Appleton Grp LLC

Systems and methods of monitoring the health of an emergency power source for a luminaire node that is a node of a wireless mesh network utilized by a process control system include: utilizing, by the luminaire node, mains power to (i) route process control messages utilized by the process control system via the wireless network to thereby control an industrial process, and (ii) energize an illumination source of the luminaire node and/or maintain communications with another luminaire; storing, by the luminaire node, energy in an energy storage device configured to perform these functions during a loss of mains power; monitoring, by the luminaire node, the energy storage device to determine a health status associated with the energy storage device; and sending, by the luminaire node, an indication of the health status associated with the energy storage device via the wireless mesh network utilized by the process control system.

An intrinsically safe (IS) luminaire disposed in a hazardous environment provides visible light and serves as a primary, auxiliary, back-up, and/or charging source of IS DC power for external devices disposed in the hazardous environment, such as process control devices and equipment. The luminaire includes a power converter that converts received power into DC power, an IS barrier that converts the DC power into IS DC power native to or utilized by a recipient external device, and a power distribution port via which IS DC power is delivered to the external device. In some configurations, the luminaire monitors communicates statuses, alerts, and/or other information corresponding to delivering IS DC power to one or more external devices to a host and/or portable communication device. The luminaire may include multiple IS barriers of same and/or different IS ratings, and may dynamically control activation/deactivation of the IS barriers and/or usages thereof.

Luminaires provide illumination (in some cases, in a coordinated manner with other nodes of a luminaire network) in an industrial process plant and may include one or more environmental sensors to detect various environmental (e.g., ambient) conditions within the process plant. The luminaires may be dimmable, and may be configured to sample light intensity of light provided by the luminaires (e.g., by detecting a dimmer a setting or by actively sensing the light). The luminaires may transmit the sampled light intensities to luminaire manager device(s). The luminaire manager device(s) may calculate energy usage and/or energy savings. The luminaire manager device(s) may generate reports regarding the energy usage and/or energy savings. The luminaire manager device(s) may implement control of the luminaires based on the energy usage and/or energy savings (e.g., to drive energy usage down to a desired level).

Systems and methods of monitoring the health of an emergency power source for a luminaire node that is a node of a wireless mesh network utilized by a process control system include: utilizing, by the luminaire node, mains power to (i) route process control messages utilized by the process control system via the wireless network to thereby control an industrial process, and (ii) energize an illumination source of the luminaire node and/or maintain communications with another luminaire; storing, by the luminaire node, energy in an energy storage device configured to perform these functions during a loss of mains power; monitoring, by the luminaire node, the energy storage device to determine a health status associated with the energy storage device; and sending, by the luminaire node, an indication of the health status associated with the energy storage device via the wireless mesh network utilized by the process control system.

A luminaire which provides illumination (in some cases, in a coordinated manner with other nodes of a lighting network) in an industrial environment is further configured to serve as a node of a wireless process control or industrial network, which may be a mesh and/or time-synchronized wireless network. Upon detecting a loss of mains power and/or other triggering condition, the luminaire node allocates an amount of available battery power to maintain the routing of process control messages, and allocates at least some of a remaining amount of available battery power (if any) for performing lighting activities such as driving illumination and/or lighting-related communications. The allocations for (e.g., the relative priorities of) support for process control and support for lighting activities may be based on an allocation configuration and/or based on instructions received from other components of the process control network and/or the lighting network, which may include user interface devices.

Luminaires provide illumination (in some cases, in a coordinated manner with other nodes of a luminaire network) in an industrial process plant and may include one or more environmental sensors to detect various environmental (e.g., ambient) conditions within the process plant. The luminaires may be dimmable, and may be configured to sample light intensity of light provided by the luminaires (e.g., by detecting a dimmer a setting or by actively sensing the light). The luminaires may transmit the sampled light intensities to luminaire manager device(s). The luminaire manager device(s) may calculate energy usage and/or energy savings. The luminaire manager device(s) may generate reports regarding the energy usage and/or energy savings. The luminaire manager device(s) may implement control of the luminaires based on the energy usage and/or energy savings (e.g., to drive energy usage down to a desired level).

A luminaire which provides illumination (in some cases, in a coordinated manner with other nodes of a lighting network) in an industrial environment is further configured to serve as a node of a wireless process control or industrial network, which may be a mesh and/or time-synchronized wireless network. Upon detecting a loss of mains power and/or other triggering condition, the luminaire node allocates an amount of available battery power to maintain the routing of process control messages, and allocates at least some of a remaining amount of available battery power (if any) for performing lighting activities such as driving illumination and/or lighting-related communications. The allocations for (e.g., the relative priorities of) support for process control and support for lighting activities may be based on an allocation configuration and/or based on instructions received from other components of the process control network and/or the lighting network, which may include user interface devices.

An intrinsically safe (IS) luminaire disposed in a hazardous environment provides visible light and serves as a primary, auxiliary, back-up, and/or charging source of IS DC power for external devices disposed in the hazardous environment, such as process control devices and equipment. The luminaire includes a power converter that converts received power into DC power, an IS barrier that converts the DC power into IS DC power native to or utilized by a recipient external device, and a power distribution port via which IS DC power is delivered to the external device. In some configurations, the luminaire monitors communicates statuses, alerts, and/or other information corresponding to delivering IS DC power to one or more external devices to a host and/or portable communication device. The luminaire may include multiple IS barriers of same and/or different IS ratings, and may dynamically control activation/deactivation of the IS barriers and/or usages thereof.

An intrinsically safe (IS) luminaire disposed in a hazardous environment provides visible light and serves as a primary, auxiliary, back-up, and/or charging source of IS DC power for external devices disposed in the hazardous environment, such as process control devices and equipment. The luminaire includes a power converter that converts received power into DC power, an IS barrier that converts the DC power into IS DC power native to or utilized by a recipient external device, and a power distribution port via which IS DC power is delivered to the external device. In some configurations, the luminaire monitors communicates statuses, alerts, and/or other information corresponding to delivering IS DC power to one or more external devices to a host and/or portable communication device. The luminaire may include multiple IS barriers of same and/or different IS ratings, and may dynamically control activation/deactivation of the IS barriers and/or usages thereof.

Luminaires which provide illumination (in some cases, in a coordinated manner with other nodes of a lighting network) in an industrial process plant include one or more environmental sensors to detect various environmental (e.g., ambient) conditions within the process plant. The luminaires transmit signals indicative of detected conditions (and optionally, respective measurements thereof) to a computing device or host which indicates, on a representation or map of a physical layout of the process plant, the respective detections at respective map locations corresponding to respective locations of the luminaires at the process plant to thereby generate an environmental condition map. The environmental condition map may be dynamically updated responsive to additional luminaire signals, utilized by a process control system to generate alarms, alerts, etc., and/or presented on user interfaces of the process control system and/or of the lighting network.