System and method for distributed lighting device control

• US 8,368,310 B1
• Filed: 03/23/2012
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inncom Intl Inc (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Inncom Intl Inc (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Roosli, Philipp
• Primary Examiner(s): A, Minh D
• Application Number:
  US13/428,043
• Time in Patent Office: 319 Days
• Field of Search: 315152-154, 315/159, 315/129, 315192-193, 315/209.R, 710/5, 710/8, 710/9, 710/10, 710/11, 369/13.24, 369/24.01
• US Class Current: 315/152
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control

Abstract

A system for distributed light control, including a light circuit, a first device associated with the light circuit, a second device associated with the light circuit, a network communicatively connecting the light circuit, the first device, and the second device, where the first device is configured to actuate the light circuit based upon a control command sent on the network and in accordance with configuration data stored at the first device, where the second device includes a shadow configuration comprising a copy of the configuration data, where the second device is configured to generate a shadow image of the light circuit based upon the control command and the shadow configuration, and where the shadow image comprises a computed status of the light circuit.

Claims

1. A system for distributed light control, comprising:

a light circuit;

a first device associated with the light circuit;

a second device associated with the light circuit;

a network communicatively connecting the light circuit, the first device, and the second device;

wherein the first device is configured to actuate the light circuit based upon a control command sent on the network and in accordance with configuration data stored at the first device;

wherein the second device includes a shadow configuration comprising a copy of the configuration data and wherein the second device is configured to generate a shadow image of the light circuit based upon the control command and the shadow configuration;

wherein the shadow image comprises a computed status of the light circuit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device is a load actuating device comprising a dimmer.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the dimmer comprises multiple dimmer channels.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the dimmer comprises a DIN-rail mounted dimmer.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device is a load actuating device configured to switch light circuits with a relay.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second device transmits the control command into the network such that the control command is received at the first device and also at the second device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device includes a user interface and is further configured to generate and transmit the control command in order to control the light circuit.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the second device comprises a user interface including actuating elements configured such that when actuated by a user, the control command is sent from the user interface on the network to the first device.

9. The system of claim 1, the first and second devices comprise an integrated single device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the second device is further configured to obtain the shadow configuration through at least one of the network a hand-held programming tool, and a centralized server disposed on the network.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the second device comprises a display which indicates the computed status of the light circuit.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the second device is configured to include multiple shadow configurations of multiple light circuits, to generate multiple corresponding shadow images, and to generate and transmit the control command based upon an evaluation of the respective multiple shadow images.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the network comprises an internal control network, the system further comprising:

a gateway device disposed on the network;

wherein the gateway device is configured to cache the shadow image and to render the shadow image available to be polled by external devices connected to an external network disposed in communication with the internal control network.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the gateway device is further configured to cache the shadow image and report a change in the computed state of the light circuit asynchronously to the external network.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises a unique device address, wherein the control command is addressed to the device address, and wherein the shadow image is associated with the device address.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration data comprises operative information that determines an operation of the light circuit and the computation of the shadow image.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the operative information comprises at least one of direct light control, scene control, peak-demand load-shedding light control, environmental light condition light control, energy conservation light control, and occupant profile light control.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration data is transmitted with an extensible encoding schema.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the control command comprises at least one of a dim-up command, a dim-down command, and a dim-stop command, wherein the dim-up command instructs the light circuit to increase a light output, wherein the dim-down command instructs the light circuit to decrease the light output, and wherein the dim-stop command comprises a final dim level setting at which a dimming operation terminates.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the light circuit is configured to achieve the final dim level setting by adjusting a current dim level to the final dim level.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the final dim level comprises a percentage of a dim level setting stored in the first device.

22. A method of controlling a plurality of distributed lighting devices disposed in communication on a network, the method comprising:

storing configuration data at a load actuating device configured to operate a light circuit;

obtaining a copy of the configuration data through the network and storing the copy as a shadow configuration at a shadowing device;

transmitting a control command on the network;

receiving the control command at the load actuating device and operating the light circuit based upon the control command and the configuration data; and

receiving the control command at the shadowing device and generating a shadow image of the light circuit based upon the control command and the shadow configuration, where the shadow image comprises a computed status of the light circuit.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising sending a second control command from the shadowing device via the network to a second load actuating device associated with a second light circuit, where the second control command is based upon the shadow image of the first light circuit.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising caching the shadow image at a gateway device disposed on the network and reporting a change in the computed state of the light circuit asynchronously to an external device on a second external network.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

obtaining a copy of second configuration data of a second light circuit through the network and storing the copy as a second shadow configuration at the shadowing device;

operating the second light circuit based upon the control command and the second configuration data; and

generating a second shadow image of the second light circuit at the shadowing device based upon the control command and the second shadow configuration, where the second shadow image comprises a computed status of the second light circuit.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein control command is transmitted by the shadowing device, the method further comprising the shadowing device evaluating the first and the second shadow images to ensure that the control command is accurate with respect to the computed status of the first and second light circuits.