Device comprising a controllable valve, and method for controlling the valve
AssigneeOblamatik AG
InventorsRoland OBRIST, Thomas KNUPFER
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device with a controllable valve for sanitary systems, heating systems or air conditioning systems, a control unit that controls the valve, and a sensor that is connected to the control unit. The sensor is a light sensor that can detect a light signal from visible light, convert the light signal into a sensor signal specific to the light signal, and transmit the light signal to the control unit. The control unit is adapted to control the valve based on the specific sensor signal.
Claims20
Device (1) comprising:
- a controllable valve (2) for sanitary, heating or air conditioning systems,
- a control unit (3) which controls the valve (2), and
- a sensor which is connected to the control unit (3),
- characterized in that the sensor is a light sensor (4), which detects a light signal (7) from visible light, converts it into a sensor signal (17) specific for this light signal (7) and sends it to the control unit (3), and in that the control unit (3) is adapted to control the valve (2) based on the specific sensor signal (17).
Device (1) according to claim 4, characterized in that the light signal (7) falling on the light sensor (4) is a signal which is selected from the following group:
- a light pulse, and
- a combination of two or more light pulses,
- wherein each light pulse is visible light of a specific wavelength (λ) or a certain wavelength range, and a specific time period (t).
Method for controlling a liquid valve (2), characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:
- providing at least one device (1) which has a controllable valve (2), a control unit (3) which controls the behaviour of the valve (2), and a light sensor (4) connected to the control unit (3) for detecting visible light,
- detecting a light signal (7) from visible light by the light sensor (4),
- converting the light signal (7) into a for this light signal (7) specific sensor signal (17) by the light sensor (4),
- forwarding the sensor signal (17) to the control unit (3), and
- controlling the valve (2) by the control unit (3) based on the light signal (7).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.