KR20180130132A - Method for booting and upgrading a central controller of an air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for booting and upgrading a central controller of an air conditioner. The method comprises the steps of: receiving a boot start command and executing a bootloader; determining whether booting is abnormal; rebooting in a backup mode when the booting is abnormal; determining whether the booting in the backup mode is abnormal; and rebooting in a USB mode when the booting in the backup mode is abnormal.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of booting and upgrading a central controller of an air conditioner,

The present invention relates to a method of booting and upgrading a central controller of an air conditioner.

The air conditioner is a device for cooling / heating the room or purifying the air to create a more comfortable indoor environment for the user.

Such an air conditioner can be classified into a separate type air conditioner in which an indoor unit and an outdoor unit are separated from each other, and an integrated type air conditioner in which an indoor unit and an outdoor unit are combined into one unit. In addition, a single air conditioner configured to be used in a narrow place with a capacity capable of driving one indoor unit according to the capacity of the air conditioner, a middle- or large-sized air conditioner configured with a very large capacity for use in a company or a restaurant, And a multi-function air conditioner configured to sufficiently drive the air conditioner.

At this time, the separate type air conditioner is composed of an indoor unit installed in a room and supplying warm air or cold air to the inside of the air conditioning space, and an outdoor unit performing compression or expansion of refrigerant so that sufficient heat exchange operation can be performed in the indoor unit.

The air conditioner has a cycle in which the refrigerant circulating in the inside circulates heat in the order of compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation. In accordance with the cycle, the air conditioner operates as a cooling cycle for discharging heat to the outside in the summer, and a heating pump for circulating the heat to the inside of the room in the winter season.

In the case of the multi-type air conditioner, the plurality of outdoor units are connected to the central controller so that the manager can control the plurality of outdoor units and the plurality of indoor units to operate individually or simultaneously.

When the central controller is turned on, it automatically checks the version at boot time and upgrades if necessary.

There are system files and backup files on the central controller. If the system files are corrupted, you can boot and upgrade using the backup files.

However, if both the system file and the backup file are destroyed, booting or upgrading becomes impossible.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0818237 discloses a firmware upgrade system and method capable of upgrading firmware for performing an operation of a portable device.

The firmware upgrade system includes a computer capable of downloading the latest version of firmware from a server connected through a communication network, and a portable device connected to the computer and capable of transmitting and receiving data with the computer. Here, the portable device has a flash memory and compares the firmware downloaded to the computer with the firmware stored in the flash memory. If the downloaded firmware is newer than the firmware stored in the flash memory, the firmware stored in the flash memory can be upgraded to the downloaded firmware .

However, it can only be upgraded over the network, and this upgrade can only be done when the system is stable and booting is complete. In other words, when the system is unstable, it can not be upgraded through the network, and when the backup file is destroyed and even the version check can not be performed, there is a problem that booting and upgrading can not be performed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of booting and upgrading using a USB without restriction of a complicated environment such as a network even when both the user partition and the backup partition are broken in the system file of the central controller of the air conditioner.

In order to accomplish the above object, a booting and upgrading method of a central controller for controlling a plurality of outdoor units and indoor units in an air conditioner of the present invention includes a step of executing a boot loader by inputting a boot start command, Determining whether or not the booting in the backup mode is abnormality, and, if the booting in the backup mode is abnormal, rebooting to the USB mode .

It is preferable to determine whether the boot cause is a reset of three or more times by a watchdog timer in the step of determining whether the boot is abnormal.

It is preferable to determine whether or not the boot cause is a reset of two or more times by a watchdog timer in the step of determining whether or not booting in the backup mode is abnormal.

The step of rebooting into the USB mode preferably includes the steps of loading the boot loader into the RAM in the BIOS of the USB, and executing the boot loader.

The step of executing the boot loader includes the steps of initializing a CPU and a memory management unit (MMU), initializing basic hardware, executing USB recognition software, loading a kernel file into a RAM , And executing the kernel and the file system.

According to the booting and upgrading method of the central controller of the air conditioner of the present invention, even when the user partition and the backup partition are both broken in the system file of the central controller, can do.

Also, during booting and upgrading using USB, incomplete kernel and system files can be replaced with complete kernel and system files.

And, even if the central controller can not boot itself, the user can boot and upgrade easily using the USB memory without the help of a specialist.

1 is a schematic view showing a configuration of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of booting and upgrading a central controller according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart showing a process of booting using a USB boot loader.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic view showing a configuration of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, a plurality of outdoor units 31, 33, 35, and 37 are illustrated, and one or a plurality of outdoor units may be installed depending on the size of a space for cooling or heating.

The outdoor unit is provided with a compressor, a heat exchanger, and a blower fan. The heat exchanger functions as a condenser during cooling and as an evaporator during heating.

The plurality of outdoor units may be connected to one or a plurality of indoor units (41 to 53) through refrigerant pipes and electric wires.

The indoor unit is provided with a heat exchanger and a blower, and the heat exchanger functions as an evaporator during cooling and as a condenser during heating.

The outdoor unit and the indoor unit are connected to circulate the refrigerant through a refrigerant pipe, and are connected to an external power source to supply power to the compressor and the blowing fan.

The plurality of indoor units (41 to 53) are each provided with a temperature sensor for measuring indoor air temperature at a position where the indoor unit is installed.

The plurality of outdoor units (31, 33, 35, 37) are connected to the central controller (20) so that the administrator can control the plurality of outdoor units and the plurality of indoor units to operate individually or simultaneously.

The central controller 20 includes a display unit 21 for displaying status information such as an indoor unit number to be controlled and room temperature measured by the temperature sensor, (23, 24).

The central controller 20 is connected to the manager computer 10 so that control objects can be clearly displayed through a larger monitor and the air conditioner can be more conveniently controlled through an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse .

Since the central controller 20 itself includes a microcomputer, a memory unit, and a communication unit even if the manager computer 10 is not provided, the manager can control the air conditioner only through the central controller 20 .

In addition to the basic functions such as device on / off, mode change, setting value input, blowing fan speed control, louver swing, etc., the central controller 20 can also operate the basic functions, (PDI), power management and scheduling, manual control and scheduling of digital output kits, Peak / Demand control, SD card slot, Power Distribution (ACP), which provides advanced functions such as integration of information and indicators.

The plurality of outdoor units 31, 33, 35, and 37 may include gateways 32, 34, 36, and 38 for communicating between the outdoor unit and the central controller 20, respectively.

The central controller 20 is connected to a gateway 32 provided in one outdoor unit 31 and the gateway 32 is sequentially connected to the other gateways 34, 36 and 38, 33, 35, and 37 and the indoor units 41 to 53 connected to the outdoor units 31, 33, 35, and 37, respectively.

Room temperature data measured by a temperature sensor provided in each indoor unit is transmitted to the central controller 20, and the central controller 20 controls the outdoor unit and the indoor unit to operate in a cooling or heating mode according to the measured room temperature .

Hereinafter, a booting and upgrading method of a central controller according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

When the user turns on the central controller 20, booting is started by the system file (S10).

Then, basically, the boot loader (boot loader) is executed to proceed with booting (S20).

A boot loader is a program that runs before the operating system starts up, finishes all the tasks necessary for the kernel to start properly, and finally starts the operating system.

When the central controller 20 is booted, it is determined whether or not the boot is abnormal.

Specifically, it is determined whether the boot cause is reset three times or more by a watchdog timer (S30).

The watchdog timer is also known as a "watchdog", an electronic timer used to detect and recover from computer malfunctions. During normal operation, the computer periodically restarts the watchdog timer to prevent timeouts or "timeouts". If the computer fails to restart the watchdog due to a hardware fault or a program error, the timer generates a timeout signal over time. This timeout signal is used to take several corrective actions. This corrective action generally involves keeping the computer system in a safe state and restoring it to normal operation.

If booting is not successful, the watchdog timer will automatically reset the central controller.

If it is reset by the watchdog timer and the number of times is less than two and the system is normally booted by the last reset, the kernel is executed in the user partition mode of the system file and the ramdisk is executed (S40).

If the watchdog timer is reset three times or more, it is determined that the user partition is broken. Therefore, the backup partition mode is re-booted (S50).

When booting in the backup mode, it is determined whether the reset by the watchdog is performed two or more times (S70). In such a case, it can be determined that the backup partition is also broken.

If the boot is normally performed in the backup mode or if the normal boot is immediately performed after the reset by the watchdog, the kernel can be executed in the backup partition mode and a ramdisk can be executed (S80).

If the watchdog is reset two or more times, the USB mode is rebooted (S100).

The central controller 20 has a jack for inserting and connecting a USB memory. When the central controller 20 is booted, the central controller 20 is booted with the bootable USB memory connected in preparation for booting in the USB mode.

The software of the central controller 20 can be upgraded by the USB memory before booting in the USB mode at boot time.

3 is a flowchart showing a process of booting using a USB boot loader.

When both the user partition and the backup partition of the central controller 20 are destroyed and a boot command signal using the USB memory is input to the central controller 20, the USB memory is powered on and powered on (S110).

Then, the BIOS of the USB loads the boot loader into the RAM (S120).

In general, a basic input / output system (BIOS) is a type of firmware that performs hardware initialization and provides runtime services to an operating system or application program when the IBM-compatible computer is powered on. The BIOS firmware is built into the PC and is the first program to start running when power is applied. In modern PCs, the BIOS performs the functions of initializing and checking hardware components, reading the operating system stored in the boot loader or mass storage device into RAM.

In the ROM of the USB memory connected to the central controller 20, there is a BIOS as described above, and the boot load is first executed at the boot time, and the boot load is loaded into the RAM area.

Then, the boot load is executed to proceed with booting.

The bootload first initializes the CPU and the MMU (memory management unit) of the central controller 20 (S132).

An MMU is a piece of computer hardware that manages the CPU's access to memory. It translates virtual memory addresses into real memory addresses. It is responsible for memory protection, cache management, and bus arbitration. It also handles bank switching in a simple 8-bit architecture.

Next, the boot load initializes the basic hardware (S134).

The basic hardware may include Ethernet, SD memory or NAND flash memory, timers, and the like.

Next, USB recognition software is executed (S136).

Normally, after the boot loader operation, the kernel image in the NAND flash memory or eMMC memory area is loaded into RAM. Here, software is provided to copy the kernel and system files in the USB to the NAND flash memory or the eMMC memory area of the central controller 20 before the boot loader operation is completed, so that USB can be recognized.

eMMC is a memory semiconductor embedded in mobile devices for high-speed data processing. Unlike a removable external memory card used as an auxiliary data storage space for a mobile device, the eMMC is a memory in which a controller and a NAND flash memory are integrated into a package in a product.

Next, the kernel file in the USB memory is loaded into the RAM (S138).

Finally, the kernel and the file system loaded by the boot loader are executed (S140). Then, the file upgrade of the central controller 20 is automatically performed.

Since the kernel and the file system incomplete in the NAND flash memory or the eMMC memory of the central controller 20 have been replaced with normal files in the USB, they are stored in the user partition (or backup partition) of the central controller 20 Boot and upgrade can be done by the kernel and file system.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, Changes will be possible.

10: administrator computer 20: central controller
31, 33, 35, 37: outdoor units 32, 34, 36, 38: gateway
41 to 53: indoor unit

Claims (5)

A booting and upgrading method of a central controller for controlling a plurality of outdoor units and indoor units in an air conditioner,
Executing a boot loader by inputting a boot start command;
Determining whether the boot is abnormal;
Rebooting into a backup mode if booting is abnormal;
Determining whether a boot in the backup mode is abnormal; And
Booting and upgrading the central controller, including rebooting to USB mode if one boot in backup mode is abnormal. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the step of determining whether or not the booting is abnormal includes determining whether the boot cause is a reset of three or more times by a watchdog timer. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein it is determined whether or not the boot cause is a reset of two or more times by a watchdog timer in a step of determining whether or not booting in the backup mode is abnormality. Way. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Wherein the step of rebooting into the USB mode comprises:
Loading the boot loader from the BIOS of the USB into the RAM; And
And executing said boot loader. ≪ RTI ID = 0.0 > 11. < / RTI > 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein executing the boot loader comprises:
Initializing a CPU and a memory management unit (MMU);
Initializing basic hardware;
Executing USB recognition software;
Loading a kernel file into the RAM; And
And executing a kernel and a file system.

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