Battery fault detection using temperature measurements in smart home devices

Abstract

A battery pack may use an integrated temperature sensor to monitor a temperature of a battery cell during charging and discharging. However, if the integrated temperature sensor fails, a smart home device may continue to charge and discharge the battery outside of its approved temperature range. This may lead to both safety and performance concerns. To identify a failed integrated temperature sensor, the device may leverage any additional temperature sensors that are located in the device. These temperature sensors may be used to externally measure or estimate the battery temperature. If a sufficient deviation between the measurements of these external temperature sensors and the measurements from the integrated temperature sensor is detected, the device may use the comparison of these temperature measurements to determine that the integrated temperature sensor may be malfunctioning. The device may then change its operational state in response to maintain performance and safety.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] This disclosure generally describes methods of detecting faults in smart home devices. More specifically, this disclosure describes using temperature sensor measurements to detect battery faults.BACKGROUND

[0002] Smart home devices are continually trending towards low-power designs while still providing rich feature sets and complex algorithmic operations. The smart home devices may include environmental control devices, hazard detectors, security systems, cameras, doorbells, and so forth. For example, smart thermostats may provide control of air handling systems, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. In such systems, control of the air handling is often effectuated based on an end user's interactions with a control application that is executing on the end user's electronic device. Cloud-based servers often facilitate communication between these electronic devices and the air handling systems. While remote control of air handling systems is convenient, it may be desirable to provide a feature-rich means to effectuate local control of these air handling systems. Control devices, such as thermostats, may include a variety of sensors that may be used for monitoring environmental conditions within the home.

[0003] However, as smart home devices become more complex and become more integrated into the smart home environment, these devices are often tasked with performing many high-power functionalities. These functionalities may include Wi-Fi communication routing, occupancy detection, complex displays, and learning algorithms that require extensive power consumption. In order to provide sufficient energy for these advanced functionalities, many smart home devices utilize rechargeable batteries, such as lithium batteries, that are located within the housing of the smart home device. Careful monitoring of these rechargeable batteries is often necessary to ensure optimum performance and safety. Therefore, improvements are needed in this technology area.SUMMARY

[0004] In some embodiments, a thermostat may include a battery pack disposed inside of a housing of the thermostat. The battery pack may include a battery cell and an integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack. The thermostat may also include one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack. The thermostat may additionally include one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat and one or more processors that are programmed to perform various operations. The operations may include receiving a first temperature measurement from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack; receiving a second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack; comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement; and determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement.

[0005] In some embodiments, a method of detecting faulty battery pack temperature sensors may include receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of a battery pack. The battery pack may be disposed inside of a housing of a thermostat, and the battery pack may include a battery cell and the integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack. The method may also include receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack. The method may additionally include comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement; and determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement.

[0006] In some embodiments, a method of compensating for faulty battery pack temperature sensors in smart home devices may include receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of a battery pack of the smart home device; receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of a housing of a smart home device and outside of the battery pack; determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement; and changing an operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack based on determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning.

[0007] In any embodiments, any and all of the following features may be implemented in any combination and without limitation. The integrated temperature sensor and the battery cell are disposed within a packaging of the battery pack, and the battery pack comprises a wire connector that extends out of the packaging of the battery pack to communicate with the integrated temperature sensor. The integrated temperature sensor may include a Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistor for which resistance decreases with increasing temperature. The integrated temperature sensor may be read by a power management integrated circuit as an analog value and stored in a register of the power management integrated circuit, and the power management integrated circuit may provide the value to a processor of the thermostat to determine whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning. The one or more temperature sensors may be disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat are mounted to a printed circuit board that is parallel with and proximate to the battery pack. The one or more temperature sensors may be mounted to the printed circuit board in locations corresponding to different quadrants of the battery pack. At least one of the one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat may be disposed proximate to the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning may be based at least in part on determining whether there is more than a threshold difference between the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement. The threshold difference may be calibrated during prior charging and / or discharging cycles of the battery pack. The method / operations may also include estimating a temperature of the battery pack based on the second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. The method / operations may also include estimating a temperature of an ambient temperature of an environment outside of the housing of the thermostat using the second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. Determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning may require at least two consecutive comparisons between temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack and the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. The method / operations may also include regulating charging of the battery cell based on temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include preventing the battery pack from charging after determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include transitioning the smart home device to a low power or emergency mode. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include charging the battery pack during subsequent charging cycles using temperature measurements from the one or more temperature sensors disposed outside of the battery pack instead of the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include causing the smart home device to shut down. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include sending an alert to an app on a user device, displaying an alert on a user interface of the smart home device, or sending an alert to a remote server that monitors the smart home device.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] A further understanding of the nature and advantages of various embodiments may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. In some instances, a sub-label is associated with a reference numeral to denote one of multiple similar components. When reference is made to a reference numeral without specification to an existing sub-label, it is intended to refer to all such multiple similar components.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a smart thermostat system.

[0010] FIG. 2A is an isometric view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat.

[0011] FIG. 2B is a front view of an embodiment of smart thermostat.

[0012] FIG. 2C is a side view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat.

[0013] FIG. 3 is an exploded front isometric view of an embodiment of smart thermostat.

[0014] FIG. 4 is an exploded rear isometric view of smart thermostat.

[0015] FIG. 5A illustrates a front view of a smart thermostat backplate.

[0016] FIG. 5B illustrates a side view of a smart thermostat backplate.

[0017] FIG. 5C is an exploded front isometric view of the smart thermostat backplate.

[0018] FIG. 6 is an exploded front view of various embodiments of lens assembly.

[0019] FIG. 7 is a cross section of an embodiment of smart thermostat.

[0020] FIG. 8 is an enlarged cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat.

[0021] FIG. 9 is clip for use with a smart thermostat.

[0022] FIG. 10 is an isometric cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat.

[0023] FIG. 11 illustrates a battery pack for a smart home device, according to some embodiments.

[0024] FIG. 12 illustrates a schematic of a battery pack in a smart home device with additional temperature sensors located proximate to the battery pack, according to some embodiments.

[0025] FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic system for monitoring the temperature of a battery pack, according to some embodiments.

[0026] FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart of a method for detecting faulty battery pack temperature sensors, according to some embodiments.

[0027] FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method for compensating for faulty battery pack temperature sensors in smart home devices, according to some embodiments.

[0028] FIG. 16 illustrates an example smart home environment.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] A battery pack may use an integrated temperature sensor to monitor a temperature of a battery cell during charging and discharging. However, if the integrated temperature sensor fails, a smart home device may continue to charge and discharge the battery outside of its approved temperature range. This may lead to both safety and performance concerns. To identify a failed integrated temperature sensor, the smart home device may leverage any additional temperature sensors that are located in the smart home device. These temperature sensors may be used to externally measure or estimate the battery temperature. If a sufficient deviation between the measurements of these external temperature sensors and the measurements from the integrated temperature sensor is detected, the smart home device may use the comparison of these temperature measurements to determine that the integrated temperature sensor may be malfunctioning. The smart home device may then change its operational state in response to maintain performance and safety.

[0030] The techniques and systems described herein are compatible with many different smart home devices. However, in order to provide an enabling disclosure and at least one example of a smart home device, the following disclosure will describe a smart thermostat in detail. Additionally, the techniques and systems described below for powering a smart home device and selecting feature sets that are compatible with a particular power sourcing method are described using a thermostat as an example. However, it should be understood that these techniques and systems may also be applied to other smart home devices without limitation, including cameras, security systems, hazard detectors, door entry / doorbell systems, child monitoring systems, intercom systems, and so forth.

[0031] Thermostats that communicate via a network and allow end users to interact with a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (referred to herein as “HVAC system,”“HVAC systems,”“air handling system,” and “air management system”) from remote locations have become prevalent. Typically, an end user will use a control application that is executing on an electronic device such as a mobile phone to connect with and operate the thermostat and / or HVAC system. Such thermostats often include advanced features such as Internet or Wi-Fi connectivity, occupancy detection, home / away / vacation modes, indoor climate sensing, outdoor climate sensing, notifications, display of current weather conditions, learning modes, and others. Thermostats such as the foregoing and others can be referred to as smart thermostats.

[0032] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a smart thermostat system. Smart thermostat system 100A can include smart thermostat 110; backplate 120; HVAC system 12; wall plate 130; network 140; cloud-based server system 150; and computerized device 160. Smart thermostat 110 represents embodiments of thermostats detailed herein. Smart thermostat 110 can include: electronic display 111; user interface 112; radar sensor 113; network interface 114; speaker 115; ambient light sensor 116; one or more temperature sensors 117; HVAC interface 118; processing system 119; housing 121; and lens assembly 122.

[0033] Electronic display 111 may be visible through the lens assembly 122. In some embodiments, electronic display 111 is only visible when electronic display 111 is at least partially illuminated. In some embodiments, electronic display 111 is not a touch screen which can allow the electronic display 111 to serve as a user interface to receive input. If a touch sensor, the electronic display 111 may allow one or more gestures, including tap and swipe gestures, to be detected.

[0034] User interface 112 can be various forms of input devices through which a user can provide input to smart thermostat 110. In some embodiments herein, an outer rotatable ring is present as part of user interface 112. The ring can be rotated by a user clockwise and counterclockwise in order to provide input. The ring can be infinitely rotatable in either direction, thus allowing a user to scroll or otherwise navigate user interface menus. The ring (and, possibly, lens assembly 122) can be pressed inward (toward the rear of smart thermostat 110) to function as a “click” or to make a selection. The outer rotatable ring can, for example, allow the user to make temperature target adjustments. By rotating the outer ring clockwise, the target temperature can be increased, and by rotating the outer ring counterclockwise, the target temperature can be decreased. As another example, the ring can be rotated to highlight displayed icons; an inward click can be provided by a user to select a particular icon.

[0035] Radar sensor 113 may be a single integrated circuit (IC) that can emit radio waves, receive reflected radio waves, and output radar data indicative of the received reflected radio waves. Radar sensor 113 may be configured to output radio waves into the ambient environment in front of electronic display 111 of the smart thermostat 110. The radar sensor 113 may emit radio waves and receive reflected radio waves through the lens assembly 122. The radar sensor 113 may include one or more antennas, one or more radio frequency (RF) emitters, and one or more RF receivers. The radar sensor 113 may be configured to operate as frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. The radar sensor 113 may emit chirps of radar that sweep from a first frequency to a second frequency (e.g., in the form of a saw tooth waveform). Using receive-side beam-steering (e.g., using multiple receiving antennas), certain regions may be targeted for sensing the presence of objects and / or people. The output of the radar sensor 113, which can be a radar data stream, may be analyzed using the processing system 119. The radar sensor 113 and the processing system 119 may be referred to hereinafter as radar subsystem.

[0036] Network interface 114 may be used to communicate with one or more wired or wireless networks. Network interface 114 may communicate with a wireless local area network, such as a Wi-Fi network. Additional or alternative network interfaces may also be present. For example, smart thermostat 110 may be able to communicate with a user device directly, such as using Bluetooth or some other device-to-device short-range wireless communication protocol. Smart thermostat 110 may be able to communicate via a mesh network with various other home automation devices such as using Thread or Matter. Mesh networks may use relatively less power compared to wireless local area network-based communication, such as Wi-Fi. In some embodiments, smart thermostat 110 can serve as an edge router that translates communications between a mesh network and a wireless local area network, such as a Wi-Fi network. In some embodiments, a wired network interface may be present, such as to allow communication with a local area network (LAN). One or more direct wireless communication interfaces may also be present, such as to enable direct communication with a remote temperature sensor installed in a different housing external and distinct from housing 121. The evolution of wireless communication to fifth generation (5G) and sixth generation (6G) standards and technologies provides greater throughput with lower latency which enhances mobile broadband services. 5G and 6G technologies also provide new classes of services, over control and data channels, for vehicular networking (V2X), fixed wireless broadband, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart thermostat 110 may include one or more wireless interfaces that can communicate using 5G and / or 6G networks.

[0037] Speaker 115 can be used to output audio. Speaker 115 may be used to output beeps, clicks, synthesized speech, or other audible sounds, such as in response to the detection of user input via user interface 112.

[0038] Ambient light sensor 116 may sense the amount of light present in the environment of smart thermostat 110. Measurements made by ambient light sensor 116 may be used to adjust the brightness of electronic display 111. In some embodiments, ambient light sensor 116 senses an amount of ambient light through lens assembly 122. Therefore, compensation for the reflectivity of lens assembly 122 may be made such that the ambient light levels are correctly determined via ambient light sensor 116. In some implementations, a light pipe is present between ambient light sensor 116 and lens assembly 122 such that, in a particular region of lens assembly 122, light that is transmitted through lens assembly 122, is directed to ambient light sensor 116, which may be mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB), such as a PCB to which processing system 119 is attached.

[0039] One or more temperature sensors 117, may be present within smart thermostat 110. The one or more temperature sensors 117 may be used to measure the ambient temperature in the environment of smart thermostat 110. One or more additional temperature sensors that are remote from smart thermostat 110 may additionally or alternatively be used to measure the temperature of the ambient environment.

[0040] Lens assembly 122 may have a transmissivity sufficient to allow illuminated portions of electronic display 111 to be viewed through lens assembly 122 from an exterior of smart thermostat 110 by a user. Lens assembly 122 may have a reflectivity sufficient such that portions of lens assembly 122 that are not illuminated from behind appear to have a mirrored effect to a user viewing a front of smart thermostat 110. Further detail regarding the lens assembly 122 are provided in relation to FIGS. 4-7.

[0041] HVAC interface 118 can include one or more interfaces that control whether a circuit involving various HVAC control wires that are connected either directly with smart thermostat 110 or with backplate 120 is completed. A heating system (e.g., furnace, boiler, heat pump), cooling system (e.g., air conditioner, heat pump), fan, or some combination thereof may be controlled via HVAC wires by opening and closing circuits that include the HVAC control wires. In some installations, one a heating system or cooling system is controlled by the smart thermostat 110; in other embodiments, the smart thermostat 110 may control both a heating system and a cooling system.

[0042] Processing system 119 can include one or more processors. Processing system 119 may include one or more special-purpose or general-purpose processors. Such special-purpose processors may include processors that are specifically designed to perform the functions detailed herein. Such special-purpose processors may be ASICs or FPGAs which are general-purpose components that are physically and electrically configured to perform the functions detailed herein. Such general-purpose processors may execute special-purpose software that is stored using one or more non-transitory processor-readable mediums, such as random access memory (RAM), flash memory, a hard disk drive (HDD), or a solid state drive (SSD) of smart thermostat 110.

[0043] Processing system 119 may output information for presentation to electronic display 111. Processing system 119 can receive information from the one or more temperature sensors 117, user interface 112, radar sensor 113, network interface 114, and ambient light sensor 116. Processing system 119 can perform bidirectional communication with network interface 114. Processing system 119 can output information to be output as sound to speaker 115. Processing system 119 can control the HVAC system 125 via HVAC interface 118.

[0044] Housing 121 may house and / or attach with all of the components of smart thermostat 110, either directly or via other components. For example, lens assembly 122 may adhere to the electronic display 111, which is attached with housing 121.

[0045] The smart thermostat 110 may be attached (and removed) from backplate 120. Some number of HVAC control wires may be attached with terminals or receptacles of backplate 120. Such HVAC control wires electrically connect backplate 120 with the HVAC system 125, which can include a heating system, cooling system, ventilation system, or some combination thereof. Backplate 120 can allow the smart thermostat 110 to be attached and removed from backplate 120 without affecting the electronic connections of the HVAC control wires with backplate 120. In other embodiments, such control wires are directly connected with smart thermostat 110. In some embodiments, wall plate 130 may additionally be installed between backplate 120 and a surface, such as a wall, such as for aesthetic reasons (e.g., cover an unsightly hole through which HVAC wires protrude from the wall).

[0046] Network 140 can include one or more wireless networks, wired networks, public networks, private networks, and / or mesh networks. A home wireless local area network (e.g., a Wi-Fi network) may be part of network 140. Network 140 can include the Internet. Network 140 can include a mesh network, which may include one or more other smart home devices, may be used to enable smart thermostat 110 to communicate with another network, such as a Wi-Fi network. Smart thermostat 110 may function as an edge router that translates communications from a relatively low power mesh network received from other devices to another form of network, such as a relatively higher power network, such as a Wi-Fi network.

[0047] Cloud-based server system 150 can maintain an account mapped to smart thermostat 110. Smart thermostat 110 may periodically or intermittently communicate with cloud-based server system 150 to determine whether setpoint or schedule changes have been made. A user may interact with smart thermostat 110 via computerized device 160, which may be a mobile device, smartphone, tablet computer, laptop computer, desktop computer, or some other form of computerized device that can communicate with cloud-based server system 150 via network 140 or can communicate directly with smart thermostat 110 (e.g., via Bluetooth or some other device-to-device communication protocol). A user can interact with an application executed on computerized device 160 to control or interact with smart thermostat 110.

[0048] FIG. 2A is an isometric view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat 200. Smart thermostat 200 can represent an embodiment of smart thermostat 110 of FIG. 1. In FIG. 2A, electronic display 202, located behind lens assembly 212, is active in displaying a setpoint temperature. The housing of smart thermostat 200 can define sidewall 208. Sidewall 208 may be generally cylindrical according to various embodiments. A diameter of the sidewall 208 may be smaller than a diameter of the electronic display 202 and ring 210 according to various embodiments and as illustrated in FIG. 2A. Ring 210 can function as detailed in relation to user interface 112. Either attached with housing 121 or attached with components connected with housing 121 is lens assembly 212. Lens assembly 212 may include a reflective layer having a reflectivity such that when the electronic display 202 is not illuminated, lens assembly 212 appears to be a mirror when viewed by a user.

[0049] In some embodiments, ring 210 is mounted to lens assembly 212. In other embodiments, ring 210 can be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise independent of lens assembly 212. In some embodiments, housing 121 includes a display frame (not visible in this view) that further supports electronic display 202 and lens assembly 212.

[0050] Electronic display 202 is housed behind lens assembly 212 such that, when illuminated, the portion of electronic display 202 that is illuminated is visible through lens assembly 212 by a user. In some embodiments, due to the reflectivity of lens assembly 212, an edge of electronic display 202 is not visible to a user regardless of whether electronic display 202 is illuminated, partially illuminated, or not illuminated. Therefore, the overall effect experienced by a user may be that lens assembly 212 appears as a mirror and portions of electronic display 202, when illuminated, are visible through lens assembly 212.

[0051] In various embodiments, around an axis perpendicular to the display face of electronic display 202, the ring 210 has an inner diameter and an outer diameter and both the inner diameter and the outer diameter of ring 210 are larger than a diameter of sidewall 208 of housing 121.

[0052] FIG. 2B is a front view of an embodiment of smart thermostat 200. When mounted on a wall or other surface, lens assembly 212 is opposite the portion of smart thermostat 200 that mounts to the wall or other surface. Therefore, when a user is facing mounted smart thermostat 200, lens assembly 212 is visible. Lens assembly 212 can form an uninterrupted circular surface with no gaps, holes, lens, or other discontinuities present on the outermost surface of lens assembly 212. Lens assembly 212 has sufficient transmissivity to allow light emitted by electronic display 202 located within housing 206 to be visible through lens assembly 212. Further, lens assembly 212 may have sufficient reflectivity such that a mirrored effect is present on portions of lens assembly 212 that are not currently being illuminated from behind by electronic display 202.

[0053] FIG. 2C is a side view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat. When smart thermostat 200 is mounted to a wall or other surface, sidewall 208 of housing 121 is visible. Around an axis 250, the ring 210 has an inner diameter Di and an outer diameter Do and both the inner diameter Di and the outer diameter De of the ring 210 are larger than a diameter Dh of sidewall 208 of housing 121. According to various embodiments, sidewall 208 of housing 121 can be generally cylindrical and can have a consistent diameter along a length thereof. Alternatively, a diameter of sidewall 208 can increase as a distance from lens assembly 212 increase.

[0054] In some embodiments, ring 210 has a smallest diameter at the rearmost portion of ring 210. Dr is indicative of the diameter of ring 210 where ring 210 meets sidewall 208. This arrangement can help facilitate a user's fingers reaching around ring 210, grasping ring 210, and rotating in either direction. In some embodiments, along axis 250, sidewall 208 may have a diameter of approximately Dr wherein ring 210 and sidewall 208 meet. In some embodiments, the diameter of sidewall 208 can increase as the distance from ring 210 increases.

[0055] FIG. 3 is an exploded front isometric view of an embodiment of smart thermostat 200. FIG. 4 is an exploded rear isometric view of smart thermostat 200. Viewing the components of the smart thermostat 200 left to right, lens assembly 212 forms an outermost domed surface of smart thermostat 200. Adjacent lens assembly 212 may be electronic display 202. Electronic display 202 may be a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or organic light emitting diode (OLED) display according to various embodiments. In at least some embodiments, one or more adhesives may be used to attach electronic display 202 with lens assembly 212. An exploded view of lens assembly 212 is provided in relation to FIG. 6.

[0056] According to at least some embodiments, electronic display 202 is supported by a display frame 302. Smart thermostat 200 further includes one or more antenna assemblies 304 for communicating with a network and / or other electronic devices. Antenna assembly 304 can be used for communicating with wireless local area networks (e.g., Wi-Fi), device-to-device communication (e.g., Bluetooth), and / or communicating with mesh networks (e.g., Thread). Smart thermostat 200 includes one or more sensor boards, such as sensor daughterboard 306. One or more temperature sensors may be installed on sensor daughterboard 306. Use of sensor daughterboard 306 can help isolate the one or more temperature sensors from heat generated by other components.

[0057] Smart thermostat 200 may further include clip 308 for coupling ring 210 and display frame 302 supporting electronic display 202. Clip 308 may act as an axial constraint for smart thermostat 200. In particular, clip 308 prevents electronic display 202, display frame 302, and ring 210 from decoupling from one another in the assembled configuration.

[0058] As shown in FIGS. 3-4, smart thermostat can include magnetic strip 310. According to various embodiments, ring 210 rotates relative to sidewall 208 of housing 206 and a backplate when smart thermostat 200 is mounted to a surface. In various embodiments, a sensor installed on a sensor board, such as sensor board 306 and magnetic strip 310 are used for detecting rotation of the ring 210 during use.

[0059] According to various embodiments, ring 210 is mounted to housing 206 such that ring 210 can be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise. Ring 210 may include polished stainless steel and a finish applied using physical vapor deposition (PVD). Ring 210 further advantageously provides an aesthetic appearance as the finish of the ring 210 appears seamless relative to lens assembly 212 having a mirrored effect.

[0060] Further internal components of smart thermostat 200 include battery 312 and battery adhesive 314. Battery 312 can be a secondary battery and can provide power to the various components of smart thermostat 200, including electronic display 202 and processing system 119. Battery adhesive 314 may be used to adhere battery 312 within housing 206 although the battery 312 (or any other components of the smart thermostat 200) may be secured within the housing 206 using other means. For example, various components may be secured using adhesives, screws, wires, clips, or the like.

[0061] Smart thermostat 200 includes processing system 316. According to some embodiments, processing system 316 is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) including various processing parts, memory, modems, etc. Processing system 316 may be in electric communication with one or more antennas present on antenna assembly 304, sensor board 306, electronic display 202, etc., for performing various functions of the smart thermostat 200 and outputting results based on user input (e.g., in response to the user rotating the ring 210 and / or user input via an external mobile device). Adjacent processing system 316 may be piezo sensor 317. Additional components of the processing system 316 or components that work with processing system 316 are also shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, multi-layer board (MLB) 318 may be provided for performing various functions of smart thermostat 200, in a manner that would be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art. In some embodiments, MLB 318 may include a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port for electrically coupling smart thermostat 200 to another electronic device for various updates, servicing, or the like. Various springs 319 for supporting components, flexes 321 for enabling flexible and high-density interconnects between printed circuit boards (PCBs), LCDs, etc., and additional links 323 may also be included in the internal components of smart thermostat 200.

[0062] Smart thermostat 200 may include more or fewer components than those shown in FIGS. 3-4. In various embodiments, the components may be in one or more configurations other than the configuration shown in FIGS. 3-4. Advantageously, various components of smart thermostat 200 are optimized to be condensed into housing 206 such that the overall side profile of smart thermostat 200 is significantly thinner than a side profile of other commercially available smart thermostats.

[0063] FIGS. 5A-5B illustrate a front view and a side view of a smart thermostat backplate. According to various embodiments, an electronic device, such as smart thermostat 200 described in detail above, may be mounted to a wall or other surface by a backplate 500. The backplate 500 may include a plurality of wire terminals 502 for receiving wires that are connected with a heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system. For example, the backplate 500 may include multiple receptacles, with each receptacle designated to receive a particular HVAC control wire. Backplate 500 can define one or more holes configured to receive fasteners or the like for securing backplate 500 and, if being used, a trim plate or the like, to a surface, such as a wall. The backplate 500 can removably attached with the thermostat housing, such as thermostat housing 206 described above.

[0064] In some embodiments, a smart thermostat may be attached (and removed) from backplate 500. HVAC control wires may be attached with terminals or receptacles of backplate 500. Alternatively, such control wires may be directly connected with the smart thermostat. In some embodiments, a trim plate may additionally be installed between the backplate 500 and a surface, such as a wall, such as for aesthetic reasons (e.g., cover an unsightly hole through which HVAC wires protrude from the wall).

[0065] FIG. 5C is an exploded front isometric view of the smart thermostat backplate of FIGS. 5A and 5B. Visible in this view, the backplate 500 includes a cap 504, a level 506, a level holder 508, and a coupling plate 510. Various components of the backplate 500 are coupled to one another with one or more fasteners 514. Fasteners 514 may be screws, nails, or some other form of fastener. Fasteners 514 can securely hold backplate 500 and, possibly, a trim plate (not shown) to a surface, such as a wall. A thermostat may removably attach with backplate 500. A user may be able to attach thermostat to backplate 500 by pushing thermostat against backplate 500. Similarly, a user can remove the thermostat from backplate 500 by pulling the thermostat away from backplate 500. When the thermostat is connected with backplate 500, the thermostat is electrically connected various HVAC control wires that have been connected with the receptacles of backplate 500 as would be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art.

[0066] Further visible in FIG. 5C, a cap 504 for protecting various internal components from damage and for providing an aesthetically pleasing appearance when the electronic device is not mounted to the backplate 500. The cap 504 covers a level 506 for properly mounting the electronic device and / or the backplate 500 to a surface. For example, it would be desirable to have text displayed on the electronic display of the smart thermostat to be straight across (e.g., perpendicular to the ground, etc.). The level 506 may be a bubble level in at least some embodiments. A level holder 508 may be provided to align the level 506 relative to the cap 504, a coupling plate 510, and a base 512. Additional coupling mechanisms may be provided including adhesives, screws, snaps, wires, or the like. The coupling plate 510 may include one or more fasteners as described in detail above. The coupling plate 510 may further include a board-to-board (BTB) connector 516 in some embodiments.

[0067] The backplate 500 may include more or less components than those shown in FIGS. 5A-5C. In various embodiments, the components may be in one or more configurations other than the configuration shown in FIGS. 5A-5C. For example, the backplate 500 may be part of a greater thermostat mounting system including a trim plate, batteries, various fasteners, sensors, or the like.

[0068] FIG. 6 is an exploded front view of various embodiments of lens assembly 600. Lens assembly 600 can represent embodiments of lens assembly 122 and 212. In particular, FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a stack of components that can be used to create lens assembly 122. Lens assembly 600 can include: domed lens 602; optically clear adhesive (OCA) layer 604; tinted ink layer 606; mirror film 608; masking layer 610; frame pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) 612; and display PSA 614. While embodiments of lens assembly 600 may be used on smart thermostat 200, embodiments of such a lens assembly may be used on other forms of smart devices. For instance, lens assembly 600 can be incorporated as part of a smart assistant device or a smart watch.

[0069] Domed lens 602 may be domed on an outer surface and flat on an inner surface that is in contact with OCA lay 604. Further detail regarding the shape of domed lens 602 is provided in reference to FIG. 7. Domed lens 602 can be formed from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), which can provide a transparency similar to glass. Other plastic or acrylic materials are also possible. Domed lens 602 may also be formed from glass. Domed lens 602 can be formed using injection compression molding. Injection compression molding can be used because it allows for defect-free surfaces to be formed. To perform injection compression molding of domed lens 602, material can be injected into a nearly closed mold. The mold may then be compressed such that the injected material conforms to the shape of the mold. Excess material can be removed, such as through machining.

[0070] Domed lens 602 is circular and does not have any holes, vents, gaps, or other discontinuities present on it. Similarly, no holes, vents, gaps, or other discontinuities are present on at least OCA lay 604, tinted ink layer 606, and mirror film layer 608. Having continuous material helps to maintain a consistent visual effect across the entirety of lens assembly 600 as viewed by a user.

[0071] OCA lay 604 can be a pressure or temperature sensitive adhesive that adheres domed lens 602 with tinted ink layer 606. Tinted ink layer 606 can be a transparent layer that tints light passing through tinted ink layer 606. Since tinted ink layer 606 is closer to domed lens 602 than mirror film layer 608, both light by mirror film layer 608 and light emitted by electronic display 111 is tinted. The color used for tinting can be selected based on aesthetics.

[0072] Mirror film layer 608 may have sufficient reflectivity that when electronic display 111 is not illuminated, a user viewing lens assembly 400 may see a reflection of himself, herself, or the ambient environment. For example, mirror film layer 608 can be Toray® 125FH-40 mirror film. Mirror film layer 608 may be polarized. Due to the way some mirror films are manufactured, throughout a roll of mirror film, the direction of polarization can vary. When a piece of mirror film is stamped or cut out to form mirror film layer 608, the direction of polarization may be determined in order to orient in relation the electronic display, which also outputs polarized light. If orientation is not controlled, visibility of the electronic display through mirror film layer 608 may be adversely affected. Further detail regarding orientation of mirror film layer 608 is detailed in relation to FIG. 7.

[0073] Masking layer 610 can be used to block a user from viewing components blocked by the opaque portions of masking layer 610. Masking layer 610 may be black or another dark color to make it difficult to see through mirror film layer 608. Masking layer 610 can obscure a view of frame adhesive 612 and display adhesive 614. Masking layer 610 may be asymmetric. Therefore, it must be oriented in a particular orientation with respect to other components of smart thermostat 200. For example, masking layer 610 includes a hole for an ambient light sensor to have a field of view of the ambient environment through domed lens 602, OCA lay 604, tinted link layer 606, and mirror film layer 608.

[0074] Furthermore, the masking layer 610 may help enhance the effect that the electronic display is seamless with lens assembly 400. A color value for masking layer 610 may be selected, having an appropriate lightness value, such that it is difficult or impossible for a user to visually see an edge of the electronic display screen within the smart device. By obscuring an edge of the edge of the electronic display, a user may have the impression that the entire region behind domed lens 602 is electronic display 111.

[0075] Obscured behind masking layer 610 may be two separate adhesive layers. Frame adhesive layer 612 may adhere domed lens layer 402, OCA lay 604, tinted link layer 606, mirror film layer 608, and masking layer 610 to display frame 302. Display adhesive layer 614 may adhere domed lens layer 402, OCA lay 604, tinted link layer 606, mirror film layer 608, and masking layer 610 to electronic display 202. Different types of adhesives may be used to provide better adhesion to the material of electronic display 202 and display frame 302. Adhesive layer 612 and display adhesive layer 614 may both be different types of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs). In other embodiments, a single adhesive layer may be used. For example, 3M® 5126-025 may be used as the PSA.

[0076] FIG. 7 is a cross section 700 of an embodiment of smart thermostat 200. The location and direction of cross section 700 is indicated on FIG. 2B. The domed profile of domed lens 602 is visible in the cross section 700 of FIG. 7. Surface 701 is the outer surface of domed lens 602 that is adjacent the ambient environment and which a user can touch. An entirety of surface 701 is convex from edge to edge. Surface 702 is the inner surface and adheres with OCA layer 604. OCA layer 604 and other layers of lens assembly 600 are not visible in FIG. 7. An entirety of surface 702 can be flat. Surface 703 forms a circumference around the entirety of domed lens 602. Surface 703 is perpendicular or approximately perpendicular (defined as within 5° of perpendicular) to surface 702.

[0077] Electronic display 202 is disposed under the domed lens 602 and surrounded by rotatable ring 710. In particular, ring 210 surrounds surface 703 of domed lens 602 and couples to housing 206, which has a cylindrical sidewall 208.

[0078] FIG. 8 is an enlarged cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat. Electronic device 800 may be similar to smart thermostat 200 and smart thermostat 500. Similar components may be similarly numbered and have similar form and function unless otherwise noted herein. As shown in FIG. 8, the clip 830, the display frame 820, and the ring 810 are assembled such that a gap 840 is formed between an outer perimeter of the domed lens 812 and a corresponding internal perimeter of the ring 810. In various embodiments, the gap 840 is not visible to the user facing the electronic device 800. For example, the mirrored reflective cover of the domed lens 812 smoothly transitions to the polished finish of the ring 810 with no disruptions. The gap 840 is optimized to be as small as possible while enabling the ring 810 to be rotated relative to the domed lens 812 and / or the electronic display (not shown in this view).

[0079] According to various embodiments, the display frame 820 includes a grease trap recess 842 for directing grease between the display frame 820 and the clip 830. For example, grease may be applied between a vertical interface (such as formed by the grease trap recess 842) of the display frame 820 and the ring 810 for continuous rotation of the ring 810 relative to the rest of the electronic device 800 (e.g., including the sidewall of the housing and the backplate) without disruption. In exemplary embodiments, a grease is applied such that the user experiences a pleasing, viscous feeling when rotating the ring 810. The grease may include a damping grease and / or a dry grease. Different types of grease may be applied at different regions between the components unless otherwise noted herein.

[0080] In at least some embodiments, the clip 830 is formed to reduce grease shearing between the clip 830 and the ring 810 at location 844. For example, grease applied at the grease trap recess 842 may be displaced to an area proximate location 844. The combination of the tuned gap 840 and grease application enhances the user experience during rotation of the ring 810 and selection of various icons and / or information displayed on the electronic display when the information is visible (e.g., when the electronic display is “ON”) through the domed lens 812.

[0081] In various embodiments, one or more temperature sensors (not shown) may be disposed between the ring 810 and the clip 830 and / or the display frame 820. For example, the one or more temperature sensors may be disposed in the portion of the electronic device 800 that overhangs the sidewall (not shown) that mounts the electronic device 800 to a mounting surface. Said another way, the electronic device 800 may form a “mushroom” shape and one or more temperature sensors are disposed proximate an outer perimeter of the “cap” of the mushroom.

[0082] FIG. 9 is clip for use with a smart thermostat. The clip 930 may be of the same type as various clips described herein. The clip 930 may be a C-clip as shown in FIG. 9. The clip 930 acts as an axial constraint for various components of the electronic device and couples at least the display frame and the ring. The clip 930 is optimized for assembly such that the clip 930 is relatively thin within the electronic device housing. The open end of the clip 930 as shown in FIG. 9 enables efficient installation and removal of the clip 930 during servicing or other activities involving disassembling the electronic device.

[0083] FIG. 10 is an isometric cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat. FIG. 10 provides another view of the various electronic devices described in detail above. In particular, electronic device 1000 may be similar to other electronic devices described above and similar components may be similarly numbered and have similar form and function unless otherwise noted herein. The domed profile of a domed lens 1012 is visible in the cross section of FIG. 10. An electronic display 1002 is disposed under the domed lens 1012 and supported by a ring 1010 and a display frame 1020 as described in detail above. In particular, the ring 1010 surrounds the domed lens 1012. The clip 1030 couples the display frame 1020 supporting the electronic display 1002 to the housing (not shown).

[0084] Modern smart home devices are proliferating in smart home environments due to their small size, case of installation, and advanced processing capabilities. Key to each of these features is the long-term, reliable, and / or rechargeable power supplies provided by modern rechargeable batteries. For example, many smart home devices include rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that provide a steady and reliable source of power over long operating intervals. These lithium-ion batteries are also easily rechargeable through a number of different interfaces, including convenient USB, serial, and / or wireless interfaces.

[0085] In the example of thermostats, the smart thermostat described in detail above may include a rechargeable battery. This rechargeable battery may be intermittently charged over time by stealing power from a system controlled by the smart home device, such as an HVAC system. The wire connectors that provide communication with the HVAC system may be used to “steal” power from the HVAC system without interfering with any HVAC functions, such as air conditioning or heating. This stolen power may be stored in a storage capacitor and / or used to charge a rechargeable battery. The rechargeable battery may then be used to power the thermostat when power stealing is not available from HVAC system or to augment stolen power when the instantaneous power demands of the thermostat exceed the power stealing limit. For example, advanced user interfaces, wireless edge routing, learning algorithms, radar-based motion / occupancy detection, and other features of the thermostat may draw a relatively large of instantaneous current that exceeds the amount of current that may be safely stolen from the HVAC system. Therefore, the rechargeable battery may be used to provide any additional power needed during the operation of these advanced features. However, when the instantaneous power demands of the thermostat are below the amount that can be stolen from the HVAC system, the additional power from the HVAC system may be used to recharge the battery.

[0086] Since the battery is charged and discharged during operation of the thermostat, the thermostat itself may monitor the conditions of the battery to ensure that battery charging is performed safely and efficiently. For example, lithium-ion batteries may be approved for charging within a predetermined temperature range, such as less than about 45° C. If the temperature of the battery exceeds the predetermined temperature range, the thermostat may temporarily suspend battery charging until the temperature of the battery falls back within the safe range. Charging the battery outside of this range may introduce safety concerns and may affect the charging efficiency and / or lifetime of the battery. Therefore, in order to monitor the temperature of the battery in real time as the battery charges and discharges, the embodiments described herein may include an integrated temperature sensor as part of a circuit board in a battery pack. The smart home device may continuously monitor the temperature measurements from this integrated temperature sensor and use these temperature measurements to regulate battery charging. This allows the smart home device to charge and discharge the battery as described above while ensuring that these operations take place in an approved, safe temperature range.

[0087] However, a technical problem exists in situations where the integrated temperature sensor may fail. If the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack fails, it may continue to provide temperature measurements to the smart home device, thereby making it appear as though the innovated temperature sensor is functioning normally. For example, a failed temperature sensor may be slow to react to rising temperatures of the battery cell and provide only a very delayed indication of rising temperatures. Some failed temperature sensors may fail to react at all to temperature changes to instead provide a constant temperature that happens to be within the approved temperature range. Other failed temperature sensors may provide erroneous temperature measurements that appear to be outside of the approved charging range, even when the battery temperature is not abnormally high. In each of these situations, the smart home device may cause the battery to charge or prevent the battery from charging based on incorrect temperature measurements. This can lead to a battery continuing to charge when the battery is too hot, which may possibly damage the battery cell. Alternatively, a failed integrated temperature sensor may prevent a battery from charging when it would be safe and efficient to do so.

[0088] The embodiments described herein solve these and other technical problems by leveraging additional temperature sensors that may be present in the smart home device. Measurements from these additional temperature sensors may be compared to measurements received from the integrated temperature sensor the battery pack. In some cases, the measurements from these additional temperature sensors may first be processed to establish a baseline differential between the additional and integrated temperature sensors. Some embodiments may also process these temperature sensors to generate an estimated battery temperature. If a sufficient differential between these additional temperature sensors and the integrated temperature sensor persists, a determination may be made by the smart home device processor that the temperature sensor of the battery pack is malfunctioning. In order to maintain safety and efficiency, the smart home device may then alter the operating state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack. For example, the smart home device may shut down or operate in a low-power or emergency mode. Some embodiments may continue operation by using the additional temperature sensor measurements in place of the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Alternatively, the smart home device may shut down and / or send an alert to an app on a user device, a user interface, a remote server, and so forth.

[0089] FIG. 11 illustrates a battery pack 312 for a smart home device, according to some embodiments. As illustrated above in FIG. 3, the battery pack 312 may be positioned proximate to or adjacent to a printed circuit board 318 that includes many of the electronic components of the thermostat. For example, a body of the battery pack 312 may be parallel to the plane of the printed circuit board 318 as depicted in FIG. 11 such that the battery pack 312 and the print circuit board 318 lie flat next to each other inside the housing of the thermostat. Some embodiments may place additional layers between portions of the battery pack 312 and the printed circuit board 318, such as an adhesive for the battery pack 312, a Piezo sensor, and / or other components. However, the battery pack 312 may be proximate enough to the print circuit board 318 that heat emitted from the battery pack 312 may be sensed by temperature sensors on the printed circuit board 318 as described below. For example, the battery pack 312 may be positioned within about 1 cm of the print circuit board 318.

[0090] The battery pack 312 may include a battery cell 1112. The battery cell 1112 may include one or more individual lithium-ion cells or other types of battery cells. In this example, the battery cell 1112 may use planar battery cell, but other embodiments may use different geometries, such as cylindrical or “jelly roll” geometries. Additionally, lithium-ion batteries are illustrated in FIG. 11 only by way of example. Other embodiments may use different types of rechargeable batteries, such as nickel-based batteries and other similar technologies.

[0091] The battery pack 312 may also include a printed circuit board 1108 that may be positioned directly on or along one of the sides of the battery cell 1112. The printed circuit board 1108 may be held in place (e.g., by sealing PI tape) and electrically coupled to positive and negative terminals of the battery cell 1112. The print circuit board 1108 may include a number of different electronic components, including charging circuitry, communication circuitry, and / or sensors that monitor the performance or environmental conditions of the battery cell 1112. For example, the printed circuit board 1108 may include an integrated temperature sensor 1101. The integrated temperature sensor 1101 on the print circuit board 1108 may be referred to as an “integrated” temperature sensor in that it is integrated as part of the electrical package enclosed within the battery pack 312. For example, the battery pack 312 may include a housing or packaging 1114 that is enclosed around the battery cell 1112 and the printed circuit board 1108 that includes the integrated temperature sensor 1101. The packaging 1114 may be sealed using PCB PI tape 1104 to create a physical boundary between an interior portion of the battery pack 312 and the rest of the thermostat. Therefore, the integrated temperature sensor 1101 on the printed circuit board 1108 and the battery cell 1112 may be disposed within the packaging 1114.

[0092] In order to communicate with the smart home device, the battery pack 312 may also include a wire connector 1106 that extends out of the packaging 1114 of the battery pack 312. The wire connector 1106 may allow a power management integrated circuit (IC) of the smart home device to communicate with the battery pack 312. For example, the wire connector 1106 may be physically coupled to a connector on the printed circuit board 318. The power management IC and / or a main processor on the printed circuit board 318 may then communicate with the printed circuit board 1108 in the battery pack 312 in order to retrieve temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor 1101.

[0093] The integrated temperature sensor 1101 may be implemented using any type of temperature sensor. For example, some embodiments may use a Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistor to implement the integrated temperature sensor 1101. An NTC thermistor is a temperature sensor that utilizes the resistance properties of a material (e.g., a ceramic or metal composite) to sense a surrounding temperature. The resistance of the material changes in a predictable way with changes in temperature. For example, some embodiments may use an NTC thermistor where the resistance decreases with an increase in the surrounding temperature. To communicate with the innovated temperature sensor 1101, some embodiments may provide a known current / voltage to the NTC thermistor and measure the resistance provided by the NTC thermistor, which may in turn be correlated with a particular temperature. This analog value may be measured by the power management IC and converted into a temperature measurement. Note that the NTC thermistor is provided only by way of example and is not meant to be limiting. Any other type of temperature sensor may be used without limitation.

[0094] The smart home device may control the charging and / or discharging of the battery pack 312 through the wire connector 1106. More specifically, the smart home device may receive the analog NTC thermistor readings and use these readings to determine when and how to charge the battery pack 312. For example, temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312 may be used to determine a charging rate for the battery pack 312 and / or whether the battery pack 312 may be charged at all at a current temperature.

[0095] FIG. 12 illustrates a schematic of a battery pack 312 in a smart home device with additional temperature sensors located proximate to the battery pack, according to some embodiments. The smart home device may include a wall-mounted thermostat, such as the smart thermostat described above. One of the operations of the thermostat 1200 may include sensing an ambient temperature in an environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202 of the thermostat. For example, a set point temperature may be provided to the thermostat 1200, and the thermostat 1200 may cause the HVAC system to operate until the temperature in the environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200 approximately matches the set point temperature.

[0096] In order to accurately measure the ambient temperature in the environment 1212 outside of the thermostat 1200, the thermostat 1200 may be configured to receive temperature measurements from one or more temperature sensors. In some cases, these temperature sensors may be disposed in devices throughout the residence in which the thermostat is enclosed. However, the smart thermostat 1200 may also include one or more temperature sensors 1220 that are disposed inside the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200. For example, the printed circuit board 318 may include the temperature sensors 1220 mounted in different locations on the printed circuit board 318. These temperature sensors 1220 may be configured to measure a temperature of an environment 1214 inside the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200, which may then be used to estimate an ambient temperature in the environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200.

[0097] For example, the temperature from the environment 1214 inside the thermostat 1200 may be significantly warmer than the environment 1214 inside of the thermostat 1210 due to the self-heating effects of the electronics inside the housing 1202. Therefore, the processor of the thermostat 1200 may be configured to process the temperature measurements from the temperature sensors 1220 and estimate the ambient temperature of the environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202. This ambient temperature estimation may be performed by adding an offset to the temperature(s) measured by the temperature sensors 1220. The temperature estimation may also be performed by using trained models that receive the temperature measurements from the temperature sensors 1220 as inputs and generate an estimated temperature or temperature offset as an output. Therefore, the processor may be configured to receive temperature measurements from the temperature sensors 1220 and estimate another temperature in a location offset from the temperature sensors 1220. These temperature sensors 1220 may be referred to as “external” temperature sensors in the context of the battery pack 312 since they are disposed externally from the packaging of the battery pack 312 (even though they are internal temperature sensors relative to the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200). These external temperature sensors may be distinguished from the integrated or internal temperature sensor of the battery pack 312 described above.

[0098] In order to use the temperature sensors 1220 to measure the battery temperature and / or detect a fault in the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312, the temperature sensors 1220 may be distributed in different locations on the printed circuit board 318 relative to the battery pack 312. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, some embodiments may distribute the temperature sensors such that they are mounted to the printed circuit board 318 in different quadrants. These quadrants of the printed circuit board 318 may correspond to different quadrants of the battery pack 312, since the printed circuit board 318 and the battery pack 312 are mounted parallel next to each other. For example, temperature sensor 1220-1 may be mounted in a southwest quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 and / or the battery pack 312. Temperature sensor 1220-2 may be mounted in a northwest quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 and / or the battery pack 312. Temperature sensor 120-3 may be mounted in a southeast quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 and / or the battery pack 312, and so forth. By spatially distributing the locations of the temperature sensors 1220, it may be more likely that the sensors can accurately detect deviations in the temperature of the battery pack 312.

[0099] In some embodiments, at least one of the temperature sensors 1220 may be located on the printed circuit board 318 near a location proximate to where the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312 is located. For example, temperature sensor 1220-3 may be located within about 2 cm of a location of the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312. The temperature sensor 1220-3 may also be located in a quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 that corresponds to a same quadrant of the battery pack 312 in which the integrated temperature sensor is located. This may ensure that at least one of the temperature sensors 1220 is located near the same portion of the battery pack 312 where the internal integrated temperature sensor is disposed. For example, the warmest portion of the battery pack 312 may be near the charging circuitry of the battery pack 312 and the integrated temperature sensor. Therefore, it may be advantageous to position at least one of the temperature sensors 1220 near the same location of the integrated temperature sensor to more closely match the temperature measurements made by the integrated temperature sensor.

[0100] FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram 1300 of an electronic system for monitoring the temperature of a battery pack, according to some embodiments. As described above, the battery pack 1310 may be part of a sealed or integrated package that includes a circuit board 1314 and an integrated temperature sensor 1312, and as depicted above in FIG. 11. The circuit board may communicate with other electronics in the thermostat through a wire connector that is coupled to the printed circuit board 1304 of the smart home device. A power management IC 1308 may be mounted to the printed circuit board 1304 of the smart home device. The power management IC 1308 may be configured to monitor and regulate the power usage of various components on the smart home device. For example, as described above, the battery pack 1310 may be alternately charged and / or discharged based on the power stealing current and instantaneous power usage of the smart home device. The power management IC 1308 may therefore manage the charging and discharging cycles of the battery pack 1310. This may include monitoring the temperature of the integrated temperature sensor 1312 to determine whether it is safe or efficient to charge the battery pack 1310.

[0101] Additionally, the power management IC 1308 may manage interactions with the integrated temperature sensor 1312. For example, the power management IC 1308 may provide a current or voltage source signal to the circuit board 1314 and the integrated temperature sensor 1312. The analog value returned from the circuit board 1314 may be indicative of a resistance of the integrated temperature sensor 1312. The power management IC 1308 may digitize this value and store the value in a register.

[0102] A processor 1306 may be one of a plurality of processors on the smart home device. For example, some devices may include a main processor and other sub-processors, such as a microcontroller or microprocessor on a back plate that is mounted to the wall. Therefore, the processor 1306 should be understood to include any combination of processors that may be present on the smart home device. The processor 1306 may interact with the power management IC 1308 to retrieve values stored in various registers by the power management IC 1308. In particular, the processor 1306 may retrieve the value from the register that indicates the resistance of the integrated temperature sensor 1312. The processor 1306 may then convert the retrieved value into a temperature using a lookup table, formula, or other means of correlating the resistance of the temperature sensor 1312 into a temperature value.

[0103] The processor 1306 may also poll other sensors on the smart home device. For example, the processor 1306 may periodically poll the temperature sensors 1302 to retrieve and process temperature measurements. The temperature sensor 1302 may be polled and / or the temperature from the integrated temperature sensor 1312 may be retrieved every 120 seconds, every 90 seconds, 60 seconds, every 45 seconds, every 30 seconds, every 20 seconds, every 15 seconds, every 5 seconds, or as needed to provide a rapid response to changing temperature conditions. These temperatures may be logged by the processor 1306. These temperatures may also be processed using the algorithms described below to determine whether the integrated temperature sensor 1312 of the battery pack 1310 is operating properly.

[0104] FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart of a method 1400 for detecting faulty battery pack temperature sensors, according to some embodiments. This method 1400 may be carried out by a smart home device, such as the thermostat described herein. The operations of this method 1400 may be stored as instructions on one or more memory devices and read by one or more processors. When executed by the one or more processors, these instructions may cause the one or more processors to perform the operations described below. For example, the one or more processors of the thermostat may be programmed or configured to perform the following operations.

[0105] The method may include receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack (1402). The battery pack may be disposed inside the housing of the thermostat as described above. More specifically, the battery pack may include a battery cell, a printed circuit board, and an integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack. This internal or integrated temperature sensor may be distinguished from temperature sensors that are external to the battery pack but still inside the housing of the thermostat. Note that other battery-powered smart home devices may also be used in place of a thermostat. The term “first” temperature measurement is used merely to distinguish this temperature measurement from other temperature measurements recited below. The terms “first” and “second” are not meant to imply order, importance, or any other characteristic of the temperature measurements.

[0106] The method may also include receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack (1404). These additional temperature sensors may be distributed around a printed circuit board or other areas of the internal environment of the thermostat. For example, the temperature sensors may be spaced apart in different quadrants or aligned in close proximity with the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. The one or more temperature sensors may include a single temperature sensor, two temperature sensors, three temperature sensors, or more. The first temperature measurement in the second temperature measurement may be retrieved or polled from the sensors by various processors or ICs on the smart home device periodically. For example, temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor and from the temperature measurements from the external sensors may be retrieved at approximately the same time such that they may be accurately compared.

[0107] Optionally, the method may include processing the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors (1406). As described above, the different locations of the external sensors compared to the integrated sensor will likely cause a difference in temperature readings. For example, the integrated temperature sensor may provide a more accurate measurement of the battery temperature since it is directly adjacent (or even contacting) a portion of the battery cell where the battery is hottest during charging cycles. Therefore, a corresponding measurement from one of the external temperature sensors that is within about 1 cm to about 4 cm of the integrated temperature sensor may return a temperature that is lower than that of the integrated temperature sensor. Other self heating effects on the internal environment of the smart home device may also affect the external temperature sensors differently.

[0108] To compensate for the effect of the different locations of the temperature sensors on the temperature measurements, some embodiments may process the temperature measurements from the one or more temperature sensors. For example, an algorithm operating on the smart home device may be configured to use a trained model to accept the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors to estimate an ambient temperature outside of the thermostat. Similarly, this algorithm may use another trained model that accepts the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors to estimate a temperature of the battery. This model may be trained using simulation data or test data as the battery is charged or discharged in different environments. Other embodiments may add an offset to the external temperature measurements to compensate for the distance from these temperature sensors to the battery pack. For example, some embodiments may add 10° C. to temperature measurements from the external temperature sensor closest to the integrated temperature sensor.

[0109] Some embodiments may also calibrate the temperature offset or model parameters used above to estimate the temperature of the battery from the external temperature sensors. This calibration process may take place during an initial learning period of the thermostat after installation, during installation, during a test interval after manufacturing, or during other time intervals. This may establish a baseline differential between the different temperature sensor readings as the battery charges and discharges. This calibrated baseline may also be influenced by different functions that are active on the smart home device. For example, the model may also receive as an input a list of functions that are currently active on the smart home device, such as Wi-Fi transmission, edge routing, active user interfaces, and so forth. These may influence the internal heating of the thermostat and adjust the offset or model parameters used to process the external temperature measurements.

[0110] The method may additionally include comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement (1408). This comparison may directly compare the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors and integrated temperature sensor. This comparison may also directly compare the processed temperature sensor measurements that incorporate an offset or represent an estimated temperature of the battery pack. This comparison may be used to determine whether the embedded temperature is malfunctioning or not. The comparison may determine whether there is a sufficient difference between the two temperature measurements (1410). For example, a threshold or tolerance may be established such that the two temperatures do not need to match exactly. As described above, when raw temperature measurements are used, this threshold or tolerance may be calibrated as a threshold difference normally observed during charging and / or discharging cycles of the battery pack. If the temperature measurements are processed to generate an estimated temperature of the battery pack, then a smaller differential or threshold may be used. For example, the comparison may determine whether there is a difference within a threshold of about 2° C., about 5° C., about 7° C., about 10° C., about 12° C., or less than any of these values.

[0111] If there is more than one occurrence of at least a threshold difference between the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement, then a fault counter may be incremented (1412). Some embodiments may require at least two consecutive comparisons between temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack and the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. Other embodiments may require three, four, or more consecutive false detections before taking action. Some embodiments need not require that these faults be consecutive, but merely within a predetermined time window of each other. For example, two faults within one minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, and so forth may indicate a malfunction, even when non-consecutive. The fault counter may be reset if one or more comparisons occur without detecting a sufficient difference greater than the threshold (1419). Finally, the fault counter may be compared to a threshold number representing a required number of faults to determine whether the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack is malfunctioning (1414). If not, the smart home device may continue using the integrated temperature sensor until at least the next measurement (1418). However, if a sufficient number of faults are detected, the system may determine that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning (1416).

[0112] FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method 1500 for compensating for faulty battery pack temperature sensors in smart home devices, according to some embodiments. A number of different actions may be taken by the smart home device in response to determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning (1502). Each of these different response options may be enabled in settings of the smart home device. Each of these options may be taken in order as illustrated in the flowchart of method 1500. However, the particular order illustrated in FIG. 15 is provided only by way of example and is not meant to be limiting. These operations may be reordered as needed in different embodiments. Additionally, these particular response operations are also only provided as examples. Some embodiments may encompass any type of remedial actions may be taken by the smart home device to compensate for a malfunctioning integrated temperature sensor. Each of these operations may be considered changing an operational state of the smart home device. For example, these operations may change a mode of the device, alter a charge / discharge cycle of the battery on the device, send messages to systems outside of the device, discontinue operation of the device, and so forth.

[0113] In some embodiments, a determination (1504) may be made as to whether the thermostat may continue operating using the external temperature sensors to monitor the battery (1505). For example, a thermostat may determine that the integrated temperature sensor on the battery may be disregarded when malfunctioning. Instead, temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors may be used by the power management IC and / or other processors to continue charging / discharging the battery as normal. Therefore, the smart home device may continue operating on a full or reduced level during subsequent charging cycles using temperature measurements from the one or more temperature sensors that are disposed outside of the battery pack as a substitute.

[0114] Alternatively or additionally, a determination (1506) may be made as to whether the smart home device should transition into a low-power or emergency mode (1507). For example, a thermostat may have a “blizzard” or other emergency mode that maintains only necessary operating systems and functionalities to keep the home heated above a freezing level. This may prevent pipes and other systems in the home from freezing and being damaged. Instead of continuing to operate using the external temperature sensors, the system may instead discontinue charging the battery, enter the low-power state, and function as long as possible to maintain these emergency systems and responses. The device may also continue to charge the battery as a minimal level using the external temperature readings as a substitute in some embodiments.

[0115] Alternatively or additionally, a determination (1508) may be made as to whether the smart home device should shut down (1509). For example, instead of continuing to operate or using external temperature sensors, the smart home device may instead shut down and discontinue any operations that interact with the HVAC system. For example, the smart home device may open any relays or switches that activate HVAC functions and disregard any future scheduled HVAC functions. This may be done to prevent any charging or discharging of the battery without the integrated temperature sensor functionality.

[0116] Alternatively or additionally, a determination (1510) may be made as to how outside users and / or systems should be alerted to the malfunctioning integrated temperature sensor (1511). In some embodiments, the smart home device may send an alert to an app operating on a user device. For example, a “Home” app operating on the smart phone may be associated with various smart home devices in the smart home environment. This app may be configured to receive alerts from various smart home devices and provide notifications to the user. Some embodiments may generate an alert or notification on a user interface of the smart home device itself. For example, a thermostat may include an active display that may be illuminated to draw attention to a notification that a malfunction has occurred. Some embodiments may also send a notification to a remote server. For example, a remote server for a manufacturer of the smart home device may monitor the operation of the device, log data from the device, and provide information to an associated user account online. A notification may be sent to this remote server and / or the manufacturer alerting customer service or other services that may be configured to resolve the malfunctioning sensor problem.

[0117] FIG. 16 illustrates an example smart home environment 1600, according to some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 16, the smart home environment 1600 includes a structure 1650 (e.g., a house, daycare, office building, apartment, condominium, garage, or mobile home) with various integrated devices. It will be appreciated that devices may also be integrated into a smart home environment 1600 that does not include an entire structure 1650, such as an apartment, condominium or office space. Further, the smart home environment 1600 may control and / or be coupled to devices outside of the actual structure 1650. Indeed, several devices in the smart home environment 1600 need not be physically within the structure 1650 (e.g., although not shown, a pool heater, an irrigation system, and the like).

[0118] The term “smart home environment” may refer to smart environments for homes such as a single-family house, but the scope of the present teachings is not so limited. The present teachings are also applicable, without limitation, to duplexes, townhomes, multi-unit apartment buildings, hotels, retail stores, office buildings, industrial buildings, and more generally any living space or workspace. Similarly, while the terms user, customer, installer, homeowner, occupant, guest, tenant, landlord, repair person, and the like may be used to refer to the person or persons acting in the context of some particular situations described herein, these references do not limit the scope of the present teachings with respect to the person or persons who are performing such actions. Thus, for example, the terms user, customer, purchaser, installer, subscriber, and homeowner may often refer to the same person in the case of a single-family residential dwelling, because the head of the household is often the person who makes the purchasing decision, buys the unit, and installs and configures the unit, and is also one of the users of the unit. However, in other scenarios, such as a landlord-tenant environment, the customer may be the landlord with respect to purchasing the unit, the installer may be a local apartment supervisor, a first user may be the tenant, and a second user may again be the landlord with respect to remote control functionality. While the identity of the person performing the action may be germane to a particular advantage provided by one or more of the implementations, such identity should not be construed in the descriptions that follow as necessarily limiting the scope of the present teachings to those particular individuals having those particular identities.

[0119] The depicted structure 1650 includes a plurality of rooms 1652, separated at least partly from each other via walls 1654. The walls 1654 may include interior walls or exterior walls. Each room may further include a floor 1656 and a ceiling 1658. Devices may be mounted on, integrated with and / or supported by a wall 1654, floor 1656, or ceiling 1658.

[0120] In some implementations, the integrated devices of the smart home environment 1600 include intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices that integrate seamlessly with each other in a smart home network and / or with a central server or a cloud-computing system to provide a variety of useful smart home functions. The smart home environment 1600 may include, among other things, one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected thermostats 1602 (hereinafter referred to as “smart thermostats 1602”), hazard detection units 1604 (hereinafter referred to as “smart hazard detectors 1604”), entryway interface devices 1606 and 1620, and alarm systems 1622 (hereinafter referred to as “smart alarm systems 1622”).

[0121] A smart thermostat may detect ambient climate characteristics (e.g., temperature and / or humidity) and control an HVAC system 1603 accordingly. For example, a respective smart thermostat includes an ambient temperature sensor. In some implementations, a respective smart thermostat also includes one or more sensors (e.g., an ambient light sensor and / or a radar sensor) that may be used to control an operation of the respective smart thermostat. For example, based on radar data acquired from a radar sensor included in the smart thermostat and an ambient light level measure by an ambient light sensor included in the smart thermostat, as described above, a display of the smart thermostat may be controlled.

[0122] A smart hazard detector may detect smoke, carbon monoxide, and / or some other hazard present in the environment. The one or more smart hazard detectors 1604 may include thermal radiation sensors directed at respective heat sources (e.g., a stove, oven, other appliances, a fireplace, etc.). For example, a smart hazard detector 1604 in a kitchen 1653 includes a thermal radiation sensor directed at a network-connected appliance 1612. A thermal radiation sensor may determine the temperature of the respective heat source (or a portion thereof) at which it is directed and may provide corresponding black-body radiation data as output.

[0123] The smart doorbell 1606 and / or the smart door lock 1620 may detect a person's approach to or departure from a location (e.g., an outer door), control doorbell / door locking functionality (e.g., receive user inputs from a portable electronic device 1666 to actuate the bolt of the smart door lock 1620), announce a person's approach or departure via audio or visual means, and / or control settings on a security system (e.g., to activate or deactivate the security system when occupants go and come). In some implementations, the smart doorbell 1606 includes a camera, and, therefore, is also called “doorbell camera 1606” in this document.

[0124] The smart alarm system 1622 may detect the presence of an individual within close proximity (e.g., using built-in IR sensors), sound an alarm (e.g., through a built-in speaker, or by sending commands to one or more external speakers), and send notifications to entities or users within / outside of the smart home environment 1600. In some implementations, the smart alarm system 1622 also includes one or more input devices or sensors (e.g., keypad, biometric scanner, NFC transceiver, microphone) for verifying the identity of a user, and one or more output devices (e.g., display, speaker). In some implementations, the smart alarm system 1622 may also be set to an armed mode, such that detection of a trigger condition or event causes the alarm to be sounded unless a disarming action is performed.

[0125] In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 includes one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected wall switches 1608 (hereinafter referred to as “smart wall switches 1608”), along with one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected wall plug interfaces 1610 (hereinafter referred to as “smart wall plugs 1610”). The smart wall switches 1608 may detect ambient lighting conditions, detect room-occupancy states, and control a power and / or dim state of one or more lights. In some instances, smart wall switches 1608 may also control a power state or speed of a fan, such as a ceiling fan. The smart wall plugs 1610 may detect occupancy of a room or enclosure and control the supply of power to one or more wall plugs (e.g., such that power is not supplied to the plug if nobody is at home).

[0126] In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 of FIG. 16 includes a plurality of intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected appliances 1612 (hereinafter referred to as “smart appliances 1612”), such as refrigerators, stoves, ovens, televisions, washers, dryers, lights, stereos, intercom systems, wall clock, garage-door openers, floor fans, ceiling fans, wall air conditioners, pool heaters, irrigation systems, security systems, space heaters, window AC units, motorized duct vents, and so forth. In some implementations, when plugged in, an appliance may announce itself to the smart home network, such as by indicating what type of appliance it is, and it may automatically integrate with the controls of the smart home. Such communication by the appliance to the smart home may be facilitated by either a wired or wireless communication protocol. The smart home may also include a variety of non-communicating legacy appliances 1640, such as old conventional washer / dryers, refrigerators, and the like, which may be controlled by smart wall plugs 1610. The smart home environment 1600 may further include a variety of partially communicating legacy appliances 1642, such as infrared (“IR”) controlled wall air conditioners or other IR-controlled devices, which may be controlled by IR signals provided by the smart hazard detectors 1604 or the smart wall switches 1608.

[0127] In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 includes one or more network-connected cameras 1618 that are configured to provide video monitoring and security in the smart home environment 1600. Cameras 1618 may be mounted in a location, such as indoors and to a wall or can be moveable and placed on a surface. Various embodiments of cameras 1618 may be installed indoors or outdoors. Cameras 1618 may be used to determine occupancy of the structure 1650 and / or particular rooms 1652 in the structure 1650, and thus may act as occupancy sensors. For example, video captured by the cameras 1618 may be processed to identify the presence of an occupant in the structure 1650 (e.g., in a particular room). Specific individuals may be identified based, for example, on their appearance (e.g., height, face) and / or movement (e.g., their walk / gait). Cameras 1618 may additionally include one or more sensors (e.g., IR sensors, motion detectors), input devices (e.g., microphone for capturing audio), and output devices (e.g., speaker for outputting audio). In some implementations, the cameras 1618 are each configured to operate in a day mode and in a low-light mode (e.g., a night mode). In some implementations, the cameras 1618 each include one or more IR illuminators for providing illumination while the camera is operating in the low-light mode. In some implementations, the cameras 1618 include one or more outdoor cameras. In some implementations, the outdoor cameras include additional features and / or components such as weatherproofing and / or solar ray compensation.

[0128] The smart home environment 1600 may additionally or alternatively include one or more other occupancy sensors (e.g., the smart doorbell 1606, smart door locks 1620, touch screens, IR sensors, microphones, ambient light sensors, motion detectors, smart nightlights 1670, etc.). In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 includes radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers (e.g., in each room or a portion thereof) that determine occupancy based on RFID tags located on or embedded in occupants. For example, RFID readers may be integrated into the smart hazard detectors 1604.

[0129] Smart home assistant 1619 may have one or more microphones that continuously listen to an ambient environment. Smart home assistant 1619 may be able to respond to verbal queries posed by a user, possibly preceded by a triggering phrase. Smart home assistant 1619 may stream audio and, possibly, video if a camera is integrated as part of the device, to a cloud-based server system 1664 (which represents an embodiment of cloud-based server system 150 of FIG. 1). Smart home assistant 1619 may be a smart device through which non-auditory discomfort alerts may be output and / or an audio stream from the streaming video camera can be output.

[0130] By virtue of network connectivity, one or more of the smart-home devices may further allow a user to interact with the device even if the user is not proximate to the device. For example, a user may communicate with a device using a computer (e.g., a desktop computer, laptop computer, or tablet) or another portable electronic device 1666 (e.g., a mobile phone, such as a smart phone). A webpage or application may be configured to receive communications from the user and control the device based on the communications and / or to present information about the device's operation to the user. For example, the user may view a current set point temperature for a device (e.g., a stove) and adjust it using a computer. The user may be in the structure during this remote communication or outside the structure.

[0131] As discussed above, users may control smart devices in the smart home environment 1600 using a network-connected computer or portable electronic device 1666. In some examples, some or all of the occupants (e.g., individuals who live in the home) may register their portable electronic device 1666 with the smart home environment 1600. Such registration may be made at a central server to authenticate the occupant and / or the device as being associated with the home and to give permission to the occupant to use the device to control the smart devices in the home. An occupant may use their registered portable electronic device 1666 to remotely control the smart devices of the home, such as when the occupant is at work or on vacation. The occupant may also use their registered device to control the smart devices when the occupant is actually located inside the home, such as when the occupant is sitting on a couch inside the home. It should be appreciated that instead of or in addition to registering portable electronic devices 1666, the smart home environment 1600 may make inferences about which individuals live in the home and are therefore occupants and which portable electronic devices 1666 are associated with those individuals. As such, the smart home environment may “learn” who is an occupant and permit the portable electronic devices 1666 associated with those individuals to control the smart devices of the home.

[0132] In some implementations, in addition to containing processing and sensing capabilities, smart thermostat 1602, smart hazard detector 1604, smart doorbell 1606, smart wall switch 1608, smart wall plug 1610, network-connected appliances 1612, cameras 1618, smart home assistant 1619, smart door lock 1620, and / or smart alarm system 1622 (collectively referred to as “the smart-home devices”) are capable of data communications and information sharing with other smart devices, a central server or cloud-computing system, and / or other devices that are network-connected. Data communications may be carried out using any of a variety of custom or standard wireless protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.15.4, Wi-Fi, Matter, ZigBee, 3LoWPAN, Thread, Z-Wave, Bluetooth Smart, ISA100.5A, WirelessHART, MiWi, etc.) and / or any of a variety of custom or standard wired protocols (e.g., Ethernet, HomePlug, etc.), or any other suitable communication protocol, including communication protocols not yet developed as of the filing date of this document.

[0133] In some implementations, the smart devices serve as wireless or wired repeaters. In some implementations, a first one of the smart devices communicates with a second one of the smart devices via a wireless router. The smart devices may further communicate with each other via a connection (e.g., network interface 1660) to a network, such as the Internet. Through the Internet, the smart devices may communicate with a cloud-based server system 1664 (also called a cloud-based server system, central server system, and / or a cloud-computing system herein). Cloud-based server system 1664 may be associated with a manufacturer, support entity, or service provider associated with the smart device(s). In some implementations, a user is able to contact customer support using a smart device itself rather than needing to use other communication means, such as a telephone or Internet-connected computer. In some implementations, software updates are automatically sent from cloud-based server system 1664 to smart devices (e.g., when available, when purchased, or at routine intervals).

[0134] In some implementations, the network interface 1660 includes a conventional network device (e.g., a router), and the smart home environment 1600 of FIG. 16 includes a hub device 1680 that is communicatively coupled to the network(s) 1662 directly or via the network interface 1660. The hub device 1680 is further communicatively coupled to one or more of the above intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices (e.g., smart devices of the smart home environment 1600). Each of these smart devices optionally communicates with the hub device 1680 using one or more radio communication networks available at least in the smart home environment 1600 (e.g., Matter, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Insteon, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other radio communication networks). In some implementations, the hub device 1680 and devices coupled with / to the hub device can be controlled and / or interacted with via an application running on a smart phone, household controller, laptop, tablet computer, game console or similar electronic device. In some implementations, a user of such a controller application can view the status of the hub device or coupled smart devices, configure the hub device to interoperate with smart devices newly introduced to the home network, commission new smart devices, and adjust or view settings of connected smart devices, etc. In some implementations the hub device extends capabilities of low capability smart devices to match capabilities of the highly capable smart devices of the same type, integrates functionality of multiple different device types—even across different communication protocols—and is configured to streamline adding of new devices and commissioning of the hub device. In some implementations, hub device 1680 further includes a local storage device for storing data related to, or output by, smart devices of smart home environment 1600. In some implementations, the data includes one or more of: video data output by a camera device, metadata output by a smart device, settings information for a smart device, usage logs for a smart device, and the like.

[0135] In some implementations, smart home environment 1600 includes a local storage device 1690 for storing data related to, or output by, smart devices of smart home environment 1600. In some implementations, the data includes one or more of: video data output by a camera device (e.g., cameras 1618 or smart doorbell 1606), metadata output by a smart device, settings information for a smart device, usage logs for a smart device, and the like. In some implementations, local storage device 1690 is communicatively coupled to one or more smart devices via a smart home network. In some implementations, local storage device 1690 is selectively coupled to one or more smart devices via a wired and / or wireless communication network. In some implementations, local storage device 1690 is used to store video data when external network conditions are poor. For example, local storage device 1690 is used when an encoding bitrate of cameras 1618 exceeds the available bandwidth of the external network (e.g., network(s) 1662). In some implementations, local storage device 1690 temporarily stores video data from one or more cameras (e.g., cameras 1618) prior to transferring the video data to a server system (e.g., cloud-based server system 1664).

[0136] Further included and illustrated in the exemplary smart home environment 1600 of FIG. 16 are service robots 1668, each configured to carry out, in an autonomous manner, any of a variety of household tasks. For some embodiments, the service robots 1668 can be respectively configured to perform floor sweeping, floor washing, etc.

[0137] In some embodiments, a service robot may follow a person from room to room and position itself such that the person can be monitored while in the room. The service robot may stop in a location within the room where it will likely be out of the way, but still has a relatively clear field-of-view of the room.

[0138] The systems and methods of the present disclosure may be implemented using hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof and may be implemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems. Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a system including a processing system that includes one or more processors. In some embodiments, the system includes a non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the system and / or the one or more processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and / or part or all of one or more processes disclosed herein. Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause the system and / or the one or more processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and / or part or all of one or more processes disclosed herein.

[0139] The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. Thus, it should be understood that although the present invention as claimed has been specifically disclosed by embodiments and optional features, modification, and variation of the concepts herein disclosed may be resorted to by those skilled in the art, and that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

[0140] Specific details are given in the following description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes, and other components may be shown as components in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

[0141] The above description of certain examples, including illustrated examples, has been presented only for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications, adaptations, and uses thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure. For instance, any examples described herein can be combined with any other examples.

[0142] As used herein, the terms “about” or “approximately” or “substantially” may be interpreted as being within a range that would be expected by one having ordinary skill in the art in light of the specification.

[0143] In the foregoing description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that some embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form.

[0144] The foregoing description provides exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the foregoing description of various embodiments will provide an enabling disclosure for implementing at least one embodiment. It should be understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of some embodiments as set forth in the appended claims.

[0145] Specific details are given in the foregoing description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes, and other components may have been shown as components in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may have been shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

[0146] Also, it is noted that individual embodiments may have been described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may have described the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in a figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination can correspond to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.

[0147] The term “computer-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and various other mediums capable of storing, containing, or carrying instruction(s) and / or data. A code segment or machine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and / or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc., may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

[0148] Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium. A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks.

[0149] In the foregoing specification, features are described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, but it should be recognized that not all embodiments are limited thereto. Various features and aspects of some embodiments may be used individually or jointly. Further, embodiments can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the specification. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

[0150] Additionally, for the purposes of illustration, methods were described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different order than that described. It should also be appreciated that the methods described above may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor or logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the methods. These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by a combination of hardware and software.

Examples

Embodiment Construction

[0029]A battery pack may use an integrated temperature sensor to monitor a temperature of a battery cell during charging and discharging. However, if the integrated temperature sensor fails, a smart home device may continue to charge and discharge the battery outside of its approved temperature range. This may lead to both safety and performance concerns. To identify a failed integrated temperature sensor, the smart home device may leverage any additional temperature sensors that are located in the smart home device. These temperature sensors may be used to externally measure or estimate the battery temperature. If a sufficient deviation between the measurements of these external temperature sensors and the measurements from the integrated temperature sensor is detected, the smart home device may use the comparison of these temperature measurements to determine that the integrated temperature sensor may be malfunctioning. The smart home device may then change its operational state i...

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] This disclosure generally describes methods of detecting faults in smart home devices. More specifically, this disclosure describes using temperature sensor measurements to detect battery faults.BACKGROUND

[0002] Smart home devices are continually trending towards low-power designs while still providing rich feature sets and complex algorithmic operations. The smart home devices may include environmental control devices, hazard detectors, security systems, cameras, doorbells, and so forth. For example, smart thermostats may provide control of air handling systems, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. In such systems, control of the air handling is often effectuated based on an end user's interactions with a control application that is executing on the end user's electronic device. Cloud-based servers often facilitate communication between these electronic devices and the air handling systems. While remote control of air handling systems is convenient, it may be desirable to provide a feature-rich means to effectuate local control of these air handling systems. Control devices, such as thermostats, may include a variety of sensors that may be used for monitoring environmental conditions within the home.

[0003] However, as smart home devices become more complex and become more integrated into the smart home environment, these devices are often tasked with performing many high-power functionalities. These functionalities may include Wi-Fi communication routing, occupancy detection, complex displays, and learning algorithms that require extensive power consumption. In order to provide sufficient energy for these advanced functionalities, many smart home devices utilize rechargeable batteries, such as lithium batteries, that are located within the housing of the smart home device. Careful monitoring of these rechargeable batteries is often necessary to ensure optimum performance and safety. Therefore, improvements are needed in this technology area.SUMMARY

[0004] In some embodiments, a thermostat may include a battery pack disposed inside of a housing of the thermostat. The battery pack may include a battery cell and an integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack. The thermostat may also include one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack. The thermostat may additionally include one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat and one or more processors that are programmed to perform various operations. The operations may include receiving a first temperature measurement from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack; receiving a second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack; comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement; and determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement.

[0005] In some embodiments, a method of detecting faulty battery pack temperature sensors may include receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of a battery pack. The battery pack may be disposed inside of a housing of a thermostat, and the battery pack may include a battery cell and the integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack. The method may also include receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack. The method may additionally include comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement; and determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement.

[0006] In some embodiments, a method of compensating for faulty battery pack temperature sensors in smart home devices may include receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of a battery pack of the smart home device; receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of a housing of a smart home device and outside of the battery pack; determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement; and changing an operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack based on determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning.

[0007] In any embodiments, any and all of the following features may be implemented in any combination and without limitation. The integrated temperature sensor and the battery cell are disposed within a packaging of the battery pack, and the battery pack comprises a wire connector that extends out of the packaging of the battery pack to communicate with the integrated temperature sensor. The integrated temperature sensor may include a Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistor for which resistance decreases with increasing temperature. The integrated temperature sensor may be read by a power management integrated circuit as an analog value and stored in a register of the power management integrated circuit, and the power management integrated circuit may provide the value to a processor of the thermostat to determine whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning. The one or more temperature sensors may be disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat are mounted to a printed circuit board that is parallel with and proximate to the battery pack. The one or more temperature sensors may be mounted to the printed circuit board in locations corresponding to different quadrants of the battery pack. At least one of the one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat may be disposed proximate to the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning may be based at least in part on determining whether there is more than a threshold difference between the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement. The threshold difference may be calibrated during prior charging and / or discharging cycles of the battery pack. The method / operations may also include estimating a temperature of the battery pack based on the second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. The method / operations may also include estimating a temperature of an ambient temperature of an environment outside of the housing of the thermostat using the second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. Determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning may require at least two consecutive comparisons between temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack and the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. The method / operations may also include regulating charging of the battery cell based on temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include preventing the battery pack from charging after determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include transitioning the smart home device to a low power or emergency mode. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include charging the battery pack during subsequent charging cycles using temperature measurements from the one or more temperature sensors disposed outside of the battery pack instead of the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include causing the smart home device to shut down. Changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack may include sending an alert to an app on a user device, displaying an alert on a user interface of the smart home device, or sending an alert to a remote server that monitors the smart home device.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] A further understanding of the nature and advantages of various embodiments may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. In some instances, a sub-label is associated with a reference numeral to denote one of multiple similar components. When reference is made to a reference numeral without specification to an existing sub-label, it is intended to refer to all such multiple similar components.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a smart thermostat system.

[0010] FIG. 2A is an isometric view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat.

[0011] FIG. 2B is a front view of an embodiment of smart thermostat.

[0012] FIG. 2C is a side view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat.

[0013] FIG. 3 is an exploded front isometric view of an embodiment of smart thermostat.

[0014] FIG. 4 is an exploded rear isometric view of smart thermostat.

[0015] FIG. 5A illustrates a front view of a smart thermostat backplate.

[0016] FIG. 5B illustrates a side view of a smart thermostat backplate.

[0017] FIG. 5C is an exploded front isometric view of the smart thermostat backplate.

[0018] FIG. 6 is an exploded front view of various embodiments of lens assembly.

[0019] FIG. 7 is a cross section of an embodiment of smart thermostat.

[0020] FIG. 8 is an enlarged cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat.

[0021] FIG. 9 is clip for use with a smart thermostat.

[0022] FIG. 10 is an isometric cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat.

[0023] FIG. 11 illustrates a battery pack for a smart home device, according to some embodiments.

[0024] FIG. 12 illustrates a schematic of a battery pack in a smart home device with additional temperature sensors located proximate to the battery pack, according to some embodiments.

[0025] FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic system for monitoring the temperature of a battery pack, according to some embodiments.

[0026] FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart of a method for detecting faulty battery pack temperature sensors, according to some embodiments.

[0027] FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method for compensating for faulty battery pack temperature sensors in smart home devices, according to some embodiments.

[0028] FIG. 16 illustrates an example smart home environment.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] A battery pack may use an integrated temperature sensor to monitor a temperature of a battery cell during charging and discharging. However, if the integrated temperature sensor fails, a smart home device may continue to charge and discharge the battery outside of its approved temperature range. This may lead to both safety and performance concerns. To identify a failed integrated temperature sensor, the smart home device may leverage any additional temperature sensors that are located in the smart home device. These temperature sensors may be used to externally measure or estimate the battery temperature. If a sufficient deviation between the measurements of these external temperature sensors and the measurements from the integrated temperature sensor is detected, the smart home device may use the comparison of these temperature measurements to determine that the integrated temperature sensor may be malfunctioning. The smart home device may then change its operational state in response to maintain performance and safety.

[0030] The techniques and systems described herein are compatible with many different smart home devices. However, in order to provide an enabling disclosure and at least one example of a smart home device, the following disclosure will describe a smart thermostat in detail. Additionally, the techniques and systems described below for powering a smart home device and selecting feature sets that are compatible with a particular power sourcing method are described using a thermostat as an example. However, it should be understood that these techniques and systems may also be applied to other smart home devices without limitation, including cameras, security systems, hazard detectors, door entry / doorbell systems, child monitoring systems, intercom systems, and so forth.

[0031] Thermostats that communicate via a network and allow end users to interact with a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (referred to herein as “HVAC system,”“HVAC systems,”“air handling system,” and “air management system”) from remote locations have become prevalent. Typically, an end user will use a control application that is executing on an electronic device such as a mobile phone to connect with and operate the thermostat and / or HVAC system. Such thermostats often include advanced features such as Internet or Wi-Fi connectivity, occupancy detection, home / away / vacation modes, indoor climate sensing, outdoor climate sensing, notifications, display of current weather conditions, learning modes, and others. Thermostats such as the foregoing and others can be referred to as smart thermostats.

[0032] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a smart thermostat system. Smart thermostat system 100A can include smart thermostat 110; backplate 120; HVAC system 12; wall plate 130; network 140; cloud-based server system 150; and computerized device 160. Smart thermostat 110 represents embodiments of thermostats detailed herein. Smart thermostat 110 can include: electronic display 111; user interface 112; radar sensor 113; network interface 114; speaker 115; ambient light sensor 116; one or more temperature sensors 117; HVAC interface 118; processing system 119; housing 121; and lens assembly 122.

[0033] Electronic display 111 may be visible through the lens assembly 122. In some embodiments, electronic display 111 is only visible when electronic display 111 is at least partially illuminated. In some embodiments, electronic display 111 is not a touch screen which can allow the electronic display 111 to serve as a user interface to receive input. If a touch sensor, the electronic display 111 may allow one or more gestures, including tap and swipe gestures, to be detected.

[0034] User interface 112 can be various forms of input devices through which a user can provide input to smart thermostat 110. In some embodiments herein, an outer rotatable ring is present as part of user interface 112. The ring can be rotated by a user clockwise and counterclockwise in order to provide input. The ring can be infinitely rotatable in either direction, thus allowing a user to scroll or otherwise navigate user interface menus. The ring (and, possibly, lens assembly 122) can be pressed inward (toward the rear of smart thermostat 110) to function as a “click” or to make a selection. The outer rotatable ring can, for example, allow the user to make temperature target adjustments. By rotating the outer ring clockwise, the target temperature can be increased, and by rotating the outer ring counterclockwise, the target temperature can be decreased. As another example, the ring can be rotated to highlight displayed icons; an inward click can be provided by a user to select a particular icon.

[0035] Radar sensor 113 may be a single integrated circuit (IC) that can emit radio waves, receive reflected radio waves, and output radar data indicative of the received reflected radio waves. Radar sensor 113 may be configured to output radio waves into the ambient environment in front of electronic display 111 of the smart thermostat 110. The radar sensor 113 may emit radio waves and receive reflected radio waves through the lens assembly 122. The radar sensor 113 may include one or more antennas, one or more radio frequency (RF) emitters, and one or more RF receivers. The radar sensor 113 may be configured to operate as frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. The radar sensor 113 may emit chirps of radar that sweep from a first frequency to a second frequency (e.g., in the form of a saw tooth waveform). Using receive-side beam-steering (e.g., using multiple receiving antennas), certain regions may be targeted for sensing the presence of objects and / or people. The output of the radar sensor 113, which can be a radar data stream, may be analyzed using the processing system 119. The radar sensor 113 and the processing system 119 may be referred to hereinafter as radar subsystem.

[0036] Network interface 114 may be used to communicate with one or more wired or wireless networks. Network interface 114 may communicate with a wireless local area network, such as a Wi-Fi network. Additional or alternative network interfaces may also be present. For example, smart thermostat 110 may be able to communicate with a user device directly, such as using Bluetooth or some other device-to-device short-range wireless communication protocol. Smart thermostat 110 may be able to communicate via a mesh network with various other home automation devices such as using Thread or Matter. Mesh networks may use relatively less power compared to wireless local area network-based communication, such as Wi-Fi. In some embodiments, smart thermostat 110 can serve as an edge router that translates communications between a mesh network and a wireless local area network, such as a Wi-Fi network. In some embodiments, a wired network interface may be present, such as to allow communication with a local area network (LAN). One or more direct wireless communication interfaces may also be present, such as to enable direct communication with a remote temperature sensor installed in a different housing external and distinct from housing 121. The evolution of wireless communication to fifth generation (5G) and sixth generation (6G) standards and technologies provides greater throughput with lower latency which enhances mobile broadband services. 5G and 6G technologies also provide new classes of services, over control and data channels, for vehicular networking (V2X), fixed wireless broadband, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart thermostat 110 may include one or more wireless interfaces that can communicate using 5G and / or 6G networks.

[0037] Speaker 115 can be used to output audio. Speaker 115 may be used to output beeps, clicks, synthesized speech, or other audible sounds, such as in response to the detection of user input via user interface 112.

[0038] Ambient light sensor 116 may sense the amount of light present in the environment of smart thermostat 110. Measurements made by ambient light sensor 116 may be used to adjust the brightness of electronic display 111. In some embodiments, ambient light sensor 116 senses an amount of ambient light through lens assembly 122. Therefore, compensation for the reflectivity of lens assembly 122 may be made such that the ambient light levels are correctly determined via ambient light sensor 116. In some implementations, a light pipe is present between ambient light sensor 116 and lens assembly 122 such that, in a particular region of lens assembly 122, light that is transmitted through lens assembly 122, is directed to ambient light sensor 116, which may be mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB), such as a PCB to which processing system 119 is attached.

[0039] One or more temperature sensors 117, may be present within smart thermostat 110. The one or more temperature sensors 117 may be used to measure the ambient temperature in the environment of smart thermostat 110. One or more additional temperature sensors that are remote from smart thermostat 110 may additionally or alternatively be used to measure the temperature of the ambient environment.

[0040] Lens assembly 122 may have a transmissivity sufficient to allow illuminated portions of electronic display 111 to be viewed through lens assembly 122 from an exterior of smart thermostat 110 by a user. Lens assembly 122 may have a reflectivity sufficient such that portions of lens assembly 122 that are not illuminated from behind appear to have a mirrored effect to a user viewing a front of smart thermostat 110. Further detail regarding the lens assembly 122 are provided in relation to FIGS. 4-7.

[0041] HVAC interface 118 can include one or more interfaces that control whether a circuit involving various HVAC control wires that are connected either directly with smart thermostat 110 or with backplate 120 is completed. A heating system (e.g., furnace, boiler, heat pump), cooling system (e.g., air conditioner, heat pump), fan, or some combination thereof may be controlled via HVAC wires by opening and closing circuits that include the HVAC control wires. In some installations, one a heating system or cooling system is controlled by the smart thermostat 110; in other embodiments, the smart thermostat 110 may control both a heating system and a cooling system.

[0042] Processing system 119 can include one or more processors. Processing system 119 may include one or more special-purpose or general-purpose processors. Such special-purpose processors may include processors that are specifically designed to perform the functions detailed herein. Such special-purpose processors may be ASICs or FPGAs which are general-purpose components that are physically and electrically configured to perform the functions detailed herein. Such general-purpose processors may execute special-purpose software that is stored using one or more non-transitory processor-readable mediums, such as random access memory (RAM), flash memory, a hard disk drive (HDD), or a solid state drive (SSD) of smart thermostat 110.

[0043] Processing system 119 may output information for presentation to electronic display 111. Processing system 119 can receive information from the one or more temperature sensors 117, user interface 112, radar sensor 113, network interface 114, and ambient light sensor 116. Processing system 119 can perform bidirectional communication with network interface 114. Processing system 119 can output information to be output as sound to speaker 115. Processing system 119 can control the HVAC system 125 via HVAC interface 118.

[0044] Housing 121 may house and / or attach with all of the components of smart thermostat 110, either directly or via other components. For example, lens assembly 122 may adhere to the electronic display 111, which is attached with housing 121.

[0045] The smart thermostat 110 may be attached (and removed) from backplate 120. Some number of HVAC control wires may be attached with terminals or receptacles of backplate 120. Such HVAC control wires electrically connect backplate 120 with the HVAC system 125, which can include a heating system, cooling system, ventilation system, or some combination thereof. Backplate 120 can allow the smart thermostat 110 to be attached and removed from backplate 120 without affecting the electronic connections of the HVAC control wires with backplate 120. In other embodiments, such control wires are directly connected with smart thermostat 110. In some embodiments, wall plate 130 may additionally be installed between backplate 120 and a surface, such as a wall, such as for aesthetic reasons (e.g., cover an unsightly hole through which HVAC wires protrude from the wall).

[0046] Network 140 can include one or more wireless networks, wired networks, public networks, private networks, and / or mesh networks. A home wireless local area network (e.g., a Wi-Fi network) may be part of network 140. Network 140 can include the Internet. Network 140 can include a mesh network, which may include one or more other smart home devices, may be used to enable smart thermostat 110 to communicate with another network, such as a Wi-Fi network. Smart thermostat 110 may function as an edge router that translates communications from a relatively low power mesh network received from other devices to another form of network, such as a relatively higher power network, such as a Wi-Fi network.

[0047] Cloud-based server system 150 can maintain an account mapped to smart thermostat 110. Smart thermostat 110 may periodically or intermittently communicate with cloud-based server system 150 to determine whether setpoint or schedule changes have been made. A user may interact with smart thermostat 110 via computerized device 160, which may be a mobile device, smartphone, tablet computer, laptop computer, desktop computer, or some other form of computerized device that can communicate with cloud-based server system 150 via network 140 or can communicate directly with smart thermostat 110 (e.g., via Bluetooth or some other device-to-device communication protocol). A user can interact with an application executed on computerized device 160 to control or interact with smart thermostat 110.

[0048] FIG. 2A is an isometric view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat 200. Smart thermostat 200 can represent an embodiment of smart thermostat 110 of FIG. 1. In FIG. 2A, electronic display 202, located behind lens assembly 212, is active in displaying a setpoint temperature. The housing of smart thermostat 200 can define sidewall 208. Sidewall 208 may be generally cylindrical according to various embodiments. A diameter of the sidewall 208 may be smaller than a diameter of the electronic display 202 and ring 210 according to various embodiments and as illustrated in FIG. 2A. Ring 210 can function as detailed in relation to user interface 112. Either attached with housing 121 or attached with components connected with housing 121 is lens assembly 212. Lens assembly 212 may include a reflective layer having a reflectivity such that when the electronic display 202 is not illuminated, lens assembly 212 appears to be a mirror when viewed by a user.

[0049] In some embodiments, ring 210 is mounted to lens assembly 212. In other embodiments, ring 210 can be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise independent of lens assembly 212. In some embodiments, housing 121 includes a display frame (not visible in this view) that further supports electronic display 202 and lens assembly 212.

[0050] Electronic display 202 is housed behind lens assembly 212 such that, when illuminated, the portion of electronic display 202 that is illuminated is visible through lens assembly 212 by a user. In some embodiments, due to the reflectivity of lens assembly 212, an edge of electronic display 202 is not visible to a user regardless of whether electronic display 202 is illuminated, partially illuminated, or not illuminated. Therefore, the overall effect experienced by a user may be that lens assembly 212 appears as a mirror and portions of electronic display 202, when illuminated, are visible through lens assembly 212.

[0051] In various embodiments, around an axis perpendicular to the display face of electronic display 202, the ring 210 has an inner diameter and an outer diameter and both the inner diameter and the outer diameter of ring 210 are larger than a diameter of sidewall 208 of housing 121.

[0052] FIG. 2B is a front view of an embodiment of smart thermostat 200. When mounted on a wall or other surface, lens assembly 212 is opposite the portion of smart thermostat 200 that mounts to the wall or other surface. Therefore, when a user is facing mounted smart thermostat 200, lens assembly 212 is visible. Lens assembly 212 can form an uninterrupted circular surface with no gaps, holes, lens, or other discontinuities present on the outermost surface of lens assembly 212. Lens assembly 212 has sufficient transmissivity to allow light emitted by electronic display 202 located within housing 206 to be visible through lens assembly 212. Further, lens assembly 212 may have sufficient reflectivity such that a mirrored effect is present on portions of lens assembly 212 that are not currently being illuminated from behind by electronic display 202.

[0053] FIG. 2C is a side view of an embodiment of a smart thermostat. When smart thermostat 200 is mounted to a wall or other surface, sidewall 208 of housing 121 is visible. Around an axis 250, the ring 210 has an inner diameter Di and an outer diameter Do and both the inner diameter Di and the outer diameter De of the ring 210 are larger than a diameter Dh of sidewall 208 of housing 121. According to various embodiments, sidewall 208 of housing 121 can be generally cylindrical and can have a consistent diameter along a length thereof. Alternatively, a diameter of sidewall 208 can increase as a distance from lens assembly 212 increase.

[0054] In some embodiments, ring 210 has a smallest diameter at the rearmost portion of ring 210. Dr is indicative of the diameter of ring 210 where ring 210 meets sidewall 208. This arrangement can help facilitate a user's fingers reaching around ring 210, grasping ring 210, and rotating in either direction. In some embodiments, along axis 250, sidewall 208 may have a diameter of approximately Dr wherein ring 210 and sidewall 208 meet. In some embodiments, the diameter of sidewall 208 can increase as the distance from ring 210 increases.

[0055] FIG. 3 is an exploded front isometric view of an embodiment of smart thermostat 200. FIG. 4 is an exploded rear isometric view of smart thermostat 200. Viewing the components of the smart thermostat 200 left to right, lens assembly 212 forms an outermost domed surface of smart thermostat 200. Adjacent lens assembly 212 may be electronic display 202. Electronic display 202 may be a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or organic light emitting diode (OLED) display according to various embodiments. In at least some embodiments, one or more adhesives may be used to attach electronic display 202 with lens assembly 212. An exploded view of lens assembly 212 is provided in relation to FIG. 6.

[0056] According to at least some embodiments, electronic display 202 is supported by a display frame 302. Smart thermostat 200 further includes one or more antenna assemblies 304 for communicating with a network and / or other electronic devices. Antenna assembly 304 can be used for communicating with wireless local area networks (e.g., Wi-Fi), device-to-device communication (e.g., Bluetooth), and / or communicating with mesh networks (e.g., Thread). Smart thermostat 200 includes one or more sensor boards, such as sensor daughterboard 306. One or more temperature sensors may be installed on sensor daughterboard 306. Use of sensor daughterboard 306 can help isolate the one or more temperature sensors from heat generated by other components.

[0057] Smart thermostat 200 may further include clip 308 for coupling ring 210 and display frame 302 supporting electronic display 202. Clip 308 may act as an axial constraint for smart thermostat 200. In particular, clip 308 prevents electronic display 202, display frame 302, and ring 210 from decoupling from one another in the assembled configuration.

[0058] As shown in FIGS. 3-4, smart thermostat can include magnetic strip 310. According to various embodiments, ring 210 rotates relative to sidewall 208 of housing 206 and a backplate when smart thermostat 200 is mounted to a surface. In various embodiments, a sensor installed on a sensor board, such as sensor board 306 and magnetic strip 310 are used for detecting rotation of the ring 210 during use.

[0059] According to various embodiments, ring 210 is mounted to housing 206 such that ring 210 can be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise. Ring 210 may include polished stainless steel and a finish applied using physical vapor deposition (PVD). Ring 210 further advantageously provides an aesthetic appearance as the finish of the ring 210 appears seamless relative to lens assembly 212 having a mirrored effect.

[0060] Further internal components of smart thermostat 200 include battery 312 and battery adhesive 314. Battery 312 can be a secondary battery and can provide power to the various components of smart thermostat 200, including electronic display 202 and processing system 119. Battery adhesive 314 may be used to adhere battery 312 within housing 206 although the battery 312 (or any other components of the smart thermostat 200) may be secured within the housing 206 using other means. For example, various components may be secured using adhesives, screws, wires, clips, or the like.

[0061] Smart thermostat 200 includes processing system 316. According to some embodiments, processing system 316 is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) including various processing parts, memory, modems, etc. Processing system 316 may be in electric communication with one or more antennas present on antenna assembly 304, sensor board 306, electronic display 202, etc., for performing various functions of the smart thermostat 200 and outputting results based on user input (e.g., in response to the user rotating the ring 210 and / or user input via an external mobile device). Adjacent processing system 316 may be piezo sensor 317. Additional components of the processing system 316 or components that work with processing system 316 are also shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, multi-layer board (MLB) 318 may be provided for performing various functions of smart thermostat 200, in a manner that would be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art. In some embodiments, MLB 318 may include a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port for electrically coupling smart thermostat 200 to another electronic device for various updates, servicing, or the like. Various springs 319 for supporting components, flexes 321 for enabling flexible and high-density interconnects between printed circuit boards (PCBs), LCDs, etc., and additional links 323 may also be included in the internal components of smart thermostat 200.

[0062] Smart thermostat 200 may include more or fewer components than those shown in FIGS. 3-4. In various embodiments, the components may be in one or more configurations other than the configuration shown in FIGS. 3-4. Advantageously, various components of smart thermostat 200 are optimized to be condensed into housing 206 such that the overall side profile of smart thermostat 200 is significantly thinner than a side profile of other commercially available smart thermostats.

[0063] FIGS. 5A-5B illustrate a front view and a side view of a smart thermostat backplate. According to various embodiments, an electronic device, such as smart thermostat 200 described in detail above, may be mounted to a wall or other surface by a backplate 500. The backplate 500 may include a plurality of wire terminals 502 for receiving wires that are connected with a heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system. For example, the backplate 500 may include multiple receptacles, with each receptacle designated to receive a particular HVAC control wire. Backplate 500 can define one or more holes configured to receive fasteners or the like for securing backplate 500 and, if being used, a trim plate or the like, to a surface, such as a wall. The backplate 500 can removably attached with the thermostat housing, such as thermostat housing 206 described above.

[0064] In some embodiments, a smart thermostat may be attached (and removed) from backplate 500. HVAC control wires may be attached with terminals or receptacles of backplate 500. Alternatively, such control wires may be directly connected with the smart thermostat. In some embodiments, a trim plate may additionally be installed between the backplate 500 and a surface, such as a wall, such as for aesthetic reasons (e.g., cover an unsightly hole through which HVAC wires protrude from the wall).

[0065] FIG. 5C is an exploded front isometric view of the smart thermostat backplate of FIGS. 5A and 5B. Visible in this view, the backplate 500 includes a cap 504, a level 506, a level holder 508, and a coupling plate 510. Various components of the backplate 500 are coupled to one another with one or more fasteners 514. Fasteners 514 may be screws, nails, or some other form of fastener. Fasteners 514 can securely hold backplate 500 and, possibly, a trim plate (not shown) to a surface, such as a wall. A thermostat may removably attach with backplate 500. A user may be able to attach thermostat to backplate 500 by pushing thermostat against backplate 500. Similarly, a user can remove the thermostat from backplate 500 by pulling the thermostat away from backplate 500. When the thermostat is connected with backplate 500, the thermostat is electrically connected various HVAC control wires that have been connected with the receptacles of backplate 500 as would be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art.

[0066] Further visible in FIG. 5C, a cap 504 for protecting various internal components from damage and for providing an aesthetically pleasing appearance when the electronic device is not mounted to the backplate 500. The cap 504 covers a level 506 for properly mounting the electronic device and / or the backplate 500 to a surface. For example, it would be desirable to have text displayed on the electronic display of the smart thermostat to be straight across (e.g., perpendicular to the ground, etc.). The level 506 may be a bubble level in at least some embodiments. A level holder 508 may be provided to align the level 506 relative to the cap 504, a coupling plate 510, and a base 512. Additional coupling mechanisms may be provided including adhesives, screws, snaps, wires, or the like. The coupling plate 510 may include one or more fasteners as described in detail above. The coupling plate 510 may further include a board-to-board (BTB) connector 516 in some embodiments.

[0067] The backplate 500 may include more or less components than those shown in FIGS. 5A-5C. In various embodiments, the components may be in one or more configurations other than the configuration shown in FIGS. 5A-5C. For example, the backplate 500 may be part of a greater thermostat mounting system including a trim plate, batteries, various fasteners, sensors, or the like.

[0068] FIG. 6 is an exploded front view of various embodiments of lens assembly 600. Lens assembly 600 can represent embodiments of lens assembly 122 and 212. In particular, FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a stack of components that can be used to create lens assembly 122. Lens assembly 600 can include: domed lens 602; optically clear adhesive (OCA) layer 604; tinted ink layer 606; mirror film 608; masking layer 610; frame pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) 612; and display PSA 614. While embodiments of lens assembly 600 may be used on smart thermostat 200, embodiments of such a lens assembly may be used on other forms of smart devices. For instance, lens assembly 600 can be incorporated as part of a smart assistant device or a smart watch.

[0069] Domed lens 602 may be domed on an outer surface and flat on an inner surface that is in contact with OCA lay 604. Further detail regarding the shape of domed lens 602 is provided in reference to FIG. 7. Domed lens 602 can be formed from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), which can provide a transparency similar to glass. Other plastic or acrylic materials are also possible. Domed lens 602 may also be formed from glass. Domed lens 602 can be formed using injection compression molding. Injection compression molding can be used because it allows for defect-free surfaces to be formed. To perform injection compression molding of domed lens 602, material can be injected into a nearly closed mold. The mold may then be compressed such that the injected material conforms to the shape of the mold. Excess material can be removed, such as through machining.

[0070] Domed lens 602 is circular and does not have any holes, vents, gaps, or other discontinuities present on it. Similarly, no holes, vents, gaps, or other discontinuities are present on at least OCA lay 604, tinted ink layer 606, and mirror film layer 608. Having continuous material helps to maintain a consistent visual effect across the entirety of lens assembly 600 as viewed by a user.

[0071] OCA lay 604 can be a pressure or temperature sensitive adhesive that adheres domed lens 602 with tinted ink layer 606. Tinted ink layer 606 can be a transparent layer that tints light passing through tinted ink layer 606. Since tinted ink layer 606 is closer to domed lens 602 than mirror film layer 608, both light by mirror film layer 608 and light emitted by electronic display 111 is tinted. The color used for tinting can be selected based on aesthetics.

[0072] Mirror film layer 608 may have sufficient reflectivity that when electronic display 111 is not illuminated, a user viewing lens assembly 400 may see a reflection of himself, herself, or the ambient environment. For example, mirror film layer 608 can be Toray® 125FH-40 mirror film. Mirror film layer 608 may be polarized. Due to the way some mirror films are manufactured, throughout a roll of mirror film, the direction of polarization can vary. When a piece of mirror film is stamped or cut out to form mirror film layer 608, the direction of polarization may be determined in order to orient in relation the electronic display, which also outputs polarized light. If orientation is not controlled, visibility of the electronic display through mirror film layer 608 may be adversely affected. Further detail regarding orientation of mirror film layer 608 is detailed in relation to FIG. 7.

[0073] Masking layer 610 can be used to block a user from viewing components blocked by the opaque portions of masking layer 610. Masking layer 610 may be black or another dark color to make it difficult to see through mirror film layer 608. Masking layer 610 can obscure a view of frame adhesive 612 and display adhesive 614. Masking layer 610 may be asymmetric. Therefore, it must be oriented in a particular orientation with respect to other components of smart thermostat 200. For example, masking layer 610 includes a hole for an ambient light sensor to have a field of view of the ambient environment through domed lens 602, OCA lay 604, tinted link layer 606, and mirror film layer 608.

[0074] Furthermore, the masking layer 610 may help enhance the effect that the electronic display is seamless with lens assembly 400. A color value for masking layer 610 may be selected, having an appropriate lightness value, such that it is difficult or impossible for a user to visually see an edge of the electronic display screen within the smart device. By obscuring an edge of the edge of the electronic display, a user may have the impression that the entire region behind domed lens 602 is electronic display 111.

[0075] Obscured behind masking layer 610 may be two separate adhesive layers. Frame adhesive layer 612 may adhere domed lens layer 402, OCA lay 604, tinted link layer 606, mirror film layer 608, and masking layer 610 to display frame 302. Display adhesive layer 614 may adhere domed lens layer 402, OCA lay 604, tinted link layer 606, mirror film layer 608, and masking layer 610 to electronic display 202. Different types of adhesives may be used to provide better adhesion to the material of electronic display 202 and display frame 302. Adhesive layer 612 and display adhesive layer 614 may both be different types of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs). In other embodiments, a single adhesive layer may be used. For example, 3M® 5126-025 may be used as the PSA.

[0076] FIG. 7 is a cross section 700 of an embodiment of smart thermostat 200. The location and direction of cross section 700 is indicated on FIG. 2B. The domed profile of domed lens 602 is visible in the cross section 700 of FIG. 7. Surface 701 is the outer surface of domed lens 602 that is adjacent the ambient environment and which a user can touch. An entirety of surface 701 is convex from edge to edge. Surface 702 is the inner surface and adheres with OCA layer 604. OCA layer 604 and other layers of lens assembly 600 are not visible in FIG. 7. An entirety of surface 702 can be flat. Surface 703 forms a circumference around the entirety of domed lens 602. Surface 703 is perpendicular or approximately perpendicular (defined as within 5° of perpendicular) to surface 702.

[0077] Electronic display 202 is disposed under the domed lens 602 and surrounded by rotatable ring 710. In particular, ring 210 surrounds surface 703 of domed lens 602 and couples to housing 206, which has a cylindrical sidewall 208.

[0078] FIG. 8 is an enlarged cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat. Electronic device 800 may be similar to smart thermostat 200 and smart thermostat 500. Similar components may be similarly numbered and have similar form and function unless otherwise noted herein. As shown in FIG. 8, the clip 830, the display frame 820, and the ring 810 are assembled such that a gap 840 is formed between an outer perimeter of the domed lens 812 and a corresponding internal perimeter of the ring 810. In various embodiments, the gap 840 is not visible to the user facing the electronic device 800. For example, the mirrored reflective cover of the domed lens 812 smoothly transitions to the polished finish of the ring 810 with no disruptions. The gap 840 is optimized to be as small as possible while enabling the ring 810 to be rotated relative to the domed lens 812 and / or the electronic display (not shown in this view).

[0079] According to various embodiments, the display frame 820 includes a grease trap recess 842 for directing grease between the display frame 820 and the clip 830. For example, grease may be applied between a vertical interface (such as formed by the grease trap recess 842) of the display frame 820 and the ring 810 for continuous rotation of the ring 810 relative to the rest of the electronic device 800 (e.g., including the sidewall of the housing and the backplate) without disruption. In exemplary embodiments, a grease is applied such that the user experiences a pleasing, viscous feeling when rotating the ring 810. The grease may include a damping grease and / or a dry grease. Different types of grease may be applied at different regions between the components unless otherwise noted herein.

[0080] In at least some embodiments, the clip 830 is formed to reduce grease shearing between the clip 830 and the ring 810 at location 844. For example, grease applied at the grease trap recess 842 may be displaced to an area proximate location 844. The combination of the tuned gap 840 and grease application enhances the user experience during rotation of the ring 810 and selection of various icons and / or information displayed on the electronic display when the information is visible (e.g., when the electronic display is “ON”) through the domed lens 812.

[0081] In various embodiments, one or more temperature sensors (not shown) may be disposed between the ring 810 and the clip 830 and / or the display frame 820. For example, the one or more temperature sensors may be disposed in the portion of the electronic device 800 that overhangs the sidewall (not shown) that mounts the electronic device 800 to a mounting surface. Said another way, the electronic device 800 may form a “mushroom” shape and one or more temperature sensors are disposed proximate an outer perimeter of the “cap” of the mushroom.

[0082] FIG. 9 is clip for use with a smart thermostat. The clip 930 may be of the same type as various clips described herein. The clip 930 may be a C-clip as shown in FIG. 9. The clip 930 acts as an axial constraint for various components of the electronic device and couples at least the display frame and the ring. The clip 930 is optimized for assembly such that the clip 930 is relatively thin within the electronic device housing. The open end of the clip 930 as shown in FIG. 9 enables efficient installation and removal of the clip 930 during servicing or other activities involving disassembling the electronic device.

[0083] FIG. 10 is an isometric cross section of a side view of a smart thermostat. FIG. 10 provides another view of the various electronic devices described in detail above. In particular, electronic device 1000 may be similar to other electronic devices described above and similar components may be similarly numbered and have similar form and function unless otherwise noted herein. The domed profile of a domed lens 1012 is visible in the cross section of FIG. 10. An electronic display 1002 is disposed under the domed lens 1012 and supported by a ring 1010 and a display frame 1020 as described in detail above. In particular, the ring 1010 surrounds the domed lens 1012. The clip 1030 couples the display frame 1020 supporting the electronic display 1002 to the housing (not shown).

[0084] Modern smart home devices are proliferating in smart home environments due to their small size, case of installation, and advanced processing capabilities. Key to each of these features is the long-term, reliable, and / or rechargeable power supplies provided by modern rechargeable batteries. For example, many smart home devices include rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that provide a steady and reliable source of power over long operating intervals. These lithium-ion batteries are also easily rechargeable through a number of different interfaces, including convenient USB, serial, and / or wireless interfaces.

[0085] In the example of thermostats, the smart thermostat described in detail above may include a rechargeable battery. This rechargeable battery may be intermittently charged over time by stealing power from a system controlled by the smart home device, such as an HVAC system. The wire connectors that provide communication with the HVAC system may be used to “steal” power from the HVAC system without interfering with any HVAC functions, such as air conditioning or heating. This stolen power may be stored in a storage capacitor and / or used to charge a rechargeable battery. The rechargeable battery may then be used to power the thermostat when power stealing is not available from HVAC system or to augment stolen power when the instantaneous power demands of the thermostat exceed the power stealing limit. For example, advanced user interfaces, wireless edge routing, learning algorithms, radar-based motion / occupancy detection, and other features of the thermostat may draw a relatively large of instantaneous current that exceeds the amount of current that may be safely stolen from the HVAC system. Therefore, the rechargeable battery may be used to provide any additional power needed during the operation of these advanced features. However, when the instantaneous power demands of the thermostat are below the amount that can be stolen from the HVAC system, the additional power from the HVAC system may be used to recharge the battery.

[0086] Since the battery is charged and discharged during operation of the thermostat, the thermostat itself may monitor the conditions of the battery to ensure that battery charging is performed safely and efficiently. For example, lithium-ion batteries may be approved for charging within a predetermined temperature range, such as less than about 45° C. If the temperature of the battery exceeds the predetermined temperature range, the thermostat may temporarily suspend battery charging until the temperature of the battery falls back within the safe range. Charging the battery outside of this range may introduce safety concerns and may affect the charging efficiency and / or lifetime of the battery. Therefore, in order to monitor the temperature of the battery in real time as the battery charges and discharges, the embodiments described herein may include an integrated temperature sensor as part of a circuit board in a battery pack. The smart home device may continuously monitor the temperature measurements from this integrated temperature sensor and use these temperature measurements to regulate battery charging. This allows the smart home device to charge and discharge the battery as described above while ensuring that these operations take place in an approved, safe temperature range.

[0087] However, a technical problem exists in situations where the integrated temperature sensor may fail. If the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack fails, it may continue to provide temperature measurements to the smart home device, thereby making it appear as though the innovated temperature sensor is functioning normally. For example, a failed temperature sensor may be slow to react to rising temperatures of the battery cell and provide only a very delayed indication of rising temperatures. Some failed temperature sensors may fail to react at all to temperature changes to instead provide a constant temperature that happens to be within the approved temperature range. Other failed temperature sensors may provide erroneous temperature measurements that appear to be outside of the approved charging range, even when the battery temperature is not abnormally high. In each of these situations, the smart home device may cause the battery to charge or prevent the battery from charging based on incorrect temperature measurements. This can lead to a battery continuing to charge when the battery is too hot, which may possibly damage the battery cell. Alternatively, a failed integrated temperature sensor may prevent a battery from charging when it would be safe and efficient to do so.

[0088] The embodiments described herein solve these and other technical problems by leveraging additional temperature sensors that may be present in the smart home device. Measurements from these additional temperature sensors may be compared to measurements received from the integrated temperature sensor the battery pack. In some cases, the measurements from these additional temperature sensors may first be processed to establish a baseline differential between the additional and integrated temperature sensors. Some embodiments may also process these temperature sensors to generate an estimated battery temperature. If a sufficient differential between these additional temperature sensors and the integrated temperature sensor persists, a determination may be made by the smart home device processor that the temperature sensor of the battery pack is malfunctioning. In order to maintain safety and efficiency, the smart home device may then alter the operating state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack. For example, the smart home device may shut down or operate in a low-power or emergency mode. Some embodiments may continue operation by using the additional temperature sensor measurements in place of the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. Alternatively, the smart home device may shut down and / or send an alert to an app on a user device, a user interface, a remote server, and so forth.

[0089] FIG. 11 illustrates a battery pack 312 for a smart home device, according to some embodiments. As illustrated above in FIG. 3, the battery pack 312 may be positioned proximate to or adjacent to a printed circuit board 318 that includes many of the electronic components of the thermostat. For example, a body of the battery pack 312 may be parallel to the plane of the printed circuit board 318 as depicted in FIG. 11 such that the battery pack 312 and the print circuit board 318 lie flat next to each other inside the housing of the thermostat. Some embodiments may place additional layers between portions of the battery pack 312 and the printed circuit board 318, such as an adhesive for the battery pack 312, a Piezo sensor, and / or other components. However, the battery pack 312 may be proximate enough to the print circuit board 318 that heat emitted from the battery pack 312 may be sensed by temperature sensors on the printed circuit board 318 as described below. For example, the battery pack 312 may be positioned within about 1 cm of the print circuit board 318.

[0090] The battery pack 312 may include a battery cell 1112. The battery cell 1112 may include one or more individual lithium-ion cells or other types of battery cells. In this example, the battery cell 1112 may use planar battery cell, but other embodiments may use different geometries, such as cylindrical or “jelly roll” geometries. Additionally, lithium-ion batteries are illustrated in FIG. 11 only by way of example. Other embodiments may use different types of rechargeable batteries, such as nickel-based batteries and other similar technologies.

[0091] The battery pack 312 may also include a printed circuit board 1108 that may be positioned directly on or along one of the sides of the battery cell 1112. The printed circuit board 1108 may be held in place (e.g., by sealing PI tape) and electrically coupled to positive and negative terminals of the battery cell 1112. The print circuit board 1108 may include a number of different electronic components, including charging circuitry, communication circuitry, and / or sensors that monitor the performance or environmental conditions of the battery cell 1112. For example, the printed circuit board 1108 may include an integrated temperature sensor 1101. The integrated temperature sensor 1101 on the print circuit board 1108 may be referred to as an “integrated” temperature sensor in that it is integrated as part of the electrical package enclosed within the battery pack 312. For example, the battery pack 312 may include a housing or packaging 1114 that is enclosed around the battery cell 1112 and the printed circuit board 1108 that includes the integrated temperature sensor 1101. The packaging 1114 may be sealed using PCB PI tape 1104 to create a physical boundary between an interior portion of the battery pack 312 and the rest of the thermostat. Therefore, the integrated temperature sensor 1101 on the printed circuit board 1108 and the battery cell 1112 may be disposed within the packaging 1114.

[0092] In order to communicate with the smart home device, the battery pack 312 may also include a wire connector 1106 that extends out of the packaging 1114 of the battery pack 312. The wire connector 1106 may allow a power management integrated circuit (IC) of the smart home device to communicate with the battery pack 312. For example, the wire connector 1106 may be physically coupled to a connector on the printed circuit board 318. The power management IC and / or a main processor on the printed circuit board 318 may then communicate with the printed circuit board 1108 in the battery pack 312 in order to retrieve temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor 1101.

[0093] The integrated temperature sensor 1101 may be implemented using any type of temperature sensor. For example, some embodiments may use a Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistor to implement the integrated temperature sensor 1101. An NTC thermistor is a temperature sensor that utilizes the resistance properties of a material (e.g., a ceramic or metal composite) to sense a surrounding temperature. The resistance of the material changes in a predictable way with changes in temperature. For example, some embodiments may use an NTC thermistor where the resistance decreases with an increase in the surrounding temperature. To communicate with the innovated temperature sensor 1101, some embodiments may provide a known current / voltage to the NTC thermistor and measure the resistance provided by the NTC thermistor, which may in turn be correlated with a particular temperature. This analog value may be measured by the power management IC and converted into a temperature measurement. Note that the NTC thermistor is provided only by way of example and is not meant to be limiting. Any other type of temperature sensor may be used without limitation.

[0094] The smart home device may control the charging and / or discharging of the battery pack 312 through the wire connector 1106. More specifically, the smart home device may receive the analog NTC thermistor readings and use these readings to determine when and how to charge the battery pack 312. For example, temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312 may be used to determine a charging rate for the battery pack 312 and / or whether the battery pack 312 may be charged at all at a current temperature.

[0095] FIG. 12 illustrates a schematic of a battery pack 312 in a smart home device with additional temperature sensors located proximate to the battery pack, according to some embodiments. The smart home device may include a wall-mounted thermostat, such as the smart thermostat described above. One of the operations of the thermostat 1200 may include sensing an ambient temperature in an environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202 of the thermostat. For example, a set point temperature may be provided to the thermostat 1200, and the thermostat 1200 may cause the HVAC system to operate until the temperature in the environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200 approximately matches the set point temperature.

[0096] In order to accurately measure the ambient temperature in the environment 1212 outside of the thermostat 1200, the thermostat 1200 may be configured to receive temperature measurements from one or more temperature sensors. In some cases, these temperature sensors may be disposed in devices throughout the residence in which the thermostat is enclosed. However, the smart thermostat 1200 may also include one or more temperature sensors 1220 that are disposed inside the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200. For example, the printed circuit board 318 may include the temperature sensors 1220 mounted in different locations on the printed circuit board 318. These temperature sensors 1220 may be configured to measure a temperature of an environment 1214 inside the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200, which may then be used to estimate an ambient temperature in the environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200.

[0097] For example, the temperature from the environment 1214 inside the thermostat 1200 may be significantly warmer than the environment 1214 inside of the thermostat 1210 due to the self-heating effects of the electronics inside the housing 1202. Therefore, the processor of the thermostat 1200 may be configured to process the temperature measurements from the temperature sensors 1220 and estimate the ambient temperature of the environment 1212 outside of the housing 1202. This ambient temperature estimation may be performed by adding an offset to the temperature(s) measured by the temperature sensors 1220. The temperature estimation may also be performed by using trained models that receive the temperature measurements from the temperature sensors 1220 as inputs and generate an estimated temperature or temperature offset as an output. Therefore, the processor may be configured to receive temperature measurements from the temperature sensors 1220 and estimate another temperature in a location offset from the temperature sensors 1220. These temperature sensors 1220 may be referred to as “external” temperature sensors in the context of the battery pack 312 since they are disposed externally from the packaging of the battery pack 312 (even though they are internal temperature sensors relative to the housing 1202 of the thermostat 1200). These external temperature sensors may be distinguished from the integrated or internal temperature sensor of the battery pack 312 described above.

[0098] In order to use the temperature sensors 1220 to measure the battery temperature and / or detect a fault in the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312, the temperature sensors 1220 may be distributed in different locations on the printed circuit board 318 relative to the battery pack 312. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, some embodiments may distribute the temperature sensors such that they are mounted to the printed circuit board 318 in different quadrants. These quadrants of the printed circuit board 318 may correspond to different quadrants of the battery pack 312, since the printed circuit board 318 and the battery pack 312 are mounted parallel next to each other. For example, temperature sensor 1220-1 may be mounted in a southwest quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 and / or the battery pack 312. Temperature sensor 1220-2 may be mounted in a northwest quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 and / or the battery pack 312. Temperature sensor 120-3 may be mounted in a southeast quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 and / or the battery pack 312, and so forth. By spatially distributing the locations of the temperature sensors 1220, it may be more likely that the sensors can accurately detect deviations in the temperature of the battery pack 312.

[0099] In some embodiments, at least one of the temperature sensors 1220 may be located on the printed circuit board 318 near a location proximate to where the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312 is located. For example, temperature sensor 1220-3 may be located within about 2 cm of a location of the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack 312. The temperature sensor 1220-3 may also be located in a quadrant of the printed circuit board 318 that corresponds to a same quadrant of the battery pack 312 in which the integrated temperature sensor is located. This may ensure that at least one of the temperature sensors 1220 is located near the same portion of the battery pack 312 where the internal integrated temperature sensor is disposed. For example, the warmest portion of the battery pack 312 may be near the charging circuitry of the battery pack 312 and the integrated temperature sensor. Therefore, it may be advantageous to position at least one of the temperature sensors 1220 near the same location of the integrated temperature sensor to more closely match the temperature measurements made by the integrated temperature sensor.

[0100] FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram 1300 of an electronic system for monitoring the temperature of a battery pack, according to some embodiments. As described above, the battery pack 1310 may be part of a sealed or integrated package that includes a circuit board 1314 and an integrated temperature sensor 1312, and as depicted above in FIG. 11. The circuit board may communicate with other electronics in the thermostat through a wire connector that is coupled to the printed circuit board 1304 of the smart home device. A power management IC 1308 may be mounted to the printed circuit board 1304 of the smart home device. The power management IC 1308 may be configured to monitor and regulate the power usage of various components on the smart home device. For example, as described above, the battery pack 1310 may be alternately charged and / or discharged based on the power stealing current and instantaneous power usage of the smart home device. The power management IC 1308 may therefore manage the charging and discharging cycles of the battery pack 1310. This may include monitoring the temperature of the integrated temperature sensor 1312 to determine whether it is safe or efficient to charge the battery pack 1310.

[0101] Additionally, the power management IC 1308 may manage interactions with the integrated temperature sensor 1312. For example, the power management IC 1308 may provide a current or voltage source signal to the circuit board 1314 and the integrated temperature sensor 1312. The analog value returned from the circuit board 1314 may be indicative of a resistance of the integrated temperature sensor 1312. The power management IC 1308 may digitize this value and store the value in a register.

[0102] A processor 1306 may be one of a plurality of processors on the smart home device. For example, some devices may include a main processor and other sub-processors, such as a microcontroller or microprocessor on a back plate that is mounted to the wall. Therefore, the processor 1306 should be understood to include any combination of processors that may be present on the smart home device. The processor 1306 may interact with the power management IC 1308 to retrieve values stored in various registers by the power management IC 1308. In particular, the processor 1306 may retrieve the value from the register that indicates the resistance of the integrated temperature sensor 1312. The processor 1306 may then convert the retrieved value into a temperature using a lookup table, formula, or other means of correlating the resistance of the temperature sensor 1312 into a temperature value.

[0103] The processor 1306 may also poll other sensors on the smart home device. For example, the processor 1306 may periodically poll the temperature sensors 1302 to retrieve and process temperature measurements. The temperature sensor 1302 may be polled and / or the temperature from the integrated temperature sensor 1312 may be retrieved every 120 seconds, every 90 seconds, 60 seconds, every 45 seconds, every 30 seconds, every 20 seconds, every 15 seconds, every 5 seconds, or as needed to provide a rapid response to changing temperature conditions. These temperatures may be logged by the processor 1306. These temperatures may also be processed using the algorithms described below to determine whether the integrated temperature sensor 1312 of the battery pack 1310 is operating properly.

[0104] FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart of a method 1400 for detecting faulty battery pack temperature sensors, according to some embodiments. This method 1400 may be carried out by a smart home device, such as the thermostat described herein. The operations of this method 1400 may be stored as instructions on one or more memory devices and read by one or more processors. When executed by the one or more processors, these instructions may cause the one or more processors to perform the operations described below. For example, the one or more processors of the thermostat may be programmed or configured to perform the following operations.

[0105] The method may include receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack (1402). The battery pack may be disposed inside the housing of the thermostat as described above. More specifically, the battery pack may include a battery cell, a printed circuit board, and an integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack. This internal or integrated temperature sensor may be distinguished from temperature sensors that are external to the battery pack but still inside the housing of the thermostat. Note that other battery-powered smart home devices may also be used in place of a thermostat. The term “first” temperature measurement is used merely to distinguish this temperature measurement from other temperature measurements recited below. The terms “first” and “second” are not meant to imply order, importance, or any other characteristic of the temperature measurements.

[0106] The method may also include receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack (1404). These additional temperature sensors may be distributed around a printed circuit board or other areas of the internal environment of the thermostat. For example, the temperature sensors may be spaced apart in different quadrants or aligned in close proximity with the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack. The one or more temperature sensors may include a single temperature sensor, two temperature sensors, three temperature sensors, or more. The first temperature measurement in the second temperature measurement may be retrieved or polled from the sensors by various processors or ICs on the smart home device periodically. For example, temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor and from the temperature measurements from the external sensors may be retrieved at approximately the same time such that they may be accurately compared.

[0107] Optionally, the method may include processing the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors (1406). As described above, the different locations of the external sensors compared to the integrated sensor will likely cause a difference in temperature readings. For example, the integrated temperature sensor may provide a more accurate measurement of the battery temperature since it is directly adjacent (or even contacting) a portion of the battery cell where the battery is hottest during charging cycles. Therefore, a corresponding measurement from one of the external temperature sensors that is within about 1 cm to about 4 cm of the integrated temperature sensor may return a temperature that is lower than that of the integrated temperature sensor. Other self heating effects on the internal environment of the smart home device may also affect the external temperature sensors differently.

[0108] To compensate for the effect of the different locations of the temperature sensors on the temperature measurements, some embodiments may process the temperature measurements from the one or more temperature sensors. For example, an algorithm operating on the smart home device may be configured to use a trained model to accept the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors to estimate an ambient temperature outside of the thermostat. Similarly, this algorithm may use another trained model that accepts the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors to estimate a temperature of the battery. This model may be trained using simulation data or test data as the battery is charged or discharged in different environments. Other embodiments may add an offset to the external temperature measurements to compensate for the distance from these temperature sensors to the battery pack. For example, some embodiments may add 10° C. to temperature measurements from the external temperature sensor closest to the integrated temperature sensor.

[0109] Some embodiments may also calibrate the temperature offset or model parameters used above to estimate the temperature of the battery from the external temperature sensors. This calibration process may take place during an initial learning period of the thermostat after installation, during installation, during a test interval after manufacturing, or during other time intervals. This may establish a baseline differential between the different temperature sensor readings as the battery charges and discharges. This calibrated baseline may also be influenced by different functions that are active on the smart home device. For example, the model may also receive as an input a list of functions that are currently active on the smart home device, such as Wi-Fi transmission, edge routing, active user interfaces, and so forth. These may influence the internal heating of the thermostat and adjust the offset or model parameters used to process the external temperature measurements.

[0110] The method may additionally include comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement (1408). This comparison may directly compare the temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors and integrated temperature sensor. This comparison may also directly compare the processed temperature sensor measurements that incorporate an offset or represent an estimated temperature of the battery pack. This comparison may be used to determine whether the embedded temperature is malfunctioning or not. The comparison may determine whether there is a sufficient difference between the two temperature measurements (1410). For example, a threshold or tolerance may be established such that the two temperatures do not need to match exactly. As described above, when raw temperature measurements are used, this threshold or tolerance may be calibrated as a threshold difference normally observed during charging and / or discharging cycles of the battery pack. If the temperature measurements are processed to generate an estimated temperature of the battery pack, then a smaller differential or threshold may be used. For example, the comparison may determine whether there is a difference within a threshold of about 2° C., about 5° C., about 7° C., about 10° C., about 12° C., or less than any of these values.

[0111] If there is more than one occurrence of at least a threshold difference between the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement, then a fault counter may be incremented (1412). Some embodiments may require at least two consecutive comparisons between temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack and the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack. Other embodiments may require three, four, or more consecutive false detections before taking action. Some embodiments need not require that these faults be consecutive, but merely within a predetermined time window of each other. For example, two faults within one minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, and so forth may indicate a malfunction, even when non-consecutive. The fault counter may be reset if one or more comparisons occur without detecting a sufficient difference greater than the threshold (1419). Finally, the fault counter may be compared to a threshold number representing a required number of faults to determine whether the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack is malfunctioning (1414). If not, the smart home device may continue using the integrated temperature sensor until at least the next measurement (1418). However, if a sufficient number of faults are detected, the system may determine that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning (1416).

[0112] FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method 1500 for compensating for faulty battery pack temperature sensors in smart home devices, according to some embodiments. A number of different actions may be taken by the smart home device in response to determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning (1502). Each of these different response options may be enabled in settings of the smart home device. Each of these options may be taken in order as illustrated in the flowchart of method 1500. However, the particular order illustrated in FIG. 15 is provided only by way of example and is not meant to be limiting. These operations may be reordered as needed in different embodiments. Additionally, these particular response operations are also only provided as examples. Some embodiments may encompass any type of remedial actions may be taken by the smart home device to compensate for a malfunctioning integrated temperature sensor. Each of these operations may be considered changing an operational state of the smart home device. For example, these operations may change a mode of the device, alter a charge / discharge cycle of the battery on the device, send messages to systems outside of the device, discontinue operation of the device, and so forth.

[0113] In some embodiments, a determination (1504) may be made as to whether the thermostat may continue operating using the external temperature sensors to monitor the battery (1505). For example, a thermostat may determine that the integrated temperature sensor on the battery may be disregarded when malfunctioning. Instead, temperature measurements from the external temperature sensors may be used by the power management IC and / or other processors to continue charging / discharging the battery as normal. Therefore, the smart home device may continue operating on a full or reduced level during subsequent charging cycles using temperature measurements from the one or more temperature sensors that are disposed outside of the battery pack as a substitute.

[0114] Alternatively or additionally, a determination (1506) may be made as to whether the smart home device should transition into a low-power or emergency mode (1507). For example, a thermostat may have a “blizzard” or other emergency mode that maintains only necessary operating systems and functionalities to keep the home heated above a freezing level. This may prevent pipes and other systems in the home from freezing and being damaged. Instead of continuing to operate using the external temperature sensors, the system may instead discontinue charging the battery, enter the low-power state, and function as long as possible to maintain these emergency systems and responses. The device may also continue to charge the battery as a minimal level using the external temperature readings as a substitute in some embodiments.

[0115] Alternatively or additionally, a determination (1508) may be made as to whether the smart home device should shut down (1509). For example, instead of continuing to operate or using external temperature sensors, the smart home device may instead shut down and discontinue any operations that interact with the HVAC system. For example, the smart home device may open any relays or switches that activate HVAC functions and disregard any future scheduled HVAC functions. This may be done to prevent any charging or discharging of the battery without the integrated temperature sensor functionality.

[0116] Alternatively or additionally, a determination (1510) may be made as to how outside users and / or systems should be alerted to the malfunctioning integrated temperature sensor (1511). In some embodiments, the smart home device may send an alert to an app operating on a user device. For example, a “Home” app operating on the smart phone may be associated with various smart home devices in the smart home environment. This app may be configured to receive alerts from various smart home devices and provide notifications to the user. Some embodiments may generate an alert or notification on a user interface of the smart home device itself. For example, a thermostat may include an active display that may be illuminated to draw attention to a notification that a malfunction has occurred. Some embodiments may also send a notification to a remote server. For example, a remote server for a manufacturer of the smart home device may monitor the operation of the device, log data from the device, and provide information to an associated user account online. A notification may be sent to this remote server and / or the manufacturer alerting customer service or other services that may be configured to resolve the malfunctioning sensor problem.

[0117] FIG. 16 illustrates an example smart home environment 1600, according to some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 16, the smart home environment 1600 includes a structure 1650 (e.g., a house, daycare, office building, apartment, condominium, garage, or mobile home) with various integrated devices. It will be appreciated that devices may also be integrated into a smart home environment 1600 that does not include an entire structure 1650, such as an apartment, condominium or office space. Further, the smart home environment 1600 may control and / or be coupled to devices outside of the actual structure 1650. Indeed, several devices in the smart home environment 1600 need not be physically within the structure 1650 (e.g., although not shown, a pool heater, an irrigation system, and the like).

[0118] The term “smart home environment” may refer to smart environments for homes such as a single-family house, but the scope of the present teachings is not so limited. The present teachings are also applicable, without limitation, to duplexes, townhomes, multi-unit apartment buildings, hotels, retail stores, office buildings, industrial buildings, and more generally any living space or workspace. Similarly, while the terms user, customer, installer, homeowner, occupant, guest, tenant, landlord, repair person, and the like may be used to refer to the person or persons acting in the context of some particular situations described herein, these references do not limit the scope of the present teachings with respect to the person or persons who are performing such actions. Thus, for example, the terms user, customer, purchaser, installer, subscriber, and homeowner may often refer to the same person in the case of a single-family residential dwelling, because the head of the household is often the person who makes the purchasing decision, buys the unit, and installs and configures the unit, and is also one of the users of the unit. However, in other scenarios, such as a landlord-tenant environment, the customer may be the landlord with respect to purchasing the unit, the installer may be a local apartment supervisor, a first user may be the tenant, and a second user may again be the landlord with respect to remote control functionality. While the identity of the person performing the action may be germane to a particular advantage provided by one or more of the implementations, such identity should not be construed in the descriptions that follow as necessarily limiting the scope of the present teachings to those particular individuals having those particular identities.

[0119] The depicted structure 1650 includes a plurality of rooms 1652, separated at least partly from each other via walls 1654. The walls 1654 may include interior walls or exterior walls. Each room may further include a floor 1656 and a ceiling 1658. Devices may be mounted on, integrated with and / or supported by a wall 1654, floor 1656, or ceiling 1658.

[0120] In some implementations, the integrated devices of the smart home environment 1600 include intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices that integrate seamlessly with each other in a smart home network and / or with a central server or a cloud-computing system to provide a variety of useful smart home functions. The smart home environment 1600 may include, among other things, one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected thermostats 1602 (hereinafter referred to as “smart thermostats 1602”), hazard detection units 1604 (hereinafter referred to as “smart hazard detectors 1604”), entryway interface devices 1606 and 1620, and alarm systems 1622 (hereinafter referred to as “smart alarm systems 1622”).

[0121] A smart thermostat may detect ambient climate characteristics (e.g., temperature and / or humidity) and control an HVAC system 1603 accordingly. For example, a respective smart thermostat includes an ambient temperature sensor. In some implementations, a respective smart thermostat also includes one or more sensors (e.g., an ambient light sensor and / or a radar sensor) that may be used to control an operation of the respective smart thermostat. For example, based on radar data acquired from a radar sensor included in the smart thermostat and an ambient light level measure by an ambient light sensor included in the smart thermostat, as described above, a display of the smart thermostat may be controlled.

[0122] A smart hazard detector may detect smoke, carbon monoxide, and / or some other hazard present in the environment. The one or more smart hazard detectors 1604 may include thermal radiation sensors directed at respective heat sources (e.g., a stove, oven, other appliances, a fireplace, etc.). For example, a smart hazard detector 1604 in a kitchen 1653 includes a thermal radiation sensor directed at a network-connected appliance 1612. A thermal radiation sensor may determine the temperature of the respective heat source (or a portion thereof) at which it is directed and may provide corresponding black-body radiation data as output.

[0123] The smart doorbell 1606 and / or the smart door lock 1620 may detect a person's approach to or departure from a location (e.g., an outer door), control doorbell / door locking functionality (e.g., receive user inputs from a portable electronic device 1666 to actuate the bolt of the smart door lock 1620), announce a person's approach or departure via audio or visual means, and / or control settings on a security system (e.g., to activate or deactivate the security system when occupants go and come). In some implementations, the smart doorbell 1606 includes a camera, and, therefore, is also called “doorbell camera 1606” in this document.

[0124] The smart alarm system 1622 may detect the presence of an individual within close proximity (e.g., using built-in IR sensors), sound an alarm (e.g., through a built-in speaker, or by sending commands to one or more external speakers), and send notifications to entities or users within / outside of the smart home environment 1600. In some implementations, the smart alarm system 1622 also includes one or more input devices or sensors (e.g., keypad, biometric scanner, NFC transceiver, microphone) for verifying the identity of a user, and one or more output devices (e.g., display, speaker). In some implementations, the smart alarm system 1622 may also be set to an armed mode, such that detection of a trigger condition or event causes the alarm to be sounded unless a disarming action is performed.

[0125] In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 includes one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected wall switches 1608 (hereinafter referred to as “smart wall switches 1608”), along with one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected wall plug interfaces 1610 (hereinafter referred to as “smart wall plugs 1610”). The smart wall switches 1608 may detect ambient lighting conditions, detect room-occupancy states, and control a power and / or dim state of one or more lights. In some instances, smart wall switches 1608 may also control a power state or speed of a fan, such as a ceiling fan. The smart wall plugs 1610 may detect occupancy of a room or enclosure and control the supply of power to one or more wall plugs (e.g., such that power is not supplied to the plug if nobody is at home).

[0126] In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 of FIG. 16 includes a plurality of intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected appliances 1612 (hereinafter referred to as “smart appliances 1612”), such as refrigerators, stoves, ovens, televisions, washers, dryers, lights, stereos, intercom systems, wall clock, garage-door openers, floor fans, ceiling fans, wall air conditioners, pool heaters, irrigation systems, security systems, space heaters, window AC units, motorized duct vents, and so forth. In some implementations, when plugged in, an appliance may announce itself to the smart home network, such as by indicating what type of appliance it is, and it may automatically integrate with the controls of the smart home. Such communication by the appliance to the smart home may be facilitated by either a wired or wireless communication protocol. The smart home may also include a variety of non-communicating legacy appliances 1640, such as old conventional washer / dryers, refrigerators, and the like, which may be controlled by smart wall plugs 1610. The smart home environment 1600 may further include a variety of partially communicating legacy appliances 1642, such as infrared (“IR”) controlled wall air conditioners or other IR-controlled devices, which may be controlled by IR signals provided by the smart hazard detectors 1604 or the smart wall switches 1608.

[0127] In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 includes one or more network-connected cameras 1618 that are configured to provide video monitoring and security in the smart home environment 1600. Cameras 1618 may be mounted in a location, such as indoors and to a wall or can be moveable and placed on a surface. Various embodiments of cameras 1618 may be installed indoors or outdoors. Cameras 1618 may be used to determine occupancy of the structure 1650 and / or particular rooms 1652 in the structure 1650, and thus may act as occupancy sensors. For example, video captured by the cameras 1618 may be processed to identify the presence of an occupant in the structure 1650 (e.g., in a particular room). Specific individuals may be identified based, for example, on their appearance (e.g., height, face) and / or movement (e.g., their walk / gait). Cameras 1618 may additionally include one or more sensors (e.g., IR sensors, motion detectors), input devices (e.g., microphone for capturing audio), and output devices (e.g., speaker for outputting audio). In some implementations, the cameras 1618 are each configured to operate in a day mode and in a low-light mode (e.g., a night mode). In some implementations, the cameras 1618 each include one or more IR illuminators for providing illumination while the camera is operating in the low-light mode. In some implementations, the cameras 1618 include one or more outdoor cameras. In some implementations, the outdoor cameras include additional features and / or components such as weatherproofing and / or solar ray compensation.

[0128] The smart home environment 1600 may additionally or alternatively include one or more other occupancy sensors (e.g., the smart doorbell 1606, smart door locks 1620, touch screens, IR sensors, microphones, ambient light sensors, motion detectors, smart nightlights 1670, etc.). In some implementations, the smart home environment 1600 includes radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers (e.g., in each room or a portion thereof) that determine occupancy based on RFID tags located on or embedded in occupants. For example, RFID readers may be integrated into the smart hazard detectors 1604.

[0129] Smart home assistant 1619 may have one or more microphones that continuously listen to an ambient environment. Smart home assistant 1619 may be able to respond to verbal queries posed by a user, possibly preceded by a triggering phrase. Smart home assistant 1619 may stream audio and, possibly, video if a camera is integrated as part of the device, to a cloud-based server system 1664 (which represents an embodiment of cloud-based server system 150 of FIG. 1). Smart home assistant 1619 may be a smart device through which non-auditory discomfort alerts may be output and / or an audio stream from the streaming video camera can be output.

[0130] By virtue of network connectivity, one or more of the smart-home devices may further allow a user to interact with the device even if the user is not proximate to the device. For example, a user may communicate with a device using a computer (e.g., a desktop computer, laptop computer, or tablet) or another portable electronic device 1666 (e.g., a mobile phone, such as a smart phone). A webpage or application may be configured to receive communications from the user and control the device based on the communications and / or to present information about the device's operation to the user. For example, the user may view a current set point temperature for a device (e.g., a stove) and adjust it using a computer. The user may be in the structure during this remote communication or outside the structure.

[0131] As discussed above, users may control smart devices in the smart home environment 1600 using a network-connected computer or portable electronic device 1666. In some examples, some or all of the occupants (e.g., individuals who live in the home) may register their portable electronic device 1666 with the smart home environment 1600. Such registration may be made at a central server to authenticate the occupant and / or the device as being associated with the home and to give permission to the occupant to use the device to control the smart devices in the home. An occupant may use their registered portable electronic device 1666 to remotely control the smart devices of the home, such as when the occupant is at work or on vacation. The occupant may also use their registered device to control the smart devices when the occupant is actually located inside the home, such as when the occupant is sitting on a couch inside the home. It should be appreciated that instead of or in addition to registering portable electronic devices 1666, the smart home environment 1600 may make inferences about which individuals live in the home and are therefore occupants and which portable electronic devices 1666 are associated with those individuals. As such, the smart home environment may “learn” who is an occupant and permit the portable electronic devices 1666 associated with those individuals to control the smart devices of the home.

[0132] In some implementations, in addition to containing processing and sensing capabilities, smart thermostat 1602, smart hazard detector 1604, smart doorbell 1606, smart wall switch 1608, smart wall plug 1610, network-connected appliances 1612, cameras 1618, smart home assistant 1619, smart door lock 1620, and / or smart alarm system 1622 (collectively referred to as “the smart-home devices”) are capable of data communications and information sharing with other smart devices, a central server or cloud-computing system, and / or other devices that are network-connected. Data communications may be carried out using any of a variety of custom or standard wireless protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.15.4, Wi-Fi, Matter, ZigBee, 3LoWPAN, Thread, Z-Wave, Bluetooth Smart, ISA100.5A, WirelessHART, MiWi, etc.) and / or any of a variety of custom or standard wired protocols (e.g., Ethernet, HomePlug, etc.), or any other suitable communication protocol, including communication protocols not yet developed as of the filing date of this document.

[0133] In some implementations, the smart devices serve as wireless or wired repeaters. In some implementations, a first one of the smart devices communicates with a second one of the smart devices via a wireless router. The smart devices may further communicate with each other via a connection (e.g., network interface 1660) to a network, such as the Internet. Through the Internet, the smart devices may communicate with a cloud-based server system 1664 (also called a cloud-based server system, central server system, and / or a cloud-computing system herein). Cloud-based server system 1664 may be associated with a manufacturer, support entity, or service provider associated with the smart device(s). In some implementations, a user is able to contact customer support using a smart device itself rather than needing to use other communication means, such as a telephone or Internet-connected computer. In some implementations, software updates are automatically sent from cloud-based server system 1664 to smart devices (e.g., when available, when purchased, or at routine intervals).

[0134] In some implementations, the network interface 1660 includes a conventional network device (e.g., a router), and the smart home environment 1600 of FIG. 16 includes a hub device 1680 that is communicatively coupled to the network(s) 1662 directly or via the network interface 1660. The hub device 1680 is further communicatively coupled to one or more of the above intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices (e.g., smart devices of the smart home environment 1600). Each of these smart devices optionally communicates with the hub device 1680 using one or more radio communication networks available at least in the smart home environment 1600 (e.g., Matter, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Insteon, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other radio communication networks). In some implementations, the hub device 1680 and devices coupled with / to the hub device can be controlled and / or interacted with via an application running on a smart phone, household controller, laptop, tablet computer, game console or similar electronic device. In some implementations, a user of such a controller application can view the status of the hub device or coupled smart devices, configure the hub device to interoperate with smart devices newly introduced to the home network, commission new smart devices, and adjust or view settings of connected smart devices, etc. In some implementations the hub device extends capabilities of low capability smart devices to match capabilities of the highly capable smart devices of the same type, integrates functionality of multiple different device types—even across different communication protocols—and is configured to streamline adding of new devices and commissioning of the hub device. In some implementations, hub device 1680 further includes a local storage device for storing data related to, or output by, smart devices of smart home environment 1600. In some implementations, the data includes one or more of: video data output by a camera device, metadata output by a smart device, settings information for a smart device, usage logs for a smart device, and the like.

[0135] In some implementations, smart home environment 1600 includes a local storage device 1690 for storing data related to, or output by, smart devices of smart home environment 1600. In some implementations, the data includes one or more of: video data output by a camera device (e.g., cameras 1618 or smart doorbell 1606), metadata output by a smart device, settings information for a smart device, usage logs for a smart device, and the like. In some implementations, local storage device 1690 is communicatively coupled to one or more smart devices via a smart home network. In some implementations, local storage device 1690 is selectively coupled to one or more smart devices via a wired and / or wireless communication network. In some implementations, local storage device 1690 is used to store video data when external network conditions are poor. For example, local storage device 1690 is used when an encoding bitrate of cameras 1618 exceeds the available bandwidth of the external network (e.g., network(s) 1662). In some implementations, local storage device 1690 temporarily stores video data from one or more cameras (e.g., cameras 1618) prior to transferring the video data to a server system (e.g., cloud-based server system 1664).

[0136] Further included and illustrated in the exemplary smart home environment 1600 of FIG. 16 are service robots 1668, each configured to carry out, in an autonomous manner, any of a variety of household tasks. For some embodiments, the service robots 1668 can be respectively configured to perform floor sweeping, floor washing, etc.

[0137] In some embodiments, a service robot may follow a person from room to room and position itself such that the person can be monitored while in the room. The service robot may stop in a location within the room where it will likely be out of the way, but still has a relatively clear field-of-view of the room.

[0138] The systems and methods of the present disclosure may be implemented using hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof and may be implemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems. Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a system including a processing system that includes one or more processors. In some embodiments, the system includes a non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the system and / or the one or more processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and / or part or all of one or more processes disclosed herein. Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause the system and / or the one or more processors to perform part or all of one or more methods and / or part or all of one or more processes disclosed herein.

[0139] The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. Thus, it should be understood that although the present invention as claimed has been specifically disclosed by embodiments and optional features, modification, and variation of the concepts herein disclosed may be resorted to by those skilled in the art, and that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

[0140] Specific details are given in the following description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes, and other components may be shown as components in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

[0141] The above description of certain examples, including illustrated examples, has been presented only for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications, adaptations, and uses thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure. For instance, any examples described herein can be combined with any other examples.

[0142] As used herein, the terms “about” or “approximately” or “substantially” may be interpreted as being within a range that would be expected by one having ordinary skill in the art in light of the specification.

[0143] In the foregoing description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that some embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form.

[0144] The foregoing description provides exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the foregoing description of various embodiments will provide an enabling disclosure for implementing at least one embodiment. It should be understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of some embodiments as set forth in the appended claims.

[0145] Specific details are given in the foregoing description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes, and other components may have been shown as components in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may have been shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

[0146] Also, it is noted that individual embodiments may have been described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may have described the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in a figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination can correspond to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.

[0147] The term “computer-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and various other mediums capable of storing, containing, or carrying instruction(s) and / or data. A code segment or machine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and / or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc., may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

[0148] Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium. A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks.

[0149] In the foregoing specification, features are described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, but it should be recognized that not all embodiments are limited thereto. Various features and aspects of some embodiments may be used individually or jointly. Further, embodiments can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the specification. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

[0150] Additionally, for the purposes of illustration, methods were described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different order than that described. It should also be appreciated that the methods described above may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor or logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the methods. These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by a combination of hardware and software.

Examples

Embodiment Construction

[0029]A battery pack may use an integrated temperature sensor to monitor a temperature of a battery cell during charging and discharging. However, if the integrated temperature sensor fails, a smart home device may continue to charge and discharge the battery outside of its approved temperature range. This may lead to both safety and performance concerns. To identify a failed integrated temperature sensor, the smart home device may leverage any additional temperature sensors that are located in the smart home device. These temperature sensors may be used to externally measure or estimate the battery temperature. If a sufficient deviation between the measurements of these external temperature sensors and the measurements from the integrated temperature sensor is detected, the smart home device may use the comparison of these temperature measurements to determine that the integrated temperature sensor may be malfunctioning. The smart home device may then change its operational state i...

Claims

1. A thermostat comprising:a battery pack disposed inside of a housing of the thermostat, wherein the battery pack comprises a battery cell and an integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack;one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack; andone or more processors that are programmed to perform operations comprising:receiving a first temperature measurement from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack;receiving a second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack;comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement; anddetermining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement.

2. The thermostat of claim 1, wherein the integrated temperature sensor and the battery cell are disposed within a packaging of the battery pack, and the battery pack comprises a wire connector that extends out of the packaging of the battery pack to communicate with the integrated temperature sensor.

3. The thermostat of claim 1, wherein the integrated temperature sensor comprises a Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistor for which resistance decreases with increasing temperature.

4. The thermostat of claim 1, wherein the integrated temperature sensor is read by a power management integrated circuit as an analog value and stored in a register of the power management integrated circuit, and the power management integrated circuit provides the value to a processor of the thermostat to determine whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning.

5. The thermostat of claim 1, wherein the one or more temperature sensors are disposed inside of the housing of the thermostat are mounted to a printed circuit board that is parallel with and proximate to the battery pack.

6. The thermostat of claim 5, wherein the one or more temperature sensors are mounted to the printed circuit board in locations corresponding to different quadrants of the battery pack.

7. The thermostat of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat are disposed proximate to the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack.

8. A method of detecting faulty battery pack temperature sensors, the method comprising:receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of a battery pack, wherein the battery pack is disposed inside of a housing of a thermostat, and the battery pack comprises a battery cell and the integrated temperature sensor in the battery pack;receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside the housing of the thermostat and outside of the battery pack;comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement; anddetermining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on comparing the first temperature measurement with the second temperature measurement.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning is based at least in part on determining whether there is more than a threshold difference between the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the threshold difference is calibrated during prior charging and / or discharging cycles of the battery pack.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising estimating a temperature of the battery pack based on the second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising estimating a temperature of an ambient temperature of an environment outside of the housing of the thermostat using the second temperature measurement from the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning requires at least two consecutive comparisons between temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack and the one or more temperature sensors outside of the battery pack.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising regulating charging of the battery cell based on temperature measurements from the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack.

15. A method of compensating for faulty battery pack temperature sensors in smart home devices, the method comprising:receiving a first temperature measurement from an integrated temperature sensor of a battery pack of the smart home device;receiving a second temperature measurement from one or more temperature sensors disposed inside of a housing of a smart home device and outside of the battery pack;determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning based at least in part on the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement; andchanging an operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack based on determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack comprises preventing the battery pack from charging after determining that the integrated temperature sensor is malfunctioning.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack comprises transitioning the smart home device to a low power or emergency mode.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack comprises charging the battery pack during subsequent charging cycles using temperature measurements from the one or more temperature sensors disposed outside of the battery pack instead of the integrated temperature sensor of the battery pack.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack comprises causing the smart home device to shut down.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein changing the operational state of the smart home device and / or the battery pack comprises sending an alert to an app on a user device, displaying an alert on a user interface of the smart home device, or sending an alert to a remote server that monitors the smart home device.

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