Abstract:
A valve manifold block for a fluid valve manifold has a valve manifold block with a printed circuit board received in a passage in the valve manifold block. A set of conductive valve lines on the circuit board extend between and are connected to a respective set of first electrical connectors and a respective set of second mating electrical connectors. The circuit board also having at least one conductive valve line extending to a third connector on the circuit board operably leading to one voltage side of the valve unit. A conductive common line is operably connected to an opposite voltage side of the valve unit. A serial communication line connects to a respective serial communication line in another valve manifold block for communicating information relating to the valve unit.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The field of this invention relates to a single line communication path between a driver and slave device, for example a solenoid actuated fluid control valve manifold assembly and more particularly to a multi-station circuit board for use with the manifold assembly having a single communication line. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0002]    Fluid control systems for controlling flow of hydraulic or pneumatic fluid have been used in automated manufacturing equipment, production lines and numerous industrial applications. Many of these fluid control systems take the form of a valve manifold that has a series of manifold valve blocks assembled together. Some manifold blocks house a single solenoid that has a spring return for moving the valve when the solenoid is deactuated or on the other hand, some manifold blocks house a double solenoid valve that has a first solenoid when actuated that moves the valve to the on position and a second solenoid when actuated that moves the valve to the off position. 
         [0003]    Each valve manifold block houses a circuit board which has circuitry printed thereon to allow actuation of the valve unit or units mounted to the valve manifold block. The circuit board also has circuits printed thereon to carry voltage to other circuit boards for the other valves mounted on other valve manifold blocks. 
         [0004]    What is needed is a single line system between a driver and slave devices that provides information therebetween that can be used for smart slave devices or other slave devices. In particular, a circuit board that can pass through a valve manifold block and has a serial or single communication line for each respective valve unit and/or supplementary control, programming or parameterization. With the advent of smart slave devices, for example solenoid valves, proportional devices or pressure switches, it is desirable to transfer data between a driver and the slave device. 
       SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0005]    In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the driver device drives a valve manifold block for a fluid valve manifold has a plurality of fluid pathways and ports therein controlled by a slave device in the form of a valve unit operably mounted thereto. A passage passes through the valve manifold from a first side to a second side of the valve manifold block. A printed circuit board is received in the passage has a first edge in proximity to the first side with a plurality of first electrical connectors and a second edge in proximity to the second side with a plurality of second mating electrical connectors to connect to respective first electrical connectors in another printed circuit board in another valve manifold block. 
         [0006]    The circuit board has a set of conductive valve control lines connected to and extending between a respective set of first electrical connections and a set of respective second mating electrical connectors. The circuit board also has at least one conductive valve control line extending from a respective first electrical connection to a third connector on the circuit board operably leading to one voltage side of a valve unit. A conductive common line is connected to the third connector operably connected to an opposite voltage side of the valve unit and also connected to a respective first electrical connector and a respective second mating electrical connector. A serial communication line has a respective first electrical connector at the first edge and a respective second mating electrical connector at the second edge for connection to a respective serial communication line in another valve manifold block for communicating information relating to the valve unit. 
         [0007]    In one embodiment, the serial communication line extends to and is connected to a low voltage side of the valve unit. Optionally, the circuit board serves a second valve unit on the valve manifold block. The serial communication line extends to and is connected to a low voltage side of the second valve unit. 
         [0008]    In one embodiment, the serial communication line is used as a detection circuit line to detect if the valve unit mounted to the valve manifold block uses a single solenoid valve unit or double solenoid valve unit. The circuit board serves a second valve unit on the valve manifold block. The set of conductive valve lines extend from a set of first electrical connectors at the first edge and extending and shifted to a staggered relative position at a set of second mating electrical connectors. A leg line is preferably connected from the third connector to the detection circuit line through a diode to only allow current to pass in the direction from the leg line to the detection circuit line. 
         [0009]    According to another aspect of the invention, fluid control system has a fluid valve manifold with a plurality of valve manifold blocks fastened to each other so as to form fluid pathways extending through the manifold and a passage through each valve manifold that aligns with each other to collectively form a continuous electrical conduit for receiving a series of connected circuit boards that actuate a respective valve unit mounted to a respective valve manifold block. Each circuit board has a set of conductive valve control lines connected to and extending between a respective set of first electrical connectors and a respective set of second mating electrical connectors. A conductive common line is connected to a third connector operably connected to one voltage side of the valve unit and also connected to a respective first electrical connector and respective second mating electrical connector for connection to a respective conductive line in another valve manifold block. A serial communication line in each circuit board has a respective first electrical connector at of the first edge and a respective second mating electrical connector at the second edge for connection to a respective serial communication line in another valve manifold block. 
         [0010]    At least one circuit board serves at least one double solenoid valve unit having two conductive valve lines for each double solenoid valve unit extending from the first electrical connector to a third connector at an opposite voltage side of each double solenoid valve unit at the valve manifold block for actuating each double solenoid valve unit. At least one circuit board serves at least one single solenoid valve unit having a conductive valve line for each single solenoid valve unit extending from the first electrical connector to a third connector at an opposite voltage side of each single solenoid valve unit at the respective valve manifold block for actuating each single solenoid valve unit. The serial communication line for the at least one circuit board serves the at least one single solenoid valve unit extends to a low voltage side of each single solenoid valve unit for communicating information relating thereto. 
         [0011]    Preferably, a leg line is connected from the third connector to the detection circuit line through a diode to only allow current to pass from the leg line to the detection circuit line. 
         [0012]    Also preferably, the set of conductive valve lines extend from the respective set of first electrical connectors at the first edge and extend and are shifted to a staggered relative position at the set of second mating connectors. 
         [0013]    In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a serial communication circuit line includes a master, e.g. a driver device, which is normally used to energize a load through an operating circuit; e.g. a power circuit. The master drive circuit is designed in such a way that it not only turns the load on or off through a power circuit, but also sends data to the load through a single wire for reading and/or writing various parameters which can be used for diagnostic information or to change the functionality of the load. The load can be in the form of a smart slave device, (e.g. “smart” solenoid valve, proportional device, pressure switch or other component that requires monitoring, control or parameterization), which has appropriate circuitry to decipher and interpret the data sent from the master driver and can also report back information from the slave device to the master driver through the same single wire. 
         [0014]    The single wire communication system usually in a form of a trace on the slave device board uses a bias voltage to power the electronic circuitry within the slave device. The master then modulates the current to the single wire trace in order to create voltage pulses that are greater than the bias potential, allowing the slave to identify that data is coming from the master. 
         [0015]    The slave can only respond to a master&#39;s request or command, it cannot initiate communication. When responding to a master&#39;s request, the slave modulates the current to the single wire trace in order to create voltage pulses that are less than the bias potential, allowing the master to identify that data is coming back from the slave. 
         [0016]    The handshaking routine can be comprised of data frames which has a start bit, 8 data bits and one stop bit. The complete data frame has 8 bytes, an address byte, a command byte, five data bytes and one checksum byte. The checksum byte is simply the sum of the preceding seven bytes and is used for error detection. 
         [0017]    Addressing the slaves is required since the single wire communication trace is usually connected to a plurality of slave devices. Thus, it is important to identify which slave device is being addressed. This addressing function is done on initial power-up, or is initiated by the user when appropriate, and is achieved by the utilization of the existing “coil output” signals which are typically used to energize solenoid coils of conventional valves. 
         [0018]    Upon power-up, the “coil output” signals are configured to sequentially strobe each coil trace with a very fast pulse, which is too fast to energize the coil of an attached valve. A sensing circuit in the slave is then triggered by the strobe pulse to allow that specific slave to receive an address. 
         [0019]    Once the first slave gets an address from the master, the strobing sequence is incremented so the next slave device can be assigned sequential addresses. The system continues this addressing routine until all possible slave devices get a sequential address. 
         [0020]    After all slave devices are addressed, the master can communicate to each individual slave device without affecting any other slave devices. 
         [0021]    For example, the driver device is a smart valve driver device uses “active high” or PNP driver ICs to drive each of 32 coils on the valve manifold. The common for all 32 coils is 0 VDC. An isolated “switched” power is used to drive the manifold coils and is completely isolated from the “unswitched” power when used to power the logic and input sections of the manifold. Like a conventional valve driver, the smart valve driver receives its output data from the communication module. The valve driver then updates the drive ICs every 2 milliseconds with the output data which turns the coils on or off depending on the I/O data sent from the communication module. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0022]    Reference now is made to the accompanying drawings in which: 
           [0023]      FIG. 1  is an exploded side elevational view of a fluid control system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; 
           [0024]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged side elevational view of one circuit board installed in a manifold block for two valve units as shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0025]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view of a circuit board for two single solenoid valve units in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; 
           [0026]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a circuit board for two double solenoid valve units in accordance with another embodiment of the invention; 
           [0027]      FIG. 5  is a plan view of a first face of the circuit board for two single valve units as shown in  FIG. 3  illustrating the circuit layout; 
           [0028]      FIG. 6  is a plan view of a second face of the circuit board for two single valve units as shown in  FIG. 3  illustrating the circuit layout; 
           [0029]      FIG. 7  is a schematic end view of a first edge of the circuit board for two single solenoid valve units as shown in  FIG. 3  illustrating the terminals connections to respective circuits in the circuit board; 
           [0030]      FIG. 8  is a schematic end view of a second edge of the circuit board for two single solenoid valve units as shown in  FIG. 3  illustrating the terminals connections to respective circuits in the circuit board; 
           [0031]      FIG. 9  is a schematic view of the detection circuit installed on the first face of the circuit board for two single solenoid valve units as shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0032]      FIG. 10  is a plan view of a first face of the circuit board for two double solenoid valve units as shown in  FIG. 4  illustrating the circuit layout; 
           [0033]      FIG. 11  is a plan view of a second face of the circuit board for two double solenoid valve units as shown in  FIG. 4  illustrating the circuit layout; 
           [0034]      FIG. 12  is a schematic end view of a first edge of the circuit board for two double solenoid valve units as shown in  FIG. 4  illustrating the terminals connections to respective circuits in the circuit board; 
           [0035]      FIG. 13  is a schematic end view of a second edge of the circuit board for two double solenoid valve units as shown in  FIG. 4  illustrating the terminals connections to respective circuits in the circuit board; 
           [0036]      FIG. 14  is a schematic view of a circuit leads connected to the four valves in the two solenoid double valve units for the circuit board shown in  FIG. 4 ; and 
           [0037]      FIG. 15  is a schematic view of an alternate embodiment in accordance with the invention between a smart master and smart slave valve device with two coils. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0038]    Referring now to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the fluid control system  10  is modular in nature and depending on the application has a number of valve manifold blocks  12  interconnected together. Only two manifold blocks  12  are shown for simplicity of the drawings. Some of the valve manifold blocks  12  may have single solenoid valves units  13  mounted thereon and some of the valve manifold blocks  12  may have double solenoid valve units  14  mounted thereon. All blocks  12  are connected to a communication module  15 . The manifold block  12  has fluid supply and exhaust ports  15  therethrough that are connected through ports (not shown) that lead to the valve units  13  and  14  to control fluid flow. 
         [0039]    Preferably, each valve manifold block  12  may accommodate two single solenoid valve units  13  or two double solenoid valve units  14 . Each valve manifold block  12  has a passage  28  that receives a single circuit board assembly  30  or a double circuit board assembly  32 . Referring now to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , each circuit board assembly  30  and  32  may have a board  34  with a pair of stop shoulders  36  that engage appropriate shoulders and grooves in the passage  28 . Each circuit board may also have a pair of flexible tab arms  37  that also similarly engage the groove in the passage such that the circuit board can be removably installed into the passage  28  by a snap fit. 
         [0040]    Each circuit board  30  and  32  has pin connectors  38  and  39  mounted on a respective board  34 . Each board has a first edge  40  and second edge  42  with respective trace contacts  44  and  46 . As shown in  FIG. 3 , a standard bridge connector  43  electrically connects the aligned trace contacts  44  and  46  of adjacent boards  30 . The single board  30  has a diode assembly  48  mounted thereon. Circuit board  32  is absent this diode assembly  48  as illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
         [0041]    Referring now to  FIGS. 5 through 9 , the board  30  as shown in  FIG. 3  will be described in further detail. The first edge  40  may have trace contacts  44  on both faces  52  and  54  of the board. As shown in  FIGS. 7 and 8  the terms labeled A or B, e.g. A 1 -A 19  and B 1 -B 19  as a prefix refer to the positions of the contacts and conductive lines on the respective side  50  or  52 . The terms labeled with the V as a prefix, e.g. V 1 , V 2 , etc. refers to the downstream valve number that the circuit operates counting from the shown circuit board. The number notation, e.g.  56 ,  66  are the conductive printed circuit lines on each board. A set of conductive valve lines  56  labeled V 3  through V 31  in  FIGS. 7 and 8  on both faces  52  and  54  extend from one edge  40  to the second edge and may be decremented one position from edge  40  to edge  42 . For example, on face  52 , V 3  at position AS on edge  40  drops one position to position A 4  on edge  42  to be connected to a V 1  contact at position A 4  on edge  40  of a sequential board. On face  52 , V 4  at position B 5  on edge  40  may drop one position to position B 4  to be connected to a V 2  contact at position B 4  of the sequential board. Top contacts at position A 19  and B 19  are not connected to any conductive lines on the board. In this particular shown circuit board, V 31  indicates that the valve manifold using that circuit board is limited to a maximum thirty-one solenoid valves. Other layouts for the circuit board lines are possible to arrange for less or for more solenoid valves. 
         [0042]    At first edge  40 , the conductive valve line  66  corresponding to position A 4  and operating the first valve V 1 , i.e. the valve on the present manifold block  12  leads to pin connector  38 . Another conductive valve line  76  corresponding to position B 4  and operating the second valve, i.e. the second single solenoid valve on the present manifold block  12  leads to pin connector  39 . The pin connectors  38  and  39  are connected to the respective valve units  13 . Each valve solenoid unit  13  is also respectively connected to pin connectors  38  and  39  which are connected to legs  91  and  92  that lead to a common voltage line  86  labeled Vcomn at each face  52  and  54 . The Vcomn lines  86  at each face are connected to each other. The lines  86  are normally connected to a  24  volt supply to power all of the valve units  12  and  13 . 
         [0043]    Conductive lines  56  and  66  corresponding to V 1  and V 2  also both have legs  58  and  59  leading to a respective diode  60  and  62  in diode assembly  48 . The each diode has it output connected to a leg  64  as clearly shown in  FIG. 9  that connects to a leg  94  that leads to a detection circuit line  96  that extends from edge  40  to  42  at positions Al and Al at each edge. This detection line  96  as well as the common voltage line  86  labeled Vcomn are not decremented but pass straight through from one edge to the other without dropping any positions. Other lines such as an auxiliary power circuit lines  72  labeled 24VDC at position B 2  and its return line  74  labeled 0VDC at B 1  as well as a protective earth line  82  labeled PE and often referred to as a ground at position A 2  may also pass straight through without any decrementation of position. Legs  97  and  98  connect line  82  to the respective connector pins  38  and  39 . 
         [0044]    Referring now to  FIGS. 10-14 , the double circuit board  32  is constructed to mount two double solenoid valve units. Similar or corresponding part numbers from the board  30  will have corresponding similar numbers. As such, a set of conductive valve lines  56  labeled particularly V 5  through V 32  at edge  40  corresponding to position A 6 -A 19  on face  50  and positions B 6 -B 19  on face  52  pass to edge  42  and are decremented two positions i.e. to positions A 4 -A 17  on face  50  and B 4 -B 17  on face  52  such that they connect to corresponding positions on a sequential board. At edge  42 , contacts A 19  and A 18  on face  52  and B 19  and B 18  are not connected to any conductive lines on the double board  32 . 
         [0045]    The board  32  has conductive valve lines  66  for V 1  and V 2  connected to pin connector  38  and conductive valve lines  76  for V 3  and V 4  are connected to pin connector  39  to power the two double solenoid valve units  14 . Similar to the single circuit board  30 , the double board  32  has a common voltage line  86  labeled Vcomn at each face  50  and  52  to power all the valve units, detection line  96 , auxiliary power circuit lines  72  labeled 24 VDC and its return line  74  at 0VDC, and protective earth line  82  PE or ground line that are not decremented. The detection line  96  at position A 1  is not connected to the connectors  38  or  39  or the double valve units associated with this double circuit board  32 . 
         [0046]    In this valve operation, there is a sinking driver, i.e. power line which is supplied to along conductive power line  86  which is connected to all solenoids. In order to actuate the valve, each line  56 ,  66 , or  76  must individually be grounded. This is usually done through an IC chip or driver at the end of the line, e.g. at the communication module  15  and connected to all of the conductive lines  56 ,  66  and  76 . When a selected line is grounded, electrical current is then able to flow from the common power line  86  labeled Vcomn and through the selected solenoid and to ground to actuate an individual valve V 1 -V 32 . However, it is also foreseen that a sourcing driver can also work, i.e. a grounding common is connected to all solenoids and to actuate a valve, a voltage, for example 24V is individually connected. 
         [0047]    The detection line  96  can be used to determine if the circuit board is a single board  30  or a double board  32 . In one method, all the conductive valve lines  56 ,  66 , and  76 , are actuated. In the shown system this actuation is done by grounding the valve lines V 1 -V 32  through an IC component or driver connected at one end from the first board. The power supply line  86  Vcomn is then able to provide current through each solenoid and down through the individual lines V 1 -V 32 . In operation, all the solenoid valves are actuated and the V 1 -V 32  lines are grounded , thus the voltage detected on the detection line  96  is 0V. 
         [0048]    Each contact is selectively and individually deactuated, i.e. turned off in sequence by the driver IC circuit usually housed in communication module  15 . When the V 1  line in the shown circuit board  30  is turned off, the V 1  line is no longer grounded so V 1  line reads 24V, in other words it now has the same voltage as the Vcomn line. The leg  58  which is directly connected to the V 1  line also reads 24V and passes through the diode  60  as shown in  FIG. 9  to outlet leg  94  on the circuit board which connects to the detection line  96 . The detection line  96  then reads 24V. 
         [0049]    The V 1  line is then re-actuated, and the V 2  line is deactuated. Similarly, the V 2  line will then read 24V when the V 2  line is deactuated. The detection leg  94  downstream of diode  62  again reads 24V. Thus when V 1  and V 2  lines both are sequentially deactuated and the detection lines reads 24V for both deactuations, it is thus determined that the circuit board associated with V 1  and V 2  for this board is a single solenoid circuit board  30 . 
         [0050]    On the other hand, if the four voltage lines i.e. V 1 -V 4  of double board  32  are actuated and deactuated in sequence, the detection line  96  as shown in  FIG. 14  does not change from its 0V readout, because it is not connected to any of line V 1 -V 4  on this double board  32 . Thus when the detection circuit line reads 0V when the fours lines V 1 -V 4  are sequentially actuated and deactuated, it can be deduced that the circuit board associated with these four valve lines are with a double solenoid board  32 . 
         [0051]    The process of the driver sinking (or sourcing) the voltage charge for this detection is very fast, so as not to change the position of the valve. For example, a sinking pulse or strobe connected by the driver to 0V can be 0.2 milliseconds. This is substantially too short to mechanically move the valve from its previous position. Furthermore, when the strobe is sent to valve status V 1 , none of the other valve lines V 2 -V 32  are affected, because they did not received this strobe. 
         [0052]    Other logical mapping and communications can be used with this single detection line  96  that passes through all the circuit boards  30  and  32 . For example, if only one line V 2  reads 24 V when deactuated but V 1  remains at 0V when deactuated, it may be deduced that there is a no coil or solenoid valve in the valve unit associated with V 1 . 
         [0053]    It is also foreseen that instead of a detection line, a single serial communication line may be used in other embodiments and for other purposes than detecting the presence of single and double solenoid circuit boards and the presence or absence of single or double solenoid valve units mounted on the valve manifold units of a fluid control system. Referring now to  FIG. 15 , a serial communication line  100  can be used with smart slave devices, e.g. smart valves  102  with its own serial controller  104  and transmitting and receiving circuit  106  as shown in  FIG. 15 . These other purposes for example can be counting the number of actuations or having other communications signals emanating from the individual valve units and sent through the serial communication line  100  to be received to a processor or other communication device, e.g. communication module  15 , at the end of the line, programming or parameterization functionality. 
         [0054]    In an alternative embodiment, in order to transmit data from the driver master  108  to the slave (valve) on the same connecting trace  100  that is also used to power the electronic circuitry and micro connector  104 . The master device  108 , then modulates the current to create voltage pulses that are greater than the bias potential allowing the slave device to identify the data is coming from the master driver. The slave can only respond to a master&#39;s request or command, it cannot initiate communication. When responding to a master&#39;s request, the slave modulates the current to the single wire trace  100  in order to create voltage pulses that are less than the bias potential, allowing the master to identify that data is coming back from the slave. 
         [0055]    This handshaking routine is comprised of data frames which consist of a start bit, 8 data bits and one stop bit. The complete data frame consists of 8 bytes, an address byte, a command byte, five data bytes and one checksum byte. The checksum byte is simply the sum of the preceding seven bytes and is used for error detection. Circuitry  106  and  104  on the slave valve is able to decode these data pulses for parameter and/or diagnostic functions. 
         [0056]    Addressing the slaves is required since the single wire communication trace is connected to the entire set of 32 valves. Thus, it is important to identify which slave valve is being addressed. This addressing function for each smart valve is done on initial power-up, or is initiated by the user when appropriate, and is achieved by the utilization of the existing “coil output” signals which are typically used to energize solenoid coils of conventional valves. 
         [0057]    Upon power-up, the “coil output” signals are configured to sequentially strobe each coil trace  110  and  112  with a very fast pulse from coil driver  115 , which is too fast to energize the coil  116 ,  118  of an attached valve  102 . The common voltage is along line  113 . A detect circuit  114  in the slave is then triggered by the strobe pulse to allow that specific slave to receive an address. 
         [0058]    Once the first slave gets an address from the master, the strobing sequence is incremented so the next slave can be assigned sequential addresses. The system continues this addressing routine until all  32  possible slaves get a sequential address. After all slaves are addressed, the master can communicate to each individual slave without affecting any other slave&#39;s function. Because each of the slaves receives a sequential address (1-32), the smart driver can then communicate with each slave individually at any time during operation. Smart slaves may be mixed on the same manifold with regular (Non-smart) valves. 
         [0059]    Each of the smart valves (slaves) connected to the one wire is able to communicate with the smart driver through its transmit and receive circuit  120 . Commands and data are sent from the smart driver to the smart slaves along line  100 . Data and slave type is sent from the smart slaves to the smart driver along line  100 . 
         [0060]    One function that the smart valve may have is counting the number or times it has been energized. The smart valves will detect the activation of both the “A” and “B” coils  116 ,  118  and will record the total counts into non-volatile memory located on the smart valve circuitry. Additional slave types such as “smart pressure transducer” (Detect and report air pressure) or “smart pressure regulator” (regulate air pressures) are also possible. 
         [0061]    In this fashion, communication through the valve manifold block assembly of a fluid control system is achieved by using a single serial communication line that is in direct contact with individual valve units throughout the manifold block assembly. Other variations and modifications are possible without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.