Appeal No. 1996-1577
Application No. 08/215,205
power or upon momentary interruption of power. The AC supply
voltage waveform applied to the ballasts is progressively
reduced in response to control signals to act as a dimmer.
The reduced AC supply voltage is then applied to each of the
lamp ballasts after the control signals are removed.
Representative claim 1 is reproduced as follows:
1. An apparatus for dimming a plurality of parallel
connected gas discharge lamps wherein each of said lamps
includes a ballast, comprising:
first means in response to a first set of control signals
for applying an entire voltage waveform of an AC supply
voltage to each ballast of said lamps upon the initial
application or the momentary interruption of power to said
dimming apparatus;
second means in response to a second set of control
signals for progressively reducing said AC supply voltage
applied to each of said ballasts from said entire voltage
waveform to a minimum portion of each half-cycle; and
means for applying reduced AC supply voltage to each of
said ballasts in response to the deactivation of said second
set of control signals.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Helmuth 3,944,876 Mar. 16, 1976
Niimi 4,904,998 Feb. 27, 1990
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