Patent Publication Number: US-9418541-B2

Title: Method of remotely controlling electrical appliances

Description:
The current application claims a foreign priority to the patent application of Taiwan No. 103113087 filed on Apr. 9, 2014. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present invention relates generally to controlling electrical appliances, and more particularly to a method of remotely controlling electrical appliances. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Typically, a conventional electrical appliance has a control apparatus thereon for users to manually control its operation. If a user intents to turn on, turn off, or operate such electrical appliances, he/she has to be next to the to-be-controlled electrical appliance, and directly manipulate its control apparatus, which is quite inconvenient. 
     In order to improve the drawback mentioned above, some electrical appliances are further paired with a remote control, which is able to communicate the control apparatus through a radio frequency (RF) control module provided on the electrical appliances. A remote control transmits wireless RF signals which contain commands to the RF control module of the paired electrical appliance, and once the RF control module receives the wireless RF signals and consequently obtains the commands within, the control apparatus is then controlled accordingly to turn on, turn off, or operate the electrical appliance. 
     However, although electrical appliances can be wirelessly controlled with the aforementioned design, the number of remote controls corresponds to the number of electrical appliances. In other words, with more electrical appliances there would be more remote controls, and this kind of trend is rather common in home life. It has become burdensome to manage so many remote controls. In addition, with the development of wireless Internet technology, Wi-Fi wireless Internet gradually becomes ubiquitous in everyone&#39;s home. Therefore, if Wi-Fi signals can be used to control the conventional electrical appliances, the operational convenience would be greatly enhanced. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the above, the primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method of remotely controlling electrical appliances, which converts Wi-Fi signals into RF signals to control multiple electrical appliances. 
     The method of remotely controlling electrical appliances includes the following steps: A. provides a plurality of electrical appliances and a repeater, wherein each of the electrical appliances is stored with a unique ID code, and the repeater communicates with the electrical appliances through RF signals; B. inputs the ID codes of the electrical appliances into a remote control device, wherein the remote control device communicates with the repeater through Wi-Fi signals; C. selects one of the electrical appliances and one of operating commands which corresponds to the selected electrical appliance through the remote control device, and accordingly generates a Wi-Fi signal with the remote control device, wherein a first packet, which includes a first ID code field and a first data field, is carried by the Wi-Fi signal; the ID code of the selected electrical appliance is recorded in the first ID code field, and the selected operating command is recorded in the first data field; D. transmits the Wi-Fi signal to the repeater, converts the first packet carried thereby into a second packet with the repeater, and then generates a RF signal to carry the second packet with the repeater, wherein the second packet includes a second ID code field and a second data field; the ID code in the first ID code field and the operating command in the first data field are copied to the second ID code field and the second data field respectively; E. transmits the RF signal to each of the electrical appliances, compares the ID code in the second ID code field to the ID code stored in each of the electrical appliances, and then performs an operation according to the operating command in the second data field with the electrical appliance which has identical ID code to the ID code in the second ID code field. 
     Whereby, with the aforementioned design, it is effective to establish connections between the remote control device and the electrical appliances, and Wi-Fi signals can be converted into wireless RF signals to achieve the purpose of controlling multiple electrical appliances. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of the wireless control system of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of the circuit of the control unit of the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of the circuit of the repeater of the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of the first packet of the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram of the second packet of the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram of the third packet of the preferred embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram of the fourth packet of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , a method of remotely controlling electrical appliances of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is applied to a wireless control system, which includes a plurality of electrical appliances  10 , a repeater  20 , and a remote control device. In the preferred embodiment, the remote control device includes an AP (access point)  30 , a mobile device which is exemplified by a tablet PC  40 , and a server  50 . 
     In the preferred embodiment, the electrical appliances  10  include an air-conditioning system  10   a , a fireplace  10   b , and a water heater  10   c  installed in a user&#39;s home. Each of the electrical appliances  10  respectively has a control unit  12 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , each of the control units  12  respectively has a RF transceiver circuit  122 , a control circuit  124 , and a memory  126 , wherein the RF transceiver circuit  122  receives and transmits RF (radio frequency) signals. Take one of the electrical appliances  10  for explanation, the control circuit  124  controls the electrical appliance  10  to perform certain operations such as switching on, switching off, adjusting temperature, etc., according to operating commands contained in RF signals received by the RF transceiver circuit  122 . Similarly, the control circuit  124  generates RF signals to carry an operating status of the electrical appliance  10 , and the RF signals are transmitted through the RF transceiver circuit  122 . Said operating status may indicate current conditions of the electrical appliance  10 , such as whether the electrical appliance  10  is switched on or off, or even indicate its current temperature, rotating speed, and so on. The memory  126  keeps an ID code and a model code of the electrical appliance  10 . In the preferred embodiment, the ID code is an address assigned to the electrical appliance  10  when it is being connected to the repeater  20 , while the model code includes information pertaining to the electrical appliance  10 , such as a product category, a serial number, etc. The control circuit  124  further generates an error code when the electrical appliance  10  performs an abnormal operation, and the error code is kept in the memory  126 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , the repeater  20  includes a RF transceiver circuit  202 , a converting circuit  204 , a Wi-Fi transceiver circuit  206 , and a memory  208 , wherein the RF transceiver circuit  202 , the converting circuit  204 , and the Wi-Fi transceiver circuit  206  are electrically connected in serial, while the memory  208  is electrically connected to the converting circuit  204 . The RF transceiver circuit  202  receives the RF signals from the RF transceiver circuits  122  of the electrical appliances  10 . The converting circuit  204  converts the RF signals into Wi-Fi signals, which then are transmitted by the Wi-Fi transceiver circuit  206 . And vice versa, the Wi-Fi transceiver circuit  206  also receives Wi-Fi signals, and the converting circuit  204  converts the received Wi-Fi signals into RF signals, which are then transmitted through the RF transceiver circuit  202 . 
     The memory  208  keeps a device code specifically belonged to the repeater  20 . In addition, the ID codes and the model codes of the electrical appliances  10  are kept in the memory  208  in advance. Data from the electrical appliances  10 , such as error codes, are also kept in the memory  208 . 
     The AP  30  communicates with the server  50  through Internet I, and the AP  30  communicates with the tablet PC  40  and the repeater  20  through Wi-Fi protocol. The tablet PC  40  is installed with an application for the user to control the electrical appliances  10 , such as switching on, switching off, adjusting temperature, etc. Of course, in practice, the mobile device is not necessary to be the tablet PC  40 , and it can be a smartphone, a desktop, a laptop, a PDA, or any other devices that is able to generate Wi-Fi signals. 
     After the tablet PC  40  and the repeater  20  are connected, the repeater  20  transmits the device code, the ID codes and model codes of the electrical appliances  10  kept in its memory  208  to the tablet PC  40 , and these data are inputted into the tablet PC  40  in this way. The application of the tablet PC  40  establishes connections between the electrical appliances  10  and the repeater  20  according to the ID codes and the device code. 
     With the aforementioned wireless control system, the method of remotely controlling electrical appliances provided in the present invention can be applied. 
     First, the user selects one of the electrical appliances  10  on the tablet PC  40  that he/she intends to control. After a specified electrical appliance  10  is selected, the application generates a plurality of control options according to the model code of the selected electrical appliance  10 , and the user then selects one of the control options to generate an operating command accordingly. After that, the application of the tablet PC  40  generates a first packet, which is shown in  FIG. 4 , wherein the first packet includes a first device code field, a first ID code field and a first data field. The device code of the repeater is recorded in the first device code field, the ID code of the selected electrical appliance  10  is recorded in the first ID code field, and the selected operating command is recorded in the first data field. The tablet PC  40  generates a Wi-Fi signal to carry the first packet, and the Wi-Fi signal is then transmitted to the repeater  20  through the AP  30 . 
     The Wi-Fi transceiver circuit  206  of the repeater  20  receives the Wi-Fi signal and extracts the first packet. The extracted first packet is then transmitted to the converting circuit  204 . If the device code of the first device code field of the first packet is identical to the device code kept in the memory  208 , the converting circuit  204  converts the first packet into a second packet, which is shown in  FIG. 5 , wherein the second packet includes a second ID code field and a second data field. The ID code in the first ID code field and the operating command in the first data field are respectively copied to the second ID code field and the second data field. The converting circuit  204  generates a RF signal to carry the second packet, which is transmitted through the RF transceiver circuit  202 . 
     If the device code in the first device code field of the first packet does not correspond to the device code kept in the memory  208 , the converting circuit  204  simply ignores the first packet. In this way, there can be more than one repeater in surroundings, and the converting circuit  204  of each repeater would not mistakenly convert packets which are intended to be transmitted to other repeaters. 
     After said RF signal is received by the RF transceiver circuit  122  of each of the electrical appliances  10 , the second packet carried thereby is extracted and transmitted to the control circuit  124 . The control circuit  124  determines if the ID code in the second ID code field corresponds to the ID code kept in the memory  126 . The electrical appliance  10  which has the corresponding ID code performs an operation, such as switching on, switching off, or adjusting temperature, according to the operating command in the second data field. 
     For those electrical appliances  10  whose ID code does not correspond to the ID code in the second ID code field, the second packet is simply ignored. As a result, each one of the electrical appliances  10  would not mistakenly perform an operation due to a packet that is intended to be transmitted to any other electrical appliances  10 . 
     After that, each control circuit  124  generates a RF signal to carry a third packet, which is shown in  FIG. 6 , according to the operating status of the electrical appliance  10  which it belongs to, wherein the third packet includes a third ID code field, a third data field, and a third error code field. The ID code and the operating status of the electrical appliance  10  which has the control circuit  124  are sequentially and respectively recorded in the third ID code field and the third data field, wherein the operating status may indicate whether the referred electrical appliance  10  is switched on or off, or indicate the current temperature thereof, etc. As to the third error code field, the error code generated by the control circuit  124  is recorded therein. 
     The RF transceiver circuit  202  of the repeater  20  receives the RF signal which carries the third packet. The third packet is extracted and then transmitted to the converting circuit  204 . Once the converting circuit  204  obtains the error code in the third error code field of the third packet, the error code is saved into the memory  208  as a history log. In addition, the converting circuit  204  also converts the third packet into a fourth packet, which is shown in  FIG. 7 . The Wi-Fi transceiver circuit  206  generates a Wi-Fi signal to carry the fourth packet, and then said Wi-Fi signal is transmitted to the tablet PC  40 . The fourth packet includes a fourth device code field, a fourth ID code field, a fourth data field, a fourth error code field, and a fourth history log field. The device code kept in the memory  208  is recorded in the fourth device code field, while ID code in the third ID code field, the operating status in the third data field, and the error code in the third error code field are sequentially and respectively copied to the fourth ID code field, the fourth data field, and the fourth error code field. The error code(s) which is generated by the electrical appliances  10  and kept in the memory  208  is recorded in the fourth history log field. 
     Whereby, the tablet PC  40  is able to be informed the operating statuses of the electrical appliances  10  through the fourth packets feedbacked from the electrical appliances  10 , and the operating statuses can be displayed on a screen of the tablet PC  40  for the user&#39;s convenience. Meanwhile, the user can also realize that any one of the electrical appliances  10  is operating abnormally through the error codes, and the history logs which correspond to the error codes can be useful references for the user or maintenance personnel while maintaining or repairing the electrical appliances  10 . 
     The communication between the tablet PC  40 , the repeater  20 , and the electrical appliances  10  is merely an example. Similarly, a server  50  also communicates with the repeater  20  and the electrical appliances  10  in approximate the same way, except that the user selects one of the electrical appliances  10  and the corresponding operating commands on the server  50  instead, and the server  50  generates a network signal to carry the first packet, wherein the network signal is transmitted to the AP  30  through the Internet I. The AP  30  then generates and transmits a Wi-Fi signal which carries the first packet to the electrical appliances  10 . And vice versa, the repeater  20  also transmits the Wi-Fi signal which carries the fourth packet to the AP  30 , which generates a network signal to carry the fourth packet, and the network signal is then transmitted to the server  50 . In practice, the tablet PC  40  can be directly connected to the repeater  20  without the intermediation of the AP  30 , and it can still transmits the first packet and receives the fourth packet in this way. 
     It must be pointed out that the embodiments described above are only some preferred embodiments of the present invention. All equivalent methods which employ the concepts disclosed in this specification and the appended claims should fall within the scope of the present invention.