A relay, comprising: a housing enclosure; a first terminal; a second terminal; an armature arranged to assume one of an engaged and disengaged position, such that when the armature is in the engaged position the first terminal is electrically coupled to the second terminal by the armature, and when the armature is in the disengaged position, the first terminal is electrically isolated from the second terminal as a result of the armature being removed from at least one of the first terminal and/or the second terminal; a solenoid that is disposed inside the housing enclosure and arranged to actuate the armature between the disengaged position and the engaged position; and a position sensor that is disposed inside the housing enclosure, the position sensor being arranged to monitor a position of the armature and output an indication of whether the armature is in the disengaged position or the engaged position.

A stroke sensor for detecting a position of a moving object that linearly moves has: a magnetic field generator; a support member that supports the magnetic field generator; and a magnetic field detecting element that detects a magnetic field that is generated by the magnetic field generator. The support member converts a first relative movement of the moving object relative to the magnetic field detecting element to a second relative movement of the magnetic field generator relative to the magnetic field detecting element. The first relative movement is made along a first linear path, the second relative movement is made along a second linear path, and the second linear path extends at an angle different from the first linear path.

The present invention relates to a position sensor circuit designed to detect a magnetic field and to provide an output indicative of its characteristics. The circuit includes a sensor for generating an output signal corresponding to the magnetic field, a signal conditioning circuit arranged to receive said output signal and to output a version of said output signal, a threshold circuit arranged to define at least two pairs of thresholds and to store at least three current sink codes, and a comparison circuit for comparing the version of the output signal against these thresholds to produce a comparison circuit output signal. A configurable logic circuit is employed to select one of the at least three current sink codes based on the comparison circuit output signal. A current source circuit is arranged to receive the selected current sink code and to output a current with a current value corresponding to the selected current sink code. This configuration allows for the determination of the magnetic field's polarity or strength, with the potential for detecting faulty states through specific threshold pairings.

An electromagnetically shiftable positive engagement clutch has a movable part arranged on a shaft for joint rotation therewith and is linearly displaceable along the shaft between a clutch engagement position and a clutch disengagement position. The positive engagement clutch includes at least one fixed part which is aligned coaxially with the shaft, and a stator having at least one energizable drive coil for adjustment of the movable part along the shaft, wherein in the clutch engagement position there is a positive engagement between the movable part and the fixed part and thus a rotary connection between the shaft and the fixed part.

An inductive linear displacement sensor arrangement includes a movable coupling device coupled to a movable body, an electrically conductive coupling element, and a stationary circuit carrier. The circuit carrier includes an excitation structure and a receiving structure, which extend along a displacement path of the coupling device. An evaluation and control unit is designed to evaluate a measurement signal induced in the receiving structure and to determine the current position of the coupling device and of the body. The coupling device comprises a slider on which the electrically conductive coupling element is arranged. The slider is mounted for sliding movement in a plane of displacement via the path of displacement of the coupling device on two parallel guide elements, one of which guides the slider of the coupling device along the displacement path, and another of which is a sliding guide which prevents the slider from tilting and/or twisting.

A high-resolution encoder device to measure and retrievably encode the relative position of a first part P with a second part S comprises sensible elements on part P, said sensible elements providing a variable property for sensing, such that said variable property varies over a length of said part P, a number n of sensors for sensing said variable property, said sensors being separate from each other and disposed on part S, said sensors configured to output signals in accordance with said sensing, and a processing unit connected to receive said signals from each of said n sensors and configured for succeeding ones of said relative positions to form a vector having entries from each sensor respectively, the vector defining said relative positions respectively.

A position detecting switch detects the position of a movable body that is capable of moving in a predetermined direction, based on a magnet attached to the movable body. The position detecting switch is equipped with a magnetic sensor that detects the magnetism of the magnet, and outputs a detected value in accordance with the magnetism, a determination unit that determines whether or not the detected value lies within a predetermined range, and a setting unit that sets the predetermined range centrally around the detected value at a specified position which is a position of the movable body specified by an operator.

A magnetic-field-based position determination device includes a sensor device with at least two magnetic field sensors arranged spaced apart from each other by a distance and with a magnet movable relative to the sensor device. Each of the two magnetic field sensors is configured to measure the magnetic field emanating from the magnet in at least a first spatial direction and a different second spatial direction and, based thereon, to determine a magnetic field vector angle, respectively, wherein the first magnetic field sensor determines a first magnetic field vector angle, and wherein the second magnetic field sensor determines a second magnetic field vector angle. The sensor device is configured to determine the current position of the magnet relative to the sensor device based on the determined magnetic field vector angles and the distance of the two magnetic field sensors from each other.

Methods and apparatus for a sensor having an ADC including acquiring data samples at a first resolution in a sensor having an ADC that digitizes the data samples and processing the data samples to obtain a value for parameter and determine a difference between the value and a first threshold. Further data samples are acquired at a second resolution higher than the first resolution if the difference is less than a selected amount.

An example position sensing system includes: a cylinder actuator having a cylinder and a piston that is movable within the cylinder, wherein a range of movement of the piston is divided into a set of ranges; a magnet that is coupled to the piston; and a plurality of sensor nodes mounted external to the cylinder, wherein each sensor node of the plurality of sensor nodes is assigned a respective range of the set of ranges, and wherein each sensor node provides position information indicating a position of the magnet when the magnet is in the respective range assigned to the sensor node.