The entire contents of Taiwan Patent Application No. 108127921, filed on Aug. 6, 2019, from which this application claims priority, are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention generally relates to a smart control system, and more particularly to a smart control system using a smart switch.
Home intelligent network is capable of controlling home facilities, such as lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning appliances, communication systems, entertainment and home security devices, to improve convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security. Home intelligent network may be used to perform disaster warning and prevention by detecting an event (e.g., smoke or overheat caused by a fire).
In constructing a conventional smart (or intelligent) control system, all conventional switches in a circuit should be removed from electrical outlet (or wall) boxes respectively, followed by installing smart switches in the electrical outlet boxes respectively. A central controller is then used to control the smart switches.
The removal and installation commonly take a lot of time and manpower. Moreover, when the central controller fails to work properly, all the smart switches in the circuit would lose ability to switch.
For the foregoing reasons, a need has arisen to propose a novel scheme to improve the smart control system.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the embodiment of the present invention to provide a smart control system without removing conventional switches from and installing smart switches into electrical outlet boxes as in a conventional smart control system, and being capable of manually performing switching even when a central controller fails to work properly.
According to one embodiment, a smart control system includes a first unsmart switch, a second unsmart switch and a smart switch. The first unsmart switch is disposed in a first electrical outlet box, the second unsmart switch is disposed in a second electrical outlet box, but the smart switch is not disposed in an electrical outlet box. The smart switch is electrically connected in series between the first unsmart switch and the second unsmart switch.
According to another embodiment, a smart control system includes an unsmart switch and a smart switch. The unsmart switch is disposed in an electrical outlet box, but the smart switch is not disposed in an electrical outlet box. The smart switch is electrically connected in series with the unsmart switch.
In the embodiment, the smart control system 100 may include at least two series-connected switches (e.g., a first switch 11A and a second switch 11B) disposed in electrical outlet boxes (e.g., wall boxes) respectively. It is noted that the first switch 11A and the second switch 11B of the embodiment are conventional mechanical switches, which cannot be controlled via wireless signals and are thus called unsmart switches in this specification. In the embodiment, the first switch 11A may be a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch (also called 3-way switch), which may have one input node and two output nodes; the second switch 11B may be a SPDT switch, which may have two input nodes and one output node. The input node of the first switch 11A may be electrically connected to a line (or live) wire of mains power, the output node of the second switch 11B may be electrically connected to a first node of a load 12 (such as a lamp), a second node of which may be electrically connected to a neutral wire of the mains power or connected to a switch wire not from the mains power. In other words, the smart control system 100 of the embodiment needs not to be connected to the neutral wire. The smart control system 100 of the embodiment may be adapted to controlling a variety of lamps such as incandescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), Tungsten lamps, Halogen lamps or light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. Although a lamp is exemplified in the embodiment, it is appreciated that the embodiment may be adapted to controllably switching other loads such as electric fans or electric curtains.
The smart control system 100 of the embodiment may include a smart switch 13, capable of being controllably switched in a wireless manner, which is electrically connected in series between the first switch 11A and the second switch 11B. In one embodiment, a protocol of a wireless local area network (WLAN), such as Zigbee, Z-Wave or Bluetooth or standards for Sub-1 GHz bands or other protocols adaptable to home intelligent network, may be adopted to controllably switch the smart switch 13. According to one aspect of the embodiment, the smart switch 13 is not disposed in an electrical outlet box (e.g., a wall box), while the first switch 11A and the second switch 11B are disposed in electrical outlet boxes respectively.
In the embodiment, the smart switch 13 may be a 4-way switch, which may have two input nodes as designated as 1 and 3, and may have two output nodes as designated as 2 and 4. When the smart switch 13 is in first state, the input node 1 is connected to the output node 4 and the input node 3 is connected to the output node 2, such that the input nodes pair (1, 3) and the output nodes pair (2, 4) are cross connected as shown in
In the embodiment, the two input nodes of the smart switch 13 may be electrically connected to the output nodes of the first switch 11A respectively, and the two output nodes of the smart switch 13 may be electrically connected to the two input nodes of the second switch 11B respectively. As stated above, the smart switch 13 is not disposed in an electrical outlet box, and the first switch 11A and the second switch 11B are disposed in the electrical outlet boxes respectively. To the contrary, all conventional switches in a circuit should be removed from electrical outlet boxes respectively, followed by installing smart switches in the electrical outlet boxes respectively. A central controller is then used to control the smart switches. The embodiment can controllably switch the load 12 by the smart switch 13 without complex and time consuming removal and installation as in the conventional smart control system. Further, when the central controller of the conventional smart control system fails to work properly, all the smart switches in the circuit would lose ability to switch the load 12. On the contrary, the smart control system 100 of the embodiment is capable of controllably switching the load 12 manually through the conventional mechanical first switch 11A and second switch 11B even when the central controller (not shown) fails to work properly.
In the embodiment, the smart control system 300A may include at least one switch (e.g., a switch 31) disposed in an electrical outlet box (e.g., wall box). It is noted that the switch 31 of the embodiment is a conventional mechanical switch, which cannot be controlled via wireless signals and is thus called an unsmart switch in this specification. In the embodiment, the switch 31 may be a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch (also called 3-way switch), which may have one input node and two output nodes. The input node of the switch 31 may be electrically connected to a line (or live) wire of mains power, and a second node of a load 12 (such as a lamp) may be electrically connected to a neutral wire of the mains power or connected to a switch wire not from the mains power.
The smart control system 300A of the embodiment may include a smart switch 33, capable of being controllably switched in a wireless manner, which is electrically connected in series with and after the switch 31. According to one aspect of the embodiment, the smart switch 33 is not disposed in an electrical outlet box (e.g., a wall box), while the switch 31 is disposed in an electrical outlet box.
In the embodiment, the smart switch 33 may be a 4-way switch, which may have two input nodes as designated as 1 and 3, and may have two output nodes as designated as 2 and 4. When the smart switch 33 is in first state, the input node 1 is connected to the output node 4 and the input node 3 is connected to the output node 2, such that the input nodes pair (1, 3) and the output nodes pair (2, 4) are cross connected as shown in
In the embodiment, the two input nodes of the smart switch 33 may be electrically connected to the output nodes of the switch 31 respectively, and one output node (e.g., output node 2) of the smart switch 33 may be electrically connected to a first node of the load 12.
Similar to the first embodiment, the present embodiment can controllably switch the load 12 by the smart switch 33 without complex and time consuming removal and installation as in the conventional smart control system. Further, the smart control system 300A of the embodiment is capable of controllably switching the load 12 manually through the conventional mechanical switch 31 even when the central controller (not shown) fails to work properly.
Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention, which is intended to be limited solely by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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108127921 | Aug 2019 | TW | national |