Method of controlling a lighting system

摘要

The present invention relates to a method of controlling a lighting system, the lighting system being arranged as a wireless network comprising a controller and a plurality of operating nodes arranged to communicate with each other, wherein the method comprises the steps of synchronizing the operating nodes with the controller, determining, from the plurality of operating nodes, a set of operating nodes that are located within a predetermined operating area, estimating a state-shift delay based on a maximum communication delay between the controller and the set of operating nodes located within the predetermined operating area, communicating the estimated state-shift delay to the plurality of operating nodes, and communicating a state-shift command to the plurality of operating nodes.;An advantage with the invention is that the visual artifact of the state-shift may be essentially removed as the time synchronization and timer interrupt alignment together with the estimated state-shift delay allows for the plurality of nodes to shift state at essentially the same time.

主权项

1. Method of controlling a lighting system, the lighting system being arranged as a network comprising a controller and a plurality of operating nodes arranged to communicate with each other, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
synchronizing the operating nodes with the controller comprising the step of synchronizing timer interrupts between a first node comprising a first counter and a second node comprising a second counter of the plurality of operating nodes within a predetermined operating area, wherein:
the first node takes a first snapshot of the first counter;the second node takes a second snapshot of the second counter; andthe first node transmits the first snapshot to the second node, enabling the second node to obtain a time offset between the first node and the second node; determining, from the plurality of operating nodes, a set of operating nodes that are located within the predetermined operating area; estimating a state-shift delay for the set of operating nodes, wherein the state-shift delay comprises: (i) a maximum communication delay between the controller and the set of operating nodes, wherein the maximum communication delay is based at least in part on the number of communication hops between the controller and one or more operating nodes within the set of operating nodes; and (ii) the difference in state-shift transition times between each of the operating nodes within the set of operating nodes; communicating the estimated state-shift delay to each operating node within said set of operating nodes; and communicating a state-shift command to the set of operating nodes.