CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No.CN201611262068.2 filed on December 30, 2016 in the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the whole disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a connector. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

In the prior art, a home appliance with wireless network connection function usually includes a built-in Wi-Fi module, which generally is directly weld to a control circuit board of the home appliances.

In such home appliance, since the Wi-Fi module is disposed inside of a case of the home appliance which is usually made of metal, the metal case has a shielding effect on wireless radio frequency (RF) communication signal, which results in poor transmission performance of the wireless RF communication signal.

Since the Wi-Fi module is directly weld to the control circuit board of the home appliance, the Wi-Fi module can't be detached and replaced, and once a failure occurs in the Wi-Fi module or replacing various wireless communication network is required, it is necessary to replace the whole control circuit board, which results in very high cost in maintenance and update.

Additionally, the current Wi-Fi module and control circuit board do not include a sensor interface adapted to be connected with an additional sensor, thus the user can't add the additional sensor to the home appliance as desired.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure has been made to overcome or alleviate at least one aspect of the above mentioned disadvantages.

The present disclosure provides a connector which not only improves transmission performance of a wireless RF communication signal, but also facilitates users to replace the connector independently, thereby reducing costs of maintaining and updating the connector.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a connector, comprising: a data processing module; a wireless communication module; a home appliance interface adapted to be connected with an interface of a home appliance; and a sensor interface adapted to be connected with an external sensor.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the sensor comprises: a sensor chipset; a sensor interface connected with the sensor chipset and adapted to be mated with the sensor interface of the connector; and an ID setting circuit connected with the sensor chipset and adapted to generate an ID identification signal for identifying a type of the sensor, wherein the data processing module of the connector is adapted to identify the type of the sensor based on the ID identification signal that is received.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the ID setting circuits of different types of sensors generate voltage signals with different ranges, so that the data processing module of the connector is adapted to identify the type of the sensor based on the a magnitude of the voltage signal that is received.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the sensor interface of the connector comprises five functional pins comprising: a power pin for supplying power to the sensor; an ID identification signal pin for transmitting the ID identification signal; a communication clock signal pin for clocks synchronizing communication clocks; a data communication signal pin for transmitting communication data; and a ground pin.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the sensor interface of the connector is formed with a slot adapted to be inserted with the sensor, the five functional pins being arranged in the slot of the connector.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the slot is constructed to extend across throughout the connector and is formed with positioning posts adapted to be mated with positioning holes of the sensor.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the home applicant interface of the connector comprises four functional pins comprising a power pin for supplying the power to the connector; a signal receiving pin for receiving asynchronous serial communication signals; a signal sending pin for sending the asynchronous serial communication signals; and a ground pin.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the home appliance interface of the connector comprises a tongue-like plug adapted to be inserted into the socket of the home appliance, the four functional pins being arranged on the plug.

In each of the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the connector is adapted to be inserted from outside of the home appliance into a socket of the home appliance in a pluggable manner. As a result, a wireless RF communication signal generated by the connector is not shielded by the metal shell of the home appliance, improving the transmission performance of the wireless RF communication signal, and it is convenient for users to independently replace the connector, reducing the cost of maintaining and updating the connector.

Furthermore, in each of the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the connector is provide with a sensor interface adapted to be connected with a additional sensor, so that users may add various sensors as desired.

Other objectives and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of the present disclosure when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and may give a comprehensive understanding of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features of the present disclosure will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a home appliance system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of a Wi-Fi connector of the home appliance system as shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows a block diagram of a sensor of the home appliance system as shown in Fig. l;

Fig. 4 shows an illustrative perspective view of a home appliance system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 5 shows an illustrative perspective view of the Wi-Fi connector as shown in Fig. 4 and the sensor as shown in Fig. 4 adapted to be inserted into the Wi-Fi connector; and

Fig. 6 shows a block diagram of a home appliance system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The technical solution of the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in further detail with reference to embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the specification, the same or similar reference numerals indicate the same or similar parts. The description of the embodiments of the present disclosure hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings is intended to explain the general inventive concept of the present disclosure, and should not be constructed as a limitation to the present disclosure.

In addition, in the following detailed description, for the sake of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, one or more embodiments may also be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are illustrated schematically in order to simplify the drawing.

According to a general technical concept of the present disclosure, there is provided a connector comprising: a data processing module; a wireless communication module; a home appliance interface adapted to be connected with an interface of a home appliance; and a sensor interface adapted to be connected with an external sensor.

Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a home appliance system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 1, in the illustrated embodiment, taken a Wi-Fi connector 100 as an example, the inventive concept of the present disclosure will be explained and described herein. However, the connector in the present disclosure is not limited to the Wi-Fi connector, and may also be a connector for wireless communication according to other communication protocols, such as, a bluetooth connector, a ZigBee connector or the like.

As shown in Fig. 1, in the illustrated embodiment, the home appliance system mainly includes at least one home appliance 20 and at least one Wi-Fi connector 100. Fig. 4 shows an illustrative perspective view of the home appliance system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 4, in the illustrated embodiment, each of at least one home appliance 20 comprises an external socket 22. The at least one Wi-Fi connector 100 is adapted to be inserted into the socket 22 of the at least one home appliance 20, respectively.

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the Wi-Fi connector 100 of the home appliance system as shown in Fig. 1

As shown in Fig. 2, in the illustrated embodiment, the Wi-Fi connector 100 mainly includes a Wi-Fi module, a home appliance interface and a sensor interface. The home appliance interface and the sensor interface both are connected with the Wi-Fi module.

In the illustrated embodiment, the home appliance interface of the Wi-Fi connector 100 is adapted to be connected with an interface of the home appliance 20, and the sensor interface of the Wi-Fi connector 100 is adapted to be connected with an interface of the external sensor 10.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the Wi-Fi module of the Wi-Fi connector 100 comprises a data processing module and a wireless communication module connected with the data processing module. The home appliance interface and the sensor interface both are connected with the data processing module, , and are connected with the wireless communication module.

As mentioned above, when the Wi-Fi connector 100 is inserted from outside of the home appliance 20 into the socket 22 of the home appliance 20, the Wi-Fi connector 100 is adapted to be connected with a control circuit 21 of the home appliance 20 via the home appliance interface.

Fig. 3 shows a block diagram of a sensor 10 of the home appliance system as shown in Fig. 1.

As shown in Figs. 1-3, in the illustrated embodiment, because the Wi-Fi connector 100 also includes a sensor interface adapted to be connected with the sensor 10, the sensor 10 may be connected to the control circuit 21 of the home appliance 20 via the Wi-Fi connector 100.

As shown in Fig. 3, in the illustrated embodiment, the sensor 10 mainly comprises a sensor chip set; a sensor interface connected with the sensor chipset and adapted to be mated with the sensor interface of the Wi-Fi connector 100; and an ID setting circuit connected with the sensor chipset and adapted to generate an ID identification signal for identifying a type of the sensor 10.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in Fig. 1, the data processing module of the Wi-Fi connector 100 is adapted to identify the type of the sensor 10 based on the ID identification signal that is received.

In order to distinguish different types of sensors, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in Fig. 3, the ID setting circuits in different types of sensors 10 are configured to generate voltage signals with different ranges, so that the data processing module of the Wi-Fi connector 100 is adapted to identify the type of the sensor 10 based on a magnitude of the voltage signal that is received.

Fig. 5 shows an illustrative perspective view of the Wi-Fi connector 100 as shown in Fig. 4 and the sensor 10 as shown in Fig. 4 adapted to be inserted into the Wi-Fi connector 100.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 5, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the sensor interface of the Wi-Fi connector 100 comprises five functional pins 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115. The five functional pins 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115 are defined as a power pin 111 for supplying power to the sensor 10; an ID identification signal pin 112 for transmitting an ID identification signal; a communication clock signal pin 113 for synchronizing communication clocks; a data communication signal pin 114 for transmitting communication data; and a ground pin 115, respectively.

With continued reference to Fig. 5, in the illustrated embodiment, the Wi-Fi connector 100 is formed with a slot 110 adapted to be inserted with the sensor 10, and the five functional pins 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115 are arranged in the slot 110 of the Wi-Fi connector 100.

With continued reference to Fig. 5, in the illustrated embodiment, the slot 110 is constructed to extend across throughout the Wi-Fi connector 100 and is formed with positioning posts 101 adapted to be mated with positioning holes of the sensor 10. As shown in Figs. 2 and 5, in the illustrated embodiment, the home appliance interface of the Wi-Fi connector 100 comprises four functional pins 121, 122, 123 and 124. The four functional pins 121, 122, 123 and 124 are defined as a power pin 121 for supplying power to the Wi-Fi connector 100; a signal receiving pin 122 for receiving asynchronous serial communication signals; a signal transmitting pin 123 for transmitting the asynchronous serial communication signals; and a ground pin 124, respectively. In general, the signal receiving pin 122 and the signal transmitting pin 123 are served as a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART).

As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, in the illustrated embodiment, the Wi-Fi connector 100 includes a tongue-like plug 120 adapted to be inserted into the socket 22 of the home appliance 20, and the four functional pins 121, 122, 123 and 124 are arranged on the plug 120.

As shown in Fig. 2, in the illustrated embodiment, the Wi-Fi connector 100 further comprises functional modules connected and communicated with the Wi-Fi module, such as a debug interface, a JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) interface, an antenna, LDO (Low Dropout Regulator) and a reset button, etc.

As shown in Fig. 3, in the illustrated embodiment, the senor 10 further comprises functional modules connected and communicated with the sensor chipset, for example, LDO (Low Dropout Regulator), etc.

Fig. 6 shows a block diagram of a home appliance system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in Fig. 6, in the illustrated embodiment, the Wi-Fi connector 100 is not provided with a sensor interface adapted to be connected with the sensor 10, instead the control circuit 21 of the home appliance 20 is provide with the sensor interface adapted to be connected with the sensor 10.

Accordingly, as shown in Fig. 6, in the illustrated embodiment, the sensor 10 may be directly inserted into the control circuit 21 of the home appliance 20, and is connected with the Wi-Fi connector 100 via a bus of the control circuit 21.

As shown in Figs. 3 and 6, in the illustrated embodiment, the sensor 10 includes: a sensor chipset; a sensor interface connected with the sensor chipset and adapted to be mated with the sensor interface of the control circuit 21 of the home appliance 20; and an ID setting circuit connected with the sensor chipset and adapted to generate ID identification signal for identifying type of the sensor 10.

In the embodiment as shown in Fig. 6, the Wi-Fi connector 100 comprises a data processing module and a wireless communication module connected with the data processing module. The sensor interface of the control circuit 21 of the home appliance 20 is connected with the Wi-Fi connector 100 via the bus. In this way, the data processing module of the Wi-Fi connector 100 may receive the ID identification signal, and identify the type of the sensor 10 based on the received ID identification signal.

As mentioned above, in order to distinguish different types of sensors, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in Fig. 3, the ID setting circuits in different types of sensors 10 are configured to generate voltage signals with different ranges, so that the data processing module of the Wi-Fi connector 100 may identify the type of the sensor 10 based on a magnitude of the received voltage signal.

Similar to the embodiment as shown in Figs. 1-5, in the embodiment shown in Fig. 6, the sensor interface of the control circuit 21 of the home appliance 20 comprises five functional pins. The five functional pins may be defined as a power pin for supplying power to the sensor 10; an ID identification signal pin for transmitting an ID identification signal; a communication clock signal pin for synchronizing communication clocks; a data communication signal pin for transmitting communication data; and a ground pin, respectively.

In the embodiment as shown in Fig. 6, the home appliance interface of the Wi-Fi connector 100 comprises seven functional pins 112, 113, 114, 121, 122, 123 and 124 (see Fig. 5), which are defined as an ID identification signal pin 112 for the transmitting ID identification signal; a communication clock signal pin 113 for synchronizing the communication clocks; a data communication signal pin 114 for transmitting the communication data; a power pin 121 for supplying the power to the Wi-Fi connector 100; a signal receiving pin 122 for receiving asynchronous serial communication signals; a signal transmitting pin 123 for transmitting the asynchronous serial communication signals; and a ground pin 124, respectively. In general, the signal receiving pin 122 and the signal transmitting pin 123 are served as a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART).

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above embodiments are intended to be illustrative, modifications may be made to the above embodiments by those skilled in the art, and structures described in various embodiments may be freely combined without having structural or principle conflict.

Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the attached drawings, the embodiments disclosed in the drawings are intended to illustrate the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, but should not be constructed as a limitation to the present disclosure.

Although some embodiments of the general concept of the present disclosure have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that modifications may be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

It should be noted that term "comprising" or "including" should be understood as not excluding other elements or steps, and term "a" or "an" should be understood as not excluding plural elements or steps. Further, and reference numeral in claims should not be understood as a limitation of the present disclosure.