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US 12,760,924 B2Granted
HVAC control assemblies and corresponding methods of automatic detection of furnace applications
AssigneeCopeland Comfort Control LP
InventorsJohn F. Broker, Thomas E. Blizzard, John Fidelis Bushur, Bryan James Kemp
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Exemplary embodiments are provided of HVAC control assemblies (e.g., aftermarket universal replacement controls, etc.) and corresponding methods of automatically detecting furnace applications.
Claims20
An HVAC control assembly comprising:
- an HVAC control board including a plurality of interface connectors having different pin counts and/or pin arrangements, each interface connector being selectively connectable to a different original equipment manufacturer (OEM) wiring harness;
- a plurality of relays disposed on the HVAC control board, each relay having a common contact selectively connectable to a normally closed contact or a normally open contact;
- and
- an HVAC controller configured to be operable for determining automatically (i) which one of the plurality of interface connectors is connected to a wiring harness and (ii) which OEM system is associated with the connected wiring harness by monitoring electrical characteristics of connected loads and signals;
- whereby in response to the automatic determination, the HVAC controller is operable to control the plurality of relays to dynamically configure a pinout of the connected interface connector by selectively routing at least one connector pin between multiple internal circuit nodes, and to automatically configure one or more operational settings of the HVAC control assembly.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- determining automatically, via an HVAC control assembly having a plurality of physically distinct interface connectors, which interface connector of the plurality of physically distinct interface connectors is connected to a wiring harness and which original equipment manufacturer (OEM) system corresponds to the wiring harness by monitoring electrical signals and component responses during an initial power-up sequence;
- and
- automatically configuring, using relay-based pin switching on the HVAC control assembly, one or more operational settings of the HVAC control assembly including a connector pinout mapped to the OEM system determined to correspond to the wiring harness.
An HVAC control assembly comprising:
- an HVAC control board including at least one interface connector;
- a plurality of relays disposed on the HVAC control board, each relay having a common contact selectively connectable to a normally closed contact or a normally open contact;
- and
- an HVAC controller configured to be operable for determining automatically which original equipment manufacturer (OEM) system is connected to the at least one interface connector;
- wherein, in response to the automatic determination, the HVAC controller is operable to control the plurality of relays to selectively route at least one pin of the at least one interface connector between at least two different internal circuit nodes, thereby configuring a pinout of the interface connector for the determined OEM system.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.