GB2528297A

GB2528297A - Improvements in building automation systems

Info

Publication number: GB2528297A
Application number: GB1412657.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jeremy Swanson
Original assignee: RAKO CONTROLS Ltd
Current assignee: RAKO CONTROLS Ltd
Priority date: 2014-07-16
Filing date: 2014-07-16
Publication date: 2016-01-20
Anticipated expiration: 2034-07-16
Also published as: GB201412657D0; GB2528297B

Abstract

Battery-powered control panels may be unable to listen for incoming signals but still require reprogramming. A battery-powered user interface controller (UIC) 10 for a building automation system is described, comprising a plurality of user-actuatable inputs 22, a memory 30 containing a look-up table containing transmittable signals associated/mapped with the inputs/buttons, a transmitter 32 for sending the signals via a wireless transmission protocol, a battery 28 for powering the memory and transmitter, and a transceiver 34 for receiving Radio Frequency (RF) signals, at least partially powered by the RF signals, and arranged to update the look-up table with data received via the RF signals. The UIC may be passively re-programmed via Near-Field Communication (NFC) signals to e.g. re-program the functions associated with its plural buttons/inputs or install/update its firmware etc. The re-programming may be performed by e.g. a suitable app installed on a users NFC-enabled smartphone. The transceiver preferably receives the RF signals via a loop antenna, which can be formed by tracks on a printed circuit-board also carrying at least one of the memory, the transmitter and the battery. The tracks can form a loop around the perimeter of the printed circuit-board (Figures 4 & 5). Numerous embodiments are contemplated but the UIC may control a lighting dimmer switch (Figure 1).

Description

Intellectual Property Office Application No. GB1412657.7 RTM Date:14 January 2015 The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document: Wi-Fi Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.ipo.govuk Improvements in Building Automation Systems

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to building automation systems.

BACKGROUND ART

Building automation, and home automation, are terms usually used to describe the control of various systems within a home, office or other building. Typically, those systems will be electrical or electrically controllable in nature, and a home automation system allows multiple such systems to be controlled from a small number of control panels or the like.

Thus, taking the example of lighting systems, a traditional lighting control arrangement involved by default a single switch that controlled a single light. Power would be delivered to the ceiling rose (i.e. a junction box fitted to the ceiling and from which the light bulb was suspended), with the mains alternating-current (AC) neutral being passed through the rose to the light fitting and the mains AC live being sent to the wall-mounted switch via one core of a two-core mains cable. The switch would selectively bridge the two cores of the cable, thus the one core was designated a live core and the other a switched live. The switched live would then be connected through the rose to the light fitting. Well-known variants on this arrangement allowed multiple light fittings to be powered via the same switched-live circuit, and for multiple switches to be arranged in a slightly more complex pattern to allow the light fitting(s) to be controlled by more than one switch.

Variants on this approach include replacing the switch with a more adaptable or variable device such as a dimmer switch. W020131003813 discloses a programmable dimmer switch which is powered from the AC mains supply that is routed via the switch, and can provide accurate control of a wide range of lighting devices. To allow programming of the switch characteristics such as delay and fade presets, and characteristics of specific lamps being controlled, a programming mechanism is provided which allows instructions to be loaded via WiFi, proprietary nif protocols, optical transmission, and near-field communication (NEC) protocols.

Common to all of these traditional arrangements were that (i) changes to the switching relationships required changes to the physical wiring of the house, and (H) that an individual switch always controlled the same light fitting or group of light fittings (and vice-versa). Home automation addresses these limitations by adopting a central controller unit that activates individual lighting circuits, and a number of control panels arranged around the home which communicate with the controller unit. Each control panel may have a number of possible inputs, such as several different buttons that may be pressed individually, or in combinations, or the like, thus yielding several different commands that can be passed to the control unit. These commands can be interpreted by the control unit as instructions to turn on or off (or dim) specific circuits. In general, any command can result in the control of any of the lighting circuits, and usually a command is correlated to a "scene", i.e. the activation of a specific group or pattern of lights. A particular light might be a member of any number of scenes.

This does however require low-voltage control cables to be run between the control panels and the control unit. It may also involve mains AC cables being run from the control unit to the light fittings, or low-voltage control cables running from the control unit to a switching unit associated with each light fitting. This is inconvenient, especially when retro-fitting to an existing system. To overcome this, wireless systems have been developed by us and by others, which use rf signals sent by the control panels which may be received directly by the switching units. The control panels can then be educated to associate specific inputs with specific functions and can send the necessary signals to achieve the required scene. To change the nature of a scene, the control panel is reprogrammed to change a look-up table which it stores and which sets out the pattern of functions associated with each input.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses the problem of programming the control panels, either for the first time on installation or when reprogramming is required. Typically, the control panels will be battery-powered so that no cabling to their location is required. This means that the circuits of the control panel are only activated when an input is activated, e.g. a button is pressed. At other times, control panels are entirely inactive and use no power, thus preserving battery life. This does however mean that they are unable to listen for incoming signals such as might be required for (re)programming.

A socket could of course be provided on the control panel, such as a LJSB socket to allow communication with a computing device and via which power could be provided to the control panel during programming. However, if this socket is provided on the inside of the control panel then some dismantling is required in order to access it, such as removing the control panel from the wall. If the socket is provided on the outside of the control panel in an accessible location, then standardised designs such as USB will be unsightly whereas non-standard designs (which may be more aesthetically acceptable) will be inconvenient as the necessary cable will inevitably be lost over time and is likely to be expensive to replace.

The present invention therefore provides a user interface controller for a building automation system, comprising a plurality of user-actuatable inputs, a memory containing a look-up table containing transmittable signals associated with the inputs, a transmitter for sending the transmittable signals via a wireless transmission protocol, a battery for powering the memory and transmitter, and a transceiver for receiving rf signals, at least partially powered by the i-f signals and being adapted to update the look-up table with data received via the rf signals.

The wireless transmission protocol can be an rf-based protocol, such as (for example) a communications protocol allowing lighting commands to be sent to one or more power controllers for lighting units.

The transceiver preferably receives the rf signals via a loop antenna. The loop antenna and the transceiver can conform to a published near-field communications ("NEC") protocol; this means that signals can be sent to the user interface controller by any device conforming to the standard in question and carrying suitable software. Many existing smartphones include an NFC capability and therefore could be used to update the controller if provided with a suitable app. A domestic user may have their own smartphone, in which case reprogramming of the controller will be straightforward and will not require easily-lost instructions or cables.

The loop antenna can conveniently be formed by at least one track on a printed circuit-board carrying at least one of the memory, the transmitter and the battery. The track can form a loop around the perimeter of the printed circuit-board, and/or around one or more of the memory, the transmitter and the battery. The track can include a first section on one side of the printed circuit-board and a second section on a second and opposite side of the printed circuit-board, with a connection passing through the printed circuit-board to link an end of the first section to an end of the second section, and will ideally comprise a plurality of tracks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying figures in which; Figure 1 illustrates a lighting control system according to the present invention; Figure 2 shows the general layout of the controller system; Figure 3 illustrates the re-programming process; Figure 4 illustrates the loop antenna; and Figure 5 shows the loop antenna in relation to other components of the system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Referring to figure 1, a battery powered wall mounted control device 10 consists of a number of push-button switch inputs 12, where the pressing of a button causes the unit 10 to transmit a coded message 14 to a one or more remote control devices 16 causing them to perform a predefined action. In the case of a lighting system, the remote devices 16 receive a mains electrical power supply 18 (from which they are powered) and selectively convey the main power to a lamp unit 20. The supply 18 may be passed on in full or may be attenuated in order to activate the lamp 20 at a selected dimmer level.

In such a device 10, we propose to allow the function of the keys and/or the address of the unit can be changed by means of an inductively coupled signal transmitted within the near vicinity of the unit. This programming device consists of powered inductor whose signal is modulated. The control device consists on an inductor connected to a transceiver device which can decode the modulated signal and also transmit data by modulating the load on the inductor. Thus, the signal can also be used to read the configuration of the unit.

Furthermore, the unit can use the induced power in the receiving coil to power the unit during the communication process.

Figure 2 shows a block diagram of the invention. Under normal operation, when a key is pressed, the unit is powered or woken from a low power sleep state. A controller then determines which key or keys have been pressed and for how long. This information is compared with data stored in non-volatile memory (EEPROM) and a corresponding message is then transmitted by the processor. When the message(s) have been transmitted and all the keys have been released, the unit is powered down or returned to a low power sleep state. The EEPROM also contains other configuration data that identifies the control device and is transmitted to the remote control device.

Thus, the unit includes a keyboard 22 taking the form (in this case) of a bank of push-button normally-open switches which communicate their state to a controller 24 and a power control unit 26. If any switch of the keyboard 22 is activated then the power controller 26 provides power to the controller 24 and the remaining parts of the device 10 from a battery 28. Once powered, the control 24 compares the pattern of keyboard inputs (comprising the switches that are activated and the time for which they have been activated) with predetermined patterns stored in the non-volatile memory 30. If there is a match, or if a closest match is selected, then an rf signal associated with that pattern is passed to a transmitter unit 32 and transmitted. It is then received by a remote unit 16 as described above. Once the signal has been sent (and any required acknowledgements received) the controller 24 signals the power controller 26 to suspend power to it and other parts of the device 10, thus putting the device into a sleep mode. Alternatively, or in addition, the power controller 26 may send the device 10 into a sleep mode automatically after a certain period of time has passed without input from the keyboard 22.

The device also includes an NFC device 34 which can read and write to the non-volatile storage 30. In some embodiments the NEC device 34 and the non-volatile memory may be a single sub-unit as indicated by dotted lines 35. This is adapted to receive NFC signals from a nearby device and be powered by those NEC signals for long enough to read the non-volatile memory and retransmit the contents back to the nearby device, and/or write data received from the nearby device to the non-volatile memory. In this way, the NFC device 34 provides a route for reprogramming the non-volatile memory 30 without drawing power from the battery 28 or needing the power controller 26 to take the device 10 out of a sleep mode.

Data can also be written to the EEPROM memory so as to modify the fixed code (firmware) that is used on the processor. A small program (in the form of a bootloader) on the processor can check for the presence of such code in the EEPROM and use the data to modify its main program. This can be done each time the plate is used, or be initiated by pressing a predetermined key combination.

Eigure 3 shows the NEC system in use. The controller 10 is mounted in situ in a recess 36 on a wall 38. An NFC handset 40 is placed in front of the controller 10 and is activated in order to send an NEC signal with the effects described above. As a result, the settings and configuration of the controller 10 can be varied without the need for unsightly sockets on its surface and without having to remove it from its fixing place on the wall 38.

The NFC handset 40 can be a bespoke device, or can be a general-purpose device such as a smartphone loaded with a suitable app. The app can allow the construction of a data set for the non-volatile memory 30 based on user choices. Alternatives are a laptop or other computer equipped with a suitable transceiver, but the extreme portability and wide availability of smartphones means they are ideal in this context.

The NFC device 34 will employ an antenna of some sort, usually an inductive device so that useful power can be extracted from the signal. A separate wound antenna could be provided, but we have found that the most convenient form for an inductor is a number of tracks of a printed circuit board, which can be arranged so as to maximise the coupling between the two inductors (i.e. the antennae of the NFC device 34 and the NEC handset 40). The tracks can use one or more sides of the printed circuit board to maximise the inductive coupling while reducing the amount of board area used. Eigure 4 shows a design for such tracks, with a PCB 42 carrying a series of tracks 44 (in grey) on a front surface of the board and a series of tracks 46 (in black) on a rear face. On each side of the PCB 42, the tracks run generally alongside each other around part of the outer circumferential edges of the PCB 42. Interconnects 48 between the front and rear surfaces connect the tracks into a spiral form creating an inductive antenna between a start point 50 and an end point 52 for the tracks. Figure 5 shows the tracks 44, 46 (in black) on the PCB 42 together with the remaining elements 54 of the device 10 including the controller 24, transmitter 32, power control 26, battery 28 and non-volatile memory 30.

Thus, the invention allows the control device to be programmed, read or reprogrammed without the need to remove the unit from the wall. While the present application has been described with reference to a dimmer switch 10 and a wireless control device 16, the concepts of the present invention could be applied to any control devices that are operable to communicate with each other, such as, for example, dimming ballasts for driving gas-discharge lamps; light-emitting diode (LED) drivers for driving LED light sources; screw-in luminaires including integral dimmer circuits and incandescent or halogen lamps; screw-in luminaires including integral ballast circuits and compact fluorescent lamps; screw-in luminaires including integral LED drivers and LED light sources; electronic switches, controllable circuit breakers, or other switching devices for turning appliances on and off; plug-in load control devices, controllable electrical receptacles, or controllable power strips for each controlling one or more plug-in loads; motor control units for controlling motor loads, such as ceiling fans or exhaust fans; drive units for controlling motorized window treatments or projection screens; motorized interior or exterior shutters; thermostats for a heating and/or cooling systems; temperature control devices for controlling setpoint temperatures of HVAC systems; air conditioners; compressors; electric baseboard heater controllers; controllable dampers; humidity control units; dehumidifiers; water heaters; pool pumps; televisions; computer monitors; audio systems or amplifiers; generators; electric chargers, such as electric vehicle chargers; an alternative energy controllers; occupancy sensors, vacancy sensors, daylight sensors, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, security sensors, proximity sensors, keypads, battery-powered remote controls, key fobs, cell phones, smart phones, tablets, personal digital assistants, personal computers, timeclocks, audio-visual controls, safety devices, and central control transmitters.

It will of course be understood that many variations may be made to the above-described embodiment without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, as described above the transceiver is wholly powered by the received ri signal and uses this power to update the memory with data in the received rf signal. As an alternative, the transceiver could be powered by the received rf signal for long enough to trigger the power controller 26 and retain the data while the device (or at least some of it) wakes from its sleep state and then be powered from the battery. The transceiver could then pass the data directly to the memory, or the memory could be updated by a part of the device to which the transceiver had passed the data.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A user interface controller for a building automation system, comprising a plurality of user-actuatable inputs; a memory containing a look-up table containing transmittable signals associated with the inputs; a transmitter for sending the transmittable signals via a wireless transmission protocol; a battery for powering the memory and transmitter; a transceiver for receiving ri signals, at least partially powered by the rf signals and being adapted to update the look-up table with data received via the ft signals.
2. A user interface controller according to claim 1 in which the wireless transmission protocol is an ft-based protocol.
3. A user interface controller according to claim 1 or claim 2 in which the transceiver receives ft signals via a loop antenna
4. A user interface controller according to claim 3 in which the loop antenna and the transceiver conform to a published near-field communications protocol.
5. A user interface controller according to claim 3 or claim 4 in which the loop antenna is formed by at least one track on a printed circuit-board carrying at least one of the memory, the transmitter and the battery.
6. A user interface controller according to claim 5 in which the track forms a loop around the perimeter of the printed circuit-board.
7. A user interface controller according to claim 5 or claim 6 in which the track forms a loop around the memory, the transmitter and/or the battery.
8. A user interface controller according to any one of claims 5 to 7 in which the track includes a first section on one side of the printed circuit-board and a second section on a second and opposite side of the printed circuit-board, with a connection passing through the printed circuit-board to link an end of the first section to an end of the second section.
9. A user interface controller according to any one of claims 5 to 8 in which the loop antenna comprises a plurality of tracks.
10. A user interface controller substantially as herein described with reference to and/or as illustrated in the accompanying figures.