techniques described herein allow a wind turbine generator system to automatically capture voltage waveform data corresponding to a voltage disturbance event. Data corresponding to a period preceding the voltage disturbance event, during the event and a period o... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7285937 | Electric generation control apparatus for vehicle alternator An electric generation control apparatus for a vehicle alternator receives an electric generation control signal transferred from an ECU placed apart from the control apparatus through a data transfer line. The control apparatus has a voltage comparator, a communica... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7256508 | Wind farm The invention relates to a wind-driven power-plant comprising a rotor (100) which is fitted with at least one rotor blade and which is connected directly or indirectly to a generator for power generation, further including an electrical assembly made up of di... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7245036 | Inverter controlled generator set An inverter controlled generator set including: a power supply unit that uses a generator driven by an engine as a power supply to output a DC voltage; an inverter device that converts the output voltage of the power supply unit into an AC voltage; and a rotational ... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7246015 | Alternator tester An alternator tester is provided for testing an alternator of a vehicle while the alternator is coupled to the vehicle. A sensor is configured to couple to the vehicle and sense a signal related to operation of the alternator. A memory contains data related to opera... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7235891 | Power system having generator driven by engine An apparatus for controlling the operation of power conditioners (10) for supplying the generated power to an external power system such as a commercial power system, in which power conditioners (10) are interconnected to an external power system, the ... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7235892 | Load-based quadratic compensator gain adjustment One embodiment includes an internal combustion engine, a sensor signal representative of an observed engine speed, and a controller. This controller is responsive to the sensor signal to determine a control input representative of a difference between the observed e... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7233843 | Real-time performance monitoring and management system A real-time performance monitoring system for monitoring an electric power grid. The electric power grid has a plurality of grid portions, each grid portion corresponding to one of a plurality of control areas. The real-time performance monitoring system includes a ... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7230345 | Method for exercising a stand-by electrical generator A method is provided for exercising an engine-driven, electrical generator. The generator has a first operation mode wherein the generator generates a predetermined output voltage at a predetermined frequency with the engine running a predetermined operating speed a... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7227340 | Alternator rectifier with coil-sensor controlled MOSFETs A switching circuit for an electric machine is provided. The switching circuit includes switches for energizing the phase windings of the machine and sensors for driving the state of the switches. The switches are voltage-controlled devices and the sensors are coils... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7224079 | Driving/electric-power generating system for vehicle An AC generator comprises a rotor and a stator having a three-phase winding. A three-phase inverter is connected to the three-phase winding. Here, the three-phase winding comprises at least two independent three-phase windings. Switching elements for respective phas... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7224146 | Dual voltage electrical system A dual voltage supply system supplies high and low voltage electrical power to separate high and low voltage loads. The system includes an AC alternator and first and second rectifier circuits, each connected to the alternator and a corresponding high and low voltag... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7208914 | Apparatus and method for predicting the remaining discharge time of a battery A method and apparatus for predicting the remaining discharge time of a battery are provided. The method includes measuring a dynamic parameter of the battery, obtaining a discharge current of the battery, measuring a voltage of the battery and obtaining a temperatu... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7202639 | Apparatus for determining wear in the frictional components of an alternator An apparatus for determining wear in the frictional components of an alternator. Such an apparatus may comprise circuitry configured to count voltage peaks generated by the automotive alternator; circuitry configured to compare the counted voltage peaks against a pr... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7202637 | Distributed control method The present invention provides an improved control method and apparatus allowing units arranged at different spaced apart locations to be controlled without the need for a high bandwidth link between the units and the controller. This allows a single controller to c... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7199559 | Electric power generating system for vehicle An electric power generating system for a vehicle includes a generator having a field coil, a voltage regulator, a temperature sensor for sensing temperature of the voltage regulator, a field current restricting circuit that directly restricts field current if tempe... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7180272 | Malfunction detecting apparatus for on-vehicle charging system An apparatus is provided for detecting a malfunction in an on-vehicle charging system provided with a generator driven by an engine and a battery connected with the generator via a charging line. The apparatus comprises a first control unit controlling a generated c... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7176659 | Vehicle electrical power supply system for supplying power to a high power load The present invention provides an electrical power supply system for an automotive vehicle with high reliability and small size in which an adequate power is supplied to both a high power load like a blower motor and a conventional load like a battery by using a con... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7176658 | Controller for permanent magnet alternator The invention is a control system that, among other things, controls a permanent magnet alternator and provides relatively accurate voltage regulation. The control system may include one or more of the following: (1) a rectification system to rectify and regulate th... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7161329 | Generator controlling system The operation of a generator and the loads placed on the generator are controlled in response to measuring the loads and generator operating parameters and controllably altering the operating conditions in response to comparison of the measurements to respective set... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7154276 | Method and apparatus for measuring a parameter of a vehicle electrical system An apparatus for measuring electrical parameters for an electrical system measures a first and second parameters of the electrical system between connections to the electrical system. A processor determines a third electrical parameter of the electrical system as a ... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7133852 | Electricity generation equipment management system A generator unit is installed locally to supply power to an electricity consumer. A management center monitors operation status of the generator unit and monitors the amount of electricity supplied to the electricity consumer by the generator unit. A service company... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7129592 | Portable, human-powered electrical energy source A human-powered, electrical generation system for intermittently receiving mechanical energy from a human and storing that mechanical energy. The stored mechanical energy is used to turn a generator that produces electrical power that is stored in a rechargeable bat... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7126341 | Automotive vehicle electrical system diagnostic device An automotive vehicle electrical system diagnostic apparatus includes first and second electrical connections configured to electrically couple to an electrical system of an automotive vehicle which includes a battery. Digital samples are obtained during operation o... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7119686 | Theft prevention device for automotive vehicle service centers An apparatus and method for preventing theft in automotive vehicle service centers. A transmitter transmits a wireless security signal which defines a perimeter. At least one portable tool for use in automotive vehicle service centers includes a receiver configured ... | 10/10/2006 |
