Year-round decorative lights with time-multiplexed illumination of interleaved sets of color-controllable LEDS
First Claim
1. A decorative lighting apparatus, comprising:
- control circuitry;
a plurality of color-control outputs from the control circuitry for coupling to color-control terminals of each one of a plurality of color-controllable lights;
the color-control outputs including a red color-control output for coupling to each red color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights;
the color-control outputs including a green color-control output for coupling to each green color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights;
the color-control outputs including a blue color-control output for coupling to each blue color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights;
one or more set selection outputs from the control circuitry for selectively and individually enabling at least a first set of one or more of the color-controllable lights and a second set of one or more of the color-controllable lights; and
the control circuitry being operative to illuminate the color-controllable lights with a color scheme by repeatedly time-multiplexing color-control signals at the red, the green, and the blue color-control outputs to the first and the second sets of color-controllable lights with use of the one or more set selection outputs at a rate of 32 Hertz or greater.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A decorative lighting apparatus provides user-selectable color schemes corresponding to several holidays and other occasions for year-round use. In one illustrative example, the decorative lighting apparatus includes control circuitry which has a plurality of color-control outputs for coupling to color-control terminals of each one of a plurality of color-controllable lights along a decorative light strand. The control circuitry is operative to illuminate the color-controllable lights with any given color scheme by repeatedly time-multiplexing color-control signals at the color-control outputs to different interleaved sets of color-controllable lights along the decorative light strand. Each color-controllable light is a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) Light-Emitting Diode (LED). Preferably, the time-multiplexing rate is sufficient such that the RGB LEDs appear to be simultaneously illuminated along the strand (e.g. 32 Hertz or greater). Advantageously, this low-cost implementation reduces the number of wires required along the decorative light strand without sacrificing versatility.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A decorative lighting apparatus, comprising:
- control circuitry;
a plurality of color-control outputs from the control circuitry for coupling to color-control terminals of each one of a plurality of color-controllable lights; the color-control outputs including a red color-control output for coupling to each red color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights; the color-control outputs including a green color-control output for coupling to each green color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights; the color-control outputs including a blue color-control output for coupling to each blue color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights; one or more set selection outputs from the control circuitry for selectively and individually enabling at least a first set of one or more of the color-controllable lights and a second set of one or more of the color-controllable lights; and the control circuitry being operative to illuminate the color-controllable lights with a color scheme by repeatedly time-multiplexing color-control signals at the red, the green, and the blue color-control outputs to the first and the second sets of color-controllable lights with use of the one or more set selection outputs at a rate of 32 Hertz or greater. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- control circuitry;
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13. A method of illuminating a decorative lighting apparatus with one or more color schemes, comprising:
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receiving a user switch setting of a plurality of user-selectable switch settings associated with a plurality of color schemes of the decorative lighting apparatus; selecting the color scheme in response to the user switch setting; producing the color scheme in the decorative lighting apparatus by; selecting a first set of color-controllable lights of the decorative lighting apparatus; controlling a plurality of red, green, and blue color-control outputs which are coupled to red, green, and blue color-control terminals, respectively, of the first set of color-controllable lights to illuminate a first color in the first set of color-controllable lights; selecting a second set of color-controllable lights of the decorative lighting apparatus; controlling the plurality of red, green, and blue color-control outputs which are coupled to red, green, and blue color-control terminals, respectively, of the second set of color-controllable lights to illuminate a second color in the second set of color-controllable lights; and repeating the selecting and the controlling, in a time-multiplexed fashion, to produce the color scheme which includes the first color and the second color. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A decorative lighting apparatus, comprising:
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a decorating selector which provides a plurality of user-selectable switch settings; control circuitry; a plurality of color-control outputs from the control circuitry for coupling to color-control terminals of each one of a plurality of color-controllable lights; the color-control outputs including a red color-control output for coupling to each red color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights; the color-control outputs including a green color-control output for coupling to each green color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights; the color-control outputs including a blue color-control output for coupling to each blue color-control terminal of the color-controllable lights; one or more set selection outputs from the control circuitry for selectively and individually enabling at least a first set of one or more of the color-controllable lights and a second set of one or more of the color-controllable lights; and the control circuitry being operative to illuminate the color-controllable lights with a different color scheme for each user-selectable switch setting by repeatedly time-multiplexing color-control signals at the red, the green, and the blue color-control outputs to the first and the second sets of color-controllable lights with use of the one or more set selection outputs. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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Specification