KR20070065612A - A remote controller system for a multi-device gateway of home network - Google Patents

Abstract

An integrated remote controller system for a multi-device gateway in a home network environment is provided to easily control the control and status information of the devices registered in a gateway through an integrated protocol, and to conveniently control and maintain plural devices by supporting a universal remote controller in case such a gateway does not exists. The hardware of an integrated remote controller consists of an MCU(Micro Controller Unit), various memories, an LCD, a communication part, a keypad, an interface part, and a JTAG(Join Test Action Group) part. The MCU covers overall input/output and data processing. The memories, such as an SDRAM, a NOR FLASH, an EEPROM, etc., store execution codes and data. The LCD shows screens to users. The communication part comprises an IR module and an RF module to execute communication between gateways and to serve as a universal remote controller. The keypad receives user commands. The interface part, composed the first and second serial interfaces(Serial-1/2), is provided for input/output. The JTAG part is for debugging.

Description

Integrated remote controller system for a multi-device gateway in a home network environment {a remote controller system for a multi-device gateway of home network}

1 is a device control state diagram through a conventional remote controller

2 is a block diagram of a home networking system using an integrated gateway and an integrated remote controller according to the present invention.

3 is a hardware diagram of an integrated remote controller according to the present invention;

4 is a software configuration of the integrated remote controller according to the present invention

5 is a diagram illustrating a communication method using an integrated protocol between an integrated remote controller and a gateway.

6 is a communication state illustrating a communication method using an integrated protocol between an integrated remote controller and a gateway according to the present invention.

The present invention relates to an integrated remote controller system of a multi-device gateway that controls various devices in a home network environment. More specifically, the present invention provides a predefined integrated protocol in a gateway that supports various communication interfaces and various devices. It is to make it easy to control various devices through the remote controller used.

In general, a remote controller (remote controller), which enables indirect operation of a distant device without using a human hand or foot, is suitable for various devices such as televisions, air conditioners, sound equipment, boilers, lighting equipment, and computer equipment. Applied and true.

1 shows a state diagram of a device control through a conventional remote controller. In the related art, in order to control a device using the remote controller, a remote controller that generates a signal in accordance with a protocol of each device as shown in FIG. 1 must be used. As a result, more devices require more remote controllers.

Meanwhile, even in the related art, a universal remote controller for controlling several home appliances with a single remote controller has been proposed, but this has only a disadvantage of being able to control only a pre-programmed device or registering a signal to recognize or slow response. Rather, there was a problem that the status information of important devices in the home network could not be seen at a glance.

Therefore, in order to check the status of the device with the conventional universal remote control, the user had to check the status of the device directly, and when the user gave the command, it was necessary to check whether the command issued was correctly delivered. If wasn't working correctly, you could only indirectly know that the command wasn't delivered correctly.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the purpose of which is to control a large number of various devices through a single integrated remote controller, as well as a home network to easily check the control status It is to provide an integrated remote controller system for multiple device gateways.

The present invention is characterized in that any device connected to the gateway can be controlled by a single remote controller using an integrated protocol provided by the gateway to achieve the above object, the following detailed description based on the accompanying drawings If more detailed description as follows.

That is, Figure 2 is a block diagram of a home networking system using an integrated gateway and an integrated remote controller according to the present invention, the integrated remote controller system for a home network multi-device gateway of the present invention is largely divided into a gateway and a remote controller Divided by.

In the present invention, the gateway mediates and controls the communication of various devices having various communication methods such as wired / wireless LAN, RF, ZigBee, RS485, PLC, PSTN, and can be connected to the outside using the Internet or a telephone.

3 shows a hardware configuration diagram of the integrated remote controller according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 shows a software configuration diagram of the integrated remote controller according to the present invention. In the present invention, the remote controller again includes hardware and software. First, the hardware of the remote controller is a microcontroller (MCU; Micro Controller Unit) in charge of the entire input and output and data processing, and various memories (SDRAM, NOR FLASH, EEPROM), a display window (LCD) to show users the screen, a communication unit including IR, RF (ZigBee), and other (Etc) modules to perform communication between the gateways and the universal remote controller, and user commands KEY PAD that can accept the key, connections for input / output (Serial1, Serial2), and debugging It is constituted by; (Join Test Action Group JTAG) tag.

The remote controller of the present invention communicates with various devices in two ways: RF (ZigBee) and IR (Infrared). The RF method is a digital door lock, an RF outlet, an RF light, a fuselage sensor, a door sensor, and a gas shutoff set. It is mainly used to communicate with devices managed by DTRG (Distributed Thin Residential Gateway) in home network environment such as (Hughcock, fire detection sensor), boiler, etc., and IR method is TV, DVD, SKY Life It is mainly used to communicate with devices that are not connected to DTRG such as air conditioner, air conditioner or the like and have only IR control method.

The display window (LCD) of the remote controller provides an overall device status display screen and a status change screen, and can display a battery remaining amount. The keypad includes a plurality of keys (for example, 24).

On the other hand, the software of the remote controller is a real-time operating system (OS) unit for controlling a process that is a program running as shown in Figure 4, a device driver unit for controlling the necessary hardware while being located between the hardware and real-time operating system (OS), It consists of an application part, which is a program that interprets the integrated protocol between gateways, receives commands from the user, and gives commands to the gateway and processes the GUI.The application part is composed of an LCD screen updater, which is in charge of the LCD screen, and a remote controller to reduce battery usage. It consists of a usage mode selection manager that controls the current consumption of the devices, and a received data verifier that checks whether the data received from the gateway is valid.

In the present invention, by registering a plurality of devices in the house to the multi-device gateway of the home network environment through the remote controller, communication between the gateway and the device is possible according to the network method supported by the device, accordingly the current of the device from the gateway It can receive status information or send commands to the device through the gateway or directly to the remote controller.

5 is a communication state diagram illustrating a communication method using an integrated protocol between an integrated remote controller and a gateway according to the present invention.

In the present invention, each device registered in a multi-device gateway (DTRG) in a home network environment such as a digital door lock, an RF outlet, an RF light, a fuselage detection sensor, a door sensor, a gas shutoff set (a stopcock, a fire detection sensor), a boiler, etc. Can be controlled through one remote controller using the integrated protocol predefined in the gateway.

6 is a communication state diagram using the integrated remote controller as a universal remote controller in the absence of a gateway according to the present invention.

In the present invention, devices that are not connected to a multi-device gateway (DTRG) in a home network environment such as a TV, a DVD, a SKY life, an air conditioner, or that have only an IR control method also use each protocol embedded in the remote controller of the present invention. Can be controlled.

In the present invention, the home ID and remote control ID are registered in the memory of the remote controller through a plurality of input keys provided in the integrated remote controller, and the RF device to be controlled can be registered, and then the device to be controlled can be directly selected from the registered devices. have.

For reference, an example of a device registration process and a control process through the remote controller will be described below.

Registering home ID and remote control ID on the remote control after installing the multi-device gateway (DTRG) in the home network environment, press the ON and OFF keys on the remote control for several seconds (for example, 3 to 5 seconds) to register the home ID. Switch to mode.

The actual ID can be configured with 2 digits of the remote control ID and 4 digits of the home ID.

The remote control ID can be set from 01 to 99, and can be arbitrarily assigned by the installer. However, it is based on inputting in order from 01 to fit the number of remote controllers used at home.

In other words, if you use one remote control at home, you can use 01 and if you use two, you can set 01 for the first remote control and 02 for the second remote control.

The home ID can be entered for the last four digits of the home phone number.

The total ID including the remote control ID and home ID will be 6 digits.If the installer presses the numeric keys, the text will be displayed on the text display.If the wrong key is entered by mistake, the cancel key will disappear. Press the OK key when the setting is correct.

This ID value is passed to the gateway DTRG and this data is stored in the DTRG.

When the save is complete, the message “Complete” is displayed on the text display for 5 seconds and the mode switches to home network mode.

If the confirmation button is not pressed for more than 3 minutes, all jobs are canceled and the mode goes to sleep mode.

If you want, you can register the ID again by pressing the ON and OFF keys.

In the step of registering the RF device on the remote controller, if the device registration is successful, the message display shows a "complete" message. If the registration is not successful, the "ERROR" message is displayed.

The device group icon registered in the remote controller can be composed of nine types of boiler, room control, air conditioner, gas shut off, fuselage detection, door lock, door sensor, lighting and outlet.

The device group icon consists of three LCD segments.

For example, to represent a boiler, it is the outer rectangular part of the boiler, the actual boiler letter part, and the shaded part between the outer rectangle and the letter part.

Enabling the outer rectangle means that the cursor is located, the letter remains active in the home network state, and the shading enabled means that this device group is selected.

The cursor can be moved with the up, down, left, and right keys.

The number icon indicates the status of the device belonging to the device group, and the selection is possible only with the number keys.

The number icon consists of two LCD segments.

For example, 1 represents the outer circle of 1, the actual '1' part.

The number icon has three states and if both the outer circle part and the number part are activated, it means that the device registered with the corresponding number is ON. If only the number is activated, it means OFF state.

If nothing is active, it means no device is registered with that number.

Flashes when the number icon is selected (the selection method is described later).

Thereafter, even if there is no explanation, ON / OFF is displayed on the character display part according to the ON / OFF status of the selected device.

Pressing the home key activates all the text portions of the device group icon.

In this case, a square part is also displayed on the boiler icon at the top left.

A square mark means the device now has a cursor.

You can use the arrow keys to move this cursor, and each time you see a square.

Press the OK button in the desired device group to select the device ON / OFF or register the device.

No device is registered in the initial remote control.

Therefore, all numeric icons representing individual devices are inactive.

In this state, if you press the button of the number you want to register for more than 3 seconds, only the character of the corresponding number key is activated.If you switch the individual device to ID transmission mode, the device is registered to the selected number. You can also press the button for the number of seconds to enter the mode and register.)

Once registered, you need to communicate with the device for configuration.

The contents are not recognized by the user and after the setting is completed, the updated information is displayed again on the screen.

There are two main groups of devices: devices with ON / OFF data only, such as gas shutoff, fuselage detection, door locks, door sensors, lights and outlets, and ON / OFF data and temperature data such as boilers, control rooms and air conditioners. Devices that exist.

The contents that need to be set after registering are slightly different between the two devices.

First, devices that have ON / OFF data are registered on the remote control and receive information on whether the device status is ON or OFF.

The number icon changes depending on the ON / OFF status.

Devices with ON / OFF and temperature data also receive data on the current and set temperatures as well as information on whether the device status is ON or OFF. If the current device is in the ON state, the number icon is in the ON state, the current icon and the setting icon are activated, and the temperature is displayed in the text display.

If the device is in the OFF state, the number icon is in the OFF state and the current icon and the setting icon are disabled.

Of course, no temperature is displayed.

In the case of each room control, only one central room cone has an RF device and the rest are wired to this room cone, so only the central room cone can be registered on the remote controller.

Registering the central roomcon automatically registers the number of rooms internally.

In this case, however, since they are automatically arranged in order, the central room cone is registered at first to prevent confusion.

When registration is completed and communication for setting is completed, the message “Complete” is displayed on the text display part.

If the registration is not done properly, the message “ERROR” will be displayed.

When the registration is completed, it communicates with the gateway DTRG and stores all the registered contents in the gateway DTRG.

If successful, “OK” If unsuccessful, “NO” message is displayed.

In the procedure according to device registration, all devices in all device groups have the same sequence.

This allows the user to easily register the device.

Meanwhile, the registered device may be canceled.

After selecting the desired device group, press the number key to disconnect and select it, and then press the disconnect key for 3 seconds to deactivate all the number icons and cancel the registration.

If canceled properly, the "Complete" message otherwise displays the "ERROR" message.

When selecting and controlling an RF device, by default, if the data modification is successful, the text display shows a "Done" message.

If the registration is not successful, the message “ERROR” is displayed.

The registered device can be selected and controlled, and the device group can be selected with the up, down, left, and right keys and selected with the confirm button.

When a device group is selected, the icon is shaded to indicate that the device group is selected.

In this state, the registered device can be controlled by pressing the numeric keys.

The contents that can be set are ON / OFF only (gas cut off, fuselage detection, door lock, door sensor, lighting, outlet) and ON / OFF and temperature (boiler, room control, air conditioner) depending on the device type. .

ON / OFF control is possible with ON / OFF key, and setting temperature is available with up / down key. If the temperature setting is completed, you can register with OK key. If 3 minutes elapse without pressing OK key (SLEEP mode), all contents are canceled.

Pressing the Cancel key always returns you to the previous situation.

The SLEEP mode of the remote controller is battery saving mode.

This sleep mode exists to extend the life of the battery and most of the time it operates in this mode.

In any mode, this mode is switched after 3 minutes of no key input.

The LCD powers off and the microprocessor (MCU) switches to sleep mode.

Any unconfirmed contents are canceled when switching modes. (E.g. temperature setting)

Press any key to return to the previous mode.

When the previous mode is the universal remote mode, pressing the button acts like a normal remote control (i.e. IR data is sent directly).

The home network mode of the remote controller is a mode for controlling the RF device registered in the gateway DTRG, and all icons are used.

The device selection mode (device group selection mode) is selected by the home key.

The home network mode is selected in the following order: home-> universal-> home.

Use the arrow keys to select the device group icon (9 types of boiler, room control, air conditioner, gas shutoff, fuselage detection, door lock, door sensor, lighting, and outlet) on the LCD.

All character parts of the device group icon are activated.

Cursor is indicated by an external square and the selected icon is pressed by pressing the OK button to enter individual device mode.

When the outgoing key is pressed, the gateway DTRG issues commands to each device at once, and the remote controller receives and displays the device data of the outgoing stored in the gateway DTRG.

Device status should be registered before going out to the gateway DTRG.

If group icon is selected in device selection mode of remote controller, switch to individual device mode.

Individual devices are largely divided into boilers that require temperature and ON / OFF control, gas block, fuselage detection, door lock, door sensor, lighting, and outlet that support ON / OFF only.

The selected device group icon has an outer rectangle representing the cursor.

The status of the device is indicated by a number icon from 1 to 10.

The ON state is deactivated when there is a number icon with a border, the number icon without a border when OFF and a remote control is not connected.

The selected icon blinks (up to the border when ON, only numbers when OFF).

Selection is possible only with the numeric keys and ON / OFF control with the ON / OFF key.

If temperature control is needed, two icons are currently active and the temperature is displayed in the text display below this icon.

The set temperature can be adjusted with the up and down arrow keys.

After setting the desired temperature, press the OK key to set the new temperature.

If you enter SLEEP mode without pressing the OK key, the new temperature will not be set and the operation will be cancelled.

The cancel key is used to select individual devices.

Except when the temperature is being set, pressing the Cancel key immediately switches to the device selection mode.

In the individual device selection mode, the device is in ID transmission mode and the device ID registration mode is entered by pressing and holding the number key of the number to be registered for several seconds (and vice versa).

The purpose is to bind the desired device to each number icon, and when the registration is completed, the text display unit displays a "complete" message.

If the registration is not done properly, the message “ERROR” will be displayed.

After registration, the registered contents are recorded in the gateway (DTRG). If successful, the message “OK” is displayed.

Select TV mode when controlling devices that support IR that are not connected to a gateway (DTRG).

Only character display and battery icon are used.

Press Mode key to select TV / SKY / DVD.

Each time the mode key is pressed, TV → SKY → DVD → TV is displayed for a few seconds.

Turn the POW key ON / OFF while the device you want to control is displayed.

Use the arrow keys to adjust the channel and volume. (Up and down: channel, left and right: volume)

As described above, the integrated remote controller system of the present invention makes it possible to easily control and communicate the control and status information of devices registered to the gateway through an integrated protocol, and also supports a universal remote controller even in the absence of a gateway. It provides the effect of facilitating device control and maintenance.

Claims (6)

A home network environment, in which a predefined integrated protocol is created in a gateway supporting multiple communication interfaces and various devices, and a remote controller using the integrated protocol can be used to control multiple devices with a single remote controller. Integrated remote controller system for multiple device gateways. According to claim 1, the gateway mediates and controls the communication of various devices having a variety of communication methods, such as wired / wireless LAN, RF, ZigBee, RS485, PLC, PSTN, and can be connected to the outside using the Internet or telephone An integrated remote controller system for multiple device gateways in a home network environment. The hardware of claim 1, wherein the hardware of the remote controller comprises: a microcontroller unit (MCU; Micro Controller Unit) in charge of overall input / output and data processing; various memories (SDRAM, NOR FLASH, EEPROM) for storing execution code and data; A display window (LCD) to show users the screen, a communication unit including IR, RF (ZigBee), and other (Etc) modules to perform communication between the gateways and the universal remote controller, and to accept user commands. Integrated remote controller system for a multi-device gateway in a home network environment, comprising a key pad (KEY PAD), connections for input / output (Serial1, Serial2), and JTAG (Join Test Action Group) for debugging. . The software of claim 1, wherein the software of the remote controller is a real-time operating system (OS) unit for controlling a process that is a program being executed, a device driver unit for controlling the necessary hardware between the hardware and the real-time operating system (OS), and It consists of an application part, which is a program that interprets the integrated protocol between gateways, receives commands from the user, and gives commands to the gateway and processes the GUI.The application part is composed of an LCD screen updater, which is in charge of the LCD screen, Integrated mode controller for multi-device gateways in a home network environment, comprising a use mode selection manager for controlling current consumption of devices to be used, and a received data verifier for checking whether data received from the gateway is valid. Roller system. The integrated remote controller system of claim 1, wherein the remote controller communicates with various devices in two ways: RF (ZigBee) and IR (Infrared). The home network environment of claim 5, wherein devices that are not connected to a multi-device gateway (DTRG) in a home network environment or that have only an IR control method can be controlled using respective protocols embedded in a remote controller. Integrated remote controller system for multiple device gateways.

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