Wireless thermostat system
First Claim
1. A sensor system, further comprising:
- a base transceiver;
at least one sensor having means to communicate with the base transceiver, the sensor further having a unique identification code; and
means in the base transceiver to identify the sensor using the unique identification code, the base transceiver further communicating only with a sensor having a valid unique identification code;
whereby communications between the base transceiver and the sensor are enabled by a valid unique identification code.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method of binding serial numbers to thermostats to ensure that every thermostat in a large facility has a unique identification number. A Multi-Frequency Spread Spectrum technique (MFSS/AR) is used to select the suitable frequency for communication between remote thermostats and a centrally located controller. The MFSS/AR technique also uses an Acknowledgment/Retry procedure to ensure that each transmission is correctly received. In addition to reducing interference from other thermostats, the frequency switching used by the MFSS/AR technique also reduces the effects of background noise levels by selecting a clear frequency channel for a thermostat in a particular physical location.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A sensor system, further comprising:
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a base transceiver;
at least one sensor having means to communicate with the base transceiver, the sensor further having a unique identification code; and
means in the base transceiver to identify the sensor using the unique identification code, the base transceiver further communicating only with a sensor having a valid unique identification code;
whereby communications between the base transceiver and the sensor are enabled by a valid unique identification code. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A sensor system, further comprising:
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a plurality of base transceivers;
a plurality of sensors, each sensor associated with, and having means to communicate with, one of the base transceivers;
each associated sensor/base transceiver pair sharing a unique identification code;
each base transceiver further communicating only with the sensor having the shared unique identification code;
each sensor/base transceiver pair further having means to select a communications frequency from a plurality of available transmission frequencies;
means in each sensor to periodically communicate with its associated base transceiver; and
each sensor/base transceiver pair further having means to detect when the selected communications frequency is unavailable and to automatically retry communications after a preselected time interval;
whereby communications between the base transceiver and the sensor are enabled by a valid unique identification code. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of controlling communication between multiple sensor/base transceiver pairs, including the steps of cold
binding each sensor/base transceiver pair together by programming the sensor and the base transceiver with a unique binding code; - and
transmitting the binding code as part of data transmission between the sensor/base transceiver pair such that the binding code is used to identify each member of the sensor/base transceiver pair to one another;
whereby the binding code allows multiple sensor/base transceiver pairs to communicate in close proximity to one another without interfering with communications from other sensor/base transceiver pairs. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification