DC Electronic Circuit Breakers
The DC Electronic Circuit Breakers used by the Octoplex System are manufactured by Moritz Aerospace, a supplier of Electronic Circuit Breaker (ECB) and Switch modules to the aerospace industry since 1997. The Electronic Circuit Breakers consistently monitor voltage and amperage, enabling, if desired, the system to compile a history of a particular load’s amperage usage to enable pre-failure analysis and maintenance. The ECBs employ pulse-width-modulation, enabling dimming functionality for the DC lighting loads. Dimming activity may be applied directly to individual circuits, and also applied simultaneously to groups of circuits as specified by the operator through touch screen programming.
The standard Electronic Circuit Breaker will switch and protect loads up to 30 amperes with negligible breaker component heating. The desired current protection level for each panel installed ECB will be programmed into the system. Thus, a standard ECB will assume the desired current protection rating when inserted into its particular location in any DC panel. The Electronic Circuit Breakers are extremely reliable, and allow the DC panels to be located in remote areas subject to non air-conditioned temperature variations.
DC current demands higher than 30 amperes may be met with either higher rated ECBs, or the use of hydraulic-magnetic circuit breakers. The remotely monitored and controlled hydraulic-magnetic circuit breaker alternative will enable switching and protection of DC loads greater than 250 amperes at 24 VDC.
Each Electronic Circuit Breaker will have two LEDs mounted on its top surface. When accessing the DC Circuit Breaker Panel, these LEDs will provide visual indication of the health and status of each circuit breaker:
| Breaker switched “OFF” |
both LEDs “OFF” |
| Breaker switched “ON” |
steady Green LED |
| Breaker “ON” with NO LOAD |
flashing Green LED |
| Breaker Tripped |
steady Red LED |
| Breaker Failure (replace) |
one Red and one Green LED |
The system is designed to guard against the possibility of an electronic circuit breaker becoming locked in the “ON” position. This occurrence is extremely unlikely, but possible. In this event, upon the initiation of an entered command for the circuit breaker to open the circuit, the system will recognize that the ECB is not performing as directed and electrically force open the circuit within the breaker. This will render the circuit breaker inoperable and the simultaneous red and green LEDs on the breaker will indicate that the breaker must be replaced.
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