JP4721716B2 - Home appliance adapter and home appliance adapter software - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a home appliance adapter that operates by downloading software suitable for home appliances from the outside.

  In recent years, a method has been proposed in which a home appliance is connected to a network such as the Internet or a home network via a home appliance adapter, and software required for each connected device is later downloaded to the home appliance adapter ( For example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2004-229266 A

  Usually, the downloaded software includes a data setting processing part for setting various setting data corresponding to each home appliance, and an adapter control processing part for performing control processing during normal operation of the home appliance adapter. Yes. Among them, the data setting processing portion is a data portion such as home appliance object data or command conversion table data, and is data that is no longer necessary after object registration and command conversion table setting. However, conventional software to be downloaded is not divided into a data setting processing portion and an adapter control processing portion, and the data setting processing portion and the adapter control processing portion are downloaded at a time. Therefore, it is necessary to secure ROM (for example, flash ROM) that can be written and erased for the download software for the software capacity.

  It is an object of the present invention to reduce the amount of memory used for downloading software.

The home appliance adapter according to the present invention is a home appliance adapter that operates by downloading software suitable for home appliances from outside, a memory that can be written and erased to store the downloaded software, and a process based on the downloaded software An adapter control unit that performs the above, and a download control unit that sequentially overwrites the divided software in the memory, and controls so that a part necessary for the final operation of the software is stored in the memory , The software includes a data setting processing part for setting various setting data and an adapter control processing part for performing control processing during normal operation of the adapter, and the download control unit includes the data setting process for the software. Download the part and store it in the memory When the adapter control unit finishes the process based on the data setting process part, it downloads the adapter control process part of the software and overwrites the area where the data setting process part of the memory is stored. It is configured to be stored .

Software for home appliance adapter according to the present invention is software downloaded to the home appliance adapter according to the home appliance from the outside, and a data setting processing part for setting various setting data according to each home appliance, The home appliance adapter is divided into an adapter control processing portion for performing control processing during normal operation.

According to the home appliance adapter of the present invention, the data setting processing portion for setting various setting data and the adapter control processing portion for performing the control processing during normal operation of the adapter are downloaded. When the adapter control unit finishes the process based on the data setting process part, the adapter control process part of the software is downloaded and the area where the data setting process part of the memory is stored is overwritten Since it is configured so that it is processed and stored so that the final portion of the software necessary for operation is stored in the memory, the amount of memory used to download the software can be reduced. It is possible to use a one-chip microcomputer with low memory capacity and low cost.

  According to the home appliance adapter software of the present invention, the data downloaded from the outside to the home appliance adapter according to the home appliance, a data setting processing part for setting various setting data according to each home appliance, Since the device adapter is divided into an adapter control processing part for performing control processing during normal operation, the size of software per download can be reduced, and the burden of the other device to be downloaded can be reduced. It can be reduced.

The present invention will be described below with reference to illustrated embodiments.
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a home network using a home appliance adapter according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing hardware of the home appliance adapter of this embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the downloaded home appliance adapter software, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the divided and downloaded software, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the download operation process. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the memory map, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing of the adapter including the download operation processing flow.

  The home appliance adapter 1 according to the present embodiment connects a home appliance 2 such as an air conditioner 2a or a microwave oven 2b to a network 3 as shown in FIG. 1, and monitors operations and operation states from the controller 4 connected to the network 3. Used to enable For this reason, the home appliance adapter 1 operates by downloading software corresponding to the home appliance 2 to be connected from the outside. The network communication medium may be wired such as ethernet or wireless such as wireless LAN.

  Communication is performed between the home appliance 2 and the home appliance adapter 1 via serial communication I / Fs 5 and 6 as shown in FIG. The network is connected via a network communication I / F 7 such as a wireless LAN. The microcomputer 8 of the home appliance adapter 1 includes a CPU 9 and a built-in memory, that is, a ROM (ROM or Flash ROM) 11 and a RAM 12.

  Next, the logical configuration of the home appliance adapter 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. The device interface unit 21 performs communication processing via the serial communication I / F 6, and the network interface unit 22 performs communication processing via the network communication I / F 7. The basic control software 23 creates and interprets a message for communicating with the network 3 via the network communication I / F 7, converts a device interface command and a network interface command using the command conversion table 24, and downloads software Reference numeral 25 denotes download-related software, which creates and interprets a message for communicating with the home appliance 2 via the serial communication I / F 6, and delivers home appliance object data 26 to the basic control software 23. Do. The download control unit 27 stores the home appliance adapter software stored in the home appliance 2 via the serial communication I / F 6 or the controller 4 (FIG. 1) connected to the network 3 via the network communication I / F 7. ) And the home appliance adapter software stored in the server.

  More specifically, the home appliance object data 26 includes home appliance information managed by the home appliance adapter 1, for example, in the case of an air conditioner, attributes such as operating state and set temperature, and attribute values such as ON / OFF and 20 ° C. It is information that has.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the downloaded software for the home appliance adapter corresponds to each home appliance, that is, the code of the data setting processing part for setting various setting data for starting the home appliance adapter 1 (data setting processing code) 25a and a code (adapter control processing code) 25b of an adapter control processing part for the home appliance adapter 1 to perform control processing during normal operation. Data identifiers 25c and 25d are assigned to these as shown in FIG. Thus, the data setting processing code 25a and the adapter control processing code 25b can be easily separated and downloaded. Needless to say, if the download procedure is properly determined on the transmission side and the reception side, the data setting processing code 25a and the adapter control processing code 25b can be separated and downloaded without the data identifiers 25c and 25d. Yes.

  The data setting processing code 25a is a code that performs setting processing for operating the home appliance adapter, in other words, for realizing the function as the home appliance adapter, and is referred to only once. Specifically, a code for executing processing related to registration of home appliance object data held in the home appliance adapter, setting of a command conversion table, or communication setting is included. If the setting data is referred to once using the basic control software at the time of registration setting and stored in a data storage unit such as a RAM in a data format held in the home appliance adapter, this divided download software It is no longer necessary.

  The adapter control processing code 25b is a code that is referred to many times after the home appliance adapter starts this operation and is always executed during the program operation. Specifically, a mutual data conversion process between the network interface unit and the device interface unit is included.

  Therefore, the home appliance adapter software is divided into the data setting processing code 25a and the adapter control processing code 25b as described above, and the download control unit 27 downloads the data setting processing code 25a and stores it in the ROM 11. When the adapter control unit 30 that has obtained the download software (data setting process code 25a) finishes the process based on the data setting process code 25a, the adapter control process code 25b of the home appliance adapter software is downloaded and the data setting process of the ROM 11 is performed. By overwriting in the area where the code 25a is stored (matching the start address) and storing it, it is possible to reduce the amount of ROM used to download the home appliance adapter software, low ROM capacity, Low cost It is possible to use a-chip microcomputer.

  In addition, in this way, the home appliance adapter software has a data setting process code 25a for setting various setting data corresponding to each home appliance 2 and an adapter control process for the home appliance adapter to perform control processing during normal operation. By dividing the code into 25b, the size of software per download can be reduced, and the burden on the partner device (home appliance adapter) to be downloaded can be reduced.

  Next, the download operation processing of the home appliance adapter according to the present embodiment and the subsequent operation will be described based on FIGS. 6 to 8 with reference to FIGS. Here, a case where the home appliance adapter software is acquired from the home appliance side will be described as an example. First, when power is turned on, the home appliance adapter 1 has information on what kind of home appliance is the home appliance 2 to be managed by the adapter (for example, whether it is an air conditioner or a microwave oven). Information) is requested (step S11), and when there is input of information on the household electrical appliance by a response from the household electrical appliance 2 (step S12), download for setting various setting data for starting the household electrical appliance adapter 1 next time The software (data setting processing code 25a) is requested from the home appliance 2 (step S13).

  When there is an input of download software in response to the request from the home appliance adapter 1 (step S14), the home appliance adapter 1 checks whether or not the input download software is the data setting processing code 25a (step S14). S15) If the data setting processing code 25a, the data setting processing code 25a is stored in a ROM (Flash ROM) (step S16), and the home appliance object and property registration, device using the data setting processing code 25a A command conversion table between the interface command and the network interface command is created and mapping data (FIG. 7) is created (step S17), and these data are stored in the data storage unit (RAM) area.

  When the storage of the data registered and created in step S17 is completed in the RAM area, the home appliance adapter 1 then downloads software (adapter control processing code 25b) for performing control processing when the home appliance adapter 1 is in normal operation. ) Is requested to the home appliance 2 (step S18).

  When there is an input of download software in response to the request from the home appliance adapter 1 (step S19), the home appliance adapter 1 checks whether or not the input download software is the adapter control processing code 25b (step S19). S20) If it is the adapter control processing code 25b, the adapter control processing code 25b is overwritten in the area where the data setting processing code 25a in the ROM (FlashROM) is stored (matching the start address) and stored. (Step S21), the process proceeds to this operation (Step S22).

  If it is determined that the downloaded software input in step S15 is not the data setting processing code 25a, or if it is determined that the downloaded software input in step S20 is not the adapter control processing code 25b, an alarm is output. (Step S23), the process ends. The above is the download operation processing of the home appliance adapter. This download operation process is repeated every time the power is turned on.

  When the download operation process shown above the broken line in FIG. 6 and FIG. 8 is completed, this operation based on the adapter control process code 25b (shown below the broken line in FIG. 8) starts. Then, a data acquisition request is issued from the home appliance adapter 1 to the home appliance 2 at regular intervals, for example, and data informing the current state from the home appliance 2 is input to the home appliance adapter 1 in response thereto. If there is no state change on the home appliance 2 side, only the data acquisition request and data acquisition response between the home appliance adapter 1 and the home appliance 2 are repeated. However, if there is a state change on the home appliance 2 side, it can be seen from the acquired data that there has been a state change, so the controller 4 is notified via the network 3 that there has been a state change. Further, when a setting request is transmitted from the controller 4 to the home appliance 2, it is sent to the home appliance 2 via the home appliance adapter 1 and the data of the home appliance 2 is updated.

  In the above-described embodiment, the downloaded software includes a data setting processing part for setting various setting data corresponding to each home appliance, and an adapter control processing part for performing control processing during normal operation of the home appliance adapter. However, what is important here is that the part necessary for the final operation of the software is stored in the ROM, and the downloaded software Needless to say, the number of divisions may be two or more.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which software is downloaded from the home appliance 2 has been described as an example. However, after the home appliance information is acquired from the home appliance 2 that the home appliance adapter 1 should manage, Software suitable for home appliances can also be acquired from the outside via a network. The download operation process in this case is basically the same as the download operation process for acquiring software from the above-described home appliance 2.

It is the whole home network lineblock diagram using the household appliances adapter concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware of the household appliance adapter which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a logic block diagram showing the function which each part of the household appliance adapter concerning one Embodiment of this invention has. It is a block diagram of the software for household appliance adapters concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a division | segmentation block diagram of the software for household appliance adapters concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the download operation process of the household appliance adapter which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the memory map of the household appliance adapter which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the adapter containing the download operation | movement process flow of the household appliance adapter which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Home appliance adapter, 2, 2a, 2b Home appliance, 11 ROM, 25a Data setting process part (data setting process code), 25b Adapter control process part (adapter control process code), 27 Download control part, 30 Adapter control part.

Claims (2)

A home appliance adapter that operates by downloading software suitable for home appliances from the outside,
A erasable memory for storing the downloaded software;
An adapter controller that performs processing based on the downloaded software;
A download control unit for sequentially overwriting the divided software in the memory and controlling so that a part necessary for the final operation of the software is stored in the memory;
The software is composed of a data setting processing part for setting various setting data and an adapter control processing part for performing control processing during normal operation of the adapter,
The download control unit downloads the data setting processing part of the software and stores it in the memory. When the adapter control unit finishes the processing based on the data setting processing part, the adapter control processing part of the software is A home appliance adapter configured to be downloaded and overwritten in an area where the data setting processing portion of the memory is stored. Software downloaded to the home appliance adapter according to claim 1 ,
The data setting processing part and, software appliances adapter and the adapter control processing portion, characterized in that it is divided configuration.

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