Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8188617 | Current balancing apparatus, current balancing method, and power supply apparatus A current balancing apparatus includes a first transformer having a first primary winding and a first secondary winding electromagnetically coupled with the first primary winding, the first primary winding having a first end connected to a first load that passes a f... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8174148 | Controllable electrical outlet and a method of operation thereof Controllable electrical outlets and systems and methods for controlling and disabling the electrical outlets. A controllable electrical outlet includes a current sensor, an electrical switch, and a microcontroller. When an electrical load is plugged into the electri... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8120204 | Load sharing device and parallel power supply therewith A load sharing device for load balancing among a plurality of power supply modules connected in parallel to a single load includes a common voltage control signal output unit and output voltage control units corresponding to the power supply modules, respectively. T... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8120203 | Intelligent management of current sharing group A distributed power management system may include a communication bus and a plurality of POL (point-of-load) regulators coupled to the communication bus and configured in a current sharing arrangement in which each POL regulator of the plurality of POL regulators ha... | 02/21/2012 |
| 7948114 | Apparatus and method for providing a power switch array with adjustable current rating power switches An apparatus and method are disclosed for providing a power switch array with adjustable current rating power switches. A plurality of current rating power switches is provided that connects a power supply unit to a plurality of device ports. A power switch array co... | 05/24/2011 |
| 7948113 | Power supply management system A power supply management system includes means for detecting required electric power supply from electric loads installed in the motor vehicle, means for determining a distribution of amounts of the electric power to be distributed to the electric loads from an ele... | 05/24/2011 |
| 7915758 | Printed circuit board and method for determining an optimization point for sensing a voltage regulator module on a printed circuit board A print circuit board (PCB) includes a voltage regulator module (VRM), a plurality of loads, and a sense location for augmenting the voltage margin of the loads. The VRM is configured for charging the loads. Each load has a weight. The voltage value of the sense loc... | 03/29/2011 |
| 7768151 | Device for distributing power between cathodes of a multipolar electrode, in particular of an implant A device (ES) for distributing power between n cathodes (Ki) of at least one multipolar stimulating electrode (EM) comprises at least one anode (A), wherein n is equal to or greater than two. Said device (ES) comprises a reconfigurable current mirror (MC) which is p... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7732941 | Multi-module current sharing scheme A circuit provides multi-module current sharing for circuit modules. The circuit includes an error amplifier having a negative and a positive input and an output. The positive input of the error amplifier is connected to a reference voltage. A buffered differential ... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7622821 | Power distribution system and load management protocol therefor An Auxiliary Power System includes an APU controller and an aircraft load controller which include an APU load capacity algorithm which provides an uncomplicated and robust method of APU load control. The APU load capacity algorithm defines three load zones: a conti... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7589435 | Reporting power requirements of a powered device In one embodiment, a powered device is configured to determine module population and the appropriate power requirements for installed modules. The power requirements can be communicated to the power sourcing equipment for the powered device. Optionally, the powered ... | 09/15/2009 |
| 7550870 | Method and apparatus for remote power management and monitoring Methods and/or systems for power monitoring and/or power cycling management provide a variety of different remote interfacing and provide individual current monitoring for each output in a power supply strip. In various implementations, the invention can be incorpor... | 06/23/2009 |
| 7545054 | DC linear regulator single controller with plural loads A DC-DC converter control circuit can maintain a relationship of voltages established among the output voltages even when the output voltages of DC-DC converters are independently controlled. A first reference voltage with which a high-potential back-gate voltage is... | 06/09/2009 |
| 7518263 | Time delay control scheme for a power supply with multiple outputs A time delay synchronous control scheme for a power supply, which has multiple outputs and tight output regulations, is provided. The switching mode power supply includes (1) a front-end DC/DC converter with current mode output, which can be a LLC Series Resonant co... | 04/14/2009 |
| 7514813 | Electric power supply system A power supply system for supplying power to a load is provided. The system comprises power-line carriers for supplying power to the load, and a plurality of power supply units the outputs of which are parallelly connected to power-line carriers. Each of the power s... | 04/07/2009 |
| 7368832 | Circuit and fault tolerant assembly including such circuit A circuit is provided that provides for the same power characteristics to an assembly of electrical resistive elements wired in parallel as to the assembly as wired in series. An input power source provides electrical resistive power to a plurality of load elements,... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7365449 | Aircraft cabin equipped with means for controlling the power consumed by seat actuators An aircraft cabin including at least two seats, which seat each include at least two elements which can be moved relative to each other and at least one actuator for the relative displacement of these movable elements, and at least one central power control unit in ... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7345378 | Power supply circuit containing multiple DC—DC converters having programmable output current capabilities A power supply circuit contains a plurality of DC-DC converter control loops that provide respectively different control signals. A plurality of output driver stages of given current drive capabilities have their inputs programmably connectable via a set of switches... | 03/18/2008 |
| 7312539 | Output suppressing method of a plurality of dispersed power sources and dispersed power source managing system Regarding output suppression control of a plurality of dispersed power sources linked to a high-voltage-to-low-voltage transformer of a commercial power system, the partiality of the output suppression of a plurality of dispersed power sources is eliminated and, cos... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7293181 | Use of one voltage regulator module to support two processors to improve power and thermal limitations Several processors have specifications setting forth that each processor be coupled to a separate specified voltage regulator circuit. Instead, a number of specified voltage regulator circuit(s) is coupled to the several processors. The number of voltage regulator c... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7290151 | Logic circuit with variable internal polarities Operation of a logic circuit for performing a desired logic function is scrambled. Logic gates and/or transistors are provided in the logic circuit so that the logic function is performed in at least two different ways. The way in which the logic function is perform... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7288854 | Power linear and switching regulators commonly controlled for plural loads A power supply apparatus includes a switching regulator, a series regulator, and a controller. The switching regulator performs start and stop operations in response to a first control signal and generates a first constant voltage in response to a first voltage swit... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7227748 | Cooling module A cooling module is provided for an electrically powered apparatus. The cooling module comprises a non-volatile memory arranged to store a module identifier code for the module. ... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7202638 | Anti-islanding protection systems for synchronous machine based distributed generators A system for providing anti-islanding protection of a synchronous machine based distributed generator includes a frequency sensor configured to generate a generator frequency signal, a bandpass filter configured for filtering the generator frequency signal, a govern... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7197411 | Real-time power harness A system that generates a dynamic trace of power consumption in a computer system. The system periodically polls current sensors and associated voltage sensors within the computer system to generate dynamic traces of currents and associated voltages for individual c... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7173347 | Method and apparatus for driving and controlling on-vehicle loads In an apparatus for driving and controlling plural on-vehicle electrical loads, an on-vehicle power supply generates power to be supplied the loads each having a priority. A power calculating device calculates a current available amount of the power to be supplied f... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7171461 | Network remote power management outlet strip A vertical-mount network remote power management outlet strip embodiment of the present invention comprises a long, thin outlet strip body with several independently controllable power outlet sockets distributed along its length. A power input cord is provided at on... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7137471 | Alcohol and drug sensor system for vehicles An alcohol and drug sensor system for vehicles for preventing ignition of a vehicle engine by an intoxicated driver includes a gas chromatograph sensor operationally coupled to a sample collection tube. The sensor is operationally coupled to a microprocessor that pr... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7135826 | Fan control system A fan control system. The system includes a plurality of fans, each having a control device. One of the fans is designated as a master fan and others are served as slave fans according to a specific designation method, wherein the control device of the master fan ac... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7119521 | Multi-output DC-DC converter A multi-output DC-DC converter comprising a plurality of converters configured so that an inductor 2 and a main switch 31 are used in common, wherein a first output voltage Vo1 is output from a circuit comprising a diode 41 and a first ou... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7099934 | Network-connecting power manager for remote appliances A network comprises a power manager with a network agent in communication over a network with an network manager. The power manager is connected to control several intelligent power modules each able to independently control the power on/off status of several networ... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7098555 | Intelligent power distribution management for an on-board galley of a transport vehicle such as an aircraft In an aircraft galley, a power network distributes power from a source to electrical consuming devices (oven, water boiler, coffee machine, trash compactor, etc.). A control unit is connected to and can individually address each of the devices via a databus. The con... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7071668 | Power circuit and method for controlling same A power circuit is provided which has a small current peak value from a power source even when a load current repeats periodically, and a burst flow in a burst period and a non-burst flow in a non-burst period alternates. The power circuit includes a power source se... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7068485 | Multi-output electric power source device and vehicle-mounted electronic control device A multi-output electric power source device has at least two channels for producing a constant voltage and a constant voltage from a single input voltage. Each channel is provided with a switching regulator in the input stages thereof and a series regulator in the n... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7052180 | LED junction temperature tester An instrument measures the LED junction temperature directly by taking advantage of the linear relationship between the forward current driven through the LED, the forward drop of the LED, and the junction temperature to determine the LED junction temperature. | 05/30/2006 |
| 7049710 | Power bus for distributed ride through capability A monitoring system includes a power source, a power bus coupled to said power source, a plurality of power taps coupled to said power bus, each of said power taps having a ride-through capacitor operatively coupled thereto to provide power during brief interruption... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7043543 | Vertical-mount electrical power distribution plugstrip A vertical-mount electrical power distribution plugstrip comprises a long, thin plugstrip body with several power outlet plugs distributed along the length of one face. A power input cord is provided at one end, and this supplies operating power to each of the power... | 05/09/2006 |
| 6995532 | System and method of controlling cooling fan speeds A cooling fan includes a fan, a motor coupled to the fan to drive the fan and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is connected to the motor and is capable of detecting a speed of the fan in real time and maintaining a constant speed of the fan regardless of chang... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6969927 | Power switching apparatus A power switching apparatus comprising a current transformer with coupled primary and secondary windings, the primary windings being adapted for series connection between alternate current power source and load, the primary windings comprising first and second sub-p... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6955300 | Dual interface IC card For obtaining an IC card low in both power consumption and manufacturing cost, operating conditions in case of going through a contact point, which conditions are associated with supply voltage and signal level in an internal circuit, are to lie within operating con... | 10/18/2005 |
