RU209794U1 - WIRELESS HIGH POWER LOAD SWITCHING DEVICE - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to electrical engineering and can be used to control the power supply of various high-power electrical appliances (loads), including remote switching on / off of electrical appliances from the power supply, as well as to turn on / off electrical appliances according to various programmable scenarios. The technical result of the claimed solution, which consists in increasing the coverage area of switching devices, due to the ability of the switching device to exchange information with neighboring switching devices, is provided by an electrical load switching device containing a power supply unit located in one housing, a contact relay connected to a wireless communication module with the possibility of generating a control signal for the contact relay, which is connected to the power switching module, characterized in that the wireless communication module is made with the option of forming a MESH network. 2 ill.

Description

Field of technology to which the utility model belongs

The utility model relates to electrical engineering and can be used to control the power supply of various high-power electrical appliances (loads), including remote switching on / off of electrical appliances from the power supply, as well as to turn on / off electrical appliances according to various programmable scenarios.

State of the art

At the moment, the use of wireless electrical energy switches is becoming relevant. This is due to the rapid development of the Internet of Things technologies, the development of mobile applications for managing electronic and electrical devices, etc. The wireless high power load switching device can perform one of the key functions in these areas, namely the power management of various electrical appliances.

From the prior art, a case for a smart socket is known (see [1] RF patent for utility model No. 183511, IPC H01R13/00, publ. 09/25/2018) with a load control module located at the base of the socket; connecting the load to the electrical contact elements, and the power supply network - to the contact pins of the plug; indication of the power level consumed by the load, using a light guide and a light diffuser; compliance with electrical safety requirements by connecting the grounding pins on the cover to the grounding contact of the plug casing. The disadvantage of this socket is a small resource and low reliability due to the use of contact elements (relays) in it.

There are a lot of similar devices made in the form of a socket module for one plug (see, for example, [2] RF patent for utility model No. 145549, IPC G08B13/00, publ. 126221, IPC H02J3/00, published 03/20/2013 [4] Chinese utility model patent No. 204028223, IPC G01R21/00, published 12/17/2014 [5] US invention patent No. 9378530, IPC G06Q50/06, Published June 28, 2018; [6] US patent application for

invention No. 20170155526, IPC H01R13/66, publ. 06/01/2017). The main structural element of such devices is a contact relay, which has mechanical elements and a corresponding inertia coefficient, and the inertia coefficient changes both during the operation of the relay and differs in different relay models, which does not allow the contacts to be closed at the right time (at the moment of phase transition through zero). In addition, when the relay contacts are closed/opened, an electric arc occurs, which shortens the life of the product and can eventually lead to “sticking” of the contacts.

The disadvantage associated with “sticky contacts” was solved by replacing the relay with a bidirectional triac thyristor (triac) (see [7] RF patent for invention No. 2638182, IPC H01H43/00, publ. 12.12.2017). The use of a triac allows almost instantaneous closing of the circuit without the formation of an electric arc, however, this solution has a significant drawback - during long-term operation, the triac will heat up to a large extent, which will require additional heat removal, which in turn will increase the size of the product, etc., and when overheating, the triac will simply fail, which ultimately reduces the overall reliability of the device.

From the prior art, a load switching device for electricity meters is known (see [8] RF patent for utility model No. 21307, IPC G01R11 / 63, publ. In this case, the switching circuit contains an electromechanical relay connected between the mains and the consumer bus and a solid state relay parallel to it, while the electricity meter is connected to the interface bus, the control inputs of the electromechanical and solid state relays are connected to the electricity meter, and the solid state relay is made on discrete elements, for example, an optocoupler and triac.

The described device uses the parallel connection of relay contacts and a solid state relay (triac controlled by an optical driver). However, this analogue does not allow remote control of the load, and uses this switching scheme only for emergency shutdown of consumers in case of overload.

The disadvantages of these technical solutions are:

limited service life of products when using only a contact relay in their composition, the contacts of which melt and erode over time due to the electric arc that occurs when it is closed and opened;

when using Wi-Fi modules as part of products, the working area is limited to the coverage area of the Wi-Fi signal;

lack of modularity of products - if it is necessary to place products next to each other, then a separate Wi-Fi module is required for each product, which in turn increases the total cost of a group of products, as well as its dimensions.

These disadvantages of analogues were eliminated in a wireless device for switching electrical load (see [9] patent CN 2469590 Y, 02.01.2002) adopted as the closest analogue (prototype) of the claimed utility model. Said device contains a wireless communication module configured to generate a control signal for a contact relay, wherein the contact relay is configured to generate a control signal for a power switching module, a power supply unit.

However, the transceiver specified in the prototype allows you to wirelessly receive and transmit signals only to the host server, it does not allow you to exchange information with neighboring switching devices. As a result, switching devices that are not within the wireless coverage area of the host server (maximum coverage radius is 20 kilometers) cannot be controlled remotely.

The essence of the utility model

The objective of the claimed utility model is to create a reliable device for switching electrical loads of arbitrarily high power with the possibility of wireless control.

The technical result of the proposed device is to increase the coverage area of switching devices, due to the ability of the switching device to exchange information with neighboring switching devices.

The technical result is achieved by the fact that the electrical load switching device contains, located in one housing, a power supply unit, a contact relay connected to a wireless communication module with

the possibility of generating a control signal for the contact relay, which is connected to the power switching module, characterized in that the wireless communication module is made with the option of forming a MESH network.

Brief description of the drawings

Fig. 1 - Structural diagram of the switch.

Fig. 2 - Diagram of a MESH network formed by wireless electrical switches.

Implementation of the utility model

High power electrical load switching device contains placed in one housing and interconnected: power supply unit; contact relay (1) with changeover contacts; a wireless communication module (2) with the option of forming a MESH network and a power switching module (3) (for example, it can be a contactor, starter, power relay).

The wireless communication module is configured to generate a control signal for the contact relay and has the function of forming a MESH network, which makes it possible to remotely control the switching process (Fig. 1). This is the main distinguishing feature of the patented device.

The device works as follows.

The wireless module with the MESH networking option receives an external input signal wirelessly to turn on or turn off the electrical load when a certain event or time occurs. Next, the wireless communication module with the option of forming a MESH network generates a control signal to close or open the contact relay. And the contact relay, in turn, being an activator or deactivator of the power switching module, generates a control signal for the power switching module.

The device can operate over a wireless network, both in a single instance, and over a MESH network in conjunction with other wireless devices due to the option of forming a MESH network with other wireless devices.

An example of the described device is the following embodiment. The Wi-Fi module with the option to build a MESH network controls a contact relay designed to switch an electrical load whose current strength is not

exceeds 10 A. At the same time, the device can switch an electrical load, the current of which reaches 100 A due to the presence of a contactor in the design, designed to switch an electrical load, the current of which is up to 100 A. With this design, the patented device can be used for industrial purposes and not just for household use.

Remote control of an electrical load switching device is achieved by integrating a MESH module (for example, but not limited to Wi-Fi technology) into the device to build a MESH network.

The presence of a MESH module in the switch allows you to build a wireless network between the same devices (Fig. 2), thereby the area of coverage of devices by a Wi-Fi signal (from the router) is increased by the area of the formed wireless network using switches with MESH modules. A MESH network allows you to connect multiple devices located over a large area (both indoors and outdoors) within one wireless LAN, which is very important when working in industrial enterprises with very large production areas. Such a network is self-organizing and self-healing. This means that the network can be built and maintained autonomously. The traditional Wi-Fi network infrastructure is a point-to-multipoint network in which one central node (access point) is directly connected to the rest of the devices. The access point is responsible for arbitrating and transmitting data between it and connected devices. Some access points are relays from the external IP network or to the external IP network through a router. Traditional Wi-Fi network infrastructures differ in that they have a limited coverage area. In addition, traditional Wi-Fi networks are prone to congestion, as the maximum number of connected devices is limited by the access point's capacity. Thanks to the use of MESH technology, connected devices do not need to connect to a central node. Instead, they are allowed to connect with nearby devices. Devices are mutually responsible for relaying information to each other. This allows the MESH network to have a large coverage area, since devices can communicate with each other without having to be in the coverage area of a central site. Similarly, the MESH network is also less susceptible to congestion because the number of nodes allowed in the network is no longer limited to a single central node.

Thus, using wireless communication technology using a MESH network, the technical problem of the proposed device is solved to create a reliable device for switching electrical loads of arbitrarily high power with the possibility of wireless control.

Claims (1)

An electrical load switching device containing a power supply unit located in one housing, a contact relay connected to a wireless communication module with the possibility of generating a control signal for a contact relay, which is connected to a power switching module, characterized in that the wireless communication module is configured with the option of generating MESH- networks.

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