Patent Application
20050025637
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a direction control device for a ceiling fan, and more particularly to a control device that is easy to be installed in the ceiling fan.
2. Related Art
The ceiling fan has been widely used to provide a cooling function as well as a decorative effect. Because the ceiling fan is secured to ceiling and suspended therefrom, it may have remote control capability so that a user can conveniently control the operation of the ceiling fan. Such a remote control operation is accomplished by using a remote controller to transmit wireless signals to the ceiling fan, and those signals are received by a receiver of the ceiling fan to control the operation states thereof.
Where such a ceiling fan is provided with a remote control and rotation direction control capabilities, a remote receiver and a direction control device (not shown) are both installed in the canopy (83). Although the space inside the canopy (83) is large enough to accommodate the receiver and the direction device, the installation process is difficult. As the direction control to the motor (80) is accomplished by switching the power connection lines (power polarities) thereof, the connection lines of the motor (80) have to be connected to the switch box (84) such that the operation of the motor (80) can be controlled by the pull chain (85), and then redirected to the switch box (84) through the hanger rod (82). The hanger rod (82) is hollow to receive electrical wires or the like. However, the inner diameter of the hanger rod (82) is usually so small such that the connection wires of the motor (80) are difficult to be extended therethrough. Particularly, the connection wires have to be manually extended through the hanger rod (82), which results in difficulty in assembly of a ceiling fan. Therefore, there is a need for the above ceiling fan control device to be improved.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a direction control device for a ceiling fan which is easily installed in the ceiling fan.
To achieve the objective, the control device includes:
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
A direction control circuit (20) is preferably provided inside the switch box (14) and a remote receiver (30), on which manual operation buttons (31) are arranged, can be secured on a wall and electrically connected to the direction control circuit (20) through conducting wires (200) that are indoor wires pre-arranged inside the house. Further, said direction control circuit (20) also could be attached on the body (10) of the ceiling fan.
Further, the direction control circuit (20) is electrically connected with connection lines (not shown) of the motor and conducting wires (200) of the remote receiver (30). The connection lines of the motor and the conducting wires (200) are both connected to a male connector (21). In this preferred embodiment, the direction control circuit (20) is connected to a female connector (22) to correspondingly connect to the male connector (21). With such a connection of male and female connectors (21, 22), the direction control circuit unit (20) is electrically connected to the motor and through the conducting wires (200) to the remote receiver (30). The detailed operation of the direction control circuit (20) is explained as follows:
With reference to
The power supply unit (23) is capable of rectifying and regulating voltage to provide a working voltage to the entire direction control circuit (20).
The detection circuit (24) is used to sense the signals output from the remote receiver (30), including control signals and an acknowledgement signal periodically generated in normal condition. All the sensed signals are then sent to the microprocessor (25) for activating the relay drive circuit (26).
The relay drive circuit (26) is provided to control a switch circuit having two relay switches (260) operated synchronously. The two relay switches (260) are connected to the two coils of the motor and the input power via an activation capacitor (27) and the male and female connectors (21, 22).
When the relay drive circuit (26) is activated, the two relay switches make changes in switching states at the same time to change the direction of the current in the coils of the motor thereby making a change in the rotation direction of the motor.
With the structure of the ceiling fan and the control device as described above, a user can always control the operation of the motor by pressing the manual operating buttons (31). In addition, when the user makes a change to the rotation direction of the ceiling fan by using a remote controller, the remote receiver (30) on the wall receives the control signal and sends it to the direction control circuit (20) through the conducting wires (200). Accordingly, the microprocessor (25) of the direction control circuit (20) is operated to activate the relay drive circuit (26) to synchronously change the states of the two relay switches of the switch circuit (260) thereby changing the power line connection of the motor such that the rotation direction of the motor is changed.
Because the direction control device in accordance with the present invention and the remote receiver (30) are respectively installed in the switch box (14) and on the wall, instead of being installed together, the motor connection is not required to be redirected to the canopy (13) to provide the ceiling fan with both the remote control and rotation direction control capabilities. Therefore, the assembly process for the ceiling fan is easier.
The invention may be varied in many ways by a skilled person in the art. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
