Honeywell International Inc.

Ademco Inc.

Mohammad Aljabari

Tracy L Lentz

David Mulhouse

Eric James Barton

Eugene J Takach

David Schultz

Tarik Khoury

Petr Adamik

Cary Leen

Stan Zywicki

Steven James McPherson

Arnie Kalla

Michael Lunacek

Jiri Sapak

Josef Novotny

Arnold Kalla

Steven J Mcpherson

Jeff Tauer

Daniel Eppinger

Steven R Hoglund

Amy Ragland

Jeffrey Boll

Reed Bisson

Barbara Dean-Hendricks

Peter Joseph Erickson

Jaromir Cechak

Anuj Kohli

Daniel Becvar

Liliana Reategui

Jiri Crhonek

Ever Hernandez

Tomas Rezny

Rafael Aguilar

Sergio Adrian Martinez

Vaclav Novak

A system for detection of equipment connections to a thermostat. The thermostat has one or more terminals with a one-to-one connection to one or more loads respectively of heating, ventilation and/or air conditioning equipment, and one or more terminals with a one-to-one connection to electrical power. One or more detectors are connected one-to-one to each of the one or more terminals, respectively, for connection to the one or more loads, and the one or more connections to the electrical power. Each detector is connected to a processor. Each detector is configured to provide a signal to the processor relative to a corresponding terminal indicating a status of a connection of the terminal to a load or to the electrical power.

Detection of HVAC equipment wired to a thermostat

A thermostat device may use one or two temperature sensors inside the housing of the thermostat device to perform temperature compensation to determine the ambient temperature outside the housing of the thermostat device. Processing circuitry of the thermostat device may determine a current operating mode of the thermostat device out of a plurality of operating modes. The processing circuitry may also use machine learning to estimate the current and voltage of the thermostat device based on temperature differences between the two temperature sensors. The processing circuitry may determine, based at least in part on the estimated current and voltage of the thermostat device and the current operating mode of the thermostat device, an ambient temperature outside the housing of the thermostat device.

Temperature compensation for low-voltage thermostats

A Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) controller may include a housing, a display, a printed wiring board, a flextail, and a temperature sensor. The housing may be configured to house the display, the printed wiring board, the flextail, and the temperature sensor. The flextail may extend from, for example, the display or other component of the HVAC controller, along the interior surface of the housing, and connect to a connector on the printed wiring board. The temperature sensor may be mounted on the flextail, and connected to the printed circuit board via the flex tail or other connection. In some cases, the temperature sensor may be positioned on the flextail such that when the flextail is connected to the printed wiring board, the temperature sensor is positioned adjacent a lower part of the housing, where less internal heat generated by the internal electrical components of the HVAC controller will reside.

HVAC controller with a temperature sensor mounted on a flex circuit

An HVAC controller includes a first input terminal configured to be electrically coupled with a first field wire and a second input terminal configured to be electrically coupled with a second field wire, and a double pole relay including two input terminals and two output terminals. Control circuitry is operably coupled to the temperature sensor and the double pole relay and is configured to determine whether the first field wire is electrically coupled with the first input terminal and whether the second field wire is electrically coupled with the second input terminal.

Wire detection for an HVAC controller

A mechanism for indicating ambient temperature of an enclosure from temperatures determined within the enclosure. The temperatures may be obtained from two or more sensors at each of two or more locations within the enclosure. The enclosure may include an apparatus inside such as electronics of which power consumption may be determined. Data including temperatures of two locations within the enclosure at various electronics power consumption levels may be entered into a 2-D plot. An approximation of the 2-D plot may be effected with an appropriate equation to be solved for ambient temperature. The data of the 2-D plot plus temperatures of a third location and air flow levels in the enclosure may be entered into a 3-D plot. An approximation of the 3-D plot may be effected with an appropriate equation to be solved for ambient temperature.

System for determining ambient temperature

An HVAC controller that monitors a current performance level of an HVAC system, and determines if the current performance level falls below a minimum performance threshold level for at least a first predetermined amount of time. The HVAC controller may be configured it display an alert on the display of the HVAC controller if the HVAC controller determines that the current performance level has fallen below the minimum performance threshold level for at least the first period of time. In some cases, the HVAC controller may remove the alert from the display of the HVAC controller if the current performance level subsequently rises and remains above the minimum performance threshold level for at least a second predetermined amount of time. In some cases, the first predetermined amount of time may include a utility shutoff period component and/or a defrost cycle period component.

HVAC controller with HVAC system failure detection

A surge protection circuit for an electronic device such as an HVAC controller. In one example, the surge protection circuit may include a first voltage clamp, a second voltage clamp, a resistor, and an output port. The first voltage clamp may provide a first clamping voltage between a power input terminal and a common terminal. The second voltage clamp may provide a second clamping voltage that is less than the first clamping voltage. The resistor may be connected in series with the second voltage clamp, and the series connected resistor and second voltage clamp may be connected in parallel with the first voltage clamp. As such, a surge current at the power input terminal may be split between the first voltage clamp and the second voltage clamp. The amount of surge current that is provided to the second voltage clamp may be set by the value of the resistor.

Thermostat assembly

An electronic assembly may have a display, a display holder, and a printed circuit board (PCB). The display may have a front side for viewing the display, a back side, and side walls extending between the front side and the back side. The display holder may have a recess for receiving at least part of the display, where the display holder may extend adjacent part of the front side of the display and adjacent at least part of the side walls of the display. The PCB may be secured relative to the display holder and adjacent the back side of the display. The PCB may be in operative communication with the display. In some cases, a spacer may be situated between the back side of the display and the PCB.

Thermostat with display and printed circuit board

A mechanism for indicating ambient temperature of an enclosure from temperatures determined within the enclosure. The temperatures may be obtained from two or more sensors at each of two or more locations within the enclosure. The enclosure may include heat generating components such as electronics. The enclosure may also incorporate one or more dynamic components that emanate sudden amounts of heat. The present mechanism compensates for such heat sources with a compensating scheme.

Surge protection for an electronic device

An electronic device may include a housing and a printed circuit board, where the housing has a front cover and a back cover that at least substantially enclose the printed circuit board. In some instances, the back cover may include an outer shell and one or more inward extending walls that extend inwardly toward the printed circuit board. In some cases, the inward extending walls, the outer shell, and the printed circuit board define two or more internal pockets within the housing. The pockets may, in some cases, separate one region of the printed circuit board from another region of the printed circuit board. In some instances, the one or more inward extending walls may be configured to provide support to a back side of the printed circuit board, which may be particularly useful when a touch screen display is mounted on a front side of the printed circuit board.

Housing for an electronic device internal walls

Systems and methods herein include features for compensating a temperature reading of a thermostat. The thermostat may include a housing and one or more temperature sensors within the housing. The thermostat may sense a temperature using one or more of the temperature sensors. A processor and/or memory of the thermostat may be capable of and/or configured to compensate the sensed temperature with a first temperature compensation model and compensate the sensed temperature with a second temperature compensation model. During compensation of the sensed temperature, the system may transition from compensating the sensed temperature with the first temperature compensation model to compensating the sensed temperature with the second temperature compensation model over time and independent of the sensed temperature.

Temperature compensation system for an electronic device

An HVAC Controller may include a first sub-assembly and a second sub-assembly capable of releasably engaging the first sub-assembly. The first sub-assembly may include a first housing and a printed circuit board having a controller for providing one or more control signals, where the printed circuit board may be secured relative to the first housing. The second sub-assembly may include a second housing, a power source, one or more output terminals, and a second printed circuit board. The second printed circuit board may be secured relative to the second housing and may have circuitry thereon that is powered by the power source and configured to receive the one or more control signals from the first printed circuit board. The circuitry of the second sub-assembly may set output terminals thereof to a predetermined state when the first sub-assembly is released from the second sub-assembly.

Self-setting circuit for an HVAC controller

Growing community of inventors

Brooklyn Park, MN, United States of America

Mohammad Aljabari