Lighting controller with noise and signal isolation
AssigneeUnitX, Inc.
InventorsKetan Lakhera, Gilbert Dale Ross, Yen-Chia Chu, Jaideep Singh Chavan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an example embodiment, an improved lighting controller designed to reduce the effects of electromagnetic interference is introduced. The improved lighting controller contains various features to help ensure noise and signal isolation. First, a control board in the improved lighting controller is designed such that each of a plurality of circuits on the control board contain separate grounds, such that ground planes are isolated from one another rather than sharing a common ground. Additionally, a common mode filter is added to an alternating current input. Additionally, a high frequency filter circuit is also added to a digital input line to further reduce noise.
Claims20
A method comprising, at a controller:
- receiving a lighting and camera configuration, the lighting and camera configuration indicating a sequence of light activation signals and camera triggers;
- sending information from the lighting and camera configuration to a high-resolution timer (HRTIM) to cause the HRTIM to configure a first timer and a second timer to send signals at times designated by the HRTIM;
- generating, by the first timer, a first pulse to a lighting apparatus to trigger activation of a light at a first designated time;
- generating, by the second timer, a second pulse to a camera to trigger activation of the camera to capture an image at a second designated time;
- detecting a transition from active to inactive of a final signal from the first and second timers;
- and
- in response to the detection of the transition, generating an interrupt to the HRTIM instructing the HRTIM to stop the first and second timer, wherein the HRTIM is a hardware peripheral of a microcontroller unit (MCU) that, once programmed by the MCU, operates independently of the MCU to generate the first pulse and the second pulse.
A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having embodied thereon instructions executable by one or more machines to perform operations on a controller comprising:
- receiving a lighting and camera configuration, the lighting and camera configuration indicating a sequence of light activation signals and camera triggers;
- sending information from the lighting and camera configuration to a high-resolution timer (HRTIM) to cause the HRTIM to configure a first timer and a second timer to send signals at times designated by the HRTIM;
- generating, by the first timer, a first pulse to a lighting apparatus to trigger activation of a light at a first designated time;
- generating, by the second timer, a second pulse to a camera to trigger activation of the camera to capture an image at a second designated time;
- detecting a transition from active to inactive of a final signal from the first and second timers;
- and
- in response to the detection of the transition, generating an interrupt to the HRTIM instructing the HRTIM to stop the first and second timer, wherein the HRTIM is a hardware peripheral of a microcontroller unit (MCU) that, once programmed by the MCU, operates independently of the MCU to generate the first pulse and the second pulse.
A system comprising:
- at least one hardware processor;
- and
- a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one hardware processor, cause the system to perform operations at a controller, the operations comprising:
- receiving a lighting and camera configuration, the lighting and camera configuration indicating a sequence of light activation signals and camera triggers;
- sending information from the lighting and camera configuration to a high-resolution timer (HRTIM) to cause the HRTIM to configure a first timer and a second timer to send signals at times designated by the HRTIM;
- generating, by the first timer, a first pulse to a lighting apparatus to trigger activation of a light at a first designated time;
- generating, by the second timer, a second pulse to a camera to trigger activation of the camera to capture an image at a second designated time;
- detecting a transition from active to inactive of a final signal from the first and second timers;
- and
- in response to the detection of the transition, generating an interrupt to the HRTIM instructing the HRTIM to stop the first and second timer, wherein the HRTIM is a hardware peripheral of a microcontroller unit (MCU) that, once programmed by the MCU, operates independently of the MCU to generate the first pulse and the second pulse.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.