JP3328870B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an air conditioner, in particular, to record the operating state history required to investigate the cause of the abnormality occurrence, regarding the air conditioner can output the recording easily to the outside I do.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional air conditioner controller for recording such operating state data in a storage device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-332591.

In a conventional control device of an air conditioner, an external storage device such as an IC memory card is used as a storage device for recording operating state data, instead of a storage device in the control device. Since the IC memory card can be easily attached to and detached from the control device, it is attached to the control device when necessary, and then, when an abnormality occurs in the air conditioner, the IC memory card is removed from the control device, By examining the contents of the IC memory card with a general-purpose computer equipped with a reading device, it is possible to determine the cause of the abnormality of the air conditioner.

[0004] In addition, since a non-volatile memory is generally used for an IC memory card, there is an advantage that recorded operating state data is not lost even when power supply to the air conditioner is cut off.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional air conditioner control device, no consideration is given to the occurrence of abnormalities with low reproducibility. Since the card is mounted on the control device, there is a problem that the cause of the occurrence of the abnormality can hardly be determined unless the abnormality recurs.

It is also conceivable to mount an IC memory card in advance as a part of the control device. However, since the IC memory card is very expensive compared to the storage device in the control device, it is cost-effective. Have difficulty.

Further, in the above-described conventional air conditioner control device, it is necessary to provide a connector for mounting an IC memory card and an interface circuit for writing data to the IC memory card in the control device. There is also a problem that the cost of the control device increases.

Accordingly, the present invention is capable of reliably recording operating state data upon occurrence of a first abnormality even when an abnormality having low reproducibility occurs, and further recording operating state data.
And to provide an air conditioner that can suppress the cost increase of the control device by providing means for outputting the data to the outside to a minimum.

[0009]

An air conditioner according to the present invention comprises :
An outdoor unit and a refrigerant pipe connected to the outdoor unit.
With an indoor unit to be connected, mounted on an outdoor unit
Communication with the installed outdoor control unit and the indoor unit
Indoor control device that performs data communication with the outdoor control device via a wire
And a data reading device connected to the communication line.
Operating condition data of the air conditioner
Data and the operating status data.
Operating during operation of the air conditioner.
Data is cyclically stored in storage memory at predetermined time intervals
If an error occurs during writing or operation,
Transfer the contents to non-volatile memory, save and read the data
If an operation history request command before the occurrence of an error is received from the
In such a case, the stored contents should be sent to the data reading device.
And features.

[0010] The recording memory may be an outdoor controller or
Used as working memory for the control program of the indoor control unit.
It is preferable that the RAM be used.

The operating state data includes a compressor speed,
Fan speed, expansion valve opening, four-way valve position, discharge pressure, outside
It is preferable to include the air temperature and the discharge gas temperature.

In this case, the data reading device
Is a general-purpose computer with a communication interface
Preferably, there is.

[0013]

Further, the air conditioner of the present invention has the above-mentioned memory device.
Configuration and provided with a display unit that displays the contents of the storage area of the memory
It is preferable to.

[0015]

According to the present invention, the driving information data is
Since it can be stored in nonvolatile memory, the first time
Operation status data can be reliably recorded when an error occurs.
As well as a means for extracting operating state data to the outside.
Data communication between the outdoor controller and the indoor controller.
Existing communication lines for air conditioners can be used.
Can be suppressed.

[0016]

[0017]

[0018]

[0019] In addition, the operating state data that has been recorded, Day
Since the data can be output to the data reading device , there is no need to remove the storage device unlike the related art using an external storage device.

[0020]

Further, the operating state data is stored in a nonvolatile memory.
Since the recorded operating state data is not lost even when the power supply to the air conditioner is cut off, the same advantages as those of the prior art using an external storage device such as an IC memory card can be obtained. Can bring.

[0022]

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

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a separate type air conditioner equipped with an air conditioner control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In this air conditioner, the outdoor unit 1 and the indoor unit 3 are connected by a refrigerant pipe 5. An outdoor control device 2 is mounted on the outdoor unit 1 and an indoor control device 4 is mounted on the indoor unit 3, and are connected to each other by a communication line 6a. The data reading device 7 is configured by a general-purpose computer having a communication interface. The data reading device 7 uses the communication line 6b by connecting it to the outdoor control device 2 when reading data.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the outdoor control device 2 which is a control device of the present air conditioner. The outdoor control device 2
CPU8, ROM in which control program is written
9. RAM 10, which is a working memory for the control program and is also used as a memory for recording operation state data, and EE, a non-volatile memory for storing the operation state data
It comprises a PROM 11, a communication circuit 12 for communicating with the indoor control device 4 or the data extracting device 7, and an input / output circuit 13 for inputting signals from various sensors and outputting signals to various actuators. They are connected by a bus 14.

Here, as the sensors connected to the input / output circuit 13, the discharge pressure sensor 15, the suction pressure sensor 1
6, outside air temperature sensor 17, and discharge gas temperature sensor 18
There is. As the actuator, the compressor 19,
There are a fan motor 20, an electric expansion valve 21, and a four-way valve 22.

That is, the outdoor control device 2, which is a control device of the present air conditioner, cyclically stores the operating state data of the air conditioner in the storage area at predetermined time intervals until a predetermined abnormality occurs in the air conditioner. A RAM 10 and an EEPROM 11 are provided as recording means for recording. Also,
A communication circuit 12 is provided as communication means for performing data communication with the data reading device .

Further, in the outdoor control device 2, a RAM
10 and the EEPROM 11 are used as storage devices in a control device of the air conditioner. Then, CPU 8 and the communication circuit 12, when receiving the operation history request command abnormality before the data reading device 7, RAM 10 and EE
It serves as data transmission means for transmitting the contents of the PROM 11 to the data reading device 7.

The operation of the control device of the present air conditioner configured as described above will be described based on the data flow shown in FIG. During operation of the air conditioner, the CPU 8
According to the control program written in the ROM 9, the operating state data is cyclically written at predetermined time intervals to the operating state data recording area 23 in the RAM 10. The operating state data includes input values of various sensors and signal output states to various actuators. FIG. 4 is an example of a configuration diagram of operating state data in the control device of the present air conditioner.

Here, if an abnormality occurs during the operation of the air conditioner, the CPU 8 transfers the contents of the operation state data storage area 23 to the EEPROM 11 and stores them. The abnormality here refers to, for example, a state in which the discharge pressure exceeds an upper limit value specified in advance by the control program, and the CPU 8 stops the air conditioner in an emergency.

After the occurrence of the abnormality, the CPU 8 reads the contents of the EEPROM 11 when receiving the operation history request command before the occurrence of the abnormality from the data reading device 7 through the communication circuit 12, and reads the contents of the EEPROM 11 through the communication circuit 12. Send to

Thus, the control device of the present air conditioner records the operation state data in the RAM 10 and the EEPROM 11 which are the storage devices in the control device of the air conditioner, so that the external storage device such as an IC memory card is stored in advance. It is not necessary to attach it and even if an abnormality with low reproducibility occurs,
The operating state data can be reliably recorded when the first abnormality occurs.

Further, since the recorded operation state data can be output to the data reading device through the communication means by the data transmission means, there is no need to remove the storage device unlike the prior art using an external storage device.

When the control device of the present air conditioner is a control device of an outdoor unit of a separate type air conditioner, a communication device for performing data communication with a control device of an indoor unit as a communication means used by the data transmission means. By diverting the means, an increase in the cost of the control device can be suppressed.

Further, since the storage device in the control device of the air conditioner is constituted by the EEPROM 11 which is a nonvolatile memory, the recorded operation state data is not lost even when the power supply to the air conditioner is cut off. Therefore, the same effect as that of the related art using an external storage device such as an IC memory card can be obtained.

In this embodiment, the EEPROM 11 is used as a memory for storing the operation state data. However, if the operation state data is not lost when the power supply to the air conditioner is cut off, there is no problem. Is EEPRO
An inexpensive volatile RAM may be used instead of M11.

Further, in this embodiment, the area for recording the operation state data and the area for storing the operation state data are separately provided, but the same area does not cause any problem. However, by dividing the area, there is an effect peculiar to the embodiment that the operating state data can be recorded in preparation for the next abnormality even after the operating state data is stored.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operating state data is recorded not in the external storage device but in the storage device inside the control device of the air conditioner, so that the external storage device is not installed in advance. In both cases, it is possible to provide a control device for an air conditioner that can reliably record operating state data upon occurrence of a first abnormality.

According to the present invention, communication means is used as means for taking out operating state data to the outside. In the case of a control apparatus for an outdoor unit of a separate type air conditioner, the control means for the indoor unit and the data for the control unit are used. Since existing communication means for communication can be used, an increase in the cost of the control device of the air conditioner can be suppressed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a separate type air conditioner equipped with an air conditioner control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control device of the air conditioner shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a data flow of the control device of the air conditioner shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of operating state data of the control device for the air conditioner shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Outdoor unit 2 Outdoor control device 3 Indoor unit 4 Indoor control device 6a, 6b Communication line 7 Data reading device 8 CPU 9 ROM 10 RAM 11 EEPROM 12 Communication circuit 23 Operating state data storage area

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Nobuyuki Branch School No. 390 Muramatsu, Shimizu-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. Air Conditioning Systems Division (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Ueda 390 Muramatsu, Shimizu-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture Hitachi Shimizu Engineering Co., Ltd. Examiner Hidefumi Shoji (56) References JP-A-4-36534 (JP, A) JP-A-8-193746 (JP, A) JP-A-6-337155 (JP, A) JP-A-1-174850 (JP JP, A) JP-A-4-268150 (JP, A) JP-A-3-99156 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F24F 11/02 103

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An outdoor unit and a refrigerant in the outdoor unit.
An indoor unit connected through a pipe,
An outdoor control device mounted on the outdoor unit and an indoor unit
Data communication with the outdoor controller via a communication line
And an indoor control device for transmitting data to the communication line.
An air conditioner to which a data readout device is connected, Storage memory for storing operating state data of the air conditioner
And a nonvolatile memory for storing the operation state data.
Prepared, The operation data during the operation of the air conditioner is stored in the storage
Cyclically at predetermined time intervals in the memory, and
If an abnormality occurs during operation, the contents of the memory
The data is transferred to the nonvolatile memory and stored, and the data is read.
Operation history request command before the occurrence of an error was received from the feeding device
If so, send the saved contents to the data reading device
An air conditioner characterized by that: 2. The recording memory according to claim 1, wherein the recording memory includes the outdoor control device.
Or as a working memory for the control program of the indoor control unit.
2. The RAM according to claim 1, wherein the RAM is used for
Onboard air conditioner. 3. The operating state data includes a compressor speed,
Fan speed, expansion valve opening, four-way valve position, discharge pressure, outside
2. An air temperature and a discharge gas temperature are included.
Or the air conditioner according to 2.