Arc fault detector with circuit interrupter
First Claim
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1. A method in an arc fault detecting device capable of being electrically connected to an electrical wiring system between line side phase and neutral conductors and load side phase and neutral conductors, said method detecting the occurrence of arcing of a conductor by monitoring the current on an AC power line, said method comprising:
- detecting current in said conductor of the electrical wiring system and generating a signal representative of the detected current;
generating at least one modified signal which represents the filtered or unfiltered current detected in the conductor; and
receiving the at least one modified signal by a controller and performing the following by the controller;
generating a SINE signal having half cycles and zero crossings from a raw input signal, or a signal from a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, or a signal from an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter;
comparing the generated SINE signal with the at least one signals generated from the signal modifying means to generate a DELTA signal;
analyzing the DELTA signal for at least one characteristic representative of the occurrence of an arc; and
generating an output signal upon detection of the at least one characteristic representative of the occurrence of an arc,wherein the step of detecting current provides for the use of a current transformer,wherein the step of generating at least one modified signal provides a CURRENT signal representative of the current in the line,wherein the CURRENT signal is used by the controller to generate the SINE signal, andwherein the CURRENT signal is fed to a multipoint running finite impulse response filter to smooth the signal prior to being used to generate the SINE signal.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for detecting the occurrence of arcing of a conductor by monitoring the current on an AC power line.
141 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method in an arc fault detecting device capable of being electrically connected to an electrical wiring system between line side phase and neutral conductors and load side phase and neutral conductors, said method detecting the occurrence of arcing of a conductor by monitoring the current on an AC power line, said method comprising:
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detecting current in said conductor of the electrical wiring system and generating a signal representative of the detected current; generating at least one modified signal which represents the filtered or unfiltered current detected in the conductor; and receiving the at least one modified signal by a controller and performing the following by the controller; generating a SINE signal having half cycles and zero crossings from a raw input signal, or a signal from a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, or a signal from an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter; comparing the generated SINE signal with the at least one signals generated from the signal modifying means to generate a DELTA signal; analyzing the DELTA signal for at least one characteristic representative of the occurrence of an arc; and generating an output signal upon detection of the at least one characteristic representative of the occurrence of an arc, wherein the step of detecting current provides for the use of a current transformer, wherein the step of generating at least one modified signal provides a CURRENT signal representative of the current in the line, wherein the CURRENT signal is used by the controller to generate the SINE signal, and wherein the CURRENT signal is fed to a multipoint running finite impulse response filter to smooth the signal prior to being used to generate the SINE signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method in an arc fault detecting device capable of being electrically connected to an electrical wiring system between line side phase and neutral conductors and load side phase and neutral conductors, said method detecting the occurrence of arcing of a conductor by monitoring the current on an AC power line, said method comprising:
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detecting current in said conductor of the electrical wiring system and generating a signal representative of the detected current; generating a CURRENT signal which represents the filtered or unfiltered current detected in the conductor; and receiving the CURRENT signal by a controller and performing the following by the controller; generating a SINE signal having half cycles and zero crossings from a raw input signal, or a signal from a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, or a signal from an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter, when generating the SINE signal, locates a starting CURRENT zero crossing, finds the average of following half cycles of the CURRENT signal, finds a peak of the same polarity as the average in that half cycle, multiplies the peak height by the CURRENT at that point, assumes that real zero crossings are exactly 1/240 second on either side of the peak, and lockouts ¼
cycle from the leading zero crossing when advancing to next zero crossing,subtracts the CURRENT signal from the generated SINE signal and divides the result by the SINE signal to obtain a DELTA signal, analyzes the DELTA signal for at least one characteristic representative of the occurrence of an arc, and generates an output signal upon detection of the at least one characteristic representative of the occurrence of an arc. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An arc fault detecting device electrically connected to an electrical wiring system between a line conductor and load conductor, said device comprising:
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at least one transformer adapted to generate a voltage based on a current present on the line conductor; a comparator configured to generate at least one signal based on the voltage generated by the transformer; a first path configured to modify the at least one signal to represent the current present on the line conductor; a second path configured to modify the at least one signal to represent at least one of a positive step change in the current as a function of time and a negative step change in the current as a function of time; a third path configured to modify the at least one signal to represent a noise signal on the line conductor; and a controller electrically connected to the comparator by at least one of the first, second, and third path and configured to compare the at least one modified signal to a first waveform generated by the controller, wherein the controller generates a second waveform based on the comparison between the at least one modified signal and the first waveform to cause a switch to electrically disconnect the load conductor from the line conductor based on the second waveform, wherein the first path includes a programmable gain amplifier configured to output the at least one signal from the comparator to a low pass filter adapted to remove high frequency noise from the at least one signal to provide the at least one modified signal to the controller. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of detecting an arc fault between a line conductor electrically connected to a load conductor, comprising:
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detecting a current present on the line conductor; generating at least one signal based on the detected current; modifying the at least one signal to represent the detected current; generating a first waveform based on one of an unfiltered signal and a filtered signal; comparing the first waveform with the at least one modified signal; generating a second waveform based on the comparison between the first waveform and the at least one modified signal; detecting at least one condition of the second waveform representative of the arc fault; and generating an output signal to electrically disconnect the load conductor from the line conductor based on the detection of the at least one condition, wherein the modifying step further comprises filtering the at least one signal via at least one of an infinite impulse response filter and a multipoint running finite impulse response filter prior to generating the first waveform using a microcontroller. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification