A remote-control device for controlling an appliance having a plurality of appliance components is provided. The remote-control device includes a plurality of pushbutton units, each pushbutton unit including at least one physical operating pushbutton configurable to control at least one appliance component. Each of the pushbutton units is provided with a visually detectable distinguishing feature for visually distinguishing one pushbutton unit from another pushbutton unit. The remote-control device also includes a display unit configured to display representations of each controllable appliance component. Each representation of an appliance component includes the same visually detectable distinguishing feature as a corresponding pushbutton unit to which the appliance component is assigned.

Described herein are several embodiments relating to irrigation controllers. In many implementations, the irrigation controllers include a housing and a removable plug-in device. The housing includes a control portion comprising a first microcontroller configured to execute stored irrigation programs. The housing includes an interface connector port and driver circuitry configured to actuate irrigation valves based on control signals received from the first microcontroller. The removable plug-in device removably coupled to the interface connector port and comprising a second microcontroller and a wireless modem configured to communicate with a wireless network. The second microcontroller configured to send and receive data communications to and from the first microcontroller, such that the first microcontroller and the second microcontroller function together during use of the irrigation controller, wherein the removable plug-in device does not include any driver circuitry configured to actuate any irrigation valves based on any control signals received from the first microcontroller.

A health monitor circuit for an electric machine is described. The health monitor circuit includes at least one sensor configured to measure a parameter of the electric machine, a communication interface, and a microprocessor coupled to the at least one sensor, the communication interface, and a memory. The microprocessor is configured to periodically collect time samples of the parameter measured by the at least one sensor, transmit factors of the time samples to the memory, and perform a high resolution fast-Fourier transform (FFT) on the factors. The microprocessor is also configured to extrapolate results of the high resolution FFT to a produce a high resolution frequency domain waveform, filter the high resolution frequency domain waveform by a parameter, and transmit, via the communication interface, the filtered frequency domain waveform to a remote system for further processing.

The present invention teaches a solenoid-valve actuator that is battery-powered and communicates remotely and wirelessly (e.g., via LoRaWAN) to a gateway that communicates with the internet, thereby enabling a user to remotely control fluid flow through a solenoid valve. The end device interfaces to a range of latching solenoid operated valves, e.g., for the control of water flow in irrigation systems.

An operation apparatus monitoring system includes an operation apparatus as a monitoring target. The operation apparatus includes a control part capable of executing control of acquiring multiple pieces of apparatus information associated with an operation status and periodically transmitting acquired data of the multiple pieces of apparatus information to a monitoring apparatus. In the control part, multiple groups are set, and data of the multiple pieces of apparatus information are grouped to belong to at least one of the multiple groups and are stored. Transmission of data of the multiple pieces of apparatus information to the monitoring apparatus is executed according to a sequence of data transmission to the monitoring apparatus determined for each group.

A method of operating an appliance includes receiving a user input including a selected operating parameter. The method may also include storing the selected operating parameter in a user profile or incrementing a selection count of the selected operating parameter. The method may further include comparing the user profile or the selection count to a plurality of features. The method also includes generating a list of recommended features comprising one or more features of the plurality of features. The list may be generated based on the comparison of the user profile to the plurality of features. The selected operating parameter may be associated with the one or more features on the list. The method further includes downloading a feature from the list of recommended features to the appliance and activating the appliance according to the downloaded feature.

An operator control station of an industrial automation system includes at least one input interface to receive a user input and a communication interface to communicate with one or more devices of the industrial automation system, including a first device via an Ethernet communication protocol. The operator control station also includes a controller communicatively coupled to the communication interface. The controller performs operations including generating a signal based on the user input and the signal instructs the first device to control at least one component of the industrial automation system. The controller also performs operations including providing the signal to the communication interface for transmission to the first device via the Ethernet communication protocol.

A remote management system includes: a facility information receiver that receives facility information representing a facility within a space; a facility information storage that stores the facility information; a use information receiver that receives use information representing a facility to be operated during a use period of the space among facilities represented by the facility information; a use information storage that stores the use information; a relay that relays communication between the facility within the space and an outside of the space; and a facility controller that controls the facility to operate or not to operate via the relay, based on the facility information and the use information.

A method of connecting a user device anonymously to a remote operator, via an intermediate anonymizing server is described. In this way, a remote operator may control the device, without the remote operator knowing the identity of the owner or of user of the device. A remote operator might provide medical support or entertainment. The user of the device is provided with a connection key, which is then further given by the user to a desired remote operator. Both the user and the remote operator provide the anonymizing server with the connection key. The anonymizing server opens a chat room uniquely associated with the connection key. Electronic connectivity is provided by forwarding messages between the user device and the remote operator through the chat room. No other access to the chat room is permitted. The anonymizing server does not store the connection key. No user application is required.

A device for setting an operation of a robot unit where the device is adapted to create or modify a robot control program that is executed by a robot controller that controls the operation of the robot unit. The device includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) adapted to execute a software program for creating or modifying the robot control program, wherein a user platform is adapted to be connected to the device for enabling input of information to the software program. The device has a platform independent Representational State Transfer communication protocol (REST client) and means for transferring a platform independent REST client to the user platform, which platform independent REST client enables the user platform to communicate with the software program.