WO2013045189A1

WO2013045189A1 - A sensing unit, a lighting device having the sensing unit and an illuminating system

Info

Publication number: WO2013045189A1
Application number: PCT/EP2012/066693
Authority: WO
Inventors: Xuewei Dai; Yan Li; Daxin LIN; Yaping Liu
Original assignee: Osram Gmbh
Priority date: 2011-09-28
Filing date: 2012-08-28
Publication date: 2013-04-04
Also published as: CN103024976A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a sensing unit (A), used in a lighting device (4), connected with a remote controller (3), wherein the sensing unit (A) comprises a sensor (1) configured to generate a sensor signal and a power line communication transceiver (2) configured to forward the sensor signal to the remote controller (3), the remote controller (3) is capable of generating a control signal according to the sensor signal, and the control signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver (2) to the lighting device (4). In addition, the present invention further relates to a lighting device (4) having such sensing unit (A), an LED driver (7) having such sensing unit (A), an illuminating system of such lighting devices (4) and an illuminating system of such LED drivers (7).

Description

A SENSING UNIT, A LIGHTING DEVICE HAVING THE SENSING UNIT AND AN ILLUMINATING SYSTEM

5

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a sensing unit used in a lighting device. In addition, the present invention further relates to a lighting device having the sensing unit, an LED 0 driver having the sensing unit, an illuminating system having such lighting device and an illuminating system having such LED driver.

Background Art

An illuminating system formed by a plurality of lighting de- 5 vices is used in public places, especially in offices, for providing sufficient office illumination. In order to control the lighting devices of the illuminating system, a lot of switches should be provided at proper places for on and off or dimming control of the lighting devices. However, 0 complex wiring is required in such controlling manner, and it is impossible to implement automatic control. Thus, a sensor signal triggering the lighting devices to work is often obtained by a sensor in the prior art, so that the lighting devices are automatically controlled. In the prior art, the 5 pyroelectric infrared sensor is widely used as it is capable of well detecting human motion in a certain range, and sends a sensor signal when detecting the human motion. As a result, such sensor is used in a security system in most cases. Of course, such sensor also may be used to control the light- ing devices, but a dedicated communication network such as DALI communication network is usually arranged between the sensor and a central control system controlling the whole illuminating system in order to forward the sensor signal sent from the sensor. The DALI network demands dedicated communication wires, and the arrangement of the communication wires is quite complex and has a high cost.

Summary of the Invention

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a sensing unit used in a lighting device. Such sensing unit no longer communicates with a remote controller via a complex and expensive dedicated communication system, but has a low cost and a simple structure, and is easily assembled. In addition, the present invention further provides a lighting device having such sensing unit, an LED driver having such sensing unit, an illuminating system having such lighting device, and an illuminating system having such LED driver .

The first object of the present invention is accomplished via a sensing unit used for a lighting device. The sensing unit is connected with a remote controller, wherein the sensing unit comprises a sensor configured to generate a sensor signal when detecting human motion, and a power line communication transceiver configured to forward the sensor signal to the remote controller, wherein the remote controller is capable of generating a control signal according to the sensor signal, and the control signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver to the lighting device. In one solution of the present invention, the remote controller is a controller arranged outside the lighting device for controlling the lighting device remotely. The remote controller may remotely control a plurality of lighting devices connected thereto. In addition, as the sensing unit according to the present invention comprises the power line communication transceiver, the sensor signal from the sensor may be forwarded to the remote controller through a power line, as a result, complex and expensive dedicated communication wires will no longer be specifically laid therefor, which saves the cost and simplifies the installation.

Preferably, the sensor is a pyroelectric infrared sensor for detecting the human motion. Such sensor has been widely used in various fields, is easily available in the market and has a low cost. According to a preferred solution of the present invention, the sensing unit further comprises an CU connected between the sensor and the power line communication transceiver. The sensor signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver via the MCU to the remote controller; and the MCU is further connected to the lighting device to which the control signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver via the MCU. In one solution of the present invention, the MCU integrated into the sensing unit has a unique network address. When the illuminating system has a plurality of lighting devices having the sensing unit, the remote controller may acquire the unique network addresses from respective MCUs so as to determine specific positions of respective lighting devices of the illuminating system. Besides, the MCU itself also can obtain information of opera- tion state and fault type of the lighting device belonging thereto, and generates a corresponding data signal to be forwarded by the power line communication transceiver to the remote controller. The remote controller, in combination with the sensor signal and data signal received, controls the lighting devices of the illuminating system. Of course, the MCU also may independently control the lighting device belonging thereto according to the sensor signal.

Preferably, the control signal is a trigger signal generated according to the sensor signal for making the lighting device to be operated. When the sensor signal is generated by the sensor and forwarded to the remote controller, the remote controller sends the control signal to control the lighting device correspondingly.

Further preferably, the trigger signal is a signal for making the lighting device to be operated in normal state. This realizes automatic control of the lighting device of the illuminating system. For instance, as long as the human motion is detected, the remote controller will judge that somebody enters the office area, and turns on the lighting device of the illuminating system to provide working illumination for office staff.

More preferably, the trigger signal is a signal for making the lighting device to be operated in alarm state. Thereby, a simple and effective alarm system is realized. For in- stance, the whole illuminating system automatically switches to an alarm mode after the duty, and when someone enters the office area, the sensor detects the human motion and thus sends the sensor signal. The remote controller judges that an unauthorized person enters the office area and sends the control signal for enabling abnormal illumination of the lighting device such as quick flickering, so as to give an alarm .

Another object of the present invention is accomplished via a lighting device that comprises a housing and a driver, wherein the lighting device further comprises the sensing unit of the type mentioned in the preceding integrated into the housing. As the sensing unit is integrated into the lighting device, there is no need to provide a position inde- pendently for installing the sensing unit, which significantly reduces the installation complexity.

Preferably, the lighting device may be T5 , T8 or T10 LED lighting device, and the sensing unit may be integrated into a lighting device tube of such lighting device. Another object of the present invention is accomplished via an LED driver. The LED driver is integrated with the sensing unit of the above type. Respective LED drivers of the whole illuminating system can simply communicate with the remote controller simply by changing common LED drivers of the illu- minating system to be the LED drivers according to the present invention, thus there is no need to lay additional dedicated communication wires therefor, which greatly simplifies the assembling difficulty and reduces the cost.

Still another object of the present invention is accomplished via an illuminating system comprising a plurality of lighting devices, wherein at least one of the lighting devices as a master lighting device is configured as the lighting device having the sensing unit of the above type, and the other lighting devices are common slave lighting devices without the sensing unit, and the master lighting device and the slave lighting devices are connected to a remote controller via power lines, respectively. The sensing unit of the mas- ter lighting device of the illuminating system sends a sensor signal when detecting, for instance, human motion, and the sensor signal is forwarded by a power line communication transceiver through the power line to the remote controller, and the remote controller generates a control signal accord- ing to the sensor signal, so as to control the master lighting device and slave lighting devices of the illuminating system to work.

The last object of the present invention is accomplished via an illuminating system. The illuminating system comprises a plurality of LED lighting devices and LED drivers for driving respective LED lighting devices, respectively, wherein at least one of the LED drivers as a master LED driver is configured as the LED driver having the sensing unit of the above type, and the other LED drivers are slave LED drivers without the sensing unit, and the master LED driver and the slave LED drivers are connected to a remote controller via power lines, respectively. The sensing unit of the master LED driver of the illuminating system sends a sensor signal when detecting, for instance, human motion, and the sensor signal is forwarded by a power line communication transceiver through the power line to the remote controller, and the remote controller generates a control signal according to the sensor signal, so as to control the master LED driver and slave LED drivers of the illuminating system to driver the LED lighting devices belonging thereto to work, for instance, turning on the LED lighting devices or correspondingly dim- ming the LED lighting devices.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The accompanying drawings constitute a part of the present Description and are used to provide further understanding of the present invention. Such accompanying drawings illustrate the embodiments of the present invention and are used to describe the principles of the present invention together with the Description. In the accompanying drawings the same components are represented by the same reference numbers. As shown in the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a sensing unit used in a lighting device according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an improved sensing unit used in a lighting device according to the present invention; Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a lighting device according to the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an LED driver according to the present invention;

Fig. 5 is an illuminating system of lighting devices having a sensing unit according to the present invention; and

Fig. 6 is an illuminating system of LED drivers having a sensing unit according to the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Embodiments Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a sensing unit A used in a lighting device according to the present invention. In Fig. 1, the portion shown by broken lines is the sensing unit A according to the present invention. The sensing unit A comprises a sensor 1 configured as a pyroelectric infrared sensor for detecting human motion and a power line communication transceiver 2. According to one solution of the present invention, the sensor 1 is connected with the power line communication transceiver 2, and the latter is connected with a remote controller 3 via a power line. The sensor 1, when detecting human motion, generates a sensor signal which is forwarded to the remote controller 3 by the power line communication transceiver 2. The remote controller 3 generates a control signal according to the sensor signal received, and the control signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver 2 via a power line to a lighting device 4 connected with the power line communication transceiver 2, so as to turn on the lighting device 4. Fig. 1 merely schematically shows one lighting device, while the remote controller 3 may control a plurality of lighting devices connected therewith via power lines, which is not shown in Fig. 1 for concision .

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an improved sensing unit A used in the lighting device 4 according to the present invention. The improved solution differs from the solution shown in Fig. 1 in that the sensing unit A further comprises an CU 5 connected between the sensor 1 and the power line communication transceiver 2. The sensor signal is forwarded to the remote controller 3 by the power line communication transceiver 2 through the MCU 5. And it also can be seen from Fig. 2 that the MCU 5 is further connected to the lighting device 4, and the control signal is forwarded to the lighting device 4 by the power line communication transceiver 2 through the MCU 5. In one solution of the present invention, the MCU 5 itself also may independently control the lighting device 4 according to the sensor signal. Preferably, the MCU 5 integrated into the sensing unit A has a unique network address. When the illuminating system has a plurality of lighting devices 4 having the sensing unit A, the remote controller 3 may acquire the unique network addresses from re- spective MCUs 5 so as to determine specific positions of respective lighting devices 4 of the illuminating system. Besides, the MCU 5 itself also can obtain information of operation state and fault type of the lighting device 4 belonging thereto, and generates a corresponding data signal to be for- warded by the power line communication transceiver 2 to the remote controller 3. The remote controller 3, in combination with the sensor signal and data signal received, controls the lighting devices 4 of the illuminating system.

In one solution of the present invention, the control signal generated according to the sensor signal of the sensor 1 may be a trigger signal for turning on the lighting device 4. The trigger signal may be a signal for making the lighting device 4 to be operated in normal state, consequently, the sensing unit A is used as a triggering mechanism for normal operation of the lighting device 4; and the trigger signal also may be a signal for making the lighting device 4 to be operated in alarm state, consequently, the sensing unit A may be used a part of a security system having an alarm function. Of course, the sensor signal as an alarm signal, on one as- pect, can trigger the alarm illumination of the lighting device 4, such as quick flickering, and on the other aspect, the alarm signal also may be transmitted to a security mechanism of an upper level such as police station through network .

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the lighting device 4 ac- cording to the present invention. The lighting device 4 shown in Fig. 3 is a T8 LED lighting device 4, and of course, also may be other types of LED lighting devices 4 such as T5 or T10 LED lighting devices 4. As can be seen from Fig. 3, the LED lighting device 4 has a lighting device tube 6 as a housing in which an LED driver 7, an LED light-emitting assembly 8 and the sensing unit A according to the present invention are arranged, wherein the LED light-emitting assembly 8 is connected to the LED driver 7, and the LED driver 7 is connected to the remote controller 3 by power lines through the sensing unit A. As the sensing unit A is integrated into the lighting device 4, there is no need to provide independently a position for installing the sensing unit A, which significantly reduces the installation complexity.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an LED driver according to the present invention. As can be seen from Fig. 4, the sensing unit A is integrated into the LED driver 7. Respective LED drivers 7 of the whole illuminating system can simply communicate with the remote controller 3 simply by changing common LED drivers of the illuminating system to be the LED drivers 7 according to the present invention, thus there is no need to lay additional dedicated communication wires therefor, which greatly simplifies the assembling difficulty and reduces the cost.

Fig. 5 is an illuminating system of the lighting devices 4 having the sensing unit A according to the present invention. As can be seen from Fig. 5, the illuminating system comprises a plurality of lighting devices 4, wherein at least one lighting device 4 as a master lighting device 4a is config- ured to have the sensing unit A according to the present invention, and the other lighting devices 4 are slave lighting devices 4b without the sensing unit A. The master lighting device 4a and the slave lighting devices 4b are connected to the remote controller 3 (not shown) via power lines, respec- tively. In practical operation, the sensing unit A of the master lighting device 4a generates a sensor signal when detecting human motion, and the sensor signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver 2 through the power line to the remote controller 3, and the remote controller 3 generates a control signal according to the sensor signal, and controls normal or alarm illumination of all of the master lighting device 4a and slave lighting devices 4b of the illuminating system.

Fig. 6 is an illuminating system of the LED drivers 7 having the sensing unit A according to the present invention. As can be seen from Fig. 6, the illuminating system comprises a plurality of LED lighting devices 4 and LED drivers 7 for driving respective LED lighting devices 4, wherein at least one of the LED drivers 7 as a master LED driver 7a is config- ured to have the sensing unit A above, and the other LED drivers 7 are slave LED drivers 7b without the sensing unit A. The master LED drivers 7a and the slave LED drivers 7b are connected to the remote controller 3 not shown, respectively. In practical operation, the sensing unit A of the master LED driver 7a of the illuminating system generates a sensor signal when detecting human motion, and the sensor signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver 2 through a power line to the remote controller 3, and the remote controller 3 generates a control signal according to the sensor signal so as to control the master LED driver 7a and the slave LED drivers 7b to drive the LED lighting devices 4 to work normally, for example, turning on the LED lighting devices 4 or correspondingly dimming the LED lighting devices 4.

The above is merely preferred embodiments of the present in- vention but not to limit the present invention. For the person skilled in the art, the present invention may have various alterations and changes. Any alterations, equivalent substitutions, improvements, within the spirit and principle of the present invention, should be covered in the protection scope of the present invention.

List of reference signs

A sensing unit

1 sensor

2 power line communication transceiver

3 remote controller

4 lighting device, LED lighting device 4a master lighting device

4b slave lighting device

5 MCU

6 lighting device tube

7 LED driver

7a master LED driver

7b slave LED driver

8 LED light-emitting assembly

Claims

Patent claims

1. A sensing unit (A), used for a lighting device (4), the sensing unit (A) connects with a remote controller (3), wherein the sensing unit (A) comprises a sensor (1) configured to generate a sensor signal and a power line communication transceiver (2) configured to forward the sensor signal to the remote controller (3) , the remote controller (3) is capable of generating a control signal according to the sen- sor signal, and the control signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver (2) to the lighting device (4) .

2. The sensing unit (A) according to Claim 1, wherein the sensor (1) is a pyroelectric infrared sensor for detecting human motion.

3. The sensing unit (A) according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing unit (A) further comprises an MCU (5) connected between the sensor (1) and the power line communication transceiver (2), the sensor signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver (2) via the MCU (5) to the remote controller (3), and the MCU (5) is further connected to the lighting device (4) to which the control signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver (2) via the MCU (5) .

4. The sensing unit (A) according to Claim 1, wherein the MCU (5) generates a data signal about position, operation state and fault type of the lighting device (4) , and the data signal is forwarded by the power line communication transceiver (2) to the remote controller (3) .

5. The sensing unit (A) according to any one of Claims 1-4, wherein the control signal is a trigger signal generated according to the sensor signal for making the lighting device (4) to be operated.

6. The sensing unit (A) according to Claim 5, wherein the trigger signal is a signal for making the lighting device (4) to be operated in normal state.

7. The sensing unit (A) according to Claim 5, wherein the trigger signal is a signal for making the lighting device (4) to be operated in alarm state.

8. A lighting device (4) comprising a housing and a driver, wherein the lighting device (4) further comprises the sensing unit (A) integrated into the housing according to any one of Claims 1-7.

9. The lighting device (4) according to Claim 8, wherein the lighting device (4) is T5, T8 or T10 LED lighting device.

10. An LED driver, wherein the LED driver (7) is integrated with the sensing unit (A) according to any one of Claims 1-7.

11. An illuminating system comprising a plurality of lighting devices (4), wherein at least one lighting device (4) as a master lighting device (4a) is configured as the lighting device (4) according to Claim 8, and the other lighting devices (4) are slave lighting devices (4b) without the sensing unit (A) , and the master lighting device (4a) and the slave lighting devices (4b) are connected to a remote controller (3) via power lines, respectively.

12. An illuminating system comprising a plurality of LED lighting devices (4) and LED drivers (7) for driving respective LED lighting devices (4), respectively, wherein at least one of the LED drivers (7) as a master LED driver (7a) is configured as the LED driver (7) according to Claim 10, and the other LED drivers (7) are slave LED drivers (7b) without the sensing unit (A) , and the master LED driver (7a) and the slave LED drivers (7b) are connected to a remote controller (3) via power lines, respectively.