System of Electrical Fixtures with Integral Current Monitoring, Telemetry, Remote Control, Safety & Sensory Features

• US 20180059175A1
• Filed: 08/25/2016
• Published: 03/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Karl E. Hase
• Original Assignee: Karl E. Hase
• Inventors: Hase, Karl E.
• Granted Patent: US 10,330,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/22 Arrangements for detecting or reporting faults, outages or leaks
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 11/00 Electromechanical arrangements for measuring time integral of electric power or current, e.g. of consumption monitoring electric consumption of electrically-propelled vehicles B60L3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 15/14 Adaptations providing voltage or current isolation, e.g. for high-voltage or high-current networks
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 21/06 by measuring current and voltage G01R21/08 - G01R21/133 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 21/133 by using digital technique
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 22/063 related to remote communication
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/52 Testing for short-circuits, leakage current or ground faults
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 11/00 Prospecting or detecting by methods combining techniques covered by two or more of main groups G01V1/00 - G01V9/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

An electrical safety product circuit topology and its equivalent variations for sensing, control, and reporting of household AC wall current, voltage, power, and energy use, and status of its Ground-and-Arc-Fault-Interrupting internal circuit breaker, is presented herein. The architecture includes any choice of telemetry platform, presumes a plurality of its kind join a wireless network with a plurality of other products endowed with the same platform faculty. Topology variations claimed include current and differential current sensing by toroid or other transformer or by Hall semiconductor means, and include fault condition recognition by microprocessor-based algorithms, or by various analog circuit or digital signal processing (DSP) means. Embodiment variations claimed include any modular circuit breaker panel component form factor, any in-wall outlet or switch-box form factor, and any plug-in AC socket module, in-cord module, and outlet strip form factor.

Claims

1. An electrical fixture incorporating load current telemetry measurement circuits comprising:

a. one or more microcontrollers with analog filtering and digitizing input circuitry and firmware, connected to load current and voltage sensing devices which together effect sampled measurement of load current and voltage waveforms or their peak, average or rms values;

b. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry to remote equipment of said current and voltage sampled measurements; and

c. AC load current conductors, terminals and connectors, and a diode bridge, ac-to-dc converter, filter capacitor, and regulator needed to extract power for said microcontroller(s), sensors and telemetry circuits.

2. The components and functionality of claim 1 plus a load current interrupting circuit device comprising:

a. relay contacts to make and break the conductive path between one or more line and load side conductors, which may also be integral to a thermal-magnetic circuit breaker, and which may be either before or after the bridge feeding internal DC supply power;

b. microcontroller(s) with output circuitry and firmware, or other specialized device, connected by driver circuitry to the coils of said relay or circuit breaker, to effect make and break control of its contacts; and

c. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry from remote equipment to command said make and break actions of said relay or circuit breaker.

3. The components and functionality of claim 2 plus telemetric ground fault Current interrupting (GFCI) protection comprising:

a. microcontroller(s) with input circuitry and firmware, or other specialized fault detection device, connected to current sensing devices which together detect ground fault load conditions, specifically a non-zero sum of all terminal currents defined as exceeding five (5) milliamps; and

b. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of notice in event of interruption action by said GFCI protection feature.

4. The components and functionality of claim 3 plus an automatic and telemetric self-test circuit comprising:

a. self-test circuitry to test the fault circuit interrupter by switching a test resistor from either load conductor to earth to cause a detectable fault current flow temporarily;

b. microcontroller output circuitry and firmware connected by driver circuitry to said self-test circuit to effect control of said self-test circuitry;

c. microcontroller input circuitry and firmware connected to a pushbutton, or a Pushbutton connected directly to the test resistor, to manually initiate said self-test actions at-will;

d. microcontroller firmware recognition of said self-test pass or fail, causing said relay contacts to break when said self-test fails but not when it passes; and

e. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of said self-test result, and telemetry from remote equipment to command said self-test actions.

5. The components and functionality of any of claims 2 through 4 plus telemetric arc fault Current interrupting (AFCI) protection comprising:

a. microcontroller(s) with input circuitry and firmware, or other specialized fault detection or waveform filtering device, connected to voltage and current sensing devices which together detect series and parallel arcing fault load conditions, specifically by spectral analysis to identify high frequency signature of said arc phenomena; and

b. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of notice in event of interruption action by said AFCI protection feature.

6. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 5 plus a telemetric dimming circuit comprising:

a. one or more triac or equivalent semiconductor devices to modulate load current, generally in synchrony with line voltage waveform zero-crossings, to vary conduction from 0 to 100 percent;

b. microcontroller(s) with output circuitry and firmware, or other specialized device, connected by optocoupler driver circuitry to the gate of said triac to effect control of its conduction; and

c. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry from remote equipment to command said triac conduction from zero to full.

7. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 6 plus one or more sockets to receive load plugs of any type, most notably NEMA-5 or NEMA-14.

8. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 7 plus any manual operator mechanism comprising:

a. microcontroller input circuitry and firmware connected to one or more optical thru-beam sensing devices, or other finger sensing or other contact switching mechanisms, which together detect and effect manual control to make or break load current at-will;

b. optionally any arrangement of a plurality said sensing devices to translate finger “

swipe”

gestures into commands to make, break, brighten, or dim a lighting load, effecting coordinated control of a triac of claim 6 and a relay of claim 2; and

c. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate telemetry to remote equipment of notice of each make, break or dimming or brightening action invoked by said manual operator feature.

9. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 8 plus a NEMA5-15 male plug, or wire pigtails, or screw terminals, or cage-clamp terminals, for AC line infeed connection.

10. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 9 plus wire pigtails or screw or cage-clamp terminals for AC load current connection.

11. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 10 plus a built-in telemetric night-light or safety-light comprising:

a. one or more bulbs or light emitting diodes (LEDs) or other light sources arrayed in any color to illuminate an area;

b. microcontroller output circuitry and firmware connected by driver circuitry to said bulb(s) or LED(s) to turn them off or illuminate them fully or partially by any modulation; and

c. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry from remote equipment to command said off or full or partial illumination of said light source;

12. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 11 plus a telemetric backup battery comprising:

a. rechargeable chemical cell and charge control circuitry to permit some period of continued telemetry after loss of AC line power, especially for Bridge-After-Relay fixture designs; and

b. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry to remote equipment of notice of changes in state-of-charge or “

on backup”

status.

13. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 12 plus a person-in-room sensor comprising:

a. microcontroller input circuitry and firmware connected to one or more infra-red, acoustic, motion, or other type of sensor to detect presence or absence of a person in its vicinity; and

b. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry to remote equipment of notice of changes in detection of empty/occupied room state.

14. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 13 plus an in-built telemetric room ambient light sensor comprising:

a. microcontroller input circuitry and firmware connected to one or more photovoltaic or photo-resistive device or other ambient light level or presence/absence sensing device; and

b. microcontroller communication circuitry and firmware to facilitate wired or wireless telemetry to remote equipment of notice of changes in said light level or presence/absence state.

15. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 9 plus the components, functionality, and form-factor of a one-pole or multi-pole panel circuit breaker of common practice.

16. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 15 plus a Universal Serial Bus (USB) or other multi-drop serial subnet adapter and associated driver firmware and cable or backplane connector.

17. The components and functionality of any of claims 1 through 16 plus an Ethernet or other network interface controller (NIC) device, associated cable jack/transformer, and client-server software arranged to pipe to remote equipment, the measurement data and control of a plurality of the fixtures of claims 1 through 16.

18. A network gateway hub comprising any microcomputer system equipped with the voltage monitoring and wired or wireless telemetry devices of claim 1, and the USB or other serial subnet port of claim 16, and the Ethernet or other NIC port of claim 17, with client-server software arranged to pipe to remote equipment, the measurement data and control of a plurality of the fixtures of claims 1 through 16.