JP3233111U - Remote maintenance device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote maintenance device capable of remotely performing maintenance of a control program simply by connecting to a control panel. A remote maintenance device 80 can remotely maintain a control program from a remote location using a mobile phone line. As a result, the maintenance worker does not have to go to the site, and the time can be shortened, the burden on the worker can be reduced, and the labor cost can be reduced. Further, the remote maintenance device 80 performs data communication using the mobile phone line contracted by the maintenance worker side to perform maintenance of the control program. Therefore, the owner of the control panel 10 can receive the remote maintenance work only by making a contract with the maintenance company without performing any special procedure or work. [Selection diagram] Fig. 2

Description

The present invention relates to a remote maintenance device installed on a control panel of a machine or the like and capable of remotely maintaining a control program for a sequencer.

Water treatment plants, incinerator equipment, and many other plants, mechanical equipment, industrial facilities, etc. often use control panels to control the operation of various mechanical equipment. A general control panel is equipped with a control mechanism called a sequencer, and by executing an appropriate control program on this sequencer, various machines based on the control program for information input from various sensors and the like. Control the operation of equipment. However, this control program requires maintenance such as modification each time due to replacement of machinery or equipment or change of settings.

Conventionally, maintenance of such a control program has been performed by a maintenance worker such as a program development company who goes to the site and connects a personal computer to a control panel. However, in recent years, it has become possible to perform these maintenances remotely via a communication line such as a telephone line or the Internet, such as the remote monitoring unit of an elevator described in the following [Patent Document 1]. ..

JP-A-2018-167933

However, when the maintenance of the control program is performed remotely using a communication line, the communication line is generally prepared by the owner of the control panel. In addition, for security reasons, the communication line is not simply connected to an existing communication line, and it is not easy to contract a dedicated communication line separately or use the port howing function of the router.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a remote maintenance device capable of remotely maintaining a control program simply by connecting to a control panel.

The present invention
(1) It has a gateway unit 50 that can communicate via a mobile phone line and is connected to the sequencer 12 of the control panel 10, and a power supply unit 30 that supplies electric power to the gateway unit 50.
The gateway unit 50 provides the remote maintenance device 80 characterized by receiving a control program created by the external device 22 via the mobile phone line and writing it as a control program of the sequencer 12. Solve the problem.
(2) The above-mentioned problem by providing the remote maintenance device 80 according to the above (1), which can be installed in the housing of the control panel 10 and in which the power supply unit 30 receives power from the control panel 10. To solve.
(3) The above problem is solved by providing the remote maintenance device 80 according to the above (1) or (2), which further has an external antenna 20 for transmitting and receiving data via a mobile phone line. solve.
(4) The remote maintenance device 80 according to any one of (1) to (3) above, further comprising a switch member 53 that disables communication operation via a mobile phone line by the gateway unit 50. By doing so, the above problem is solved.

The remote maintenance device according to the present invention performs remote maintenance of a control program from a remote location using a mobile phone line contracted by a maintenance worker. Therefore, the owner of the control panel can receive the remote maintenance work only by making a contract with the maintenance company without performing any special procedure or work.

It is a schematic block diagram of the remote maintenance apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the example which installed the remote maintenance apparatus which concerns on this invention on the control panel.

An embodiment of the remote maintenance device 80 according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the remote maintenance device 80 according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which the remote maintenance device 80 according to the present invention is installed on the control panel 10.

First, the remote maintenance device 80 according to the present invention includes a gateway unit 50 capable of communicating via a mobile phone line and connected to the sequencer 12 of the control panel 10, and a power supply unit 30 that supplies electric power to the gateway unit 50. ,have. When the radio wave of the mobile phone line is weak due to the remote maintenance device 80 being installed in the housing of the control panel 10, the external antenna 20 connected to the gateway unit 50 is used in the housing as shown in FIG. It may be installed outside. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the gateway unit 50 is a data writing unit that outputs and rewrites a communication unit 52 that performs data communication with the outside and a control program received by the communication unit 52 to the sequencer 12 of the control panel 10. It has 54 and.

Further, the communication unit 52 is a communication device capable of transmitting and receiving data using existing 3G, 4G (LTE), 5G, and other well-known standard mobile phone lines, and is used by making a usage contract with a mobile phone company. It has a SIM card 52a that has become possible. The SIM card 52a usage contract is basically made not by the owner of the control panel 10 but by the maintenance side (program development company, etc.). When the remote maintenance device 80 includes the external antenna 20, the external antenna 20 is connected to the communication unit 52.

Further, the remote maintenance device 80 may be provided with a switch member 53 that disables the communication operation by the communication unit 52. In this configuration, the switch member 53 is turned on only when the owner or the like of the control panel 10 needs maintenance of the control program, and communication by the communication unit 52 is permitted. Thereby, the security of the remote maintenance device 80 can be further improved. When the remote maintenance device 80 includes the switch member 53, it is preferable to provide a display means such as a lamp indicating the connection state with the mobile phone line by the communication unit 52.

Further, the data writing unit 54 can write and acquire the control program of the sequencer 12, output the control program received by the communication unit 52 to the sequencer 12 and rewrite it, or acquire the control program of the sequencer 12 and communicate. It can be sent to a specific external device 22 via the unit 52. It is preferable to use a highly secure VPN connection for communication between the communication unit 52 and the external device 22. Further, the data writing unit 54 (gateway unit 50) and the sequencer 12 can usually be connected by a USB cable or a LAN cable.

Further, the power supply unit 30 converts the electric power from the external power source into a voltage corresponding to the gateway unit 50 and supplies it, and a well-known DC-DC converter, AC-DC converter, or the like can be used. The power supply unit 30 is basically designed according to the external power supply of the installation destination, and particularly when the remote maintenance device 80 is installed in the housing of the control panel 10, it corresponds to the power supply unit 14 of the control panel 10. It is particularly preferred to design and receive power from the control panel 10.

Next, the usage method and operation of the remote maintenance device 80 according to the present invention will be described. Here, an example will be described in which the switch member 53 of the remote maintenance device 80 is on and the communication unit 52 is in a communicable state. Further, the description here that the mobile phone line is used means that the communication unit 52 of the remote maintenance device 80 communicates using the mobile phone line, and the external device 22 side may be wired or wireless. , A well-known communication means capable of communicating with the remote maintenance device 80 can be used.

First, the remote maintenance device 80 is installed on the control panel 10. For this, the control panel 10 in which the remote maintenance device 80 is installed in advance may be sold as a product, or the remote maintenance device 80 may be retrofitted to the existing control panel 10. At this time, a usable SIM card 52a is installed in the communication unit 52 of the gateway unit 50, and communication via a mobile phone line is possible. Further, the power supply unit 30 of the remote maintenance device 80 is connected to the power supply unit 14 of the control panel 10, and the data writing unit 54 and the sequencer 12 of the control panel 10 are connected by a USB cable or a LAN cable. When connecting the external antenna 20 to the communication unit 52, for example, a hole is made in the housing of the control panel 10 and the external antenna 20 is installed outside the housing in a place having a good communication state.

Then, when various mechanical devices are connected to the control panel 10 and the control panel 10 and the remote maintenance device 80 are started, the control panel 10 operates and the power supply unit 30 of the remote maintenance device 80 determines the power from the control panel 10. It is converted into the voltage of the above and supplied to the gateway unit 50. As a result, the communication unit 52 and the data writing unit 54 of the gateway unit 50 operate.

Next, a control program maintenance worker or the like creates a control program for the sequencer 12 using a specific external device 22. The specific external device 22 here is a personal computer capable of data communication with the communication unit 52, and has software capable of creating a control program for the sequencer 12. A smartphone, tablet terminal, or the like may be used as the external device 22 as long as this condition is satisfied. Next, the maintenance worker operates the external device 22 to instruct the sequencer 12 to write the created control program. As a result, the control program created by the communication unit of the external device 22 is transmitted to the communication unit 52 of the remote maintenance device 80 using the mobile phone line. As a result, the communication unit 52 of the remote maintenance device 80 receives the control program transmitted by the external device 22 and outputs it to the data writing unit 54. Next, the data writing unit 54 outputs the received control program to the sequencer 12 of the control panel 10, writes it, and executes it. As a result, the sequencer 12 controls the operation of various mechanical devices connected to the control panel 10 based on the written control program.

Next, when the control program needs to be modified due to changes or improvements in the mechanical equipment connected to the control panel 10, the maintenance worker of the control program uses the external device 22. Then, for example, an acquisition instruction of the control program currently being executed by the sequencer 12 is transmitted. This acquisition instruction is received by the communication unit 52 of the remote maintenance device 80 via the mobile phone line and output to the data writing unit 54. As a result, the data writing unit 54 acquires the control program of the sequencer 12 currently being written and outputs it to the communication unit 52. Next, the communication unit 52 transmits this control program to the external device 22 via the mobile phone line. Next, the maintenance worker makes necessary modifications to the control program received by the external device 22. Then, the rewriting of the control program is instructed. As a result, the communication unit of the external device 22 transmits the modified control program to the communication unit 52 via the mobile phone line. The communication unit 52 receives the control program transmitted by the external device 22 and outputs it to the data writing unit 54. Then, the data writing unit 54 writes the modified control program to the sequencer 12 of the control panel 10 and executes the modified control program. Since the communication between the external device 22 and the remote maintenance device 80 is performed via the mobile phone line as described above, the maintenance worker does not need to go to the site, thereby maintaining the control program remotely. Is completed.

As described above, the remote maintenance device 80 according to the present invention can perform maintenance of the control program remotely from a remote location using a mobile phone line. As a result, the maintenance worker does not have to go to the site, and the time can be shortened, the burden on the worker can be reduced, and the labor cost can be reduced. Further, the remote maintenance device 80 according to the present invention performs data communication using the mobile phone line contracted by the maintenance worker side to perform maintenance of the control program. Therefore, the owner of the control panel 10 can receive the remote maintenance work only by making a contract with the maintenance company without performing any special procedure or work. Then, the maintenance company can remotely monitor and modify the control program without dispatching a worker to the site, and the owner of the control panel 10 can obtain a monthly management fee. can.

Since the configuration, operation, arrangement, etc. of each part of the remote maintenance device 80 shown above are examples, the present invention is not limited to the above example, and the present invention is modified without departing from the gist of the present invention. It is possible to carry out.

10 Control panel
12 sequencer
20 External antenna
22 External device
30 Power supply
50 Gateway section
53 Switch member
80 Remote maintenance device

Claims (4)

A gateway unit that enables communication via a mobile phone line and is connected to a sequencer on the control panel,
It has a power supply unit that supplies power to the gateway unit, and has
The gateway unit is a remote maintenance device characterized in that a control program created by an external device is received via the mobile phone line and written as a control program of the sequencer. The remote maintenance device according to claim 1, wherein the remote maintenance device can be installed in a housing of a control panel, and the power supply unit receives power from the control panel. The remote maintenance device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising an external antenna for transmitting and receiving data via a mobile phone line. The remote maintenance device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a switch member that disables communication operation via a mobile phone line by the gateway unit.

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