Patent ID: 8228003

Claim:
An electronic ballast, comprising: a ballast circuit functional to supply electric power to a discharge lamp; a starting voltage generating circuit functional to generate a starting voltage to start a discharge lamp; a control circuit operably connected to the ballast circuit and to the starting voltage generating circuit, the control circuit functional to control the ballast circuit and the starting voltage generating circuit; and the control circuit comprising a lighting detector circuit functional to detect whether or not a connected lamp is lighting, a logic circuit functional to switch between a first operation period to operate the starting voltage generating circuit to start a lamp and a second operation period to maintain a steady arc discharge after a lamp has started discharging, based on a result of detection from the lighting detector circuit, a measurement circuit functional to measure operation information of the first operation period, a logic circuit functional to control operation during the first operation period based on a result of measurement from the measurement circuit, and a reset circuit functional to initialize the operation information of the first operation period measured by the measurement circuit upon continuation of the second operation period for a reference time or longer.