This disclosure relates to monitoring the condition of electrical/electronic switches over time by monitoring the impedance of the switch. The condition of switches can degrade as they age, which can reduce their performance and may ultimately lead to failure. In many applications, particularly high-voltage applications, the reliable operation of switches may be very important and failures can present a safety risk and cause costly unscheduled system downtime for repairs. It has been realised that as the condition of switches change, their impedance changes, so monitoring the impedance can give a good indication of the condition of the switch, enabling potential faults/failures to be identified early and acted upon pre-emptively.

A charging device includes: a plurality of main relays forming a connection between an electric vehicle (EV)-side connector and an outlet-side connector; a relay welding sensing unit connected to the plurality of relays to sense the presence or absence of welding of the plurality of relays; a welding monitoring relay opening and closing between the relay welding sensing unit side node and a main relay side node; and a control unit controlling the open and close of the welding monitoring relay.

An overload protection switch with reverse restart switching structure, particularly to one that has a molded-case circuit breaker which adding a lampshade parallel stagnation position for overload indication, and when resetting, needs to press back to the RESET for reconfirmation; due to the stagnation position and reverse restart structure, it can avoid repeating the reset action, preventing the reduction of the life of the overload protection switch and repeated exposure or the misjudgment and then resetting of electrical products that have been overloaded and tripped and then overload again then results in causing dangerous; also, the lampshade can be completely tripped even when the lampshade is suppressed, and prevent the danger of repeated tripping during overload.

A switching device includes at least one main contactor, a control power supply and an actuator configured to cause the main contactor to change from an open to a closed state against a force generated by the spring. The contactor has a blade and at least one terminal, the blade being configured to assume a position in contact with the terminal and a position not in contact with the terminal. The switching device includes a detection system configured to determine the contact or non-contact blade position of the main contactor, to generate at least one second signal as a function of the determined blade position of the main contactor and to transmit the second signal to the control power supply. The control power supply is configured to generate a control signal configured to keep the main contactor in the closed state upon reception of the second signal.

A circuit for a circuit interrupter is provided. The circuit may in include a first SCR configured to receive a first trigger signal at a gate of the first SCR, a second SCR configured to receive a second trigger signal at a gate of the second SCR, and a third SCR configured to receive a third trigger signal at a gate of the third SCR. A cathode of the first SCR may be connected to an anode of the third SCR. A cathode of the second SCR and a cathode of the third SCR may be connected to a ground. Methods of operating a circuit interrupter and a circuit are also provided.

A battery system includes: a battery management system comprising a DC/DC converter and a system basis chip; a microcontroller connected to the system basis chip to receive power from the system basis chip; and a relay driver configured to control a relay. The DC/DC converter receives power from a power source, and the system basis chip receives an output voltage from the DC/DC converter. The relay driver is connected to a node between the system basis chip and the DC/DC converter to receive the output voltage from the DC/DC converter. The microcontroller is electrically connected to the relay driver and is configured to: before switching the relay, control the DC/DC converter to increase the output voltage from a first voltage to a higher second voltage; and control the relay driver to switch the relay while the DC/DC converter outputs the second voltage.

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for detecting malfunction of a relay, which includes a temperature determination unit configured to determine whether or not a relay resistor is overheated based on a resistance temperature of the relay resistor being connected to a relay; a charging voltage determination unit configured to determine whether or not a variation value of a charging voltage of a direct current (DC) link capacitor according to an operation start of an inverter system exceeds a reference variation value; and a relay malfunction determination unit configured to determine whether or not the relay is malfunctioned based on one or more the determination results whether or not the relay resistor is overheated and whether or not the variation value exceeds the reference variation value.

One embodiment describes a method that includes determining a desired torque level of a motor actuated by a motor starter; determining, using a control system, a configuration of the motor starter to achieve the desired torque level, in which determining the configuration includes determining which of a plurality of switching devices in the motor starter should be opened and which should be closed; and instructing, using the control system, the motor starter to implement the determined configuration by opening or closing one or more of the plurality of switching devices.

A power management method includes measuring the voltage and the current of a power source, an electrical output and a battery. The power generated by the power source, the power consumed by the electrical output and the power exchanged with the battery are calculated. The power source, the electrical output, the battery and the electrical grid are connected. Measurements of electrical generation and information on the consumption and control possibility of one or more remote systems are transmitted to a monitoring device. The electrical output is connected to the power source, the battery or the electrical grid according to information on the tariff per kWh provided by the public electricity grid, such as

Provided herein are improved relay protection systems that can detect a short to ground condition on an output of a relay. A relay protection system can bias an output of the relay. The output of the relay can be monitored to determine if a bias level reduces below a predetermined threshold, indicating a short to ground condition. If a short to ground condition is detected, the relay protection system can prevent the relay from transitioning from an open position to a closed position. As a result, a power source can remain decoupled from a load, thereby preventing damage to the relay and the load.