JPH04220100A - Control system for plural equipment groups - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate setting and revision of group formation in the group control system in which a controller for plural equipments such as air- conditioners is connected to a common signal line. CONSTITUTION:An address setting device setting kinds of equipments, group number and its own address is provided to each equipment controller. In the case of operating equipments of a group B, a central management equipment 10 sends an operating command to each device, in which each own address of each equipment controller is discriminated by a tens digit of the command and respective addresses of remote controllers and equipment controllers 1b, 2b, 3b, 4b belonging to the group number 2 are respective '020', '120', '121', '122'. Moreover, when an operation command different from a remote controller and an indoor machine is sent, the central management equipment 10 sends an operating command to each device, in which each own address of each device controller is discriminated by a hundreds digit of the command and the respective address of the remote controller 1b is '020' and the respective addressed of the indoor controllers 2b, 3b, 4b are respectively '120', '121', '122'. When the address by address setting devices 11a-41c is set at shipment in advance, no setting is required at site.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multiple device group control system for controlling a plurality of controlled devices such as air conditioners as a group.

0002

[Prior Art] FIG. 3 shows, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-102049
It is a block diagram showing the conventional multiple device group control system shown in the publication, and in the figure, (10) is
A central management control device that transmits operation command signals to selectively operate each of multiple device control system groups A, B, and C, (1a) for group A, (1b) for group B,
(1c) is the remote controller for group C (hereinafter referred to as remote controller), (2a), (3a), and (4a) are for group A, (2b), (3b, and 4b) are for group B, (2
c) (3c) (4c) are device controllers of C group, (2
0a) (30a) (40a) are of group A, (20b
)(30b)(40b) is of group B, (20c)(
30c) (40c) are controlled devices such as air conditioners in group C, (21a) (31a) (41a) are in group A, (21b) (31b) (41b) are in group B,
(21c) (31c) (41c) are address setters for group C, (22a) (32a) (42a) (22b)
(32b) (42b) (22c) (32c) (42c)
are switches (hereinafter referred to as parent/child selection switches) that are parent/slave device selectors for each device controller (2a) to (4c); (5a)
) is group A, which is the remote control (1a) and the device controller (
2a) The signal line connecting (3a) and (4a), (5b) is the B group remote control (1b), equipment controller (2b)
) (3b) The signal line connecting (4b), (5c) is the C group remote control (1c), device controller (2c) (
3c) The signal line connecting (4c), (6) is the device controller (2a) (2b) (2c) with the parent/child selection switches (22a) to (42c) set as the parent device, and the central management control device (1).
0).

Next, the operation will be explained. Now, only the parent and child selection switches (22a) (22b) (22c) are on and the others are off, and the equipment controllers (2a) (2b) (2c) are the parent units of each group A, B, and C, and the others are equipment controller (3
It is assumed that a) to (4c) are selected as slave devices. Also,
The addresses (hereinafter referred to as unit addresses) in each group of the base units (2a) (2b) (2c) are fixed unit addresses regardless of the setting values of the address setters (21a) (21b) (21c), e.g. "000" is given, and its address setter (21a) (21b)
(21c) is the group address, for example (22a) is "000", (22b) is "001", (22c)
"010" is given to each of them. The address setters (31a) to (41c) of other slave units have respective unit addresses, for example (31a) (31b) (3
1c) is "001", (41a) (41b) (41c
) are set to "010", respectively.

[0004] Now, when group B including the device controller (2b) is specified in the central management control device (10) and an operation command signal is transmitted via the signal line (6) by serial transmission, this The operation command signal is from the main equipment controller (2a) (2
b) Received at the same time as (2c). Since the received data includes the group address data of the device controller (2b), only the device controller (2b) can use the address setting device (
21b) matches the group “001” set in
The received data is considered valid and the device controller (2a) (2c)
Since these do not match, the received data is considered invalid. Therefore, the device controller (2b) sends an operation command to the device controllers (3b) (4b) of the slave units connected to it via the signal line (5b), and these device controllers (3b)
(4b) makes this operation command valid, and each controlled device (20b) (30b) (40b) is operated. On the other hand, at the same time, the remote control (1b) also receives the operation command from the device controller (2b) via the signal line (5b).
Transmission from the remote control (1b) is stopped, and each device controller (2b) (3b) (4b) is connected to the central management control device (10).
Control is based solely on configuration data sent from the

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since the conventional multiple device group control system is configured as described above, the transmission lines of devices in the same group must be connected separately from other groups, and The disadvantage was that the wiring had to be changed when changing the . In addition, since the master unit relays data from the central management control device to the slave units,
Not only does this lead to a decrease in reliability, as a failure of the parent unit will cause the entire group to go down, but also requires the above-mentioned relay function to be included in equipment with a parent/child selection switch, which increases the hardware load due to the provision of two transmission devices. However, there were problems in that the load on the software that processes it increases and a time delay occurs due to relaying.

[0006] This invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it has easy group setting and changing operations, high reliability in that failure of one unit does not affect the whole unit, and The purpose of this invention is to obtain a highly reliable multi-device group control system that is free of hardware load, software load, and time delay due to relaying.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A multiple device group control system according to a first aspect of the present invention includes an address setting device for setting a self address including a device type and a group number to each of a plurality of device controllers. It is prepared.

A multiple device group control system according to a second aspect of the present invention includes a self-address setter for each device controller, and a connection partner address setting device for setting the address of the device controller belonging to the group in the remote controller. The device is equipped with a device, a connection destination address memory for storing the connection destination address, and a transmitter for transmitting a driving command signal to the address stored in the connection destination address memory.

[0009]

[Operation] In the multiple device group control system according to the first aspect of the present invention, since the own address including the device type and group number is set in each device controller by the address setting device, the group set in this device is By changing the numbers, the group organization can be easily set and changed without changing the wiring.

In the multiple device group control system according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the address of the device controller belonging to each group is set in the connection destination address setting device of each remote controller, the setting of this connection destination address can be changed. You can easily set and change the group composition by simply doing this.

[0011]

[Example] Example 1. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the first invention of the present invention. In the figure, (10) is a central management control device, (1a), (1b), and (1c) are remote controllers,
(2a) (3a) (4a) (2b) (3b) (4b) (
2c) (3c) (4c) are device controllers, (20a) (3
0a) (40a) (20b) (30b) (40b) (2
0c) (30c) (40c) are controlled devices, (21a)
(31a) (41a) (21b) (31b) (41b)
(21c) (31c) (41c) are address setters, (
5a), (5b), (5c) and (6) are signal lines, which are similar to the conventional example shown in FIG. (11a) is the address setting device of the remote control (1a), (11b) is the address setting device of the remote control (1b), and (11c) is the remote control (1a).
1c) address setter, these address setters (1c)
1a) to (41c) are each set with a three-digit decimal address.

Next, the operation will be explained. The hundreds digit of the address set in the address setters (11a) to (41c) indicates the type of equipment, where 0 is the remote control, 1 is the indoor unit of the air conditioner (hereinafter referred to as the indoor unit), and 2 or more is the other unit. Equipment. The tens digit indicates the group number, the ones digit indicates the sequential number of the same model within the same group, and the entire three digits indicate the own address. Assuming that all equipment controllers (2a) to (4c) are indoor units, and assuming that group A is group number 1, group B is group number 2, and group C is group number 3, remote control (1a), equipment controller When organizing (2a) to (4a) into group A, set their own addresses to "010", "110", "111", and "112", and set the remote control (1b) and device controllers (2b) to (4b) to When organizing into group B, set each own address as "020".
"120""121""122", remote control (1c),
When organizing device controllers (2c) to (4c) into group C, set their own addresses to "030" and "130".
It is sufficient to set "131" and "132".

Now, for example, when operating equipment in group B, the central control device (10) determines the address of each equipment controller based on the tens digit, and selects the remote control and equipment controller belonging to group number 2. Yes (1b) (2b) (3
b) (4b)'s own address "020""120""12"
Operation commands with addresses 1 and 122 are sent to each device. Also, when transmitting different operation commands to the remote control and the indoor unit, it is determined by the hundreds digit of the own address, and the address "020" is used for the operation command to the remote control (1b), and the address "020" is sent to the indoor unit controller (2b) ( 3b) (
The operation command for 4b) has addresses "120" and "12".
1" and "122" are added and transmitted.

[0014] The address setting devices (11a) to (41c)
), if the address setting is preset at the time of shipment,
There is no need to configure settings on site. Furthermore, if a different one's digit number is given to each equipment controller, when changing the group, it is sufficient to simply change the tens digit. In the above embodiment, a three-digit decimal number is used in the address setting device, and the device type and group number are assigned according to the digits, but the assignment may be made using a binary number.

Example 2. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the second invention of the present invention, in which (1a)
(1b) (1c) are remote controls, (2a) (3a) (4a
) (2b) (3b) (4b) (2c) (3c) (4c)
are device controllers, (20a) (30a) (40a) (20
b) (30b) (40b) (20c) (30c) (40
c) is the controlled device, (11a) (11b) (11c) (
21a) (31a) (41a) (21b) (31b) (
41b), (21c), (31c), and (41c) are address setters, and (5a), (5b), (5c), and (6) are signal lines, which are similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. (12
a) (12b) (12c) are each remote control (1a) (1b
) (1c), a connection destination address setting device (13a) for setting the address of the device controller belonging to each group;
) (13b) (13c) are connection partner address memories that store the addresses set by these connection partner address setting devices (12a) (12b) (12c), (14a) (1
4b) (14c) are these address memories (13a) (
13b) This is a transmitter that transmits a driving command signal to the address stored in (13c).

Next, its operation will be explained. First, the address setters (11a) to (41c) are set so as not to overlap with each other for individual identification. For example, address setters (11a) (21a) (31a) (41a) (
11b) (21b) (41b) (11c) (21c) (
31c) (41c) respectively.
01” “02” “03” “04” “05” “06” “0
7,” “08,” “09,” “10,” “11,” and “12.” When organizing the remote control (1a) and device controllers (2a) to (4a) into group A, set "02", "03", "
04'' are set sequentially, and these set addresses are stored in the connection partner address memory (13a). When organizing the remote control (1b) and device controllers (2b) to (4b) into group B, set "06", "07", and "08" in sequence in the remote control (1b)'s connection destination address setting device (12b). These set addresses are stored in the connection partner address memory (13b). Remote control (1c
), when organizing device controllers (2c) to (4c) into group C, "10", "11", and "12" are sequentially set in the connection destination address setting device (12c) of the remote controller (1c), These set addresses are stored in the connection partner address memory (13c).

Next, when an operation switch (not shown) on the remote control (1b) is operated in an attempt to operate the equipment in group B, the address stored in the connection partner address memory (13b) in the remote control (1b) is A driving command signal with "06", "07", and "08" is sent by the transmitter (14b), and these addresses "06"
” “07” “08” Equipment controllers (2b) (3
b) This operation command signal is received by (4b), and the group operation of the controlled devices (20b) (30b) (40b) is performed.

[0018] In the above embodiment, the case where the controlled device is an indoor unit of an air conditioner is explained, but the above-mentioned method may also be applied to other devices such as illuminators and circuit breakers that are subject to group control as the controlled device. The same effects as in the embodiment are achieved.

[0019]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, each of a plurality of device controllers is provided with an address setting device for setting its own address including the device type and group number. Group settings and change operations for multiple device controllers can be easily performed without changing wiring, and failure of one unit does not affect the entire unit, and hardware load, software load, and time delay due to relaying are eliminated. This has the effect of providing a highly reliable multi-equipment group control system without any problems.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, each device controller includes a self-address setting device, and the remote controller includes a connection partner address setting device for setting the address of the device controller belonging to the group. In addition to the effects of the first invention described above, since the present invention includes a connection partner address memory for storing the connection partner address and a transmitter for transmitting a driving command signal to the address stored in the connection partner address memory, in addition to the effects of the first invention described above, This has the effect that complex group organization can be easily realized using only two parties, the remote controller and the device controller.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a first aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a second invention of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional multiple device group control system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b, 1c remote controller 2a,
2b, 2c Equipment controllers 3a, 3b, 3c Equipment controllers 4a, 4b, 4c Equipment controllers 5a, 5b, 5c, 6 Signal line 10 Central management control device 20a, 2
0b, 20c Controlled equipment 30a, 30b, 30c Controlled equipment 40a, 40b, 40c Controlled equipment 11a, 11b, 11c Address setter 12a, 12
b, 12c Connection partner address setter 13a, 13b,
13c Connection partner address memory 14a, 14b, 14
c transmitter

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: A central management control device that transmits operation command signals to a plurality of controlled devices divided into groups, and a central management control device that receives operation commands from the central management control device and individually controls the controlled devices according to the signals. In a multi-device group control system in which multiple device controllers that control a A multi-equipment group control system characterized by: Claim 2: A remote controller that sends a driving command signal to controlled devices in a group, and a plurality of device controls that receive driving commands from the remote controller and individually control the controlled devices according to the signals. In a multiple device group control system in which devices are connected by a common signal line, each device controller is equipped with a self-address setter,
In the remote controller, there is a connection partner address setting device for setting the address of the device controller belonging to the group, a connection partner address memory that stores the connection partner address, and an operation command signal for the address stored in this connection partner address memory. A multiple device group control system characterized in that each device is equipped with a transmitter that transmits.