Universal garage door opener
First Claim
1. A universal garage door opener (10) comprising:
- a receiver antenna (18,64) responsive to a modulated carrier frequency signal;
a detector (22,78) responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64), said detector (22,78) demodulating the carrier frequency signal and providing a demodulation signal indicative of the modulation of the carrier frequency signal;
a frequency synthesizer (34,96) responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64), said frequency synthesizer (34,96) selectively providing a known reference frequency signal, said frequency synthesizer (34,96) dividing the carrier frequency signal by a known value to generate a divided carrier frequency signal and comparing the divided carrier frequency signal to the reference frequency signal to determine the frequency of the carrier frequency signal, said frequency synthesizer (34,96) providing a phase detect output signal indicative of the comparison between the divided carrier frequency signal and the reference frequency signal; and
a control device (12,90) responsive to the demodulation signal from the detector (22,78) and the phase detect output signal from the frequency synthesizer (34,96), said control device (12,90) controlling the operation of the frequency synthesizer (34,96) for selectively changing the known value from a maximum divide ratio to a lesser divide ratio until the divided carrier frequency signal is within a predetermined resolution range of the divided reference frequency signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A universal garage door opener (UGDO) that records and recreates a carrier frequency signal from a wide range of commercially available garage door openers. A receiver portion of the UGDO includes a detector for removing a carrier wave of the received carrier frequency signal. The carrier frequency signal is applied to a frequency synthesizer including a dual modulus prescaler divider chain. The carrier frequency signal is divided down by the divider chain and compared to a divided reference frequency signal to determine the carrier frequency. The dual modulus divider chain starts at a maximum divide ratio, and periodically changes the divide ratio until the divided carrier frequency signal is within a predetermined resolution range of the divided reference frequency signal. A JK flip flop is used to hold a phase detect output signal of the frequency synthesizer indicative of the divided carrier frequency signal. A carrier frequency signal from a variable controlled oscillator is applied to the frequency synthesizer to be divided down by the dual modulus prescaler divider chain. The phase detect output signal from the frequency synthesizer is used to adjust the center frequency of the VCO so that the divided VCO frequency signal conforms to the original carrier frequency signal. The output carrier frequency of the VCO is also applied to an amplifier that is responsive to a modulation signal to modulate the carrier frequency in accordance with the originally stored demodulation signal from the carrier frequency signal.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. A universal garage door opener (10) comprising:
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a receiver antenna (18,64) responsive to a modulated carrier frequency signal; a detector (22,78) responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64), said detector (22,78) demodulating the carrier frequency signal and providing a demodulation signal indicative of the modulation of the carrier frequency signal; a frequency synthesizer (34,96) responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64), said frequency synthesizer (34,96) selectively providing a known reference frequency signal, said frequency synthesizer (34,96) dividing the carrier frequency signal by a known value to generate a divided carrier frequency signal and comparing the divided carrier frequency signal to the reference frequency signal to determine the frequency of the carrier frequency signal, said frequency synthesizer (34,96) providing a phase detect output signal indicative of the comparison between the divided carrier frequency signal and the reference frequency signal; and a control device (12,90) responsive to the demodulation signal from the detector (22,78) and the phase detect output signal from the frequency synthesizer (34,96), said control device (12,90) controlling the operation of the frequency synthesizer (34,96) for selectively changing the known value from a maximum divide ratio to a lesser divide ratio until the divided carrier frequency signal is within a predetermined resolution range of the divided reference frequency signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A universal garage door opener (10) comprising:
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a receiver antenna (18,64) responsive to a modulated carrier frequency signal; means for separating the modulated carrier frequency signal into a first path and a second path; a detector (22,78) responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64) along the first path, said detector (22,78) demodulating the carrier frequency signal and providing a modulation signal indicative of the modulation of the carrier frequency signal; a frequency synthesizer (34,96) including a dual modulus prescaler divider chain and being responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64) along the second path, said frequency synthesizer (34,96) providing a phase detect output signal indicative of the frequency of the carrier frequency signal; and a control device (12,90) responsive to the demodulation signal from the detector (22,78) and the output signal from the frequency synthesizer (34,96), said control device (12,90) controlling the operation of the frequency synthesizer (34,96) for dividing down the modulated carrier frequency signal by the divider chain until the divided carrier signal is within a predetermined resolution range of a divided reference frequency signal from the divider chain. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A universal garage door opener (10) comprising:
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a receiver antenna (18,64) responsive to a modulated carrier frequency signal; a detector (22,78) responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64), said detector (22,78) demodulating the carrier frequency signal and providing a demodulation signal indicative of the modulation of the carrier frequency signal; a frequency synthesizer (34,96) including a dual modulus prescaler divider chain and being responsive to the modulated carrier frequency signal from the receiver antenna (18,64), said frequency synthesizer (34,96) providing a phase detect output signal indicative of the frequency of the carrier frequency signal; a pluses stretcher diode (124) responsive to the phase detect output signal, said stretcher diode (124) stretching pulses in the phase detect output signal to provide enhanced detection capabilities; and a control device (12,90) responsive to the demodulation signal from the detector (22,78) and the phase detect output signal from the frequency synthesizer (34,96), said control device (12,90) controlling the operation of the frequency synthesizer (34,96) for dividing down the modulated carrier frequency signal by the divider chain until the divided carrier signal is within a predetermined resolution range of a divided reference frequency signal from the divider chain. - View Dependent Claims (33)
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34. A method of decoding the frequency of a frequency signal including a stream of consecutive pulses, said method comprising the steps of:
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providing a circuit that is responsive to the frequency signal; determining a shortest pulse width of the frequency signal from one waveform transition to a next waveform transition over a predetermined period of time, said step of determining the shortest pulse width including measuring both positive going pulse widths and negative going pulse widths; selecting a sampling frequency within the circuit that has a rate that is faster than one half of the shortest pulse width so as to stretch the width of the pulses in the frequency signal to create stretched pulses; representing the shortest pulse width as two samples in a memory of the circuit as a basis function in order to represent the stream of consecutive pulses in terms of the basis function; determining whether there is an even number or an odd number of consecutive high or low samples for a particular pulse width; and remapping the frequency signal to the time base of the circuit by removing the stretched pulses from the frequency signal. - View Dependent Claims (35)
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Specification