JPH09114519A - Controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a controller which makes it possible to periodically record and gather a history of temperature data on the periphery of a device without any human effort and makes it easy to narrow down the cause of operation abnormality of the controller to device ambient temperature and find out the cause. SOLUTION: This device is constituted of an arithmetic control execution part 12, a temperature sensor 15 which detects the ambient temperature of a process controller 1, a temperature data input part 16 which converts the detection signal of the temperature sensor 15 from analog to digital and inputs the result to the arithmetic control execution part 12, and a trace memory 17 which stores the history of the inputted temperature data. The arithmetic control execution part 12 inputs the temperature data periodically through the temperature data input part 16 and records the data in the trace memory 17. The history of the temperature data stored in the trace memory 17 is read out and visualized, so that the cause of operation abnormality of the controller is narrowed down to the device ambient temperature and can easily be found out.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to steel, paper pulp,
The present invention relates to a control device such as a process controller that controls / instruments various devices in a plant such as the chemical industry.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a process controller for controlling and instrumenting various equipment in a plant, when an operation abnormality occurs due to an operation error or a failure of an internal electronic device, the content of the abnormality is automatically stored in an internal storage device. The function to record manually is provided. The abnormality content recorded in this storage device is read from the storage device and analyzed in order to find the cause.

There are various possible causes of the abnormal operation of the electronic device inside the controller, and one of them is an environmental element around the controller. In particular, the ambient temperature around the controller affects the operating characteristics of each electronic device in the controller. For example, in an extremely low temperature environment, the operating timing between electronic devices may cause an abnormal operation. It is easy to cause a deviation.
Also, there is a correlation between the fluctuation tendency of the environmental temperature and the life of the electronic device, and a drastic temperature change becomes a factor that shortens the life of the electronic device.

With respect to this point, the information that the conventional process controller can collect for the purpose of investigating the cause of the operation abnormality is not limited to the content of the abnormality when the operation abnormality occurs and the date and time when the abnormality occurs as described above. There is. Therefore,
In order to narrow down the cause of the process controller operation abnormality to the controller ambient temperature, it is necessary to artificially record the controller ambient temperature every day. However, such an artificial work requires a great deal of effort if it is necessary to record even a daily fluctuation tendency of the temperature around the controller.

[0005]

As described above, conventionally, in order to narrow down the cause of the operation abnormality of the control device such as the process controller to the ambient temperature of the device, it is necessary to regularly record the ambient temperature. Desired. However, it is very difficult and artificially difficult to continuously record the ambient temperature of the apparatus in this way. Therefore, it has heretofore been difficult to examine the correlation between the fluctuation tendency of the ambient temperature of the device, the occurrence frequency of the operation abnormality of the control device, and the life of the internal electronic device.

The present invention is intended to solve such a problem, and it is possible to periodically record and collect the ambient temperature of the device and its fluctuation tendency without requiring human effort, and thus cause the abnormal operation of the control device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control device that makes it easy to narrow down the target temperature to the ambient temperature of the device.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a control device of the present invention periodically detects a temperature detecting means for detecting an ambient temperature of the device and an ambient temperature of the device detected by the temperature detecting means. Temperature data input means for inputting as data, temperature data history storage means for storing history of temperature data periodically input by the temperature data input means, and history of temperature data stored in the temperature data history storage means are output. And an output unit.

Since the control device of the present invention is configured in this way, the history of temperature data around the device can be regularly recorded without omission without any human effort. Based on the history of temperature data
The cause of the operation abnormality of the control device can be easily identified by focusing on the temperature around the device.

[0009]

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

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a process controller according to an embodiment of the present invention and its peripherals.

In the figure, 1 is a process controller, 2 is a device to be controlled / instrumented by the process controller 1 (hereinafter referred to as process), 3 is a command to the process controller 1 for various maintenance, The maintenance device has an input / output unit that visually outputs various data transferred from the process controller 1. The process controller 1 includes an AP memory 11 for storing an application program (hereinafter referred to as an AP), and an A stored in the AP memory 11.
An arithmetic control execution unit 12 that performs various arithmetic operations for controlling the process 2 according to P and operation control of the entire process controller, and a process I / I that controls input / output of various data between the arithmetic control execution unit 12 and the process 2. The F unit 13, the maintenance device I / F unit 14 that controls the input / output of various data between the arithmetic control execution unit 12 and the maintenance device 3.
The temperature sensor 15 for detecting the ambient temperature of the process controller 1 and the detection signal of the temperature sensor 15
A temperature data input unit 16 for D-converting and periodically inputting to the arithmetic control execution unit 12, and a trace memory 17 for accumulating a history of temperature data input from the temperature data input unit 16 are configured. It As the temperature sensor 15, a known one using a thermistor, a temperature sensing resistor, or the like, which can extract a temperature change as a change in voltage or the like can be used. Further, the temperature sensor 15 should be installed at a location where the ambient temperature surrounding the process controller 1 can be properly detected. For example, it is desirable that the controller be externally attached to the cabinet of the controller body or separated from the controller body so as not to be directly affected by the heat source of the controller itself.

As the trace memory 17, a rewritable nonvolatile memory or the like is suitable. Alternatively, the data may be once recorded in the volatile memory and then periodically recorded in an external storage medium such as a magnetic disk or an optical disk, or may be transferred to the maintenance device 3 and accumulated in the storage device in the maintenance device 3. Absent.

Next, a typical operation of this process controller will be described.

The arithmetic control execution unit 12 executes an arithmetic operation according to the AP stored in the AP memory 11, and outputs the control data as the arithmetic result to the process 2 via the process I / F unit 13. Thereafter, the arithmetic control execution unit 12 outputs the signal value indicating the operation result of the process 2 to the process I / F unit 13
To execute the next process control based on the input.

The arithmetic control execution unit 12 performs control for taking in data of the controller ambient temperature detected by the temperature sensor 15 in parallel with the process control. That is, the arithmetic control execution unit 12 periodically inputs temperature data through the temperature data input unit 16, and the input temperature data is stored in the trace memory 17 together with the current date and time data.
By performing control so as to sequentially record the data on the controller, the history of the controller ambient temperature data is accumulated in the trace memory 17.

The operator can arbitrarily set the timing of fetching the controller ambient temperature data through the maintenance device 3. For example, by setting the value of the time period, the temperature data can be taken in at the set time period. Further, it is possible to set the time, capture the temperature data at each set time, and record it in the trace memory 17. Further, temperature data may be fetched each time the process controller 1 is started / stopped. Furthermore, as another method, when an abnormal operation of the process controller 1 occurs, the temperature data at that time may be fetched regardless of the above setting conditions.

The history of the temperature data accumulated in the trace memory 17 as described above is read based on the history output command given by the operator through the maintenance device 3. The history of the temperature data read from the trace memory 17 is transferred to the maintenance device 3 via the maintenance device I / F unit 14. Maintenance device 3
Has a display device and a printing device as an output unit. The history of the ambient temperature data transferred to the maintenance device 3 is displayed as a list on the display device or printed by the printing device in response to a request. It is also possible to save it in an external storage medium such as a floppy disk or a hard disk.

After the temperature data history is read from the trace memory 17, the contents of the trace memory 17 are automatically cleared. This can prevent the trace memory 17 from overflowing before the history of temperature data is read.

Thus, according to the process controller of the present invention, the history of the controller ambient temperature data can be collected regularly and without any human effort, and the history of the controller ambient temperature data can be collected. Based on this, it is possible to easily identify the cause of the process controller operation abnormality by focusing on the controller ambient temperature. This makes it possible to easily check the correlation between the fluctuation temperature of the controller ambient temperature, the frequency of occurrence of abnormality, the life of the internal electronic device, and the like.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the control capable of easily identifying the cause of the abnormal operation of the control device by focusing on the ambient temperature of the device without requiring any human effort. The device can be realized. As a result, it becomes easy to investigate the correlation between the fluctuation tendency of the device ambient temperature, the frequency of occurrence of operation abnormality of the control device, and the life of the internal electronic device. It is easy to predict when to replace the device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a process controller according to an embodiment of the present invention and its peripherals.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Process controller 12 ... Calculation control execution unit 15 ... Temperature sensor 16 ... Temperature data input unit 17 ... Trace memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A temperature detecting means for detecting an ambient temperature of an apparatus, a temperature data inputting means for periodically inputting the ambient temperature of the apparatus detected by the temperature detecting means as data, and a periodical operation for the temperature data inputting means. 2. A control device comprising: a temperature data history storage unit that stores a history of temperature data that has been manually input; and an output unit that outputs a history of temperature data stored in the temperature data history storage unit.