ELECTRONIC COMPONENT OF AN ADJUSTABLE FURNITURE SYSTEM, FURNITURE SYSTEM, ARRANGEMENT AND METHOD FOR CONFIGURING AN ELECTRONIC COMPONENT

Abstract

An electronic component (1) of an adjustable furniture system comprises an opening (11) in a housing (10) and a plurality of contact areas (15). The component is arranged to enable establishing electrical contact to a programming interface (16) of a memory element (14) from outside through the opening (11) by means of a needle adapter (20) and to program the memory element (14).

Claims

1. An electronic component of an adjustable furniture system, the component comprising a housing having at least one opening; and a circuit board comprising a processor, a non-volatile memory element and a plurality of contact areas corresponding to the at least one opening, at least one of said contact areas being electrically connected to a programming interface of the memory element; the component being arranged such that the contact areas can be contacted by means of a needle adapter through the at least one opening to access the programming interface.

2. The electronic component according to claim 1, in which additionally at least one of the contact areas is electrically connected to a terminal for a voltage supply of the memory element.

3. The electronic component according to claim 2, which is arranged such that the memory element is supplied with electrical voltage via the needle adapter.

4. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 3, in which the memory element is integrated in the processor.

5. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 3, in which the memory element is located outside the processor.

6. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising at least one further non-volatile memory element whose programming interface is electrically connected to the contact areas.

7. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 6, which is arranged such that the programming interface enables direct access to a memory of the memory element, in particular without using the processor.

8. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the housing comprises a plurality of openings corresponding to a number of the contact areas, whose positions correspond to the contact areas.

9. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 8, in which the contact areas are located at a defined distance from the openings in the housing.

10. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising an apparatus for mechanically supporting the circuit board in the housing, in particular in the region of the contact areas.

11. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 10, in which the housing and the circuit board are cast with one another.

12. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 11, in which the housing comprises a mounting apparatus which is located on the same side as the opening.

13. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 12, in which the memory element is arranged to store a control program as well as parameters for adjusting the furniture system.

14. The electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 13, in which the component is adapted to be one of the following components of the furniture system: a control device, a hand switch, a power supply unit.

15. An adjustable furniture system comprising an electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 14.

16. An arrangement for programming an electronic component according to one of claims 1 to 14, the arrangement comprising a device arranged to establish electrical contact to the contact areas of the component through the opening in the housing by means of a needle adapter; and a data processing equipment which is adapted to make a data connection to the programming interface via the needle adapter and to program the memory element while the electrical contact is established.

17. The arrangement according to claim 16, further comprising a power supply for the memory element of a component according to any of claims 2 to 14.

18. A method of configuring an electronic component of an adjustable furniture system, the method comprising: passing a multi-pole needle adapter through an opening in a housing of the component; contacting, by means of the needle adapter, a plurality of contact areas on a circuit board of the component which are electrically connected to a programming interface of a memory element on the circuit board; and establishing a data connection between a data processing equipment and the programming interface via the needle adapter and programming the memory element by means of the data processing equipment.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising supplying the memory element with an electric voltage via the needle adapter during programming.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] Further advantageous embodiments are described in the claims as well as in the following description of exemplary embodiments on the basis of the attached Figures. The same reference signs are used in the Figures for elements with essentially the same function, but these elements do not have to be identical in all details.

[0039] In the Figures:

[0040] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an electronic component of an adjustable furniture system,

[0041] FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of an electronic component having a memory element integrated in a processor and an additional memory element,

[0042] FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of an arrangement for programming an electronic component of an adjustable furniture system, and

[0043] FIG. 4 shows the schematic structure of a height-adjustable table as an example of an electrically adjustable furniture system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an electronic component 1 of an adjustable furniture system. The component has a housing 10 with at least one opening 11 and a printed circuit board 12.

[0045] In various embodiments, the printed circuit board comprises a processor 13 and a memory element 14, preferably a non-volatile memory element, for example a flash or EEPROM module. In addition, there is a plurality of contact areas 15 on the circuit board, the position of which corresponds to the opening 11 in the housing 10. At least one of the contact areas is electrically connected to a programming interface 16 of the memory element 14. Programming interfaces are generally bidirectional bus connections, such as I2C or SPI-BUS, which are not designed for long data lines. Therefore, it makes sense to position the contact areas as close as possible to the memory element.

[0046] The contact areas 15 can be contacted by means of a needle adapter 20 through the opening 11 in the housing 10 in order to enable external access to the programming interface 16. In contrast to plug connections, contacting with a needle adapter is particularly suitable for automated production. Thus, plug connections have the disadvantage that automatic, angularly correct alignment and insertion into a corresponding socket are very difficult to implement.

[0047] In one embodiment, the component 1 is set up in such a way that the programming interface 16 allows direct access to a memory of the memory element 14, especially without using the processor 13, for example to load data into the memory. The programming interface 16 thus extended to the outside can therefore be addressed directly by a programming station using the needle adapter 20.

[0048] In contrast to a serial interface, in which the processor 13 of the component 1 translates serial instructions and processes transmitted data, a direct connection to the programming interface 16 of the memory element 14 enables a significantly faster loading of data, since a translation of instructions is not required and the processor 13 is not integrated.

[0049] In one embodiment, the memory element 14 of the component 1 is set up to store a control program as well as parameters for adjusting the furniture system.

[0050] Optionally, at least one of the contact areas 15 is additionally electrically connected to a power supply terminal 17 of the memory element, shown in FIG. 1 by a dashed connection. This allows the memory element 14 to be supplied with electrical power via the needle adapter 20 without the need for a separate power supply, e.g. from a power supply unit of the component.

[0051] For example, instead of a single, larger opening 11, the housing 10 of the component 1 has a plurality of openings corresponding to the number of contact areas 15, whose positions correspond to the contact areas 15. This allows the automatic angularly correct alignment to be optimized to ensure that the needles of the needle adapter 20 reach the contact areas 15 in a straight line. Furthermore, the correct alignment of the otherwise symmetrical needle adapter 20 can be ensured, for example, by different shapes of the individual openings 11.

[0052] In one embodiment, the contact areas 15 of the component 1 are located at a defined distance from the openings 11 in the housing 10. This enables uniform contacting of all contact areas 15 using the needle adapter 20.

[0053] In a further embodiment, the component 1 comprises an arrangement for the mechanical support of the circuit board 12 in the housing 10, especially in the area of the contact areas 15. This ensures that the circuit board 12 in the housing 10 neither moves nor bends due to the pressure of the needle adapter 20 during contacting.

[0054] In another embodiment of the component 1, the housing 10 and the circuit board 12 are cast with one another to ensure mechanical stability.

[0055] The component 1 is, for example, a control device, a hand switch or a power supply unit for the furniture system.

[0056] FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of an embodiment of the component 1 in which, on the one hand, the circuit board 12 comprises apart from a memory element 14 an additional memory element 14a which is integrated in the processor 13. In this case, a majority of the contact areas 15 is connected both to the programming interface 16 of the memory element 14 and to the programming interface 16a of the memory element 14a. On the other hand, in addition to snap locks 19, the housing 10 contains a plurality of openings as described above, for example round holes, directly above the contact areas 15, which corresponds to the number of contact areas 15. For the sake of clarity, the openings are not shown in the drawing.

[0057] A second memory element may be required to provide a larger total memory, for example for furniture systems that require complex control. The bus connections of the programming interfaces 16 and 16a of the different memory elements 14 and 14a can be used independently of each other, so that parallel, simultaneous loading of the two independent memory elements 14 and 14a is possible.

[0058] The processor 13 and the memory element 14 may come from two different manufacturers. The fact that programming interfaces are often manufacturer-specific is circumvented in this case by the fact that a programming station can address several separate programming interfaces 16 and 16a in parallel using the needle adapter 20 which may have several independent data lines.

[0059] In one embodiment of the electronic component, the circuit board includes two separate non-volatile memory elements whose programming interfaces are electrically connected to some of the contact areas 15.

[0060] This embodiment is also used to expand the total memory in case, for example, the processor 13 does not include an integrated memory element 14a.

[0061] According to an embodiment described above, even in the case of multiple memory elements 14 and 14a, power supply terminals 17 can be electrically connected to at least one of the contact areas 15, so that the memory elements can be supplied with electrical power by the needle adapter during programming.

[0062] FIG. 3 shows a schematic illustration of an arrangement for programming an electronic component 1 to control an adjustable furniture system. The arrangement comprises a device arranged to make electrical contact with the contact areas 15 by means of a needle adapter 20 through the openings 11 in the housing 10 of the component 1. The arrangement further comprises a data processing equipment 30 arranged to establish a data connection to the programming interface 16 and to program the memory element 14 while the electrical contact is established.

[0063] In one embodiment, the arrangement further comprises a power supply for the memory element 14. Thus, the entire process of programming can be carried out by means of the needle adapter 20 without requiring a connection to a voltage supply via a separate power supply unit. This significantly increases productivity, especially when automating production.

[0064] The housing 10 of the component 1 includes, for example, a mounting device 18 which is set up in such a way that when the component 1 is mounted on a furniture system, the opening 11 in the housing 10 is covered by part of the furniture system. For this purpose, the mounting device 18 is attached on the same side as the opening 11. This protects the component 1 from the ingress of particles such as dirt or dust. This also prevents accidental entry into the openings, for example with pointed objects.

[0065] FIG. 4 shows a schematic structure of an electrically adjustable furniture system, which in this case is designed as a height-adjustable table 4. The table 4 has a table top 40 to which a component 1 is attached. The component 1, for example designed as a control unit, controls an adjustment drive 41 for height adjustment of table 4 or table top 40.

[0066] Other electrically adjustable furniture systems, which can be controlled by means of an electronic component 1, include beds, reclining furniture and seating furniture, for example.

[0067] It goes without saying that features shown in the description with regard to individual exemplary embodiments can be combined with each other in a suitable way.