Power supply for a two-wire smart dimmer and lighting loads thereof

Abstract

The present invention refers to an Electrical Power System (EPS) or Power Supply for a smart dimmer for controlling the intensity of illumination of a dimmable lighting load within an electrical installation that has two or three wires in the switch box (two-wire and three-wire switches). The Power Supply is able to detect and control different types of lighting technologies, such as incandescent or LED bulbs. The Power Supply also provides a voltage signal indicating the current consumed by the lighting loads.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a Continuation-In-Part claiming priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15 / 665,894, filed Aug. 1, 2017, entitled INTELLIGENT SWITCH DEVICE AND CENTRAL CONTROL SYSTEM THEREOF, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to the technical field of power delivery to lighting devices, more particularly, to a Power Supply or Electric Power System for a two-wire or three-wire smart or intelligent dimmer and the lighting load connected to the dimmer.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]In recent years, there has been a development in technology that has been applied in the automation of houses, buildings, etc., which has been termed as home automation or domotics.[0004]A key part of home automation is the automation of lighting systems, with devices such as intelligent switches and dimmers, also known as smart switches or dimmers. W...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a power supply or electric power system for a smart dimmer device that can control the intensity of a dimmable lighting load in a conventional home electrical installation without modifying the electrical wiring. The power supply is capable of providing enough power for various components of the dimmer, such as a wireless communication module, user interface with LEDs, and microprocessor. The power supply is able to measure the power consumed by the loads and determine the type of lighting load connected to it, which affects the dimming mode accordingly. The power supply operates in both leading edge and trailing edge dimming modes and has a zero crossing detection module for synchronizing the dimming with the AC mains voltage. The power supply is compatible with different switch boxes and electrical standards.

Problems solved by technology

This yields the problem of having to rewire the entire home in order to bring a neutral wire from the AC source to the switch box.

Therefore, a user cannot measure the power consumption of each individual load.

The controllably conductive device is implemented as a TRIAC, the TRIAC will become non-conductive when the load current through the TRIAC drops below a rated holding current of the TRIAC at the end of the half-cycle, however, said device relies on an energy storage device (a capacitor), therefore the power is not supplied continuously.

Furthermore, the load control device describes a forward phase control and is silent on how to perform reverse phase control, which is more complex and usually requires more electronic components than forward phase control.

The load control device has a mechanical switch that controls the powering of the whole device, and when the mechanical switch is off, the system is unpowered, therefore requiring the physical input from a user to reactivate the load control device.

Therefore, the dimmer cannot allow the remote operation of the same if the switch is off, which limits its smart capabilities.

However, the smart switch can be installed only in three or four-way switches systems, that includes a dimmer switch with a bidirectional semiconductor switch, such as a TRIAC.

However, the power supply of the system sometimes is unable to supply power to the controller through the duration of a toggle or switching of the three-way switch, and the controller of the system will reset.

Therefore, the reliability of the dimmer is belittled, since a voltage variation will cause a malfunctioning if the power supply does not draw enough energy to keep itself functioning.

Additionally, if the state of the power supply or dimmer is not stored in the memory, the power supply will not operate correctly.

However, the use of three semiconductor devices complicates the operation and manufacturing, diminishes the reliability due a to a higher number of components for controlling only one lighting load and passively consumes more energy while dimming.

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