Apparatus and methods for regulating delivery of electrical energy
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A dimmer for regulating the delivery of electrical energy from a source of electrical energy to a lighting load, the dimmer comprising:
- a controllably conductive device including an input adapted to be coupled to the source of electrical energy, an output adapted to be coupled to the load, and a control input; and
a control circuit having an input coupled to either the input or the output of the controllably conductive device and an output coupled to the control input of the controllably conductive device,wherein the control circuit is operable tosample an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate;
generate an integration value by integrating a signal representative of a square of the sampled waveform;
determine whether the integration value has exceeded a threshold value; and
cause electrical energy to be delivered to the load until it has been determined that the integration value has exceeded the threshold value.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load are disclosed. An electrical waveform is received from a source of electrical energy. An integration value is generated based on a square of an amplitude of the received waveform. Electrical energy is delivered to the load until the integration value exceeds a threshold value. Thereafter, the delivery of electrical energy to the load is discontinued.
61 Citations
66 Claims
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1. A dimmer for regulating the delivery of electrical energy from a source of electrical energy to a lighting load, the dimmer comprising:
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a controllably conductive device including an input adapted to be coupled to the source of electrical energy, an output adapted to be coupled to the load, and a control input; and a control circuit having an input coupled to either the input or the output of the controllably conductive device and an output coupled to the control input of the controllably conductive device, wherein the control circuit is operable to sample an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; generate an integration value by integrating a signal representative of a square of the sampled waveform; determine whether the integration value has exceeded a threshold value; and cause electrical energy to be delivered to the load until it has been determined that the integration value has exceeded the threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A dimmer for regulating the delivery of electrical energy from a source of electrical energy to a lighting load, the dimmer comprising:
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a controllably conductive device including an input adapted to be coupled to the source of electrical energy, an output adapted to be coupled to the load, and a control input; and a control circuit having an input coupled to either the input or the output of the controllably conductive device and an output coupled to the control input of the controllably conductive device; wherein the control circuit comprises a sawtooth wave generator that generates a sawtooth waveform; a first comparator that receives an absolute-value waveform having an amplitude representative of the absolute value of the amplitude of an electrical waveform and the sawtooth waveform and outputs a voltage-square pulse train based on a comparison of the absolute-value waveform and the sawtooth wave; an integrator that receives the voltage-square pulse train and generates an integration signal based on the voltage-square pulse train; and a second comparator that receives the integration signal and outputs a control signal based on a comparison of the integration signal and a threshold value; and wherein the controllably conductive device is responsive to the control signal to regulate delivery of electrical energy to the load. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A dimmer for regulating the delivery of electrical energy from a source of electrical energy to a lighting load, the dimmer comprising:
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a controllably conductive device including an input adapted to be coupled to the source of electrical energy, an output adapted to be coupled to the load, and a control input; and a control circuit having an input coupled to either the input or the output of the controllably conductive device and an output coupled to the control input of the controllably conductive device, wherein the control circuit is operable to receive an electrical waveform; integrate a pulsed waveform representative of a square of the amplitude of the electrical waveform to generate an integration value; determine whether the integration value has exceeded a threshold value; and cause electrical energy to be delivered to the load until it has been determined that the integration value has exceeded the threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method for regulating electrical energy delivered to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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receiving an alternating-current waveform; generating a rectified waveform from the alternating-current waveform; generating a voltage-square pulse train based on a comparison of the rectified waveform and a sawtooth waveform, the voltage-square pulse train representative of a square of an amplitude of the alternating-current waveform; and integrating the voltage-square pulse train over an amount of time to generate an integration signal representative of energy delivered by the alternating-current waveform to the lighting load over the amount of time.
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22. A dimmer for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load, the dimmer comprising:
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a controllably conductive device that regulates delivery of electrical energy to the load; a rectifier that generates a rectified waveform having an amplitude based on the absolute value of the amplitude of a received alternating-current waveform; and a microcontroller programmed to periodically sample the rectified waveform at a sampling rate to obtain a plurality of sample values, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate, the microcontroller further programmed to square the sample values to obtain a plurality of squared-sample values, to integrate the squared-sample values to obtain an integration value, to compare the integration value to a threshold value that is representative of the amount of energy to be delivered to the load to determine, whether a threshold amount of electrical energy has been delivered to the load, and to cause the controllably conductive device to regulate delivery of electrical energy to the load based on the determination. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method for regulating electrical energy delivered to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; squaring the sampled waveform to form a squared-amplitude waveform; generating an integration value by integrating the squared-amplitude waveform over an amount of time; determining whether the integration value has exceeded a threshold value; and causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load at least until it has been determined that the integration value has exceeded the threshold value.
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31. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method for regulating electrical energy delivered to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; squaring the sampled waveform to form a squared-amplitude waveform; generating an integration value by integrating the squared-amplitude waveform over an amount of time; determining from the integration value whether a threshold amount of energy has been delivered to the load; and causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load at least until it has been determined that the threshold amount of energy has been delivered to the load.
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32. A method for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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receiving an electrical waveform; generating an integration value representative of an integral of a square of an amplitude of the received electrical waveform by integrating a pulsed waveform representative of the square of the amplitude of the received electrical waveform; determining from the integration value whether a threshold amount of electrical energy has been delivered to the load; and causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load at least until it has been determined that the threshold amount of energy has been delivered to the load. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35)
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36. A method for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; generating an integration value by integrating a signal representative of a square of the sampled waveform; determining whether the integration value has exceeded a threshold value; causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load until it has been determined that the integration value has exceeded the threshold value; and causing the delivery of electrical energy to the load to be discontinued based on a determination that the integrated voltage has exceeded the threshold value.
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37. A method for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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detecting a zero-crossing of an alternating-current waveform; sampling the alternating-current waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; generating an integration value by integrating, for an amount of time beginning at the zero-crossing, a waveform representative of a square of the sampled waveform; causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load for the amount of time; and then causing the delivery of electrical energy to be discontinued, wherein the amount of time is defined such that an amount of electrical energy delivered to the load since the detection of the zero-crossing corresponds to a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39)
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40. A method for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; squaring the the sampled waveform to form a squared-amplitude waveform; generating an integration value by integrating the squared-amplitude waveform over an amount of time; determining whether the integration value has exceeded a threshold value; and causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load at least until it has been determined that the integration value has exceeded the threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method for estimating energy delivered by an alternating-current waveform to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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receiving an alternating-current waveform; generating a rectified waveform from the alternating-current waveform; generating a voltage-square pulse train based on a comparison of the rectified waveform and a sawtooth waveform, the voltage-square pulse train representative of a square of an amplitude of the alternating-current waveform; and integrating the voltage-square pulse train over an amount of time to generate an integration signal representative of energy delivered by the alternating-current waveform to the lighting load over the amount of time. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A method for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; squaring the the sampled waveform to form a squared-amplitude waveform; generating an integration value by integrating the squared-amplitude waveform over an amount of time; determining from the integration value whether a threshold amount of energy has been delivered to the load; and causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load at least until it has been determined that the threshold amount of energy has been delivered to the load.
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55. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method for regulating electrical energy delivered to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; generating an integration value representative of an integral of a square of the sampled waveform; determining from the integration value whether a threshold amount of electrical energy has been delivered to the load; and causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load at least until it has been determined that the threshold amount of energy has been delivered to the load.
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56. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method for regulating electrical energy delivered to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; generating an integration value representative of an integral of a square of the sampled waveform; determining whether the integration value has exceeded a threshold value; causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load until it has been determined that the integration value has exceeded the threshold value; and causing the delivery of electrical energy to the load to be discontinued based on a determination that the integrated voltage has exceeded the threshold value.
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57. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method for regulating electrical energy delivered to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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detecting a zero-crossing of an alternating-current waveform; sampling the alternating-current waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; generating an integration value by integrating, for an amount of time beginning at the zero-crossing, a waveform representative of a square of the sampled waveform; causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load for the amount of time; and then causing the delivery of electrical energy to be discontinued, wherein the amount of time is defined such that an amount of electrical energy delivered to the load since the detection of the zero-crossing corresponds to a threshold.
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58. A method for regulating delivery of electrical energy to a lighting load, the method comprising:
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sampling an electrical waveform at a sampling rate to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling rate chosen such that the human eye cannot discern light fluctuations of the lighting load due to the sampling rate; generating an integration value representative of an integral of a square of the sampled waveform; determining from the integration value whether a threshold amount of electrical energy has been delivered to the load; and causing electrical energy to be delivered to the load at least until it has been determined that the threshold amount of energy has been delivered to the load. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66)
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Specification