WO2002095299A1

WO2002095299A1 - Method for rewriting control program of refrigeration system

Info

Publication number: WO2002095299A1
Application number: PCT/JP2002/004834
Authority: WO
Inventors: Takashi Okano; Yasuyuki Aisaka
Original assignee: Daikin Industries,Ltd.
Priority date: 2001-05-21
Filing date: 2002-05-20
Publication date: 2002-11-28
Also published as: JP3864909B2; JPWO2002095299A1

Abstract

From the flash memory of an existing multi-air conditioner, identification information containing the information on the machine type for applying a control program, an objective flash memory and a version is read in. A control program stored in the flash memory is compared with a control program incorporated in a portable personal computer of a service man and a decision is made that the incorporated control program is an appropriate control program before rewriting the control program.

Description

Description Rewriting method of refrigerating equipment control program

The present invention relates to a method for rewriting a control program for an existing refrigeration system. Background art

Conventionally, a refrigerating apparatus that can update (upgrade) a control program without replacing a control board has been known. In general, a flash memory is provided on a control board of this type of refrigerating apparatus as a rewritable storage means. Flash memory has the property that existing data is erased all at once when rewriting.Since the erasing function is simple, it is relatively inexpensive among rewritable storage means. Things.

Normally, the version upgrade of the control program is executed as follows by a serviceman or the like who performs maintenance and inspection of the refrigeration system. First, a service person connects a terminal device with a built-in control program to the control board of the refrigeration system via a communication cable. Then, after confirming the type of the refrigeration system, a control program to be installed is selected, and the control program is overwritten on the flash memory of the control board.

Some refrigeration units have multiple flash memories for storing control programs. For such refrigeration systems, install a respective control program for each flash memory.

However, the flash memory has the following problems as the storage means of the control program of the refrigerating apparatus because the entire storage content is replaced when the control program is upgraded.

In other words, the service engineer may use the wrong control program (for example, an old version of the control program, an IJ control program for a different model, ), The wrong control program is overwritten as it is. As a result, the refrigeration system may malfunction.

In recent years, the number of opportunities to rewrite control programs at refrigeration equipment installation sites has increased. It is expected that the types of control programs will continue to increase and the number of version upgrades will increase in the future. As a result, the serviceman will have a greater burden, and consequently more confusion is expected in rewriting control programs. Disclosure of the invention

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method of always writing an appropriate control program into a flash memory for storing a control program of a refrigeration system.

A method of rewriting a control program according to the present invention is a method of rewriting a control program of a flash memory for an existing refrigerating apparatus having a flash memory for storing a control program. A terminal device having a built-in version of the control program is placed in a state in which it can communicate with the flash memory, and the model and version to which the control program currently stored in the flash memory is applied are transferred from the flash memory to the terminal device. The identification information including the information on the control program is collected, and it is determined whether or not the target model to which the collected control program is applied is the same as the target model to which the control program incorporated in the terminal device is applied. The version of the program is older than the latest version It is a method of judging whether or not each of the judgment results is correct, and overwriting the flash memory with the latest version of the control program built in the terminal device.

Thus, in the above method, prior to rewriting the control program, the identification information of the control program currently stored in the flash memory is collected. Then, the currently stored control program and the control program built in the terminal device are compared, and the terminal program is compared. After confirming that the control program built in the device is an appropriate control program, the program is rewritten.

The refrigeration apparatus is provided with a rewritable auxiliary storage unit for storing the identification information. If the collection of the identification information from the flash memory fails, the identification information is collected from the auxiliary storage unit. When the flash memory is overwritten with the latest purge control program, the identification information of the latest version of the control program may be overwritten in the auxiliary storage means.

As a result, even when the identification information is not correctly transmitted from the flash memory to the terminal device, the control program is properly rewritten based on the identification information stored in the auxiliary storage means. Will be. This prevents a situation in which the flash memory is overwritten with a control program of a different model or an old version of the control program.

Another method of rewriting a control program according to the present invention is a method of rewriting a control program of each flash memory in an existing refrigerating apparatus having a plurality of flash memories for storing a control program. A terminal device having a built-in control program of the latest version for a predetermined type of refrigeration device related to a refrigeration device is placed in a state in which it can communicate with any one of the existing refrigeration devices, and from the one flash memory. The terminal device collects identification information including information of the control program, the applicable flash memory and the version currently stored in the flash memory, and the applicable model of the collected control program. Is the model to which the control program built in the terminal device is applied It is determined whether or not the flash memory to which the collected control program is applied is the same as the flash memory to which the control program incorporated in the terminal device is applied. Determining whether the version is older than the latest version, and overwriting the flash memory with the latest version of the control program incorporated in the terminal device when all the results of the determinations are all the same. It is.

Thus, in the above method, prior to rewriting the control program of each flash memory, That is, the identification information of the control program actually stored in each flash memory is collected. Then, the currently stored control program is compared with the control program built in the terminal device, and after confirming that the control program built in the terminal device is an appropriate control program, the program is executed. Will be rewritten. This prevents the flash memory from being overwritten with a control program of a different model, overwriting a control program for a different flash memory, or overwriting an old version of the control program.

The refrigeration apparatus is provided with a rewritable auxiliary storage unit for storing identification information of a control program of each flash memory, and when the identification information from the flash memory fails, the identification information is stored. When overwriting the flash memory with the latest version of the control program collected from the auxiliary storage means, the identification memory of the latest version of the control program is overwritten on the auxiliary storage means. There may be.

As a result, even when the identification information is not correctly transmitted from the flash memory to the terminal device, the control program is properly rewritten based on the identification information stored in the auxiliary storage means. Will be.

In addition, the former 3 auxiliary storage means may be constituted by EEPROM.

In addition, the above-mentioned auxiliary storage means may be constituted by a jumper or a dip switch.

As described above, according to the present invention, prior to rewriting the control program, the identification information of the control program actually stored in the flash memory is collected, and the control program and the control program built in the terminal device are collected. After rewriting the program, the program was rewritten. Therefore, before rewriting the program, it is possible to confirm that the control program to be overwritten is an appropriate program. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a situation where an inappropriate control program is accidentally overwritten.

If auxiliary storage means for storing identification information of the control program is provided, When the identification information cannot be collected from the flash memory satisfactorily, the identification information can be collected from the auxiliary storage means instead of the flash memory. Therefore, even when the identification information cannot be collected from the flash memory, the control program can be appropriately rewritten. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the medium circuit of the Marchaircon.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of an outdoor unit and a portable personal computer.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a control program rewriting method. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The refrigeration apparatus according to the present embodiment is a so-called multi-purpose chair chair (20) for a building, and as shown in FIG. 1, is configured by connecting an outdoor unit (21) and a plurality of indoor units (22, 22 ′). ing.

The outdoor unit (21) is provided with a compressor (24), a four-way switching valve (25), an outdoor heat exchanger (26), and an electronic expansion valve (27). The outdoor unit (21) is provided with an electrical box (1) in which electrical components such as a control board are accommodated. Each indoor unit (22) is provided with an electronic expansion valve (29) and an indoor heat exchanger (28).

As shown in FIG. 2, a CPU (not shown) for controlling the operation of the multi-air conditioner (20) is provided inside the electrical box (1), and the first flash memory (11) and the A second flash memory (12) and an EEPROM (13) are provided. In FIG. 2, the CPU is not shown for easy understanding. The two flash memories (11, 12) store the control program of the multi air conditioner (20), the first flash memory (11) stores the first control program, and the second flash memory (12) stores the first control program. A second control program different from the first control program is stored. The first control program and the second control program include identification information for identifying each program. That is, identification information is written in a specific area of each control program, in addition to an execution program for controlling the multi-air conditioner (20). The identification information includes, for example, the type of refrigeration system to be applied (applicable model), the number of flash memory to be applied (first flash memory or second flash memory), and the program name of the control program. And the name of Purge Yon.

The EEPROM (13) is for storing identification information of the control program stored in the first and second flash memories (11, 12), and the control program of the flash memory (11, 12) is stored in the EEPROM (13). Each time it is rewritten, the identification information of the rewritten control program is overwritten.

Next, a method of rewriting each control program will be described with reference to FIG. First, the serviceman in charge of the maintenance and inspection of the multi-air conditioner (20) is provided on a predetermined homepage on IN-Yuichi Net (for example, the homepage of the manufacturer of the multi-air conditioner (20) or a company that performs maintenance). Download the latest version of the control program for the multi air conditioner (20) from your own personal computer (15) (see Fig. 2) (Step ST Do). The program is called the "latest program."

Next, the service person places the personal computer (15) in a state where it can freely communicate with the first flash memory (11) via a wired or wireless communication means. As the wired communication means, for example, serial communication means such as RS232C and USB, or parallel communication means can be suitably used. As a wireless communication means, a wireless communication means utilizing an infrared signal can be suitably used.

Then, the identification information of the control program (in this case, the first control program) currently stored in the first flash memory (11) is read from the first flash memory (11) to the personal computer (15) (step ST2). ). Next, it is determined whether or not the reading has been normally performed (step ST 3). If the reading has been normally performed, the first flash memory (11) is read. Then, it is determined whether or not the applicable model of the control program and the latest program is the same (step ST4). That is, it is determined whether or not the model to which the latest program is applied is a multi air conditioner (20). On the other hand, if the above reading is not performed normally, the above identification information is read from the EEPR0M (13) instead of the first flash memory (11) (step ST5), and the judgment of step ST4 is performed.

As a result of the determination in step ST4, when it is determined that the applicable model is the same, the process proceeds to step ST6, where the control program stored in the first flash memory (11) and the flash memory to which the latest program is applied are applied. It is determined whether the numbers are the same. That is, it is determined whether or not the flash memory to which the latest program is applied is the first flash memory (11). On the other hand, if the determination result in step ST4 is N0, an error message "No software available" is displayed on the screen of the personal computer (15) (step ST8). 'If it is determined in step ST 6 that the flash memory numbers to be applied are the same, the process proceeds to step ST 7 and the version of the control program stored in the first flash memory (11) and the version of the latest program Determine whether the names are the same. That is, it is determined whether or not the version of the control program stored in the first flash memory (11) is the latest version. If the result of the determination is NO, the processing from step ST10 onward is performed. On the other hand, if the judgment result is YES, an error message stating “Cannot upgrade version” is displayed on the screen of the personal computer (15) (step ST9). In step ST10, the control program is read from the first flash memory (11) to the personal computer (15). Then, in step ST11, it is determined whether or not the read control program has no garbled data. The judgment result is

In the case of NO, there is a possibility that an abnormality has occurred in the first flash memory (11), and an error message “Possible abnormality in the flash memory.” Is displayed on the screen of the personal computer (15) ( In step ST16), the serviceman's attention is called.

On the other hand, if the determination result in step ST11 is YES, the control program in the first flash memory (11) is rewritten (step ST12). That is, the first flag The existing control program stored in the flash memory (11) is deleted. Instead, the latest program is transmitted from the personal computer (15) to the first flash memory (11), and the latest program is transmitted to the first flash memory (11). The program is written.

When the writing of the latest program is completed, a collation operation is performed to confirm whether or not the writing operation has been performed normally. In the collation work, first, the written control program is transferred from the first flash memory (11) to the personal computer (15) (step ST13), and the transferred control program is compared with the latest program. (Step ST14). If the two programs match as a result of the comparison, the identification information of the latest program is overwritten in the EEPROM (13) to store the fact that the latest program has been written in the first flash memory (11) (step ST 15). On the other hand, if the two programs do not match as a result of verification, the process proceeds to step ST16, and an error message is displayed on the screen of the computer (15).

As described above, the operation of rewriting the control program in the first flash memory (11) is completed. After that, the control program for the second flash memory (12) is rewritten in the same manner as above.

According to the present embodiment, since the program is rewritten after confirming the identification information of the control program currently stored in each flash memory (11, 12), an inappropriate control program is erroneously overwritten. In such a case, the unexpected situation can be reliably prevented. For example, a control program for a different model may be written to the flash memory (11, 12), a control program for the second flash memory (12) may be written to the first flash memory (11), It is possible to reliably prevent an old version of the control program from being written into the memory (11, 12) .As a result, there is no need for the serviceman to select the control program by himself, and the control program for the serviceman is not required. The burden of rewriting work is reduced.

Also, an EEPROM (13) is provided as auxiliary storage means for storing the identification information, and when the transmission of the identification information from the flash memory (11, 12) fails, the identification information is collected from the EEPROM (13) instead. To collect identification information more reliably. Can be Therefore, the reliability of the control program rewriting operation can be improved.

The refrigeration system to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the multi air conditioner (20), but may be another air conditioner. Further, other refrigerating devices such as a refrigerating device and a freezer may be used.

Although the multi air conditioner (20) was provided with two flash memories (11, 12), the number of flash memories provided in the refrigerator may be one, or may be three or more. When a plurality of flash memories are provided, they may be flash memories of the same specification or different specifications.

In the present embodiment, only one EPROM (13) is provided, but the number of EEPROMs as auxiliary storage means is not particularly limited. A plurality of EEPROMs may be provided in accordance with the number of flash memories.

The auxiliary storage means is not limited to a storage means for electrically storing identification information, but may be a storage means for physically storing identification information. For example, a jumper dip switch or the like may be used as the auxiliary storage means. Industrial applicability

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the present invention is particularly useful in a broad sense refrigeration system including an air conditioner, a refrigerator, a refrigeration system for refrigeration (refrigerator in a narrow sense), a dehumidifier and the like.

Claims

The scope of the claims

1. A method for rewriting a control program of a flash memory (11, 12) for an existing refrigeration system (20) having a flash memory (11, 12) for storing a control program,

A terminal device (15) containing at least the latest version of the control program for the refrigerating device of a predetermined model is placed in a state where it can communicate with the flash memory (11, 12). The terminal device (15) collects identification information including information on a model and a version to which the control program is applied, which is actually stored in the flash memory (11, 12),

It is determined whether the model to which the collected control program is applied is the same as the model to which the control program incorporated in the terminal device (15) is applied, and the version of the collected control program is older than the latest version. Judge whether or not

When all the results of the above determinations match, the latest version of the control program built in the terminal device (15) is overwritten on the flash memory (11, 12). How to rewrite the control program.

2. The method for rewriting a control program for a refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the refrigeration apparatus (20) is provided with rewritable auxiliary storage means (13) for storing the identification information. ,

If the collection of the identification information from the flash memory (11, 12) fails, the identification information is collected from the auxiliary storage means (13),

When the flash memory (11, 12) is overwritten with the latest version of the control program, the identification information of the latest version of the control program is overwritten on the auxiliary storage means (13).

A method for rewriting a control program for a refrigeration apparatus, characterized by comprising:

3. The method for rewriting a control program for a refrigerating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the auxiliary storage means is constituted by an EEPROM (13). Rewriting method of refrigerating equipment control program.

4. The method for rewriting a control program for a refrigerating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the auxiliary storage means is configured by a jumper or a dip switch.

5. A method of rewriting a control program of each flash memory (11, 12) to an existing refrigeration system (20) having a plurality of flash memories (11, 12) for storing control programs,

A terminal device (15) incorporating at least a latest version of a control program for a predetermined flash memory related to a predetermined type of refrigeration system is connected to one of the flash memories (11; 12) of the existing refrigeration system (20). Put it in a state where you can communicate freely,

From the one flash memory (11; 12) to the terminal device (15), the model to which the control program currently stored in the flash memory (11; 12) is to be applied, the flash memory to which the control program is applied, and the version Collect identifying information, including information,

It is determined whether or not the target model to which the collected control program is applied is the same as the target model to which the control program built in the terminal device (15) is applied. 15) It is determined whether or not it is the same as the flash memory to which the control program built in is applied, and whether or not the version of the collected control program is older than the latest version,

The control of the refrigerating apparatus, characterized in that when all the results of the above judgments match, the latest version of the control program built in the terminal device (15) is overwritten on the flash memory (11; 12). How to rewrite a program.

6. The method for rewriting a control program for a refrigerating device according to claim 5, wherein the refrigerating device (20) is rewritten for storing identification information of a control program for each of the flash memories (11, 12). Flexible auxiliary storage means (13) is provided,

If the collection of the identification information from the flash memory (11; 12) fails, the identification information is collected from the auxiliary storage means (13),

The latest version of the control program for the flash memory (11; 12). When overwriting is performed, the identification information of the control program of the latest version is overwritten on the auxiliary storage means (13).

7. The method for rewriting a control program for a refrigerating apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the auxiliary storage means is constituted by an EPROM (13).

8. The method for rewriting a control program for a refrigerating apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the auxiliary storage means is configured by a jumper or a dip switch.