Patent ID: 7315437

Claim:
A fault detector comprising: line side terminals for receiving an input power signal; load side terminals for connecting to a load; hot and neutral conductors for connecting respective line side terminals to corresponding load side terminals; a ground fault circuit interrupter circuit for detecting faults and controllably operating at least one switching device to open at least one of the hot and neutral conductors upon detection of a fault; a processing device connected to the ground fault circuit interrupter circuit for performing self-test operations to determine if the ground fault circuit interrupter circuit is malfunctioning; an end of life (EOL) indicator controllably operated by the processing device to indicate end of life of the fault detector; a full wave rectifier diode bridge connected across the hot and neutral conductors for supplying a rectified power signal to the ground fault circuit interrupter circuit; and a secondary power supply circuit connected to the hot and neutral conductors for providing power to the processing device and the EOL indicator; wherein the secondary power supply circuit is a half wave rectified power supply; and wherein the fault detector comprises a voltage regulator having an output connected to the processing device, and wherein the half wave rectified power supply comprises a conductive path extending from the hot conductor to an input of the voltage regulator, and a diode serially connected to the conductive path.