Lutron Technology Company LLC

Lutron Electronics Company, Inc.

Jonathan T Lenz

Jordan H Crafts

Bryan Robert Barnes

Kyle Thomas Barco

William Bryce Fricke

Galen Edgar Knode

Sanjeev Kumar

Stephen M Ludwig, Jr

David J Dolan

Daniel Curtis Raneri

Jaykrishna A Shukla

Russell Weightman

Erica L Clymer

Brian Michael Courtney

Sandeep Mudabail Raghuram

Richard M Walsh, Iii

Daniel L Twaddell

Donald R Mosebrook

Rhodes B Baker

Richard S Camden

John H Bull

Justin J Mierta

Stuart W Dejonge

Andrew Karl Cooney

Joel Hnatow

Miguel Aguado Pelaez

Jason Groller

Jr Stephen M Ludwig

Iii Richard M Walsh

Stephen M Ludwig

Jr Ludwig Stephen M

Iii Walsh Richard M

A load control device may include a semiconductor switch, a control circuit, and first and second terminals adapted to be coupled to a remote device. The load control device may include a first switching circuit coupled to the second terminal, and a second switching circuit coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal. The control circuit may be configured to render the first switching circuit conductive to conduct a charging current from an AC power source to a power supply of the remote device during a first time period of a half-cycle of the AC power source, and further configured to render the first and second switching circuits conductive and non-conductive to communicate with the remote device via the second terminal during a second time period of the half-cycle of the AC power source.

Multiple location load control system

A load control system may include devices for performing communications for controlling an amount of power provided to an electrical load. The devices may include load control devices that may communicate by transmitting digital messages. A user device having an adjustable wireless communication range may be used for discovering devices, configuring devices, and/or diagnosing devices in the load control system. The user device may detect whether devices are within an established wireless communication range of one another for performing communications. The user device may detect digital messages transmitted from a device and/or digital messages received at a device to determine whether the digital messages are correctly communicated in the load control system. The user device may provide an indication to a user indicating whether a digital message is correctly transmitted or received by a device in the load control system.

Wireless communication diagnostics

A load control system may include control devices for controlling power provided to an electrical load. The control devices may include a control-source device and a control-target device. The control-target device may control the power provided to the electrical load based on digital messages received from the control-source device. The control devices may include a load control discovery device capable of sending discovery messages configured to discover control devices within a location. The discovered control devices may be organized by signal strength and may be provided to a network device to enable association of the discovered control devices within a location. The discovery messages may be transmitted within an established discovery range. The discovery range may be adjusted to discover different control devices. Different control devices may be identified as the load control discovery device for discovering different control devices.

Commissioning load control systems

A low-power radio-frequency (RF) receiver is characterized by a decreased current consumption over prior art RF receivers, such that the RF receiver may be used in control devices, such as battery-powered motorized window treatments and two-wire dimmer switches. The RF receiver uses an RF sub-sampling technique to check for the RF signals and then put the RF receiver to sleep for a sleep time that is longer than a packet length of a transmitted packet to thus conserve battery power and lengthen the lifetime of the batteries. The RF receiver compares detected RF energy to a detect threshold that may be increased to decrease the sensitivity of the RF receiver and increase the lifetime of the batteries. After detecting that an RF signal is being transmitted, the RF receiver is put to sleep for a snooze time period that is longer than the sleep time and just slightly shorter than the time between two consecutive transmitted packets to further conserve battery power.

Low-power radio-frequency receiver

A load control system may include load control devices for controlling power provided to an electrical load. The load control devices may include a control-source device and a control-target device. The control-target device may control the power provided to the electrical load based on digital messages received from the control-source device. A user device may discover load control devices when the load control devices are within an established range associated with the user device. The user device and the load control devices may communicate via a wireless communications module. The established range may be adjusted based on the configurable transmit power of the user device or the wireless communications module associated with the user device. A discovered control-target device may be associated with a control-source device to enable the control-target device to control the power provided to the electrical load based on digital messages received from the control-source device.

A load control system may include control devices capable of being associated with each other at one or more locations for performing load control. Control devices may include control-source devices and/or control-target devices. A location beacon may be discovered and a unique identifier in the location beacon may be associated with a unique identifier of one or more control devices. Upon subsequent discovery of the location beacon, the associated load control devices may be controlled. The beacons may be communicated via radio frequency signals, visible light communication, and/or audio signals. The visible light communication may be used to communicate other types of information to devices in the load control system. The visible light communication may be used to identify link addresses for communicating with load control devices, load control instructions, load control configuration instructions, network communication information, and/or the like. The information in the beacons may be used to commission and/or control the load control system.

Commissioning and controlling load control devices

A motorized window treatment provides a low-cost solution for controlling the amount of daylight entering a space through a window. The window treatment includes a covering material, a drive shaft, at least one lift cord rotatably received around the drive shaft and connected to the covering material, and a motor coupled to the drive shaft for raising and lowering the covering material. The window treatment also includes a spring assist unit for assisting the motor by providing a torque that equals the torque provided by the weight on the cords that lift the covering material at a position midway between fully-open and fully-closed positions, which helps to minimize motor usage and conserve battery life if a battery is used to power the motorized window treatment. The window treatment may comprise a photosensor for measuring the amount of daylight outside the window and temperature sensors for measuring the temperatures inside and outside of the window. The position of the covering material may be automatically controlled in response to the photosensor and the temperature sensors to save energy, or may also be controlled in response to an infrared or radio-frequency remote control.

Growing community of inventors

Emmaus, PA, United States of America

Jonathan T Lenz