CN113164997B

CN113164997B - Paint sprayer distributed control and output volume monitoring architecture

Info

Publication number: CN113164997B
Application number: CN201980076973.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 迈克尔·J·曼赛姆; N·H·瑞斯; D·R·强森; K·C·罗布; 罗伯特·J·冈德森; 安德鲁·J·科佩尔
Original assignee: Graco Minnesota Inc
Current assignee: Graco Minnesota Inc
Priority date: 2018-09-24
Filing date: 2019-09-23
Publication date: 2023-08-18
Anticipated expiration: 2039-09-23
Also published as: WO2020068685A1; CN113164997A; EP4144443A1; EP4144443B1; CN116943897A; AU2019350695A1; EP3856420B1; EP3856420A1; EP4144444A1; EP4144444B1; EP4331731A2

Abstract

An injector (1) for injecting a fluid comprises a pump (9), a motor (4) driving the pump (9), a driving cycle indicator (27A-C), a wireless module (23) configured to send and receive information, and a control circuit (21). The driving cycle indicator (27A-C) outputs an indication of the cycle status of the pump (9). The control circuit (21) is configured to receive the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump (9), determine a plurality of output values representative of paint spray fluid output volumes over a plurality of time windows based on the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump (9), store the plurality of output values in a memory (22), and cause the wireless module (23) to transmit one or more stored plurality of output values outwardly from the sprayer.

Description

Paint sprayer distributed control and output volume monitoring architecture

The present application claims the benefits of U.S. provisional application No. 62/735,524 filed on month 9 and 24, U.S. provisional application No. 62/755,181 filed on month 11 and 2, 2019, U.S. provisional application No. 62/789,219 filed on month 1 and 7, and U.S. provisional application No. 62/792,107 filed on month 1 and 14, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Background

The present disclosure relates generally to fluid dispensing systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to displacement pumps for fluid injection systems.

Fluid dispensing systems, such as those used to spray paint and other fluids, typically utilize an axial displacement pump to draw fluid from a source and drive the fluid downstream. The axial displacement pump includes a piston or diaphragm driven in a reciprocating manner along its longitudinal axis to pump the fluid and generate a pressure sufficient to atomize the fluid from the nozzle to create a spray fan (spray fan) for applying the fluid onto a surface.

Disclosure of Invention

In one example, the present disclosure describes an ejection system including a hand-held portable paint sprayer for spraying a spray fluid, the sprayer comprising: a piston pump outputting pressurized paint for spraying; a motor driving the pump; a driving cycle indicator configured to output a plurality of cycle status indications of the pump; a wireless module configured to wirelessly transmit and receive information; and a control circuit configured to receive a plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, determine a plurality of output values representative of paint spray output volumes over a plurality of time windows based on the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, store the plurality of output values in the memory, and cause the wireless module to transmit one or more stored output values outwardly from the sprayer.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a method for tracking fluid volume, the method comprising pressurizing spray paint with a pump output of an sprayer for spraying, generating a plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, determining, with a control circuit of the sprayer, a plurality of output values representative of paint spray output volumes over a plurality of time windows based on the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, and transmitting one or more of the plurality of output values outwardly from the sprayer with a wireless module of the sprayer.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a system for usage monitoring of an injector, the system comprising an injector for injecting a fluid, the injector comprising a memory configured to store a plurality of fluid output values of the injector, the plurality of fluid output values representing a time-varying fluid output volume of the injector, and a handheld computer device configured to receive the plurality of fluid output values from the injector and configured to operate in an accessible mode or in an inaccessible mode, the handheld computer device being in a first position, wherein a wireless connection to a network server via a continuous or near-continuous communication path is accessible, in an inaccessible mode, the handheld computer device being in a second position outside of a range of continuous or near-continuous communication paths to the network server. In the accessible mode, the handheld computer device is configured to transmit at least some of the plurality of fluid output values to the web server. In the inaccessible mode, the handheld computer device is configured to receive at least some of the fluid output values from the ejector, store the received fluid output values in a memory of the handheld device, and transition from the inaccessible mode to the accessible mode in response to determining that a continuous or near-continuous communication path to the network server is accessible for transmitting the stored fluid output values.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a method for usage monitoring of an injector, the method comprising, in a first instance of time, operating a handheld computer device in an accessible mode, wherein the handheld device is in a first position, wherein a wireless connection to a network server via a continuous or near-continuous communication path is accessible. In an accessible mode, the method includes transmitting at least some of the plurality of fluid output values received from the injector to the web server. In a second time instance, the method includes operating the handheld computer device in an inaccessible mode, wherein the handheld computer device is in a second position outside of a range of a continuous or near-continuous communication path to the network server. In the inaccessible mode, the method includes receiving at least some of the fluid output values from the ejector, storing the received fluid output values in a memory of the handheld device, and transitioning from the inaccessible mode to the accessible mode in response to determining that a continuous or near-continuous communication path to the web server is accessible for transmitting the stored fluid output values.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a method comprising receiving, by a handheld computer, user credentials of a user of the handheld computer and identifying information of an injector in wireless communication with the handheld computer, receiving, by the handheld computer, from the injector via wireless communication, a plurality of fluid parameter values representative of fluid output by the injector over time, wherein the plurality of fluid parameter values includes a first set of fluid parameter values generated during use of the injector by the user and a second set of fluid parameter values generated prior to use of the injector by the user, determining whether the user credentials are authorized for viewing one or more of the plurality of fluid parameter values including the first set of fluid parameter values and the second set of fluid parameter values, wirelessly transmitting, by the handheld computer, the plurality of fluid parameter values to a web server remote from the injector and the handheld computer, and in response to determining that the user credentials are not authorized for viewing the second set of fluid parameter values, preventing the user from being authorized for viewing on the handheld computer, at least the second set of fluid parameter values by the user, the user being able to display, by the handheld computer, based on the at least some of the plurality of fluid parameter values, the second set of fluid parameter values being displayed by the handheld computer.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a system comprising a sprayer and a handheld computer comprising a wireless transceiver, a display device, and control circuitry, wherein the control circuitry is configured to receive user credentials of a user of the handheld computer and identification information of the sprayer in wireless communication with the handheld computer, receive, via the wireless transceiver, a plurality of fluid parameter values from the sprayer representative of fluid output by the sprayer over time, wherein the plurality of fluid parameter values comprises a first set of fluid parameter values generated during use of the sprayer by the user and a second set of fluid parameter values generated prior to use of the sprayer by the user, determine whether the user credentials are authorized for viewing one or more of the plurality of fluid parameter values comprising the first set of fluid parameter values and the second set of fluid parameter values, cause the wireless transceiver to wirelessly transmit the plurality of fluid parameter values to a network server remote from the sprayer and the handheld computer, in response to determining that the user credentials are not authorized for viewing a second set of fluid parameter values over time, prevent the user from being authorized for viewing the second set of fluid parameter values via the handheld computer, display of fluid parameter values in spite of the user credentials being authorized for viewing by the second set of fluid parameter values by the user using the handheld computer, the wireless transceiver indicating that the user credentials are authorized for viewing the first set of fluid parameter values.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a system comprising: an injector including a pump outputting pressurized fluid for injection; a motor driving the pump; an injector control circuit configured to generate data indicative of an injection volume; and a wireless module configured to wirelessly transmit information including data indicative of the ejection volume. The system includes control circuitry external to the injector configured to receive data indicative of an injection volume, maintain an injection volume maintenance log in memory by updating the injection volume maintenance log with the data indicative of the injection volume from the injector, compare the injection volume maintenance log to an injection volume threshold, and issue an alarm when the injection volume maintenance log is greater than the injection volume threshold.

In one example, the present disclosure describes an injector system including an injector for injecting an injection fluid, the injector comprising: a pump outputting pressurized injection fluid for injection; a motor driving the pump; a pressure sensor that measures a fluid pressure output from the pump; and a wireless module configured to wirelessly transmit and receive information. The system also includes a control circuit configured to receive a plurality of pressure values when the pump is operating during a window, determine an aggregate pressure metric for the window based on the plurality of pressure values received during the window, and cause the wireless module to transmit the aggregate pressure metric.

In one example, the present disclosure describes an injector system comprising: a pump outputting pressurized injection fluid for injection; a motor driving the pump; a pressure sensor configured to sense an actual pressure downstream of the pump; a wireless module configured to wirelessly transmit and receive information; a pressure control input for a pump outputting a user input of a pressure setting; and a control circuit configured to receive a threshold pressure received wirelessly via the wireless transceiver, receive a pump output pressure setting, and control operation of the injector based on the threshold pressure, the pump output pressure setting, and the actual pressure, wherein the control circuit causes the motor to drive the output of the pump to the pump output pressure setting unless the pump output pressure setting is greater than the threshold pressure, in which case the control circuit causes the motor to drive the output of the pump to the threshold pressure.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a system for paint spray volume tracking that includes one or more sprayers for spraying fluid for a plurality of jobs, one or more handheld computer devices communicatively coupled to the one or more sprayers, wherein each of the one or more handheld computer devices is configured to receive information indicative of one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs, receive information from the one or more sprayers indicative of an amount of fluid sprayed by the one or more sprayers, and output information indicative of an amount of fluid sprayed in association with a selected job of the one or more jobs. The system further includes a web server configured to receive respective information from each of the one or more handheld computer devices indicative of an amount of fluid ejected for a respective job, update a respective ejection volume log based on the respective information indicative of the amount of fluid ejected for the respective job, wherein the ejection volume logs are respectively associated with a plurality of jobs and each ejection volume log includes information indicative of the amount of fluid ejected at the associated job, and generate information indicative of the respective amount of fluid ejected for the plurality of jobs based on the ejection volume log.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a system for paint spray volume tracking, the system comprising one or more sprayers for spraying fluid for a plurality of jobs and a web server configured to receive information generated by the one or more sprayers, the information being indicative of an amount of fluid sprayed for a respective job, update a respective spray volume log based on the respective information indicative of the amount of fluid sprayed for the respective job, wherein the spray volume logs are respectively associated with the plurality of jobs and each spray volume log comprises information indicative of the amount of fluid sprayed at the associated job, and generate information indicative of the respective amount of fluid sprayed for the plurality of jobs based on the spray volume log.

In one example, the present disclosure describes a method of fluid spray dispensing that includes receiving a plurality of job profiles for a plurality of paint items respectively corresponding to one or more paint sprayers, generating a plurality of spray volume data sets with the one or more paint sprayers, transmitting the plurality of spray volume data sets, receiving a plurality of spray volume data sets, receiving an input associating the plurality of spray volume data sets with the plurality of paint items respectively, determining spray volume values for the plurality of paint items based on the plurality of spray volume data sets respectively associated with the plurality of paint items, and generating an output based on the spray volume values.

The details of one or more examples are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an isometric view of a fluid ejector.

Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the fluid ejector of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram of components of various devices for monitoring a fluid ejector in a wireless network.

FIG. 4A is a flowchart illustrating an example operation for generating time-based usage information on an injector.

Fig. 4B is a flowchart showing a variation of the operation of fig. 4A divided into two concurrent processes a and B.

FIG. 4C is a flowchart illustrating an example operation for generating time-based injection pressure information on an injector.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of coupling a handheld computer to an injector to move data generated on the injector to a network server via the handheld computer.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation for coupling an injector to a handheld computer.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a job feature.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a system for tracking generation efficiency.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of outputting a notification from a network server in response to receiving injector identification data for an injector, the injector identification data being associated with a status indicating that the injector is unexplained.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of remotely setting an injector pressure threshold using a wirelessly connected handheld computer.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation for limiting the output pressure of an injector to a threshold pressure that is received from a handheld computer via wireless communication.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of generating a maintenance alert for an injector using data received from a handheld computer via wireless communication.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of generating a maintenance alert for an injector using data received from a handheld computer via wireless communication.

FIG. 14 is an example performance data report for an injector.

FIG. 15 is an example job data report for a plurality of injectors.

Detailed Description

Pumps according to the present disclosure reciprocate pistons within cylinders to pump various fluids, examples of which include paints, water, oils, stains, finishes, aggregates, coatings, putties, sealants, solvents, and the like. One class of fluids is architectural coatings, which include paints for roofs, ceilings, walls (interior and exterior), and floors of structures. Paint will be used herein as an example, although any of the embodiments mentioned herein may be used with any type of fluid. The piston pump may generate high fluid pumping pressures, for example, between 1,000-5,000 pounds per square inch or even higher, although 2,000-3,500 pounds per square inch is a typical range. The high fluid pumping pressure is useful for atomizing paint from a nozzle into a spray for applying the paint as a coating to a surface.

Fig. 1 is an isometric view of a fluid ejector 1. Fig. 1 also shows a handheld computer 14. The handheld computer 14 may be any type of handheld portable computer. As shown, the handheld computer 14 is a cellular telephone, more particularly a smart phone, but may also be a tablet or other type of portable device. The handheld computer 14 is wirelessly connected to both the fluid ejector 1 and an information network such as the internet via a cellular, wi-Fi or other type of data transfer connection. The handheld computer 14 is portable and is intended to be fully supported by a person's single hand and is typically carried around by the person while working.

Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the fluid ejector 1. Fig. 1 and 2 will be discussed together. The fluid ejector 1 comprises a frame 6. In this embodiment, the frame 6 comprises legs for supporting the fluid ejector 1 on a floor. The frame 6 may additionally or alternatively include wheels or other ground-contacting supports. In any event, fluid injector 1 may be carried or otherwise moved by a single person for transportation for use at various work sites. The frame 6 fully supports the main housing containing the motor 4 and the controller 5. The motor 4 is mounted on a frame 6. The fluid ejector 1 is human portable and comprises a handle 10 fixed to the frame 6 for manually picking up and carrying the fluid ejection system 1. Some larger embodiments of fluid ejector 1 may be rotated by a person tilting and pushing fluid ejector 1.

The controller 5 transmits electric power to the motor 4. The motor 4 may be an electric brushless rotor stator motor or the like. In other forms, the motor 4 may be a gas (combustion), pneumatic or hydraulic powered motor, or the like. In this and various other embodiments, the motor 4 outputs a rotational motion. The motor 4 rotates a drive 7, which in the embodiment shown comprises drive members 7A-7C. The driving parts 7A to 7C in the present embodiment include various parts for converting the rotational motion output from the motor 4 into linear reciprocating motion, such as gears, eccentrics, and cranks. The drive members 7A-7C may comprise different members, such as scotch yokes or other mechanisms for converting rotational motion into linear reciprocating motion. The driver 7 is connected to the top of the piston 13 of the pump 9 to reciprocate the piston 13 relative to the cylinder 12 of the pump 9. The pump 9 may be mounted on the frame 6, such as with a clamp, to support or otherwise hold the cylinder 12 in place during reciprocation of the piston 13.

The pump 9 sucks paint through the suction hose 2B. The end of the suction hose 2B may be immersed in a tank containing paint or other fluid to be sprayed. The pump 9 pressurizes the paint and outputs the paint to the spray gun 3 through the hose 2A. The spray gun 3 comprises a trigger device which can be manually actuated to open an internal valve (not shown) and release the paint as an atomized spray sector. Once the controller 5 is turned on to power the motor 4 and the pump 9 is activated, the fluid injector 1 may be operated to inject by pulling the trigger of the spray gun 3.

In typical operation, the fluid ejector 1 will be used at a remote location for a painting project. Some small items may be completed within one hour, while some items may take days, weeks, or months. Each painter is typically responsible for multiple projects at a time and may participate in multiple projects during the day. Sometimes a painter owns the fluid ejector 1 and may own several fluid ejectors. Sometimes, a painter is employed by a contractor company that owns multiple fluid ejectors and employs multiple other painters. In this case, the fluid injector 1 may be physically held in this position for several days, while multiple painters of the same employer operate the fluid injector 1.

Whether the fluid ejector 1 is part of a single painter or part of a fleet of ejectors, it is desirable to track the usage of the fluid ejector 1. This is for several reasons. The first reason is to keep track of the generation efficiency and costs associated with the painting project. The main driving costs of the painting project are the cost of the paint being sprayed and the labor of the painter to operate the fluid sprayer 1. Painting projects are typically bid based on square feet of the surface to be painted, with the cost and man-hours of paint being considered in the bid. And then keep track of how effectively the painter completed the project. Painters attempt to manage the amount and man-hours of paint sprayed so as not to exceed the paint gallon or man-hour assumption under bidding.

Another reason to track the use of the fluid ejector 1 is to ensure that it is used when expected and not used when expected to be idle (e.g., during a non-working time of a night shift (monlighting) worker). Another reason for tracking usage is to manage maintenance of the fluid ejector 1. For example, the seals of the pump 9 should be replaced after a particular gallon has been sprayed, and continuing to spray after that gallon has passed without maintenance risk of the fluid injector 1 failing among projects.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide features for monitoring the production efficiency of fluid ejector 1, including as part of a fluid ejector fleet, to track usage, production efficiency, and maintenance, as further illustrated herein. For example, the example techniques described in this disclosure provide a solution with practical application to improve operation of fluid injector 1 (e.g., such as to ensure that fluid injector 1 is properly maintained prior to a failure, to ensure that fluid injector 1 is effectively utilized, etc.). As described in more detail, example techniques utilize computing resources available in devices such as handheld computer 14 and/or resources available in cloud-based infrastructure to monitor the generation efficiency of fluid ejectors 1, including as part of a fluid ejector fleet, to track usage, generation efficiency, and maintenance.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the components of various devices for monitoring the fluid ejector 1 in a wireless network. As shown, the fluid ejector 1 includes a control circuit 21. The control circuit 21 may be one or more control boards and may be identical to the controller 5. The control circuit 21 in this embodiment includes a processor 24 operatively connected to a memory 22. Processor 24 may be a microprocessor, integrated chip, controller, digital Signal Processor (DSP), application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other equivalent discrete or integrated logic circuit. In some examples, processor 24 may be described as a processing circuit. Memory 22 may be one or more non-volatile semiconductor memory chips or other types of memory for storing firmware, software, and/or other types of executable program instructions executable by processor 24 for managing the operation of fluid injector 1 and storing data and other information that may be generated and/or received by fluid injector 1. For example, memory 22 may include a dedicated space for firmware and a temporary memory space (e.g., a first-in first-out buffer) as the same or separate chips.

The control circuit 21 may include a clock module, or the processor 24 may operate a counting routine or other clock function to determine the current time and date. In some examples, instead of or in addition to the control circuit 21 including a clock module or processor 24 that operates a counting routine or other clock function to determine the current time and date, the handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, and/or network server 35 may include a clock module and/or operate a counting routine or other clock function to determine the current time and date. As described in more detail, the control circuitry (e.g., one or a combination of the control circuitry 15 of the handheld computer 14 or the control circuitry 21 of the fluid ejector 1, or possibly other control circuitry) may be configured to determine timing information (e.g., a time window defined by the difference between the two events) to determine usage information of the fluid ejector 1.

Determining usage information for fluid ejector 1 associated with timing information (e.g., a time window) may allow the control circuitry to generate the usage information in a packetized manner for storage in a memory (e.g., memory 22 shown in fig. 3 or a memory of another device) and for easy transmission. In this manner, the exemplary components shown in FIG. 3 may operate in a manner that facilitates efficient memory storage and bandwidth usage while providing usage information for monitoring the generation efficiency of fluid injector 1.

In the example of fig. 3, the control circuit 21 includes a wireless module 23, which may be a wireless transceiver configured to wirelessly transmit and receive data with one or more remote computing devices, such as the handheld computer 14. In some embodiments, the wireless module 23 may be separate from the control circuit 21, butOperatively connected to the control circuit 21. As further explained herein, the wireless module 23 may communicate wirelessly with the handheld computer 14. In some embodiments, wireless module 23 may be configured for wireless communication over a limited distance, such as less than 50 feet, or less than 25 feet. For example, the wireless module 23 may be configured for BLUETOOTH by transmitting and receiving data over a short distance using short wavelength ultra-high frequency radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to 2.485GHz ^TM Protocol communication. The wireless module 23 is operatively connected to the processor 24 for receiving commands from the processor 24 and providing data to the processor 24. In some embodiments, wireless module 23 may send commands and/or data to processor 24 such that the communication is bi-directional.

Although the above examples describe wireless module 23 as communicating directly with handheld computer 14 over a limited distance, the techniques of this disclosure are not so limited. In some examples, wireless module 23 may be configured to indirectly communicate with a network (such as the internet) via a cellular network 41 (such as a cellular base station, a WiFi base station, or an orbiting satellite base station). Thus, in some examples, wireless module 23 may communicate with handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, or network server 35 using cellular network 41 instead of bluetooth communication. In such examples, handheld computer 14 need not be in the vicinity of fluid injector 1 and may communicate with fluid injector 23 using its connection to a network (e.g., the internet). For example, wireless module 23 may be used to upload and download data (e.g., in the form of cloud computing) from the internet, such as a data management server network.

Further, in some examples, such as where wireless module 23 is configured to communicate using cellular network 41, fluid injector 1 may communicate directly with network server 35 and/or personal computer 29, rather than through handheld computer 14. In the event that fluid ejector 1 communicates with network server 35 and/or personal computer 29 without using handheld computer 14, at least some, and possibly all, of the functionality of handheld computer 14 may be offloaded to other devices (e.g., personal computer 29 and/or network server 35). Thus, the handheld computer 14 may not be necessary in all examples.

The control circuit 21 further includes a motor controller 25. In some embodiments, the motor controller 25 is not part of the control circuit 21, but is still part of the controller 5. The motor controller 25 is operatively connected to the processor 24 for receiving instructions from the processor 24 and for providing data to the processor 24. The motor controller 25 may include one or more integrated chips for managing the operation of the motor 4. The motor controller 25 may output one or more signals of gating power to the motor 4 to drive the motor 4 and/or may directly deliver power to the motor 4.

The motor 4 may be a brush or a brushless dc motor. The motor 4 may be of a rotor-stator design. In some cases, the electric motor 4 may be a combustion engine, such as a gasoline or diesel powered electric motor. In this case, operation of the motor 4 may still be managed by the motor controller 25, such as by increasing or decreasing the power output of the motor 4 as needed (e.g., by adjusting the fuel supply). In some cases, no motor controller 25 is connected to the processor 24, and the motor controller 25 may be a mechanical mechanism for increasing and decreasing the output of the motor 4, such as by increasing or decreasing the fuel supply to the motor 4. As mentioned previously, the motor 4 reciprocates the piston 13 relative to the cylinder 12 via the drive members 7A-7C.

The fluid ejector 1 comprises a pressure sensor 28. The pressure sensor 28 may be a pressure transducer (pressure transducer) that measures the hydraulic pressure of paint flowing or pumped downstream of the pump 9. For example, the pressure sensor 28 may be located anywhere in the paint line between the pump 9 and the spray gun 3, although the pressure sensor 28 is typically located near the outlet of the pump 9. The pressure sensor 28 may be part of a hose fitting attached to the output of the pump 9. The pressure sensor 28 may be of the force collector type having a diaphragm, piston, bourdon tube (bourdon tube) or bellows that measures the strain or deflection of the element due to the force exerted on the area and may generate a signal indicative of the pressure based on the strain or deflection.

Typically, the pump 9 generates a pressure between 500 and 8000psi for atomizing the paint in the spray. The user may set the desired pressure level through input (e.g., potentiometer dial) of the controller 5 stored in the memory 22. Processor 24 may then receive the output from pressure sensor 28 and may in turn adjust the output of motor 4 driving pump 9 by controlling motor controller 25 to access and maintain the selected pressure.

The fluid ejector 1 includes a pump cycle sensor 27 as an example of a drive cycle indicator. Examples of the pump cycle sensor 27 are shown in fig. 2 as pump cycle sensor 27A, pump cycle sensor 27B, pump cycle sensor 27C, and pump cycle sensor 27D. Unless specifically described otherwise, the pump cycle sensor 27 may refer to any one or more of the pump cycle sensor 27A, the pump cycle sensor 27B, the pump cycle sensor 27C, or the pump cycle sensor 27D.

The pump cycle sensor 27 may take several forms and may measure movement of various components or other parameters. The function of the pump cycle sensor 27 is to provide an indication to the processor 24 of completion of one or both of the cycles or phases of the pump 9, or progress in the cycle. For example, pump cycle sensor 27 may track and provide an output indicative of a full cycle (e.g., upstroke and downstroke), a half cycle (e.g., upstroke or downstroke), or a smaller portion of the cycle (such as a quarter or tenth of a stroke) of pump 9, as well as other options for cycle increment. The pump cycle sensor 27 may be a linear encoder or hall effect sensor (e.g., pump cycle sensor 27A of fig. 2) that measures the stroke or cycle of the piston 13 relative to the cylinder 9. The pump cycle sensor 27 may be an encoder or hall effect sensor (e.g., pump cycle sensors 27B-27C of fig. 2) that measures the rotation of any of the drive components 7A-7C, such as one complete rotation or degree of rotation that has a direct relationship with the cycle of the piston 13. For example, one of the driving members 7A-7C can have 24 between its full rotation and one cycle of the pump 9: 1. Other ratios are also possible.

The pump cycle sensor 27 is capable of measuring a parameter of the motor 4. For example, fig. 2 shows an example of a pump cycle sensor 27D that may be configured to measure partial or complete rotation of the rotor, shaft, armature, or commutator of the motor 4. For convenience, reference numeral 26 is shown in fig. 2 as representing one or more of a rotor, shaft, armature, or commutator of the motor 4. The pump cycle sensor 27 may be an encoder or hall effect sensor that senses partial or complete rotation of a rotating component of the motor 4, such as a rotor, shaft, armature, or commutator. In some cases, pump cycle sensor 27 may be a sensor that measures the voltage or current of one or more channels connected to the armature and/or stator windings of motor 4, which is measured when the channel is not being used to drive motor 4 to measure the induced current indicative of rotation. As with the drive components 7A-7C, the rotation of the components of the motor 4 may be directly related to the position of the piston 13 or otherwise related to the circulation of the pump 9 to determine the status of the circulation of the pump 9.

As described above, the pump cycle sensor 27 is an example of a driving cycle indicator. Some exemplary ways in which the pump cycle sensor 27 may determine the state of the cycle of the pump 9 are described above (e.g., by directly determining the state of the cycle based on sensing the drive components 7A-7C or based on the correlation of the piston 13 with the cycle of the pump 9). However, the above examples should not be considered limiting. The driving cycle indicator, such as the pump cycle sensor 27, may be configured in various ways to determine the cycle status of the pump 9.

The pump cycle sensor 27 outputs to the control circuit 21. For example, pump cycle sensor 27 may provide an output to processor 24 directly or indirectly. Processor 24 may track the circulation of pump 9 based on the output received from pump circulation sensor 27 to determine how much fluid pump 9 has output. For example, the diameter and displacement of the piston 13 may be known and/or associated values, coefficients, or representative data may be stored in the memory 22. For each partial or full cycle of the pump 9 sensed by the pump cycle sensor 27, the volume of fluid output by a partial or full stroke of the pump 9 may be calculated. That is, the volume of fluid output per stroke of pump 9 may be expressed as a ratio: (volume/stroke). The ratio may also be considered as a scaling factor. For example, twenty cycles of pump 9 may correspond to one-tenth of a gallon (e.g., 0.1 gallon/20 cycles) of pumping. Thus, if pump 9 is cycled 40 times, then pump 9 is known to output two tenths of a gallon (e.g., 40 cycles 0.1 gallon per 20 cycles equal to 0.2 gallons). In another example, a quarter cycle of the piston 13 may correspond to pumping 0.01 gallons, such that each quarter stroke measured may be used to increase the running total of the pumping volume by 0.01 gallons (e.g., 0.01 gallons per 0.25 cycles). As shown, a ratio or coefficient representing the volume pumped per pump cycle increment may be stored in a memory (e.g., memory 22) and used to track the volume pumped over a period of time, such as by multiplying the cycle increment over the period of time by the ratio or coefficient, or increasing the total amount of operation for each indication that a received pump cycle is complete.

As previously described, the pump cycle sensor 27 may measure the movement of the piston 13 directly, or indirectly by measuring the relative movement of the drive components 7A-7C, components of the motor 4, or other components or aspects that may be used to identify and count the partial and/or full cycles of the pump 9 and/or the corresponding fluid output of the pump 9.

In addition to showing the components of the injector 1, fig. 3 shows example components of the handheld computer 14. As previously described, the handheld computer 14 may be a telephone or tablet computer. The handheld computer 14 includes control circuitry 15. The control circuit 15 may be a single circuit board or may be composed of a plurality of operatively connected circuit boards. The control circuit 15 includes a processor 18 operatively connected to the memory 16. The control circuit 15 may include a clock module, or the processor 18 may operate a counting routine or other clock function to determine the current time and date. The processor 18 and memory 16 may be similar to any version of the processor 24 and memory 22 previously described, and thus for brevity, the previous discussion of processor and memory options will not be repeated.

The control circuit 15 further comprises a Global Positioning System (GPS) module 19 or a module for another type of satellite geolocation system. The GPS module 19 communicates with the processor 18. The GPS module 19 may receive a plurality of location signals from the GPS network 42 that may be used (e.g., by the processor 18) to determine specific coordinates of the handheld computer 14 on the earth (i.e., the geographic location of the handheld computer 14). Other ways of determining the specific coordinates of the handheld computer 14 are possible and the GPS module 19 provides some example ways. In other examples of the technology of the present disclosure, the GPS module 19 is not included in the handheld computer 14.

The control circuit 15 further comprises a wireless module 17. The wireless module 17 may be used to wirelessly communicate with a cellular network 41, such as a cellular network. In other possibilities, the wireless module 17 may additionally or alternatively be used to connect to other types of wireless networks, such as Wi-Fi networks. The wireless module 17 is used for two-way communication of data through the cellular network 41 or other network. For example, wireless module 17 may be used to upload and download data (e.g., in the form of cloud computing) from the internet, such as a data management server network.

The handheld computer 14 also includes one or more interfaces 20. The one or more interfaces 20 may include a display, touch screen, keyboard, buttons, and/or other inputs and outputs. The one or more interfaces 20 may receive data from the processor 18 for presentation, such as on a display. Likewise, the processor 18 may receive data or other signals from one or more interfaces 20 that correspond to input from a user, such as input received in the form of a user gesture (e.g., a touch gesture, a swipe gesture, a press gesture, a two-finger gesture, or other gesture input). Although not shown in the example of fig. 3, the handheld computer 14 may include a rechargeable battery. The one or more interfaces 20 may include and/or take the form of a user interface Graphical User Interface (GUI) presented on a display screen of the handheld computer 14, such as a touch screen display. The GUI may present graphical information to a user at the display screen. The GUI may include one or more graphical control elements, such as selection areas, buttons, radio buttons, menus, drop down menus, or other graphical control elements configured to receive user input.

Fig. 3 also shows a personal computer 29. The personal computer 29 may be a desktop, laptop, tablet or other type of computing device. In various embodiments, the personal computer 29 is not in direct communication with the injector 1, but may receive data indirectly from the injector 1 through the handheld computer 14, the cellular network 41 (or other wireless network), and the web server 35. Various other embodiments are not limited in this regard. For example, as described above, in some examples, the fluid ejector 1 may bypass the handheld computer 14 to communicate directly with the personal computer 29.

The personal computer 29 includes a control circuit 30. The control circuit 30 includes a memory 31 and a processor 33 that may be configured or otherwise function as other processors and memory components as described elsewhere herein. The control circuit 30 includes a communication module 32. The communication module 32 may be configured for wireless and/or wired data communication, including transmitting and receiving data. The communication module 32 may be a card for wireless connection to a data network and ultimately to the internet. For example, the communication module 32 may include a chip, an antenna, and/or other circuitry for wireless communication according to the IEEE 802.11 standard (commonly referred to as Wi-Fi). The communication module 32 may additionally or alternatively include a network interface card for wired connection to a data network and the internet.

The personal computer 29 includes one or more interfaces 34. The one or more interfaces 34 may be a screen (e.g., a computer monitor), a touch screen, a keyboard, a mouse, and/or other input or output components. The one or more interfaces 34 may receive data from the processor 33 for display or otherwise representing the data, and the one or more interfaces 34 may likewise communicate input from a user to the processor 33.

The network server 35 may be one of many network servers 35 that manage data in a distributed manner, such as in a cloud computing manner. The web server 35 includes a control circuit 36. The control circuit 36 may be similar to the control circuit 30 and may likewise be a single or multiple circuit boards. Memory 37, processor 39, communication module 38, and interface 40 may operate similar to memory 31, processor 33, communication module 32, and one or more interfaces 34 of personal computer 29. However, it is contemplated, but not required, that the memory 37 of the web server 35 have a greater capacity and the processor 39 of the web server 35 be more powerful/faster.

As further described herein, the injector 1, handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, and web server 35 work together to monitor the performance and production efficiency of the injector 1. Further, the injector 1 may be one of a plurality of injectors, and the handheld computer 14 may be one of a plurality of handheld computers, such that the web server 35 and the personal computer 29 manage data of an injector fleet. Even though the following examples provide techniques for generating and extracting data from fluid ejector 1 by handheld computer 14, it should be understood that these and other functions may be performed with various other types of ejectors and handheld computers. Further, in some examples, fluid ejector 1, handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, and network server 35 may operate together to perform the example techniques described in this disclosure. For example, in some cases, the control circuitry may refer to one or a combination of the control circuitry 15 of the handheld computer 14, the control circuitry 21 of the fluid ejector 1, the control circuitry 30 of the personal computer 29, or the processor 39 of the web server 35.

Fig. 4A shows a flow chart of a process for generating time-based usage information on the injector 1. This process may be performed by the control circuit 21. More specifically, the process may be performed by processor 24 and memory 22 by receiving inputs from pump around sensor 27 and pressure sensor 28. Fig. 4B shows a variation of the process of fig. 4A divided into two concurrent processes a and B. Both processes a and B may be performed by the control circuit 21. In some cases, both processes a and B may be performed by processor 24 (which may be a single processor or respective processors of processes a and B). In some cases, process a is performed by processor 24, while process B is performed by wireless module 23 (which may itself comprise a processor). As described above, the example techniques of fig. 4A and 4B may be performed by the control circuit 21 or in combination with other control circuits.

The process of fig. 4A includes a step 50 of the control circuit 21 opening a new time window. For each window that is open, a jet volume log count may be created in memory 22. The log referred to herein may be a table, array, queue, linked list, hash table, or other type of organized storage in memory that stores similar data collected over time for later retrieval. When an event is identified, the log count may be an increment of a log of the data type. For each window that is open, a cleaning volume log count may be created in memory 22. The cleaning volume log count may be a table, array, queue, linked list, hash table, or other type of log in which data may be stored in an organized manner for later retrieval. In various embodiments, each time window has only one cleaning volume log and only one jetting log associated with it, although other types of logs that track other data may be maintained. Likewise, each cleaning log is associated with only one respective time window, and each jetting volume log is associated with only one respective time window.

Each time window represents a predetermined amount of time. In various embodiments, the predetermined amount of time is one hour (60 minutes) such that each open time window represents the volume of paint sprayed in one hour. Other time window durations are also possible. In various embodiments, all time windows will have the same duration, one time window will open at all times, and only one window will open at any given time, such that the windows open and close continuously. The time window may be synchronized with the hours of standard time such that the window is open at the top of each standard time hour (e.g., 9am, 10am, 11am, etc.). Each saved time window entry may include data indicating a standard time and date for the window (e.g., 2018, 8, 5, 9am-10 am). Time zones and other time offset data may also be saved in the time window entry. In some cases, the injector 1 may not be able to identify its location (e.g., GPS chip or Wi-Fi connection, etc.), and thus no location information is saved in association with a time window or other collected information.

Other ways of forming the time window may exist. For example, the clock module of the control circuit 21 may be incremented once per second for the duration of the time window (e.g., 3600 increments for a 1 hour time window). The clock module may start when the fluid injector 1 is positioned for injection and stop counting when the fluid injector 1 is not positioned for injection (e.g., based on an accelerometer or gyroscope in the fluid injector 1). In some examples, the clock module may be continuously counted.

The process further comprises a step 51 of the control circuit 21 determining whether the current time window has expired. For example, step 51 may evaluate whether the current time is outside of the definition of the window (e.g., the on-board clock indicates that it is currently at 10:01:01am, and the time window spans 9:00:01am-10:00:00 am). In step 51, the control circuit 21 may check a counter, which may be incremented every second over a predetermined amount of time (such as one hour) corresponding to the duration of the time window. While the newly opened time window is unlikely to expire in one iteration shortly after the window is opened, step 51 is useful for the procedure of the subsequent iteration when returning to step 51.

If the current time window has in fact expired at step 51 (assuming multiple iterations of the process), the process proceeds to step 52, in which step 52 the control circuit 21 may close the current time window, and the process returns to step 50, in which step 50 a new window is opened. If the current time window has not expired at step 51, the process proceeds to step 53.

In step 53, the control circuit 21 may receive an indication of a pump cycle. The indication may be received by processor 24 from pump around sensor 27. The indication of the pump cycle may be an indication that the rotating or reciprocating element completes the cycle or a portion of the cycle, as previously described. In some cases, the indication may be zero, or the indication may not be received, either of which indicates that the pump 9 is not driven by the motor 4, or that the pump 9 is not otherwise cycling. In some cases, the indication received from pump cycle sensor 27 may indicate that a volume of fluid has been pumped, e.g., an indication corresponding to a partial or full cycle of pump 9. In some embodiments, counting in tenths of a fluid volume, the indication may indicate that a 0.1 gallon increment of fluid was pumped according to pump cycle sensor 27.

In step 54, the control circuit 21 may receive an indication of a pressure parameter. The pressure parameter may be the output of the pressure sensor 28, the pressure sensor 28 measuring the paint pressure downstream of the pump 9 and upstream of the spray gun 3, which is then received in step 54. In some cases, the indication of the received pressure parameter may be a current pressure setting rather than a measured pressure. Note that the order of steps 53 and 54 may be reversed, or they may be concurrent (e.g., contemporaneous).

After receiving the indication of the pressure parameter in step 54, the control circuit 21 references (e.g., correlates) the indication of the pressure parameter relative to the injection threshold in step 55. The referenced pressure parameter (e.g., correlation) is the pressure parameter received in the iteration of the process, and the subsequent loops of the process will reference the updated pressure parameter received in the corresponding loop. The injection threshold may be a threshold that distinguishes between an injection pressure generated by the pump 9 and a lower cleaning pressure generated by the pump 9. For example, step 55 may determine whether the pressure parameter of step 54 is greater than (or equal to) a stored injection pressure threshold indicative of injection pressure.

As an example, as described above in step 53, the control circuit 21 may receive an indication of the cycling state of the pump 9 and determine a plurality of fluid output values representing a time-varying fluid output volume based on the indication of the cycling state of the pump 9. The control circuit 21 may store the plurality of fluid output values in a memory 22 of the control circuit 21. For example, as described above, the memory 22 may store a ratio or coefficient value indicative of the volume of fluid ejected per cycle of the pump 9. Based on the state of the pump 9 cycle, the control circuit 21 may determine the volume of fluid ejected by the fluid ejector 1 (e.g., a ratio or coefficient value multiplied by the number of strokes through the cycle). The control circuit 21 may perform a plurality of such measurements over time (e.g., within a time window) to determine a plurality of fluid output values.

Each fluid output value may be associated with a fluid pressure. For example, a first fluid output value of the plurality of fluid output values may be based on a first cycle state of the pump 9, and the first fluid pressure may be an injection pressure during the first cycle. The second fluid output value of the plurality of fluid output values may be based on a second cycle state of the pump 9, and the second fluid pressure may be an injection pressure during the second cycle. In this example, the first fluid pressure is associated with a first fluid output value and the second fluid pressure is associated with a second fluid output value.

The control circuit 21 may be configured to compare the respective fluid pressure associated with the respective fluid output value to the threshold value. Based on the result of the comparison, the control circuit 21 may determine whether to store the associated fluid output value. As described in more detail elsewhere in this disclosure, if the fluid pressure is less than or equal to the threshold value, the fluid injector 1 is in a non-atomized flush mode (e.g., a cleaning mode or a flush mode), which does not result in wear and tear of the fluid injector 1. If the fluid pressure is greater than the threshold value, the fluid injector 1 is being used for its intended purpose (e.g., spraying a paint coating, and in a paint spray mode, also referred to as a fluid atomizing spray mode), which tends to cause wear and tear on the fluid injector 1. In some examples, information storing when fluid injector 1 is operating for its intended use (e.g., in a fluid-atomized spray mode) may be more important than when fluid injector 1 is in a non-atomized flush mode (e.g., a cleaning mode), such as for determining whether fluid injector 1 should be serviced or neared the end of its life.

For example, the control circuit 21 may compare a first fluid pressure associated with a first fluid output value to a threshold value and a second fluid pressure associated with a second fluid output value to a threshold value. The control circuit 21 may store the first fluid output value in the injection log tracking volume based on the first fluid pressure being above the threshold value and store the second fluid output value in the injection log tracking volume not based on the second fluid pressure being not above the threshold value. Further, the control circuit 21 may store the second fluid output value in the cleaning log tracking volume based on the second fluid pressure not being above the threshold value and the first fluid output value in the cleaning log tracking volume not being based on the first fluid pressure being above the threshold value.

In various embodiments, the injection threshold may be a pressure value above 5PSI, above 50PSI, above 100PSI, above 200PSI, or above 400PSI, etc. In various embodiments, the injection threshold may be a pressure value between 5-500PSI, 50-500PSI, 100-500 PSI, 200-500PSI, 300-500PSI, or 300-400PSI, etc.

A discussion of the cleaning procedure will be helpful before returning to step 55. The operator of the sprayer 1 will typically spray paint at a pressure above 500PSI, and more likely between 1000-4000PSI, to sufficiently atomize the sprayed fluid to form a desired spray fan with which to uniformly coat the sprayed surface. At the end of the spraying section (e.g., at the end of the job and/or during the day), the operator typically washes and cleans the sprayer 1 (including the pump 9) with water or other solvent to remove paint before it dries, which would otherwise risk seizing the pump 9 or clogging the fluid line. Such flushing is typically performed at less than 500PSI and typically at less than 400PSI, as no atomization of the flushing fluid is required and high flow rates, rather than high pressures, are required. The operator may set the output pressure between 100-400PSI (e.g., manually with a pressure dial, or automatically by selecting a cleaning mode) and feed water into the intake hose 2B. The operator may also remove the atomizing nozzle in the spray gun 3 to switch the injector 1 from high pressure, low volume injection to high flow, low pressure cleaning. Based on the pressure setting, processor 24 will control motor controller 25 to maintain the measured pressure at the pressure setting assessed by pressure sensor 28. The pump 9 is used to move the cleaning fluid through the sprayer 1, but for several reasons the volume of cleaning fluid pumped should not be calculated as the volume of paint sprayed (e.g., gallons). The first reason is that the cleaning volume should not be considered as a paint volume if paint generation efficiency and/or paint consumption is tracked. Moreover, pumping the cleaning liquid at low pressure does not stress the components of the sprayer 1 and does not wear the components to the point where high pressure pumps paint.

Step 55 is used to distinguish between the pumped cleaning volume and the pumped injection volume by comparing the measured or set pressure to an injection threshold. If the received pressure parameter is above the injection threshold, then the received indication of the pump cycle in step 53 is assumed to relate to (i.e., be classified as) injection, and the pumped volume will be assigned to the injection log instead of the cleaning log. If the received pressure parameter is below the injection threshold, then the received indication of the pump cycle in step 53 is assumed to be designed (i.e., classified) for cleaning, and the pumped volume will be assigned to the cleaning log instead of the injection log. Thus, the control circuit 21 may store a first fluid output value associated with the first fluid pressure in the injection log tracking volume based on the first fluid pressure being above the threshold value and store a second fluid output value associated with the second fluid pressure in the injection log tracking volume not based on the second fluid pressure being not above the threshold value. Further, the control circuit 21 may store a second fluid output value associated with the second fluid pressure in the cleaning log tracking volume based on the second fluid pressure not being above the threshold value and store a first fluid output value associated with the first fluid pressure in the cleaning log tracking volume not based on the first fluid pressure being above the threshold value.

Instead of using pressure parameters, in some embodiments, the user uses one or more interfaces 20 (e.g., buttons) on the sprayer 1 to indicate whether a spraying or cleaning mode (e.g., non-atomized flushing mode) has been entered. In such an example, at step 55, the control circuit 21 may check whether the injector 1 is in a fluid-atomized injection mode or a cleaning mode and dispense the injection or cleaning volume in a corresponding injection or cleaning volume log, respectively.

If the pressure parameter is less than the injection threshold in step 55, the process proceeds to step 56 and the control circuit 21 increases the cleaning log volume count. The cleaning log volume count may be stored in memory and associated with the open time window. If the pressure parameter is greater than the injection threshold in step 55, the process proceeds to step 57 and increases the injection volume log count associated with the open time window. The volume increment for cleaning or spraying may correspond to the indication of the pump cycle received in step 53. For example, if an indication of completion of a piston cycle is received, the displacement volume of a piston cycle (and/or an indication of completion of a piston cycle alone) may be increased in the cleaning volume log or the ejection volume log. In some cases, if an indication of completion of a partial piston cycle is received, the displaced volume of the partial piston cycle (and/or an indication of completion of only the partial piston cycle) may be incremented in the cleaning volume log or the injection volume log.

Note that some embodiments do not include a clean log volume count, in which case no clean log volume count is maintained in memory, and therefore not incremented if the pressure parameter is less than the injection threshold. Checking the pressure parameter in relation to the injection threshold is still useful for distinguishing between injection volumes and cleaning volumes so that the cleaning volumes are not counted as injection volumes. In this case, the indication of the pump cycle is not counted or otherwise stored in any memory, subject to the comparison of step 55. It may be useful, but not necessary, to distinguish between spraying and cleaning the pumped volume, as paint is more expensive (typically water) than cleaning fluid, spraying represents the efficiency of production on the painter's project, and spraying wears the motor 4, drive member 7 and pump 9 faster at high pressure than low pressure cleaning, among other reasons.

Note that if there is no increment or other type of advance or change in the indication of the pump cycle as compared to the previous iteration of the cycle and step 53, there is no increment, increase or other change in the cleaning volume log or the ejection volume log for this cycle of the algorithm of fig. 4. If such a check indicates no change, the process may proceed directly from step 53 to step 51. In some embodiments, as part of step 53, the process frequently checks for a current indication of pump cycling (e.g., 1/4 or 1/10 seconds per second, or multiple times per second), and if there is a change from the last check, a life pump cycle counter stored in memory 22 is incremented, the life pump cycle counter representing the total pump cycling during the current life of injector 1. Instead of a life pump cycle counter, the counter may be a pump cycle counter that represents a wider time range (e.g., reset once per day, week, month, or year) than a time window of only one hour. The checking of the lifetime or other counter may then be performed periodically (e.g., once every second or once every ten seconds, but less frequently than the checking of the indication of the pump cycle) to see if there is a change relative to the last time the counter was checked (e.g., one second ago or last cycle iteration). If there is a change, the amount of change is used to calculate or otherwise determine (e.g., by subtracting the counter stage at the last check from the current counter stage) the volume pumped from the last check, which is used to increment the log, as discussed further in connection with steps 56, 57.

After incrementing in step 56 or 57, the process returns to step 51 to check the current time window to see if the current time window has expired. If the current time window has expired, the current window is closed in step 52 and the increased or otherwise counted injection volume (also referred to as the fluid output value) is saved in the memory 22 for that time window. As such, at the end of the time window, such as after one hour or otherwise representing one hour of data, the method calculates the volume of spray (and optionally pumped for cleaning purposes) in the time window. Because the process includes counting the number of injection volume increments dispensed in each successive window, the process tracks the efficiency of generation over a period of time that includes multiple time windows.

In some embodiments, the incrementing steps 56 and 57 may save in the memory 22 an inspection (or other type of incrementing) associated with a time window for the ejection volume log and/or the cleaning volume log. Each check may represent all or part of the pump cycle, but in either case it is known (e.g., stored in memory 22) or it may be calculated (e.g., based on displacement of piston 13) how much fluid each all or part of the pump cycle will pump. After the time window is closed, the checks performed within the time window may be summed to calculate the total volume of spray or rinse during cleaning with the time window. Alternatively, these checks may sum to an operating volume value over the course of a time window, the sum being updated with each pump cycle increment.

For example, for a time window, five different checks or increments may be saved in step 57 in association with the injection volume log, which may be later summed and the total injection volume of the window calculated. Alternatively, a counter may be maintained during the window and incremented at each occurrence of step 57. For example, for the first occurrence of step 57, the counter will be 1, and after the second occurrence the counter will be 2, after the third occurrence the counter will be 3, and so on. As another alternative, step 57 may include calculating and saving the injected quantity instead of saving the check or increment. For example, the first occurring step 57 may count 0.1 gallons sprayed, the second occurring step 57 may increase the total count to 0.2 gallons sprayed, and the third occurring step 57 may increase the total count to 0.3 gallons sprayed.

The following is an example table that may correspond to data stored in the memory 22 for a plurality of time windows. As shown, each time window extends for one hour, and various types of data are stored for each time window. The data includes window serial numbers (which are sequentially incremented and are not repeated to provide a reference independent of the time of each window), the date of the window, the time range of the window, the volume of spray pumped during the window, and the volume of cleaning pumped during the window. In some cases, only the date and time, rather than the window sequence number, is used to distinguish the data sets corresponding to the different time periods. The table shows the time before the working period (where no spray or cleaning volume is recorded), the time at which the work occurred (including the spray transition to cleaning), and the time after the working period (where no spray or cleaning volume is recorded), which can be reviewed later to track the efficiency of generation and paint usage and additionally describe the usage of the sprayer 1.

In some embodiments, the data types described above are the only data types saved for trace generation efficiency. For example, the large amount of pressure and pump cycle data received in steps 53 and 54 is not saved, or is saved only as long as the current cycle is completed, or is saved only until the closing of the time window, but is in any case not referenced or otherwise used after the closing of the time window. Only one ejection volume value and one cleaning volume value are saved for each time window, which can be calculated from thousands of measurements, minimizing data storage and data transmission. For example, the pressure and pump cycle data of steps 53 and 54 are not saved as part of the injection volume and cleaning volume log, nor are the pressure and pump cycle data of steps 53 and 54 transmitted out of injector 1. That is, the pressure and pump cycle data may be deleted (i.e., deleted from memory), for example, when the corresponding time window is closed. Thus, in some examples, for each time window, only the aggregate running total of output volumes (injection and/or cleaning volumes) may be stored, thereby reducing the amount of data stored within the memory of the injector. In this manner, example techniques may pack and reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored and transferred, thereby increasing memory storage and transfer bandwidth, while ensuring that sufficient data is available to track the generation efficiency of the injector 1 (e.g., may include the generation efficiency of the injector 1 or the generation efficiency of a user of the injector 1).

In fig. 4A, in some embodiments, if the indication of the pump cycle of step 53 is the same as the last iteration of the process (e.g., pump 9 has not been driven or otherwise cycled in any way since the last iteration), the process loops back to the window step (e.g., step 51) without updating the injection volume log in step 57 or the cleaning log in step 56 (e.g., pump cycle information is not saved or otherwise recorded for that iteration of the process).

Fig. 4B shows a flow chart of processes a and B. Processes a and B may be part of the process of the embodiment of fig. 4A. As previously described, processes a and B may be performed by control circuitry 21 (or possibly other circuitry in combination with control circuitry 21). Process a may be performed by processor 24 and processor 24 may be one or both processors performing respective processes a and B. In some embodiments, process a may be performed by processor 24 and process B may be performed by wireless module 23.

The steps numbered similarly between the embodiments of fig. 4A and 4B may be identical between the two embodiments of fig. 4A and 4B. Additional steps include step 57A, wherein if it is determined by step 55 that the pressure parameter is greater than the injection threshold, the injection volume log count is updated. The updating of step 57A may include increasing the running total of the injection volumes stored in memory 22. For example, if the current iteration of process a measures a.0001 gallon output based on the pump cycle indication received in step 53, the total amount of operation of the injection volume may be increased by.0001 gallons. Step 57A may alternatively store the injection volume count in a log in memory 22, wherein iterations of process a create serial injection volume log entries of injection volumes (if any) that may be later aggregated or otherwise aggregated.

The embodiment of process a also includes step 58A, wherein an updated shot volume log count is sent. Step 58B includes receiving an updated injection volume log count for process B. The transmission of step 58A may include transmitting between components of the control circuit 21, such as between a processor and/or a wireless module. For example, while performing procedure a, processor 24 may send the updated shot volume log count to wireless module 23, which performs procedure B. The sending may also include sending to the memory 22 for temporary storage before being referenced in the memory 22 in the receiving step 58B.

Process B includes a step 59 of determining if the shot volume log count has changed. If no updated shot volume log count is received in step 58B, or an updated shot volume log count is received but the same time as the last time the updated shot volume log count was received in the last iteration of process B (e.g., equal to the shot volume log count stored in memory 22 in the last iteration), process B may return to step 51 to determine whether the current time window has expired. However, if the injection volume log count has changed since the last iteration of process B (e.g., not equal to the injection volume log count stored in memory 22 in the last iteration), then the injection volume log for the current time window is updated in step 57B. In step 57B, an updated injection volume log for the current time window is assigned or otherwise maintained in association with the current open time window. The injection volume log after the current time window update may be a running total of the amounts injected within the open time window, where each update increases the running total by an amount measured for the current iteration (e.g., the amount received in step 58B, or the calculated difference of the amount received in step 58B compared to the last iteration of process B).

Fig. 4C shows a flow chart of a process for generating time-based pressure information on the injector 1. This process may be performed by the control circuit 21. More specifically, the process may be performed by processor 24 and memory 22 by receiving inputs from pump around sensor 27 and pressure sensor 28. Typically, the ejector 1 collects pressure measurements when the pump 9 is operated during a time window. The pressure measurements collected when the pump 9 is not operating are not saved. The injector 1 calculates a total pressure parameter, such as an average pressure, based on the closing of the window from the pressure data collected over the time window to represent a pressure measure for the time window.

Step 160 includes opening a new time window. Step 161 includes determining whether the current time window has expired. Step 168 includes closing the current time window. Step 160 may be identical to step 50, step 161 may be identical to step 51, and step 168 may be identical to step 52, such that the time windows of both processes are identical. Alternatively, the operation of the time window for pressure data may be performed similar to any of the time window operations mentioned herein. Thus, the process of fig. 4A may run concurrently with the process of fig. 4C, and similar steps may be the same steps between the processes. In other embodiments, steps 160, 161, 168 may operate similarly to steps 50, 51, 52, respectively, but may be different time windows corresponding to different time periods. For example, the length of the time window of the process of fig. 4A may be less than the length of the time window of the process of fig. 4C (e.g., 1 hour and multiple hours (e.g., 24 hours), respectively). Due to the similarity of the steps, the opening and closing of the time window will no longer occur, but any time window option cited herein is possible for this embodiment.

Step 162 includes checking the pump status. Checking the status of the pump 9 may include determining whether the pump 9 is currently cycling, such as whether the piston 13 is reciprocating. Checking the state of the pump 9 may be performed by receiving a signal from the pump-driving cycle sensor 27. Checking the status of the pump 9 may include determining whether the motor 4 is running (e.g., outputting a rotational motion to the pump 9). Checking the status of the pump 9 may include determining whether the processor 24 and/or the motor controller 25 is causing drive power to be delivered to the motor 4. A comparison may be performed to determine if the position of the component (e.g., the drive component on which the sensor component is mounted) has changed since the last time data was received, which may be on a quarter second or other short periodic basis.

Step 163 includes determining whether the pump 9 is running. The evaluation of step 163 is performed based on the information collected in step 162. Step 163 may include comparing the most recently received pump drive cycle sensor 27 output with the second most recently received pump drive cycle sensor 27 output to determine if the status of the pump has changed. Step 163 may include a binary determination (binary determination) of whether motor controller 25 is delivering drive power to motor 4.

If step 163 determines that pump 9 is not running ("no"), the process returns to a time window step, such as step 161 or another step. If step 163 determines that pump 9 is running ("yes"), then the process continues to step 164. In step 164, the measured pressure is received. Step 164 may be the same as step 54 or any other step referred to herein for measuring pressure or otherwise receiving pressure data. The process proceeds to step 165 where the measured pressure is compared to a pressure threshold. Based on the comparison, in step 166, if the measured pressure is greater than the pressure threshold, the process proceeds to step 167. If the measured pressure is less than the pressure threshold, the process may return to an evaluation time window, such as step 161. The comparison of pressures in steps 165 and 166 may be similar to the comparison of step 55. For example, the pressure threshold may be the same value and the check may be performed only once and the result of the check used to drive each process. The purpose of the check is that some operation of the pump 9 may not correspond to injection. For example, some low pressure operations involve cleaning pumps that do not cause too much wear to the pump components (e.g., by pumping water instead of grinding paint) and do not indicate high pressure airless jets that impose greater mechanical stress on the components due to the high pressure. The pressure threshold may be 400 psi. The pressure threshold may be 500 psi. The pressure threshold may be between 50 pounds per square inch and 700 pounds per square inch. Other thresholds are possible, including higher and lower thresholds.

If it is determined in step 166 that the measured pressure is greater than the pressure threshold, the process may save the measured pressure from step 164 in a pressure log in step 167. Recording the measured pressures may include storing an indication of each pressure value in memory 22. After saving the measured pressure, the process returns to a window step, such as step 161, to determine if the current window has expired. In this way, the process of fig. 4C may be iteratively cycled on a periodic basis, such as once every quarter of a second, once every ten seconds, once every minute, or on some other periodic basis. A dwell step may be inserted in the loop to ensure that each iteration is performed on a scheduled periodic basis. For each iteration of the circuit in which the pump 9 is driven, the measured pressure is stored in a pressure log. For any iteration of the circuit in which the pump 9 is not driven, the measured pressure is not stored, since this pressure is not indicative of the pressure at the time of injection. Maintaining pressure measurements only in the pressure log when injecting means that the pressure log for each time window will only indicate injection pressure rather than pressure that may have been measured in the window when not injecting, which may include fluctuations due to spikes and/or pressure control changes of the user.

When the iteration of loop 161 determines that the duration of the current time window has expired, then the process moves to step 168 where the current time window is closed. Based on the closing of the window, the process in step 169 uses the pressure log generated during the time window to calculate the total pressure parameter for the time window (e.g., the disclosed time window). The total pressure parameter may be the average pressure calculated from all recorded (e.g., step 167) measured pressure values (e.g., step 164) in the time window. For example, all pressure values may be added together and then divided by the number of pressure values. In some embodiments, the pressure log includes a first number representing a running total of all pressure values and a second number representing a number of values contributing to the running total, such that the calculation of the average pressure for the time window includes dividing the first number by the second number. Alternatively, the median or mode pressure value may be calculated for the time window. The total pressure parameter then indicates the injection pressure used within the time window. The process may be repeated to calculate different total pressure parameters for different time windows, including successive time windows, to understand the change in total pressure parameter over multiple time windows.

Such total pressure parameter may be used to understand the quality of the injection. Low pressure spraying generally produces better finish and less paint loss, while high pressure spraying can provide higher hourly production efficiency. Reporting the total pressure parameter of the time window may provide an indication of whether the painter is of quality and paint efficiency or speed for a particular time window. The purpose of only recording the pressure measurement from the total pressure parameter when the pump 9 is being driven is that the pressure measurement during the non-injection period is not indicative of the injection quality even though the measured pressure may be close to the injection pressure. Likewise, the pressure threshold check of step 166 may distinguish between cleaning and spraying, whereby the pressure measured during cleaning will damage the total pressure parameter (if included).

After the total pressure parameter value is calculated, the pressure log for the time window may be deleted from the memory 22, while the total pressure parameter value may be saved. As discussed further herein, the total pressure parameter value may be transmitted wirelessly to the handheld computer 14 and then to the web server 35. The total pressure parameter value is saved only after closing the window while most or all of the pressure measurement (and an indicator of pump status) is deleted from the time window, which saves space in the memory 22 and is more efficiently transmitted to the handheld computer 14 and the network server 35.

In some embodiments, the measured pressure value and/or pump status indicator data is wirelessly transmitted from the injector 1 to the handheld computer 14, and the handheld computer performs the steps of fig. 4C. However, such a system may not be ideal because data may be lost when the injector 1 is not in wireless communication with the handheld computer 14. Thus, regardless of whether the handheld computer 14 is within range of the injector 1, calculation of the total pressure parameter across the injector 1 captures data, allowing uploading of the total pressure parameter for multiple window time windows while within range.

Thus, the example shown in fig. 4A to 4C describes a hand-held portable paint sprayer 1 for spraying spray fluid. The control circuit 21 may be configured to receive multiple cycling status indications of the pump 9 and determine multiple output values representative of the ejected fluid output volume over multiple time windows. The output value (e.g., injection fluid output value) may refer to a fluid output value when the injector 1 is in a fluid-atomized injection mode. For example, as described above, in some examples, the output value may be indicative of an injection fluid output volume when the injector 1 is in a fluid nebulization injection mode, and the fluid output value is excluded when the injector 1 is in a non-nebulization flush mode (e.g., a cleaning mode or a flush mode). The control circuit 21 may store in the memory 22 a plurality of injection fluid output values (or simply "output values") generated over a plurality of time windows (e.g., as described with reference to fig. 4A-4C) and cause the wireless module 23 to transmit one or more stored output values out of the injector.

For example, as described in more detail, the handheld computer 14 may request an output value that is stored in the memory 22 but not previously output from the memory 22. In such examples, wireless module 23 may transmit some, but not all, of the stored output values (e.g., not transmit the previously transmitted output values). As another example, based on the connection of the handheld computer 14 to the cellular network 41, the handheld computer 14 may request all or some of the stored output values.

Whether the sprayer 1 is outputting spray fluid (e.g., paint) may be based on whether the sprayer 1 is in a fluid-atomized spray mode or a non-atomized rinse mode (flushing mode). The control circuit 21 may determine the spray fluid output value based on the operation of the sprayer 1 in a fluid atomizing spray mode (e.g., paint spray mode). There may be various ways in which the control circuit 21 may determine whether the injector 1 is in a fluid-atomized spray mode or a non-atomized flush mode. As one example, the control circuit 21 may rely on a user-selected mode of operation (e.g., by using one or more interfaces 20 on the sprayer 1, the user indicating whether a fluid-atomized spray mode (e.g., paint spray mode) or a non-fluid-atomized spray mode (e.g., non-spray mode) has been entered).

In some examples, control circuitry 21 may determine whether an indication of a cycling state of the plurality of cycling state indications of pump 9 is associated with injector 1 in a fluid nebulized injection mode or a non-nebulized flush mode. For example, for a particular indication of the plurality of cycle status indications, control circuitry 21 may determine whether the pressure associated with the particular indication is greater than an injection threshold or whether injector 1 is in a fluid-atomized injection mode. In such an example, when an indication of the circulation state of the pump is associated with the sprayer 1 being in the paint fluid atomizing spray mode, the control circuit 21 may determine the spray fluid output value for indicating the circulation state.

For example, to determine the plurality of output values, the control circuit 21 may be configured to determine whether one or more of the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump are associated with the injector 1 in the fluid nebulization injection mode or the non-injection flush mode. The control circuit 21 may use one or more of the plurality of cyclical status indications associated with the injector 1 being in the fluid-atomized injection mode to determine one or more of a plurality of output values (e.g., output values representing an injection fluid output volume).

Similarly, in some examples, the control circuit 21 may be configured to track the volume in a non-nebulized flush mode (e.g., a non-jet mode). In these examples, as shown with reference to fig. 4A, the control circuit 21 may determine whether an indication of the cycling state of the pump 9 is associated with the injector 1 in the fluid nebulized injection mode or the non-nebulized flush mode, and determine a non-injected fluid output value for the indication of the cycling state from a plurality of cycling state indications (e.g., storing the output value of the non-nebulized flush mode in a clean log tracking volume in the memory 22) when the indication of the cycling state of the pump 9 is associated with the injector 1 in the non-nebulized flush mode.

For example, the control circuit 21 may be further configured to determine a plurality of non-atomized rinse output values. To determine the plurality of non-nebulized flush output values, the control circuit 21 may be configured to determine whether one or more of the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump 9 are associated with the ejector 1 in the fluid nebulized flush mode or the non-nebulized flush mode. The control circuit 21 may use one or more of the plurality of cyclical status indications associated with the injector in the non-spray flush mode to determine one or more of the plurality of non-spray flush output values.

As described above with respect to fig. 4A-4C, one exemplary manner in which the control circuit 21 may determine whether a current time window of the plurality of time windows has expired is based on a count of cycles (e.g., partial or full cycles) of the pump 9. However, the control circuit 21 may not count every single cycle. For example, in some examples, if an indication of a pump cycle of the received plurality of cycle status indications (e.g., step 53) is not associated with the injector 1 being in the fluid-atomized injection mode (e.g., the measured pressure is too low, or the pressure set by the user is too low), the control circuit 21 may not increment the count cycle.

For example, the control circuit 21 may be configured to generate data representative of the injection volume (e.g., such as a plurality of fluid output values including an output value for the injector 1 in a fluid-atomized injection mode, and optionally an output value for the injector 1 in a non-atomized flushing mode). To generate data indicative of the injection volume, the control circuit 21 may count all or part of the pump cycles of the pump 9 and generate data indicative of the injection volume based on the count of all or part of the pump cycles of the pump 9. In some examples, if the injector 1 is in the fluid-atomized injection mode, the control circuit 21 may count pump cycles, while if the injector 1 is in the non-atomized flush mode, the control circuit 21 does not count pump cycles. For example, to generate data indicative of the spray volume, the control circuit 21 may be configured to determine whether the sprayer 1 is operating in a fluid-atomized spray mode (e.g., paint spray mode) or a non-atomized flush mode (e.g., non-paint spray mode). As one example, for each indication of a pump cycle, the control circuit 21 may determine whether the indication of a pump cycle is associated with the injector 1 being in a fluid nebulized injection mode or a non-nebulized flush mode. When the injector 1 is operating in said fluid nebulizing injection mode, the control circuit 21 may generate data indicative of the injection volume based on a count of all or part of the cycles of the pump 9.

As an example, the control circuit 21 may determine a first fluid output value associated with the first pressure based on a first indication of the cycling state of the pump and a second fluid output value associated with the second pressure based on a second indication of the cycling state of the pump. The control circuit 21 may determine that the first fluid output value is one of the output values (e.g., an injection fluid output value representing an injection fluid output volume) based on the first pressure being greater than a threshold value, and determine that the second fluid output value is not one of the output values (e.g., is not an injection fluid output value representing an injection fluid output volume) based on the second pressure being less than the threshold value.

In this example, the control circuit 21 may increase the count of cycles of the pump 9 for the first fluid output value and may not increase the count of cycles of the pump 9 for the second fluid output value. The control circuit 21 may store the first fluid output value in the injection log tracking volume (e.g., based on a determination that the first fluid output value is one of the output values representing the injection fluid output volume) and not store the second fluid output value in the injection log tracking volume (e.g., based on a determination that the second fluid output value is not one of the output values representing the injection fluid output volume). In an example of maintaining a clean log volume, the control circuit 21 may store the second fluid output value in the clean log (e.g., based on a determination that the second fluid output value is not one of the output values representing the ejected fluid output volume) and not store the first fluid output value in the clean log (e.g., based on a determination that the first fluid output value is one of the output values representing the ejected fluid output volume).

Fig. 5 to 7 are flowcharts showing the communication between the different system components, in particular between the injector 1, the handheld computer 14, the network server 35 and the personal computer 29, which may be via short-range wireless communication, the cellular network 41 and/or the internet. These transmissions may be performed by wireless module 23, wireless module 17, communication module 32, and communication module 38. Such communication may use, for example, the methods mentioned herein as well as other possible communication techniques. The arrows crossing the dashed lines between columns associated with the injector 1, handheld computer 14, network server 35, and/or personal computer 29 represent wired and/or wireless communications between the injector 1, handheld computer 14, network server 35, and personal computer 29 facilitated by wireless module 23, wireless module 17, communication module 32, communication module 38, cellular network 41, and/or other infrastructure for digital communications.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the steps of coupling the handheld computer 14 to the injector 1, thereby moving data generated on the injector 1 via the handheld computer 14 to the web server 35. The flow chart shows the transmission and reception of communications between the injector 1, the handheld computer 14 and the network server 35. As will be further discussed, two modes (modes a and B) are shown, depending on the connection between the handheld computer 14 and the network server 35. More specifically, mode a is used when there is a wireless connection between the handheld computer 14 and the network server 35 when data is requested to be acquired from the injector 1. Mode B is used when there is no connection between the handheld computer 14 and the network server 35 when data is requested to be retrieved from the injector (i.e., the communication path from the handheld computer 14 to the network server 35 is inaccessible), but is available at a later time (i.e., the communication path from the handheld computer 14 to the network server 35 is accessible). The flow charts of both modes assume that a wireless connection for data transfer has been established between the injector 1 and the handheld computer 14.

As an example, the handheld computer 14 may be configured to operate in an accessible mode (mode a) or a non-accessible mode (mode B). For mode a and mode B, the handheld computer 14 may be in different locations. For example, the handheld computer 14 may be configured to operate in an accessible mode in which the handheld computer 14 is in a first position where a wireless connection to the web server 35 via a continuous or near-continuous communication path is accessible. The handheld computer 14 may be configured to operate in an inaccessible mode, wherein the handheld computer 14 is in a second position outside the range of the continuous or near-continuous communication path to the network server 35. In one or more examples, the handheld computer 14 may be configured to ferry (fery) data from when the handheld computer 14 is in the second position and in the inaccessible mode to when the handheld computer 14 is in the first position and in the accessible mode.

As described in more detail, in the accessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may transmit at least some of the plurality of fluid output values received from the injector 1 to the web server 35. For example, the handheld computer 14 may receive data from the data stored on the injector 1 that was not previously transmitted to the web server 35 and transmit the data (referred to as archival data). However, in some examples, when the handheld computer 14 is in the accessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may receive substantially all (including all) of the data from the injector 1.

The handheld computer 14 may determine whether the communication path to the network server 35 is inaccessible or accessible based on one or more attempted communications with the network server 35. For example, the handheld computer 14 may attempt to establish wireless communication with the network server 35 on a periodic basis. Handheld computer 14 may determine that the communication path to network server 35 is inaccessible in response to one or more failed communication attempts, such as one or more communication attempts that do not result in a response message from network server 35 for a threshold duration (e.g., a threshold number of seconds, minutes, or other threshold duration). The handheld computer 14 may determine that the communication path to the network server 35 is accessible in response to one or more successful communication attempts, such as one or more communication attempts that result in a response message being received from the network server 35. In some examples, handheld computer 14 may determine which of the processes of mode a and mode B to use in response to a determination of whether the communication path to web server 35 is accessible (i.e., mode a) or inaccessible (i.e., mode B).

Mode a includes step 60 in which a data request (e.g., from a user) is received on the handheld computer 14. The request for data may be received by the processor 18 from one or more interfaces 20. Receiving the request may include opening an application on the handheld computer 14, selecting a particular injector 1 from other injector options (e.g., multiple injectors within wireless range or an injector to which the handheld computer 14 was previously connected), and/or the user selecting a data refresh or update option from the injector 1. Upon receipt of the request, the handheld computer 14 sends a data history query in step 61 (e.g., via the wireless module 17) and the query is received by the web server in step 62. The data query request sent in step 61 may be considered an archive data request from the processor 18 identifying the most recent fluid output value in the time series of archive fluid output values associated with the injector 1 stored by the web server 35.

For example, the memory 37 of the network server 35 may store data (e.g., fluid output values, pressure values, etc.) for a plurality of fluid ejectors including the fluid ejector 1. The data for each of the plurality of fluid ejectors may be stored as a separate table, or generally in a manner that the data for each ejector may be accessed separately. In some examples, simultaneous group access of data for multiple ejectors may be possible (e.g., such as for batch downloads, etc.).

In some examples, the handheld computer 14 may be configured to upload data (e.g., fluid output values) from the injector 1 for storage in the web server 35. Then, at a later time, after the memory 22 of the injector 1 stores the new data, the user may wish to upload the new data to the memory 37 of the web server 35. However, there may be a possibility that another user has uploaded new data to the memory 37 at some intermediate time.

For example, at a job site, there may be multiple users of the sprayer 1, each having their own handheld computer. For example, if there are two users of the injector 1, there may be a first handheld computer and a second handheld computer. In such an example, a first user of a first handheld computer may utilize the injector 1 and upload the injector 1 data to the web server 35. Then, when the second user of the second handheld computer goes to use the injector 1, he or she may not know whether the data needs to be stored in the memory 37.

Further, in some examples, a second user of the second handheld computer may use the injector 1, and when completed, the memory 22 may store data from the injector 1 when the first user uses the injector 1 and new data from when the second user uses the injector 1. However, the memory 37 has stored data from when the first user uses the injector 1, and resending and retrieving data from when the first user uses the injector 1 may not be memory and bandwidth efficient.

Thus, in some examples, prior to storing the data in the memory 37, the handheld computer 14 may first receive information indicating the most recent data (e.g., a serial number or a timestamp) stored in the memory 37 of the injector 1. The handheld computer 14 may then request only new data from the injector 1 since the most recent data stored in the memory 37 and upload only the new data. Thus, if there is an increment between the data stored in the memory 37 and the data stored in the memory 22, only the difference is transmitted to be stored in the memory 37, which improves memory and bandwidth efficiency.

The transmission of the query in step 61 may comprise a wireless transmission over a cellular, wi-Fi or other type of network. The query may uniquely identify the handheld computer 14 that sent the query, the requesting user, and/or the injector 1 to which the handheld computer 14 is currently connected.

As described above, the web server 35 stores the history injection information of the injector 1 in the memory 37. The historical injection information stored by the web server 35 may be considered archival injection information, which may be stored as a time series of archival fluid output values. The injection information may include information previously transmitted using modes a and/or B. The jetting information may be a jetting volume log and/or a cleaning volume log generated in the process of fig. 4A and 4B. For example, the web server 35 may store a spray volume log containing the amount of paint sprayed in each of a plurality of time windows. The web server 35 may also store a cleaning volume log containing the volume of fluid flushed in each of the plurality of time windows. The web server 35 receives the query in step 62. Then, in step 63, the web server 35 identifies the most recent ejection volume and cleaning volume log that the web server 35 has stored in association with the ejector 1. The web server 35 may identify the most recent log received in association with the injector 1 by looking at the time stamp of the data (e.g., the time and date of the time window saved in association with the time window data) and/or the sequence number information (e.g., each sequential time window may be given a progressively higher sequence number). The request may also include the serial number of the injector 1 and the data held by the web server 35 may include a reference to the serial number of the injector 1 such that the web server 35 can only find the latest log of the injector 1 and cannot find the latest log of a different injector.

The web server 35 then sends the identity of the most recent data in the log at step 64. The identification of the most recent data may be the most recent time window and/or the highest sequence number previously received. In step 65, the handheld computer 14 receives an identification of the most recent data sent by the web server 35.

Based on the identification of the most recent data received in step 65, the handheld computer 14 then sends a request to the injector 1 for any injection volume log or cleaning volume log data that is updated with more recent data than identified. For example, if the most recent data is identified as a time window of 08/30/2018 4-5pm, the request is for any injection volume log or cleaning volume log data that is new to 08/30/2018 4-5 pm. If the most recent data is identified as having a serial number of 10,200, any jet volume log or cleaning volume log data (e.g., 10,201, 10,202, etc.) having a serial number greater than 10,200 is requested. The request transmitted to the injector 1 in step 65 may be considered an archive fluid output value update request to request the injector 1 to transmit archive fluid output value updates that include only those fluid output values stored by the injector 1 that are more recent than the identity of the most recent data.

In the example of fig. 5, the injector 1 receives an injection volume log or cleaning volume log data request from the handheld computer 14 in step 67. In step 68, the control circuitry (e.g., wireless module 23 and/or processor 24) of injector 1 then identifies any injection volume log or cleaning volume log data that is newer than the identified most recent data that network server 35 has stored. For example, if the most recent injection volume log or cleaning volume log data is identified as a time window of 08/30/20184-5pm, the processor 24 identifies all time window data stored in memory associated with a time window following 08/30/2018-5 pm, which may be one time window (e.g., 08/30/2018 5-6 pm) or possibly many time windows (08/30/2018 6 pm-09/05/20158 am). Such data may be the spray volume and the cleaning volume pumped within each time window and may not include pump cycle or pressure measurement data. If the most recent data is identified as having a serial number of 10,200, the processor 24 identifies any jet volume log or cleaning volume log window data having a serial number greater than 10,200, which may be data for one time window (e.g., 10,201), or may be data for multiple time windows (10,201-10,300).

In step 69, the injector 1 then sends the identified newer data to the handheld computer 14. The identified newer data sent to the handheld computer 14 in step 69 may be considered an archive fluid output value update sent by the injector 1 in response to receiving an archive fluid output value update request from the handheld computer 14. At step 70, the handheld computer 14 receives updated data. In step 71, the handheld computer in turn sends updated data to the web server 35. In step 72, the web server receives the updated data and stores it in the memory 31.

In this manner, in the accessible mode, handheld computer 14 may transmit at least some of the plurality of fluid output values to web server 35. As one example, at least some of the plurality of fluid output values reference archived data. However, in some examples, the handheld computer 14 may transmit substantially all of the plurality of fluid output values stored on the injector 1 (e.g., including previously transmitted data).

When there is a continuous or near continuous connection between the injector 1, the handheld computer 14 and the web server 35, the process of mode a may be repeated on a periodic basis (e.g., once a week, or on a time window closing timing basis, such as once an hour). The mode a has the advantage that data is selectively transferred from the injector 1 to the handheld computer 14 and then transferred to the web server 35, depending on the data that the web server 35 has received, so that only new data is transferred. This mode saves power usage, data transmission and processor usage compared to delivering data that has been received by the web server 35. In some examples, the process of mode a for requesting data from the injector 1 and transmitting the data to the network server 35 may be initiated automatically by the handheld computer 14 in response to determining that the communication path to the network server 35 is accessible. In some examples, the automatic initiation of the handheld computer 14 may include initiating a data transfer without receiving user input at the handheld computer 14 to initiate the data transfer.

Mode B illustrates the communication technique when there is no continuous or near continuous connection between the injector 1, the handheld computer 14 and the web server 35. In mode B, the handheld computer 14 receives a data request from the user in step 73, which may be substantially the same as step 60. The handheld computer 14 may then check whether there is a connection to the network server 35 (e.g., via the cellular network 41) and upon determining that there is no current data connection to the network server 35 (i.e., the communication path is not accessible), the handheld computer 14 sends a data request to the injector 1 in step 74. In step 75, the injector 1 receives a data request from the handheld computer 14. The data request may be log data for the ejection volume or the cleaning volume, such as for each time window. In response to the data request, the injector 1 sends the complete historical data to the handheld computer 14 in step 76. The complete historical data may include jet volume and/or cleaning volume log data for all time windows and/or consecutively numbered entries (i.e., time series of data) stored in the memory 22. The complete historical data may not include pressure and pump cycle data for calculating the injection and cleaning volumes for the time windows, but only a single total injection volume and a single total cleaning volume for each time window. Alternatively, the handheld computer 14 may store in the memory 26 a record of the most recent timestamp or sequence number log sent to the web server 35, and may send only the newer log and not the log previously sent to the web server 35. In some cases, the historical data may include usage information representing the hour, day, and/or year value of the time window, even though some data has been previously transmitted to the web server 35. At step 77, the handheld computer 14 receives the complete history data.

The handheld computer 14 then stores the complete history data in the memory 16 until the handheld computer 14 can communicate the complete history data to the web server 35, the web server 35 requiring a connection between the handheld computer 14 and the web server 35. In some cases, the injector 1 will be used at a remote location without a cellular data connection such that the handheld computer 14 cannot communicate with the web server 35, although the handheld computer 14 will be able to collect usage data from the injector 1, as shown in the previous steps. At a later time, the user may bring the handheld computer 14 within range of the web server 35, which may be at the end of the day or at a later date than when the handheld computer 14 received the complete history data, to complete steps 79-80. Thus, the handheld computer 14 may store the usage data in response to determining that the communication path to the network server 35 is inaccessible at a first time (e.g., a time when the handheld computer 14 collects data from the injector 1 at a first location), and may transmit the usage data to the network server 35 at a second, different location at a second time that is later than the first time in response to identifying that the communication path to the network server 35 is accessible at the second time.

Once the handheld computer 14 is able to communicate with the web server 35, such as through a cellular or other type of data connection, in step 78, the handheld computer 14 sends the complete historical data to the web server 35, in step 79. For example, in response to determining that a continuous or near-continuous communication path to the web server 35 is accessible for transmitting the stored fluid output values, the handheld computer 14 may transition from the inaccessible mode (e.g., automatically without user intervention, but with user intervention based transitions being possible) to the accessible mode.

Furthermore, while the above examples describe a handheld computer 14 that receives all fluid output values from the injector 1, the techniques described in this disclosure are not so limited. In some examples, even in the inaccessible mode, handheld computer 14 may receive some of the fluid output value from injector 1 (e.g., such as if handheld computer 14 determines that some of the data stored on injector 1 is now stale, or if handheld computer 14 has tracked the last data sent to network 35), and store the received fluid output value in handheld computer 14 until handheld computer 14 is able to transition from the inaccessible mode to the accessible mode in response to determining that a continuous or near-continuous communication path to the network server is accessible for transmitting the stored fluid output value.

In some examples, in the inaccessible mode, the handheld computer 14 is configured to receive a first number of fluid output values from the injector 1, and in the accessible mode, the handheld computer 14 is configured to receive a second number of fluid output values from the injector 1. The first number of fluid output values may be greater than the second number of fluid output values. For example, in the inaccessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may receive substantially all of the data from the injector 1 (e.g., all but the earliest few minutes of data, 90% or more of the data), but in the accessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may receive only data that has not been previously transmitted to the web server 35.

In step 80, the web server 35 receives the complete history data. The web server 35 may then reconcile the most recently received complete history data with data that it has received and update the ejection volume and cleaning volume data log in the memory 37 with any new data for which the web server 35 has not previously received complete history data.

In mode B, the handheld computer 14 physically ferries data from being within the wireless range of the injector 1 but not within the range of the cellular network 41 to being within the range of the cellular network 41 (but possibly not within the wireless range of the injector). In contrast, handheld computer 14 primarily functions as a node within two overlapping wireless networks that do not directly communicate with each other in mode B.

This complete historical data is transferred between the injector 1 and the handheld computer 14 in mode B because the injector 1 or the handheld computer 14 does not know what data has been collected by the web server 35 or otherwise transferred from the injector 1. Typically, the injector 1 does not include a log of what data has been transmitted to the handheld computer 14 or other device. Furthermore, the handheld computer 14 does not store injection volume or cleaning volume log data from the injectors 1 (as it is assumed that a user with his individual handheld computer 14 will frequently switch injectors, such as for different colors and/or when working with an injector fleet), and does not have a data history that records which data has been transferred. Thus, all historical data is retrieved from the injector 1 and sent to the web server 35. The purpose is that various different handheld computers, such as handheld computer 14, may be used with the injector 1, such that one operator with one handheld computer 14 may use the injector 1 in the morning and a different operator with a different handheld computer 14 may use the injector 1 in the afternoon, wherein one central collection point for data is the web server 35.

Accordingly, the present disclosure describes examples in which handheld computer 14 is configured to operate in an accessible mode (e.g., mode a) in which a continuous or near-continuous communication path to web server 35 is accessible, or in an inaccessible mode (e.g., mode B) in which a continuous or near-continuous communication path to web server 35 is inaccessible. The communication path to the network server 35 may be a cellular communication path (e.g., via a cellular network) or a WiFi communication path. In one or more examples, the handheld computer 14 may operate differently based on whether the handheld computer 14 is in an accessible mode or an inaccessible mode. For example, in the accessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may ensure that only newly stored fluid output values stored in the memory 22 are uploaded to the web server 35. However, where the handheld computer 14 is operating in an inaccessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may temporarily store the plurality of fluid output values in the memory 16 for eventual transmission to the web server 35.

In the accessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may be configured to send an archive data request to the web server 35 requesting identification of the most recent fluid output value in the time series of archive fluid output values associated with the injector 1. The archived fluid output value update request may include an identification of a most recent fluid output value in a time series of archived fluid output values associated with the injector 1.

The handheld computer 14 may receive from the network server 35 an identification of the most recent fluid output value in the time series of archived fluid output values associated with the injector 1. The identification of the most recent fluid output value may include at least one of a time and date of the most recent fluid output value or a serial number of the most recent fluid output value. The handheld computer 14 may then send a archived fluid output value update request to the injector 1 to request the injector 1 to transmit archived fluid output value updates that include only those fluid output values of the plurality of fluid output values that are more recent than an identification of a most recent fluid output value in a time series of archived fluid output values associated with the injector 1. The handheld computer 14 may transmit the more recent fluid output value to the web server 35 for storage in the memory 37.

In the inaccessible mode, the handheld computer 14 may be configured to receive a plurality of fluid output values from the injector 1, the plurality of fluid output values representing the fluid output volume of the injector 1 over time. In response to determining that a continuous or near continuous communication path to the network server 35 is inaccessible (e.g., the wireless module 17 of the handheld computer 14 cannot connect to a cellular network or WiFi), the memory 16 of the handheld computer 14 may store a plurality of fluid output values. In this case, in response to determining that a continuous or near-continuous communication path to the web server 35 is accessible, the handheld computer 14 may transmit a plurality of fluid output values to the web server 35.

For example, in response to determining that the communication path to the network server 35 is accessible, the handheld computer 14 may automatically transmit a plurality of fluid output values to the network server 35 without receiving user input at the handheld computer 14 that initiates the transmission. The handheld computer 14 may be configured to periodically attempt to communicate with the network server 35 and, in response to a successful communication attempt with the network server 35, determine that a communication path to the network server 35 is accessible.

The present disclosure describes various examples of a plurality of fluid values. For example, similar elsewhere, the plurality of fluid output values may include values that respectively represent the volume of fluid output by the injector 1 over a plurality of time windows. The plurality of time windows may represent a plurality of consecutive time periods, each of the consecutive time periods having a predetermined duration. As described above, such as with reference to fig. 4A-4C, for each of the plurality of time windows, the control circuit 21 of the injector 1 may be configured to open the respective time window, calculate and recalculate the respective fluid output value as an operational value for each increase of the indication of the received cycling state within the respective time window, and close the respective time window after a predetermined duration such that the fluid output volume value of the respective time window is the operational value at the expiration of the predetermined duration.

In some embodiments, the handheld computer 14 adds position information from the GPS module 19 to the spray volume and cleaning volume log between receiving spray volume and cleaning volume log position information from the sprayer 1 to the web server 35. This is because the injector 1 may not include a GPS module, but general location information is still useful for later reference from the web server 35, for example for retrieving a team manager from the personal computer 29 of the web server 35 to understand where the injector is used. Such an addition of location information may occur between steps 70 and 71.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating steps for coupling the injector 1 to the handheld computer 14, in accordance with various embodiments. As shown, the web server 35 may or may not give permission to view historical data whether the user of the handheld computer 14 is authorized to be associated with a particular injector 1. Even if the web server 35 refuses the right to view the history data, the handheld computer 14 may still be connected to the injector 1 and the ferrying data from the injector 1 to the web server 35, but the handheld computer 14 may not allow the user to view the history data according to the approval.

When the injector 1 is powered, in step 81, the injector 1 broadcasts identification information (e.g., an injector Identifier (ID)). The broadcast injector ID may include no-go over short rangeLine protocols (such as BLUETOOTH ^TM ) Broadcast from the wireless module 23 of the injector 1. The broadcast information may include the model number of the injector 1, the serial number of the injector 1, and/or any particular name previously assigned to the injector 1. This information may be stored in the memory 22 of the injector 1 or in the wireless module 23 of the injector 1.

In step 82, the handheld computer 14 receives identification information (e.g., injector ID) broadcast from the injector 1, such as a model number, serial number, and/or an allocation name of the injector. The handheld computer 14 may receive the broadcast via the wireless module 17 of the handheld computer 14. In a small area (e.g., within a radius of about 100 feet), multiple injectors may broadcast respective injector IDs simultaneously, such that handheld computer 14 may receive multiple injector IDs from these multiple injectors in the small area simultaneously.

The handheld computer 14 may present the user with an injector ID or injector IDs corresponding to the number of injector IDs received in step 83. These injector IDs may be presented by being displayed as distinct icons (one for each injector) on a screen (e.g., a touch screen) of one or more interfaces 20. Rendering may include displaying a model number, a serial number, and/or an assigned name as part of an icon. The handheld computer 14 may then receive a selection of one of the injectors in step 84. The selection may include a user touching one of the icons associated with a particular one of the ejectors on the touch screen of the one or more interfaces 20. The user selection is received by the processor 18. The user selection indicates which of the ejectors the user wants to communicate with. Based on the selection, handheld computer 14 may begin two-way communication with the selected injector to exclude other injectors that are not selected.

Based on the selection of a particular injector, handheld computer 14 sends a request to network server 35 to communicate with the selected injector in step 85. The request may include a model number, a serial number, and/or an assigned name of the selected injector. In step 86, the web server 35 receives the request. After receiving the request, in step 87, the web server 35 checks the registration of the selected injector to determine whether the injector (e.g., injector 1) has been previously registered. In this way, the web server 35 may include a registry of some or all of the ejectors of one or more types that have been manufactured. Specifically, at the time of manufacture, the model and serial number of each injector is saved in the memory 37 of the web server 35. The web server 35 may also hold an indication of whether the injector has been registered, including information about the injector owner. The injector 1 may not hold or contain any information (e.g., in the memory 22) indicating whether the injector 1 has been registered, although it is possible to have the injector 1 store such information. In some examples, registered with the injector is a web server 35.

In the example of fig. 6, the web server 35 may send an indication of approval or denial to the handheld computer 14 in step 88. For example, if the injector 1 is unregistered, the network server 35 may send a communication to the handheld computer 14 prompting the handheld computer 14 to request the user to register the injector 1. At registration, the user may input the owner name (which may be a company name or an individual) of the injector 1. The owner name may be sent back to the web server 35 for storage in the memory 37 in association with the injector ID. The network server 35 may then store in the memory 37 an indication that the injector 1 is registered such that the injector 1 will be identified as being registered for the injector 1 in future connection requests. The owner name may be associated with other injectors that are commonly owned.

Registering the injector 1 may also include establishing an owner account or associating a new injector 1 with an existing owner account. The owner account may or may not allow the user account to view and/or change some or all of the historical data. The user account may be created using the handheld computer 14 and is typically created by a painter not associated with any particular sprayer. The owner account may have the right to allow or deny a particular user account to view historical data generated by the injector 1 or transmitted from the injector 1. At the time of registration of the injector 1 or at a later date, using the handheld computer 14 or the personal computer 29, the user of the owner account may input or select which user accounts will be allowed to view the history data, and this input or selection may be stored in the memory 37 of the web server 35.

The user account may include a particular user identification (e.g., a user name and/or number). The user may use the user identification and password to log into a program (e.g., application) or "app") running on the handheld computer 14. The combination of the user identification and the password may be considered as a user credential. This procedure facilitates communication with the injector 1 and the web server 35 discussed herein. The web server 35 may maintain a list in memory 37 of historical data that allows all user accounts indicated by the owner account to view the injector 1 (and other injectors), while not allowing users of all other user accounts to view the historical data of the injector 1.

If the check in step 87 determines that the injector 1 is registered, it may be checked whether a particular user under the user account logged onto the handheld computer 14 has been authorized by the owner account for viewing historical data, and both the authorized and unauthorized users' handheld computers 14 are able to communicate the injector data of the injector 1 to the network server 35.

Depending on whether a particular sprayer 1 is registered, the web server 35 sends approval or denial to the handheld computer 14 in step 88, approves the authorized user account associated with the sprayer 1 in the memory 37 of the web server 35, and denies any user accounts not approved by the owner account associated with the sprayer 1 in the memory 37 of the web server 35. The handheld computer 14 receives a communication from a web server in step 89. In response, the handheld computer 14 then sends a data request to the injector 1 in step 90. The injector 1 receives the data request in step 91 and then sends some or all of the historical data to the handheld computer 14 in step 92. Note that the history data refers to data that does not represent the current operation state of the injector 1. For example, in some cases, the historical data may be information that was sensed, calculated, developed, or otherwise collected more than 1 hour ago. In some cases, the historical data is information sensed, calculated, developed, or otherwise collected at least one day ago, or more than 12 hours ago, or more than 24 hours ago. In some cases, the historical data may be data that is not from the current injection segment, or data that has not been collected since the injector 1 was last powered on.

The handheld computer 14 receives data from the injector 1 in step 93. If approval was previously received in step 89, the program running on handheld computer 14 allows the user to view the transferred historical data on handheld computer 14. If a rejection is received in step 89, the program running on the handheld computer 14 does not allow the handheld computer 14 to display historical data to the user. Whether rejected or approved, the handheld computer 14 sends the historical data to the web server 35 at step 95. The web server 35 receives the history data at step 96.

In this way, the handheld computer 14 may ferry data from the injector 1 to the web server 35, allowing or disallowing the user of the handheld computer 14 to see the historical data. The reason that some users are not allowed to view the history data is because different workers may routinely use the injector. The owner of the sprayer 1 may trust some users to view the historical data and may not trust other users to view the historical data while using the sprayer 1. The historical data may be competitively sensitive, such as by including generation efficiency information that may reflect the owner's operations. Workers can typically work with multiple contractors at once, move between projects, and if the owner believes that the painter will work for a competitor, the owner may not want the painter to view historical data.

For example, the handheld computer 14 may receive user credentials of a user of the handheld computer 14 and identification information of the injector 1 in wireless communication with the handheld computer 14. The handheld computer 14 may receive a plurality of fluid parameter values from the injector 1 that represent the fluid of the injector 1 over time. In some examples, the plurality of fluid parameter values includes a first set of fluid parameter values generated during use of the injector 1 by a user and a second set of fluid parameter values generated prior to use of the injector 1 by the user.

The fluid parameter values may be various values indicative of the fluid output volume. As one example, the fluid parameter value may be an injection output value (e.g., an output value representing an injection fluid output volume) when the injector 1 is operating in the fluid atomizing injection mode. As another example, the fluid parameter value may be a pressure value (e.g., an actual pressure value measured by a pressure sensor or a pressure value set by a user).

For example, the handheld computer 14 may store historical data (e.g., a second set of fluid output values generated prior to use of the injector 1 by a user) and contemporaneous data (e.g., a first set of fluid output values generated by use of the injector 1 by a user). The historical data may be injection fluid output values and/or pressure values of previous users using the injector 1, and the contemporaneous data may be injection fluid output values and/or pressure values of current users using the injector 1.

Handheld computer 14 may determine whether the user credentials are authorized to view one or more of a plurality of fluid parameter values including the first set of fluid parameter values and the second set of fluid parameter values. For example, the first user may be authorized to view almost any (including all) fluid parameter values generated by the injector 1. The second user may be authorized to view fluid parameter values generated by the injector 1 during use by the second user, but may not be authorized to view fluid parameter values (e.g., historical fluid parameter values) generated by other users. The third user may be authorized to view some fluid parameter values (e.g., pressure values when the third user uses the injector 1) and not others (e.g., actual injection fluid output values representing the fluid output volume when the third user uses the injector 1). The third user may not be authorized to view any historical fluid parameter values.

In one or more examples, the respective ones of the second and third users 14 may be available for ferrying data, although the second and third users are limited in the amount of data that the second and third users may view on the respective ones of their handheld computers 14. In other words, the handheld computers of the second and third users may ferry the fluid parameter values even if they cannot be viewed by the second and third users, even if the second and third users are prevented from viewing the fluid parameter values (or at least some of the fluid parameter values).

For example, the handheld computer 14 may cause the wireless transceiver 17 to wirelessly transmit the plurality of fluid parameter values to a network server 35 remote from the injector 1 and the handheld computer 14. In response to determining that the user credentials are not authorized to view a second set of fluid parameter values of the plurality of fluid parameter values, the handheld computer 14 may prevent a user (e.g., second and third users from the above-described examples) from viewing at least the second set of fluid parameter values of the plurality of fluid output values (e.g., historical fluid output values) at the handheld computer 14 via the display device (e.g., interface 20).

In some examples, control circuitry 15 may cause the display device of handheld computer 14 to display at least some of the first set of fluid parameter values (e.g., pressure values and fluid output values, or pressure values but not fluid output values) despite determining that the user credentials are not authorized to view the second set of fluid parameter values (e.g., historical fluid output values or historical pressure values) of the plurality of fluid parameter values. However, the control circuit 15 may cause the display device of the handheld computer 14 to display the second set of fluid parameter values based on user credentials indicating a user capable of viewing the second set of fluid parameter values.

It is assumed in the above example that the third user uses the injector 1. After the third user, the fourth user may be coupled with the sprayer 1 using his/her own handheld computer 14 and the fourth user may use the sprayer 1. Similar to the above, the fourth user's handheld computer 14 may receive the fourth user's user credentials and identification information of the same injector 1 used by the third user. In this example, the injector 1 is in wireless communication with a handheld computer 14 of a fourth user.

The fourth user's handheld computer 14 may receive a plurality of fluid parameter values (e.g., pressure values or fluid output values representing fluid output volumes) of the injector 1 from the injector 1 over time. The plurality of fluid parameter values includes a third set of fluid parameter values generated during use of the injector 1 by a fourth user and a fourth set of fluid parameter values generated prior to use of the injector 1 by the fourth user. The fourth user's handheld computer 14 may determine whether the fourth user's user credentials are authorized to view one or more of the plurality of fluid parameter values including the third set of fluid parameter values and the fourth set of fluid parameter values and cause the wireless transceiver of the fourth user's handheld device 14 to wirelessly transmit the plurality of fluid parameter values to the network server 35.

However, in this example, the fourth user may have more viewing rights than the third user. For example, a third user is prevented from viewing the first set of fluid output values and the second set of fluid output values (but may be able to see parameter values, such as pressure). In some examples, in response to determining that the user credentials of the fourth user are authorized to view the third set of fluid parameter values and the fourth set of fluid parameter values, the fourth user's handheld device 14 may enable the fourth user to view the third set of fluid parameter values and the fourth set of fluid parameter values at the display device of the fourth user's handheld computer 14.

In some examples, while the third user may be prevented from viewing the fluid output value (e.g., representing the fluid output volume), the third user may be able to view one or more values used to generate the fluid output value. As one example, a third user may be authorized to view pressure values (e.g., examples of fluid parameter values) used to generate fluid output values, but not to view actual fluid output values.

Further, in some examples, a third user may be enabled to view the actual fluid output value when the third user uses the sprayer 1. But when the third user is finished using the sprayer 1, the third user is prevented from viewing the fluid output value even if the fluid output value is generated when the third user uses the sprayer 1. In other words, the value captured by the third user's handheld computer 14 may be considered real-time data. The third user's handheld computer 14 may enable the user to view at least some of the first set of parameter values (e.g., pressure values) while using the sprayer, and prevent the user from viewing the first set of parameter values (e.g., fluid output values, pressure values, or both fluid output values and pressure values) after a predetermined amount of time in which the first set of parameter values is no longer real-time data.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a job feature (job features). As used herein, a "job" is an injection item that an administrator of the injector 1 performs a task. The term manager is used herein to refer to a person who directs and supervises the jetting operator, and may direct and supervise one or more workers and one or more jets. The manager may be a business owner and an owner of the paint sprayer, or may be designated by the owner to manage the painting operation. The administrator may be a person operating the owner account, while a worker (e.g., painter) operates the user account on their handheld computer 14. The manager may be an owner. In some cases, the handheld computer 14 may be owned by the paint company and/or the handheld computer 14 may be owned by one or more workers alone.

Typically, the manager will have competitive bidding on the project to complete the project, taking into account paint usage and labor. The manager may competitively bid to win the project. The manager is then concerned with completing projects within the budget based on the bids, which requires monitoring paint and labor usage. A job may be created by an administrator by documenting an item and assigning one or more ejectors 1.

In many cases, there are a plurality of injectors used in the operation, such as injector 1. Furthermore, the same injector may be used for multiple jobs. Having collected data individually on how many ejectors are used in one job or collected information on how many specific ejectors are used in multiple jobs may be difficult and practically impossible in many cases, such as where such information is needed and processed in a relatively short amount of time. For example, if there are many job sites in a town, it is virtually impossible for the manager to determine the progress and injector information every hour or even every day. Furthermore, merely collecting data and presenting data may not be sufficient for use, especially given the amount of information.

Accordingly, the present disclosure describes example techniques that rely on wireless access coupled with access timing to selectively retrieve packet data from an injector (e.g., injector 1) to determine job progress. Further, the injector 1 may be utilized as a way of transmitting additional information such as a job report or the like.

In some examples, given the number of injectors and the number of job sites, the alignment of injectors to job sites may be particularly large and ensuring that an injector is associated with the correct job may be computationally difficult. As described in more detail in one or more examples, the present disclosure describes ways to store, access, and otherwise process information to ensure resolution of technical problems present in managing jobs.

For example, as described in more detail, there may be one or more ejectors (e.g., similar to ejector 1) for ejecting fluid at one or more job sites. The web server 35 may be configured to store job information, such as information indicating a manner in which one or more injectors are used at one or more job sites, and to receive information indicating a manner in which one or more injectors are used. The web server 35 may compare the received information with the stored job information and output information indicative of the usage information (e.g., for display on the personal computer 29) based on the comparison.

The manager can manage these jobs using the personal computer 29. The personal computer 29 may take various forms. The personal computer may be a desktop, laptop, tablet or handheld mobile computer, such as a smart phone. The personal computer 29 may be the same as the handheld computer 14. A personal computer 29 may be used to generate the job. Although a personal computer 29 is used in this example, it should be noted that the handheld computer 14 may alternatively be used for the same function.

In creating the jobs, one or more ejectors and/or locations are associated with each job. The step of associating the injector and/or location with the job is performed by an administrator account, which may be the same or different account as the owner account. A user painter (who may be a different person than the manager or owner, or may be the same person) using the handheld computer 14 may connect with the sprayer 1 at the job site. Depending on the user's rights and/or the location of the handheld computer 14 (e.g., as determined by the GPS module 19), a painter using the handheld computer 14 may view one or more jobs associated with the sprayer 1, select one of the jobs, and then use the sprayer 1 to process the selected job while the handheld computer 14 collects usage data from the sprayer 1 (as previously described herein), the handheld computer 14 sends information to the web server 35 to track the efficiency of the generation of the selected job.

For example, the job information defining a manner in which one or more injectors are used at one or more job sites may include data that associates one or more injectors with one or more job sites (e.g., injectors A-D for job site A, injectors E-G for job site B, etc.). As another example, the job information defining a manner in which one or more injectors are used at one or more job sites may include information regarding a date or date range on which the job was performed using one or more injectors at one or more job sites. As another example, the job information defining a manner in which one or more ejectors are used at one or more job sites may include information indicating users permitted to work at one or more job sites.

A painter (e.g., a user) using the handheld computer 14 may wirelessly connect with the sprayer 1 and the handheld computer 14 may communicate the sprayer ID (e.g., as previously described) and GPS location information to the web server 35. The web server 35 may view the injector ID and GPS location information to identify one or more jobs associated with the injector 1 or near the GPS location or both and send the job information back to the handheld computer 14. For example, the job information may include data associating one or more injectors with one or more job sites. Network server 35 may receive information identifying an injector of the one or more injectors (e.g., based on an injector ID) and information identifying a job site of the one or more job sites where the identified injector is located (e.g., based on GPS positioning). Network server 35 may compare whether the identified injector will be located at the identified job site based on information indicating which of the one or more injectors are associated with which of the one or more job sites. For example, if an injector at a job site is being used, but should not be used because the injector is not associated with the job site, the web server 35 may output information indicating usage information that the injector is being used inappropriately.

These jobs may then be presented to the user and one of these jobs may be selected. The user's usage data of the sprayer 1 may then be sent from the handheld computer 14 to the web server 35 for saving in association with the selected job to indicate the efficiency of the generation within a particular time window (i.e., the time the worker is working with the sprayer 1 at that location). For example, the information indicating the manner in which the one or more injectors are used at the one or more job sites includes information indicating how much fluid the one or more injectors are injecting over a period of time. The web server 35 may receive information indicative of usage data of the one or more injectors and compare the received information indicative of usage data of the one or more injectors with information indicative of how much fluid the one or more injectors inject during the period of time. The network server 35 may output information indicating whether the usage data of one or more injectors is less than, equal to, or greater than the amount of fluid that the one or more injectors inject during the period of time.

Information about the use of the sprayer 1, such as generation efficiency and paint consumption, may be collected at the web server 35 and then viewed from the personal computer 29 (or another device) via the manager account. Note that multiple ejectors (used by one or more users) may work on the same job and send usage and generation efficiency information to web server 35, which web server 35 may aggregate for the job and then be checked by an administrator using personal computer 29 to track the overall generation efficiency of ejector 1 fleet on the job.

Using the personal computer 29, the manager creates a job in step 100 of fig. 7. Creation and input are performed using the interface of the personal computer 29. Note that the handheld computer 14 may replace the personal computer 29. Creating a job may include receiving a job name given by a manager, such as "Miller house" or "middle school. For example, the name may be a quick reference indicating the nature and/or location of the job. The location of the job may also be entered. The location may be a postal address. The location may additionally or alternatively be selected from a map software program that displays a map, allowing the user to select a particular location. Such a feature may be useful in situations where an address has not been allocated because the building in the area has not been completed, or where the project involves a remote and/or non-addressed infrastructure (bridges, pipelines, towers, fences, etc.). Thus, in some examples, the job information indicating the manner in which the one or more injectors are to be used may include location information of the job, and the manner in which the one or more injectors are to be used may include information regarding the injectors used at the location of the job.

The entered location information may include a date or date range. Such a date or date range may correspond to a time at which the work is planned to be completed. For example, the date input may be 2018, 10, 15. The date range may be 10 months 10-20 days 2018. Thus, in some examples, the job information indicating the manner in which one or more injectors are to be used may include a date or date range on which work is to be completed in one or more jobs, and the manner in which one or more injectors are to be used may include information about injectors that are to be used on that date or within that date range.

Creating a job may also include assigning one or more ejectors 1 to the project (e.g., information indicating which ejectors 1 to use in one or more job sites). The manager may oversee the fleet of injectors 1 and may deploy the injectors 1 on an as needed basis. For example, the manager may assign one specific injector 1 to a specific job, or may assign a plurality of (e.g., three) specific injectors 1 to a specific job, or may assign one specific injector 1 to three specific jobs, or the like. Other information may be entered to create a job.

In step 101, the input information of the job is transmitted to the web server 35. The web server 35 receives job information in step 102. The job information is stored in the memory 37 on the web server 35 while the web server 35 waits for the job work to start. In this manner, web server 35 may store job information including information indicating the manner in which one or more injectors are used at one or more job sites.

In step 103, the dispensing injector 1 is connected to the handheld computer 14 at the location of the work site. The connection may occur in any of the ways mentioned herein. For example, injector 1 may be configured by BLUETOOTH ^TM The protocol is connected to a smart phone as the handheld computer 14. The handheld computer 14 then collects location information in step 104. The location information may include longitude and latitude coordinates from the GPS module 19. In another embodiment, the user may enter the address of the location using one or more interfaces 20. In some cases, the location information may be location information associated with a signal tower (e.g., cellular communication tower information) or Wi-Fi module (e.g., wireless network identification information) to which the handheld computer 14 is wirelessly connected. The handheld computer 14 may also collect operator information. In some examples, the operator information may include the name of the user or a particular user account using a program on the handheld computer 14 that interfaces with the injector 1 and the web server 35. In step 105, the handheld computer 105 sends the location, operator information, the ID of the injector 1, and/or other information to the web server 35. In step 106, the web server 35 receives location, operator information, injector ID, and/or other information.

In step 107, web server 35 may reference the job list to identify which job or jobs meet the criteria based on location, operator information, injector ID, date, and/or other information. For example, only those jobs that create or otherwise associate the owners and/or operators of the injectors 1 based on the previously registered injector IDs may be identified. As one example, network server 35 may receive information identifying an injector of the one or more injectors and information identifying a job site of the one or more job sites where the identified injector is located. Network server 35 may determine whether the identified injector will be located at the identified job site based on information indicating which of the one or more injectors are associated with which of the one or more job sites (e.g., comparing the identified injector and the identified location with stored information associated with which of the injectors are associated with which of the job sites).

Additional or alternative identification criteria for the job may be based on operator information. For a particular sprayer 1 or company, only a particular user account can view a particular job. When creating a job in step 100, the administrator may select which user account is allowed to view or add data associated with the particular job created, and in step 107, web server 35 may identify only those jobs that are allowed to be viewed or contributed by the current operator or user account. For example, the job information may include information indicating users allowed to work at the one or more job sites (e.g., authorized operators). In such an example, web server 35 may determine which of one or more handheld computers 14 is to receive the job information. The web server 35 may then transmit the job information to the determined one of the one or more handheld computers 14.

Additionally or alternatively, the identification criteria may be based on proximity, comparing the distance between the location indicated by the handheld computer 14 collected in step 104 and the job location collected in step 100. In some alternative embodiments, the injector 1 itself may have a GPS module and may generate its own location information to send to the network server 35 via the handheld computer 14 to indicate that location. Thus, as one example, network server 35 may determine whether an injector is near an identified job site. Based on whether the injector is proximate to the identified job site, network server 35 may determine whether the injector is located at the identified job site.

As an example, there may be multiple injectors associated with a job site. In one example, the network server 35 may receive information indicating the location of a particular injector. In this example, web server 35 may determine whether a particular injector is near a job site. If the particular injector is proximate to the job site, network server 35 may determine whether the particular injector is associated with the job site and should be located at the identified job site or elsewhere.

The web server 35 may have a predetermined range, such as 100 feet, 1000 feet, 1 mile, 5 miles, or some other range, within which the job would be identified if the job were within range of the location from the handheld computer 14 (or the injector 1 if the injector 1 generated its own location information). For example, if the predetermined range is 1000 feet, the web server 35 will identify all jobs having a location within 1000 feet of the location of the handheld computer 14, and will not identify those jobs having a location above 1000 feet of the location of the handheld computer 14.

Additional or alternative identification criteria may be based on a date or date range associated with the job. When a job is created, the job may have a date range associated with it. The date or date range may be a window of time for the job to complete. If the current date is the same as or within the date range, the job may be identified, and if the current date is different from or outside the date range, the web server 35 may not identify the job in the search. In some cases, if a job is within a particular time range of a date or date range, the job may be identified even if the current date exceeds the date or date range. For example, the time range may be 7 or 30 skylights (or other windows) such that all jobs having a date or date range within the 7 or 30 skylights (or other windows) of the current date will be identified, and if the current date is outside the time range of the particular job, the job will not be identified. Extending the search beyond the planned job completion date or date range within the time window may be useful because the job may be delayed due to weather or other factors and it may be desirable for the painter to be able to find the job, even if it is assumed that the job has completed, but still filter out jobs outside of that time range so as not to overwhelm the search for correct jobs.

For example, the information indicating the manner in which the one or more injectors are to be used at the one or more job sites includes information indicating a time range for each of the job sites during which one or more of the one or more injectors are to be used at the one or more job sites. Network server 35 may be configured to receive information identifying an injector of the one or more injectors 1 and information identifying a job site of the one or more job sites where the identified injector is located. Network server 35 may determine whether the identified injector is to be used at the identified job site based on information indicating a time range for the job site from information indicating a time range for each job site (e.g., compare the time range to actual time to determine whether the injector is authorized to inject fluid at the job site).

The web server 35 may additionally or alternatively identify only those jobs that the manager has approved to do work or that are attempting to view the particular user account of the user of the handheld computer 14 for job data. For example, web server 35 may transmit job information to determine those of handheld computers 14 that are associated with users that are permitted to work at the job site.

In some cases, the identified jobs may be those that satisfy a single standard, such as any of the standards described above. In some cases, the identified jobs may be those that satisfy a plurality of criteria.

A list of all jobs may be maintained in the memory 37 of the web server 35. The step of identifying the job based on the criteria may be performed by the processor 39 of the web server 35 comparing the criteria with the job stored in the memory 37. Those jobs that meet the criteria become identified jobs for segments between the handheld computer 14 and the web server 35, while those jobs that do not meet the criteria do not become identified jobs for particular segments between the handheld computer 14 and the web server 35. In some cases, multiple jobs will be identified, while in other cases, one job will be identified or no jobs will be identified. Although web server 35 is shown as identifying jobs from the stored job list based on criteria, handheld computer 14 itself may search for and identify jobs based on the job list (including associated job information) sent by web server 35 to handheld computer 14 or otherwise stored in memory 16 of handheld computer 14.

For example, each of the one or more handheld computers 14 may be associated with one or more ejectors 1. In one example, the network server 35 may be configured to determine which of the one or more handheld computers 14 are to receive the job information and transmit the job information to the determined one of the one or more handheld computers 14. In one example, web server 35 may transmit job information to one or more handheld computers 14, and each of the one or more handheld computers 14 may determine which job information the one or more handheld computers 14 are associated with.

In step 108, web server 35 transmits the identified job to handheld computer 14. The job information sent may include some or all of the information input that created the job in step 100. The job information may include the name of the job, the location of the job, the name of one or more injectors assigned to the job, the type of injector associated with the job, and/or other information. In step 109, the handheld computer 14 receives the identified job. In step 110, the handheld computer 14 presents the identified job to the user, such as on a touch screen. Presenting the job to the user may include presenting the name of the job, the location of the job, and/or any other information input used to create the job in step 100. For example, a display on handheld computer 14 may display a plurality of icons corresponding to the identified jobs, respectively, each icon indicating the name of the particular job and its location and/or time information (completion day or window), information of the assigned injector, such as name or type, and/or other information. In step 111, the user of the handheld computer 14 may select one of the presented jobs, such as by touching a particular icon on a touch screen, and the processor 18 of the handheld computer 14 receives an indication of which job was selected. In some examples, handheld computer 14 may automatically select a job. That is, rather than receiving an indication of a selected job via user input at the user interface graphical user interface, handheld computer 14 may automatically select a job without receiving user input for that selection. For example, handheld computer 14 may automatically select a job in response to determining that only one job is identified and/or that the selection criteria only indicate a location and/or one job of the user.

Based on the selection of the task (e.g., via user selection of the handheld computer 14 or automatic selection), injector usage information for the injector 1 may be sent to the web server 35 in step 112. For example, after receiving the selection in step 111, data previously and/or subsequently generated by the injector 1 and sent to the handheld computer 14 during the current segment between the handheld computers 14 in the injector 1 will be associated in memory with the job 111 selected by the handheld computer 14 and/or the network server 35 when subsequently sent to the network server 35. More specifically, memory entries for generating efficiency data (e.g., volume ejected per hour) may include job-related information (e.g., name or ID of the job), and various generation efficiency data entries may be aggregated between different time ranges for the ejectors 1 and from other ejectors 1 to track the overall generation efficiency of the job.

For example, in some examples, the network server 35 may determine how much fluid the particular injector 1 is injecting (e.g., injector usage information) and compare the usage information of the particular injector 1 to information indicating how much fluid the particular injector 1 is injecting over a period of time. However, in some examples, network server 35 may determine how much fluid is being injected on a job site-by-job site basis, rather than on an injector-by-injector basis, by aggregating usage information of injectors at the job site. The web server 35 may receive information indicative of usage data for each injector of the set of injectors and aggregate the received information indicative of usage data for each injector to produce aggregated usage data for the set of injectors. The network server 35 may compare the aggregate usage data for the set of injectors with information indicating how much fluid the set of injectors is to inject during the time period and output information indicating whether the aggregate usage data for the set of injectors is less than, equal to, or greater than how much fluid the set of injectors is to inject during the time period.

The association of the injector usage data of the injector 1 with the selected job may continue as long as the handheld computer 14 remains wirelessly connected to the injector 1 (referred to herein as a segment), which may be, for example, the remaining time of the workday. For example, network server 35 may receive information indicative of the volume of injections for a job site from one or more handheld computers 14 associated with respective ones of one or more injectors 1 located at the job site. In some embodiments, the data is sent only on a periodic basis, such as hourly or daily. In some cases, as long as the handheld computer 14 does not begin a segment with a different injector 1, the association of injector 1 usage data with the selected job may continue so that the injector 1 may be turned off and re-turned on to reestablish the connection and resume data generation and transmission to the handheld computer 14 while the generated data continues to be associated with the selected job. In some cases, the association of the injector 1 usage data with the selected job may continue as long as a different job is not selected using the handheld computer 14. One or more interfaces 20 of the handheld computer 14 may include an icon for ending the segment, if selected by the user, ending the association of further collected injector 1 usage data with the selected job. In some cases, the user may use one or more interfaces 20 of handheld computer 14 to associate usage data previously generated by injector 1 and sent to handheld computer 14 with a selected job before sending the usage data including job association information to web server 35.

In step 113, the web server 35 receives injector 1 usage information. The web server 35 may receive usage information for a plurality of different ejectors 1 of the same job, and may also receive usage information from a single ejector 1 over a plurality of jobs. Injector 1 usage information may be stored in memory 37 for later retrieval. The usage information may be referenced later and sent to another device, such as a personal computer 29, as shown in step 114. The personal computer 29 receives the usage information in step 115 for display on one or more of the interfaces 34. The usage information sent and received may be from multiple ejectors, multiple jobs, and multiple user accounts. For example, a manager operating personal computer 29 may be able to access all usage information for all of the injectors 1 in his team, but may not be able to access usage information for injectors 1, the manager not being indicated in memory 37 of web server 35 as owned by the company associated with the manager's account. Although the usage information is shown as being sent to the personal computer 29, the same information may be sent to the handheld computer 14 for viewing.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a system for tracking generation efficiency. Components having similar reference numerals as previously shown and described may be identical to the system. For example, ejectors 1A and 1B may be different embodiments of ejector 1, while HHC's 14A-D may be different embodiments of handheld computer 14. Two positions, position a and position B, are shown. Each location may be a single point with an indicated radius or may be a defined area. As shown, each of handheld computer 14A, handheld computer 14B, injector 1A, and injector 1B is within location a. Each of the handheld computer 14A, the handheld computer 14C, the injector 1A, and the injector 1C is within the location B. As shown, handheld computer 14A moves from location A to location B. Likewise, the injector 1A moves from position a to position B.

The jobs a-C are in position a so that the ejectors 1A and 1B are available to complete the jobs a-C. The jobs D-F are in position B so that the ejectors 1A and 1C are available to complete the jobs D-F. The worker may move between position a and position B to complete jobs a-F and may carry and/or leave the device as desired. For example, the injector 1A is transportable to perform different operations at different locations. Any handheld computer 14A, 14B may be used to wirelessly connect with the injectors 1A, 1B at location a to ferry data to the network server 35 through the cellular network 41. Likewise, any handheld computer 14A, 14C may be used to wirelessly connect with the injectors 1A, 1C at location B to ferry data to the network server 35 via the cellular network 41. It is expected that users will consistently use their particular handheld computer 14 while using different ejectors 1A-1C daily. Thus, each injector 1A-C may be connected to a different handheld computer 14A-14C at a different time.

The schematic diagram of fig. 8 may illustrate several use cases of the system. For example, an administrator may use personal computer 29 or handheld computer 14D to register an owner account for the Paint company that associates a company name (e.g., a+paint Works) with an account in the memory of web server 35. The administrator may then use the handheld computer 14D to register the injectors 1A, 1B while in short-range wireless proximity to the injectors 1A, 1B (e.g., if both the injectors 1A, 1B and the handheld computer 14D are in position a). The administrator may then register the injector 1C with the handheld computer 14D when the injector 1C is in close-range wireless proximity (e.g., if both the injector 1C and the handheld computer 14D are in position B). An administrator may use personal computer 29 or handheld computer 14D to create jobs a-F. In creating jobs a and C, the administrator can associate the ejectors 1A, 1B and location a with jobs a and C. Upon creation of job B, the administrator may associate the injector 1B and the position a with job B. In creating jobs D-F, the administrator may associate ejectors 1A, 1C, and location B with jobs D-F. Other criteria may be associated with each of jobs A-F, such as such job date/scope, user account, and/or any other criteria referenced herein.

A painter using the handheld computer 14A may reach the location a with the sprayer 1A and connect the handheld computer 14A wirelessly to the sprayer 1A as discussed herein. When connected to the sprayer 1A, the painter can transmit the sprayer ID of the sprayer 1A and information about the location a (e.g., address or global coordinates) to the network server 35 via the cellular network 41 using the handheld computer 14A. The web server 35 may compare the ID of the injector 1A and the information about the position a with the job database, thereby identifying the jobs a and C. In this example, the web server 35 does not identify job B because the manager does not associate job B with the injector 1A. In this example, web server 35 does not identify any jobs D-F because these jobs are associated with location B instead of location A.

Information about the identified jobs a and C may be sent by the web server 35 to the handheld computer 14A via the cellular network 41. Handheld computer 14A may then present information about jobs a and C to the painter and receive a selection of either job from the painter. Assuming that job a is selected by the painter, the usage data (e.g., previously or subsequently generated) from the sprayer 1A is sent to the handheld computer 14A and then to the network server 35 via the cellular network 41 for storage on the server network 35 associated with the selected job a.

While remaining in location a, the painter may then select job B using the interface on the handheld computer 14A, with the result of deselecting job a, such that usage data (e.g., previously or subsequently generated) from the sprayer 1A is sent to the handheld computer 14A and then to the network server 35 via the cellular network 41 for storage on the server network 35 associated with the selected job B.

A second painter can use handheld computer 14B to wirelessly connect with sprayer 1B at location a. The handheld computer 14B sends the injector ID of the injector 1B, information about location a and information about the user account of the second painter to the network server 35 via the cellular network 41. The web server 35 compares the criteria with the stored list of jobs and identifies only job C because when job C is created, job C is associated with the sprayer 1B, location a, and user account of the second painter, while the manager does not associate jobs a and B with the user account of the second painter. A second painter may select job C on the handheld computer 14B. The usage data (e.g., previously or subsequently generated) from injector 1B is sent to handheld computer 14B and then to web server 35 via cellular network 41 for storage on server network 35 in association with the selected job C. Then, the web server 35 gathers the usage data generated by the ejectors 1A and 1B to track the generation efficiency (e.g., the ejection volume and total volume per hour) of the job C.

After job C is completed, the first painter can transport the sprayer 1A and handheld computer 14A to location B. The first painter can connect the sprayer 1A or the sprayer 1C with the handheld computer 14A. In either case, the wireless connection to the injector and communication by the handheld computer 14A to the web server 35 may return the identified jobs D-F for selection. The handheld computer 14C may be wirelessly connected to the other of the injector 1A or 1C and the web server 35 via the cellular network 41 to return the jobs D-F. The first or second painter can then use the sprayer 1A, C to generate usage data that is sent by the handheld computer 14A, 14C via the cellular network 41 to the web server 35 for association with the selected job or jobs.

In this way, fig. 7 and 8 show examples in which information from different ejectors for one job or information from one ejector for a different job is aggregated. For example, one or more handheld computer devices 14 communicatively coupled to one or more injectors 1. Each of the one or more handheld computers 14 may be configured to receive information indicative of one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs. For example, web server 35 may receive information associating one or more ejectors 1 with one or more jobs and transmit information indicative of one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs to handheld computer 14 based on the association of the one or more ejectors with the jobs. As another example, web server 35 may be configured to receive information associating one or more ejectors to respective locations of one or more jobs and transmit information indicative of one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs to handheld computer 14 based on the association of the respective locations with the jobs. As another example, web server 35 may be configured to receive information associating one or more jobs with user credentials and transmit information indicative of one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs based on the received user credentials. As another example, web server 35 may be configured to receive information associating one or more jobs with one or more of a date, a date range, or a time range within a data range, and transmit the information indicating one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs based on the current date and the received information, the received information associating one or more jobs with one or more of a date, a date range, or a time range within a data range.

The information associating one or more ejectors 1 to one or more jobs or to respective locations of one or more jobs may include information associating one ejector to one job, information associating one ejector to a plurality of jobs, or information associating a plurality of ejectors to one job.

Handheld computer 14 may receive a user selection of a job of the one or more jobs. For example, a user may use interface 20 to view one or more jobs and select those jobs. The handheld computer 14 may receive information from the one or more ejectors 1 indicative of an amount of fluid ejected by the one or more ejectors 1, the one or more handheld computer devices 14 being communicatively coupled with the one or more ejectors 1, and output information indicative of an amount of fluid ejected in association with a selected one of the one or more jobs from the plurality of jobs.

Web server 35 may be configured to receive respective information from each of the one or more handheld computers 14 indicative of the amount of fluid ejected for the respective job and update the respective ejection volume log based on the respective information indicative of the amount of fluid ejected for the respective job (as described above). The jetting volume logs are respectively associated with the plurality of jobs, and each jetting volume log includes information indicative of an amount of fluid jetted at the associated jobs. Web server 35 may generate information for display indicating the respective amounts of fluid ejected for the plurality of jobs based on the ejection volume log.

As described above, a plurality of injectors 1 may be used for one job or one injector 1 may be used for a plurality of jobs. The web server 35 may be configured to aggregate the fluid output values from the different ejectors 1 to determine the amount of fluid (e.g., paint) ejected on a job-by-job basis.

As one example, two or more of the plurality of injectors 1 are used for the same job of the plurality of jobs. In such an example, to receive respective information from each of the one or more handheld computers 14 indicative of the amount of fluid ejected for the respective job, the network server 35 is configured to receive respective amounts of fluid ejected by two or more of the plurality of ejectors 1 from the respective one or more handheld computers 14 communicatively coupled to two or more of the plurality of ejectors 1. Also for updating the respective injection volume logs, the web server 35 is configured to aggregate the respective amounts of fluid injected by two or more of the plurality of injectors 1 to update the injection volume logs associated with the jobs associated with two or more of the plurality of injectors 1.

As another example, the injector 1 of the plurality of injectors 1 is used for two or more of a plurality of jobs. In such an example, to receive respective information from each of the one or more handheld computers 14 indicative of the amount of fluid ejected for the respective job, the network server 35 is configured to receive respective amounts of fluid ejected by the ejector 1 at two or more of the plurality of jobs from the respective one or more handheld computers 14, the one or more handheld computers 14 being communicatively coupled to the ejectors of the plurality of ejectors. Further, to update the respective ejection volume logs, the web server 35 may be configured to update the first ejection volume log of a first job of the two or more of the plurality of jobs based on the amount of fluid ejected by the ejector at the time of the first job, and to update the second ejection volume log of a second job of the two or more of the plurality of jobs based on the amount of fluid ejected by the ejector at the time of the second job.

In this way, the present disclosure describes examples in which there are techniques for jetting fluid for multiple operations of one or more ejectors 1. The network server 35 may be configured to receive information generated by one or more injectors 1. The information may indicate the amount of fluid to be injected for the corresponding job. Web server 35 may update the respective jetting volume log based on respective information indicative of the amount of fluid jetted for the respective job. The jetting volume logs are respectively associated with the plurality of jobs, and each jetting volume log includes information indicative of an amount of fluid jetted at the associated jobs. Web server 35 may generate information for display indicating the respective amounts of fluid ejected for the plurality of jobs based on the ejection volume log. The one or more handheld computers 14, the one or more ejectors 1, and the network server 35 may operate together in the manner described in this disclosure.

In some examples, the web server 35 may receive a plurality of job profiles corresponding to a plurality of painting projects of one or more paint sprayers 1, respectively. The one or more injectors 1 may be configured to generate and transmit (e.g., to the handheld computer 14 or directly to the web server 35) a plurality of injection volume data sets. The network server 35 may receive multiple injection volume data sets (e.g., directly from the injector 1 or from the handheld computer 14). The web server 35 may receive inputs respectively associating a plurality of spray volume data sets with a plurality of paint items, determine spray volume values for the plurality of paint items based on the plurality of spray volume data sets respectively associated with the plurality of paint items, and generate an output based on the spray volume values.

As an example, transmitting the plurality of injection volume data sets includes receiving, on one or more handheld devices, information indicative of one or more jobs from a plurality of jobs, receiving a user selection of a job of one or more jobs, receiving information from one or more injectors indicating an amount of fluid injected by the one or more injectors with which the one or more handheld computer devices are communicatively coupled, and outputting information indicative of an amount of fluid injected in association with a selected job of the one or more jobs.

In some examples, receiving input respectively associating a plurality of injection volume data sets with a plurality of paint items includes receiving information indicating that a first injection value data set generated by a first injector is associated with a paint item and receiving information indicating that a second injection value data set generated by a second injector is associated with the same paint item. In some examples, receiving input respectively associating a plurality of injection volume data sets with a plurality of paint items includes receiving information indicating that a first injection value data set generated by a first plurality of injectors is associated with a first paint item and receiving information indicating that a second injection value data set generated by a second plurality of injectors is associated with a second, different paint item.

In some examples, determining the jetting volume values for the plurality of painting items based on the plurality of jetting volume data sets respectively associated with the plurality of painting items includes updating respective jetting volume logs based on respective information indicative of the amounts of fluid jetted for the respective jobs, wherein the jetting volume logs are respectively associated with the plurality of jobs, and each jetting volume log includes information indicative of the amounts of fluid jetted at the associated jobs.

The injection volume data calculated by the injector 1 and output via the handheld computer 14 can be used to manage maintenance of the injector 1. The injector 1 includes various appliance components such as pump components (e.g., packing, valves, pistons, etc.) and spray gun components such as spray tips. Each of these components should be replaced periodically to maintain optimal performance of the injector 1, however each component wears at a different rate and has a different life such that maintenance must be performed at different times for different components. The main wear of the parts is due to the spraying of the pressurized paint. Thus, the injection volume data may be used to monitor wear of the component and trigger an alarm. In some embodiments, the spray volume is compared to a threshold and when the threshold is met or exceeded, an alert will be sent to the user to perform maintenance. The threshold value may thus represent a maintenance reminder level for checking or replacing the component.

Multiple handheld computers 14 may process the injection data of a single injector 1 such that one handheld injector 14 may process all of the injection data of an injector 1 individually. Thus, the maintenance threshold may be held by the network server 35 and the injection data may be compared to the determined threshold when maintenance is required and then an alarm may be raised to the handheld computer 14 currently in use in association with the injector 1 when the maintenance threshold is reached. Furthermore, the maintenance threshold and the injection data may be measured in terms of the lifetime injection volume of the injector 1.

The maintenance reminder may be provided on the handheld computer 14 or the personal computer 29 and then transmitted to the web server 35 for storage. For example, maintenance reminders may be entered into the handheld computer 14 associated with that particular injector 1.

The comparison of the ejection volume to the threshold value may be performed by the web server 35 when ejection volume log information is received from the handheld computer 14. When the threshold is met, a maintenance alert may be issued from the web server 35 to the personal computer 29 and/or handheld computer 14. In some examples, the injector does not perform a comparison of the injection volume to the threshold to generate the maintenance alert, but rather such comparison is performed by one of the handheld computer 14, the personal computer 29, and the web server 35. In such examples, the functionality of tracking output volumes and maintaining alerts is offloaded from the injector to a remote device (e.g., handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, and/or web server 35), thereby reducing the amount of data stored at the injector (i.e., maintaining an alert schedule and corresponding threshold volume output), as well as reducing the processing burden of the injector's processor performing threshold comparisons and maintaining alerts.

In some examples, any one or more of handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, and/or web server 35 may track multiple alarms (e.g., maintenance reminders) for the injector relative to a common volume starting point. For example, multiple alarms may be generated in lieu of the current life volume output (e.g., current life gallon output) of the injector, such as the tip of the injector during a first period of the volume output (e.g., every first gallon) and the packaging of the injector during a second period of the volume output (e.g., every second gallon, which may be different than the first gallon). More than two different thresholds, periods of volumetric output, or other maintenance thresholds may be used, such as three or more different thresholds. In some examples, different thresholds for alarms may be generated with respect to time of use rather than volume output.

The maintenance comparison is made by the handheld computer 14 or the web server 35. Data for maintenance tracking is provided by the injector 1 and sent to the handheld computer 14 and possibly to the web server 35, as discussed herein. The maintenance log may be based on the jet log previously described herein. Since the injection only records injection volume when the pressure is greater than a threshold amount, maintenance tracking is performed with the injection data indicating at or above a particular fluid pressure threshold and is performed without the use of the collected injection data when the pressure is below the particular fluid pressure threshold.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of outputting a notification from the web server 35 in response to receiving injector identification data of an injector associated with a status indicating that the injector is unexplained. The example operation of fig. 9 is useful for locating an injector that may be misplaced, stolen, or otherwise unexplained. The example technique of fig. 9 may enable an owner, industry length, or other user to log into an account on a network server 35 associated with the injector and indicate that the injector is unexplained (e.g., lost, stolen, or otherwise unexplained). After the injector is indicated as unexplained, and in response to receiving the injector identification information (e.g., from the handheld computer 14 uploading the injector's usage or other data), the network server 35 outputs a notification to a user (e.g., an owner) associated with the account and/or the handheld computer 14 sending the injector identification information and/or usage information to the network server 35. In some examples, the notification includes location information of the remote computing device that sent the injector identification information, such as GPS coordinates of the remote computing device, thereby enhancing the ability of the owner or other user associated with the registered account to locate the injector. Although the example operations of fig. 9 are illustrated and described herein with respect to handheld computer 14 and personal computer 29, it should be appreciated that the techniques of fig. 9 may be performed using any computing device (or devices) remote from and communicatively coupled to network server 35.

As shown in fig. 9, the handheld computer 14 is connected to an injector, such as injector 1 (step 116). For example, handheld computer 14 may be a smart phone or other computing device of a user, such as a painter, that is connected to a dispensing sprayer (such as sprayer 1) at the location of a job site, as described in further detail above. The connection may occur in any of the manners described herein, such as via BLUETOOTH ^TM The communication protocol is compatible with the smart phone used as the handheld computer 14. For example, when the injector 1 is powered, the injector 1 may broadcast identification information of the injector 1 from the wireless module 23, such as through a short range wireless protocol (e.g., bluetooth protocol). The broadcasted injector identification information may include the model number of the injector 1, the serial number of the injector 1, a specific name previously assigned to the injector 1, or any other information that uniquely identifies the injector 1. The handheld computer 14 receives injector identification information and/or injector usage information (e.g., fluid volume output information or other usage information) from the injector 1.

The handheld computer 14 transmits the injector 1 identification information and, in some examples, injector 1 usage information to the web server 35 (step 118). In some examples, the handheld computer 14 transmits location information of the handheld computer 14, such as longitude and latitude coordinates identified by the GPS module 19 of the handheld computer 14. When the handheld computer 14 is wirelessly connected to the injector 1 or when the handheld computer 14 is not wirelessly connected to the injector 1, the handheld computer 14 may transmit identification information of the injector 1 (and, in some examples, location information of the handheld computer 14). For example, the handheld computer 14 may transmit identification information of the injector 1, usage information of the injector 1, and/or location information of the handheld computer 14 to the web server 35 while the handheld computer 14 is wirelessly connected to the injector 1, such as during operation of the injector 1 at a job site. In other examples, such as when a wireless connection between the handheld computer 14 and the network server 35 is unavailable when the handheld computer 14 is wirelessly connected to the injector 1, the handheld computer 14 may transmit identification information of the injector 1, usage information of the injector 1, and/or location information of the handheld computer 14 to the network server 35 when a wireless connection between the handheld computer 14 and the network server 35 becomes available (e.g., when the handheld computer 14 is within range of a cellular communication network or other wireless network).

The network server 35 receives the identification information of the injector 1 and, in some examples, the location information of the handheld computer 14 (step 120). The network server 35 then identifies a registered account associated with the injector 1 (step 122). For example, the network server 35 may store registered account information in the memory 37 that associates the injector 1 with, for example, an owner or other user (e.g., an owner account). The registered account may associate any one or more ejectors with the account, which may be identified by the web server 35 via the ejector identification information. For example, the network server 35 may identify one of a plurality of registered accounts (e.g., owner accounts) associated with the identification information of the injector 1, such as by searching a database or other data store within the memory 37 or within a memory remote from the computing device that the network server 35 that associates and communicatively couples injector identification information with registered accounts.

The network server 35 determines that the status associated with the identified injector 1 in the registered account indicates that the injector 1 is unexplained (step 124). For example, the network server 35 may store status information associated with any one or more of the injectors of the registered account. The status information may indicate (e.g., by the owner or other user associated with the registered account) whether the corresponding injector is an interpreted or unexplained status. That is, an owner or other user associated with a registered account may provide login credentials, such as a user name and password, login to the registered account associated with the injector at the web server 35 and provide a status indication that the injector is unexplained (e.g., has an unknown location and/or job status) or interpreted (e.g., has a known location and/or job status). In some examples, the status information may include a location of the injector, such as a location of a job to which the injector was assigned, or a last known location of the injector. In the example of fig. 9, the network server 35 determines that the status (based on the received identification information of the injector 1) associated with the identified injector 1 indicates that the injector 1 is unexplained.

In response to determining that the injector identification information is received and that the registered account includes a status associated with the identified injector 1 indicating that the identified injector 1 is unexplained, the network server 35 provides a notification to one or more users associated with the registered account (step 126). For example, the network server 35 may store, in association with the registered account, an electronic mail (email) address associated with one or more users of the registered account, a Short Message Service (SMS) address associated with one or more users of the registered account, a voice mail address associated with one or more users of the registered account, or any other electronic communication address associated with one or more users of the registered account. The notification transmitted to the one or more users associated with the registered account may include an indication that the network server 35 received the identification information of the sprayer 1, an indication of the sprayer location based on the location information received from the handheld computer 14, user credential information of the user (e.g., painter) connected to the sprayer 1, and/or the time and date that the handheld computer 14 was connected to the sprayer 1. In some examples, the notification transmitted to the one or more users (e.g., owners) associated with the registered account is transmitted without providing the notification to the handheld computer 14 or the user of the handheld computer 14 reporting the status and location of the injector 1.

One or more users associated with the registered accounts receive notifications transmitted by the web server 35 (step 128). For example, as shown in FIG. 9, a user may receive a notification at personal computer 29, such as by retrieving the notification in the form of an email, logging into a registered account at network server 35 to retrieve the notification, or otherwise retrieving the notification via personal computer 29. Although the example of fig. 9 describes the use of personal computer 29 to retrieve notifications, in some examples, a user associated with a registered account may retrieve notifications using any computing device that may be communicatively coupled with web server 35, such as another handheld computer 14 (e.g., a smart phone or tablet computer).

In some examples, such as the example shown in fig. 9, the web server 35 transmits a notification to the user of the handheld computer 14 that transmitted the injector identification information received by the handheld computer 14 at step 132 (step 130). The notification may include the same information (in step 126) or different information as the notification sent to the user associated with the registered account. For example, in some examples, the notification transmitted to the handheld computer 14 may include the injector 1 having an indication that indicates an unexplained state of the injector 1. In some examples, the notification transmitted to handheld computer 14 may include an indication that injector 1 has an indication of an unexplained status of injector 1 and an indication of a registered account and/or a user (e.g., an owner) associated with the registered account. Information about the notification is then displayed on a screen or other interface of the handheld computer 14.

Thus, the technique of the example of fig. 9 may enable an owner, industry length, or other user to have a registered account associated with one or more injectors to indicate that an injector is unexplained, such as when the injector is lost, not located at a distribution job site, stolen, or otherwise unexplained. In response to connection of the injector with a computing device (e.g., handheld computer 14) that transmits identification information of the injector to network server 35, network server 35 transmits a notification to a user (e.g., owner) associated with the registered account. The notification may alert the owner or other user that the injector has been used and, in some examples, the location of the handheld computer 14 transmitting the data. In examples where handheld computer 14 transmits identification data while wirelessly connected to the injector, the location information of handheld computer 14 may be consistent with the location of the injector, thereby enabling the user of the account to identify the location of use (and possibly physical location) of the injector. The notification may be sent to the owner of the registered account or other user without notifying the user of the handheld computer 14, potentially recovering the stolen injector. In some examples, a notification may be sent to a user of handheld computer 14, thereby enabling the user of handheld computer 14 (e.g., a painter) to notify the owner, job site, or other user associated with the registered account of the location of the injector.

Fig. 10 is a flowchart showing an example operation of remotely setting the pressure threshold of the injector 1 using the wireless-connected handheld computer 14. The example operation of fig. 10 enables a user, such as a workplace, owner or other user, to remotely set a threshold pressure, such as an upper threshold pressure, of the injector 1 using a wireless connection between the handheld computer 14 and the injector 1.

For example, at a work site, there may be different motivations for the painter and the job owner. The painter may configure the sprayer 1 in a high pressure mode to accomplish the task. However, the industry or owner may wish to configure the injector 1 in a low pressure mode to ensure a better finish and reduce wastage.

The injector 1 and/or the handheld computer 14 may output a notification based on a comparison of the threshold pressure and a measured pressure of the injector 1, such as when the measured pressure exceeds the threshold pressure. That is, for the owner of the sprayer 1, the job to which the sprayer 1 is assigned, or other users, it may be desirable to set an upper threshold pressure indicator for the application of fluid (e.g., paint) during the job. The increased output pressure of the pump of the sprayer 1 increases the volumetric output of the sprayer 1, thereby providing the painter or other user with an incentive to increase the pressure to increase the volumetric output and reduce the time required to complete the job.

However, pump pressures and corresponding volumetric outputs exceeding the upper threshold may reduce the finish quality of paint or other fluids applied during operation, such as by leaving behind droplets, streaks, or generally undesirable applied thickness of the fluid. Excessive pressurization may also result in wastage of paint, which can be a costly driving factor. Over pressurization may also increase wear on the injector 1, requiring earlier maintenance or earlier failure. Thus, when the output pressure of the pump of the injector 1 exceeds the threshold pressure of the job, the user of the injector 1, the job length or other supervisor of the job, the owner of the injector 1 or other user may advantageously be alerted.

As shown in FIG. 10, handheld computer 14 receives an indication of a pressure threshold (step 134). The threshold pressure may be an upper threshold pressure, i.e. a lower threshold pressure which is for example smaller than the maximum achievable pressure of the pump of the injector 1. The threshold pressure may be changed based on the operation to which the injector 1 is assigned. The handheld computer 14 (or personal computer 22) may receive an indication of the threshold pressure via one or more interfaces 20 of the user of the handheld computer 14, via communication from the web server 35 when the job assigned by the sprayer 1 is selected, or via user interaction with the handheld computer 14 or wirelessly via communication with the web server 35. Being able to remotely change the threshold pressure allows the manager to set the maximum pressure based on various conditions, such as the level of experience of the painter, the nature of the project, the type of paint being sprayed, environmental factors, etc. Furthermore, if the worker desires a higher stress, the worker may call the manager to request a higher lower stress, and the manager may increase the maximum stress remotely. Thus, the maximum pressure threshold may be changed at all times throughout the day depending on the changing job site conditions.

In the example of figure 10 of the drawings,the handheld computer 14 transmits (step 136) a threshold pressure to the injector 1 via wireless communication, such as BLUETOOTH ^TM Or other wireless communication protocol, is received wirelessly at injector 1 (step 138). In other examples, as described further below, the handheld computer 14 does not transmit the threshold pressure to the injector 1, but rather compares the pressure received from the injector 1 to the threshold pressure and provides a notification based on the comparison.

As shown in fig. 10, the injector 1 senses the actual fluid pressure of the fluid downstream of the pump of the injector 1 (step 140), such as via a pressure sensor 28 that measures the hydraulic pressure of the fluid (e.g., paint) that exits or is otherwise pumped downstream of the pump 9 of the injector 1. The injector 1 compares the sensed actual fluid pressure to the threshold pressure using, for example, the control circuit 21 of the injector 1 (step 142). In an example where the threshold pressure is an upper threshold pressure, such as the example of fig. 10, the injector 1 determines whether the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure (step 144). In other examples, such as examples where the threshold pressure is a lower threshold pressure, the injector 1 may determine whether the actual fluid pressure is less than the threshold pressure.

As shown in fig. 10, in the example where the measured actual fluid pressure does not exceed the threshold pressure (the "no" branch of step 144), the injector 1 continues to sense the actual fluid pressure downstream of the pump of the injector 1 (step 140). The injector 1 may continue to repeat through steps 140, 142, and 144 to measure the actual fluid pressure (step 140), compare the actual fluid pressure to a threshold pressure (step 142), and determine whether the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure during operation of the injector 1 (step 144). In some examples, the injector 1 does not output an indication of the comparison of the actual fluid pressure to the threshold pressure until the injector 1 determines that the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold fluid pressure. In other examples, the injector 1 outputs an indication that the actual fluid pressure does not exceed the threshold pressure until the injector 1 determines that the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure.

In response to determining that the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold fluid pressure ("yes" branch of step 144), the injector 1 outputs a notification (step 146). The notification may include any one or more of the following indications: an indication that the threshold pressure has been exceeded, a degree to which the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure (e.g., a difference between the measured pressure and the threshold pressure), a duration of time that the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure, and a date and/or time that the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure. In some examples, injector 1 may output the notification (in step 146) in response to determining that the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure for a threshold duration (such as one second, five seconds, one minute, or other threshold duration). In some embodiments, in order to output a notification in step 146, the measured pressure must exceed the pressure threshold for a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 seconds), and a pressure exceeding the threshold for a shorter duration does not result in a notification being output. In some embodiments, the measured pressure must exceed the pressure threshold for a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 seconds) while the pump 9 continues to pump (e.g., as determined by the pump cycle sensor 27 or the motor controller 25) for outputting the notification in step 146, and the pressure exceeds the threshold for a short duration and/or the pump 9 is not driven during overpressure without causing the notification to be output. It should be noted that although the pressure threshold is exceeded, the injector 1 continues to operate and inject (e.g., the motor controller 25 does not limit the power of the motor 4) so that paint can continue to complete the job, a notification is still sent so that the main pipe can be notified of the injection while the overpressure is exceeded.

The notification is received by the handheld computer 14 (step 148) and transmitted from the handheld computer 14 to, for example, the web server 35 and/or displayed on a display device of the handheld computer 14 (step 150). In the example where the handheld computer 14 sends the notification to the network server 35, the network server 35 may notify the owner or other user of the registered account associated with the injector 1.

While the example of fig. 10 shows and describes the injector 1 receiving a threshold pressure and comparing the sensed actual fluid pressure to the threshold fluid pressure to output a notification, it should be appreciated that in some examples, the handheld computer 14 does not transmit the threshold pressure to the injector 1 to be compared to the sensed actual fluid pressure. In such examples, the injector 1 outputs the sensed actual fluid pressure (or an indicator of measured pressure) to the handheld computer 14 (e.g., periodically, such as at regular time intervals, regular fluid output volumes, or at other intervals). In these examples, handheld computer 14 compares the actual fluid pressure received from injector 1 to a threshold pressure and outputs any notification mentioned herein based on the comparison (e.g., such as when the actual fluid pressure exceeds the threshold pressure).

As such, the technique of fig. 10 may enable a user of the sprayer 1 (e.g., a painter), a job length or other supervisor of the job that is dispensing the sprayer 1, and/or an owner of the sprayer 1 to be notified that the threshold pressure is exceeded. Thus, the technique of fig. 10 may help ensure that the output pressure of the sprayer 1 for a particular task is within the desired output pressure range for that task, such as an output pressure range below an upper threshold pressure that promotes uniform, high quality distribution of fluid (e.g., paint) from the sprayer 1.

In this way, fig. 10 illustrates an example technique in which, when the pump 9 is operating during a window, the handheld computer 14 and/or the web server 35 and/or the control circuit 21 of the injector 1 (alone or in combination) may receive a plurality of pressure values (e.g., based on the duration or number of cycles (all or part) of the pump 9) and determine an aggregate pressure metric for the window based on the plurality of pressure values received during the window. The handheld computer 14 or the control circuit 21 may cause the corresponding wireless module to transmit the aggregate pressure metric. Examples of summary pressure metrics include one of an average, pattern, or median of one or more pressure values.

There are various ways to receive the pressure value. As one example, the pressure value may be received based on a user-selected pressure level. As another example, the pressure value may be determined based on pressure measurements from a pressure sensor.

The web server 35 may be configured to receive the pressure metric. The web server 35 may then output information indicative of the pressure metric to the personal computer 29 for display.

Fig. 11 is a flowchart showing an example operation for limiting the output pressure of the injector 1 to a threshold pressure received from the handheld computer 14 via wireless communication. The example operation of fig. 11 enables a user, such as a workplace, owner or other user, to remotely set a threshold pressure, such as an upper threshold pressure, of the injector 1 using a wireless connection between the handheld computer 14 and the injector 1. The injector 1 then limits the output fluid pressure of the injector 1 to the received threshold pressure.

As shown in fig. 11, handheld computer 14 receives an indication of a pressure threshold (step 152). The threshold pressure may be an upper threshold pressure, i.e. a lower threshold pressure which is for example smaller than the maximum achievable pressure of the pump of the injector 1. The threshold pressure may be changed based on the operation to which the injector 1 is assigned. For example, as referenced herein, each job may have a maximum pressure limit entered by the main pipe at or after creation, and the maximum pressure limit is communicated to the injector 1. The handheld computer 14 may receive the indication of the threshold pressure via a user interface graphical user interface of the handheld computer 14, via communication from the web server 35 when the job assigned by the sprayer 1 is selected, or via user interaction with the handheld computer 14 or wirelessly via communication with the web server 35.

The handheld computer 14 wirelessly transmits the threshold pressure to the injector 1 (step 154), for example, via bluetooth or other wireless communication data protocol. The threshold pressure is received wirelessly by the injector 1 (step 156).

The injector 1 limits the output pressure of the injector 1 such that the actual fluid pressure sensed by the injector 1 (e.g., via the pressure sensor 28 of the injector 1) does not exceed the threshold pressure (step 158). For example, the motor controller 25 of the injector 1 may control the motor 4 such that the actual fluid pressure sensed via the pressure sensor 28 of the injector 1 does not exceed the threshold pressure. For example, if the measured pressure measured by pressure sensor 28 exceeds a maximum threshold pressure determined by processor 24, processor 24 may cause motor controller 25 to reduce or stop power delivery to motor 4 to slow or stop pump 9, thereby creating a lower fluid pressure. If the measured pressure measured by pressure sensor 28 falls below the maximum threshold pressure determined by processor 24, processor 24 may cause motor controller 25 to increase or resume power to motor 4 to accelerate or circulate pump 9 to create a lower fluid pressure. In some embodiments, the measured pressure must exceed the maximum threshold pressure for a predetermined duration, such as 2 seconds, before the power to the motor 4 is reduced or shut off, to avoid an instantaneous pressure spike from interrupting injection. In some examples, the control circuit 21 of the injector 1 adjusts the limit of the potentiometer dial corresponding to the controller 5 of the injector 1 such that the maximum input of the potentiometer dial corresponds to the threshold pressure.

Thus, the technique of fig. 11 enables the threshold pressure (e.g., upper threshold pressure) of the injector 1 to be set remotely using a wireless connection between the handheld computer 14 and the injector 1. The injector 1 limits the output fluid pressure to the received threshold pressure, thereby ensuring that the output pressure of the injector 1 does not exceed the threshold pressure.

For example, the control circuit 21 may receive a threshold pressure and a pump output pressure setting (e.g., an actual pressure determined from a pressure sensor or based on a user-selected pressure level). The control circuit 21 may then control the operation of the injector 1. For example, the control circuit 21 may cause the motor to drive the output of the pump 9 to the pump output pressure setting unless the pump output pressure setting is greater than the threshold pressure, in which case the control circuit 21 may cause the motor to drive the output of the pump 9 to the threshold pressure.

While in various embodiments the control circuit 21 of the injector 1 calculates the injection volume metric based on the cycling state of the pump 9 and then wirelessly transmits the injection volume metric to the handheld computer 14, any such injector 1 embodiment may instead not calculate the injection volume, but may wirelessly transmit the pump cycling metric to the handheld computer 14 and the handheld computer 14 (or to the network server 35 in the case where the handheld computer 14 transmits the pump cycling metric to the network server 35), and the handheld computer 14 may calculate the injection volume metric based on the pump cycling metric. For example, the injector 1 may determine, save in the memory 22, and transmit the number or fraction of pump cycles to the handheld computer 14 within a time window (e.g., 1 second, 10 seconds, 1 minute, 1 hour). Based on the number or fraction of pump cycles over the time window, the handheld computer 14 may calculate the injection volume for the same time window in the same manner as discussed herein for the injector 1 to calculate the injection volume. The injector 1 may determine, save in memory 22, and transmit the measured pressure to the handheld computer 14 for use in injection volume calculations as discussed herein. The calculated spray volume 14 may be used in any of the manners discussed herein, such as for tracking paint generation efficiency, managing job data, or including other actions transmitted to the web server 35. Instead of the handheld computer 14 calculating the injection metric, the number or fraction of pump cycles over the time window and/or the measured pressure data may be transmitted to the web server 35 and the web server 35 may make the calculation. Each reference to the injector 1 calculating the injection volume metric may be modified by the injector 1 alternatively transmitting data for such calculation and the handheld computer 14 and/or the network server 35 alternatively calculating the injection volume metric.

Thus, fig. 10 and 11 illustrate examples in which the control circuit 21 of the injector 1 is configured to wirelessly receive the threshold pressure (e.g., the control circuit 21 may receive the threshold pressure from a remote device such as the handheld computer 14, the web server 35). There may be the benefit of receiving the threshold pressure wirelessly rather than relying on a constant pre-stored/pre-configured threshold pressure. For example, different job sites with different jobs may require different pressure levels. In this way, each injector 1 at a different job site may be configured for a different threshold pressure.

The control circuit 21 of the injector 1 may control the operation of the injector 1 based on the threshold pressure and the actual pressure. For example, to control the operation of the injector 1, the control circuit 21 may limit the output pressure of the injector so that the actual pressure does not exceed the threshold pressure. The control circuit 21 may be configured to limit the output pressure of the injector 1 by controlling the speed of the motor 4 such that the actual pressure does not exceed the threshold pressure.

As another example, to control operation of the injector 1, the control circuit 21 of the injector 1 may be configured to compare the threshold pressure with the actual pressure and output a notification based on the comparison of the threshold pressure with the actual pressure. For example, the control circuit 21 may be configured to output a notification based on a comparison of the threshold pressure and the actual pressure by outputting the notification in response to determining that the actual pressure exceeds the threshold pressure. In some examples, the notification includes an indication that the actual pressure exceeds a threshold pressure. In some examples, the notification includes an indication of the extent to which the actual pressure exceeds the threshold pressure.

As mentioned above, it may be beneficial to set the threshold pressure at a level that reduces wear. One way to achieve wear reduction may be to set the threshold pressure to be less than the maximum output pressure achievable by the pump 9 of the injector 1.

FIG. 12 shows a flow chart for tracking injection volumes associated with maintenance reminders and issuing an alarm once a maintenance threshold is reached. The user may use the handheld computer 14 or the personal computer 29 to enter one or more maintenance reminders for a particular injector 1. The web server 35 may receive (e.g., from the handheld computer 14) and save maintenance reminders for a particular injector 1. Each maintenance reminder may identify the injector 1, such as by model number, serial number, owner-assigned injector name, and/or other unique identification. Each maintenance reminder may include a maintenance action such as changing a packing, changing a tip, changing a piston rod, changing a pump, or other action associated with the injector 1. Each maintenance reminder may include a maintenance threshold measured in ejection volume or an indication of ejection volume, such as a pump cycle. For example, the first maintenance reminder may be a package that replaces a particular sprayer (e.g., identified by a serial number) after spraying 100 gallons of paint, and the second maintenance reminder may be to replace the tip nozzle of the particular sprayer after spraying 50 gallons of paint.

Returning to the process of FIG. 12, the handheld computer 14 receives a request for a maintenance reminder at step 170. The receiving of the request may be the user entering a maintenance reminder using one or more interfaces 20, which may be, for example, the first maintenance reminder and/or the second maintenance reminder described above. If the handheld computer 14 is currently wirelessly connected to the injector 1, then a maintenance reminder may be automatically associated with the injector 1 (e.g., using the serial number of the injector 1. Alternatively, a maintenance reminder may be entered at the personal computer 29. In this case, the injector 1 must be uniquely identified, such as by a user selecting the name of the injector associated with the user's account, such that the serial number of the injector is retrieved from memory and sent. Assuming the handheld computer 14 receives a maintenance reminder, then in step 171, the handheld computer 14 sends a maintenance reminder to the network server 35 that includes the underlying data referenced above. In step 172, the network server 35 receives a maintenance reminder from the handheld computer 14. In step 173, the network server 35 sets an injection volume threshold (e.g., a maintenance reminder stored in memory) based on the received maintenance reminder request. Setting an injection volume maintenance log for the maintenance reminder in memory may include starting an injection volume for the maintenance reminder, which is used exclusively for maintenance reminder, when the injection volume maintenance log is started for the first time, the injection volume may then be set to zero, and the volume is updated as the injection volume is updated to the injection volume is received in the log.

In step 174, the injector 1 generates injection volume data. The ejection volume data may be any type of data referred to herein, including the volume of ejection. Alternatively, the injection volume data may be a pump cycle, rather than a calculated injection volume. In step 175, the injector 1 transmits the generated injection volume data to the handheld computer 14. Step 175 may occur periodically while spraying according to a schedule (e.g., every minute or hour) initiated based on the closing of each time window (mentioned above), and/or at the end of each spraying segment. In step 176, the handheld computer 14 receives the ejection volume data. In step 177, the handheld computer 14 sends the ejection volume data to the web server 35. In step 178, the web server receives the injection volume data. In step 179, the web server 35 may update the injection volume maintenance log based on the received injection volume data. For example, if the injection volume data generated by injector 1 indicates 10 gallons were injected, then the injection volume maintenance log may be incremented by 10 gallons in step 179. In step 180, the web server compares the injection volume maintenance log for maintaining the threshold to determine if the threshold has been reached. If the injection volume maintenance log has not reached the threshold, no alarm is raised. Typically, as more injection volume data is accumulated and the injection volume maintenance log is increased, steps 174-180 will be repeated a number of times until a maintenance threshold is reached by the injection volume maintenance log. It is assumed that multiple spray segments will take days (where the sprinkler 1 is cycled off and another day, and/or the handheld computer 14 is disconnected and then the connection is re-established at a later time), and that possibly different handheld computers 14 communicate with the sprayer 1 at different times corresponding to different spray segments, and that different handheld computers 14 relay different spray volume data to the network server 35 to be saved in the same spray volume maintenance log until a maintenance threshold is reached. Once the comparison in step 180 determines that the injection volume maintenance log exceeds the maintenance threshold, the web server 35 sends a maintenance alert in step 181. Various devices may receive alarms from the web server 35, including the handheld computer 14 currently or recently connected to the injector 1, the personal computer 29 associated with the owner or manager of the injector 1, and/or other means. In the example flowchart shown in FIG. 12, a maintenance alert is received by the handheld computer 14 in step 182. The handheld computer 14 then outputs a maintenance alert to the user in step 183 to instruct the user to perform maintenance on the injector 1.

One aspect of the process of fig. 12 is to maintain a jet volume maintenance log on the web server 35, and the web server 35 sets the jet volume maintenance log to zero when creating a maintenance alert request. If multiple maintenance reminder requests are received simultaneously, such as for different components, multiple injection volume maintenance logs may be set to zero and then updated as the injection volume data is received by the web server 35, as the maintenance reminders will have different injection volume thresholds for different maintenance actions/components, multiple injection volume maintenance logs are used.

In some embodiments, the injection volume maintenance log is maintained on the web server 35, but when the handheld computer 14 (for which the injection volume maintenance log is being maintained) establishes a connection with the injector 1, the injection volume maintenance log is transmitted to and received by the handheld computer 14 so that the handheld computer 14 can determine whether and when the threshold of injection volume maintenance log is met, regardless of subsequent loss of connection with the web server 35, and avoid sending periodic data updates to the web server 35. The handheld computer 14 then updates and tracks the injection volume maintenance log and determines if a maintenance threshold is reached, and if so, an alarm is raised. Then, at the end of the injection segment, the updated injection volume maintenance log and/or injection volume is sent to the web server 35, reflecting the current injection volume output in the injection volume maintenance log. The web server 35 may then store the updated spray volume maintenance log and send the updated spray volume maintenance log to the other handheld computer 14 for another segment at a later time when the other handheld computer 14 is connected to the sprayer 1, thereby repeating the monitoring process to reach the maintenance threshold of the spray volume maintenance log.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart similar to the process of FIG. 12 for tracking injection volume maintenance logs and issuing maintenance alarms. One difference between the process of fig. 13 and 12 is that in the process of fig. 13, the injector 1 sends life injection volume data to the handheld computer 14 and then to the web server 35. The lifetime spray volume data may be the total volume sprayed by the injector 1 during the entire lifetime of the injector 1, which is not reset or set to zero. In some embodiments, the lifetime injection volume data is a log when the injection volume valve is reached, and in some other embodiments, the lifetime injection volume data is a single value of the total lifetime injection volume. Instead of the handheld computer 14 and/or the web server 35 keeping track of separate injection volume maintenance logs for each maintenance reminder, the process of fig. 13 sets each maintenance reminder to a specific value of the life injection volume data and issues an alarm if the life injection volume data value reaches that specific value.

The process includes receiving a request to set a maintenance reminder in step 170 similar to the process of fig. 12. In step 190, the handheld computer 14 sends a request for current lifetime injection volume data to the injector 1. The injector 1 stores the lifetime injection volume data in a memory 22. In step 191, the injector 1 receives the lifetime spray volume data request and in step 192 sends the lifetime spray volume data to the handheld computer 14. In step 193, the handheld computer 14 risks receiving life spray volume data. In step 194, the handheld computer calculates a maintenance threshold based on the requested maintenance reminder and the life spray volume data received from the injector 1. As previously mentioned, different maintenance reminders will have different injection volume thresholds. For example, the first maintenance reminder may be to replace the filler after spraying 100 gallons of paint, and the second maintenance reminder may be to replace the tip nozzle after spraying 50 gallons of paint. Thus, a maintenance threshold for filler replacement may be set by adding 100 gallons to the current life spray volume value. Multiple maintenance thresholds may be set in this manner, typically resulting in different maintenance thresholds being calculated from the same current lifetime injection volume value start point. In step 195, the handheld computer 14 sends the maintenance threshold to the web server 35, and the web server 35 receives the maintenance threshold in step 196. Note that step 194 may alternatively be performed by the web server 35 sending life spray volume data to the web server 35 through the handheld computer 14. The handheld computer 14 and/or the web server 35 store the maintenance threshold in memory as a reference.

The process of fig. 13 may continue at another injection segment or at another date, where injector 1 generates injection volume data at step 197. As the spray volume data is generated, the sprayer 1 updates the life spray volume data, such as by increasing the life spray volume log or value as more paint is sprayed in the segment. When periodically injected according to a schedule (e.g., every minute or hour) initiated based on the closing of each time window (referenced above) and/or at the end of each injection segment, injector 1 then sends updated lifetime injection volume data to handheld computer 14 at step 198. The handheld computer 14 receives the lifetime spray volume value in step 199. The handheld computer 14 then sends the lifetime jet volume value to the web server 35 in step 200. The network server 35 receives the lifetime jet volume value in step 201. The network server 35 compares the lifetime spray volume value to the maintenance threshold to determine whether one of the thresholds has been met in step 202. If the threshold is met, the network server 35 sends a maintenance alert to the handheld computer 14 in step 203. In step 204, the handheld computer 14 receives a maintenance alert. In step 205, the handheld computer 14 outputs a maintenance alert on one or more interfaces 20 to alert the user that maintenance is required. Note that steps 204 and 205 may be performed using only the handheld computer 14 currently interfacing with the injector 1 or using multiple handheld computers 14 and/or using the personal computer 29, which personal computer 29 may be in the form of a text message, email or other type of message. In some embodiments, the network server 35 sends the maintenance threshold to the handheld computer 14 in the current section with the injector 1, and the handheld computer 14 performs the comparison of step 202 and may send an alarm similar to step 203 to other devices and/or may output an alarm message and in step 205.

In this way, the handheld computer 14 or the web server 35 may be configured to receive data indicative of the ejection volume. The handheld computer 14 and/or the web server 35 may be configured to maintain the injection volume maintenance log in memory by updating the injection volume maintenance log with data indicative of injection volumes from the injectors 1. The handheld computer 14 and/or the web server 35 may compare the injection volume maintenance log to an injection volume threshold and issue an alarm when the injection volume maintenance log is greater than the injection volume threshold.

The injector 1 may generate data indicative of the injection volume in various ways. As one example, the control circuit 21 may count all or part of the pump cycles of the pump 9 and generate data indicative of the injection volume based on the count of all or part of the pump cycles of the pump 9. As another example, the control circuit 21 may determine whether the injector 1 is operating in a fluid nebulized injection mode or a non-nebulized flush mode, and generate data indicative of injection volume based on a count of all or part of the cycles of the pump when the injector is operating in the fluid nebulized injection mode. In both examples, the injection volume maintenance log is updated based on a count of all or a portion of pump cycles of the pump when the injector is operating in the fluid atomizing injection mode. In some examples, the control circuit 21 may be configured to determine the pressure of the output fluid and determine whether the injector 1 is operating in the fluid nebulization injection mode or the non-nebulization flush mode, and the control circuit 21 may be configured to determine whether the injector 1 is operating in the fluid nebulization injection mode or the non-nebulization flush mode based on the pressure of the output fluid.

As described above, there may be multiple maintenance reminders. For example, after a first gallon is sprayed by the sprayer 1, a first maintenance reminder for the first component may be triggered. After a second gallon is sprayed by the sprayer 1, a second maintenance reminder may be triggered for the second component.

For example, in the above example, the ejection volume threshold is a first ejection volume threshold associated with a first maintenance alert, and the alert is a first alert for the first maintenance alert. The handheld computer 14 and/or the web server 35 may be configured to compare the injection volume maintenance log to a second injection volume threshold associated with the second maintenance reminder and cause a second alarm associated with the second maintenance reminder to be issued when the injection volume maintenance log is greater than the second injection volume threshold. In this example, the first injection volume threshold and the second injection volume threshold are thresholds of different volumes. As an example, a first injection volume threshold is associated with a first maintenance reminder for replacing one of the packing, tip, piston rod or pump and a second injection volume threshold is associated with a second maintenance reminder for replacing another of the packing, tip, piston rod or pump.

In some cases, the first user may use the sprayer 1 for a certain amount of time, and during this time, there may not be enough paint sprayed to trigger a maintenance reminder. However, second, the user may then use the sprayer 1, and during use by the second user, the second user may have sprayed enough paint to trigger a maintenance reminder. Because the first and second users may have their own respective ones of the handheld computers 14, in some cases, the respective ones of the handheld computers 14 may not be able to determine how much paint has been sprayed. Thus, in some examples, the web server 35 may be configured to maintain a running total of how much paint was output by the sprayer 1 even if a different user uses the sprayer 1, so that the web server 35 may determine whether sufficient use of the sprayer 1 has occurred to cause a maintenance reminder alarm to be sent.

For example, the first handheld computer 14 in wireless communication with the injector 1 may be configured to receive first data indicative of an injection volume output by the injector 1 and transmit the first data indicative of the injection volume to the web server 35. A second handheld computer 14, which is then in wireless communication with the same injector 1, may be configured to receive second data generated by a second subsequent use of the injector 1 indicative of the injection volume output by the injector 1 and transmit the second data indicative of the injection volume to the network server 35.

The web server 35 may be configured to update the injection volume maintenance log with first data indicative of the injection volume to generate a first instance of the injection volume maintenance log, compare the first instance of the injection volume maintenance log to an injection volume threshold, and determine that the first instance of the injection volume maintenance log is not greater than the injection volume threshold. The web server 35 may then update the injection volume maintenance log with second data indicative of the injection volume to generate a second instance of the injection volume maintenance log, compare the second instance of the injection volume maintenance log to an injection volume threshold, and cause an alert to be issued based on the second instance of the injection volume maintenance log being greater than the injection volume threshold.

Various alarms, reports and data outputs are cited herein. Fig. 14 is an example of a report that may be output on, for example, handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, or another device. As shown, each time window is serialized. Each window represents a respective time period and shows the respective time period. In this example, each time period is one hour. An injection volume corresponding to an injection volume determinable as described herein is indicated for each time window. In association with each time window, a cleaning volume is also indicated, which may be determined as discussed herein. Associated with each time window, a measure of injection pressure is indicated. In particular, the average pressure for each time window is shown, however another pressure parameter may additionally or alternatively be indicated. Each time window is also associated with a particular job. The job may be selected before, during, or after the time window. Job selection has been discussed herein with respect to jetting data associated with a particular job. Typically, when a job is selected, all subsequent time windows will have jetting data generated with the selected job within that time window until the handheld computer 14 receives a command to disassociate the job from the subsequent jetting data and time window, or a different job is selected, or in some embodiments, if the location of the injector is outside of the range of jobs (e.g., within the same range of jobs as described herein for selecting jobs). Also associated with each time window is the life injection volume of the injector 1, in gallons in this example. Furthermore, associated with each time window is shown a spray volume maintenance log value that can be constructed towards a maintenance threshold. In this example, the package change maintenance reminder is set to 100 gallons reached in the time window 13260 where the maintenance notification was sent. An example maintenance notification is shown in fig. 14, which may appear on one or more interfaces 20 of the handheld computer 14 currently in section with the injector 1. The report of fig. 14 also shows the daily total of spray volume, cleaning volume and daily average pressure based on that day's data. The information of fig. 14 may be sent as a report on the handheld computer 14, the personal computer 29, or another device as previously described. The report may be displayed in real time throughout the day during the collection of the data and filling of the report, and/or the report may be issued at the end of the spraying section, and/or the report may be retrieved the next day. The report may be stored in the memory 16 of the handheld computer 14 and/or the memory 37 of the web server 35 for retrieval and display and/or transmission to another device.

Fig. 15 is an example of a report that may be output on an interface such as handheld computer 14, personal computer 29, or other device. The report of fig. 15 may be a job report containing only information about a specific job. Such information may be retrieved by handheld computer 14 or personal computer 29 from web server 35 to track job progress.

In this case, the job has a name ("middle school") and a location of the logo. In some cases, jobs may have uniquely identified serial numbers that may be displayed in a report or used only by a processor to uniquely identify and avoid confusion with common job names. The particular job report shown is one day, although other job reports may cover multiple days. As shown, the day is broken down into time windows corresponding to the respective hours. As shown, multiple injectors facilitate job reporting. Specifically, injector one and injector two provide data. For each injector, the injection volume, average pressure and cleaning volume are displayed for each hour of time window. The report also totals the injection volume, average injection pressure, and total cleaning volume for each injector per day/time period. The report may further include the total injection volume of all injectors contributing injection volume data for that day or other time period, in which case the total injection volume would be 39.9 (24.0±15.9). The report also includes a total injection volume calculated for each time window that totals all injection volume values between all injectors and the time window for the job. The report also includes the total job injection volume being run. As shown, the total working spray volume was continuous from the previous day (at 35.5 gallons) and increased with the contribution of the two sprayers during the day. The sum of the total injection volumes can be used to understand the total generation efficiency and cost.

Although not shown, the job report may include a total number of hours of operation. In this case, the processor may look at the injection log to determine and how many time windows are injector injections to output a total injection hours (or other interval, such as a quarter hour or minute). Note that the total number of injection hours can be calculated from data spanning several days and multiple injectors. The working time aggregate is useful for understanding labor costs and estimating future labor costs for the same project repeated in the future or similar projects.

Fig. 15 also shows two notifications that have been issued as part of a report. When the notification is displayed as part of the report, the notification may be published separately from the report. The first notification indicates that the injection pressure exceeds the pressure limit. In this case, the injection pressure is based on the injection pressure per hour. The hourly injection pressure is compared to a threshold, as previously described, to determine if the user is injecting beyond the injection threshold set by the supervisor. In this case, injector 1 injects a mean value of 3000psi per hour over the hours between 7am and 8am that is above the 2700psi pressure limit set by the supervisor for the job. In this case, the average value per hour (or other pressure measure of the time window) may be compared to a pressure threshold and an alarm may be raised if the average value per hour or other pressure measure of the time window exceeds the pressure threshold. In some cases, the alert may include an identification of the user using the handheld computer 14 connected to the particular injector that exceeded the pressure limit (e.g., an identification of the user using a registration). In this case, the alarm indicates a pressure threshold, a pressure value exceeding the threshold, an identification of the injector, a time window exceeding the pressure limit, and a job exceeding the pressure limit.

Fig. 15 also includes a notification that the job injection volume has been exceeded. In setting up a job, the supervisor may enter a volume limit or other threshold. As shown, the total working injection volume may be monitored from data from several injectors over days (or other time periods) to track progress toward the working limits. When the network server 35 receives jetting data associated with a particular job, the network 35 may compare the total job jetting volume at the time of update to a previously set job jetting volume threshold and may determine when the job jetting volume threshold is met, and when met, the network server 35 may issue an alarm. In this case, the operational limit of 75 gallons (set by the supervisor) is exceeded over a time window of 3-4 pm. The alert indicates a job injection volume threshold, a time window that meets the threshold, and an identification of the job. The alert may be sent to each handheld computer 14 currently providing jetting data for the job, or otherwise logged into the job at the job site. The alert may also be sent to a handheld computer 14 and/or personal computer 29 associated with the manager of the job. In some cases, daily reports may be sent to the manager's handheld computer 14 and/or personal computer 29. The report may be generated and sent by the network computer 35. In some cases, the report may include a percentage of job completion (e.g., 75% completion, or other parameter indicating a job completion portion) based on the current total job injection volume and the previously entered total injection volume expected by the job. The report may also include the average volume per hour as a measure of the efficiency of the generation between the injector or injectors (e.g., 6.5 gallons per hour for all injectors on the job site, or 2.5 gallons per hour for each injector on the job site). Such a metric is calculated by a processor check in the spray log to determine the total spray volume of the job divided by the number of hours (or other time window duration) that the spray data was generated to determine the average volume sprayed by the time window in which she was working.

The types of data in the reports of fig. 14 and 15 are examples of data that the handheld computer 14 may ferry from the injector 1 when the user connects to the injector 1 and uses the injector 1, and although the user's handheld computer 14 is considered to ferry data to the network server 35, the handheld computer does not allow the reported data to be displayed on the one or more interfaces 20 for viewing by the user.

The present disclosure contains references to data and other information that may be generated by the injector 1, the handheld computer 14, the personal computer 29, and/or the web server 35. Any such data may be transmitted between these devices and other devices and infrastructure via the tools disclosed herein. Any such data may be stored in the memory of any of the injector 1, the handheld computer 14, the personal computer 29, and/or by the web server 35. Any such data may be output through the injector 1, the handheld computer 14, the interface of the personal computer 29, and/or through the web server 35. The present disclosure includes many different examples of options, and certain aspects of these options may be combined with other embodiments. Thus, it is contemplated that a single feature may be used in a single embodiment that may be interpreted and/or shown as one feature of a broader figure in a sentence or portion of a sentence associated with one of the embodiments, without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the embodiments presented herein should not be construed as a narrow and discrete example of the only manner in which these features may be implemented, but rather as an example of some, but not all, of the manner in which these particular features may be implemented.

The present disclosure uses several embodiments and examples to highlight various aspects. Modifications may be made to the embodiments presented herein without departing from the techniques described in this disclosure. Also, the techniques are not limited to the embodiments disclosed herein.

Claims

1. An injection system, comprising:

a hand-held portable paint sprayer for spraying spray fluid, the sprayer comprising:

a piston pump outputting pressurized paint for spraying;

a motor driving the piston pump;

a driving cycle indicator configured to output a plurality of cycle status indications of the piston pump;

a wireless module configured to wirelessly transmit and receive information; and

a control circuit configured to receive the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, determine a plurality of output values representative of paint spray output volumes over a plurality of time windows based on the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, store the plurality of output values in a memory, and cause the wireless module to transmit the stored one or more output values outwardly from the sprayer,

wherein the control circuit is configured to determine whether a pump cycle of the piston pump is associated with the sprayer operating in a paint spray mode or with the sprayer operating in a non-spray rinse mode, and wherein to determine the plurality of output values, the control circuit is configured to determine the plurality of output values based on the pump cycle associated with the paint spray mode.

2. The spray system of claim 1, wherein to determine whether the sprayer is operating in the paint mist spray mode or the non-mist flush mode, the control circuit is configured to determine whether the sprayer is operating in the paint mist spray mode or the non-mist flush mode based on at least one of:

output from pressure indicators, or

A user selected mode of operation.

3. The injection system of claim 1, wherein to determine the plurality of output values, the control circuit is configured to:

determining that a cycle status indication of the plurality of cycle status indications of the piston pump is associated with the sprayer in the paint mist spray mode or the non-mist flush mode; and

when the indication of the cycling state of the piston pump is associated with the sprayer being in the paint mist spray mode, determining an output value of the plurality of output values using the indication of the cycling state.

4. The spray system of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further configured to determine a plurality of non-atomized rinse output values, and wherein to determine the plurality of non-atomized rinse output values, the control circuit is configured to:

when the indication of the cycling state of the piston pump is associated with the injector being in the non-atomized flush mode, determining a non-atomized flush output value of the plurality of non-atomized flush output values using the indication of the cycling state.

5. The spray system of claim 4, wherein the control circuit is configured to store the plurality of non-atomized flush output values in a cleaning log tracking volume in the memory.

6. The injection system of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein to store the plurality of output values in the memory, the control circuit is configured to store the plurality of output values in an injection log tracking volume in the memory.

7. The sprayer system of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the plurality of output values comprises a plurality of spray volume values that respectively represent the volume of paint sprayed within the plurality of time windows, and wherein for each of the plurality of time windows, the control circuit is configured to open the time window, calculate and recalculate the spray fluid output value as each increased operating value of the plurality of cyclical status indications received within the window, and close the window, wherein the operating value when the window is closed is the spray fluid output value for the time window.

8. The injector system of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the plurality of cycle status indications of the piston pump output by the drive cycle indicator are used to indicate one or both of a partial cycle or a full cycle of a piston of the piston pump.

9. The injector system of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the drive cycle indicator senses a position of a reciprocating portion of the piston pump to generate the plurality of cycle status indications of the piston pump.

10. The injector system of any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a driver that converts rotational motion output by the motor into reciprocating motion that drives the piston pump, wherein the drive cycle indicator senses a position of a component of the driver to generate the plurality of cycle status indications of the piston pump.

11. The injector system of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the drive cycle indicator senses a position of a component of the motor to generate the plurality of cycle status indications of the piston pump.

12. The injector system of any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a handheld computer, wherein the wireless module is configured to wirelessly communicate with the handheld computer, and wherein the control circuit is configured to receive a request for the handheld computer via the wireless module to send one or more of the stored plurality of output values to the handheld computer, and to send one or more of the stored plurality of output values to the handheld computer via the wireless module in response to the request.

13. The injector system of claim 12, wherein the request indicates a sequence number or a time and date, and the control circuit is configured to send only those of the stored plurality of output values associated with a later sequence number or time and date to the handheld computer via the wireless module in response to the request relative to the sequence number or the time and date indicated by the request.

14. The injector system of any of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a web server configured to receive the plurality of output values and store the plurality of output values in a memory of the web server.

15. The sprayer system of claim 14 wherein the network server is configured to receive the plurality of output values and store the plurality of output values in a memory of the network server, and wherein the network server is configured to receive one or more job profiles, the system further comprising a plurality of sprayers, wherein the sprayer is one of the plurality of sprayers, wherein each job profile corresponds to one or more coating projects to be completed by the plurality of sprayers, wherein the network server is configured to receive a set of the plurality of output values respectively output by the plurality of sprayers, and the network server is configured to aggregate the set of the plurality of output values corresponding to a same one of the one or more job profiles to represent aggregate generation efficiency, and wherein a plurality of the plurality of sprayers are capable of contributing the set of the plurality of output values for a single job of the one or more job profiles.

16. A method for tracking a volume of fluid, the method comprising:

using the piston pump output of the sprayer to spray paint under pressure for spraying;

generating a plurality of cycle status indications for the piston pump;

determining, with control circuitry of the sprayer, a plurality of output values representative of paint spray output volumes over a plurality of time windows based on the plurality of cyclical status indications of the piston pump;

transmitting one or more of the plurality of output values from the injector using a wireless module of the injector,

determining whether the sprayer is operating in a paint atomizing spray mode or a non-atomizing rinse mode,

wherein determining the plurality of output values comprises determining the plurality of output values based on the sprayer operating in the paint atomizing spray mode.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining whether the sprayer is operating in the paint mist spray mode or the non-mist flush mode comprises:

determining at least one of an output from the pressure indicator or a user-selected mode of operation; and

whether the sprayer is operating in the paint mist spray mode or the non-mist rinse mode is determined based on at least one of an output from the pressure indicator or the user selected mode of operation.

18. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, wherein determining the plurality of output values comprises:

when the indication of the cycling state of the piston pump is associated with the sprayer being in the paint mist spray mode, determining a spray fluid output value of the plurality of output values for indicating the cycling state.

19. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, further comprising determining a plurality of non-atomized rinse output values, wherein determining the plurality of non-atomized rinse output values comprises:

when the indication of the cycling state of the piston pump is associated with the injector being in the non-atomized flush mode, determining a non-atomized flush injection fluid output value of the plurality of non-atomized flush output values for indicating the cycling state.

20. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, further comprising:

a request from a handheld computer to send one or more of the plurality of output values to the handheld computer is received,

wherein transmitting includes transmitting the stored one or more output values outwardly from the injector in response to receiving the request.

21. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, wherein transmitting comprises transmitting only the output values that were not previously transmitted.

22. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, further comprising:

receiving, with a web server, a set of the plurality of output values respectively output by the plurality of ejectors; and

summarizing the set of the plurality of output values corresponding to the same one of one or more job profiles to represent summary generation efficiency, wherein a plurality of the plurality of injectors are capable of contributing the set of the plurality of output values for a single job of the one or more job profiles.