Patent ID: 7522064

Claim:
An apparatus for testing the life of a leakage current protection device, wherein the leakage current protection device has a first input, a second input, a third input, a first output, a second output, a third output, a self-sustained oscillation circuit that is electro-magnetically coupled therebetween the first input and the second input, and electrically coupled to the third output, a reset circuit with an input that is electrically coupled to the third input, and an output that is electrically coupled to the first output, and a trip coil circuit with an input that is electrically coupled to the output of the reset circuit and the first output, and an output that is electrically coupled to the second output, comprising: (i) a microcontroller unit (MCU) having a first input, a second input, a first output that is electrically coupled to the third input of the leakage current protection device, a second output, and a power supply input; (ii) a fault detection circuit having an first input that is electrically coupled to the second output of the leakage current protection device, a second input that is electronically coupled to the third output of the leakage current protection device, a first output that is electrically coupled to the first input of the MCU, and a second output that is electrically coupled to the second input of the MCU, respectively; (iii) an alarm circuit having an input that is electrically coupled to the second output of the MCU, and a power supply input; and (iv) a power supply circuit having an input that is electrically coupled to the first output of the leakage current protection device, and an output that is electrically coupled to the power supply input of the MCU and the power supply input of the alarm circuit, wherein, in operation, the fault detection circuit receives at least one signal from the second output and the third output of the leakage current protection device, and generates at least one DC voltage corresponding to the at least one signal to be received by at least one of the first input and second input of the MCU, and the MCU compares the at least one DC voltage with a predetermined threshold value to determine whether a fault exists in the leakage current protection device, and activates the alarm circuit if at least one fault exists.