Systems and methods to manage themes in lighting modules

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11160146-B2
Application number	US-201916723791-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2019
Priority date	May 4, 2018
Publication date	Oct 26, 2021
Grant date	Oct 26, 2021

Abstract

A lighting system includes lighting fixtures and a lighting controller that sends commands and data over an AC power line to power and control the lighting fixtures. Lighting themes are uniquely programmable color and intensity that are applied to a collection of lighting groups to achieve different lighting modes instantly, without the delay that programming each lighting fixture individually incurs. The groups of lighting modules receive theme lighting information over the power line and store the theme information in memory. The lighting controller sends a single command to the collections of the lighting groups to apply the theme. Each lighting module retrieves and applies the theme information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system to manage lighting themes in a plurality of lighting modules, the system comprising:
a lighting controller configured to receive AC power from a primary AC power source and user input indicative of lighting theme information and generate a data encoded power signal to provide power and encoded messages based on the lighting theme information over line voltage wiring, the lighting theme information including one or more of a request to implement a lighting theme of a plurality of lighting themes and sets of settings associated with one or more lighting themes of the plurality of lighting themes, each set of settings comprising one or more lamp settings; and
a plurality of control adapters, each control adapter of the plurality of control adapters configured to receive the data encoded power signal over the line voltage wiring, each control adapter further configured to be in electrical communication with a respective lamp of a plurality of lamps, each control adapter including a microprocessor and memory storing instructions that when executed by the microprocessor configure the control adapter to:
decode at least a portion of the encoded message from the received data encoded power signal;
for the at least a portion including the sets of settings, store the sets of settings in the memory;
for the at least a portion including an indication of the requested lighting theme,
retrieve from the memory one or more stored settings for the respective lamp that are associated with the requested lighting theme; and
provide to the respective lamp a signal responsive to the retrieved settings to achieve a lighting mode without a delay that individually programming each lighting fixture of a collection of lighting groups incurs.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the control adapter is configured to control the respective lamp according to the lighting theme information.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the control adapter further includes lamp dimming circuitry and wherein the lighting theme information further includes an indication of dimming.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the signal provided to the respective lamp is a power signal and wherein the lamp dimming circuitry is configured to adjust, responsive to the indication of dimming, the power signal.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the lighting theme information includes indications of one or more of ON/OFF timing, color, color temperature, hue, and intensity.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the signal provided to the respective lamp is a color control signal, the respective lamp includes a color changing LED, and the color control signal causes the color changing LED to change color responsive to the lighting theme information.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein each control adapter of the plurality of control adapters is addressable.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the respective lamp is an LED, a color LED, an incandescent light, a low voltage light, or a line voltage light.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the respective lamp is a can light or a recessed ceiling light.

10. A control adapter configured to manage lighting themes in at least one lamp, the control adapter comprising:
a microprocessor; and
memory storing instructions that when executed by the microprocessor cause the control adapter to:
receive a data encoded power signal over line voltage wiring, the data encoded power signal providing power and encoded messages, the encoded messages including lighting theme information indicative of one or more of a requested lighting theme of a plurality of lighting themes and sets of settings associated with one or more lighting themes of the plurality of lighting themes, each set of settings comprising one or more lamp settings, the control adapter configured to be in electrical communication with the at least one lamp;
decode at least a portion of an encoded message from the received data encoded power signal;
for the at least a portion including the sets of settings, store the sets of settings in the memory;
for the at least a portion including an indication of the requested lighting theme,
retrieve from the memory one or more stored settings for the at least one lamp that are associated with the requested lighting theme;
adapt a signal based at least in part on the one or more retrieved settings; and
provide the signal to the at least one lamp to achieve a lighting mode without a delay that individually programming each lighting fixture of a collection of lighting groups incurs.

11. The control adapter of claim 10 further comprising lamp dimming circuitry, wherein the lighting theme information further includes an indication of dimming.

12. The control adapter of claim 11 wherein the provided signal includes a power signal and wherein the lamp dimming circuitry is configured to adjust the power signal responsive to the indication of dimming.

13. The control adapter of claim 10 wherein the lighting theme information includes indications of one or more of ON/OFF timing, color, color temperature, hue, and intensity.

14. The control adapter of claim 10 wherein the provided signal includes a color control signal, the at least one lamp includes a color changing LED, and the color control signal causes the color changing LED to change color responsive to the lighting theme information.

15. A method to manage lighting themes in at least one lamp, the method comprising:
receiving, at a plurality of control adapters, a data encoded power signal over line voltage wiring, the data encoded power signal providing power and encoded messages that are based on lighting theme information, the lighting theme information including one or more of a request to implement a lighting theme of a plurality of lighting themes and sets of settings associated with one or more lighting themes of the plurality of lighting themes, each set of settings comprising one or more lamp settings, each control adapter of the plurality of control adapters comprising memory and a microprocessor, each control adapter configured to be in electrical communication with a respective lamp;
decoding, with at least one control adapter of the plurality of control adapters, at least a portion of a received encoded message from the received data encoded power signal;
for the at least a portion including the sets of settings, store the sets of settings in the memory;
for the at least a portion including an indication of the lighting theme,
retrieving from the memory one or more stored settings for the respective lamp that is associated with the requested lighting theme; and
adapting, with the at least one control adapter, a signal for the respective lamp based at least in part on one or more retrieved settings to achieve a lighting mode without a delay that individually programming each lighting fixture of a collection of lighting groups incurs.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the lighting theme information includes indications of one or more of dimming, ON/OFF timing, color, color temperature, hue, and intensity.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising decoding, with the at least one control adapter, a second portion of the received encoded message after applying the one or more stored settings associated with the lighting theme, the decoded second portion including commands associated with the lighting theme.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising comparing, with the at least one control adapter, the commands from the decoded second portion with the one or more stored settings t

Assignees

• Hunter Industries

Inventors

• Malaugh John
• Woytowitz Peter John

Classifications

• H05B47/196

  characterised by user interface arrangements · CPC title

• H05B47/185

  via power line carrier transmission · CPC title

• H05B45/325

  Pulse-width modulation [PWM] · CPC title

• H05B47/11

  by determining the brightness or colour temperature of ambient light · CPC title

• H05B47/165

  following a pre-assigned programmed sequence; Logic control [LC] · CPC title