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| United States Patent | 5898384 |
| Link to this page | http://www.wikipatents.com/5898384.html |
| Inventor(s) | Alt; Larry G. (Crown Point, IN);
Florin; Robert C. (Hammond, IN);
Little; Joseph H. (Valparaiso, IN);
Oesterle; Richard C. (Crown Point, IN) |
| Abstract | A control system for remotely controlling the application of electric power
to a plurality of electrical apparatuses (10) includes a radio
transmitting device (20) at a central location, and a radio receiving
device (22) and a control unit (16) at each electrical apparatus location.
During set-up of an electrical apparatus, programming signals designating
the operating protocol or mode and the location of the electrical
apparatus are transmitted by a radio programming signal to the control
unit (16) associated with each electrical apparatus. Subsequently, timing
reference signals containing a multiple-digit computer generated code
designating the time of day and the time of sunrise and sunset on a
particular day within particular latitudinal zones are transmitted by
radio to the control units (16) of all electrical apparatus (10). Each
control unit interprets and responds to the timing signals in accordance
with previously received programming signals to control the application of
electric power to the electrical apparatus in accordance with a
predetermined operating protocol. Each control unit is also provided with
a two way communication answer back capability to advise the control
command center that previously sent messages have been received and to
provide status report information. |
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Title Information  |
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Drawing from US Patent 5898384 |
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Programmable remote control systems for electrical apparatuses |
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| Publication Date |
April 27, 1999 |
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| Filing Date |
December 22, 1995 |
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| Parent Case |
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/182,728,
filed Jan. 14, 1994 now abandoned which is a Continuation-In-Part of our
pending prior PCT Application, International Application No.
PCT/US93/03259, filed Apr. 7, 1993, designating the U.S., which is in turn
a Continuation-In-Part of prior U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 865,108,
filed Apr. 8, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,908, granted Oct. 19, 1993. |
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| Priority Data |
Apr 07, 1993[MX]93-2029 |
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Title Information |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to electronic control systems for
controlling a population of similar, generally independently operated
devices. More particularly, it relates to remote control systems for
controlling a plurality of electrical devices or apparatuses wherein
programming and reference instructions are transmitted to remote,
geographically diverse, individual control units, generally provided for
each device, so that each individual device may be operated in accordance
with predetermined protocols or in accordance with a programmable protocol
and wherein the control units are each provided with answer back
communication ability to apprise the central command control regarding the
communications and operations status of each control unit.
There are many requirements for control systems capable of individually
controlling a population of electrical devices in accordance with desired
predetermined operating protocols or modes. Control systems may optimize
the efficiency of the overall network or population of devices and
dramatically reduce energy consumption. Illustrative control systems of
the type for controlling a population of devices may include, for example,
lighting systems, climate control systems, irrigation/watering systems and
traffic control systems, to name but a few. The desired operating
protocols implemented by the control system may require the individual
devices to operate at designated on-and-off times with respect to a
particular time of day, as well as with respect to the length of day,
e.g., with respect to sunset or sunrise for the particular geographic
location in which the individual electrical device or apparatus is
located.
In the following discussion, a new and improved system for controlling a
population of individual electrical devices is described with special
reference to a preferred context and preferred embodiment relating to
lighting of sign boards. Although the invention is described in this
context, the new and improved control devices, methods and systems in
accordance with this invention are also well suited to other end use
environments in lighting applications, in non-lighting applications for
climate control, irrigation control, in traffic control and in
manufacturing and production applications. Sign board lighting systems are
a preferred use relied upon for purposes of illustration and explanation
and the invention should not be construed as being limited thereto.
Another example of a system or population of separate devices which is
preferably overseen by a common control is a traffic control system. For
example, overhead road signs which indicate proper lanes for travel during
rush hour may need to be changed to indicate different lane configurations
from morning rush hour to evening rush hour. Overhead signs indicating
roadway conditions up ahead, indicating delays due to heavy traffic,
accidents, weather or construction and the like, possibly indicating
alternate routes, may frequently need to be changed. On non-highway
streets, the timing of traffic lights may need to be varied at different
times of day. For example, on main roads entering or leaving a downtown
area, traffic signals may have their timing altered to provide a prolonged
green light favoring the direction of heaviest traffic volume. It may be
beneficial at rush hour to synchronize a group of adjacent traffic signals
to promote maximum flow. It may also be helpful for the prolonged green
light signal command to move along a main street with a surge in rush hour
traffic. More particularly, at the beginning of rush hour, traffic lights
along a major exit route may be changed to provide a span of synchronized
long green lights to facilitate faster egress from the city. After the
first fifteen minutes, the main surge in traffic volume may now be located
at about 10 miles out of the city along the roadway. The lights at this
10-15 mile distance may now be changed to the prolonged green lights and
the system may restore the inner city traffic lights back to their normal
signal changing cadence or period.
Another example of a control system for controlling a population of
individual devices for which the system of this invention may be used may
include an irrigation system. In a given irrigation system including a
plurality of irrigation booms, it may be necessary or desirable to water
crops or lawns after dark to reduce or eliminate water loss due to
evaporation. Moreover, it may be important to commence irrigation as soon
after sundown as possible to provide maximum soak-in times without
evaporation. It may also be important to shut off the water system to
prevent over-watering, super-saturation, undesirable flooding or erosion
from occurring. Furthermore, watering may need to be performed
intermittently, in timed pulses or dosages throughout the hours of
darkness for maximum efficiency.
Another example may include a climate control system for a commercial
office space, hotel, store or the like, wherein different climate
controlled rooms or zones may vary in their heating or cooling
requirements depending on their exposure to the sun at various times of
day or to their relative zone or room sizes. For example, in the morning,
if the outside temperature rises about 75.degree. F., a control system may
be needed which turns on the cooling system for a large 2,000 square foot
room earlier than a that for a small 300 square foot office to promote
efficient energy use in readying the building at the beginning of the
business day.
Another control system may be a controller for causing a population of
insecticide sprayers to dispense a spray of insecticide approximately at
dusk and periodically thereafter at an amusement park, zoo, or other
public place.
Lighting systems provide perhaps the most widespread and easily understood
application of population control systems. Remote airports, in order to
qualify with FAA regulations, or to be entitled to Federal funds, for
example, may be required to burn or illuminate runway lights for a time
period extending from just before dusk to a couple of hours after sundown.
To conserve energy, highway interchanges including intersections, entrance
ramps and exit ramps may only need to be illuminated for a time period
after dark and then again for a period before dawn, instead of all night
long. If the on and off times for highway street lamps are carefully
controlled to follow the time of sunset and the time of sunrise at a given
location instead of a general time of day on the clock, better lighting
and energy savings may also be achieved.
In certain agricultural applications, providing artificial lighting at
carefully controlled lighted times, in horticultural and animal
environments, such as in a hen house, may promote health, or food
production, or both.
The present invention relates to control systems, and more particularly to
a system whereby programming and reference instructions are conveyed to
remote and geographically diverse, individual control units by means of
radio transmissions such that the electrical apparatus to be controlled by
such units operate in accordance with predetermined operating protocols or
modes. The invention allows the operating protocols or modes to be defined
with respect to particular times of each day as well as the time of sunset
or sunrise for the particular geographic location at which the apparatus
is located.
Sign board lighting systems have come into wide use for illuminating
outdoor billboards and the like during the time period between sunset and
sunrise. Sign boards which require such illumination exist in very diverse
locations, such as along highways or on buildings, and often in very
remote places. Moreover, sign boards owned and maintained by a major
outdoor advertising company can be located hundreds, or even thousands, of
miles apart.
Because it is neither necessary nor desirable to continuously illuminate
sign boards, sign board lighting systems are operated only during certain,
discreet time periods, or in accordance with predetermined lighting
protocols. Typically, such lighting protocols are established by contract
between an advertiser and the sign board owner, and may, for example, be
from sunset to sunrise or from sunset until a certain specified time at
night. By accurately conforming the time period during which the lighting
system is activated to the protocol required by the contract, the
particular location or application, significant savings are realized from
decreased electrical power consumption and extended lamp life.
Prior systems for controlling sign board lighting typically utilized
photocells, timers or a combination thereof, to regulate the lighting
circuitry. Because of inherent deficiencies in these designs, the
operation of such sign board lighting control systems was often less than
optimum.
For example, since the time of sunset at a particular sign board location
varies on a daily basis and therefore cannot be readily established with a
conventional timer, photocells were often utilized to activate a sign
board lighting system at sunset. However, the photocells proved to be a
crude means of determining the time of sunset, because variations in
atmospheric conditions caused the light intensity measured by the
photocells at the time of actual sunset to fluctuate dramatically. Thus,
on cloudy days such systems would sometimes illuminate the sign board long
before sunset. This was an even greater problem in areas where the
photocell lens became dirty or otherwise obstructed with time.
Often it is required to alter the lighting protocol of a particular
signboard, i.e., to change the times each day when the lighting system is
to be activated or deactivated. For example, it is common for a contract
to require that the sign board lighting system be deactivated at a
particular local time each day. In such a case, upon a time change from
"standard time" to "daylight savings time," or vice-versa, the mode of
operation of the sign board lighting system must be altered to account for
the hour time change. Or, for example, the advertiser contracting for the
sign board may decide that the sign should remain illuminated to a later
time, say midnight instead of 10 p.m. Or, upon the expiration of the
advertising contract, the owner of the sign board may wish to completely
discontinue illuminating the sign board until a new advertiser is secured.
In order to alter the lighting protocol of prior sign board illumination
systems it was necessary for a repair crew to visit the sign board and
control unit site. Because of the diverse, remote and often virtually
inaccessible location of many sign boards, this was often an arduous,
time-consuming and expensive task.
Certain prior sign board lighting control systems utilized radio
transmissions to actuate the systems. The sign boards were categorized
into groups of one or more sign boards and turned on or off as a group in
response to radio signals. Where a large number of geographically
separated sign boards exist, such systems are not practical because of the
high cost and time required to send individual radio signals to each sign
board or group of sign boards. Moreover, as with sign boards controlled by
photocells and timers, such prior sign board lighting control systems did
not provide the capability to remotely program the lighting protocol of
individual sign boards.
It has been proposed that a control system be developed whereby individual
sign boards may be controlled by radio signals. However, such a system
would prove unduly expensive because major sign board companies own
thousands of sign boards. Since each individual electrical apparatus would
require its own transmissions, an excessive number of transmissions would
be necessary to effectively control the system.
The present invention overcomes these drawbacks by providing a system
whereby both programming and timing signals are communicated to a control
unit associated with an electrical apparatus, such as a sign board
lighting control device. In particular, the invention provides for
transmissions of coded programming signals which designate a particular
lighting or operating protocol to a particular sign board or apparatus.
Additionally, the invention provides for timing signals necessary for
performing the various different lighting protocols of multiple sign
boards to be accomplished by a limited number of universal reference
transmissions received by all sign boards.
A control unit associated with an individual sign board lighting system
includes a receiver capable of intercepting the radio-transmitted coded
programming and timing signals and control circuitry capable of decoding
such signals and either storing in memory programming signals or executing
functions in response to timing reference signals, or executing functions
in response to programming signals, or both as the case may be.
Since the control system is able to reference sunset and sunrise at
specific geographic locations, outdoor lighting systems are particularly
obvious applications of the invention. However, many other applications,
including apparatus which operate without reference to sunset or sunrise
would benefit from the present invention. Such applications would benefit
from both the timing features as well as the remote programmability of the
invention.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a
new and improved control system for electrical apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved
control system for lighting systems and other electrical apparatus wherein
the system comprises a computer controlled radio frequency transmitter for
transmitting coded programming and timing reference signals to a
population of radio frequency receivers associated with individual control
units, which signals are utilized by the control units to activate or
deactivate the lighting system or electrical apparatus in response to the
coded signals, thus providing remote programming capability which
eliminates the need for "on-site" programming.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new and
improved control system for a variety of electrical apparatus whereby
commercially available "paging" or "beeper" or two way radio systems
transmit coded programming or timing reference signals to control units
associated with each electrical apparatus. The control units decode the
signals and activate or deactivate the electrical apparatus in accordance
with the programming and timing reference signals.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved
control system for sign board lighting systems and the like.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new and
improved control system for remotely controlling a population of
electrical apparatuses so that each apparatus operates in accordance with
an assigned protocol which also includes a two way communication
capability from each apparatus to a command control center so that
operation of the apparatus is remotely verifiable.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an
interactive remote control system for electrical apparatus, wherein data
from diverse apparatus locations may be communicated back to the command
control center including answer back messages which acknowledge receipt of
control transmissions; verify implementation of changes in protocol
programming messages received; provide apparatus status reports and
operating conditions, and the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with these and other objects, the present invention provides
a new and improved a system for controlling the application of electric
power to a plurality of electrical devices or apparatuses so that each of
said devices functions or operates in accordance with a predetermined
operating protocol requiring predetermined on and off times. The control
system comprises a transmission means for transmitting a timing reference
signal, a control unit associated with each of the electrical apparatus,
each control unit including a receiver means for receiving the transmitted
timing reference signal, a timing means responsive to the received timing
reference signal for initiating a timing period, a control circuit means
responsive to the timing means for controlling the application of
operating current to the electrical apparatus following the timing period,
a control unit response transmitter operable to selectively transmit at
least one answer back message at an assigned time in response to a
received reference signal to a receiving unit associated with a system
control command center, whereby each said electrical apparatus is
verifiably operated in accordance with its respective assigned operating
protocol.
The invention is further directed to a control device operable from a
received timing reference signal for controlling the application of
electric power to an electrical apparatus in accordance with a
predetermined operating protocol requiring predetermined on and off times
comprising a radio receiver means for receiving the reference signal,
timing means responsive to the received reference signal for initiating a
predetermined timing period and a control circuit means responsive to the
timing means for controlling the application of operating current to the
electrical apparatus following the timing period whereby the electrical
apparatus is supplied electric power in accordance with its operating
protocol.
The invention is further directed to a method for controlling the
application of electric power to a selected one of a plurality of
electrical apparatus in accordance with a predetermined operating protocol
requiring predetermined on and off times comprising transmitting a
reference signal to all of the plurality of electrical apparatus,
receiving the transmitted reference signal at the selected electrical
apparatus, initiating a timing period at the selected electrical apparatus
in response to the received reference signal and controlling the
application of operating current to the electrical apparatus following the
timing period whereby the selected electrical apparatus is caused to be
supplied electric power in accordance with the predetermined operating
protocol.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the invention is directed to a
system for controlling the illumination of a plurality of sign boards in
accordance with a predetermined lighting protocol requiring predetermined
on and off times, to a lighting control device operable from a received
reference signal for controlling the illumination of a sign board in
accordance with a predetermined lighting protocol requiring predetermined
on and off times and to a method for controlling the illumination of a
selected one of a plurality of sign boards in accordance with a
predetermined lighting protocol requiring predetermined on and off times.
The present invention also relates to improved control systems including
two-way communications capabilities, wherein the individual control units
associated with each electrical apparatus being controlled are provided
with answer back capabilities. Accordingly, an operation control unit
includes means for polling, at either preset times or upon demand, several
channels or inputs at an associated remote electrical apparatus site.
These inputs provide responsive data that is processed by the control
unit. The input may be in the form of a "state", e.g., open or closed, or
may be in the form of a numeric value, e.g. 30 amps. The control unit is
operable and programmed to determine whether the input data would require
answer back transmission to a command control center or not, based upon
preset conditions, parameters or answer back criteria. If the control unit
determines that answer back transmission is required, the input data is
encoded and a unique serial number identifier for that control unit and
apparatus is attached to each data string. The answer back transmitters
provided on each electrical apparatus may send the answer back messages by
a suitable communications link to the command control center directly, or
indirectly to a regional relay station, which in turn forwards the answer
back messages to the command control center or host computer. The answer
back messages have their unique serial number address identifiers imbedded
in each message. The control command center removes the serial number from
the message, decodes the message into an appropriate, readable format and
communicates the message to the customer or owner of the device or
apparatus answering by a same or different type of communications link.
Suitable forms of communications links may include: radio, paging,
telephone, modem and fax type communications links. The answer back
messages may be transmitted from individual control units to a relay
station by telephone for example and communications from the relay station
to the command control center may be by telephone, computer modem or
satellite paging.
The control units associated with each electrical apparatus in accordance
with this preferred embodiment can transmit autodiagnostic status report
data in the answer back messages. These status report components of the
answer back messages may include such information or data as: an
acknowledgement of receipt of a new program; the times the device, such as
billboard lights, were turned on and off during the past 24 hours; a
burned out light bulb condition; a tripped circuit breaker condition; a
loose billboard face; an electrical meter reading, provided selectively
every so many days, or upon demand; a "count" provided by a proximity or
other sensor, for example, useful to count the number of vehicles passing
by a given billboard location in a particular time period; and the ambient
temperature and/or other weather conditions at the location. The nature of
the answer back message data is almost limitless. Although these data
examples relate to sign board lighting embodiments, similar applications
involving other control systems and electrical apparatuses should be
readily apparent to those skilled in this art.
By way of further illustration, in accordance with the preferred two-way
paging embodiment, in addition to a reference signal being transmitted
from a command control center to indicate the time of sunr | | |
