Touch activated, wireless switches

• US 9,896,045 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carling Technologies, Inc. (Littelfuse Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Carling Technologies, Inc. (Littelfuse Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hoyer, Thomas, Rex, Teri, Cordner, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Kessie, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US13/826,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20130241280A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,804 Days
• Field of Search: 307 101, 307 108, 307 91
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/962 Capacitive touch switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/94089 Wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960755 Constructional details of capacitive touch and proximity switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960785 with illumination
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Modular wireless switch system for use in an aircraft, which may include an integrated LED backlight. The system includes a master module having a power supply, a switch, and a wireless communicator configured to communicate a switch state. The system also includes a slave module connectable to the master module, which has a second switch and which is configured to communicate a second switch state using the wireless communicator. All wireless communications may be handled by the master module using a protocol such as ZigBee™. All communications from the slave module may be transmitted to the master module via a wired bus. Additional slave modules are connectable to the bus as desired.

Claims

1. A switch system comprising:

a master module which comprises;

an aircraft interface,

a power supply,

a first driver,

a first switch,

first I/O interface and,

a transceiver that is configured to communicate a state of said first switch to a first switched device,

a controller, and,

a first slave module connected to the master module and comprising a second switch, a second driver and a second I/O interfaces, wherein said transceiver is configured to communicate a state of the second switch to a second switched device;

a second slave module connectable to said first slave module and comprising a third switch a third driver and a third I/O interface and which is configured to communicate a third switch state using the transceiver to its respective switched device;

wherein the communication of the various states of said first, second and third switches comprises transmitting a status of at least one of the switches to its associated device such that the associated device is activated when its respective switch is activated;

wherein the master module, the first slave module and second slave modules are connected to a bus through the first I/O interface such that said first slave module communicates the state of the second switch to said transceiver via the bus and said controller controls communication over the bus; and

wherein the first slave module draws power from the power supply using the bus and the master module is connectable to an aircraft wiring harness via the aircraft interface, and the power supply is configured to draw power from the aircraft wiring harness.

2. The switch system of claim 1, wherein the bus complies with an I²C protocol.

3. The switch system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver comprises a radio transceiver.

4. The switch system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is configured to comprise at least a part of a Wireless Personal Area Network (“

WPAN”

).

5. The switch system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver complies with at least one of:

IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.1 or IEEE 802.15.4.

6. The switch system of claim 1, wherein the master module is configured to receive a device state from the first switched device using the transceiver.

7. The switch system of claim 1, wherein the first slave module is configured to receive a second device state from the second switched device using the transceiver.

8. The switch system of claim 6, wherein the master module is configured to indicate the device state using an LED.

9. The switch system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the switches is a touch-activated switch.

10. The switch system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the switches is a capacitive switch.

11. The switch system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the switches is backlit.

12. The switch system of claim 1, further comprising an overlay covering at least one of the switches.

13. The switch system of claim 12, wherein the overlay is translucent.

14. The switch system of claim 12, wherein the overlay is illuminated by an LED.

15. The switch system of claim 12, further comprising an LED configured to illuminate the overlay to indicate status information.

16. The switch system of claim 15, wherein the status information is selected from the group consisting of the switch state and the device state.

17. The switch system of claim 1, wherein the first slave module is attachable to the master module using mounting pegs.

18. The switch system of claim 1, wherein a second slave module is attachable to the first slave module using mounting pegs.

19. The switch system of claim 17, wherein the mounting pegs are configured to align an electrical connection between the master module and the first slave module.

20. The switch system of claim 1, wherein said controller is mounted on a control board in said master module.