COMMISSIONING AND CONTROLLING LOAD CONTROL DEVICES
First Claim
1. A load control system comprising:
- a plurality of control devices including at least one load control device that is configured to control an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein each control device comprises a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a respective control device beacon that comprises an identifier associated with the control device; and
a network device configured to;
discover the respective control device beacon for each control device of the plurality of control devices;
identify a signal strength at which the respective control device beacon is received for each control device of the plurality of control devices;
display the plurality of control devices in a list of control devices that is sorted according to the corresponding signal strength of each control device beacon;
receive indications of selections of at least two control devices in the list of control devices; and
associate the identifiers of the selected at least two control devices to enable control of the at least two load control devices upon subsequent reception of a command by one of the at least two control devices.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A load control system may include control devices capable of being associated with each other at one or more locations for performing load control. Control devices may include control-source devices and/or control-target devices. A location beacon may be discovered and a unique identifier in the location beacon may be associated with a unique identifier of one or more control devices. Upon subsequent discovery of the location beacon, the associated load control devices may be controlled. The beacons may be communicated via radio frequency signals, visible light communication, and/or audio signals. The visible light communication may be used to communicate other types of information to devices in the load control system. The visible light communication may be used to identify link addresses for communicating with load control devices, load control instructions, load control configuration instructions, network communication information, and/or the like. The information in the beacons may be used to commission and/or control the load control system.
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Citations
83 Claims
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1. A load control system comprising:
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a plurality of control devices including at least one load control device that is configured to control an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein each control device comprises a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a respective control device beacon that comprises an identifier associated with the control device; and a network device configured to; discover the respective control device beacon for each control device of the plurality of control devices; identify a signal strength at which the respective control device beacon is received for each control device of the plurality of control devices; display the plurality of control devices in a list of control devices that is sorted according to the corresponding signal strength of each control device beacon; receive indications of selections of at least two control devices in the list of control devices; and associate the identifiers of the selected at least two control devices to enable control of the at least two load control devices upon subsequent reception of a command by one of the at least two control devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method, comprising:
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discovering a control device beacon for a control device of a plurality of control devices, wherein the control device beacon comprises an identifier associated with the control device; identifying a signal strength at which the control device beacon is received for the control device of the plurality of control devices; displaying the plurality of control devices in a list of control devices that is sorted according to the signal strength of the control device beacon; receiving indications of selections of at least two control devices in the list of control devices; and associating the identifiers of the selected at least two control devices to enable control of the at least two load control devices upon subsequent reception of a command by one of the at least two control devices. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A load control system comprising:
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a plurality of control devices including at least one load control device that is configured to control an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein each control device comprises a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a respective control device beacon that comprises an identifier associated with the load control device; and a network device configured to; discover the respective control device beacon for each control device of the plurality of control devices; identify a signal strength at which the respective control device beacon is received for each control device of the plurality of load control devices; automatically select a control device if the signal strength of the respective beacon exceeds a selection threshold; and associate the respective identifiers of at least two control devices that have respective signal strengths that exceed the selection threshold to enable control of the associated load control devices upon subsequent reception of a command by one of the at least two control devices. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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- 34. The load control system of claim 34, wherein the beacon transmitting circuit is configured to send the messages using a same communication protocol during the beacon signal transmission time period as during the load control communication time period.
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37. A load control system comprising:
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a plurality of control devices including at least one load control device that is configured to control an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein each control device comprises a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a respective control device beacon that comprises an identifier associated with the control device; and wherein at least one control device of the plurality of control devices is configured to; discover the respective control device beacon for each of the other control devices of the plurality of control devices; identify a signal strength at which the respective control device beacon is received for each of the other control devices of the plurality of control devices; and associate the respective identifier of each of the other control devices that has a signal strength above a selection threshold with the identifier of the at least one load control device. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A control device for controlling an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein the control device comprises:
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a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a control device beacon, wherein the control device beacon comprises an identifier associated with the control device; and a processor configured to; receive the control device beacon for other control devices of a plurality of control devices; identify a signal strength at which the control device beacon is received for the other control devices of the plurality of control devices; and associate identifiers of the other control devices having a signal strength above a selection threshold with the identifier of the control device. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A system for determining a link address assigned to a load control device, the system comprising:
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a lighting control device configured to provide an amount of power to a lighting load; and a system controller configured to; instruct the lighting control device to provide the amount of power to the lighting load in a manner that causes the lighting load to indicate the link address assigned to the lighting control device in a visible light communication; receive location information that indicates a location of the load control device; receive the link address assigned to the load control device from a network device; and associate the link address with a device identifier of the load control device based on the location information that indicates a location of the load control device. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51)
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52. A system controller for determining a link address assigned to a load control device, the system controller comprising:
a processor configured to; instruct a lighting control device to provide an amount of power to a lighting load in a manner that causes the lighting load to indicate the link address assigned to the lighting control device in a visible light communication; receive location information that indicates a location of the load control device; receive the link address assigned to the load control device from a network device; and associate the link address with a device identifier of the load control device based on the location information that indicates a location of the load control device. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
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59. A system controller for establishing a network connection with a network device, the system controller comprising:
a processor configured to; send, via a network communication signal, a device identifier that identifies the system controller; and instruct a lighting control device to provide an amount of power to a lighting load in a manner that causes the lighting load to indicate the device identifier that matches the device identifier sent in the network communication signal; receive a request to join the network from the network device, wherein the request includes the device identifier; and establish the network connection with the network device to enable the network device to send and receive information to the system controller via the network connection. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61)
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62. A lighting control device comprising:
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a visible light sensor configured to detect visible light communication; and a control circuit configured to; receive the visible light communication; identify a device identifier of another lighting control device in the visible light communication; and associate the lighting control device with the device identifier of the other load control device. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65)
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66. A network device for configuring a load control system, the network device comprising:
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a camera configured to detect visible light communication; and a control device configured to; receive a plurality of link addresses that each correspond to a different lighting control device of a plurality of lighting control devices; receive the visible light communication; identify a link address of the plurality of link addresses in the visible light communication; send the identified link address to a system controller; and send location information that indicates a location of the load control device to the system controller. - View Dependent Claims (67, 68)
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69. A control device for configuring a load control system, the control device comprising:
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a processor configured to; receive a plurality of link addresses that each correspond to a different lighting control device of a plurality of lighting control devices; receive a visible light communication; identify a link address of the plurality of link addresses in the visible light communication; send the identified link address to a system controller; and send location information that indicates a location of the load control device to the system controller. - View Dependent Claims (70, 71)
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72. A load control system comprising:
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a plurality of control devices including at least one load control device that is configured to control an amount of power provided to an electrical load, wherein each control device comprises a beacon transmitting circuit configured to transmit a respective control device beacon that comprises an identifier associated with the control device; and a network device configured to; discover the respective control device beacon for each control device of the plurality of control devices; identify other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device; display each control device of the plurality of control devices in which the respective control device beacon was discovered; display the identified other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device; receive an indication of a selection of at least one of the displayed each control device of the plurality of control devices in which the respective control device beacon was discovered and receive an indication of a selection of at least one of the displayed identified other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device; associate the identifier of the selected at least one of the displayed each control device of the plurality of control devices in which the respective control device beacon was discovered with the identifier of the at least one of the displayed other control devices that have been previously selected by the network device. - View Dependent Claims (73, 74, 75, 76)
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77. A control device, comprising:
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a transmitter for transmitting messages during a beacon signal transmission time period and a load control communication time period, wherein; during the beacon signal transmission time period the transmitter transmits a beacon signal, and during the load control communication time period the transmitter transmits digital messages other than the beacon signal. - View Dependent Claims (78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83)
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Specification