A power contact health assessor system includes a pair of terminals adapted to be connected to a set of switchable contact electrodes of a power contact and a contact separation detector configured to determine a time of separation of the set of switchable contact electrodes during deactivation of the power contact. The system includes a controller circuit operatively coupled to the pair of terminals and the contact separation detector. The controller circuit is configured to determine within a first observation window, a plurality of contact stick durations and an average contact stick duration. One or more additional observation windows with corresponding average contact stick durations are configured. A health assessment for the set of switchable contact electrodes may be based on a subsequent contact stick duration for a contact cycle after the first observation window and the corresponding average contact stick durations for the one or more additional observation windows.

A circuit interrupting device including one or more line terminals for connecting to an external power supply, one or more load terminals for connecting to an external load, one or more contacts electrically connecting one or more line terminals to one or more load terminals, and an auto-monitoring circuit. The auto-monitoring circuit configured to monitor one or more signals to determine an operating state of said circuit interrupting device, output a first signal having a first voltage level based on the operating state, wherein the first voltage level is greater than zero volts, and output a second signal having a second voltage level based on the operating state, wherein the second voltage level is greater than the first voltage level.

A method for diagnosing the wear status of an electrical switching unit including a phase for monitoring the electrical unit. The monitoring phase uses: learning data previously loaded and representative of the type of electrical unit, and initialization data corresponding to the unit to be monitored and stored in memory during an initialization phase. The monitoring phase includes the measurement and the acquisition of a measurement curve upon the opening of the electrical unit, the determination of values of local descriptors with little sensitivity to the temperature from the measurement curve as a function of values of the measurement curve, of initialization data, and of learning data, the determination of a global status class as a function of the positioning values. The device and the electrical unit implement the method.

The present invention is directed to protective wiring devices, and more particularly, to a protective wiring device that meets the prevailing electrical codes and is convenient for a homeowner to reset after it has tripped.

A relay state prediction device according to the present invention includes: a voltage value acquisition unit that measures every moment a detected voltage detected from two ends of a shunt resistor; a voltage value difference calculation unit that calculates a voltage value difference between a first voltage value of when the detected voltage becomes minimum by an armature starting displacement after a primary-side switch is turned off and a second voltage value of when secondary-side contacts are opened; a slope calculation unit that calculates a slope at which the voltage value difference decreases as the secondary-side contacts are repeatedly opened and closed in response to the primary-side switch repeatedly turning on and off; and a state prediction unit that predicts the number of openable and closable times from the present time until the voltage value difference reaches a predetermined threshold value based on the voltage value difference at the present time and the decreasing slope.

A relay state determination device according to the present invention includes: a voltage value acquisition unit that measures every moment a detected voltage detected from two ends of a shunt resistor; a voltage value difference calculation unit that calculates a voltage value difference between a first voltage value of when the detected voltage becomes minimum by an armature starting displacement after a primary-side switch is turned off and a second voltage value of when secondary-side contacts are opened; and a state determination unit that determines that a relay has deteriorated when the voltage value difference falls below a predetermined threshold value.

There are provided a driving control portion configured to output a closing command for bringing a contact to a closed state to a first driving portion, and also to output to the first driving portion an opening command for bringing the contact to an open state and the closing command in an alternate and repeated manner until the current runs through the contact; a number-of-retries obtaining portion configured to obtain, as a number of retries, the number of times that the driving control portion repeated the opening command and the closing command until the current runs through the contact after the driving control portion outputted the closing command to the first driving portion; and a usable period estimating portion configured to estimate a usable period from the present time of a first relay in accordance with the number of retries.

A power distribution apparatus of a vehicle includes a power input terminal configured to receive power. A power output terminal is connected to a load and a main fuse is connected to the power input terminal and to the load through the power output terminal. A number of sub fuses are connected to the power input terminal and a switching circuit is provided between the plurality of sub fuses and the power output terminal. A controller is configured to supply power to the load through the main fuse in response to an operation signal of the load and control the switching circuit so that at least one of the plurality of sub fuses is selectively connected to the load.

A power contact health assessor system includes a pair of terminals adapted to be connected to a set of switchable contact electrodes of a power contact and a contact separation detector configured to determine a time of separation of the set of switchable contact electrodes during deactivation of the power contact. The system includes a controller circuit operatively coupled to the pair of terminals and the contact separation detector. The controller circuit is configured to determine within a first observation window, a plurality of contact stick durations and an average contact stick duration. One or more additional observation windows with corresponding average contact stick durations are configured. A health assessment for the set of switchable contact electrodes may be based on a subsequent contact stick duration for a contact cycle after the first observation window and the corresponding average contact stick durations for the one or more additional observation windows.

A power contact EoL predictor includes a pair of terminals adapted to be connected to a set of switchable contact electrodes of a power contact; a power switching circuit configured to trigger activation of the contact electrodes based on a first logic state signal or deactivation based on a second logic state signal; a contact separation detector determining a time of separation of the switchable contact electrodes of the power contact during the deactivation, and a controller configured to generate the second logic state signal to trigger the deactivation, and determine a stick duration associated with the set of switchable contact electrodes. The stick duration is based on a difference between a time the second logic state signal is generated and the time of separation during the contact cycle. The controller generates an EoL prediction for the contact electrodes based on the determined stick duration for multiple contact cycles.