Log collection data harvester for use in a building automation system

• US 8,180,824 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2009
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trane International Inc. (Trane Technologies plc)
• Original Assignee: Trane International Inc. (Trane Technologies plc)
• Inventors: McCoy, Sean M., Gydesen, Shane M., Markus, Christopher M.
• Primary Examiner(s): BLAIR, DOUGLAS B
• Application Number:
  US12/390,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20100228805A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,177 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A building automation system (BAS) comprising a plurality of end devices, at least one communication network, and a server engine comprising a data harvester. The end devices are each associated with at least one of a space, a system, or a subsystem for at least a portion of a building or a campus. The communication network communicatively couples to at least a portion of the plurality of end devices to the server engine. In one embodiment, the server engine is adapted to dynamically implement the data harvesting capability to periodically establish communications with, to receive and store data about, end devices and to selectively control the utilization of the communication network in order to prevent overrun or data loss. Methods of handling log collection from end devices in a building automation system (BAS) based upon a distributed schedule provided by a user or a priority scheme are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of gathering data from a plurality of end devices, connected through a network means to a server engine adapted to accept, store, and retrieve data by means of a processor-based control system in a building automation system (BAS) comprising:

entering a plurality of data log commands into a command queue array, wherein the command queue array comprises a plurality of command queues associated with a period of time, and each command queue is configured to have a capacity corresponding to the number of data log commands that can be processed within the period of time;

iterating through the plurality of the command queues in the command queue array;

processing the data log commands during the period of time associated with each command queue;

harvesting at least one value from at least one of the end devices as directed by the data log commands;

monitoring the processing of the command queues such that if the processing of a given command queue extends into the period of time associated with a subsequent command queue by a predetermined percentage, then the data log commands of the subsequent command queue are not executed.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accommodating the end devices that have a predetermined network reporting capability that is less than a maximum capacity of the network by prioritizing the harvesting of the value from the end device with a higher frequency of the data log commands above the end device associated with a lower frequency of the data log commands.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

verifying by the data harvesting module that the single data log command to be extracted from a command queue is not already present in the command queue before placing the data log command in the command queue.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

verifying by the data harvesting module that the predetermined percentage of time associated with a command queue has not elapsed before iterating to a next data log command in the given command queue.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

at least a portion of the plurality end devices is compatible with at least one network standard selected from the set consisting of;

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-1995, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135.1-2003, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2004, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2007, and BACnet-2008.

6. The BAS of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network means is compatible with at least one BACnet standard.