JP5978879B2 - Reporting device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a reporting device that reliably reports an abnormality occurring in a boiler.

Boilers that generate steam and hot water by heating a liquid pipe are widely known and are used in various facilities such as hospitals, schools, factories, and public baths. Maintenance management such as inspection and maintenance for such boilers requires high levels of expertise, and maintenance services that perform maintenance management on behalf of boiler users have attracted attention in recent years.
For example, the applicant has been working on ZMP (Z boiler maintenance management program (registered trademark)) for maintenance management such as periodic inspections and repairs for many years. Has gained the peace of mind and trust.

In such a maintenance service, when an abnormality occurs in the boiler of the user, the abnormality of the boiler is notified to a nearby service base, and inspection and repair are performed by the worker at the base. Here, the report to the service base is generally performed using a communication line such as a telephone line. However, depending on the communication status of the service base, there is a case where the communication cannot be made and an abnormality report cannot be made.
Therefore, when the alarm generated as in Patent Document 1 cannot be connected to the telephone number of the regional management office in charge, it can be automatically switched to the telephone number of another regional management office registered in advance. An alarm monitoring system that reliably reports an alarm is known.

JP 2007-122582 A (paragraph number [0010])

  However, in the alarm monitoring system disclosed in Patent Document 1, the telephone numbers of both the regional management office in charge and the other regional management office must be registered in advance in one apparatus. In this regard, some currently used boilers store only one telephone number in the boiler control device, and the boiler control device must be improved to add another telephone number. Therefore, the apparatus becomes complicated and the cost increases, and the use during the improvement period must be restricted.

  This invention is made | formed in view of such a problem, and it aims at providing the alerting | reporting apparatus which reports reliably the abnormality which arose in the boiler, without improving a boiler control apparatus.

  (1) A notification device that is communicably connected to a boiler control device provided in a boiler, and when receiving a designation of a first notification destination from the boiler control device, attempts to connect to the first notification destination A first notification means, a connection success / failure determination means for determining whether or not the connection by the first notification means has succeeded, and a second notification destination different from the first notification destination designated by the boiler control device are stored. And a second notification unit that attempts to connect to the second notification destination stored in the storage unit on the condition that the connection is determined to be unsuccessful by the connection success / failure determination unit, A reporting device comprising:

  According to the notification device of (1), when the connection to the first notification destination designated by the boiler control device fails, the connection to the second notification destination is attempted, so the first notification destination is disconnected. Even in this case, it is possible to reliably report an abnormality to the second report destination. At this time, the boiler control device only specifies the connection to the first notification destination, and does not specify the second notification destination to be connected in the case of a disconnection. That is, the second report destination only needs to be stored in the storage unit of the notification apparatus of the present invention, and does not need to be stored in the boiler control apparatus. Therefore, for example, an abnormality occurring in the boiler can be reliably notified to the report destination without improving the boiler control device.

  (2) It further comprises a non-connection number counting means for counting the number of times that the connection success / failure determination means has determined that the connection is not successful, and the second notification means has a predetermined number of times determined by the non-connection number counting means. The notification device according to (1), wherein connection is attempted to the second notification destination on condition that the number is counted.

  According to the reporting device of (2), since the connection to the second reporting destination is made only when the first reporting destination cannot be connected a predetermined number of times, it is possible to frequently connect to the second reporting destination as a backup destination. Absent.

  (3) The storage unit stores a plurality of report destinations as the second report destination, and the second report unit stores the plurality of report destinations when connection to any of the plurality of report destinations is not successful. The reporting device according to (1) or (2), which attempts to connect to another reporting destination.

  According to the reporting device of (3), an abnormality or the like occurring in the boiler can be reliably reported by the reporting destination.

  (4) The notification device is a wireless notification device connected to a notification destination via a base station, and the connection success / failure determination means determines the success or failure of the connection between the base station and the first notification destination. The reporting device according to any one of (1) to (3).

  According to the reporting device of (4), in order to determine the success or failure of the connection between the base station and the first reporting destination, if the cause of the disconnection is in the own device, for example, the radio wave condition is bad, It is possible to connect to the second report destination only when the cause of the disconnection is in the first report destination without connecting to the second report destination.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the abnormality which arose in the boiler can be reported reliably, without improving a boiler control apparatus.

It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the notification apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows operation | movement of the notification apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the success or failure of the connection between a report apparatus and a report destination. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the notification apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows operation | movement of the notification apparatus of another embodiment.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
Referring to FIG. 1, a notification device 1 according to the present invention is connected to a boiler control device 21 provided in a boiler 2, and transmits a content (for example, an alarm of abnormality occurrence) instructed from the boiler control device 21 to a telephone line (mobile phone). A notification is made to the notification destination 3 that performs maintenance management of the boiler 2 via a communication line such as a telephone line, a PHS telephone line, or a fixed telephone line.

  Here, the boiler 2 is a water tube boiler that generates steam or hot water by heating a liquid tube, for example, and is operated under the control of the boiler control device 21. The boiler control device 21 is a control device that controls and monitors the operation status of the boiler 2, for example, monitors the state of pressure, temperature, water level, etc., and detects an abnormality. The boiler control device 21 stores in advance one or more contacts (telephone numbers, etc.) of the notification destination 3 having jurisdiction over the maintenance and management of the corresponding boiler 2. If an abnormality is detected, a notification to the notification destination 3 is made. A request is made to the reporting device 1. In the present embodiment, the contact information of the notification destination A31 is stored in the boiler control device 21, and the boiler control device 21 designates the contact destination of the notification destination A31 to the notification device 1 when detecting an abnormality, A report to the report destination A31 is requested.

In addition, the report destination 3 is a management base that performs maintenance management of the boiler 2 (specifically, a terminal device of the management base), and in the present embodiment, includes at least a report destination A31 and a report destination B32. The notification destination A31 is an individual base installed in the vicinity of each of the boilers 2 arranged in various places. In the case of the applicant, for example, 150 places are provided in various places in Japan. The report destination B32 is a headquarters base that supervises maintenance management of the boiler 2, and corresponds to the head office of a service provider, for example. Note that the report destination B32 is operated on a 24-hour basis, and is basically always connected when a report is received.
The reporting destination 3 is configured to be able to communicate with the reporting device 1 via a communication line, and receives information related to the operation status of the boiler 2 from the reporting device 1. In addition, as information regarding the operation status of the boiler 2, in addition to information such as pressure, temperature, and water level during normal operation, in the present embodiment, alarm information that indicates that the boiler 2 is particularly abnormal and the content of the abnormality that has occurred. Shall be included.

  The reporting device 1 includes a reporting unit 11, a connection success / failure determination unit 12, a non-connection count counting unit 13, and a storage unit 14.

The reporting unit 11 functions as the first reporting unit 111 and the second reporting unit 112 of the present invention, and tries to connect to the reporting destination 3 in response to a reporting request from the boiler control device 21. That is, when the notification unit 11 receives a notification request specifying a contact from the boiler control device 21, the notification unit 11 functions as a first notification unit 111 that attempts to connect to the notification destination A31 via a communication line according to the specified contact. At the same time, it functions as the second reporting unit 112 that attempts to connect to the reporting destination B32 different from the reporting destination A31 via the communication line according to the contact information read from the storage unit 14. More specifically, the reporting unit 11 functions as the second reporting unit 112 only when connection to the reporting destination A31 is not possible, and attempts to connect to the reporting destination B32 different from the designated reporting destination A31. In the present embodiment, the reporting unit 11 tries to connect to the reporting destination B32 when it cannot connect to the reporting destination A31 twice in succession.
Further, the reporting unit 11 notifies the reporting destination 3 of the alarm information when the connection to the reporting destination A31 or the reporting destination B32 is successful.

The connection success / failure determination unit 12 determines whether or not the connection to the report destination 3 by the report unit 11 is successful, and notifies the boiler control device 21 of the determination result. In addition, the boiler control apparatus 21 which received the determination result repeats the notification request | requirement to report destination A31 until a connection is successful, when a connection is unsuccessful.
Further, the connection success / failure determination means 12 notifies the non-connection count counting means 13 of the determination result of the connection success / failure to the report destination 3.

The non-connection count counting means 13 is based on the determination result received from the connection success / failure determination means 12, and the number of times connection to the report destination A31 has failed, more preferably the number of times connection to the report destination A31 has failed continuously. Count (number of times disconnected). The number of non-connections counted by the non-connection number counting means 13 is used to determine the reporting destination 3 to which the reporting means 11 tries to connect. That is, when the number of times of non-connection is 0 or 1, the reporting means 11 tries to connect to the notification destination A31 designated by the boiler control device 21, and when the number of times of non-connection is two The reporting unit 11 tries to connect to the reporting destination B32 different from the designated reporting destination A31.
When the connection to the report destination A31 is successful or when the connection to the report destination B32 is attempted, the non-connection count counting means 13 clears the count of non-connections (0 times).

  The storage unit 14 stores a contact address (telephone number or the like) of a report destination B32 different from the report destination A31 stored in the boiler control device 21. The contact address of the report destination B32 stored in the storage unit 14 is appropriately read according to the number of times of disconnection and used for connection by the second report unit 112.

  The hardware of the reporting device 1 described above can be configured by an information processing terminal (for example, a mobile phone) that can be connected to a communication line. Such an information processing terminal includes, for example, a central processing unit (CPU) as a control unit, a memory (RAM, ROM), a flash memory, and a memory card as a storage unit, and an antenna as a network communication device. Depending on the situation, a display device such as a liquid crystal display and an input device such as a touch panel are provided. In such an information processing terminal, the CPU reads and executes various programs as appropriate, thereby realizing various functions according to the present invention in cooperation with the hardware described above.

The configuration of the notification device 1 according to the present invention has been described above. Next, the operation of the reporting device 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
With reference to FIG. 2 (1), when abnormality arises in the boiler 2, the notification request | requirement with respect to notification destination A31 is performed with respect to the notification apparatus 1 from the boiler control apparatus 21 of the boiler 2. FIG. Then, the reporting device 1 tries to connect to the reporting destination A31 via the communication line according to the reporting request. At this time, when the connection fails, the reporting device 1 notifies the boiler control device 21 of the boiler 2 that the connection has failed.
Referring to FIG. 2 (2), when connection failure is accepted, boiler control device 21 of boiler 2 makes a report request to report device A31 again to report device 1 because the report of abnormality has not ended. Here, since the connection to the report destination A31 in which the connection has failed may fail again, the report apparatus 1 reports the report destination 3 requested from the boiler control apparatus 21 to report the abnormality. Change from A31 to report destination B32 and try to connect to report destination B32. Since the report destination B32 is provided for backup and is basically a report destination that is always connected, the connection by the report device 1 succeeds and the report destination B32 is notified of an abnormality that has occurred in the boiler 2. Thereafter, the reporting device 1 notifies the boiler control device 21 of the boiler 2 that the connection has been successful, that is, that the reporting of the abnormality has been completed. Thereby, since the report of abnormality is complete | finished, the report request | requirement from the boiler control apparatus 21 of the boiler 2 is complete | finished.

As described above, according to the notification device 1 of the present invention, when the connection to the notification destination A31 designated from the boiler control device 21 fails (more specifically, when it fails twice consecutively), the notification destination Since connection to B32 is attempted, even if the report destination A31 is disconnected, it is possible to reliably report an abnormality to the report destination B32. At this time, the boiler control device 21 only requests notification to the notification destination A31, and does not specify the notification destination B32 to be notified in the case of a disconnection. That is, the contact address of the report destination B32 only needs to be stored in the storage unit 14 of the report apparatus 1 of the present invention, and does not need to be stored in the boiler control apparatus 21, so it is necessary to improve the boiler control apparatus 21. Absent.
Thereby, even if it is a case where it is a case where it is a case where it wishes to add newly notification destination B32 other than the notification destination A31 memorize | stored in the boiler control apparatus 21, the improvement period of the boiler control apparatus 21 does not generate | occur | produce, but it restricts utilization of the boiler 2. There is no need to do. That is, maintenance management can be enhanced without impairing user convenience while using the existing boiler 2.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, a non-connection count counting method by the non-connection count counting means 13 will be described.
When the reporting device 1 is realized by a wireless reporting device that is connected to the reporting destination 3 via the base station 4 such as a mobile phone, the connection failure between the reporting device 1 and the reporting destination A31 is shown in FIG. May occur between the reporting device 1 and the base station 4 shown in FIG. 3 and between the base station 4 and the reporting destination A31 shown in FIG. Here, the connection failure between the notification device 1 and the base station 4 shown in FIG. 3 (1) occurs when the radio wave condition of the notification device 1 is bad, and the cause of the connection failure is in the notification device 1. Is normal. In such a case, since the situation does not change at all between the report destination A31 and the report destination B32 as the connection destination, the non-connection count counting means 13 does not count the non-connection count. On the other hand, the connection failure between the base station 4 and the notification destination A31 shown in FIG. 3 (2) occurs when the line condition of the notification destination A31 is bad, and the cause of the connection failure is the notification destination A31. It is normal. When such a situation continues, since it cannot be expected that the connection will succeed even if the connection to the report destination A31 is attempted, the non-connection count counting means 13 counts the number of non-connections.
As a result, only when the cause of the connection failure is the report destination A31, the report destination is switched from the report destination A31 to the report destination B32. Therefore, connection to the report destination B32 provided as a backup is made unnecessarily. There is no.

  In FIG. 3, it has been described that the non-connection count counting unit 13 does not count the non-connection count for the connection failure between the reporting device 1 and the base station 4. This is synonymous with determining failure. That is, the connection success / failure determination means 12 does not determine the connection success / failure regarding the connection success / failure between the reporting device 1 and the base station 4, but only determines the connection success / failure regarding the connection success / failure between the base station 4 and the report destination A31. It is good.

  The overview of the reporting device 1 has been described above. Then, the process of the notification apparatus 1 according to the notification request | requirement by the boiler 2 is demonstrated with reference to FIG.

  When the boiler control device 21 of the boiler 2 detects an abnormality that has occurred in the boiler 2 (ST1), it reads out the contact address of the report destination A31 stored in the boiler control device 21, and sends the report device 1 to the report destination A31. Is requested (ST2).

When receiving a notification request from the boiler control device 21 to the notification destination A31, the non-connection count counting means 13 of the notification device 1 determines whether or not the number of non-connections counted is two (ST11). At this time, when the number of times of non-connection is not two times, that is, when the number of times of disconnection is zero or one time, the first reporting means 111 connects to report the abnormality to the reporting destination A31 requested from the boiler control device 21. (ST12). Subsequently, the connection success / failure determination means 12 determines whether or not the connection to the report destination A31 is successful (ST13). At this time, if the connection has failed, the non-connection count counting means 13 adds 1 to the non-connection count (ST14). When the connection is successful in ST13 or subsequent to ST14, the connection success / failure determination means 12 transmits a connection success / failure determination result to the boiler control device 21 of the boiler 2 (ST17).
Upon receiving this determination result, the boiler control device 21 of the boiler 2 determines whether or not the notification has been completed based on the determination result (ST3), and if not completed, performs the process of ST2 again and completes. If so, the process ends.

In ST11, when the number of times of non-connection is two, the second notification means 112 reads out the contact address of the report destination B32 from the storage means 14, and establishes a connection to report the abnormality to the report destination B32. Try (ST15). Subsequently, the non-connection count counting means 13 clears the non-connection count (ST16), and then transmits a report result to the boiler control device 21 (ST17).
In addition, since the connection to the report destination B32 is basically successful, the determination of ST3 is YES by the boiler control device 21, and then the process ends.

  The embodiment of the notification device 1 of the present invention has been described above. According to such a notification device 1, when the notification destination A31 designated from the boiler control device 21 is disconnected, the connection to the backup notification destination B32 is attempted. Since the contact address of the report destination B32 is stored in the storage unit 14 of the report device 1, the report destination B32 can be reported without any improvement of the boiler control device 21. Of course, even if it is necessary to change the contact information of the backup notification destination B32, if the notification device 1 is improved, the sufficient boiler control device 21 need not be improved. Therefore, it is possible to reliably report the abnormality occurring in the boiler 2 to the report destination 3 while using the existing boiler 2 without improving the boiler control device 21.

  As mentioned above, although one preferable embodiment of the notification apparatus 1 of this invention was described, this invention is not restrict | limited to embodiment mentioned above, It can change suitably.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the report destination B32 is basically always connected when there is a report, and it is not assumed that the report destination B32 is disconnected. In this regard, a further backup function may be provided when the report destination B32 is disconnected.

  As an example, as shown in FIG. 5 (1), when the report destination B32 is disconnected, the report device 1 may make a report by alternately switching between the report destination A31 and the report destination B32. At this time, alternately switching may be performed after attempting to connect to both the report destination A31 and the report destination B32 the same number of times, and also trying to connect to the report destination A31 a predetermined number of times. Thus, the reporting destination B32 may be switched by trying a specific number of connections different from the predetermined number. In other words, after trying to connect twice to the report destination A31, it is possible to try to connect to the report destination B32 twice, and then try to connect to the report destination A31. It is also possible to attempt to connect once to the report destination B32 after attempting to connect twice and then try to connect to the report destination A31.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5 (2), a backup notification destination C33 may be further provided in case the notification destination B32 is disconnected. Specifically, the contact destination of the report destination C33 may be stored in the storage unit 14 of the report device 1, and the report destinations A31, B32, and C33 may be switched according to the number of times of disconnection. In FIG. 5 (2), if the number of times of non-connection is 0, it is attempted to connect to the report destination A31, and if the number of times of non-connection is 2, it is attempted to connect to the report destination B32 and disconnect When the number of times is 3, the connection to the report destination C33 is attempted. Of course, when the report destination C33 is disconnected, a further backup function may be provided. At this time, when the backup function is realized by switching alternately, it may be switched alternately between the report destinations A31, B32, and C33, and alternately between any two of the report destinations A31, B32, and C33. It is good also as switching to.

  In the above-described embodiment, the connection success / failure determination unit 12 notifies the boiler control device 21 of the determination result regardless of the connection success / failure. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The determination result (notification completion) is notified to the boiler control device 21 only when the notification is made, and the notification destination A31 or the notification destination is notified without notifying the boiler control device 21 of the determination result (unreported) when the connection fails. It is good also as trying connection to B32 etc. again. Specifically, this can be realized by adding 1 to the number of times of disconnection in ST14 of FIG.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Report apparatus, 11 ... Report means, 111 ... First report means, 112 ... Second report means, 12 ... Connection success / failure determination means, 13 ... Non-connection count counting means, 14 ... Storage means, 2 ... Boiler, 21 ... Boiler control device, 3 ... Report destination, 31 ... Report destination A, 32 ... Report destination B

Claims (4)

A notification device that is communicably connected to a boiler control device provided in the boiler,
When receiving designation of the first report destination from the boiler control device, first report means for attempting to connect to the first report destination;
A connection success / failure determination means for determining whether or not the connection by the first notification means is successful, and notifying the boiler control device of a determination result of connection success / failure;
Storage means for storing a second report destination different from the first report destination designated by the boiler control device;
The second stored in the storage means on condition that the connection success / failure determination means determines that the connection is not successful when the notification request to the first notification destination is received again from the boiler control device . A second reporting means that attempts to connect to the reporting destination;
A reporting device comprising: A non-connection number counting means for counting the number of times the connection success / failure determination means determines that the connection is not successful,
The second notification means tries to connect to the second notification destination on condition that the predetermined number of times is counted by the non-connection number counting means.
The notification device according to claim 1. The storage means stores a plurality of report destinations as the second report destination,
The second reporting means tries to connect to another report destination among the plurality of report destinations when connection to any of the plurality of report destinations is not successful.
The notification device according to claim 1 or 2. The notification device is a wireless notification device connected to a notification destination via a base station,
The connection success / failure determining means determines the success or failure of the connection between the base station and the first report destination.
The notification device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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