Did You Know...
...that Robert Adler has the dubious distinction of being the Father of the Couch Potato? Back in 1955 Adler was employed by what was then Zenith Radio Corp., where he was charged to invent something that would allow viewers to turn down the TV volume without leaving their chairs. After a series of flops (such as a wired contraption that people tripped over), Adler hit on the idea of using sound waves. Thus the Remote Control was born...
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8183802 | Composite electromechanical machines with controller Embodiments of the present invention include a composite electromechanical machine which can operate as a motor, a generator (including dynamo or alternator), or any combination thereof. In an aspect, the present composite electromechanical machine comprises at leas... | 05/22/2012 |
| 7287803 | Rotating cable tailgate actuator A power actuator for moving automotive closure panels between opened and closed positions. The actuator is particularly adapted for actuating the rear tailgate of a pickup truck type vehicle and includes an electric drive motor, a flexible cable assembly, and a stru... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7274526 | Tape drive apparatus A tape drive apparatus has at least one rotary head for reading/writing a track. The track has a number of fragments and each fragment has an identifier. The tape drive apparatus has a position indicator apparatus for providing a signal that indicates a rotational p... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7209518 | Higher PWM resolution for switchmode power supply control A pulse width modulation controlling circuit for a power supply and method for controlling a switchmode power supply is disclosed. The present invention accomplishes control over the switching of the power supply by coarsely and then finely adjusting a time-length s... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7204328 | Power apparatus for wheelchairs The disclosed invention used power-assist wheelchair hubs and an array of sensors to provide obstacle-avoidance features on a wheelchair. In a power-assisted manual wheelchair, the traditional rear wheels are replaced with motorized hubs that magnify the force appli... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7199546 | Motor stop control device utilizable for gaming machine and gaming machine using the same It is disclosed the motor stop control device having the stepping motor 49 as the drive source of the reel 3 on which a plurality of symbols are formed, the motor stop control device being utilized in the reel-type gaming machine 1 and stopping ... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7170245 | Motor power supply control apparatus A motor power supply including a DC supply part having a pair of supply terminals; an inverter having a pair of connection terminals respectively connected to the supply terminals thereof to receive DC power therefrom and to supply AC power to a motor, a breaking re... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7163072 | Motor-driven vehicle drive control apparatus and method thereof A vehicle drive control apparatus including a motor, a battery, an inverter having a direct current supplied from the battery, wherein the inverter converts the direct current into an alternating current and supplies the alternating current to the motor and a contro... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7161272 | Welding wire feeder and motor therefor A wire feeder for an electric arc welder comprising a set of feed rolls driven by a DC motor with a commutator, first and second opposite polarity leads receiving power to drive the motor, and having a first brush at a given position on the commutator and connected ... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7157871 | Intermittent drive control apparatus of motor Rotation of a capstan motor is detected by a frequency detector, and supplied to a CPU as a rotation detection signal CFG. The CPU derives a period of the rotation detection signal CFG, calculates an average rotational speed of the capstan motor on the basis of the ... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7138912 | Movable barrier operations method and apparatus Movement of a movable barrier (10) such as, for example, a vertically-dropping fire door, can be controlled in an informed manner and with greater flexibility regarding the manner of movement via, in one embodiment, use of a motor (20) as a generator t... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7132808 | Solid state series motor control A solid state series motor control includes first and second FORWARD DRIVE elements, first and second REVERSE DRIVE elements, first and second diodes, a current sensor, and a capacitance. The series motor control is conf... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7126307 | Interface circuit for actuating an electrical device and circuit arrangement for actuating an electric motor therewith An interface circuit for actuating an electrical consumer, especially a pole-changing rotary-current induction motor, with a first contact element assigned to a signal line carrying an alternating voltage signal to generate at least two different control signals. A ... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7064509 | Apparatus for DC motor position detection with capacitive ripple current extraction An apparatus for determining angular positions of DC motor includes a capacitor connected in parallel with the DC motor. The current flowing through the capacitor, at any given time, is an AC ripple current responsive to a commutation event of the DC motor. The capa... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7061194 | Method and apparatus for controlling constant linear velocity of spindle motor using mirror signal A method and an apparatus for precisely controlling the rotation speed of a spindle motor in an optical system according to a given condition are provided. The method involves counting in response to a clock signal widths of first and second logic states of an input... | 06/13/2006 |
| 7053570 | Control circuit for a dual directional direct current motor employing a single alternating current power source A control circuit operates a dual directional DC motor from an AC power source. A controller has first and second position indication inputs adapted to receive respective first and second position indications. The controller also has first and second direction outpu... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7038410 | Electric motor with dynamic damping A method of dynamically damping an electric motor (12) that is controlled by an H-bridge driver (16) by interdigitating power pulses with braking pulses by switching from a power switch mode to a shorting circuit mode with switches (22 and 26... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7023152 | Driving control device for actuator A driving control device for an actuator comprises a driving device to drive an actuator having an electric motor (30) and a driving control device (50) to control the rotation of the electric motor (30) by controlling the driving device. The dr... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7015663 | Brushless motor drive device A Hall sensing circuit generates a positional detection signal representative of a positional relationship between a rotor and a phase coil of a motor. A signal synthesizing circuit transforms the positional detection signal to a driving signal. Based on a compariso... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7012392 | Multi-stage dynamic braking resistor network A multi-stage dynamic braking resistor network (23) is provided that includes a plurality of dynamic brake resistors (1a–d) for dissipating, as heat, regenerative energy inputted onto a system bus (17) by a motor or actuator (19)... | 03/14/2006 |
| 7002314 | Electric brake system The present invention provides an electric brake system which detects the occurrence of overshooting, and corrects a feedback gain in the PID feedback control at overshooting. For example, it increases a differential gain Kd. Accordingly, a damping force increases f... | 02/21/2006 |
| 6979976 | Driving apparatus for driving a brushless motor A driving system for driving a brushless motor effects a rotation control of a rotor by sequentially switching application of a current to magnetic coils disposed in a stator in response to a detection signal from a pole-position detector. The driving system compris... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6949906 | Driving circuit and method for preventing voltage surges on supply lines while driving a DC motor A driving circuit of a DC motor includes a control circuit for providing a control signal, and a motor drive circuit commanded by the control circuit for providing respective command signals for the switches of an output power stage connected to the DC motor. The ou... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6885160 | Drive control The present invention is a drive control device for controlling an electric rotational actuator which moves the driver, including: a reference comparison signal generation circuit; a detection circuit for detecting the speed of the actuator and outputting this as a ... | 04/26/2005 |
| 6879123 | Device to control a 3-phase motor A device to control a 3-phase motor having an inverter connected to each phase terminal and a brake to arrest the 3-phase motor, includes a power supply to supply power to the brake and the inverter at the same time based on a predetermined synchronization signal. T... | 04/12/2005 |
| 6836087 | Multiphase motor voltage control for phase windings of different wire gauges and winding turns A multiphase motor has a plurality of ferromagnetically isolated stator electromagnets distributed about an axis of rotation. Successive ranges of speed during which the motor can be expected to operate are defined. A specific subset of the electromagnets is associa... | 12/28/2004 |
| 6737828 | Washing machine motor drive device A washing machine motor drive device drives a motor using an inverter circuit, which implements a constant torque control through a change in the torque-revolution speed characteristic of the motor. This facilitates an easy control of braking torque (negative torque... | 05/18/2004 |
| 6601513 | Motor control method and apparatus, time recorder having same and impact type printing apparatus A motor control method and apparatus for stopping an object moved by a motor accurately at a predefined target position, shortening the time period required in stop control, in which the motor is driven at a first (high) speed up to a distance from the ta... | 08/05/2003 |
| 6538412 | Method for controlling a power drive system To minimize the energy required for operation of a rail vehicle, in a drive system that has an intermediate circuit converter 1 and a three-phase motor 7 fed by it, the intermediate circuit voltage in the intermediate circuit 12 and/or the magnetic flux i... | 03/25/2003 |
| 6538411 | Deceleration control of a personal transporter A system and method for automatically decelerating a personal transporter of the kind that has a controller for controlling the motion of the transporter. Upon detection of a fault condition, a goal value of a control variable is set, the control variable... | 03/25/2003 |
| 6429609 | Drive device, especially for moving and turning the slats of a blind in a runner In a drive device which is especially suitable for moving and turning the slats of a blind in a runner and in which the rotational movement of a drive wheel (2) can be alternately transmitted to a turning drive means effecting the rotational movement of t... | 08/06/2002 |
| 6342769 | Electronic throttle/brake control system for monitorized wheel hub A throttle/brake control system has a first member, a second member and a mount for mounting the members for relative movement on either side of a home position, the members being biased relatively to that home position. A variable resistor track having a... | 01/29/2002 |
| 6268708 | Control apparatus for electric power steering system In control devices of electric power steering systems, steering characteristics are improved by control being carried out by means of a signal based on rotor speed or steering angle after failure of a torque sensor is detected. In the present invention, i... | 07/31/2001 |
| 6157153 | Motor driver A motor driver has a braking control circuit. The braking control circuit shuts off the supply of an electric current to the coils included in the motor when a motor control signal shifts to a predetermined level and, after a predetermined length of time ... | 12/05/2000 |
| 6108592 | Voice-controlled motorized wheelchair with sensors and displays A motorized wheel-chair is equipped with one or more sensors for detecting obstacles. The detection method may be either radar or sonar (or both). An on-board computer processes these echoes and presents a visual or auditory display. With the benefit of t... | 08/22/2000 |
| 5909097 | Method of stopping an electric motor-driven balancing machine main shaft A method of stopping an electric motor-driven balancing machine main shaft after an unbalance measuring run in a specific rotary angle stoppage position corresponding to a desired balancing rotary angle position provides that in the course of retardation ... | 06/01/1999 |
| 5859516 | Speed control for any override range effective over a plurality of blocks The invention relates to a method for the anticipatory speed control, effective over a plurality of blocks, of an electric drive, in an anticipatory analysis of the braking requirements of a plurality of subsequent control data blocks. The braking require... | 01/12/1999 |
| 5847522 | Locking devices and control circuitry for permanent magnet electric motors A positive locking device is provided in order to prevent a motor from rotating after power has been removed. The positive locking device has a plate mounted on the motor which engages a disk or hub on the shaft of the motor. In another aspect of the inve... | 12/08/1998 |
| 5838124 | Systems and methods for braking of actuator and brushless DC motor therein A brushless DC motor is controlled by determining a speed of the motor and a line voltage supplying drivers of the motor. Based upon these determined values and predetermined motor performance data, a maximum PWM on-time is determined for drive signals su... | 11/17/1998 |
| 5726550 | Motor control system for centrifuge A motor control system for controlling power supplied to an electric motor rotating a rotor employed in a centrifuge is provided. The motor control system includes first, second, and third converters and first and second smoothing capacitors. In a motor p... | 03/10/1998 |
