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Circuit interrupter apparatus with a style saving rating plug

  • US 4,809,125 A
  • Filed: 02/20/1987
  • Issued: 02/28/1989
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/20/1987
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A circuit interrupter apparatus, comprising:

  • interrupting means disposed in a normally conducting electrical circuit and effective to interrupt current flow through said electrical circuit upon reception of a trip signal;

    conditioning means coupled to said electrical circuit to condition a current value proportionate to such current flow, said conditioning means producing a conditioned signal representative of the magnitude of said current value;

    operating means effective for deriving at least one operating characteristic from said conditioned signal, said operating means further effective for comparing said at least one operating characteristic to a corresponding at least one preselected tripping parameter and generating said trip signal when said at least one operating characteristic is at least equal to said corresponding at least one tripping parameter;

    said at least one preselected tripping parameter including a preselected ground fault pickup value representative of a preselected ground fault current limit value that is allowed to flow in a ground path associated with said electrical circuit;

    said operating means further including limiting means receptive of a preselected rating signal proportionate to a maximum current flow that is allowed to flow through said circuit interrupter, said limiting means being effective to determine one rating value for said circuit interrupter as a function of said preselected rating signal, said one rating value having associated therewith, a corresponding upper limited ground fault current limit value, said limiting means further being effective to determine whether said preselected ground fault pickup value is within said upper limited ground fault current limit value associated with said one rating value and accepting said preselected ground fault pickup value when said preselected ground fault pickup value is within said upper limited ground fault current limit value;

    said limiting means further being effective to substitute an alternate ground fault pickup value when said preselected ground fault pickup value exceeds said upper limited ground fault current limit value;

    said operating means further including a microprocessor having associated therewith, a data bus capable of communicating data thereover and at least one memory element capable of storing said data and a plurality of operating instructions;

    said limiting means further including a predetermined number of said operating instructions wherein a first one of said operating instructions performs a determination of said rating value from a reading of a digital representation of said rating signal and a second one of said operating instructions reads a selected setting of said ground fault pickup value; and

    said limiting means further including instructional operations to perform a determination of said ground fault pickup value whereby, when said rating value and said ground fault pickup value do not exceed said upper limited ground fault current limit value, said selected setting of said ground fault pickup value is operated on by said microprocessor.

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