Digital color controller

• US 20080238838A1
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Jack Wayne Cunningham
• Original Assignee: Jack Wayne Cunningham
• Inventors: Cunningham, Jack Wayne
• Application Number:
  US11/732,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20080238838A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/83
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/188 Displaying information using colour changes
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/33 Illumination features
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/188 Displaying information using colour changes
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/33 Illumination features
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/29 Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 37/00 Dashboards as road-vehicle superstructure sub-units B62D25/14
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 3/16 Circuits; Control arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 3/18 for varying the light intensity
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/20 Controlling the colour of the light

Abstract

A digital color controller for illumination of dashboards and instrument panels is provided. In one embodiment, a digital color controller comprises a single control mechanism for varying the color of illumination of RGB LEDs. A microcontroller maps the signal derived from the control mechanism to an array of discrete color values. A selected discrete color value is passed to an LED driver to drive the LEDs to display the selected color.

Claims

1. An instrument panel illumination apparatus for adjusting the color of the illumination of an instrument panel using a single user control for color variation, comprising:

a first control mechanism to vary a color of illumination of the panel;

a signal encoder to produce a digital signal indicative of a movement of the control mechanism;

a microcontroller to receive the digital signal and to responsively produce a color signal, the color signal indicative of a particular selected red-green-blue color combination among a plurality of red-green-blue color combinations as selected by the first control mechanism;

a Light Emitting Diode (LED) driver to receive the color signal and to responsively produce pulse-width modulated signals to drive at least one Red-Green-Blue (RGB) LED to produce the selected color; and

at least one RGB LED capable of emitting a combination of red-green-blue color in response to the pulse-width modulated signals from the LED driver to produce the selected color.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a second control mechanism to adjust a brightness level of the LEDs.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the brightness adjustment results in a brightness signal to the LED driver to adjust a pulse-width modulated output from the LED driver to simultaneously affect the brightness of each red, green and blue component of the at least one LED.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller outputs a color signal comprising an address of a red, green or blue component of an LED and an intensity for the addressed color.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the intensity component of the color signal affects the width of a pulse-width modulated pulse output of the LED driver.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller maps a plurality of numeric levels to a plurality of corresponding red-green-blue intensity combinations.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the signal encoder comprises de-bouncing circuitry to filter out undesirable spurious signals from the first control mechanism.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first control mechanism is a rotary encoder.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a second control mechanism enables a user to select whether to adjust the red, green, or blue color to be individually adjusted by way of the first control mechanism.

10. A method for producing an illumination of an instrument panel using a single control to vary the color of illumination, comprising:

providing a single control to enable a user to vary a color of illumination, the single control providing a signal indicative of a movement of the control;

deriving from the signal from the control a color signal comprising addresses of a red, blue, and green component of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) and for each address a color intensity level; and

driving each component of the LED with a pulse-width modulated signal, the width of a pulse determined by the color intensity level for the component.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing a second control to simultaneously adjust the brightness of the LED red, blue, and green components.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein deriving a color signal from the control signal comprises mapping a number proportional to the control signal to one of a plurality of sets of red, green and blue intensity levels.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein providing a single control further comprises providing a rotary encoder.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein deriving a color signal from the control signal further comprises filtering out undesirable spurious signals.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing a second control mechanism to select which one of the red, green, or blue colors to be individually adjusted by a user.

16. A digital color controller, enabling a user to vary color of an illumination of an instrument panel using a single color control, comprising:

a first control mechanism to vary a color of illumination of the panel by producing an electrical signal responsive to a movement of the control;

a digital processing circuitry responsive to the electrical signal to produce a color signal, the color signal indicative of a particular selected red-green-blue color combination among a plurality of red-green-blue color combinations as selected by the first control mechanism;

a Light Emitting Diode (LED) driver to receive the color signal and to responsively produce pulse-width modulated signals to drive red, green and blue components of at least one Red-Green-Blue (RGB) LED to produce the selected color; and

at least one RGB LED capable of emitting a combination of red-green-blue color in response to the pulse-width modulated signals from the LED driver to produce the selected color.

17. The digital color controller of claim 16, further comprising circuitry to filter spurious signals from the first control mechanism.

18. The digital color controller of claim 16, wherein the digital processing circuitry determines a color index from the electrical signal and maps the index to one of a plurality of sets of red-green-blue color combinations.

19. The digital color controller of claim 16, wherein the first control mechanism is an analog rotary device and analog to digital conversion circuitry is provided to convert the analog signal from the analog rotary device to a digital signal.

20. The digital color controller of claim 16, further comprising a second control mechanism to produce a brightness signal received by the digital processing circuitry to control the LED driver to modulate a pulse-width modulated signal to control brightness of the at least one LED.