JPH0879846A - Remote control equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve the response of a remote controller in a polling system by placing higher priority onto a remote controller whose use is highly possible. CONSTITUTION: A hot water supply main body 1 is constituted of a means 11 making communication with a remote controller via an antenna 12, a hot water supply control means 13 controlling a burner and a mixing valve based on command data received by the communication means 11 from the remote commander to control hot water supply, a host water supply main body storage means 25 and a hot water supply main body control section 20. The host water supply main body storage means 25 is constituted of a slot order storage means 25 and other storage means 27. The slot order storage means 26 stores priority for the communication with the host water supply main body 1 and communication is made from a remote commander with a higher priority when communication information is in the same communication timing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control device provided with a plurality of remote controllers for a main device such as a water heater, and more particularly to communication thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a communication method for this type of remote control device, a polling method has been adopted. In this method, a remote controller, which is a subordinate station, sequentially issues a "transmission request" to the main body. If there is a remote controller that has transmission data, the remote controller is permitted to communicate at that time.

[0003]

Although there is such a conventional one, in the conventional one, since the slot order, which is the order of calling the remote controller, is fixed, the remote controller having a low priority always delays the calling timing. There was a problem that the response became poor.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the slot order of the remote controller is changed according to the priority of the remote controller to be used, and the response of the use of the remote controller is obtained. It aims to improve the sex.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a remote control device comprising a device main body and a plurality of remote controllers for remotely operating the device main body, Slot order storage means provided on the device main body side for storing the communication priority order of the plurality of remote controllers, and when receiving a signal from the remote controller, the slot order of the received remote controller is the highest priority order. And a slot order conversion means.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the main unit is provided with slot order storing means for storing the priority order of communication of each of a plurality of remote controllers, and if there is a specific or arbitrary signal such as power-on from the remote controller, the slot order is stored. The conversion means changes the slot order by setting the slot order of the remote controller to the highest priority order.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Here, an outline of a water heater according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in the figure, with respect to the main body 1 of the water heater, for example, a flow remote controller 2 in the bathroom, a main remote controller 3 in the kitchen, a sub remote controller 4 in the shower room, and other places corresponding to the respective places of installation such as a washroom Remote controllers having operation functions are provided respectively, and communication data by wireless W and a common communication ID are exchanged between the remote controllers 2 and 3-n and the water heater main body 1, respectively. The water heater main body 1 is driven based on the communication data sent from -n.

As shown in FIG. 3, for example, the flow remote controller 2 has a display unit 2a for displaying a set temperature, a timer, a hot water supply temperature, a bath water level, various switch buttons 2b such as operation on / off, automatic, and a bath temperature. A setting switch 2c for adjustment, water level setting, hot water temperature adjustment, etc. is provided. Further, the main remote controller 3 has a timer, as shown in FIG.
A display unit 3a for hot water supply temperature and bath temperature, various switch buttons 3b for operating ON / OFF, temperature adjustment, automatic, instant hot water, instant hot water reservation setting, and the like are provided. In this way, each remote 2,
3-n is provided with a switch button for each function setting, a display unit, etc., and the user operates the switch buttons of these remote controls to communicate the wireless W communication data for driving the water heater main body 1. Is sent,
Communication ID of the remote controller that operated the communication ID of the water heater body 1
When the two match, the water heater main body 1 receives the communication data and starts the hot water supply operation based on the communication data.

Next, the structure of the water heater according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a water heater main body,
Reference numeral 2 is a flow remote controller, 3 is a main remote controller, and the water heater is configured by the water heater main body 1 and each remote controller 2, 3-, and communication data is exchanged between the water heater main body 1, the flow remote controller 2, the main remote controller 3, and the like. Is performed using wireless communication by radio waves 50.

As the communication ID, a communication ID is provided for each remote controller 2 and 3.

The water heater main body 1 controls, for example, a burner, a mixing valve and the like (not shown) on the basis of communication means 11 for communicating with the remote controller side via an antenna 12 and instruction data received by the communication means 11 from the remote controller. The hot water supply control means 13 for controlling the hot water supply operation, the hot water supply apparatus main body side storage means 25, and the hot water supply apparatus main body control unit 20 are provided.

The water heater main body side storage means 25 comprises a slot order storage means 26 and other storage means 27. The slot order storage means 26 stores the priority order for communicating with the water heater main body 1, and if there is communication information at the same communication timing, the remote controller having the higher priority order performs communication. 10 (a)
Is remembered as. The other storage means 27 stores contents other than the above, such as instruction data transmitted from the remote controller side.

The water heater main body control unit 20 comprises a communication control means 2
1, slot order conversion means 22 and other control means 2
It consists of 3. Then, the communication control means 21 controls the communication means 11 such as creating transmission data and decoding received data, and takes other polling timing for transmission and reception. The slot order conversion means 22 changes the slot order stored in the slot order storage means 26 according to the communication status with each remote controller. Other control means 23
Is for performing a control operation other than the above, for example, for exchanging data with the water heater main body control unit 20, the hot water supply control means 13, the storage means 25, and the like.

The flow remote controller 2 includes a communication means 31 for communicating with the water heater main body 1 side via an antenna 32, an operating means 33 for instructing and inputting a hot water supply operation of the water heater main body 1, and an operation content by the operating means 33. Output means 34 for displaying or displaying the state of the water heater main body 1, and remote control side storage means 45.
And a remote control unit 40.

The remote controller side storage means 45 communicates with the slot position storage means 46 for storing its own slot position and communication I.
Other storage means 47 for storing data other than the above, such as D
It consists of

The remote control unit 40 comprises a communication control unit 41 for controlling the communication unit 31 similarly to the communication control unit 21 on the side of the water heater 1, and another control unit 42 for controlling the operation of the remote controller other than the above. Has become.

The configurations of various remote controllers such as the main remote controller 3 are the same as those of the flow remote controller 2, and the slot position storage means 46 stores the slot order of each remote controller itself.

FIG. 6 shows a water heater main body 1 and remote controllers 2 and 3--
In the polling timing diagram of the communication between and, in the communication, the transmission / reception timing is managed at this polling timing, and is controlled by the communication control means 21 of the water heater main body control unit 20 of the water heater main body 1. In the figure, the first half of the polling cycle is the water heater main body side download data transmission time KT1 and the remote control side download data reception time RT1, and the second half part of the polling cycle is the water heater main body side download data reception time KT2 and remote control side download data. The transmission time is RT2. Also, the remote controller download data transmission time RT
2 is divided into slots 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the order of slots for returning a response to the water heater main body 1 side is
As shown in FIG. 7, it is determined by the order in which the communication ID of each remote controller combined with the download data from the water heater main body 1 is sent, and each remote controller defines the slot position where its own communication ID exists as its own slot position. to decide. Further, the water heater main body 1 recognizes which remote controller uses which slot to return a response at the water heater main body side download data reception time KT2.

As shown in FIG. 8, first, when the polling timing reaches the transmission timing of the water heater main body 1 side (the water heater main body side download data transmission time KT1) (S2).
1) The water heater main body 1 combines the download data, which is polling data, with the communication IDs of the remote controllers 2 and 3 (for example, “10010001” of the flow remote controller 2 and “10010102” of the main remote controller 3). , 3-- one after another (S22), and at this time, the slot position information shown in Fig. 7 is also transmitted to each remote controller.
It is extracted from the slot order storage means 26 of No. 5 and transmitted from the communication means 11 to the respective remote controllers 2, 3-side through the antenna 12. After that, the water heater main body 1 waits for a response from each of the remote controllers 2 and 3, and the water heater main body 1 side receives the response from each remote controller 2 and 3 for a certain period of time which is the download data reception time KT2 of the water heater main body. Wait (S23).

On the other hand, the remote control side receives the download data from the water heater main body 1 and the received data consisting of the communication ID by the communication means 31 (S24), whereby the remote control side download data reception time RT1 and the remote control side download data transmission time are received. Understand RT2. At the same time, the communication ID is extracted from the received data by the communication control means 41 of the remote controller control unit 40 and either matches the communication ID on the remote controller side or is stored in the other storage means 47 of the remote controller side storage means 45. (S
25) If they do not match, the remote controller returns to the waiting for download data reception (S24).

If the communication IDs match, the download data is stored in the other storage means 4 of the remote control side storage means 45.
7, the slot position of its own remote controller is stored in the slot position storage means 46 (S26), and the output means 34 outputs a display or the like based on the download data (S27). At this time, when a new operation is generated from the remote controller side, the water heater body 1 is notified (S28, S2
9) If there is no operation on the remote control side, the process returns to the state of waiting for the download data from the water heater main body 1 (S28, S2).
4).

Here, since the response slot for each instruction from the remote controllers 2 and 3 to the water heater main body 1 side is determined by the remote controller type, the slot (slot 1 to slot 5 corresponding to the remote controller is specified. The instruction data must be transmitted at any one timing), and in order to update the information in the hot water supply control unit 13 quickly, it is necessary to make the polling cycle as short as possible. The response from the main unit 1 side is only one remote controller.

As shown in FIG. 9, for example, when the instruction data is transmitted from the flow remote controller 2 having the second slot order to the water heater main body 1, the flow remote controller 2 is the first one immediately before the slot 2 of the flori common 2. The communication means 31 and the communication control means 41 determine whether or not another remote controller (for example, the main remote controller 3) is transmitting in slot 1 of
If the previous slot 1 is used, the transmission to the water heater main body 1 is awaited until the next polling timing.
FIG. 9 shows the situation in this case. If it is not used, it is determined whether or not the transmission information is the ON information of the operation switch (S29), and if so, the slot conversion request is attached, and if not, the slot conversion request is not attached, The communication control means 41 transmits data together with its own communication ID from the communication means 31 to the water heater main body 1 side (S3).
0, S31). Note that other remote controllers similarly perform transmission to the water heater main body 1 side.

When the water heater main body 1 receives instruction data from one remote controller within the water heater main body side download data reception time KT2 (S23), the communication ID of the received data is received.
Is extracted by the communication control means 21, and the communication ID of the other storage means 27 is compared with the communication ID from the remote controller side (S32). If the communication IDs match and the response slots match, the other storage means 29 stores the received data (S33), the remote controller type is determined (S34), and hot water supply control corresponding to the received data is performed. Is performed (S35).

Then, it is determined whether or not there is a slot conversion request in the data from the remote controller (S36). If there is a slot conversion request, as shown in FIG. 10, the slot order of the remote controller that has made the conversion request is changed to the first priority position, and the slot order of the other remote controllers is changed accordingly.
It shifts backward one by one (S37) and waits for the next transmission timing (S21). The case of FIG. 10 shows a situation in which a conversion request is issued from the remote controller 2.

If no instruction data or the like is sent from the remote controllers 2 and 3 to the water heater main body 1 side within the water heater main body side download data reception time KT2, the next polling timing is transmitted. Waiting for timing (S23, S21), transmission timing (water heater main unit side download data transmission time KT1)
Then, the download data and the communication ID are transmitted to the remote controllers 2 and 3-, and a series of operations similar to the above is performed.

In the above embodiment, the slot order information of each remote controller is downloaded every time data is downloaded from the water heater main body 1 side to the remote controllers 2, 3-n. You may make it download to the remote control side only when the slot order is converted.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the main body is the water heater has been described, but the main body may be other equipment.

Further, in the above embodiment, the slot rank conversion means converts the slot rank when the remote controller is powered on, but it may be converted to another specific or arbitrary operation. For example, it may be when the "reservation setting switch" or the like is operated, and is suitable when there is a high possibility that it will be operated subsequently.

In the above embodiment, the main body and the remote controller are wirelessly communicated with each other, but may be wired.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, with respect to the slot order of the remote controller, the remote controller with high availability is brought to the position with high priority, so that the response of the remote controller is improved in the polling method. There is an effect that can be.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a layout of a water heater main body and a remote controller.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a water heater.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a flow remote controller.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a main remote controller.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a water heater.

FIG. 6 is a polling timing chart.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of slot order.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a communication operation.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of communication timing.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of slot conversion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Water heater 2 Flow remote control 3 Main remote control 11,31 Communication means 21,41 Communication control means 22 Slot order conversion means 26 Slot order storage means 46 Slot position storage means

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Norihiro Miyamoto 32 No. Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo Noritsu Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A remote control device comprising a device main body and a plurality of remote controllers for remotely operating the device main body, wherein the remote control device is provided on the device main body side and stores communication priorities of the plurality of remote controllers. A remote operation device comprising: a slot order storage means for performing a slot order conversion means; and a slot order conversion means for setting a slot order of the received remote controller as a highest priority order when a signal is received from the remote controller.