Circuit for Controllably Providing Power From an AC Source to a Load

This invention relates to switches capable of controlling the application of AC power to a load and, more particularly, to a transformerless triac control switch that controllably energizes or deenergizes the load upon the happening or the nonhappening of an event such as the detection of a conductive body.

Industrial applications often require that a load, such as a solenoid, be energized or deenergized upon the sensing of a conductive body. Accordingly, various devices have been developed to sense the conductive body, then to provide a signal to a load control device which provides or removes power to or from the load.

Such systems require adjustment and calibration, constant maintenance and the current which can be drawn through the circuit is often limited. Often the reliability of such systems has not been acceptable.

I have developed a versatile, solid state limit switch which responds to the detection of a conductive body by controllably opening or closing a transformerless triac circuit. The proximity range of the detection can be adjusted and circuit operation is reliable. When the triac circuit is off, the circuit draws only approximately 2 ma compared to 10-15 ma drawn by prior art circuits. Also, the circuit disclosed herein is capable of controlling a load which draws a current of 8 amps compared to prior art circuits which were limited to controlling loads drawing approximately 200 ma.

An AC source coupled to a load can be controllably energized by the use of a transformerless triac control switch. The transformerless triac control switch is connected in series with the AC source and the load to provide energization or to remove energization from a load upon the happening of a particular event. The transformerless triac circuit is coupled to a solid state limit switch which detects the presence of a conductive body within the proximity of a sensing probe. The detection of the conducting body, as sensed by the probe, changes the state of the solid state limit switch which in turn either renders the transformerless triac control switch on or off, depending upon the circuit configuration, to either energize or deenergize the load, respectively. The transformerless triac circuit includes a triac, a diode bridge and a transistor to effectively short circuit the gate of the triac to a positive potential to effect its turn-on.

A decision regarding turn-on of the load is made for every half period of the AC source. The solid state limit switch includes a pulse race circuit which determines its on or off condition. The pulse race circuit begins by a trigger pulse every half cycle of the AC source and two pulse paths are provided. One pulse path is provided through a time delay circuit whereas the other pulse path ultimately is provided through the sensing probe which in turn is coupled to a level detector. In the event that there is no conducting body within the range of the sensing probe, the pulse path through the probe and level detector win the race and effectively control the solid state limit switch, whereas in the event that a conducting body does appear within the approximate range of the probe, the pulse on the pulse race path through the time delay circuit wins, and accordingly controls the condition of the triac.

A hysteresis circuit is provided to control circuit operation when an article is in a transition zone between being sensed and not being sensed.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the circuit capable of controlling a load in response to the proximity of a conductive body;

FIG. 2 depicts the transformerless triac control switch used in the system;

FIG. 3 is a circuit schematic of the solid state limit switch;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the pulse race circuit which controls the solid state limit switch;

FIG. 5 is a circuit schematic of the trigger circuit for providing the pulses at the start of the pulse race;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a typical level detector circuit used in the pulse race circuit;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the time delay circuit used in the pulse race circuit; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the hysteresis circuit also used in the pulse race circuit.

Referring to FIG. 1, it is desired that power from the AC source 22 be controllably provided to load 10. The load may be entirely resistive or may have an inductive or capacitive component. Load 10 is usually a motor or a solenoid which is to be either energized or deenergized depending upon the happening or nonhappening of an event. Specifically, detecting probe 13 of solid state limit switch 18 is positioned in an area where the anticipated event is to occur such as, for example, above a conveyor belt 14 carrying cans or other articles 16. When the article, such as can 16, moves within the sensing distance of the probe 13, it is detected and a signal is provided to the solid state limit switch 18 regarding the presence of can 16. The solid state limit switch 18 renders transformerless triac control switch 20 either open or closed, depending upon the desired function, so as to disconnect or connect load 10 respectively from or to source 22. The solid state limit switch provides a signal to the triac start switch indicating whether it is to change states two times during each period of the voltage waveform from source 22. If source 22 is 60 Hz, the system is capable of changing the state of the transformerless triac control switch 20 once every 8 milliseconds. The higher the frequency of the AC source, the more rapidly the solid state limit switch is capable of controlling transformerless triac control switch 20.

Assume that load 10 is a solenoid that requires a 110 V, 60 Hz signal for energization and that the solenoid is to be energized as can 16 traverses the sensing probe 13, at which time an arm (not shown) controlled by the solenoid pushes the can off the conveyor 14 into a bin (not shown). In this situation, triac control switch 20 is normally open and solid state limit switch 18 makes a decision every 8 milliseconds (twice each period) that it is to remain open. A conveyor 14 moves in the direction shown, the can comes within the range and is detected by sensing probe 13. Accordingly, probe 13 provides a signal to the solid state limit switch 18 indicating the presence of the can. Since the solid state limit switch makes a decision twice each period of the source frequency, at the next opportunity to do so it signals transformerless triac control switch 20 closed, which in turn energizes the solenoid to effect the removal of the can. The solenoid stays energized until the next opportunity for the solid state limit switch to make the open/closed decision, at which time transformerless triac control switch 20 is permitted to open because the can is no longer sensed by probe 13.

Referring to FIG. 2, the transformerless triac control switch 20 is connected in-line to load 10 and AC source 22. When triac 24 is on, alternating current flow through it to energize the load 10. The on-off condition of the triac is controlled by the potential at gate 26. Specifically, when a voltage appears across resistor 28, triac 24 is rendered conductive and current will flow through it as soon as it becomes present. That is to say, if the load has an inductive component, the current will lag the voltage, but is conducted through the triac as soon as it arrives there. If the voltage across resistor 28 or at gate 26 is a pulse, the triac will be rendered conductive, but only for the period that the AC signal stays of the polarity it was when the pulse was applied to the gate 26. For example, consider a sine wave having a frequency of 60 Hz or having a period of about 16 milliseconds. In this case, the sine wave is positive for 8 milliseconds and negative for an equal amount of time. If a short pulse creates a voltage at the gate 26, across resistor 28, during the first millisecond that the AC source goes positive, the triac 24 will remain conductive for the 7 subsequent milliseconds and will turn off when the AC goes through zero. If a pulse is applied to gate 26 to establish a voltage drop across resistor 28 during the first millisecond of the negative portion of the AC, triac 24 will remain on until the AC hits zero heading for the positive side. Hence, an on/off decision is made twice each period.

The diodes 30, 32, 34 and 36 and transistor 38 provide the voltage to gate 26, cross resistor 28, to control the on-off condition of triac 24. A pulse is provided gate 26, or the absence of a pulse is provided gate 26 twice each period of the AC source. That is to say, each time the AC crosses zero volts, going from one polarity to another, there is either a voltage drop across the gate, in which case the triac 24 remains on for the remainder of the half period, or there is no voltage provided, in which case the triac 24 stays off for the half period.

The control of the triac gate voltage is effected by the condition of the solid state limit circuit 18 by way of transistor 38. Specifically, if transistor 38 is pulsed on into full saturation by a positive voltage to its base, diodes 32 and 34 and diodes 30 and 36 will provide an electrical short from the gate 26 of the triac to the AC source through load 10. Diodes 30 and 36 provide a short circuit to ground for the positive half period of the source voltage 22, whereas diodes 32 and 34 provide a short circuit to ground during the negative half period thereof. Hence, a voltage drop occurs across resistor 28 to effect triac turn-on. When triac turn-on is completed, the major portion of the current will be drawn through it. As stated above, the triac turns off when the voltage from the AC source goes through zero. At that time, solid state limit switch 18 again decides whether or not to turn transistor 38 on to again effect a voltage at gate 26.

Referring to FIG. 3, solid state limit switch 18, coupled to triac start switch 20, includes a pulse race circuit 40 (having an "ON" and an "OFF" terminal, 42 and 44, respectively) and peripheral components to respect the winner of the pulse race. Specifically, as will be explained in detail below, if two pulses start a race at t.sub.o and one becomes detained (as a result of a delay), then the other will arrive at the terminals of the pulse race circuit 40 first and will control the state of transistor 38. As can be seen from FIG. 3, a pulse delivered to "ON" terminal 42 turns SCR 46 on, which establishes a voltage divider through resistors 48 and 50, through voltage regulator transistor 47. A voltage across resistor 50 turns transistor 38 on which, as explained above, renders triac 24 conductive. When the voltage drop appears across resistor 50, as a result of SCR 46 being on, transistor 52 is also turned on since its base-emitter junction is forward-biased. This condition provides an electrical short to ground for the gate of SCR 54 so that any pulse which arrives subsequent to the arrival of the first pulse (i.e., the pulse that lost the race) cannot affect the race results and try to turn the circuit OFF when the pulse to the ON terminal 42 arrives first. Similarly, if the race is won by the pulse to the OFF terminal 44, SCR 54 turns on because of the positive voltage applied at its gate. In that case, a voltage appears resistors 53 and 56 causing transistor 58 to turn on. Thus, the gate of SCR 46 is connected to ground potential. This assures that transistor 38 remains off and unaffected by the sudden appearance of the losing ON pulse which arrives subsequent to the winning pulse at ON terminal 42. Respect for the winning pulse is assured because only one of SCR 46 or SCR 54 can be on at once. The SCR that is on will be turned off when the AC voltage (from diodes 30 and 34) goes to zero. Thereafter, both SCR 46 and SCR 54 remain OFF and wait for the results of the next pulse race which occurs during the next half period of the AC from source 22.

Transistor 47, resistor 57 and zener diode 49 provide the voltage V.sub.R for the internal operation of the entire circuit but only for the period of time that the on/off decision is being made. After the on-off decision is made, V.sub.R is decreased to a low level until the sinusoidal AC source 22 again goes through zero volts. In other words, the voltage V.sub.R is provided to the circuit only for the period of time in which the on/off decision is made. The operation of transistor 47, resistor 57 and zener diode 49 can best be seen by considering the case when the decision is made that the triac is to turn on, and then considering the case where the decision is made for the triac to turn off. When the decision is made that the triac is to turn on and turn-on is actually effected, substantially all the current flows through the triac 24 to the exclusion of current flow through the internal circuit for the remainder of the half period. However, if the decision is made that the triac 24 is to remain off, V.sub.R decreases to a very low level as soon as the "OFF" SCR 54 turns on. Specifically, the base of transistor 47 is connected to ground through resistor 56, which lowers the voltage V.sub.R to almost zero. This condition is maintained until the end of the half period of the AC source. The voltage V.sub.R is then provided at zener diode 49 to the internal circuitry for the period of time in which the next on/off decision is to be made.

Referring to FIG. 4, pulse race circuit 40 includes the trigger circuit 60 for starting the pulse race, which starts the race along two paths 64 and 66 twice each period of the source frequency. The trigger is provided when the half wave rectified voltage V.sub.R begins to go positive by more than approximately 12 V, as will be discussed below. The first pulse to "ON" terminal 42 or "OFF" terminal 44 wins the race and thereby controls the on-off condition of the solid state limit switch 18.

Considering pulse race path 64, the course is run as follows: Trigger circuit 60 provides a signal to I.sub.set switch 68 of the linear oscillator circuit 65 to close it upon the reception of the trigger voltage. I.sub.set is a constant current of a known value, more fully described in copending application Ser. No. 576,897 filed May 12, 1975, entitled "Linear Oscillator for Proximity Sensor". Upon closing the I.sub.set switch 68, I.sub.set is provided to proximity detector 12 and probe 13. Oscillations begin to build on the output of proximity detector 12 in a manner more fully described in the copending application. The oscillating signal is produced by probe 13 which is a tank circuit having a particular Q. The Q of the probe 13 varies linearly with the distance a ferrous object is located from it. Also, the amplitude of the oscillations provided to the level detector 70 is dependent upon the location of can 16 with respect to probe 13. The closer the ferrous object is to the probe, the lower the amplitude of the oscillators provided to the level detector 70. Typically, the bandpass of the probe is 3-4K Hz and the amplitude of oscillations reaches 95% of the level which it will ultimately attain in approximately 0.5 milliseconds.

Level detector 70 provides an output pulse if the amplitude of the oscillations exceeds a preset threshold level. If the amplitude does not reach the level, no pulse is provided on the output of synchronous level detector 70. Hence, a pulse will be provided on the output when there is no ferrous article within the sensing range of probe 13. Pulses will be provided on the output of level detector 70 once every half cycle of the AC source until can 16 moves sufficiently close to probe 13 to inhibit the amplitude of the oscillations from the proximity detector 12 from reaching the preset threshold level of the level detector 70. The output of synchronous level detector 70 is provided to "OFF" terminal 44.

Considering the other path 66 from race start circuit 60, the course is run as follows: Race start circuit 60 provides a pulse to time delay circuit 72 upon the reception of the trigger voltage. Time delay circuit 72 provides an output pulse at a point in time delayed form the reception of the pulse at its input. The delay period is selected in order to give the signal on path 64 a chance to build up to and surpass the preset threshold level of the level detector 70 in the short amount of time given. For example, if the oscillations from proximity detector circuit 12 build up to and pass the threshold voltage as established by the level detector 70 in 0.5 milliseconds, that is an indication that no ferrous object is near probe 13 and a pulse appears at "OFF" terminal 44 in 0.5 milliseconds. If the time delay of circuit 72 is set for 0.6 milliseconds, this will give the pulse on path 64 a chance to appear. However, if a ferrous object appears within the sensing range of probe 13, pulses from the level detector 70 are discontinued and the pulse from the time delay circuit 72 wins the pulse race. Therefore, in the event that no metal is present near probe 13, the pulse on race path 64 will always win the race because the oscillating voltage from the proximity sensor builds to a level greater than the threshold of level detector 70 in a period of time less than that established by the delay circuit.

Hysteresis circuit 68 controls the operation of the entire circuit when can 16 is located in the transition zone between being detected and not being detected. To accomplish this control in the case where the load 10 is to be energized at the sensing of the presence of can 16, an increase of time delay in time delay circuit 72 is effected which gives the pulse race path 64 added time to win the race. In other words, when the can is once detected by probe 13 to effect the closing of the triac control switch 20, that closed condition is favored by the insertion of an extra time delay in the circuit 72. Therefore, when the can is in the transition zone, the hysteresis circuit precludes the triac control switch 20 from alternately opening and closing in a random manner.

Referring to FIG. 5, the trigger circuit 60 is responsible for providing the pulse at the start of the pulse race at the beginning of each half period of the rectified sine wave from source 22. Accordingly, the trigger circuit 60 is connected to the potential V.sub.R (see FIG. 3). As the sine wave begins to build during the half period, the building voltage appears at resistors 80 and 82. When the rectified sine wave voltage reaches approximately 6 volts, that value is maintained across resistors 80 and 82 because of the 6 volt zener diode 84. The regulated voltage V.sub.R of approximately 6 volts, therefore, is present to the emitter of transistor 86 after the rectified sine wave has exceeded the 6 volt value of the zener diode 84.

As the rectified sine wave continues to build and surpasses the 12 volt level established by zener diode 88, that voltage appears across resistor 91 at the base of transistor 90 forward-biasing the base-emitter junction to turn it on. When transistor 90 is on, a voltage divider network is established between resistors 80 and 92 which forwardbiases the base-emitter junction of transistor 90 to provide the output pulses to time delay circuit 72 and the linear oscillator 65. Specifically, when transistor 90 turns on, transistor 86 is rendered conductive and the 6 volts at the emitter of transistor 86 appear as a pulse on the output of the circuit. The pulse turns off when the rectified sine wave decreases to a value less than approximately 12 volts. The pulse is provided for every half period of the source voltage.

Referring to FIG. 6, level detector 76 includes a voltage divider having two resistors 94 and 96 to establish a voltage drop V.sub.A across resistor 96. The connection between resistors 94 and 96 is provided to the negative input of operational amplifier 98. The voltage V.sub.A is considered the threshold voltage and an output pulse is provided to "OFF" terminal 44 when and if the voltage from the proximity detector 12 of the linear oscillator circuit 65 exceeds the value of V.sub.A. In other words, as the voltage from the proximity detector 12 begins to build, an output pulse is provided when the voltage on the positive input to the operational amplifier exceeds the value of V.sub.A. It should be noted that V.sub.A can be adjusted to any value and is selected in accordance with the particular voltage levels established in the time delay circuit 72 (FIG. 4). The voltage on the output of the operational amplifier 98 discontinues when the voltage V.sub.A exceeds the voltage on the positive input terminal from the proximity detector circuit 12.

Referring to FIG. 7, time delay circuit 72 is shown to have two inputs and one output. One input receives the pulse from the trigger circuit 60 as shown in FIG. 4. The other input is from the hysteresis circuit 68. The purpose of the hysteresis circuit, as explained above, is to increase the delay time of the delay circuit 72 to give the other pulse on pulse path 64 a chance to win the race under the appropriate conditions. Specifically, when a positive voltage of approximately 6 volts is received from the hysteresis circuit 68, transistor 100 is rendered conductive since its base-emitter junction is forward-biased and the voltage of approximately V.sub.R therefore appears at the emitter of transistor 102 across resistor 104. With a voltage of V.sub.R appearing at the emitter of transistor 102, the voltage at the base of transistor 102 must exceed this higher emitter voltage to turn on. This condition takes more time than in the case where V.sub.R does not appear on the emitter of transistor 102. When the source voltage exceeds 12 volts, as stated earlier, a pulse is received from the trigger circuit 40 by resistor 106 and capacitor 108. The voltage builds at the base of transistor 102 as a function of the time constant of resistor 106 and capacitor 108. When the voltage at the emitter of transistor 102 is overcome, transistor 102 turns on and a voltage appears at the collector of Q2 which forward-biases transistor 110 through resistor 112 to provide an output pulse on the output line to the "ON" terminal 42. When no positive voltage is received from the hysteresis circuit, the delay circuit 68 takes a less amount of time to overcome the emitter voltage from transistor 102 and therefore the pulse is provided to "ON" terminal 42 at a point in time earlier than that at which it would have occurred in the event that the voltage from the hysteresis circuit was received.

The hysteresis circuit is responsible for controlling the circuit operation when an article such as can 16 (FIG. 1) is in the transition zone between being sensed being sensed and not being sensed, as stated above. Specifically, since the decision regarding the presence or absence of can or article 16 is made twice every cycle of the source frequency, assurances must be made that an article located exactly in the transition zone does not indicate a closed condition for one-half period of the source frequency and then an open condition for the next half. In other words, the hysteresis circuit assures the same results for the same proximity condition and does so by providing an advantage to the winner of the last pulse race. Specifically, the circuit provides a voltage which gives the winner of the last pulse race an advantage in the subsequent race. This technique assures that an article such as can 16, which first makes its appearance near probe 13 and changes the condition of the transformerless triac control switch 20, makes the same decision during the next opportunity to control the transformerless triac control switch. The advantage developed by the winner of the prior pulse race, therefore, affects the outcome of the subsequent pulse race so that the transformerless triac control circuit does not intermittently or alternately turn on and off when the article such as can 16 is within the transition zone.

Referring to FIG. 8, the hysteresis circuit is provided with a voltage +V.sub.R. The voltage that appears on the input of the hysteresis circuit depends upon the on/off condition of the triac 24. When the triac 24 is nonconducting, a rectified sine wave V.sub.R appears on the inputs of the hysteresis circuit 68 and a voltage is developed across resistors 114 and 116 and capacitor 118 which permits the voltage across capacitor 118 to build. Under this condition, the voltage is limited to 6 volts by zener diode 120. Diode 120 precludes an excessive and unnecessary voltage buildup across capacitor 118. When a voltage developed by capacitor 118 appears at the connection of resistors 114 and 116, this is an indication that the triac 24 is off. In that case, a voltage is provided to the output of the hysteresis circuit to the delay circuit 72. A voltage applied to the delay circuit lengthens the time of the time delay circuit, as discussed previously. In the event that no voltage appears across capacitor 118 during the half period, this is an indication that the triac 24 was on for the last half period of the source voltage. Accordingly, 0 voltage is provided to the delay circuit 72, and in that case, there is no extra time delay established. Any voltage established by the capacitor 118 and provided to the time delay circuit 72 by the hysteresis circuit 68 decays to a low level during the half period before the subsequent half period of the rectified sine wave as developed by the source applied to it.

In the above explanation, it should be clear that the metal present condition of the circuit turns transistor 38 (FIGS. 2 and 3) on to effect an energization of load 10. If it is desired that the metal present condition deenergize the load, the line from the time delay circuit 72 is connected to "OFF" terminal 44 and the line from synchronous level detector 70 is connected to "ON" terminal 42. Also, it should be apparent that, in an effort to overcome the problem in the area of transitional zones in this case, the output from the hysteresis circuit must be disconnected from the time delay circuit 72 and connected in such a manner which would favor the pulse race path 64. For example, one alternative to providing an advantage to pulse race path 64 would be to provide a higher I.sub.set current through the I.sub.set switch to the proximity detector circuit 12 to enhance the oscillation of probe 13 so that buildup toward the threshold level at level detector 76 can be accomplished in a more speedy fashion.