A SELECTIVE AUTODISCOVERY SYSTEM

• US 20080029610A1
• Filed: 08/01/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Nichols, Steven C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,765,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 236/1C
• 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 11/56 Remote control
• 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

Abstract

An autodiscovery system for configuration information about an HVAC system being provided to a controller or thermostat. Configurations or parameters may be autodiscovered from communicating equipment. Also, this equipment may be manually selected and set without affecting the autodiscovery status of the remaining equipment. There may also be non-communicating equipment that does not provide information to the thermostat. However, the thermostat may control the non-communicating equipment via an equipment interface module.

Claims

1. A control system comprising:

a controller; and

one or more components connected to the controller; and

wherein;

information about some of the one or more components is autodiscoverable by the controller; and

information about some of the one or more components is manually input to the controller.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

autodiscovery of some of the one or more components is selective;

manual input of information of some of the one or more components is selective; and

autodiscovery and manual inputs are simultaneously effective.

3. An HVAC control system comprising:

a thermostat;

one or more communicating components connected to the thermostat;

a component interface module connected to the thermostat; and

one or more non-communicating components connected to the component interface module.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more communicating components provides configuration information to the thermostats.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein configuration information of the one or more of non-communicating components is manually input to the thermostat.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the component interface module is for converting control signals to actuation signals.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the thermostat provides the control signals to an input of the component interface module; and

the component interface module provides actuation signals to the one or more non-communicating components.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein:

configuration information about some of the one or more communicating components is manually input into the thermostat; and

configuration information about some of the one or more communicating elements is autodiscovered by the thermostat.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more communicating components comprise at least one of the following:

a furnace;

an air conditioner;

a humidifier;

a ventilator;

a boiler;

a dehumidifier;

a dual fuel configuration;

a heat pump;

a blower; and

/or like components.

10. A method for autodiscovery comprising:

autodiscovery of configuration information of some of one or more HVAC components for a controller; and

manually entering configuration information of some of the one or more HVAC components for the controller while maintaining the autodiscovery of configuration information of some of the one or more HVAC components.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising autodiscovery of configuration information of some of the one or more HVAC components while maintaining the manual entering configuration information of some of the one or more HVAC components.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the controller is a thermostat.

13. An autodiscovery system comprising:

a controller; and

at least two communicating apparatus; and

wherein;

the controller may autodiscover the at least two communicating apparatus; and

at least one apparatus of the at least two communicating apparatus may be manually set while the remaining communicating apparatus may remain autodiscovered.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

at least one non-communicating apparatus; and

wherein the controller provides parameter control information to the at least one non-communicating apparatus.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the controller is a thermostat; and

an apparatus is an HVAC apparatus.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

an equipment interface module having an input connected to an output of the controller and having an output connected to an input of the at least one non-communicating apparatus; and

wherein equipment control information to the at least one non-communicating apparatus is via the equipment interface module.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the controller is a thermostat; and

the apparatus is an HVAC apparatus.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein an autodiscovery of a communicating apparatus is a providing of configuration information about the communicating apparatus to the controller.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein configuration information comprises at least one or more of the following:

apparatus model;

apparatus serial number;

heating cycle rate;

compressor stages;

cooling cycle rate;

apparatus existence;

blower pressure;

heating stages;

air purification specifications;

humidifier stages;

dehumidifier stages;

HVAC parameters;

zone descriptions; and

sensor information.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

sensors; and

wherein some of the sensors are subject to autodiscovery.