Reliable lamp life timer
First Claim
1. A method of tracking the elapsed operating time of a light source, the method comprising the steps of:
- associating a memory device with a lamp, said memory having a rated safe life value stored therein;
igniting said lamp;
updating an elapsed lamp on time value stored in said memory;
comparing said elapsed lamp on time to said rated lamp life value;
repeating said updating and comparing steps until said elapsed lamp on time exceeds said rated safe life value; and
disabling said lamp when said elapsed lamp on time exceeds said rated safe life value.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for controlling a lamp. A timer controller (106) reads a rated safe life value from a memory (102) associated with a lamp in a lamp module (104). The memory (102) in the lamp module (104) contains a series of locations in which the rated safe life of the lamp has been stored, and a series of locations for storing the elapsed on time of the lamp. The timer controller (106) reads the series of locations storing the rated safe life of the lamp and verifies the validity of the values using a series of checksums and comparisons between the various values. The timer controller (106) also reads the series of locations storing the elapsed on time for the lamp and verifies the elapsed on time in a similar manner. If either the rated safe on time or the elapsed on time cannot be verified, the lamp is disabled. If both can be verified, and the lamp is enabled until the elapsed on time equals or exceeds the rated safe life.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method of tracking the elapsed operating time of a light source, the method comprising the steps of:
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associating a memory device with a lamp, said memory having a rated safe life value stored therein;
igniting said lamp;
updating an elapsed lamp on time value stored in said memory;
comparing said elapsed lamp on time to said rated lamp life value;
repeating said updating and comparing steps until said elapsed lamp on time exceeds said rated safe life value; and
disabling said lamp when said elapsed lamp on time exceeds said rated safe life value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A display system comprising:
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a lamp for generating a beam of light along a light path, said lamp having a rated safe life value;
a memory device associated with said lamp, said rated safe life value stored in said memory;
a timer controller circuit, said timer controller circuit capable of reading said rated safe life value from said memory and storing an elapsed lamp on time value in said memory, said timer controller circuit disabling said lamp when said elapsed lamp on time value exceeds said rated safe life value, and disabling said lamp when either said elapsed lamp on time value or said rated safe life value become irretrievably corrupted;
a spatial light modulator on said light path for modulating said beam of light to produce a modulated beam of light; and
projection optics to focus said modulated beam of light on an image plane.
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Specification