POWER OVER ETHERNET LIGHTING FIXTURE

• US 20150195883A1
• Filed: 01/02/2015
• Published: 07/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDEAL Industries Lighting, LLC (Ideal Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: CREE Incorporated (Wolfspeed, Inc.)
• Inventors: Harris, Michael James, Medendorp, Nicholas William Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 10,154,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/12 using optical feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/105 in response to determined parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/11 by determining the brightness or colour temperature of ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/115 by determining the presence or movement of objects or living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/185 via power line carrier transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

In a first embodiment, a lighting fixture is configured as a power over Ethernet (PoE) powered device (PD), which is capable of facilitating Ethernet-based communications with and receiving power from a PoE device, such as a PoE switch, over a single cable. In a second embodiment, a lighting fixture is configured as a PoE power source equipment (PSE) device, which is capable of facilitating Ethernet-based communications with and supplying power to one or more control elements.

Claims

1. A lighting fixture configured as a power over Ethernet (PoE) powered device (PD) comprising:

a light source;

a PoE interface configured to facilitate Ethernet-based communications over an Ethernet cable and receive sourced power via the Ethernet cable from a power sourcing entity (PSE);

a power supply unit associated with the PoE interface and configured to provide supply power from the sourced power; and

circuitry configured to;

receive the supply power from the power supply unit;

control the light source; and

communicate with other lighting fixtures via the PoE interface, wherein power for the light source is derived from the sourced power.

2. The lighting fixture of claim 1 further comprising at least one control element and wherein the circuitry is configured to receive control element information from the at least one control element and control the light source based on the control element information.

3. The lighting fixture of claim 2 wherein the at least one control element comprises one of an ambient light sensor and an occupancy sensor.

4. The lighting fixture of claim 2 wherein the at least one control element comprises an image sensor.

5. The lighting fixture of claim 1 further comprising at least one control element and wherein the circuitry is configured to receive control element information from the at least one control element and send one of the control element information and a message based on the control element information to at least one of the other lighting fixtures via the PoE interface.

6. The lighting fixture of claim 5 wherein the circuitry is further configured to control the light source based on information received from at least one of the other lighting fixtures via the PoE interface.

7. The lighting fixture of claim 6 wherein the at least one control element comprises one of an ambient light sensor and an occupancy sensor.

8. The lighting fixture of claim 6 wherein the at least one control element comprises an image sensor.

9. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein the circuitry is further configured to control the light source based on information received from at least one of the other lighting fixtures via the PoE interface.

10. The lighting fixture of claim 1 further comprising a wireless communication interface that is associated with the circuitry and configured to facilitate wireless communications with at least one of the other lighting fixtures.

11. The lighting fixture of claim 1 further comprising at least one DC/DC power supply that is configured to:

receive the sourced power from the PoE interface; and

generate at least one drive signal for the light source based on the sourced power and at least one control signal from the circuitry, wherein the at least one control signal is used to control the light source.

12. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein the light source comprises at least one string of light emitting diodes.

13. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein the circuitry is further configured to communicate with at least one lighting fixture that is part of a wireless lighting network over an intermediate network via the PoE interface.

14. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein the PoE interface is coupled to an Ethernet jack that is configured to receive the Ethernet cable.

15. A lighting fixture configured as a power over Ethernet (PoE) power sourcing device (PSE) comprising:

a light source;

a PoE interface configured to facilitate communications with and supply sourced power to at least one control element via an Ethernet cable; and

circuitry configured to;

control the light source; and

communicate with the at least one control element via the PoE interface.

16. The lighting fixture of claim 15 further comprising power supply circuitry that is configured to convert AC power to the sourced power.

17. The lighting fixture of claim 16 wherein the circuitry is further configured to receive control element information from the at least one control element and control the light source based on the control element information.

18. The lighting fixture of claim 17 wherein the at least one control element comprises one of an ambient light sensor and an occupancy sensor.

19. The lighting fixture of claim 17 wherein the at least one control element comprises an image sensor.

20. The lighting fixture of claim 16 wherein:

the at least one control element comprises a first control element and a second control element that provides a different function than the first control element;

the PoE interface includes a first jack that is coupled to the first control element via a first cable and a second jack that is coupled to the second control element via a second cable.

21. The lighting fixture of claim 16 wherein the at least one control element comprises a first control element that provides both an ambient light sensor and an occupancy sensor.

22. The lighting fixture of claim 16 wherein the circuitry is configured to receive control element information from the at least one control element and send one of the control element information and a message based on the control element information to at least one other lighting fixture.

23. The lighting fixture of claim 22 wherein the circuitry is configure to control the light source based on information received from the at least one other lighting fixture.

24. The lighting fixture of claim 23 wherein the at least one control element comprises one of an ambient light sensor and an occupancy sensor.

25. The lighting fixture of claim 23 wherein the at least one control element comprises an image sensor.

26. The lighting fixture of claim 16 wherein the circuitry is configured to control the light source based on information received from at least one other lighting fixture via the PoE interface.

27. The lighting fixture of claim 16 further comprising a wireless communication interface that is associated with the circuitry and configured to facilitate wireless communications with at least one other lighting fixture.

28. The lighting fixture of claim 16 wherein the light source comprises at least one string of light emitting diodes.

29. The lighting fixture of claim 15 wherein the circuitry is further configured to communicate with at least one lighting fixture via the PoE interface.

30. A lighting network comprising a plurality of lighting fixtures wherein each lighting fixture is configured as a power over Ethernet (PoE) powered device (PD), which is capable of facilitating Ethernet-based communications via and receiving power from a PoE device over a single cable.

31. A lighting network comprising a plurality of lighting fixtures configured as a PoE power source equipment (PSE) device, which is capable of facilitating Ethernet-based communications with and supplying power to at least one control element over a single cable.

32. The lighting network of claim 31 wherein the at least one control element comprises at least one of an ambient light sensor, an occupancy sensor, and an image sensor.