Serial bus control for appliances
First Claim
1. A household appliance comprising a direct current (DC) serial bus control system disposed within said appliance, said serial bus control system comprising a single DC master communications module, a low-voltage DC serial bus connector coupled to said master communication module, and a plurality of slave nodes, each of said slave nodes being coupled to said serial bus connector and being responsive to at least one of a plurality of DC current slave node address codes so as to generate a respective DC current slave node response signal to said master communications module.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A household appliance having a serial bus control system includes a system controller, a plurality of slave nodes, and a serial bus connector. Each slave node is a sensor, an actuator, or the like, that is coupled to the serial bus connector and is responsive to a particular slave node address code generated by a master communications module that is part of the system controller. The serial bus connector is a loop of conductor which is attached at each end of the loop to the master communication module, with the slave nodes coupled to the loop at intermediate positions along the loop. The master communications module includes an interrogation circuit for generating digital transmissions to one or more of said slave node address codes and a receiver circuit for receipt of digital transmissions from the slave nodes coupled to said serial bus connector. The system controller further includes a processor for receiving sensor signals from slave nodes addressed by the communications module and for generating respective control signals to govern operation of actuators coupled to the serial bus connector.
156 Citations
14 Claims
- 1. A household appliance comprising a direct current (DC) serial bus control system disposed within said appliance, said serial bus control system comprising a single DC master communications module, a low-voltage DC serial bus connector coupled to said master communication module, and a plurality of slave nodes, each of said slave nodes being coupled to said serial bus connector and being responsive to at least one of a plurality of DC current slave node address codes so as to generate a respective DC current slave node response signal to said master communications module.
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8. A household appliance comprising a direct current (DC) serial bus control system disposed within said appliance, said serial bus control system comprising:
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a system controller, said system controller further comprising a single DC master communications module having an interrogation circuit and a receiver circuit; a low voltage DC serial bus connector coupled to said master communication module; and a plurality of slave nodes coupled to said serial bus connector, at least one of said slave nodes comprising an actuator and at least one of said slave nodes comprising a non-actuator sensor; each of said slave nodes having an address code such that respective ones of said slave nodes are responsive to DC digital transmissions from said master communications module to selected slave nodes coupled to said serial bus connector. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification