GB2280291A

GB2280291A - Control of equipment

Info

Publication number: GB2280291A
Application number: GB9315015A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Nicholas Weiner; Peter Morris
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1993-07-20
Filing date: 1993-07-20
Publication date: 1995-01-25
Also published as: GB9315015D0

Abstract

Apparatus for remotely controlling electrically operated equipment, e.g. lights, comprises a controller with a manual control for selecting a control function for the equipment, a transmitter for sending controlling data to the equipment to be controlled and comprising a receiver for receiving the controlling data from the transmitter wherein there is no direct electrical connection between the controller and the equipment being controlled. This avoids the need for traditionally complex wiring systems for lights and switches and allows alterations to the number and position of switches and/or lights without extensive re-wiring or redecoration. The transmitter may be powered by the manual operation of the control.

Description

CONTROL OF EOUIPMENT DESCRIPTION The present invention relates to control of equipment and particularly to the remote control of electrically operated equipment for lighting, heating or cooling.

Traditional electrically operated equipment is controlled by manually operated switches on or in the vicinity of the piece of equipment itself. Alternatively, on/off control can be effected at a mains connected plug or from any point in direct series electrical connection with the equipment such as where an extension lead is connected.

For lighting equipment such as ceiling lights, it is impractical for control to be at the light itself and traditionally complex wiring systems are incorporated into buildings so that switches may be installed in convenient locations, such as by doorways, to control ceiling or wall lights. Each switch must be connected in series between a power supply and the light fittings. This severely restricts the number of switches which may be installed economically, and makes it impractical to move them once installed. In addition, separate switches must be provided if each light is to be individually controlled and of course each switch must be individually wired appropriately. Any alteration to the number or position of switches and/or lights requires extensive re-wiring and subsequent re-decoration and involves great expense.

In addition, traditional switches can perform only limited functions: on/off control and optionally an intensity control for lights is possible, known as a "dimmer switch".

This cannot easily be modified to provide control of, for example, a motor to angle a spotlight.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided an arrangement for controlling electrically operated lighting equipment comprising a controller having a manual switch or control for selecting a control function for the equipment, a transmitter for sending controlling data to the equipment to be controlled, a wall mountable housing, and means for supplying power, wherein the electrical equipment is connected to a receiver for receiving the controlling data from the transmitter, wherein there is no direct electrical connection between the controller and the equipment being controlled. The controller power supply means may be connected to mains power, but preferably it is a selfcontained source such as a battery or even more preferably the power is generated from the manual operation of the switch or control itself.Solar cells and rechargeable batteries could also be used.

Thus a lighting system can be installed in a house without the need for long wires connecting switches to the lights. Lighting systems can be fitted and changed easily and cheaply.

Preferably line-of-sight type transmitters and receivers are used communicating in the infra red, ultrasonic or possibly microwave ranges. The transmitted signal is required to bounce off walls but not to pass through them so as to interfere with equipment in another room or household.

Preferably, the controlling data transmitted from the transmitters contains an address or group code corresponding to a code which may be set by a dial in the receiver of the particular equipment to be controlled. This address code may be set into the switch and the receiver during manufacture or be set by the installer by dials at the back of the switch and receiver on installation. It could also be set by the user so that a single switch or control box can be used to control several lights. This system allows one or more switches to control one or more pieces of equipment depending upon how it has been set up by the installer. In addition, a single switch could control several functions of a light, for example direction control and timer functions in addition to the traditional intensity and on/off controls by use of additional function codes in the controlling data transmitted.

Other electrically operated equipment can be similarly controlled, for example electric heaters and fans and of course, floor and table lamps. In addition to the functions mentioned, the sweep rate of a fan could be controlled.

A hand held control could be used. This could have a master address code and be particularly directional to target a particular receiver by pointing the control.

Apart from the advantages in cost and convenience to the consumer of a system according to this invention, this system is also safer to install and to use because there is no need for mains power circuit to be connected to the switches and therefore no danger of short circuits or mis-installation causing electric shocks to a user of the switch.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an arrangement for remotely controlling the operation of electrically operated equipment comprising a controller having a manual switch or control for selecting a control function for the equipment, a transmitter for sending controlling data to the equipment to be controlled, and wherein the transmitter is powered by the manual operation of the switch or control.

According to one embodiment of the second aspect, manual operation of a switch can be arranged to perturb a magnetic field linking windings to generate an electric current in the windings which is then preferably stored in a capacitor and used to power the transmitter. The positioning of the switch under manual control may determine the control to be effected and hence the controlling data transmitted. For example a manual switch may be flicked up to switch a light on, or down to switch it off and may be permanently biased to the centre position.

According to another embodiment, the well known piezoelectric effect can be used to generate electric energy to power the transmitter. For example, the switch can be used to stress the piezo-electric material. Electric energy is also generated on release of stress from the material.

Advantages of the second aspect will also be clear.

Switches and controls constructed according to the second aspect require no power supply and therefore run no danger of malfunction as a consequence of failure of such power supply, for example powers cuts or weak batteries. The expense of an independent power supply such as batteries is also saved.

The transmitter and receiver of both aspects of the invention preferably operate on a line-of-sight basis using frequencies in the infra-red range. As described, coding can be used to target a particular piece of equipment or a particular function.

For a better understanding of the present invention and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 illustrates in perspective view an arrangement embodying both aspects of the present invention.

Fig. 2 illustrates in more detail the embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a circuit diagram illustrating more detail of an embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention.

Figs. 4(a), (b) and (c) show an alternative embodiment of the second aspect of the invention.

Fig. 1 shows an arrangement according to the invention installed in a typical domestic living room. Several electrical appliances are to be controlled in the room: a ceiling light 1, a standard light 2, a wall light 3, a heater 4 and a cooling fan 5, each incorporating a receiver 6 in the fitting, in the plug or otherwise connected. For example for lights it could be part of an adapter fitted between the fitting and the light bulb. Wall mounted control boxes 7 and 9 and 11 and hand held control 8 are arranged around the room.

Each incorporates an infra-red transmitter 10. Each of the appliances 1-5 can be controlled from a respective one or more of the control boxes 7-9 and 11 without any wires connecting the appliances to the respective control boxes.

The control boxes have multi-position switches and can control many functions of the appliances: on/off/intensity/fan rate/direction control and timing functions as appropriate.

They may be powered from the mains (by separate connections from the appliances), by battery or by an internal generator circuit which is described with reference to Figs. 2 and 3.

In addition control box 12 is a multi-position switch which can control any or all of the appliances depending on the position of the switch and again is not connected to the appliances by wire but has a transmitter 10 to transmit an appropriately coded signal possibly in the infra-red range to the appliances to effect a desired control function.

The appropriate appliance may be selected either by code or by dedicated switches and the transmitters and receivers are arranged in line-of-sight (including bouncing off walls).

In Fig. 2(a), an iron core 13 is shown, windings 14 between terminals W1 and W2. A permanent magnet 15 incorporated into a switch is caused by manual operation of the switch to move in the direction of arrows 16 or 17 to induce an electrical pulse in the windings. Figure 2(b) illustrates how electrical contacts of the switch are associated with nodes A, B and C of the circuit of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 shows the terminals W1 and W2 of windings 14 connected to a full wave rectifier 19 comprising diodes D1, D2, D3, D4 and capacitor C. A transmitter is schematically shown at 20 and is protected by zener diode Z.

The switch position of the control can be determined by monitoring the voltages at nodes A, B and C. These nodes are connected to further circuitry, of standard known form, to generate appropriate codes to incorporate in the transmitted control signal so that the control function or the appliance to be controlled can be appropriately selected according to the code as determined by the switch position.

A three position switch such as illustrated in Fig. 2(b) may be used for adjustment (e.g. of light intensity) as well as for on/off switching. The switch has three positions: "normal", "up" and "down". When released, the switch is returned to the "normal" position. The magnetic forces will usually be enough to return the switch to the neutral position but springs may be used. The transmitter is "powered-up" following movement of the switch from "normal" to "up" or to "down", and following release of the switch when it returns from "up" or "down" to "normal". The transmitted data will depend upon the "current" switch position, i.e. that at the end of the switch movement.

On/off switching can be achieved by using the transmission in the "up" position to turn on the light, and transmission in the "down" position to turn off the light.

Intensity control can be achieved by using the transmission in the "up" position to start to increase the intensity, transmission in the "down" position to start to decrease the intensity and transmission in the "normal" position to stop changing the intensity. This will allow the user to move the switch up, wait for the light to reach the required intensity and then release the switch.

Figs. 4(a), (b) and (c) illustrate an alternative form of the switch mechanism of Fig. 2(a).

A permanent magnet 13 is embedded within a core 15 of low reluctance material such as iron formed in a U-shape with protuberances 23 on its open ends. A bar 21 forming the moving part of the switch rests on these protuberances and is also formed of low reluctance material such as iron. It will be held in place by magnetic forces. Windings 14 on the core 15 will have the maximum flux linkage when the bar 21 is in contact with both protuberances 23 as shown in Fig. 4(a).

When force is applied either upwards (as in Fig. 4(b)) or downwards (as in Fig. 4(c)) to the part of the bar 21 extending beyond the core 15 then the bar 21 pivots on one protuberance and an air gap is formed with the other. The flux is thus much reduced, the extent depending on the cross sectional area of the protuberance and the length of the air gap.

Claims

1. Apparatus for remotely controlling electrically operated equipment, the apparatus comprising a controller having a manual switch or control for selecting a control function for the equipment, a transmitter adapted and arranged for sending controlling data for the equipment to be controlled, and a receiver adapted and arranged for receiving the controlling data from the transmitter and for effecting control of the electrically operated equipment in dependence upon that data, wherein there is no direct electrical connection between the controller and the equipment being controlled.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller comprises power supply means.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the power supply means is a self-contained source.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the power supply means comprises means for generating power by the manual operation of the switch or control.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the power supply means comprises solar cells.

6. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the transmitter and receiver are arranged to communicate in line-of-sight.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the controlling data is transmitted by electromagnetic energy in the infrared, ultrasonic or microwave ranges.

8. Apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the transmitted controlling data can bounce off walls.

9. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the transmitter comprises means for transmitting an address code for selecting one receiver from a plurality of receivers.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9 comprising means for setting the address code manually by the user.

11. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the transmitter comprises a hand-held control.

12. An arrangement for remotely controlling the operation of electrically operated equipment comprising a controller having a manual switch for selecting a control function for the equipment, a transmitter for sending controlling data to the equipment to be controlled and wherein the transmitter is powered by the manual operation of the switch or control.

13. An arrangement according to claim 12 comprising means whereby the switch is arranged to perturb a magnetic field linking windings and thus to generate an electrical current in the windings.

14. An arrangement according to claim 12, wherein the electrical energy is generated according to the piezo-electric effect.

15. An arrangement according to claim 14, wherein the switch is used to stress the piezo-electrical material.

16. An arrangement according to claim 13, 14 or 15, wherein the electrical current generated is stored in a capacitor and used to power the transmitter.

17. An arrangement according to any one of claims 12 to 16, wherein the positioning of the switch determines the control to be effected to the electrically operated equipment.

18. Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

19. An arrangement substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

20. A method for remotely controlling electrically operated equipment comprising using the apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 11.

21. A method of remotely controlling electrically operated equipment comprising using the arrangement of any one of claims 12 to 17.