Arrangement for controlling a plurality of lamps

Claim 1

An arrangement for individually controlling each of a plurality of lamps using a time sharing technique comprising, in combination: a. a plurality of lamps, each having a lamp driver associated with it for lighting it; b. memory means for storing the status of each of said plurality of lamps; c. status generating means for providing a plurality of control signals, each corresponding to a different mode of operation of said lamps, said status generating means driven by clock pulses from a single source and deriving a plurality of different ones of said control signals from said clock pulses, said status genreating means comprising a ground potential source for providing a steady bright control signal, a positive potential source for providing a steady dark control signal, said clock pulses being used to provide a steady dim control signal and being coupled to counter means operable to provide on one output thereof a first control signal and on another output thereof a second control signal, and gating means having said first and second control signals coupled to it for providing a wink control signal to turn on said lamps for a said period of time and to turn them off for a shorter set period of time; d. latch means coupled to each of said control drivers and operated by said contro signals to control the operation of said lamp drivers in lighting their associated lamps; e. addressing means for cyclically and sequentially addressIng said memory to read out the status of each of said plurality of lamps and for selecting the latch means associated with the addressed one of said plurality of lamps; and f. decoder means coupled to said memory means, said decoder means decoding the status of each of said addressed lamps from said memory means and selecting and coupling the signified one of said control signals to its latch means to operate said latch means.