Device for remotely resetting electronic appliances in response to telephone rings
First Claim
1. A switching system for switching a power source operating a remotely located appliance through the use of an enabling signal delivered over a telephone line comprising:
- a first ring detector for detecting telephone electrical ring pulses on a first telephone line;
a ring counter which is triggered by said ring detector for accumulating a number of telephone electrical ring pulses which occur in succession within a preselected amount of time of each other;
a relay driver associated with said ring counter for providing an interrupt pulse; and
a timer attached to said relay driver and actuated by said interrupt pulse for activating a switching means to momentarily interrupt said power source operating said appliance.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus is disclosed which is controlled by telephone rings over a telephone line and used to momentarily interrupt power to a computerized appliance. The apparatus waits for a preset number of rings, which are accumulated over one or more unanswered calls. The ring count is cleared if consecutive rings from separate calls are not received within a selectable time of each other. Once the preset count level is reached, the apparatus automatically turns the power to the appliance off for a period of time and then back on again. Because the apparatus may accumulate the necessary number of rings from separate telephone calls, it can be used on a telephone line to which an answering device, a modem for example, is connected, even though that device persists in inhibiting telephone rings by answering before the number of rings needed to activate the apparatus is reached on each call. A second telephone line may be connected to the apparatus and used in place of the first telephone line in the case when the first telephone line is busy and cannot accept telephone rings.
82 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A switching system for switching a power source operating a remotely located appliance through the use of an enabling signal delivered over a telephone line comprising:
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a first ring detector for detecting telephone electrical ring pulses on a first telephone line; a ring counter which is triggered by said ring detector for accumulating a number of telephone electrical ring pulses which occur in succession within a preselected amount of time of each other; a relay driver associated with said ring counter for providing an interrupt pulse; and a timer attached to said relay driver and actuated by said interrupt pulse for activating a switching means to momentarily interrupt said power source operating said appliance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of interrupting power to an appliance including the steps of:
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detecting a user-selected number of telephone electrical ring pulses on an attached telephone line; and interrupting power to said appliance momentarily when said user-selected number of telephone electrical ring pulses is reached. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method to control a power interruption circuit using telephone electrical ring pulses to a telephone line, to which is connected a device that persists in answering, including the steps of:
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detecting telephone electrical ring pulses on the telephone line; accumulating the telephone electrical ring pulses over several separate telephone calls, thereby bypassing the device that persists in answering; and activating the power interruption circuit to momentarily disconnect power to said device when a user-selected number of telephone electrical ring pulses are reached.
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20. A method of generating a triggering signal at a remote location, comprising the steps of:
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detecting electrical ring pulses on a first telephone line; detecting electrical ring pulses on a second telephone line when said first telephone line is in a busy state; generating a triggering signal in response to a predetermined number of electrical ring pulses detected over said first and second telephone lines for activating a power interruption circuit; and momentarily interrupting power to an appliance attached to said power interruption circuit.
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Specification