Smart luminaires can be remote controlled

Smart luminaires for indoor and outdoor installations have been introduced by Ledvance. The Smart+ range can be controlled via remote, app or voice. The range includes panel and flood luminaires, a neon flex strip and camera functions.

The wall and ceiling assortment includes round luminaires in a decorative design as well as sleek and timeless panel luminaires. For outdoor installations, Ledvance offers products for mood, decorative lighting and security purposes. The Neon Flex TGBW LED strips are designed for indoors and outdoors and offer a smooth and seamless illumination with RGB and tuneable white option. All new smart luminaires are easily and quickly installed and are available now, says Ledvance.

The Smart+ Wi-Fi Planon are smart panel luminaires that will slot seamlessly into any indoor installation. The Smart+ Planon comes in three different form factors including square versions measuring 300, 400 or 600mm (20W/ 28W/ 40W) in length, frameless rectangular option in six sizes (20W/ 28W/ 35W/ 40W) or as frameless round luminaires with two diameters (20W/ 28W). All Smart+ WIFI Planon models feature tuneable white and some also RGB functions, and can be connected via Wi-Fi. Using the Ledvance Wi-Fi app or a speaker device, users can control the luminaire and timer or select dynamic lighting options by switching from warm to cool light with tuneable white.

The slim, lightweight, robust and durable Smart+ Wi-Fi flood luminaires are for garden illuminations. The luminaire’s tempered glass cover with semi-frosted finish allows for a very homogenous illumination and the smart and intelligent control options enable both general lighting as well as mood lighting. The luminaires can be controlled by app or a voice controlled speaker device within the local Wi-Fi, to change colours, dim the light or to switch it on/off. The IP65 certified luminaries are available in four versions (10W/ 20W/ 30W/ 50W).

There is also the Smart+ Wi-Fi Flood camera which combines a sensor luminaire with rotatable luminaire head and camera security function. Its 180 degree sensor detection range, five to 10m sensor range and high brightness of 1800lm ensure a high level of safety for security. The camera offers app controlled 1920 x 1080 HD live view functionality as well as 40 degrees vertical and 355 degrees horizontal rotation angles. It also features a built-in microphone and siren speaker with alarm function, and an IP44 rating. The luminaire can be controlled via Ledvance Wi-Fi app or speaker device.

The Smart+ Wi-Fi Neon Flex strip offers a diffuse light appearance with invisible single LED dots for colourful light accents in indoor and outdoor environments. They feature two different white light colours as well as RGB and (tuneable) white in one strip. The app- or speaker-controlled smart LED strips are available as three and five metre versions. The flexible, bendable LED strips are easily installed to provide indirect and direct lighting for gardens, balconies, walls, stairs, cupboards and shelves and many other outdoor and indoor areas.

http://www.ledvance.co.uk.

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Touchscreen controller eases automotive display integration

Microchip’s maXTouch MXT2912TD-UW touchscreen controller is claimed to reduce integration complexity and cost for wide touch displays up to 45 inches.

Automotive designers are consolidating a vehicle’s cluster, centre stack and co-driver displays into very wide screens to meet the need for safe, intuitive and easy-to-use user interfaces in vehicles.

Microchip claims that the maXTouch MXT2912TD-UW touchscreen controller is the industry’s first automotive-qualified, single chip that addresses display sizes up to 45 inches with a very wide aspect ratio, supporting liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) display technologies.

The MXT2912TD-UW reduces the need for multiple touch controllers within a vehicle’s human machine interface (HMI) display. The controller provides the highest report rate for wide displays and is independent of the display resolution, says Microchip, helping achieve the same user experience as the smart phone. The maXTouch family’s intrinsic signal to noise ratio (SNR) enables detection and tracking of multi-finger thick gloves through a variety of overlay materials and thicknesses, even in the presence of moisture, says Microchip.

Safety related features simplify the display module system’s path to ISO26262 functional safety certification. These include periodic self-test, touch sensor test, internal flash and RAM tests, full signal data path integrity checks and additional microprocessor core testing. The embedded firmware is developed to automotive SPICE processes.

To support its touchscreen controllers, Microchip also offers complementary devices such as low dropout regulators (LDOs), 8-, 16- and-32-bit microcontrollers, controller area network (CAN) and CAN physical layer (PHY) controllers.

Software support includes Microchip’s maXTouch Studio development tool and maXTouch Analyzer inspection tool for production line testing. Microchip’s application and support centres provide customer support around the world, including system and sensor simulation/development, integration as well as system tuning. Development hardware and technical support are provided on request.

The MXT2912TD-UW is available in volume production.

http://www.microchip.com

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Controller provides safety functions for widescreen automotive displays

Two display controllers from Socionext have enhanced security support for high resolution, wide format displays.

The SC1702 display controller meets the automotive market’s demand for high-resolution widescreen automotive displays. Socionext has added a display controller to its SC1701 series, providing low-cost, optimal safety functions for meter clusters. Both display controllers deliver scalable in-vehicle remote display systems with high levels of safety, says the company.

The use of automotive displays is rapidly expanding in instrumentation and vehicle control operations, including meters, climate controls and other dashboard indicators integrated into graphics, as well as head-up displays (HUDs) and e-mirror displays, ranging from conventional small displays to large format, wide screens with some spanning across the entire dashboard.

The SC1702 is capable of transferring data at rates of up to 12Gbits per second, using APIX 3 technology. It is equipped with a newly developed panel interface port (PIP) that supports advanced, high-resolution, wide landscape format displays, such as 8K x 1K, which cannot be supported with conventional interfaces. It is also designed to conform to the HDCP 2.3 encryption technology, making it possible to effectively use rich, 4K-resolution content for multi-displays in a vehicle.

The SC1702 can detect display abnormalities that are unobservable with current technology, advises Socionext. In addition to the conventional safety features, displays can now recognise panel link loss, inconsistencies of CRC of pixel data and other behaviours at the source drivers and gate drivers, enhancing the capabilities to meet further safety requirements.

The SC1701BH5-300 has been added to the SC1701 family, providing additional functions to existing meter systems. Safety features include multi-window signature unit, picture freeze detection, and watchdog, as well as the 2D rendering capability of Deep Color (30 bpp) built-in graphics engine, at a competitive price, says Socionext.

The SC1701BH5-300 is available in an EP-LQFP-216 package, measuring 24 x 24mm and the SC1702AK3 is available in an HS-BGA-319 package, measuring 23 x 23mm.

The join the SC1701BK3-100 and SC1701BH5-100 display controllers.

Samples of the SC1701BH5-300 are now available. Sample shipment of the SC1702AK3 will start in February 2021.

http://www.socionext.com

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Multi-channel RGB-LED driver support MeLiBu interface

Support for MeLiBu, the high speed communication interface differentiates the MLX81116 multi-channel RGB LED driver, says Melexis. The high speed communication IP enables automotive manufacturers to provide enhanced features in new models with smart interior lighting and to enable intelligent, automated lighting, continues the company.

MeLiBu is already being leveraged by leading manufacturers to enhance the safety features of their latest models. For example, animated lighting in the vehicle’s cabin can convey important driver assistance prompts and vehicle status information. An RGB LED lightbar communicates to the driver, through colour coding, colour changing, and blinking sequences.

Key engineering challenges for this systems include maintaining consistent colour across all the LEDs in the lightbar and ensuring they all change simultaneously. The MLX81116 addresses this through the high-speed communication interface IP, MeLiBu which controls individual LEDs separately in the lightbar to produce the lighting effects commanded by the vehicle. The intelligent RGB LED controller also provides real time compensation of any LED colour drift caused by environmental changes.

The MeLiBu communication interface uses the CAN-FD physical layer, which ensures robustness, reliability and high speed (up to 2Mbit), explains Melexis.  Support for dedicated optical parameters allows colour-mixing accuracy with a delta UV of one per cent to ensure no distinguishable differences between individual LEDs in the lightbar. In addition, intelligent high resolution for temperature-related colour drift helps maintain a consistent and non-distracting user experience under all operating conditions.

The MLX81116 driver IC has a wide dimming range that allows optimal brightness adjustment for daytime and night driving. It also meets automotive ISO 26262 functional safety requirements up to safety integrity level B (ASIL B) and features low EMI emission and high immunity, thanks to the use of the CAN-FD physical layer, which eases compliance with applicable EMC regulations, adds Melexis.

Melexis designs, develops and delivers mixed-signal semiconductor sensor and actuator components for integrating sensing, driving and communication into products and systems that improve safety, raise efficiency, support sustainability and enhance comfort.

Melexis has used its core experience in creating chips for vehicle electronics to expand its portfolio of sensors, driver ICs and wireless devices to also meet the needs of smart appliances, home automation, industrial and medical applications. Melexis sensing products include magnetic sensors, MEMS sensors (pressure, TPMS, infrared), sensor interface ICs, optoelectronic single point and linear array sensors and time of flight.

The company’s driver IC portfolio incorporates advanced DC and BLDC motor controllers, LED drivers and FET pre-driver ICs with the expertise to allow components to communicate whether wired or wireless.

Melexis is headquartered in Belgium.

http://www.melexis.com

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