Electronic message delivery system utilizable in the monitoring of remote equipment and method of same

• US 6,160,477 A
• Filed: 09/22/1999
• Issued: 12/12/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Vivint Incorporated (NRG Energy, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Heat-Timer Corporation
• Inventors: Shprecher, Daniel, Sandelman, David
• Primary Examiner(s): POPE, DARYL C
• Application Number:
  US09/401,460
• Time in Patent Office: 447 Days
• Field of Search: 340/506, 340/511, 340/539, 340/825.06, 340/825.36, 340/825.49, 340/286.02, 700/17
• US Class Current: 340/506
• 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 11/49 ensuring correct operation, e.g. by trial operation or configuration checks
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0769 Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/002 with telemetering systems telemetering in general G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/007 with remote control systems remote control in general G08C

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring remote equipment such as HVAC equipment, are provided. A sensor is in communication with a piece of remote equipment, and a local transmitter is connected to the sensor. An interface unit, having a message generating mechanism and an antenna, is capable of receiving signals from the sensors of several pieces of equipment, forming a local network. A central computer server is in communication with the interface unit and is adapted to receive and preferably store messages generated by the interface unit. When a sensor detects an exception condition in a piece of remote equipment, the sensor transmits a signal to the interface unit, and the interface unit generates an incoming exception message and forwards the message to the server. The server forwards at least one outgoing exception message to at least one predetermined user-defined communication device based on the incoming exception message. Multiple outgoing exception messages may be forwarded to multiple communication devices in accordance with a user-defined message profile, or a single outgoing exception message may be forwarded in response to receipt of multiple incoming exception messages. The message profile is remotely configurable by the user. Incoming and/or outgoing exception messages are stored and later retrievable and sortable by any of a number of parameters such as brand, model, installation date, local climate, and local weather conditions.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring multiple pieces of remote equipment comprising the steps of:

a) determining respective states of at least one parameter of each one of the multiple pieces of remote equipment;

b) communicating information indicative of the respective states from the multiple pieces of remote equipment to a communication substation;

c) communicating messages regarding the respective states from the communication substation to a computer server as incoming messages;

d) enabling a user to remotely configure or modify a user-defined message profile containing outgoing message routing instructions, the user-defined message profile being storable at the computer server,

e) determining whether at least one of the incoming messages is an incoming exception message indicative of improper operation of the piece of remote equipment;

f) if it is determined in step e) that at least one of the incoming messages is an incoming exception message, forwarding at least one outgoing exception message based on the incoming exception message to at least one remote user-defined communication device specifiable in the user-defined message profile,

wherein the user can remotely configure or modify the user-defined message profile by remotely accessing the computer server.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said step b) further comprises the step of communicating the information from the multiple pieces of remote equipment to the communication substation via a local radio frequency transmitter.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said step e) further comprises the step of communicating said incoming messages via at least one of a cellular telephone network, radio transmissions, telephone lines, and the Internet.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of providing a portion of the incoming messages with equipment identification information for the respective pieces of remote equipment to which the incoming messages pertain.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein step d) further comprises the step of determining whether at least one of the incoming messages is an incoming exception message or a normal status message indicative of proper operation of the piece of remote equipment to which the message pertains.

6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

storing the incoming exception message at the computer server; and

sorting stored incoming exception messages by at least one equipment criteria including brand, model, installation date, climate, and weather conditions.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein if at least one of the incoming messages is determined to be a normal status message, the method further comprises the step of h) storing the normal status message in a normal status memory.

8. A method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

i) providing a main list having information identifying all pieces of the remote equipment being monitored;

j) comparing the contents of the normal status memory with the main list to determine whether a normal status message was not communicated within a predetermined period of time for any pieces of the remote equipment being monitored; and

k) generating an outgoing exception message in accordance with the message profile for each piece of equipment identified in step k) as not having sent a normal status message.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein step i further comprises the step of providing at least one of brand, model, installation date, climate, and weather condition information for each piece of equipment on the main list.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

storing outgoing exception messages generated in step k); and

sorting at least one of the stored outgoing exception messages and the stored normal status messages by at least one equipment criterion including brand, model, installation date, climate, and weather conditions.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein step f) further comprises forwarding multiple outgoing exception messages to multiple user-defined communication devices in response to a single incoming message in accordance with the user-defined message profile.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein step f) further comprises forwarding a single outgoing exception message to a user-defined communication device in response to multiple incoming messages in accordance with the user-defined message profile.

13. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing a plurality of user-defined message profiles in a database at the computer server.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the remote equipment includes heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment.

15. A method according to claim 1, wherein said step c) further comprises the step of communicating in the incoming messages respective identification codes of the pieces of remote equipment to which the incoming messages respectively pertain.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein said step d) further comprises the step of forwarding the identification codes in the outgoing exception messages to the at least one remote user-defined communication device in accordance with the user-defined message profile.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein the identification code includes data regarding at least one of the following equipment criteria:

brand, model, installation date, local climate, and local weather conditions of the installation site.

18. A method according to claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

storing the incoming messages on the computer server; and

sorting the incoming messages by at least one of the equipment criteria.

19. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of providing each piece of remote equipment with its own local radio frequency transmitter.

20. A method according to claim 19, further comprising the step of providing the communication substation with an antenna to receive signals from the local radio frequency transmitters.

21. A method of monitoring remote heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment comprising the steps of;

a) determining a state of at least one parameter of at least one piece of the remote equipment;

b) communicating messages indicative of the state of the at least one parameter from the piece of remote equipment to a computer server as incoming messages;

c) determining whether an incoming message is an incoming exception message indicative of improper operation of the piece of remote equipment;

d) if it is determined in step c) that an incoming message is an incoming exception message forwarding at least one outgoing exception message based on the incoming exception messages to at least one user-defined communication device;

e) storing at least one of the incoming messages and outgoing exception messages at the computer server; and

f) creating an information data base about the remote equipment being monitored by enabling the messages stored in step e) to be sortable by at least one equipment criterion.

22. A system for monitoring multiple pieces of remote equipment, comprising:

multiple sensors each in local communication with a respective one of the multiple pieces of remote equipment, said sensors detecting a state of at least one parameter of each one of the multiple pieces of remote equipment;

local transmitters, each connected to a respective one of said sensors, said local transmitters sending status signals indicative of the state of the at least one parameter;

an interface unit having an antenna and receiving said status signals from said local transmitters, said interface unit having a message generating mechanism; and

a computer server in remote communication with said interface unit, said server adapted to receive messages generated by said interface unit, said computer server having a user interface, a user being capable of remotely accessing said computer server via said user interface to remotely configure a user-defined message profile containing outgoing message routing instructions,

wherein when one of said sensors detects an exception condition in one of the pieces of remote equipment, said transmitter coupled to the one of said sensors sends a corresponding status signal, and when said interface unit receives said status signal, said interface unit generates an incoming exception message indicative of the exception condition and forwards said incoming exception message to said server,

and wherein said server forwards at least one outgoing exception message to at least one predetermined user-defined remote communication device based on said incoming exception message as specified in said user-defined message profile.

23. A system according to claim 22, wherein said local transmitters are radio frequency transmitters, and said local transmitters and said antenna form a local radio frequency network.

24. A system according to claim 22, wherein said message generating mechanism forwards said incoming exception messages via at least one of a plurality of communication media, said media comprising at least one of a cellular telephone network, radio transmissions, telephone lines, and the Internet.

25. A system according to claim 24, said computer server comprising a normalization module, wherein said computer server receives said incoming exception messages from said interface unit and said normalization module normalizes said incoming exception messages into a uniform format to create normalized messages, wherein said outgoing exception messages are generated based on said normalized messages.

26. A system according to claim 22, wherein the at least one parameter is at least one of an exception condition in which the equipment is operating improperly and a normal status condition in which the equipment is operating properly.

27. A system according to claim 22, wherein the multiple pieces of the remote equipment being monitored each has a respective identification code, said computer server further comprising:

a first memory in which equipment identification codes of all monitored pieces of remote equipment are stored; and

a second memory in which communication device identification codes of all of said remote user-defined communication devices specified by said message profiles are stored.

28. A system according to claim 26, wherein the multiple pieces of the remote equipment being monitored each has a respective identification code, said computer server further comprising:

a first memory in which equipment identification codes of all monitored pieces of remote equipment are stored; and

a second memory in which communication device identification codes of all of said user-defined communication devices specified by said message profiles are stored; and

a third memory in which said incoming exception messages are stored.

29. A system according to claim 28, wherein said stored incoming exception messages are sortable by at least one criteria including the following:

brand, model, installation date, local climate, and local weather conditions.

30. A system according to claim 27, wherein said interface unit periodically generates a normal status message if its respective pieces of equipment are functioning properly, said normal status message including an interface unit identification code.

31. A system according to claim 30, said server further comprises:

a fourth memory for storing said normal status messages;

a comparator processor in communication with said first and fourth memories adapted to identify which of said pieces of monitored remote equipment having an identification code stored in said first memory did not communicate a normal status message stored in said fourth memory within a predetermined period of time; and

a server message generator in communication with said comparator processor adapted to generate an outgoing exception message for each piece of equipment identified by said comparator processor, said outgoing exception message being forwarded by said server to at least one of said user-defined communication devices specified by said user-defined message profiles.

32. A system according to claim 31, wherein each of the normal status messages further includes criteria of the piece of equipment to which the normal status message pertains, and said stored normal status messages are sortable in said fourth memory by at least one of the following criteria:

brand, model, installation date, local climate, and local weather conditions.

33. A system according to claim 22, wherein each of said incoming exception messages comprises exception information and identification information for a respective piece of remote equipment to which the incoming exception message pertains.

34. A system according to claim 33, wherein each of said outgoing exception messages comprises exception information and identification information for a respective piece of remote equipment to which the incoming exception message pertains.

35. A system according to claim 30, wherein each of said normal status messages further comprises operational information of a respective piece of the remote equipment to which the normal status message pertains.

36. A system according to claim 31, further comprising a fifth memory in which outgoing exception messages are stored.

37. A system according to claim 36, wherein each of the outgoing exception messages further includes equipment and operating condition criteria for a respective piece of the remote equipment being monitored, and said stored outgoing exception messages arc sortable in said fifth memory by at least one of the following criteria:

brand, model, installation date, local climate, and local weather conditions.

38. A system for monitoring remote heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment, comprising:

a sensor in communication with a piece of the remote equipment, said sensor detecting a state of least one parameter of the piece of remote equipment;

an interface unit, connected to said sensor, said interface unit having a message generating mechanism; and

a computer server in communication with said interface unit, said server adapted to receive messages generated by said interface unit, said server having a memory in which said messages may be stored and a subroutine for enabling sorting of said messages by at least one equipment criterion,

wherein when said sensor detects an exception condition in the piece of remote equipment, said interface unit generates an incoming exception message indicative of the exception condition and forwards said incoming exception message to said server,

and wherein said server forwards at least one outgoing exception message to at least one predetermined user-defined remote communication device based on said incoming exception message.

39. A method for monitoring multiple pieces of remote equipment comprising the steps of:

a) determining respective states of at least one parameter of each one of the multiple pieces of the remote equipment;

b) communicating information indicative of the respective states to a communication substation;

c) communicating messages indicative of the respective states from the communication substation to a computer server as incoming messages, the incoming messages having respective incoming formats;

d) normalizing each incoming message to form a corresponding normalized message having a predetermined uniform format;

e) storing the normalized messages in a normalized message database on the computer server;

f) determining from each incoming message whether at least one exception message related to the incoming message is to be sent to at least one remote communication device specified by a plurality of message profiles stored at the computer server;

g) if it is determined in step f) that at least one exception message related to the incoming message is to be sent, deriving the at least one exception message from a stored normalized message corresponding to the related incoming message and a respective one of the message profiles, the at least one exception message derived thereby having at least one respective format suitable for reception by the at least one remote communication device to which the at least one exception message is to be sent; and

h) sending the at least one exception message derived in step g) to the at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles,

wherein the message profiles may be created or modified at least in part by a user by remote access of the computer server.

40. A method of monitoring remote heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment comprising the steps of:

a) determining a state of at least one parameter of at least one piece of the remote equipment;

b) communicating respective messages indicative of the state of the at least one parameter of the at least one piece of the remote equipment to a computer server as incoming messages, the incoming messages having respective incoming formats;

c) normalizing each incoming message to form a corresponding normalized message having a predetermined uniform format;

d) storing the normalized messages in a normalized message database at the computer server;

e) determining from each incoming message whether at least one exception message related to the incoming message is to be sent to at least one remote communication device specified by a plurality of message profiles stored at the computer server;

f) if it is determined in step e) that at least one exception message related to the incoming message is to be sent, deriving the at least one exception message from a stored normalized message corresponding to the related incoming message and the message profiles, the at least one exception message derived thereby having at least one respective format suitable for reception by the at least one remote communication device to which the at least one exception message is to be sent;

g) sending the at least one exception message derived in step f) to the at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles;

h) storing at least one of the incoming messages and the exception messages at the computer server; and

i) creating an information database for the remote equipment being monitored to enable the messages stored in step h) to be sortable by at least one equipment criterion;

wherein the message profiles may be created or modified at least in part by a user remote access of the computer server.

41. A system for monitoring multiple pieces of remote equipment, comprising:

multiple sensors each in communication with a respective one of the pieces of the remote equipment for detecting a state of at least one parameter of each one of the multiple pieces of the remote equipment;

local transmitters, each coupled to a respective one of said sensors, said local transmitters sending status signals indicative of the state of the at least one operating parameter of each one of the multiple pieces of the remote equipment;

an interface unit having an antenna and receiving said status signals from said local transmitters, said interface unit having a message generating mechanism; and

a computer server in communication with said interface, said server comprising;

1) a first message interface for receiving messages generated by said interface unit;

2) a message normalizer for normalizing each one of the messages received from the interface unit to form a corresponding normalized message having a predetermined uniform format;

3) a normalized message database for storing the normalized messages;

4) a message profile database for storing a plurality of message profiles;

5) a message processor for determining from each one of the messages received from the interface unit whether at least one exception message related to the received messages is to be sent to at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles;

6) an exception message generator for deriving the at least one exception message determined by the message processor to be sent to the at least one remote communication device, the at least one exception message being derived from a normalized message corresponding to the received message and the message profiles so as to have at least one respective format suitable for reception by the at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles;

7) a second message interface for sending the at least one exception message derived by the exception message generator to the at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles; and

8) a user interface for enabling a user at a remote location to create or modify at least in part the message profiles in the message profile database,

wherein when one of said sensors detects an exception condition in one of the pieces of the remote equipment, said local transmitter coupled to the one of said sensors sends a corresponding status signal, and when said interface unit receives said status signal, said interface unit generates an incoming exception message and forwards the incoming exception message to said computer server.

42. A system for monitoring remote heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment, comprising:

a sensor in communication with a piece of the remote equipment;

an interface unit, coupled to said sensor, said interface unit having a message generating mechanism; and

a computer server in communication with said interface unit, said server adapted to receive messages generated by said interface unit, said server having a memory in which said messages may be stored and a subroutine for sorting of said messages by at least one equipment criterion,

wherein when said sensor detects an exception condition in the piece of remote equipment, said interface unit generates an incoming exception message and forwards said incoming exception message to said server,

and wherein said server comprises;

1) a message normalizer for normalizing the incoming exception message to form a corresponding normalized message having a predetermined uniform format;

2) a normalized message database for storing the normalized message;

3) a message profile database for storing the a plurality of message profiles;

4) a message processor for determining from the incoming exception message that at least one exception message related to the incoming exception message is to be sent to at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles;

5) an exception message generator for deriving the at least one exception message determined by the message processor to be sent to the at least one remote communication device, the at least one exception message being derived from the normalized message corresponding to the incoming exception message and the message profiles so as to have at least one respective format suitable for reception by the at least one remote communication device to which the at least one exception message is to be sent;

6) a message interface for sending the at least one exception message derived by the exception message generator to the at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles; and

7) a user interface for enabling a user at a remote location to create or modify at least in part the message profiles in the message profile memory.