JP7528532B2 - Lighting devices, lighting equipment - Google Patents

Description

This disclosure relates to lighting devices and lighting fixtures.

Patent document 1 discloses a method for timing the cumulative lighting time of an LED, and turning off or blinking the LED when this cumulative lighting time reaches or exceeds a predetermined value.

JP 2016-167392 A

The lifespan of LED lighting is said to be 40,000 hours. Because LEDs are solid-state light-emitting devices, they rarely fail to light due to filament breakage, as in conventional light sources. However, the amount of light gradually decreases over time due to deterioration of the LED package. The lifespan of LEDs is defined in JIS C8105-3 as "The lifespan of an LED when used as a light source for general lighting equipment is the time until the total luminous flux falls to 70% of the initial total luminous flux, or the luminous intensity falls to 70% of the initial luminous intensity." However, since the lifespan of an LED is as long as 40,000 hours, it is difficult to know the exact time to replace it due to its lifespan. As a solution to this problem, a device that detects the deterioration of the LED package as described above and automatically notifies the user from the LED lighting side can be considered. However, if a device is equipped with a lifespan notification LED and lights up, a separate lighting circuit must be prepared, which is costly, and if the LED flashes for a specified period of time, the user will not notice it unless they are present. It is also preferable for users to be able to prepare for replacement before a malfunction occurs.

This disclosure has been made to solve the problems described above, and aims to provide a lighting device and lighting fixture that allows the accumulated lighting time of an LED to be easily and visually confirmed by pull-less operation of the power supply voltage.

The lighting device according to the present disclosure includes a boost chopper circuit, a buck converter circuit, and a control device that controls the boost chopper circuit and the buck converter circuit, and the control device is configured to, when a predetermined pull-less operation is performed by a user, blink an LED to indicate the accumulated lighting time of the LED, and to maintain the LED in a lower limit dimming state for a predetermined time before blinking the LED, and is characterized in that the on-time of the LED indicating the accumulated lighting time is longer than the on-time of the LED due to the pull-less operation.

Other features of this disclosure are set forth below.

According to this disclosure, the cumulative lighting time of the LED can be easily confirmed by pullless operation of the power supply voltage.

1 is a diagram showing a lighting fixture according to an embodiment; 4 is a timing chart showing the operation of a lighting device according to an embodiment.

Embodiment
1 is a circuit block diagram showing a lighting fixture 100 according to an embodiment. The lighting fixture 100 includes a lighting device 1 and an LED module 9 having a plurality of LEDs 8 that receive a current supply from the lighting device 1. The lighting device 1 includes a full-wave rectifier circuit 3, a boost chopper circuit 6, a buck converter circuit 7, and a control device 10. The boost chopper circuit 6 and the buck converter circuit 7 are controlled by the control device 10. A control power supply circuit that supplies power to the control device 10 may be provided at any position in the lighting device 1. According to one example, the control device 10 may be configured by a microcomputer.

The AC voltage input from the commercial power source 2 is converted to DC voltage through a full-wave rectifier circuit 3 and a boost chopper circuit 6. This DC voltage is used as the input voltage, and constant current control is performed in the buck converter circuit 7 to output a constant current. This output current is supplied to multiple LEDs 8 mounted on the LED module board, and the multiple LEDs 8 light up at a constant brightness.

The resistors 4 and 5 function as a detection circuit that divides the rectified voltage output by the full-wave rectifier circuit 3. This detection circuit detects the input voltage to the boost chopper circuit 6. The voltage divided by the resistors 4 and 5 is detected by the control device 10. The control device 10 holds a certain threshold value. If the voltage applied to the resistor 5 is greater than the threshold value, the control device 10 determines that the commercial power supply is on, and if the voltage applied to the resistor 5 is less than the threshold value, the control device 10 determines that the commercial power supply is off. This mechanism determines whether the pull-less operation is on or off. In other words, the control device 10 detects the presence or absence of pull-less operation from the voltage detected by the resistors 4 and 5, which are the detection circuits.

Here, pull-less operation generally refers to the operation of switching a power switch on and off in a short period of time. In this embodiment, pull-less operation refers to the on/off operation of the input power voltage by a wall switch. In other words, pull-less operation refers to completing the on operation of a wall switch and the off operation of a wall switch in a short period of time. In another example, any switch other than a wall switch can be the target of pull-less operation.

In this embodiment, when a predetermined pull-less operation is performed by the user, the control device 10 blinks the LED 8 to notify the accumulated lighting time of the LED. According to one example, when a pull-less operation is performed one or more times, the control device 10 blinks the LED 8 to notify the accumulated lighting time of the LED. By predetermining the relationship between the blinking mode of the LED 8 and the accumulated lighting time of the LED, the user can know the accumulated lighting time of the LED through the blinking of the LED. If the above-mentioned LED accumulated lighting time notification function is activated when the power switch is turned on only once, this function will be activated every time the user turns on the LED, which is inconvenient. Therefore, it has been decided to activate the accumulated lighting time notification function in response to a pull-less operation in which the power switch is turned on and off as one set.

The number of pull-less operations that trigger the activation of the cumulative lighting time notification function is arbitrary. For example, by configuring the control device 10 to advance the count by 1 when the power switch is turned off during a pull-less operation, the cumulative lighting time notification function can be activated when the count number reaches a predetermined number. If the cumulative lighting time notification function is to be activated in response to one pull-less operation, the function can be activated every time the count number advances by 1, and if the cumulative lighting time notification function is to be activated in response to two pull-less operations, the function can be activated every time the count number advances by 2 consecutively. Similarly, the function can also be activated by performing three or more pull-less operations.

Figure 2 is a timing chart showing an example of the operation of the lighting fixture of this embodiment. In this example, the cumulative lighting time notification function is activated by two pull-less operations. The first pull-less operation is detected at time t1, and the second pull-less operation is detected at time t2, and the cumulative lighting time notification function is activated. According to one example, if the cumulative lighting time of the LED 8 is 10,000 hours or less, the LED is blinked once, if the cumulative lighting time is longer than 10,000 hours and less than 20,000 hours, the LED is blinked twice, if the cumulative lighting time is longer than 20,000 hours and less than 30,000 hours, the LED is blinked three times, if the cumulative lighting time is longer than 30,000 hours and less than 40,000 hours, the LED is blinked four times, and if the cumulative lighting time is longer than 40,000 hours, the LED is blinked five times. In this way, the longer the cumulative lighting time of the LED 8, the more the number of times the LED blinks can be increased. According to another example, a different blinking mode can be adopted. For example, the longer the cumulative lighting time of the LED 8, the shorter the LED blinking period can be.

According to one example, the control device 10 keeps the LEDs 8 in the lowest dimming state for a predetermined time before blinking. In other words, after a predetermined pull-less operation, the LEDs are in the lowest dimming state for a certain period of time before blinking begins. In the example of FIG. 2, the lowest dimming state is maintained for the period from time t3 to time t4. This makes it possible to distinguish between the blinking operation that occurs after a pull-less operation as a notification function and the blinking caused by the pull-less operation itself.

Figure 2 shows the on-time a of the LED due to pull-less operation and the on-time b of the LED due to the cumulative lighting time notification function. According to one example, a < b can be set to distinguish between LED blinking due to pull-less operation and LED blinking due to the cumulative lighting time notification function. In other words, the time it takes for the LED to blink once can be made longer than the time power is supplied to the boost chopper circuit 6 by pull-less operation. Then, it can be set to a < 1 [second] and b ≥ 1 [second]. By making the on-time b longer than the on-time a, it becomes easier to determine whether the LED is on during pull-less operation or due to the cumulative lighting time notification function.

According to the embodiment described above, the accumulated lighting time of the LED can be notified to the user by pull-less operation, which is the on/off operation of the input power supply voltage. By knowing the accumulated lighting time, it is possible to prepare in advance for replacement of the LED lighting due to its lifespan.

1 Lighting device, 2 Commercial power supply, 3 Full-wave rectifier circuit, 4, 5 Resistor, 6 Boost chopper circuit, 7 Buck converter circuit, 8 LED, 9 LED module, 10 Control device, 100 Lighting fixture

Claims (6)

A boost chopper circuit;
A buck converter circuit;
a control device for controlling the boost chopper circuit and the buck converter circuit,
The control device includes:
When a predetermined pull-less operation is performed by the user, the LED is blinked to indicate the accumulated lighting time of the LED;
configured to maintain the LED at a minimum dimming state for a predetermined period of time before blinking the LED;
The on-time of the LED indicating the cumulative lighting time is made longer than the on-time of the LED by the pull-less operation.
A lighting device characterized by: a detection circuit for detecting an input voltage to the boost chopper circuit,
The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the control device detects the presence or absence of the pull-less operation from the voltage detected by the detection circuit. The lighting device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the pull-less operation is an on/off operation of the input power supply voltage by a wall switch. The lighting device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the control device, when the pull-less operation is performed one or more times, blinks the LED to indicate the accumulated lighting time of the LED. The lighting device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the longer the cumulative lighting time, the more the number of times the LED blinks. A lighting device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
and an LED module that receives a current supply from the lighting device.

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