POWER-OFF TIMER (POT)

Designed By Bill Hall

Objective: To reduce or eliminate activation failures due to human error when performing monthly highway-grade crossing inspections due to AC power not being restored to the ON position prior to leaving the crossing. Design Overview: All the component of the POT, in lieu of the relay, will be solid state design which makes it cost efficient, compact and contain no moving parts. Design factors are bases on circuit analysis using semiconductor property reactance to current flow and properly designed voltage sources which greatly improves the overall stability of the device in contrast to using electro-mechanical components, which have moving parts and tend to fail at a much higher rate. Another advantage to using solid state components for the POT is each component can be imbedded into a printed circuit board (PCB) and easily fit into a 2 3/4X 4 3/4 (FS) box concealing and protecting the modules while only exposing the push button timer. Using a (FS) utility box also gives versatility to the installation method and allows easy adaptation to the many different systems that are currently being used at highway grade crossings. The same (FS) box can be mounted directly to the AC panel box, surface mounted to a wall or directly connected to the battery charger. The POT was designed to be versatile and easily adaptable to existing systems with minimal field modification. The maintainer will receive the POT fully assembled and will only be required to mount the device, connect an independent B16 and N16 source and connect the AC inputs and outputs. How it works: The POT has a DC and AC closed loop design. The AC loop utilizes the existing AC circuit feeding the battery charger. The AC circuit is broken through a micro relay (similar to the PO relays in the new Safetran cases) connected through a set of contacts that is normally closed (NC). Under normal conditions the AC circuit is closed and supplies energy to the battery chargers. The DC closed loop is connected to the existing B16 battery bank and feeds the DC coils of the relay which is normally de-activated. The DC circuit is broken through a 10 minute solid state push button timer (SSPBT) switch which is normally open, breaking the circuit. When the (SSPBT) is depressed, the circuit closes and energizes the coils, picking the relay and disconnecting the AC source to the battery charges allowing the maintainer to perform his monthly PO test which has a time span of 2-5 minutes. If the maintainer fails to reset the (SSPBT) back to normal; the 10 minute timer will automatically open the DC circuit in 10

minutes and re-establishing the AC circuit to normal preventing a possible activation failure due to human error. Built-in safe-guards: The POT has several built-in safe guards to make in fail-safe. When the energy is applied to the coils of the relay; the relay is picked to a dry set of contacts. This eliminates the possibility of fusing the contacts when theyre in the heel-front position. The relay is also in the closed circuit position when the contacts are in the heel-back position. This allows the use of gravity to return the relay to the heel-back position in the event of a failure. The second safe guard for the POT is the use of isolation diodes D1 and D2. Diode D1 serves two purposes. The first is that it blocks reverse current flow and transients (spikes) back into the loop. A coil acts as an inductor and when the current is first removed at T=0 the coil will reverse the current flow trying to stay charged and opposing the battery during the time of decay. The second function of D1 is that it is a light emitting diode (LED). The LED is illuminated when the push button is activated allowing the maintainer to realize the condition of the circuit. Diode D2 prevents feedback of current to the relay. The third safe guard for the POT is the most unique. The 10 minute SSPBT and the relay coils could have very easily been 120V, utilizing only the energy source to the chargers and completely eliminating the need for B16 energy. This would force the device to be completely dependent on the failure rate of the SSPBT alone. By using the B16 energy to energize the coils and pick the relay a self dependant system is developed. A voltage limiter (VL) installed in series with the battery and the (SSPBT) would allow a 10V minimum threshold to keep the relay picked. If for some reason the (SSPBT) fails; when the self-decaying energy source of the B16 battery bank decays to 10V; the coil reaches minimum threshold and drops the contacts which closes the AC circuit allowing the batteries to charge. Example: If a battery bank held 13V at steady state and the SSPBT failed to de-energize after 10 minutes and the system consumed 5mA: using 10 Log (1-e^-t) the battery bank would reach critical condition (10V) in 1.6 hours causing the relay to drop and closing the AC circuit. The C1 capacitor in the circuit is connected to ground through a dialect and would stabilize the circuit with reference to ground. The Power off Timer is a device that would eliminate activation failures due to human error when a maintainer fails to return the AC power back to the ON position prior to leaving the crossing.