Patent Application
20240186692
This invention relates to a lamp or luminaire. The lamp or luminaire of the invention is one which has functions and operations that may be managed by a user from an external source whereby instructions are transmitted wirelessly from the external source, such as by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, to a receiver which is within or forms part of the luminaire, so that the functions or operations may be controlled by appropriate transmissions from the external source.
In the smart landscape and commercial outdoor lighting market, Bluetooth signals are increasingly used to communicate instructions from the system controller to one or multiple luminaires in the landscape, in order to switch on and off, to adjust light intensity or focus, to change light color, to provide some examples only without limiting the possible operations. However, the current construction of luminaires often presents a challenge for reliable signal reception over an acceptable range. Some of the solutions which are currently available are as set out below.
One such solution is that the receiving component, typically an antenna, is left to reside on the LED engine (driver) located within the luminaire's housing. Allowing the antenna to remain on the driver board presents a problem and may reduce the efficacy of the control system. The issue in this case is that the conductive luminaire's housing, typically comprised of aluminum or brass, prevents efficient reception of the controller's signal by the antenna. This can significantly limit the range or distance that the luminaires may be placed away from the controller in the landscape. The challenge with this option is that users may not see the value of the technology because the working range is very or at least somewhat limited when the transmitted signal can be blocked or diminished by the standard conductive aluminum or brass housing material.
Another solution relates to the use of an external antenna on the luminaire or light fixture. In this version, an antenna may be attached to the luminaire and extend to the outside of the housing, thereby allowing for reliable signal reception without interference from the housing, and thus facilitate acceptable and increased spacing across the user's landscape. However, there may be several issues with this solution. One is the added cost of the external antenna. Another is that the external antenna is subject to the hazards of the landscape including damage which may be caused by incidental contact with common landscape mechanical maintenance equipment such as lawnmowers, weedwhackers, and trimmers, and accidental kicks or displacement by the landscaper himself. The external antennas may also be subject to damage due to environmental extremes and even the presence of landscape rodents.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a lamp fixture or luminaire which may receive signals from an external control source to vary light characteristics or operations of the luminaire, the luminaire comprising a housing, receiving antenna within the housing, and an antenna body portion comprised of a generally non-conductive material, wherein at least a part of the receiving antenna is located within the non-conductive antenna body portion.
Preferably, the lamp fixture comprises a housing made of die cast aluminum, and which may have a chamber for the LED emitter and lens, and another chamber for a driver and electronic hardware. In another embodiment, these components may be accommodated in single chamber within the housing.
The driver is connected to a power source, which may take a number of forms. The power source may be battery, solar, or the lamp fixture may be hardwired to a power outlet source. Further, the driver is connected to the antenna, which extends from the driver to a position within the lamp fixture where it may receive substantially uninterrupted signals, passing through the medium of the non-conductive material from the external control source.
Preferably, the housing includes a knuckle assembly which connects to the housing, and wherein the knuckle assembly itself connects to a ground stake for placing the lamp fixture in the ground. The knuckle assembly, which may be hinged or pivotable so the position or orientation of the housing can be adjusted, is preferably comprised of a non-conductive material so that the portion of the antenna which is contained withing the knuckle assembly is able to receive the signals from the external controller source without being diminished or degraded in any significant way.
The antenna in the lamp fixture may be located in a tubular space or channel constructed knuckle assembly, or it may be in modular form so that it is embedded in the knuckle assembly such as during manufacture, and a connection is established between the antenna and the LED driver or other electronic hardware when the knuckle assembly is connected in modular fashion to the housing.
Note that one embodiment of the invention will provide for the antenna to be located in the non-conductive knuckle assembly, but the invention is not limited to such an arrangement. In this regard, the antenna may be inside, or embedded within, a non-conductive material which is a component other than the knuckle assembly, in a way that the antenna is still able to receive signals from the external control source through the non-conductive material. All of these embodiments are within the scope of the present invention.
In the drawings:
The accompanying drawings show generally a luminaire 100 with aluminum housing 1. This embodiment may be considered to be an integrated fixture because the lamp component is designed into the fixture (integrated) and not as a separate or interchangeable component. This concept has advantages over an interchangeable lamp design, but it should be understood that the present invention relates to luminaires or lamp fixtures which are both interchangeable and otherwise. The typical design of an integrated fixture (or many other fixtures) includes a LED emitter and a driver to power the emitter.
The driver is the component that houses the antenna component used in Bluetooth technology. The luminaire 100 will of course require an antenna 4 to receive signals from a remote source for controlling aspects and features of the luminaire. In one form, the driver may be positioned or buried within the housing. Because the housing 1 is comprised of aluminum, which is a conductive material, the antenna cannot usually effectively receive a Bluetooth signal without significant or even complete blockage.
The present invention thus describes a unique housing 1 design to address this issue. The housing preferably includes a polymeric non-conductive knuckle assembly 18, 19. This component will usually be located at the bottom of the housing and attaches directly to the ground stake 23. In the present invention, there is a relocation of the receiving component into the knuckle via a wire lead so as to have an antenna component along or at the end of the lead. Because the knuckle assembly material is fully or partially non-conductive, the signal from the external source is thus able to transmit freely to the control source and to other fixtures, thereby completing an efficient Bluetooth or Wi-Fi controlled system.
In one aspect, therefore, the invention relates to the placement of the antenna inside the lamp fixture within a polymeric or non-conductive component (also referred to herein as, at least in part, the knuckle assembly). This antenna placement allows for superior communication from luminaire to luminaire, and from luminaire to control due to the nature of the material being used, namely, fully or at least partially non-conductive material which will not impede or obstruct reception of signals from an external source. The placement of the antenna within the polymeric knuckle of the luminaire, such as within a Bluetooth Mesh controlled landscape lighting system, allows for superior communication extending the range or scope of the system limited only by the Bluetooth signal and not impeded by the luminaire itself as it may be with other fixtures.
The present concept was developed after an iterative design process that included alternative placement of the antenna component within the luminaire's housing as well as experimentation with non-conductive material bands around the antenna component.
In one version of the invention, the driver component was modified to extend the antenna component closer to the glass covered lens of the luminaire. Trials were met with limited and intermittent success. Additional research indicated that the Bluetooth signal preferably requires very little or no interference from conductive materials in the reception path with the controller. Therefore, although the antenna was closer to the glass non-conductive lens, it was still inset within the conductive housing, certainly allowing for improved reception but preventing better reception which could be achieved by different construction.
A further version of the invention incorporated a non-conductive polymeric band within the wall of the conductive housing, thus allowing Bluetooth signals to be received within the housing. However, again due to close proximity of conductive materials in the transmission path, a signal shadow still existed that disrupted to some extent the reception based on relative replacement of the controller and luminaire resulting in a less favorable intermittent and spotty reception of the signal.
Yet a further version of the invention uses, in one embodiment, a non-conductive polymeric knuckle assembly or component which may be at the base of each luminaire. This knuckle creates the rotational joint between the external mount and the luminaire. An internal wire antenna is used to extend the receiving component of the antenna so as to be within this polymeric knuckle for optimum signal reception. The resulting signal transmission was found to meet or exceed that of an external antenna described above. The advantages of this embodiment include cost savings as the internal wire antenna extension is less expensive to construct than an external antenna, and there is no added risk of damage which may result from external factors such as mechanical, maintenance or environmental damage.
Referring to the figures accompanying this application,
A wireless antenna cable also connects to the driver, and extends out of the aluminum housing and into and through the polymeric knuckle assembly. The antenna may be accommodated in a tubular chamber or channel in the knuckle assembly, or it may be embedded therein during the knuckle assembly construction and manufacture so that it can connect to the driver. Any suitable mechanism for the connection falls within the scope of the invention. The antenna should, however, have at least a part thereof within the polymeric or otherwise non-conductive portion of the luminaire so that signals transmitted from an external source can be readily picked up by the antenna to ensure effective and efficient operation.
The luminaire or lamp fixture may be controlled through the external controller for many operations. These include adjusting the brightness or dimming the light; changing color or color sequences; changing color temperatures; timing and scheduling any operation or sequences, to name a few. The luminaire may be controlled through an electronic device app on a phone, a tablet, computer, or some other device.
Throughout this description, the embodiments and examples shown should be considered as exemplars, rather than limitations on the apparatus and procedures disclosed or claimed. Although many of the examples presented herein involve specific combinations of method acts or system elements, it should be understood that those acts and those elements may be combined in other ways to accomplish the same objectives. Acts, elements and features discussed only in connection with one embodiment are not intended to be excluded from a similar role in other embodiments.
As used herein, “plurality” means two or more. As used herein, a “set” of items may include one or more of such items. As used herein, whether in the written description or the claims, the terms “comprising”, “including”, “carrying”, “having”, “containing”, “involving”, and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of”, respectively, are closed or semi-closed transitional phrases with respect to claims. Use of ordinal terms such as “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., in the claims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence, or order of one claim element over another or the temporal order in which acts of a method are performed, but are used merely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain name from another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish the claim elements. As used herein, “and/or” means that the listed items are alternatives, but the alternatives also include any combination of the listed items.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/386,152 filed Dec. 5, 2022, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63386152 | Dec 2022 | US |
