34._--—\.\J [age
Contents
1. MOEN OAR US 20040245352 1 19 United States Patent Application Publication 0 Pub No US 2004 0245352 Al Smith 43 Pub Date Dec 9 2004 54 THERMOSTAT WITH TOUCH SCREEN Publication Classification DISPLAY 51 8050 23 00 F28F 1 00 52 US Cl nce cages 236 94 165 11 1 75 Inventor Blaine M Smith Portland OR US 57 ABSTRACT Correspondence Address HAYNES BEFFEL amp WOLFELD LLP A thermostat is programmable by entering input through a PO BOX 366 large format touch screen display The touch screen display HALF MOON BAY CA 94019 US displays different sets of icons depending on the mode the thermostat is in A set of icons is displayed in one mode that 73 Assignee Tim Simon Inc a corporation of the allows the user to put the thermostat in a temporary oper State of California San Francisco CA ating mode Another set of icons is displayed when pro gramming the thermostat Displaying several sets of icons at 21 Appl No 10 453 854 once allows a user to quickly and intuitively operate the thermostat which in turn facilitates using energy saving 22 Filed Jun 3 2003 functions of the thermostat 24 128 00 0 20 32 MENU PROGRAM RESETS O C_D Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet 1 of 8 US 2004 0245352 A1 DISPLAY 28 30 56 FIG Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet 2 of 8 US 2004 0245352 A1 GAS FURNACE2. FIG 2A Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet of 8 US 2004 0245352 A1 FURNACE FIG 28 Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet 4 of 8 US 2004 0245352 A1 FURNACE FIG 2C Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet 5 of 8 US 2004 0245352 A1 Tu We Th Fr Sa SE wy MORN DAY EVEN NITE 888 0 LIMIT USAGE HR COPY REVIEW FILTER SWING AWAY HOLD spp pay SP EEN eat 9 doeroe FIG 3 ve ont 30 F 15 A mrg 96 134 06 1 4 MENU PROGRAM FIG AUTO HEAT 000 J 452 150 7 AWAY HOLD U PROGRAM RESETo AN OFF ON AUTO HEAT C FIG 48 Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet 6 of 8 74 FILTER SWING 198 on ANauto near coo LA 4 7 96 194 MENU PROGRAM US 2004 0245352 1 190 Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet 7 of 8 US 2004 0245352 A1 program Alt 510 518 02 04 06 08 Receive second user entry from Receive second user entry from second touch icon in second set of icons first touch icon in second set of icons 520 512 Operate thermostat to maintain Operate thermostat to maintain target temperature temperature
3. 4B is a screen shot of TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 of touch screen LCD 100 when thermostat 10 is in TEMPORARY level TEMPORARY level is accessed from the HOME level when the user touches the room temperature icon see FIG 4A ref num 130 TEMPO RARY SCREEN 140 allows the user to change the target temperature without affecting the operating program of thermostat 10 which is stored in memory TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 displays the target temperature 142 tempera ture UP 144 and DOWN 146 arrows HOLD touch icon 150 and AWAY touch icon 152 all at the same time After the user enters a change by touching the appropriate icon on TEM PORARY SCREEN 140 the user can return to HOME SCREEN by touching HOME touch icon 154 If the tem perature is changed in the TEMPORARY level without using HOLD or AWAY the change will immediately take effect but be cancelled at the start of the next programmed period Thus the entered change is only temporary 0048 Touching HOLD touch icon 150 puts thermostat 10 in HOLD mode HOLD mode maintains the target tempera ture 142 indicated on TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 For example if the user was going away for the weekend and wanted to maintain a temperature of 65 F he would touch HOLD touch icon 150 and use the UP 144 or DOWN 146 arrow key to set target temperature 142 to 65 The user might want to maintain the target temperature so that his home is at a comfortable temperature when he returns or to maintain an appr
4. easily readable text and large touch icons The text the user needs to read is displayed on the touch screen LCD at one of the levels and the large touch icons facilitate accurate data entry The touch icons are generally square or rectangular and in one embodiment each touch icon has a minimum dimension greater than or equal to about 0 25 inches In a particular embodiment the smallest touch icon is about 0 38x0 25 inches 0041 Conventional thermostats often have a much smaller LCD screen and use relatively small pressure sensitive keys to operate and or program the thermostat Conventional LCD screens are typically used to display both operational functions and programming states and data Such LCD screens are called shared displays In many cases a set of instructions explaining the steps that must be taken to operate the thermostat is printed on the thermostat or separately documented as programming such a thermo stat can be quite confusing and tedious Although program mable thermostats hold out the promise of reducing the energy used by heating systems the U S Environmental Protection Agency which provides the ENERGY STAR certification for appliances and other devices has expressed concern that potential energy savings are not being realized because of the difficulties consumers face trying to program conventional thermostats 0042 Thermostat 10 is unique in display and operation Instead of having one small shared scr
5. 0245352 Al furnace 34 Dual jumper 36 of power source selector 26 is set to a first position as shown when thermostat 10 is installed for operating thermostat controller 12 off of battery 31 Dual jumper 36 connects heating transformer power terminal 30 directly to heating load terminal 28 when latching relay 16 is ON bypassing triac converter 24 Two AA alkaline batteries in series provide about 3 VDC and can typically power thermostat 10 for over one year When battery 31 runs down thermostat 10 will stop working however thermostat 10 will indicate when battery 31 is low before the battery voltage drops too low to operate thermo stat 10 0031 FIG 2B is a simplified circuit diagram of thermo stat 10 of FIG 1 using diode bridge converter 22 to control a gas or electric heating system 48 that has a common wire C wire 50 Heating system 48 includes a transformer 54 that steps down 115 V 60 Hz electrical power to provide 24 VAC between heating load terminal 28 and heating trans former power terminal 30 to operate furnace relay 55 Twenty four VAC is also present between Common terminal 56 and heating transformer power terminal 30 Transformer 54 typically provides about one Amp of current Dual jumper 36 is in the first position as shown when operating off of power from C wire 50 as it is when operating a gas millivolt system off of battery 31 see FIG 2A 0032 Twenty four VAC power from C wire 50 is sup plied thro
6. and the touch screen display displays a first set of icons e g the HOME screen of FIG 4A step 504 The thermostat optionally stores high and low temperature limits for a temporary operating mode When operating according to the thermostat operating program the thermostat is intended to control a heater to maintain a room temperature at or above a current program temperature for example It is understood that the heater is not part of the thermostat but some heaters provide operating power to the thermostat 0061 Upon receiving a first user entry step 506 the touch screen displays a second set of icons step 508 including at least a first temporary mode touch icon e g FIG 4B ref num 150 a second temporary mode touch icon e g FIG 4B ref num 152 and a target temperature icon e g FIG 4B ref num 142 In one embodiment the first user input is indicative of touching a first touch icon e g room temperature icon 130 shown in FIG 4A In another embodiment the first user input is indicative of touching a button 0062 In a further embodiment upon receiving a second user entry indicative of touching the first temporary mode icon step 510 the thermostat operates to maintain a target temperature according to the target temperature icon step 512 That is the thermostat controls the heating system to maintain the room temperature within a preseleted range above and below the target temperature Upon receiving a
7. between upper and lower set points Receive third user entry from 522 first touch icon Receive third user entry from second touch icon Revert to operating thermostat 524 according to program Revert to operating thermostat according to program FIG 5A Patent Application Publication Dec 9 2004 Sheet 8 of 8 02 program 04 06 08 52 54 Display hrs set oficons 56 Touch icon in third set icons 58 60 62 64 Lock thermostat operating program by touching lock touch icon in fourth set of icons 566 Unlock thermostat operating program by touch lock touch icon a second time FIG 5B US 2004 0245352 1 US 2004 0245352 Al THERMOSTAT WITH TOUCH SCREEN DISPLAY CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 0001 This patent application is being concurrently filed with U S patent application Ser No entitled THER MOSTAT OPERABLE FROM VARIOUS POWER SOURCES by Blaine M Smith Attorney Docket No TIMS 1005 1 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated in its entirety for all purposes STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 0002 Not applicable REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX 0003 Not applicable FIELD OF THE INVENTION 0004 The present invention relates generally to thermo stats used for heating and cooling systems such as domestic gas or electric furnaces and more particularly to large format touch screen thermostats with multiple operating levels displ
8. displaying a second set of icons in response to a user touching a touch icon in the first set of icons the second set of icons including a target temperature icon a first temporary mode touch icon a second temporary mode touch icon and target temperature adjustment touch icons 2 The thermostat of claim 1 wherein the touch icon in the first set of icons is a room temperature icon 3 The thermostat of claim 1 wherein the room tempera ture icon is larger than any other icon in the first set of icons 4 The thermostat of claim 1 further comprising a memory storing a thermostat operating program wherein touching the first temporary mode touch icon a first time sets the thermostat to maintain a target temperature and touching the first temporary mode touch icon a second time sets the thermostat to operate according to the thermostat operating program 5 The thermostat of claim 1 further comprising a memory storing a thermostat operating program and storing an upper temperature set point and a lower temperature set point wherein touching the second temporary mode touch icon a US 2004 0245352 Al first time sets the thermostat to maintain a temperature between the upper temperature set point and the lower temperature set point and touching the second temporary mode touch icon a second time sets the thermostat to operate according to the thermostat operating program 6 The thermostat of claim 1 further comprising a pro grammable me
9. e g FIG 4B ref num 152 In one embodiment the first user input is indicative of touching a first touch icon e g room temperature icon 130 shown in FIG 4 0066 Upon receiving a second user entry step 552 the touch screen display displays a third set of icons e g PROGRAM screen 160 shown in FIG 4C step 554 that includes a plurality of touch icons for entering thermostat operating program values into the programmable memory Touching one of the plurality of touch icons step 556 changes a program value of the thermostat operating pro gram step 558 0067 In a further embodiment upon receiving a third user entry step 560 a fourth set of icons is displayed on the touch screen display step 562 The fourth set of icons includes a lock touch icon The thermostat operating pro gram is locked from being changed step 564 by touching the lock touch icon The thermostat operating program is unlocked by touching the lock touch icon a second time step 566 0068 Modification and variation can be made to be disclosed embodiments without departing from the subject of the invention as described herein Any and all patents patent applications and printed publications referred to above are incorporated by reference 1 A thermostat comprising a touch screen display capable of displaying a plurality of icons a first set of icons being displayed on the touch screen display at a first level the touch screen display
10. off of battery power If power from C wire 50 is lost thermostat 10 automatically runs off of battery 31 if available Conversely thermostat 10 will continue to work if C wire power is available and battery 31 is dead or missing 0034 Thermostat 10 can borrow operating power from the relay current if the operating current is a small portion typically under 10 of the total relay current For example if the operating current is about 13 mA and the relay current is 200 mA the operating current used for the power supply is only about 7 of the relay current If the Dec 9 2004 relay current is less than about 130 mA borrowing operating power from relay current might affect system performance For example the relay might not open or the relay might chatter or hum Older furnaces often draw more than 200 mA for the relay current thus borrowing operating power from the relay current in these older furnaces does not adversely affect their operation Some newer furnaces draw less than 100 mA for the relay current and the C wire if available is used to power thermostat 10 as discussed above in reference to FIG 2B 0035 FIG 2C is a simplified circuit diagram of thermo stat 10 of FIG 1 using power from triac converter 24 to control a gas or electric heating system 48 that does not have a C wire but that does have transformer 54 to operate furnace relay 55 With dual jumper 36 in a second position as shown latching re
11. third user entry indicative of touching the first temporary mode icon a second time step 514 the thermostat reverts to operating according to the thermostat operating program step 516 0063 In an alternative embodiment upon receiving a second user entry indicative of touching the second tempo rary mode icon step 518 the thermostat operates to main tain a temperature between the high and low temperature limits stored in memory step 520 When the thermostat receives a third user entry indicative of touching the second temporary mode icon a second time step 522 the thermo stat reverts to operating according to the thermostat operat ing program step 524 0064 FIG 5B is a simplified flow chart of a method 550 of operating a thermostat with a touch screen display and a Dec 9 2004 programmable memory according to another embodiment of the present invention The thermostat initially operates according to a thermostat operating program stored in the programmable memory step 502 and the touch screen display displays a first set of icons e g HOME screen 120 shown in FIG 4A step 504 0065 Upon receiving a first user entry step 506 the touch screen displays a second set of icons e g TEMPO RARY screen 140 shown in FIG 4B step 508 including at least a first temporary mode touch icon e g FIG 4B ref num 150 a target temperature icon e g FIG 4B ref num 142 and a second temporary mode touch icon
12. 19 In a thermostat having a touch screen display and a programmable memory a method of operating the thermo stat comprising operating the thermostat according to a thermostat oper ating program stored in the programmable memory displaying a first set of icons on the touch screen display receiving a first user entry indicative of touching a first touch icon in the first set of icons displaying a second set of icons on the touch screen display in response to the first user entry the second set Dec 9 2004 of icons including at least a first temporary mode touch icon a target temperature icon and a second temporary mode touch icon receiving a second user entry indicative of touching the first temporary mode icon operating the thermostat to maintain a target temperature according to the target temperature icon receiving a third user entry indicative of touching the first temporary mode icon a second time and operating the thermostat according to the thermostat oper ating program
13. at the factory but may be overridden by touching the temperature set arrows 144 146 After a few seconds or after touching HOME touch icon 154 touch screen LCD 100 returns to HOME SCREEN 120 AWAY indicator icon see FIG 3 ref num 102 flashes on HOME SCREEN 120 when thermostat 10 is in AWAY mode Upon returning the user would simply touch the current temperature 130 on HOME SCREEN 120 to enter TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 and touches AWAY touch icon 152 a second time to take thermostat 10 out of AWAY mode 0051 While conventional thermostats provide features similar to AWAY mode and HOLD mode they typically require a relatively involved and complicated sequence of serial key strokes often with small keys that are labeled in difficult to read small type It is believed that users do not use these modes because of the complexity time and difficulty of changing to such modes and back again This causes the user to either leave the thermostat programmed for normal operation or to turn the system off entirely The former wastes energy and the latter can result in damage to the home or its contents 0052 The present invention provides a large format intuitive user interface and provides access to both tempo rary modes from a single screen that is only one level from HOME SCREEN 120 About the only thing a user needs to remember is how to get to TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 and that is by touching the largest displayed field i e the current t
14. aying several icons on each level BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0005 Digital set back programmable thermostats typi cally use a small screen such as a liquid crystal display LCD to display both operational functions and program ming values The user enters commands into the thermostat such as for setting the current time and date and program ming the thermostat by pressing keys The keys are often fairly small and are labeled with small type In many cases a set of instructions explaining the steps that must be taken to operate the thermostat is printed on the thermostat or separately documented as programming such a thermostat can be quite confusing and tedious Although programmable thermostats hold out the promise of reducing the energy used by heating systems the U S Environmental Protection Agency which provides the ENERGY STAR certification for appliances and other devices has expressed concern that potential energy savings are not being realized because of the difficulties consumers face trying to program conven tional digital thermostats 0006 It is desirable to provide a digital programmable thermostat with a more convenient and intuitive program ming and control interface that facilitates use of the ther mostat features particularly features that can result in energy conservation BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0007 thermostat according to embodiments of present invention has a memory that stor
15. cond time and operating the thermostat according to the thermostat oper ating program 16 The method of claim 13 further comprising steps of receiving a second user entry indicative of touching the second temporary mode icon operating the thermostat to maintain a temperature between an upper temperature set point and the lower temperature set point receiving a third user entry indicative of touching the second temporary mode icon a second time and operating the thermostat according to the thermostat oper ating program 17 The method of claim 13 further comprising steps of receiving a second user entry displaying a third set of icons on the touch screen display the third set of icons including a plurality of touch icons for entering thermostat operating program values into the programmable memory and touching one of the plurality of touch icons in the third set of icons and changing a program value of the thermostat operating program in response to the touching of one of the plurality of touch icons in the third set of icons 18 The method of claim 17 further comprising steps of receiving a fourth user entry displaying a fourth set of icons on the touch screen display including a lock touch icon US 2004 0245352 Al locking the thermostat operating program from being changed by touching the lock touch icon and unlocking the thermostat operating program by touching the lock touch icon a second time
16. current day and current time using day touch icon 168 and arrows 174 174 respectively setting the temperature to C or by touching temperature scale touch icon 192 setting the temperature swing hysteresis by touching SWING touch US 2004 0245352 Al icon 194 and then incrementing the swing using arrows 174 174 The filter running time is reset by touching FILTER icon 196 and then left arrow 174 on the filter time The filter set time is set by touching and holding FILTER icon 196 for three seconds and then changing the set time using the arrows 174 174 The tone is turned on or off by touching TONE touch icon 198 Touching LOCK touch icon 200 locks the thermostat operating program stored in memory When thermostat 10 is locked a user cannot change the thermostat operating program from PROGRAM SCREEN 160 without first unlocking thermostat operating program from MENU SCREEN 190 On most conventional thermo stats including thermostats with LCD displays each func tion if available is displayed separately requiring the user to step though a long sequence of screens to get to the final desired menu level 0059 IV Exemplary Methods 0060 FIG 5A is a simplified flow chart of a method 500 of operating a thermostat with a touch screen display and a memory according to an embodiment of the present inven tion The thermostat initially operates according to a ther mostat operating program stored in the memory step 502
17. eek 0056 Touching COPY touch icon 162 copies the selected times and temperatures from one day to another For example if the user programs thermostat 10 for Sunday Su touching COPY touch icon 162 once will cause the Monday day icon Mo to flash Touching COPY touch icon 162 again will increment day icon 168 to Mo and copy the program values for Sunday into Monday From there the user can select another day or period of day or can copy the program to Tuesday Tu Thus a user can quickly easily and intuitively program thermostat 10 for different times and temperatures for each day of the week 0057 Touching REVIEW touch icon 164 automatically steps through the programmed values every five seconds so that the user can see how thermostat 10 is programmed Touching REVIEW while the programmed values are being reviewed stops the review sequence Touch screen LCD 100 will return to the HOME SCREEN 120 a few seconds after the last touch entry or the user can return to the HOME SCREEN 120 by touching HOME touch icon 154 Entered values are stored in a programmable memory see FIG 1 ref num 15 in thermostat 10 0058 FIG 4D is a screen shot of MENU SCREEN 190 of touch screen LCD 100 when thermostat 10 is in MENU mode MENU mode is entered from HOME SCREEN 120 by pressing MENU button 14 MENU SCREEN 190 shows several set up touch icons at one time The set up touch icons include touch icons for setting the
18. een for all the infor mation and programming touch screen LCD 100 changes as the user enters different levels of operation each level being intuitive from the previous level and displaying much more information at each level than is typically provided on a conventional shared display Some icons indicate which mode of operation the thermostat is in For example AWAY indicator icon 102 flashes if thermostat 10 is in AWAY mode and HOLD indicator icon 104 flashes if thermostat 10 is in HOLD mode discussed below in conjunction with FIG 4B Similarly HEAT indicator icon 106 is activated if MODE switch 14 is set to HEAT 106 and COOL indicator icon 108 is activated if MODE switch 14 is set to COOL 108 0043 MODE switch 14 is provided as a slider switch at the bottom of thermostat 10 as is FAN switch 110 Ther mostat 10 is programmed by pressing PROGRAM button 112 and then entering the desired programming information through touch screen LCD 100 discussed below in con junction with FIG 4C Similarly MENU mode is accessed by pressing MENU button 114 discussed below in conjunc tion with FIG 4D Reset button 116 is recessed and resets thermostat 10 to factory default settings when depressed A sharpened pencil or the end of a straightened paper clip is used to depress reset button 116 0044 FIG 4A is a screen shot of HOME SCREEN 120 of touch screen LCD 100 when thermostat 10 is in HOME level HOME level is the level from which
19. emperature on HOME SCREEN 120 which in a particular embodiment has a touch area of about 1 5 inchesx 0 75 inches The remainder of the process is essentially self documented on the large format touch screen LCD by the icons and a user typically does not need to reference collateral documentation such as a user s manual to change from normal operation to a temporary mode and back again In particular activation to or from any temporary mode is achievable from TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 which is only a single level touch entry from HOME SCREEN 120 0053 FIG 4C is a screen shot of PROGRAM SCREEN 160 of touch screen LCD 100 when thermostat 10 is in PROGRAM mode PROGRAM SCREEN 160 shows all the programming functions for a single day and COPY icon 162 and REVIEW icon 164 on one screen The PROGRAM SCREEN enables programming of thermostat 10 that is so intuitive that it is believed most users would not need additional programming instructions HEAT indicator icon 106 when MODE switch 14 is set to HEAT 1067 indicates that the user is programming the heating mode The user can program the cooling mode by switching MODE switch 14 to COOL 108 Dec 9 2004 0054 Values for the thermostat operating program stored in the programmable memory see FIG 1 ref num 15 are entered through touch icons displayed on PROGRAM SCREEN 160 Touch icon areas are indicated on PRO GRAM SCREEN 160 by sets of corner brackets 166 166 Touching day touch ic
20. es a thermostat operating program and a touch screen display that is capable of displaying several different sets of icons The touch screen display initially displays a first set of icons known as the HOME screen A second set of icons is displayed in response to a user touching a touch icon in the first set of icons In an alternative embodiment the user can touch an electo mechanical key The second set of icons include display and touch icons for temporary operation of the Dec 9 2004 thermostat such as when the user wants to maintain a particular temperature or will be away from home for an extended period of time 0008 In one embodiment the second set of icons includes a target temperature icon a first temporary mode touch icon a second temporary mode touch icon and target temperature adjustment touch icons Touching the first tem porary mode touch icon a first time sets the thermostat to maintain a target temperature and touching the first tempo rary mode touch icon a second time sets the thermostat to operate according to the thermostat operating program stored in memory The memory can also store upper and lower set points Touching the second temporary mode touch icon a first time sets the thermostat to maintain a temperature between the upper set point and the lower set point and touching the second temporary mode touch icon a second time sets the thermostat to operate according to the program 0009 In anot
21. f battery 31 drops due to aging or other causes If battery 31 is removed capacitor 40 holds sufficient charge to maintain the program settings in memory 15 for at least one minute When battery 31 is new current from capacitor 40 is not usually required to operate latching relay 16 0027 Low battery detectors that sense voltage often use a battery that produces a relatively high over voltage such as providing a third AA alkaline battery in series to produce 4 5 VDC However such high over voltages can cause thermostat controller 12 to malfunction and in a particular instance causes all fields of the LCD see FIG 3 to turn on Reducing the over voltage to the operating voltage also wastes battery power With low battery detector 38 of thermostat 10 thermostat 10 can operate off of power from diode bridge converter 22 and or triac converter 24 even if battery 31 is omitted However battery 31 must be installed for proper operation of low battery detector 38 0028 With power from diode bridge converter and or triac thermostat controller 12 continues to operate when the battery voltage drops to 2 5 V Low battery detector 38 turns ON when the battery voltage drops to about 2 6 V and basically measures the voltage of battery 31 to ground The internal impedance of the battery increases as the battery voltage decreases The source impedance of power supply 20 is essentially constant The low battery detector 38 will follow the battery v
22. her embodiment a third set of icons includes display and touch icons for programming the thermostat The third set of icons is displayed in response to user entry such as pressing a button The user can program multiple start and stop times and temperatures for various periods of each day and can copy one day s program to the next In a further embodiment a fourth set of icons includes display and touch icons for entering data into the thermostat such as the current time and day The fourth set of icons includes a lock touch icon Touching the lock touch icon locks the program Touching an icon in the third set of icons does not affect the stored operating program The program must be unlocked by touching the lock touch icon in the fourth set of icons a second time Hence locking and unlocking the program is done on a different level i e through a different set of icons rather than entering the thermostat operating program BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0010 FIG 1 is a simplified circuit diagram of a thermo stat according to an embodiment of the present invention 0011 FIG 2A is simplified circuit diagram of the mostat shown in FIG 1 using battery power to control a gas millivolt heating system 0012 FIG 2B is a simplified circuit diagram of thermostat of FIG 1 using power from a diode bridge converter to control a gas or electric heater that has a common wire 0013 FIG 2C is a simplified circ
23. ing program in response to a user touching the lock touch icon a first time so that the thermo Dec 9 2004 stat operating program cannot be changed by touching any one of the third plurality of touch icons and unlocking the thermostat operating program in response to a user touching the lock touch icon a second time so that the thermostat operating program can be changed by touching one of the third plurality of touch icons 13 In a thermostat having a touch screen display and a programmable memory a method of operating the thermo stat comprising operating the thermostat according to a thermostat oper ating program stored in the programmable memory displaying a first set of icons on the touch screen display receiving a first user entry displaying a second set of icons on the touch screen display in response to the first user entry the second set of icons including at least a first temporary mode touch icon a target temperature icon and a second temporary mode touch icon 14 The method of claim 13 wherein receiving the first user entry comprises touching a touch icon in the first set of icons 15 The method of claim 13 further comprising steps of receiving a second user entry indicative of touching the first temporary mode icon operating the thermostat to maintain a target temperature according to the target temperature icon receiving a third user entry indicative of touching the first temporary mode icon a se
24. is coupled to diode bridge converter 22 through capacitor 78 Capacitor 78 is a 0 47 micro Farad non polar capacitor which limits the current supplied to diode bridge converter 22 as discussed in conjunction with capacitor 52 in FIG 2B The 24 VAC is rectified to DC and provided to power supply 20 Thus power is supplied to theromostat controller 12 even when latching relay 16 is OFF or mode switch 14 is OFF or in COOL 0038 Exemplary Touch Screen Display and User Interface 0039 3 is a simplified front view of thermostat 10 Thermostat 10 has a touch screen LCD 100 measuring about 51 mmx95 mm 2 inchesx3 75 inches although this size is merely exemplary and touch screens having other dimen sions have been fabricated for use in thermostats according to other embodiments of the present invention All icons also known as fields of touch screen LCD 100 are shown which looks cluttered however only certain subsets of the icons appear on touch screen LCD 100 at each level mode of operation of thermostat 10 Some of the icons simply display information and touching these icons has no effect US 2004 0245352 Al Other icons are touch icons and touching a touch icon enters user input to the CPU see FIG 1 ref num 11 0040 Displaying only subsets of the icons reduces the amount of information presented to the user at each level ie at any one time The relatively large format of touch screen LCD 100 enables large
25. lay 16 ON and mode switch 14 in HEAT there are essentially zero volts across heating load terminal 28 and heating transformer power terminal 30 However triac converter 24 is in series between heating load terminal 28 and heating transformer power terminal 30 0036 Back to back Zener diodes 70 72 and resistor 74 allow AC voltage to appear across triac 76 for a short portion of the phase without turning on triac 76 Both Zener diodes 70 72 are fifteen volt Zener diodes and resistor 74 is a 4 7 kOhm resistor About 10 of phase delay is produced After this phase delay triac 76 conducts current to operate furnace relay 55 Control of furnace relay 55 by thermostat 10 is not significantly affected by the short phase delay of triac 76 Turning triac 76 on after the phase delay creates small voltage spikes across triac 76 at 120 Hz These 120 Hz voltage spikes are coupled through capacitor 53 to diode bridge converter 22 Diode bridge converter 22 converts the voltage spikes to DC which is provided to power supply 20 About 5 mA of current is provided to power supply 20 which provides regulated 3 VDC to thermostat controller 12 0037 When latching relay 16 is OFF or with mode switch 14 OFF or in COOL there is no current flowing between heating transformer power terminal 30 and heating load terminal 28 for triac converter 24 to use However there is 24 VAC across heating transformer power terminal 30 and heating load terminal 28 which
26. mory wherein a third set of icons is displayed on the touch screen display in response to a user entry the third set of icons including a third plurality of touch icons for entering a thermostat operating program into the program mable memory 7 The thermostat of claim 6 wherein a fourth set of icons is displayed on the touch screen display in response to a second user entry the fourth set of icons including a fourth plurality of touch icons for setting at least a current day and a current time 8 The thermostat of claim 7 wherein the fourth set of icons includes a lock touch icon the lock touch icon locking the thermostat operating program in response to a user touching the lock touch icon a first time so that the thermo stat operating program cannot be changed by touching any one of the third plurality of touch icons and unlocking the thermostat operating program in response to a user touching the lock touch icon a second time so that the thermostat operating program can be changed by touching one of the third plurality of touch icons 9 A thermostat comprising a memory storing a thermostat operating program and storing an upper set point and a lower set point and a touch screen display capable of displaying a plurality of icons a first set of icons being initially displayed on the touch screen display the touch screen display display ing a second set of icons in response to a user touching a touch icon in the first set of ic
27. ng latching relay 16 the heating system turns off 0025 One feature of thermostat 10 is that it can installed as a replacement thermostat on many different heating systems For example a gas millivolt system does not typically have twenty four volts supplied to the thermo stat Thermostat 10 can operate off of battery 31 for these systems Some gas and electric heating systems provide a common wire commonly called the C wire in HVAC systems to the thermostat and thermostat 10 can operate off the 24 VAC between the common terminal 56 and heating transformer power terminal 30 The diode bridge converter 22 converts the 24 VAC to direct current voltage and pro vides it to power supply 20 in these systems In an electric heating system that does not provide a C wire but does have 24 VAC between the heating transformer power terminal 30 Dec 9 2004 and heating load terminal 28 thermostat 10 can operate off power provided from triac converter 24 to diode bridge converter 22 If 24 VAC power is lost thermostat controller 12 can maintain its settings operating program by operat ing off of battery 31 0026 Thermostat controller 12 has a low battery detector 38 that senses the voltage of battery 31 Capacitor 40 across battery 31 provides a low impedance path for transients that might otherwise appear at 3 VDC power input 42 and stores charge to provide additional current for operating latching relay 16 when the voltage o
28. oltage down until the batteries internal impedance is higher than the source impedance of power supply 20 which occurs at a battery voltage of about 2 6 V Then the power supply 20 will keep the voltage from dropping any lower and the low battery detector 38 turns on LOW field on a liquid crystal display LCD see FIG 3 ref num 111 of thermostat 10 Thus the user is alerted to a low battery condition even when thermostat 10 is operating off of AC power If AC power is not available thermostat 10 continues to operate off of battery 31 after low battery detector 38 indicates a low battery condition until the battery voltage drops to about 2 5 V 0029 Systems 0030 FIG 2A is a simplified circuit diagram of thermo stat 10 of FIG 1 using battery power to control a gas millivolt heating system A millivolt unit 32 of a gas millivolt furnace 34 is connected to heating load terminal 28 and heating transformer power terminal 30 of thermostat 10 Millivolt unit 32 is a thermoelectric device that generates a small electric signal about 750 mV from the heat of the pilot light of the gas furnace for operating gas valve 35 of gas millivolt furnace 34 Shorting heating load terminal 28 to heating transformer power terminal 30 of millivolt unit 32 through latching relay 16 which is controlled by thermostat controller 12 and MODE switch 14 turns on gas millivolt Use of Thermostat with Exemplary Heating US 2004
29. on 168 within corner brackets 166 166 steps increments the current day icon to the next day to select the day that the user is programming Similarly touching period of day touch icon 170 within the corner brackets increments the period of day icon to select the period of day the user is programming Four periods of day are available morning MORN day DAY evening EVEN and night NITE see FIG 3 thus thermostat 10 can be programmed to maintain four different tempera tures one for each period of day for each day of the week Alternatively there are more or fewer periods per day such as two periods or six periods 0055 Each day of the week can have the four periods start at different times and each period of each day can be programmed for a different temperature Time touch icon 172 has arrows 124 124 that increase or decrease the time in fifteen minute intervals to program the time the heating program begins for the selected day and period Set tem perature touch icon 178 also has arrows 180 180 that increase or decrease the set point temperature for the day and period of day selected Incrementing the day or period of day automatically enters the time and temperature for the previously selected day or period of day The user can program four different target temperatures each day one for each period of day and the user can program each period of day to start at a different time each day of the w
30. ons the second set of icons including a target temperature icon a first tem porary mode touch icon a second temporary mode touch icon and target temperature adjustment touch icons wherein touching the first temporary mode touch icon a first time sets the thermostat to maintain a target temperature and touching the first temporary mode touch icon a second time sets the thermostat to operate according to the thermostat operating program and wherein touching the second temporary mode touch icon a first time sets the thermostat to maintain a temperature between an upper temperature set point and a lower temperature set point and touching the second temporary mode touch icon a second time sets the thermostat to operate according to the program 10 The thermostat of claim 9 further comprising a programmable memory wherein a third set of icons is displayed on the touch screen display in response to a user entry the third set of icons including a third plurality of touch icons for entering a thermostat operating program into the programmable memory 11 The thermostat of claim 9 wherein a fourth set of icons is displayed on the touch screen display in response to a second user entry the fourth set of icons including a fourth plurality of touch icons for setting at least a current day and a current time 12 The thermostat of claim 11 wherein the fourth set of icons includes a lock touch icon the lock touch icon locking the thermostat operat
31. opriate temperature in the home for pets or plants for example 0049 Touch screen LCD 100 will automatically revert to HOME SCREEN 120 after a few seconds or the user can touch HOME touch icon 154 to return to HOME SCREEN 120 HOLD indicator icon see FIG 3 ref num 104 will flash on HOME SCREEN 120 when thermostat 10 is in HOLD mode To take thermostat 10 out of HOLD mode the user simply touches the current temperature 130 on HOME SCREEN 120 to enter TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 and touches HOLD touch icon 150 a second time 0050 Touching AWAY touch icon 152 on TEMPORARY SCREEN 140 puts thermostat 10 in AWAY mode AWAY US 2004 0245352 Al mode is used when the user will be away for an extended period of time and maintains upper and lower temperature set points that are stored in memory In other words the heater will turn on if the temperature drops below the lower set point and the cooling system will turn on if the tempera ture rises above the upper set point AWAY mode is conve nient for second homes such as ski cabins The upper and lower temperature set points are often set outside the normal comfort range and provide heating or cooling to avoid damage to the home or for other reasons For example a lower set point of 45 will turn on the heating system and avoid water freezing in the home while an upper set point of 85 F will turn the cooling system on to avoid scorching plants The set points for AWAY mode are pre set
32. other levels are accessed Thermostat 10 reverts to HOME level from other levels after a default period e g about 60 seconds or when the HOME icon is touched see FIG 4B ref num 22 Dec 9 2004 0045 In HOME level touch screen LCD 100 displays one of the current day icons 124 Mo current time icon 126 8 15 one of the period of day icons 128 MORN room temperature icon 130 67 which is a touch icon current set point temperature icon 132 70 F a HEAT indicator icon 106 when MODE switch 14 is set to HEAT tone indicator icon 134 and filter indicator icon 136 0046 Filter indicator icon 136 measures the on time of latching relay 16 which indicates that the HVAC system has operated a pre selected number of hours and that it is time to change the air filter of the HVAC system Measuring the on time of latching relay 16 enables the filter indicator feature even for gas heating systems in which the furnace turns on the system fan independently of the thermostat When tone indicator icon 134 is solid it means that thermo stat 10 will beep each time a touch icon is activated touched and when tone indicator icon is crossed out or outlined see FIG 3 ref num 113 the beep will not sound There are three ways to leave HOME level and enter a lower level Touching room temperature icon 130 in HOME SCREEN 120 changes the touch screen LCD 100 to TEM PORARY SCREEN 0047 FIG
33. ugh capacitor 52 dual jumper 36 and capacitor 53 to diode bridge converter 22 Capacitor 52 limits the current available at diode bridge converter 22 without generating the heat that would be generated with a current limiting resistor Using capacitor 52 rather than a resistor as a current limiting device in thermostat 10 is particularly desirable because capacitor 52 and other components are within a housing of thermostat 10 and it is estimated that an equiva lent current limiting resistor would raise the temperature inside the housing 20 F in twenty minutes at an ambient temperature of 70 In a particular embodiment capacitor 52 is a 0 47 micro Farad non polar capacitor Capacitor 53 is a 2 2 micro Farad non polar capacitor 0033 Diode bridge converter 22 draws about 13 mA from the 24 VAC Zener diode 58 clamps the voltage at collector 60 of transistor Q1 at about 5 Volts A voltage divider includes resistor 62 which is 24 kOhms in series with resistor 64 which is 68 kOhms thus the voltage at base 66 of transistor 1 is 3 6 and the voltage at emitter 68 of transistor Q1 is 3 1 0 1 VDC The voltage at emitter 68 is usually slightly higher than the voltage from battery 31 when operating off of C wire 50 power and the output impedance of transistor 1 is higher than the internal impedance of battery 31 When thermostat 10 operates off of power from C wire 50 battery 31 lasts much longer than if thermostat 10 operated only
34. uit diagram of thermostat of FIG 1 using power from a triac converter and a diode bridge converter to control a gas or electric heater that does not have a common wire 0014 FIG 3 is a front view of an exemplary thermostat with a touch screen display 0015 FIG 4A is a screen shot of a first screen of the touch screen display of FIG 3 when the thermostat is in a first level 0016 FIG 4B is a screen shot of a second screen of the touch screen display of FIG 3 when the thermostat is in a second level 0017 FIG 4C is a screen shot of a third screen of the touch screen display of FIG 3 when the thermostat is in a third level US 2004 0245352 Al 0018 FIG 4D is a screen shot of a fourth screen of the touch screen display of FIG 3 when the thermostat is in a fourth level 0019 FIG 5A is a simplified flow chart of a method of operating a thermostat with a touch screen display and a memory according to an embodiment of the present inven tion 0020 FIG 5B 15 a simplified flow chart of a method of operating a thermostat with a touch screen display and a programmable memory according to another embodiment of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 10021 I Exemplary Thermostat Operable from Various Power Sources 0022 FIG 1 is a simplified circuit diagram of thermostat 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention Thermostat 10 includes thermostat controller 12 MODE s
35. witch 14 see also FIG 3 latching relay 16 power supply 20 diode bridge converter 22 triac converter 24 and power source selector 26 Thermostat controller 12 is generally an electronic device that includes a digital central processing unit 13 a programmable memory 15 a read only memory 17 and analog circuitry not separately shown and draws an average of about 50 micro Amps Latching relay 16 and hence thermostat controller 12 draw about 50 mA when latching relay 16 is being switched ON or OFF but only needs this higher current for a short period because latching relay 16 is magnetically latching 0023 In some embodiments thermostat 10 includes a display 19 If the display 19 is a touch screen display see FIG 3 ref num 100 information can be entered from the display 19 to CPU 13 and stored in programmable memory 15 0024 Thermostat 10 can be used with gas oil or electric heating and air conditioning systems single stage heat pumps 2 wire and 3 wire zoned hot water systems or gas millivolt heating systems Thermostat 10 turns a heating system on by shorting heating load terminal 28 commonly called the W terminal in heating venting and air condi tioning HVAC systems to heating transformer power terminal 30 commonly called the Rh terminal in HVAC systems through latching relay 16 When heating load terminal 28 is disconnected from heating transformer power terminal 30 by openi
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search