Washing machine having balancer and method for controlling the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9745684-B2
Application number	US-201314015286-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2013
Priority date	Oct 12, 2012
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

A washing machine having a balancer and a control method thereof which achieve correct communication between a controller and a balancing module such that a balancing module is correctly shifted to a target position. The control method of the washing machine includes measuring a first time between position detection time points of the balancing modules during rotation of the rotary tub when the plurality of balancing modules is in a static mode, measuring a second time between position detection time points of the balancing modules during rotation of the rotary tub when any one of the balancing modules is shifted by a predetermined distance through a movement command, and confirming a relationship between a module ID of any one of the balancing modules and a communication ID of the movement command through a relative variation of the second time with respect to the first time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method by a controller of a washing machine which includes a rotary tub accommodating wash water to rotate upon receiving rotational force from a drive source, a balancer mounted to the rotary tub to include a ring-shaped channel in which a plurality of balancing modules, each assigned a module identification (ID), are disposed to attenuate unbalance generated by rotation of the rotary tub, a position detection sensor to detect a position of the plurality of balancing modules, and the controller to send movement commands that include a communication ID to the plurality of balancing modules, the method comprising;
measuring a first time between position detection time points of the balancing modules during rotation of the rotary tub when the plurality of balancing modules are in a static mode which is a fixed position in the channel for each balancing module of the plurality of balancing modules;
measuring a second time between position detection time points of the balancing modules during rotation of the rotary tub when one of the balancing modules among the plurality of balancing modules is shifted by a predetermined distance within the channel through a first movement command of shifting or moving the one of the balancing modules; and
confirming a correspondence between a first module ID of the one of the balancing modules and a first communication ID of the first movement command in response to a relative variation of the second time with respect to the first time, such that sending of the first movement command using the first communication ID to the one of the balancing modules attenuates the generated unbalance.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:
the relative variation of the second time with respect to the first time is increased or decreased in response to a movement direction of the one of the balancing modules.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring the second time for at least one other balancing module other than the one of the balancing modules by independently shifting the at least one other balancing module through a subsequent movement command for at least one other communication ID; and
confirming a correspondence between at least one other module ID and the at least one other communication ID of the subsequent movement command by comparing the first time with the second time for the at least one other balancing module.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring the second time for each remaining balancing module by independently shifting each remaining balancing modules other than the one of the balancing modules through a subsequent movement command for each remaining communication ID; and
confirming a correspondence between each remaining module ID and the remaining communication ID of the subsequent movement command of the remaining balancing modules other than the one of the balancing modules by comparing the first time with the second time for each remaining balancing module.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Ji Eun
• Kim Yoon Sup
• Jo Su Ho
• Myoung Kwan Joo
• Hiroshi Awata

Classifications

• D06F37/225 Primary

  Damping vibrations by displacing, supplying or ejecting a material, e.g. liquid, into or from counterbalancing pockets · CPC title

• D06F2202/02

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F2222/00

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F2202/085

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F2202/04

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic