2014 smart LED how to win?

Now, you might ask me, "what does the marathon have to do with LED? Do you really know what you're talking about?". Like a strong runner to lead a marathon, LED in the field of energy-efficient lighting ahead. Compared with incandescent and fluorescent lighting, the main technical advantage of LED is the lower energy consumption, longer life, and better control of lighting color and direction.

LED intelligence -- the key to winning the game

How will LED play its full potential? No doubt, the first hurdle is price. The current cost of LED is much higher than existing lighting solutions. Energy conservation is often not enough to persuade price sensitive businesses and consumers to buy more expensive products. With the passage of time, mass production may reduce prices, but whether the cost can be reduced to low enough, the price cut rate is to meet the expectations of the users are uncertain factors, pending. Of course, these issues are beyond the scope of this article. It may be very difficult to find the same LED light if we look for two hardware stores. Many retailers not only to attract a consumer and prepared enough variety or quantity of inventory, why? This relates to the price and inventory turnover rate. So what does this mean for us engineers and innovators, how do we make LED lighting work and how to win the marathon?

If we give LED "mind", make it intelligent, for these lights installed eyes, throat, counting and other functions. In the field of lighting design of valuable semiconductor materials, will optimize energy efficiency, extend the lighting life, and reduce maintenance costs. This will help LED to run the full schedule, adhere to the end, by virtue of winning the game.

Key elements of LED intelligence

Ambient light detection, communication and electrical energy measurement are the key elements of intelligent lighting system. The ambient light detection can provide adequate lighting in other light has dimmed the lights; in addition, by detecting the ambient light color, can adjust the color senior RGBLED lighting system. The communication function allows remote control and connects small, large lighting devices to the central network. Electrical energy measurement accurately calculates the consumed power and provides insight into predictive maintenance. All of these features - ambient light detection, communications, power measurement - will further save energy and reduce operating costs. In this paper, we discuss the key design considerations for the LED lighting system to increase environmental light detection, communication (including wireless and power line) and power measurement. Reference design example.

Ambient light sensor (ALS) detects the amount of light near the sensor. These simple devices to become LED lighting system, eyes, but also the key to energy saving. When the room has sufficient light source, lighting is not necessary, the lights can be dimmed or completely shut down, reduce power consumption, extend the life of the lamp. Key features of ALS include power consumption, lumen monitoring range, and IR and UV filters. These sensors must be quiet in the system, can not consume too much power, thus undermining the original intention of saving energy consumption. Good ALS consumption reaches 1 A below. Lumen detection range must be within the typical lumen range of the outdoor environment. 0.1lx to 100000lx can generally meet the requirements of most applications. Taking into account the reliability of the system, it may be necessary to use a slightly larger range. IR and UV filter can eliminate the spectrum of invisible light in the real system.

Intelligent LED light detection function

The ALS design of the light source. Sensors must avoid the light of the lamp itself, to avoid the impact of ambient light measurement. In this design, the ALS is located on the independent circuit board, under the shadow of the lamp bracket. This simple design enables the ALS to turn off the light when the ambient light exceeds the preset value. RGB sensors can even add more features to lighting applications". Similar to the figure shown in the RGBLED and ALS with LED lighting system, can dynamically adjust its color output, to meet the special needs of the application, such as stage lighting or department store display effect.

Figure 1:ALS installed in the independent PCB, in the shadow of the lamp holder, to prevent the sensor to read the light itself

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