CN116980248A

CN116980248A - Multi-split system

Info

Publication number: CN116980248A
Application number: CN202310846348.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张广磊; 张吉雪
Original assignee: Qingdao Hisense Hitachi Air Conditioning System Co Ltd
Current assignee: Qingdao Hisense Hitachi Air Conditioning System Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-07-11
Filing date: 2023-07-11
Publication date: 2023-10-31

Abstract

The application discloses a multi-split system, which comprises a master device and a plurality of slave devices; the master device transmits broadcast data to the communication bus, wherein the broadcast data comprises a polling address field, and the polling address field comprises a plurality of slave device addresses which correspond to a plurality of slave devices and are arranged in sequence; after the broadcast data is transmitted, the master device determines a total response time slot and a response time slot corresponding to each slave device according to the polling address field and the preset response time slot length of each slave device; in the total response time slot, the plurality of slave devices determine self response time slots according to the received broadcast data, and the slave devices report response frames to the master device during the response time slots corresponding to the slave devices; when the plurality of devices complete the broadcasting flow, the master device judges whether to issue a data reading command to the corresponding slave device which reports the response frame according to the received response frame. The multiple devices on the communication bus adopt a master-slave communication mode, so that the communication conflict probability among the multiple devices is reduced, and the communication efficiency is improved.

Description

Multi-split system

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of air conditioners, in particular to a multi-split system.

Background

At present, the mutual communication between the indoor units and the outdoor units in the multi-split air conditioner System basically adopts an HBS (Home-Bus System) communication protocol, and the multi-split air conditioner System has the advantages of no polarity, long transmission distance, strong anti-interference performance and the like.

The HBS uses CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoid, i.e., carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance) transmission mode, where a node on the HBS bus needs to perform carrier sense before transmitting data, if the channel is busy, after waiting for the channel to be idle, randomly delaying for a certain time to transmit, and when the receiving end uses serial port to receive, at least 1Byte data reception needs to be completed to know that there is data transmission on the bus. The maximum transmission rate of the HBS is 10Kbps, the time for transmitting 1Byte of data is about 1 millisecond, and the random delay of the HBS is often within several milliseconds to tens of milliseconds, so that when the number of devices on the HBS bus is large, the repetition probability of the random delay time of different devices is increased, and further the collision probability is increased when a plurality of devices transmit data.

On the other hand, in the field of multi-split air conditioning, the instructions issued by the master node to the slave nodes are the same in most cases, but when the master node issues the instructions, a polling mode issued by equipment one by one is often used, that is, the same instructions are sent to all the equipment once, so that the communication is performed by adopting the mode, and the communication efficiency is lower as the number of the equipment on the HBS bus is increased.

The above information disclosed in this background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background section of the application and therefore it may not form the prior art that is already known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the problems pointed out in the background art, the application provides a multi-split system, which realizes that a plurality of devices connected to a communication bus adopt a master-slave communication mode, reduces the communication conflict probability among the plurality of devices and improves the communication efficiency.

In order to achieve the aim of the application, the application is realized by adopting the following technical scheme:

the application relates to a multi-split system, which comprises a plurality of devices connected through a communication bus, wherein the devices comprise a master device and a plurality of slave devices;

the plurality of devices are configured to perform operations comprising:

the master device transmits broadcast data to a communication bus, wherein the broadcast data comprises a polling address field, and the polling address field comprises a plurality of slave device addresses which correspond to a plurality of slave devices and are arranged in sequence;

after the broadcast data is issued, the master device determines a total response time slot and a response time slot corresponding to each slave device according to the polling address field and the preset response time slot length of each slave device;

in the total response time slot, a plurality of slave devices determine self response time slots according to the received broadcast data, and the slave devices report response frames to the master device during response time slots corresponding to the slave devices;

when a plurality of devices complete the broadcasting process, the master device judges whether to issue a data reading command to the corresponding slave device which has reported the response frame according to the received response frame.

According to the multi-split system, the master-slave relation of the plurality of devices is set, broadcast data are simultaneously sent to the plurality of slave devices, communication efficiency is improved, the plurality of slave devices report response frames in the corresponding response time slots in order, so that the master device and the plurality of slave devices establish an ordered communication handshake relation, and the plurality of slave devices have the addresses of the plurality of slave devices arranged in order, and therefore the plurality of slave devices report the response frames to the master device according to the address order, and ordered communication data feedback is achieved.

And judging whether to issue a data reading command to the slave device or not by utilizing the response frame of the slave device received in the corresponding response time slot, so that the slave device needing to report the data sends the data to the master device, communication conflict among multiple devices is avoided, communication efficiency is improved, and more devices are arranged on a communication bus.

In some embodiments of the present application, when a plurality of devices complete a broadcast procedure, the master device determines, according to a received response frame, whether to issue a data reading command to a corresponding slave device that has reported the response frame, where the data reading command is specifically:

when a plurality of devices complete a broadcasting flow, when an event mark in a response frame received by the main device is valid, a data reading command is issued to a slave device with a slave device address in the response frame, otherwise, a data reading command is not issued;

the response frame comprises a slave device address of the corresponding slave device and an event mark, the event mark is set to be valid when the slave device has the requirement of reporting own data, and otherwise, the event mark is set to be invalid.

When the master device receives the response frames of the plurality of slave devices in order, according to the event mark in the response frames of the slave devices, the master device determines whether to send a data reading command to the slave devices so as to expect the corresponding slave devices to report own data to the master device.

Therefore, when the event mark of the slave device is invalid, a data reading command is not required to be issued to the corresponding slave device, the self data state is not required to be reported, and the conflict of multiple devices on the communication bus is avoided.

In some embodiments of the application, the read data command is a non-broadcast frame.

And the data communication between the master device and one slave device is realized by adopting non-broadcast frame data, so that communication conflict is avoided to other slave devices, and the communication is not generated with other slave devices.

In some embodiments of the application, the plurality of devices are further configured to:

after the slave device receives the data reading command, reporting response data to the master device and clearing the data reporting state of the slave device;

when the slave device has the requirement of reporting the data of the slave device, the data reporting state of the slave device is valid, otherwise, the data reporting state is invalid.

In order to convey the information of the self data to be reported to the master device, the slave device can set a data reporting state, and correspondingly, an event mark is set in a response frame reported by the slave device according to whether the self data is required to be uploaded, and the data reporting state and the event mark are consistent, so that after ordered communication handshake, the master device can know which slave devices need to report the self data.

In some embodiments of the present application, the plurality of devices are further configured to, before the multi-device completes the broadcast procedure, perform the following operations:

and judging whether the total waiting time of the response frames of all the slave devices exceeds the total response time slot or not by the master device, if so, completing the broadcasting process, if not, judging whether the response frames of all the slave devices are received, if so, completing the broadcasting process, and if not, continuing to wait for receiving the response frames of the slave devices until the total waiting time exceeds the total response time slot or receiving the response frames of all the slave devices.

recombining a corresponding plurality of slave devices for which no reply frame was received by the master device during a reply time slot of the slave device determined by the master device;

and the master device transmits the broadcast data to the recombined slave device again.

In some embodiments of the present application, a corresponding plurality of slaves, each of which did not receive a reply frame during a reply time slot of the slave determined by the master, and slaves, each of which did not issue broadcast data, are recombined;

and the master device transmits broadcast data to all the slave devices after recombination.

In some embodiments of the present application, the preset acknowledgement slot length of each slave device is equal, and the acknowledgement frame lengths reported by the slave devices are also equal.

Setting the response frames with the same length can enable the master device to easily determine the response time slot of each slave device, so as to manage in which response time slot each slave device should receive the response frame.

The preset response time slot lengths are set to be equal, and each slave device can also determine its own response time slot, so that it can be determined during which own response time slot the slave device should send a response frame.

For the multi-split air conditioning system, when the existing equipment is different, the selected master equipment and the selected slave equipment are also different.

In some embodiments of the present application, when the multiple on-line system includes an outdoor unit, a plurality of indoor units, and a line controller communicatively connected to the plurality of indoor units, the outdoor unit and the plurality of indoor units are connected to the same communication bus;

the outdoor unit is a master device, and the indoor unit is a slave device; or alternatively

The line controller is a master device, and the indoor unit is a slave device.

In some embodiments of the present application, the multi-split air conditioning system includes a plurality of multi-split air conditioning units and a centralized controller for centrally controlling the plurality of multi-split air conditioning units;

the multi-split air conditioner unit comprises an outdoor unit, a plurality of indoor units and a wire controller in communication connection with the indoor units, wherein the centralized controller, the outdoor unit and the indoor units are connected to the same communication bus;

the centralized controller is a master device, and all outdoor units and indoor units on the communication bus are slave devices; or alternatively

The line controller is a master device, and all indoor units on the communication bus are slave devices.

Other features and advantages of the present application will become apparent upon review of the detailed description of the application in conjunction with the drawings.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions of the prior art, the drawings that are needed in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described below, it will be obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present application, and that other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort to a person skilled in the art.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a first configuration of a multi-split system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a second block diagram of a multi-split system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a plurality of devices in an embodiment of a multi-split system according to the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating communication among a plurality of devices in an embodiment of a multi-split system according to the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a first time slot of a master device and a plurality of slave devices in an embodiment of a multi-split system according to the present application;

FIG. 6 is a second schematic diagram of a time slot of a master device and a plurality of slave devices in an embodiment of a multi-split system according to the present application;

fig. 7 is a transmission flow of a master device in an embodiment of a multi-split system according to the present application;

FIG. 8 is a receiving flow of a slave device in an embodiment of a multi-split system according to the present application;

FIG. 9 is a time slot map of a master device and a plurality of slave devices in an embodiment of a multi-split system according to the present application

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of determining whether to complete the current broadcast process according to an embodiment of the multi-split system of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of determining whether to issue a data reading instruction according to an embodiment of the multi-split system according to the present application.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present application will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is apparent that the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the application without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the application.

In the description of the present application, it should be understood that the terms "center," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientation or positional relationships shown in the drawings, merely to facilitate describing the present application and simplify the description, and do not indicate or imply that the devices or elements referred to must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and thus should not be construed as limiting the present application.

The terms "first," "second," and the like, are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more such feature. In the description of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more.

In the description of the present application, it should be noted that, unless explicitly specified and limited otherwise, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, and may be either fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected, for example; can be mechanically or electrically connected; can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and can be communication between two elements. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present application will be understood in specific cases by those of ordinary skill in the art.

In the present application, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, a first feature "above" or "below" a second feature may include both the first and second features being in direct contact, as well as the first and second features not being in direct contact but being in contact with each other through additional features therebetween. Moreover, a first feature being "above," "over" and "on" a second feature includes the first feature being directly above and obliquely above the second feature, or simply indicating that the first feature is higher in level than the second feature. The first feature being "under", "below" and "beneath" the second feature includes the first feature being directly under and obliquely below the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is less level than the second feature.

The following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of the application. In order to simplify the present disclosure, components and arrangements of specific examples are described below. They are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to limit the application. Furthermore, the present application may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples, which are for the purpose of brevity and clarity, and which do not themselves indicate the relationship between the various embodiments and/or arrangements discussed. In addition, the present application provides examples of various specific processes and materials, but one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize the application of other processes and/or the use of other materials.

< basic principle of operation of air conditioner >

The air conditioner performs a refrigerating cycle of the air conditioner by using a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator. The refrigeration cycle includes a series of processes involving compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation, and refrigerating or heating an indoor space.

The low-temperature low-pressure refrigerant enters the compressor, the compressor compresses the refrigerant gas into a high-temperature high-pressure state, and the compressed refrigerant gas is discharged. The discharged refrigerant gas flows into the condenser. The condenser condenses the compressed refrigerant into a liquid phase, and heat is released to the surrounding environment through the condensation process.

The expansion valve expands the liquid-phase refrigerant in a high-temperature and high-pressure state formed by condensation in the condenser into a low-pressure liquid-phase refrigerant. The evaporator evaporates the refrigerant expanded in the expansion valve and returns the refrigerant gas in a low-temperature and low-pressure state to the compressor. The evaporator may achieve a cooling effect by exchanging heat with a material to be cooled using latent heat of evaporation of a refrigerant. The air conditioner may adjust the temperature of the indoor space throughout the cycle.

An outdoor unit of an air conditioner refers to a portion of a refrigeration cycle including a compressor and an outdoor heat exchanger, an indoor unit of the air conditioner includes an indoor heat exchanger, and an expansion valve may be provided in the indoor unit or the outdoor unit.

The indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger function as a condenser or an evaporator. When the indoor heat exchanger is used as a condenser, the air conditioner is used as a heater of a heating mode, and when the indoor heat exchanger is used as an evaporator, the air conditioner is used as a cooler of a cooling mode.

The application relates to a multi-split air conditioner, which adopts the working principle of the air conditioner to work so as to realize indoor air refrigeration or heating.

The arrangement of the multi-split system has various arrangement forms.

For example, referring to fig. 1, the multi-split system may include an outdoor unit, a plurality of indoor units, and a line controller under the condition of no centralized control, that is, the multi-split system is a multi-split air conditioning unit.

Referring to fig. 1, an outdoor unit A1, indoor units A1, B1, and C1, and a line controller A1 are referred to.

The outdoor unit A1 is respectively connected with the plurality of indoor units A1, B1 and C1 in a communication manner through a communication bus (e.g., HBS bus), that is, the outdoor unit A1 and the plurality of indoor units A1, B1 and C1 are connected to the same communication bus; the wire controller A1 communicates with a plurality of indoor units A1, B1 and C1, i.e., the wire controller A1 and the plurality of indoor units A1, B1 and C1 are connected to the same communication bus.

For example, referring to fig. 2, in the case of centralized control, the multi-split system includes a centralized controller C and a plurality of multi-split air conditioning units, where the centralized controller C is used to centralized control the plurality of multi-split air conditioning units.

Referring to fig. 2, two multi-split air conditioning units are shown, including a multi-split air conditioning unit a and a multi-split air conditioning unit B.

Each multi-split air conditioning unit comprises a wire controller, an outdoor unit and a plurality of indoor units.

The multi-split air conditioning unit A comprises an outdoor unit A1, indoor units A1, B1 and C1 and a wire controller A1.

The outdoor unit A1 in the multi-split air conditioning unit a is respectively connected with the indoor units A1, B1 and C1 in a communication manner through a communication bus (e.g., HBS bus), and the centralized controller C is connected to the communication bus on the multi-split air conditioning unit a.

The multi-split air conditioning unit B comprises an outdoor unit A2, indoor units A2, B2 and C2 and a wire controller A2.

The outdoor unit A2 in the multi-split air conditioning unit B is respectively in communication connection with a plurality of indoor units A2, B2 and C2 through a communication bus (e.g. an HBS bus), and the centralized controller C is connected to the communication bus on the multi-split air conditioning unit B.

Therefore, all the outdoor units A1 and A2, all the indoor units A1, B1, C1, A2, B2 and C2 and the centralized controller C in the multi-split air conditioner system are all connected to the same communication bus in a communication way;

the wire controller in the multi-split air conditioner unit is communicated with a plurality of indoor units in the multi-split air conditioner unit, namely, the wire controller A1 and the plurality of indoor units A1, B1 and C1 are connected to the same communication bus aiming at one multi-split air conditioner unit A, and the wire controller A1 and the plurality of indoor units A2, B2 and C2 are connected to the same communication bus aiming at one multi-split air conditioner unit B.

The application relates to a multi-split system, which mainly solves the problems of communication conflict and low communication efficiency caused by a plurality of devices connected to the same communication bus.

The multi-split system according to the present application includes a plurality of devices connected to a communication bus, see fig. 3, where one device is a master device and the remaining devices are slave devices.

The master device and the plurality of slave devices adopt a master-slave mode, the master device uniformly schedules, the slave devices do not report data actively, the probability of communication conflict among the plurality of devices is reduced, the master device simultaneously transmits data to the plurality of slave devices during communication handshake, the plurality of slave devices report response frames according to the address sequence in the polling address domain transmitted by the master device, the state data of the slave devices are acquired according to the reporting requirement, the communication efficiency and the communication reliability are improved, and the number of the slave devices connected to the communication bus can be expanded.

In fig. 1 described above, since the outdoor unit A1 and the plurality of indoor units A1, B1, and C1 are connected to the same communication bus, the indoor units A1, B1, and C1 can be slave devices when the outdoor unit A1 is the master device.

Further, since the line controller A1 and the plurality of indoor units A1, B1, and C1 are connected to the same communication bus, the indoor units A1, B1, and C1 can be slave devices when the line controller A1 is the master device.

In fig. 2, as described above, since all the outdoor units A1 and A2, all the indoor units A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2 and the centralized controller C are all communicatively connected to the same communication bus in the multi-split system, all the outdoor units A1 and A2 and the indoor units A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2 can be all slave devices when the centralized controller C is used as the master device.

Since the line controller A1 (A2) does not directly communicate with the centralized controller C, but only communicates with the indoor units A1, B1, C1 (A2, B2, C2), the line controller A1 (A2) has a master-slave relationship with only the indoor units A1, B1, C1 (A2, B2, C2), that is, when the line controller A1 (A2) is used as a master device, all the indoor units A1, B1, C1 (A2, B2, C2) connected to the communication bus are slave devices.

Regardless of the type of device on the communication bus, when a plurality of devices exist on the same communication bus, only which device is set as the master device and which devices are slave devices.

Referring to fig. 4 to 8, a plurality of devices in the multi-split system of the present application are configured to perform the following operations: (1) The master device issues broadcast data (see fig. 4 and 7) to the communication bus, the broadcast data including a polling address field including a plurality of slave device addresses corresponding to a plurality of slave devices and arranged in sequence; (2) After the broadcast data is issued, the master device determines a total response time slot T and a response time slot corresponding to each slave device according to the polling address field and the preset response time slot length of each slave device (see fig. 7); (3) Within the total response time slot T, the plurality of slave devices determine self response time slots according to the received broadcast data, and report response frames (see fig. 4 and 8) to the master device during response time slots corresponding to the slave devices (see fig. 8); (4) When the plurality of devices complete the broadcasting process, the master device determines whether to issue a read data command to the corresponding slave device that has reported the response frame according to the received response frame (see fig. 4 and 7).

And when the event mark is valid in the reported response frame, the master device issues a data reading instruction to the slave device, otherwise, the data reading instruction is not issued, and the method is specifically described below.

In some embodiments of the present application, first, a master device synchronously issues broadcast data, where the broadcast data includes a polling address field, and the polling address field includes a plurality of slave device addresses corresponding to a plurality of slave devices and arranged in sequence, and is used by the master device to distinguish which slave device reports a response frame.

The slave device addresses of the slave devices involved in the polling address field are arbitrarily combined in order as needed, for example, there are one master device and five slave devices, the slave device addresses of the five slave devices are set in advance, and the slave device addresses of the five slave devices are arranged in order in the polling address field.

For example, the polling address fields are sequentially ordered as the first slave device, the second slave device, the third slave device, the fourth slave device, and the fifth slave device, respectively, and may also be the fifth slave device, the fourth slave device, the third slave device, the second slave device, and the first slave device, respectively, and may also be the third slave device, the fifth slave device, the first slave device, the second slave device, and the fourth slave device, respectively, and so on.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, T0 is a broadcasting slot of the master for the master to transmit broadcasting data.

When a master device issues broadcast data, five slave devices should in principle receive the broadcast data at the same time, but it is not practically excluded that some slave devices fail to receive the broadcast data.

When the master device finishes transmitting the broadcast data, the master device determines a total response time slot T and a response time slot corresponding to each slave device according to the address sequence of each slave device in the polling address field and the preset response time slot length of each slave device.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, T1, T2, T3, and/or the number of the slave devices, and Tn are respectively preset response time slot lengths of the slave devices, and the response time slots corresponding to T1, T2, T3, and/or the number of the slave devices, and the number of the slave devices, which is the nth slave device, needs to be determined according to the polling address field.

The preset reply slot length of each slave, i.e., T1, T2, T3, … …, tn as shown, is preset before the master and each slave communicate handshakes are performed.

Since the polling address field of the broadcast data has the slave device addresses of a plurality of slave devices, the total response time slot T and the response time slot of each slave device can be determined according to the broadcast data and the preset response time slot length of each slave device.

Wherein the total acknowledgement time slot T is the longest total waiting time from the beginning of the timing of the transmission of the broadcast data until acknowledgement frames of all slave devices should be received.

The response time slot of the slave device corresponds to the slave device, which means a time interval in which the master device waits to receive a response frame from the corresponding slave device.

The master device issues the polling address field to each slave device, and decides the sequence of response time slots of the slave device, that is, decides the sequence of response frames reported by the slave device to the master device.

For example, a multi-split system has one master and three slaves, the three slaves including a first slave having a first slave address, a second slave having a second slave address, and a third slave having a third slave address.

Since the broadcast data issued by the master device includes a polling address field, for example, referring to fig. 5, the polling address field includes a first slave device address, a second slave device address, and a third slave device address that are sequentially ordered, after knowing the preset response time slot length of each slave device, the broadcast data is clocked after being transmitted, and the response time slot of the first slave device, the response time slot of the second slave device, and the response time slot of the third slave device are sequentially determined through clocking, where each response time slot has its preset response time slot length.

The method comprises the steps that after the main equipment transmits broadcast data, timing is started, response time slots between 0ms and T1 correspond to first auxiliary equipment, response time slots between T1 and (T1 + T2) correspond to second auxiliary equipment, and response time slots between (T1 + T2) and (T1 + T2+ T3) correspond to third auxiliary equipment.

That is, the master device receives the response frame from the first slave device only during response time slots 0ms to T1, receives the response frame from the second slave device only during response time slots T1 to (t1+t2), and receives the response frame from the third slave device only during response time slots (t1+t2) to (t1+t2+t3).

For another example, referring to fig. 6, the polling address field includes a third slave address, a second slave address, and a first slave address, which are sequentially ordered, so that after a preset reply slot length of each slave is known, after broadcast data is transmitted, a timer is counted, and a reply slot of the third slave, a reply slot of the second slave, and a reply slot of the first slave are sequentially determined through the timer, wherein each reply slot has its preset reply slot length.

The method comprises the steps that after the main equipment transmits broadcast data, timing is started, response time slots between 0ms and T1 correspond to third auxiliary equipment, response time slots between T1 and (T1 + T2) correspond to second auxiliary equipment, and response time slots between (T1 + T2) and (T1 + T2+ T3) correspond to first auxiliary equipment.

That is, the master device receives the response frame from the third slave device only during response time slots 0ms to T1, receives the response frame from the second slave device only during response time slots T1 to (t1+t2), and receives the response frame from the first slave device only during response time slots (t1+t2) to (t1+t2+t3).

In this way, the master device determines the total acknowledgement time slot T and the acknowledgement time slots corresponding to the slaves, i.e. the acknowledgement frames of the slaves should be received by the master device during their corresponding acknowledgement time slots.

The master device is configured to manage the slaves in a unified manner, determine the order of the slaves that receive the response frames, and for a plurality of slaves, accordingly, determine when to send the response frames themselves, as will be described in more detail below.

Referring to fig. 8, a plurality of slave devices calculate own response slots according to the order of own slave device addresses in a polling address field of broadcast data according to received broadcast data, and report response frames only during own slots.

For example, the polling address field includes a first slave address, a second slave address, and a third slave address that are sequentially ordered, so that after knowing the preset response slot length of each slave, the polling address field starts to time upon receiving broadcast data, and sequentially determines, by time counting, the self-response slot of the first slave, the self-response slot of the second slave, and the self-response slot of the third slave, where each self-response slot also has its preset response slot length.

Referring to fig. 9, when the master device starts to count after transmitting the broadcast data, the self-response time slots between 0ms and T1 correspond to the first slave device, the self-response time slots between T1 to (t1+t2) correspond to the second slave device, and the self-response time slots between (t1+t2) to (t1+t2+t3) correspond to the third slave device.

That is, the first slave device only reports the response frame in the period of 0 ms-T1 of the self response time slot, the second slave device only reports the response frame in the period of (T1+T2) of the self response time slot, and the third slave device only reports the response frame in the period of (T1+T2) to (T1+T2+T3) of the self response time slot.

For another example, the polling address field includes a third slave address, a second slave address, and a first slave address that are sequentially ordered, so that, after knowing the preset reply slot length of each slave, timing is started after receiving the broadcast data, and the self-reply slot of the third slave, the self-reply slot of the second slave, and the self-reply slot of the first slave are sequentially determined by timing, where each self-reply slot has its preset reply slot length.

The method comprises the steps that after the main equipment transmits broadcast data, timing is started, self-response time slots between 0ms and T1 correspond to third auxiliary equipment, self-response time slots between T1 and (T1 + T2) correspond to second auxiliary equipment, and self-response time slots between (T1 + T2) and (T1 + T2+ T3) correspond to first auxiliary equipment.

That is, the third slave device only reports the response frame in the period of 0 ms-T1 of the self response time slot, the second slave device only reports the response frame in the period of (T1+T2) of the self response time slot, and the first slave device only reports the response frame in the period of (T1+T2) to (T1+T2+T3) of the self response time slot.

In some embodiments of the present application, the length of the acknowledgement frame is the same, otherwise, the master device cannot determine the acknowledgement slot length of the slave device, and the slave device cannot know the acknowledgement frame lengths of other slave devices, so that it is not possible to calculate from which own acknowledgement slot starts.

The length of the response frame is smaller than the length of the preset response time slot.

In the present application, the preset reply time slot lengths are also equal (i.e., T1, T2, T3, &..the other slave devices can calculate in which own reply time slot the reply frame should be sent by themselves, otherwise, the slave device needs to monitor the situation that the other slave devices send the reply frame, and send the reply frame by themselves after the own previous slave device sends the reply frame, but this mechanism does not consider the situation of communication failure, because some slave device does not receive the broadcast data of the master device, or some slave device does not monitor the situation that other slave devices report the reply frame, the subsequent slave device does not know what time to report the reply frame.

As described above, after the master determines the total acknowledgement slot T and the acknowledgement slot of each slave, and the slave determines its own acknowledgement slot, the master waits for the acknowledgement frame of the slave during the acknowledgement slot, and after the broadcasting process is completed, the master determines whether to issue a read data command to the corresponding slave that has reported the acknowledgement frame according to the received acknowledgement frame (see fig. 7).

For the master device, waiting for a response frame in a response time slot corresponding to the slave device, if the response frame is received in the response time slot, indicating that the master device successfully issues data, otherwise, failing to issue data.

For the slave device, see fig. 8, waiting for the arrival of its own reply time slot, upon which the reply frame is reported, while the master device receives the reply frame during the determined reply time slot of the slave device, i.e. the reply time slot of the slave device corresponds to its own reply time slot, see fig. 9.

In some embodiments of the present application, the master device determines whether the broadcast data is successfully delivered according to the response frame, and receives the response frame of the slave device during the corresponding response time slot of the slave device, which indicates that the broadcast data is successfully delivered, otherwise, indicates that the broadcast data delivery fails.

In some embodiments of the application, the reply frame includes a slave device address of the slave device and an event flag.

The slave device address is used for distinguishing response frames reported by the master device from which slave device, and the event mark indicates whether the slave device needs to report a data state to the master device.

If the slave device needs to report the data state, the event flag of the reported response frame is valid, otherwise, the event flag is invalid.

In some embodiments of the present application, a data reporting state is used to associate an event flag, if the slave device has data reporting, the data reporting state is valid, and when the slave device sends a response frame in its response time slot, if the slave device has data reporting, the event flag is set to be valid according to the data reporting state, the event flag in the response frame is updated, and if there is no data reporting, the event flag is kept to be invalid.

In the initial state, both the data reporting state and the event flag are invalid.

When the master device waits to receive the response frame of each slave device, it also determines whether the broadcast procedure is completed.

After the broadcast procedure is completed, it indicates that handshake communication between the master device and the plurality of slave devices is completed.

It should be noted that, after the broadcasting process is completed, not all the slave devices need to complete the communication handshake with the master device, and only after the master device receives the response frame of the slave device, the master device indicates that the master device and the slave device complete the communication handshake.

In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 10, the total waiting time is used to determine whether the broadcast procedure is completed.

The time of the master waiting for the response frame exceeds the total response time slot T (i.e., the master does not receive the response frames of all the slaves in the total response time slot T), and it is determined that the current broadcasting process is completed, otherwise, the broadcasting process is not completed yet.

In some embodiments of the present application, it is determined whether or not response frames of all slave devices are received during the total response time slot T to determine whether or not the broadcasting process is completed.

And the master equipment judges whether response frames of all the slave equipment are received, if so, the current broadcasting process is finished, and if not, the response frames of all the slave equipment are continuously waited to be received until the response frames of all the slave equipment are received, and the current broadcasting process is finished.

After the broadcasting process is completed, the master device determines whether to issue a data reading command to the slave device according to the received response frame.

In some embodiments of the application, the reply frame includes the slave device address and event flag, as described above.

Referring to fig. 11, after receiving the response frame, the master device determines which slave device is from according to the slave device address, and when the master device determines that the event flag in the received response frame is valid, issues a data reading instruction to the slave device having the slave device address, waits for the corresponding slave device to report response data, and then clears the data reporting state of the slave device, and when determining that the event flag in the received response frame is invalid, the master device does not issue a data reading instruction to the slave device.

The data reading instruction is non-broadcast data, and only one-to-one reading is allowed, so that the master device can actively acquire the data according to the data reporting requirement of the slave device, and a plurality of slave devices are not polled any more, thereby reducing the conflict generated by simultaneous communication of the plurality of slave devices.

As described above, in some embodiments of the present application, the master device may re-handshake with the slave device that failed to send the broadcast data.

The slave devices that did not successfully deliver the broadcast data, which may include multiple slave device addresses that combined the slave devices in any desired order, may be reassembled and the master device may then send the broadcast data to the devices.

For example, the fifth slave device, the seventh slave device, and the eighth slave device are slave devices that did not successfully issue broadcast data.

The master device may issue broadcast data including a polling address field in an address order of the slave device address of the fifth slave device, the slave device address of the seventh slave device, and the slave device address of the eighth slave device.

Alternatively, the master device may also issue broadcast data including the polling address field in the order of the addresses of the slave devices of the seventh slave device, the slave device address of the fifth slave device, and the slave device address of the eighth slave device.

In some embodiments of the present application, the master device performs a communication handshake on the re-issued broadcast data after combining the slave device that failed to issue the broadcast data and the slave device that did not issue the broadcast data.

The master device issues broadcast data to the combined slave devices, where the broadcast data may include a plurality of slave device addresses of the combined slave devices in any desired order.

For example, the slaves that failed to issue the broadcast data include a fifth slave, a seventh slave, and an eighth slave, and the slaves that did not issue the broadcast data include a tenth slave and an eleventh slave.

The master device may issue broadcast data including a polling address field in an address order of a slave device address of the fifth slave device, a slave device address of the seventh slave device, a slave device address of the eighth slave device, a slave device address of the tenth slave device, and a slave device address of the eleventh slave device.

Alternatively, the master device may also issue broadcast data including the polling address field in the order of the addresses of the slave device of the seventh slave device, the slave device address of the fifth slave device, the slave device address of the tenth slave device, the slave device address of the eleventh slave device, and the slave device address of the eighth slave device.

The communication handshake process performed after the broadcast data is issued is described above and will not be described in detail.

In the description of the above embodiments, particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions easily contemplated by those skilled in the art within the scope of the present application should be included in the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the application is subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. The multi-split system is characterized by comprising a plurality of devices connected through a communication bus, wherein the devices comprise a master device and a plurality of slave devices;

the plurality of devices are configured to perform operations comprising:

2. The multi-split system according to claim 1, wherein when the plurality of devices complete the broadcast process, the master device determines whether to issue a read data command to the corresponding slave device that has reported the response frame according to the received response frame, specifically:

3. The multi-split system of claim 2, wherein the read data command is a non-broadcast frame.

4. The multi-online system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of devices are further configured to:

5. The multi-split system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of devices are further configured to, prior to completion of the broadcast procedure by the multi-device, perform the following:

6. The multi-online system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of devices are further configured to:

7. The multi-split system of claim 1, wherein,

recombining a corresponding plurality of slave devices, which do not receive response frames during response time slots of the slave devices determined by the master device, and slave devices, which do not issue broadcast data;

8. The multi-split system according to claim 1, wherein the preset response time slot length of each slave device is equal, and the response frame lengths reported by the slave devices are also equal.

9. The multi-split system according to claim 1, wherein the multi-split system comprises an outdoor unit, a plurality of indoor units and a wire controller communicatively connected to the plurality of indoor units, wherein the outdoor unit and the plurality of indoor units are connected to a same communication bus;

The line controller is a master device, and the indoor unit is a slave device.

10. The multi-split system of claim 1, wherein the multi-split system comprises a plurality of multi-split air conditioning units and a centralized controller for centrally controlling the plurality of multi-split air conditioning units;