Instruction manual

US 6,642,852 B2
5
other devices such as PDAs, personal computers, or the like.
Accordingly, the description that follows need not be lim
iting. As illustrated, the remote control 10 includes a “Setup”
key 310, a “PoWer” key 320, “Device” keys 330 (for
selecting the mode of operation—i.e., the home appliance/
device to control), “Numeric” keys 340 (corresponding to
the digits 0—9), and a group of “Macro” keys 370 to Which
preprogrammed or user programmable macros can be
assigned. Additional, optional keys may include a pair of
keys 350 to command “All On” or “All Off” operations
and/or a pair of keys 360 to command “On” and “Off”
operations for a currently selected device. The operation of
the special keys 350 and 360, Which comprise a smart poWer
feature, Will be described in greater detail in the paragraphs
that folloW. The remaining keys illustrated in FIG. 3 perform
conventional remote control functions that Will be Well
understood by those of ordinary skill in the art.
For monitoring poWer supplied to a home appliance 12
and, accordingly, the state of the home appliance 12 (e.g.,
poWered on or off/in standby mode), the poWer monitoring
unit 12 includes a current sensing device 50 as illustrated in
FIG. 9. The current sensing device 50 may be in the form of
a transformer having a primary Winding 52 Which is inserted
in the path of current ?oW going from the outlet 16 to the
home appliance 12. In this manner, the transformer second
ary Winding 54 Will thus have a current ?oW Which is
representative of the current ?oW passing through the trans
former primary Winding 52. In the illustrated current sensing
device 50, a dropping resistor 56 is inserted as a load to
covert the secondary Winding 54 current to a voltage. It Will
be appreciated that other current sensing devices 50 for
generating a signal representative of the current being draWn
by the home appliance 12 may be used such as, by Way of
eXample only, any Hall Effect device.
For conditioning the signal generated by the current
sensing device 50, the poWer monitor unit 14 may also be
provided With a signal conditioning circuit 56. For eXample,
the voltage drop across the resistor 56 can be sent though a
signal conditioning circuit 56 comprised of an ampli?er
recti?er 60/62 and a loW-pass ?lter 64. In this manner, the
AC voltage representation of the AC load current can be
transformed to a DC voltage signal Which can be interfaced
to a processor 66 through an Analog-Digital converter
or Voltage to Frequency Oscillator (VFO). Further eXamples
of such circuitry can be seen in “analog-digital CONVER
SION HANDBOOK,” Copyright 1972 & 1976 by Analog
Devices, Inc.; Second Edition, June, 1976 and “IC Op-Amp
Cookbook,” by Walter G. Jung; 1974, 1980, and 1986 by
HoWard W. Sams & Co., A Division of Macmillan, Inc.;
Third Edition—Fourth Printing, 1988. pp. 252 and 253,
Which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The ampli?er, recti?er and loW pass ?lter are shoWn in
greater detail in FIG. 10.
For poWering the components of the poWer monitor unit
14, a voltage supply 72 is provided. By Way of eXample, the
voltage supply 72 can be circuitry that converts the AC
voltage from the outlet 16 to a voltage level that can directly
poWer the components of the poWer monitor unit 14.
Alternatively, the voltage supply 72 can be batteries. Still
further, the poWer monitor unit 14 may include a small
non-volatile memory (such as an EEPROM) to maintain
setting through poWer failures, broWn outs, etc.
The processor 66 has associated instructions for accepting
the DC signal supplied from the conditioning circuit 58 and
for performing operations based on the value of the signal.
The processor 66 also has associated instructions Which the
processor 66 uses in connection With an RF (or IR) module
10
15
25
35
45
55
65
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to cause communications to be transmitted in a format
recogniZed by the remote control 10. In this regard, RF
transmissions can be made using a custom-designed proto
col operating in one of the frequency bands allocated by
national regulatory agencies for use in control and status
monitoring, or alternatively by a standardiZed conventional
protocol such as Bluetooth, etc., using off-the-shelf compo
nents. The construction and operation of such RF transceiv
ers is Well knoW in the art. Instructions may also be provided
for alloWing the poWer monitor unit 14 to provide status
information to a consumer by means of, for eXample, one or
more LEDs 70, a display, etc. Once the poWer monitor unit
is initialiZed, the poWer monitor unit enters a loop Wherein
it continually searches for one of at least tWo events, namely,
activation of a user setup sWitch or receipt of a status enquiry
message from the remote control 10.
To con?gure the poWer monitor unit 14 for use in the
system, illustrated in FIG. 11, the poWer monitor unit 14 is
set to recogniZe the “standby/off” and “on” load currents for
the home appliance 12 associated With the poWer monitor
unit 14. To this end, a consumer Would place the appliance
12 to be monitored in the standby state and instruct the
poWer monitor unit 14 to capture a signal representative of
the current How of the home appliance 12 in this standby
state. The instruction to capture a signal representative of the
standby current How of the home appliance 12 can be
entered by activation of a setup sWitch 74. In response to this
instruction, the processor 66 monitors the DC voltage signal
from the conditioning circuitry 58 and stores this voltage
signal as the representation of the standby current ?oW.
To setup the poWer monitor unit 14 to recogniZe the
appliance on current ?oW, a consumer Would place the
appliance 12 to be monitored in the on state and instruct the
poWer monitor unit 14 to capture a representation of the
resulting current ?oW. The instruction to capture a repre
sentation of the on current How can be entered by, for
eXample, a second activation of the setup sWitch 74. In
response to this instruction, the processor 66 monitors the
DC voltage signal from the conditioning circuitry 58 and
stores this voltage signal as the representation of the on
current ?oW. A threshold value may then be determined as
the average of the on and off current ?oW representation
values. It Will be appreciated that these setup procedures can
be timed to prevent the poWer monitor unit 14 from being
locked in the setup mode of operation. It Will be further
appreciated that the setup procedure can be performed by the
poWer monitor unit prompting the user to place the appli
ance in a given state and automatically monitoring the
resulting current ?oW.
For use in establishing an address for the poWer monitor
unit 14, Which address is used to facilitate communications
With the remote control 10, address setting device 76 is
provided and accessible by the processor 66. The address
setting device 76 may include dip sWitches, jumpers, means
for keying in an address, or the like. In the case of dip
sWitches or jumpers, the address setting device Would be
used to set a bit pattern that Would serve as the address (e. g.,
three sWitches Would alloW the poWer monitor 14 to be set
to one of eight unique addresses). Preferably, the address
setting device 76 is accessible to the consumer although the
address setting device can be factory preset. Additionally,
eXtra sWitches 76 may be provided in cases Where it is
desired to set a unique system address to alloW multiple
remote controllers 10 to operate independently in the same
vicinity.
During the operation of the system, the poWer monitor
units 14 are used to provide the remote control 10 With