YouTube



 
 

=> banish the night with a flick of the wrist.
=> turn on/off outdoor LED lights with a flashlight.  
=> lamp batteries draw power only as needed.  
=> lamps can provide full, useful illumination (unlike landscape  
      lighting).
=> the lamps respond only to invisible information encoded in the  
      flashlight.
=> no false-tripping -- the bane of motion detectors.  
=> useful any place without AC power: detached patio, car port, rural  
      livestock pens, even inside unpowered buildings.
=> lamps can be solar powered -- a four-inch square cell provides  
      60 Watts equivalent power for an hour each night.
=> flashlights and lamps can be sold as sets, and individual units  
      offered at a higher margin. Once deployed, expansion of lamp
      coverage becomes a natural progression (more units sold).
=> patent protection guarantees an exclusive market.  
 
 


      Information encoded in the light of a flashlight controls outdoor battery-powered LED lamps. The lamps can be mounted for best coverage, without regard to further access. More importantly, the light output, and proportionally the current, can be designed for maximum operation, since the remote control allows battery draw only as needed.
      The lamps could host photo-electric cells and rechargeable batteries, and, since the lamp is activated under control, one day's charge (e.g., 4 watt-hours) could provide bright, ample illumination as needed (versus existing solar lighting, which must be kept substantially dim in order to operate continuously).
      Although motion sensors might be considered as an alternative, they are notorious for false-tripping outdoors, and, since the design delivers full current while operating, the battery's charge would be vulnerable. As detailed in the attached documentation, the LED lamps respond only to the companion flashlight. Also, flashlight control provides an easy means to both activate and de-activate the lights individually as needed.
      The invention is equally appropriate for use in outlying buildings. Substantial battery packs such as C or D cells could offer many weeks of operation, but, perhaps more intriguing, a small solar panel could be laid on the roof, and a feed wire led inside to multiple lamps hung from beams. A one-foot square panel charging for six hours a day would provide power for three 60-watt equivalent lamps (7 watts of LED output) for approximately two hours.
      Lamps and flashlights would presumably be initially sold as sets, but replacement-or extra-flashlights could be sold separately, thanks to the inventive ability for lamps and flashlights to be "trained" to operate together.
 
 

ELAI Prototype

      I've demonstrated operation at eighty feet with this prototye set. I laid the evolved circuit down on PCB, as shown to the right. The IC on the left side of the lamp controller is a quad op amp, used for filtering, amplifiying, and detecting the received converted signal. The IC on the right is a very low-cost PIC computer, followed by a heavy-duty LED drive transistor. The light sensor shown underneath is an integrated light-to-voltage converter, and can be either mounted directly on the lamp controller PCB, or (as I've done in my converted lamps) wired and located separately.
      The flashlight controller is actually the right half of the lamp controller that I simply cut away. At this size, it fits directly into the barrel of my modified flashlights.
      For both my modified lamps and flashlights, I simply broke the connection between the batteries and the LEDs, and inserted the appropriated controller in between (the batteries drive the controller board, and the controller board then drives the LEDs).
      At quantities of 1,000, the manufacturing cost for the prototype circuit (assembled and tested) is $2.26.