AU718063B2 - Disabled sliding door controller - Google Patents

Description

W

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT Name of Applicant: Address of Applicant: Actual Inventor: GARDEN STATE PTY LTD 22 Casuarina Way, Wanneroo 6045, Western Australia, Australia RUDOLF VAN SAMBEECK 99 9.

9 9999 9 9 .9 9. 9 9 9 9.9 9 .9 9 9.

Address for S Clinton Giraudo, Patent and Trade 5Mark Atterncy, P9 Box 265, eottesloe 01,Western Australia AuIstralia- EG S22.10(2) 1-b sr Standard Co ete Sp ification for the invention entitled: DISABLED G DOOR CONTROLLER Details of Associated Provisional Applications:AD ReS FOR SERVICE PM6528 lodged on June 28, 1994 ALE 'Details of Parent Application for Divisional Applications: The following is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us:-

TITLE

Disabled Sliding Door Controller FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a sliding door controller particularly, although not exclusively, envisaged for use in controlling a sliding door such as in a house, particularly for use by people who are disabled or otherwise have a physical handicap.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the field of sliding door controllers it is known to provide an automatic sliding door controller to open a sliding door automatically upon the approach of a person and then to close the doors after a predetermined period of time. A disadvantage of such sliding door controllers is that they are relatively large, complex and *expensive and so are not suited to installation in houses. Also, they are generally °not suited to access for disabled people since the predetermined time for closing 15 of the sliding door is generally insufficient for slow moving disabled people.

o Further, existing sliding door controllers rely upon the inertia of the sliding door in

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;completing the opening and closing cycles of the door. This has the disadvantage that the closing force can vary with the position from which the sliding door commences to move, for example if the sliding door is partly open or partly closed 20 when the sliding door controller is actuated. The inventor has found that this can be achieved by ensuring that the sliding door is driven to a position close to the ;open or closed position, then stopped and then driven home. This has the effect of removing the inertia which otherwise influences the speed of opening and closing depending upon the actual starting position of the sliding door.

In order to be suited to operation in houses a sliding door controller suitable for use by disabled persons needs to allow the sliding door to manually operable in Saddition to being operable by the disabled sliding door controller. Also, the P0 -7 4 disabled sliding door controller needs to be able to allow the door to be left open and to be able to open and close the door when it is both partially open or closed.

Another problem of existing sliding door controllers if that they generally continue to apply force to close the sliding door until it reaches a final limit switch (or otherwise registers the completion of the closing cycle of the sliding door) and continues to increase the force applied to the sliding door until the limit switch is tripped. The closing force applied by the motor to the sliding door is typically much greater than 110Nm and accordingly, it is generally not possible for a person to manually open a sliding door which is coupled to a prior art sliding door controller. This is particularly undesirable in the event to loss of power to the sliding door and especially in the event of fire.

A further problem of existing sliding door controllers if that the manual actuators which they rely upon for their triggering require a significant amount of force to operate, for example, lift door manual actuator switches. This can be overcome by the use of touch sensitive switches, however such switches often rely upon coupling to impressed mains frequency voltage present in the body of a person touching the actuator for the operation of the actuator.

A further problem of prior art sliding door controller is that they do not function when there is no mains power. It is known to provide battery backup to the 20 operation of the sliding door controller. However, such battery backup relies upon the use of voltage inverters to provide ac power to continue to operate the sliding door when the mains supply has ceased. Accordingly, such sliding door controllers can operate the sliding doors only for a relatively short amount of time, in some cases typically only long enough to open or partly open the sliding door.

*25 DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a disabled sliding door Scontroller suitable for use by disabled persons in domestic situations.

-4- Throughout this specification, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

In accordance with the invention there is provided a sliding door controller for use in opening and closing a sliding door between an open position and a closed position, the sliding door controller comprising: a motor coupled to the sliding door for opening and closing the sliding door; control means operatively associated with the motor for controlling the operation of the motor for opening and closing the sliding door, the control means limiting the amount of torque applied by the motor to an amount which can generally be overcome by a human, and the control means ceasing application of torque by the motor after a predetermined period of time; and actuator means in operative association with the control means for actuating the control means for controlling opening and closing of the sliding door.

With such an arrangement, in the event that the sliding door is stalled in a part open or part closed position due to an obstacle such as a person negotiating the doorway, discontinuance of the torque after a predetermined period of time will result in the person not being trapped by the door. Thus, in the event that the *e 20 sliding door is stalled in a part open or part closed position, after the *e predetermined time the drive will cease and the door will remain partially open. In S..addition, the torque being applied to the sliding door for a limited period of time avoids damage in the event of jamming of the sliding door. Further, the sliding eo door controller operates the sliding door with a torque which can be overcome by 25 a person.

Preferably, within said predetermined period of time said the control means controls the motor to drive the sliding door between the open position and the closed position and substantially stops the sliding door before it reaches the open position or the closed position for removing the inertia from the sliding door, and then drives the sliding door to the open position or the closed position. With such an arrangement, the inertia is removed from the door before it fully opens or closes.

Preferably said control means receives signals from switches located at a position to sense the position of said sliding door from which braking is to commence.

Preferably said predetermined amount of torque is less than about 11 ONm.

Preferably said predetermined amount of torque is less than about Preferably said predetermined period of time is from 10 to 15 seconds.

Preferably said motor is a dc motor, said dc motor being powered by a battery, said control means also being battery operated, wherein, the control means can control means can control the dc motor to drive the sliding door between the open position and the closed position even when mains power is absent.

Preferably said actuator includes a touch plate electrically isolated from ground potential; an oscillator operating at a frequency which is greater than mains oo frequency, the oscillator being electrically connected to the touch plate, the 15 electrical connection including means to block dc and mains frequency signals; S.and an output electrically connected to the touch switch, the electrical connection including means to block dc and mains frequency signals; wherein, a signal from the oscillator can pass through the blocking means and the touch plate to produce an active signal at the output and wherein a person touching the touch plate prevents the signal from the oscillator from causing an active signal at the output.

.9 9 9o Such an arrangement provides a sliding door controller which has an actuator which is touch sensitive but which does not rely upon impressed mains frequency voltage present in the body of a person pressing the touch plate, for its operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS i 25 \exemplary embodiment of the present invention will now be described with V. frence to the accompanying drawings in which: -6- Figure 1 is a circuit diagram of a disabled sliding door controller in accordance with the present invention; Figure 2 is a timing diagram for the disabled sliding door controller of Figure 1 and; Figure 3 is a circuit diagram of an actuator in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S) In the Figure 1 there is shown a disabled sliding door controller 10 comprising a motor 12, an actuator 14 and a controller circuit 16.

The motor 12 is typically a 12 volt dc motor capable of rotating its output shaft in clockwise and anticlockwise directions. The motor is coupled to the sliding door directly, without the use of gearboxes. This is preferred so that the sliding door can be manually slid between the open and closed positions without the drag inherent with gearboxes.

15 The actuator 14 is typically a momentary contact switch. However, it is envisaged that the actuator 14 could be a remote control transceiver and a person wishing to control the sliding door operates the transceiver.

S

The controller circuit 16 comprises a differentiator 20, a flip flop 22, an abrupt braking circuit 24, speed control circuit 26, a pulse width modulator 28, a forward motor control relay 30, a reverse motor control relay 32 and a power supply 34.

The differentiator is coupled to the actuator 14 and produces an actuator pulse

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(see waveform 3 in Figure 2) at a clock input 40 of the flip flop 22 (which is of the D type). The Q and not Q outputs of the flip flop 22 are connected to the forward motor control relay 30 and the reverse motor control relay 32 respectively. The Q and not Q outputs control contact 30a and 32a of the relay 30 and 32 for reversing the flow of electrical power through the motor 12. The flip flop 22 has a data input 42 which is driven from the not Q output via a resistor 14 and a capacitor C2 to -provide a delay and reset at the data input 42.

-7- The Q and not Q outputs are also connected to the abrupt braking circuit 24 at transistors 50 and 52 which are associated with brake limit speed switches 54 and 56 respectively. The limit switch 54 and 56 are located along a frame which carries the door and are located at a position at which braking of the door is to commence. The switch 54 is located towards to open side of the door frame and the switch 56 is located towards the closed side of the door frame. The emitters of the transistors 50 and 52 are connected to the limit switches 54 and 56, respectively. The collectors of the transistors 50 and 52 are connected to an inverter 58 via resistor R15 and isolating diode D17. The operation of the transistors 50 and 52 is subject to the Q and not Q output signals form the flip flop 22. When the limit switch 54 is closed and the Q output is high (that is the sliding door is approaching the open side of the frame) the transistor 50 is able to conduct which produces a low signal at the input to the inverter 58. Similarly, when the limit switch 56 is closed and the not Q output is high (that is the sliding door is approaching the closed side of the door frame) the transistor 52 is able to conduct which produces a low signal at the input to the inverter 58. Under any other combination of the signal levels of the outputs Q and not Q and the closure S'of the switches 54 and 56 the input of the inverter 58 is unaffected.

The inverter 58 is also connected to the clock input 40 of the flip flop 22 via a 20 diode D16 and a resistor R33. Hence the signal at the input to the inverter 58 is initially set by the signal at the clock input 40 of the flip flop 22.

Also connected to the inverter 58 a parallel timing circuit 60 formed a resistor R19 and capacitor C3. The timing circuit 60 provides a time constant of between 10 to 15 seconds typically which maintains operation of the motor 12 during opening 25 and closing operations. The operation of the resistors R33, R19 and R15 produce a timing waveform 4 as shown Figure 2.

o a o°• The output of the inverter 58 is connected to another inverter 62 via a series timing circuit 64 formed of resistor R18 and capacitor C4. The time constant of resistor R18 and capacitor C4 controls the period during which the inverter 62 has an active output as shown in waveform 5 in Figure 2. The output of the inverter !I1>1 62 is connected to an inverting input 66 of a switch mode control IC68 of the pulse width modulator 28 via a pull up transistor 70 and isolating diode D18. The collector of the transistor 70 is connected to the speed control circuit 26 via resistor R17 and isolating diode D19. The abrupt braking circuit 24 produces a braking signal at the inverting input 66 as shown in waveform 14 in Figure 2. That is, a high potential for a small period as set by the combination of resistor R18 and capacitor C4.

The speed control circuit 26 comprises a low leakage capacitor C7 shunted across a transistor 80 whose base is driven via a voltage divider 82 formed of resistors R27 and R28. a totem pole of resistors connects the collector of the transistor 80 to a reference output 84 of the switch mode control IC68. The totem pole of resistors consists of resistors R21, R23, R24 and R26 Typically these resistors have values of 10k, 10k, 1k, 1k and 12k. The values of these resistors and their relationship to resistors R10 (10k), Rll (10k), R20 (3k9) and R21 is important to the ability of the disabled sliding door controller 10 to accommodate control of the motor 12 with variations in the voltage at the motor 12 due to discharging and charging of a battery which drives the motor 12. A further resistor R22 is connected to the inverting input of the switch mode control IC68 and is switchable via a switch 86 between each of the resistor pairs R23 and R24, R24 and R25, and R25 and R26. This has the effect of adjusting the 20 operation of the controller circuit 16 for light, medium and heavy doors M and The voltage across the capacitor C7 controls the speed of opening and closing of the door. After the actuator 14 is operated the transistor 80 switches on and discharges the capacitor C7 through it (see waveform 11 in Figure This provides maximum potential difference across the resistors R23 to R26 and hence 25 the door is moved at maximum speed. Once one of the limit switches 54 or 56 is tripped the transistor 80 is switched off and the capacitor C7 starts to charge up a. firstly via resistor R17 from the output of the abrupt braking circuit 24 via then via the resistors R21 to R26 and depending upon the setting of the switch 86 across resistors R24 to R26 (see also waveform 11).

ozPF Q It is envisaged that the resistors R23 and R26 could be replaced by a single potentiometer.

~l 7 -9- The speed control circuit 26 also has resistors R10 and R11 in a divider arrangement and resistor R20 in a divider arrangement with the totem pole of resistors R23 and R26 and R21. The effect of this arrangement is that as the voltage of a battery 90 which operates the controller circuit 16 decreases the voltage across the resistors R21 to R26 remains constant and so the voltage at the inverting input 66 of the switch mode control IC68 and hence the speed of the motor 12 does not vary with variations in the voltage of the battery The pulse width modulator 28 has its frequency of operation set by resistors R31 and capacitor C11 to typically about 20KHz, although other frequencies could be used. A resistor R29 is connected between an inverting input 92 of the switch mode control IC68 and is comparator input 94. A capacitor C6 is connected to the comparator input 94 to form a series timing circuit with the resistor R29 to control the mark space ratio of the switch mode control IC68. An output 96 of the switch mode control IC68 is connected to the relay contacts 30a and 32a via power transistor 98. The signal at the output 96 is shown as waveform 12 in Figure 2.

Typically, the actuator 14 is in the form of a touch sensitive switch. More Sparticularly the actuator may be in the form of a self-exciting touch switch, that is, I one which does not rely upon a flow of mains frequency voltage impressed in and derived through the body of the person operating the actuator.

20 Such an actuator 14 is shown in Figure 3. The actuator 14 comprises a clock generator 110, a touch plate 112, and an output buffer 114. Typically the clock generator 110 produces an oscillating signal at a frequency of about 1 MHz at an eq•*output 120. The output 120 is coupled to the touch plate 112 by a capacitor 122.

Typically the capacitor has a value of about 56pF. The output buffer 114 has an t°i 25 input 130 which is coupled to the touch plate 114 via a capacitor 132 which typically has a value of about 2.2nF. The output buffer 114 has a LED 134 driven to confirm operation of the actuator 14. The actuator 14 has an output 136 which, in the exemplary embodiment is active when low.

"An use, the actuator 14 is installed near the opening edge of the sliding door jame. The motor 12 is connected to the sliding door such as by a chain or a belt or the like. Typically, the belt is a toothed belt to avoid losses due to slippage of the belt with respect to the motor 12. The battery 90 is connected into the controller circuit 16 and an electrical power pack 100 is connected to the controller circuit 16 for charging the battery 90. The motor 12 is then electrically connected to the relay contacts 30a and 32a.

An operation cycle of the disabled sliding door controller 10 can be initiated by a user touching the touch plate 114 of the actuator 14. This interrupts the flow of the signal from the clock generator 110 to the output buffer 114 and hence the output 136 of the output buffer 114 goes low and becomes active. This produces an active high signal at the output of the differentiator 20 and thus at the clock input 40 of the flip flop 22. The data input 42 of the flip flop 22 is set by the series timing circuit of resistor R14 and capacitor C2 (which typically has a time constant of about 1 second) so that the output Q and not Q of the flip flop 22 toggle with each operation of the actuator 14.

When the actuator 14 is operated and the door is closed the output Q goes high :OO.•(waveform 8) and the output not Q goes low (waveform This energises the 9.

forward relay 30 and de-energises the reverse relay 32. A conduction path •coo .*through the motor 12 is then provided from the battery through forward relay 0 contact 30a, through the motor 12, through the reverse relay contact 30b and to 9 the power transistor 98. The conduction of the power transistor 98 then controls the amount of time per unit time during which power flows through the motor 12 and hence the speed of operation of the motor 12.

switch 86 is set depending upon the weight of the sliding door so as to i provide more power for a heavier sliding door and less power for a lighter sliding door. In the context of the present invention a heavy sliding door is one which has a mass of about Whilst an active clock signal is present at the clock input 40 the time duration of ;.which is set by resistors R2 and R3 and capacitor C1) the voltage at the inverter -58 builds up and the capacitor C3 is charged up via resistor R33 (see waveform S 3,J4). This activates the transistor 80, which discharges the capacitor C7 from an -11initial high value to the forward conduction voltage of the transistor 80. This method has been chosen since it provides a much more reliable starting voltage from the capacitor C7 than could be achieved by charging is up to a predetermined value and then slowly discharging it over the operation of movement of the sliding door. The discharged capacitor C7 thus places a minimum voltage at the inverting input 66 of the switch mode control C1068 which causes a maximum mark space ratio at the output 96. This causes the power transistor 98 to conduct for the greater period of time per unit of time. Hence, the motor 12 receives the maximum amount of power and operates at its greatest speed.

As the motor 12 operates the door opens and the capacitor 03 keeps a logical high at the input to the inverter 58 and hence keeps the motor 12 operating.

Although, the capacitor C3 slowly discharges through resistor R19 over 10 to seconds so that in the event that the sliding door is stopped part way between being fully open and fully closed the motor 12 will be caused to stop operating after this time delay.

i SWhen the door reaches the open brake limit switch 54 the transistor 50 conducts eq..

:(because the Q output of the flip flop 22 is high) and the voltage at the input of the inverter 58 rapidly discharges through resistor R15 (see waveform This turns 20 off the transistor 80 and the capacitor C7 starts to charge up via resistor R17 during a time set by the series timing circuit formed of capacitor 04 and resistor R S.18 (typically about 0.5 seconds). During that period the door is brought to an abrupt halt by the application of a high potential to the inverting input 66 of the ooo.

switch mode control C1068 through diode D18 (see waveform 14). Once the 25 capacitor C4 has charged up the output of the inverter 62 goes low and the high braking potential is removed from the inverting input 66. Thereafter, the door is slowly driven home as the capacitor C7 charges up through the resistors R21 to R26. When the capacitor C7 charges up fully the difference between the voltage at the inverting input 66 and the non-inverting input 92 becomes so small that the R- Y 3 0 mark-space ratio becomes so large that the output of the switch mode controller 7_ 68 becomes zero and the motor 12 ceases to operate.

-12- To close the door the actuator 12 is again operated. The operation of the controller circuit 16 is the same as described hereinabove except that the electrical current flows in the reverse direction through the motor 12 and the reverse relay 32 is active and the closing limit switch 56 initiates the braking.

Since the motor 12 is directly connected to the door, that is without a gearbox, the sliding door can be manually operated. Since the controller circuit 16 relies upon the braking limit switches, rather than ultimate end stop limit switches or counters or the like, the controller circuit 16 is able to open and close the door with the same amount of force even in the event that the door partially open or partially closed when the actuator 14 was operated. This is further facilitated by the removal of the inertia from the sliding door before it reaches the end of its travel, after which the sliding door is driven home. Since the motor 12 and the controller are battery driven the disabled sliding door controller 10 can operate the sliding door reliably even when there is no mains power. The battery charger 100 only charges the battery 90 and is not intended to provide sufficient power to operate the motor 12. The nature of the actuator 14 allows it to operate in the absence of mains power. Further, since the torque and duration of operation of the motor 12 is limited the likelihood of injury to a person caught in the sliding door is very 20 considered to be more suitable for this purpose.

By the nature if the speed control circuit 26 the speed of operation of the motor 12 is not dependent on the voltage of the battery 90 and hence the operation of the S.g.

disabled sliding door controller 10 is more reliable. This is achieved by driving the motor 12 harder in the event of a reduction in the voltage if the battery 90 and vice 25 versa for increase in the voltage of the battery 90 due to discharging and charging, respectively.

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Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are considered within the scope of the present invention. For example, the disabled ,k sliding door controller 10 could have an automatic actuator.

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30 ,L3 CO

Claims (7)

1. A sliding door controller for use in opening and closing a sliding door between an open position and a closed position, the sliding door controller comprising: a motor coupled to the sliding door for opening and closing the sliding door; control means operatively associated with the motor for controlling the operation of the motor for opening and closing the sliding door, the control means limiting the amount of torque applied by the motor to an amount which can generally be overcome by a human, and the control means ceasing application of torque by the motor after a predetermined period of time; and actuator means in operative association with the control means for actuating the control means for controlling opening and closing of the sliding door.

2. A sliding door controller as claimed in claim 1 wherein within said :ll: predetermined period of time said the control means controls the motor to drive the sliding door between the open position and the closed position and substantially stops the sliding door before it reaches the open position or the 20 closed position for removing the inertia from the sliding door, and then drives the sliding door to the open position or the closed position.

3. A sliding door controller as claimed in claim 2 wherein said control means receives signals from switches located at a position to sense the position of S..said sliding door from which braking is to commence. ll l S *ll° 25 4. A sliding door controller as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said predetermined amount of torque is less than about 110Nm. 3.v A sliding door controller as claimed in claim 3 wherein said predetermined y '\amount of torque is less than about S.. -14-

6. A sliding door controller as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said predetermined period of time is from 10 to 15 seconds.

7. A sliding door controller as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said motor is a dc motor, said dc motor being powered by a battery, said control means also being battery operated, wherein, the control means can control means can control the dc motor to drive the sliding door between the open position and the closed position even when mains power is absent.

8. A sliding door controller as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said actuator includes a touch plate electrically isolated from ground potential; an oscillator operating at a frequency which is greater than mains frequency, the oscillator being electrically connected to the touch plate, the electrical connection including means to block dc and mains frequency signals; and an output electrically connected to the touch switch, the electrical connection including means to block dc and mains frequency signals; wherein, a signal from the oscillator can pass through o. the blocking means and the touch plate to produce an active signal at the output and wherein a person touching the touch plate prevents the signal o from the oscillator from causing an active signal at the output. .i

9. A disabled sliding door controller substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in any one or more of the accompanying drawings. *0 0 S o 9• jj 9I 9 9: z7,/