Patent ID: 8446151

Claim:
An electrical wiring device comprising: a plurality of line terminals and a plurality of load terminals; at least one sensor coupled to the plurality of line terminals or the plurality of load terminals, the at least one sensor providing a sensor output signal corresponding to electrical perturbations propagating on at least one of the plurality of line terminals or at least one of the plurality of load terminals; at least one fault detection circuit coupled to the sensor, the fault detection circuit being configured to generate a fault detection signal if the sensor output signal substantially corresponds to at least one predetermined fault criterion; at least one user accessible input mechanism configured to provide a stimulus signal in response to being depressed by a user; a circuit interrupter assembly coupled to the at least one fault detection circuit, the circuit interrupter assembly including four sets of movable contacts configured to be driven into a reset state in response to a reset stimulus, the four sets of movable contacts being configured to be driven into a tripped state in response to the fault detection signal; a test assembly coupled to the at least one user accessible input mechanism, the test assembly being configured to initiate a self-test automatically, and in response to the stimulus signal, the self test being configured to determine whether the at least one sensor, the at least one fault detection circuit or the circuit interrupter assembly are in an operational mode or are in a failure mode, the reset stimulus being provided in the operational mode and a reset lockout stimulus being provided in the failure mode; and a reset lockout mechanism coupled to the circuit interrupter assembly and the test assembly, the reset lockout mechanism being configured to disable the reset stimulus in response to the reset lockout stimulus if any one of the at least one sensor, at least one fault detection circuit, or circuit interrupter assembly are determined to be in the failure mode after a predetermined time elapses.