JP2002106931A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an air conditioner that can reduce the essential capacity of a memory. SOLUTION: This air conditioner has an automatic restarting operation mode in which the air conditioner stores the operating condition of the air conditioner before the air conditioner is stopped and is operated by setting an operating condition in accordance with the stored operating condition when the air conditioner is restarted and another operation mode in which the air conditioner is operated following an operation command inputted from outside. At least part of a first storing area in which the automatic restarting operation mode is stored and part of a second storing area in which the other operation mode is stored are shared in common in the same storing area of the same nonvolatile memory.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner which can be operated or stopped by a telecontrol (remote operation stop control through a communication line, for example, a telephone line; hereinafter, referred to as a teleconverter).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A home air conditioner is generally controlled by a signal from a remote controller including a stop of operation. However, without using a remote controller, it is part of so-called home automation (hereinafter, referred to as HA). Control is performed, and the operation is stopped by a teleconverter from a place far away from home. By using a telecon, for example, in the case of unexpectedly hot weather contrary to the weather forecast, drive the air conditioner before returning home, and make sure the room is properly cooled when returning home It is possible to Under such a trend, the control mode of the air conditioner itself is becoming more and more diversified. There are many things that are possible. Such control or operation is executed by a CPU or an MPU (these are collectively referred to as a CPU). This kind of CPU is RAM or R
A memory such as OM is attached. The required capacity of the memory also tends to increase with the diversification of control modes.

[0003]

In recent air conditioners, how to reduce the required memory capacity without sacrificing various functions is a key design point. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner that can reduce the required capacity of a memory.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 stores at least the operating conditions before the operation is stopped, and at the time of re-operation, the operating conditions are stored in accordance with the stored operating conditions. A first storage area for storing an auto-restart operation mode and an operation in accordance with an external operation command in an air conditioner having an auto-restart operation mode for setting and operating and an operation mode for operating in accordance with an external operation command To determine the operation mode to be performed
At least a part of the storage area is shared by the same storage area of the same nonvolatile memory.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the air conditioner of the first aspect, the shared area of the nonvolatile memory is operated in accordance with an operation command for storing an auto restart operation mode or an external operation command. Switching means for switching the operation mode for storage.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the air conditioner according to the first or second aspect, the non-volatile memory includes a tele-con operation mode storage area for stopping operation through a communication line from outside, and another external operation mode. It is characterized in that at least a part of the operation mode storage area in which the operation is stopped via the control means is shared.

[0007]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an indoor unit of an air conditioner to which the present invention is applied. The indoor unit 10 mainly includes a CPU 11 having a memory 12, and includes a temperature control unit 13, a humidity control unit 14, an air volume control unit 15, and an air purification control unit 16 controlled by the CPU 11. An optical signal from the remote controller 20 is received by the light receiving unit 17, converted into an electric signal, and input to the CPU 11. The indoor unit 10 also includes an external signal terminal 18 for receiving a signal from a device other than the remote controller 20, for example, a wired or wireless telecon signal from a telephone line or the like. The memory 12 is an EEPROM (rewritable PROM) as a nonvolatile memory in addition to the RAM and the ROM.
Contains.

The temperature control section 13 controls the indoor temperature in cooperation with the outdoor unit 30 and includes an indoor heat exchanger. The humidity control unit 14 is configured to include the above-described indoor heat exchanger, and performs dehumidification (dry) or humidification to control the indoor humidity to be within a predetermined range. The air volume control unit 15 controls the volume of air blown by an indoor blower disposed in proximity to the indoor heat exchanger. The air purification control unit 16 controls the cleanliness of the indoor air, and removes dust contained in the indoor air or adds negative ions to the indoor air to make the indoor air clean and healthy. Control part for

Basically, the air conditioner is operated or stopped by a signal from the remote controller 20. Remote control 2
“0” can transmit various settings, for example, a room temperature set value to the CPU 11 via the light receiving unit 17. However, the operation stop can be controlled by a teleconverter signal input through the external signal terminal 18 or a control signal from the HA system.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, when an operation signal is received from the remote controller 20 when the air conditioner is stopped (step 101), the operation of the air conditioner is started according to the setting of the remote controller 20 (step 102). . Next, it is checked whether or not the automatic restart control is set (step 103), and if it is set, the operation state of the air conditioner according to the set contents is stored in the EEPROM as auto restart data (step 104). . Thereafter, the data necessary for the HA operation is stored in the EEPROM, including the case where it has not been set in step 103 (step 105). After the operation is started in step 101 and the storage process is completed, no power outage occurs and the remote control 20
If the operation stop signal is not received from the CPU and there is no change in the setting of the operation condition, for example, the change of the set temperature, the operation is continued under the same condition (steps 106, 107 and 108).
If the setting is changed in step 108, the changed operating condition is stored in the EEPROM of the memory 12 (10
9) Thereafter, the operation is performed under the changed operation conditions (step 110). Here, an "abnormal stop preparation flag" is set (step 111) in preparation for restarting after a power failure, and steps 106 and subsequent steps are repeated. If "Yes" (power failure has occurred) in step 106, the operation is forcibly interrupted (step 1).
12) Wait for power recovery (step 113). When the power is restored, it is confirmed that the auto-restart control is set (step 114), the operating condition of the auto-restart stored in the memory 12 is read out, and set as the operating condition (step 115). The conditioner is operated (step 116). Step 114
If the information indicating that the automatic restart control is set is not obtained, the conditions are set according to the command from the remote controller 20 (step 117), and the operation of step 116 is started. After step 116, the operation returns to step 106 to continue the operation. If there is an operation stop signal in step 107, a normal stop flag is set in the memory 12 (step 118).
Then, the operation is stopped (step 119).

Next, the case of the non-normal operation will be described.
In FIG. 5, when the operation is stopped, the forced operation button provided on the remote controller 20 is turned on (step 12).
At 1), according to the continuation time Ton (second) of the ON state (step 122), if Ton <3, "forced automatic operation" shown in FIG. 6 is directly entered (step 131). However, if the forced operation button is kept depressed and 3 ≦ Ton <10, the operation is the same as in “forced automatic operation”, but the automatic restart control setting is automatically switched (step 123). In other words, the setting is switched to "with setting" when "not set" and to "not set" when "set". After this switching, the operation enters the "forced automatic operation" of step 131. If Ton ≧ 10 in step 122,
The auto restart control is switched to "no setting" (step 124). That is, when the setting is "no setting", the setting is switched to "no setting", and when the setting is "setting", the setting is switched to "no setting". After this switching, the operation enters the "forced cooling operation" (step 125).

The forced automatic operation shown in FIG.
1) After entering, the operating conditions at that time
And set an "abnormal stop preparation flag" (step 132). The presence or absence of a power failure is checked (step 133), the presence or absence of an operation stop signal is checked (step 134), and the presence or absence of a change in the setting of the operation condition is checked (step 135). If the setting of the condition is not changed, the operation is continued under the same operation condition. If there is no power failure, no operation stop signal, and there is a change in the operation condition setting, the operation is performed under the changed operation condition (step 136), and step 13 is executed.
Return to 2. If there is an operation stop signal in step 134, a normal stop flag is set in the memory (step 13).
7) Stop the operation (step 138). Step 13
If a power failure occurs in step 3, the operation is interrupted (step 139), and as shown in FIG. 7, the process waits for the recovery from the power failure (step 140), and confirms the presence of the abnormal stop preparation flag by the recovery from the power failure (step 141). Then, the operating conditions of the forced automatic operation stored in the EEPROM are read out, set as the operating conditions (step 142), and the forced automatic operation is performed according to the set operating conditions (step 143).
Thereafter, the flow returns to step 132 to continue the forced automatic operation. If the presence of the abnormal stop preparation flag cannot be confirmed in step 141, remote control operation is performed (step 1).
44).

Referring to FIG. 8, the operation during HA (home automation) operation will be described. The operation procedure in this case is basically the same as the remote control operation already described (FIG. 3,
This is similar to the case of 4). EEPR for operating conditions during operation
The data is stored in the OM (step 151). When a power failure occurs during the HA operation (step 152), the operation is forcibly interrupted (step 153) and the power recovery is waited (step 1).
54). When the power failure is restored, the operating conditions stored in the EEPROM before the power failure occurs are read out, set as operating conditions (step 155), and the operation of the air conditioner is restarted accordingly (step 156).

Next, transmission data from the remote controller 20 will be described. From the remote control 20, as shown in FIG.
The light receiving unit 17 is a unit of 80 bits of 8 bits × 10.
And is decoded by the CPU 11. For the operation data, 8 × 3 bits are used, and 8 bits each are assigned as the operation A code data, the operation B code data, and the operation C code data. The operation A code data is bit numbers 7 to 4 and has 24 ° C as a standard, and 7 points up to 17 ° C in steps of 1 ° C and 30
It is used for temperature setting of 6 points up to ° C. and 14 points for convenience (possible up to 16 points), and bit numbers 3, 2, 1, and 0 are omitted here.

The operation B code data has bit numbers 7 to 5
Then, the air volume data is automatically, L- (Shizuka), L (low),
Up to eight types of settings, such as M (medium) and H (high), are possible, and the operation mode is set using the other three bits (bit numbers 2, 1, 0). This operation mode may include automatic, cooling, drying, heating, air blowing, stopping, and the like.

8 bits of the operation C code data are a function setting data area relating to power switching and the like, and 8 × 6 bits below the timer A are data areas for various timers and time data. In the data area referred to as the last advantage, eight kinds of humidity setting values for dehumidification or humidification using bit numbers 2 to 0 and various humidity ranges including no humidity setting can be set. Using the bit numbers 7 to 4, data relating to various “favorite” operations and the like can be set for a total of 16 types.

FIG. 1 shows a memory map of a non-volatile memory area (EEPROM) of the memory 12 relating to the present invention. The addresses 1A and 1B are each composed of 16 bits in the areas F to 0, and are commonly used for storing code data for the auto restart operation and the HA operation according to the present invention. Area F of address 1A ~
8, operation B code (air volume, operation mode, etc.) data of the transmission code data from the remote controller 20 shown in FIG. 9 is stored. A code data (set temperature data and the like) is stored. Further, an area 3 at the address 1A stores a running / stop determination flag, and an area 0 stores an auto-restart setting flag, which is switched by an operation switch. This soft setting is effective only when the hardware jumper is turned off. The merit code (see the lowermost row in FIG. 9) data from the remote controller 20 is stored in the areas F to 8 of the address 1B, and the operation C from the remote controller 20 is stored in the areas 7 to 0.
Code data is stored.

According to the present invention, the data required for the automatic restart operation and the HA operation are commonly stored in the same area of the EEPROM, so that the required memory capacity can be reduced.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the required memory capacity can be reduced by sharing the memory area as much as possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a nonvolatile memory area (EEPR) according to the present invention.
OM) memory map.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control system of the air conditioner to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a partial flowchart showing an operation procedure of the air conditioner operated according to a command from a remote controller.

FIG. 4 is another partial flowchart showing an operation procedure of the air conditioner operated according to a command from a remote controller.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation mode selection portion according to a pressing mode of a forced operation switch.

FIG. 6 is a partial flowchart showing an operation procedure in the case of forced automatic operation.

FIG. 7 is another partial flowchart showing an operation procedure in the case of forced automatic operation.

FIG. 8 is a partial flowchart showing an operation procedure of a main part in the case of home automation operation.

FIG. 9 is a table showing a data configuration example of a transmission signal from a remote controller.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 indoor unit 11 CPU 12 memory 13 temperature control unit 14 humidity control unit 15 air volume control unit 16 air purification control unit 17 light receiving unit 18 external signal terminal 20 remote control 30 outdoor unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An auto-restart operation mode in which at least operation conditions before operation stop are stored, operation conditions are set according to the stored operation conditions at the time of restart, and operation is performed according to an external operation command. In the air conditioner having a mode, at least a part of a first storage area for storing the auto-restart operation mode and a second storage area for determining an operation mode to be operated according to the external operation command. An air conditioner characterized by being shared by the same storage area of the same nonvolatile memory. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the shared area of the nonvolatile memory is operated for storing the auto restart operation mode or in accordance with the external operation command. An air conditioner comprising switching means for switching between modes for storage. 3. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory includes a telecon operation mode storage area for stopping operation through a communication line from outside, and another external control means. An air conditioner characterized by sharing at least a part of an operation mode storage area for stopping operation.