Modular, configurable dimming ballast for a gas-discharge lamp

摘要

The invention features an electronic dimming ballast for use with a gas-discharge lamp. The ballast is adapted to receive a wide variety of control signals, both from sensors near the ballast or from sensors and/or controllers located away from the ballast. The ballast is constructed on a main circuit board which contains an interface into which a wide variety of daughter circuit boards may be attached so that the ballast may be customized for a particular application or system. Typical dimming input "commands" may be from light level sensors, proximity sensors, portable, hand-held remote controllers, building energy management systems, etc. Unique interface and/or control circuitry to adapt the basic dimming ballast to these inputs is generally contained on the pluggable daughter cards.