CN112188706B

CN112188706B - Grouping method of lighting system and lighting system

Info

Publication number: CN112188706B
Application number: CN201910600399.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈永虎; 戴忻; 高桥晓良; 立野洋司
Original assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co Ltd
Current assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-07-04
Filing date: 2019-07-04
Publication date: 2023-08-22
Anticipated expiration: 2039-07-04
Also published as: WO2021001807A1; CN112188706A

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of illumination, in particular to a grouping setting method of an illumination system, which can efficiently complete the grouping function of a complex illumination system by using a remote controller which has low cost and no graphical user interface or only has a simple graphical user interface. The lighting system performing the grouping setting method includes a remote controller and a plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote controller, the grouping setting method dividing the plurality of light units into a plurality of control groups using the remote controller to perform grouping control on the plurality of control groups, the grouping setting method including the steps of: a detection step of detecting signal intensity of wireless connection between each light unit and the remote controller; a first selection setting step of selecting one or more light units, for which the wireless connection signal strength between the current light unit and the remote controller reaches a prescribed threshold, as a first control group; a first determining step of determining the one or more light units selected by the first selection setting step as a first control group.

Description

Grouping method of lighting system and lighting system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of illumination, and more particularly to the field of control of scene illumination.

Background

With the advent of the intelligent industry and the internet of things, more and more electric products are brought into the internet of things for intelligent unified management. Similar changes also occur in the lighting industry, and along with popularization of the internet of things technology, communication modules are also installed or connected on more and more lighting apparatuses so as to adapt to the needs of intellectualization and interconnection.

At the same time, for indoor or outdoor lighting, the user is no longer satisfied with the simple need to obtain sufficient illuminance with a single luminaire, but is increasingly focusing on the decorative function of the lighting itself. By utilizing the matching of parameters such as the type, style, dimming performance and the like of a group of light units (such as light sources of lamps and lanterns and components capable of changing the lighting state of the light sources, such as shutters, lampshades and baffles), various complicated and attractive lighting scenes can be combined, and the matching of the technology and the art is promoted in the field of commercial lighting and household lighting.

However, as the combination strategies of luminaires become increasingly complex, so too does the control systems that control to implement these combination strategies. Currently, for the control of complex lighting systems, it is generally necessary to implement the control by using a terminal application installed in a mobile terminal, and a graphical user interface provided by the terminal application may generate separate controls for different light units, interact with a user by using a software interface, and compile the controls of several light units into an independent control group. By curing several light scenes for each control group, the user can choose to choose and load from these already defined light scenes as needed to simplify control.

On the one hand, the design cost of software, a graphic user interface and the like is high, and on the other hand, some countries and regions with insufficient popularity of the smart phone and some people with specific use habits (such as the old) do not tend to use the smart phone for installation and control, so that the terminal application still faces a plurality of difficulties in actual popularization.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention provides a grouping setting method of a lighting system, which can efficiently accomplish a grouping function of a complex lighting system using a remote controller having no graphical user interface or only a simple graphical user interface, which is low in cost.

A lighting system that performs a grouping setting method including a remote controller and a plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote controller, the grouping setting method dividing the plurality of light units into a plurality of control groups using the remote controller to perform grouping control on the plurality of control groups, the grouping setting method including the steps of: a detection step of detecting signal intensity of wireless connection between each light unit and the remote controller; a first selection setting step of selecting one or more light units with the wireless connection signal strength reaching a specified threshold between the current light unit and the remote controller as a first light unit to be grouped so as to be grouped into a first control group; and a first determining step of determining to group the first light units to be grouped selected in at least a part of the first selection setting step into the first control group.

The signal intensity of the wireless connection can well reflect the distance between the remote controller and the light unit and whether the situation of blocking objects such as walls and metals exists or not, the grouping selection of the light units is implemented by taking the signal intensity as a judgment basis, the grouping habit of grouping lamps in the same room or adjacent areas into a group can be well reflected, and further the user is helped to efficiently realize the grouping of the complex lighting system. In addition, by adjusting the size of the prescribed threshold, the user can formulate different grouping strategies, balancing the efficiency of selection with the accuracy of selection. Moreover, the grouping process can be completed by operating a low-cost remote controller without or with a simple graphical user interface, and the equipment cost and the popularization cost are low.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first determining step is to determine, in response to a confirmation by the user, that the first light unit to be grouped selected in the first selection setting step is to be grouped into the first control group.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first determining step further includes: in response to a user operation, a selected state of one or more light units is established, locked or removed.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, after the first determining step, the packet setting method further includes: a second selection setting step of selecting one or more light units with the wireless connection signal strength reaching a specified threshold between the current light unit and the remote controller as a second light unit to be grouped so as to be grouped into a second control group; and a second determining step of determining to group the second light units to be grouped selected in the second selection setting step into a second control group.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, after the first determining step, the packet setting method further includes: a second selection setting step of selecting one or more light units having a signal intensity higher than a predetermined threshold as a second control group; and a second determining step of determining the one or more light units selected by the second selection setting step as a second control group.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the packet setting method further includes: and prompting the user in a preset mode when the signal strength of the wireless connection between the front light unit and the remote controller reaches a preset threshold value.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the prompting step is implemented by a prescribed flashing of the current light unit or a prescribed switch.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lighting system further comprises a buzzer, and the prompting step is implemented by sounding of the buzzer.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lighting system further comprises an indicator light, and the prompting step is implemented by flashing the indicator light.

In the preferred technical scheme of the invention, the remote controller is provided with grouping controls, the grouping controls are toggle switches with a plurality of gears, and each gear corresponds to one control group.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the wireless connection uses bluetooth protocol.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the signal strength is represented by an RSSI value or an Rx value.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the defined threshold value may comprise an upper limit value and/or a lower limit value of the signal strength.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the predetermined threshold is set in the form of a distance value and/or the signal strength is displayed in the form of a distance value.

The invention also provides a lighting system, which comprises a mesh network formed by a remote controller and a plurality of light units which are connected with the remote controller in a wireless way, wherein the remote controller and the light units are nodes in the mesh network, and the light units are divided into a plurality of control groups by using a grouping setting method by using the remote controller so as to implement grouping control on the control groups.

The present invention further provides a lighting system including a remote controller and a plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote controller, wherein the remote controller divides the plurality of light units into a plurality of control groups to perform grouping control on the plurality of control groups, the lighting system being characterized in that the remote controller further includes: the detection device is used for detecting the signal intensity of the wireless connection between the light unit and the remote controller; the first selection setting device selects one or more light units with the wireless connection signal strength reaching a specified threshold between the current light unit and the remote controller as a first light unit to be grouped so as to be grouped into a first control group; and the first determining device is used for determining the first light units to be grouped selected in at least one part of the first selection setting device to be organized into the first control group.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an illumination system in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a light unit in an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a remote controller according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an initial setting method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flow chart of a packet setting method in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a method of selecting light units in an embodiment of the invention.

Reference numerals: 1 a-a first control group, 1 b-a second control group, 10-light units, 102-PWM dimming circuits, 104-driving power supplies, 106-light emitting components, 108-mechanical switches, indicator lights of 110-light units, a master control chip of 10C-light units, 10S-spotlights, bluetooth communication modules of 10 BLE-light units, processors of 10 MCU-light units, memories of 10 MEMO-light units, 20-remote controllers, 200-grouping controls, 202-scene controls, indicator lights of 210-light units, master control chips of 20C-remote controllers, bluetooth communication modules of 20 BLE-remote controllers, processors of 20 MCU-remote controllers and memories of 20 MEMO-remote controllers.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described generally with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the following embodiments, and various embodiments within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention can be employed.

The present embodiment first provides an illumination system, and the illumination system provided by the present embodiment is described below with reference to fig. 1 from various aspects.

Network system

In this embodiment, bluetooth Mesh (Bluetooth Mesh) is used for connection between the plurality of optical units 10 and the remote controller 20, and further, the Bluetooth Mesh in this embodiment is a network topology constructed based on a low power version of Bluetooth standard protocol of 4.0 or more, that is, a Bluetooth low energy Mesh (BLE Mesh, bluetooth Low Energy Mesh).

Each of the optical units 10 and the remote controller 20 has bluetooth communication modules (10 BLE and 20 BLE) that are one node in the bluetooth low energy mesh network, and the nodes in the bluetooth low energy mesh network can be mutually transmitted in two directions, and the bluetooth communication module 10BLE of the optical unit 10 can be used as a signal relay of the bluetooth communication module 20BLE of the remote controller 20, so that the remote controller 20 can broadcast data by means of network connection between the optical units 10, and send control signals to the optical units 10 outside the signal sending working distance of the remote controller 20 to implement control.

In the conventional lamp control mode, the lamps in the current room need to be turned off and left before the night rest, if no other light source irradiates in the room, the user needs to act in a dark environment in the period from the time of turning off the lamps in the current room to the time of turning on the lamps in another room, and the user experience is poor. By the above mesh network connection, the user can choose not to turn off the lamp in the current room, and after moving to another room, the carried remote controller 20 is used to turn off the lamp in the original room, so that no action in dark environment is needed, and the use requirement of the lamp in the initial design layout process is reduced.

Light unit

In some embodiments, the light unit 10 may be one or a combination of several selected from incandescent, decorative incandescent, enclosed light, infrared, halogen, LED, fluorescent, sodium, xenon, ceiling, chandelier, ceiling, recessed ceiling, wall-mounted, wall-hung, desk, floor, street, garden, door, flashlight, pocket, lantern, searchlight, spotlight, or any other suitable controllable light source, or any combination of any suitable uncontrollable light source described above and accessories capable of changing the illumination state of the light source, such as controllable blinds, lampshades, baffles, etc., or may be a controllable module or assembly of any one or more of the above.

Referring to fig. 2, in the present embodiment, the light unit 10 is an LED lamp, and the LED lamp uses a PWM dimming circuit 102 to perform dimming control on a light emitting module 106 of the LED lamp via a driving power supply 104. In this embodiment, the system and method of this embodiment are described by taking as an example that the first scene and the second scene are respectively constructed with 50% brightness and 100% brightness, and in other embodiments of the present invention, the construction of the scenes can be implemented in other more complex manners, and since this embodiment mainly involves the grouping control part of the light unit 10, the construction and switching of the scenes will be described only briefly.

In this embodiment, the LED lamp (light unit 10) further has a bluetooth communication module 10BLE with low power consumption, and the bluetooth communication module 10BLE is electrically connected to the PWM dimming circuit 102 of the light unit 10, or integrated with the PWM dimming circuit 102 in the same main control chip 10C, so that the switching and dimming parameters of the light unit 10 can be adjusted based on the control instruction obtained by the bluetooth communication module 10 BLE. Integrating the PWM dimming circuit 102 with the bluetooth communication module 10BLE can effectively reduce cost. In addition, in order to make the integrated bluetooth communication module 10BLE and the PWM dimming circuit 102 be adapted to different types of light units 10, multiple types of chips may be used for adapting respectively, and a general bluetooth module may also be used for adapting to different peripheral circuits, so as to reduce the cost of adapting to different types of light units.

In some embodiments, for some light units 10 whose light performance is controlled at least partially by the accessory, the bluetooth communication module 10BLE may also be communicatively connected to the control portion of the accessory to control the working state of the accessory, for example, to the driving component of the lampshade to adjust the opening and closing degree of the lampshade.

In the present embodiment, the light unit 10 further includes a mechanical switch 108 (for example, a wall switch), and the mechanical switch 108 is electrically connected to the light unit 10 to perform switching control of the light unit 10.

In addition, the main control chip 10C of the light unit 10 in the present embodiment is integrated with or connected to the memory 10MEMO, and the main control chip 10C can acquire the switching state and the dimming parameter of the light unit 10, and store the acquired operation data about the switching state and the dimming parameter in the memory 10 MEMO. In some embodiments, the memory 10MEMO may also be set in the main control chip 10C of only part of the light units 10 in the lighting system, where the one or more main control chips 10C provided with the memory 10MEMO can obtain the operation data of other light units 10 via the mesh network established by the bluetooth communication module 10BLE, and store the operation data in the memory 10 MEMO. The memory 10MEMO is only arranged in the main control chip 10C of a part of the light units 10, so that the hardware cost of the system can be effectively reduced.

In some embodiments, memory 10MEMO may comprise a non-volatile memory such as read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), FLASH memory (FLASH), or any other device capable of storing program instructions or data with or without application of power. The memory may also include volatile memory such as Random Access Memory (RAM), static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), and Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), although other types of RAM may be used to implement the storage. The memory 10MEMO may be implemented using a single memory module or multiple memory modules, and may also be configured as a cloud memory separate from the light unit 10 or remote control 20.

Grouping

The present embodiment is described taking home lighting as an example, in which a plurality of light units 10 in the same lighting system are divided into two control groups according to the spatial positions where the light units are located (in this embodiment, the room where the light units are located is a grouping condition), in which five light units located in a living room are divided into a first control group 1a, five light units located in a bedroom are divided into a second control group 1b, each light unit 10 in the same control group has an interconnected bluetooth communication channel, which is shown by a solid line, and at least some light units 10 in different control groups also have a bluetooth communication channel, which is shown by a broken line.

In other embodiments of the invention, the lighting system may also be used in other forms of illumination, such as commercial illumination, outdoor illumination, etc., to provide illumination for scenes in different spaces or areas. The grouping condition is not limited to the spatial position of the light unit 10, and may be based on actual usage logic (for example, a group of spot lights which are far from each other but illuminate the same area), or its own characteristics (for example, according to the light color and intensity), or the like. Furthermore, although in the present embodiment the same light unit 10 may be divided into only a single control group in the lighting system, in some embodiments of the present invention the same light unit may also be used by different control groups; the number of control groups is not limited to two in the present embodiment, and three or more may be provided according to actual needs.

Bluetooth signals are easily blocked by objects such as walls, metals, etc., and thus bluetooth signal intensities in different rooms or areas tend to be greatly different. The control system in this embodiment can use the difference of the signal intensities to convert the original disadvantage of the bluetooth communication mode in terms of signal transmission into advantages, and efficiently identify all the light units in the same room or area, and the specific identification and grouping process will be described in detail in the method process section.

Remote controller

Referring to fig. 3, the remote controller 20 used in the lighting system of the present embodiment includes at least a group control 200, a scene control 202, and a bluetooth communication module 20BLE.

The grouping control 200 is a toggle switch, and the plurality of light units 10 in the system can be respectively controlled by two control groups, and correspondingly, the two control groups are switched by adopting a two-position toggle switch. In other embodiments of the present invention, a multi-position toggle switch may be used, for example, a four-position toggle switch is used to implement switching between four control groups, and other gears that do not correspond to the control groups may be added to enrich the control functions.

Grouping control 200 can act as a mechanism for a user to select groupings during user interaction. For example, group control 200 is dialed to a position corresponding to first control group 1 a: in the grouping process, indicating that the grouping action is to distribute the optical units 10 to be grouped into the first control group 1a; during the control, indicating that the present control action is to be performed for the light units 10 in the first control group 1a; in the releasing or initializing the grouping process, it is instructed that the grouping of the light units 10 in the first control group 1a is to be released or that the light units 10 in the first control group 1a are to be initially set.

In this embodiment, the scene control 202 of the remote controller 20 includes a light-off button and two preset scene buttons, which can be pressed by a user to turn off (light off) all the light units in the corresponding control group, and set to 50% light intensity (scene one) or 100% light intensity (scene two). In other embodiments of the present invention, the number of buttons in the scene control 202 may be increased or decreased as desired for the control function. In the present embodiment, the scene setting is stored in the memory 10MEMO of the light unit 10 at the time of shipment. In other embodiments of the present invention, the user may also use a single lamp adjustment method to save the dimming parameters of the light unit 10 in the remote controller 20 or the memory 10MEMO or 20MEMO of the light unit 10 after adjusting the dimming parameters of the light unit 10 in the control group to a satisfactory state.

In this embodiment, the bluetooth communication module 20BLE carried by the remote controller 20 can perform signal intensity detection, and perform selection, grouping and control on a single or multiple light units with signal intensities higher than a threshold according to the signal intensity detection result.

The signal strength of each bluetooth communication connection detected by the remote control 20 is measured by QualcommThe RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) value is provided as a unit for metering, the RSSI value is a reference value calculated according to the signal strength as a unit of dbm, and the range of the RSSI value is changed between 0 and 127, wherein RSSI=127 indicates no signal attenuation, RSSI=0 indicates no signal reception, and the larger the value of the RSSI is, the higher the signal strength is. In other embodiments of the invention, the signal strength may also be measured using Rx values or any suitable measurement means and units of measurement.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the remote controllers 20 may also have a plurality of remote controllers and each may be used as a node in the BLE Mesh network, the information set and stored between different remote controllers 20 may be kept synchronous, and the user may implement control using the remote controller 20 corresponding to each room.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the remote controller 20 and the light unit 10 are provided with indicator lamps, including the indicator lamp 210 of the remote controller 20 and the indicator lamp 110 of the light unit 10, the indicator lamp 110 is in communication connection with the main control chip 10C of the light unit 10, and the indicator lamp 210 is in communication connection with the main control chip 20C of the remote controller 20, so that the operating states of the remote controller 20 and the light unit 10, such as a single lamp selection state, a pairing state, and the like, are indicated by using state changes such as blinking of the indicator lamps 110, 210. In some embodiments, the light unit 10 may also implement an indication function using its own state change (e.g., a state change of blinking, extinguishing, and lighting, or adjustment of a dimming parameter, such as a change in cool-warm tone). In other embodiments, the sounding of a buzzer (not shown) may also be employed to alert the user. The buzzer or the indicator lamp may be separately provided on the light unit 10, may be separately provided on the remote controller 20, may be provided on the light unit 10 or the remote controller 20 in a mutually paired manner, or may be provided at any other suitable position.

Process flow of the method

The present embodiment also provides an initial setting method applicable to the above-described illumination system.

Referring to fig. 4, the initial setting method provided in this embodiment specifically includes the following steps:

and S01, powering up.

After purchase and installation, the user turns on the power supply of each light unit 10 and the remote controller 20.

S02, initializing

Each light unit 10 and remote control 20 reads the initial data in the firmware and initializes the light unit settings.

S03, networking

Each light unit 10 and the remote controller 20 enter a pairing waiting mode, in which the bluetooth communication modules 10BLE of the light units 10 communicate with each other using a short-range broadcast mode, in which signals smaller than the signal strength threshold are ignored by setting the signal strength threshold, so as to reduce the possibility that the light units 10 to be paired are wrongly bound by the networks of other lighting systems.

In the present embodiment, the light unit 10 can detect the operation (or the switching state) of the mechanical switch 108 thereof, and forcibly initialize the light unit 10 in response to the above operation or state satisfying a preset condition. In the above manner, even if a part of the optical units 10 are wrongly bound by other networks, the mechanical switch 108 thereof can be used to trigger the initialization of the optical units 10, so that the wrongly bound optical units 10 can be forcedly unbound from other networks.

For example, an operation of repeatedly opening and closing the mechanical switch 108 (or repeatedly switching of the switch state is detected) for a certain period of time may be used as a trigger operation for initializing the optical unit 10, and in response to detecting the trigger operation, the optical unit 10 may be forcedly initialized to a factory state and removed from the BLE Mesh network after pairing is completed. In some embodiments, the light units 10 within different rooms or areas are added to the same network in response to separate acknowledgements from those different rooms or areas.

S04, confirming a networking result.

The user can learn the networking result through the indication of the light unit 10 and the indication lamps 110, 210 on the remote control 20. If the pairing of the light unit 10 and the remote controller 20 is completed, the indicator lamps 110 and 210 on the light unit 10 and the remote controller 20 inform the user of the networking result by means of flashing behavior, turning on and off, flashing frequency, breathing lamp change and the like.

If the user confirms that the network construction is successful, the step of grouping is switched to S05. In this embodiment, after the network is established successfully, the indicator lamp 110 is turned on after flashing once, and is used as a predetermined prompting mode.

If the user cancels the networking result, returning to the step S02 for initializing or re-executing the step S03 for networking.

S05, grouping.

Referring to fig. 5, the S05 grouping step in the present embodiment further includes the steps of:

the light unit 10 enters a packet setting mode automatically or in response to an instruction of the remote controller 20.

S051 selects a control group to be allocated, and dials the toggle switch 200 of the remote controller 20 to a gear corresponding to the control group to be allocated. For example, if it is desired to assign the light unit to be assigned to the first control group 1a, the toggle switch 200 of the remote control 20 may be shifted to the gear (the "group one" gear in fig. 3) corresponding to the first control group 1a.

And S052, detecting the signal intensity of the wireless connection between each light unit 10 and the remote controller 20.

S053 a first selection setting step of selecting one or more light units 10 whose wireless connection signal strength between the current light unit 10 and the remote controller 20 reaches a prescribed threshold as a first light unit to be grouped into the first control group 1a.

S054, if the user confirms the selection result, determining to edit at least part of the selected first light units to be grouped in the S053 first selection setting step into the first control group 1a; if the user cancels the selection result, the first selection setting step is returned to S053.

Fig. 6 is a schematic application diagram of the method for grouping the light units 10 using the signal intensity detection mode of the remote controller 20 in a specific scenario in the present embodiment.

Taking the example that the user needs to select all the light units 10 in the living room and assign them to the first control group 1a, several strategies that can be used at least by the packet setting method provided in this embodiment are given below:

strategy one: in some embodiments, the threshold value of the RSSI value may be defined as 110-125, and only light units 10 above this defined threshold value may be selected, so that the remote control 20 may only select the light unit 10 as the first light unit to be grouped when proximate to the light unit 10. In the above manner, the user can attach the remote controller 20 to the light units 10 to be grouped into the first control group 1a one by one, and after selecting the light units 10 one by one as the first light units to be grouped, in response to the confirmation of the user, determine to group all the selected first light units to be grouped into the first control group 1a.

Specifically, taking a single light unit 10 (spot lamp 10S) selected each time as an example: when the user moves the remote controller 20 in the on signal strength detection mode to the vicinity of the spot lamp 10S, the spot lamp 10S has little attenuation in signal strength (rssi=123) due to the close proximity to the remote controller 20 and the absence of wall or metal interference therebetween. In this way, the user can precisely select one or a plurality of light units 10 for grouping, thereby improving the precision of selecting the light units 10 by the remote controller 20.

Strategy II: in some embodiments, the threshold value of the RSSI value may be defined between 30 and 60, for example 60. Since only light units above this threshold can be selected, the luminaires of other rooms (e.g. bedroom lamp one, bedroom lamp, etc.) cannot be selected due to the weak interference signal strength of the existing wall or metal, whereas luminaires in the same room, due to the absence of interference of the wall or metal, the signal strength can easily reach the prescribed threshold, and the user can fully select the light units 10 to be selected in a limited number of times by reasonably setting the size of the prescribed threshold and by moving the remote control 20 in the living room.

As shown in fig. 6, the light units with preset RSSI values greater than 60 in the remote controller 20 are selected, when the user moves the remote controller 20 to the illustrated position, the light units 10 in the living room are in the same space, so that the signal transmission is less interfered by the wall and metal, and the signal intensity of the bluetooth communication module 10BLE is higher than that of the light units 10 in other rooms, therefore, in the illustrated position, the bluetooth signal intensity of each of the other light units 10 in the living room is higher than 60, and all the light units 10 in the living room can be selected at one time. By the above manner, the packet setting method can convert the original disadvantage of the bluetooth communication in terms of signal transmission into advantages, and effectively improves the efficiency of selecting the optical unit 10 by the remote controller 20 in the process of grouping.

Strategy III: in some embodiments, if only a portion of the light units 10 in the living room need to be programmed into the same control group, the threshold of RSSI may be first defined to be a certain value in the range of 30 to 60, for example, 60, and similarly to the second policy, the light units 10 with the signal strength of the corresponding bluetooth connection higher than 60 will be selected, that is, all the light units 10 in the living room may be selected at similar positions as the first light units to be grouped.

And then, continuously detecting the signal intensity received by the remote controller, and removing the selected state of the light unit 10 in response to detecting that the Bluetooth connection signal intensity between the current light unit 10 and the remote controller 20 is greater than 120. That is, the user may deactivate the selected state of the light unit 10 by moving the remote control 20 to the vicinity of the light unit 10 to be removed from the first control group 1a, such that it is no longer the first light unit to be grouped, thereby changing the final organization of the first control group 1a.

Similarly, the user may also continue to establish the selected state of the other light units 10 (i.e., select the other light units 10 as first light units to be grouped), the selected state of the removed portion light units 10 (i.e., remove the already selected light units 10, stop the process of adding them to the first control group 1 a), or the selected state of the locked portion light units 10 (i.e., lock the light units 10 determined to be added to the first control group 1a such that their selected states cannot be directly removed) after initially selecting the portion light units 10 as first light units to be grouped. In some embodiments, rough selection may be performed using a comparison between the RSSI values and the threshold values, followed by fine tuning the selected states of the individual light units 10 in the manner described above to precisely program the desired group of target light units into the first control group 10. In the fine tuning, connection may be established with each light unit 10 in the first control group 10 one by one in a predetermined order (for example, in order of signal intensity), and the user confirms whether each light unit 10 enters the first control group 1a one by one, so as to finally complete the determination of the first control group 1a. In some embodiments, when the light unit 10 is in the selected state, if the confirmation instruction is not received within a specified time, the group may be selected by default or not.

Although in the first to third embodiments, the predetermined threshold is set as the lower limit value, only the light units 10 whose signal intensities are higher than the predetermined threshold are selected. However, in some embodiments of the present invention, the prescribed threshold may also be an upper limit to define a specific range of signal strengths. For example, the light unit 10 with the signal intensity <100 can enter the state to be grouped by adjusting the prescribed threshold value to be the upper limit value=100, and then the luminaire too close to the light unit is eliminated. In some embodiments, the range of the signal intensity may be limited to a multi-stage range by using a plurality of thresholds in combination, for example, the light unit 10 having the signal intensity reaching the first predetermined threshold (the upper limit 60) or the second predetermined threshold (the lower limit 100) may be set to enter the state to be grouped.

In addition, in some embodiments, the detected signal strength may be intuitively presented to the user after equivalent conversion to a distance value, in addition to being measured using, for example, an RSSI value, an Rx value, or the like. For example, RSSI >100 corresponds to a range within 1m, the distance value is written or displayed in a corresponding manner on the instruction manual or on the user interface of the remote control.

Preferably, the bluetooth communication module 10BLE of the light unit 10 is installed at a side facing the user when the light unit 10 is in use, so as to further prevent the signal of the bluetooth communication module 10BLE from being interfered by a wall or the light unit itself after the light unit 10 is installed, and is difficult to be selected due to its signal blocking in the step S05 of grouping.

If the user confirms the selection result of the first control group 1a in the first determination step of S054, the first control group 1a is determined, then execution is performed:

s055, a second selection setting step, wherein one or more light units 10 with the wireless connection signal strength between the current light unit 10 and the remote controller 20 reaching a specified threshold value are selected as second light units to be grouped so as to be grouped into a second control group 1b.

S056, if the user confirms the selection result, determining to edit at least a part of the selected second light units to be grouped in the S055 second selection setting step into the second control group 1b; if the user cancels the selection result, the second selection setting step is returned to S055.

In the present embodiment, the lighting system is divided into only two control groups to perform the group control, and therefore, after the completion of the determination in the second determination step S056, all the control groups are also determined accordingly. While in other embodiments of the invention the lighting system may have three or more control groups, in these embodiments the above steps may be repeated until all control groups are assigned.

In the first selection setting step S053 and the second selection setting step S055, the method further includes: and prompting the user in a preset mode when the signal strength of the wireless connection between the front light unit and the remote controller reaches a preset threshold value.

In the present embodiment, the indication may be performed by a predetermined flashing or a predetermined switch of the light unit 10, by flashing of the indicator lamp 110 mounted on the light unit 10 or the indicator lamp 210 mounted on the remote controller 20, or by a buzzer (not shown) mounted on the light unit 10 or the remote controller 20.

In this way, the user can learn that a certain light unit 10 is to be selected or has been selected, and the selection process of the light unit 10 is accurately and efficiently completed. In the case of sounding using a buzzer, when the threshold value of the RSSI value is set to be large in the first policy, the user can basically determine which light unit 10 has been selected by combining the sounding of the buzzer and the process of approaching the remote controller 20 to the light unit 10 even if the sounding of the buzzer does not have directivity.

S06 confirms the grouping result.

If the user confirms the grouping result, the initial setting is completed;

if the user cancels the grouping result, the process goes to the step S052.

In this way, the initial setting method provided in this embodiment can efficiently complete the grouping function of the complex lighting system originally completed by the smart phone or the personal palm assistant by using the remote controller 20 having no or only a simple graphical user interface at a low cost.

After the initial setting is completed, when the toggle switch 200 on the remote controller 20 is toggled to the first gear (group one), the plurality of light units 10 in the first control group 1a corresponding to the gear may be group-controlled as a whole. In addition, in some embodiments, the operations of group de-grouping (still in the network) and network de-binding of the light units 10 within the group may also be implemented in conjunction with other controls of the remote control 20. For example, when the toggle switch 200 is toggled to the first gear (group one), if a predetermined action of the user on the remote controller is detected, the first control group 1a may be released. The network unbinding operation may be activated and implemented at the light unit 10 using mechanical means mounted on the light unit 10, initializing individual light units to unbinding from the network; it is also possible to perform the operation from the remote control 20 in groups, for example, the toggle switch 200 may be toggled to the first gear (group one), and all the light units 10 in the first control group 1a are initialized by a predetermined action, and unbind from the network.

Thus far, the technical solution of the present invention has been described in connection with the accompanying drawings, but it is easily understood by those skilled in the art that the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments. Equivalent modifications and substitutions for related technical features may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the principles of the present invention, and such modifications and substitutions will fall within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A grouping setting method of a lighting system, the lighting system including a remote controller and a plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote controller, the remote controller and the plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote controller forming a mesh network, the remote controller and the plurality of light units being nodes in the mesh network, wherein the grouping setting method divides the plurality of light units into a plurality of control groups by using the remote controller to implement grouping control on the plurality of control groups, the grouping setting method comprising:

a detection step of detecting a signal intensity of a wireless connection between the light unit and the remote controller; a first selection setting step of selecting a plurality of light units with the wireless connection signal strength reaching a specified threshold between the current light unit and the remote controller as a first light unit to be grouped so as to be grouped into a first control group;

the specified threshold comprises an upper limit value and/or a lower limit value of signal intensity, and a plurality of light units are selected by setting the size of the specified threshold;

a first determining step of, in response to an operation by a user, establishing, locking, or removing a selected state of one or more light units, determining to group the first light units to be grouped, at least a part of which is selected in the first selection setting step, into the first control group.

2. The grouping setting method of the lighting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first determining step is:

and in response to confirmation of a user, determining to group the first light units to be grouped selected in the first selection setting step into the first control group.

3. The group setting method of a lighting system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that after the first determination step, the group setting method further comprises:

a second selection setting step of selecting one or more light units with the wireless connection signal strength reaching a specified threshold between the current light unit and the remote controller as second light units to be grouped so as to be grouped into a second control group;

and a second determining step of determining to group the second light units to be grouped selected in the second selection setting step into the second control group.

4. The group setting method of the lighting system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the group setting method further comprises:

and prompting the user in a preset mode when the signal strength of the wireless connection between the light unit and the remote controller reaches a preset threshold.

5. The grouping setting method of a lighting system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the presenting step is implemented by a prescribed blinking or a prescribed switching of the light unit at present.

6. The grouping setting method of a lighting system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the lighting system further comprises a buzzer, and the prompting step is implemented by sounding the buzzer.

7. The grouping setting method of a lighting system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the lighting system further comprises an indication lamp, and the prompting step is implemented by blinking the indication lamp.

8. A method of grouping a lighting system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the prescribed threshold is set in the form of a distance value and/or the signal strength is displayed in the form of a distance value.

9. A grouping setting method of a lighting system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the remote control has a grouping control which is a toggle switch having a plurality of gear positions, each of the gear positions corresponding to one of the control groups.

10. The grouping setting method of a lighting system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the wireless connection employs a bluetooth protocol.

11. The packet setting method of a lighting system according to claim 10, wherein the signal strength is expressed in terms of an RSSI value or an Rx value.

12. A lighting system comprising a remote control and a mesh network of a plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote control, the remote control and the plurality of light units each being a node in the mesh network, characterized in that the plurality of light units are divided into a plurality of control groups by the remote control using the grouping setting method according to any one of claims 1 to 11 to perform grouping control on the plurality of control groups.

13. A lighting system comprising a remote control and a plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote control, the remote control and the plurality of light units wirelessly connected to the remote control forming a mesh network, the remote control and the plurality of light units each being a node in the mesh network, wherein the remote control divides the plurality of light units into a plurality of control groups to implement group control over the plurality of control groups, the lighting system further comprising:

a detection device for detecting the signal intensity of the wireless connection between the light unit and the remote controller; a first selection setting device for selecting a plurality of light units with the wireless connection signal strength reaching a specified threshold between the current light unit and the remote controller as a first light unit to be grouped so as to be grouped into a first control group;

and a first determining means for establishing, locking or removing a selected state of one or more light units in response to an operation of a user, and determining to group the first light units to be grouped selected by at least a part of the first selection setting means into the first control group.