JPH0730941B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention includes a plurality of indoor units, a central control device for controlling them, and a remote control device arranged between the indoor unit and the central control device. Relates to an air conditioner.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a plurality of indoor units are installed in a building for each room, etc., and these are individually controlled by a centralized control device or divided into a plurality of groups and controlled for each group. I did When the number of indoor units increases in such a technique, the centralized control device is required to have a large number of functions, and the length of the transmission line connecting this to each indoor unit becomes unnecessarily long. In order to prevent such a situation, a technique is used in which an intermediate control device is connected to each indoor unit so that the intermediate control device has a part of the functions of the centralized control device.
With such a configuration, it is possible to reduce the burden on the centralized control device regarding the control of the indoor unit, and improve the usability of the air conditioner. An example of such a conventional example is JP-A-60-169041 "Centralized control device for room air conditioner".

In the above-mentioned conventional example, the plurality of air conditioners 101 to 106 including the remote controllers 201 to 206 are connected to the centralized controller 10 via the terminals 111 to 116. The terminals 111 to 116 have various signal processing functions, and mutually transmit data with respect to the operating conditions of the air conditioners 101 to 106 with the centralized controller 10.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention FIG. 11 shows a simplified system diagram of the above conventional example. The air conditioner 1 shown in FIG. 11 includes a plurality of indoor units 2a, 2b, ..., 2c (indicated by reference numeral 2 when collectively referred to) and a centralized control device 3 for controlling them. Remote control devices 4a, 4b, ..., 4c are provided between the indoor units 2 and the centralized control device 3 for each indoor unit 2.
(Indicated by reference numeral 4 when collectively referred to) is arranged.

In such a conventional example, a large number of remote control devices 4 are required for each indoor unit 2 and the number of man-hours and labor at the time of assembling the air conditioner 1 are unnecessarily increased.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned technical problems and to provide an air conditioner having a simplified structure and significantly improved usability.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention relates to an indoor unit 12 divided into a plurality of groups 13, each group 13 has one master unit 15 and one master unit 15 subordinately connected to the group 15. Such an indoor unit 12 in which a plurality of slaves 16 are set, and a master 15 for each group 13 are connected, and the master 15 and slaves are connected.
The occurrence of an abnormal condition in 16 is detected, and the abnormal occurrence signal is sent to the parent device 15
Is connected to one or more master units 15 that are output to the remote controller 14 and each master unit 15 is sequentially designated by polling.
The remote control device 17 for reading and outputting the abnormality occurrence signal from 14 and the first operation state in which the remote control device 17 has a single indoor unit 12 to which an abnormality should be detected There is a second
Changeover switch that can change the operating state between operating state
The air conditioner is characterized by including 47 and a plurality of remote control devices 17, and a centralized control device 18 having an error display section 73 for displaying an error for each remote control device 17.

Further, the present invention is connected to a plurality of indoor units 12, a remote control device 17 that detects the occurrence of an abnormal state and outputs an abnormality occurrence signal.
A first operating state in which a single indoor unit 12 is a target of which an abnormality should be detected by the remote control device 17, and a second operating state in which the indoor unit 12 is a plurality of objects.
Changeover switch that can change the operating state between operating state
The air conditioner is characterized in that the remote control device 17 is connected to the remote control device 47, and the central control device 18 is provided with an anomaly display section 73 for displaying an anomaly for each of the remote control devices 17.

Operation According to the present invention, the plurality of indoor units 12 are divided into the plurality of groups 13. For each group 13, one master device 15 and one or more slave devices 16 subordinate to the master device 15 are set. A remote control device 14 is connected to each master device 15, one or a plurality of master devices 15F, and a remote control device 17I, respectively. Such a remote control device 17 is connected to the centralized control device 18. The remote control device 14 is an indoor unit 12 that belongs to the same group 13.
The occurrence of the abnormal state in is detected and stored, and the abnormality display section 71 displays the abnormality. It also outputs an abnormality occurrence signal to the master device 15.

Each master unit 15 is sequentially designated by the polling of the remote control device 17, reads the abnormality occurrence signal from the remote control device 14,
Output to the central controller 18. This allows the centralized control device 18
Can detect the presence or absence of an abnormality in the indoor unit 12 of each group 13 only by scanning the remote control device 17.

At this time, since the remote control device 14 is configured to display the occurrence of an abnormal state for each indoor unit 12 in the group 13 to which it belongs,
Using the remote control device 14, it is possible to detect which of the indoor units 12 in the group 13 to which it belongs is abnormal.

The distant control device 17 is provided with a switching switch 47 for switching whether the indoor units 12 of each group are operating independently or a plurality of units are operated, and the usability during the independent operation is further improved.

Further, when the number of indoor units 12 is small, a plurality of indoor units 12 can be directly connected to the remote control device 17, and the configuration of the air conditioner 11 can be simplified.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing a configuration example of an air conditioner 11 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the air conditioner 11
Is equipped with, for example, a plurality of indoor units 12 installed in, for example, a building and arranged in each room. These indoor units are grouped, for example, on each floor,
It is divided into a plurality of groups (3 groups in this embodiment). The indoor units 12 in such groups 13a, 13b, 13c (generally indicated by reference numeral 13) are connected to remote control devices (hereinafter abbreviated as operating devices) 14a, 14b, 14c, respectively. Device 15 and slave device 16 that is connected and connected to this master device 15
And are set. In addition, the indoor units to which each group 13 belongs
12 are unit numbers for mutual identification U0, U1,… Un (U0 is the master unit 15
In this embodiment, the maximum value of n is 15, for example. The operation device 14 is provided with a unit number display section 70 and an abnormality code display section 71.

The remote control devices 17a and 17b are connected to each one or a plurality of parent devices 15 which are set one by one for each group 13.
These remote control devices 17a and 17b are commonly connected to the centralized control device 18. The master unit 15 has identification codes DS1 and DS for mutual identification.
2, ..., DSm (in this embodiment, the maximum value of m is 15, for example)
Is given. The centralized control device 18 is provided with various display units 19 as will be described later and an input device 20 such as a keyboard, and is configured to include a microprocessor or the like for controlling these operations. A central controller 21 is provided. The display unit 19 is provided with an identification code display unit 72 and an abnormality display unit 73 for displaying the presence or absence of abnormality.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the remote control device 17. Referring to FIG. 2, the distant control device 17 is a central control device including, for example, a microprocessor.
The central controller 22 is connected to a transmission controller 23. The central control unit 22 is provided with a status indicator lamp for displaying the normal / abnormal state of the central control unit 22.
24 is connected to a setting abnormality lamp 25 that lights up in response to an abnormal state of setting operation in the remote control device 17, which will be described later.

The terminal blocks 26, 27, 28 of the remote control device 17 are respectively connected to the centralized control device 18, the driving operation input to the remote control device 17 is given from the terminal block 26, and the signal is centrally controlled via the photocouplers 29, 30. Provided to device 22. A switching block 31 for switching between a case where the operation input is a non-voltage input and a case where there is a voltage input in relation to the terminal block 26 is provided,
The operation input unit 32 is configured to include these.

From the terminal block 27, a set temperature input of an analog amount is given, and a digital signal is given to the central control unit 22 via an interface circuit 33 and an analog / digital (abbreviated as A / D) conversion circuit 34.

For example, a 4-bit parallel type set temperature input is given from the terminal block 28, and data is given to the central control unit 22 through the photocouplers 35, 36, 37 and 38.

The terminals 39 and 40 of the remote control device 17 are connected to a data transmission / reception unit (not shown) provided in the indoor unit 12 (parent device 15),
Serial data is given from the transmission control device 23 via the transformer 41. The read signal RD is taken out from the serial input to the transmission control device 23 via the tone decoder 42.

The central controller 22 switches the set temperature input from the centralized controller 18 between an analog input using the terminal block 27 and a 4-bit parallel input using the terminal block 28. The input switching unit 43 is connected. Further, with respect to the remote control device 17, for example, a rotary switch having 16 contacts, for example, which switches various operation modes such as a boost priority operation mode and an input prohibition operation mode of the operation device 14 as a priority order of inputs from the remote operation device 14, is provided. Input mode selection unit 44 realized as
Temperature setting switching unit 45 for switching the presence or absence of the temperature setting input
An operating device switching unit 46 that is a switching switch that permits / prohibits the temperature setting operation by the operating device 14, and a single indoor unit 12 controlled by the remote operating device 17,
Input switching switches 47 for switching between the case of a plurality of units and the case of a plurality of units are respectively connected to the central controller 22.

The power supply terminals 48 and 49 are supplied with power supply power from the indoor unit 12 (master device 15) via the connector 50 and drive power to the remote control device 17 via the constant voltage circuit 51.

An indoor unit in which relay coils 52, 53 are connected to the central control device 22 and are connected to a remote control device 17 as described later.
The relay coil 52 is energized only when at least one of 12 is operating normally and there is nothing abnormal. The relay coil 53 is excited only when at least one of the indoor units 12 connected to the remote control device 17 is abnormal.
Relays 54 and 55 are provided in association with such relay coils 52 and 53, and a terminal block 56 to which these are connected is a centralized control device.
Connected to 18. That is, the remote control device 17 transmits the normal operation and abnormality of the indoor unit 12 connected to the remote control device 17 to the centralized control device 18.

3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the operating device 14 in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the format of the data to be transmitted used at this time, and FIG. It is a figure which shows the memory | storage state of the process result memorize | stored in. With reference to these drawings as well, in step a1 in FIG. 3, the operating device 14 sequentially designates the indoor units 12 in the group 13 including the parent device 15 to which it is connected by polling.

This designation is performed by using the format shown in FIG. 4 and is composed of a header section 57, an address section 58, a data section 59 and a check data section 60. The address unit 58 indicates the address of the indoor unit 12, that is, the unit number Ui, the data unit 59 indicates various commands from the remote control device 17 to each indoor unit 12, data such as set temperature, and the check data unit 60 is shown in the fourth diagram. The following shows data for checking the transmission error of the format.

At step a2, the designated indoor unit 12 also returns its own operation data and abnormal data in the format shown in FIG. 4, and the operating device 14 receives and stores this.
This storage mode is shown in FIG. 5. For each address U0, U1, U2, ... Given to each indoor unit 12, "0" is given if the indoor unit 12 is normal, and "1" if it is abnormal. To give.

At step a3, it is determined whether or not such polling is completed over all the indoor units 12, and if not completed, the process is returned to step a1 again and the same process is repeated. Move to processing.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart for explaining the data collection operation by the remote control device 17, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the data content. Referring also to these drawings, in step b1 in FIG. 6, the remote control device 17 sequentially designates each master device 15 by polling. That is, as described above, a series of addresses DS1, DS2, ... Are set in the master device 15. At step b2,
Data concerning normal / abnormal operation stored in the operating device 14 shown in FIG. 5 is transmitted to the master device 15.

As shown in FIG. 7 (1), the master unit 15 uses the data transmitted from the operation device 14 as the data for each indoor unit 12, and the data related to the slave unit 16 as shown in FIG. 7 (2). Is output to the remote control device 17 together with the data regarding the master device 15. The remote control device 17 receives this,
For example, it is stored in the storage unit 61 configured by a random access memory (RAM) and the like which is provided in the central control unit 22 and which can be freely read / written. This stored data is
If necessary, the information is output to the centralized control device 18, and the identification code display portion 72 and the abnormality display portion 73 of the display portion 19 display the presence or absence of an abnormal state for each remote control device 17. At step b3, it is judged whether or not all the instructions from the remote control device 17 by polling have been completed. If not, the process returns to step b1. If it is finished, move to another process.

FIG. 8 shows an input switching switch 47 in the remote control device 17.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a logical configuration for extracting an output of the relay coil 53 from the output and the data of the parent device 15 and the data of the child device 16 shown in FIG. 7 (2). In this logical configuration, the output of the input switch 47 and the data of the master unit are input to the AND circuit 62, and the data of the master unit and the data of the slave unit are input to the OR circuit 63. Further, the input switching switch 47 is input to the AND circuit 65 together with the output of the OR circuit 63 via the inverting circuit 64. The outputs of the AND circuits 62 and 65 are added by the OR circuit 66 and added to the relay coil 53.
As output to.

Here, the input switching switch 47 output is, for example, a logic "1".
As shown in FIG. 9, the remote control device 17 has a single indoor unit.
Corresponding to the operating state connected to 12, the case of logic "0" is shown in FIG.
Corresponds to the operating state in which is connected. In the data shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, for example, data “0” indicates a normal state and data “1” indicates an abnormal state. At this time, the operation of the circuit of FIG. 8 is summarized as shown in Table 1 below.

Further, in the case of the configuration shown in FIG. 9, the remote control device 17 is configured to send only the master data among the data shown in FIG. 7 (2).

FIG. 10 is a diagram of another configuration example of the present invention. In the air conditioner 11 shown in FIG. 10, one remote control device 17 is connected to the centralized control device 18, and a plurality of indoor units 12 are connected to the remote control device 17. The present invention can be implemented even with such a configuration.

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of indoor units 12 can be connected to one remote control device 17, and the configuration of the air conditioner 11 can be significantly simplified as compared with the conventional example. .
Further, in the operation device 14, since it is possible to display the presence or absence of an abnormal state for each of the connected indoor units 12, in the centralized control device 18, the presence or absence of an abnormality for each remote control device 17, that is, the indoor unit connected to the remote control device 17. When the centralized control device 18 detects that an abnormality has occurred in at least one of the 12 indoor units 12, it becomes easy to detect the indoor unit 12 that has actually become abnormal.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above, according to the present invention, the centralized control device can detect the presence / absence of an abnormality in the indoor units grouped by only scanning the remote control device. At this time, a remote control device is provided for each group, and it is configured to display the occurrence of an abnormal state for each indoor unit in the group to which it belongs, and this is used to detect which indoor unit in which group. can do. In addition, when the number of indoor units operating is small and one remote control device has a single target indoor unit, the controllability of single operation can be improved by the switching switch as the first operating state. .

Further, according to the present invention, when the number of indoor units is small, a plurality of indoor units can be directly connected to the remote control device to simplify the configuration of the air conditioner.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing a configuration example of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the remote control device 17, FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the operating device 14, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data format, and FIG. 5 is stored in the operating device 14. FIG. 6 shows a data content, FIG. 6 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the centralized control device 18, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a format of data output by the operating device 14 and a format of data output by the master device 15. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a logical configuration for extracting signals from these data to the relay coil 52, FIG.
FIG. 10 is a system diagram showing a configuration of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a system diagram showing a configuration example of a typical conventional example. 11 …… Air conditioner, 12 …… Indoor unit, 13 …… Group, 14
...... Operating device, 15 ...... Main unit, 16 ...... Slave unit, 17 ...... Remote control device, 18 ...... Centralized control device, 19 ...... Display unit, 47 ...... Input switching switch, 52,53 ...... Relay Coil, 54, 55 …… Relay, 61 …… Storage section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An indoor unit 12 divided into a plurality of groups 13, wherein each group 13 has one master unit 15 and one or more slave units 16 subordinately connected to the master unit 15. And the indoor unit 12 and the parent unit 15 of each group 13 are connected to the parent unit 15 and the child unit.
The occurrence of an abnormal condition in 16 is detected, and the abnormal occurrence signal is sent to the parent device 15
Is connected to one or more master units 15 that are output to the remote controller 14 and each master unit 15 is sequentially designated by polling.
The remote control device 17 for reading and outputting the abnormality occurrence signal from 14 and the first operation state in which the remote control device 17 has a single indoor unit 12 to which an abnormality should be detected There is a second
Changeover switch that can change the operating state between operating state
An air conditioner comprising: 47, a plurality of remote control devices (17), and a centralized control device (18) having an abnormality display section (73) for displaying an error for each remote control device (17). 2. A distant control device 17 which is connected to a plurality of indoor units 12 and detects the occurrence of an abnormal condition and outputs an abnormality occurrence signal, and an indoor space to which an abnormality should be detected by the distant control device 17. Machine 12 has a single first operating state and a plurality of second operating states
Changeover switch that can change the operating state between operating state
An air conditioner characterized by including a central control device (18), which is connected to a remote control device (17) and an anomaly display unit (73) for displaying an anomaly for each remote connection device (17).