Method for controlling a household appliance, particularly a washer or dishwasher

• US 20020147878A1
• Filed: 03/28/2002
• Published: 10/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Kuerner, Volkart, Mayr-Willius, Manfred
• Granted Patent: US 6,973,515 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/305
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for controlling a household appliance, particularly a washer or dishwasher, having an I/O control for programs and a machine unit comprising a central control that controls assigned functional units according to the selected program. The I/O control and the machine control achieve independence from one another in reference to their design and control, and an interface for the transmission of program-specific commands is provided between the I/O control and the machine unit, wherein the program selection criteria entered by the operator into the I/O control or the information received by the remote transmission is converted into assigned program-specific commands, and the incoming program commands are received by the machine unit and converted into functional commands for the functional units of the machine unit.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a household appliance, particularly a washer or a dishwasher, having an I/O control for programs and a machine unit comprising a central control that controls assigned functional units according to the selected program,

wherein

an interface is configured between the I/O control and the machine unit for the transmission of program-specific commands,

wherein in the I/O control, the program selection criteria entered by an operator, or information received by a remote transmission, are converted into assigned program-specific commands, and wherein

the program commands are received by the machine unit and converted into the functional commands for the functional units of the machine unit.

2. The method according to claim 1,

wherein

the I/O control is provided with selection means for the program data to be selected, and display means for the display of the selected program data, wherein

the program data that was pre-defined by the selection means or that are received from the remote transmission are converted into the program-specific commands via the input converter, and wherein

the program-specific commands are transmitted to the machine unit and converted into the functional commands for the functional units.

3. The method according to claim 2,

wherein

the interface between the I/O control and the machine unit comprises a coder/decoder in the I/O control and a decoder/coder in the machine unit as well as a two-way transmission link 5 between the coder/decoder and the decoder/coder.

4. The method according to claim 3,

wherein

a wired or wireless transmission link is used for the transmission of the program-specific commands.

5. The method according to claim 4,

wherein

the program-specific commands in the I/O control are configured depending on the chosen selection means via the input converter and the coder of the coder/decoder and are routed to the transmission link, wherein

the program-specific commands received by the machine unit are routed to a machine-specific converter via the decoder of decoder/coder, and wherein

the central control receives input signals from the machine-specific converter that are specific to the central control.

6. The method according to claim 5,

wherein

the functional units and/or the central control route check-back signals to the machine-specific converter, which are converted in the machine unit via the coder of the decoder/coder and routed back to the I/O control via the transmission link, and wherein

the incoming check-back signals from the decoder of the coder/decoder are received in the I/O control, and converted by the input converter and displayed via the display means.

7. The method according to claim 6,

wherein

the information from the remote transmission is converted via the input converter and routed to the coder of the coder/decoder in the I/O control.

8. The method according to claim 6,

wherein

the information from the remote transmission is configured as program-specific commands and is directly routed to the decoder of the decoder/coder in the machine unit.

9. The method according to claim 8,

wherein

I/O controls with varying configurations are configured with standardized program-specific commands that can be optionally connected with the machine unit that is adjusted to these program-specific commands.

10. The method according to claim 8,

wherein

various machine units that respond to the standardized program-specific commands are optionally coupled with the I/O control which, in turn, is also adjusted to these program-specific commands.

11. The method according to claim 8,

wherein

I/O controls and machine units with varying configurations are provided, which are all configured for the program-specific commands, and

one of the I/O controls is optionally coupled with one of the machine units.