Configurable building control system display

• US 8,782,547 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Donaldson, Stuart G., Brisbine, Patrick S., Huynh, Cuong C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): ORR, HENRY W
• Application Number:
  US11/841,281
• Publication Number:
  US 20090055765A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,521 Days
• Field of Search: 715/771
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23109 Configuration of display device, operator panel
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A system and method for displaying information on a display of a building control system. In one illustrative embodiment, a display controller is provided that includes a configuration mechanism for configuring the information that is to be displayed on the display. The configuration mechanism may include one or more user definable object description reference strings that include tokens that identify which device and/or object information to display on the display.

Claims

1. A display controller for a building control system, wherein the building control system includes one or more building control devices, and wherein at least selected building control devices have one or more corresponding objects, the display controller comprising:

a display configured to display information related to one or more of the building control devices; and

a display controller programmed to display the information related to the one or more building control devices on the display, wherein the display controller provides a user interface for allowing a user to interact with a configuration mechanism to define at least part of a user definable object description reference string (ODRS) definition, wherein the user definable object description reference string (ODRS) definition comprises a string that has at least one conditional expression that includes one or more logical operators and two or more tokens, wherein each of the two or more tokens reference one or more object properties of a selected object of the corresponding building control device, the display controller displaying an object property indicated by a first condition of the at least one conditional expression unless the object property indicated by the first condition of the at least one conditional expression is not available for a corresponding building control device,

wherein the object description reference string (ODRS) is parsed by the display controller to determine the information to be displayed.

2. The building control system of claim 1 wherein the object description reference string (ODRS) definition includes one or more tokens corresponding to a subset of the one or more object properties of the selected object of the corresponding building control device.

3. The building control system of claim 2 wherein the display controller is configured to parse the string of two or more tokens and display the corresponding subsets of object properties on the display and to parse the string of two or more tokens and display corresponding point information.

4. The building control system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the tokens corresponds to a descriptive text string object property.

5. The building control system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the tokens corresponds to a device name object property.

6. The building control system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the tokens corresponds to an object name object property.

7. The building control system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the tokens corresponds to a device instance name object property.

8. The building control system network of claim 1 wherein the object description reference string (ODRS) definition is user configurable via the display controller.

9. The building control system network of claim 1 wherein the configuration mechanism is software implemented in the display controller.

10. A method of displaying information relative to two or more building control devices of a building control system, the method comprising:

providing a user definable object description reference string (ODRS) definition for each of two or more building control devices of the building control system, wherein each object description reference string (ODRS) definition includes a string that has at least one conditional expression that includes one or more logical operators and two or more tokens, wherein one or more of the tokens identify one or more object properties of one or more objects for the corresponding building control device and one or more of the tokens identify point information associated with one or more objects, wherein the point information corresponds to parameter and/or data values;

providing a user interface on a display for allowing a user to define at least part of one or more of the user definable object description reference string (ODRS) definitions;

parsing each of the object description reference string (ODRS) definitions to identify the one or more tokens that correspond to each of the two or more building control devices;

retrieving available object properties of the one or more objects that correspond to the identified ones of the two or more tokens from each of the corresponding building control devices; and

displaying an object property indicated by a first condition of the at least one conditional expression unless the object property indicated by the first condition of the at least one conditional expression are not available for a corresponding building control device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the object description reference string (ODRS) definition for at least one of the two or more building control devices is user definable.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein at least one object description reference string (ODRS) definition corresponds to two or more building control devices.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the object description reference string (ODRS) definitions are applied on a per user basis.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein one of the tokens identifies a descriptive text string object property for the corresponding building control device.

15. A method of displaying information relative to two or more building control devices of a building control system on a display, comprising:

providing a display controller programmed to display information related to each of the building control devices of the building control system on the display, the display controller providing a user interface for allowing a user to interact with a configuration mechanism to define at least part of an object description reference string (ODRS) definition for one or more building control devices of the building control system, wherein at least one of the user definable object description reference string (ODRS) definitions includes a string that has at least one conditional expression that includes one or more logical operators and two or more tokens, the conditional expression indicating what information about the corresponding building control device is to be displayed by the display controller;

displaying the information indicated by a first condition of the at least one conditional expression unless the information indicated by the first condition of the at least one conditional expression is not present for a corresponding building control device; and

when the information indicated by the first condition of the at least one conditional expression is not present, displaying the information indicated by a second condition of the at least one conditional expression unless the information indicated by the second condition of the at least one conditional expression is not present.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

when the information indicated by the second condition of the at least one conditional expression is not present, displaying the information indicated by a third condition of the at least one conditional expression unless the information indicated by the third condition of the at least one conditional expression is not present; and

when the information indicated by the third condition of the at least one conditional expression is not present, displaying the information indicated by a fourth condition of the at least one conditional expression unless the information indicated by the fourth condition of the at least one conditional expression is not present.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the information indicated by the first condition of the at least one conditional expression and the information indicated by the second condition of the at least one conditional expression are selected from descriptive text, name information, location information, identifier information and point information.