An Illumination Control System, an Illuminating Device and a Secondary Controller

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an illumination control system, an illuminating device and a secondary controller.

Background Art In modern society, the illuminating devices are widely used for illumination, and higher requirements are put on the illuminating devices, for instance, the lamp is required to be capable of being turned on and off automatically and periodically, or capable of providing brightness to different de- grees in different application scenes. The DMX512 protocol is used in the prior art for dimming control in a colorful LED illuminating device. However, only 512 channels are supported when the DMX512 protocol is used for the dimming control. One RGBW illuminating device carries four channels, then the maximum number of the illuminating devices supported by the DMX512 protocol is 128, which this number obviously is insufficient for illumination in a large area. According to the prior art, more controllers are used in order to increase the number of the illumination device, while this will lead to a modification of the software controlling the computer, which will increase the complexity and incompatibility of the whole system. Besides, as DMX512 needs wire communication, the number of wiring to be controlled will be increased as the number of the controller or driver using the DMX512 pro- tocol increases in the case of large-area illumination, which will greatly increase the wiring cost.

Summary of the Invention

The object of the present invention lies in providing a new illumination control system that has a low cost and a good compatibility, is easily operated and can overcome the defects in the prior art.

The object of the present invention is accomplished via an illumination control system. The illumination control system comprises a master controller, at least one driver and a plurality of illuminating devices driven by the driver, wherein the illumination control system further comprises a secondary controller provided corresponding to the driver, the master controller and the secondary controller perform a first communication through a wireless communication protocol, and the secondary controller and the driver perform a second communication through a wire communication protocol . Extra wiring cost will not be incurred in communication between the secondary controller and the master controller when the number of the driver and the secondary controller increases, since the secondary controller and the master controller communicate wirelessly. Therefore, the cost is significantly reduced and the system compatibility is improved.

Preferably, the secondary controller comprises a first communication module for the first communication and a second communication module for the second communication, and the first communication module and the second communication module exchange data with each other. The secondary controller thus can well realize functions in two aspects, i.e., wireless communication and wire communication, and converts different formats of control data between the two communication modes.

Preferably, the wireless communication protocol is a ZigBee protocol that has advantages of a large network capacity, a low cost and relay transmission and is adapted to remote control and management and control of a plurality of illuminating devices distributed in a large area. Since the ZigBee protocol is used between the master controller and the secon- dary controller, one secondary controller can transfer the control data to other secondary controller for supporting more illuminating devices, and more than 128 illuminating devices may be supported when drivers are newly increased and further secondary controllers should be increased. Particu- larly preferably, the first wireless communication protocol is a sub-protocol ZigBee Smart Light Profit or the ZigBee Home Automation in the ZigBee protocol . The ZigBee Smart Light Profit defines commands for colorful illumination. ZigBee Home Automation defines corresponding commands. Corre- spondingly, the first communication module is a ZigBee module, and the master controller comprises a ZigBee interface module communicating with the ZigBee module. A user may send control commands to respective secondary controllers via the ZigBee interface module, so that there is no need to change the software configuration when secondary controllers are newly increased, which favors the compatibility.

In one exemplary embodiment, the wire communication protocol is a DMX512 protocol that is global standard and widely used by various illumination control systems. Accordingly, the second communication module is a DMX512 module and the driver is a DMX512 driver for communication connection between the two .

According to one aspect of the present invention, the secondary controller further comprises a UART port between the ZigBee module and the DMX512 module.

The present invention further relates to corresponding secondary controller.

The present invention provides an illumination control system that can have a low cost and a good compatibility and is eas- ily operated.

Brief Description of the Drawings

In the accompanying drawings, like reference sign usually refers to the same part in different figures. Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the figures in the following the Description, wherein

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of layout of an illumination control system according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of layout of a secondary con- troller according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention .

Detailed Description of the Embodiments

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of layout of an illumination control system 100 according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The illumination control system 100 comprises a master controller 1, a ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller 2, a DMX512 driver 3 and a plurality of illuminating devices 4. The master controller 1 comprises a ZigBee interface module communicating with a ZigBee module 5 of the ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller 2, and communication therebetween is performed through a ZigBee software protocol, particularly preferably, a ZigBee Smart Light Profit protocol or ZigBee Home Automation protocol, for realizing a wireless link 7. The ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller 2 further has a DMX512 module 6 configured for communication with the DMX512 driver 3. The DMX512 drivers 3 can drive a plurality of illuminating devices 4. The ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller 2 and the driver 3 preferably have a one-to-one cor- responding relationship.

The ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller 2 also may communicate with the master controller 1 through other wireless communication protocols.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of layout of the ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller 2 according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller 2 comprises a ZigBee module 5 and a DMX512 module 6. The ZigBee module 5 and the master controller 1 perform the first communication through the ZigBee protocol, preferably the ZigBee Smart Light Profit protocol, and the DMX512 module 6 is connected with the DMX512 driver 3 that drives a plurality of illuminating devices 4 through data lines. The ZigBee module 5 and the DMX512 module 6 communicate with each other via a hardware port UART 10. List of reference signs

100 illumination control system

1 master controller

2 secondary controller (ZigBee-DMX512 secondary controller)

3 driver (DMX512 driver)

4 illuminating device

5 ZigBee module

6 DMX512 module 7 wireless link

8 UART port