Patent Application
20120112875
The present invention relates to an automatic door operator for raising and lower a door relative to a door opening, and more specifically to a system and method for operating a door operator having a self powered wireless safety sensor assembly.
Obstacle detection systems for door operators are well known. For example, one type of well known door operator is a garage door opener system which includes a detector that utilizes an infrared (IR) beam transmitted across the door opening and is sometimes referred to as a “beam break” unit. In this obstruction detector system, an IR emitter and IR detector are disposed on opposite sides of the door opening and the emitter sends a beam of IR pulses to the receiver. If the beam is broken by an obstruction, the garage door opener is signaled to inhibit initiation of door closure or, if the door is closing, to stop and reverse the movement of the door. It is noted other types of obstructions systems are known including a “safety edge” system which operation is dependent upon the logic signal connection of first and second wires.
Various types of automatic garage door openers have existed for many years. Conventional automatic garage door openers are electromechanical devices which raise and lower a garage door to unblock and block a garage door opening in response to actuating signals. The signals are electrical signals transmitted by closure of a push-button switch through electrical wires or by radio frequency from a battery-operated, remote controlled actuating unit. In either case the electrical signals initiate movement of the garage door from the opposite condition in which it resides. That is, if the garage door is open, the actuating signal closes it. Alternatively, when the garage door is closed, the actuating signal will open the garage door. Once movement has been initiated, the system is typically deactuated when the garage door movement trips a limit switch as the garage door approaches its open or closed position.
A noted drawback associated with conventional door operating systems, such as automatic garage door openers, is their inclusion of photo-electric safety sensors which are typically wired to a main overhead control/motor unit for providing power and signal indications to the main overhead control/motor unit. While this fully wired approach is stable, however, a significant drawback is that the wires are usually fixed to a position using staples, which leads to a problem of broken or short circuit if any staple is installed improperly thus destroying the wire. Additionally, if a staple is installed with too much pressure or misaligned with the wire, it may lead to unobservable broken or short circuit within the wire. Another drawback is the inefficiency of installation for wiring an extended wire all the way from the floor to the head unit fixed to a ceiling.
One such prior art attempt to overcome the aforesaid drawback of using wired coupled sensors is to provide a wireless coupling between the main over head control/motor unit and the sensors by using batteries as the power source of the sensors. The signal is wirelessly transmitted from the sensors to the main overhead control/motor unit typically via radio frequency (RF). However, this approach is comparatively unstable to the fully hard-wired approach since batteries have limited life cycle and eventually the sensors will come to a power outage, which will affect the operation of the head unit as a faulty or invalid signal is found on the sensors.
In one aspect of the invention according to the illustrated embodiments is the provision of bilateral wireless connection between sensors and the head unit, while maintaining an undisturbed power source to the sensors. Electrical power to the sensors are generated by rollers coupled to a garage door, the signal from sensors to the head unit is preferably wirelessly transferred to the head unit via radio signals. Rollers are typically used for overhead sectional garage doors, which typically rotate in the door tracks along with door movement in either an opening or closing direction. The mechanically energy generated from the rollers are converted into electrical energy preferably using an electric generator coupled to each roller. The sensors are preferably low-power consumption and can be energized via a capacitor (or like energy storage component) or a rechargeable battery component. Thus the sensors are charged merely upon roller movement and therefore require no external power source. Since these sensors concern only when the door is closing, it is not necessary to have the sensors always engaged. Thus, in one embodiment of the invention, a microcontroller with extremely low power consumption (which is preferably operational to be in stand-by mode waiting for command from the head unit when a door-closing operation is triggered) is employed to enable the head unit to send an activation command to the microcontroller in the sensor whereafter the microcontroller “wakes up” the sensor so as to initiate monitoring. In another embodiment of the invention, a microcontroller coupled to the rollers is configured and operational to recognize if the door is being opened or closed by the rolling orientation of a roller so as to cause a safety sensor to be energized upon a desired door movement direction. Thereafter, if a sensor detects an obstruction relative to the moving door, a signal is sent to the head unit for appropriate control.
Thus the sensors of the instant invention according to the illustrated embodiments are easily-wired to the door rollers for undisturbed power and are operational to be in a stand-by mode when the door is not operating in a closing operation and is activated to provide safety monitoring using 2-way wireless communication with the head unit when the door is operating in a closing operation.
The objects and features of the invention can be understood with reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of the present invention taken together in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The present invention is now described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which an illustrated embodiment of the present invention is shown. The present invention is not limited in any way to the illustrated embodiment as the illustrated embodiment described below is merely exemplary of the invention, which can be embodied in various forms, as appreciated by one skilled in the art. Therefore, it is to be understood that any structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention. Furthermore, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide an understandable description of the invention.
Starting with reference to
System 10 preferably includes a head unit 12 coupled to a door track assembly 14, which in turn is coupled to a door 16 (e.g., a garage door). Head unit 12 includes a motor assembly (not shown) for enabling door track assembly 14 to move door 16 between an open and closed position. Head unit 12 and coupled door track assembly 14 are to be understood to be well known in the art.
System 10 further includes according to the present illustrated embodiment, and as will be discussed in further detail below relative to
With reference now to the schematic diagram of
As mentioned above, roller assembly 18 includes at least one roller. This at least one roller is coupled to an electrical generator 50 (preferably mounted in proximity to the roller assembly 18) such that rotational movement of the at least one roller (caused by the opening and closing movement of door 16) imparts rotation of generator 50 enabling generator 50 to generate electrical power. As shown in
Alternative to sensor assembly 20 being coupled to a rechargeable battery 52, since energization of sensor assembly 20 is only required upon movement of door 16 (which door 16 movement causes generation of electrical energy via generator 50), system 10 may include a micro-controller component 54 which detects movement of door 16 (e.g., either via roller movement or upon a signal from head unit 12) so as to then activate sensor assembly 20, which receives its electrical power from generator 50. Thus, in this illustrated embodiment, a rechargeable battery is not required.
In another illustrated embodiment of the present invention, sensor assembly 20 may include a system commonly referred to as a “safety edge” system typically including two parallel cooper wires placed against each other at the bottom of the door 16 which is an open circuit structure that will be shorted (e.g., the two wires contacting each other) once the door strikes an obstruction which short circuit then triggers the head unit 12 to cease movement of door 16. Thus, since the aforesaid “safety edge” system does not consume electrical power but rather requires an electrical source for providing high/low logic signals, the electric power generated by generator 50 will be provided to the transmitting circuitry of the sensor assembly 20 (as mentioned above) while also acting as the electrical source to the aforesaid parallel cooper wires.
Optional embodiments of the present invention may also be said to broadly consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or indicated herein, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of the parts, elements or features, and wherein specific integers are mentioned herein which have known equivalents in the art to which the invention relates, such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if individually set forth.
Although illustrated embodiments of the present invention has been described, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.
This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/411,293 filed Nov. 8, 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61411293 | Nov 2010 | US |
