Methods and systems for controlling devices via power lines

A method for sending digital data over a DC power line powering a device comprising:

• wherein said digital data comprises an ASCII-compatible code wherein a voltage above a static level interpreted to represent an ASCII start bit, and data signals follow ASCII standard with transmission of 8 data bits, least significant bit first, and one stop bit, with no parity bits, so that data transmission signaled by varying voltage from a nominal supply value to a signaling value,
• wherein microcontroller assigned an address code based on relative position within the grid so that microcontroller programmed to recognize address code in order to control via commands coded as bits, words, or characters;
• and
• modulating an existing DC power square wave of a non-zero DC power voltage on said power line in accordance with said digital data, without said DC power square wave falling to or passing through zero volts, and without interfering with operation of said device powered by said non-zero modulated DC square wave voltage,
• detecting modulated levels of said non-zero DC voltage, and
• recovering said data by detecting modulations of said non-zero modulated DC voltage;
• wherein data recovered using threshold test to determine if voltage exceeded a threshold value at one or more sampling times;
• and
• wherein microcontrollers used for decoding data signals transmitted over DC power lines and controlling a load in response to decoded commands represented by ASCII-compatible code data.

A system that transmits digital data comprising:

• an electronic device that transmits digital data via a modulated non-zero DC power voltage square wave;
• wherein said digital data comprises an ASCII-compatible code wherein a voltage above a static level interpreted to represent an ASCII start bit, and data signals follow ASCII standard with transmission of 8 data bits, least significant bit first, and one stop bit, with no parity bits, so that data transmission signaled by varying voltage from a nominal supply value to a signaling value;
• wherein microcontroller assigned an address code based on relative position within the grid so that microcontroller programmed to recognize address code in order to control via commands coded as bits, words, or characters;
• and
• the microcontroller that receives said digital data transmitted from said electronic device;
• and
• one or more power lines that transmit said digital data from said electronic device to said microcontroller;
• wherein data recovered using threshold test to determine if voltage exceeded a threshold value at one or more sampling times;
• wherein said digital data is encoded in changes in said modulated non-zero DC power voltage;
• and
• wherein microcontrollers used for decoding data signals transmitted over DC power lines and controlling a load in response to decoded commands represented by ASCII-compatible code data.