JPH08320803A - Repair support system for gas equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide the repair support system which can speedily and precisely trace a fault place and its cause of the gas equipment that has not an electronic accessory such as an electric circuit and is effectively utilized for repairing operation. CONSTITUTION: This repair support system includes a fault diagnostic device 3 for the gas equipment 21 in which a microcomputer having a tester function and a communication function is incorporated and a host computer 11 which is installed at a service center 1 and equipped with a data base 12 storing specific fault diagnosis information and technical information in advance; when the fault diagnostic device 3 requests the host computer 11 through a communication line 10 to take a diagnosis, the host computer 11 sends the fault diagnosis information and technical information required for repair to the fault diagnostic device 3 in real time at the request.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gas equipment repair support system, and more particularly to a gas equipment repair support system for assisting a repair worker in repairing a gas equipment such as a small gas water heater without an electric component. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Currently, gas appliances that are generally used include models such as large-scale water heaters and room air conditioners that have a built-in electrical component such as an electronic circuit (having an outlet) that is connected to a power source, a stove, There are models that do not have built-in electrical equipment, such as stoves and small water heaters.

When a failure occurs in the latter model, the user of the gas appliance informs a service center in the area of the failure by telephone and requests inspection and repair. At the service center that received the call, the user hears the model name of the gas equipment, the location of the failure, and the status of the failure from the user, writes it on a prepared work sheet, and specifies the due date of the repair.

When a repair worker goes out to repair gas equipment, he or she carries an instruction manual, a technical guide, etc. regarding the gas equipment to be repaired, and at the same time predicts a failure point based on the information heard from the user and replaces it. Parts are prepared, and the failure diagnosis is performed by referring to the technical information such as the failure diagnosis manual attached to the gas equipment to be repaired.

In the field, a repair worker inspects a place which is considered to be the cause of failure of the failed gas equipment, and when the cause of failure cannot be visually determined, the trouble is checked through various works such as inspection using a tester. Determine the cause.
After that, the repair cost is estimated, presented to the user, and with the consent of the user, substantial repair work including parts replacement is started. Finally, a series of repairs is completed by performing a test run and confirming normal operation of the gas equipment. The repair worker returns to the service center and records the details of the repair work.

[0006]

As described above, there are the following problems in the case where a repair worker performs a failure diagnosis and then performs a repair. 1. Since the gas equipment to be repaired does not have electrical equipment, error information such as error codes cannot be displayed. 2. Since the gas equipment to be repaired has no electrical equipment, it is not possible to use a repair support tool such as a failure diagnosis device with a built-in microcomputer. 3. Since the technical information that the repair worker is trying to obtain is written on a thick booklet or a newspaper or a copy paper of a size larger than that, it is difficult to read the necessary technical information at a work site with a limited space, Inconvenient to utilize information. 4. There is little information on site to determine the failure status of the gas equipment to be repaired. 5. An unfamiliar repair worker may not be able to properly diagnose and repair the failure, and may not be able to respond to an urgent repair request.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to quickly and accurately identify a failure location and a cause of failure of a gas device having no electrical equipment such as an electronic circuit, and perform repair work. It is to provide a repair support system for gas equipment that can be effectively used for the above.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to a basic aspect of the present invention, a gas is arranged to be repaired after a failure diagnosis of the gas equipment at the installation location of the gas equipment. In a device repair support system, a failure diagnosis device having a built-in microcomputer having a tester function and a communication function, and a host computer installed in a service center and provided with a database in which predetermined failure diagnosis information and technical information are stored in advance. When there is a request for failure diagnosis from the failure diagnosis device to the host computer via a communication line, the failure diagnosis information and technical information necessary for repair are sent from the host computer in real time based on the request. A repair support system for gas equipment is provided, which is transmitted to the failure diagnosis device.

The present invention has some preferred embodiments as described below based on the above-mentioned basic aspects.

The failure diagnosis device is a terminal device such as a personal computer or a portable handheld computer.

The failure diagnosis device is equipped with a small digital still camera (CCD camera) for converting the failure status and the repair result into image data.

[0012]

According to the present invention, the data necessary for the failure diagnosis from the failure diagnosing device having a microcomputer having a tester function and a communication function is provided with a database in which predetermined failure diagnosis information and technical information are stored in advance, and a service is provided. While being transmitted to the host computer installed in the center, failure diagnosis information and technical information necessary for repair are transmitted from the host computer to the failure diagnosis device in real time based on the data. This makes it possible to quickly and accurately identify the failure location and cause of the gas equipment to be repaired without relying on conventional technical information such as instruction manuals and technical guides, improving workability on site. In addition, it can respond to urgent repair requests in a timely manner.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall construction of an example of a repair construction support system for gas equipment according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates a service center that provides comprehensive services to gas consumers in a predetermined area. The service center constantly monitors the gas usage status of the consumers. The company has a system for emergency response to abnormal situations in gas equipment of customers, and repair workers are always on standby. This service center records and integrates gas usage of customers, calculates gas charges, monitors and analyzes trends in gas consumption within the area, and performs data communication with the outside as described later. The host computer 11 is provided for the purpose, and the database 12 is limited to the range related to the present invention. The specification data of all the gas appliances used in the service area, for example, the gas appliances for each customer. Model, its instruction manual and construction manual, gas usage, and data related to installation and repair of gas equipment (eg installation / repair time, site piping diagrams, failure points, replacement parts, names of repair workers, etc.) ) Is stored.

On the other hand, the reference numeral 2 is one customer in the area covered by the service center 1, that is, a user of the gas equipment, and the gas equipment to be repaired (for example, a small gas water heater) to be subjected to a failure diagnosis in the customer 2 now. 21 is used, and a telephone 22 is further provided. This phone 2
2 is capable of communicating with the service center 1 via the ordinary public telephone line 10.

Reference numeral 3 is a failure diagnosis device having a built-in microcomputer, which is carried by a repair worker and used for failure diagnosis of the gas equipment 21 to be repaired on site. In addition,
A CCD camera 4 can be connected to the failure diagnosis device 3.

FIG. 2 schematically shows an example of the configuration of the failure diagnosis device 3.

The failure diagnosing device 3 has substantially the same appearance and function as a well-known handheld computer, and is connected to the CCD camera 4 via a connector 3b. Further, it can be connected to a printer (not shown) via the connector 3c. Further, the characteristic of this failure diagnosis device 3 is that it is possible to communicate with the host computer 11 of the service center 1 via the public telephone line 10 by connecting the telephone 22 shown in FIG. 1 via the connector 3a. The point is that you can exchange various data.

As shown in FIG. 2A, on the surface panel of the failure diagnosis device 3, a failure diagnosis procedure is displayed by a message or specification data of the repaired gas equipment 21 is displayed. , A liquid crystal display unit 31, a data input / output keyboard 32, a communication keyboard 33 used for communication with the service center 1, an on / off switch 3
4. Various operation buttons 35 including a mode switch for mode switching and the like are provided.

The circuit configuration of the failure diagnosis device 3 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b) of FIG. 3, a control unit 36 including a CPU that controls the operation of the failure diagnosis device 3 and communication with the service center 1, failure-related input by a repair worker during the failure diagnosis or after the failure diagnosis. It has a memory 37 for storing the information and data or the data transmitted from the service center 1 when requested, the keyboard 32, 33 and a data input section 38 including various operation buttons 35.

Next, the operation of the repair construction support system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the repair work of gas equipment.

When a repair worker requests a repair from the user 2, the repair worker does not bring any technical information materials such as an instruction manual and a technical guide for the gas equipment 21 to be repaired, and the work is prepared in advance in the service center 1. Carry the seat and the failure diagnosis device 3 to the repair site. After confirming the failure status again from the user (consumer) of the gas equipment 21 at the site, the host computer 11 is requested to send data necessary for failure diagnosis via the failure diagnosis device 3 and the communication line 10.
If necessary, the image data from the CCD camera 4 is also transmitted at the same time.

On the other hand, when the service center 1 requests the data necessary for the failure diagnosis, the host computer 11 determines the optimum failure diagnosis procedure for the failure model based on the technical information stored in the database 12 and the communication line 10. Is quickly transmitted to the failure diagnosis device 3 via. The transmitted failure diagnosis information is stored in the internal memory 37 of the failure diagnosis apparatus 3 and displayed on the display unit 31 of the failure diagnosis apparatus 3.

The repair worker starts the failure diagnosis work according to the procedure specified by the failure diagnosis information from the host computer,
Determine the cause of the failure. When the related parts are inspected, the operation is checked, the presence / absence of contact failure is checked, and the voltage / current is checked, the failure location and the cause of the failure can be easily and immediately found. The cause of failure may be defective parts. At this stage, the repair worker prepares an estimate of the repair cost based on the cause of the failure and presents it to the user. After the user agrees with this estimate, substantial repair work is performed to eliminate the cause of the failure. Replace parts if necessary. Finally, a test run is performed to confirm that the gas equipment is operating normally and to complete the repair work.

After that, the repair worker operates the keyboards 32 and 33 and various operation buttons 35 of the failure diagnosis device 3 to identify the user's code number, the gas equipment, the status data of the gas equipment when the work is completed, and the failure diagnosis. The repair result information and data about predetermined items such as the result of step 1 and the result of repair are input to the failure diagnosis device 3. Depending on the content of the repair, if it is judged that it is preferable to save the situation of the specific part of the gas equipment as an image, the CCD camera 4 is connected to the failure diagnosis device 3, and the current state of the specific part is photographed by the CCD camera 4. The video data is also stored in the internal memory 37 of the failure diagnosis device 3 as repair result information. After all the repair result information and data are input to the failure diagnosis device 3, the repair worker connects the failure diagnosis device 3 to the telephone set 22, and the repair result information and data are sent to the service center 1 via the public telephone line 10. To the host computer 11 of
Store in the database 12. As a result, the repair result information and data are all stored in the service center 1.

It goes without saying that the data transmission between the failure diagnosis device 3 and the service center 1 may be performed not only by the communication means using the public telephone line 10 but also by wireless communication.

Further, in the above embodiment, the failure diagnosis device 21.
Is a portable handheld computer,
It is also possible to replace it with a general terminal machine such as a personal computer.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Data necessary for failure diagnosis is transmitted from a failure diagnosis device containing a microcomputer having a tester function and a communication function to a host computer installed in a service center with a database pre-stored with predetermined failure diagnosis information and technical information. At the same time, since the failure diagnosis information and the technical information necessary for repair are transmitted from the host computer to the failure diagnosis device in real time based on the data, the following effects can be obtained. (1) By transmitting and receiving necessary information between the failure diagnosis device and the host computer via a communication line, quick and accurate failure diagnosis can be performed. (2) Since necessary technical information can be retrieved from the host computer via the failure diagnosis device, it is possible to respond to an urgent repair request and to make an appropriate repair even for a repair worker who does not have sufficient skill in repair. (3) Since the failure diagnosis result can be saved, it is possible to obtain technical information for updating the repair support database and reducing the failure rate. (4) If the host computer function can be installed in the failure diagnosis device, the handling of the failure diagnosis device can be improved and the workability at the repair site can be further improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a repair support system for gas equipment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a failure diagnosis device used in the present invention, FIG. 2 (a) is a plan view of a surface panel portion thereof,
(B) is a block diagram showing an internal circuit configuration.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Service Center 2 Customer 3 Failure Diagnosis Device 4 CCD Camera 10 Public Telephone Line 11 Host Computer 12 Database 21 Repaired Gas Equipment 22 Telephone 31 Display 32 Data Input / Output Keyboard 33 Communication Keyboard 34 On / Off Switch 35 Operation Button 36 control unit 37 memory 38 data input unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Koichiro Ito 2-13-7 Midori, Sumida-ku, Tokyo Urban Heights Ryogoku 1109 (72) Inventor Masa Ishimoto 2-11-2 Kajigaya, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Kajigaya Dormitory No. 222 (72) Inventor Satoshi Morita 6-9-5 Chuo, Ota-ku, Tokyo Omori Dormitory No. 24

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. In a repair support system for a gas device, wherein a repair is performed after a failure diagnosis of the gas device at a location where the gas device is installed, a failure diagnosis including a microcomputer having a tester function and a communication function. Device,
A host computer installed in a service center and provided with a database in which predetermined failure diagnosis information and technical information are stored in advance, in which a failure diagnosis request is made from the failure diagnosis device to the host computer via a communication line. Then, based on the request, the failure diagnosis information and the technical information necessary for repair are transmitted from the host computer to the failure diagnosis device in real time, and the repair support system for gas equipment. 2. The failure diagnosis device is a terminal device such as a personal computer.
The repair support system for gas equipment described in. 3. The repair support system for gas equipment according to claim 1, wherein the failure diagnosis device is a portable handheld computer. 4. The gas equipment according to claim 1, wherein the failure diagnosis device comprises a small digital still camera for converting the failure status and the repair result into image data. Repair support system.