Remote Spa Control System
AssigneeSundance Spas, Inc.
InventorLarry R. Ovalle
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A spa is provided including a frame, a shell mounted to the frame defining a basin for holding water, at least one sensor for monitoring a spa component or water condition, a communications interface including a cellular transceiver, and a battery for providing power to the at least one sensor and to the communications interface when the spa is not connected to a power source. The spa also includes a controller in electrical communication with the at least one sensor and the communications interface. The controller is configured to, while the spa is not connected to the power source, receive information from the at least one sensor, process the received information, and cause the communications interface to wirelessly transmit the processed information to a remote source or central server.
Claims36
A spa comprising:
- a frame;
- a shell mounted to the frame defining a basin for holding water;
- at least one sensor for monitoring a spa component or water condition;
- a communications interface comprising a cellular transceiver;
- a battery for providing power to the at least one sensor and to the communications interface when the spa is not connected to a power source;
- and
- a controller in electrical communication with the at least one sensor and the communications interface configured to, while the spa is not connected to the power source, receive information from the at least one sensor, process the received information, and cause the communications interface to wirelessly transmit at least a portion of the processed information to a remote source or central server.
A system for performing remote diagnostics for a spa comprising:
- at least one spa comprising a power and/or current sensor for measuring power use and/or current drawn by one or more spa components and a communications interface for wirelessly transmitting information measured by the at least one sensor to a remote network or device;
- and
- a central server remote from the spa comprising computer readable memory including baseline measurements for the at least one spa obtained prior to initial installation of the spa, wherein the central server is configured to:
- receive information collected by the at least one power and/or current sensor of the spa from the communications interface of the at least one spa;
- process the received information to determine power and/or current measurements for the one or more spa components;
- compare the power and/or current measurements to the baseline measurements stored on the computer readable memory of the central server;
- and
- identify one or more faults for the spa components of the at least one spa based on the comparison.
A remote control and monitoring system for a spa comprising:
- at least one spa comprising at least one sensor for monitoring water condition or status of a spa component and a communications interface comprising a cellular transceiver for wirelessly transmitting information obtained from the at least one sensor to a remote device over a cellular network;
- a web-enabled portable computer device;
- and
- a central server in wireless communication with the at least one spa and the portable computer device, wherein the central server is configured to:
- receive information from the at least one sensor of the at least one spa over the cellular network;
- process the received information to determine one or more water condition parameters for water contained in the spa;
- generate a web portal displaying the one or more water condition parameters;
- and
- transmit the web portal to the web-enabled portable computer device over the Internet so that the one or more water condition parameters can be viewed by a user.
A method for performing remote diagnostics for at least one spa, comprising:
- receiving on a computer server remote from the at least one spa information collected by at least one power and/or current sensor of the at least one spa, wherein the information is transmitted from the spa to the computer server via a communications interface of the at least one spa;
- processing the received information to determine power and/or current measurements for one or more spa components of the at least one spa;
- comparing the power and/or current measurements for the one or more spa components to baseline measurements for the one or more spa components of the at least one spa, wherein the baseline measurements are obtained prior to initial installation of the spa;
- and
- identifying one or more faults for the one or more spa components of the at least one spa based on the comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.