JP2002071246A - Monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a monitoring system of air conditioner in which failure diagnosis or operation control is performed and occurrence of an abnormality can be dealt with instantaneously at each business position. SOLUTION: The system for monitoring the operating state of a facility apparatus 1 employing a refrigeration cycle comprises a remote monitor 5 receiving the operating state information of the refrigeration cycle. Upon occurrence of an abnormality in the operating state of the refrigeration cycle, the remote monitor 5 receives abnormality occurrence information including the content of abnormality and transmits it to registered user terminals 7 and 8 through internet.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a monitoring device for monitoring the operating condition of an air conditioner and a remote control for remotely controlling the operation of the air conditioner, and is suitable for failure diagnosis and service of facilities such as buildings.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a means for grasping the operating state of an air conditioner, it has been known to record the temperature, pressure, etc. of a main part in a refrigeration cycle as the operating state and diagnose the failure. -238934.

[0003] It has been known that data on the control status of an air conditioner is directly captured by a terminal controller and the data is transmitted to a main controller, as described in, for example, JP-A-58-106348. I have. Further, transmitting monitoring information by using a modem or a public line is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-178557.
No., published in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.

[0004]

The prior art described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-238934 is more accurate and speedier than the recorded operating state information at the site where the air conditioner is installed. Failure diagnosis, but not real-time diagnosis.

Further, in the devices described in JP-A-58-106348 and JP-A-2-178557, remote monitoring can be performed only by a monitoring department such as a remote monitoring center having a remote monitoring device.

An object of the present invention is to provide remote monitoring by sharing operating information of an air conditioner not only at a place where a remote monitoring device is installed, but also at each business base near the place where an air conditioner is installed. It is an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioner monitoring system that can perform failure diagnosis or operation control with simple equipment even if concentrated in one place, and can immediately respond at each business base when an abnormality occurs.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a monitoring system for monitoring the operation state of equipment using a refrigeration cycle. When an abnormality occurs in the operation state of the refrigeration cycle, the remote monitoring device receives abnormality occurrence information including the content of the abnormality and transmits the information to the registered user terminal device via the Internet.

Further, the present invention relates to a monitoring system for monitoring an operation state of equipment in which a refrigeration cycle is used,
Equipped with a remote monitoring device that receives and accumulates refrigeration cycle operation status information and provides it as a WWW page on the Internet, accesses the WWW page from a user terminal device, receives authentication, specifies equipment and specifies It is possible to set ON / OFF and temperature for the installed equipment.

In the above, it is desirable that the user terminal device is a mobile phone. Further, in the above, it is desirable that the location where the abnormality occurs, the model, and the reason for the abnormality can be browsed as a WWW page.

Further, in the above, it is preferable that the WWW page has a menu screen on which commands for air conditioning management, operation control, and data download are displayed, and that the operation state information be displayed as a moving image as trend data. .

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a monitoring system according to an embodiment, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a signal flow when confirming operation information or abnormality information of the monitoring system according to an embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a signal flow when transmitting the scheduled information or communicating the abnormality occurrence information. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a signal flow when the operation control information is transmitted. FIG. 5 is an embodiment. FIG. 6 is a front view showing a menu screen of a remote monitoring device according to the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a front view showing a screen for displaying the operation status of the air conditioner in a graph by the remote monitoring device according to an embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a perspective view illustrating a user terminal device according to an embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a perspective view similarly illustrating a user terminal device.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes an air conditioner having an indoor unit, an outdoor unit and the like.
It is connected to the monitoring device 2 installed on itself. The monitoring device 2 collects and monitors information indicating the operation state (for example, the temperature and pressure of the main part in the refrigeration cycle) from the air conditioner 1 constantly or periodically. That is, the monitoring device 2 periodically transmits the operation information of the air conditioner (may include abnormality information and the like) or the abnormality occurrence information (including the abnormality content and the like) via the communication line 3 at irregular intervals. Send to 5. The transmitted information is formed into a database by the remote monitoring device 5, and is stored and accumulated as an operation information database 6a.

The remote monitoring device 5 is connected to the Internet 4 and has a communication protocol of Internet standard TCP / IP. For file transfer, an HTTP (Hyper) that handles multimedia information in which text data and graphic data are mixed. Text Transfer Protoco
l) or FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used, and information can be provided by creating a screen described in hypertext as a WWW server. Therefore, it is desirable to store the driving information database 6a in the HTML file format. HTML (Hyper Text
To store in a Markup Language (File) file format means to store information in a language (HTML) that handles multimedia information provided using the World Wide Web (WWW) on the Internet.

The user terminal device 7 and the monitoring base terminal device 8 are connected to the Internet 4 and the WWW of the remote monitoring device 5
The page can be viewed with viewing software. Therefore, the user terminal device 7 and the monitoring base terminal device 8 are connected to the Internet 4
Connected to the remote monitoring device 5 to monitor the operating state of the air conditioner 1.

The flow of signals when confirming driving information or abnormal information will be described with reference to FIGS. The user accesses the WWW page (homepage) of the remote monitoring device 5 using browsing software (software having a WWW browser function) from the monitoring base terminal device 8 and is authenticated. Specify and specify the operation information to be monitored. Upon receiving the instruction, the remote monitoring device 5 searches the air conditioner operation information database 6a and stores the target data in W
It is directly converted to HTML format data that can be viewed with a WW browser and displayed on a homepage. Therefore, the monitoring base terminal device 8 can determine the driving situation based on the displayed data.

If this data is in CVS format, it can be freely processed by using another spreadsheet software or database software by downloading it to the monitoring base terminal device 8 or the user terminal device 7. .

Furthermore, if commands for controlling the operation of the air conditioner are embedded in the screen of the WWW page described in the hypertext of the remote monitoring device 5, the air conditioner 1
When the operation mode is changed, when the user terminal device 7 designates the air conditioner 1 and instructs the screen to change to the WWW page, the change information is transmitted to the monitoring device 2,
The operation state of the air conditioner 1 can be changed.

As shown in FIG. 3, when an abnormality occurs in the operation state of the air conditioner 1, the abnormality contents including the abnormality occurrence information and the latest operation state information are transmitted from the monitoring device 2 to the remote monitoring device 5. The abnormality occurrence information and the contents of the abnormality are stored in the remote monitoring device 5
Is stored in the driving information database 6. The abnormality occurrence information is obtained by searching an ID on the Internet from the monitoring base information set file 6b in the remote monitoring device 5, and sending the monitoring information to the monitoring base terminal device 8 via the Internet. Is notified on a popup screen of the WWW page.

By registering related departments in the monitoring base information set file 6b, information can be simultaneously communicated to all registered departments via the Internet. Therefore, by confirming the air conditioner operation information database 6 in the remote monitoring device 5 by the above method from the user terminal device 7 that has been notified, the details of the abnormality can be confirmed, and the cause can be investigated and the response can be made at an early stage. Can be planned.

The menu screen of the WWW page is as shown in FIG. 5, and displays commands and the like for each function such as air conditioning management, operation control, and data download. The information indicating the driving state is displayed as a moving image as a trend graph of driving data, for example, as shown in FIG. The air-conditioning management menu is further tree-structured, and a WWW page is popped up and updated, and displayed, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, such as operating state setting, connection confirmation / group, and operating state / schedule.

The user terminal device 7 is preferably connected to a notebook personal computer as shown in FIG. 8 via a mobile phone or a PHS telephone for the local service person, and is connected to a special agent, a dealer, a building management company, or the like. 9 is desirable.

As described above, since the operation data, which is information indicating the operation state of the air conditioner, is displayed in a graph, it can be confirmed via the Internet 4 anytime and anywhere. The abnormality information such as the failure data and the abnormality occurrence information are instantaneously obtained from the information indicating the operating state in the database, for example, the data from 30 minutes ago to the current time are collected as a unit. Since the call is transmitted from the mobile terminal (user terminal device 7) of the local service person, the search can be performed using the Internet 4, and the latest driving status can be shared. Therefore, even if an instruction is given to a local service technician, quick and accurate response is possible.

Further, the information indicating the operation state of the air conditioner 1 collected by the remote monitoring device 5 can be shared from each terminal (user terminal device 7, monitoring base terminal device 8) via the Internet 4, and the information can be used effectively. Since the remote monitoring device 5 can be utilized, the remote monitoring device 5 can be centralized in one place as a remote monitoring center, and remote monitoring can be performed with simple equipment in the monitoring terminal base device 8 serving as a monitoring base.

Further, since the abnormality occurrence information and the details of the abnormality are instantaneously notified to the corresponding department via the Internet, the cause of the abnormality can be investigated before going to the site, so that the processing can be performed promptly and a flexible monitoring system can be constructed. .

Further, the present invention can be applied to building monitoring devices and equipment other than the air conditioner, and ON / OFF, temperature setting, air volume setting, and the like for air conditioning designated by each terminal device can be performed from a remote location. Operation control can be performed.

Since the information indicating the operating state is received from the monitoring device and stored in the HTML file format, the information indicating the operating state of the air conditioner can be provided on the Internet. Therefore, a failure diagnosis and a response at the time of occurrence of an abnormality can be performed at each sales base or the like near the place where the air conditioner is installed, so that it is possible to achieve quick and accurate operation.

In addition, since information indicating the operating state collected by the monitoring device is received and a screen described in hypertext is created and provided as a WWW server, not only characters but also still images, moving images, and voices are displayed. Is used to describe the operation information of the air conditioner, which makes it easy to diagnose a failure and can quickly respond to the occurrence of an abnormality.

Further, since the information indicating the operation state of the air conditioner is stored in a database and the information is stored in an HTML file, a user terminal device near the place where the air conditioner is installed is connected to the Internet via the Internet. By connecting, data can be easily downloaded, processed freely using other spreadsheet software or database software, and data analysis and analysis can be performed. It also facilitates data collection for trial operation and maintenance contract work.

Further, since the operation of the air conditioner is controlled by the user terminal device which is connected to the remote monitoring device via the Internet, the air conditioner is installed even if the remote monitoring device is provided in one place. The operation control can be performed while sharing the operation information of the air conditioner at each of the sales bases and the like near the place where the operation has been performed.

[0030]

According to the present invention, the operating information of the air conditioner is shared not only at the place where the remote monitoring device is installed, but also at each business base near the place where the air conditioner is installed. Failure diagnosis or operation control is performed with simple equipment, and the response to the occurrence of an abnormality can be made quick and accurate.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a monitoring system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a signal flow when confirming operation information or abnormality information of the monitoring system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the flow of signals when transmitting scheduled information or communicating abnormality occurrence information.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a signal flow when transmitting operation control information.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing a menu screen of the remote monitoring device.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a screen for displaying the operating status of the air conditioner in a graph by the remote monitoring device.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a screen for managing the air conditioner.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a user terminal device according to one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an exemplary perspective view showing a user terminal device according to an embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 air conditioner 2 monitoring device 3 communication line 4 internet 5 remote monitoring device 6a air conditioner operation information database 6b monitoring base information file 7
... user terminal device, 8 ... monitoring base terminal device.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G08B 25/04 G08B 25/04 A 25/08 25/08 E 25/10 25/10 D H04M 11/00 301 H04M 11 / 00 301 H04Q 9/00 301 H04Q 9/00 301B 311 311J 321 321E (72) Inventor Satoru Yoshida 390 Muramatsu, Shimizu-shi, Shizuoka Pref. Air Conditioning Systems Division, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Masami Ishida Chiyoda, Tokyo 4-6, Kanda Surugadai, Ward Air Conditioning Systems Division, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Masanori Takagi 1-23-2, Kandasuda-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Within Hitachi Refrigerant Co., Ltd. (72) Tomotsune Taira Chiyoda, Tokyo 1-23-2, Kandasuda-cho, Ward 2 Within Hitachi Refrigerant Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kenji Togusa 390 Muramatsu, Shimizu-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture Air Conditioning Systems Division, Hitachi, Ltd. F-term (reference) 3L060 AA02 AA04 CC19 DD08 EE01 3L061 BA03 BA05 5C087 AA02 AA03 AA04 AA09 AA10 AA24 AA25 BB12 BB20 BB74 BB76 DD08 DD23 DD38 EE06 EE16 FF01 FF02 FF04 FF16 FF19 FF23 GG59 5K048 AA08 BA08 DC07 EB08 EB12 FB05 GB08 HA01 HA02

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A monitoring system for monitoring an operating state of equipment using a refrigeration cycle, comprising: a remote monitoring device for receiving operating state information of the refrigeration cycle, wherein the remote monitoring device includes an operating state of the refrigeration cycle. A failure occurrence information including the content of the failure is received and transmitted to a registered user terminal device via the Internet. 2. A monitoring system for monitoring the operation state of equipment using a refrigeration cycle, comprising: a remote monitoring device that receives and stores the operation state information of the refrigeration cycle and provides the information as a WWW page on the Internet. A monitoring system, comprising: accessing the WWW page from a user terminal device; receiving authentication; specifying the equipment; and enabling on / off and temperature settings for the specified equipment. 3. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein said user terminal device is a mobile phone. 4. A monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the location, model, and reason of the abnormality can be browsed as a WWW page. 5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the WW
A monitoring system, wherein the W page has a menu screen on which commands for performing air conditioning management, operation control, and data download are displayed, and displays the operation state information as trend data as a moving image.