Air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus and air conditioning system diagnosis result display apparatus

• US 8,903,682 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2010
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Gyota, Tomoaki, Kushiro, Noriyuki, Ito, Yoshiaki, Nakata, Masanori, Kuroiwa, Takeru
• Primary Examiner(s): TSAI, CAROL S W
• Application Number:
  US13/376,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20120101778A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,727 Days
• Field of Search: 702/183, 621/25, 621/26, 621/27, 621/29, 621/30, 621/766, 236/84, 236/44.C, 165/11.1, 165/11.2, 165/251
• US Class Current: 702/183
• 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 11/38 Failure diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/54 using one central controller connected to several sub-controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 5/06 for holding members in one or a limited number of definite positions only G05G5/005, G05G5/03, G05G5/05, G05G5/28 take precedence

Abstract

An air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus and an air conditioning system diagnosis result display apparatus capable of representing various kinds of failures with high visibility by generating a system structure diagram that illustrates an air conditioning system in a different form depending on a detected failure and illustrating the failure using this system structure diagram are obtainable. Diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means for generating a system structure diagram that includes icons, such as an icon of an outdoor unit and an icon of an indoor unit, and a line that links them on the basis of system structure information derived by system structure analyzing means and for superimposing a refrigeration cycle diagnosis result derived by refrigeration cycle analyzing means in the vicinity of an icon of a concerned device in the system structure diagram is included.

Claims

1. An air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus comprising:

communication means for, in an air conditioning system in which a plurality of devices are connected by a network and the related devices transmit and receive a control signal to and from each other over the network, performing communication between the devices over the network;

device type identifying means for identifying a device type that indicates a type of each device;

communication list generating means for generating a communication list that includes a combination of the devices being a communication source and a communication destination of the control signal;

system structure analyzing means for deriving system structure information that indicates a device configuration of the air conditioning system from the device type and the communication list;

system diagnosis means for performing a diagnosis on the air conditioning system using information acquired through the communication means and deriving a diagnosis result;

diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means for generating a system structure diagram on the basis of the system structure information acquired from the system structure analyzing means and superimposing a highlighted content of the diagnosis result in the system structure diagram; and

a display unit that acquires the system structure diagram in which the content of the diagnosis result is superimposed from the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means and displaying the system structure diagram.

2. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the devices has a communication destination device list being a list of communication destination devices for the control signal, and

the communication list generating means acquires the communication destination device list from the device through the communication means and generates the communication list on the basis of the communication destination device list.

3. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, wherein each device has the device type, and

the device type identifying means acquires the device type from the device through the communication means.

4. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, wherein the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means includes an inter-device main connection determining rule, depicts each device as a different icon for each device type, selects main devices from among the devices that transmit and receive the control signal on the basis of the inter-device main connection determining rule, links the devices with each other by lines, and generates the system structure diagram.

5. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, further comprising drive information acquiring means for acquiring drive information, such as a refrigerant temperature value or a refrigerant pressure value in a refrigeration cycle of each device, from the device through the communication means,

wherein the system diagnosis means includes refrigeration cycle analyzing means for:

acquiring the drive information from the drive information acquiring means;

diagnosing a presence or absence of abnormality in a refrigerant temperature, a refrigerant pressure in the refrigeration cycle on the basis of the drive information;

detecting a presence or absence of a failure in the refrigeration cycle; and

deriving a refrigeration cycle diagnosis result as the diagnosis result.

6. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 5, wherein the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means

acquires the refrigeration cycle diagnosis result from the system diagnosis means and

superimposes highlight of an indoor unit and an outdoor unit linked by a refrigerant pipeline that connects an indoor unit and/or an outdoor unit in which a failure has been detected in a refrigeration cycle and highlight of the refrigerant pipeline onto the system structure diagram on the basis of the refrigeration cycle diagnosis result.

7. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, further comprising communication message acquiring means for acquiring a communication message in the communication performed between the devices from the network through the communication means,

wherein the system diagnosis means includes communication message analyzing means for

acquiring the communication message from the communication message acquiring means,

detecting a presence or absence of a failure in the network from the communication message and deriving a network diagnosis result as the diagnosis result.

8. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, further comprising communication waveform acquiring means for acquiring a communication waveform in the communication performed between the devices from the network through the communication means,

wherein the system diagnosis means includes communication waveform analyzing means for

acquiring the communication waveform from the communication waveform acquiring means and

detecting a presence or absence of a failure in the network using a difference between the communication waveform and a predetermined proper waveform and deriving a network diagnosis result as the diagnosis result.

9. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 7, wherein the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means

generates the system structure diagram represented by linking all of the devices on the communication list to each other on the basis of the system structure information,

acquires the network diagnosis result from the system diagnosis means and

superimposes highlight of a device related with the presence or absence of the failure in the network, a linking line that links the device onto the system structure diagram on the basis of the network diagnosis result.

10. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, further comprising previous system structure storage means for storing previous system structure information that indicates a past device configuration in the air conditioning system,

wherein the system diagnosis means includes system configuration analyzing means for

acquiring the previous system structure information from the previous system structure storage means,

comparing the system structure information and the previous system structure information, detecting a presence or absence of a failure in a system configuration and deriving a system configuration diagnosis result as the diagnosis result.

11. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 10, wherein the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means

acquires the system configuration diagnosis result from the system diagnosis means and

superimposes different representations of a device in the system configuration contained in both the system structure information and the system configuration diagnosis result containing a content of the previous system structure information, a device in the system configuration contained in only the system configuration diagnosis result, and a device in the system configuration contained in only the system structure information onto the system structure diagram.

12. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication list generating means generates the communication list including a combination of device IDs of the devices as a combination of the devices,

the system diagnosis means includes device setting analyzing means for

acquiring the communication list from the communication list generating means,

detecting a presence or absence of a failure in setting of the device IDs from the communication list and deriving a device setting diagnosis result as the diagnosis result.

13. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 12, wherein the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means

acquires the device setting diagnosis result from the system diagnosis means,

generates the system structure diagram in which the device ID is assigned to each of the devices on the basis of the system structure information and

superimposes the device setting diagnosis result onto the system structure diagram.

14. The air conditioning system diagnosis apparatus of claim 1, comprising two or more means out of drive information acquiring means for acquiring drive information, such as a refrigerant temperature value or a refrigerant pressure value in a refrigeration cycle of the devices, from the devices through the communication means, communication message acquiring means for acquiring a communication message in the communication performed between the devices from the network through the communication means, communication waveform acquiring means for acquiring a communication waveform in the communication performed between the devices from the network through the communication means, previous system structure storage means for storing previous system structure information that indicates a past device configuration in the air conditioning system, and the communication list generating means for generating the communication list including a combination of device IDs of devices as a combination of the devices, wherein:

when the drive information acquiring means is included, the system diagnosis means includes refrigeration cycle analyzing means for acquiring the drive information from the drive information acquiring means, diagnosing a presence or absence of abnormality in a refrigerant temperature, a refrigerant pressure in the refrigeration cycle on the basis of the drive information, detecting a presence or absence of a failure in the refrigeration cycle and deriving a refrigeration cycle diagnosis result as the diagnosis result,

when the communication message acquiring means is included, the system diagnosis means includes communication message analyzing means for acquiring the communication message from the communication message acquiring means, detecting a presence or absence of a failure in the network from the communication message and deriving a network diagnosis result as the diagnosis result;

when the communication waveform acquiring means is included, the system diagnosis means includes communication waveform analyzing means for acquiring the communication waveform from the communication waveform acquiring means, detecting a presence or absence of a failure in the network using a difference between the communication waveform and a predetermined proper waveform, and deriving a network diagnosis result as the diagnosis result,

when the previous system structure storage means is included, the system diagnosis means includes system configuration analyzing means for acquiring the previous system structure information from the previous system structure storage means, comparing the system structure information and the previous system structure information, detecting a presence or absence of a failure in a system configuration and deriving a system configuration diagnosis result as the diagnosis result;

when the communication list generating means generates the communication list including the combination of the device IDs of the devices as the combination of the devices, the system diagnosis means includes device setting analyzing means for acquiring the communication list from the communication list generating means, detecting a presence or absence of a failure in setting of the device IDs from the communication list, and deriving a device setting diagnosis result as the diagnosis result; and

the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means generates the diagram for all information as an additional drawing element, which indicates a failure when the failure has been detected in any of the diagnosis results, so as to be superimposed and illustrated onto the system structure diagram when no failure had been detected in the diagnosis results.

15. An air conditioning system diagnosis result display apparatus comprising:

system diagnosis result holding means for, in an air conditioning system that includes a plurality of devices, holding a diagnosis result for the air conditioning system;

diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means for acquiring the diagnosis result from the system diagnosis result holding means, generating a schematic diagram that illustrates the air conditioning system on the basis of the diagnosis result, and superimposing information relating to the diagnosis result onto the schematic diagram such that the information relating to the diagnosis result is highlighted; and

a display unit acquiring the schematic diagram on which the diagnosis result is superimposed from the diagnosis result superimposed diagram generating means and displaying the schematic diagram.