Apparatus and method of operating a luminaire
First Claim
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1. A luminaire, comprising:
- at least one solid state light source;
at least one photosensitive transducer responsive to at least one physical characteristic indicative of at least one light condition in an ambient environment;
a real time clock (RTC) that provides RTC signals indicative of a current date and a current time;
a non-transitory processor-readable medium; and
a lamp control subsystem communicatively coupled to the real time clock to receive the RTC signals, communicatively coupled to the non-transitory processor-readable medium, and communicatively coupled to the photosensitive transducer to receive light condition signals indicative of the at least one light condition in the ambient environment sensed by the photosensitive transducer, wherein the lamp control subsystem;
verifies whether at least one aspect of the light condition signals is within a threshold of an expected value for the respective at least one light condition;
controls a supply of power to the at least one solid state light source responsive at least in part to the light condition signals if verified;
logically associates the at least one light condition with the current time and the current date in the non-transitory processor-readable medium if verified;
determines a year-long schedule based at least in part on at least some verified light conditions stored in the non-transitory processor-readable medium, the year-long schedule variable by date; and
controls a supply of power to the at least one solid state light source according to the determined year-long schedule if not verified.
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Abstract
An illumination system verifies whether one or more aspects of an output signal provided by a photosensitive transducer fall within a threshold of an expected value for the aspect. The aspect may include a sunrise time, a sunset time, a dawn time, a dusk time, a solar noon time, a solar midnight time, or similar. Upon verification the illumination system uses a microcontroller to adjust one or more output parameters of a solid-state light source responsive to the output signal provided by the photosensitive transducer. Where verification is not possible, the illumination system uses the microcontroller to adjust one or more output parameters of the solid-state light source responsive to a schedule.
177 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A luminaire, comprising:
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at least one solid state light source; at least one photosensitive transducer responsive to at least one physical characteristic indicative of at least one light condition in an ambient environment; a real time clock (RTC) that provides RTC signals indicative of a current date and a current time; a non-transitory processor-readable medium; and a lamp control subsystem communicatively coupled to the real time clock to receive the RTC signals, communicatively coupled to the non-transitory processor-readable medium, and communicatively coupled to the photosensitive transducer to receive light condition signals indicative of the at least one light condition in the ambient environment sensed by the photosensitive transducer, wherein the lamp control subsystem; verifies whether at least one aspect of the light condition signals is within a threshold of an expected value for the respective at least one light condition; controls a supply of power to the at least one solid state light source responsive at least in part to the light condition signals if verified; logically associates the at least one light condition with the current time and the current date in the non-transitory processor-readable medium if verified; determines a year-long schedule based at least in part on at least some verified light conditions stored in the non-transitory processor-readable medium, the year-long schedule variable by date; and controls a supply of power to the at least one solid state light source according to the determined year-long schedule if not verified. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of controlling the operation of a solid state light source, the method comprising:
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determining whether at least one aspect of at least one light condition signal indicative of at least one light condition in an ambient environment as sensed by a photosensitive transducer is within a defined threshold of an expected value for the respective at least one light condition; in response to determining that the at least one aspect is within the defined threshold of the expected value for the respective at least one light condition, controlling a supply of power to at least one solid state light source responsive at least in part to the at least one light condition signal; and logically associating the at least one light condition with a current time and a current date in a non-transitory processor-readable medium; determining a year-long schedule based at least in part on at least some verified light conditions stored in the non-transitory processor-readable medium, the year-long schedule variable by date; and in response to determining that the at least one aspect is not within the defined threshold of the expected value for the respective at least one light condition, controlling a supply of power to the at least one solid state light source according to the determined year-long schedule. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A luminaire controller, comprising:
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an input communicably coupled to a photosensitive switch, wherein the input receives an input signal from the photosensitive switch that is indicative of at least one light condition in an ambient environment; an output communicably coupled to at least one switch, wherein the output provides an output signal to control the supply of power to at least one solid state light source via the at least one switch; and at least one non-transitory, machine readable, storage medium having machine executable instructions stored therein that cause the luminaire controller to; verify whether at least one aspect of the photosensitive switch input signal is within a threshold of an expected value for the respective at least one light condition; generate the output signal to the switch to control a supply of power to the at least one solid state light source responsive at least in part to the photosensitive switch input signal if verified; logically associate the at least one light condition with a current time and a current date in the non-transitory, machine readable, storage medium if verified; determine a year-long schedule based at least in part on at least some verified light conditions stored in the non-transitory, machine readable, storage medium, the year-long schedule variable by date; and generate the output signal to the switch to control a supply of power to the at least one solid state light source responsive at least in part to the year-long schedule if not verified. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification