Patent ID: 8884562

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an H-bridge configured to couple a direct current power source to windings of a motor, wherein the H-bridge comprises a plurality of switches; and a motor controller configured to: close one of the plurality of switches and only the one of the plurality of switches in a first duty cycle to put the H-bridge in a coast configuration, wherein the windings are short circuited, identify a desired direction for a current impulse to the windings, open the one of the plurality of switches and only the one of the plurality of switches in a second duty cycle in response to identifying a first desired direction for the current impulse to provide the current impulse in the first desired direction and only the first desired direction to the windings, and close another of the plurality of switches and only the another of the plurality of switches in a third duty cycle in response to identifying a second desired direction for the current impulse to provide the current impulse in the second desired direction and only the second desired direction to the windings, wherein: the close the one of the plurality of switches and the only the one of the plurality of switches, the open the one of the plurality of switches and only the one of the plurality of switches, and the close the another of the plurality of switches and only the another of the plurality of switches are configured to reduce ripple currents relative to the ripple currents that would be present with pulse width modulation, and the first duty cycle, the second duty cycle, and the third duty cycle are different duty cycles.