FR3005501A1 - METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING ACTIVE OR PASSIVE ELECTRONIC DEVICES BY AN OPERATOR - Google Patents

Abstract

This method of identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator, each of the devices comprising at least one light-emitting diode, and each comprising a specific address on said network, the operator being provided with portable electronic equipment provided with an operating system, such as a handheld terminal, a touch pad, or the like, said portable electronic equipment comprising means for detecting a signal emitted by the device's light-emitting diode , and a memory, said method consisting in: - said at least one light emitting diode emits, under the influence of a microprocessor or a microcontroller integrated in each device, unique identification data to said device in the form of a signal ; - The detection means of the portable equipment of the operator captures said signal and the corresponding device is geolocated: ▪ manually by the operator by introducing the location of said device by the keyboard which is equipped with its equipment, ▪ vocally by the operator using a voice recognition device with which his equipment is equipped, ▪ by pointing by the operator on a plane previously loaded in the memory of his equipment; ▪ or by radio geolocation by triangulation; the identification data of said device and its location being stored in the memory of the portable equipment of the operator.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the technical field of monitoring the state of the proper functioning of active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a central unit.

More specifically, the object of the invention is to enable the identification by an operator of the various devices in question, this identification resulting from a signal emitted by said devices. This need for identification is particularly felt, firstly in relatively large installations employing a relatively large number of safety lighting blocks. In this context, the invention relates more particularly to a method of identification and location by an operator of such blocks. This need for identification also exists in installations employing fire or smoke detection devices, in which the sensors, connected to the alarm center, must be precisely identified and located in order to enable subsequent detection of faulty sensors and their immediate location. This need also exists in conventional lighting systems, for example street systems, where again it is necessary to be able to locate a defective lighting device. The problem related to security lighting blocks will be described in more detail. In public or collective apartment buildings, 30 safety lighting blocks can be used to display illuminated signage and automatically provide a supplementary light source for marking or evacuation. Such lighting blocks also play the role of emergency lighting, especially in case of fire and in case of failure of the lighting on the main power network. The presence of such lighting blocks is made mandatory in accordance with the regulations in force. They are therefore very widely installed, for example above emergency exits, in stairwells, along corridors or on hall walls. When it comes to verifying the operational status of a large number of safety lighting blocks, these are generally installed in a network, each block integrating a microprocessor or microcontroller, including a specific address. on the network, allowing him to communicate with a central management. Said management center makes it possible to manage all the information relating to the operating status of the blocks. It also makes it possible to store and centralize this information in order to have an overall view of the state of the safety lighting installation. The control panel dialogs with each block to retrieve the status information of the standby light-emitting diodes, emergency light-emitting diodes and batteries. During a failure, the plant must be able to identify the block or blocks causing this failure. By "identify" is meant to know all the information relating to said lighting unit, such as its specific address on the network, its geolocation, its operating status, or any other information that may be useful to the maintenance operator. for the commissioning of the network, an operator must associate for each block present on the network, its specific address on the network and its physical location in the building in order to intervene if necessary. BACKGROUND ART The assignment of a specific address on the network is done by an intervention of an operator on each block. The principles commonly used consist in assigning a previously chosen address, either by a physical means (encoder wheel, jumpers, EPROM, etc.), or by the use of an infrared transmission from a remote control held by the operator . There is no known, to date, any method allowing an operator, during his surveillance round, to know the information relating to a particular security block, such as its address on the network for example, without a physical intervention on the block.

The information on the security blocks are in particular centralized and managed by the central management directly, and the operator wishing to acquire this information must necessarily go through said central management.

The association for each security lighting block of its specific address on the network and its physical location is done manually. Either the operator intervenes on the security block to code an address previously associated with a physical location, or it codes an address and manually reports its physical location.

In fact, the tedious nature of the operation is conceived during the commissioning of such an installation, which can easily include several hundred or even thousands of such safety lighting blocks. The same problem is conceived for the fire detection installations, or even the street lighting services. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention essentially consists in reversing the principle of the addressing mechanism, as previously described. More specifically, in order to allow the addressing and geolocation of devices of the type in question belonging to an installation, it aims to use a signal emitted by each of the devices, intended to be picked up by the operator when he is in close proximity. , by means of portable electronic equipment of the smartphone type, touch pad or equivalent, provided with an appropriate operating system. Thus, the invention tends to propose a method of identification by an operator of active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a central unit, each of these devices comprising a light-emitting diode emitting a modulated signal representative of a given data. each of the devices, allowing said operator to identify in a simple and automatic manner said device To solve the aforementioned problems, it has therefore been developed a method of identification by an operator, active or passive electronic devices, and for example safety lighting blocks, each comprising at least one light-emitting diode, capable of emitting an injected signal from the microprocessor or microcontroller present in each of said devices, said signal being specific to each of the devices because of the microprocessor or the microcontroller it integrates. These devices, and in this case the security lighting blocks are networked to a management center and each include a specific address on said network The operator is provided with a portable electronic equipment provided with a system operating system, such as a handheld terminal, a touch pad, or the like. The portable electronic equipment comprises a means for detecting the signal emitted by the light-emitting diode which each device is provided with, and for example of the light-emitting diode of illumination of the lighting unit, a memory, possibly a keyboard and possibly a signal system. 10 voice recognition. According to the invention, the method comprises the steps of: - the light-emitting diode transmitting, under the influence of the microprocessor or microcontroller integrated in each device, unique identification data to said device in the form of a signal; the detection means integrated into the portable equipment of the operator picks up said signal and the corresponding device is geolocated: manually by the operator by introducing the location of said device by the keyboard of which his equipment is equipped, 20 - vocally by the operator using a voice recognition device which is equipped with his equipment, - pointing by the operator on a plane previously loaded in the memory of his equipment; - or by radio geolocation by triangulation; The identification data of said device and its location being stored in the memory of the portable equipment of the operator Advantageously, the data stored in the equipment memory are transmitted by radio synchronously (in real time) at the central office or asynchronously (delayed) when the network WIFI or 3G or equivalent is again captured, to overcome any manual entry in the central In this way, the operator during his round of bet in use for example of the installation of safety blocks, is able to know the information relating to a particular security block by means of its portable electronic equipment. The operation is simple, fast and automatic.

Preferably, the identification data comprise the specific address of the device, and in particular of the lighting unit on the network, and / or information relating to the type of devices, and in particular of the security lighting unit used. , and / or information relating to the state of the spare parts of said device, and for a safety lighting unit, the battery or the light-emitting diode. According to another characteristic of the invention, the specific software allows the operator to enter the information relating to the physical location of the security lighting unit in the building, and records them on the memory.

The specific software may allow the exploitation of the radio geolocation to associate the specific address received at the physical location in the building, on a previously downloaded map in the memory of the portable equipment. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other features and Advantages of the invention will emerge clearly from the description which is given hereinafter, by way of indication and in no way limitative, with reference to the appended figures, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a network of lighting blocks security related to a management center; Figure 2 is a schematic representation illustrating an operator identifying a particular light source by means of its portable electronic equipment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The following description relates to an installation of emergency lighting units, in which, the generic term of active or passive electronic devices designates a security lighting unit. However, it should be noted that the invention applies to any installation of such devices requiring the geographical location of the various devices that it comprises, and for example, the smoke or heat sensors of a detection facility. fire or the luminaires of an urban lighting installation. The only constraint lies in the presence of an LED in each of the devices in question, whose illumination is likely to be modulated by a microprocessor or integrated microcontroller during their manufacture, and able to generate a unique modulation. In a manner well known in the state of the art, the security lighting blocks (1) are distributed in premises receiving the public or in apartment buildings. Each security lighting block (1) is of the light-emitting diode type and includes all the elements of a conventional safety lighting unit that will not be described. With reference to FIG. 1, the blocks (1) are connected by a same two-wire remote control line (2) to a management center (3). They are connected to the main electrical network of the room or building, and are also connected to a stand-alone battery so that they can come into operation when a power failure is detected. The link between the central unit and the security blocks (1) is of the digital differential type allowing the flow of information frames. Still according to the state of the art, it is well known that the management unit (3) is intended to interact with each block (1) of lighting in order to retrieve the information of the operating state thereof. . Safety blocks (1) generally comprise an integrated circuit and also a microprocessor or a microcontroller. In this way, an interaction is possible between the management center (3) and the security blocks 20 (1). The control unit is able to send signals containing information to said blocks (1) and vice versa. The central unit and the blocks (1) also generally include memory modules to allow the recording of this information. In order to allow the management of these blocks (1) and also to have a return on their operating state, these include an individual specific address, usually defined by default by the number of the microprocessor. In practice, and with reference to FIG. 2, an operator is dedicated to the physical monitoring of the safety lighting blocks (1). When the commissioning of the installation, the management center (3) injects all the security blocks to emit their signal, unique to each of said blocks (1). The operator equipped with a portable electronic equipment (4), smartphone type, touch tablet or equivalent, performs its round through the premises and will detect one by one each of said blocks.

Said equipment is provided with a sensor (S) of the signal, said signal consisting, as already indicated, of a modulation of the light emitted by the light-emitting diode for illuminating the blocks.

This sensor (S) may in particular be an optical camera or any other means depending on the nature of the signal (S) emitted by said light emitting diode. The equipment (4) further comprises specific software installed on the operating system, the function of which is defined later in the description.

During its round, the operator may need to identify a particular block (1) for any reason. The operator then uses his equipment (4) and the specific software for this purpose. The light-emitting diode of the block (1) to be identified transmits identification data of the lighting block (1) in the form of a signal (S). The signal (S) can be of any kind that the diode is capable of emitting, especially light. The detection means of the equipment (4) then picks up the signal (S) emitted by said light emitting diode. This signal (S) is converted into identification data via the specific software. The identification data are then readable and understandable for the operator, and will allow the geolocation of the block, whose signal has been captured.

For this purpose, various alternatives are possible: the specific software integrated in the smartphone memory exploits the radio geolocation to associate the specific address received at the physical location in the building, on a plane previously downloaded into said memory; said software enables the operator to manually indicate the physical location of the block on a plane previously loaded in the memory, for example by means of a stylus; - This software allows the operator to dictate, thanks to the voice recognition that may be provided with the smartphone, the physical location in the building; - Said software allows the operator to enter through the keyboard which is provided with the smartphone the physical location in the building.

The identification data of the security lighting block (1) are in particular the specific address of the security lighting block (1) on the network, the type of security lighting block (1), the state of the spare parts of the block (1) of safety lighting, such as the battery or the light-emitting diode. These different data, and in particular the location of the block are stored in the memory of the smartphone. This data is transmitted by radio synchronously (in real time) to the management unit 5. Alternatively, this data is transmitted asynchronously (offline) when the WIFI or 3G network or equivalent is again captured. In either case, it eliminates any manual entry of these data in the central management.

As is apparent from the foregoing, the invention provides a method of identification by an operator of blocks (1) of security lighting allowing the operator to identify and geolocate a simple and automatic block ( 1) lighting in particular. This method notably provides the advantage of optimizing the monitoring rounds of said operator to save time.

Claims (7)

REVENDICATIONS1. A method of identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator, each of the devices comprising at least one light-emitting diode, and each comprising a specific address on said network (R), the operator being provided with portable electronic equipment (4) provided with an operating system, such as a handheld terminal, a touch pad, or the like, said portable electronic equipment (4) comprising a detection means of a signal (S) emitted by the light-emitting diode of the device, and a memory, said method comprising the steps of: - said at least one light-emitting diode emits at the pulse of a microprocessor or a microcontroller integrated in each device unique identification data to said device in the form of a signal; - The detection means of the portable equipment of the operator captures said signal and the corresponding device is geolocated: - manually by the operator by introducing the location of said device by the keyboard which is equipped with its equipment, - vocally by the operator using a voice recognition device with which his equipment is equipped, - by pointing by the operator on a previously loaded plane in the memory of his equipment; - or by radio geolocation by triangulation; the identification data of said device and its location being stored in the memory of the portable equipment of the operator. 2. A method for identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator, according to claim 1, characterized in that the data stored in the equipment memory are transmitted by radio from synchronously to the management center. 3. A method for identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator, according to claim 1, characterized in that the data stored in the memory of the equipment are transmitted by radio from asynchronously when the WIFI or 3G network or equivalent is again captured. ' 4. A method for identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the identification data comprises the specific address of the device on the network. 5. A method for identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the identification data comprises information relating to the type of device 6. A method for identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the identification data comprises information relating to the condition of the spare parts of the device 7. A method for identifying active or passive electronic devices belonging to a network managed by a management center by an operator according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the network is a set of detection blocks of safety lighting. 10 15 20