Valve controller system and method
AssigneePentair Residential Filtration, LLC
InventorsAndrew Lindgren, Andrew Mansfield
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments of the invention provide a valve controller configured to network with one or more other valve controllers in a water condition system, providing on-board communication between valves. The valve controller can provide, among other features, improved demand recall, user settings protection, dynamic addressing and automatic master unit selection, network settings push capabilities, and/or descriptive error log displays.
Claims20
A valve arrangement in a water conditioning system, the valve arrangement comprising:
- a valve controlled by a motor;
- and
- a valve controller coupled to the valve and provided in the form of:
- a controller housing;
- a user interface on the controller housing, the user interface including a display and one or more buttons designed to receive user inputs;
- and
- a control board supported by the controller housing, the control board including a microcontroller in communication with the display, the one or more buttons, and the motor, the microcontroller designed to execute computer-readable instructions, which, when executed, cause the microcontroller to:
- communicate with one or more other valve controllers in the water conditioning system,
- store a plurality of system parameters in memory,
- control the motor to operate the valve based on one or more of the system parameters,
- update one or more of the system parameters based on the user inputs received through the user interface, and
- push the updated system parameters to the one or more other valve controllers in the water conditioning system.
A valve arrangement in a water conditioning system, the valve arrangement comprising:
- a valve controlled by a motor;
- and
- a valve controller provided in the form of:
- a controller housing;
- a user interface on the controller housing, the user interface including a display and one or more buttons designed to receive user inputs;
- and
- a control board supported by the controller housing, the control board including a microcontroller in communication with the display, the one or more buttons, and the motor, the microcontroller designed to execute computer-readable instructions, which, when executed, cause the microcontroller to:
- communicate with one or more other valve controllers in the water conditioning system,
- control the motor to operate the valve, and
- automatically assign the valve controller an address within a network formed by the valve controller and the one or more other valve controllers.
A valve arrangement in a water conditioning system, the valve arrangement comprising:
- a valve controlled by a motor;
- and
- a valve controller provided in the form of:
- a controller housing;
- a user interface on the controller housing, the user interface including a display and one or more buttons designed to receive user inputs;
- and
- a control board supported by the controller housing, the control board including a microcontroller in communication with the display, the one or more buttons, and the motor, the microcontroller designed to execute computer-readable instructions, which, when executed, cause the microcontroller to:
- communicate with one or more other valve controllers in the water conditioning system,
- control the motor to operate the valve, and
- display an error log to a user via the display, wherein each error in the error log includes an error description and a timestamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.