Diagnostic system and method for home appliance

• US 8,432,291 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2010
• Issued: 04/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Han, Jonghye, Cho, Inhaeng, Lee, Phaljin, Jeong, Hoijin
• Primary Examiner(s): MCNALLY, KERRI L
• Application Number:
  US12/847,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20110074589A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,005 Days
• Field of Search: 340/679
• US Class Current: 340/679
• 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 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators

Abstract

A diagnostic system and method for a home appliance is provided. When the home appliance outputs product information as a sound signal, a service center remotely performs fault diagnosis of the home appliance by receiving the sound signal, detecting the product information from the sound signal, checking the state of the home appliance using diagnostic data included in the product information to determine whether the home appliance is out of order, diagnosing, when water supply malfunction including a water supply error or a water level sensor error has occurred, a cause of the water supply malfunction, and deriving a solution to the water supply malfunction. Upon deriving a diagnosis result through the fault diagnosis of the home appliance, the service center immediately notifies the user of the diagnosis result and may dispatch a service technician or may provide the user with a solution to allow the user to easily fix the fault without dispatching a service technician.

Claims

1. A diagnostic method for a home appliance diagnostic system, the method comprising:

receiving a sound signal output from a home appliance via a communicator of a diagnostic server and extracting product information about the home appliance from the sound signal;

analyzing via the diagnostic server the product information and determining, when an error code is set in the product information, whether the error code corresponds to a water supply error associated with a water supply operation of the home appliance;

diagnosing via the diagnostic server a fault of the home appliance by determining, when the error code corresponds to the water supply error, whether at least one of a water supply malfunction, a water level sensor malfunction, or a program malfunction has occurred using diagnostic data associated with the water supply operation among a plurality of diagnostic data included in the product information; and

deriving via the diagnostic server a diagnosis result by deriving a solution corresponding to a cause of the water supply error, the cause being obtained according to the fault diagnosis, wherein diagnosing via the diagnostic server the fault of the home appliance includes diagnosing the water supply error by determining whether the water supply operation has a malfunction using at least one of state information, a wash water temperature, or a change of the wash water temperature among the plurality of diagnostic data, and wherein diagnosing via the diagnostic server the fault of the home appliance includes determining, when the state information is associated with a washing or rinsing mode, whether the wash water temperature has been changed by comparing a first wash water temperature measured when water supply starts and a second wash water temperature measured when water supply is completed.

2. The diagnostic method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining via the diagnostic server, when the error code is a water level sensor error, that the fault of the home appliance is an error due to malfunction of a water level sensor provided in the home appliance and deriving a diagnosis result by deriving a solution of dispatching a service technician to repair or replace the water level sensor.

3. The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein diagnosing via the diagnostic server the fault of the home appliance includes:

determining, when the wash water temperature has not been changed, that the fault of the home appliance is caused by an error due to failure to perform water supply normally after comparing a measured wash water temperature with a preset reference temperature; and

determining, when the wash water temperature has been changed, that the fault of the home appliance is caused by an error due to malfunction of a water level sensor provided in the home appliance.

4. The diagnostic method according to claim 3, wherein deriving via the diagnostic server the diagnosis result includes:

deriving a solution of providing guidance for checking whether a water pipe or a water supply hose has frozen, checking a connection state of the water pipe or the water supply hose, and checking an open state of a water valve when the wash water temperature is equal to or less than the reference temperature; and

deriving a solution of providing guidance for checking the connection state of the water pipe or the water supply hose, and checking the open state of the water valve when the wash water temperature is higher than the reference temperature.

5. The diagnostic method according to claim 3, wherein deriving via the diagnostic server the diagnosis result includes deriving a diagnosis result by deriving a solution of dispatching a service technician for repair or replacement upon determining that the fault of the home appliance is caused by the program malfunction or the water level sensor malfunction.

6. The diagnostic method according to claim 1, wherein diagnosing via the diagnostic server the fault of the home appliance includes determining, when the state information is associated with a mode other than the washing or rinsing mode, that the home appliance has normally performed water supply to perform the washing and rinsing modes, and determining that the fault of the home appliance is caused by program malfunction.

7. A home appliance diagnostic system, comprising:

a home appliance that outputs product information required for fault diagnosis as a sound signal;

a diagnostic server that receives the sound signal, derives a state, a fault, and a fault cause of the home appliance, and derives, as a diagnosis result, a solution to the fault; and

a portable terminal that receives the sound signal output from the home appliance and transmits the sound signal to the diagnostic server through a communication network, wherein the diagnostic server determines, when an error code is set in the product information extracted from the received sound signal, whether the error code corresponds to a water supply error or a water level sensor error based on the product information, and diagnoses fault of the home appliance by determining, when the error code corresponds to the water supply error or the water level sensor error, whether at least one of a water supply malfunction, a water level sensor malfunction, or a program malfunction has occurred using diagnostic data associated with a water supply operation among a plurality of diagnostic data included in the product information, and then derives a solution corresponding to a cause of an error associated with the water supply operation and outputs a diagnosis result, wherein the diagnostic server diagnoses the water supply error by determining whether the water supply operation has a malfunction using at least one of state information, a wash water temperature, or a change of the wash water temperature among the plurality of diagnostic data, and wherein the diagnostic server determines whether the wash water temperature has been changed and determines that the fault of the home appliance is caused by an error due to water supply malfunction or an error due to water level sensor malfunction according to the determination when the state information is associated with a washing or rinsing mode.

8. The home appliance diagnostic system according to claim 7, wherein

the diagnostic server determines that the fault of the home appliance is caused by program malfunction when the state information is associated with a mode other than the washing or rinsing mode.

9. The home appliance diagnostic system according to claim 7, wherein the diagnostic server derives a solution of providing guidance for checking a connection state of a water pipe or a water supply hose and checking an open state of a water valve upon determining that the fault of the home appliance is caused by the water supply malfunction since the wash water temperature has not been changed, and

the diagnostic server derives a solution of providing guidance for checking whether the water pipe or the water supply hose has frozen, checking the connection state of the water pipe or the water supply hose, and checking the open state of the water valve when the wash water temperature is less than a reference temperature.

10. The home appliance diagnostic system according to claim 7, wherein, when the error code corresponds to the water level sensor error or when the wash water temperature has been changed, the diagnostic server determines that the fault of the home appliance is caused by an error that has occurred due to malfunction of a water level sensor provided in the home appliance although water supply has been performed normally and derives a solution of dispatching a service technician to repair or replace the water level sensor.