JP2512832B2 - Series controller - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a serial controller in which a main controller and a plurality of nodes are connected in series, and at least a plurality of actuators are connected to each node.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When centrally managing presses, machine tools, construction machines, ships, aircraft, unmanned transport devices, unmanned warehouses, etc.,
A large number of sensors for detecting the state of each part of the device and a large number of actuators for controlling the state of each part of the device are required.
The number of sensors and actuators is, for example, more than 3000 when considering a press, and may be even larger in other devices.

As a centralized control system for centrally controlling this type of device, a serial control device as shown in FIG. 4 has already been filed by the present applicant. The main feature of this serial control device is that the concept of assigning an address to each node is abandoned even though the configuration is such that nodes are connected in series, and each node is identified by the order of its connection. This is because it is not necessary, the time delay associated with address processing is eliminated, and the node configuration can be greatly simplified.

In the serial controller of FIG. 4, the sensor group 1
-1, 1-2, ... 1-N are arranged in each part of the machine and detect the state of each part of the machine. The actuator groups 2-1, 2-2, ... 2-N are arranged in each part of the machine and drive each part of the machine. These sensor groups 1-N
And the actuator group 2-N are the nodes 10-, respectively.
N (N = 1 to N) are connected to these nodes 10
-1 to 10-N are connected in series in a loop including the main controller 100. Main controller 10
0 mainly controls data exchange with a plurality of connected nodes 10-1 to 10-N. The host controller 200 centrally controls a machine (press or the like) on which this system is mounted, and is a host controller of the main controller 100.

FIG. 5 shows a frame structure of a data signal used in the system when the number N of nodes is 5, and this data frame signal is sent from the main controller 100 and the nodes 10-1 and 10 are connected. -2 ...
After passing through 10-N, it is returned to the main controller 100. Note that FIG. 5A shows the main controller 10
The data frame signal immediately after being output from 0 is shown in nodes (b), (c), (d) and (e) of FIG.
The data frame signals output from 0-2, 10-3, and 10-4 are input to the main controller 100 by feeding back the signals output from the node 10-5 in FIG. Signal) respectively. The contents of each signal in the frame structure of FIG. 5 are as follows.

STI: Input data (sensor data) DI
Start code DI 1 indicating the start position of the input data (sensor data) DIq; input data STO from the sensor connected to the q-th node; second position indicating the start position of the output data (actuator drive data) Start code DO; output data (actuator drive data) DOq; output data SP to the actuator connected to the q-th node; stop code DL indicating the end position of the data string; data indicating the length of the output data DO CRC; CRC code ER for CRC check
R; code indicating presence / absence of error, error content and error position, and in each node 10-1 to 10-N shown in FIG. 4, as shown in FIGS. 5B to 5F, start code STI and start The detection data DIq of the sensor 1 connected to the node is added during the code STO, and the output data DOq to the actuator 2 connected to the node is extracted after the start code STO. Therefore, in this system, from the main controller 100 to the node 10-1 shown in FIG.
If a data frame signal including the actuator control data DO as shown in (a) is transmitted, this data frame signal becomes node 10-1 → node 10-2 → node 10
-3 → node 10-4 → 10-5 is sequentially propagated to allocate the actuator control data DO in the data frame signal to the corresponding node, and the detection data of the sensor group obtained at each node. Are taken into the same data frame signal. As a result, when the data frame signal is fed back to the main controller 100, as shown in FIG. 5 (f), all the actuator control data DO disappears, and the detection data of the sensor group is included in the same frame signal. It will be.

Further, in this system, when a disconnection occurs in a signal line or a connection connector between the nodes, this disconnection is detected by the node immediately after the disconnection position. That is, the data frame signal is transmitted from the main controller at a predetermined sampling period Ts, and at each node, the data frame signal has a predetermined disconnection detection time Td (for example, Td = n × Ts,
When it is not received for n = 2 to 5) or more, this is detected as a disconnection. The node detecting the disconnection transmits a disconnection frame signal as shown in FIG.
This disconnection frame signal is a disconnection code B indicating the occurrence of disconnection.
RK and a disconnection number portion for identifying the disconnection occurrence position, and the node detecting the disconnection detects the disconnection number portion in the disconnection frame signal as, for example, number 1 (00000
(001, binary code) is initialized and transmitted. When each node receives this disconnection frame signal, the disconnection number part in the disconnection frame signal is incremented by 1 and sent to the next-stage node, and the main controller 100 disconnects the disconnection number part in the received disconnection frame signal. The position where the wire breakage occurs can be detected by determining. That is, since the disconnection number portion in the disconnection frame signal is sequentially incremented by 1 after the node that detected the disconnection, the disconnection occurrence position can be detected by back-calculating the disconnection number portion in the main controller.

In such a system, when the main controller 100 receives a disconnection frame signal from a certain node, it determines the disconnection number portion to confirm the disconnection position, and then repeatedly transmits the disconnection frame signal from the main controller 100 again. By doing so, it is possible to reconfirm the disconnection occurrence position and improve safety by forcibly turning off the actuators not only in the nodes after the disconnection was detected but also in the nodes in front of the node where the disconnection was detected. ing. In other words, each node has a function to forcibly turn off the actuator connected to the node when it receives a disconnection frame signal or detects the occurrence of disconnection at its own node. The actuator of the node subsequent to the node detecting the disconnection is forcibly turned off by the disconnected disconnection frame signal, but since the actuator of the node preceding the node detecting the disconnection is not turned off as it is, the main controller 100 disconnects again. By transmitting the frame signal, the actuator connected to the node preceding the node where the disconnection is detected is forcibly turned off and the position where the disconnection occurs is reconfirmed.

However, in such a system, when an incomplete disconnection occurs such as a signal line between nodes is about to break or a connector connecting the signal line and the node is about to come off, this incomplete disconnection is incomplete. The disconnection frame signal may be detected by the node immediately after the disconnection position and received by the main controller 100. However, the disconnection frame signal sent from the main controller 100 after this is not always interrupted at this incomplete disconnection occurrence position. Not limited to this, the disconnection frame signal may pass through the incomplete disconnection occurrence position. In such a case, since the disconnection number part in the disconnection frame signal sent from the main controller 100 is input to the main controller 100 after being incremented by 1 at all the nodes, the disconnection position determined by the disconnection number part at this time ( It is determined that the disconnection has not occurred) and the disconnection position determined by the disconnection number part of the disconnection frame signal input from the first node (the actual incomplete disconnection position is determined),
The position where the wire breakage occurs cannot be clearly specified in the main controller 100, and a great deal of labor and time are required to investigate the cause.

Further, in this system, the disconnection frame signal is sent from the main controller 100 to the node even when various other abnormalities different from the occurrence of the disconnection are detected in the main controller 100. Therefore, when an abnormality occurs in the main controller 100 or the host controller 200, all the actuators of the system are forcibly turned off to improve the safety of the system.

[0011]

As described above, according to this serial control device, the main controller 100 outputs the disconnection frame signal when the occurrence of disconnection is detected and when an abnormality relating to the main controller 100 or the host controller 200 occurs. It sends it to the node and forcibly turns off all the actuators of the system.

However, in such a system, the main controller 100 has not conventionally transmitted the disconnection frame signal by discriminating the error due to the disconnection from the error related to the main controller 100 and the host controller 200. The main controller sends a disconnection frame signal when a disconnection frame signal is input from the node, but this disconnection frame signal passes through the incomplete disconnection point and remains as it is (the disconnection number part is When a situation occurs in which the main controller receives (+1) and it is determined that the main controller is not broken, the main controller also has an abnormality related to the main controller 100 or the host controller 200. To KuKatsu disconnection is also not occur,
The operator judges as if the main controller is generating the disconnection frame signal, and it takes a lot of labor and time to find the cause.

Further, according to the system of FIG. 4, the node identification numbers are assigned to the respective nodes in the order in which the data frame signal is propagated from the main controller 100. Therefore, according to this system, when a node is newly added or deleted, the node number assigned to each node is changed from the number assigned first, so the main controller 100 and the host controller 100 The work of reallocating the above node numbers is performed by 200. If no measures are taken during this node number allocation work, a random data frame signal may be sent from the main controller 100 to each node, and the actuator of each node may perform a random operation. Conventionally, the troublesome work such as disconnecting the output signal line of the main controller 100 or turning off the power of each node has been performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a serial control device capable of clearly discriminating between an error due to disconnection between nodes and an error relating to a main controller.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a serial controller which can easily forcibly turn off the actuator when allocating a node number.

[0016]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, nodes connected with one to a plurality of actuators are connected in series, the plurality of nodes are connected in a closed loop including a main controller, and the main controller comprises: Data is given to the actuator of each of the nodes by transmitting a data frame signal including output data to the actuator at a predetermined transmission cycle, and each of the nodes receives the data frame signal at a predetermined disconnection set time. When the disconnection occurs, a disconnection is detected.When a disconnection is detected, a disconnection frame signal including a disconnection code indicating the occurrence of a disconnection and the initial setting of the disconnection occurrence position data is output, and the output data to the actuator of the node is forcibly output. Turn off and disconnect the node to which the disconnection frame signal is input. The generated position data is incremented by 1 and output, and the output data to the actuator of the node is forcibly turned off, and the main controller receives the disconnection frame signal and the disconnection position code in the disconnection frame signal. When the occurrence of wire breakage at a node is detected by, the serial control is designed to send out, in place of the data frame signal, the wire break frame signal or the data frame signal containing output data for turning off the actuators of all nodes. In the apparatus, the main controller is provided with a disconnection display means for holding and displaying the detection signal until a predetermined reset is applied when the occurrence of disconnection in the node is detected.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the nodes to which one to a plurality of actuators are connected are connected in series, the plurality of nodes are connected in a closed loop including the main controller, and output data from the main controller to the actuator is output. In a serial controller configured to add data to the actuators of each node by sending a data frame signal containing the data in a predetermined sending cycle, when changing the address assigned to the node by the main controller, A predetermined forced off frame signal for forcibly turning off the actuators of all the nodes is periodically transmitted.

[0018]

In the first aspect of the invention, when the disconnection frame signal is input and the occurrence of disconnection at the node is detected even once, the detection signal is held and displayed continuously until a predetermined reset is applied. . Therefore, by referring to this display, it becomes easy to confirm which of the disconnection and the incomplete disconnection at the node has forced the node off.

In the second aspect of the present invention, when the main controller is changing the assigned address of the node, the actuators of all the nodes are forcibly turned off by transmitting a predetermined forcible off-frame signal.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention, and schematically shows a main part configuration in the main controller 100.

The disconnection detection circuit 20 receives the disconnection frame signal shown in FIG. 6 to detect the disconnection code BRK, and by determining the disconnection number, the received disconnection frame signal is determined to be the disconnection frame signal transmitted from the node. When this happens, the disconnection detection signal BRK (see FIG. 2E) is output.

The error detection circuit 30 detects an error relating to the main controller 100, the host controller 200 and the like. In this case, the following two errors are detected.

(1) ER1; host controller 200
When a signal such as a clock signal that should be received by the main controller 100 from the host controller 200 if it is normal, such as a clock signal, is not received due to an abnormality in the host controller 200 and the signal line between the host controller 200 and the main controller 100, this is detected as an abnormality. To do.

(2) ER2: The watchdog is monitored to detect a runaway of the CPU in the main controller 100, and an abnormality occurs.

The node allocation mode switch 40 is turned on by an operator when the node number is re-allocated when the above-mentioned node is added or deleted, and a CGN signal is output when the switch is turned on. .

The OR gate 41 has a disconnection detection signal BRK,
The OR of the outputs ER1 and ER2 of the error detection circuit 30 and the output CGN of the node allocation mode switch 40 is taken, and the output is output to the OR gate 42. The OR gate 42 takes the OR of the output BSEND of the D-type flip-flop 43 and the output of the OR gate 41, and inputs this to the D terminal of the flip-flop 43. The clock terminal CK of the flip-flop 43 receives the SEND signal (see FIG. 2A) synchronized with the transmission cycle of the data frame signal shown in FIG. 5 and the disconnection frame signal shown in FIG. The BSEND signal indicating which of the data frame signal and the disconnection frame signal is to be transmitted (see FIG. 2).
(See (d)) is output to the selector circuit including the gates 44 to 46. The normal data frame sending circuit 50 is shown in FIG.
The normal data frame signal shown in (1) is formed and transmitted. The disconnection frame sending circuit 55 forms the disconnection frame signal shown in FIG. 6 and sends it out. Gates 44-46
When the output of the OR gate 41 becomes H, that is, when the disconnection detection circuit 20 detects a disconnection, the error detection circuit 30 detects an error, or the node allocation mode switch 40 is turned on, the selector circuit composed of The disconnection frame signal output from the frame sending circuit 55 is selected, and in other cases, the normal data frame signal output from the normal data frame sending circuit 50 is selected, and the selection output SD (FIG. 2 (g)).
Is transmitted to the node via the transmission circuit 60. When the disconnection frame signal is transmitted, the actuators of all nodes are forcibly turned off as described above.

On the other hand, the configuration including the gates 71 and 72 and the D-type flip-flop 73 detects when the disconnection detection signal BRK output from the disconnection detection circuit 20 is H and the BSEND signal is L, and stores the detected output. To hold. That is, when the disconnection detection signal BRK is input even though the main controller 100 does not send the disconnection frame signal, this is stored and held. That is, the output LBRK of the flip-flop 73 (see FIG.
When the disconnection detection signal BRK is H and the BSEND signal is L (see (f)), the system clock signal SCK rises to H, and the H state is maintained until the flip-flop 73 is reset thereafter. Therefore,
The output LBRK of the flip-flop 73 rises to H when the disconnection is detected by the node even once, and thereafter maintains this state.

Therefore, if the output of the flip-flop 73 is output to LBRK, for example, to an appropriate display device so as to display that the disconnection at the node is detected at least once, then the incomplete disconnection is the cause. Even if the disconnection detection signal BRK becomes L, the incomplete disconnection can be known based on this display. Also, the LBRK signal is displayed only when the wire is broken, including incomplete wire breaks.
By determining whether or not the LBRK signal is displayed, it is possible to know at a glance whether the cause of the disconnection frame being sent is disconnection (including incomplete disconnection) or abnormality detection in the main controller 100. it can.

In FIG. 2, the disconnection detection signal BRK rises at time t0 due to the incomplete disconnection described above, and the disconnection frame signal is sent from the main controller 100. However, this disconnection frame signal indicates the incomplete disconnection point. The signal is received as it is by the main controller 100 after passing (the disconnection number part is incremented by 1 in all nodes), and the disconnection detection circuit 20 determines that the disconnection has not occurred, so that the disconnection detection signal BRK rises at time t1. In this case, since the output LBRK of the flip-flop 73 rises at the disconnection detection time t0 and keeps this state thereafter, the operator causes an incomplete disconnection on the basis of this signal. You will be able to know that.

Further, in the configuration of FIG. 1, when the node allocation mode switch 40 is turned on, a disconnection frame signal is automatically sent and the actuators of all the nodes are automatically forcibly turned off. Eliminates the hassle of disconnecting cables and powering down nodes.

In the above embodiment, the disconnection frame signal is sent to forcibly turn off the actuators of all the nodes. However, instead of the disconnection frame signal, a compulsory off frame signal as shown in FIG. 3 is used. You may do it.

The forced off data frame signal shown in FIG. 3 is obtained by setting all the output data DO to the actuators 2-1 to 2-N in the normal data frame signal shown in FIG. 5 to "0". The length m of the output data DO in the forced off data frame signal is set to a value larger than the expected total number of actuators when the total number of actuators connected to all nodes is unknown.

Further, in the embodiment, the disconnection detection signal is held to distinguish between the disconnection error and other errors. However, in the case of incomplete disconnection, as described above, the disconnection frame sent from the node. Since the disconnection position determined by the signal and the disconnection position determined by the disconnection frame signal received after the main controller 100 sends the disconnection frame signal may be different, the disconnection number part in the disconnection frame signal received first is stored and retained. A separate register to be prepared is prepared, and the contents of this register are compared with the disconnection number portion in the disconnection frame signal received after the main controller 100 sends out the disconnection frame signal. The error due to the disconnection may be distinguished from other errors.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Disconnection Frame signal is input and disconnection occurrence at node is 1
If it is detected even once, this detection signal is held and displayed continuously until a predetermined reset is applied, so if you refer to this display, the signal line between nodes is about to break or the connector is about to come off. Even when the incomplete disconnection occurs, the main controller can easily recognize this incomplete disconnection from the normal disconnection. Further, according to the present invention, when the main controller is changing the assigned address of the node, the actuators of all the nodes are forcibly turned off by transmitting a predetermined forcible off-frame signal. When changing the node assigned address, the operator does not need to perform troublesome work such as disconnecting the cable or turning off the power of the node, and the work can be streamlined.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart illustrating the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a forced off-frame signal.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a serial control device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a manner of propagation of a data frame signal.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a disconnection frame signal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sensor group 2 ... Actuator group 10 ... Node 20 ... Disconnection detection circuit 30 ... Error detection circuit 50 ... Normal data frame transmission circuit 55 ... Disconnection frame transmission circuit 100 ... Main controller 200 ... Host controller

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A node including one or a plurality of actuators connected in series, the plurality of nodes including a main controller are connected in a closed loop, and the main controller includes data including output data to the actuator. Data is given to the actuator of each of the nodes by transmitting a frame signal at a predetermined transmission cycle, and each of the nodes detects disconnection occurrence when the reception interval of the data frame signal exceeds a predetermined disconnection set time, When the occurrence of wire breakage is detected, a wire break frame signal including a wire break code indicating the occurrence of wire breakage and the initially set wire break occurrence position data is output, and output data to the actuator of the node is forcibly turned off, and the wire break frame signal is input. The selected node adds 1 to the disconnection occurrence position data in the disconnection frame signal. Outputting and forcibly turning off the output data to the actuator of the node, the main controller receives the disconnection frame signal and detects the occurrence of disconnection at the node based on the disconnection position code in the disconnection frame signal. In the serial controller configured to send the data frame signal including the disconnection frame signal or output data for turning off the actuators of all the nodes instead of the data frame signal, to the main controller, When the occurrence of disconnection at the node is detected, the serial control device is provided with a disconnection display means for holding and displaying the detection signal until a predetermined reset is applied. 2. A data frame signal including output data from the main controller to the actuator, wherein nodes connecting one to a plurality of actuators are connected in series, the plurality of nodes are connected in a closed loop including a main controller. In a serial control device in which data is given to the actuators of each node by transmitting at a predetermined transmission cycle, when changing the allocation address of the node by the main controller, the actuators of all the nodes are A serial control device characterized in that a predetermined forced off-frame signal for forcibly turning off is periodically transmitted.