Patent ID: 7245112

Claim:
An energy discharge apparatus for dissipating a quantity of stored magnetic energy in a generator field coil of a brushless generator, the brushless generator having an output signal, the apparatus comprising: an exciter regulator responsive to the output signal of the generator and providing an exciter field signal; an exciter field coil responsive to the exciter field signal and providing an exciter magnetic field; an exciter armature coil responsive to the exciter magnetic field and providing an exciter armature signal; a first control circuit responsive to the exciter armature signal; a variable impedance in series with the generator field coil and responsive to the first control circuit, the variable impedance, wherein the first control circuit includes a first resistor, a second resistor and a capacitor, the first resistor being connected in parallel with the capacitor and being connected in series with the second resistor, the first resistor and the capacitor being connected to the second coil terminal, the second resistor being connected to the first device terminal serving to dissipate the quantity of stored magnetic energy; and a second control circuit responsive to a back EMF generated by the generator field coil, serving to further increase the variable impedance.