Lighting control with automated activation process

• US 9,693,428 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2015
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABL IP Holding LLC (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ABL IP Holding LLC (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stewart, Douglas Aldrich, Shelton, Christopher Scott, Dorogi, Michael Jay, Burt, Robert, Wagner, Phillip Ryan
• Primary Examiner(s): HAMMOND, DEDEI KHALIEAH
• Application Number:
  US14/883,786
• Publication Number:
  US 20160113094A1
• Time in Patent Office: 621 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/72 in street lighting

Abstract

Lighting fixture control systems and method are described including a control station configured to communicate with a plurality of remotely located fixture control devices that are associated with lighting fixtures. Individual fixture control devices may be configured to perform automatic activation operations, that include the fixture control device determining one or more of an identifier of the node, a GPS coordinate of the node, an operating Voltage of the node, a lamp Wattage of the lighting device, a lamp type of the lighting fixture, and a dimming capability of the lighting fixture. The fixture control device may be configured to send results of the automatic activation operation to the control station. The control station may be configured to store a file associated with the node, including the received results of the automatic activation operation.

Claims

1. A lighting fixture control system, comprising:

a control station configured to communicate with a plurality of fixture control devices located remotely from the control station; and

a node including a lighting fixture and a fixture control device that is associated with the lighting fixture, located remotely from the control station, and configured to perform an automatic activation operation,

wherein, the automatic activation operation includes the fixture control device determining at least four of;

an identifier of the node,

a GPS coordinate of the node,

an operating Voltage of the node,

a lamp Wattage of the lighting device,

a lamp type of the lighting fixture, and

a dimming capability of the lighting fixture;

wherein, the fixture control device is configured to send results of the automatic activation operation to the control station; and

wherein, the control station is configured to store a file associated with the node, the file including the received results of the automatic activation operation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the results include a node identification number, the GPS coordinate of the node, the operating Voltage of the node, the lamp Wattage of the lighting fixture, the lamp type of the lighting fixture, and the dimming capability of the lighting fixture.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the results include an exception flag, indicating at least one of that an expected element of information was not obtained by the automatic activation operation, or that an element of information obtained by the automatic activation operation is outside of a predetermined range.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the automatic activation operation is performed during an initial registration process of the node with the control station.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the automatic activation operation is performed again after the initial registration process of the node with the control station.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the automatic activation operation includes storing an auto-activation complete flag in a memory of the node, and the fixture control device is configured to check for the auto-activation complete flag on at least some power cycles to determine if auto-activation needs to be performed.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the control station is configured to determine whether the node should execute another automatic activation operation, and to send a message to the node to reset the auto-activation complete flag based on said determining.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the control station is configured to accept or reject the results based at least in part on the node identifier.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the node is configured to store at least some of the results of the automatic activation operation in a memory, and the control station is configured to initiate an override communication sequence to the node that causes the node to modify data which was stored in the memory of the node during the automatic activation operation.

10. A lighting fixture controller, comprising:

a processor;

a first interface, coupled to the processor, and configured to communicate with a lighting fixture;

a second interface, coupled to the processor, and configured to communicate with a control station, wherein the control station recognizes the combination of the lighting fixture controller and the lighting fixture as a node; and

memory including computer-executable instruction that configure the processor to perform operations including;

determining whether to perform an automatic activation operation for the lighting fixture controller;

based on a determination that the automatic activation operation should be performed, causing the lighting fixture controller to determine at least one of;

a GPS coordinate of the node,

an operating Voltage of the node,

a lamp Wattage of the lighting fixture,

a lamp type of the lighting fixture, and

a dimming capability of the lighting fixture;

sending the results of said determining and an identifier of the node to the control station via the second interface; and

storing at least part of the results in the memory.

11. The controller of claim 10, wherein the results include an exception flag, indicating at least one of that an expected element of information was not obtained by the automatic activation operation, or that an element of information obtained by the automatic activation operation is outside of a predetermined range.

12. The controller of claim 10, wherein determining whether the automatic activation operation should be performed includes checking for an auto-activation complete flag.

13. The controller of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to set an auto-activation complete flag based at least in part on completion of the automatic activation operation, to receive a reset signal from the control station, and to reset the auto-activation complete flag based at least in part on the reset signal.

14. The controller of claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to enter a dimming learning mode during the automatic activation operation, and to determine the dimming capability of the lighting fixture based at least in part on the dimming learning mode.

15. The controller of claim 10, wherein the results include the identifier of the node, the GPS coordinate of the node, the operating Voltage of the node, the lamp Wattage of the lighting fixture, the lamp type of the lighting fixture, and the dimming capability of the lighting fixture.

16. A lighting fixture control system, comprising:

a processor;

a communication device; and

memory including computer-executable instruction that configure the processor to perform operations including;

receiving, via the communication device, an automatic activation message for a node including a remote lighting control module and a lighting fixture associated with the lighting control module, the automatic activation message including a node identifier;

validating the automatic activation message based at least in part on the node identifier;

storing information associated with the node based at least in part on the validation, wherein the information associated with the node includes at least one of;

a GPS coordinate of the node,

an operating Voltage of the node,

a lamp Wattage of the lighting fixture,

a lamp type of the lighting fixture, and

a dimming capability of the lighting fixture;

at least one of enabling or altering a control option in a user interface based at least in part on the information associated with the node; and

sending, via the communication device, commands to the lighting control module based on an input received via the user interface.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the information associated with the node is received during an initial registration process of the node with a control station.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein at least some of the information associated with the node is updated based at least in part on another automatic activation message received from the node.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the system is further configured to determine whether the node should execute an automatic activation operation, and to send a message to the node to reset an auto-activation complete flag based on said determining.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the system is further configured to send a communication sequence to the node that overrides information included in the automatic activation message, such that data stored in the memory of the node during an automatic activation operation is modified to values provided in the communication sequence.