CN113811375A

CN113811375A - Integrated and programmable lighting system for electrified surfaces

Info

Publication number: CN113811375A
Application number: CN202080034983.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 多梅尼科·帕斯托雷; 安德里亚·穆纳里
Original assignee: IEPark Cable Force Bumper Cars Co ltd
Current assignee: IEPark Cable Force Bumper Cars Co ltd
Priority date: 2019-03-11
Filing date: 2020-02-05
Publication date: 2021-12-17
Also published as: WO2020183502A1; EP3938068A1; EP3938068B1; IT201900003477A1

Abstract

A programmable reduced wiring lighting system for electrified surfaces.

Description

Integrated and programmable lighting system for electrified surfaces

Technical Field

The present invention is in the field of lighting devices, in particular lamps for obtaining light shows, such as used in roundabouts.

More specifically, the present invention is an integrated and wireless (in terms of power cables) system for obtaining light shows on low voltage electrified surfaces such as, for example, the surface of a bumper car.

Background

In amusement parks, there is a need to obtain light shows for animating various facilities and games, thereby enriching the perception of the user.

Amusement parks and amusement parks are often active in a touring manner, and there is therefore also a need for facilities, whether carousel facilities or similar, which can be assembled and disassembled in a very short time, and which reduce the use of manpower.

In addition, electrified surfaces are widely used in bumper cars to provide electricity to the car by using voltages low enough to be harmless to humans.

According to the principle of operation of the electrified surface, they are subdivided into zones made of conductive material constituting the positive pole of the power supply system and, conversely, the negative pole; sliding contacts exist under the bumper cars, which provide power to the cars by contacting the plates; this is why the single area is limited, so that each dodgem always has two sliding contacts in any position, which are in contact with two plates supplied with voltages of opposite sign.

In construction practice, the conductive areas are made of sheet metal and the insulation between the areas with opposite polarity is obtained by means of electrically insulating strips, almost all made of polymeric material, such as polycarbonate or the like.

The presence of superficial plastic strips is exploited to develop practices using at least partially transparent plastics, under which a plurality of lights are often arranged; the lights of these luminaires are controlled to form a light show such as, for example, a color change, a rainbow, chase, flash; for this reason, in each luminaire, the emission of light will be switched on and off, and the intensity and color of the light will vary in synchronism with the intensity and color of the light of the remaining luminaries.

These lighting effects are very pleasant and appreciated by the public, however, in order to achieve these effects, a large number of lights need to be wired by providing a supply voltage and control signals to each of the lights.

To minimize these wires, several solutions have been developed, aimed at reducing or eliminating the need to install signal cables; for example, US 2017280521(a1) discloses a control module for controlling an LED lighting system, which is capable of handling a plurality of characteristics of the power transmitted on a power supply line, such as the frequency and amplitude of the power supply signal. The control module may receive instructions, including wireless instructions, via the external interface and adjust the operation of the lighting system accordingly.

US patent application US 2017257935(a1) relates to an intelligent lighting system comprising: a plurality of Lighting Elements (LEDs) disposed within an at least partially transparent housing, a processor or microcontroller, a memory, a timer, a receiver capable of receiving wireless control signals from the DMX controller, and a battery.

US patent application US 2013278169(a1) relates to a portable lighting module comprising: a rechargeable battery, a processor, a memory module, at least one light assembly formed from at least one LED, and a DMX wireless receiver-transmitter. A processor controls the light emission of the light assemblies and a predetermined set of control instructions is stored in the memory to control one or several light assemblies; the processor executes the control instructions and outputs signals directed to the one or more light assemblies.

In the bumper car field, the presence of an electrified metal surface makes it difficult to use radio transmission, and furthermore, if the light receives power from a battery, it is necessary to frequently replace the battery.

Furthermore, it is difficult to synchronize the operation of the individual luminaires due to the absence of wiring; each light emitter usually comprises a microcontroller with a clock circuit, which in turn scans the time; however, since these devices are operated independently of each other, it is necessary to synchronize them from time to time.

The above-mentioned problems and other problems known to the person skilled in the art have been solved by an integrated lighting system as described and claimed below.

Objects and summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a lighting system for electrified surfaces that allows synchronized light shows between individual luminaires that are not connected to each other by power cords.

In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a lighting system in which the inspection and control devices for controlling the individual luminaires can be synchronized with each other.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an integrated lighting system for a bumper car surface that is quick to install and at the same time does not require electrified wiring.

A last but not least object of the invention is to provide a lighting system whose luminaries can be serviced from the upper side of a surface without having to dismantle the plates constituting the electrified surface.

The integrated system according to the invention comprises an electrified surface subdivided into sections, alternately energized with voltages of opposite sign and separated from each other by zones made of insulating material.

The luminous body is placed under a partially transparent area made of insulating material, which has two electrodes for supplying power, the former electrode being conductively connected to a corresponding portion of the electrified surface, the sign of which is opposite to that of the corresponding portion to which the second electrode is connected.

Each light emitting assembly includes: one or several LEDs, preferably six RGB LEDs; a microcontroller; a programming connector; an EPROM memory; and a power supply unit.

The various controllers are synchronized by supplying power to the electrified surface and may be implemented according to different programs; in the case of dc power, the simplest procedure involves the use of normal electrification surface turn-on and turn-off cycles; in fact, in the case of a bumper car, the supply voltage is removed from the electrified surface, for example every two to three minutes, in order to stop the vehicle and exchange the passengers, before the next cycle is restarted.

In this case, the power supply units of all luminaires, after being switched off, sense the recovery of the supply voltage and then have their respective clocks started at the same instant, so that they are synchronized with each other.

This solution provides very satisfactory results if the on and off cycles are repeated at a certain frequency, whereas in case of very long time intervals the clock circuits in the individual luminaires may gradually lose their synchronicity.

To obviate this drawback, in a second, particularly high-performance embodiment according to the invention, the electrified surface supply system introduces transient voltage variations in the supply signal; these sudden voltage changes are of such a short duration that they are not relevant for the operation of the installation, but are long enough that the power supply unit of the luminaires perceives such sudden changes in voltage by means of the dc voltage detector, that all luminaires are synchronized with each other simultaneously.

A third embodiment according to the present invention is for use where the electrified surface receives power from an ac power source. In this case, the supply units of the luminous bodies sense the sign change in the supply voltage via the respective frequency detectors and synchronize with one another accordingly. Preferably, the light emitter comprises a diode bridge to rectify the alternating current.

In order to be able to change the programming of the luminaires in real time, a fourth embodiment according to the invention has been developed, wherein each luminaire comprises a serial communication interface, for example comprising a Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART), through which each luminaire is electrically connected to the data transmission network.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an integrated lighting system according to the present patent: the figure shows the conductive areas (13, 14) alternating with the electrically insulating areas (2); light emitted by the luminous body (3) passes through the transparent part of the electrically insulating region.

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of a luminaire (3) of a system according to the present patent application, realized in a particularly complete version. In particular, the figure shows: electrodes (31, 32) electrically connected to conductive areas (1) of the electrified surface, the conductive areas receiving power from voltages of opposite signs, respectively; an AC/DC converter (8) that rectifies the current and then applies it to the power supply unit (7) in the case of the same alternating current power supply as the third embodiment; the power supply unit is used for supplying power to the LED (4) and the microcontroller (5) respectively. The figure also shows a direct voltage detector (11) and a frequency detector (9); both devices are present simultaneously in one functionally identical design, aiming at the possibility of manufacturing luminaires (3) identical to each other, in order to combine all the different embodiments, for practical reasons and in order to obtain more cost-effective management thereof; this is why the figure also shows a serial communication interface (10) which is actually used only in the fourth embodiment.

Fig. 3 shows a prototype of a luminaire (3) with a diamond shape implemented according to the teachings of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

According to a preferred embodiment, the lighting system for electrified surfaces according to the invention comprises: a zone subdivided into a plurality of conductive portions (1), supplied alternately with a positive voltage (13) or a negative voltage (14), separated from each other by a plurality of electrically insulating zones (2) that are at least partially transparent; and a plurality of luminous bodies (3) placed under the electrified surface in correspondence of said electrically insulating areas (2).

Each of the luminous bodies (3) comprises: a first supply electrode (31) electrically connected to at least one of said regions (13) supplied with a positive voltage; a second supply electrode (32) electrically connected to at least one of said regions (14) supplied with a negative voltage; a power supply unit (7) receiving a voltage from said first and second electrodes (31, 32) and supplying power to the LED (4) and to a microcontroller (5) which in turn interfaces with an EPROM memory (6) and controls said one or several LEDs (4); the LEDs are preferably of the RGB type; the LEDs are controlled according to a specific program, i.e. by switching them on and off and varying the intensity and color of their light emission, so as to form a light show together with the remaining luminaries. According to a particularly comfortable and practical embodiment, each of said luminous bodies (3) has two holes (12) defining said power supply electrodes, which are at least partially coated with a conductive material, allowing direct connection to the conductive portions of the surface (1), for example by means of simple screws, without the use of power supply wiring. This solution makes it easier to replace the luminous bodies (3) even in the case of existing floor surfaces of the conventional type.

According to a particularly practical configuration, the microcontroller comprises a programming interface, such as for example a connector.

Operationally, the clock circuit in the microcontroller can be reset whenever the electrified surface is turned on; this is sufficient to provide a good synchronization of the lights (3) if the opening and closing operations are rather frequent, as is the case with dodgem cars; otherwise, the microcontrollers of different luminaires can be synchronized with each other by introducing momentary, sudden voltage changes when supplying power to the electrified surface. The sudden change in voltage does not affect the operation of the game, but it is sensed by the power supply unit (7) which transmits this information to the microcontroller (5), which in turn resets its own clock circuit.

For electrified surfaces that receive power from an ac power source, a version of a light has been developed that includes a diode bridge or other device for rectifying ac power; in this case, the power supply unit (7) senses the zero crossing of the voltage and transmits this information to the microcontroller (5) for resetting.

A particularly complete embodiment has also been developed which can be suitably used in situations where it is desirable to be able to change the program at any time, on the basis of which the operation of the luminaires (3) is controlled. In this case, it is necessary to electrically connect each luminaire (3) to a data transmission network, such as for example a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter, also known as UART, via a communication interface (10).

Claims

1. An integrated lighting system for a surface electrified backplane, comprising:

-a surface comprising a plurality of conductive regions (1) which are alternately supplied with a positive voltage (13) or a negative voltage (14),

-a plurality of at least partially transparent electrically insulating regions (2) coplanar with said electrically conductive regions (1) and interposed between said regions supplied with positive voltage (13) and said regions supplied with negative voltage (14),

-a plurality of luminous bodies (3) placed in correspondence of said electrically insulating region (2), below a plane defined by a surface formed by said electrically conductive region (1) and said electrically insulating region (2),

characterized in that each of said luminous bodies (3) comprises:

-a first supply electrode (31) in direct electrical contact with at least one of said regions (13) supplied with a positive voltage,

-a second supply electrode (32) in direct electrical contact with at least one of said regions (14) supplied with a negative voltage,

-one or several LEDs (4);

-a microcontroller (5) determining the switching on or off of said one or several LEDs (4) and comprising a programming interface and an internal counter;

-an EPROM memory (6);

-a power supply unit (7) which supplies power to the microcontroller (5) and is energized as a result of the first supply electrode (31) and the second supply electrode (32).

2. A lighting system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that each of the luminous bodies (3) comprises a direct voltage detector (11).

3. A lighting system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that each of the luminaires (3) comprises an AC/DC converter (8) with a frequency detector (9).

4. A lighting system as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the AC/DC converter (8) comprises a diode bridge.

5. A lighting system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each of the luminaires (3) comprises a communication interface (10), each luminaire being electrically connected to a data transmission network through the communication interface (10).

6. The lighting system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each of the luminous bodies (3) has two holes (12) defining the supply electrode, said holes being at least partially coated with an electrically conductive material.

7. A method for operating a lighting system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of:

A. -supplying said conductive areas (13, 14) with a positive direct current and a negative direct current, respectively, by periodically switching the power supply on and off;

B. -resetting an internal counter of the microcontroller (5) in each luminaire (3) at each switching on or off of the power supply.

8. Method for operating a lighting system according to any one of the preceding claims 2 to 6, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of:

A1. supplying said conductive areas (13, 14) with a direct current having a positive and a negative sign, respectively, by inserting a momentary sudden voltage change in the electrical supply;

B1. -resetting an internal counter of said microcontroller (5) in each luminary (3) at each sudden and momentary voltage change.

9. Method for operating a lighting system according to the preceding claims 3 to 6, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

A2. -supplying alternating currents having a positive and a negative sign, respectively, to the conductive areas (13, 14);

B2. -resetting an internal counter of the microcontroller (5) in each luminaire (3) at each sign change of the supply voltage.

10. Method for operating a lighting system according to the preceding claim 5 or 6, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

z3. electrically connecting each light to a data transmission network;

-supplying power to the conductive areas (13, 14);

-interfacing each luminaire (3) to a programming system via said data transmission network.