JP7302336B2 - lighting control system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to lighting control systems.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a monitoring system that monitors and controls equipment in a building via a network. Specifically, this monitoring system has a communication device that communicates with each of the monitoring device and the plurality of devices. The monitoring device of this monitoring system periodically transmits a request signal to the communication device and receives a response signal from the communication device in response to the request signal, thereby monitoring the status of each device such as failure, battery exhaustion, and communication error. Monitor. Further, when the communication device receives a specific signal indicating an emergency state from each device, the communication device sends a notification to the effect that the specific signal has been received and information such as video included in the specific signal as a monitoring signal. Send to As a result, the monitoring device of Patent Literature 1 can confirm the state inside the building.

Further, Patent Literature 2 discloses a lighting control system in which a plurality of control devices to which a plurality of lighting fixtures are connected are connected to one management device. In this lighting control system, a management device sends a voltage signal to a control device, and the control device controls lighting fixtures according to this voltage signal.

JP 2017-27362 A Japanese Patent No. 6366617

For example, by introducing a lighting control system as described in Patent Literature 2 into a building, it is possible to facilitate relayout of lighting fixtures in tenant construction. However, when tenant construction is carried out in a building where such a lighting control system has been introduced, the number of equipment such as lighting fixtures and various sensors connected to the communication line, the number of devices such as various sensors, and the communication line There are cases where conditions such as the wiring length of the communication line and branching of the communication line change. Changes in conditions due to such tenant construction will increase communication traffic, distort communication waveforms of communication flowing through communication lines, or cause delays due to distorted communication waveforms, and increase communication errors and communication retransmissions. Distortion of communication waveforms may cause malfunctions such as delays.

In this respect, according to the monitoring system of Patent Document 1, although it is possible to detect a state such as a communication error by means of a response signal at regular timing when a request signal is transmitted, the communication error occurrence time information and the communication at that time can be detected. Information about traffic fluctuations cannot be obtained. Further, the lighting control system of Patent Literature 2 aims to stabilize communication, and does not describe communication traffic or detection of communication errors.

Communication errors occur for various reasons, such as increasing due to tenant construction on a specific day, for example. However, in the conventional system, since it is not possible to acquire communication traffic and information on the time of communication error occurrence, it is difficult to grasp the trigger of communication error occurrence and to take sufficient countermeasures against communication error. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved lighting control system.

The lighting control system of the present invention includes an operation device, a lighting controller communicably connected to the operation device via a LAN, and a communication line communicably connected to the lighting controller, and a signal from the lighting controller a terminal to be controlled; The terminal records communication error information when receiving the first communication, which is communication for transmitting a signal from the lighting controller, as a first communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred. do. The lighting controller records communication error information when receiving the second communication, which is communication for transmitting a signal from the terminal device, as a second communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred. do. Additionally, the lighting controller collects a first communication error log from the terminal. The operator collects the first communication error log collected by the lighting controller and the second communication error log recorded in the lighting controller.

The lighting control system may further include a repeater disposed between the operator and the lighting controller for relaying signals transmitted between the operator and the lighting controller. In this case, the lighting controller records communication error information when receiving the third communication that transmits the signal from the repeater as a third communication error log that includes at least information on the time when the communication error occurred. It is good also as a structure which carries out. Further, the repeater records communication error information when receiving the fourth communication for transmitting the signal from the lighting controller as a fourth communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred. may be configured. The operation device is configured to record communication error information when receiving a fifth communication that transmits a signal from the repeater as a fifth communication error log that includes at least information on the time when the communication error occurred. good too. Also, the operation device may be configured to collect a third communication error log and a fourth communication error log.

Further, the terminal device is configured to measure the communication traffic of the first communication, and record the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a first communication traffic log. There may be. In this case, the lighting controller further measures the communication traffic of the second communication, records the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a second communication traffic log, It may be configured to collect one communication traffic log. The manipulator may also be configured to collect a first communication traffic log collected by the lighting controller and a second communication traffic log recorded by the lighting controller.

Further, the lighting controller may be configured to record the communication traffic of the third communication and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a third communication traffic log. In this case, the repeater is further configured to measure the communication traffic of the fourth communication and record the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a fourth communication traffic log. may be In addition, the operation device further measures the communication traffic of the fifth communication, records the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a fifth communication traffic log, and records the communication traffic as a fifth communication traffic log. It may be configured to collect a log and a fourth communication traffic log.

Further, the lighting controller may be configured to record the communication traffic of the sixth communication and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a sixth communication traffic log. In addition, the operation device further measures the communication traffic of the seventh communication, records the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a seventh communication traffic log, and records a sixth communication traffic log may be configured to collect.

Alternatively, the lighting control system of the present invention comprises a lighting controller, and a terminal communicably connected to the lighting controller via a communication line and controlled by a signal from the lighting controller. The terminal records communication error information when receiving the first communication, which is communication for transmitting a signal from the lighting controller, as a first communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred. do. The terminal device may further measure the communication traffic of the first communication, and record the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a first communication traffic log. The lighting controller records, as a second communication error log, information on a communication error when receiving a second communication, which is a communication that transmits a signal from the terminal device, and includes at least information on the time when the communication error occurred. do. Furthermore, the lighting controller may be configured to measure the communication traffic of the second communication and record the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a second communication traffic log. Also, the lighting controller collects a first communication error log from the terminal. The lighting controller may be configured to collect the first communication traffic log in addition to collecting the first communication error log.

When a communication error occurs, it is possible to acquire information on the occurrence time of the communication error and information on communication traffic together with the information on the occurrence of the communication error. Based on these pieces of information, it is possible to analyze the cause of the malfunction of the lighting control system and the trigger of the malfunction. Thereby, the communication quality of the lighting control system can be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a figure which shows typically the structure of the lighting control system which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a normal communication waveform of a downstream transmission signal flowing through a communication line of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a normal communication waveform of an upstream transmission signal flowing through a communication line of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram illustrating detection of rising edges and falling edges of transmission signals flowing through communication lines of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a communication frame structure of an upstream transmission signal and a downstream transmission signal flowing through a communication line of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; 3 is a diagram showing an equivalent circuit of communication lines of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a communication waveform of a communication line when there are many branches in the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of communication waveforms when the distance of the communication line is long and the number of terminals connected is large in the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another example of communication waveforms when the length of the communication line is long and the number of terminals connected is large in the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a communication sequence in which the controller of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention collects communication errors; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a communication sequence in which the controller of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention collects communication traffic; FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of communication analysis of communication traffic and communication error data collected by the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing another configuration example of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing another configuration example of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing another configuration example of the lighting control system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

A lighting control system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding components, and repetition of description may be omitted.

Embodiment 1.
1. Basic Configuration of Lighting Control System FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of a lighting control system 1 according to Embodiment 1. As shown in FIG. A lighting control system 1 includes an operation device 2 , a repeater 3 , a lighting controller 4 and a terminal device 5 .

Manipulator 2 is a lighting integration manipulator. The operation device 2 is configured by, for example, a personal computer. The operation device 2 performs setting operations such as lighting, lighting, dimming lighting, and schedule control of the lighting control system 1 . Moreover, the operation device 2 may have a function of performing management such as visualization of power consumption and grasping of failure locations.

The controller 2 is connected to a wide area network 13 and connected to a remote terminal 21 via the wide area network 13 . Also, the operation device 2 is connected to the repeater 3 via a first local area network (LAN) 11 . The relay 3 relays signals transmitted between the operation device 2 and the lighting controller 4 . Although only one repeater 3 is shown in FIG. 1, the number of repeaters 3 is not limited. good.

A lighting controller 4 is connected to the repeater 3 via a second LAN 12 . Although FIG. 1 shows an example in which two lighting controllers 4 are connected, the number of lighting controllers 4 is not limited. A lighting controller 4 may be connected. By connecting a plurality of lighting controllers 4, communication traffic between the lighting controllers 4 and the terminals 5 can be dispersed.

A terminal device 5 is connected to each lighting controller 4 via a communication line 14 . Each terminal 5 is controlled by a control signal from the lighting controller 4 . In the example of FIG. 1, the terminals 5 include a relay control terminal 51, a dimming signal terminal 52, an illuminance sensor unit 53, a motion sensor unit 54, an illuminance sensor motion sensor unit 55, and an image sensor unit 56. It is connected. These sensor units 53 to 56 sense the illuminance and the presence or absence of a person passing by, or photograph an image within the lighting area, and transmit the sensed or photographed information to the lighting controller 4 .

It is not necessary that all the sensor units 53 to 56 described above are connected as the terminal device 5, and any one of the sensor units may be connected. 1 shows only the terminal device 5 connected to one lighting controller 4 of the two lighting controllers 4, the other lighting controller 4 also has a relay control terminal device 51 and a lighting controller. An optical signal terminal device 52 and a terminal device 5 such as a sensor unit are connected.

The lighting controller 4 controls a relay control terminal device 51 and a dimming signal terminal device 52 . The relay control terminal 51 is connected to the power supply line 15 and connected to the lighting fixture 8 via an internal relay via a fixture power supply line 15-1. The power line 15 is connected to the breaker 17 . Electric power from the breaker 17 is supplied to the lighting fixture 8 via the relay control terminal device 51 . The dimming signal terminal device 52 is connected to the dimming terminal of the lighting fixture 8 via the dimming signal line 16 . The illustration of the dimming terminal is omitted.

The lighting fixture 8 connected to the relay control terminal device 51 or the dimming control terminal device 52 is controlled by the dimming control terminal device 52 in terms of the lighting state such as lighting, extinguishing, and dimming lighting, and the dimming rate. However, the lighting control system 1 may have only the relay control terminal device 51 and not have the dimming signal terminal device 52 . In the configuration in which the lighting fixture 8 is connected only to the relay control terminal 51, the lighting control system 1 can control the lighting or extinguishing of the lighting fixture 8. FIG. Similarly, the lighting control system 1 may have only the dimming signal terminal device 52 and not have the relay control terminal device 51 . In the case of a configuration in which the lighting fixture 8 to which power is supplied is connected only to the dimming signal terminal device 52, the dimming rate during lighting can be controlled.

Further, instead of connecting the lighting fixture 8 to the relay control terminal device 51 and the dimming signal terminal device 52 via the fixture power supply line 15-1 and the dimming signal line 16, A configuration in which a lighting fixture 8 with a communication function is connected may be used. In this case as well, the lighting state or dimming rate of the lighting device 8 can be controlled.

A current sensor 9 is installed on the power line 15 . Current sensor 9 is connected to power measurement system 10 , and power measurement system 10 is connected to operation device 2 via first LAN 11 .

The wide area network 13 is, for example, the Internet constructed by a wired communication network or a wireless communication network.

The first LAN 11 is the LAN of the building management system. A BACnet (registered trademark) communication protocol, for example, is used for communication between devices connected by the first LAN 11 .

A second LAN 12 is the LAN of the lighting control system 1 . Communication between devices connected by the second LAN 12 uses, for example, a UDP (User Datagram Protocol) communication protocol.

The communication line 14 is a two-wire communication line. Devices connected by communication line 14 communicate with each other using bipolar, time-division multiplexed signals. A bipolar time-division multiplexed signal is, for example, a ±24V signal. That is, the communication line 14 is supplied with a bipolar signal voltage of ±24 V from the lighting controller 4 to communicate with the terminal device 5 .

The dimming signal line 16 transmits a signal of a PWM (Pulse width modulation) method or a serial two-way communication method.

2. Fieldbus communication flowing through the communication line 2-1. Fieldbus Communication Fieldbus communication, which is communication that flows through the communication line 14, will be described. Fieldbus communication is also referred to below as "F-bus communication". F-bus communication includes communication with a specified address and general communication without a specified address.

First, a method of assigning a device number, which is a unique address, to each terminal device 5 will be described. Although not shown, the terminal device 5 has either a DIP switch or an infrared input section. A terminal device 5 having a DIP switch is assigned a device number by setting the DIP switch in the same manner as the lighting controller 4 . A terminal device 5 having an infrared input unit is assigned a device number using a setting terminal device (not shown) that is an infrared remote controller.

In the F bus communication, first communication, which is downward transmission from the lighting controller 4 to the terminal device 5, and second communication, which is upward transmission from the terminal device 5 to the lighting controller 4, are alternately performed.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a normal communication waveform of the fifth downstream transmission signal flowing through the communication line 14 . As shown in FIG. 2, in downstream transmission, for example, the lighting controller 4 transmits data by changing the polarity of the bipolar signal flowing through the communication line 14 and the time width of each of the positive and negative signals. In FIG. 2, as will be described later, 0 indicates a short duration and 1 indicates a long duration.

FIG. 3 shows an example of an upstream transmission signal flowing through the communication line 14. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, upstream transmission from the terminal 5 to the lighting controller 4 is accomplished, for example, by the terminal 5 transmitting a current signal within a -24V response period separated by a +24V synchronization signal. will be The synchronizing signal and the response period may have their polarities reversed. In the example of FIG. 3, a response 0 is transmitted when the terminal device 5 does not transmit a current signal during the response period, and a response 1 is transmitted when the terminal 5 transmits a current signal. Also, 0 and 1 may be reversed.

In the example of FIG. 3, the response return indicating that the lighting controller 4 has received the response 1 from the terminal 5 is changed by shortening the pulse time width of the response period and lengthening the pulse time width of the synchronization signal accordingly. It is transmitting to the terminal device 5. If the lighting controller 4 receives a response of 0, the lighting controller 4 does not transmit a response return.

Next, decoding processing of the downlink transmission signal by the terminal device 5 will be described. As described above, the lighting controller 4 transmits "1" and "0" of the downstream transmission signal according to the length of the pulse width of the bipolar signal. The terminal device 5 converts the positive rising edge of the received bipolar signal into a high signal, and converts the negative falling edge into a low signal. Then, the high signal and low signal are detected, the pulse time width of the bipolar signal is measured until the next edge is detected, and the signal transmitted from the lighting controller 4 is decoded into a signal data string.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining how the terminal device 5 detects rising edges and falling edges. As shown in FIG. 4 , the terminal device 5 reads the bipolar signal converted into a High signal or a Low signal three times, for example, three times in each sampling period at startup and when the edge polarity is inverted. A majority vote for each of the signals detects the reversal of the bipolar signal. A sampling period is, for example, 10 μs. Although the number of times of sampling is three here, the sampling period and number of times may be optimized according to noise.

Next, a method of measuring the pulse width time, which is the time between the rising edge and the falling edge, will be described. In this embodiment, for example, 200 μs, which is a short duration of the pulse width, represents “0”, and 400 μs, which is a long duration of the pulse width, represents “1”. In order to determine "0" or "1" from the pulse width time, an effective pulse width time defined by a minimum pulse width time and a maximum pulse width time is predetermined for each pulse width time. Specifically, for example, if the effective pulse width time is 150 μs to 250 μs, it is determined to be “0”, and if the effective pulse width time is 350 μs to 450 μs, it is determined to be “1”. If the pulse width is other than these valid pulse width times, it is determined to be an invalid pulse width.

If the pulse width time falls within the valid pulse width time, it is determined that a valid pulse has been received and the data is converted to "1" or "0". When the measurement result of the pulse width time does not fall within the effective pulse width time, it is determined as an invalid pulse, and the measurement of the pulse width time is continued from the edge determination result determined last time.

Composite processing of the upstream transmission signal by the lighting controller 4 is also performed in the same manner. A detailed description of the downstream transmission signal is omitted.

Next, the configuration of the communication frames of the upstream transmission signal and the downstream transmission signal flowing through the communication line 14 will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a communication frame structure of an upstream transmission signal and a downstream transmission signal flowing through the communication line 14. As shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the communication frame of the upstream transmission signal and the downstream transmission signal includes a start bit area 30, an address area 31, a command area 32, a data area 33, a checksum area 34, and a response return area 35. have an area.

The start bit area 30 stores the leading pulse of the transmission signal. The address area 31 stores a destination address and a source address, respectively. The command area 32 stores communication commands. The data area 33 stores communication command data. The checksum area 34 stores the two's complement of the communication data for error detection of the communication data. The response return area 35 stores a response return indicating that the lighting controller 4 has received the upstream transmission signal.

2-2. Communication Error of Communication Line 14 FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an equivalent circuit of the communication line 14 . As shown in FIG. 6A, the communication line 14 can be represented by an equivalent circuit of a two-terminal pair circuit having resistance R, inductance L, and capacitance C. As shown in FIG.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates a case in which a plurality of terminal devices 5 are connected in series to the lighting controller 4, there are various patterns of connection of the terminal devices 5 to the lighting controller 4. FIG. For example, as shown in FIGS. 6B and 6C, the communication line 14 may be branched at one or more branch points A, and a plurality of terminals 5 may be connected in parallel.

As the number of branches of the communication line 14 increases, the capacitance C of the communication line 14 increases. As a result, the waveform of the communication signal flowing through the communication line 14 is distorted due to the LC resonance of the communication line 14 . FIG. 7 shows an example of communication waveforms of downstream transmission signals when the communication line 14 has many branches. As shown in FIG. 7, when the communication line 14 has many branches, the communication waveform of the downstream transmission signal becomes a waveform in which resonance noise is superimposed on the normal waveform as shown in FIG.

Due to such superimposition of noise, for example, as indicated by the dashed line B in FIG. As shown in the portion above, there is a possibility that the Low signal may be erroneously detected as the High signal. As a result of this erroneous detection of the signal voltage, the "long" or "short" pulse width is erroneously decoded, and an erroneous determination of the signal "1" or "0" may occur.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of communication waveforms of transmission signals when a large number of terminals are connected and the distance of the communication line 14 is long. As the length of the communication line 14 increases, the DC resistance of the communication line 14 increases. As a result, the signal voltage may decrease as shown in FIG. As a result, as in the case where there are many branches, erroneous detection of the High signal or Low signal may cause an erroneous determination of whether the signal is "1" or "0".

FIG. 9 shows an example of communication waveforms of transmission signals when the communication line 14 is long and has many branches. As the length of the communication line 14 increases and the number of branches increases, the rising and falling waveforms become dull as shown in FIG. Therefore, communication delay may occur.

Examples of typical communication errors in downstream transmission signals and upstream transmission signals flowing through the communication line 14 are shown below.
(1) Checksum error This is an error when the erroneous "1" or "0" due to the noise described above is detected during reception of communication data. The occurrence of this error is detected by a mismatch between the checksum of the received data and the checksum calculated from the decoded data.
(2) Start bit detection error This error occurs when the start bit of received data cannot be detected due to noise.
(3) Bit shortage error This is an error that is recorded when the sender stops transmission for some reason.
(4) Bit excess error This error is recorded when noise superimposed on communication data is erroneously recognized.
(5) Return detection error This is an error recorded when successful reception (that is, response return) from the terminal 5 could not be detected due to noise.
(6) Triple Determination Error This is an error that is recorded when the result of reading the rising edge or falling edge three times is different from the expected data.
(7) Invalid pulse width error This is an error recorded when the measurement result of the pulse width does not fall within the effective pulse width time, which is the effective range of the specified pulse width, due to erroneous recognition due to noise.
(8) Insufficient voltage error This error is recorded when the positive and negative voltages of the communication waveform are lower than the predetermined minimum voltage. The communication signal is also input to a comparator input terminal used for edge detection and pulse width detection and an analog/digital conversion input terminal used for undervoltage detection.
(9) Delay error This is an error recorded when a signal cannot be detected within a specified time due to superimposition of noise on a communication signal.

2-3. Recording of Communication Errors in Communication Line 14 Communication errors in the F bus communication described above are stored in the terminal device 5 or the lighting controller 4 . Specifically, each terminal device 5 stores an F bus communication error at the time of receiving a downlink transmission signal in a memory as a first communication error log. Also, each lighting controller 4 stores an F bus communication error at the time of receiving an upstream transmission signal in the memory as a second communication error log. The first communication error log and the second communication error log contain information such as an error serial number, error occurrence time, type of abnormality, and an event that occurred immediately before the abnormality.

3. Regarding Intermediate Bus Communication Intermediate bus communication, which is a UDP protocol that flows through the second LAN 12 connecting between the repeater 3 and the lighting controller 4, will be described. Intermediate bus communication is hereinafter also referred to as "M bus communication". The M bus communication includes address-designated communication and non-address-designated general communication, and each of the repeater 3 and the lighting controller 4 has a unique address.

In the M bus communication, a request command is transmitted from the transmission source, which is the repeater 3 or the lighting controller 4, to the transmission destination, which is the lighting controller 4 or the repeater 3, and a response command is transmitted from the transmission destination to the transmission source. .

If the request command is sent but the response command is not transmitted, the sender of the request command resends the request command. If the response command is not transmitted even after the transmission source retransmits the command a predetermined number of times, the transmission source determines that there is a no-response error. Note that the predetermined number of retransmissions is a number that can be set as appropriate, and may be different depending on whether the transmission source is the repeater 3 or the lighting controller 4 .

When a no-response error occurs, the source of the request command is stored as a fourth communication error log or a third communication error log in the memory of the repeater 3 or lighting controller 4 that is the source. The data of the third or fourth communication error log stored includes the time when the no-response error occurred, the source address, the destination address, and the request command information.

In M bus communication, the next command may be sent without waiting for a response, so the received commands are stored in a temporary buffer and sequentially processed on a first-in, first-out basis. Commands that overflow the buffer are discarded. Even when such a buffer overflow occurs, it is determined as a communication error. A communication error due to buffer overflow is stored as a third communication error log or a fourth communication error log in the memory of the lighting controller 4 or repeater 3, which is the destination of the request command. The stored data includes the time when the buffer overflow error occurred, the source address, the destination address, and the discarded command information. However, the information to be stored is not limited to this, and the information to be stored other than the error occurrence time may be appropriately determined according to the memory capacity of the lighting controller.

Other communication errors occurring in M bus communication are also recorded as the third communication error log or the fourth communication error log. These communication error logs also contain information on the time when the error occurred, the source address, the destination address, and the request command.

The communication between the operation device 2 and the repeater 3 flowing through the first LAN 11 is the same as the communication flowing through the second LAN 12, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted. In the first LAN 11 as well, a communication error similar to that in the communication flowing through the second LAN 12 may occur. The error that has occurred is stored in the memory of the controller 2 or relay 3 as a first communication error log or a second communication error log. The stored data includes the time when the error occurred, the source address, the destination address, and the requested command information. Each communication error log is configured to be deleted in order from the oldest log, for example, when the specified memory capacity is exceeded.

4. Time Synchronization Setting The repeater 3 synchronizes the time with the lighting controller 4 by the time synchronization command. Further, the lighting controller 4 synchronizes the time of all the terminals 5 with the time of the lighting controller 4 by periodically transmitting a time synchronization command to all the terminals 5 . The transmission interval of the time synchronization command can be set as appropriate, and can be, for example, every day. As a result, it is ensured that the times of the repeater 3, the lighting controller 4, and the terminal 5 match.

5. Collection of Communication Errors by Manipulator 2 FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a communication sequence for collecting communication errors. First, the first communication error log collection by the lighting controller 4 will be described with reference to FIG. In step S1 of the sequence in FIG. 10, the lighting controller 4 transmits an error log monitor request to the terminal device 5. The process of step S1 is periodically executed. The execution interval may be set as appropriate, and may be, for example, every day or every hour.

After receiving the error log monitor request in step S2, the terminal device 5 returns the error data of the serial number designated by the lighting controller 4 in the fifth communication error log stored in the memory as an error log monitor response. It is transmitted to the lighting controller 4 with occurrence time information. The lighting controller 4 that has received the error log monitor response stores the received fifth communication error log in the memory of the lighting controller 4 .

Next, the first, second and third error log collections by the operation device 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The first communication error log is stored in the lighting controller 4 by the sequence of steps S1 and S2 described above. Further, the lighting controller 4 stores a communication error at the time of receiving the upstream transmission signal of the F bus communication with the error occurrence time information in the memory as a second communication error log. Further, the lighting controller 4 stores information about errors occurring in M bus communication with the repeater 3 in memory as a third communication error log with error occurrence time information. The operation device 2 collects these first to third communication error logs stored in the lighting controller 4 in the following procedure.

First, in step S<b>3 , the operation device 2 transmits an error log monitor request to the lighting controller 4 via the repeater 3 . The error log monitor command comprises a request parameter storage area and a response parameter storage area. The error log monitor command uses the same command for the request command and the response command.

Upon receiving the error log monitor request, the lighting controller 4 reads the error serial number in the request parameter of the received error log monitor command, and stores the communication error data of the corresponding error serial number in the response parameter area with error occurrence time information. The lighting controller 4 transmits an error log monitor response to the operation device 2 via the repeater 3 . By repeating this series of communication sequences, the operation device 2 can collect the first to third communication error logs from the lighting controller 4 together with error occurrence time information.

Similarly, the operation device 2 transmits an error log monitor request using the relay device 3 as the destination address. After receiving the error log monitor request, the repeater 3 transmits corresponding communication error data from the fourth communication error log recorded in the memory of the repeater 3 as an error log monitor response. By repeating this communication, the operation device 2 can collect the fourth communication error from the repeater 3 together with the error occurrence time information.

With the above sequence, the operation device 2 can collect communication errors that have occurred in communication between devices in the lighting control system, together with information on the time of occurrence.

6. Collecting Communication Traffic FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a sequence for collecting communication traffic of the first LAN 11 and the second LAN 12 . 11, from the repeater 3 to the first LAN 11 side (point A in FIG. 1), from the repeater 3 to the second LAN 12 side (point B in FIG. 1), and from the lighting controller 4 to the second LAN 12 A communication sequence for collecting communication traffic on each side (point C in FIG. 1) will be described as an example.

In step S11 of FIG. 11, the operation device 2 transmits a traffic monitor request requesting communication traffic on the first LAN 11 to the repeater 3. FIG. After receiving the traffic monitor request command, the repeater 3 responds with the specified communication traffic. It should be noted that communication traffic is calculated on a regular basis. A specific calculation cycle is, for example, every second. Alternatively, the average of multiple times of communication traffic in a fixed period may be calculated and returned as the communication traffic.

Communication traffic is calculated by the following formula (1).
(Number of packets flowing through LAN)/(Specified number of packets) x 100% (1)
In the above formula (1), both the number of packets flowing through the LAN and the specified number of packets are the number of packets per second or per unit time. The prescribed number of packets per second is, for example, 80 packets/second. By defining the communication traffic in this way, it is possible to use the case where the communication traffic exceeds 100% as an indication of the high communication traffic. In this system, 80 packets is the specified number of packets, but it may be changed as appropriate depending on the system.

In step S12, the repeater 3 transmits the measured communication traffic on the first LAN 11 side to the operation device 2 as a traffic monitor response with measurement time information.

In step S<b>13 , the operation device 2 transmits to the repeater 3 a traffic monitor request requesting communication traffic from the repeater 3 to the branch of the second LAN 12 . Upon receiving the traffic monitor request, the repeater 3 responds with the immediately preceding communication traffic at the specified time, and in step S14, the communication traffic of the second LAN 12 collected by itself is sent as the communication traffic monitor response as measurement time information. is sent to the operation device 2.

In step S<b>15 , the operation device 2 transmits to the repeater 3 a traffic monitor request requesting communication traffic on the lighting controller 4 side of the second LAN 12 . After receiving the traffic monitor request, the repeater 3 transmits the received traffic monitor request command to the lighting controller 4 in step S16.

In step S17, the lighting controller 4 that has received the traffic monitor request measures the communication traffic, and sends the communication traffic on the side of the second LAN 12 from the measured lighting controller 4 to the repeater 3 as a communication traffic monitor response with measurement time information. Send to In step S<b>18 , the repeater 3 that has received the traffic monitor response transmits the received traffic monitor response to the operation device 2 .

In this way, the operation device 2 can periodically collect the communication traffic logs of the first LAN 11 and the second LAN 12 together with the measurement time information.

By a similar method, the lighting controller 4 transmits a communication traffic monitor request to the terminal device 5, and acquires the communication traffic of the downstream transmission signal measured by the terminal device 5 together with the measurement information. Also, the lighting controller 4 measures the communication traffic of the upstream transmission signal and stores it in the memory together with the measurement time information. Then, the lighting controller transmits the communication traffic information together with the measurement time information to the operation device 2 in response to the communication traffic monitor request from the operation device 2 .

As a result of the above processing, the operation device 2 creates a log of the third to fifth communication errors, which are communication errors of signals flowing on the first LAN 11 or the second LAN 12, and a log of the downstream transmission flowing on the communication line 14. A first communication error log, which is a signal communication error, and a second communication error log, which is a communication error of an upstream transmission signal flowing on the communication line 14, are periodically collected together with error occurrence time information. In addition, the communication traffic of each communication can be collected with measurement time information.

The communication traffic log and the first to fifth communication error logs periodically collected by the operation device 2 are periodically transmitted to the remote terminal 21 via the wide area network 13 . A user of remote terminal 21 is, for example, a service provider of lighting control system 1 . The service provider of the lighting control system 1, for example, is required to perform procedures such as concluding a service maintenance contract with the administrator of the lighting control system 1, and the information periodically collected by the operation device 2 is sent to the wide area network 13. can be periodically transmitted to the remote terminal 21 via . These pieces of information include the communication traffic log and the first to fifth communication error logs described above. This allows the user of the remote terminal 21 to analyze the communication traffic log and communication error log without going to the building where the lighting control system 1 is installed.

FIG. 12 shows an example of time transition data of communication traffic and communication errors collected by the above sequence. In the example of FIG. 12, after a rapid increase in the number of packets around 5:00, a communication error log occurs around 10:00. In such a case, since the address of the terminal device 5 that collected the communication error is attached to each communication error log, the terminal device 5 that collected the communication error can be specified from the communication error log. The service provider or the like who is the user of the remote terminal 21 may, for example, suggest to the administrator of the lighting control system 1 to check the connection of the communication line 14 of the specified terminal 5 .

Such communication errors and communication traffic fluctuations are analyzed, for example, on a daily or hourly basis. For example, if communication errors are increasing, check the date and time when tenant construction work was performed, which is separately obtained, to see if the tenant construction work has triggered communication errors. Also, when communication errors are increasing in a specific terminal, the connection failure of the communication line 14 of the specific terminal is confirmed. Further, for example, when communication traffic suddenly increases and it is confirmed that the communication traffic is maintained in an increased state, it is conceivable that the number of connected terminals 5 or the like increases due to tenant construction work. Therefore, when the communication traffic has increased rapidly and is maintained, the communication error log after the communication traffic increased is checked to see if the communication error has increased. Also, from the operation device 2, a terminal transmission request check command is transmitted, and the number of terminal devices with transmission data is confirmed. As a result, when it is determined that the communication traffic load is increasing due to the increase in the number of terminals, the service provider or the like considers or proposes distributing the communication traffic load by increasing the number of lighting controllers 4 or the like.

Further, the above analysis of communication traffic and communication error may be performed using analysis means in which the above analysis is recorded as a program. Also, an AI system may be installed as the analysis means, and the analysis may be performed by the AI system. In addition, the remote terminal 21 may be configured to propose usage status reports and inspection points.

In the first embodiment, the lighting control system 1 includes the lighting controller 4, the repeater 3, and the operation device 2 which are connected by LAN, and furthermore, the remote terminal 21 which is connected via the Internet. bottom. However, it is not limited to this configuration. Other configuration examples are shown in FIGS. 13 to 15. FIG.

The example of FIG. 13 is an example in which the lighting controller 4 is connected to the remote terminal 21 via the wide area network 13 . In this case, the lighting controller 4 functions as the operating device 2 . In this configuration example, the lighting controller 4 has a function of collecting communication errors that occur in the F bus communication flowing through the communication line 14 with error occurrence time information, and collecting communication traffic of the communication line 14 with measurement time information. have.

The example of FIG. 14 is an example in which the controller 2 is not provided and the repeater 3 is connected to the remote terminal 21 via the wide area network 13 . In this case, the repeater 3 also functions as the operation device 2 . Therefore, the repeater 3 collects the log of the communication error that occurred on the second LAN 12 and the first and second communication error logs, which are the error information that occurred on the communication line 14, together with the time of occurrence information. In addition, it has a function of collecting communication traffic logs of the second LAN 12 and the communication line 14 with measurement time data. In addition, in the case of a configuration having a plurality of lighting controllers 4, the repeater 3 is essential.

The example of FIG. 15 is an example in which the operation device 2 and one or more lighting controllers 4 are connected via the LAN 22 without having the repeater 3 . In this case, the operation device 2 also functions as the repeater 3 . In this case as well, the lighting controller 4 records the communication error occurring in the LAN 22 and the error occurrence time information as the sixth communication error, as described in the first embodiment. The operation device 2 records the communication error occurring in the communication of the LAN 22 and the occurrence time information as a seventh communication error log. In addition, by transmitting an error log request to the lighting controller 4, the operation device 2 receives the sixth communication error log and the fourth and fifth communication error logs generated in the communication of the communication line 14 from the lighting controller 4. are collected with time-of-occurrence data. Moreover, similarly, the communication traffic of LAN22 and the communication line 14 is collected with measurement time information.

1 lighting control system 2 operating device 3 repeater 4 lighting controller 5 terminal device 51 relay control terminal device 52 dimming signal terminal device 53 illuminance sensor unit 54 motion sensor unit 55 illuminance sensor motion detection Sensor unit 56 Image sensor unit 8 Lighting equipment 9 Current sensor 10 Power measurement system 13 Wide area network 14 Communication line 15 Power supply line 15-1 Appliance power supply line 16 Dimming signal line 17 Breaker 21 Remote Terminal 30 Start Bit Area 31 Address Area 32 Command Area 33 Data Area 34 Checksum Area 35 Response Return Area

Claims (14)

an operating device;
a lighting controller communicably connected to the operating device via a LAN;
a terminal communicably connected to the lighting controller via a communication line and controlled by a signal from the lighting controller;
with
The terminal device
recording information on a communication error when receiving a first communication, which is communication for transmitting a signal from the lighting controller, as a first communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred;
The lighting controller
recording information of a communication error when receiving a second communication, which is a communication for transmitting a signal from the terminal device, as a second communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred;
Collecting the first communication error log from the terminal,
The operating device is
Collecting the first communication error log collected by the lighting controller and the second communication error log recorded in the lighting controller as a communication error log ;
A lighting control system configured to: The lighting control system includes:
a repeater disposed between the operating device and the lighting controller for relaying a signal transmitted between the operating device and the lighting controller;
further prepared,
The lighting controller
recording information of a communication error when receiving a third communication that transmits a signal from the repeater as a third communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred;
The repeater is
recording information about a communication error when receiving a fourth communication that transmits a signal from the lighting controller as a fourth communication error log including at least information about the time when the communication error occurred;
The operating device is
A fifth communication error log , which is information on a communication error when receiving a fifth communication that transmits a signal from the repeater and includes at least information on the time when the communication error occurred , is used as the communication error log. record and
collecting the third communication error log and the fourth communication error log as the communication error log ;
2. A lighting control system according to claim 1, configured to: The lighting controller
recording information of a communication error when receiving a sixth communication transmitting a signal from the operation device as a sixth communication error log including at least information of the time when the communication error occurred;
The operating device is
A seventh communication error log , which is information on a communication error when receiving a seventh communication for transmitting a signal from the lighting controller and includes at least information on the time when the communication error occurred , is used as the communication error log. record and
collecting the sixth communication error log as the communication error log ;
2. A lighting control system according to claim 1, configured to: The lighting control system includes:
a remote terminal connected to the operator via a wide area network;
further prepared,
The remote terminal comprises:
Collecting the communication error log collected or recorded by the manipulator;
4. A lighting control system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, configured to: The lighting controller is further configured to record the communication traffic of the third communication and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a third communication traffic log,
The repeater is further configured to measure the communication traffic of the fourth communication and record the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a fourth communication traffic log,
The operator further
measuring the communication traffic of the fifth communication, and recording a fifth communication traffic log including the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a communication traffic log ;
collecting the third communication traffic log and the fourth communication traffic log as the communication traffic log ;
3. The lighting control system of claim 2, configured to: The lighting controller is further configured to record the communication traffic of the sixth communication and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a sixth communication traffic log,
The operator further
measuring the communication traffic of the seventh communication, and recording a seventh communication traffic log including the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as the communication traffic log ;
collecting the sixth communication traffic log as the communication traffic log ;
4. The lighting control system of claim 3, configured to: The terminal further
The communication traffic of the first communication is measured, and the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic is measured are recorded as a first communication traffic log,
The lighting controller further comprises:
measuring the communication traffic of the second communication, recording the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a second communication traffic log;
collecting the first communication traffic log from the terminal device;
configured as
The operation device is further configured to collect the first communication traffic log collected by the lighting controller and the second communication traffic log recorded in the lighting controller as the communication traffic log. 7. A lighting control system according to any one of claims 1, 5 and 6. The lighting control system further comprises a remote terminal connected to the operator via a wide area network,
8. A lighting control system according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the remote terminal is configured to collect the communication error log and the communication traffic log collected or recorded by the operator. a lighting controller;
a terminal communicably connected to the lighting controller via a communication line and controlled by a signal from the lighting controller;
with
The terminal device
recording information on a communication error when receiving a first communication, which is communication for transmitting a signal from the lighting controller, as a first communication error log including at least information on the time when the communication error occurred;
The lighting controller
A second communication error log , which is information on a communication error when receiving a second communication which is communication for transmitting a signal from the terminal device and includes at least information on the time when the communication error occurred , log as
Collecting the first communication error log as the communication error log from the terminal device;
A lighting control system configured to: The lighting control system includes:
a remote terminal connected to the lighting controller via a wide area network;
further prepared,
The remote terminal comprises:
collecting the communication error log from the lighting controller;
10. A lighting control system according to claim 9, configured to: The terminal device is further configured to measure the communication traffic of the first communication and record the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as a first communication traffic log,
The lighting controller further comprises:
measuring the communication traffic of the second communication, and recording a second communication traffic log including the measured communication traffic and the time when the communication traffic was measured as the communication traffic log ;
Collecting the first communication traffic log as the communication traffic log from the terminal device;
10. A lighting control system according to claim 9, configured to: the lighting control system further comprising a remote terminal connected to the lighting controller via a wide area network;
12. The lighting control system of Claim 11, wherein said remote terminal is configured to collect said communication error log and said communication traffic log from said lighting controller. The lighting control system includes:
Analysis means for analyzing the cause of the communication error based on the information of the communication error occurrence time included in the communication error log,
11. A lighting control system according to any one of claims 1 to 4 and 9 and 10, further comprising. The lighting control system includes:
Analysis means for analyzing the cause of the communication error based on the communication error occurrence time information and the communication traffic information at the communication error occurrence time included in the communication error log and the communication traffic log,
13. A lighting control system according to any one of claims 5 to 8 and 11 and 12, further comprising.

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