JPH04235498A - Communication system adopting lighting device and its transmitter and receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce wiring processings accompanying the, construction of a LAN(local area network) at home for controlling electric appliances and to reduce wiring space. CONSTITUTION:A modulation circuit and a pulse generation circuit are provided, only lighting devices in each room are wired, a transmission signal is obtained by changing the period of the optical pulse of the lighting devices, the obtained signal is transmitted to the electric appliances provided with a light receiver to control the applicable electric appliances. By using an infrared pulse from an infrared light emitting element for the transmission from the side of electric appliances and controlling the appliances so that the transmission can take place between the optical pulses emitting from the lighting devices, noise can be prevented.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0010

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a communication system used for controlling electrical appliances in the home.

[0020]

[Conventional technology]

[0021] When constructing a local area network (hereinafter referred to as LAN) for controlling electrical appliances in the home, wiring is usually installed to enable communication from the control computer. A method is used in which terminals installed on the electrical appliances to be controlled are individually connected to the wiring. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, each terminal is wired to a main bus 2 connected to a main computer 1. In the figure, solid lines represent wiring with the main bus 2, and circles represent contacts on the main bus 2.

[0030]

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0031] However, although this is fine when the number of terminals is small, when you want to control all electrical appliances and security systems, a large amount of wiring is required, it takes a long time to construct the system, and it is difficult to maintain. Requires large wiring space. Furthermore, the location and number of terminals are determined by the location of the wiring and the number of points of contact with the main bus, which limits the layout of the room.
Another disadvantage is that construction work is required when moving electrical appliances or installing new ones. For example, when moving the terminal 3 from room B to room A in FIG. 1, it is necessary not only to rewire the wiring but also to add contacts.

An object of the present invention is to provide a communication system that can solve these problems, reduce the amount of wiring required in constructing a home LAN, and reduce the wiring space.

[0040]

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a pulse generating circuit, a lighting fixture that generates a light pulse using the output pulse of the pulse generating circuit, and a pulse generating circuit that generates a light pulse using the output pulse of the pulse generating circuit. a transmitter comprising a control signal generation circuit that generates a control signal that changes the generation period; a light receiver that captures the light pulses from the lighting equipment; an amplifier circuit that amplifies the light pulses received by the light receiver; and the amplification circuit. A receiver consisting of a demodulation circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the circuit into a communication signal, and in the case of bidirectional communication, a pulse generation circuit and an output pulse of the pulse generation circuit to generate optical pulses. A lighting device, a control signal generation circuit that generates a control signal that changes the pulse generation cycle of the pulse generation circuit, an infrared receiver that captures the infrared pulse from the infrared light emitting element, and amplifies the infrared pulse received by the infrared receiver. a transmitter/receiver consisting of an amplifier circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplifier, a demodulator circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplifier into a communication signal, a control microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as microcomputer), and a transmitter/receiver that captures the optical pulses from the lighting equipment. a light receiver, an amplifier circuit that amplifies the optical pulse received by the light receiver, a demodulation circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplifier circuit into a communication signal, an infrared light emitting element for optical communication using infrared light; The transmitter/receiver includes a drive circuit for an infrared light emitting element and a microcomputer for control, and receives a signal from the transmitter.

[0050]

[Effect]

According to this configuration, the main bus of the control computer is connected only to lighting equipment such as fluorescent lights, but not to terminals, that is, electrical appliances, as in the past. moving electrical appliances,
Even in the case of expansion, there is no need for additional wiring or additional contacts on the main bus.

[0060]

【Example】

[0061] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the unidirectional communication system of the present invention is shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that there are one electrical appliance to be controlled in room A, two in room B, and one in room C. Since the lighting equipment is used as a transmitter, the contacts on the main bus 5 connected to the main computer 4 are as follows: contact 6 in room A, contact 7 in room B, and contact 8 in room C. 1 per room each
One piece is enough. Each contact point includes a lighting device 9 such as a fluorescent light,
10 and 11 are connected via a modulation circuit and a pulse generation circuit, which will be described later, and a transmission signal from the main bus 5 is modulated into a light pulse and transmitted from the lighting equipment. The electrical appliance to be controlled communicates by receiving light pulses from the lighting fixture, eliminating the need for wiring. The terminals 12 to 15 are each installed in an electrical appliance,
Control the appliance.

FIG. 3 shows the transmitter and receiver in room A in detail. The transmitter 16 includes a modulation circuit 18 and a pulse generation circuit 1
9. Consists of lighting equipment 9 such as fluorescent lights. A transmission signal sent from the main computer (not shown) via a contact 6 on the main bus 5 is modulated by a modulation circuit 18 and sent to a pulse generation circuit 19 that actually generates pulses. The pulse generating circuit 19 generates a pulse in accordance with a signal to be transmitted, and accordingly, information on the signal is outputted from the light source of the lighting fixture 9 as a light pulse. FIG. 4 schematically shows the method of signal modulation described above. Normally, fluorescent lamps output pulses at the "L" level of the transmission signal,
The period is changed while transmitting the H level signal. The period of the light pulse is so short that the human eye cannot perceive the blinking, so changes in the period cannot be seen by humans. The receiver 17 in FIG. 3 receives a light pulse from a lighting device with a light receiver 20, amplifies the received signal with an amplifier circuit 21, and then demodulates it with a demodulation circuit 22. This signal controls the electrical appliances in Room A via the electrical appliance terminal 12. For example, if room A is a kitchen and the electrical appliance is a rice cooker, when the main computer issues a command to turn on the rice cooker, the rice cooker is turned on as a result of the above-mentioned communication.

Next, as another embodiment, a communication system capable of bidirectional communication is shown in FIG. This corresponds to FIG. 3 in the case of unidirectional communication. Transmitter/receiver 23 on the lighting equipment side
is connected to contacts 26 on a main bus 25 which is connected to a main computer (not shown). The transceiver 23 includes a modulation circuit 27, a pulse generation circuit 28, and a lighting fixture 29 for transmission, and an infrared light receiving section 3 for reception.
0, an amplifier circuit 31, and a demodulation circuit 32, transmission and reception are controlled by a microcomputer 33, and as will be described later, a switch 34 is provided to bring the lighting fixture 29 into a steady state during reception.
It is equipped with The transceiver 24 on the electrical appliance side also includes a light receiver 35, an amplifier circuit 36, and a demodulation circuit 37 for reception, and an infrared LED 38 and its drive circuit 39 for transmission.
The transmission and reception are controlled by a microcomputer 40 connected to a terminal 41 of the electrical appliance.

The operation will be explained using the same figure. First, regarding transmission and reception from the lighting equipment side to the electrical appliance side, the microcomputer 33 of the transmitter/receiver 23 on the lighting equipment side takes in the signal from the main bus 25 via the contact 26, sends it to the modulation circuit 27, and sends it to the switch 34 through the contact. b is selected and the control signal from the modulation circuit 27 is sent to the pulse generation circuit 28. The pulse generation circuit 28 generates a pulse based on a control signal, and causes a lighting device 29 such as a fluorescent light to output a light pulse. In the transmitter/receiver 24 on the appliance side, the optical pulse is amplified by an amplifier circuit 36 and then demodulated by a demodulation circuit 37 to control the appliance (not shown) via a microcomputer 40 and a terminal 41 of the appliance.

Next, transmission and reception from the electrical appliance side to the lighting equipment side will be described. The signal from the terminal 41 of the electrical appliance is
The pulse is sent to the drive circuit 39 via the microcomputer 40, and an infrared pulse is output from the infrared LED 38. The infrared pulse received by the infrared light receiving section 30 on the lighting equipment side is amplified by an amplifier circuit 31, demodulated by a demodulation circuit 32, and then sent from the main bus 25 to the main computer via the microcomputer 33.

[0066] In the case of transmission from an electrical appliance, the light pulse of the lighting equipment becomes a noise source, reducing the reliability of the infrared pulse signal. Therefore, in the present invention, data loss due to noise is prevented by transmitting an infrared pulse between light pulses from a lighting fixture that is a noise source. FIG. 6 shows the microcomputer 33 on the lighting fixture side, the microcomputer 40 on the electrical appliance side, the lighting fixture 29, and the infrared light emitting element (infrared LE) during transmission from the appliance side.
D) Shows the operation of 38. In the figure, the one-dot chain line represents the light pulse from the lighting equipment, and the two-dot chain line represents the infrared pulse from the infrared light emitting element. In step #1, the microcomputer 33 transmits an infrared transmission request and reception preparation OK signal, and then in step #2, switches the switch 34 in FIG. 5 to contact a to keep the output signal of the pulse generation circuit 28 constant. This makes the output constant. As a result, the lighting fixture 29 is in a steady state.
That is, the period of the optical pulse becomes constant. Step #9
The microcomputer 40 that received the transmission request signal at step #
10, the light pulse of the lighting fixture 29 is detected by the light receiver 35,
After confirming steady state, read the period of the light pulse. When the next optical pulse is detected in step #11, step #12
A data start code indicating the start of transmission data is transmitted at step #3, and the microcomputer 33 receives the signal at step #3.
Prepare to receive data. After that, every time a light pulse is detected in step #13, data is transmitted in step #14,
It is received at step #4 on the microcomputer 33 side. Step #
Steps 13 and #14 are repeated until the data ends, but the end of the data is determined in step #15. When the data transmission is completed, after detecting the next optical pulse (step #16), a data end code indicating the end of data is transmitted in step #17, and the process shifts to reception mode in step #18. The microcomputer 33 receives the data completion code in step #5, checks the data for errors, and then shifts to the transmission mode in step #6, turning the above-mentioned switch 34 into a contact in order to enable the lighting equipment to transmit data. Switch to b. If there is a data error (step #7), the process returns to step #1 and the process is redone; if not, the received data is sent to the main computer via the main bus in step #8.

FIG. 7 shows the flow of data transmission. An infrared light emission signal 43 is transmitted between the light pulses 42 .

[0068] In the above communication, if both microcomputers do not receive an accurate code for a certain period of time or more, the system is prevented from stopping by forcibly returning to the transmission mode from the lighting equipment side.

FIG. 8 shows the data structure used in the communication system of the present invention. The signals sent from the lighting equipment side and the signals sent from the electrical appliances are the same. The data has a header at the beginning and an end code at the end. The terminal recognition code clarifies which terminal the signal is sent to or from which terminal, and then it has a data area and an error check code. For example, when sending this error check code from an electrical appliance, step # in Figure 6 is used.
Used in 15 error checks.

[0080]

【Effect of the invention】

As described above, according to the present invention, since the light pulses generated from the lighting equipment carry information, it is possible to control equipment via the light from the lighting equipment. Therefore,
This has the effect of reducing the number of wires for information transmission. For example, when the present invention is used to construct a home LAN, etc., the electrical appliances to be controlled do not need to be connected to the main bus, just by installing a reception terminal, so there is no need for wiring when moving or installing a new appliance. construction work will be unnecessary. The transmitter must be connected to the main bus, but since a lighting fixture is used, the wiring can be done in the ceiling. Furthermore, even if there are multiple electrical appliances to be controlled in each room, since terminal recognition information is transmitted, only one wire per room is required, making the wiring space compact. In the case of bidirectional communication, the same effect can be obtained because only the transmitter/receiver on the lighting equipment side needs to be connected to the main bus. Furthermore, since the light from the lighting equipment, that is, the transmitted signal, spreads over a wide area, the range in which the transmitted signal can be received is wide, so there is an advantage that there are fewer restrictions on the installation location of the electrical appliance that you want to control. Communication using infrared pulses between light pulses of fluorescent lights during bidirectional communication is effective as a method for avoiding noise caused by fluorescent lights in LED communication.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a conventional example.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a unidirectional communication method in which the present invention is implemented.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmitter and a receiver in a unidirectional communication system implementing the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a signal modulation method.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transceiver in a bidirectional communication system implementing the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the control operation of the microcomputer during transmission using infrared pulses.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the flow of data during transmission using infrared pulses.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a data structure used in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 Main computer 5, 25 Main bus 6, 7, 8, 26 Contacts on main bus 9, 10, 1
1, 29 Lighting equipment 12, 13, 14, 15, 41 Terminal 16 Transmitter 17 Receiver 18, 27 Modulation circuit 19, 28 Pulse generation circuit 20, 35 Light receiver 21, 31, 36 Amplification circuit 22, 32, 37 Demodulation Circuits 23, 24 Transmitter/receiver 30 Infrared receiver 33, 40 Microcomputer 34 Switch 38 Infrared LED 39 LED drive circuit 42 Light pulse 43 Infrared emission signal

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A lighting device comprising: a pulse generation circuit; a lighting device that generates light pulses based on output pulses of the pulse generation circuit; and a control signal generation circuit that generates a control signal that changes the pulse generation period of the pulse generation circuit. A transmitter characterized by: 2. The transmitter according to claim 1, wherein the control signal generation circuit includes a computer and a modulation circuit connected to the computer. 3. A light receiver that captures light pulses from a lighting fixture whose period of light pulses can be changed; an amplification circuit that amplifies the light pulses received by the light receiver; and a signal amplified by the amplification circuit as a communication signal. A receiver comprising: a demodulation circuit that demodulates the signals. 4. A transmitter comprising a pulse generation circuit, a lighting device that generates light pulses using output pulses of the pulse generation circuit, and a control signal generation circuit that generates a control signal that changes the pulse generation period of the pulse generation circuit. a light receiver that captures light pulses from the lighting equipment, an amplifier circuit that amplifies the light pulses received by the light receiver, and a demodulation circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplifier circuit into a communication signal. A data communication method using a receiver. 5. A light receiver that captures light pulses from a lighting device whose period of light pulses can be changed; an amplification circuit that amplifies the light pulses received by the light receiver; and a signal amplified by the amplification circuit as a communication signal. 1. A transmitter/receiver comprising: a demodulation circuit for demodulating the signal, an infrared light emitting element for optical communication using infrared light, a driving circuit for the infrared light emitting element, and a control microcomputer. 6. An infrared receiver that captures infrared pulses from an infrared light emitting element, an amplifier circuit that amplifies the infrared pulses received by the infrared receiver, and a demodulator that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplifier into a communication signal. A receiver consisting of a circuit. 7. A transmission device comprising a pulse generation circuit, a lighting device that generates light pulses using output pulses of the pulse generation circuit, and a control signal generation circuit that generates a control signal that changes the pulse generation period of the pulse generation circuit. a light receiver that captures the light pulses from the lighting equipment, an amplification circuit that amplifies the light pulses received by the light receiver, and a demodulation circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplification circuit into a communication signal;
A transceiver that receives signals from the transmitter and includes an infrared light emitting element for optical communication using infrared light, a drive circuit for the infrared light emitting element, and a microcomputer for control; A signal from the transceiver, comprising an infrared receiver that captures the pulse, an amplification circuit that amplifies the infrared pulse received by the infrared receiver, and a demodulation circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplification device into a communication signal. A data communication method using a receiver that receives . 8. A pulse generating circuit, a lighting device that generates a light pulse using an output pulse of the pulse generating circuit, a control signal generating circuit that generates a control signal that changes the pulse generation period of the pulse generating circuit, and an infrared light emitting device. an infrared receiver that captures infrared pulses from the element; an amplifier circuit that amplifies the infrared pulses received by the infrared receiver; a demodulator circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplifier into a communication signal; and a control microcontroller. a transceiver comprising a computer; and a light receiver that captures the light pulses from the lighting fixture;
an amplifier circuit that amplifies the optical pulse received by the light receiver, a demodulation circuit that demodulates the signal amplified by the amplifier circuit into a communication signal, and an infrared light emitting element for optical communication using infrared light;
A data communication system comprising a drive circuit for the infrared light emitting element, and a transceiver that receives a signal from the transmitter and includes a control microcomputer.