JPH04156099A - Subscriber's private equipment control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simply register a terminal address not overlapped to an already registered terminal address by providing each terminal equipment with a display device for displaying terminal address information set up in the terminal equipment to be connected to a home bus. CONSTITUTION:The subscriber's private equipment control system is constituted of an address display switch 104 for instructing the display of a registered terminal address, a display part 105 for displaying the registered terminal address, a display driving part 106 for driving the display part 105, an internal bus 107 for connecting respective parts, and the like. Terminal address information set up in each terminal equipment is displayed on its display device. Thereby, an idle address area can be known only by observing the displayed contents. Con sequently, a terminal address not overlapped to a registered terminal address can be simply checked and registered.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

The present invention provides media equipment, security equipment,
The present invention relates to an in-home equipment control system that controls various equipment such as electrical appliances.

[Conventional technology]

Recently, there are media devices, security devices, electrical appliances,
Various types of equipment such as air conditioning equipment and combustion equipment are being installed, and their functions are also becoming more sophisticated. Therefore, the development of a so-called home bus system, which is a home network that organically connects these various devices and attempts to manage them in a unified manner, is actively underway. The standards for home bus systems in Japan have already been standardized. According to this standard, the home bus (transmission path) consists of two control channels and multiple information channels.The control channel sends and receives digital control signals, and the information channel allows arbitrary information signals are sent and received. These information signals are transmitted and received in the form of frequency division. FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the general configuration of an in-home control system, which is an application example of a home bus system. (IFU)'4.5. Further, a home controller 6 that manually controls the controlled device 2 to a desired operating state, and a controlled device t! A home controller 7 for manually controlling the 1ltR unit 3 to a desired operating state is connected via built-in interface units 8 and 9. Also connected to the home bus 1 is a home bus controller (MBC) 10 that manages the status of terminals on the home bus, such as the home controller 6.7 and controlled devices 2.3, and the usage status of channels. . The home bus controller 10 is responsible for exchanging lines in the information channel, managing addresses of the interface units 4, 5, 8.9, initializing the system, constantly processing the home bus 1, and controlling and monitoring the entire home control system. It is a control device that performs telephone line 11 and cable television (
A coaxial cable of a CATV line 12 is input, and the telephone line 11 or the gameple television line 12 can be selectively distributed to the controlled equipment 2.3. On the other hand, the interface units 4, 5゜8.9 are always interposed between the home bus 1 and the controlled device or home controller (HC), and are the interface units between the controlled device or home controller and the home bus 1. It has an interface function for exchanging information between them in frame format. This interface unit 4.5.
8.9 does not necessarily use all the information channels of the home bus 1 when exchanging information, but only uses the ones that are necessary for it, but controls the control channels according to a predetermined communication control procedure (protocol). It is specified that channels should be used. This interface unit 4, 5° 8.9 can be combined with a controlled device or a home controller,
The terminal devices [13A to 13D] are managed by the home bus controller 10. That is, the interface unit 8 is combined with the home controller 6, and the interface unit 9 is combined with the home controller 7, and these are managed by the home bus controller 10 as terminal devices 13A and 13B, respectively. Further, the interface unit 4 is combined with the controlled ALE device 2, and the interface unit 5 is combined with the controlled device 3, and each is managed by the home bus controller 10 as a terminal device 13C113D. Here, the frame for exchanging information is, as shown in FIG. 13, a priority bit PR5 that determines the priority in the event of a frame conflict, a self address SA, a partner address DA, a control code CC indicating the meaning of the frame, and a data length. Data count BC1 indicating transmission data DATA, frame check code FCC for detecting frame transmission errors
The length of all data except the transmission data DATA is determined. Controlled equipment 2 connected to home bus 1 in this way
Information exchange between the control device 3 and the home controller 6, and between the controlled device 3 and the home controller 7 is performed as follows. That is, to explain the case where the controlled device 2 is controlled from the home controller 6, the home controller 6
The transmitting side interface unit 8 built in the A1 first checks whether the control channel of the home bus 1 is free or not, and if the control channel is free, sends the transmission frame to the controlled A1 device 2. A destination address area, which is the address of the interface unit 4, etc. is added to the destination address field, and a transmission packet having the configuration shown in FIG. 13 is generated,
Send on control channel. This transmission frame is received by all the interface units 4, 5.9 connected to the home bus 1, but since the destination address in the transmission frame indicates the interface unit 4 connected to the controlled device 2, Only interface unit 4 captures transmitted frames. The interface unit 4 that took in the transmission frame
The transmitted frame is checked for errors using the frame check code FCC, and if there is no error, an acknowledge signal ACK indicating completion of reception is returned to the transmitting side interface unit 8 after the Td dark period (Fig. 13), and if there is an error,
After time Td, a negative acknowledge signal NAK indicating completion of reception is returned to the interface unit 8 on the transmitting side. Thereafter, only the transmission data DATA in the frame is extracted, converted into a data format or a control signal that can be read by the controlled device 2, and transferred to the controlled device 2. As a result, the controlled device 2 is controlled to an operating state according to the transmission data DATA transmitted from the home controller 6. Note that Tr in FIG. 13 is a pause time until the next frame is transmitted, and the next frame cannot be transmitted unless the pause time Tr has elapsed. On the other hand, when two or more interface units try to transmit frames at the same time, a frame conflict may occur, or the digital signal on the control channel is given priority to logic "0". For example, if logic "0" is given priority, if contention occurs on the control channel, logic "0" takes priority. Therefore, if the frame is transmitted while comparing the signal transmitted by itself and the signal appearing on the control channel pit by pit, if the comparison results do not match, it means that the competition has been lost. If the contention is lost, subsequent transmission is stopped and retransmission is performed after the pause time Tr has elapsed.

[Invention or problem to be solved]

In the above system, the information exchange route is selected based on the addresses of the interface units 4, 5, 8.9, so when interface units with the same terminal address are connected to the home bus 1, the interface units with the same terminal address may respond at the same time, causing the system to malfunction. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent interface units having the same terminal address from being connected. However, conventionally, when installing the system, the terminal address of the interface unit is determined by the contractor who selects an empty terminal address from the address area defined for each type of controlled equipment, and then assigns the terminal address of the interface unit to the data/data address provided in the interface unit. Set it using a push switch etc.
The selected terminal address was managed in an extremely simple and easy way by writing it down in a memo pad, etc., so if the memo pad was lost, or if the user himself or herself newly set up a home appliance as the controlled device. If you try to add it as a new interface, you have to reconfigure the terminal address of the interface unit, and the reconfiguration work is extremely troublesome and time-consuming. Here, for example, as proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-159936, an address duplication detection means is provided, and the terminal address requested to be registered in the home bus controller due to the new connection of the controlled device and the already registered terminal address There is a system that prevents duplicate registration of the same terminal address by comparing the two and sending back a warning signal or rejecting the registration if the two match. However, with this configuration, although it is known that the terminal addresses requested for registration are duplicates, it is unknown which terminal address area is free, so it is necessary to investigate through trial and error to find out which terminal addresses are free. , it is necessary to select and register one of the vacant terminal addresses found from the survey results, which poses a problem in that it takes time to complete the registration of a new terminal address. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an in-house equipment control system that can easily confirm and register terminal addresses that do not overlap with already registered terminal addresses.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the home equipment control system of the present invention includes a control device and a plurality of terminals connected to the control device via a home bus line and each having unique terminal address information set in advance. and a display device for displaying terminal address information set in each of the terminal devices in an in-house equipment control system in which the control device selects an information exchange route between the terminal devices based on the terminal address information. is provided on the control device or at least one terminal device.

[Effect]

According to the above configuration, the terminal address information set in each terminal device is displayed on the display. Therefore, it is obvious at a glance which addresses are vacant addresses just by looking at the displayed contents. In the past, when registering a new terminal address, all that was required was an extremely simple operation of setting an available terminal address found from the display contents on the display.

[Embodiment] The in-house equipment control system of the present invention will be described below based on an embodiment. The overall system configuration is the 12th
It shall be the same as the figure. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the home bus controller 10 of the home equipment control system of the present invention.
The central processing unit (CPU) is composed of a microcomputer.
)100, ROM101 that stores various control programs
．． A RAM 102 that stores the terminal address registered from the interface unit 4.5.8.9, and a transmitting/receiving unit 10 that transmits and receives information in frame format to and from the home bus 1.
3. An address display switch 104 for instructing to display the registered terminal address, a display section 105 for displaying the registered terminal address, a display driving section 106 for driving this display section, and an internal bus 107 connecting these. It has become. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the home controller 6.7, including a central processing unit (CPtJ) 60 composed of a microcomputer, an initial setting unit 61 that initializes various control conditions, and a controlled device 2. .3 to a desired state; a transmitting/receiving section 63 that transmits and receives information in frame format to and from the home bus 1; and the current operating state of the controlled 6!111 device 2.3. It consists of a display section 64 for displaying information such as information, and an internal bus 65 that connects these, and the functions of the interface units 8 and 9 are built-in. In this case, the self-addresses of the interface units 8 and 9 are set by the initial setting section 61. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the interface unit 4.5, which is composed of a central processing unit (CPU) 40 made up of a microcomputer, dip switches, etc., and is used to set the own terminal address within the system. a self-address setting section 41 for controlling the device, a connection section 42 for connecting to the controlled device 2 or 3, a transmitting/receiving section 43 for transmitting and receiving information in a frame format to and from the home bus 1, and an internal bus 44 that connects them.
It consists of In the system of this embodiment, as shown in the address assignment diagram of FIG.
, home appliances (HK), audio first video, computer equipment (AVC), and spares, and the terminal addresses of the interface units that connect these controlled devices are managed. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the process of registering the terminal address of the interface unit executed by the home bus controller 10. The method for setting the addresses of the interface units 4.5 and 8.9 will be described below with reference to this flowchart and the display example of registered terminal addresses in FIG. First, when the home bus controller 10 is powered on, the CPU 100 in the home bus controller 10 executes initialization processing in step 310 to initialize the entire system. Next, in step Sll,
In order to start registering the terminal address in all the interface units 4, 5, 8.9 connected to the home bus 1, a registration start command is sent to all the interface units 4, 5, 8, 9 on the information channel of the home bus 1. Send to 9. After that, the CPU 100 sets a timer (not shown) for a monitoring time that is slightly longer than the time required for all the interface units 4, 5, 8.9 to finish sending terminal address registration requests, and ,5,8.
Waits for a terminal address registration request from 9 (step 51).
2). If a terminal address registration request is sent from each interface unit 4, 5, 8.9 until the set time of the timer expires, the terminal address is registered in the RAM 102 (step 313
~514). That is, the terminal devices 13A to 1 that are already connected to the home bus 1 when the home bus controller 10 is powered on
3D terminal addresses (the two are automatically collected by the home bus controller 10 from each of the terminal devices 13A to 13D and registered in the RAM 102. In this way, the interface units 4, 5, 8 . After the collection of terminal addresses in step S20 is completed, the set time of the timer for monitoring registration requests has elapsed, and when the timer times out, the CPU 100 of the home bus controller 10 moves to normal processing in step S20. After this normal processing, the address display switch 104
Check to see if it is turned on. That is, if a user connects a new interface unit to the home bus 1 after powering on the home bus controller 10 and turns on the address display switch 104 to check which address is an empty address, CPtJloo will can be checked in step S17 after normal processing. As a result, if the address display switch 104 is turned on, cputoo reads the terminal address of interface UNI:/)4,5°8.9 registered at power-on from the RAM 102, and this is shown in FIG. The display data is re-created to be displayed as the terminal address management table 108, and is input to the display driving unit 106 (steps S18, 19). As a result, the terminal address management table 108 is expressed as a matrix of upper bits in the column direction and lower bits in the row direction.
is displayed on the display section 105. In this terminal address management table 108, hatched areas indicate terminal addresses that are already in use, and unmarked areas indicate vacant terminal addresses. The CPU 100 displays the terminal address management table 108 on the display unit 1.
05, after normal processing, if there is an interface unit newly connected to home bus 1, it will monitor whether there is a terminal address registration request from this new interface unit. (Step S1-5). Therefore, the user who has confirmed whether the address is an empty address using the terminal address management table 108 or selects a desired empty address using the self-address setting section 41 of the interface unit newly connected to the home bus 1, and performs the setting operation. When an operation for a registration request is performed, the terminal address set by the self-address setting section 41 and its registration request command are transmitted to the home bus controller 10 in a frame format. The CPU 1 of the home bus controller 10 that received this
00 is step S15. In S16, the newly requested terminal address is registered in R,4M102. As a result, even if a new interface unit is connected to the home bus 1 after the home bus controller 10 is powered on, it is possible to easily check and register a terminal address that does not overlap with an already registered terminal address. Furthermore, since there is no need to record the usage status of terminal addresses in a memo pad or the like, there is no longer any inconvenience that address management is limited to a specific person, and the user can easily increase or decrease the number of interface units. Here, instead of providing the display section 105 inside the home bus controller 10, the terminal address management table is configured to be displayed using both or one of the display sections 64 already provided in the home controller 6.7. I can do something. FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the configuration of the display screen 640 of the display unit 64 and its surrounding parts when displaying the terminal address management table using the display unit 64 of the home controller 6.
Address area selection switches SW1 to SW4 are provided on the left and right sides of the display screen 640 to select address areas of controlled devices such as communication devices by type. Furthermore, an address display mode switch SW5 is provided at the bottom of the display screen to switch to a mode for displaying a terminal address management table. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the terminal address registration operation and the terminal address management table display operation. The operation of displaying the terminal address management table on the display section 64 of the home controller 6 will be described below based on this flowchart.6 First, when the home bus controller 10 and the home controller 6 are powered on, the home bus controller 10 After performing the rice processing, the terminal waits to receive a registration frame for the terminal address (step 540). In response, the home controller 6 performs initialization processing and then transmits a registration frame for the terminal address of the built-in interface unit 8 through the control channel of the home bus 1 (step S30.31). Home bus controller 1 that received this registration frame
0 CPU 100 stores in RAM 10 the end address of the interface unit 8f) with a built-in home controller sent as the self-address SA in the registration frame.
2 (step 542). Thereafter, when the user turns on the address display mode switch SW5 on the display section 64 of the home controller 6 to check the usage status of the terminal address (step 53
2) The home controller 6 sends an address request frame to the home bus controller 10 requesting the home bus controller 10 to transmit the registered terminal address.
to the information channel (step 833). Upon receiving the address request frame, the home bus controller 10 reads the registered terminal address from the RAM 102, generates a registered address frame, and sends it back to the home controller 6 via the control channel (step 34).
3,44). The home controller 6 that has received this registered address frame temporarily stores the received registered terminal address in the transmitting/receiving unit 63, and switches the display screen 640 of the display unit 64 to the initial menu display screen shown in FIG. 7 (step 334). .35). In this state, if the address area selection switch SWI is turned on in order to check the usage status of the terminal address of the communication device, for example, a step will be taken to extract the registered address of the communication device from among the received registered terminal addresses. 336
．． 37) Create display data such that only the vacant address portion lights up, and display the vacant addresses of the communication equipment system on the display section 64 as a terminal address management table (step 538). FIG. 9 shows a terminal address management table for communication equipment. In FIG. 9, the shaded areas are registered terminal addresses, and the white areas are empty addresses. In addition, NT is network termination, Tsuuhou is a crime prevention alarm, Onseitanmatsu is audio equipment such as Inter-on, Telecon is a telephone controller, Kazotanmatsu is terminal equipment that handles images such as the captain system, and Genshin is water supply. 'COJ', 'IOJ', 'COJ' and 'IOJ' are not written below.
, 'DOJ, r30', rc4J, '84J,...
. . . etc. are free addresses and represent the terminal address to be used next. Further, when the switch SW4 at the right or left position of "Return to Initial Menu" is turned on, the screen returns to the initial menu screen shown in FIG. 7. Figure 10 shows the terminal address management table for home appliances displayed by operating switch SW2, and Figure 11 shows the terminal address management table for audio and piteo equipment displayed by operating switch SW3. It is something. In FIG. 10, the controller represents a home controller, and the IFU represents an interface unit. In addition, in Fig. 11, TV means television, Am
p is an amplifier, S-BOX is a speaker box, and V
TR is a video cheap recorder. The terminal address management table may be displayed on behalf of the home controller 6, or may be displayed on another home controller 7 in the same manner. Furthermore, it may be displayed not only on the home controller but also on the interface unit 4.5.

【Effect of the invention】

As is clear from the above description, according to the home equipment control system of the present invention, the display device that displays the terminal address information set in each terminal device connected to the home bus is connected to the control device or at least one terminal device. Since it is provided in the address area, it is clear at a glance which address area is a vacant address, and it is possible to easily register a terminal address that does not overlap with an already registered terminal address. In addition, since there is no need to record the usage status of terminal addresses in a memo pad, etc., the inconvenience of address management being limited to a specific person is eliminated, and the user can easily increase or decrease the number of terminal devices. is obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the home bus controller of the home appliance control system of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a professional diagram showing the internal configuration of the home bus controller of the home appliance control system of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an address assignment diagram, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing terminal address registration processing executed by the home bus controller, and FIG. The figure shows an example of a displayed terminal address management table, Figure 7 is a plan view of the display screen of the home controller's display unit and its surrounding parts, and Figure 8 is the terminal address registration process and terminal address management of the home controller. A flowchart showing table display processing, FIGS. 9 to 11 are diagrams showing display examples of terminal address management tables by system,
FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the general configuration of the home appliance control system, and FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram of frames transmitted and received between terminal devices.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) Consisting of a control device and a plurality of terminal devices connected to this control device via an in-house bus line and each having unique terminal address information set in advance, In an in-house equipment control system in which an information exchange route is selected based on the terminal address information, a display device for displaying terminal address information set in each terminal device is connected to the control device or at least one of the terminal devices.
An in-home equipment control system characterized by being installed in one terminal device. (2) The home equipment control system according to claim 1, wherein the control device collects terminal address information set in each terminal device through a home bus line when power is turned on, and displays the information on the display. (3) The terminal device has an address setting means for setting unique terminal address information, and controls the terminal address information set by the address setting means when the power is turned on or in response to a transmission request from the control device. The home control system according to claim 1, wherein the home control system transmits the information to the device side. (4) The home equipment control system according to claim 1, wherein the control device displays the terminal address information only when a specific instruction is given.