1. A portable wireless remote control unit for use in conjunction with a thermostat of an HVAC system, wherein the thermostat of the HVAC system is configured to communicate with and control one or more HVAC components of the HVAC system, the portable wireless remote control unit comprising:
a wireless interface;
a user interface including a display;
a temperature sensor for sensing an ambient temperature proximate the portable wireless remote control unit;
a controller in communication with the wireless interface and the user interface, the controller configured to communicate with the thermostat of the HVAC system via the wireless interface, wherein the controller is configured to communicate the ambient temperature sensed by the temperature sensor to the thermostat of the HVAC system via the wireless interface of the portable wireless remote control unit;
the controller further configured to execute a user setup routine for entering user setup information via the user interface of the portable wireless remote control unit, the user setup routine causing the controller to display a sequence of two or more user setup screens on the display of the portable wireless remote control unit, wherein each of the two or more user setup screens includes:
a message center that indicates a parameter or function to be set via the corresponding user setup screen;
one or more parameter adjustmentselection buttons for adjusting or selecting the parameter or function indicated in the message center; and
a next button to advance the user setup routine to a next screen in the sequence of user setup screens.
2. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein at least some of the sequence of two or more user setup screens include a back button for moving to a previous screen in the sequence of user setup screens.
3. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein at least some of the sequence of two or more user setup screens include a done button for exiting the user setup routine and moving to a home screen.
4. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein the message center is configured to displays text messages.
5. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein the message center is positioned adjacent to the next button.
6. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameter adjustmentselection buttons include a yes button and a no button.
7. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameter adjustmentselection buttons include an up button for adjusting a value of a parameter up, and a down button for adjusting the value of a parameter down.
8. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameter adjustmentselection buttons includes a connect button for wirelessly connecting the portable wireless remote control unit to the thermostat of the HVAC system via the wireless interface.
9. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more user setup screens relates to enabling and disabling a manual lock feature, wherein the manual lock feature, when enabled, requires the user to manually lock the user interface during subsequent operation of the portable wireless remote control unit.
10. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more user setup screens relates to enabling and disabling an automatic lock feature, wherein the automatic lock feature, when enabled, automatically locks the user interface under predetermined conditions during subsequent operation of the portable wireless remote control unit.
11. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more user setup screens relates to enabling and disabling a button click feature, wherein the button click feature, when enabled, causes the portable wireless remote control unit to emit a noise when a user activates a button of the user interface during subsequent operation of the portable wireless remote control unit.
12. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more user setup screens relates to enabling and disabling low backlight feature, wherein the low backlight feature, when enabled, causes the portable wireless remote control unit to produce a low backlight on the display during subsequent operation of the portable wireless remote control unit.
13. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more user setup screens relates to setting a temperature offset value, wherein the portable wireless remote control unit offsets the ambient temperature sensed by the temperature sensor by the temperature offset value to produce an offset sensed temperature value, and then displays the offset sensed temperature value on the display of the portable wireless remote control unit.
14. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 13, wherein the thermostat of the HVAC system is configured to control one or more HVAC components of the HVAC system using the ambient temperature sensed by the temperature sensor of the portable wireless remote control unit.
15. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein one of the two or more user setup screens relates to removing an HVAC zone from being referenced and displayed on the display of the portable wireless remote control unit.
16. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein the display is a touch screen.
17. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 1, wherein the display is a fixed segment display screen.
18. A portable wireless remote control unit for use in conjunction with an HVAC system, wherein the thermostat of the HVAC system is configured to communicate with and control one or more HVAC components of the HVAC system, the portable wireless remote control unit comprising:
a wireless interface;
a touch screen display;
a controller in communication with the wireless interface and the touch screen display, the controller configured to communicate with the thermostat of the HVAC system via the wireless interface;
the controller further configured to execute a user setup routine for entering user setup information for the portable wireless remote control unit, the user setup routine causing the controller to display on the a touch screen display a sequence of two or more user setup screens, wherein each of the two or more user setup screens includes:
a message center that indicates a parameter or function to be set via the corresponding user setup screen;
one or more parameter adjustmentselection buttons for adjusting or selecting the parameter or function indicated in the message center;
a next button to advance the user setup routine to a next screen in the sequence of user setup screens; and
wherein one of the two or more user setup screens relates to removing an HVAC zone from being referenced and displayed on the touch screen display of the portable wireless remote control unit.
19. The portable wireless remote control unit of claim 18, wherein at least some of the sequence of two or more user setup screens include a back button for moving to a previous screen in the sequence of user setup screens.
20. An HVAC Control system for controlling an HVAC system, comprising:
a thermostat in communication with and controlling one or more HVAC components of the HVAC system, the thermostat including a wireless interface;
a wireless remote control unit including:
a memory;
a wireless interface that is configured to communicate with the wireless interface of the thermostat;
a user interface including a display;
a temperature sensor for sensing an ambient temperature proximate the wireless remote control unit;
a controller in communication with the wireless interface and the user interface of the wireless remote control unit, the controller configured to communicate with the thermostat via the wireless interface of the wireless remote control unit and the wireless interface of the thermostat;
the controller further configured to load one or more parameters associated with the thermostat into the memory via the wireless interface of the wireless remote control unit;
the controller further configured to display at least one of the received parameters on the display of the wireless remote control unit;
the controller further configured to allow a user to change one or more of the parameters that are displayed on the display of the wireless remote control unit, and to send the one or more changed parameters to the thermostat via the wireless interface of the wireless remote control unit and the wireless interface of the thermostat, wherein the thermostat subsequently controls one or more HVAC components of the HVAC system in accordance with the one or more changed parameters andor settings;
the controller further configured to transmit the ambient temperature sensed by the temperature sensor of the wireless remote control unit to the thermostat via the wireless interface of the wireless remote control unit and the wireless interface of the thermostat, and thermostat being configured to optionally control one or more HVAC components of the HVAC system using the ambient temperature sensed by the temperature sensor of the wireless remote control unit; and
the controller further configured to execute a user setup routine for entering user setup information, the user setup routine causing the controller to display on the display a sequence of two or more user setup screens, wherein each of the two or more user setup screens includes:
a message center that indicates a parameter or function to be set via the corresponding user setup screen;
one or more parameter adjustmentselection buttons for adjusting or selecting the parameter or function indicated in the message center; and
a next button to advance the user setup routine to a next screen in the sequence of user setup screens.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A radio-frequency signal frequency conversion device for generating intermediate signals intended to be processed in a correlation stage of a low power RF receiver of GPS type wherein the device is adapted to be mounted in a portable small sized object, the device including:
a first pass-band filter for filtering radio-frequency signals picked up by an antenna of the receiver, said first filter is a passive selective filter of the SAW type that is sufficiently selective to eliminate image frequencies during a first frequency conversion from received radio-frequency signals;
oscillating signal generating means for generating first and second high frequency signals, the frequency of the first signals is higher than the frequency of the second signals, wherein the oscillating signal generating means includes a reference oscillator comprising a quartz crystal;
a first mixer unit for mixing filtered radio-frequency signals with the first high frequency signals in order to generate signals whose frequency is equal to the result of a subtraction of the frequency of the first signals from a carrier frequency of the radio-frequency signals;
a second pass-band filter for filtering signals originating from the first mixer unit;
a second mixer unit for mixing signals filtered by the second filter with the second high frequency signals in order to generate signals whose frequency is equal to the result of a subtraction of the frequency of the second signals from the frequency of the signals originating from the first mixer unit; and
shaping means for signals provided by the second mixer unit for generating the intermediate signals;
wherein the second filter is a not very selective active filter operable to remove a harmonic frequency because an attenuation slope of the second filter around a first frequency is not steep so that the active filter is capable of removing the harmonic frequency, and
wherein the second filter is integrated in an RFIF integrated circuit with the first mixer unit, the second mixer unit, the signal shaping means, and the oscillating signal generating means with the exception of a control signal filtering low-pass filter for a voltage controlled oscillator of a frequency synthesizer and the quartz crystal of the reference oscillator unit of the oscillating signal generating means.
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the portable small sized object is a wristwatch and wherein the second active filter filters and amplifies signals generated by the first mixer unit.
3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the frequency of the signals generated by the first mixer unit is within a margin of 50 to 100 times less than a carrier frequency of the radio-frequency signals.
4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the frequency of the first high frequency signals is n times higher than the frequency of the second high frequency signals, n being an integer number selected from the range of 50 to 100.
5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the oscillating signal generating means includes the reference oscillator unit and a frequency synthesiser connected to the reference oscillator unit, said synthesiser providing the first and second high frequency signals on the basis of reference signals provided by the reference oscillator unit.
6. The device according to claim 5, wherein all the frequency synthesiser elements, including a phase lock loop, are integrated in the RFIF integrated circuit with the exception of the control signal filtering low-pass filter for a voltage controlled oscillator, wherein the oscillator is operable to generate the first high frequency signals.
7. The device according to claim 5, wherein the oscillator unit provides reference signals whose frequency is determined by a quartz crystal and is situated between 10 and 20 MHz.
8. The device according to claim 1, wherein the oscillating signal generating means includes the reference oscillator unit and a frequency synthesiser connected to the reference oscillator unit, said synthesiser providing the first high frequency signals on the basis of reference signals provided by the reference oscillator unit and the reference oscillator unit providing the second high frequency signals.
9. The device according to claim 1, wherein the second high frequency signals are formed of second in-phase signals and second quarter-phase signals, and wherein the second mixer unit includes a first mixer for mixing the signals originating from the first mixer unit with the second in-phase signals and a second mixer for mixing the signals originating from the first mixer unit with the second quarter-phase signals, the shaping means receiving the signals from the first and second mixers to provide intermediate complex signals formed of in-phase signals and quarter-phase signals.
10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the shaping means includes, after each mixer of the second mixer unit, a low-pass filter followed by a controlled gain amplifier and an analoguedigital converter clocked by clock signals provided by the oscillator unit, wherein one of the converters provides the in-phase signals of sampled and quantified intermediate signals, and the other converter provides the quarter-phase signals of sampled and quantified intermediate signals.
11. An RFIF integrated circuit for a device according to claim 1, wherein the RFIF integrated circuit includes
the first mixer unit;
the second active pass-band filter that is not very selective and operates to remove the harmonic frequency different from the first frequency whereas the first passive filter of the SAW type operates to eliminate image frequencies during a first frequency conversion from received radio-frequency signals;
the second mixer unit;
the shaping means; and
the oscillating signal generating means with the exception of a control signal filtering low-pass filter for a voltage controlled oscillator of a frequency synthesiser and the quartz crystal of the reference oscillator unit.
12. The RFIF integrated circuit according to claim 11, wherein the RFIF integrated circuit is made in a semiconductor material, and in a CMOS technology of 0.25 \u03bcm or less.
13. The RFIF integrated circuit according to claim 11, wherein the semiconductor material is silicon.
14. The device according to claim 1, wherein the frequency of the signals generated by the first mixer unit is 64 times less than a carrier frequency of the radio-frequency signals.
15. The device according to claim 1, wherein the frequency of the first high frequency signals is n times higher than the frequency of the second high frequency signals, n being an integer number equal to 64.
16. The device according to claim 1, wherein the second active filter filters and amplifies signals generated by the first mixer unit.