CN117234552A

CN117234552A - Remote program upgrading method, remote program upgrading system and electronic equipment

Info

Publication number: CN117234552A
Application number: CN202311203743.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 袁杰; 李华生; 陈凤武; 李伟鹏
Original assignee: Gree Electric Appliances Inc of Zhuhai
Current assignee: Gree Electric Appliances Inc of Zhuhai
Priority date: 2023-09-18
Filing date: 2023-09-18
Publication date: 2023-12-15

Abstract

The application provides a method for remotely upgrading a program, a system for remotely upgrading the program and electronic equipment, wherein equipment to be upgraded comprises at least one controller, and the operating voltages of the various controllers are different, and the method comprises the following steps: receiving a target program by adopting a first target interface, wherein the target program is sent to equipment to be upgraded by adopting a second target interface by adopting program upgrading equipment, the target program is sent to the program upgrading equipment by adopting a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, and the program upgrading equipment is electrically connected with the program upgrading equipment through the first target interface and the second target interface, so that the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected, and the program upgrading equipment is used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers; and adopting the target program to upgrade the equipment to be upgraded. According to the method, remote programming of programs is carried out on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

Description

Remote program upgrading method, remote program upgrading system and electronic equipment

Technical Field

The application relates to the field of remote upgrade programs, in particular to a method for remotely upgrading a program, a system for remotely upgrading the program and electronic equipment.

Background

In actual life, there are more and more home appliances, and there are many cases where there is a need to update and burn a program of a controller built in the home appliance when the home appliance is subjected to after-sales maintenance, after-sales product function optimization, bug repair of a product program, and the like, which are already installed in a customer application scene.

However, since the programming interfaces and protocols of MCUs of different controllers are different, a dedicated programming device is required to perform program programming. If the program needs to be updated, the controller of the part of home appliances often needs to be applied by after-sales personnel to the home appliance company and then brought to a customer home for replacement operation. The maintenance timeliness and the like are relatively greatly reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

The application mainly aims to provide a remote program upgrading method, a remote program upgrading system and electronic equipment, so as to at least solve the problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely burn programs.

In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present application, there is provided a method of remotely upgrading a program, the method being applied to a device to be upgraded including at least one controller, operating voltages of the respective controllers being different, the method comprising: receiving a target program by adopting a first target interface, wherein the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by adopting a second target interface for the equipment to be upgraded, and the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by adopting a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, wherein the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the equipment to be upgraded, and is electrically connected with the equipment to be upgraded and the equipment to be upgraded through the first target interface and the second target interface, and the equipment to be upgraded is used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers; and adopting the target program to upgrade the equipment to be upgraded.

Optionally, the first target interface includes an upgrade terminal, and before the target program is received by the first target interface, the method further includes: acquiring a level signal of the upgrade terminal; under the condition that the level signal of the upgrading terminal is the first level, determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading; and under the condition that the level signal of the upgrading terminal is the second level, determining whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading according to the integrity of an initial program, wherein the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the equipment to be upgraded is upgraded, and one of the first level and the second level is a low level, and the other is a high level.

Optionally, the first target interface includes a receiving terminal, and before the target program is received by using the first target interface, the method further includes: detecting the signal content received by the receiving terminal in real time; under the condition that the receiving terminal receives a forced upgrading instruction within a preset time period, determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading, wherein the forced upgrading instruction is an instruction for indicating the program upgrading equipment to adopt a second target interface to send to the equipment to be upgraded; and under the condition that the receiving terminal does not receive the forced upgrading instruction within the preset time period, determining whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading according to the integrity of an initial program, wherein the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the equipment to be upgraded is upgraded.

Optionally, determining whether the device to be upgraded needs to be upgraded according to the integrity of the initial program includes: under the condition that the integrity of the initial program is smaller than the preset integrity, determining that the initial program needs to be upgraded; and under the condition that the integrity of the initial program is greater than or equal to the preset integrity, determining that the initial program does not need to be updated.

Optionally, the second target interface further has a plurality of voltage terminals, the voltages matched by the voltage terminals are different, and each voltage terminal is used for performing data interaction with each controller with different operation voltages.

Optionally, the program upgrading device includes an interaction input module, an interaction display module and a wireless communication module, wherein the interaction input module is used for executing preset instructions, the preset instructions include a device opening instruction, the interaction display module is used for displaying the working state of the program upgrading device, the wireless communication module is used for performing data interaction with the intelligent terminal, and the program upgrading device is further provided with an external power supply interface which is used for being electrically connected with the external power supply device to supply power to the program upgrading device.

Optionally, the initial program in the controller of the device to be upgraded includes a BOOT program section, a status program section and an application program section, where the BOOT program section is used to store a program for characterizing an upgrade step of upgrading the initial program, the status program section is used to store a program for characterizing a status of an application program at a current time, and the application program section is used to store an application logic program for characterizing an actual function of the device to be upgraded.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is provided a method of remotely upgrading a program, the method being applied to a program upgrading apparatus, the method comprising: acquiring a target program, wherein the target program is sent to the program upgrading device by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading device, the program upgrading device is used for performing program upgrading on various controllers, the running voltages of the various controllers are different, and one device to be upgraded comprises at least one controller; and sending the target program to equipment to be upgraded by adopting a second target interface so that the equipment to be upgraded adopts the target program to perform program upgrading, wherein the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the program upgrading equipment is provided with a second target interface, and is electrically connected with the first target interface and the second target interface so that the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is provided a system for remotely upgrading a program, the system comprising: program upgrading equipment provided with a second target interface for transmitting a target program to the equipment to be upgraded; the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected through the first target interface and the second target interface; the cloud server; the intelligent terminal is respectively connected with the program upgrading device and the cloud server in a communication mode and is used for transmitting the target program to the program upgrading device.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: one or more processors, a memory, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising a method for executing any one of the remote upgrade programs.

The technical scheme of the application is that the method for remotely upgrading the program is applied to equipment to be upgraded, the equipment to be upgraded comprises at least one controller, the running voltages of various controllers are different, the method firstly adopts a first target interface to receive a target program, the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by the program upgrading equipment through a second target interface, the target program is sent to the program upgrading equipment by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, wherein the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading equipment, and the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected through the first target interface and the second target interface, and the program upgrading equipment is used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers; and then adopting the target program to upgrade the equipment to be upgraded. According to the method, remote programming of programs is carried out on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method for remotely upgrading a program according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a program upgrade apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of an initial program according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a first target interface and a second target interface according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating another method for remotely upgrading a program according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method for providing yet another remote upgrade procedure according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system for remotely upgrading a program provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a device to be upgraded according to an embodiment of the present application.

Wherein the above figures include the following reference numerals:

01. an external power supply interface; 02. an interactive input module; 03. an interactive display module; 04. a wireless communication module; 05. a second target interface; 100. a controller of the device to be upgraded; 200. program upgrading equipment; 300. an intelligent terminal; 400. and the cloud server.

Detailed Description

It should be noted that, without conflict, the embodiments of the present application and features of the embodiments may be combined with each other. The application will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings in connection with embodiments.

In order that those skilled in the art will better understand the present application, a technical solution in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in which it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present application, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present application without making any inventive effort, shall fall within the scope of the present application.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and the claims of the present application and the above figures are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate in order to describe the embodiments of the application herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

As described in the background art, in the prior art, the program update of the home appliance controller is implemented by a controller that an after-sales person applies for an update program to a home appliance company and then brings the controller to a customer home for a replacement operation. The application provides a remote program upgrading method, a remote program upgrading system and electronic equipment, which are used for solving the problem that a controller of a household appliance cannot remotely burn programs in the prior art.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

In this embodiment, a method of remotely upgrading a program running on a device to be upgraded is provided, it being noted that the steps shown in the flowchart of the drawings may be performed in a computer system such as a set of computer executable instructions, and although a logical order is shown in the flowchart, in some cases the steps shown or described may be performed in an order different from that shown or described herein.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method of remotely upgrading a program according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the method is applied to a device to be upgraded, the device to be upgraded includes at least one controller, and the operating voltages of the various controllers are different, and the method includes the following steps:

Step S201, receiving a target program by using a first target interface, wherein the target program is a program upgrading device and is sent to the device to be upgraded by using a second target interface, the target program is a cloud server and is sent to the program upgrading device by an intelligent terminal, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading device, the first target interface and the second target interface are electrically connected, so that the device to be upgraded and the program upgrading device are electrically connected, and the program upgrading device is used for carrying out program upgrading on a plurality of controllers;

specifically, the second target interface of the program upgrading device may perform program upgrading for the controllers with different voltages, and under the condition that the controllers with different voltages exist in the device to be upgraded, program upgrading is performed on the controllers with different voltages in turn, and after the program upgrading is completed on the first device to be upgraded, the program upgrading device may also perform program upgrading on the second device to be upgraded through electrical connection, and the second target interface also has a voltage terminal supporting the voltage of the controller in the second device to be upgraded.

The equipment to be upgraded can be intelligent household appliances (such as an air conditioner), and household appliance maintenance personnel can acquire a controller target program which is required to be burnt currently from a cloud server through a networking intelligent terminal (such as a smart phone, a tablet and the like). And the program is transmitted to the program upgrading equipment in a short-distance wireless communication mode, and finally the program upgrading equipment realizes program upgrading burning of the controller of the equipment to be upgraded through a unified hardware interface (second target interface). In the process, the intelligent terminal adopts a long-distance wireless communication mode to realize communication connection with the server, and can be any one of GPRS, 4G, 5G, wiFi and the like. The intelligent terminal and the program upgrading device are in communication connection (such as Bluetooth, wiFi, zigBee, NFC and the like) by adopting a short-distance wireless communication mode.

In addition, if the first target interface of the equipment to be upgraded is exposed on the equipment to be upgraded, the first target interface and the second target interface can be directly electrically connected, and if the first target interface of the equipment to be upgraded is arranged on the controller in the equipment to be upgraded and is not directly arranged on the equipment to be upgraded, the controller in the equipment to be upgraded needs to be taken out, and then the first target interface and the second target interface are electrically connected to perform program upgrading.

In the above preferred embodiment, the UART communication mode adopted by the second target interface may be replaced by a short-distance wired communication mode such as SPI, IIC, etc., but the overall versatility is more applicable than UART communication which is not preferred. Similarly, the program upgrading device is in wireless communication with the intelligent terminal, preferably bluetooth connection, and can be replaced by a short-distance wireless communication mode such as ZigBee, irda, NFC, wiFi. But bluetooth, wiFi is preferred for overall versatility.

As shown in fig. 2, the program upgrading device includes an interactive input module 02, an interactive display module 03 and a wireless communication module 04, where the interactive input module 02 is used to execute a preset instruction, the preset instruction includes a device start instruction, the interactive display module 03 is used to display a working state of the program upgrading device, the wireless communication module 04 is used to perform data interaction with the intelligent terminal, the program upgrading device further has an external power supply interface 01, and the external power supply interface 01 is used to be electrically connected with an external power supply device to supply power to the program upgrading device.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 2, the program upgrading device has a universal unified program recording interface (i.e., the second target interface 05). Therefore, only the needed target program is transmitted to the program upgrading equipment, the program upgrading of the controllers under different voltages in one equipment to be upgraded can be realized through the program upgrading equipment, the program upgrading of the controllers in the different equipment to be upgraded can be realized through the program upgrading equipment, remote programming of programs of various MCU controllers of household appliances is facilitated, and the timeliness and the accuracy of program upgrading of the controllers of household appliances are improved.

In addition, an external power supply interface (preferably a current mainstream USB interface+5V power supply) is connected with external power supply equipment (such as a conventional mobile phone charger, a lithium battery, a mobile power supply and the like) to provide necessary power supply support for the program upgrading equipment and the controller of the equipment to be upgraded. The interactive input module mainly realizes the selection of some functional modes of the program upgrading equipment and can be related input equipment or devices such as keys, switches, knobs, touch keys and the like. The interactive display module can realize some indication of the working state of the program upgrading equipment and can be a conventional display device or equipment such as an LED lamp, an LCD screen and the like. The wireless communication module realizes wireless connection and data interaction with the intelligent terminal and can realize information interaction in any one of short-distance wireless communication modes such as Bluetooth and WiFi, zigBee, NFC. And the second target interface realizes the data interaction between the program upgrading equipment and the MCU of the equipment to be upgraded, and the main body adopts a UART communication mode.

In one embodiment, the external power supply interface is used for supplying power to the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment, and the controller of the equipment to be upgraded is used for supplying power to the program upgrading equipment in a reverse power supply mode. When the power supply mode is to supply power to the external power supply interface, the external power supply interface is a USB type C interface, and the power supply voltage is 5V. The mobile phone charger can be directly connected with a mobile phone charger, a lithium battery, a mobile power supply and the like to realize power supply requirements. Or indirectly supplying power by a household appliance controller to be upgraded; when the power supply mode is reverse power supply to the controller of the equipment to be upgraded, the program upgrading equipment can obtain necessary power supply support from the controller of the equipment to be upgraded through the second target interface.

As shown in fig. 3, the initial program in the controller of the device to be upgraded includes a BOOT program section, a state program section and an application program section, where the BOOT program section is used for storing a program for representing an upgrade step of upgrading the initial program, the state program section is used for storing a program for representing a state of an application program at a current time, and the application program section is used for storing an application logic program for representing an actual function of the device to be upgraded.

In particular, programs with different functions can be well distinguished, in the process of program upgrading, only the program in the application program interval is required to be upgraded, programming upgrading is not required to be carried out on the program in the BOOT program interval and the program in the state program interval, and the time required by program upgrading is greatly reduced under the condition of saving resources.

In addition, section one (BOOT program section): the controller is powered up to be booted with an initial program (including an APP program which can be downloaded and updated through a program upgrading device or a communication OTA program and the like). Interval two (APP program status information interval) is used for storing current controller APP program status information (such as whether current APP is available, APP program code, version, verification, size, etc.). Interval three (application interval), the actual specific product application logic program is saved.

The second target interface is further provided with a plurality of voltage terminals, the voltages matched with the voltage terminals are different, and each voltage terminal is used for data interaction with each controller with different operating voltages.

Specifically, the program upgrading of the controllers under different voltages in one device to be upgraded can be realized through one program upgrading device, the program upgrading of the controllers in the different devices to be upgraded can also be realized through one program upgrading device, remote programming of programs of various MCU controllers of household appliances is facilitated, and timeliness and accuracy of program upgrading of the household appliance controllers are improved.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 4, the device to be upgraded and the program upgrading device are mainly implemented by UART communication, and can support program upgrading of the controller MCUs of 5V and 3.3V.

Wherein the first target interface includes an upgrade terminal, and the method further includes the following steps before the target program is received by using the first target interface:

step S301, obtaining the level signal of the upgrade terminal;

step S302, determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading under the condition that the level signal of the upgrading terminal is at a first level;

Step S303, determining whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be upgraded according to the integrity of an initial program when the level signal of the upgrade terminal is at a second level, wherein the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the equipment to be upgraded is upgraded, and one of the first level and the second level is at a low level, and the other is at a high level.

Specifically, whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be upgraded or not can be directly determined according to the level signal of the upgrading terminal, and the time for upgrading the program is reduced as much as possible under the condition of saving resources.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 4, the upgrade terminal may be a MODE terminal, the first level may be set to a low level, and the second level may be set to a high level. For example: the controller of the equipment to be upgraded is powered on and initially operates to detect MODE low level 0, and then judges that a program forced upgrading program is needed; and if the MODE high level 1 is detected, further judging whether to enter the application program to run or not according to the complete condition of the APP program in the current FLASH. It should be noted that: logic level 0 is preferably low as the entry forcing program upgrade logic level, and the opposite level implementation is also possible.

Wherein the first target interface includes a receiving terminal, and before the target program is received by the first target interface, the method further includes the following steps:

step S401, detecting the signal content received by the receiving terminal in real time;

step S402, under the condition that the receiving terminal receives a forced upgrade instruction within a preset time period, determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs to be upgraded, wherein the forced upgrade instruction is an instruction for indicating the equipment to be upgraded to send to the equipment to be upgraded by adopting a second target interface;

step S403, determining whether the device to be upgraded needs to be upgraded according to the integrity of an initial program, where the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the device to be upgraded is upgraded, when the receiving terminal does not receive the forced upgrade instruction within the preset time period.

Specifically, whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading can be directly determined according to whether the forced upgrading instruction sent by the equipment to be upgraded is received, so that the judging result is more accurate, and the time for upgrading the program is reduced as much as possible under the condition of saving resources.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 4, the preset time period may be set to 3s and the receiving terminal may be set to RXD. For example: the device to be upgraded controls the receiving port RXD for detecting UART communication of the current interface (figure 4), and whether a correct communication protocol instruction is received within a specified time (such as 3s and the like) or not is required to enter a forced upgrading program. If the program is received, the program is forcedly updated; if not, further judging whether to enter the application program to run according to the complete condition of the APP program in the current FLASH.

In addition, as shown in fig. 4, TXD and RXD are UART communication terminals, and mainly implement program upgrade UART communication. MODE is a MODE selection terminal, and mainly realizes the selection of the running state of equipment (such as household appliances) to be upgraded by the program upgrading equipment. The household appliance controller to be upgraded can determine whether to run the BOOT to upgrade the APP or directly jump to the APP for execution through the MODE input state. 5V, 3.3V and GND are the power supply connections of the whole system. It should be noted that, the MCU of the current mainstream home appliance controller has two kinds of 5V and 3.3V, and this kind of unified power supply interface can realize that any one of the home appliance controllers to be upgraded of 5V and 3.3V can be upgraded by adopting a unified upgrade interface, without deliberately distinguishing and paying attention to the difference of different power supplies.

According to the integrity of the initial program, determining whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be upgraded comprises the following specific implementation steps:

step S501, determining that the initial program needs to be updated when the integrity of the initial program is less than a preset integrity;

in step S502, it is determined that the initial program does not need to be updated when the integrity of the initial program is greater than or equal to the preset integrity.

Specifically, the preset integrity may be set to 100%. Therefore, whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading can be judged more accurately.

Step S202, program upgrading is carried out on the equipment to be upgraded by adopting the target program.

Specifically, the program upgrading device is provided with a universal unified program burning interface, so that remote programming of programs of various MCU controllers applied to home appliances is facilitated, and the problem that most of the current home appliance controllers cannot be subjected to program upgrading is solved.

The method is applied to equipment to be upgraded, the equipment to be upgraded comprises at least one controller, the running voltages of various controllers are different, the method firstly adopts a first target interface to receive a target program, the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by the program upgrading equipment through a second target interface, the target program is sent to the program upgrading equipment by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, wherein the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading equipment, and the equipment to be upgraded is electrically connected with the program upgrading equipment through the first target interface and the second target interface, and the program upgrading equipment is used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers; and then adopting the target program to upgrade the equipment to be upgraded. According to the method, remote programming of programs is carried out on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

In order to enable those skilled in the art to more clearly understand the technical solutions of the present application, the implementation process of the method for remote upgrade procedure of the present application will be described in detail with reference to specific embodiments.

The embodiment relates to a specific method for remotely upgrading a program, as shown in fig. 5, including the following steps:

step S1: initializing a controller MCU of equipment to be upgraded;

step S2: judging whether the controller of the equipment to be upgraded meets the condition of entering the forced requirement of the equipment to be upgraded for upgrading the program waiting for ascending order, and if the controller of the equipment to be upgraded meets the forced upgrading condition, forcibly upgrading the program through the program upgrading equipment;

step S3: and under the condition that the controller of the equipment to be upgraded does not meet the forced upgrading condition, judging whether the controller of the equipment to be upgraded currently has an executable complete application program, if so, executing the application program of the current controller without forced program upgrading, and if not, returning to the step S2.

It should be noted that the steps illustrated in the flowcharts of the figures may be performed in a computer system such as a set of computer executable instructions, and that although a logical order is illustrated in the flowcharts, in some cases the steps illustrated or described may be performed in an order other than that illustrated herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a method for remotely upgrading the program, as shown in fig. 6, the method is applied to the program upgrading device, and the method comprises the following steps:

step S601, acquiring a target program, wherein the target program is sent to the program upgrading device by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading device, the program upgrading device is used for performing program upgrading on various controllers, the running voltages of the various controllers are different, and one device to be upgraded comprises at least one controller;

step S602, transmitting the target program to a device to be upgraded by using a second target interface, so that the device to be upgraded performs program upgrade by using the target program, where the device to be upgraded has a first target interface, and the device to be upgraded has a second target interface, and is electrically connected to the device to be upgraded and the device to be upgraded by using the first target interface and the second target interface, so that the device to be upgraded is electrically connected to the device to be upgraded.

The method of the remote program upgrading of the application is applied to program upgrading equipment, the method firstly obtains a target program, the target program is sent to the program upgrading equipment by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, wherein the intelligent terminal is respectively connected with the cloud server and the program upgrading equipment in a communication way, the program upgrading equipment is used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers, the running voltages of the various controllers are different, and one equipment to be upgraded comprises at least one controller; and then adopting a second target interface to send the target program to equipment to be upgraded so that the equipment to be upgraded adopts the target program to carry out program upgrading, wherein the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the program upgrading equipment is provided with a second target interface and is electrically connected with the second target interface through the first target interface so that the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected. According to the method, remote programming of programs is carried out on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

The embodiment of the application also provides a system for remotely upgrading the program, as shown in fig. 7, the system comprises: program upgrading apparatus 200 having a second target interface for transmitting a target program to the apparatus to be upgraded; the device to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the device to be upgraded and the program upgrading device 200 are electrically connected through the first target interface and the second target interface; cloud server 400; the intelligent terminal 300 is respectively connected to the program upgrading device 200 and the cloud server 400 in a communication manner, and is configured to transmit the target program to the program upgrading device 200. As shown in fig. 7, the device to be upgraded further includes a controller 100 of the device to be upgraded.

The system for remotely upgrading a program of the present application comprises: program upgrading equipment provided with a second target interface for transmitting a target program to the equipment to be upgraded; the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected through the first target interface and the second target interface; the cloud server; the intelligent terminal is respectively connected with the program upgrading device and the cloud server in a communication way and used for transmitting the target program to the program upgrading device. The system carries out remote programming of programs on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

In the above embodiment, for the program upgrade requirement of the controller of the home appliance (to-be-upgraded device), the operator may connect the program upgrade device and the controller of the to-be-upgraded device in a manner referring to fig. 7 (wherein, the program upgrade device and the to-be-upgraded device are connected in a UART wired communication manner, and the program upgrade device and the intelligent terminal are connected in a bluetooth short-distance wireless manner). After the related connection is completed, the target program of the current controller to be upgraded can be obtained from the cloud server through the APP on the intelligent terminal, and then is transmitted to the program upgrading device through a short-distance wireless mode, and then is transmitted to the specific controller of the device to be upgraded through the program upgrading device. After the whole upgrade is finished, only the controller after the program upgrade is reinstalled into the corresponding household appliance (equipment to be upgraded).

The embodiment of the application also provides equipment to be upgraded, and the equipment to be upgraded can be used for executing the method for remotely upgrading the program. The device to be upgraded is used to implement the foregoing embodiments and preferred embodiments, and will not be described again. As used below, the term "module" may be a combination of software and/or hardware that implements a predetermined function. While the means described in the following embodiments are preferably implemented in software, implementation in hardware, or a combination of software and hardware, is also possible and contemplated.

The device to be upgraded provided by the embodiment of the application is introduced as follows.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a device to be upgraded according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the device to be upgraded includes at least one controller, the operating voltages of the various controllers are different, the device to be upgraded includes a receiving unit 10 and an upgrading unit 20, the receiving unit 10 is configured to receive a target program by using a first target interface, the target program is sent to the device to be upgraded by using a second target interface, the target program is sent to the device to be upgraded by using a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, where the intelligent terminal is respectively connected with the cloud server and the device to be upgraded in a communication manner, and is electrically connected through the first target interface and the second target interface, so that the device to be upgraded and the device to be upgraded are electrically connected, and the device to be upgraded is configured to perform program upgrade on the various controllers; the upgrade unit 20 is configured to upgrade the device to be upgraded by using the target program.

The equipment to be upgraded comprises at least one controller, wherein the running voltages of the various controllers are different, the equipment to be upgraded comprises a receiving unit and an upgrading unit, the receiving unit is used for receiving a target program by adopting a first target interface, the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by adopting a second target interface, the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by adopting a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the equipment to be upgraded, and the equipment to be upgraded is electrically connected with the equipment to be upgraded by adopting the first target interface and the second target interface, so that the equipment to be upgraded and the equipment to be upgraded are electrically connected, and the equipment to be upgraded are used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers; and the upgrading unit is used for carrying out program upgrading on the equipment to be upgraded by adopting the target program. The equipment to be upgraded carries out remote programming of programs on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

The first target interface includes an upgrade terminal, and the device to be upgraded further includes a first acquiring unit, a first determining unit, and a second determining unit, where the first acquiring unit is configured to acquire a level signal of the upgrade terminal before receiving the target program using the first target interface; the first determining unit is used for determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs program upgrading when the level signal of the upgrading terminal is at a first level; the second determining unit is configured to determine, according to an integrity of an initial program, whether the device to be upgraded needs to be upgraded, where the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the device to be upgraded is upgraded, where one of the first level and the second level is a low level, and the other is a high level, where the level signal of the upgrade terminal is a second level. Whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be upgraded or not can be directly determined according to the level signal of the upgrade terminal, and the time for upgrading the program is reduced as much as possible under the condition of saving resources.

In an optional embodiment, the first target interface includes a receiving terminal, and the apparatus further includes a detecting unit, a third determining unit, and a fourth determining unit, where the detecting unit is configured to detect, in real time, a signal content received by the receiving terminal before the target program is received by using the first target interface; the third determining unit is configured to determine that the device to be upgraded needs to perform program upgrade when the receiving terminal receives a forced upgrade instruction within a preset time period, where the forced upgrade instruction is an instruction indicating that the program upgrade device uses a second target interface to send the program upgrade instruction to the device to be upgraded; the fourth determining unit is configured to determine, according to the integrity of an initial program, whether the device to be upgraded needs to be upgraded if the receiving terminal does not receive the forced upgrade instruction within the preset time period, where the initial program is an operating program in the controller before the device to be upgraded is upgraded. Whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading can be directly determined according to whether the forced upgrading instruction sent by the equipment to be upgraded is received, so that the judging result is more accurate, and the time for upgrading the program is reduced as much as possible under the condition of saving resources.

In an optional embodiment, the second determining unit and the fourth determining unit each include a first determining module and a second determining module, where the first determining module is configured to determine that the initial program needs to be upgraded when the integrity of the initial program is less than a preset integrity; the second determining module is configured to determine that the initial program does not need to be updated when the integrity of the initial program is greater than or equal to the preset integrity. Whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading can be accurately judged.

Optionally, the second target interface further has a plurality of voltage terminals, the voltages matched by the plurality of voltage terminals are different, and each voltage terminal is used for performing data interaction with each controller with different operation voltages. The program upgrading device can realize program upgrading of the controllers under different voltages in one device to be upgraded through one program upgrading device, and can also realize program upgrading of the controllers in different devices to be upgraded through one program upgrading device, so that remote programming of programs of various MCU controllers of household appliances is facilitated, and timeliness and accuracy of program upgrading of the household appliance controllers are improved.

In this embodiment, the program upgrading device includes an interaction input module, an interaction display module and a wireless communication module, where the interaction input module is used to execute a preset instruction, the preset instruction includes a device start instruction, the interaction display module is used to display a working state of the program upgrading device, the wireless communication module is used to interact data with the intelligent terminal, the program upgrading device further has an external power supply interface, and the external power supply interface is used to be electrically connected with an external power supply device to supply power to the program upgrading device. The remote programming of programs of various MCU controllers of household appliances is convenient, and the timeliness and the accuracy of program upgrading of the household appliance controllers are improved.

As an alternative solution, the initial program in the controller of the device to be upgraded includes a BOOT program section, a status program section and an application program section, where the BOOT program section is used to store a program that characterizes an upgrade step of upgrading the initial program, the status program section is used to store a program that characterizes a status of an application program at a current time, and the application program section is used to store an application logic program that characterizes an actual function of the device to be upgraded. The program with different functions can be well distinguished, in the program upgrading process, only the program in the application program interval is required to be upgraded, programming upgrading is not required to be carried out on the program in the BOOT program interval and the program in the state program interval, and the time required by program upgrading is greatly reduced under the condition of saving resources.

The embodiment of the application also provides a program upgrading device, which comprises a second acquisition unit and a sending unit, wherein the second acquisition unit is used for acquiring a target program, the target program is sent to the program upgrading device by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading device, the program upgrading device is used for performing program upgrading on various controllers, the running voltages of the various controllers are different, and one device to be upgraded comprises at least one controller; the sending unit is configured to send the target program to a device to be upgraded by using a second target interface, so that the device to be upgraded performs program upgrade by using the target program, where the device to be upgraded has a first target interface, and the program upgrade device has a second target interface, and is electrically connected to the device to be upgraded and the program upgrade device through the first target interface and the second target interface.

The program upgrading device comprises a second acquisition unit and a sending unit, wherein the second acquisition unit is used for acquiring a target program, the target program is sent to the program upgrading device through an intelligent terminal by a cloud server, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading device, the program upgrading device is used for performing program upgrading on various controllers, the running voltages of the various controllers are different, and one device to be upgraded comprises at least one controller; the sending unit is configured to send the target program to a device to be upgraded by using a second target interface, so that the device to be upgraded performs program upgrade by using the target program, where the device to be upgraded has a first target interface, and the program upgrade device has a second target interface, and is electrically connected to the device to be upgraded and the program upgrade device through the first target interface and the second target interface. The program upgrading device carries out remote programming of programs on various MCU controllers of household appliances. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

The device to be upgraded comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the receiving unit and the like are stored in the memory as program units, and the processor executes the program units stored in the memory to realize corresponding functions. The modules are all located in the same processor; alternatively, the above modules may be located in different processors in any combination.

The processor includes a kernel, and the kernel fetches the corresponding program unit from the memory. The kernel can be provided with one or more than one kernel, and the problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved by adjusting kernel parameters.

The memory may include volatile memory, random Access Memory (RAM), and/or nonvolatile memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash memory (flash RAM), among other forms in computer readable media, the memory including at least one memory chip.

The embodiment of the invention provides a computer readable storage medium, which comprises a stored program, wherein the method for controlling equipment where the computer readable storage medium is located to execute the remote upgrading program is controlled by the program.

Specifically, the method for remotely upgrading the program comprises the following steps:

Optionally, the first target interface includes an upgrade terminal, and before the target program is received by using the first target interface, the method further includes: acquiring a level signal of the upgrade terminal; under the condition that the level signal of the upgrading terminal is the first level, determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading; and under the condition that the level signal of the upgrading terminal is the second level, determining whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading according to the integrity of an initial program, wherein the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the equipment to be upgraded is upgraded, and one of the first level and the second level is a low level, and the other is a high level.

Optionally, the second target interface further has a plurality of voltage terminals, the voltages matched by the plurality of voltage terminals are different, and each voltage terminal is used for performing data interaction with each controller with different operation voltages.

Optionally, the program upgrading device includes an interactive input module, an interactive display module and a wireless communication module, the interactive input module is used for executing a preset instruction, the preset instruction includes a device opening instruction, the interactive display module is used for displaying a working state of the program upgrading device, the wireless communication module is used for performing data interaction with the intelligent terminal, the program upgrading device further has an external power supply interface, and the external power supply interface is used for being electrically connected with the external power supply device to supply power to the program upgrading device.

Optionally, the initial program in the controller of the device to be upgraded includes a BOOT program section, a status program section and an application program section, where the BOOT program section is used to store a program for characterizing an upgrade step of the initial program, the status program section is used to store a program for characterizing a status of an application program at a current time, and the application program section is used to store an application logic program for characterizing an actual function of the device to be upgraded.

The embodiment of the invention provides a processor, which is used for running a program, wherein the method for remotely upgrading the program is executed when the program runs.

The embodiment of the invention provides equipment, which comprises a processor, a memory and a program stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor, wherein the processor realizes at least the following steps when executing the program:

The device herein may be a server, PC, PAD, cell phone, etc.

The application also provides a computer program product adapted to perform, when executed on a data processing device, a program initialized with at least the following method steps:

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the modules or steps of the application described above may be implemented in a general purpose computing device, they may be concentrated on a single computing device, or distributed across a network of computing devices, they may be implemented in program code executable by computing devices, so that they may be stored in a storage device for execution by computing devices, and in some cases, the steps shown or described may be performed in a different order than that shown or described herein, or they may be separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or multiple modules or steps of them may be fabricated into a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the present application is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

In one typical configuration, a computing device includes one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory.

The memory may include volatile memory in a computer-readable medium, random Access Memory (RAM) and/or nonvolatile memory, etc., such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash RAM. Memory is an example of a computer-readable medium.

Computer readable media, including both non-transitory and non-transitory, removable and non-removable media, may implement information storage by any method or technology. The information may be computer readable instructions, data structures, modules of a program, or other data. Examples of storage media for a computer include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), other types of Random Access Memory (RAM), read Only Memory (ROM), electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), digital Versatile Discs (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium, which can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. Computer-readable media, as defined herein, does not include transitory computer-readable media (transmission media), such as modulated data signals and carrier waves.

It should also be noted that the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article or apparatus that comprises an element.

From the above description, it can be seen that the above embodiments of the present application achieve the following technical effects:

1) The method is applied to equipment to be upgraded, the equipment to be upgraded comprises at least one controller, the running voltages of various controllers are different, the method firstly adopts a first target interface to receive a target program, the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by the program upgrading equipment through a second target interface, the target program is sent to the program upgrading equipment by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading equipment, and the equipment to be upgraded is electrically connected with the program upgrading equipment through the first target interface and the second target interface, so that the program upgrading equipment is used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers; and then adopting the target program to upgrade the equipment to be upgraded. According to the method, remote programming of programs is carried out on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

2) The method for remotely upgrading the program is applied to program upgrading equipment, and is characterized in that a target program is firstly obtained, the target program is sent to the program upgrading equipment through an intelligent terminal by a cloud server, wherein the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading equipment, the program upgrading equipment is used for performing program upgrading on various controllers, the running voltages of the various controllers are different, and one equipment to be upgraded comprises at least one controller; and then adopting a second target interface to send the target program to equipment to be upgraded so that the equipment to be upgraded adopts the target program to carry out program upgrading, wherein the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the program upgrading equipment is provided with a second target interface and is electrically connected with the second target interface through the first target interface so that the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected. According to the method, remote programming of programs is carried out on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

3) The system for remotely upgrading the program of the application comprises: program upgrading equipment provided with a second target interface for transmitting a target program to the equipment to be upgraded; the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected through the first target interface and the second target interface; the cloud server; the intelligent terminal is respectively connected with the program upgrading device and the cloud server in a communication way and used for transmitting the target program to the program upgrading device. The system carries out remote programming of programs on various MCU controllers of household appliances through program upgrading equipment. The problem that a controller of a household appliance in the prior art cannot remotely upgrade a program is solved.

The above description is only of the preferred embodiments of the present application and is not intended to limit the present application, but various modifications and variations can be made to the present application by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present application should be included in the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of remotely upgrading a program, the method being applied to a device to be upgraded, the device to be upgraded including at least one controller, each of the controllers having a different operating voltage, the method comprising:

Receiving a target program by adopting a first target interface, wherein the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by adopting a second target interface for the equipment to be upgraded, and the target program is sent to the equipment to be upgraded by adopting a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, wherein the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the equipment to be upgraded, and is electrically connected with the equipment to be upgraded and the equipment to be upgraded through the first target interface and the second target interface, and the equipment to be upgraded is used for carrying out program upgrading on various controllers;

and adopting the target program to upgrade the equipment to be upgraded.

2. The method of remotely upgrading a program according to claim 1, wherein the first target interface includes an upgrade terminal, the method further comprising, prior to receiving the target program with the first target interface:

acquiring a level signal of the upgrade terminal;

under the condition that the level signal of the upgrading terminal is the first level, determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading;

and under the condition that the level signal of the upgrading terminal is the second level, determining whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading according to the integrity of an initial program, wherein the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the equipment to be upgraded is upgraded, and one of the first level and the second level is a low level, and the other is a high level.

3. The method of remotely upgrading a program according to claim 1, wherein the first target interface includes a receiving terminal, the method further comprising, prior to receiving the target program with the first target interface:

detecting the signal content received by the receiving terminal in real time;

under the condition that the receiving terminal receives a forced upgrading instruction within a preset time period, determining that the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading, wherein the forced upgrading instruction is an instruction for indicating the program upgrading equipment to adopt a second target interface to send to the equipment to be upgraded;

and under the condition that the receiving terminal does not receive the forced upgrading instruction within the preset time period, determining whether the equipment to be upgraded needs to be subjected to program upgrading according to the integrity of an initial program, wherein the initial program is an operation program in the controller before the equipment to be upgraded is upgraded.

4. A method of remotely upgrading a program according to claim 2 or 3, wherein determining whether the device to be upgraded requires a program upgrade based on the integrity of the initial program comprises:

under the condition that the integrity of the initial program is smaller than the preset integrity, determining that the initial program needs to be upgraded;

And under the condition that the integrity of the initial program is greater than or equal to the preset integrity, determining that the initial program does not need to be updated.

5. A method of remotely upgrading a program according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the second target interface further has a plurality of voltage terminals, the voltage terminals being matched to different voltages, each voltage terminal being for data interaction with a respective controller having a different operating voltage.

6. A method of remotely upgrading a program according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the program upgrading device comprises an interactive input module, an interactive display module and a wireless communication module, the interactive input module is used for executing preset instructions, the preset instructions comprise device opening instructions, the interactive display module is used for displaying the working state of the program upgrading device, the wireless communication module is used for performing data interaction with the intelligent terminal, and the program upgrading device is further provided with an external power supply interface, and the external power supply interface is used for being electrically connected with an external power supply device to supply power for the program upgrading device.

7. A method of remotely upgrading a program according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the initial program in the controller of the device to be upgraded comprises a BOOT program section for storing a program characterizing the upgrading step of the initial program, a status program section for storing a program characterizing the status of an application at the current time, and an application program section for storing an application logic program characterizing the actual function of the device to be upgraded.

8. A method of remotely upgrading a program, the method being applied to a program upgrading device, the method comprising:

acquiring a target program, wherein the target program is sent to the program upgrading device by a cloud server through an intelligent terminal, the intelligent terminal is respectively in communication connection with the cloud server and the program upgrading device, the program upgrading device is used for performing program upgrading on various controllers, the running voltages of the various controllers are different, and one device to be upgraded comprises at least one controller;

and sending the target program to equipment to be upgraded by adopting a second target interface so that the equipment to be upgraded adopts the target program to perform program upgrading, wherein the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the program upgrading equipment is provided with a second target interface, and is electrically connected with the first target interface and the second target interface so that the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected.

9. A system for remotely upgrading a program, the system comprising:

program upgrading equipment provided with a second target interface for transmitting a target program to equipment to be upgraded;

the equipment to be upgraded is provided with a first target interface, and the equipment to be upgraded and the program upgrading equipment are electrically connected through the first target interface and the second target interface;

the cloud server;

the intelligent terminal is respectively connected with the program upgrading device and the cloud server in a communication mode and is used for transmitting the target program to the program upgrading device.

10. An electronic device, comprising: one or more processors, memory, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising a method for performing the remote upgrade procedure of any of claims 1-7.