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US-12621911-B2 - Control system and control method for LED string light source

US12621911B2US 12621911 B2US12621911 B2US 12621911B2US-12621911-B2

Abstract

A control system and control method for LED string light source with fast control speeds, occupy low signal transmission capacity, and can smartly detect faults in the LED string light source, wherein comprising an LED string light provided with a plurality of LED point light sources, a power line and data control line connected between the decoder controller and each LED point light source. Address lines are used in the LED string light source to connect all address pins of the smart driver chip in series based on the numerical order of the electrical connection of the decoder controller. The smart driver chip requires rewriting the temporary address once every power-on cycle. Since the chip has a signal feedback function, users do not need specialized personnel to effectively use the decoder controller to assess the status of the point light source.

Inventors

  • Cheng Luo

Assignees

  • Cheng Luo

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20240613
Priority Date
20240205

Claims (8)

  1. 1 . A control system for LED string light source, comprising: an LED string light provided with a plurality of LED point light sources, a power line and a data control line connected between a decoder controller and each LED point light source, wherein each set of said LED point light sources comprises either red, green, and blue LED lamp beads with a smart driver chip, or red, green, blue, and white LED lamp beads with said smart driver chip, all said LED lamp beads are connected between a power supply terminal and a ground terminal of said power line through a corresponding smart driver chip, a data reception terminal of each set of said smart driver chips is connected to said data control line via connecting wires, wherein a use of address lines in said LED string light source to connect all address pins of said smart driver chip in series based on a natural numerical order of an electrical connection of said decoder controller, wherein for said smart driver chips in each adjacent pair of LED point light sources, an address signal input terminal of said smart driver chips in a preceding set is connected to an address signal output terminal of said smart driver chips in a succeeding set, and said address signal output terminal of said smart driver chips in first set of said LED point light sources of said LED string light source is connected to a signal reception terminal of said decoder controller, wherein said decoder controller is also provided with an addressing module, an assignment module, and a string light signal transmission module, wherein said addressing module is used for determining an electrical connection distance between spatial positions of said smart driver chips in each set of said LED point light sources in said LED string light source and said decoder controller; said assignment module is used for assigning a temporary address code to said smart driver chips in each set of said LED point light sources, wherein said temporary address code is assigned sequentially based on said electrical connection distance between said smart driver chips in said set to said decoder controller; said string light signal transmission module is used for transmitting multimedia information signals to said LED string light source for display, including advertisements, text patterns, and video content, wherein an information which is sent by said addressing module from said data control line to said LED string light source comprises a clear reset signal for resetting said temporary addresses of said smart driver chips in each set to zero when electrical power is connected to said LED string light source, an address status collection signal for instructing each said smart driver chip to send a chip address and a status information of said smart driver chip back to said decoder controller, and a feedback address signal that is received from each said smart driver chip via said address lines for indicating said chip address and said status information that have transmitted back to said decoder controller in sequence based on said electrical connection distance from said smart driver chip to said decoder controller; said assignment module, after said addressing module has finished collecting said chip addresses and said status information of said smart driver chips in all said LED point light sources, said module assigns said temporary address codes according to numerical order to each said smart driver chip based on said electrical connection distance between said smart driver chip and said decoder controller, and after that, sends both fixed address codes and said assigned temporary address codes of each said smart driver chip via said data control line to each said smart driver chip.
  2. 2 . The control system for LED string light source recited in claim 1 , wherein said chip address and said status information stored in a shift register of said smart control chips, comprising N1 bits of fixed address information, N2 bits of temporary address information, 2 bits of R color anomaly feedback information, 2 bits of G color anomaly feedback information, and 2 bits of B color anomaly feedback information, or comprising N1 bits of fixed address information, N2 bits of temporary address information, 2 bits of R color anomaly feedback information, 2 bits of G color anomaly feedback information, 2 bits of B color anomaly feedback information, and 2 bits of W color anomaly feedback information; said clear reset signal is a low-level signal of 80 μs; said address status collection signal is a square wave signal made of a high-level signal ranging 80 μs-1 μs and a low-level signal ranging 80 μs-1 μs, a set of said address status collection signal comprises (N1+N2+2×3) of said square wave signal or a set of said address status collection signal comprising (N1+N2+2×4) of said square wave signal; said feedback address signal, after each said smart driver chip has received one of said address status collection signals, shifts said chip address and said status information stored in said shift register from a low-order digit to a high-order digit by one bit, wherein a highest digit of said chip address and said status information is shifted to a lowest digit position of said shift register of an electrically connected preceding smart driver chip, after each said smart driver chip has received one set of said address status collection signals, all said chip address and said status information originally stored in said shift register are transferred to said shift register of said electrically connected preceding smart driver chip, and after a first smart driver chip that is electrically connected to said decoder controller has received a first set of address collection signal, said chip address and said status information will be uploaded to said decoder controller.
  3. 3 . A control method for LED string light source, wherein the control method is as follows: 1) When said fully installed LED string light source is powered on, said decoder controller sends said clear reset signal to said LED string light source via said data control line, thus resetting said temporary address codes of said smart driver chip in each said LED point light source to zero; 2) Then, said decoder controller sends a plurality of said address collection signals to said smart driver chip in each said LED point light source via said data control line, thus instructing each said smart driver chip to start sending said feedback address signals to said decoder controller, and said chip address and said status information stored in said shift registers are transmitted back to said decoder controller; 3) Transmission method of said feedback address signals is as follows: a. After each said smart driver chip has received one said address collection signal, uploads a highest digit of said chip address and said status information stored in said shift register to a position of a lowest digit of said shift register of said electrically connected preceding smart driver chip via said address lines, and other digits of said chip address and said status information are shifted by one bit higher in bit count from lower positions to higher positions; b. After each said smart driver chip has finished receiving one set of said address collection signals, uploads said chip address and said status information stored in said shift register to said shift register of said electrically connected preceding smart driver chip, wherein a number of signals in one set of said address collection signals is equal to a number of bits in said chip address and said status information; c. After said decoder controller sends out an M-th set of said address collection signals, said chip address and said status information stored in said shift register of said smart driver chip of an M-th LED point light source in said LED string light source will be sequentially uploaded to said decoder controller via said shift register of said smart driver chip of an (M−1)-th, (M−2)-th, . . . , 1st LED point light source; 4) After said decoder controller has finished collecting said chip addresses and said status information of said smart driver chips in all said LED point light sources, assign said temporary address code to each said smart driver chip in numerical order according to said electrical connection distance between said smart driver chips to said decoder controller; 5) Then, said decoder controller sends both said fixed address code and said assigned temporary address code to said corresponding smart driver chip via said data control line.
  4. 4 . The control method for LED string light source recited in claim 3 , wherein said address and said status information are a data of 48-bit, wherein comprising 29 bits of fixed address information, 11 bits of temporary address information, 2 bits of R color anomaly feedback information, 2 bits of G color anomaly feedback information, and 2 bits of B color anomaly feedback information; or comprising 48 bits of fixed address information, 11 bits of temporary address information, 2 bits of R color anomaly feedback information, 2 bits of G color anomaly feedback information, 2 bits of B color anomaly feedback information, and 2 bits of W color anomaly feedback information, wherein for a highest digit in each color anomaly feedback information, “0” indicates that there is no leakage of electricity in said color lamp bead, while “1” indicates that there is leakage of electricity in said color lamp bead; for a lowest digit in each color anomaly feedback information, “0” indicates that said color lamp bead can light up normally, while “1” indicates an abnormal operation said color lamp bead.
  5. 5 . The control method for LED string light source recited in claim 4 , wherein after said decoder controller has finished sending first set of said address collection signals, if said smart driver chip of an S-th LED point light source located at an end of electrical series connection of said LED string light source continues to receive said address collection signals, said smart driver chip will upload a binary code of “1” to said smart driver chip of an (S−1)-th LED point light source via said address lines, until a stop collection reset signal for halting address collection sent by said decoder controller via said data control line has been received.
  6. 6 . The control method for LED string light source recited in claim 5 , wherein said stop collection reset signal is a low-level signal of 80 μs.
  7. 7 . The control method for LED string light source recited in claim 6 , wherein after said decoder controller has sent said stop collection reset signal, sends a special verification code to said LED string light source via said data control line to instruct each said smart driver chip to enter a status to readily receive said assigned temporary address codes, wherein said special verification code comprises an instruction code, a checksum code, a current regulation code, an RGBW channel selection code, a circuit detection Boolean code, and a gamma modulation Boolean code, wherein said instruction code has 16 bits; said checksum code also has 16 bits and is complementary to said instruction code; said current regulation code has 5 bits and is used to regulate a current level for each said LED point light source; said RGBW channel selection code has 1 bit, wherein digit “0” indicates a selection of RGB channel, digit “0” indicates a selection of RGBW channel; said circuit detection Boolean code has 1 bit, wherein digit “1” indicates a need for a current regulation, digit “0” indicates that current do not need to be regulated; said gamma modulation Boolean code has 1 bit, wherein digit “1” indicates that a gamma modulation is in use, digit “0” indicates that said gamma regulation is not in use.
  8. 8 . The control method for LED string light source recited in claim 7 , wherein said decoder controller sends both said fixed address code and said assigned temporary address code of each said smart driver chip to said corresponding smart driver chip as follows: after each said smart driver chip has received said special verification code, said decoder controller sends S sets of temporary write address code signals to said LED string light source, wherein each set of said temporary write address code signals corresponds to one said smart driver chip of said LED point light source, each set of said temporary write address code signals contains 40 bits of information, comprising 29 bits of fixed address code information of said corresponding smart driver chip plus 11 bits of temporary address code information assigned by said decoder controller to said smart driver chip.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION Field of Invention The present invention relates to an LED string light source, and more particularly to a control system and control method for LED string light source. Description of Related Arts At present, various types of LED string light sources are used in building advertising curtain walls, festive celebrations, and entertainment venues. These types of LED string light sources comprise a plurality of electrically connected LED point light sources. Each LED string light source comprises either tri-color LED lamp beads or quad-color LED lamp beads, wherein the tri-color type has red (R color), green (G color), and blue (B color) LED lamp beads, while the quad-color type has red (R color), green (G color), blue (B color), and white (W color) lamp beads. Each LED point light source comprises a smart driver chip used in the detection of status of each LED lamp bead and control of the operation of each LED lamp bead. Each smart driver chip is provided with a unique code that represents the identity thereof, wherein the code is known as a fixed address code, which is completed during a chip manufacturing process through a programming technique. Although each smart driver chip has a code, the number of LED point light sources required to make up the LED string light source is very large. As such, during the manual assembly process of the LED string light source, the electrical connections between the smart driver chips of each LED point light source are not made according to the natural numerical order of the codes. Consequently, after completing the assembly of the LED string light source, there is a certain degree of difficulty for the decoder controller to transmit normal working signals to the LED string light source (The normal working signals, also known as color codes, are PWM signals transmitted by the decoder controller to each LED point light source, wherein the PWM signals correspond to the display brightness value required for each color lamp bead. The purpose of the PWM signals is to ensure that the LED string light source correctly displays the intended multimedia information, such as advertisements, text patterns, and video content). In most of the conventional LED string light sources, the smart driver chip in each LED point light source has an EEPROM (Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), such as a UCS512B3 smart driver chip. Due to the lack of a signal feedback function, therefore, during the assembly of the LED light sources, the smart driver chip in each LED point light source must be strictly assembled according to the natural numerical order of the fixed address codes. This ensures that there is no issue with incorrect lighting colors when the decoder controller is transmitting the normal working signals to the LED string light source. However, when there is an issue with one or more LED point light sources of the LED string light source, this issue can only be detected through a visual inspection by a person, hence it is not possible to achieve a smart warning function. In recent years, some LED string light sources have smart driver chips in each LED point light source that include the function to send feedback signals to the decoder controller. However, these smart driver chips merely upload the fixed address codes to the decoder controller, and when the decoder controller is transmitting normal lighting signals to the LED string light source, the signals transmitted must include the fixed address code plus the color code of each smart driver chip. Due to the transmission of a large amount of information, this leads to insufficient system capacity and slow transmission speeds. In addition, similar to the previously mentioned smart driver chips, when there is an issue with one or more LED point light sources of the LED string light source, it is not possible to achieve a smart warning function. SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The present invention aims to solve a technical problem by providing a control system and a control method for LED string light source with fast control speeds, occupy low signal transmission capacity, and can smartly detect faults in the LED string light source. In order to solve the aforementioned technical problem, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is as follows: The present invention provides a control system for LED string light source, comprising an LED string light provided with a plurality of LED point light sources, a power line and a data control line connected between the decoder controller and each LED point light source, wherein each set of LED point light sources comprises either red, green, and blue LED lamp beads with a smart driver chip, or red, green, blue, and white LED lamp beads with a smart driver chip, all LED lamp beads are connected between the power supply terminal and the ground terminal of the power line through the corresponding smart driver chip, the data rec