JPH08296840A - Troubleshooting system for gas apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To draw all necessary information from a gas apparatus troubled by outputting a data necessary for troubleshooting of the gas apparatus to a troubleshooting device selectively from the side of the gas apparatus through a multiplexer to diagnose a trouble. CONSTITUTION: A control substrate 14 is provided with a connector 18 for diagnosis for connection to a voltage/current detecting section 5 of the troubleshooting device 1 to detect a voltage value and a current value to be supplied to sensors 411-414 and actuators 511-514 by the troubleshooting device 1. On the other hand. A signal line is connected to a multiplexer 17 to detect the voltage value and the current value to be supplied to the sensors 411-414 and the actuators 511-514 and an address signal for selecting an output of the multiplexer 17 is applied to the multiplexer 17 through the connector 18 for diagnosis of a gas apparatus 16 to perform a troubleshooting by a CPU 2a of the troubleshooting device 1. This enables drawing of all necessary information from the gas apparatus troubled.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a failure diagnosis system for identifying a failure location by a repair worker who has been repaired when a gas appliance fails.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a gas hot water supply device, a gas fan heater, a gas room air conditioner, or other gas equipment fails, a user usually contacts a service center in the area by telephone to request repair. At the service center that received the call, we got information from the user about the model name, fault location and what kind of phenomenon occurred, and wrote it down on the work sheet etc. I go to my house for repair work.

In the actual repair work, first, the repair worker newly confirms with the user about the failure state of the failed gas appliance, and also checks the operating status of the gas appliance again on the spot, and a fault location manual or failure is identified. Refer to the diagnosis sheet to roughly identify the cause or location of the failure,
If necessary, measurement is performed using a tester, etc. to check for faulty parts, and necessary processing such as parts replacement is performed.

By the way, in the last 10 years or so, there is a tendency that electric control is taken into gas appliances, and such appliances are equipped with an electric board on which a CPU is mounted, and information from various sensors is sent to the CPU. The temperature control, the gas combustion control, the operation of the safety device, etc. are controlled by controlling the operation of various actuators based on the information. Along with the increase in performance, the number of sensors and actuators incorporated in gas equipment has increased, and in addition to the complexity of control boards, the number of connectors on the boards for connecting to sensors and actuators has also increased.

In such a model, even if a phenomenon that seems to be a failure occurs, since the complicated control is performed, it is rather difficult to identify the cause of the failure as compared with the conventional model. In addition, the number of parts and locations that must be inspected to identify the location of failure is increasing dramatically. In addition, due to the demand for miniaturization in recent household gas appliances, electrical equipment boards and various parts are very compactly housed inside the appliances, which makes it extremely time-consuming and time-consuming to inspect each part. It takes.

Therefore, in the conventional repair work, the work efficiency of the identification and the repair of the defective portion tends to be influenced by the experience, intuition, and skill of the repair worker. A repair worker with insufficient experience or skill may take a long time to identify a failure point or cannot accurately identify a failure point, resulting in lower work efficiency and lower user confidence in repair work. It can happen. In particular, recently, the cycle of bringing new models to the market has been shortened compared to the past, and there are situations in which the level of repair workers cannot easily catch up with this cycle, and the problems with conventional repair work become even more difficult. It tends to become apparent.

On the other hand, gas appliances are often installed outdoors or at the boundary with the outdoors, such as water heaters and room air conditioners, and are directly affected by seasonal and climatic changes. For example, there are many demands for repairs due to failure because it is in a harsh environment as compared with household electric appliances installed in a relatively stable indoor environment such as being heated to a high temperature by gas combustion. In addition, gas appliances, as typified by a central hot water supply system, have a strong demand for prompt repairs as they can quickly interfere with daily life when they break down. Is desired.

[0008] Therefore, in order to improve the conventional repair work method, it is possible for a repair worker to carry a gas when he or she goes to repair it and connect it to a gas device to diagnose a malfunction of the gas device. A failure diagnosis device has been proposed.

For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-324056, a defect condition of a water heater for which a failure is to be diagnosed is input to a diagnostic means before the inspection is started, and parts or parts to be inspected by the inspector by the diagnostic means are roughly. A water heater failure diagnosis system has been proposed which can identify a failure location by specifying the identified parts or portions and connecting them to a tester, and then performing an operation test for identifying the failure location.

Here, referring to FIG. 3, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-324.
The outline of the hot water supply device failure diagnosis system proposed in 056 will be described.

In this fault diagnosis system, the fault tester 7 is connected to the faulty water heater 11 for fault diagnosis. The inspector 7 stores a control unit 2 equipped with a CPU 2a that performs arithmetic processing such as failure inspection based on the data taken in the inspector and controls display of other data, and programs related to control and failure inspection. Storage unit 3
A display unit 4 for displaying data, a voltage / current detection unit 5 for detecting the voltage value and current value of each component of the water heater 11, and a data input unit for a repair worker to input data. Have six.

In the water heater 11, the CPU 12 mounted on the control board 14 causes the actuator 5 via the driver 13 based on the information sent from the sensors 411 to 414.
The operations 11 to 514 are controlled. Connector 41
To 44 are connected to signal lines for supplying currents and voltages to the sensors 411 to 414, respectively, and connectors 51 to 54 are provided to signal lines for detecting current values and voltage values supplied to the actuators 511 to 514, respectively. By connecting these connectors to the voltage / current detection unit 5 provided in the inspector 7 and detecting the voltage value or current value on the inspector 7 side, the operating status of each sensor or each actuator can be inspected. it can.

Next, an actual failure diagnosis method will be described.

A repair worker who goes to repair confirms what kind of phenomenon has occurred from the user, and inputs data from the data input section 6 of the inspection device 7. For example, the item of "improper ignition" is input. From this data, the CPU 2a causes the display unit 4 to display the site to be inspected. For example, a message such as “Please inspect the sensor 413, the sensor 414, and the actuator 511” is displayed. According to this display, the repair worker connects the connectors 42, 44, 51 and the voltage / current detection unit 5 of the inspector 7, confirms the operation status, and confirms the failure location. In this way, the portion necessary for the failure diagnosis is preliminarily inferred based on the failure information from the user, and the failure diagnosis is performed by connecting only the connector at that portion and the inspector 7, so that unnecessary inspection can be omitted. Instead, it is possible to reduce the number of signal lines and connectors that connect the inspection device 7 and the water heater 11.

However, if inference is introduced before diagnosing a failure, it may not be possible to deal with the case where the information from the user is incorrect or the case of a failure that rarely occurs. Also, in FIG. 3, only four sensors and four actuators are provided for the sake of simplicity, but in reality, there are two to three times as many sensors and actuators, and the number of connectors is also increased. Accordingly, the repair worker may erroneously connect to a connector other than the connector designated by the inspection device 7.

On the other hand, the applicant of the present application has already applied for a failure diagnosis apparatus for gas equipment using a portable computer (see Japanese Patent Application No. 337732 of 1994), and the failure diagnosis method here. Attempts to extract all the necessary information from the failed gas appliance without using inference and inspect all the necessary points until the failure point can be reliably identified according to the failure diagnosis program.

According to such a failure diagnosis method, there is no possibility that the connecting portion of the connector is erroneous and the judgment is made under the wrong assumption. However, in this case, in the configuration as shown in FIG. 3, all the connectors and the failure diagnosing device must be connected, the number of signal lines to be connected increases, and the failure diagnosing work becomes complicated, which is troublesome and time-consuming. Takes.

Therefore, a method of newly providing a diagnostic connector 15 for connecting to the failure diagnostic device 1 on the control board 14 on the gas equipment 16 side as shown in FIG. 2 can be considered. Figure 2
3, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 3 indicate the same components, and the description thereof will be omitted. Only different parts will be described.

The failure diagnosing device 1 shown in FIG. 2 is connected to the failed gas equipment 16 to make a failure diagnosis.
The failure diagnosis device 1 is an IC that stores programs and data necessary for failure diagnosis prepared for each model of the gas equipment 16.
A storage medium such as a card, a floppy disk, or a CD-ROM is inserted into the failure diagnosis information input unit 8 and the CPU 2a reads the failure diagnosis program or data from the storage medium and the gas detected by the voltage / current detection unit 5. The failure diagnosis is performed based on the data of each part of the device 16 and various data transmitted from the CPU 12 of the gas device 16 via the SIO (serial input / output port) 9, and how to change the storage medium. It is also compatible with various gas appliances. The storage medium can be changed not only by exchanging the IC card as described above, but also by directly communicating with the RAM of the failure diagnosis apparatus 1.
(Not shown) may be given.

The diagnostic connector 15 of the gas equipment 16 is connected to the voltage / current detecting section 5 of the failure diagnosis device 1 for failure diagnosis, and sensors 411 to 414 and an actuator 51 are connected to the diagnosis connector 15.
The signal lines 1 to 514 are gathered in one place, and the voltage / current detection unit 5 side is connected to the diagnostic connector 15 by providing a number of pins corresponding to the signal lines.

[0021]

However, in FIG. 2, only four sensors and four actuators are provided for the sake of simplicity, but in reality, two to three times as many sensors and actuators are provided. Therefore, the number of signal lines collected in the diagnostic connector 15 becomes a considerable number, and when the number of pins corresponding to the number is requested to the fault diagnostic device 1, the fault diagnostic device 1 is compact. It will be a major obstacle to the realization. Further, such a diagnostic connector 15 occupies a larger area than the diagnostic connector for a single unit as shown in FIG. 3 and may lead to an increase in size of the control board 14 itself. Further, the failure diagnosis apparatus 1 proposed in FIG. 2 is intended to support various types of gas appliances by exchanging the storage medium loaded in the failure diagnosis information input unit 8, so If the number of signal lines connected to the failure diagnosis apparatus 1 on the control board 14 side of the device 16 is limited, it becomes difficult to maintain the versatility of the failure diagnosis apparatus 1.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to extract all necessary information from a faulty gas appliance, and to identify all faulty points according to a fault diagnosis program. It is an object of the present invention to provide a failure diagnosis system capable of reducing the number of signal lines for communication between a failure diagnosis device for inspecting a necessary portion and a gas device for which a failure is to be diagnosed.

[0023]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a failure diagnosis of gas equipment such as voltage value or current value data of a predetermined portion of an electric circuit and electric parts provided in the gas equipment. The necessary data is selectively output to the failure diagnosis device via the multiplexer, and the failure diagnosis is performed based on the output data.

[0024]

By outputting the data necessary for the failure diagnosis through the multiplexer, it is not necessary to directly transmit the data from the predetermined parts of each electric circuit and the electric parts, and therefore, the communication between the gas equipment and the failure diagnosis device is performed. The number of signal lines is small.

[0025]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a failure diagnosing device and a gas appliance constituting a failure diagnosing system for a gas appliance according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 or 3 indicate the same constituent elements.

The failure diagnosis device 1 is provided with failure diagnosis information for loading a storage medium such as an IC card, a floppy disk, or a CD-ROM in which a failure diagnosis program and data prepared for each model of the gas equipment 16 are stored. The input unit 8, the control unit 2 having the CPU 2a for reading out the fault diagnosis program and data from the storage medium loaded in the fault diagnosis information input unit 8 and performing the arithmetic processing of the fault diagnosis, and the result of the fault diagnosis are displayed. The display unit 4, the SIO (serial input / output port) 9 for inputting / outputting data between the CPU 12 of the gas equipment 16 and the CPU 2a of the failure diagnosis device 1, and the voltage value and current value of each part of the gas equipment 16 Voltage for detecting
It has a current detector 5.

In the gas device 16, the CPU 12 mounted on the control board 14 controls the operations of the actuators 511 to 514 via the driver 13 based on the information sent from the sensors 411 to 414. CPU12
In the RO, the control program for the gas equipment 16 is held.
An M20 and an EEPROM (nonvolatile memory) 19 for storing an error code and a failure history when the CPU 12 itself detects an abnormality in the gas device 16 are connected.

The control board 14 includes sensors 411 to 414 and actuators 511 to 514 in the failure diagnosis device 1.
A diagnostic connector 18 for connecting to the voltage / current detection unit 5 of the failure diagnostic device 1 is provided to detect the voltage / current value supplied to the device. On the other hand, the sensors 411 to 411
The signal line for detecting the voltage value / current value supplied to 414 and the actuators 511 to 514 is connected to the multiplexer 17, and the output signal line b from the multiplexer 17 to the diagnostic connector 18 is one ( However, the common GND line is excluded).

On the other hand, the addressing signal for selecting the output of the multiplexer 17 is given to the multiplexer 17 via the diagnostic connector 18 of the gas equipment 16 by the CPU 2a of the diagnostic device 1 according to the diagnostic program. Therefore, in this embodiment, the failure diagnostic device 1 and the diagnostic connector 18 of the gas device 16 are the signal line a for addressing from the failure diagnostic device 1 side and the output signal line from the multiplexer 17 of the gas device 16. It may be connected with b.

In the failure diagnosis device 1 shown in FIG. 1, C
Since the cable c for communication between the PU 2a and the CPU 12 of the gas equipment 16 is separately provided, it is not necessary to increase the signal line a for addressing the multiplexer 17, and CP
Addressing may be performed to select the output of the multiplexer 17 from the CPU 12 by giving an instruction directly from the U2a to the CPU 12 via the SIO 9.

In the present embodiment, the output data from the multiplexer 17 is converted from analog data into digital data by the voltage / current detection section 5 of the failure diagnosis device 1 to perform failure diagnosis. However, the output data from the multiplexer 17 may be converted into digital data by using an analog / digital conversion circuit in the microcomputer if the one-chip microcomputer on the gas device 16 side has a margin, and may be transmitted to the failure diagnosis device 1. .

Finally, the failure diagnosis method in this embodiment will be summarized once again.

A repair worker who has been contacted by the user and has gone to repair the gas device 16 surely connects the failure diagnosis device 1 to the gas device 16 which is going to carry out a failure diagnosis at one place with the diagnostic connector 18. Then, when a storage medium such as an IC card or a floppy disk storing the failure diagnosis program and data prepared for each model of the gas device 16 is inserted into the failure diagnosis information input unit 8, the CPU 2a reads the program or data. The failure diagnosis is started based on.

In the actual failure diagnosis, for example, the CPU 2a
First reads the error code and the failure history stored in the EEPROM 19 of the gas device 16 through the SIO 9, and based on that, a reproduction test immediately before the failure occurs is performed to read the current value and the voltage value of a necessary part, The operation status of each sensor or actuator is inspected by reading the current value or voltage value, and all necessary points are inspected according to the failure diagnosis program until the failure point can be identified with certainty. At this time, the data on the gas device 16 side necessary for the failure diagnosis is selectively output from the multiplexer 17 according to the failure diagnosis program and transmitted to the failure diagnosis apparatus 1.

While the failure diagnosis is being performed, the repair worker may wait until the identified failure location is displayed on the display unit 4. The repair worker performs necessary processing for repair such as replacement of parts according to this display, and again the failure diagnosis device 1
Conduct a confirmation test of repair completion such as checking the operation status of the repaired area.

The display unit 4 and the voltage / current detection unit 5 of the failure diagnosis device 1 are provided on the gas device 16 side, and the ROM 2
By holding the failure diagnosis program and data in 0, the failure diagnosis can be performed by the gas device 16 itself.

Further, the failure diagnosis system described in the present embodiment can be applied not only to gas appliances but also to failure diagnostics of equipment that performs any electrical control.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the data necessary for the failure diagnosis can be selectively output via the multiplexer, the following effects can be obtained. (1) The number of signal lines for communication between the gas equipment and the failure diagnosis device can be reduced. (2) Even if the total number of signal lines that output data necessary for failure diagnosis differs depending on the model of gas equipment, it is output via a multiplexer, which affects the number of pins in the connector between the gas equipment and the failure diagnosis device. Don't give. (3) Since the gas device and the failure diagnosis device are connected at one place, the repair worker does not make a connection error. (4) It is possible to perform reliable failure diagnosis regardless of the experience, intuition, and skill of the repair worker, and regardless of the level of the inference function.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a failure diagnosing device and a gas appliance constituting a failure diagnosing system for a gas appliance according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a failure diagnostic device and a gas appliance that constitute a conventional failure diagnostic system for gas appliances.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an inspector and a water heater which constitute a conventional hot water heater failure diagnosis system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Failure Diagnosis Device 2 Control Section 2a CPU 4 Display Section 5 Voltage / Current Detection Section 8 Failure Diagnosis Information Input Section 9 SIO 11 Water Heater 12 CPU 13 Driver 14 Control Board 16 Gas Equipment 17 Multiplexer 18 Diagnostic Connector 19 EEPROM 20 ROM 411 To 414 sensors 511 to 514 actuators

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Suzuki Ken 1399-7-242 Sezaki-cho, Soka-shi, Saitama Prefecture (72) Inventor Masa Ishimoto 2-11-2 Kajigaya, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Kajigaya Dormitory No. 222 (72) Inventor Satoshi Morita No. 24 Omori Dormitory, 6-9-5 Chuo, Ota-ku, Tokyo

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A gas equipment having a multiplexer and a failure diagnosis device connected to the gas equipment to perform failure diagnosis. Data necessary for failure diagnosis of the gas equipment is supplied to the gas equipment side via the multiplexer. A failure diagnosis system for gas equipment, wherein the failure diagnosis is carried out by selectively outputting the data to a failure diagnosis device. 2. The failure diagnosis system for gas equipment according to claim 1, wherein the data necessary for the failure diagnosis is voltage value or current value data of a predetermined portion of an electric circuit and an electric component provided in the gas equipment. . 3. A failure diagnosis information input unit for the failure diagnosis device to insert a storage medium storing a failure diagnosis program and data prepared for each model of gas equipment, and read from the failure diagnosis information input unit. The present invention is characterized in that it has an arithmetic means for performing arithmetic processing for failure diagnosis based on the issued program or data and the data output from the multiplexer, and a display means for displaying a result calculated by the arithmetic means. The failure diagnosis system according to claim 1. 4. A failure diagnosis information storage means for storing a program or data for diagnosing a failure of a gas appliance, and selectively outputting voltage value or current value data of a predetermined portion of an electric circuit and an electric component of the gas appliance. It has a multiplexer and a failure diagnosis means for performing a failure diagnosis calculation process based on the information stored in the failure diagnosis information storage means and the voltage value or current value data output from the multiplexer. Gas equipment. 5. A plurality of signal lines for detecting voltage value or current value data supplied to a predetermined portion of an electric circuit and an electric component of a gas appliance are connected to a multiplexer, and the voltage value or current value is output from the multiplexer. A method for diagnosing a failure in a gas appliance, which comprises inspecting an operation status of a predetermined part by selectively outputting data.