Did You Know...
...that the video game, Pong, was invented by a guy who graduated at the bottom of his engineering class? Nolan Bushnell spent more time running the games at a local amusement park than he did on his studies at the University of Utah. His dreams of working for Disney's amusement empire were dashed when the company wouldn't hire him. Taking a boring job, Nolan daydreamed about electronic versions of popular games. He invented Pong, the first video game, and went on to found Atari Co.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8110945 | Power stealing circuitry for a control device A power stealing circuit for stealing power to operate a control device is disclosed. In one illustrative embodiment, power may be periodically or intermittently diverted from a power source to a power stealing block. When power is diverted to the power stealing blo... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8080899 | Photovoltaic ladder inverter Techniques for DC-to-AC conversion are disclosed, and may be embodied in a solar inverter device that can operatively couple to a power grid. The device includes a photovoltaic (PV) stack including series-connected PV modules. Each PV module is associated with a cap... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8008805 | Power conversion apparatus and motor drive system A power conversion apparatus includes a plurality of power modules, a plurality of capacitors and a bus bar. Each of the power modules has a direct current terminal section and an alternating current terminal section. Each of the power modules is configured and arra... | 08/30/2011 |
| 7538449 | Circuitry and related control method for an electric or hybrid vehicle with two direct current sources Proposed is a circuitry and a related control mechanism for a vehicle with electric drive only or for a vehicle with hybrid drive comprised of an electric and a combustion motor. This circuitry has a multi-phase machine and two direct current units. Furthermore, an ... | 05/26/2009 |
| 7256515 | Power supply system with high cooling capability A power supply system for supplying power to a system load is described. The power supply system includes a plurality of power supply modules. Each power supply module includes a power-generating module, a unidirectional device, and a fan. When the power-generating ... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7254002 | Reverse conduction protection method and apparatus for a dual power supply driver The invention is a dual stage power supply with a protection circuit for preventing reverse conduction through the lower voltage driver of the dual stage power supply and excess power dissipation when the higher voltage driver is on. In one embodiment of the inventi... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7216960 | Method of driving a printhead using a constant current and operating MOS transistor in saturation region This invention relates to a printhead substrate capable of suppressing an increase in wiring width and an increase in the size of a substrate formed by a film forming process while increasing the number of simultaneously driven printing elements in order to improve ... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7183667 | Method and apparatus for power inverter synchronization A control circuit synchronizes an ac power inverter to the mains voltage of an electrical grid by matching the fundamental phasor components of the inverter's output voltage to the fundamental phasor components of the mains voltage. Once such matching meets an accep... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7105949 | Emergent power supply system and method of achieving input current balance in such system An emergent power supply system capable of automatically balancing the input currents of a multiplicity of backup power supply modules therein is addressed. The emergent power supply system according to the present invention includes a multiplicity of backup power s... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7053503 | Cross current compensation control system for a power system Across current compensation control system includes a cross current detection compensator having an input terminal to which a cross connection line that cross-connects the secondary sides of auxiliary current transformers (CTs) are connected, and an output terminal ... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7015597 | Power regulator for power inverter A power inverter includes a regulator circuit that controls real and reactive power output by the inverter. The regulator measures real and reactive output power by calculating x-phasor components of the inverter's voltage and current output waveforms. Phasor calcul... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7009363 | Optimized battery life in multiple battery applications Various apparatus and methods of supplying regulated battery power to an electrical device, such as a downhole tool, are provided. In one aspect, a method of providing power to an electrical device is provided that includes providing a plurality of batteries and pro... | 03/07/2006 |
| 6800802 | Circuit device for solar energy application A circuit device for solar energy application includes a solar panel as power supply and a rechargeable cell pack for receiving the power transferred from the solar panel. The circuit device uses a MOSFET as a current blocking device. The Drain and the Source of the... | 10/05/2004 |
| 6653748 | System and method for controlling an output signal of a power supply A control system for selectively isolating a power supply from a common bus is provided. The control system comprises a connection to an output path of an output signal of the power supply and a resistive element providing a variable resistance between an... | 11/25/2003 |
| 6507129 | System and method for controlling an output signal of a power supply A control system for selectively isolating a power supply from a common bus is provided. The control system comprises a connection to an output path of an output signal of the power supply and a resistive element providing a variable resistance between an... | 01/14/2003 |
| 6452769 | Electrical power distribution installation for electrical power system An apparatus and method applicable to an electric power distribution installation, the electrical power distribution installation comprising: at least one main common bus bar; a plurality of main transformers, each main transformer being configured to ste... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6429546 | Systems and methods for preventing islanding of grid-connected electrical power systems A preferred embodiment of the electrical power system of the present invention includes a power conditioning unit which is configured to receive the DC electrical output signal to deliver an AC output signal to a grid-connected load. Preferably, the power... | 08/06/2002 |
| 6369462 | Maximum power tracking solar power system A maximum power tracker maximizes the power deliverable from a power source, such as a solar array using increasing, decreasing and maintaining states controlled by a set point signal modulated by a dither signal for stabilized regular power tracking duri... | 04/09/2002 |
| 6150736 | Redundant electrical power source, distribution and consumption system A system for distributing continuous, uninterrupted power to one or more critical, interdependent electrically powered devices comprising at least one power source; and at least first and second independent power distribution paths from the power source t... | 11/21/2000 |
| 5903028 | Static and monolithic current limiter and circuit-breaker The present invention relates to a static and monolithic current limiter and circuit-breaker component including, between two terminals, a one-way conduction current limiter, a sensor of the voltage between the terminals, and a mechanism for inhibiting th... | 05/11/1999 |
| 5838151 | Wireless load sharing for parallel power converters and method A power supply (10) including a virtual resistor. The power supply (10) includes (i) a power stage (11) having an input (12) for accepting unregulated power, an output (14) for providing regulated power, a control input (13) and a current sense output (16... | 11/17/1998 |
| 5726505 | Device to prevent reverse current flow, rectifier device and solar generator system A device to prevent reverse current flow includes a diode connected between a power supply and a load. A switching device, connected in parallel with the diode, has a power loss that is smaller than that of the diode. A low-loss current detector, arranged... | 03/10/1998 |
| 5686814 | Battery circuit for supplying power to an electronic device A battery circuit for use in supplying power to an electronic device comprises a first battery source, a second battery source connected in parallel to the first battery source, a first auxiliary circuit for preventing the first battery source from being ... | 11/11/1997 |
| 5598041 | Efficient fault tolerant switching circuit for redundant d. c. power supplies Two power sources are connected to a load by a pair of MOSFET control switches, each connected respectively in series between one of the sources and the load, with their integral diodes forwardly biased between the power source and load. An isolating MOSF... | 01/28/1997 |
| 5555151 | No-brake power transfer phase balance sychronization sense circuit and method A poly-phase no-break power transfer phase balance synchronization sense circuit for an electric power generation and distribution system having a present source of electric power supplying poly-phase AC electric power through a first contactor to utiliza... | 09/10/1996 |
| 5436823 | Parallel operation controller for power converters A parallel operation controller for power converters which performs parallel operation control of a plurality of power converters having input terminals connected to a DC voltage source and output terminals connected to each other through reactors. The pa... | 07/25/1995 |
| 5325285 | Parallel running control apparatus for PWM inverters A parallel running control apparatus for two PWM inverters includes a first and a second electric current detector for detecting AC output electric current of the PWM inverters; a first and a second electric current control circuit for outputting, on the ... | 06/28/1994 |
| 5087872 | Circulating load apparatus A circulating load apparatus for loading a power supply. The power supply has a power input terminal, a power output terminal and a power return terminal. The power supply provides an output voltage at the power output terminal with respect to the power r... | 02/11/1992 |
| 4682252 | Method and apparatus for evaluating a recording system utilizing a programmable window generator having first and second multivibrators providing delay A system for evaluating a recording system is disclosed, which includes a monostable multivibrator (MMV) for receiving the recovered data stream from the disc drive. The time constant of the MMV is controlled by a second, matched MMV which receives a fixe... | 07/21/1987 |
| 4580187 | A-C current limiting device A current limiting device has a reactor including an intermediate terminal, a capacitor connected in series between one external terminal of said reactor and said intermediate terminal of said reactor and a closing means as well as a resistor, wherein the... | 04/01/1986 |
| 4523249 | Alternating current limiting apparatus An alternating current limiting apparatus is disclosed which includes first, second, and third circuit. The first circuit is formed of a winding means such as transformer, autotransformer, or reactor and a capacitor serially connected to the winding means... | 06/11/1985 |
| 4488104 | Power source apparatus for a flash lamp used in a pulse laser apparatus A power source apparatus for a flash lamp used in a pulse laser apparatus including a plurality of condensers, a plurality of rectifiers connected to the condensers and defining discharge paths for the condensers wherein the discharge of certain of the co... | 12/11/1984 |
| 4449057 | Solar cell power supply device There is disclosed a solar cell power supply device including a first and a second solar cells. The first cell has a determined spectral sensitivity characteristic and the second cell has a different spectral sensitivity characteristic and connected paral... | 05/15/1984 |
| 4444905 | Hydrotreating catalyst preparation and process Hydrotreating catalysts are prepared using multiple impregnation and a critical ratio of VIB metal to VIII metal in one or more stages to produce catalysts which have higher than normal activity in contaminant removal from hydrocarbon feed stocks, especia... | 04/24/1984 |
| 4320306 | Method and apparatus for controlling current or power between interconnected power stations A method and apparatus for controlling a current and/or power between interconnected power stations. A deviation from a base load in an active current or power flowing out of a power station and a deviation from a normal value in the terminal voltage of t... | 03/16/1982 |
| 4262214 | System for switching a load between two sources A system is disclosed for switching a load between two ac sources wherein no degree of synchronization therebetween is required and wherein the switching is accomplished with the use of two electro-mechanical relays each having a three pole, double throw ... | 04/14/1981 |
| 4160941 | Multi-purpose battery charger A multi-purpose battery charger is disclosed, capable of simultaneously charging multiple batteries to a common peak voltage and operable from either an A.C. source of power or a D.C. source of power. The power supply portion of the battery charger includ... | 07/10/1979 |
| 4136286 | Isolated electrical power generation system with multiple isochronous, load-sharing engine-generator units An isolated electrical power generation system is described with multiple isochronous, load-sharing engine-generator units. The system includes load sensing means for generating a signal representing the individual power output of each engine-generator un... | 01/23/1979 |
| 4084222 | High-voltage power supply device A high-voltage power supply device comprising a first DC power source, a first reactor supplied with direct current from this first DC power source, a resistor connected in parallel with the first reactor, a current interrupter initially permitting circul... | 04/11/1978 |
| 4038559 | Regulated uninterruptible power supply An uninterruptible power supply derives regulated power from either a primary power source or a reserve power source. A power flow control unit derives the output power as needed from either one or both power sources. Its operating characteristics are sel... | 07/26/1977 |
