Patent ID: 8818564

Claim:
A method for operating a surgical console, comprising: providing pressurized gas, through a valve, alternately to each of a first port and a second port to drive a pneumatic tool coupled to the surgical console; controlling valve open and close times according to a valve duty cycle, wherein the valve open time corresponds to a time to open a first port and wherein the valve close time corresponds to a time for closing the first port, wherein closing the first port coincides with opening a second port such that pressurized air is being directed by the valve either through the first port or the second port; calculating the valve duty cycle by: by (a) analyzing operating pressure data for open and closed valve positions, and (b) determining a valve duty cycle to provide of the valve open time and valve close time that will result in open and closed operating differential pressures above a predetermined threshold; wherein determining the valve duty cycle comprises determining a new valve duty cycle about equal to a previous valve duty cycle+((((absolute value of open pressure)−(absolute value of closed pressure))/2) times (valve duty cycle delta/differential pressure change delta)) where the previous valve duty cycle is the valve duty cycle during testing, open pressure and closed pressure are differential pressures for the port for one cycle of the valve, and wherein the valve duty cycle delta/differential pressure change delta is a ratio of valve duty cycle change to resulting differential pressure change.