The disclosure relates to electric desks, and more particularly relates to a method of controlling an electric desk.
An electric desk as smart furniture is friendly to operate, which generally has a height adjustable feature, e.g., desktop flipping or moving up and down, or leg-driven moving up and down of the overall desk body. The electric desk is configured with a hand controller or an operation panel for a user to input a corresponding control instruction to perform control. Typical hand controllers or operation panels mostly perform control via a key, such as a touch key or a mechanical key.
The keys are substantially short-travel keys, so that sticking or short-circuiting likely occurs to the keys in circumstances such as collision. In operation, faults occurring to key control need to be taken into account: a short-circuited key would result in unintentional activation or shutdown failure, causing poor experience or accidents; due to safety hazards, it is needed to reduce the probability of faults. Although palm rejection-enabled hand controllers or pushbutton switches have emerged, their stability cannot satisfy practical use.
To overcome the drawbacks in conventional technologies, the disclosure provides a method of controlling an electric desk, so that the electric desk has a stable, reliable palm rejection feature to ensure user experience.
The disclosure adopts a technical solution below:
A method of controlling an electric desk, wherein the electric desk comprises a control device for controlling movement of the electric desk, the control device comprising a key, a chip module, and a controller, the control device further comprising a sensing element corresponding to the key, the sensing element being triggered by a key depressing action, the sensing element, when being triggered normally, emitting two independent trigger signals, the chip module being configured to receive the trigger signals such that the controller transmits a control instruction driving movement of the electric desk;
Based on the above solution, in the step S10, if the number of trigger signals detected by the chip module is one or zero, the method proceeds to step S30; in the step T10, if the number of trigger signals detected by the chip module is one or zero, the method proceeds to step T30.
Based on the above solution, the two trigger signals generated by the sensing element are referred to as a first signal and a second signal, respectively; in the step S10, the chip module detects the second signal after the first signal is detected; if the first signal is not detected, the method directly proceeds to step S30; in the step T10, the chip module detects the second signal after the first signal is detected; if the first signal is not detected, the method directly proceeds to step T30.
Based on the above solution, the controller issues the control instruction after the chip module detects the two trigger signals for consecutive two times; in the step S10, after the chip module consecutively detects two trigger signals within a unit time, the method proceeds to step S20; the unit time is 0.1 s˜2 s.
Based on the above solution, the sensing element comprises a trigger element, and two triggering ends disposed on the trigger element and corresponding to the key, the two triggering ends, when contacting the key, generating one trigger signal, respectively.
Based on the above solution, the sensing element comprises a touch sensor and a pressure sensor; the touch sensor, after detecting a touch on the key, generates a trigger signal; and the pressure sensor, after detecting the key depressing action, generates a trigger signal.
Based on the above solution, the control device comprises a plurality of mechanical/touch keys and one common key, and by simultaneously depressing the common key and one mechanical/touch key, two trigger signals are generated.
Based on the above solution, the sensing element comprises a common trigger element corresponding to the common key and independent trigger elements corresponding to the mechanical/touch keys; the common trigger element, when being triggered, generates a common signal; and the independent trigger elements, when being triggered, generate trigger signals; in the step S10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step S20; if the common signal and/or the trigger signal are not detected, the method proceeds to step S30; if a plurality of trigger signals are detected, the method proceeds to step S30; and in the step T10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step T20; if the common signal and/or trigger signal are not detected, the method proceeds to step T30; if a plurality of trigger signals are detected, the method proceeds to step T30.
Based on the above solution, the control device comprises a plurality of keys; the sensing element comprises one common trigger element and a plurality of independent trigger elements, the one common trigger element and the plurality of independent trigger elements being set in correspondence to the plurality of keys; when a key is depressed, the common trigger element and an independent trigger element are simultaneously triggered to generate two trigger signals.
Based on the above solution, the common trigger element, when being triggered, generates a common signal, and the independent trigger elements, when being triggered, generate trigger signals; in the step S10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step S20; if no common signal and/or trigger signal are detected, the method proceeds to step S30; if a plurality of trigger signals and/or a plurality of common signals are detected, the method proceeds to step S30; in the step T10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step T20; if no common signal and/or trigger signal are detected, the method proceeds to step T30; if a plurality of trigger signals and/or a plurality of common signals are detected, the method proceeds to step T30.
The disclosure offers the following benefits:
The disclosure discloses a method of controlling an electric desk; the control device of the electric desk may be a hand controller, a remote controller paired with the electric desk, or a control panel provided on the electric desk. In normal operation, when a key on the control device is depressed, the sensing element emits two independent trigger signals which do not interfere with each other. The chip module detects the two trigger signals; upon detection of the two trigger signals, the controller issues a control instruction driving movement of the electric desk; otherwise, the controller does not issue the control instruction. After the user releases the key, the sensing element suspends generation of the trigger signals, so that the chip module, which fails to detect the two trigger signals, suspends issuing of the control instruction. The disclosure adopts a dual-channel activation and dual-channel detection manner; compared with a single-channel detection manner adopted in conventional technologies, the solution disclosed herein is more stable and can reduce failure probability incurred by chip module pin faults.
When the key is unintentionally depressed, the sensing element might generate a trigger signal due to depressing of the key; however, since the key is touched unintentionally, the sensing element can hardly be fully triggered to generate two trigger signals; therefore, the controller would not generate a control instruction to cause the electric desk to perform an unintentional action; as such, the control device has a palm rejection feature, which enhances user experience.
To control the electric desk to stop movement, the user releases the key to thereby stop triggering the sensing element via the key, which may suspend generation of a trigger signal; after the trigger signal disappears, the chip module fails to detect two trigger signals, so that the controller suspends the control instruction, and the electric desk maintains stationary. If the released key is jammed so that the key cannot be reset, the trigger signal would be continuously generated and movement of the electric desk cannot be stopped. In this disclosure, the controller requires joint action of two trigger signals to maintain the control instruction; therefore, in the disclosure, failure to suspend the control instruction only occurs when the key is completely jammed; in most cases, even if the key is partially jammed, the sensing element still cannot be fully triggered to generate two trigger signals; as such, the user needn't worry that the control instruction cannot be suspended after the jammed key is released. Compared with conventional technologies, the solution of this disclosure offers a higher stability.
Furthermore, in the step S10, if the number of trigger signals detected by the chip module is one or zero, the method proceeds to step S30; in the step T10, if the number of trigger signals detected by the chip module is one or zero, the method proceeds to step T30. The chip module can detect the two trigger signals separately; when the key is unintentionally touched, the sensor element would not be fully triggered so that it might only generate one trigger signal; when the number of trigger signals detected by the chip module is one or zero, the controller would be unable to generate a control instruction; this may prevent the electric desk from moving in a case that the key is unintentionally touched.
Furthermore, the two trigger signals generated by the sensing element are referred to as a first signal and a second signal, respectively; in the step S10, the chip module detects the second signal after the first signal is detected; if the first signal is not detected, the method directly proceeds to step S30; in the step T10, the chip module detects the second signal after the first signal is detected; if the first signal is not detected, the method directly proceeds to step T30. The chip module is only activated to detect the second signal after the first signal is generated; if only the second signal is generated, the detection function of the chip module cannot be activated, which may reinforce the palm rejection function of the key, reduce the operating time of the chip module, and extend the service life of the chip module.
Furthermore, the controller issues the control instruction after the chip module detects the two trigger signals for consecutive two times; in the step S10, after the chip module consecutively detects two trigger signals within a unit time, the method proceeds to step S20; the unit time is 0.1 s˜2 s. With this setting, if the key is pressed down by a foreign object, the sensing element would not be fully triggered, so that two trigger signals cannot be generated, and the controller cannot generate a control instruction; the controller can only generate a control instruction when the sensing element is triggered for consecutive two times within a unit time to generate two trigger signals in two times, thereby raising the criterion on control instruction generation and enhancing reliability of the palm rejection function of the electric desk.
Furthermore, the sensing element comprises a trigger element, and two triggering ends disposed on the trigger element to correspond to the key, the two triggering ends, when contacting the key, generating one trigger signal, respectively. Two trigger signals may be generated only by depressing one key, which facilitates user operation; when the key contacts one triggering end, one trigger signal may be generated; when the key contacts the two triggering ends, two trigger signals may be generated, i.e., the sensing element is fully triggered.
Furthermore, the sensing element comprises a touch sensor and a pressure sensor; the touch sensor, after detecting a touch on the key, generates a trigger signal; and the pressure sensor, after detecting the key depressing action, generates a trigger signal. The touch sensor may detect a contact between a human body and a key; unintentional key contact generally occurs when the key is depressed by a foreign object under its own gravity. When the foreign object contacts the key, only the pressure sensor is triggered, and the touch sensor, which fails to detect a touch, will not generate a corresponding trigger signal, thereby preventing generation of a control instruction.
Furthermore, the control device comprises a plurality of mechanical/touch keys and one common key, and by simultaneously depressing the common key and one mechanical/touch key, two trigger signals are generated. The plurality of mechanical/touch keys may correspond to different control instructions. Two trigger signals can be generated only when the mechanical/touch key and the common key are simultaneously depressed, which raises the difficulty in unintentional touch-activated movement of the electric desk. With provision of the plurality of keys, if each key were configured with two trigger elements, the chip module would require more pins to enable signal detection to the two trigger elements of each of the plurality of keys. However, setting of the common key may significantly reduce the number of pins of the chip module without affecting the palm rejection function of the hand controller.
Furthermore, the sensing element comprises a common trigger element corresponding to the common key and independent trigger elements corresponding to the mechanical/touch keys; the common trigger element, when being triggered, generates a common signal; and the independent trigger elements, when being triggered, generate trigger signals; in the step S10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step S20; if the common signal and/or the trigger signal are not detected, the method proceeds to step S30; if a plurality of trigger signals are detected, the method proceeds to step S30; and in the step T10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step T20; if the common signal and/or trigger signal are not detected, the method proceeds to step T30; if a plurality of trigger signals are detected, the method proceeds to step T30. Detection of the common signal and one trigger signal indicates one mechanical/touch key and the common key are operated by the user; the controller generates a control instruction corresponding to the mechanical/touch key; when pluralities of trigger signals occur, it means a plurality of mechanical/touch keys are triggered, which will be deemed as an unintentional touch.
Furthermore, the control device comprises a plurality of keys; the sensing element comprises one common trigger element and a plurality of independent trigger elements, the one common trigger element and the plurality of independent trigger elements being set in correspondence to the plurality of keys; when a key is depressed, the common trigger element and an independent trigger element are simultaneously triggered to generate two trigger signals. In normal operation, when one key is depressed, the common trigger element and one independent trigger element may be simultaneously depressed to generate two trigger signals. Therefore, the user only needs to depress one key, which facilitates operation. In a case of a plurality of keys being provided, if each key were provided with two trigger elements, the chip module would be set with more pins to enable signal detection to the two trigger elements of each of the plurality of keys. However, by setting the common key, the number of pins of the chip module may be significantly reduced without affecting the palm rejection function of the hand controller.
Furthermore, the common trigger element, when being triggered, generates a common signal, and the independent trigger elements, when being triggered, generate trigger signals; in the step S10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step S20; if no common signal and/or trigger signal are detected, the method proceeds to step S30; if a plurality of trigger signals and/or a plurality of common signals are detected, the method proceeds to step S30; in the step T10, after the chip module detects the common signal and one trigger signal, the method proceeds to step T20; if no common signal and/or trigger signal are detected, the method proceeds to step T30; if a plurality of trigger signals and/or a plurality of common signals are detected, the method proceeds to step T30. Detection of the common signal and one trigger signal indicates one key is operated by the user, and the controller generates a control instruction corresponding to the key; when a plurality of trigger signals and/or a plurality of common signals emerge, it indicates a plurality of keys are simultaneously triggered, which is determined as an unintentional contact action.
The above features and advantages of the disclosure will be described in detail through the specific examples with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Hereinafter, the disclosure will be further illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings:
Hereinafter, the technical solutions of the disclosure will be explained and illustrated through embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the embodiments are only some embodiments of the disclosure, not all of them. Other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the examples in the embodiments without exercise of inventive work all fall within the protection scope of the disclosure.
The terms such as “exemplary” and “some example embodiments” referred to herein intend to mean “as an example, as an example implementation, or as an illustration”; no embodiments illustrated exemplarily shall be interpreted as preferred to or better than other embodiments. To better illustrate the disclosure, various details will be given in specific embodiments described infra; those skilled in the art shall understand that without some details, the disclosure can also be implemented.
Refer to
When the key 100 is depressed, the control method comprises:
When the key 100 is released, the control method comprises:
The disclosure discloses a method of controlling an electric desk; the control device of the electric desk may be a hand controller, a remote controller paired with the electric desk, or a control panel provided on the electric desk. In normal operation, when the key 100 on the control device is depressed, the sensing element 200 emits two independent trigger signals which do not interfere with each other. The chip module detects the two trigger signals; upon detection of the two trigger signals, the controller issues a control instruction driving movement of the electric desk; otherwise, the controller does not issue a control instruction. After the user releases the key 100, the sensing element 200 suspends generation of trigger signals, so that the chip module, which fails to detect the two trigger signals, suspends the control instruction issued. The disclosure adopts a dual-channel activation and dual-channel detection manner; compared with a single-channel detection manner adopted in conventional technologies, the solution disclosed herein is more stable and can reduce failure probability incurred by chip module pin faults.
When the key 100 is unintentionally depressed, the sensing element 200 may generate a trigger signal due to depressing of the key 100; however, since the key 100 is unintentionally touched, the sensing element 200 can hardly be fully triggered to generate two trigger signals; therefore, the controller would not generate a control instruction resulting in unintentional movement of the electric desk; as such, the control device has a palm rejection feature, which enhances user experience.
To control the electric desk to stop movement, the user releases the key 100 to stop the key 100 from triggering the sensing element 200, thereby suspending generation of a trigger signal. After the trigger signal disappears, the chip module fails to detect two trigger signals, and the controller would stop the control instruction, whereby the electric desk maintains stationary. If the released key 100 is jammed from being reset, the trigger signal might be constantly generated and movement of the electric desk cannot be stopped. In this disclosure, the controller requires joint action of two trigger signals to maintain the control instruction; therefore, in the disclosure, the control instruction cannot be suspended only when the key 100 released is completely jammed; in most cases, even if the key 100 is partially jammed, the sensing element 200 still cannot be triggered to generate two trigger signals; therefore, the user needn't worry that the control instruction cannot be suspended due to jamming of the released key 100. Compared with conventional technologies, the solution of this disclosure offers a higher stability.
Exemplarily, an actual use process goes like this: to lift the desktop of the height adjustable desk upward by a certain distance, the user selects to control the UP key on the control device; by depressing the key, the sensing element emits two trigger signals; when two trigger signals are detected by the chip module, the controller issues a control instruction controlling the desktop to move upward; after the desktop rises to a desired height, the user releases the key so that the key is reset, and at least one of the trigger signals is interrupted; after the number of signals received by the chip module is less than two, the control instruction is immediately cancelled.
Specifically, in step S10 of the control method noted supra, if the number of trigger signals detected by the chip module is one or zero, the process proceeds to step S30;
The chip module can detect the two trigger signals separately. When the key 100 is unintentionally touched, the sensor element 200 would not be fully triggered so that it might only generate one trigger signal; when the number of trigger signals detected by the chip module is one or no trigger signal is detected, the controller would be unable to generate a control instruction; this may prevent the electric desk from motion if the key is unintentionally touched.
Refer to
The key 100 is a mechanical key, and the sensing element 200 is a dual-head tactile switch. The dual-head tactile switch comprises a trigger element, and two triggering ends 210 disposed on the trigger element and corresponding to the key 100; a trigger signal may be generated when the key 100 touches any triggering end 210. In normal operation, the depressed key 100 may simultaneously contact the two triggering ends 210 to generate two trigger signals, so that two trigger signals may be generated by only depressing one key 100, which facilitates user operation. The two triggering ends 210 are initially set with a high potential; when being depressed, the high potential becomes low potential; when the potential change signal generated due to potential change is detected by the chip module, it may be known that the triggering ends 210 are triggered; although the triggering ends 210 resume the high potential from the low potential after the key 100 is reset, since the information represented by the potential signal currently generated is different, even if the chip module receives such a potential signal, it would not be deemed as a trigger signal; so long as the depressed key 100 is released, the trigger signal would disappear, whereby the hand controller stops driving the electric desk.
A specific detection scenario is described as follows:
Depressing the key 100 would result in three consequences: two low-potential signals, two high-potential signals, and one low-potential signal+one high-potential signal; a control instruction is only transmitted when two low-potential signals are detected, while in the rest two consequences, no control instruction is transmitted;
Releasing the key 100 would also result in three consequences: two low-potential signals, two high-potential signals, and one low-potential signal+one high-potential signal; validity of the control instruction is maintained only when two low-potential signals are detected; while in the rest two consequences, the control instruction would be cancelled.
The key may be one that moves downward when being depressed and reset when being released, or one which is locked after being depressed for the first time and reset after being depressed for the second time. For the second type of key, after the first time of depressing ends, the sensing element may be held at the triggered state to continuously emit trigger signals, thereby maintaining validity of the control instruction; the potential state of the sensing element is on changed after the second time of depressing.
Refer to
Different from the example embodiments noted supra, in another example embodiment of the disclosure, to enhance reliability of the palm rejection feature of the electric desk, the controller issues a control instruction after the chip module detects two trigger signals for consecutively two times; if the two trigger signals are consecutively detected by the chip module within a unit time in step S10, the method goes to step S20, where the unit time is 0.1 s˜2 s. With this setting, even if the key is depressed by a foreign object and the sensing element is fully triggered to generate two trigger signals, the controller still cannot generate a control instruction; the controller can generate a control instruction only when the sensing element is fully triggered for consecutive two times within a unit time with two trigger signals being generated for two times; this raises the criteria on generating a control instruction. Even if four trigger signals are generated by depressing the key for consecutively three times, a control instruction still cannot be generated.
Refer to
To facilitate user operation, the key comprises a touch key portion and a mechanical key portion, the touch key portion being disposed over the mechanical key, so that the surface of the mechanical key portion has a touch detection function; when the user depresses the mechanical key portion, the touch key portion is also triggered simultaneously, which reduces the number of keys and meanwhile facilitates user operation, eliminating a need to simultaneously trigger two keys.
Refer to
In this example embodiment, the plurality of keys include a common key 110, while the rest keys are mechanical/touch keys 120; by depressing the common key 110 and a mechanical/touch key 120, two trigger signals are generated. The plurality of mechanical/touch keys 120 may correspond to different control instructions. Two trigger signals can be generated only when the mechanical/touch key 120 and the common key 110 are simultaneously depressed, which raises the difficulty in unintentional touch-activated movement of the electric desk. With provision of a plurality of keys, if each key were configured with two trigger elements, the chip module would need more pins so as to perform signal detection to the two trigger elements of each of the plurality of keys. However, with the common key, the number of pins of the chip module may be significantly reduced without affecting the palm rejection function of the hand controller.
The sensing element 200 comprises a common trigger element 300 corresponding to the common key 110, and an independent trigger element 310 corresponding to the mechanical/touch key; the common trigger element 300, when being triggered, generates a common signal, and the independent trigger element 310, when being triggered, generates a trigger signal (i.e., potential change signal noted supra).
In step S10, after the chip module detects a common signal and one trigger signal, the process proceeds to step S20; if no common signal and/or trigger signal are detected, the process proceeds to step S30; if a plurality of trigger signals are detected, the process proceeds to step S30;
in step T10, after the chip module detects a common signal and one trigger signal, the process proceeds to step T20; if no common signal and/or trigger signal are detected, the method proceeds to step T30; if a plurality of trigger signals are detected, the process proceeds to step T30.
Detection of the common signal and one trigger signal indicates one mechanical/touch key 120 and the common key 110 are operated by the user, and the controller generates a control instruction corresponding to the mechanical/touch key 120; when a plurality of trigger signals are emitted, it indicates a plurality of mechanical/touch keys 120 are triggered, which is determined as an unintentional touch.
Different from the embodiments noted supra, in one example embodiment of the disclosure, referring to
In normal operation, when one key is depressed, the common trigger element 300 and one independent trigger element 310 may be simultaneously triggered to generate two trigger signals, which only requires the user to depress one key; therefore, the operation is eased.
The common trigger element 300, when being triggered, generates a common signal, and the independent trigger elements 300, when being triggered, generate trigger signals.
In step S10, after the chip module detects a common signal and one trigger signal, the process proceeds to step S20; if no common signal and/or trigger signal are detected, the process proceeds to step S30; if a plurality of trigger signals and/or a plurality of common signals are detected, the process proceeds to step S30;
What have been described above are only example embodiments of the present disclosure; however, the protection scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. A person skilled in the art should understand that the disclosure includes, but is not limited to, the contents described in the drawings and the embodiments. Any modifications without departing from the functions and structural principles of the disclosure will be included within the scope of the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202210043813.3 | Jan 2022 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2023/071171 | 1/9/2023 | WO |