United States Patent [191 ' V[111 Patent Number: 4,829,290 Ford [45] Date of Patent: May 9, 1989
United States Patent [191 ' v[111 Patent Number: 4,829,290 Ford [45] Date of Patent: May 9, 1989 [54] LOW VOLTAGE ALERT CIRCUIT Primary Examiner-—Joseph A. Orsino _ Assistant Examiner-Jeffery A. Hofsass [75] Inventor. Robert B. Ford, Tamarac, Fla. Attorney’ Agent, or Firm__Manin J. McKinley [73] Assignee: Motorola, Inc., Schaumburg, Ill. [21] Appl. No.: 140,520 [57] ABSTRACT [22] Filed: Jam 4, 1988 The ‘alert circuit includesla minimum number of ‘inex penslve dlscrete electronic components to provide a [51] . .......................... .; ..... .. GUBB 21/ 00 ?ashing alert when battery voltage drops below a pre_ """ 636g0/665g3;636%0/6%366_ determined trigger voltage. A single unijunction tran [ 320;“) ‘18. 354/72’ sistor circuit functions as a combination low voltage ’ ’ detector and oscillator to output periodic pulses to an [56] References Cited LED annunciator circuit when battery voltage is low. US. PATENT DOCUMENTS 3,810,144 5/1974 Clouse ........................... .. 340/663 X 4 Claims, 1 Drawing Sheet 21s 2283I 222 218 zozii a 220*: 208 j / 23o , 232 234 US. Patent May 9,1989 4,829,290 ‘ 104 112 108 1101... K 116< 105 -PRIOR ART FIGJ 4,829,290 1 2 understand how to adapt the exemplary embodiment to LOW VOLTAGE ALERT CIRCUIT their own design criteria. Referring to FIG. 2, a battery 202 is connected to ?rst BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION and second input terminals 204 and 206. A 10K Ohm This invention pertains to low voltage detection cir 5 resistor 208 causes sufficient current to ?ow through cuits and, more particularly, to a combination low volt silicon diode 210 such that the forward voltage drop of age detection and alerting circuit that utilizes a relax diode 210 is approximately 0.6 volts.
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