Phase-Cut Dimmer Encoding CCT and Brightness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lighting control systems, particularly phase-cut dimmers, fail to effectively adjust both brightness and correlated color temperature (CCT) of light sources, limiting flexibility in achieving desired lighting conditions for various applications.
Innovation Solution
A lighting controller system that includes a dimmer, a user interface, and a modulator to encode specified CCT values onto a carrier signal, allowing for the combination of light from multiple light-emitting devices with different CCTs to produce a combined white light matching the specified CCT, while also controlling brightness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If phase-cut dimmers are used to control brightness, then brightness adjustment is achieved, but CCT control is not available
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines brightness control and CCT control into a single phase-cut dimmer system. By using two light-emitting devices with different CCTs and mixing their outputs through pulse-width modulation encoded in the phase-cut signal, the system achieves both brightness and CCT adjustment functions using one dimmer switch, resolving the contradiction between brightness control availability and CCT control capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The phase-cut dimmer is designed to perform multiple functions: traditional brightness control and CCT control. By encoding dual information (brightness level and CCT value) in the phase-cut waveform and using two light-emitting devices with different CCTs, the system makes a single dimmer switch universal for both brightness and color temperature control, addressing the lack of CCT control in conventional dimmers.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple light-emitting devices with different CCTs are combined, then CCT flexibility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the control of two light-emitting devices with different CCTs into a single phase-cut dimmer circuit. Instead of requiring separate control systems for each LED, the invention encodes both brightness and CCT information in the phase-cut waveform, allowing one dimmer to control both devices simultaneously, thus reducing overall system complexity while maintaining CCT flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The phase-cut dimmer waveform acts as an intermediary that carries dual information (brightness and CCT) to control multiple light-emitting devices. By encoding the CCT value in the phase-cut signal, the system uses this intermediary signal to coordinate the operation of two LEDs with different CCTs, simplifying the control architecture while achieving CCT flexibility.
3Measurement precision
If CCT is controlled by mixing light from multiple sources, then CCT precision is improved, but control mechanism complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The phase-cut waveform serves as an intermediary that encodes both brightness and CCT information in a single control signal. This intermediary approach allows precise CCT control by encoding the desired CCT value in the phase-cut signal, which then drives the mixing of light from two LEDs with different CCTs, achieving precision without requiring complex separate control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system controls CCT by changing the duty cycle parameters of the two light-emitting devices through phase-cut modulation. By varying the proportion of time each LED is on (encoded in the phase-cut waveform), the system precisely adjusts the mixed light's CCT. This parameter-based control achieves CCT precision while using the simple phase-cut mechanism rather than complex control circuitry.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables precise adjustment of CCT and brightness, providing flexible lighting solutions that can accommodate various situations by mixing light from multiple sources, ensuring the combined CCT is within +/-10% of the specified value.
Implementation Method 1
a modulator, the modulator configured and disposed to encode the specified CCT value on the carrier signal
Implementation Method 2
a first light-emitting device that is configured to emit a first white light of a first correlated color temperature (CCT); and a second light-emitting device that is configured to emit a second white light of a second CCT that is lower than the first CCT, for the first white light to mix with the second white light to yield a combined white light having a combined-light CCT that corresponds to the specified CCT value
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed embodiments provide a lighting controller and illumination system. A controller may include a phase-cut dimmer, a lighting receiver module, and at least two banks of lights. In embodiments, the lights may be LED (light emitting diode) lights, and the lighting receiver module is an LED driver. A first bank of lights illuminates at a first CCT and a second bank of lights illuminates at a second CCT. The controller communicates encoded information on a carrier signal that is received by the lighting receiver module. The lighting receiver module decodes the received encoded information and adjusts the intensity of the first and second bank of lights to create a combined CCT. The combined CCT may be realized by a combination of light from the first bank of lights and light from the second bank of lights. The combined CCT may be representative of a specified CCT.