Lighting system

• US 8,368,325 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2012
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Taegi, Kim, Changho, Lee, Kwanghyun
• Primary Examiner(s): Owens, Douglas W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Jianzi
• Application Number:
  US13/425,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20120268041A1
• Time in Patent Office: 321 Days
• Field of Search: 315/200.R, 315/312, 315/185.R, 315/192, 315/201, 315/205, 315/291, 315/297, 315/299, 315/307, 315/361, 340/286.01
• US Class Current: 315/312
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A lighting system includes a plurality of lights connected to a bridge, a gateway, a lighting controller, and an interface. A plurality of commands to control a corresponding light may be stored in a memory. A communication module may be provided to generate a packet for transmission to the gateway based on the plurality of stored commands. The packet may combine a plurality of the commands for controlling one or more of the lights.

Claims

1. A lighting system comprising:

first and second bridge devices;

first and second light emitting units connected to the first and second bridge devices in series to be able to communicate therewith, respectively;

a gateway having the first and second bridge devices connected thereto in parallel to be able to communicate therewith;

an interface for applying a control order to the light emitting units or displaying state information on the light emitting units; and

a controller including

a memory for storing a plurality of the control orders from the interface thereto, and

a communication module for producing the control orders for the first light emitting unit connected to the first bridge device and the second light emitting unit connected to the second bridge device into one packet and transmitting the packet to the gateway,

wherein the communication module produces only identical control orders from the plurality of control orders into one packet and transmitting the packet to the gateway, if the control orders stored in the memory are changed.

2. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication module identifies the control orders stored in the memory at predetermined time intervals.

3. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the packet includes

bridge device address information,

address information on the light emitting unit connected to the bridge device, and

a control order value of the light emitting unit.

4. The lighting system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the communication module identifies the control order value stored in the memory at predetermined time intervals.

5. The lighting system as claimed in claim 4, wherein, if the control order value stored in the memory is changed, the communication module produces a plurality of control order values into one packet and transmits the packet to the gateway.

6. The lighting system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the communication module produces the control orders on the light emitting units having the same control order value from the plurality of control order values on the light emitting units stored in the memory into a packet and transmits the packet to the gateway.

7. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller includes

a connection management module connected to the interface to be able to communicate therewith for converting the control order from the interface to a language of an inside of the controller, and

a microcomputer for applying the control order converted thus to the memory.

8. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bridge devices, the gateway and the communication module perform communication by Zigbee.

9. The lighting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bridge devices and the light emitting units perform communication by RS-485, respectively.

10. A lighting system comprising:

first and second bridge devices;

first and second light emitting units connected to the first and second bridge devices in series to be able to communicate therewith, respectively;

a gateway having the first and second bridge devices connected thereto in parallel to be able to communicate therewith for receiving a response from or event information on the first and second light emitting units through the bride devices, respectively; and

a controller including

a communication module for receiving a response from or event information on the plurality of light emitting unit through the gateway,

a memory for storing the response or the event information therein,

a connection management module for producing the response from or the event information on the first light emitting unit connected to the first bridge device and the second light emitting unit connected to the second bridge device stored in the memory unit into one packet, and

an interface connected to the connection management module to be able to communicate therewith for outputting the response from or event information on the light emitting unit,

wherein, if there is a change of a response or event value, the connection management module produces a plurality of the responses from or the event information on the plurality or one of the light emitting units having the same value stored in the memory into one packet and transmits the packet to the interface.

11. The lighting system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the packet includes;

bridge device address information,

address information on the light emitting unit connected to the bridge device, and

the response or event value of the light emitting unit.

12. The lighting system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the connection management module identifies the response or event value stored in the memory unit at predetermined time intervals.

13. The lighting system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the communication module converts the response or an event order from the gateway into an inside language of the controller.

14. The lighting system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the plurality of the light emitting units and one of the bridge devices perform communication by RS-485.

15. The lighting system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the gateway, the communication module, and the bridge devices perform communication by Zigbee.