Systems and methods for providing power and data to lighting devices

• US 8,278,845 B1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hunter Industries Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Hunter Industries Incorporated
• Inventors: Woytowitz, Peter John
• Primary Examiner(s): Owens, Douglas W
• Assistant Examiner(s): YANG, AMY X
• Application Number:
  US13/244,869
• Time in Patent Office: 372 Days
• Field of Search: 315/307, 315/308, 315/294, 315/291, 315/312, 340/286, 340/538, 307/1
• US Class Current: 315/307
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/185 via power line carrier transmission

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for lighting systems, including high output lighting systems for various environments. The lighting systems include a lighting controller for driving lighting modules and transmitting a data signal to the lighting modules. The data signal varies between logical states. The lighting controller provides a low loss rectified power signal. The lighting controller further provides data within the power signal by forming a positive polarity rectified power waveform corresponding to data in a first state and a negative polarity rectified waveform signal corresponding to data in a second state using substantially loss-less circuitry.

Claims

1. A controller configured to power and control a behavior of a system of lights, one or more of said lights associated with each of a plurality of lighting modules, each of said lighting modules serially addressable over a two-wire communication network, said controller comprising:

a processor configured to output command and address data to said two-wire communication network to control a behavior of at least one of said lights;

a user input device communicating with said processor and configured to accept user input and to output information to said processor;

a rectifier circuit communicating with a power signal and configured to form a rectified power waveform forming a sinusoidal waveform between zero crossings; and

a bridge circuit communicating with said rectifier circuit and said processor and configured to receive the rectified power waveform and the command and address data, and to output a data encoded power signal to control said behavior of said lights, said data encoded power signal forming a sinusoidal waveform between zero crossings;

wherein the bridge circuit includes a plurality of transistors, the plurality of transistors communicating with said processor to receive a control signal having first and second states, at least one of the plurality of transistors enabled when the control signal is in the first state and at least one of the others of the plurality of transistors enabled when the control signal is in the second state, the bridge circuit outputting said data encoded power signal responsive to the rectified power waveform having a higher polarity when the control signal is in the first state and responsive to the rectified power waveform having a lower polarity when the control signal is in the second state.

2. The controller of claim 1, wherein the bridge circuit is configured to output said data encoded power signal as a polarity controlled sinusoidal power signal, wherein a polarity thereof is responsive to said command and address data and wherein said modules interpret said polarity to accomplish said control of said behavior of said lights.

3. The controller of claim 1, wherein the rectifier comprises a plurality of transistors, at least one of the plurality of transistors of said rectifier enabled when a phase of the power signal is positive and at least one of the others of the plurality of transistors of said rectifier enabled when the phase of the power signal is negative to form the rectified power waveform.

4. The controller of claim 3, wherein at least one of the plurality of transistors of said rectifier comprises a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) having an integral body diode.

5. The controller of claim 3, wherein at least one of the plurality of transistors of said rectifier comprises a bipolar junction transistor (BJT).

6. The controller of claim 3, wherein at least one of the plurality of transistors of said rectifier comprises an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).

7. The controller of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of transistors comprises a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) having an integral body diode.

8. The controller of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of transistors comprises a bipolar junction transistor (BJT).

9. The controller of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of transistors comprises an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).

10. The controller of claim 1, further comprising a second controller, the first controller functioning as a master controller and the second controller functioning as a slave controller to the master controller.

11. The controller of claim 10, wherein said slave controller accesses said user input from said master controller.

12. The controller of claim 1, wherein the higher polarity comprises a positive polarity and the lower polarity comprises a negative polarity.

13. The controller of claim 1, wherein a user-operated remote device is in communication with said controller, said controller electrically connected to at least one lighting module through a two-wire path, the controller creating and providing said data encoded power signal to the at least one lighting module through the two-wire path, the at least one lighting module assigned to a first lighting zone, each lighting module and each lighting zone being addressable;

and

wherein said user-operated remote device is further in communication with a selected lighting module of the at least one lighting module, the remote device configured to reassign the selected lighting module to a second lighting zone without disconnecting the selected lighting module from the two-wire path.

14. The controller of claim 1, wherein said controller is configured to interact with a user through online interactivity, said controller electrically serially communicating with said plurality of lighting modules, said controller outputting said data encoded power signal to said plurality of lighting modules, each lighting module being responsive to data encoded in said data encoded power signal when said data is addressed to said lighting module;

and

wherein a webserver serves webpages to a digital device interacting with said user, said digital device receiving user input related to desired behavior of one or more of said lighting modules, said controller receives said user input and outputs said data encoded power signal causing said one or more of said lighting modules to be responsive to said user input.

15. A method of distributing power and data to at least one lighting module in a lighting system, the method comprising:

generating a control signal based on data bits having a first state and a second state for sending commands and addresses to at least one lighting module;

receiving a primary AC signal;

transforming the primary AC signal into a secondary power signal;

rectifying said secondary power signal, the rectifying including;

determining the phase of the secondary power signal;

enabling at least a first transistor while the phase is positive; and

enabling at least a second transistor while the phase is negative, the outputs of the at least first and second transistors forming a rectified power signal as a sinusoidal waveform between zero crossings;

encoding the data stream onto the rectified power signal, the encoding including;

enabling at least a third transistor when the control signal is in the first state;

outputting the rectified power signal with a higher polarity when the control signal is in the first state;

enabling at least a fourth transistor while the control signal is in the second state; and

outputting the rectified power signal with a lower polarity while the control signal is in the second state to form a data encoded power waveform as a sinusoidal waveform between zero crossings; and

transmitting the data encoded power waveform to the at least one lighting module.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the higher polarity comprises a positive polarity and the lower polarity comprises a negative polarity.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said data is responsive to online interaction from a user, the method further comprising:

serving online information to a user operated digital device;

receiving user input from said digital device, said user input related to desired behavior of lighting modules of a lighting system;

communicating the received user input to said controller; and

outputting to said lighting modules said data encoded power signal responsive to said user input, said power signal configuring said modules to behave according to said user input.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one lighting module is assigned to a first lighting zone, each lighting module and each lighting zone being addressable, the method further comprising communicating with a user-operated remote device, said user-operated remote device in communication with a selected lighting module of the at least one lighting module and said controller, wherein the remote device is configured to reassign the selected lighting module to a second lighting zone without disconnecting the selected lighting module from the two-wire path.

19. A lighting controller for distributing power and data to at least one lighting module in a lighting system, the controller comprising:

means for generating a control signal based on data bits having a first state and a second state for sending commands and addresses to at least one lighting module;

means for transforming a received primary AC signal into a secondary power signal;

means for rectifying said secondary power signal, the rectifying including;

means for determining the phase of the secondary power signal;

means for enabling at least a first transistor while the phase is positive; and

means for enabling at least a second transistor while the phase is negative, the outputs of the at least first and second transistors forming a rectified power signal as a sinusoidal waveform between zero crossings;

means for encoding the data stream onto the rectified power signal, the encoding including;

means for enabling at least a third transistor when the control signal is in the first state;

means for outputting the rectified power signal with a higher polarity when the control signal is in the first state;

means for enabling at least a fourth transistor while the control signal is in the second state; and

means for outputting the rectified power signal with a lower polarity while the control signal is in the second state to form a data encoded power waveform as a sinusoidal waveform between zero crossings; and

means for transmitting the data encoded power waveform to the at least one lighting module.

20. The lighting controller of claim 19, wherein said higher polarity comprises said positive polarity and a lower polarity comprises a negative polarity.