Eml Technologies LLC

Intelectron Products Company

Other

Cordelia Lighting, Inc.

Lee; Larry C. Y.

Ningbo Utec Electric Co. Ltd.

Illumination Dynamics LLC

Intelectron

Wade P Lee

Donald R Sandell

You De Zhong

Scott T Evans

Lens for a motion detector in a decorative lighting fixture

A quick-release mounting mechanism for a worklight enabling the worklight to be quickly and easily mounted on and demounted from a tripod support stand and enabling an individual worklight head to be quickly and easily mounted on and demounted from a base stand or other support member such as the handle of a spring clamp or other clamp member. The mounting mechanism includes a latch member on the worklight base or on an individual worklight head that cooperates with an actuator mounted in the support stand or other support member. The latch member is received in a hole in the support and the actuator is formed to engage a catch on the latch member when the worklight or individual worklight head is in position on the support. In particular, the actuator is mounted in the support for movement between a latching position and a release position, and the latch member and actuator are formed to engage one another when the actuator is in its latching position so as to hold the worklight or individual worklight head on the support. A spring arrangement in the support urges the actuator into its latching position, and the actuator is provided with an engagement member by which a user can urge the actuator into its release position for quick release of the worklight or the head from the support.

Quick-release worklight mounting

An outdoor lighting control method and apparatus for use with an outdoor lighting fixture that automatically detects the changing length of the day and provides for automatically turning off the light after a shorter period of illumination during shorter summer nights and after a longer period of illumination during longer winter nights. The control method measures the elapsed time interval over which night sets in, for example, by sensing light levels characteristic of the onset of dusk and the onset of night and measuring the elapsed time between the two sensed light levels, and then automatically turns on the lighting fixture for nighttime operation for a duration that depends on the measured elapsed night-onset time.

Lighting control with season detect

An ergonomically designed switch for a halogen worklight. The worklight includes a switch housing attached to the worklight head and a push-action switch mounted in the switch housing for energizing one or more halogen lamps mounted in the worklight head. An ergonomic switch is operated by pressing on a switch button, which is formed to present an ergonomically sized engagement surface to the user. The size of the engagement surface is related to the typical size of a finger pad of the human hand. Through the simple expedient of providing a substantial switch button on the actuating shaft of the switch and sizing the engagement surface of the button to correlate with the size of the human hand, the ease and comfort of operation of the worklight is dramatically improved over worklights having awkward switch mechanisms long thought in the prior art to be unavoidable. The switch button is structured and arranged with a guide assembly to provide stabile travel and a solid feel to the user when activating the switch.

Worklight with ergonomic switch

A motion-activated decorative lighting fixture with a PIR motion detector hidden behind a decorative slotted wall of the fixture body. The motion-activated decorative lighting fixture includes a motion detector housing that forms an integral part of the lighting fixture body. The housing includes a slotted vertically extending exterior wall around the housing with an array of elongate vertically extending slots horizontally spaced apart from one another and extending along at least a portion of the wall. One or more PIR sensors are disposed within the housing, and a segmented Fresnel lens array is disposed within the housing behind the slots to direct infra-red energy from a monitored field of view to a sensor. The lens array includes a plurality of columns of lenslets, at least a portion of which have at least two lenslets disposed one above the other. Each column is aligned with a corresponding slot so as to direct infra-red energy from a monitored zone passing through the corresponding slot to a sensor. The configuration defines an optical path for infra-red energy emanating from a detection zone in the field of view, the optical path passing through a given slot and a lenslet aligned with the slot and on to a PIR sensor.

Decorative lighting fixture with hidden motion detector

A motion-activated light fixture having an aimable motion detector with a zonal configuration providing improved monitoring of the region behind the motion detector. In one embodiment the motion detector defines a first plurality of generally forward-looking detection zones for monitoring the region in front of and to the sides of the motion detector, the forward-looking detection zones having a side-to-side coverage angle of at most 180 degrees and having forward zones for monitoring the far region in front of the motion detector. A second plurality of detection zones for monitoring the region behind the motion detector forms a zonal pattern angulated with respect to the zones of the first plurality monitoring the far region. At least some of the detection zones of the second plurality extend generally in the backward direction although in some embodiments the motion detector head must be tilted down through a pre-established offset angle before the angulated zonal pattern begins to look backward. The motion detector may also have other detection zones forming zonal patterns monitoring intermediate regions. The backward looking detection zones are defined so as to look sufficiently downward that the amount they are shifted to angle upwards as the motion detector housing is angled downward is limited to a useful range so that individual detection zones are not rendered useless or detrimental by being aimed too high. Configurations of zonal patterns are provided for improved monitoring of the region behind the motion detector without compromising the ability to aim the motion detector's forward-looking far zones.

Aimable motion-activated lighting fixture with angulated field

Tripod

Motion detector head

Single-head worklight stand

Worklight stand

A telescoping stand with a quick-release locking mechanism for binding and releasing a telescoping section including an inner extension member that telescopes into and out of an outer receiving member. The locking mechanism includes a pair of opposed actuator members, each with a hole through it and disposed so that the inner extension member of a telescoping pair passes through the holes. When the actuator members are generally perpendicular to the extension member, the extension member slides freely through the holes. In the normal configuration the actuator members are biased so that each is canted with respect to the extension member and so that the two actuator members are canted in opposed directions. In this configuration the actuator members provide a double binding frictional engagement with the extension member to hold it in fixed relation with respect to its associated receiving member. The actuator members are provided with tab ends that a user may squeeze together to move the actuator members toward their generally perpendicular orientation and thereby release the frictional engagement with the extension member.

Quick-release telescoping tripod

A portable worklight providing a high level of substantially omni-directional illumination. Briefly, the worklight includes an elongate lamp section including one or more lamp sockets for receiving one or more small fluorescent lamps such as compact fluorescent lamps of the screw-in variety. The lamp section includes a substantially transparent shield about the lamps and is structured and arranged to provide illumination substantially in a full circle about the lamp section. The lamp section is retractable into an elongate base section that is shaped and structured to receive the lamp section snugly in its interior. In the retracted configuration the worklight forms a compact unit for carrying, transporting and storing the worklight. The worklight may also include legs that may be retracted along the base section and deployed for supporting the worklight during use.

Omni-directional worklight

An enhanced built-in visual warning mechanism to caution a user when the surfaces of a worklight are hot. A worklight is shown that has a housing that includes an interior portion for holding a light source such as one or more quartz halogen bulbs. The light source operates at a temperature sufficient to raise at least portions of the exterior surfaces of the housing to a temperature that is hot to human touch during normal operation of the worklight. A thermochromic substance is disposed in thermal communication with at least a portion of one of the exterior housing surfaces in a readily visible position. The thermochromic substance is formulated to undergo a conspicuous color change, in the normal operation of the worklight, in response to heat from the external surface where it is located. The dynamic color change provides a timely visible indication to the user that the exterior surface is presently hot to the touch. In some embodiments a thermal moderator is introduced between the hot worklight surface and the thermochromic substance to moderate the heat level applied to the thermochromic substance.

Worklight with thermal warning

A worklight assembly used as a stand-alone unit and mountable on a tripod. A pair of worklight heads are mounted in side-by-side relation on a linearly extending base portion. A number of support feet extending outward from the base portion are secured to the base portion proximate the lateral ends of the base portion for supporting the worklight assembly as a stand-alone unit. A handle member is centrally disposed between the worklight heads and secured to the base portion so that a user can conveniently position the worklight on the tripod. A hole is provided at least through the base portion generally midway between the worklight heads for use in securing the base portion to the tripod. An electrical power junction is disposed on the worklight assembly for distributing electrical power to the worklight heads in multi-head embodiments.

Portable worklight assembly

A small-sized hidden motion detector that can be incorporated in a decorative manner into a decorative lantern. The motion detector can be incorporated into lighting fixture designs not previously amenable to a hidden motion detector in the body of the lighting fixture. A small decorative motion detector housing is provided defining a compact interior region with a PIR sensor mounted inside and providing a sufficient optical pathway for a practical motion detector of wide angular field of view that can nevertheless fit inside commonly found small-sized decorative lantern elements. In one embodiment the motion detector is hidden in a small generally cylindrical decorative element of the sort that is found in a number of traditional decorative lantern designs and that has not previously been amenable to a hidden motion detector. Another embodiment includes a mechanism for mechanically adjusting the range and responsiveness of the motion detector notwithstanding the small size of the space available for housing the detector.

Growing community of inventors

Lafayette, CA, United States of America

Wade P Lee