Patent ID: 11937355
Assignee: EATON INTELLIGENT POWER LIMITED
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 6:
7. A method of detecting a functionality type of a dimmer for a dimmer switch system, the method comprising:
providing a master dimmer electrically connected to a power source and a load and controlling dimming of the load by regulating power provided from the power source to the load with the master dimmer;
providing at least one accessory dimmer electrically connected to the master dimmer via a traveler conductor;
generating a first control signal on the traveler conductor with the master dimmer to indicate a functionality type of the master dimmer;
for each given accessory dimmer of the at least one accessory dimmer, selectively enabling or disabling, with the given accessory dimmer, one or more functions of the given accessory dimmer based on the functionality type of the master dimmer,
generating a second control signal on the traveler conductor with the at least one accessory dimmer;
generating the first control signal on the traveler conductor with the master dimmer in response to the second control signal;
generating the first control signal during one of a positive or negative half-cycle of power from the power source; and
generating the second control signal during the other of the positive or negative half-cycle of power from the power source.