Power Source Device for Circuit Breaker

This invention relates to a power source device for operating an electronic circuit for monitoring quantities of electricity flowing through a circuit breaker.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show a prior-art power source device for a circuit breaker disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 150920/1975. Referring to FIG. 2, which is a block diagram of the power source device an input current Im is a rectified current of the current flowing through each phase of the circuit breaker. A current sensing circuit 715 applies the input current Im to a switching circuit 710, and it converts the current Im into a voltage Vc and applies the voltage to a microcomputer 154 as a current sensing signal. The switching circuit 710 is controlled by a voltage sensing circuit 708 sensing the voltage Vc to change the output of the current sensing circuit 715 into the voltage by switching between contact 1, which is connected to an energy storing capacitor 704, and contact 2, which is connected to a bypass circuit 714. The energy storing capacitor 704 smooths the input current Im and stores the energy in the form of the voltage Vc. A D.C./D.C. converter 706 is connected to the energy storing capacitor for obtaining a constant voltage output on the basis of the voltage Vc stored by the energy storing capacitor 704.

If the output voltage Vc of the energy storing capacitor 704 based on the input current Im is not greater than a predetermined voltage, for example, 39 V, the voltage sensing circuit 708 throws the switching circuit 710 to the contact 1, and the input current Im charges the energy storing capacitor 704. When the output voltage Vc exceeds the predetermined voltage, the switching circuit 710 is changed-over to the contact 2, so that the input current Im is bypassed by the bypass circuit 714. An example of the bypass circuit 714 is shown in FIG. 3. In the figure, the bypass circuit 714 is a chopper circuit constructed of an FET. As described above, the voltage sensing circuit 708 receives the output Vc and has a hysteresis characteristic to operate the switching circuit 710 on the basis of the predetermined voltage. The D.C./D.C. converter 706 is also controlled by the voltage sensing circuit 708 so as to turn ON and OFF for supplying and interrupting a voltage on the basis of the output voltage Vc and predetermined voltages (for example, ON at 37 V and OFF at 33 V).

Since the prior-art power source circuit for the circuit breaker provides a voltage on the basis of the switching between the ON and OFF states of the D.C./D.C. converter and the charging and discharging of the energy storing capacitor, a capacitor of high capacitance and high withstand voltage is required. In addition, a wide variation in the output impedance of the current sensing circuit due to the charging and discharging of the energy storing capacitor and the switching of the switching circuit 710 (in general, the bypass circuit is of low impedance) effects the accuracy of the detected current.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a power source device for a circuit breaker capable of supplying a constant voltage to a load without affecting the accuracy of the detected input current irrespective of a wide variation in the device impedance due to fluctuations in the charging and discharging of the energy storing element. To achieve this objective, a dummy burden substantially equalized with a burden resulting from the series arrangement of the load and a constant voltage generating circuit is utilized to effectively maintain the burden of the energy storing element constant.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a prior-art example; and

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing the details of a bypass circuit in the prior-art example.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of this invention. Referring to the figure, a rectifying circuit 10 rectifies a current I detected by a current detection means such as a current transformer, not shown. An overvoltage preventing circuit 17 is operatively connected in parallel with the rectifying circuit 10 to protect the power source device from damage when a high voltage exceeding a predetermined voltage has been delivered from the rectifying circuit 10. A capacitor 11 is connected in parallel with the rectifying circuit 10 and the overvoltage preventing circuit 17. A voltage monitoring circuit 12 is connected so as to monitor the terminal voltage of the capacitor 11 and a voltage to be fed to a load 16. A switching circuit 15 is controlled by the voltage monitoring circuit 12 to switch between contacts 1 and 2. A dummy burden 13 is connected to the contact 1, while a constant-voltage generating circuit 14 is connected to the contact 2. The output terminal of the constant-voltage generating circuit 14 is connected to the power source terminal of the load 16 such as a microcomputer.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described. The secondary output of the current transformer, not shown, which detects the current flowing through the power source device is rectified by the rectifying circuit 10 and is charged in the capacitor 11. If the charged voltage Vd is not greater than a predetermined voltage, for example, 8 V, the voltage monitoring circuit 12 controls the switching circuit 15 to switch to the contact 1, position and the capacitor 11 is charged with its burden, i.e., the dummy load 13. When the charged voltage Vd has exceeded the predetermined voltage the switching circuit 15 is switched to the contact 2 position, so that the charged voltage Vd is applied to the constant-voltage generating circuit 14. The constant-voltage generating circuit 14 generates an output voltage Ve at a constant value even when the charged voltage Vd changes. In the above case, the constant value is set at 5 V by way of example. This constant voltage Ve is fed to the load 16. The voltage monitoring circuit 12 changes-over the switching circuit 15 to the contact 1 when the output voltage Ve has lowered down to a voltage of 4.5 V below which the load 16 fails to operate normally. As described above, the voltage monitoring circuit 12 monitors both the charged voltage Vd and the output voltage Ve at all times and changes-over the switching circuit 15 properly. On this occasion, the dummy burden 13 is substantially equalized to a burden due to the series circuit of the constant-voltage generating circuit 14 and the load 16. More specifically, letting I.sub.2 denote a current which flows via the contact 2 when the charged voltage at the changeover of the switching circuit 15 is expressed by Vd.sub.1, the dummy burden is set at a value equal to a resistance R which is obtained according to R=Vd.sub.1 /I.sub.2. Then, when the switching circuit 15 has been changed-over, the burden of the capacitor 11 does not substantially change, and the change of the charged voltage of the capacitor 11 can be restrained to zero or a minimal value. In a case where the constant-voltage generating circuit 14 and the load 16 are not formed of a pure resistance but have an impedance based on a capacitance or/and an inductance, the dummy burden 13 is similarly configured so as to include the impedance. In the above case, accordingly, both the burdens are set so as to become substantially equal.

According to this invention, the burden of the capacitor 11 is always constant, so that when the switching circuit 15 has been changed-over, the change of the charging or discharging of the capacitor 11 is negligibly small and has no influence on the detected current I of the current detection means and the input thereof. Accordingly, even in a case where detection means for measurement, etc. are connected to the current detection means, the detected results thereof are not adversely affected and can maintain high precisions. Moreover, since the change of the charged voltage of the capacitor 11 is small, a capacitor of low withstand voltage can be used, and the circuit arrangement can be rendered small in size and low in cost.