JPH0213998B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a data collection method for collecting measurement value data stored in a plurality of terminal devices at predetermined time intervals, and in particular, to This paper relates to a data collection method that enables time adjustment.

[Technical Background of the Invention] Conventionally, a data collection method for collecting measurement value data of electricity, gas, water, etc. has been to selectively call a large number of terminal devices (also called road survey devices) from a central control device. Measurement value data stored in terminal devices was collected using communication lines such as telephone lines.

By the way, in this type of data collection system, especially in terminal devices, from the viewpoint of securing measured value data such as power consumption for each predetermined time period, the central control unit has a built-in standard clock, while each terminal device has a built-in standard clock. Built-in clock circuit. Then, the central control unit sends a polling signal containing the terminal calling address and control code, a standard clock time signal, etc. On the other hand, the terminal device side selects only the terminal device corresponding to the terminal calling address and polls it. In addition to correcting the time of the built-in clock circuit by receiving standard time data sent along with signals, etc.
Control is performed to read the measured value data for each predetermined time period and write it into the memory in accordance with the corrected time.

Therefore, the data collection method described above can accurately and reliably adjust the time of the clock circuit of each terminal device only when the standard clock of the central control device is operating normally. However, if a power outage, device abnormality, or time setting error occurs in the central control unit, the standard clock on the central control unit may keep the incorrect time when the power is restored, the abnormality is recovered, or the time setting error occurs. Therefore, if the time signal of this standard clock is used to correct the time in the clock circuit of each terminal device, the time will be incorrectly corrected. Therefore,
As a central control device, it is not possible to collect accurate data from each terminal device.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made with attention to the above-mentioned points, and is based on a method for collecting measurement value data from a plurality of terminal devices using a communication line. When the time is incorrect due to a setting error, etc., it reliably detects the incorrect time, prompts the time to be corrected when the time difference is large, and collects accurate data from each terminal device under accurate time management. The objective is to provide a data collection method for

[Summary of the Invention] The present invention compares the time signal of a standard clock and the time signal of a terminal device at the initial stage of operation of a central control device, and when the time difference between the two is greater than or equal to a predetermined time,
The time signal of the clock circuit of the terminal device is compared, and if the time difference is within a predetermined time, it is determined that the time of the standard clock needs to be adjusted, and an alarm is issued to prompt the time adjustment and data collection is stopped. This is a data collection method.

[Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a device to which the method of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of each terminal device, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmission procedure, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are main points of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an operation flowchart and a transmission procedure for explaining the section. In Fig. 1, numeral 10 is a central control device that collects measured value data representing the consumption of electricity, gas, water, etc. This device 10 includes a device main body 11 that has a built-in electric calculator, etc., and a device that stamps standard time. A standard clock 12 that outputs signals and a modem 1 that modulates and demodulates transmission signals.
3, etc. A communication line 20 such as a telephone line or a low voltage distribution line is led out from the central control unit 10, and a plurality of terminal devices 30 ₁ to 30 _N , which are load survey meters, are connected to this line.

Each of the terminal devices 30 ₁ to 30 _N is a signal conversion circuit that receives power L ₁ obtained by multiplying the load voltage and current consumption and converts it into a pulse proportional to this power L ₁ as shown in FIG. 31 and this signal conversion circuit 3
It has a counter 32 that counts one output pulse, and a clock circuit 34 that gives a command to the counter 32 to store the counted value of the counter 32 in a memory 33 at every predetermined time period, and further includes a control circuit 35. , a transmission signal conversion circuit 36, a modem 37 for modulating and demodulating transmission signals, and the like are provided. The clock circuit 34 always clocks the current time, gives a reading command to the counter 32 at predetermined time intervals, and clocks the standard time sent from the central controller 10 under the control of the control circuit 35. The time is now being adjusted. The control circuit 35 receives the terminal calling address sent from the central controller 10 side and determines whether or not it is calling its own device, and when it determines that it is calling its own device, it sends a polling signal from the central controller 10 side. It has a function to perform necessary control on each component 33, 34, 36, 37, etc. based on the following. The transmission signal conversion circuit 36 converts the parallel data from the memory 33 into serial data and transmits the data to the communication line 2 via the modem 37.
It also converts the serial data from the modem 37 side into parallel data and inputs it to the control circuit 35.

Next, the operation of the apparatus configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

(1) Data collection operation On the central controller 10 side, the device body 11
is a transmission signal as shown in FIG. 3a, that is, a plurality of terminal devices 30 ₁ to 30 _N
Terminal calling address to select one from
When the polling signal containing TA and control code CD=0 and the current time signal of the standard clock 12 are output, these transmission signals are modulated by the modem 13 and then sent to each terminal device 30 ₁ via the communication line 20 . ~30 Sent to _{the N} side.

Each terminal device 30 ₁ to 30 _N is connected to the central control device 1
When the transmission signal from the 0 side is received, it is demodulated by the modem 37 and further converted into a parallel signal by the transmission signal conversion circuit 36, and this parallel signal is supplied to the control circuit 35. Here, the control circuit 35 decodes the terminal call address TA and the control code CD=0, and if it determines that the call is to its own terminal device, for example, ₃₀₁ , the control circuit 35 receives the own terminal address TA' and the time signal of the clock circuit 34. and the transmission signal conversion circuit 3
6 and central control unit 10 via modem 37
After sending the standard time of the standard clock 12 sent from the central controller 10 side to the clock circuit 3
4 to adjust the time.

The central control device 10 side receives the own terminal address TA' from the terminal device ₃₀₁ side and the clock circuit 34.
When the time signal of
0 Send to ₁ side. Here, the control circuit 35 of the terminal device ₃₀₁ reads the measured value data for each time period from the memory 33 based on the decoding result of the control code CD=1, and also reads out the self-terminal address TA' as shown in FIG. 3b. The measured value data is added to the data and sent to the central controller 10 side. Therefore, the central control device 10 can collect data from the terminal device 30 ₁ through the series of transmission procedures described above.
Data is collected for the other terminal devices 30 ₂ to 30 _N using the same procedure.

(2) Time adjustment of the central control device 10 If a power outage, device abnormality, or time setting error occurs in the central control device 10, the central control device 10
This means that the standard clock 12 is not keeping accurate time.

Therefore, the central control device 10 performs the processes shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 at the initial stage of operation according to a predetermined sequence program. That is, the device main body 11 of the central control device 10 shifts to the initialization mode as shown in step S1 in FIG. At the same time, as shown in FIG. _5a , a polling signal including a terminal calling address TA and a time reading control code CD=2 is sent to a desired terminal device, for example, 30 1 to the terminal devices 30 ₁ to 30 _N side. .

The designated terminal device ₃₀₁ decodes the terminal calling address TA and control code CD=2 from the central control device 10 side, and if it determines that the call is for its own terminal device, it starts the call without adjusting the time. As shown in FIG. 5b, the self-terminal address TA' and the time signal from the clock circuit 34 are sent to the central controller 10 side. Here, the central control device 10 collects the time signal of the clock circuit 34 of the terminal device _{30 1} as shown in step S3 in FIG. Compare with the time signal,
It is determined whether the time difference between the two times is, for example, within one minute (step S4). If it is determined that the time is within 1 minute, the central controller 10 shifts to the normal data collection mode shown in FIG.
S5) Collect data from each terminal device 30 ₁ to 30 _N.

However, when comparing the time signal of the standard clock 12 and the time signal of the terminal device 30 ₁ , the time difference is 1.
If the time is more than 1 minute, it is determined that the time of either the standard clock 30 or the clock circuit 34 on the terminal side is significantly deviated, and then the time signal on the terminal side compared with the standard time signal is determined in two or more terminal devices. It is determined whether or not there is one (step S6), and if only one terminal is to be compared, the process returns to step S3 and the time signal of the clock circuit 34 of another terminal device, for example ₃₀₂ , is collected according to FIG. And the central control device 10
After collecting the time signals _of two or more terminal devices 30 ₁ , 30 _{2 ,} . determine whether
If the difference between both times is 1 minute or more, go to step S3 again.
Returning to , the time signal of the terminal device 30 ₃ is further collected. If the time difference between at least two terminal devices is within one minute, it is determined that the standard clock 12 on the central control device 10 side is significantly out of order, and the time is determined by an alarm, blinking lamp, continuous lighting, etc. It prompts for correction (step 8) and stops the operation based on a predetermined program (step S9).

Therefore, according to the configuration of the embodiment as described above,
At the initial stage of operation, the central controller 10 always compares the time signal on the terminal device side to determine how much time lag there is, and if the time lag is small, it immediately switches to the normal data collection mode. The data of each terminal device 30 ₁ to 30 _N is collected. In addition, if there is a time difference of more than a predetermined time, it is determined whether the time difference between multiple terminal devices is within a predetermined time, and if it is within a predetermined time, the standard clock 12
Since the central control device 10 determines that the time of the terminal device 30 1 to 30 _N is incorrect and prompts the user to adjust the time, the central control device 10 can always adjust the time of the clock circuit 34 of each terminal device 30 ₁ to 30 N with the standard time, and can also correct the time of each terminal device 30 ₁ ~30 Accurate data can always be collected from _{the N} side. Of course, if there is no time lag or there is only a small time lag, the central controller 10 immediately moves to data collection, so the data collection time is not affected much. Therefore, even if the standard clock 12 goes out of order due to a power outage, device abnormality, or even a time setting error, the central control device 10 can detect this and reliably adjust the time.
As a result, the terminal devices 30 ₁ to 30 _N can be accurately time-managed.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. In the above embodiment, the central controller 10 has one
The time of one terminal device is compared with the time of the standard clock 12, and when the time difference is within one minute, normal data collection is started. If it is within one minute, the process may be moved to data collection, or it may be determined whether the time is within one minute based on the average time of the time signals of the two terminal devices. Of course, the time of 1 minute used as the criterion for judgment is just an example; for example, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, or 1 minute.
Any time within 30 seconds may be used. Further, in the above embodiment, when it is determined that the time on the terminal device is accurate and the time on the central control device 10 is incorrect, the standard clock 12
Although the time adjustment is prompted by an alarm or the like, it is also possible to set the time on the terminal device side to the standard clock 12 and automatically adjust the time without issuing an alarm. In addition, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, the presence or absence of a time lag in the standard clock is determined by comparing the time on the standard clock and the time on the terminal device side at the initial stage of operation of the central control device, When it is determined that there is a time lag in the standard time, the time is prompted to be adjusted or the time is adjusted using the time on the terminal device, so even if a power outage or equipment abnormality occurs on the central control device side, each terminal will always have the correct time. It is possible to provide a data collection method that can correct the local time and, in turn, collect accurate data from each terminal device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 to 5 are shown to explain one embodiment of the data collection method according to the present invention.
Figure 1 is a schematic system diagram of a device to which the method of the present invention is applied, Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of each terminal device in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a diagram showing the central control unit and terminal equipment at the time of data collection. Figure 4 is an operation flowchart for correcting the time of the central control unit, and Figure 5 is a diagram showing the transmission procedure between the central control unit and the terminal device when the time of the central control unit is adjusted. be. 10...Central control device, 11...Device main body, 1
2... Standard clock, 20... Communication line, 30 ₁ ~ 30 _N
... Terminal device, 31 ... Signal conversion circuit, 32 ...
Counter, 33...Memory, 34...Clock circuit,
35...control circuit, 36...transmission signal conversion circuit,
37...Modem.

[Claims]

1. Input the time division multiplexed signal to the first time slot switching circuit, replace the data of at least three predetermined time slots in each frame with the data of predetermined consecutive time slots, and A selector selects a plurality of time slots from the continuous time slots from the time slot switching circuit and the time slots from the second time slot switching circuit and supplies them to the unidirectional branch realization circuit, and the input The data of one specific time slot among the determined consecutive time slots is branched out to each of the remaining consecutive time slots, and at least a part of each of the remaining input consecutive time slots is output to the specific time slot. The outputs of these unidirectional branch realizing circuits are supplied to the second time slot switching circuit and also to the third time slot switching circuit, and the third time slot switching circuit outputs the outputs of the one-way branch realizing circuits to the second time slot switching circuit. A branch connection method that performs the reverse operation and outputs the output to branch in both directions.

Claims (1)

2. The data collection method according to claim 1, wherein the time signal collection means separately sends the first polling signal to at least two terminal devices. 3. The time signal of the clock circuit used for comparison with the time signal of the standard clock in the data collection means is the time signal of the clock circuit of one or more terminal devices as described in claim 1. data collection method. 4. The data collection method according to claim 1, wherein the signal for adjusting the time of the standard clock in the time adjustment means is an alarm signal for prompting the time adjustment. 5. The signal for adjusting the time of the standard clock in the time adjusting means uses the time signal of the clock circuit of the terminal device, and this time signal is set to the standard clock to adjust the time. Claim 1 Data collection method described.