Digital ballast
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A ballast in which the drive current frequency is controlled by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) that is capable of precise output frequency control. The VCO frequency is controlled by a microcontroller. The microcontroller may control the VCO frequency in response to various input signals including a triac signal, a manual dimmer control signal, a remote control receiver signal, a light monitor signal, a motion detector signal, or a communication interface signal.
14 Citations
47 Claims
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1-30. -30. (canceled)
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31. A ceiling fan, comprising:
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a ceiling-mountable fan housing containing a fan motor;
a plurality of fan blades coupled to the fan motor to be turned by the fan motor;
at least one fluorescent lamp ballast; and
at least one fluorescent lamp driven by said ballast, wherein the fluorescent lamp ballast comprises;
a switching section generating an AC drive current for driving the fluorescent lamp;
a switching section controller for supplying switching signals to the switching section to control the switching frequency of the switching section; and
a microcontroller providing a pulse width modulated signal to the switching section controller, wherein the microcontroller controls the pulse width of the pulse width modulated signal to control the drive current supplied by the switching section. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification