JPH0580854B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a transmission control method for controlling communication between devices distributed in a distributed manner on a transmission communication path.

Prior Art A transmission control method is used to connect each device with an electrical transmission channel and transmit control signals to each other for the purpose of centrally controlling multiple devices or monitoring the current status of the device. Various reports have been made.

One example is a method in which a commercial 100V power line is used as a transmission communication path to control equipment (for example, electrical appliances) in a general household. This is the 50Hz of the electric light line.
Alternatively, communication signal voltage using a carrier wave with a frequency sufficiently higher than this is superimposed on 60Hz AC voltage to communicate between each device, which eliminates the need for special wiring for control, reducing the effort and cost associated with installation. It has the characteristic of being small. Here, there is a control device for transmitting control signals for controlling the devices. The control device has a communication function, a control signal generation function, and a monitor display function that shows the device status. There are also terminal devices that control devices using control signals from control devices. The terminal device has a communication function and a device control function. Each terminal device has an address so that it can be identified from the others, and is connected to a power line that is a transmission communication path.

The operation of the transmission control device having the above configuration will be explained below. For example, suppose that a control request is issued to a control device to change one device that is currently in a de-energized state (hereinafter referred to as OFF) to a energized state (hereinafter referred to as ON). Then, the control device receives the own station address indicating its own station, the other station address indicating the other station being controlled,
A signal consisting of an ON control command, which is the control content, is transmitted onto the power line. The terminal device of each device that receives this compares the address of the other station in the signal with its own address, and if they are different, it ignores it, and if they match, it sends a reception confirmation signal to the control device. Sends it to the control device and turns the device on according to the ON control command. Once the terminal device confirms that the device has turned on, it then sends an ON notification to the control device, including its own station address, the address of the control device that is the other station, and the fact that the device has turned on. A signal consisting of a command is transmitted over the power line. When the control device receives a signal containing an ON notification command from the terminal device, it transmits a reception confirmation signal to the terminal device and displays on the monitor that the device is ON. The above is a series of control processes. In this way, when multiple devices are connected on a transmission communication path, each device is assigned an individual address, and the signal is sent to and received by including the local station address and the other station address in the signal. Make it clear.
In this way, each communication is always one station to one station, thereby preventing malfunctions due to interference or the like.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the above-mentioned apparatus, consider a case where there are a plurality of control devices on the transmission communication path, and each control device wants to control and monitor the devices. A block diagram of the apparatus in this case is shown in FIG. A control device 2, a control device 3, and a terminal device 4 are connected to the power line 1, which is a transmission communication path. A device 5 such as an electric appliance is connected to the terminal device 4. The control devices 2 and 3 are respectively provided with operation switches 6 and 7 for controlling the device 5 and indicator lights 8 and 9 for monitoring and displaying the status of the device 5.
Assume that the device 5, which is currently OFF, is to be turned ON by pressing the operation switch 6 of the control device 2. Then, the control device 2 and the terminal device 4 transmit and receive a series of communication signals including the own address and the other party's address. As a result, the device 5 turns ON and the indicator light 8 shows ON.
The light will turn on. However, the signal does not reach the control device 3 that is monitoring the same device 5 because the destination station address transmitted from the terminal device 4 is different. Therefore, the monitor display of the control device 3 shows OFF even though the device 5 is ON.
When a plurality of control devices are present on a transmission communication path in this way, a major problem arises in that monitor display cannot be performed properly using the conventional one-to-one communication method.

One solution to this problem is to send the notification signal from the terminal device to all control devices. However, since the number of control devices is undefined, it is not known to which address the message should be sent. There is also a method of sequentially transmitting signals to the addresses of all possible control devices, but this is not practical as it takes a very long time for one communication. Another solution is to set a communication procedure so that the notification signal is received by all control devices. This could be, for example, deciding that a particular command is to be received by all control devices regardless of the address.
However, in this case, all the control devices simultaneously send reception confirmation signals in response to the notification command signal from the terminal device, so a situation occurs where the content of the signal is destroyed due to a collision of signals on the transmission channel. . Furthermore, it takes a long time to return to normal status after a collision, which is also impractical. Although it is possible to prevent the control device from transmitting a reception confirmation signal, it is not possible to confirm whether the control device has received the signal normally or whether the terminal device has transmitted the signal normally, resulting in an unreliable device. .

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a transmission control device that provides a specific address within the self-address setting range of the control equipment on the transmission communication path and can transmit signals with high reliability even when the number of control equipment increases. This is the object of the present invention.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the transmission control method of the present invention includes a communication control means and a communication control means for mutually communicating using signals including own address and specific address on a transmission communication path. , a plurality of terminal devices each having a transmitting/receiving means, an address setting means for setting the own station address, and a device control means for controlling the connected devices, and the own station address and the other station address on the transmission communication path. a communication control means for communicating with each other using signals including signals, a transmitting/receiving means, an address setting means, a display means for displaying the status of the equipment according to the communication from the terminal equipment, and a remote control means for communicating with the terminal equipment. a plurality of control devices consisting of operation switches that issue operation instructions, one of the address values that can be set by the address setting means of the control device is defined as a specific address, and one of the plurality of control devices The address setting means of one control device is set to a specific address, the signals used for communication from the terminal device to the control device are always addressed to the specific address, and the specific address is used as the partner station address for other control devices. The same processing as for the communication addressed to the own station is performed on the signal sent to the station, and the reception confirmation signal for the communication is sent only by the control device to which a specific address has been set.

Example Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. The power line 10, which is a transmission communication path, includes a control device 11, a control device 12, a terminal device 13, and a terminal device 1.
4 is connected. Further, a device 15 and a device 16 to be controlled are connected to the terminal device 13 and the terminal device 14, respectively. The control devices 11, 12 and the terminal devices 13, 14 have address setting means 17, 18, 1 for setting their own station addresses, respectively.
9 and 20 are provided. In addition, the control equipment 11,
12 includes operation switches 21 and 22 for remotely controlling the device 15, and control switches 21 and 22 for controlling the device 15, respectively.
Indicator lights 23 and 24 for monitoring the ON/OFF status, operation switches 25 and 26 for remotely controlling the device 16, and ON/OFF of the device 16
Indicator lights 27, 28 for monitoring status
have.

FIG. 2 shows the internal configuration of the control device 11. A transmitting/receiving means 29 is connected to the power line 10, and a communication control means 30 is further connected thereto. The communication control means 30 connects the power line 1 via the transmitting/receiving means 29.
0 or receive a signal on power line 10. The communication control means 30 also includes an address setting means 17, operation switches 21, 25, and an indicator light 2.
3 and 27 are connected. Address setting means 1
7 consists of a plurality of switches, and the address assigned to each terminal is set by a combination of on/off switches. Operation switches 21 and 25 are respectively connected to device 1.
Terminal device 1 with remote control switches 5 and 16
The other station address is set using the own station address of 3 and 14 as the other station address. Also, indicator light 2
3 and 27 are ON/OFF of devices 15 and 16 respectively
Monitor and display the status. That is, equipment 15 (1
6) is ON, the indicator light 23 (27) is on, and conversely, when it is OFF, it is off. Now equipment 15
If the operation switch 21 is pressed when the indicator light 23 is ON, that is, the indicator light 23 is lit, the communication control means 30 reads the own station address from the address setting means 17 and sets the other station address (terminal device 13
A signal containing the OFF control command for the device 15 is transmitted to the power line 10 via the transmitting/receiving means 29.
Send on. Conversely, when device 15 is OFF, it is ON.
Send a signal containing a control command. Also equipment 15
If the OFF notification signal regarding (16) is received from the terminal device 13 (14) via the power line 10,
The reception confirmation signal is sent to the power line 1 via the transmitting/receiving means 29.
0, and the communication control means 30 turns on the indicator light 23.
(27) is turned off. Conversely, it lights up when an ON notification signal is received.

FIG. 3 shows the internal configuration of the terminal device 13. A transmitting/receiving means 31 is connected to the power line 10, and a communication control means 32 is further connected thereto. Also connected to the communication control means 32 are an address setting means 19 and a device control means 33. The power line 10 is also connected to the equipment 15 via equipment control means 33 . The device control means 33 is realized by a relay circuit. Now, assume that the device control means 33 is applying the power line voltage and the device 15 is ON, and the power line 1
Assume that a signal containing an OFF command comes from above to device 15. The signal is input to the communication control means 32 via the transmission/reception means 31 . Here, the partner station address in the signal is compared with the own station address set in the address setting means 19, and if they match, a reception confirmation signal is transmitted onto the power line 10 via the transmitting/receiving means 31, and communication control is performed. The means 32 controls the device control means 33 to be de-energized and turns off the device 15. Also, the switching of the device control means 33 is completed and the device 15 is switched on.
Once turned off, a signal containing a notification command to the effect that the device 15 has been turned off is transmitted to the power line 10 via the transmitting/receiving means 31.

With the above configuration, only one of the plurality of control devices is set so that its own address is a specific address. To set this specific address, for example, if 10 control devices are connected, assign an integer from 0 to 9 to each as the own station address, and set the control device that has been assigned a own address of 0 to a specific address. This is done by setting it as a control device. Here, the controller 11 is set to a specific address.
Control device 1 with such a specific address set
1. Control equipment 12 for which a specific address has not been set
The control signals from the terminal equipment 13,
14. This control equipment 11,1
The terminal devices 13 and 14 (actually only one of them) that received the transmission from the terminal device 13 and 14 execute the command and transmit the executed notification command to the control devices 11 and 12. , 14 is always transmitted to the control device 11 having a specific address as the partner station address. Further, the reception confirmation signal for this signal is always transmitted only by the control device 11 having a specific address. Further, the control devices 11 and 12 include the specific address control device 11
When a notification command addressed to the station is received, processing is performed to rewrite the monitor display of the own station according to the contents of the command.

The above reception processing by the control devices 11 and 12 will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4. control equipment 11,
12 first checks whether or not a signal has been received (process 34), and repeats this until reception is received. If there is a reception, check whether the other station address in the signal is a specific address (process 35), and if it is not a specific address, process
Return to 34. After confirming that the signal is addressed to a specific address, address setting means 17, 1 of the own station
8 to check whether the own station itself has a specific address (process 36). If the local station does not have a specific address, the command content in the received signal is decoded (process 38), and the monitor display is rewritten according to the content (process 39). Also, if your own station has a specific address, send a reception confirmation signal to power line 1.
0 (process 37), decodes the command content in the received signal (process 38), and rewrites the monitor display according to the content (process 39).

In this way, the transmission control method of this embodiment uses the concept of a specific address, and all signals from a terminal device are transmitted to a control device having a specific address, and a reception confirmation signal for that signal is transmitted to a control device having a specific address. By using a method in which only devices transmit, it is possible to realize broadcast communication in a normal communication format without using special means for broadcast communication. Therefore, regardless of the number of control devices in a series of control processes, collisions and congestion of signals on the transmission communication path can be prevented.

Effects of the Invention In the transmission control method of the present invention, since all control devices can receive only one signal from a terminal device, there is no erroneous display due to reception failure, and one communication is completed in a short time. Furthermore, since the reception confirmation signal from the control device is transmitted only from a specific address station, congestion and collision of signals on the transmission communication path do not occur. This has the effect that changes in the status of equipment are displayed on the monitors of all control equipment without error in a short period of time, resulting in extremely high reliability. In addition, when adding or changing control equipment, there is no need to modify the equipment in terms of hardware or software, and care must be taken to set one of the control equipment to a specific address when adding or changing the control equipment to the transmission communication path. Just change it. Therefore, the present invention also has the effect of improving adaptability to changes in equipment. Furthermore, in the event of a device failure, communication can be immediately confirmed by simply connecting a control device of the same type to the communication transmission path, resulting in improved maintainability. Further, these broadcast communications do not require any special means for broadcasting, and can be realized using normal communication formats.
Furthermore, since all communications from the terminal device to the control device are addressed to a specific address, the transmission program for the terminal device and the reception program for the control device can be simple.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a transmission control method showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an internal block diagram of control equipment used in the method, FIG. 3 is an internal block diagram of terminal equipment used in the method, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the reception processing of the control equipment used in the same direction, and FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a conventional transmission control device. 10...Light line, 11,12...Control equipment, 1
3, 14... terminal equipment, 15, 16... equipment, 1
7, 18, 19, 20...address setting means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Communication control means for communicating with each other using signals including own address and specific address on the transmission communication path, transmitting and receiving means, address setting means for setting own address, and connected equipment. A plurality of terminal devices having a device control means for controlling the devices, a communication control means for communicating with each other using signals including own station address and partner station address on a transmission communication path, a transmitting/receiving means, and an address. It is composed of a plurality of control devices including a setting means, a display means for displaying the status of the device according to the communication from the terminal device, and an operation switch for giving remote control instructions to the terminal device, and the address of the control device is One of the address values that can be set by the setting means is set as a specific address, the address setting means of one of the plurality of control devices is set to the specific address, and the terminal device is configured to send a message to the control device from the terminal device. The signals used for communication are always addressed to a specific address,
Other control devices process signals using a specific address as the partner station address in the same way as communication addressed to their own station, and the reception confirmation signal for the communication is transmitted only by the control device to which the specific address is set. Control method.