Inventors:
Edward Robert Nelson - San Jose CA, US
Stephen Yeung - San Jose CA, US
Assignee:
OptiSolar, Inc., a Delaware corporation - Hayward CA
International Classification:
H02H 3/04, G08B 3/10, H05K 7/00, H02H 3/08
Abstract:
In high-current electrical devices protected by fuses, additional performance data besides whether or not a fuse is blown is useful for diagnostics, repair, and preventing emerging failures from reaching a level that damages the device. An intelligent fuse-holder includes a built-in current sensor. The current sensor signals are passed through an A/D converter and analyzed by a microcontroller. Through an interface, a user can program the fuse-holder to periodically degauss the current sensor coil to improve performance or turn the sensor power off to conserve power. The user may also control various I/O signals carrying information about the fuse, the intelligent electronics, or the host board on which the fuse-holder is mounted.