AIRCRAFT LED WASHLIGHT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SAME

• US 20100072904A1
• Filed: 09/24/2009
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: B/E Aerospace, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: B/E Aerospace, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Gambeski, Gannon, Secilmis, Seckin, Eckel, David P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,378,595 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 315/185.R
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2011/0038 Illumination systems for cabins as a whole
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/165 following a pre-assigned programmed sequence; Logic control [LC]
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/18 via data-bus transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A modular area washlight illumination system and method for operating are providing that comprises an intelligent light module group that has: one or more light modules, each of which comprises a plurality of discrete illumination sources; a power supply; and an intelligent module group controller comprising: a) circuitry that controls the illumination levels of the illumination sources; and b) an interface for receiving and sending information. The system further comprises a system controller that comprises: a) an attendant control panel serving as a user interface; and b) a system controller interface that is connected to the module group controller interface.

Claims

1. A modular area illumination system, comprising:

an intelligent light module group, comprising;

one or more light modules, each of which comprises a plurality of discrete illumination sources;

a power supply; and

an intelligent module group controller comprising;

a) circuitry that controls the illumination levels of the illumination sources; and

b) an interface for receiving information.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the discrete illumination sources are light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein some or all of the discrete illumination sources are arranged into illumination source groups.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the illumination sources are grouped according to at least one of:

area zones, color, and illumination source characteristics.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the area is an aircraft interior.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a filter to remove spurious signals from at least one of the power and the communication bus.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the power supply is a switching power supply.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the light module group is constructed as an aircraft line-replaceable unit (LRU).

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the group controller interface is an RS-485 interface.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more light modules are a plurality of light modules.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein at least one of the light modules is a master module, and at least one of the light modules is a slave module that receives at least one of power and communications from the master module.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the power supply and module group control are distributed across more than one module.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the light module comprises a housing, a printed circuit board (PCB) mounted within the housing, and module circuitry affixed to the PCB.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the light module group comprises:

a single housing,

a plurality of PCBs mounted within the housing; and

module circuitry affixed to each of the PCBs.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the illumination sources are at least one of individually addressable and addressable in groups.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the module groups and modules are individually addressable by an external system controller.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of module groups is organized into addressable lighting regions.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the lighting regions comprise at least:

sidewall lighting, ceiling lighting, and direct lighting.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the light modules are arranged in a series configuration.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein the light modules are arranged in a U-shaped arrangement.

21. The system according to claim 1, wherein the module group controller comprises corrective algorithms and associated memory for storing precise correction values to compensate for aging illumination sources, color shifts, or intensity shifts.

22. The system according to claim 1, wherein the power supply comprises a pulse width modulator that controls the power delivered to the illumination source to vary its intensity.

23. The system according to claim 1, wherein the module group comprises:

first and second modules;

the first module comprising a front-end connector that carries power and communications signals, and a rear-end connector that carries power and communication signals;

the second module comprising a front-end connector that mates with the rear-end connector of the first module to receive at least one of power and communication signals via the first module.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein at least one of the front-end and rear-end connectors is a jumper board that connects two PCB boards together.

25. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an algorithm for assigning a group identifier to the module group, wherein the module group comprises a data store to hold the group identifier.

26. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a scene database having a plurality of scenes that comprises data associated with level settings of illumination sources to create a coherent illumination theme among a plurality of the light modules or groups so that a single scene setting can be used for the plurality of light modules or groups.

27. The system according to claim 26, wherein the scenes include:

an entry or exit theme in which a maximum brightness is provided;

a daylight flight theme in which a medium level brightness is provided; and

a nighttime flight them in which a low level brightness is provided.

28. The system according to claim 26, wherein the system comprises algorithms that generate smooth transitions between scenes.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein the transitions are non-linear.

30. The system according to claim 28, wherein the transitions are implemented utilizing look-up tables (LUTs) containing transition brightness values.

31. The system according to claim 26, wherein the scene database comprises factory set scenes and user defined scenes using a scene creation tool.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein the scene creation tool is integrated with a power management tool to ensure that power load limits are not exceeded.

33. The system according to claim 26, further comprising electrically erasable memory into which scene data is loaded.

34. The system according to claim 26, wherein a group module has an algorithm for receiving and processing a scene change notification message.

35. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a system controller that comprises;

a) an attendant control panel serving as a user interface; and

b) a system controller interface that is connected to the module group controller interface.

36. The system according to claim 35, wherein at least one of the system controller and the module group controller comprises corrective algorithms and associated memory for storing precise correction values to compensate for aging illumination sources, color shifts, or intensity shifts.

37. The system according to claim 35, wherein the system controller comprises power control algorithms that determine total power consumption of all module groups in the system using an adder to sum up the individual power amounts consumed.

38. The system according to claim 37, further comprising circuitry and algorithms to limit total power if it is over a predefined threshold.

39. The system according to claim 38, wherein the limiting is based on an overall and uniformly applied power reduction.

40. The system according to claim 38, wherein the limiting is based on a priority scheme in which module priorities are provided in a datastore.

41. The system according to claim 37, further comprising a database comprising power characteristics for each module or module group.

42. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system controller comprises an algorithm for broadcasting scene information to the module group.

43. The system according to claim 42, wherein the broadcasting consists essentially of a scene identifier and an intensity level for the scene.

44. The system according to claim 34, wherein the scene change notification message is sent a plurality of times to the module group at a fixed spaced-apart interval.

45. The system according to claim 1, wherein the group controller interface comprises an interface for sending information.

46. The system according to claim 1, wherein the intelligent module group controller circuitry further controls illumination color.