Distributed control system
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorGeorge E. Feiker
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A redundant digital address and function code is generated at a central location and transmitted through a signal circuit or an A.C. power distribution circuit to a plurality of receiver locations. At each addressed receiver location, the encoded function is performed to control selected loads in a predetermined manner. A signal may be transmitted back to the central location for controlling a pre-programmed combination of loads in response thereto.
Claims9
A system for performing, from a central location, a selected one of a plurality of electrical functions at a selected one of a plurality of remote locations, comprising:
- a central processing unit at said central location;
- means at said central location for storing a plurality of digital address and functions codes, and electrical function control state information;
- encoding means responsive to the control information from said storing means upon enablement by said central processing unit for generating a programmable combination of frequency and digital address and function codes received from said storing means;
- means for directly coupling each of said remote locations to said encoding means;
- at least one receiver-decoder means at each of said remote locations, each of the respective receiver-decoder means within each remote location having a common address code unique to said remote location;
- means responsive to each of said receiver-decoder means, respectively, for performing said selected one of the plurality of electrical functions at said selected one of the plurality of remote locations;
- and
- transmitting means at at least one predetermined one and less than all of said remote locations for transmitting, independent of transmission from said encoding means to said receiver-decoder means, tone-encoded signals back to said central processing unit for obtaining a pre-programmed combination of electrical function control states from said storing means and causing said encoding means to generate a digital address and function code and a frequency for coupling to said receiver-decoder means by said coupling means for modifying the conditions of those predetermined ones of said means responsive to each of said receiver-decoder means selected from said storing means responsive to the signals transmitted back to said central processing unit from said at least one remote location.
A system for performing, from a central location, a selected one of a plurality of electrical functions at a selected one of a plurality of remote locations, comprising:
- a central processing unit as said central location;
- means at said central location for storing a plurality of digital address and function codes and electrical function control state information;
- encoding means responsive to the control information from said storing means upon enablement by said central processing unit for generating a programmable combination of frequency and digital address and function code received from said storing means;
- means for directly coupling each of said remote locations to said encoding means;
- at least one receiver-decoder means at each of said remote locations, each of the respective receiver-decoder means within each remote locating having its own unique address code;
- means responsive to each of said receiver-decoder means, respectively, for performing said selected one of the plurality of electrical functions at said selected one of the plurality of remote locations;
- and
- transmitting means at at least one predetermined one and less than all of said remote locations for transmitting, independent of transmission from said encoding means to said receiver-decoder means, tone-encoded signals back to said central processing unit for obtaining a pre-programmed combination of electrical function control states from said storing means and causing said encoding means to generate a digital address and function code and a frequency for coupling to said receiver-decoder by said coupling means for modifying the condition of those predetermined ones of said means responsive to each of said receiver-decoder means selected from said storing means responsive to the signals transmitted back to said central processing unit from said least one remote location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.