JP3726458B2 - Lighting device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an illumination device, and more particularly to an illumination device that continuously changes the brightness of a fluorescent lamp.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, as a lighting device that continuously changes the brightness of a fluorescent lamp, a ballast with a built-in fixture controls the light output of the fluorescent lamp in response to a change in on-duty of a control signal, that is, duty control ( FIG. 9 shows a block configuration diagram of an example.
[0003]
This system includes an operating device 1, a dimmer 2 that receives an analog signal from the operating device 1 and outputs a duty signal, and a dimming device that receives the duty signal from the dimmer 2 and changes the light output of the fluorescent lamp 5. A light ballast (hereinafter referred to as a ballast) 3 and an inverter device 6 including a ballast 3 and a fluorescent lamp 5 are included. Reference numeral 4 denotes a power line. Moreover, the enlarged view of the operation device 1 is also shown collectively. Then, by manipulating the operation amount of the operation device 1 such as the knob, the analog signal output from the operation device 1 changes, the duty signal output from the dimmer 2 changes, and the fluorescent lamp 5 The light output changes.
[0004]
A specific circuit diagram of the dimmer 2 is shown in FIG. 10, and its operation waveform diagram is shown in FIG.
This circuit includes an oscillator 13 that oscillates a triangular wave, a comparator 8 that compares and outputs an analog signal input from the operating unit 1 and a triangular wave voltage output from the oscillator 13, and an output of the comparator 8 that amplifies the duty signal. And an oscillator 13, a comparator 8, and a power source 7 b for each of the amplifiers 10. Then, as shown in FIG. 11, the analog signal is compared with the triangular wave voltage, and a duty signal that is at a low level if the analog signal is larger and a high level if the analog signal is smaller is output. FIG. 12 shows an example of the duty signal.
[0005]
The lighting device that performs such duty control is designed so that the light output becomes larger as the duty ratio is smaller so that it is not extinguished by turning off when the signal line is broken, that is, the minimum on-duty ratio. Or it turns on 100% when it is disconnected and turns off at the maximum on-duty ratio. For this reason, when viewed from the operating device 1 side, as shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, the optical output is designed to increase as the operating device operation amount increases. The output characteristics of the ballast vary depending on the application. For example, even when the same signal is given, if the type of fluorescent lamp is different, as shown in FIGS. 14 (a) and 14 (b), The light output characteristics of fluorescent lamps are significantly different. Here, FIGS. 13 (a) and 14 (a) show the on-duty ratio and the amount of operation of the operating device in the case of a 32 W fluorescent lamp designed for energy saving and not requiring a fine brightness change in a high illuminance range. FIG. 13 (b) and FIG. 14 (b) show the on-duty ratio and the operation unit in the case of a 40W fluorescent lamp that is considered to be able to use the change in light for production and the like. The change of the light output with respect to the change of the operation amount is shown.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above conventional example, the following first problem occurs.
[0007]
When the 32 W fluorescent lamp and the 40 W fluorescent lamp as described above are used at the same time due to various circumstances such as the size and cost of the instrument, as shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. Since the change characteristics of the light output with respect to the operation amount of the operation device are different, as shown in FIG. 15, separate dedicated dimmers 2a and 2b must be prepared for the 32W fluorescent lamp and the 40W fluorescent lamp, Will become larger.
[0008]
In addition, the second problem as described below also occurs.
When a fluorescent lamp with a thin lamp tube is used, it is difficult for the ballast to control the discharge to illuminate darkly. Unstable operation may occur, such as the end of the light shining. Further, in the area for lighting darkly, even if the same signal is given, the variation in operation increases depending on the ballast.
[0009]
As a means for solving the second problem, although the ballast can be stopped and turned off at a duty ratio of 100%, the maximum duty ratio is set slightly smaller (for example, 80%) and the duty ratio is set. Exceeds a set value (for example, 80%), there is a remote control breaker forcibly turning off both the power supply and the duty signal.
[0010]
However, with such a means, particularly in the case of multiple roads, there is a loud opening / closing sound when the remote control breaker is turned off, and electromagnetic noise is generated because power is disconnected at once with a contact point. This will cause problems.
[0011]
The present invention has been made in view of all the above-mentioned problems. The object of the present invention is to control a lighting fixture having a ballast having different light output characteristics with respect to a duty signal with a common dimmer. There is provided an illumination device capable of dimming without causing an unstable operation such as flashing.
[0013]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem , according to the invention described in claim 1, a plurality of luminaires having different characteristics and a voltage converter for converting a linear voltage signal change nonlinearly are provided. A dimmer that outputs a duty signal, and a signal conversion unit that separates the stepped duty signal according to the voltage level and supplies a different duty signal to each of the lighting fixtures.
[0014]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the stepped duty signal is obtained by adding a voltage amplification of a duty signal having a small duty ratio to a duty signal having a large duty ratio.
[0015]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the dimmer changes the duty ratio of the duty signal in a discontinuous manner and outputs it.
[0016]
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the luminaire includes a fluorescent lamp and a ballast that receives a duty signal and supplies power to the fluorescent lamp.
[0017]
Embodiment
First, an example proposed by the inventors having a basic part of the present invention will be described based on the main part block configuration diagram shown in FIG.
[0018]
This block configuration shows a block configuration of the dimmer, and a voltage converter 21 that converts an analog voltage input signal (hereinafter referred to as an original signal) from the controller 1, a triangular wave oscillator 22, and a voltage conversion A comparator 23 for comparing and outputting the output voltages of the controller 21 and the triangular wave oscillator 22, and a comparator 24 for comparing and outputting the original signal from the controller 1 and the output voltage of the triangular wave oscillator 22.
[0019]
With this configuration, the dimmer can always simultaneously output duty signals having different characteristics from each of the comparators 23 and 24. A specific circuit example of the voltage converter 21 is shown in FIG. The voltage converter 21 includes resistors R1, R2, and R3, diodes D1 and D2, two operational amplifiers, and a voltage dividing resistor that can obtain the voltages Vbo and Vao.
[0020]
Thereafter, an on-duty signal suitable for a 32 W fluorescent lamp as shown in FIGS. 13A and 14A is obtained from the comparator 24. From the comparator 23, FIGS. 13B and 14B are obtained. The operation will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 3, taking as an example a case where an on-duty signal suitable for a 40 W fluorescent lamp as shown in b) is obtained.
[0021]
When the voltage value Vi of the original signal from the operating device 1 reaches the reference voltage Va, the diode D1 becomes conductive, and the output voltage Vo to the comparator 23 becomes Vao + Vf. When the voltage value Vi of the original signal from the operation device 1 reaches the reference voltage Vb (> Va), the diode D2 becomes conductive, and the output voltage Vo to the comparator 23 becomes Vbo + Vf (> Vao + Vf). That is, the rate of change of the output voltage Vo with respect to the voltage value Vi decreases with Vi = Va as a boundary, and further decreases with Vi = Vb as a boundary. By repeating such an operation, the light output characteristics as shown in FIGS. 13A and 14A are changed to the light output characteristics as shown in FIGS. 13B and 14B. Conversion compensation can be performed, and from one analog signal, an on-duty signal suitable for a 32 W fluorescent lamp as shown in FIGS. 13 (a) and 14 (a), and FIGS. 13 (b) and 14 (b) The on-duty signal suitable for a 40 W fluorescent lamp can be obtained.
[0022]
Furthermore, the on-duty signal for either 32 W fluorescent lamp or 40 W fluorescent lamp is converted and compensated as shown in FIG. 3, so that the duty ratio is higher than that of the conventional example, although the voltage value Vi increases. Therefore, even if the voltage value Vi increases, a sufficient light output can be obtained without causing an unstable operation such as generation of flash.
[0023]
However, in this block configuration, since the output signal of the dimmer is two systems, it is necessary to provide signal lines to lighting fixtures having different characteristics, and various problems are expected. Accordingly, the present invention has been made, and embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[0024]
(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the main part of the first embodiment according to the present invention.
The difference from the proposed example shown in FIG. 1 is that a booster 25 that boosts the output voltage of the comparator 23 and an adder 26 that adds the output voltages of the comparator 24 and the booster 25 are provided. That is, only one system is used for the output signal, and the same components as those in the other proposed examples are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted.
[0025]
The operation will be briefly described below.
The dimmer 2c generates two types of duty signals as shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b), and one of the two types of duty signals (here, the duty signal shown in FIG. 5 (a)). ) And the output voltages of the comparator 24 and the booster 25 are added to output a stepped duty signal as shown in FIG. And in the signal converter 30 provided in the front | former stage of one lighting fixture (here 32W light control lighting fixture 6b) as shown in FIG. 6, it is a high voltage of the output signals of the light control device 2c. These signals are separated, subjected to step-down correction through the comparator 8 and the step-down device 9, and supplied to the 32 W dimming lighting fixture 6 b through the amplifier 10. Here, the comparator 8 can obtain a comparison output between the reference voltage value 7 set to a value lower than the value boosted by the booster 25 in the dimmer 2c and the output signal of the dimmer 2c. The step-down converter 9 performs step-down correction to the voltage value input to the step-up circuit 25 in the dimmer 2c.
[0026]
In the other lighting fixture (here, 40W dimming lighting fixture 6a), since the duty signal is once smoothed in the fixture and used for lamp control, a stepped duty signal is sent from the dimmer 2c. Can be used without any problem as a dimming signal as long as the ON period of the duty signal changes according to a predetermined characteristic. That is, if the boost ratio by the booster 25 is selected so as not to greatly affect the effective voltage value of the duty signal, it can be input to the 40W dimming lighting fixture 6a without the need to correct the stepped duty signal.
[0027]
With the above configuration, an on-duty signal suitable for a 32 W fluorescent lamp as shown in FIGS. 13A and 14A, and FIGS. 13B and 14 can be obtained from one analog signal. An on-duty signal suitable for a 40 W fluorescent lamp as shown in (b) can be obtained. Further, the output signal of the dimmer can be only one system.
[0028]
(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of the main part of the second embodiment according to the present invention.
[0029]
In the present embodiment, a circuit composed of a comparator 31, a comparator 32, a reference voltage circuit V1, transistors Q1, Q2 and the like is newly added to the dimmer of the first embodiment . (Some components are not shown) The operation will be briefly described below.
[0030]
When the operation amount of the operating device 1 is small, that is, when the output of the analog signal is equal to or lower than the reference voltage V1, the comparator 31 turns off the transistor Q1. When the transistor Q1 is turned off, the input from the analog signal is cut off, so that the voltage compared with the triangular wave from the triangular wave oscillator 22 by the comparator 32 is sufficiently low, that is, the triangular wave from the triangular wave oscillator 22 is compared. Since it becomes higher than the output voltage from the side of the device 31, the maximum duty value is output and the illumination load is turned off. When the output of the analog signal exceeds the reference voltage V1, the comparator 31 turns on the transistor Q1. When the transistor Q1 is turned on, the comparator 32 compares the triangular wave from the triangular wave oscillator 22 with the analog signal and outputs a predetermined duty signal. Here, if the scale of the operating device 1 is from 0 to 10, the scale corresponding to the reference voltage V1 is set to 1.5. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the duty signal output from the dimmer is not continuously output from the maximum value, and the scale of the operating device 1 is continuously output from 1.5 to 10. It becomes.
[0031]
By configuring as described above, even if the scale of the operation device 1 is continuously operated, the light output of the lighting fixture rises only from the minimum value that can be stably output, and the occurrence of unstable operation is reduced. In addition, since the light output of the lighting fixture does not rise in a region where the variation due to the fixture is large, the variation due to the fixture can be reduced.
[0032]
The transistor Q2 is preferably a transistor capable of performing current amplification of the duty signal so that a plurality of instruments can be controlled simultaneously. Further, instead of obtaining the light output characteristics shown in FIG. 8 by providing the reference voltage V1 as in the present embodiment, a means for storing in advance as ROM data may be used.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
According to invention of Claim 1 and Claim 2 , the illuminating device which can control the lighting fixture which has a ballast with which the light output characteristic with respect to a duty signal differs with the common light control device which made the output signal only one system | strain. Can be provided.
[0034]
According to the invention described in claim 3 , in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 1, it is possible to provide a lighting device capable of dimming without causing an unstable operation such as generation of flash.
[0035]
According to invention of Claim 4 , in addition to the effect of invention of Claim 1, the illuminating device which can light a fluorescent lamp stably can be provided.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a main part of a proposed example according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows an example of a specific circuit diagram of the voltage converter 21 according to the proposed example .
FIG. 3 is a characteristic diagram showing on-duty signal conversion compensation according to the proposed example .
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a main part of the first embodiment according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram of an on-duty signal according to the first embodiment .
6 shows an example of a block diagram according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a main part of a second embodiment according to the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a characteristic diagram showing a change in on-duty ratio with respect to a change in operating device operation amount according to the second embodiment .
FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of a conventional example according to the present invention.
FIG. 10 shows a specific circuit diagram of the dimmer 2 according to the conventional example.
FIG. 11 shows an operation waveform diagram of the dimmer 2 according to the conventional example.
FIG. 12 is a waveform diagram showing an example of a duty signal according to the present invention.
FIG. 13 is a characteristic diagram showing a change in light output with respect to a change in operation amount of the operation device according to the conventional example.
FIG. 14 is a characteristic diagram showing a change in light output with respect to a change in on-duty ratio according to the conventional example.
FIG. 15 shows another block configuration diagram according to the conventional example.
[Explanation of symbols]
2 dimmer 3 ballast 5 fluorescent lamp 6 lighting fixture 21 voltage converter

Claims (4)

A plurality of lighting fixtures having different characteristics, a dimmer having a voltage converter for converting a linear voltage signal change nonlinearly and outputting a stepped duty signal, and the stepped duty signal at a voltage level And a signal conversion means for supplying a different duty signal to each of the lighting fixtures. 2. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the stepped duty signal is obtained by adding a voltage signal obtained by amplifying a duty signal having a small duty ratio to a duty signal having a large duty ratio. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the dimmer changes a duty ratio of the duty signal in a discontinuous manner and outputs the duty signal. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the lighting fixture includes a fluorescent lamp and a ballast that receives the duty signal and supplies power to the fluorescent lamp.

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