A device with status indication

Abstract

This application relates to the field of electronic technology, and more specifically, to a device with status indication. The device (10) includes: two or more monochrome indicator lights (102) of different colors; a drive circuit (104) connected to the two or more monochrome indicator lights (102) and configured to illuminate or extinguish the two or more monochrome indicator lights (102) respectively based on a control signal; and a control unit (106) connected to the drive circuit (104) and configured to provide the control signal to the drive circuit (104) for indicating three or more operating modes and / or at least one operating parameter.

Description

Specification 1 A Device with Status Indication Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of electronic technology, and more specifically, to a device with status indication. Background Art

[0002] Currently, many electronic devices can switch between multiple operating modes. For users or maintainers of electronic devices, it can be helpful to understand the real-time operating mode and operating parameters of the electronic device in an intuitive way. Therefore, a corresponding status indication unit can be provided for electronic devices.

[0003] It should be noted that the information disclosed in the above background art section is only used to enhance the understanding of the background of this application, and therefore may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those skilled in the art. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This application provides a device with status indication that can provide rich status information with a simplified hardware structure, including the operating mode, operating parameters, or the like of the device or its terminals. This allows users or maintainers of the device to intuitively understand the real-time operating status of the device without various complex measurement operations, thereby further improving the ease of use of the device.

[0005] According to a first aspect of this application, a device with status indication is provided, the device comprising: two or more monochrome indicator lights of different colors; a drive circuit connected to the two or more monochrome indicator lights and configured to illuminate or extinguish the two or more monochrome indicator lights respectively based on a control signal; and a control unit connected to the drive circuit and configured to provide a control signal to the drive circuit for indicating three or more operating modes and / or at least one operating parameter.

[0006] As an alternative or supplement to the above solution, optionally, the device further comprises a power supply configured to provide power to the control unit and / or the two or more monochrome indicator lights.

[0007] As an alternative or supplement to the above solution, optionally, the three or more operating modes include a digital input mode, a digital output mode, and an analog output mode of the device terminals.

[0008] As an alternative or supplement to the above solution, optionally, the device comprises a plurality of terminals, each of the plurality of terminals being configured to operate in one of the three or more operating modes, and wherein each terminal corresponds to a set of two or more monochrome indicator lights of different colors.

[0009] As an alternative or supplement to the above solution, optionally, at least one operating parameter includes the output voltage of the device's terminals in analog output mode.

[0010] As an alternative or supplement to the above solution, optionally, two or more monochrome indicator lights are encapsulated in a transparent housing (HK 30135836 A Specification 2).

[0011] As an alternative or supplement to the above solutions, optionally, three or more operating modes are indicated by the color of light emitted individually or in combination by two or more monochrome indicator lights, and wherein at least one operating parameter is indicated by the number of flashes of the two or more monochrome indicator lights.

[0012] As an alternative or supplement to the above solutions, optionally, the integer part of at least one operating parameter is indicated by the number of flashes of the two or more monochrome indicator lights in a first time period, and the fractional part of at least one operating parameter is indicated by the number of flashes of the two or more monochrome indicator lights in a second time period.

[0013] As an alternative or supplement to the above solutions, optionally, the control unit is configured to turn off two or more monochrome indicator lights when the device is in an inactive state.

[0014] As an alternative or supplement to the above solutions, optionally, the device includes a centralized control device in an air conditioning control system. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0015] The above and / or other aspects and advantages of this application will become clearer and easier to understand from the following description in conjunction with various aspects of the accompanying drawings, in which the same or similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the accompanying drawings: FIG1 is a schematic block diagram of a device 10 with a status indication according to an embodiment of the present application; and FIG2 is a schematic block diagram of a device 20 with a status indication according to another embodiment of the present application. Detailed Description

[0016] The following detailed description of embodiments is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the disclosed technology or its application and use. Furthermore, it is not intended to be bound by any express or implied theory presented in the foregoing technical field, background art or the following detailed description.

[0017] In the following detailed description of the embodiments, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the disclosed technology. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosed technology can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description.

[0018] Terms such as “possessing” and “comprising” indicate that, in addition to having units (modules) and steps that are directly and explicitly stated in the specification and claims, the technical solutions of this application do not exclude situations where other units (modules) and steps are not directly or explicitly stated. Terms such as "first" and "second" do not indicate the order of the units in terms of time, space, size, etc., but are merely used to distinguish the units. Furthermore, the steps in this article are not limited to being performed in the order they are written; a step written later can be performed simultaneously with or before a step written earlier.HK 30135836 A Specification 3

[0019] To provide more versatile and modular components, many electronic devices are designed to switch between multiple operating modes, such as local or networked mode, centralized or distributed mode, input or output mode, etc. These electronic devices can then be configured by a host computer to operate in one of the multiple operating modes before field installation and deployment. This allows the same hardware components to be used for different needs, significantly reducing the cost and workload of the overall system design and manufacturing.

[0020] After the electronic device is put into use, it may be advantageous to provide indications of the device's operating status (e.g., its operating mode and operating parameters) through a status indication unit. In particular, during the maintenance of the electronic device, maintenance personnel need to first determine which operating mode the device is in (e.g., input or output mode) and then perform fault diagnosis or elimination based on the determined operating mode. Furthermore, since the electronic device may be installed in a confined space, maintenance personnel may find it difficult to extend measuring tools to specific locations. In such cases, real-time operating parameters of the electronic device may be difficult to obtain.

[0021] However, as the number of operating modes of electronic devices increases, and considering that the status indicator also needs to indicate some operating parameters of the electronic device, the complexity of the status indicator unit may increase (e.g., requiring a more complex digital display), which further increases the cost of the electronic device. Therefore, this application aims to provide rich indication information with a simple structure.

[0022] Embodiments of this application will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIG1, FIG1 is a schematic block diagram of a device 10 with status indication according to an embodiment of this application. As illustrated in Figure 1, the device 10 may include two monochrome indicator lights 102-1 and 102-2 of different colors (e.g., red and green) (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs), collectively referred to as monochrome indicator lights 102), a driving circuit 104, and a control unit 106. The driving circuit 104 is connected to the two monochrome indicator lights 102 and configured to illuminate or extinguish the two monochrome indicator lights 102 respectively based on a control signal. The control unit 106 is connected to the driving circuit 104 and configured to provide the control signal to the driving circuit 104 for indicating three operating modes and / or at least one operating parameter.

[0023] In some embodiments, the two or more monochrome indicator lights 102 may be arranged close to each other and encapsulated within a transparent housing 108, thereby forming a group.In some embodiments, the drive circuit 104 may include components such as resistors, controllable switches (e.g., MOSFETs, IGBTs), and capacitors. The control unit 106 may be a control circuit module, a micro control unit (MCU), an electronic control unit (ECU), or the like. The control unit 106 can turn the monochrome indicator light 102 on or off by controlling the on or off of the controllable switch in the drive circuit 104.

[0024] It should be understood that, as an example, only two monochrome indicator lights 102 are shown in FIG1. ​​In other embodiments, depending on the number of operating modes that need to be indicated, the device 10 may also include more monochrome indicator lights 102. For example, when the device 10 described in HK 30135836 A specification 4 can switch between seven different operating modes, three monochrome indicator lights 102 of different colors may be provided. In this case, although the number of monochrome indicator lights 102 is increased, it is still significantly less than the number of operating modes. On the other hand, the configuration of multiple monochrome indicator lights still has the advantages of simple control and lower cost compared to using a single multi-color indicator light.

[0025] In some embodiments, the device 10 may further include a power supply (not shown in FIG. 1) configured to provide power to the control unit 106 and / or two or more monochrome indicator lights 102.

[0026] In some embodiments, the three or more operating modes may include a digital input (DI) mode, a digital output (DO) mode, and an analog output (AO) mode of the terminals of the device 10. The device 10 may include terminals capable of switching between the above three states. By configuring the terminals, the device 10 can operate in DI mode, DO mode, and / or AO mode. It should be understood that, in addition to the above DI, DO, and AO modes, in other embodiments, the three or more operating modes may also include a distributed operating mode, a centralized operating mode, and a hybrid operating mode, etc., which are not limited here.

[0027] In order to enable the user or maintainer of the device 10 to intuitively understand the current state of the device 10, the monochrome indicator lights 102 can be controlled to emit light of the corresponding color to provide indication. For example, when the device 10 is in DI mode, the control unit 106 can provide a control signal to the drive unit 104 to turn on the red monochrome indicator light 102-1 and turn off the green monochrome indicator light 102-2 (which emits red light at this time).When the device 10 is in DO mode, the control unit 106 can provide a control signal to the drive unit 104 to turn off the red monochrome indicator light 102-1 and simultaneously turn on the green monochrome indicator light 102-2 (emitting green light at this time). When the device 10 is in AO mode, the control unit 106 can provide a control signal to the drive unit 104 to turn on both the red monochrome indicator light 102-1 and the green monochrome indicator light 102-2 (emitting yellow light at this time). When the device 10 is in an inactive state (e.g., powered off, in standby, or in hibernation), the control unit 106 can turn off all the monochrome indicator lights 102. Thus, the user or maintainer of the device 10 can determine the current operating mode of the device 10 without performing any measurement operations.

[0028] Furthermore, after determining the current operating mode based on color, it may also be desirable to obtain an indication of at least one operating parameter. In some embodiments, the three or more operating modes can be indicated by the color of light emitted by two or more monochrome indicator lights, individually or in combination, and the at least one operating parameter can be indicated by the number of flashes of the two or more monochrome indicator lights.

[0029] In some embodiments, the at least one operating parameter can be voltage, current and / or power, etc. To indicate the value of the at least one operating parameter, the monochrome indicator light 102 can be made to flash periodically, and the value of the at least one operating parameter can be indicated by the number of times it flashes in each cycle. HK 30135836 A Specification 5

[0030] As an example, after determining that the device 10 is in AO mode, it is still necessary to further measure the voltage of the terminals to determine the specific value of the output voltage for fault diagnosis or adjustment of peripheral circuits. Therefore, the at least one operating parameter can include the output voltage of the terminals of the device 10 in analog output AO mode. When it is necessary to indicate a 5V output voltage, the control unit 106 can make the monochrome indicator light 102 flash 5 times in a 10-second cycle. For example, flash once every 1 second, flash five times and then turn off until the next cycle. Accordingly, when an output voltage of 3V is required, the control unit 106 can cause the monochrome indicator light 102 to flash 3 times within a 10-second cycle. Thus, the user or maintainer of the device 10 can know the at least one operating parameter without performing any measurement operations.

[0031] In some embodiments, the at least one operating parameter may further include an integer part and a fractional part.Accordingly, the integer part of the at least one operating parameter can be indicated by the number of flashes of two or more monochrome indicator lights in the first time period, while the fractional part of the at least one operating parameter can be indicated by the number of flashes of two or more monochrome indicator lights in the second time period.

[0032] As an example, when it is necessary to indicate an output voltage of 7.2V, the control unit 106 can cause the monochrome indicator lights 102 to flash 7 times in the first 10 seconds of a 20-second cycle and flash 2 times in the last 10 seconds of a 20-second cycle. Further, in order to distinguish between the integer part and the fractional part, the flashing interval in the first 10 seconds can be longer (e.g., 1 second), while the flashing interval in the last 10 seconds can be shorter (e.g., 0.5 seconds). Thus, the integer part and the fractional part of the operating parameter can be indicated by the number of flashes in the first time period and the second time period of the cycle, respectively.

[0033] Figure 1 illustrates an embodiment of the device 10 including a set of monochrome indicator lights 102. It should be understood that the device 10 may also include multiple terminals and correspondingly multiple sets of monochrome indicator lights 102, wherein each set of monochrome indicator lights 102 includes two or more monochrome indicator lights for indicating three or more operating modes and / or at least one operating parameter of the corresponding terminal.

[0034] Referring to FIG2, FIG2 is a schematic block diagram of a device 20 with status indication according to another embodiment of the present application. As illustrated in FIG2, the device 20 includes multiple terminals (e.g., terminals 201, 202, 203…), each of which is configured to operate in one of the three or more operating modes. In addition, each terminal corresponds to a set of two or more monochrome indicator lights of different colors (e.g., 208-1, 208-2, 208-3…) for indicating the operating mode and / or at least one operating parameter of that terminal. It should be understood that, for clarity, the control unit and drive circuit of the device 20 are not shown again in FIG2.

[0035] As an example, as illustrated in FIG2, terminal 201 can be configured to provide digital output to an external component (i.e., in DO mode), terminal 202 can be configured to provide analog output to an external component (i.e., in AO mode), and terminal 203 can be configured to receive digital input from an external component (i.e., in DI mode).In this case, the control unit of the device 20 can cause a set of monochrome indicator lights 208-1 corresponding to terminal 201 to emit green light, a set of monochrome indicator lights 208-2 corresponding to terminal 202 to emit yellow light, and a set of monochrome indicator lights 208-3 corresponding to terminal 203 to emit red light.

[0036] Further, as described above, in order to indicate the 7.2V output voltage of terminal 202 in AO mode, the set of monochrome indicator lights 208-2 corresponding to terminal 202 can be configured to flash 7 times (at a first time interval) in the first 10 seconds of a 20-second cycle and flash 2 times (at a second time interval) in the last 10 seconds of a 20-second cycle. Thus, the user or maintainer of the device 20 can easily determine, based on the colors of the three sets of monochrome indicator lights 208-1, 208-2, and 208-3, that terminals 201, 202, and 203 are in DO, AO, and DI operating modes, respectively, and that the output voltage of terminal 202 is 7.2V, without any measurement operation.

[0037] In some embodiments, the device 20 can be applied to a centralized control device in an air conditioning control system, an in-vehicle control device in a vehicle, an audio-visual control device in an entertainment system, or the like. In these cases, when it is necessary to adjust the terminal wiring of the device 20, the maintainer can intuitively understand which terminals are DI terminals, which terminals are DO terminals, which terminals are AO terminals, and the output voltage of one or more terminals, without having to perform complex measurement operations or refer to the configuration wiring manual of the device 20.

[0038] The embodiments and examples presented herein are provided to best illustrate embodiments according to this application and its particular application, and thereby enable those skilled in the art to implement and use this application. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the above description and examples are provided for illustrative purposes only. The descriptions presented are not intended to cover all aspects of this application or to limit it to the precise forms disclosed. Furthermore, it should be understood that the specific examples of the period, number of flashes, and color in this application are merely illustrative and not intended to limit the technical solutions adopted in this application. The color mentioned above depends on the selection of the monochrome indicator light, and the flashing period and number of flashes are configurable.HK 30135836 A Claim 1 1. A device with status indication, characterized in that the device comprises: two or more monochrome indicator lights of different colors; a drive circuit connected to the two or more monochrome indicator lights and configured to illuminate or extinguish the two or more monochrome indicator lights respectively based on a control signal; and a control unit connected to the drive circuit and configured to provide the control signal to the drive circuit for indicating three or more operating modes and / or at least one operating parameter. 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the device further comprises a power supply configured to provide power to the control unit and / or the two or more monochrome indicator lights. 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the three or more operating modes include a digital input mode, a digital output mode, and an analog output mode of the device's terminals. 4. The device of claim 3, wherein the device comprises a plurality of terminals, each of the plurality of terminals being configured to operate in one of the three or more operating modes, and wherein each terminal corresponds to a set of two or more monochrome indicator lights of different colors. 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one operating parameter includes the output voltage of the apparatus terminals in analog output mode. 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the two or more monochrome indicator lights are encapsulated within a transparent housing. 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the three or more operating modes are indicated by the color of light emitted individually or in combination by the two or more monochrome indicator lights, and wherein the at least one operating parameter is indicated by the number of flashes of the two or more monochrome indicator lights. 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the integer portion of the at least one operating parameter is indicated by the number of flashes of the two or more monochrome indicator lights in a first time period, and the fractional portion of the at least one operating parameter is indicated by the number of flashes of the two or more monochrome indicator lights in a second time period. 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to extinguish the two or more monochrome indicator lights when the apparatus is in an inactive state. 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus includes a centralized control device in an air conditioning control system. HK 30135836 A Instruction Manual Attachment 100003 2010.2 1 Figure 1 Figure 2 HK 30135836 A.