Optical unit, light curtain and method for allocating an individual address

1. An optical unit for a light curtain for monitoring a protective field, said optical unit comprising:

a controller module; and

a plurality of optoelectronic components interconnected by a communication bus, each of said optoelectronic components having a transmission input terminal for receiving a transmission signal, a transmission output terminal for outputting a transmission signal, and a receiving terminal for receiving a control signal from said controller module, wherein the communication bus includes:

a data out line from the controller module connected in parallel with each of the optoelectronic components, the data out line operable to transmit data from the controller module to each of the optoelectronic components, and

a data in line connected serially in a daisy chain configuration between each of the plurality of optoelectronic components and the controller module, and

wherein an individual address is allocated to each of said optoelectronic components depending on a position of the respective optoelectronic component with respect to the other optoelectronic components.

2. The optical unit of claim 1 , wherein the optoelectronic components are connected to each other by at least one serial interconnection.

3. The optical unit of claim 2 further comprising at least one delay element for delaying signals transmitted on said serial interconnection.

4. The optical unit of claim 1 , wherein each of said optoelectronic components includes at least one light emitting element and at least one light receiving element.

5. The optical unit of claim 4 , wherein the emitted light is one of an infrared radiation having a wavelength between about 750 nm and 1500 nm and a visible light having a wavelength between about 400 nm and 750 nm.

6. The optical unit of claim 4 , further comprising an electronic circuit for driving said at least one light emitting element and for processing signals generated by said at least one light receiving element.

7. The optical unit of claim 1 , wherein each optoelectronic component includes one of a permanent memory and a volatile memory for storing the allocated individual address.

8. The optical unit of claim 1 , wherein at least one first plurality of optoelectronic components and at least one second plurality of optoelectronic components are grouped to form at least two optoelectronic modules within said optical unit.

9. The optical unit of claim 1 further comprising a second plurality of optoelectronic components interconnected by a communication bus, each of said second plurality of optoelectronic components having a transmission input terminal for receiving a transmission signal, a transmission output terminal for outputting a transmission signal, and a receiving terminal for receiving a control signal from said control unit, wherein:

each of said plurality of optoelectronic components includes at least one light emitting element and at least one light receiving element,

each of said second plurality of optoelectronic components includes at least one light emitting element and at least one light receiving element,

the plurality of optoelectronic components and the second plurality of optoelectronic components are positioned opposing each other, and

the light emitting elements and the light receiving elements are provided to form a light grid from a plurality of light barriers formed between opposing light emitting elements and light receiving elements.

10. A method for allocating an individual address to each of a plurality of optoelectronic components connected to each other via a communication bus, wherein the communication bus includes a data out line from a controller module connected in parallel with each of the optoelectronic components and a data in line connected serially in a daisy chain configuration between each of the plurality of optoelectronic components, said method comprising the following steps:

from the controller module, broadcasting a request to all optoelectronic components via the data out line in a first communication direction;

from each of the optoelectronic components, transmitting an individual response to the controller via the data in line in a second communication direction; and

allocating an individual address to each of the optoelectronic components depending on a position of the respective optoelectronic component with respect to the other optoelectronic components.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first and second communication directions are opposed to each other.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein said optoelectronic components are connected to each other by at least one serial interconnection.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein during a set-up mode the individual addresses are allocated and stored in a permanent memory in each optoelectronic component.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein during a set-up mode the individual addresses are allocated and stored in a volatile memory in each optoelectronic component.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein each optoelectronic component has a unique identifier stored therein which is read out and correlated with the position of the respective optoelectronic component with respect to the other optoelectronic components for forming the individual address.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein said unique identifier is stored in each optoelectronic component during manufacture of the optoelectronic component or when assembling a group of the optoelectronic components.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein said controller module is operable to access each of the optoelectronic components randomly via said communication bus using the allocated addresses as node addresses.

18. The method of claim 10 further comprising the steps of:

calculating an inverted value of the allocated address for each of the optoelectronic components; and

storing the inverted value of the allocated address in each of the optoelectronic components.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the controller module addresses each optoelectronic component using the individual address and wherein each of the optoelectronic components use the inverted value of the allocated address to communicate with the controller module.

20. The method of claim 10 , wherein the optoelectronic component located farthest away from or nearest to the controller module has the highest priority.