Systems and methods to manage themes in lighting modules

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11540364-B2
Application number	US-202117450811-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2021
Priority date	May 4, 2018
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

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 or a multiple of themes to run in sequence as a pattern. Each lighting module retrieves and applies the theme information associated with the pattern.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system to manage a pattern of 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 pattern information and generate a data encoded power signal to provide power and encoded messages based on the pattern information over a two-wire network, the pattern information including a request to implement a lighting theme pattern of a plurality of lighting theme patterns or a pattern definition that defines at least a portion of a lighting theme pattern, wherein the at least a portion of the lighting theme pattern comprises an indication of a lighting theme of a plurality of lighting themes and a duration associated with the lighting theme;
a plurality of lighting modules, each lighting module of the plurality of lighting modules configured to receive the data encoded power signal over the two-wire network, each lighting module including at least one lamp, lamp driver circuitry, a processor, and memory storing instructions, that when executed by the processor, configure each lighting module to:
decode at least a portion of the encoded message from the received data encoded power signal;
for the decoded at least a portion that includes the pattern definition, store the indication of the lighting theme and the associated duration in the memory;
for the decoded at least a portion that includes the requested lighting theme pattern,
retrieve from the memory one or more stored lighting themes that are associated with the requested lighting theme pattern; and
apply in sequence the retrieved lighting themes by executing for the associated duration, each lighting theme of the requested lighting theme pattern.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least a portion of the lighting theme pattern comprises an indication to repeat.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein each lighting module is further configured to, for the decoded at least a portion that includes the requested lighting theme pattern, repeat the sequence of the retrieved lighting themes.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein each lighting module is further configured stop repeating the sequence of the retrieved lighting themes when a stop command is received.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein each lighting theme is associated with one or more of color, color temperature, or intensity of the at least one lamp.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the data encoded power signal provides a time base signal to synchronize the plurality of lighting modules.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein each lighting module of the plurality of lighting modules is addressable.

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

9. A lighting module comprising:
at least one lamp;
a microprocessor, and
memory storing instructions, that when executed by the microprocessor, cause the lighting module to:
receive a data encoded power signal over a two-wire network, the data encoded power signal providing power and encoded messages, the encoded messages including lighting theme pattern information indicative of a lighting theme pattern of a plurality of lighting theme patterns;
decode at least a portion of the received message, the at least a portion including an indication of the lighting theme pattern;
retrieve from the memory one or more stored pattern indications that are associated with the lighting theme pattern, the stored pattern indications including one or more lighting themes and a duration associated with each lighting theme of the one or more lighting themes, each lighting theme of the one or more lighting themes associated with one or more lamp settings; and
apply, in sequence, each lighting theme of the lighting theme pattern by executing the one or more settings for the at least one lamp for the associated duration.

10. The lighting module of claim 9 wherein the lighting module is further caused to repeat the sequence of lighting themes of the lighting theme pattern.

11. The lighting module of claim 10 wherein the lighting module repeats the sequence of lighting themes of the lighting theme pattern until a stop command is received.

12. The lighting module of claim 9 each lighting theme is associated with one or more of color, color temperature, or intensity of the at least one lamp.

13. The lighting module of claim 9 wherein the at least one lamp is an LED, an incandescent light, a low voltage light, or a line voltage light.

14. The lighting module of claim 9 wherein the data encoded power signal provides a time base signal to synchronize with other lighting modules of a plurality of lighting modules.

15. A method to manage a pattern of lighting themes in a plurality of lighting modules, the method comprising:
receiving at a plurality of lighting modules a data encoded power signal over a two-wire network, the data encoded power signal providing power and encoded messages, the encoded messages including lighting theme pattern information indicative of a requested lighting theme pattern of a plurality of lighting theme patterns;
decoding, with at least one lighting module of the plurality of lighting modules, at least a portion of the received message, the at least a portion including an indication of the requested lighting theme pattern, the at least one lighting module comprising memory and at least one lamp, the memory storing one or more lighting theme patterns and one or more lighting themes, each lighting theme pattern defining a series of lighting themes and corresponding durations, each lighting theme associated with one or more lamp settings; and
applying, with the at least one lighting module, the requested lighting theme pattern, wherein applying the requested lighting theme pattern comprises sequentially executing each lighting theme of the requested lighting theme pattern, wherein executing each lighting theme comprises executing the one or more lamp settings for the at least one lamp for the associated duration.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein applying the requested lighting theme comprises repeating the sequence of lighting themes of the request lighting theme pattern.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein applying the requested lighting theme comprises repeating the sequence of lighting themes of the request lighting theme pattern until a stop command is received.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the one or more lamp settings includes one or more of color, color temperature, or intensity of the at least one lamp.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the at least one lamp is an LED, an incandescent light, a low voltage light, or a line voltage light.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the data encoded power signal provides a time base signal to synchronize the plurality of lighting modules.

Assignees

• Hunter Industries

Inventors

• Woytowitz Peter John

Classifications

• H05B35/00 Primary

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