Asynchronous reporting system

• US 10,429,092 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2018
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lemire, Patrick R., Lv, Cherry, Schmit, Thomas Paul, Stuart, Jeffrey J., Wang, Bo, Kern, James W., Blum, William R., Ferro, Philip J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Khan, Aftab N.
• Application Number:
  US15/921,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20180202680A1
• Time in Patent Office: 566 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/58 using Internet communication
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/63 Electronic processing
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/50 Air quality properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

An asynchronous reporting mechanism for a remote device in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning environment. Using gateway information, such as a device address, report information may be sent to the user account, or using another approach, the information may be sent directly to the user. An asynchronous message may be sent without user intervention or request.

Claims

1. A heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system comprising:

a gateway device comprising interconnected components including;

a master clock;

a random access memory;

a non-volatile programmable memory having stored therein one or more of;

a customized bootloader,

a gateway application software image;

a radio frequency tool kit image;

non-volatile application run data; and

factory provided data;

a processor connected to the master clock, the random access memory, and the non-volatile programmable memory; and

a PHY chip connected to the processor,

wherein the gateway device is in communication with one or more pieces of HVAC equipment via radio frequency (RF) communication links,

wherein the gateway device is in communication with an external network,

wherein the gateway device is in two-way synchronous communication with a router,

wherein the gateway device is configured and adapted to provide asynchronous communication to the router,

wherein the router is in communication with an Internet cloud through a broadband connection,

wherein the one or more pieces of HVAC equipment communicate with the gateway device in data sessions within a round robin sequence of data sessions, and

wherein communication between the gateway device and the router occurs within a data session within the round robin sequence of data sessions.

2. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 1, wherein the gateway device is in communication with a Web user component through the Internet cloud.

3. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 1, wherein the gateway device is in communication with a smart phone user component through the Internet cloud.

4. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) system of claim 1, wherein upon detection of a fault and or errors the gateway device is configured and adapted to communicate with the router via asynchronous communication.

5. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 1, wherein the gateway device is in communication with a server through the Internet cloud.

6. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 5, wherein when data is not available from the non-volatile programmable memory, the processor of the gateway device is configured and adapted to fetch data from the server through the Internet cloud.

7. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 1, wherein the processor of the gateway device is configured and adapted to fetch data from the non-volatile programmable memory and to execute program instructions stored in the non-volatile programmable memory.

8. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 7, wherein the data fetched from the non-volatile programmable memory is factory provided data.

9. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 7, wherein the program instructions to be executed include the customized bootloader.

10. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 7, wherein the program instructions to be executed include the gateway application software image.

11. The heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) reporting system of claim 7, wherein the program instructions to be executed include the radio frequency tool kit image.

12. A method for gateway control of residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment comprising:

connecting HVAC equipment to a gateway device comprising interconnected components including;

a master clock;

a random access memory;

a non-volatile programmable memory having stored therein one or more of;

a customized bootloader,

a gateway application software image;

a radio frequency tool kit image;

non-volatile application run data; and

factory provided data;

a processor connected to the master clock, the random access memory, and the non-volatile programmable memory; and

a PHY chip connected to the processor,

wherein the gateway device is in communication with one or more pieces of HVAC equipment via radio frequency (RF) communication links,

wherein the gateway device is in communication with an external network,

wherein the gateway device is in two-way synchronous communication with a router,

wherein the gateway device is configured and adapted to provide asynchronous communication to the router and

wherein the router is in communication with an Internet cloud through a broadband connection;

wherein the HVAC equipment is configured and adapted for communicating with the gateway device in data sessions within a round robin sequence of data sessions;

communicating information regarding the HVAC equipment to the gateway device in a data session within a round robin sequence of data sessions, wherein the communication between the gateway device and the router occurs within a data session within the round robin sequence of data sessions;

communicating information regarding the HVAC equipment from the gateway device to a server through the Internet cloud through the router; and

sending, in an absence of a data session within the round robin sequence of data sessions, an asynchronous message which reports faults and/or errors from the gateway device asynchronously to a server through the Internet cloud via the router.

13. The method for gateway control of residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment of claim 12, wherein the asynchronous message is sent without user intervention or request.

14. The method for gateway control of residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment of claim 12, wherein the asynchronous message is a one-way message that is sent by the gateway device;

and receipt of an asynchronous message by the server triggers a response message to be sent back to the gateway device.

15. The method for gateway control of residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment of claim 12, wherein receipt of an asynchronous message by the server triggers a response message to be sent back to the gateway device.

16. The method for gateway control of residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment of claim 12, wherein the server comprises a database, a web application, and communication layers.

17. The method for gateway control of residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment of claim 16, wherein the communication layers are instanced in the server when user activity opens a data session on a web interface module.