JP2010173609A - On-vehicle apparatus control system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an on-vehicle control system for reducing cost, and easy in the setting, by making common use of a master device. <P>SOLUTION: Control data used for controlling an apparatus connected to a first slave device 200 by the master device 100, is stored in a second slave device 300. The master device 100 acquires the control data from the second slave device 300 when starting a system, and controls the apparatus connected to the first slave device 200 by using the control data. Preliminary control data is stored in the master device 100, and when failing in acquiring the control data from the second slave device 300, control is performed by using the preliminary control data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle device control system in which a master device and a slave device are connected by a bus.

  In an in-vehicle device control system, an in-vehicle LAN is installed in a vehicle, and a large number of electronic control units (ECUs) are connected to the in-vehicle LAN. Here, the ECU corresponds to a node connected to the in-vehicle LAN, and includes a node to which an in-vehicle device to be controlled is connected. For example, in-vehicle LAN standards include CAN (Controller Area Network) and LIN (Local Interconnect Network). In the LIN standard, a single master system is adopted, and one ECU operates as a master device, and the other ECU operates as a slave device. Usually, an ECU that operates as a master device (hereinafter simply referred to as “master device”) includes a communication interface circuit with a bus and a control circuit including a microcomputer, a memory, and the like. An ECU that operates as a slave device (hereinafter simply referred to as a “slave device”) includes a communication interface circuit with a bus, a control circuit for an in-vehicle device, and an interface circuit for the in-vehicle device or sensor. .

  The memory of the master device stores parameters necessary for controlling the in-vehicle device connected to the slave device. The control circuit of the master device controls the in-vehicle device based on the parameters (see Patent Document 1). For example, the case of controlling an actuator that opens and closes a damper of an air conditioner will be described. A potentiometer is attached to the actuator as a sensor for detecting a rotation angle. The potentiometer value when the damper is opened and closed is stored in the memory of the master device. The master device instructs the operation of the actuator by transmitting the potentiometer value to the slave device. The slave device feedback-controls the actuator so that the detected value of the potentiometer becomes the value received from the master device.

JP 2005-335607 A

  By the way, some control parameters stored in the master device have different values depending on the specification and type of the slave device and the shipping destination. Therefore, a method has been proposed in which a setting changeover switch is provided in the master device, a plurality of parameters are stored in a memory, and the slave device is controlled based on parameters corresponding to the setting changeover switch. By adopting such a method, the master device can be shared, so that the cost can be reduced. However, there is a problem that a parameter that is not appropriate for the slave device that is actually connected is used due to an operation mistake of the setting changeover switch, which may cause malfunction.

  In addition, a method has been proposed in which, instead of the setting changeover switch, the specification of the slave device, the type, the shipping destination, and the like are implemented as hardware. For example, a voltage dividing circuit using resistors and a voltage value divided by the voltage dividing circuit are read by an A / D converter. In this method, the slave device is controlled based on a parameter corresponding to the detected voltage value. Further, for example, high and low of the input port of the microcomputer are fixedly formed as a circuit, and the slave device is controlled based on the parameter corresponding to the input value of the input port. In such a method, by changing the parts to be mounted and the jumper wires, different operations can be realized depending on the specifications, types, shipping destinations, etc. of the slave device, and it is built in advance by hardware. Can be prevented. However, in this case, there is a problem that the cost is high because the number of parts increases.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an in-vehicle device control system that is easy to set up while reducing costs by sharing a master device.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an in-vehicle device including a master device installed in a vehicle and a first slave device connected to the master device by a bus, and connected to the first slave device. An in-vehicle device control system for controlling includes a second slave device connected by bus to the master device, and the second slave device is control data used for controlling the in-vehicle device connected to the first slave device. The master device acquires control data from the second slave device, and controls the in-vehicle device connected to the first slave device based on the control data. .

  According to the present invention, the control data of the in-vehicle device is stored in the second slave device different from the first slave device to which the in-vehicle device is connected, and the master device stores the control data in the second Therefore, the master device can be shared. Further, when it is desired to change the control data or to use different control data for each country, the second slave device may be replaced, so that the setting operation is easy and the maintainability is excellent.

  As an example of a specific aspect of the present invention, in the in-vehicle device control system, the master device includes first storage means for storing control data acquired from a second slave device, and the first storage The present invention proposes an apparatus for controlling an in-vehicle device based on control data stored in the means.

  According to the present invention, the acquisition of control data from the second slave device may be performed only at the time of system startup (power-on), reset operation, etc., and it is necessary to perform the acquisition process during system operation. Absent. This improves system stability.

  Further, as an example of a specific aspect of the present invention, in the in-vehicle device control system, the master device includes a second storage unit that stores spare control data, and the control data is transmitted from the second slave device. In the case where the acquisition of the vehicle fails, the vehicle-mounted device is controlled based on the control data stored in the second storage means.

  According to the present invention, even when acquisition of control data from the second slave device fails, the in-vehicle device can be controlled by the spare control data. This improves system stability.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the control data for the in-vehicle device is stored in the second slave device different from the first slave device to which the in-vehicle device is connected. Since the master data is acquired from the second slave device and used in the control process, the master device can be shared. Further, when it is desired to change the control data or to use different control data for each country, the second slave device may be replaced, so that the setting operation is easy and the maintainability is excellent.

Configuration diagram of in-vehicle device control system Flow chart explaining initial operation of in-vehicle device control system

  An in-vehicle device control system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an in-vehicle device control system. In the present embodiment, a control system for an in-vehicle air conditioning system will be described as an example.

  In this in-vehicle device control system, a plurality of ECUs are bus-connected to the in-vehicle LAN 10 as shown in FIG. In this embodiment, LIN is adopted as a standard for the in-vehicle LAN. Therefore, only one ECU operates as a master, and the other ECUs operate as slaves. In the present embodiment, the master device 100, a plurality of first slave devices 200, and one second slave device 300 are connected to the in-vehicle LAN 10. In FIG. 1, only one first slave device 200 is shown for simplicity of explanation. An actuator 205 for opening and closing the damper is connected to the first slave device 200. The master device 100 controls the operation of the actuator 205 connected to each first slave device 200. On the other hand, the second slave device is a device for storing control data used in the master device 100, as will be described later.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the master device 100 includes a transceiver 101 for connection to the in-vehicle LAN 10 and a control circuit 110 for controlling the actuator 205 connected to each slave device 200. The control circuit 110 includes a main arithmetic unit 111, a ROM 112 that is a nonvolatile storage unit, and a RAM 115 that is a volatile storage unit. The ROM 112 stores a control program 113 and spare control data 114. Here, the spare control data 114 has the same structure (items, format, etc.) as the control data stored / held in the second slave device 300 described later. The control circuit 110 operates by executing a control program 113 stored in the ROM 112.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the first slave device 200 includes a transceiver 201 for connection to the in-vehicle LAN 10, an actuator control circuit 202, a potentiometer 203 for detecting the rotation angle of the actuator 205, and the actuator 205 described above. And.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the second slave device 300 includes a transceiver 301 for connection to the in-vehicle LAN 10, a communication control circuit 302, and a ROM 303 that is a nonvolatile storage unit. The ROM 303 stores control data 304 used by the control circuit 110 of the master device 100 to control the first slave devices 200. As described above, the control data 304 has the same structure (items and formats) as the spare control data 114 stored and held in the master device 100. The difference between the control data 304 and the spare control data 114 is that the control data 304 is data specialized for each first slave device 200 connected together with the second slave device 300, while the spare control data 114. The data 114 is general-purpose data that can be used by various first slave devices 100. When receiving a request from the control circuit 110 of the master device 100, the communication control circuit 302 returns the control data 304 stored in the ROM 303.

  Next, the operation of the in-vehicle device control system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an initial operation of the in-vehicle device control system.

  This initial operation is executed when the on-vehicle device control system is started (when power is turned on) or during a reset operation. The control circuit 110 of the master device 100 sends a control data transmission request to the second slave device 300 (step S1). In sending the transmission request, a dedicated command is sent periodically for a predetermined time (for example, 10 s). The communication control circuit 302 of the second slave device 300 returns the control data 304 stored in the ROM 303 in response to the transmission request. When the control circuit 110 of the master device 100 has successfully received the control data (step S2), the control data is stored in the RAM 115 (step S3). On the other hand, if the control circuit 110 of the master device 100 fails to receive the control data (step S2), the control data 110 stored in the ROM 303 is stored in the RAM 115 (step S4). If there is no reply for a predetermined time in the transmission of the transmission request in step S1, it is determined that reception has failed.

  Since the control data is stored in the RAM 115 by the above processing, the control circuit 110 of the master device 100 starts initial setting and control processing of the first slave device 200 using the control data. (Step S5). Specific processing will be described below.

  When the control circuit 110 of the master device 100 controls the actuator 205 of the first slave device 200, the detection value of the potentiometer 203 is used as control data. Specifically, the control circuit 110 of the master device 100 transmits the detected value of the potentiometer 203 when the damper is opened or closed to the first slave device 200 as a target value. The actuator control circuit 202 of the first slave device 200 performs feedback control of the actuator 205 so that the detection value of the potentiometer 203 becomes the target value received from the master device 100. When the detection value of the potentiometer 203 reaches the target value, the actuator control circuit 202 transmits a notification of control completion to the control circuit 110 of the master device 100. On the other hand, when the actuator control circuit 202 drives and controls the actuator 205 but the detection value of the potentiometer 203 does not reach the target value even after a predetermined time has elapsed, Send a timeout message.

  According to the in-vehicle device control system according to the present embodiment, since the control data necessary for the control of the first slave device 200 is stored in the second slave device 300, the master device 100 can be shared. It can be easily achieved. In addition, when the control data is changed or when it is desired to use different control data for each country, the second slave device 300 may be replaced, so that the setting work is easy and the maintainability is excellent. It becomes.

  Further, in the in-vehicle device control system according to the present embodiment, since the spare control data is stored in the master device 100, even if the acquisition of control data from the second slave device 300 fails. Thus, it is possible to perform control using spare control data. This improves system stability.

  Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the data used in the control itself is illustrated as the control data, such as the target value when the damper is opened and closed. However, prior to the data used in the control of other devices and the device control. Data used in the initial setting to be performed is also included in the control data of the present invention. For example, there are data necessary for controlling air conditioner on / off and temperature, data used for initial setting such as actuator configuration information, and the like. Moreover, although the application example in the vehicle interior air conditioning system has been described in the above embodiment, the present invention can be applied to other systems such as a power window and a mirror control system.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... In-vehicle LAN, 100 ... Master device, 110 ... Control circuit, 112 ... ROM, 114 ... Preliminary control data, 200 ... First slave device, 203 ... Potentiometer, 205 ... Actuator, 300 ... Second Slave device, 303... ROM, 304... Control data.

Claims (3)

In an in-vehicle device control system that includes a master device installed in a vehicle and a first slave device connected to the master device by a bus, and controls the in-vehicle device connected to the first slave device.
A second slave device connected by bus to the master device;
The second slave device comprises storage means for storing control data used for controlling the in-vehicle device connected to the first slave device,
The master device acquires control data from a second slave device, and controls the in-vehicle device connected to the first slave device based on the control data. The master device includes first storage means for storing control data acquired from a second slave device, and controls the in-vehicle device based on the control data stored in the first storage means. The in-vehicle device control system according to claim 1. The master device includes second storage means for storing spare control data, and if the acquisition of control data from the second slave device fails, the master device is stored in the second storage means. The in-vehicle device control system according to claim 1, wherein the in-vehicle device is controlled based on the data.

Images