Patent Application
20240196502
The present application relates generally to lighting devices and, more particularly, to control of a lighting device using Near Field Communications (NFC).
LED-based lighting devices are typically designed to run on low voltage (12-24V), direct current (DC) electricity. However, electricity is typically supplied in higher voltage (e.g., 120-277V), alternating current (AC) electricity. To run LEDs off the typical AC supply voltage, an LED driver is used. An LED driver is basically a power supply whose main purpose is to rectify higher voltage AC to low voltage DC. LED drivers also protect the LEDs from fluctuations in voltage or current. LED light output is proportional to the supplied current, and LEDs are rated to operate within a certain current range. Too much or too little current can therefore cause light output to vary or degrade faster due to higher temperatures within the LED.
The LED driver, or power supply, is a component for LED lighting systems that, together with LED modules or arrays, comprises an LED lighting device. LED drivers “drive” power to LED modules for optimal light output in different applications and different intensities, with different currents and using different dimming protocols. Many LED lighting systems are programmable, with programmable attributes that may include, but are not limited to, output current, dimming curve, and lowest dimming percentage, thereby allowing the driver to match the output of existing lighting devices or new lighting device designs.
Dimmable LED drivers usually have a dedicated dimming circuit built into them. A dimming driver has two functions: As a driver, it converts the input AC voltage to a low voltage DC output. As a dimmer, i.e., a device for varying the brightness of an electric light, it reduces the amount of electrical energy flowing to the LEDs, thereby causing them to dim. The dimmable driver is typically connected to a dimmer switch to manually control the light output of the device.
Reference should be made to the following detailed description which should be read in conjunction with the following figures, wherein like numerals represent like parts.
The present disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The examples described herein may be capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Also, it may be appreciated that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting as such may be understood by one of skill in the art. Throughout the present description, like reference characters may indicate like structure throughout the several views, and such structure need not be separately discussed. Furthermore, any particular feature(s) of a particular exemplary embodiment may be equally applied to any other exemplary embodiment(s) of this specification as suitable. In other words, features between the various exemplary embodiments described herein are interchangeable, and not exclusive.
Lighting devices based on LED technology often include the ability to adjust the output brightness of the lighting device. The LED driver incorporated into these lighting devices may include the ability to limit the output current of the LED driver to set the maximum brightness of the lighting device. These LED drivers may also include the ability to brighten or dim the lighting device under the control of a manual dimmer switch. Some of these lighting devices may also include NFC to configure the maximum drive current, typically during manufacturing or at the time of installation. The value of the LED driver software programmability is not fully utilized as it typically is only used for one time programming of the LED driver at the factory.
These lighting devices typically use NFC to control ALO (adjustable light output) using programming of the LED driver. The NFC capability is not typically embedded at the lighting device level. Therefore, it is not accessible from the room side, i.e., it does not help changing Correlated Color Temperature (CCT), which is a measure of light source color appearance defined by the proximity of the light source's chromaticity coordinates to the blackbody locus, intensity, dim-curve (electrical parameter output in response to control signal input), or other features post installation. There exists a need for an LED driver that uses NFC to control features, such as dimming control, post installation.
Disclosed herein is a device for control of an LED driver using NFC that allows a user to adjust these features post installation using an NFC-capable device to control the lighting device during operation. In general, the technology relates to a wireless controller/module (e.g., NFC module) that can be added to a light fixture and used to control the driver therein, such as a 0-10V dimmable driver. The wireless control module can be mounted remotely from the driver and is capable of controlling programmable and non-programmable drivers.
The disclosed dimming circuit is embedded at the lighting device level, and unlike the current lighting devices, is accessible from the room side, i.e., it allows control of features post installation. The disclosed dimming circuit extends the full feature set of the lighting device including, but not limited to, beam (e.g., light distribution pattern, etc.), CCT, intensity, dimming percentage (which may include, for example, a maximum brightness level, minimum brightness level, etc.), dim-curve, thermal foldback (reduction of the LED current due to rising temperature), and scheduling. This allows the disclosed dimming circuit to extract the full potential of the LED driver software programming. It allows for the placement of the NFC tag remote from the LED driver for a flexible lighting device embedded solution.
As noted above, in the existing NFC-enabled lighting device 100 of
In this example, NFC-capable device 120 communicates with the dimming signal output circuit 136, via the NFC circuit 132 and the dimming signal processing unit 134, to control the LED driver 106 of the typical dimmable LED fixture. Optionally, an external dimmer switch 108 may be coupled to the dimming signal processing unit 134 of the typical dimmable LED fixture via dimmer switch interface 110 to allow a user to manually brighten or dim lighting device 100.
The NFC-enabled control circuit 130 of
Dimming circuit 206 may be coupled to the lighting device via control interface 212. In some embodiments, control interface 212 may be a two-wire interface consisting of Direct Current (DC) output terminals (e.g., DIM+ and DIM−) for controlling dimming of the lighting device. In other embodiments, control interface 212 may be any appropriate interface to communicate with the lighting device, either unidirectionally or bidirectionally, as would be known to a person of skill in the art.
Control module 200 allows for control of operational features of the lighting device, e.g., dimming and/or brightening the output of the lighting device, using either a smart device connected to the control module 200 via the NFC interface, i.e., through an NFC tag attached to the NFC tag interface 208, or an optional manual dimmer switch, such as external dimmer switch 108 from
The example lighting device 300 of
It should be noted that the lighting device 300 of
According to one aspect of the disclosure there is thus provided a device for control of a lighting device to permit a user to adjust features of the lighting device, comprising: a near field communication (NFC) circuit configured to communicate via a radio frequency (RF) control signal; and a controller, the controller configured to: receive input control signals from a user via the NFC circuit; and send lighting control signals to the lighting device to control the operation of the lighting device based on, at least in part, the input control signals.
According to another aspect of the disclosure there is thus provided a device for control of a lighting device to permit a user to adjust features of the lighting, comprising: a near field communication (NFC) circuit configured to communicate via a radio frequency (RF) control signal; a dimming circuit; and a controller, the controller configured to: receive input control signals from a user via the NFC circuit; receive dimming signals from the dimming circuit; and send lighting control signals to the lighting device to control the operation of the lighting device based on the input control signals and the dimming signals.
According to yet another aspect of the disclosure there is thus provided a method, the method comprising: receiving input control signals from a user via an NFC circuit; receiving dimming signals from a dimming circuit; and sending lighting control signals to the lighting device based on the input control signals and the dimming signals.
As used in this application and in the claims, a list of items joined by the term “and/or” can mean any combination of the listed items. For example, the phrase “A, B and/or C” can mean A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B and C. As used in this application and in the claims, a list of items joined by the term “at least one of” can mean any combination of the listed terms. For example, the phrases “at least one of A, B or C” can mean A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B and C.
“Circuitry,” as used in any embodiment herein, may comprise, for example, singly or in any combination, hardwired circuitry, programmable circuitry such as processors comprising one or more individual instruction processing cores, state machine circuitry, and/or firmware that stores instructions executed by programmable circuitry and/or future computing circuitry including, for example, massive parallelism, analog or quantum computing, hardware embodiments of accelerators such as neural net processors and non-silicon implementations of the above. The circuitry may, collectively or individually, be embodied as circuitry that forms part of a larger system, for example, an integrated circuit (IC), system on-chip (SoC), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, etc.
The foregoing description of example embodiments has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of this disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosure be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto.
The term “coupled” as used herein refers to any connection, coupling, link, or the like by which signals carried by one system element are imparted to the “coupled” element. Such “coupled” devices, or signals and devices, are not necessarily directly connected to one another and may be separated by intermediate components or devices that may manipulate or modify such signals.
Unless otherwise stated, use of the word “substantially” may be construed to include a precise relationship, condition, arrangement, orientation, and/or other characteristic, and deviations thereof as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, to the extent that such deviations do not materially affect the disclosed methods and systems. Throughout the entirety of the present disclosure, use of the articles “a” and/or “an” and/or “the” to modify a noun may be understood to be used for convenience and to include one, or more than one, of the modified noun, unless otherwise specifically stated. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.
The present disclosure may be a device, a system, and/or a method. The device, a system, and/or a method may include one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present disclosure.
The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media can be any tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. A non-transitory computer readable storage media, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Although the methods and systems have been described relative to a specific embodiment thereof, they are not so limited. Obviously, many modifications and variations may become apparent in light of the above teachings. Many additional changes in the details, materials, and arrangement of parts, herein described and illustrated, may be made by those skilled in the art.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/386,519, filed 8 Dec. 2022, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63386519 | Dec 2022 | US |
