Home appliance diagnosis system, and method for operating same

• US 8,984,338 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2010
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Cho, In Haeng, Lee, Phal Jin, Jeong, Hoi Jin, Han, Jong Hye
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehne, Charles
• Application Number:
  US13/382,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20120198274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,715 Days
• US Class Current: 714/30
• 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 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/12 Arrangements for remote connection or disconnection of substations or of equipment thereof
• 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 12/2836 Protocol conversion between an external network and a home network controlling appliance services of a home automation network from a device located outside the home and the home network H04L12/2818; protocol conversion H04L69/08; adaptation of digital video signals for transport over a specific home network H04N7/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

The present invention relates to a home appliance diagnosis system and to a method for operating same, wherein product information is output in a predetermined signal sound by a home appliance product, and the signal sound is transmitted via a communication network connected to a remote service center to enable the service center to easily check the state of the home appliance product. In addition, the product information is encoded into a predetermined format and modulated to enable sound to be outputted by the home appliance product, thereby preventing noise or signal errors. The present invention enables stable signal modulation and accurate sound output, and enables the easy recovery of the sound transmitted to the service center via the communication network.

Claims

1. A home appliance, comprising:

a selection device that receives input of an instruction to perform a failure diagnosis;

a memory that stores product information of the home appliance for the failure diagnosis;

a controller that changes a mode of the home appliance to a smart diagnosis mode, encodes the product information stated in the memory and generates the product information into a control signal formed with a plurality of frames, when a fail diagnosis execution instruction is input by the selection device;

a modulator that generates a predetermined frequency signal to correspond to the control signal; and

an audio output driven by the modulator to output a sound to correspond to the frequency signal, wherein the controller comprises;

a main controller that controls to display a progress state of a smart diagnosis mode through a display, when entered into a smart diagnosis mode by an input to the selection device; and

an encoder that generates the control signal by encoding the product information to a control signal of a predetermined format, wherein the encoder sets an IFS, which is a segment in which a signal is not output for a predetermined time period, between the plurality of frames.

2. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the encoder encodes product information by applying an error coding method to restore a bit error in order to cope with a data damage problem that may occur in a process of transmitting the sound output through the audio output through a communication network.

3. The home appliance of claim 2, wherein the encoder encodes the product information using a forward error correction (FEC) encoding method.

4. The home appliance of claim 3, wherein the encoder encodes the product information using a convolution code, uses a puncturing method, and performs interleaving.

5. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the encoder adds a preamble and an error check bit by encoding in a predetermined format to the product information and generates a control signal so that a plurality of symbols form one frame.

6. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the encoder sets a dead time to the symbol at a segment in which a data value is changed to remove a reverberation effect that influences on a next signal modulation due to a charge and discharge principle of a capacitor.

7. The home appliance of claim 4, wherein the encoder forms the frame with a header and a payload, and the header of the frame comprises a frame type, reserve, a length, and FCS representing a type of the frame, and diagnosis data in which a product number and version information are added to product information are divided and comprised in the payload.

8. The home appliance of claim 7, wherein the encoder codes the header to 1/2 code rate base and performs interleaving, and codes the payload to 2/3 code rate base and performs interleaving, and encodes the header and the payload to each different code rate.

9. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the controller stores at least one information of temporary data, state information, an error code, option information, or power source information as diagnosis data upon emergency stop and generates the product information as the diagnosis data.

10. A home appliance diagnosis system, comprising:

a home appliance that outputs necessary product information with a predetermined sound upon diagnosing a failure;

a diagnosis serve that analyzes the product information by receiving the sound, diagnoses a state, a failure, and a Mute cause of the home appliance by extracting predetermined data of diagnosis data comprised in the product information, and derives measures of a failure; and

a terminal that receives the sound output from the home appliance as a sound signal and transmits the sound signal to the diagnosis server through a communication network, wherein the home appliance encodes the product information, generates the product information into a control signal formed with a plurality of frames, and sets an IFS, which is a segment in which a signal is not output for a predetermined time period, between the plurality of frames.

11. The home appliance diagnosis system of claim 10, wherein the diagnosis server comprises a signal processor that receives the sound encoded using a convolution code in the home appliance and decode using Viterbi decoding algorithm.

12. The home appliance diagnosis system of claim 11, wherein the signal processor receives the sound, divides the sound into a plurality of frames, and collects the plurality of frames by dividing an order of a frame using a frame type comprised in each frame.

13. The home appliance diagnosis system of claim 10, wherein the diagnosis server comprises a diagnosis device that analyzes an error code of the diagnosis data and diagnoses the home appliance by extracting at least one data related to the error code.

14. A method of operating a home appliance, the method comprising:

storing product in anon when an error occurs;

entering a smart diagnosis mode, when an instruction to perform a failure diagnosis is input;

dividing the stored product information into a plurality of frames and generating a control signal by encoding in a frame unit; and

modulating the control signal using a plurality of frequencies and outputting the control signal with a predetermined sound through an audio output, wherein the generating of the control signal comprises encoding the product information to a predetermined format so that a plurality of symbols form one form and setting an IFS to the plurality of frames.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the storing of product information comprises storing at least one of temporary data, state information, an error code, option information, or power source information as diagnosis data when a stop instruction is input by at least one of stop, power interception, a power failure, or forced termination while operating, by a key manipulation while operating.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying information about a smart diagnosis mode and a progress state when entering the smart diagnosis mode.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the generating of the control signal comprises using a convolution code, encoding using a puncturing method, and performing interleaving.