JPH11288399A - Address setting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To set devices to be controlled to respectively different addresses. SOLUTION: To a controller 100, the devices 300, 500, 700 and 900 to be controlled are sequentially and serially connected. Also, a transmitter-receiver 10 is incorporated in the respective devices to be controlled and the transmitter- receiver 10 is constituted with a microcomputer or the like as a main body, performs a prescribed processing based on transmitted data or the like and performs the processing of transmitting the data after the processing or the like. Further, the controller 100 and the devices 300-900 to be controlled are sequentially connected by bidirectional communication lines L1 , L2, L3 and L4 , signals from the controller 100 are transmitted through the communication lines L1 -L4 to the devices 300-900 to be controlled and the output signals of the device 900 to be controlled in a final stage are fed back through the communication lines L1 -L4 to the controller 100. That is, the device 300 to be controlled and the like are collectively controlled by the controller 100 through the respectively provided transmitter-receivers 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an address setting method suitable for generally controlling a plurality of electronic devices such as AV devices. More specifically, in a system in which a plurality of controlled devices are connected in a so-called daisy chain to a control device, address setting can be performed by a simple operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A plurality of controlled devices (electronic devices such as controlled devices) are sequentially connected serially (daisy chain connection) to a control device such as a controller, and each controlled device is controlled by the control device. There is known a system in which the operation is controlled. In such a system, an address is assigned (set) to each controlled device, and a command signal for performing an operation command from the control device to a specific controlled device is transmitted together with the address. is there.

That is, in the above-described system, the command signal is transmitted with the address specifying the controlled device added thereto, and each controlled device compares the address added to the transmitted command signal with its own address. When they match, the added command signal is obtained and the operation according to the command from the control device is performed. Therefore, there must be no duplicate addresses set in each controlled device, and different addresses must be set.

[0004]

Therefore, as a method of setting such addresses, for example, the addresses are classified into respective controlled device categories (for example, for AV equipment, such as television, VTR, television camera, etc.). There is a method of setting an address. However, in such a setting method, for example, when two VTRs are provided, there is a problem that an address setting for distinguishing the two VTRs cannot be performed.

Further, it is conceivable to provide a dip switch or the like for each controlled device and set an address by using the dip switch. However, such a method complicates the configuration of the controlled device and sets the address. It is necessary to perform each operation manually, and when the number of controlled devices increases, it becomes difficult to determine addresses without duplication.

The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and the problem to be solved is that it is difficult for conventional methods to determine addresses for a large number of devices without duplication. In addition, the setting of the address could not be performed easily, for example, a complicated device or complicated work was required for the setting.

[0007]

According to the present invention, predetermined processing is sequentially performed on address setting signals transmitted from a control device to a controlled device via a signal system connected in series. In this case, a unique address is set, and the information on the controlled device at the last stage is fed back to the control device via this signal system. Only by supplying the address setting signal to the devices, the controlled devices can be set to different addresses.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, the first
A plurality of second electronic devices capable of transmitting and receiving data signals and control signals to and from the first electronic device are sequentially serially connected to the first electronic device, and each of the second electronic devices is connected to the first electronic device. The second electronic device at the last stage has a signal system through which the data signal and the control signal are transmitted from the first electronic device, and sets an address from the first electronic device to a desired second electronic device. When the address setting signal is given, the desired second electronic device and a second electronic device connected to the desired second electronic device sequentially apply a predetermined signal to the address setting signal transmitted through a signal system. The process is performed, a unique address is set for each second electronic device, and the information of the last stage is transmitted from the last second electronic device to the first electronic device via a signal system. It is what is returned.

Thus, when an address setting signal is given from the control device (first electronic device) to a desired controlled device (second electronic device), the controlled device (second electronic device) and The subsequent controlled device (second electronic device) sequentially performs predetermined processing on the address setting signal. By introducing a process of setting an address unique to each controlled device (second electronic device) in a predetermined process performed by each controlled device (second electronic device), The controlled devices (second electronic devices) have different addresses.

A preferred embodiment of the address setting method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. That is, FIG.
Shows a system to which the present invention is applied, in which an AV device (controlled device = second electronic device: television 30) is controlled by a controller (control device = first electronic device) 100.
0, VTRA500, VTRB700, video camera 9
00) are serially connected.

In this case, each controlled device has a built-in transmitting / receiving device 10 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the controller 100 or another controlled device.
The transmission / reception device 10 is mainly configured by a microcomputer or the like. For example, the device 10 built in the VTRA 500 performs a predetermined process based on the transmitted data and the like, and transmits the processed data to the VTRB 700. Control processing such as a reproduction operation and a recording operation of the VTRA 500 is performed.

The controller 100 and the television 30
0, the VTRA 500, the VTRB 700, and the video camera 900 are sequentially connected to the bidirectional communication lines L1, L2, L3, L
4 and the output signal of the video camera 900 is fed back to the controller 100 via those communication lines L1, L2, L3 and L4. That is, the devices 10 are serially connected in this manner, and the television 300 and the like are generally controlled by the controller 100 via the devices 10 provided respectively.

Therefore, the VTRB 700 and the video camera 9
The configuration of the device 10 will be described with an example in which 00 is controlled by the controller 100. As can be understood from FIG. 2, the first terminal 3 and the second terminal
The terminal 5 is provided with data (command) signal input / output ports 3a, 3b, 5a, 5b and control signal input / output ports 3c to 3f, 5c to 5f.

The command signal output from the controller 100 is input to the port 3b, and the port (SIN) of the microcomputer 9 mainly including the CPU 9A and the like.
9b and stored in the buffer 9B. In this case, the data signal is a packet signal, and a desired process is performed on the packet signal stored in the buffer 9A by the CPU 9A and output from the port (SOUT) 9a.

Further, an output signal of the port 3a is provided between the port 9a and the port 5a between the port 9a and the port 3a.
A switch section 11 for performing a switching operation inputted from b is provided. The switch unit 11 short-circuits the ports 3a and 5b when another device 10 is connected to the subsequent stage of the device 10, and switches the ports 3a and 9 when not connected.
a is short-circuited.

That is, a high-level (for example, 5 V) voltage is applied to the port 3f of the device 10 at the subsequent stage.
The voltage is input to the port 9g of the microcomputer 9 via the ports 3f and 5d, and the CPU 9A outputs a switch switching control signal from the port 9f on condition that the input at the port 9g is at a high level. Therefore, the switching operation of the switch unit 11 is performed so that the ports 3a and 5b are short-circuited by the control signal.

On the other hand, when the device 10 is not connected to the subsequent stage, since the voltages at the ports 5d and 9g are at the low level, the switch unit 11 short-circuits the ports 3a and 9a. In this case, the packet signal output from the port 9a is output from the port 5a via the signal line L, and is also output from the port 3a via the line l branched from the signal line L. When the voltage of the port 9g is at a high level, the switch unit 13 short-circuits the ports 5d and 9d, while when it is at a low level, the ports 3d and 9d are short-circuited.

Therefore, the control signal input from the port 3d of the device 10 disposed at the last stage is transmitted to the port 5d of the device 10 of the preceding stage through the ports 9d, 9c and 3c.
Is input to Further, the control signal is transmitted to the preceding device 1
At 0, the data is returned to the controller 100 via the ports 5d, 9d, 9c and 3c.

The control signal fed back to the controller 100 in this manner is transmitted to each device 10 by the controller 10.
It is used to determine whether or not data from 0 can be received. Note that a control signal for interrupt processing is input from the port 3e, and is taken into the port (INT) 9e of the microcomputer 9. Also, the subsequent device 10
, The control signal branched from the port 3e is taken into the port 9e via the ports 5f and 3e.

In the device 10 configured as described above, the packet signal from the controller 100 is input from the port 3b and stored in the buffer 9B, and after a predetermined process is performed, the port 9a, the port 5a, the cable L4 Is input to the port 3b of the subsequent device 10 via the. In the downstream device 10, the packet signal output from the port 9a is input to the port 5b of the upstream device 10 via the port 3a and the cable L4, and is returned to the controller 100 via the port 3a.

That is, the packet signal is transmitted to the controller 1
00, each microcomputer 9
Is temporarily stored in the buffer 9B, and if necessary, predetermined processing is performed by the CPU 9A and transmitted to the subsequent device 10, and the packet signal transmitted to the final stage is fed back to the controller 100 again. Therefore, the controller 100
Is transmitted to all devices 10 as packet signals, and the devices 10 perform control such as operating the VTRB 700 and the video camera 900 according to the packet signals as necessary.

The system according to the present embodiment is configured as described above. Next, a method of setting an address for each controlled device will be described. In this example, a case in which an address is not set in an initial state will be described.
If it is known on the 00 side, a command (considered as a packet signal) may be transmitted to that address.

A command (address setting signal)
Is a command (broadcast; B.B.) in which a command is transmitted to all controlled devices, as understood from FIG.
C. ) (Area A), and the apparatus 10 has contents for setting its own address to the value n (area C) (area B). Further, in the device 10, when its own address is set to the value n, the process of setting the content of the area C to the value (n + N) and transferring the command to the next controlled device is performed (predetermined process).

Therefore, when n = 1 and N = 1, the television 300, VTRA 500, VTRB 700, and video camera 900 are set to address 1, address 2, address 3, and address 4, respectively. In this case, since a command for setting the address to the value 5 is fed back from the device 10 of the video camera 900 to the controller 100, the controller (value 5) causes the controller 100 to execute the number of controlled devices (value 5 to value 5). 1 = value 4) can be known.

In the initial state, if all controlled devices have the same address, the address is designated instead of the broadcast command (ie, the contents of area A are used as the address value). ) A command may be sent.

As described above, in the present embodiment, only commands are given from the controller 100 to the television 300, and thereafter, each controlled device is sequentially set to a different address by the device 10, and the address setting is extremely high. Easy.

Next, a method of setting an address such that the address of the k-th controlled device is a value n will be described.

In this embodiment, no address setting is performed for a controlled device that does not require address setting, which is convenient, for example, when it is desired to control the television 300 and the VTRA 500 for the time being. In this case, as understood from FIG. 4, the command has a number (k-1) (area D) corresponding to the controlled device to be specified. In addition, each device 10 interprets the command sent to itself when the content of the area D is 0, and adds a value (−1) to the content of the area D when the value is not 0. To Area D
Is transferred to the next controlled device.

Therefore, when the transfer is performed (k-1) times, a desired controlled device (k-th) is specified, and the address of the controlled device is set to the value n. In addition, from the controlled device to which the address is set, the controller 100
, The address setting can be confirmed, and the controlled device having no address set can be confirmed. In the address setting method of this example, address setting is performed a number of times corresponding to the number of controlled devices.

As described above, in this embodiment, a desired controlled device is set to a desired address only by sending a command from the controller 100, so that the setting operation is easy.

In the above two embodiments, the device 1
The contents of the processing performed at 0 (how to change the address value n, etc.) can be set on the controller 100 side, so that various address setting methods can be performed. Further, the device 10 can be used as the controller 100.

[0032]

As can be understood from the above description, in the address setting method according to the present invention, when an address setting signal is given to a desired controlled device from the control device, the controlled device and the subsequent A predetermined process is sequentially performed on the address setting signal by the control device.

Therefore, by introducing a process of setting an address unique to each controlled device in a predetermined process performed by each controlled device, each controlled device has a different address. Become. That is, the address can be set only by a simple operation of the control device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system in a preferred embodiment of an address setting method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a transmission / reception device that performs a predetermined process.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a controller.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a command according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

100: controller, 300: television, 500: VT
RA, 700… VTRB, 900… Video camera, 10
... Transceiver

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of second electronic devices capable of transmitting and receiving a data signal and a control signal to and from a first electronic device are serially connected to the first electronic device in a serial manner. A signal system in which the data signal and the control signal are transmitted from the first electronic device to the second electronic device at the final stage via the second electronic device. When the address setting signal is given to the second electronic device, the second electronic device connected to the desired second electronic device and the subsequent second electronic device
A predetermined process is sequentially performed on the address setting signal transmitted via the signal system, and a unique address is set for each second electronic device. Wherein the information of the last stage is fed back from the electronic device to the first electronic device via the signal system.