FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates a regulating mechanism, particularly, an Internet of Things (IOT) based smart modular regulating system. The present invention also discloses a smart modular regulator and a method for providing angular movement to a knob in clockwise and anticlockwise direction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The challenges of many limitations of smart regulators have made the development of the Smart modular regulator. Home automation means the devices in a home that is connected to the internet & can be controlled remotely through a mobile phone application. This is a combination of hardware & software technologies that refers to the automatic and electronic control of household features with certain devices (actuators and sensors) to achieve safety, security, energy efficiency and convenience. Most of the smart regulators have no physical presence of knob to work manually. They are mostly touch based. If any problem happened to the microcontroller or the power supply unit of the touch screen based regulator, it becomes inoperative. This is one of the major problem in the existing smart regulating system.

The global smart home automation market size was valued at USD 87.7 billion in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period. The size is expected to reach USD 130.0 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.

There are different types of Smart regulating systems & methods in the market. Most of these designs have limitations in smart automation. In case of fault in Electronic Circuit, regulator of all other systems cannot be operated by manually & Mobile phone application.

To overcome all the above issues, this smart modular regulator is designed. It is completely independent single system device which has individual operation capability other than its own microcontroller & SMPS for the regulation purpose of the connected device. It is more energy efficient & its reliability is much higher.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention discloses a hardware design which consists of a unique servo mechanism. It has two Potentiometer of different values in a single coaxial format with a single shaft. The shaft can be slowly rotate by a plastic gear box which is driven by a small DC motor. It can rotate the knob of the regulator on the basis of pulse width modulation & the feedback of 1st potentiometer. The 2nd potentiometer can give feedback of its angular position via analog signal. The other two high value potentiometers are used to control the firing angle of the triac/ MOSFET to control the speed of Fan & intensity of light bulbs. The high voltage dimmer circuit is isolated from the DC servo section. It has its own built in power supply.

The pulse width modulation (PWM) signal is generated from a local Microcontroller. The Microcontroller wirelessly connected through the indoor hub/ Gateway which is connected to internet. So, we can send a signal via mobile app & the server forwarded the signal to the indoor Hub. The indoor hub then processes the signal & the regulator receives the signal from the gateway/ hub & changes its angle accordingly. After completion of the servo action the analog value of the potentiometer is sent by the regulator to the Hub & Hub sends the data to the mobile phone application via internet.
An embodiment of the present invention discloses an Internet of Things (IOT) based smart modular regulating system. The system comprises one or more user devices for providing one or more instructions, one or more servers connected to the one or more user devices for receiving the one or more instructions, and a smart modular regulator (101) connected with the cloud server (605) for providing angular movement to a knob (301) in clockwise and anticlockwise direction based on the instructions received from the cloud server (605), wherein the smart modular regulator comprises a dual potentiometer unit (401) having two potentiometers of different values, arranged in a single coaxial format with a single shaft (3011), the shaft is adapted to rotate slowly by a plastic gear box (3010) which is in turn driven by a DC motor (308), thereby providing angular movement to the knob (301) of the regulator.

According to an embodiment, the system further comprising a motor driver (504) adapted to receive the positional feedback from a first potentiometer (306) of the dual potentiometer unit (401), wherein a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401) adapted to control the firing angle of a triac or Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) to control the speed of Fan or intensity of light bulbs.
According to another embodiment, the knob (301) of the regulator rotates on the basis of a pulse width modulation generated by a microcontroller (503) and feedback of a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401).

According to yet another embodiment, the plastic gear box (3010) having one or more gears which are adapted to reduce the revolutions per minute (rpm) of the DC motor 308 and increase the torque.

According to yet another embodiment, the gears adapted to rotate a metal shaft (3011) which is connected to the knob (301), in clockwise and anti-clockwise depending upon rotation of the DC motor (308).

According to yet another embodiment, wherein the gear box (3010) comprises a metal clip arrangement which provides the free manual rotation capability.

According to yet another embodiment, the system further comprises a microcontroller (503) adapted to communicate with a current sensor (501) with an analog channel (ADC) to determine an analog value relative to the current uses of a connected device, wherein the microcontroller (503) communicates with a motor driver (504) by a digital channel (PWM), wherein the current sensor (501) includes a hall effect-based sensor, a wireless module 506 adapted to communicate with the microcontroller (MCU) (503) with a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) communication bus, said wireless module (506) is having an external antenna for wireless communication, and a switch mode power supply (SMPS) (502) having input voltage capacity from AC 110v to 230v adapted to provide an DC 5v output voltage and 500 mA current value, and 3.3v voltage regulator (505) adapted to drop the voltage to 3.3v, to provide power to the wireless module (506).

Another embodiment of the present invention discloses, a smart modular regulator (101) for providing angular movement to a knob (301) in clockwise and anticlockwise direction based on instructions received from a cloud server (605), the smart modular regulator comprises a DC motor (308), a gear box (3010) connected to the DC motor (308) for reducing revolutions per minute (rpm) of the DC motor (308) and increase the torque, a plastic gear box (3010) having one or more gears, connected to the DC motor (308) for reducing revolutions per minute (rpm) of the DC motor (308) and increase the torque, a metal shaft connected to the gear box (3010) for enabling rotation of the knob (301) in clockwise and anti-clockwise depending upon the rotation of the DC motor (308), a dual potentiometer unit (401) having two potentiometers of different values, connected to the gear box (3010), wherein the two potentiometers are configured to have different values and arranged in a single coaxial format with a single shaft (3011), the shaft (3011) is adapted to rotate slowly by a plastic gear box (3010) which is in turn driven by the DC motor (308), thereby providing angular movement to the knob (301) of the regulator.

According to an embodiment, the regulator further comprising a motor driver (504) adapted to receive the positional feedback from a first potentiometer (306) of the dual potentiometer unit (401), wherein a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401) adapted to control the firing angle of a triac or Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) to control the speed of Fan or intensity of light bulbs.

According to another embodiment, the knob (301) of the regulator rotates on the basis of a pulse width modulation generated by a microcontroller (503) and feedback of a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401).

According to yet another embodiment, the gear box (3010) comprises a metal clip arrangement which provides the free manual rotation capability.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention discloses a method for providing angular movement to a knob (301) in clockwise and anticlockwise direction based on one or more instructions received from a cloud server (605). The method comprises sending, by one or more user devices (6010), the one or more instructions to one or more servers, providing, by one or more servers, the one or more received instruction to a microcontroller (503) in a smart modular regulator (101), processing, by the microcontroller (503), the one or more received instruction, performing the angular movement to the knob (301) based on the instructions received from the microcontroller (503), wherein the smart modular regulator (101) comprises a dual potentiometer unit (401) having two potentiometers of different values, arranged in a single coaxial format with a single shaft (3011), the shaft (3011) is adapted to rotate slowly by a plastic gear box (3010) which is in turn driven by a DC motor (308), thereby providing angular movement to the knob (301) of the regulator.

According to an embodiment, the method further comprises generating a signal, by a microcontroller (MCU) (503), to control clockwise and anticlockwise angular movement of the knob (301) with the help of a motor driver (504) based on a received wireless signal from the cloud server (605), communicating, by a wireless module (506), with the microcontroller (MCU) (503) using a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) communication bus, said wireless module (506) is having an external antenna for wireless communication, and converting, by a switch mode power Supply (SMPS) (502), an input voltage having range between AC 110v to 230v to provide an DC 5v output voltage and 500 mA current value, wherein 3.3v voltage regulator (505) adapted to drop the voltage to 3.3v, to provide power to the wireless module (506).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals identify like elements, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a top view & isometric view of first embodiment of the Smart Regulator in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a front view & right-side view of second embodiment of the Smart Regulator in accordance with the invention.

Figure 3 is a detailed cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A showing the dual isolated potentiometer arrangement of Smart Regulator.

Figure 4 is a front view, right side view & bottom view of the Dual isolated Potentiometer arrangement system

Figure 6 is a block diagram of electronic / electrical circuit.

Figure 7 is a block diagram of networking method for remote operation of the smart regulator.
Although specific features of the present invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, this is done for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANIG DRAWINGS

In the following description of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

The specification may refer to “an”, “one” or “some” embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.

As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes”, “comprises”, “including” and/or “comprising” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Referring to the accompanying drawings wherein the same reference characters refer to the same or similar elements, Figure 1 is a top view & isometric view & Figure 2 is a front view & right side view of an exemplifying embodiment of a hybrid modular regulator/ dimmer system in accordance with the invention, some details of which are omitted for the sake of simplicity and clarity.

The smart modular regulator system is shown in combination of regular modular regulator with dual potentiometer mechanism. The Figure 1 shows the high-quality plastic (flame retardant) body of the hybrid smart modular regulator. It can insert into modular plates with its four plastic locks. It looks like a regular modular regulator. The back portion of the smart modular regulator is relatively longer in the size of regular modular regulator. It has no screw terminal attached with the back portion in spite of that it has three wires coming out of the regulator. They are live, neutral, device.

The Figure 2 shows the front & right-side view of the smart modular regulator. The front view shows that how it looks & appears in front of the switchboard. The right-side view how much space is relatively required to fit it into the switchboard. Though it is relatively bigger in size but it can fit into the regular GI box of conceal wiring.

The Figure 3 shows that the front view of the Smart modular regulator. There is a high-quality aluminium knob 301 is used to control the dual potentiometer. It is an ergonomic design of smart modular regulator. The high-quality plastic plate 302 with smooth surface in the front side (flame retardant) hold dual potentiometer arrangement with a metal nut 304 & washer 305 at front side. It has four plastic locking mechanism to lock it with the modular plates. A-A cross sectional view of Figure 2 is showing the internal component arrangement of smart modular regulator. The back Plate 309 is a high-quality plastic enclosure (flame retardant) which covers the regulator from the back side & provide electrical insulation. In A-A sectional view shows the dual potentiometer 306,307 arrangement with a DC motor 308. The dual potentiometer has a number of metal leg for the electrical connection & PCB mounting. A plastic enclosure 303 consists dual potentiometer unit. The other plastic enclosure 3010 consists some plastic gear which is used to reduce the rpm of the motor & increase the torque. These gears rotate the metal shaft 3011 (connect with the aluminium knob) of the dual potentiometer 306,307 clockwise & anti-clockwise depending upon the motor rotation. The gear box also has a metal clip arrangement which provides the free manual rotation capability. Two metal pins 3012, 4019 (non-electrical) are used to mount the whole arrangement with the PCB (Printed Circuit Board). Another two metal pins 3013, 4020 (electrical) are used to supply the necessary power to the motor. By this mechanism motor does not interfere in the manual rotation.

The Figure 4 shows the detailed description of the front view, right side view & bottom view of the dual isolated Potentiometer arrangement system. In the right-side view, there is a D type metal shaft 3011. After that there is a metal block 402 with a outer threaded cylindrical hole inside. This outer thread comes with a metal nut 304 and washer 305. It holds the total arrangement with the front plate & the inner hole provides the necessary space to rotate the metal shaft 3011 freely. After that there is a plastic enclosure 303 which consists the dual isolated potentiometer 306, 307 unit. The potentiometer is co-centric & they are able to change their resistance value with a single metal shaft 3011 rotation. The metal pins 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 4010 are connected with a first variable resistance. The metal pins 4011, 4012, 4013, 4014, 4015, 4016, 4017, 4018 are connected to the second variable resistance. After that a plastic enclosure consists with plastic gears are used to connect between the motor shaft and the metal shaft 3011. A metal bracket clip 4021 with two mounting pin 3012, 4019 are used to hold the dual potentiometer, gear section with DC Motor. The metal pins 403, 4013, 4010, 4018 are used for PCB (printed circuit board) mounting. After that a mini DC motor is used to rotate the dual potentiometer section. The metal pins 3013, 4020 are used to connect the positive & negative terminal of the motor with the PCB (printed circuit board).

Figure 5 is a block diagram of the Electrical circuit of the Smart regulator which is used for the remote operation. There are eight sections. At first there is a SMPS (Switch mode power Supply) 502 which has input voltage capacity from AC 110v to 230v and output voltage DC 5v with 300 mA current delivery capacity. A 3.3v voltage regulator 505 is used to drop the voltage into 3.3v, to power the wireless communication module 506. The wireless communication module 506 communicates with the microcontroller (MCU) 503 with SPI communication bus. It has an external antenna for wireless communication. The microcontroller 503 communicates with the current sensor 501 with an analog channel (ADC) & gets an analog value relative to the current used by the connected device. The current sensor 501 is a hall effect-based sensor. The microcontroller 503 communicates with the servo motor driver 504 by a digital channel (PWM). The motor driver 504 gets the positional feedback from variable potentiometer of dual isolated potentiometer unit 401. The other variable potentiometer is connected with the triac based regulation circuit 507 to controls the firing angle of the triac. The triac based regulation circuit 507 regulates the speed of the fan or intensity of the light.

Figure 6 shows the network operation between the physical & application layer of smart modular regulator. The pentagonal block is the gateway/ hub 604. It has dual channel wireless radio to communicate with the multiple smart modular regulators 601, 602, 603 simultaneously. It also has Wi-Fi module (2.4 GHz/5GHz) for communicating with the local Wi-Fi router 607 to access internet. The Hub or Gateway 604 also has a built in 4G Module to communicate with the cloud server 605 via mobile network with sim card in case of Wi-Fi router 607 is not available to access internet. The Wi-Fi router 607 (Via CAT or fibre cable) or the Hub 604 (Via 4G module) communicates with the cloud server 605 via internet. A dashboard 606 monitors 24x7 the smart modular regulators 601, 602, 603 from the Cloud Server 605. The user device 6010 is communicating with the Cloud server 605 with mobile network or WiFi via internet. When internet is not available the user device 6010 is capable to communicate with the local server in order to communicate with the smart modular regulators 601, 602, 603. In user device 6010 mobile phone application 608 & web-based application 609 is available in different platforms (Android, iOS, Windows, MAC OS, Linux).

Figure 7 is a flow chart of a method for operating the smart modular regulator 101. In this process after getting power from the mains supply the regulator starts its process in step 701. In the next step 702 the microcontroller activates the communication module in receiver (RX) mode. If data receives in step 703, data decryption happens in next step 705. In step 707 it checks whether the received ID matches with its own device ID. If it matches then in step 709 checks whether it is a increase or decrease statement. If it is a increase statement Microcontroller activates servo driver in step 7011. In next step 7012 servo driver rotates the motor clockwise. After that step 7014 checks the updated current consumption value from the current sensor. In the step 7015 microcontroller sends the all updated value (energy consumption value, current position of the regulator) to the server. After that the whole process ends in the step 7016. Then the process starts again. In step 703 if data is not received the microcontroller checks the potentiometer value (for manual operation) in step 706. In step 708 detects no changes in value it goes to step703. If the value changes it goes to step 7014. In the step 707 if received ID does not match with its own ID, then microcontroller clears its buffer in step 704 and goes to Step 703. In step 709 checks the received statement is a decreased statement, then microcontroller activates the servo driver in step 7010. In step 7013 servo driver rotates the motor counter clockwise & it goes to the step 7014.

Although the embodiments herein are described with various specific embodiments, it will be obvious for a person skilled in the art to practice the invention with modify citations. However, all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the claims. It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the embodiments described herein and all the statements of the scope of the embodiments which as a matter of language might be said to fall there between.

We claim:

1. An Internet of Things (IOT) based smart modular regulating system, comprising:
one or more user devices for providing one or more instructions;
one or more servers connected to the one or more user devices for receiving the one or more instructions; and
a smart modular regulator (101) connected with the cloud server (605) for providing angular movement to a knob (301) in clockwise and anticlockwise direction based on the instructions received from the cloud server (605),
wherein the smart modular regulator comprises:
a dual potentiometer unit (401) having two potentiometers of different values, arranged in a single coaxial format with a single shaft (3011), the shaft is adapted to rotate slowly by a plastic gear box (3010) which is in turn driven by a DC motor (308), thereby providing angular movement to the knob (301) of the regulator.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a motor driver (504) adapted to receive the positional feedback from a first potentiometer (306) of the dual potentiometer unit (401), wherein a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401) adapted to control the firing angle of a triac or Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) to control the speed of Fan or intensity of light bulbs.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the knob (301) of the regulator rotates on the basis of a pulse width modulation generated by a microcontroller (503) and feedback of a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401).

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plastic gear box (3010) having one or more gears which are adapted to reduce the revolutions per minute (rpm) of the DC motor (308) and increase the torque.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the gears adapted to rotate a metal shaft (3011) which is connected to the knob (301), in clockwise and anti-clockwise depending upon rotation of the DC motor (308).

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gear box (3010) comprises a metal clip arrangement which provides the free manual rotation capability.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1 further comprises
a microcontroller (503) adapted to communicate with a current sensor (501) with an analog channel (ADC) to determine an analog value relative to the current uses of a connected device, wherein the microcontroller (503) communicates with a motor driver (504) by a digital channel (PWM), wherein the current sensor (501) includes a hall effect-based sensor;
a wireless module (506) adapted to communicate with the microcontroller (MCU) (503) with a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) communication bus, said wireless module (506) is having an external antenna for wireless communication; and
a switch mode power supply (SMPS) (502) having input voltage capacity from AC 110v to 230v adapted to provide an DC 5v output voltage and 500 mA current value, and 3.3v voltage regulator (505) adapted to drop the voltage to 3.3v, to provide power to the wireless module (506).

8. A smart modular regulator (101) for providing angular movement to a knob (301) in clockwise and anticlockwise direction based on instructions received from a cloud server (605), the smart modular regulator comprises:
a DC motor (308);
a gear box (3010) connected to the DC motor (308) for reducing revolutions per minute (rpm) of the DC motor (308) and increase the torque;
a plastic gear box (3010) having one or more gears, connected to the DC motor (308) for reducing revolutions per minute (rpm) of the DC motor (308) and increase the torque;
a metal shaft connected to the gear box (3010) for enabling rotation of the knob (301) in clockwise and anti-clockwise depending upon the rotation of the DC motor (308);
a dual potentiometer unit (401) having two potentiometers of different values, connected to the gear box (3010),
wherein the two potentiometers are configured to have different values and arranged in a single coaxial format with a single shaft (3011), the shaft (3011) is adapted to rotate slowly by a plastic gear box (3010) which is in turn driven by the DC motor (308), thereby providing angular movement to the knob (301) of the regulator.

9. The regulator as claimed in claim 8 further comprising a motor driver (504) adapted to receive the positional feedback from a first potentiometer (306) of the dual potentiometer unit (401), wherein a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401) adapted to control the firing angle of a triac or Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) to control the speed of Fan or intensity of light bulbs.

10. The regulator as claimed in claim 8, wherein the knob (301) of the regulator rotates on the basis of a pulse width modulation generated by a microcontroller (503) and feedback of a second potentiometer (307) of the dual potentiometer unit (401).

11. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the gear box (3010) comprises a metal clip arrangement which provides the free manual rotation capability.

12. A method for providing angular movement to a knob (301) in clockwise and anticlockwise direction based on one or more instructions received from a cloud server (605), the method comprising:
sending, by one or more user devices (6010), the one or more instructions to one or more servers;
providing, by one or more servers, the one or more received instruction to a microcontroller (503) in a smart modular regulator (101);
processing, by the microcontroller (503), the one or more received instruction.
performing the angular movement to the knob (301) based on the instructions received from the microcontroller (503),
wherein the smart modular regulator (101) comprises:
a dual potentiometer unit (401) having two potentiometers of different values, arranged in a single coaxial format with a single shaft (3011), the shaft (3011) is adapted to rotate slowly by a plastic gear box (3010) which is in turn driven by a DC motor (308), thereby providing angular movement to the knob (301) of the regulator.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 further comprising
generating a signal, by a microcontroller (MCU) (503), to control clockwise and anticlockwise angular movement of the knob (301) with the help of a motor driver (504) based on a received wireless signal from the cloud server (605);
communicating, by a wireless module (506), with the microcontroller (MCU) (503) using a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) communication bus, said wireless module (506) is having an external antenna for wireless communication; and
converting, by a switch mode power Supply (SMPS) (502), an input voltage having range between AC 110v to 230v to provide an DC 5v output voltage and 500 mA current value, wherein 3.3v voltage regulator (505) adapted to drop the voltage to 3.3v, to provide power to the wireless module (506).