Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Philips Electronics North America Corporation

Other

Demetri J Giannopoulos

Ihor T Wacyk

Qiong Michelle Li

Shenghong Wang

Nai-Chi Lee

Paul R Veldman

Laurence Bourdillon

Ling Wang

Xiaohong Sun

Sreeraman Venkitasubrahmanian

Nai-chi Lee

The present invention provides a master-slave architecture for a radio frequency RF networked lighting control system having all slave elements (ballasts) configured as backups for a network master control unit. In the system and method of the present invention a slave element can become the network master network unit without reconfiguring the network and without any human intervention. Similarly, both a master and one or more slave elements may recover from a temporary outage without necessitating reconfiguration of the network and without any human intervention.

System and method for lighting control network recovery from master failure

A LED system () for illumination and data transmission employs a LED driver (), an electronic switch (), and an illumination unit (). In a first illumination state, illumination unit () receives LED current(s) from LED driver () to emit a first light output. In a second illumination state, the illumination unit () receives additional LED current(s) from LED drivervia the electronic switch as controlled by the LED driver where the illumination unit () additionally emits a second light output. LED system () optically communicates a data bit with each transition of the illumination unit () from the first illumination state to the second illumination state, and vice-versa.

LED system for illumination and data transmission

A method of operating a light source () including a ballast () in electrical communication with a lamp (). The method includes operating the ballast () to determine () an average lamp power to be applied to the lamp () during a data period. The method further includes operating the ballast () to generate and communicate () a pulse width modulated drive signal to the lamp () during the data period, the pulse width modulated drive signal having one of a first waveform and a second waveform for applying the average lamp power to the lamp (), the first waveform including at least one pulse representative of a first data bit, the second waveform including at least one pulse representative of a second data bit. The method additionally includes operating the lamp () to emit () a modulated light output in response to a reception of the pulse width modulated drive signal during the data period, the modulated light output being representative of the first data bit in response to the pulse width modulated drive signal having the first waveform, the modulated light output being representative of the second data bit in response to the pulse width modulated drive signal having the second waveform.

Light output modulation for data transmission

A method for associating a group of lighting units in a wireless-controlled lighting system to respective buttons or other control elements on a remote control. Each of the lighting units transmits, via modulation of its own illumination light, a unique identification code for the respective unit. The remote control is successively positioned to receive the modulated light from each lighting unit and, at each position, the user activates a respective control element of the remote control for association with the lighting unit. The remote control then transmits to a control master for the group the unique codes and codes identifying the respective control elements with which they have been associated.

Method of configuration a wireless-controlled lighting system

A high resolution pulse width modulation (PWM) or voltage controlled output (DCO) generator is disclosed. The resolution is increased over that of the circuit clock by delaying the generated signal through a series of delays, all of which are controlled by a delay locked loop. The delays are a small fraction of the clock period, thus providing resolution greater than that of the circuit clock.

High resolution PWM generator or digitally controlled oscillator

A position dependent information retrieval system is disclosed including a light source having a driver and an encoder. The driver and the encoder are coupled to the light source so that the light source produces a modulated light signal in accordance with a predetermined signature. The system also includes a receiver having a photosensitive detector capable of detecting the modulated light signal and a decoder capable of decoding the predetermined signature. A controller is communicatively coupled to the receiver, a memory and output device. The controller is arranged to receive the decoded predetermined signature, based upon the decoded predetermined signature, obtain at least one localized message in the memory, and output the localized message using the output device.

Position dependent information retrieval system

A system, method and apparatus for contact-less charging of battery operated devices, including a host charger with a power converter and resonant tank circuit and a portable device where the battery is located, with a battery charging control IC, wherein the method obviates the need for a voltage controller in each of both the host and the portable stages. The charging of the battery in the portable device is controlled by a charging controller therein, which is in continual electric communication with the host, whose output power the control IC dynamically monitors and controls. In one embodiment, component count is minimized but battery charging is not optimized when the battery voltage is very low. In the other embodiment, charging efficiency is maximized regardless of the output voltage of the battery.

System, method and apparatus for contact-less battery charging with dynamic control

A navigation system is disclosed including a light source having a driver and an encoder. The driver and the encoder are coupled to the light source so that the light source produces a modulated light signal in accordance with a predetermined signature. The system also includes a receiver having a photosensitive detector capable of detecting the modulated light signal and a decoder capable of decoding the predetermined signature. A controller is communicatively coupled to the receiver, a memory and output device. The controller is arranged to receive the decoded predetermined signature, based upon the decoded predetermined signature, obtain at least one navigation instruction stored in the memory, and output the navigation instruction using the output device.

In-building navigation system

A bi-directional flyback circuit includes a primary side switch that regulates the re-circulated energy to achieve substantially zero voltage switching (ZVS) and a secondary-side switch that regulates the output voltage. No feedback circuit between an output side and an input side of the bi-directional flyback circuit is needed for regulating the output voltage. The amount of recirculating energy required to achieve ZVS, and to maintain output regulation is kept substantially at a minimum.

Regulation of bi-directional flyback converter

A method and apparatus for fault condition protection for a lighting control circuit is presented. The method consists of a hybrid software and hardware solution to take advantage of the useful attributes of both. In the event of a fault condition being detected the software set driving signals to the light are rapidly blocked via hardware. In the event the fault condition persists, software modifies the driving signals to the light.

Panic protection from fault conditions in power converters

A power supply comprising a flyback converter and a controller is disclosed. The flyback converter drives a load when electrically coupled to an alternating current power source. The controller controls a soft switching during each switching time period of the flyback converter. Upon an initial switching time period, the controller determines each acceptable switching frequency for the subsequent switching time periods and selects one of the acceptable switching frequencies for soft switching the flyback converter over one or more switching time periods during a constant load.

Control method and apparatus for a flyback converter

A digital controller comprises two control paths each having an A/D converter. One of the two converters has a substantially higher sampling speed and lower resolution than the other. Thus, one is suitable to deal with the fast responses while the other is suitable to deal with the slow responses, and can replace high-speed high-resolution A/D converter which is high in both cost and power consumption.

Digital controller with two control paths

An adaptive compensation circuit for controlling a universal lamp driver coupled to a lamp is disclosed. The adaptive compensation circuit utilizes an identification of a lamp type of the lamp to thereby generate a signal indicative of a time constant of the lamp. The adaptive compensation circuit subsequently determines a zero position and a pair of pole positions corresponding to the time constant, and generates a control voltage in response to a determination of the zero position and the pair of pole positions. The control voltage facilitates an operation of the universal lamp driver to stably provide a lamp current to the lamp.

Adaptive control for half-bridge universal lamp drivers

A multiple-output, bi-directional flyback converter with soft switching of an input switch is disclosed. The primary-side of the converter is comprised of an input power supply, a transformer with a primary winding and a secondary winding, and an input switch with an associated diode, wherein a first end of the primary winding is connected to the input power supply and a second end of the primary winding is connected to the input switch. A first predetermined number of output voltage circuits are connected to a single secondary winding or one of a plurality of secondary windings each producing an output voltage. Each output voltage circuit has an output switch with an associated diode, and a diode connected in series between the output voltage switch and the secondary winding. A last output voltage circuit with a bi-directional switch and associated diode is connected connection to the secondary winding. A control unit controls the switching of the input switch, the predetermined number of output switches and the bi-directional switch, wherein the switching of the bi-directional switch is controlled so as to allow for soft switching of the input switch.

Single-winding, multiple-output, bi-directional flyback converter

A switch mode power supply (SMPS) and method are provided. In particular, the present invention provides an SMPS in which data is encoded by manipulating voltage pulses on a primary side. The manipulated voltage pulses are then transferred over a transformer to a secondary side. Secondary side pulses generated in response to the primary side pulses are sensed and decoded by a detector. The present invention allows data to be transferred from the primary side to the secondary side without affecting output voltages.

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Norwalk, CT, United States of America

Demetri J Giannopoulos