System and method for communicating with and for controlling of programmable apparatuses

• US 9,934,180 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2015
• Issued: 04/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PQJ Corp.
• Original Assignee: PQJ Corp.
• Inventors: Gan, Quan, Xu, Jiali, Dong, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Abad, Farley
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yu, Henry W
• Application Number:
  US14/668,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20150278137A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: 710 11, 710105, 710315
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/323 in the physical layer [OSI layer 1]

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system and a method for communication and control between incompatible devices that operate in accordance with different protocols without hardware modification and without requirement of a dedicated hardware.

Claims

1. A system for communication and control between incompatible devices, comprising:

a first device that operates in accordance with a first protocol and serially transmits unidirectional stream of sync signals and control signals in accordance with the first protocol;

a second device that generally operates in accordance with a second protocol that is different from the first protocol, but commences operations in accordance with the first protocol upon establishment of a direct physical link between the first and the second devices and receipt of the sync signals, which enables the first device to control the second device with the control signals in accordance with the first protocol;

the second device commences operations in accordance with the first protocol without hardware modifications of the first or second devices and without dedicated hardware; and

the second device reverts to operating in accordance with the second protocol upon severing of the physical link between the first and second device, with data of the second device modified by the control signals of the first device.

2. A system for communication and control between incompatible devices as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the control signals include the data with respect to one or more of address, configuration, or firmware modifications for the second device.

3. The system for communication and control between incompatible devices as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the control signals generated in accordance with the first protocol have a first signal format, including first frequency and first voltage level, with the second device generally operating in accordance with the second protocol that requires a second signal format, including second frequency and second voltage level.

4. The system for communication and control between incompatible devices as set forth in claim 3, wherein:

the first or second signal formats are one of analog or digital signal formats.

5. The system for communication and control between incompatible devices as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

control signals are transmitted using one of differential, single-ended, or multi-differential, or multi-single-ended signaling.

6. The system for communication and control between incompatible devices as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the link is established by a direct, physical connection between the first and second device physical interfaces.

7. The system for communication and control between incompatible devices as set forth in claim 5, wherein:

the physical interfaces are physical ports.

8. A system for communicating with and for controlling of devices, comprising:

a computing device that has a physical interface;

the computing device generates and serially transmits unidirectional stream of signals through the physical interface using differential signaling at a first frequency, resulting in a differential signal pair;

the differential signal pair generated is transmitted using differential transmission to a device that normally operates at a second frequency but commences operation at the first frequency upon being wire connected to the physical interface of the computing device but without hardware modifications of the computing device or the device and without dedicated hardware;

the device initially operates at the first frequency and continues to maintain operation at the first frequency while receiving the differential signal pair at the first frequency, with the device controlled by the computing device;

the device reverts to independent operations and operating at the second frequency upon severing of link from the computing device.

9. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 8, wherein:

the first frequency is less than an operational frequency of the device.

10. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 8, wherein:

the physical interface of the computing device is a physical interface port.

11. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 8, wherein:

the signals generated by the computing device are one of digital and analog signals.

12. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 11, wherein:

the analog signals are pseudo digital signals.

13. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 12, wherein:

the analog pseudo digital signal includes signal edges that are generated using one or more sampling set points.

14. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 13, wherein:

the one or more sampling set points are sampled between positive and negative voltage maximum values defining the signal edge.

15. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 8, wherein:

the physical interface is one of an audio, Universal Serial Bus (USB), or XLR port.

16. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 14, wherein:

the device includes a receiver that has a differential amplifier that generates an output signal of the received differential signal pair.

17. The system for communicating with and for controlling of devices as set forth in claim 16, wherein:

the differential amplifier includes;

an inverting input that receives one of a first or a second of the differential signal pair;

a non-inverting input that receives another of the second or the first of the differential signal pair; and

an output that generates the output signal;

with the first signal of the differential signal pair and the second signal of the differential signal pair being complementary signals.

18. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 17, wherein:

a first output signal of the differential amplifier is generated when a difference between a first and a second of the differential signal pair with a first polarity is greater than a threshold voltage; and

a second output signal of the differential amplifier is generated when a difference between the second and the first of the differential signal pair of a second polarity is greater than the threshold voltage;

wherein;

one of the first or the second output signal of the differential amplifier is registered as a high logic level signal, and the other of the second or the first output signal of the differential amplifier is registered as a low logic level signal.

19. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 8, wherein:

the device normally operates at the second frequency, which is different from the first frequency.

20. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 17, wherein:

the device includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) that receives the registered high and low logic level signals for control of the device.

21. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 20, wherein:

the CPU of the device includes a Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) that is initialized to commence operations at the first frequency and continue to maintain operation at the first frequency while receiving a sync signal from computing device within a predetermined time, which enables the device to receive the high and low logic levels signals.

22. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 17, wherein:

the control signals are received as control data packets; and

one or more control data packets and one or more sync packets are transmitted serially as a stream of packets, with at least one sync packet transmitted within the predetermined time interval.

23. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 21, wherein:

the UART is switched to the second frequency when sync packet is not received within the set predetermined time interval.

24. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 11, wherein:

the computing device includes a Graphic User Interface (GUI) that enables input of control data.

25. The system for communicating with and for controlling of device as set forth in claim 11, wherein:

Launching a Graphic User Interface (GUI) for input of control data commences generation of sync packets.

26. A method for communication and control between incompatible devices, comprising:

a rate of transmission of communication and control signal packets in accordance with a first protocol comprised of a first frequency of a first device; and

unidirectional, serial transmitting of the communication and control signal packets at the first frequency, but at voltage levels in accordance with hardware signaling requirements of a second device to thereby establish communication and control between incompatible devices without hardware modification and without a dedicated hardware.

27. A system for communication and control between devices, comprising:

a first computing device that controls a second computing device;

the first computing device includes an audio output port that generates and serially transmits unidirectional analog audio signals;

the second computing device has a digital input port;

a wired cable that physically links the audio output port of the first computing device with the digital input port of the second computing device;

the analog audio signals generated by the first computing device are transmitted from the audio port of the first computing device to the digital input port of the second computing device as pseudo digital analog control signals to control the second computing device;

wherein;

the pseudo digital analog control signals are analog signals cast in a shape of a digital signal.