Patent Grant
11672061
The present disclosure relates to an LED light string control system and a method of controlling the same, and more particularly to an LED light string control system with signal identification function and a method of controlling the same.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and do not necessarily constitute prior art.
Since the application of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is becoming more and more popular, and the manufacturing cost thereof is also getting lower and lower, the application of LEDs in lighting or display is becoming more and more extensive. Correspondingly, there are more and more operation and control methods for the lighting behavior of LEDs. In the application of LED light strings, since the previous technology only uses the time width to determine whether the logic signal is “0” or “1”, the disadvantage is that in the LED light string, the number of lights, the length of the distance between the lights, and the thickness of the wire diameter of the light string will affect the parasitic capacitive reactance in the LED light string. If the parasitic capacitance is too large, the square wave waveform of “0” and “1” will be distorted.
It is assumed that the square-wave waveform of “0” and “1” should last for 1 μs under ideal conditions, and the LED light string needs to last at least 0.8 μs to identify this signal as “0” or “1”. However, due to the distortion by influence of too large parasitic capacitance, the square-wave waveform with logic “0” is only 0.5 μs. Therefore, if the square-wave waveform is distorted, only using the time width to determine the logic signal may easily lead to insufficient time width and misjudgment, which in turn leads to the situation that the LED light string cannot be controlled.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide an LED light string control system to solve problems of the existing technology. The LED light string control system includes an LED light string, a voltage generation apparatus, and a control module. The LED light string includes at least one LED module. The voltage generation apparatus is coupled to the LED light string. The control module is coupled to the voltage generation apparatus, and controls the voltage generation apparatus to change a signal provided to the LED light string to a first voltage level according to a first logic of a light command, and changes the signal to a second voltage level according to a second logic of the light command. The light command is composed of the plurality of first logics and the plurality of second logics. The control module controls the voltage generation apparatus to change the signal to the second voltage level as a distinction voltage level to distinguish the two consecutive first voltage levels once the first logics of the light command appear consecutively, and/or the control module controls the voltage generation apparatus to change the signal to the first voltage level as the distinction voltage level to distinguish the two consecutive second voltage levels once the second logics of the light command appear consecutively. The at least one LED module correspondingly generates a drive command according to the plurality of first voltage levels and the plurality of second voltage levels except the distinction voltage level so as to generate lighting behavior according to the drive command. The distinction voltage has a first time width, the first voltage level has a second time width, and the second voltage level has a third time width; the first time width is different from the second time width and the third time width.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a method of controlling an LED light string control system to solve problems of the existing technology. The method includes steps of: changing a signal received by an LED light string to a first voltage level according to a first logic of a light command, changing the signal to a second voltage level according to a second logic of the light command, changing the signal to the second voltage level as a distinction voltage level for distinguishing two consecutive first voltage levels once first logics of the light command appear consecutively, and/or changing the signal to the first voltage level as the distinction voltage level VI for distinguishing two consecutive second voltage levels once second logics of the light command appear consecutively, and generating a drive command, by at least one LED module of the LED light string, corresponding to the plurality of first voltage levels and the plurality of second voltage levels except the distinction voltage levels so as to generate lighting behavior according to the drive command. The light command is composed of the plurality of first logics and the plurality of second logics; the distinction voltage level has a first time width, the first voltage level has a second time width, and the second voltage level has a third time width; the first time width is different from the second time width and the third time width.
The main purpose and effect of the present disclosure are: since the LED light string control system determines the logic signal of “0” or “1” according to the signal level, instead of only determining the logic signal according to the time width, it is not necessary to wait for the full/complete time width of a specific logic before determining that the logic of “0” or “1”, and it will not cause the logic to be unidentifiable due to waveform distortion, which can significantly reduce the transmission time and determination time of the light command.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the present disclosure as claimed. Other advantages and features of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following description, drawings and claims.
The present disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawing as follows:
Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the present disclosure in detail. It will be understood that the drawing figures and exemplified embodiments of present disclosure are not limited to the details thereof.
Please refer to
Specifically, the light command CL usually includes a logic signal composed of “0” and “1”, and is mainly a specific command in which “0” and “1” are arranged and combined in a specific order, for example, but not limited to “11010”. By coding the logic signal, the specific LED modules 12-1 to 12-4 can be designated to generate a specific lighting behavior. For example, but not limited to “00” and “101” designate the lighting behavior of the LED module 12-1 (corresponding to “00”) to flicker (corresponding to “101”). The controller 122 of the LED module 12-1 to 12-4 can realize the lighting behavior to be generated by itself according to a specific signal segment in the logic signal. That is, the logic signal includes at least one signal segment, and each LED module 12-1 to 12-4 correspondingly captures the signal segment to which it belongs so as to generate lighting behavior accordingly. The control module 3 changes the signal Sc at both ends of the LED light string 1 according to the light command CL so that the controller 122 of the LED module 12-1 to 12-4 realizes the lighting behavior that must be generated by yourself, and control the LED LED accordingly.
Furthermore, the light command CL includes a first logic H (for example, but not limited to “1”) and a second logic L (for example, but not limited to “0”). Preferably, the light command CL may be composed of a plurality of first logics H, a plurality of second logics L or a combination of the two according to actual needs. In particular, the present disclosure takes the combination of the two as the main embodiment, but is not actually limited to this. The control module 3 controls the voltage generation apparatus 2 to generate a first specific voltage according to the first logic H so as to change the signal Sc to a first voltage level VH (for example, but not limited to a high-level signal) corresponding to a voltage difference between the DC voltage Vdc and the first specific voltage. The control module 3 controls the voltage generation apparatus 2 to generate a second specific voltage according to the second logic L so as to change the signal Sc to a second voltage level VL (for example, but not limited to a low-level signal) corresponding to a voltage difference between the DC voltage Vdc and the second specific voltage. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the above-mentioned logics, signals and their corresponding relationships are merely examples, and are not limited thereto.
Since the LED light string control system 100 determines the logic signal of “0” or “1” according to the signal level, instead of only determining the logic signal according to the time width, if there are consecutive first logics H or consecutive second logics L, it must be distinguished to prevent the consecutive logics from being determined as a single logic. Therefore, once the consecutive first logics H of the light command CL appear, the control module 3 controls the voltage generation apparatus 2 to change the signal Sc to the second voltage level VL as a distinction voltage VI to distinguish the two consecutive first voltage levels VH. Similarly, cone the second logics L of the light command CL appear consecutively, the control module 3 controls the voltage generation apparatus 2 to change the signal Sc to the first voltage level VH as the distinction voltage VI to distinguish the two consecutive second voltage levels VL. The control module 3 may directly control the voltage generation apparatus 2 to change the signal Sc to the corresponding distinction voltage VI when two consecutive identical logics are detected. It is also possible to generate distinction logic for distinguishing between two identical logics after detecting two consecutive identical logics, and then control the voltage generation apparatus 2 to change the signal Sc to the distinction voltage VI, which is different from the first voltage level VH and the second voltage level VL. Therefore, the controller 122 of the LED modules 12-1 to 12-4 may correspondingly generate the drive command CD according to the plurality of first voltage levels VH and second voltage levels VL (the distinction voltage VI is only used for distinction) to control the LED LED to generate lighting behavior according to the drive command CD. In one embodiment, the LED modules 12-1 to 12-4 are coupled in series, but they may also be coupled in parallel (not shown).
On the other hand, since the difference between the distinction voltage level VI, the first voltage level VH, and the second voltage level VL must be clearly identified, in addition to using the voltage level to determine the logic signal of “0” or “1”, it is also necessary to use time width to clearly identify the voltage level difference. Specifically, the distinction voltage level VI has a first time width, the first voltage level VH has a second time width, and the second voltage level VL has a third time width. The control module 3 controls the voltage generation apparatus 2 to change the first time width, the second time width, and the third time width according to the light command CL to make the first time width be different from the second time width and the third time width so that the distinction voltage level VI, the first voltage level VH, and the second voltage level VL can be clearly identified.
The main purpose and effect of the present disclosure are: since the LED light string control system 100 determines the logic signal of “0” or “1” according to the signal level, instead of only determining the logic signal according to the time width, it is not necessary to wait for the full/complete time width of a specific logic before determining that the logic of “0” or “1”, and it will not cause the logic to be unidentifiable due to waveform distortion, which can significantly reduce the transmission time and determination time of the light command CL.
Please refer to
The control module 3 generates the reversed second voltage level VL or the first voltage level VH according to the consecutive first logics H or the consecutive second logics L. The control module 3 controls the second voltage generation circuit 24 to generate the second voltage V2 according to the consecutive first logics H of the light command CL to make the second voltage V2 as the distinction voltage level VI. Therefore, the consecutive first logics H may be distinguished to avoid being misjudged as a single logic. Similarly, the control module 3 controls the first voltage generation circuit 22 to generate the first voltage V1 according to the consecutive second logics L of the light command CL to make the first voltage V1 as the distinction voltage level VI. Therefore, the consecutive second logics L may be distinguished to avoid being misjudged as a single logic. In particular, in order to prevent the distinction voltage level VI from being misjudged as the first voltage level VH or the second voltage level VL, the distinction voltage level VI needs to be distinguished from the first voltage level VH and the second voltage level VL.
Specifically, the control module 3 preferably distinguish the distinction voltage level VI from the first voltage level VH and the second voltage level VL with a time width. Therefore, the control module 3 sets the first time width of the distinction voltage level VI, the second time width of the first voltage level VH, and the third time width of the second voltage level VL. The control module 3 sets and limits the first time width to be smaller than the second time width and the third time width respectively, or sets and limits the first time width to be greater than the second time width and the third time width respectively, or sets and limits the second time width and the third time width to be the same or different. For the transmission time, it is a preferred embodiment that the first time width is smaller than the second time width and the third time width respectively.
In one embodiment, the control module 3 may include a controller, which may be a controller composed of components such as circuits (such as operational amplifiers, resistors, capacitors, etc.), logic gates, or a programmable microcontroller. The control module 3 may also include a detection unit (not shown) for detecting the voltage/current of each point at the LED light string control system 100 so as to stabilize the overall system by manners of detection and feedback.
Please refer to
The second voltage generation circuit 24A is connected to the first voltage generation circuit 22A in parallel. The second voltage generation circuit 24A includes a first regulation component ZD1 and a second switch Q2. The first regulation component ZD1 is coupled to the LED light string 1. The second switch Q2 is coupled to the first regulation component ZD1 and the ground point GND, and a control end of the second switch Q2 is coupled to the control module 3. When the light command CL is the second logic L, the control module 3 turns on the second switch Q2 so that the first regulation component ZD1 generates the second voltage V2 due to the turned-on second switch Q2. In this condition, one end of the LED light string 1 receives the second voltage V2, and the other end thereof receives the DC voltage Vdc, and therefore the signal Sc (i.e., the second voltage level VL) is changed to the DC voltage Vdc minus the second voltage V2 (refer to
Moreover, when the light command CL is the consecutive first logics H, the control module 3 turns on the second switch Q2 so that the second voltage V2 generated from the first regulation component ZD1 is as the distinction voltage level VI. On the contrary, when the light command CL is the consecutive second logics L, the control module 3 turns on the first switch Q1 so that the first voltage V1 (i.e., the DC voltage Vdc) is as the distinction voltage level VI. In particular, the time width (i.e., the first time width T1) of the first voltage V1 and the second voltage V2 as the distinction voltage level VI is approximately the second time width T2 of the first voltage level VH (or the third time width T3 of the second voltage level VL) of ⅕ to 1/10 so as to distinguish and avoid misjudgment.
Please refer to
The method of controlling the LED light string control system is similar to
Please refer to
Afterward, changing the signal to the second voltage level as a distinction voltage level for distinguishing two consecutive first voltage levels oncefirst logics of the light command appear consecutively (S300). In one embodiment, the control module 3 may control the second voltage generation circuit 24 shown in
Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the details thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20140217886 | Knoedgen | Aug 2014 | A1 |
