Instruction manual

US 6,642,852 B2
unique time period before transmitting its reply message. By
Way of example, a poWer monitor unit 14 may Wait a time
equal to 20 milliseconds plus 100 milliseconds times its
address number before transmitting the reply message.
Using a pre-transmit delay based on the unit address number
in this manner results in each monitor 14 transmitting its
status response in a sequential, predetermined manner
(starting With unit 0 and ending With unit 7) as illustrated in
FIG. 12. This further provides an additional level of error
checking capability to the receiving remote control since
each monitor unit 14 has a predetermined time WindoW
during Which the remote control may expect to receive a
reply transmission. Accordingly, receipt of a message out
side of this time WindoW Would be indicative of an error
condition resulting in the indication of an “unknown” state
in the table 400 for the device associated With the poWer
monitor unit 14 that is late With its transmission.
The polling of the poWer monitor units 14 may be initiated
in response to the user activating one of the special poWer
keys, one of the macro keys, in response to activation of a
given setup mode, at timed intervals, etc. Without limitation
For example, When the “All On” key is activated, the remote
control transmits the status enquiry message and retrieves
the poWer status of the devices from the poWer monitor units
14 as described above. Once the table 400 has been updated
With the status of the devices, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the
remote control 10 performs processing to command each
device that has been identi?ed to the remote control (i.e.,
setup) and Which has a functioning poWer monitor unit 14
(i.e., a poWer status monitor address Was setup in the remote
control and the poWer status monitor has reported a current
status) to enter the “On” state. In this regard, the transmis
sion of the appropriate command signals to the appliances
12 (if necessary) may be performed in a sequential order
folloWing the order in Which the devices are maintained
Within the table 400. Within this sequential order, if a device
mode has not been setup by the user (indicated by a “no” in
the data ?eld 440 for that device) this device mode Will be
skipped during the procedure.
More speci?cally, to initiate an “All On” procedure, for
each device mode that has been setup, it is determined if a
speci?c device supports explicit “On” and “Off” commands.
This is determined by reference the command code library
for the speci?ed device using conventional look-up tech
niques. If the device supports these explicit commands, the
remote control 10 merely transmits the explicit “On” com
mand for that device to place the device in the “On” state and
the procedure continues With the next device (if any).
If the device does not support explicit commands (i.e., it
supports a poWer toggle command), the current status of the
device is retrieved from the poWer status ?eld 450 of the data
table 400. If the status is indicated to be “Unknown” or
“On,” no further processing for this device is performed and
the procedure moves to the next device (if any). If, hoWever,
the status is indicated to be “Off” in the poWer status ?eld
450, the poWer toggle command for that device is transmit
ted for the purpose of causing the device to enter the “On”
state. In this manner, activation of the “All On” key avoids
the inadvertent placing of a home appliance in an unWanted
“Off” state.
In a similar fashion, activation of the “All Of’ key avoids
the inadvertent placing of a home appliance in an unWanted
“On” state. In this regard, activation of the “All Of’ key
causes the transmission of an explicit “Off” command, the
transmission of a poWer toggle command, or no action in
accordance With the logic set forth above With respect to the
“All On” procedure.
10
15
25
35
45
55
65
10
Still further, the table 400 can be updated and the data
contained therein considered in the performance of the steps
assigned to a programmed Macro key or in response to
activation of the single unit poWer keys 360. Again, a
transmission of a status enquiry message and the updating of
the table 400 can be performed in response to activation of
these keys. The processing in response to activation of these
keys Would be performed in the same manner described
above With respect to the “All On”/“All Off” procedures
excepting that it Would be performed on an individual device
basis as illustrated in FIG. 8.
By Way of speci?c example, assuming a Macro key Was
programmed to turn the VCR device on, turn the TV device
on, and tune the TV device to channel 3, activation of the
Macro key Would result in the updating of the table 400 (in
the manner described above) and the processing of the
macro command steps as folloWs (assuming the table 400
indicates that the VCR and TV devices Were setup and the
addresses of their respective poWer monitor units Were also
setup):
For each of the VCR and TV devices:
It is determined if the device supports explicit “On” and
“Off” commands.
If the device supports these explicit commands, the
remote control 10 merely transmits the explicit “On” com
mand for the device and the macro continues to the next step.
If the device does not support explicit commands (i.e., it
supports a poWer toggle command), the current status of the
device is retrieved from the poWer status ?eld 450 of the data
table 400.
If the status is indicated to be “Unknown” or “On,” no
further processing for the device is performed and the macro
moves to the next step (if any).
If, hoWever, the status is indicated to be “Off,” the poWer
toggle command for the device is transmitted for the purpose
of causing the device to enter the
“On” state and the next step in the macro chain is
executed (if any). In this manner, the remote control 10
ensures that execution of a macro or the single poWer on key
Will not place an appliance in an undesired state.
While speci?c embodiments of the present invention have
been described in detail, it Will be appreciated by those
skilled in the art that various modi?cations and alternatives
to those details could be developed in light of the overall
teachings of the disclosure. For example, it is contemplated
that several current monitor modules 990 may be combined
With a single microprocessor and RF transceiver 980 into a
smart poWer strip 900 for use in an entertainment center, as
illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14. In this case, the method of
operation and the processing logic is essentially the same as
described previously excepting that, in this case, upon
receipt of a poWer status query from the remote control 10
the microprocessor 66 Will poll each poWer outlet and
transmit a corresponding number of sequential status reply
messages to the remote control 10. Each poWer outlet in the
strip 900 can be assigned a unique address by the user or the
user can set one number for the poWer strip Which causes the
outlets to be automatically assigned sequential addresses
starting With the user set number. This approach alloWs
poWer strips 900 and individual monitor modules 14 to be
intermixed transparently to the remote control logic. Still
further, it Will be appreciated that a single poWer monitor
module 990 could be sWitched betWeen multiple poWer
outlets using triacs or similar poWer sWitching apparatus
under control of the microprocessor 66. Accordingly, it Will
be understood that the particular arrangements and proce
dures disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not