JPH09243137A - Electronic expansion valve control device for air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten an initial position setting time of an expansion valve by a method wherein a present degree of opening of an electronic expansion valve is stored and the number of initial position setting pulses for returning the expansion valve to its full-closed stale is set to such number of pulses having a predetermined pulse added to the stored degree of opening of the expansion valve by an initial position setting means. SOLUTION: A degree of opening of an electronic expansion valve 5 being driven at present is written into a memory means 97 for storing a degree of opening. This degree of opening is read out again by a reading means 96 when the initial position of the expansion valve 5 is determined, inputted to a position setting means 94 and then the number of pulses during position setting operation is calculated. After the initial position is determined by driving the expansion valve 5 toward its closing direction only by an amount corresponding to the number of pulses, a degree of opening of the expansion valve is controlled in such a way that a refrigerant circuit may become its most suitable state, a degree of opening at this time is written into and stored in the memory means 97 for storing the degree of opening at this time, a pulse of the previous degree of opening of the stopped expansion valve is read out when a subsequent operation is carried out, the number of position setting pulses is reduced more than that of the prior art to shorten the position setting time and then it is possible to restrict a surplus incrementation of the pulse.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an electronic expansion valve controller (LEV) for an air conditioner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a LEV positioning operation of a conventional electronic expansion valve controller for an air conditioner. Generally, the LEV is driven by a stepping motor, and at the start of the operation of the air conditioner, the LEV is controlled to be temporarily closed to the fully closed position for positioning. As the initial positioning operation of the LEV, as shown in FIG. 13, in order to perform accurate positioning even when the LEV is at the fully open position, the maximum opening is set to A
If a pulse is used, the maximum opening A pulse plus an α pulse in consideration of the deviation during LEV driving, that is, A +
Positioning is performed at the fully closed position by driving in the α pulse closing direction. When the initial LEV opening at the time of this positioning is fully open, the additional tightening (LEV is at the fully closed position,
The stepping motor operates in the closing direction) only for + α, but when the initial LEV opening is B pulse as shown in FIG. 13, the pulse for AB is larger than when the initial LEV opening is fully open. Extra tightening will be performed.

[0003]

Since the conventional electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner is configured as described above,
The initial positioning of the LEV must be a pulse obtained by adding a predetermined pulse α to the total number of pulses from the full closing to the full opening of the LEV, and the initial positioning of the LEV requires a long time,
Since the operation of the compressor cannot be started until the positioning of the LEV is completed, there is a problem that a delay time occurs between the time when the user turns on the operation SW and the time when the compressor is operated, and the startup characteristic of the air conditioner deteriorates.

In addition, when the last stop LEV opening is low, there is a problem that the LEV is re-tightened too much, the life of the LEV is shortened, and the reliability is lowered.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and it is an air conditioner that can shorten the initial positioning time of the electronic expansion valve and prevent the electronic expansion valve from being retightened. An object is to obtain an electronic expansion valve control device.

[0006]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner, which comprises an operating state detecting means for detecting an operating state of the air conditioner, and a signal of the operating state detecting means for a target of the LEV. Target opening calculation means for calculating the opening,
In a split type air conditioner having a drive means for driving the LEV to a target opening degree, the split type air conditioner is provided with an opening degree storage means for storing a current LEV opening degree, and a positioning means for performing an initial positioning of the LEV, It is characterized in that the initial positioning pulse number for returning the LEV to the fully closed state at the start of operation of the air conditioner is the pulse number obtained by adding a predetermined pulse to the LEV opening stored in the opening storage means.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner, wherein an operating state detecting means for detecting an operating state of the air conditioner and a target for calculating a target opening degree of the LEV by a signal from the operating state detecting means. Opening calculation means and LEV for the target opening
In a split type air conditioner having a driving means for driving the power source, a power source detecting means for detecting a power supply state to the outdoor unit, and an opening degree storing means for storing the opening degree of the LEV,
Positioning means for performing initial positioning of the LEV is provided, the LEV opening at that time is written in the opening storage means when the power is turned off, and the LEV stored in the opening storage means when the power is turned on again. It is characterized in that the opening is read and the number of pulses obtained by adding a predetermined pulse to the LEV opening is used as the initial positioning pulse number for returning the LEV to the fully closed state at the start of operation of the air conditioner.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner, which comprises an operating condition detecting means for detecting an operating condition of the air conditioner and a target for calculating a target opening degree of the LEV based on a signal from the operating condition detecting means. Opening calculation means and LEV for the target opening
In a split type air conditioner having a driving means for driving the LEV, a LEV opening range detecting means for dividing the LEV opening into a plurality of band bands and determining to which band band the current LEV opening corresponds. Band band storage means for storing the band band detected by the LEV opening range detection means,
A positioning means for performing an initial positioning of the LEV, and the initial positioning pulse number for returning the LEV to the fully closed state at the start of the operation of the air conditioner, the upper limit of the corresponding band band of the LEV opening stored in the band storage means. It is characterized in that the number of pulses is the number of pulses plus a predetermined number of pulses.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiment 1. Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an air conditioner according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the figure, a compressor 3 that compresses a refrigerant, a four-way valve 4 that performs cooling / heating switching, and indoor unit heat exchange. Unit 1, outdoor unit heat exchanger 2,
The refrigerant circuit is constituted by LEV5 of the throttle mechanism.

Further, the commercial power source 6 is supplied to the outdoor unit controller 9 when the indoor unit controller 7 controls ON / OFF of the relay 8 and the operation is started.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the outdoor unit controller of the air conditioner according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the operating state detecting means 91 detects various temperatures of the air conditioner, and the target opening degree calculating means 92 calculates the target opening degree of the LEV 5 based on the information of the operating state detecting means 91. The LEV 5 is driven by the driving means 93 that drives the LEV 5 to the target opening degree, and the entire refrigerant circuit is controlled to the optimum state. The opening writing means 95 reads the current opening of the LEV 5 being driven by the driving means 93 and writes the opening in the opening storage means 97. The opening degree of the LEV5 written in the opening degree storage means 97 is read by the opening degree reading means 96 at the time of initial positioning of the LEV5 and input to the positioning means 94, and the positioning means 94 performs the positioning operation based on this information. Calculate the number of pulses of.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 3 shows the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is an operation diagram for explaining the operation of FIG. When the operation is started, the stop L at the time of the previous operation stop stored in the opening degree storage means 97 in step 101.
The EV opening is read, and the positioning pulse is calculated by the positioning means 94 in step 102 based on the EV opening. This positioning pulse is set to be positioning pulse = previous stop LEV opening + α. This α pulse is set to an opening corresponding to the maximum value of the difference between the actual opening and the driving opening due to step-out of the LEV5 stepping motor during LEV driving. Further, since the previous stopped LEV opening is unknown at the time of the first operation, the previous stopped LEV opening is processed as the fully opened opening. In step 103, the LEV 5 is driven in the closing direction by the number of positioning pulses calculated in step 102 to perform the initial positioning of the LEV, and after the initial positioning of the LEV is completed, step 1
Go to 04. In step 104, the operating state of the air conditioner is detected, and the LEV is set so that the refrigerant circuit is in the optimum state.
Control the opening. In step 105, the LEV opening determined in step 104 is written and stored in the opening storage means 97, and the process returns to step 104.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which the opening when the operation is stopped is the B pulse, but the opening "B pulse" when the operation is stopped is stored in the opening storage means 97 when the operation is stopped. Then, at the time of the next operation, the "B pulse" of the previous stopped LEV opening is read from the opening storage means 97, the positioning pulse becomes "B + α pulse", and the number of positioning pulses becomes smaller than the conventional one, and as a result, Positioning time is also shortened and extra retightening is not performed.

Embodiment 2 FIG. Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of the second embodiment. The power supply detection means 98 is added to the block diagram of FIG. The power supply detection unit 98 detects the power supply state to the outdoor control unit 9 and when the power supply is stopped, sends a signal to the opening degree writing unit 95, and the opening degree writing unit 95 drives the current LEV opening degree. Means 93
The read opening storage means 97 is written.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 6 shows the second embodiment.
6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of FIG. Only points different from the first embodiment will be described. In step 205, the power supply state to the outdoor control unit 9 is detected, and if power is supplied, the process returns to step 204 to perform normal LEV control. When the stop of the power supply to the outdoor control unit 9 is detected in Step 205, the current LEV opening is written and stored in the opening storage unit 97 in Step 206 while the residual charge of the outdoor control unit 9 remains. .

According to this embodiment, the current LEV opening is written and stored in the opening storage means 97 only when the power supply to the outdoor control section 9 is stopped, so that the number of writing operations is limited to nonvolatile. The effect that it can also be used in memory is achieved.

Embodiment 3 Hereinafter, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 is a detailed block diagram of Embodiment 3 of the present invention. The opening range detection means 99 is added to the block diagram of FIG. FIG. 8 is an operation diagram for explaining the same operation. The opening range detection means 99 is an LEV opening range detection means that determines which band band (a-j band band in FIG. 8) the current LEV opening corresponds to. A signal is sent to the opening writing unit 95 for storing the band band, and the opening writing unit 95 writes the current band band in the opening storage unit 97.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 9 shows the third embodiment.
6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of FIG. When the operation is started, the stop LEV band at the time of the previous operation stop stored in the opening degree storage means 97 is read in step 301, and the positioning pulse is calculated by the positioning means 94 in step 302 based on the read LEV band. This positioning pulse is: positioning pulse = previous stop LEV band upper limit opening +
Let α. This α pulse is set to an opening corresponding to the maximum value of the difference between the actual opening and the driving opening due to step-out of the LEV5 stepping motor during LEV driving. Further, since the previous stopped LEV band is unknown at the time of the first operation, the previously stopped LEV band is processed as a fully open band. In step 303, LEV5 is driven in the closing direction by the number of positioning pulses calculated in step 302 to obtain LEV5.
5 is performed and after the initial positioning of LEV5 is completed, the process proceeds to step 304. In step 304, the operating state of the air conditioner is detected, the refrigerant circuit is brought into an optimum state, and the LEV opening is controlled. In step 305,
It is detected that there is a change in the LEV5 band band, and if there is no change, the process returns to step 304 and normal LEV control is performed.
If there is a change in the band band of LEV5 in step 305, in step 306 the opening degree storage means 97 is written and stored in the current band band of LEV.

FIG. 8 shows an example in which the opening when the operation is stopped is the B pulse, but when the operation is stopped, the band “f” of the B pulse of the opening when the operation is stopped is the opening storage means 97.
Will be stored in, and the next time you run
The band "f" is read out and the positioning pulse is "f".
The upper limit of the band + α pulse ”, and the number of positioning pulses is smaller than in the conventional case, and as a result, the positioning time is shortened and extra tightening is not performed. If the band corresponding to the opening when the operation is stopped is the same as the previous band, the writing to the opening storage means 97 is not performed, and the number of writing is reduced. A non-volatile memory such as an EEP-ROM that has a limited number of times of writing can also be used as the opening degree storage means 97.

[0020]

According to the electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner of the present invention, the operation state detecting means for detecting the operating state of the air conditioner and the target opening degree of the LEV are calculated by the signal of the operating state detecting means. In a split type air conditioner having a target opening calculation means for controlling the LEV and a driving means for driving the LEV to the target opening, an opening storage means for storing a current opening degree of the LEV and an initial positioning of the LEV. And an initial positioning pulse number for returning the LEV to the fully closed state at the start of operation of the air conditioner is set to a pulse number obtained by adding a predetermined pulse to the LEV opening stored in the opening storage means. Therefore, the LEV positioning time is shortened, the delay time from the user turning on the operation switch to the start of operation of the compressor can be minimized, and the startup characteristics of the air conditioner can be improved. Further, by suppressing the retightening of the LEV as much as possible, it becomes possible to extend the life of the LEV and obtain a highly reliable one.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner, the operating state detecting means for detecting an operating state of the air conditioner, and a target for calculating a target opening degree of the LEV based on a signal from the operating state detecting means. Opening calculation means and LEV for the target opening
In a split type air conditioner having a driving means for driving the power source, a power source detecting means for detecting a power supply state to the outdoor unit, and an opening degree storing means for storing the opening degree of the LEV,
Positioning means for performing initial positioning of the LEV is provided, the LEV opening at that time is written in the opening storage means when the power is turned off, and the LEV stored in the opening storage means when the power is turned on again. The opening number is read, and the number of pulses obtained by adding a predetermined pulse to the LEV opening is used as the initial positioning pulse number that returns the LEV to the fully closed state at the start of operation of the air conditioner, so it can be used even in a nonvolatile memory with a limited number of writes. It has the effect of being able to.

An electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner according to a third aspect of the present invention includes an operating condition detecting means for detecting an operating condition of the air conditioner and a target for calculating a target opening degree of the LEV based on a signal from the operating condition detecting means. Opening calculation means and LEV for the target opening
In a split type air conditioner having a driving means for driving the LEV, a LEV opening range detecting means for dividing the LEV opening into a plurality of band bands and determining to which band band the current LEV opening corresponds. Band band storage means for storing the band band detected by the LEV opening range detection means,
A positioning means for performing an initial positioning of the LEV, and the initial positioning pulse number for returning the LEV to the fully closed state at the start of the operation of the air conditioner, the upper limit of the corresponding band band of the LEV opening stored in the band storage means. Since the number of pulses is the sum of the number of pulses and the predetermined number of pulses, it is possible to use even a nonvolatile memory with a limited number of writing operations.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an air conditioner according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of an electronic expansion valve control device for an air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation diagram illustrating an operation of the electronic expansion valve control device for the air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart diagram illustrating an operation of the electronic expansion valve control device for the air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of an electronic expansion valve control device for an air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart diagram illustrating an operation of the electronic expansion valve control device for the air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a detailed block diagram of an electronic expansion valve control device for an air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an operation diagram illustrating an operation of the electronic expansion valve control device for the air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart diagram for explaining the operation of the electronic expansion valve control device for the air-conditioning apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an operation diagram illustrating an operation of a conventional electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner.

[Explanation of symbols]

5 electronic expansion valve (LEV), 6 commercial power supply, 9 outdoor control section, 91 operating state detecting means, 92 target opening calculating means, 93 driving means, 94 positioning means, 95 opening writing means, 96 opening reading means, 97 opening degree storage means, 98 power source detection means, 99 opening degree range detection means.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An operating state detecting means for detecting an operating state of an air conditioner, a target opening calculating means for calculating a target opening of an electronic expansion valve (hereinafter referred to as LEV) based on a signal from the operating state detecting means, In a split type air conditioner having drive means for driving the LEV to a target opening degree, an opening degree storage means for storing a current opening degree of the LEV and a positioning means for performing an initial positioning of the LEV are provided. The initial positioning pulse number for returning the LEV to the fully closed state at the start of operation of the air conditioner is set to the pulse number obtained by adding a predetermined pulse to the LEV opening stored in the opening storage means. Electronic expansion valve control device for air conditioners featuring. 2. The LE according to an operating condition detecting means for detecting an operating condition of the air conditioner and a signal from the operating condition detecting means.
In a split type air conditioner having a target opening calculating means for calculating a target opening of V and a driving means for driving the LEV to the target opening, a power supply detecting means for detecting a power supply state to an outdoor unit. And an opening storage means for storing the opening of the LEV and a positioning means for performing an initial positioning of the LEV. When the power is turned off, the opening of the LEV at that time is set to the opening. When the power supply is turned on again, the LEV opening stored in the opening storage means is read in the storage means, and a pulse number obtained by adding a predetermined pulse to the LEV opening is started to operate the air conditioner. An electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner, wherein the LEV is set to an initial positioning pulse number for returning the LEV to a fully closed state. 3. An operating state detecting means for detecting an operating state of the air conditioner, and an LE based on a signal from the operating state detecting means.
In a split type air conditioner having a target opening calculation means for calculating a V target opening and a drive means for driving the LEV to the target opening, the LEV opening is divided into a plurality of band bands, LEV opening range detection means for determining which band band the current LEV opening corresponds to,
The LEV opening range detection unit includes a band band storage unit that stores the band band and a positioning unit that performs initial positioning of the LEV, and when the operation of the air conditioner is started, the LEV is fully closed. The number of initial positioning pulses to be returned is stored in the band storage means as L.
An electronic expansion valve control device for an air conditioner, wherein the number of pulses is a number obtained by adding a predetermined pulse to the upper limit number of pulses of a band band of the EV opening.