CONTROL HEAD WITH ELECTROLUMINESCENT PANEL IN LAND MOBILE RADIO

• US 20100141565A1
• Filed: 11/06/2009
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: E F Johnson Company (JVC Kenwood Corporation)
• Original Assignee: E F Johnson Company (JVC Kenwood Corporation)
• Inventors: Dunnigan, William Earl, Frandsen, Troy, Reavill, Dulie
• Granted Patent: US 9,262,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/76
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 23/003 the elements being electronics drivers or controllers for operating the light source, e.g. for a LED array
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 23/04 the elements being switches safety devices F21V25/00
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2105/00 Planar light sources
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2115/10 Light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2115/20 Electroluminescent [EL] light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/08 Details of timing specific for flat panels, other than clock recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/30 using electroluminescent panels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3258 with pixel circuitry controlling the voltage across the light-emitting element
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 13/83 characterised by legends, e.g. Braille, liquid crystal displays, light emitting or optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/401 for selecting or indicating operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 33/12 Light sources with substantially two-dimensional radiating surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/10 Controlling the intensity of the light

Abstract

An exemplary land mobile radio control head and method are provided. In one embodiment, the control head has the capability to utilize halo light of the control head to implement a multi-function indicator that communicates a state of the land mobile radio. In another embodiment, the control head has the capability to provide buffer images constructed from data received from the land mobile radio into a video stream for rendering on an electroluminescent display. In another embodiment, the control head provides the capability for a user to modify a configuration stored on the land mobile radio that defines one of several display modes to be utilized in generating data for use in forming images to be rendered on an electroluminescent display.

Claims

1. A control head for use with a land mobile radio, the control head comprising:

a plurality of user interface input/output components;

a plurality of light pipes having halo LEDs of a first hue to provide light for at least one of said components;

an indicator LED having a different hue from the halo LEDs and operable to illuminate a same light pipe as a particular one of the halo LEDs; and

a control head controller operatively connected to individually control activation of said indicator LED and said particular one of the halo LEDs according to a state of a land mobile radio separately from control of activation of the halo LEDs other than the particular one of the halo LEDs.

2. The control head of claim 1, wherein said components include a user actuable button, and said indicator LED is located behind one of said light pipes that provides halo light to the user actuable button.

3. The control head of claim 1, wherein said components include an electroluminescent display, and said indicator LED is located behind one of said light pipes that provides halo light to the electroluminescent display.

4. The control head of claim 1, further comprising a second indicator LED of a third hue and operable to illuminate the same light pipe as the particular one of the halo LEDs, wherein said control head controller is operatively connected to individually control activation of the second indicator LED according to another state of the land mobile radio.

5. The control head of claim 1, wherein the state of the land mobile radio is at least one of a transmit state or a receive state.

6. A control head for use with a land mobile radio, the control head comprising:

an electroluminescent display;

a control head controller operatively connected to receive data from a land mobile radio and to construct the data into an images; and

an FPGA video driver connected to said control head controller and buffering the images into a video stream for rendering on said electroluminescent display.

7. The control head of claim 6, further comprising a high voltage power supply receiving input power from a radio battery supply through a FET switch controlled by said FPGA video driver, wherein output voltage levels are adjustable by a volume adjustment potentiometer to set a brightness level of said electroluminescent display, and power supply switching frequency is controlled by the FPGA video driver.

8. The control head of claim 6, wherein said FPGA video driver contains a display data buffer, a frame timing generator, and display control logic to control operation of a negative row voltage charge/discharge FET, a positive row voltage charge/discharge FET, a row HV driver/shift register, and a column HV driver/shift register.

9. The control head of claim 6, wherein said FPGA video driver contains a display data buffer that is a RAM that is accessed by said control head controller to load pixel data for screen images and by internal frame generator logic to read the pixel data, and said control head controller load data into the display buffer though a parallel data port.

10. The control head of claim 6, wherein said FPGA video driver contains a frame timing generator that generates internal frame start, line start, pixel data, and pixel clock signals that are used by display control logic to control the circuitry connected to said electroluminescent display.

11. A system for configuring a control head having an electroluminescent panel in land mobile radio, the system comprising:

a land mobile radio having a computer memory storing a configuration and a controller operatively connected to generate display data according to one of various display modes as defined by the configuration;

a control head connected to said land mobile radio and having an electroluminescent display rendering images formed of said display data; and

a computer processor in communication with said land mobile radio via said control head and executing a process whereby a user of the computer processor specifies the display mode to be defined by the configuration.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said computer processor utilizes a menu whereby a user selects whether to inhibit display of a zone and channel to modify the configuration.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said computer processor utilizes a menu whereby a user selects a type of control head to modify the configuration.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said computer processor utilizes a menu whereby a user selects a display mode to modify the configuration.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein said computer processor utilizes a menu whereby a user selects an option for display of more than one line of text to modify the configuration.

16. A method of operation for use with a land mobile radio control head having an electroluminescent panel provided with a plurality of user interface input/output components and a plurality of light pipes having halo LEDs of a first hue to provide light for at least one of said components, the method comprising:

employing an indicator LED having a different hue from the halo LEDs and operable to illuminate a same light pipe as a particular one of the halo LEDs; and

employing a control head controller to individually control activation of the indicator LED and said particular one of the halo LEDs according to a state of a land mobile radio separately from control of activation of the halo LEDs other than the particular one of the halo LEDs.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said components include a user actuable button, and the indicator LED is located behind one of the light pipes that provides halo light to the user actuable button.

18. The control head of claim 16, wherein said components include an electroluminescent display, and the indicator LED is located behind one of the light pipes that provides halo light to the electroluminescent display.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

employing a second indicator LED of a third hue to illuminate the same light pipe as the particular one of the halo LEDs; and

employing the control head controller to individually control activation of the second indicator LED according to another state of the land mobile radio.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the state of the land mobile radio is at least one of a transmit state or a receive state.