Commissioning and controlling load control devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024334578-A1
Application number	US-202418738360-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 10, 2024
Priority date	Aug 5, 2015
Publication date	Oct 3, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

A load control system may include control devices capable of being associated with each other at one or more locations for performing load control. Control devices may include control-source devices and/or control-target devices. A location beacon may be discovered and a unique identifier in the location beacon may be associated with a unique identifier of one or more control devices. Upon subsequent discovery of the location beacon, the associated load control devices may be controlled. The beacons may be communicated via radio frequency signals, visible light communication, and/or audio signals. The visible light communication may be used to communicate other types of information to devices in the load control system. The visible light communication may be used to identify link addresses for communicating with load control devices, load control instructions, load control configuration instructions, network communication information, and/or the like. The information in the beacons may be used to commission and/or control the load control system.

First claim

1 . A load control system comprising:
a plurality of control devices including at least one load control device that is configured to control an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein each control device comprises a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a respective control device beacon that comprises an identifier associated with the control device; and a network device configured to:
discover the respective control device beacon for each control device of the plurality of control devices;
identify other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device;
display each control device of the plurality of control devices in which the respective control device beacon was discovered;
display the identified other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device;
receive an indication of a selection of at least one of the displayed each control device of the plurality of control devices in which the respective control device beacon was discovered and receive an indication of a selection of at least one of the displayed identified other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device;
associate the identifier of the selected at least one of the displayed each control device of the plurality of control devices in which the respective control device beacon was discovered with the identifier of the at least one of the displayed other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device.

2 . The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the network device is configured to:
discover a location beacon as a transmission from the identified other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device, wherein the location beacon includes an identifier associated with a location of the other control devices in a building.

3 . The load control system of claim 2 , wherein the network device is configured to:
associate the identifiers of each control device of the plurality of control devices with the identifier associated with the location of the other control devices in the building, to enable control of other control devices in the building.

4 . The load control system of claim 1 , wherein each identifier associated with each control device of the plurality of control devices comprises a unique identifier that identifies the corresponding control device.

5 . The load control system of claim 1 , wherein each identifier associated with the other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device comprises a unique identifier that identifies the other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device.

6 . A control device for controlling an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein the control device comprises:
a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a control device beacon, wherein the control device beacon comprises an identifier associated with the control device; and a processor configured to:
receive the control device beacon for other control devices of a plurality of control devices;
identify a signal strength at which the control device beacon is received for the other control devices of the plurality of control devices; and
associate identifiers of the other control devices having a signal strength above a selection threshold with the identifier of the control device.

7 . The control device of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to:
discover a location beacon as a transmission from a location beacon transmitting device, wherein the location beacon includes an identifier associated with a location in a building.

8 . The control device of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to:
associate the identifiers of the other control devices that have the signal strength above the selection threshold with the identifier associated with the location to enable control of the load control devices upon reception of the location beacon.

9 . The control device of claim 6 , wherein each identifier associated with the control device of the plurality of control devices comprises a unique identifier that identifies the control device.

10 . The control device of claim 6 , wherein each identifier associated with the control device of the plurality of control devices comprises a unique identifier that identifies a device type associated with the control device.

11 . A system controller for establishing a network connection with a network device, the system controller comprising:
a processor configured to:
send, via a network communication signal, a device identifier that identifies the system controller; and
instruct a lighting control device to provide an amount of power to a lighting load in a manner that causes the lighting load to indicate the device identifier that matches the device identifier sent in the network communication signal;
receive a request to join the network from the network device, wherein the request includes the device identifier; and
establish the network connection with the network device to enable the network
device to send and receive information to the system controller via the network connection.

12 . The system controller of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to:
send a broadcast message to a plurality of lighting control devices that each control a respective lighting load of a plurality of lighting loads;
wherein the broadcast message is configured to instruct the plurality of lighting control devices to provide the amount of power to the plurality of lighting loads in a manner that causes the plurality of lighting loads to indicate the device identifier that matches the device identifier sent in the network communication signal.

13 . The system controller of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to:
instruct the plurality of lighting control devices to provide the amount of power to the plurality of lighting loads in a manner that causes each lighting load of the plurality of lighting loads to indicate the device identifier and a respective device identifier associated with a link address of a load control device of the lighting load.

14 . A lighting control device comprising:
a visible light sensor configured to detect visible light communication; and a control circuit configured to:
receive the visible light communication;
identify a device identifier of another lighting control device in the visible light communication; and
associate the lighting control device with the device identifier of the other load control device.

15 . The lighting control device of claim 14 , wherein the visible light sensor is configured to:
detect the visible light communication from a load control device, and wherein the control circuit is configured to: identify lighting control instructions in the visible light communication; and control a lighting load according to the lighting control instructions.

16 . The lighting control device of claim 15 , wherein the lighting control device and the lighting load are located in a lighting fixture.

17 . The lighting control device of claim 14 , wherein the visible light communication are detected from at least one of a camera flash or a display of a network device.

Assignees

• Lutron Tech Co Llc

Inventors

• Baker Rhodes B
• Barco Kyle Thomas
• Barnes Bryan Robert
• Bull John H
• Camden Richard S
• Crafts Jordan H
• Dolan David J
• Groller Jason
• Kumar Sanjeev
• Lenz Jonathan T
• Pelaez Miguel Aguado
• Twaddell Daniel L

Classifications

• H02J13/1327

  using optical means · CPC title

• H04W4/06 Primary

  Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• H05B47/196

  characterised by user interface arrangements · CPC title

• H05B47/199

  Commissioning of light sources · CPC title