Panamax Steps up Automation with ZigBee Control, IR Patent

Is Panamax/Furman a power management company or a home-control firm? As it turns out, it’s a little of both.

Recently the company earned a patent for the IR learning and transmission capabilities of its IR Control Link UPS products (below).

At CEDIA Expo 2010, Panamax/Furman will showcase two-way monitoring and control via the ZigBee wireless protocol.

At the show, the forthcoming BlueBolt version 1.2 z power management system will be interacting with ZigBee-enabled electronics.

Already, BlueBolt 1.2, an IP-based monitoring and control platform for select Panamax/Furman power products, allows users to input the energy rates of their specific service location, in order to calculate the energy used by connected devices.

Armed with the knowledge of how much energy their components are wasting, users can then “make informed decisions on how they use their electronics,” according to panama. “They can use this information to set energy budgets for their equipment and receive alerts when their usage is near or exceeding their allotted budget.”

The new ZigBee feature lets consumers and integrators take power savings to the next level.

BlueBolt with ZigBee

Currently, BlueBolt can only communicate with devices that are plugged into compatible power-management products from Panamax and Furman.

BlueBolt 1.2 z with ZigBee, however, will let BlueBolt also monitor and control secondary devices that are plugged into ZigBee adapters -- products such as lights and small appliances that do not require power protection and back-up.

“The products feature two-way communications via the ZigBee protocol to receive commands from the BlueBolt platform and send monitoring data such as outlet status, current consumption, voltage, and watts,” says Furman marketing manager John Benz. “Monitoring information can be viewed over history or in real-time, so you can see how much energy your device is using right now as well as how much it used over, say, the past month. Energy consumption is also calculated in dollars based on user-defined utility rates.”

Monster Cable and other power-management suppliers have promised ZigBee-enabled power management product for years, but such products have yet to materialize.

Benz tells CE Pro, “We've seen some start-ups promising similar devices but we're pretty far along in that our software platform is already online and we have products shipping and communicating through it already.”

According to Benz, the Panamax/Furman ZigBee hardware is prototyped and currently communicating with the BlueBolt platform. BlueBolt IP-management technology is available in select UPS and power-management products from Panamax and Furman.

At CEDIA Expo 2010, Panamax/Furman will be controlling the ZigBee devices from a desktop computer as well as an iPad.

Panamax Patents IR Learning/Control for Operating Projectors via UPS

A new IR learning and control patent has been issued to a most unusual category of products: the uninterruptible power supply.

In July, Panamax was awarded a patent for technology that turns on the fan of a projector, but not the energy-hogging lamp, in the event of a power outage.

Patent No. 7,755,216, entitled "Uninterrupted Power Supply With IR Control Link," covers the learning IR control feature in Panamax’s uninterrupted power supply (UPS) products.

The patent abstract is fairly straight-forward, as far as patents go:

A Universal Power Supply (UPS) protects audio/visual (A/V) components from damage that may occur due to a sudden power loss by first, providing back up power via a battery, and then initiating the normal, that is powered, shut down of the protected component via an infrared control signal. The infrared control signal is learned from the A/V components [sic] remote control unit.

It isn’t clear how the Panamax technology differs from other IR-learning technologies on the market.

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Panamax's IR Control Link learns IR codes from a manufacturer's remote, and transmits the appropriate codes to power on projector fans in the event of a power outage.

Even so, the company’s IR Control Link, employed in Panamax/Furman’s MB1500, M1000, MX5102, and F1500 UPS products, is a handy feature for extending the life of video projectors.

Typically, projectors automatically cool bulbs with a built-in fan, which may run for eight to 10 minutes after the projector has been switched off. However, in the event of a power blackout, the high-power projector lamp will drain the UPS batteries quickly and lose power while the lamp is still hot.

In this case, the user learns the projector’s IR codes into the Panamax/Furman product in a manner typical of other IR learning devices. During a power outage, the UPS issues the appropriate IR codes to the projector to put it into a low-power, cool-down mode.

The patent summarizes the invention as follows:

In achieving the present invention, the inventor came to appreciate that while A/V equipment frequently lacks any or a universal electronic communication means to interface with a UPS, most A/V equipment comes equipped with a remote control system. This led to the realization that it should be possible to meet the unfulfilled needs of providing UPS technology to A/V systems by utilizing the remote control system as the interface between the UPS and the protected equipment. It further became apparent that although such remote control systems utilize proprietary infrared (IR) signal to communicate between the device and the controller, the recording, learning and mimicking of these signal could provide a practical control means if integrated into the functionality of the UPS device.

Therefore the first object of the invention has been achieved by providing a UPS device that comprises a battery, a power input port, a power output port, IR signal output port, IR signal input port, means to learn a signal pattern received at the IR input port, and means to send the learned IR signal via the output port in response to a loss in power at the power input port.

A second aspect of the invention is characterized in the UPS device includes means to send the learned signal via the output port in response to a low battery in the UPS.