System and method for performing diagnostics using a portable device

• US 20030009710A1
• Filed: 05/10/2002
• Published: 01/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ranco, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Ranco, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Grant, Charles
• Granted Patent: US 6,862,589 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/37
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/19 characterised by positioning or contouring control systems, e.g. to control position from one programmed point to another or to control movement along a programmed continuous path
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23027 Database with information on how to control or test different appliances
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24058 Remote testing, monitoring independent from normal control by pc
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/217 Database tuning G06F16/2282 takes precedence; database performance monitoring G06F11/3409
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A diagnostic tool suite is made available to technicians servicing equipment at residential and business locations using a portable device such as a PDA. The PDA runs a main engine that can execute diagnostic modules, with each diagnostic module corresponding to a particular appliance or device that requires troubleshooting, repair, diagnosis, maintenance or installation. The diagnostic modules use a limited number of templates to define possible screen layouts for each screen displayed to the technician. Additionally, the diagnostic module includes a diagnostic flow definition file wherein each record corresponds to a screen displayed to a technician. The main engine uses the template information and the diagnostic flow definition records to fully define a screen to display to a technician. In this way, an extensible, modular, non-specific diagnostic tool suite is available to a technician. To simplify creation of the diagnostic definition files, a graphical user development tool is provided that allows a non-skilled user to select a template definition, to be prompted for definitions of the fields in that template and to create the diagnostic definition file incorporating the user'"'"'s input.

Claims

1. A data-driven diagnostic apparatus for a plurality of devices, comprising:

a first file including a plurality of template records, each template record corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of predetermined templates;

a second file including a plurality of data records, each data record referencing one of the plurality of templates and said second file related to diagnostic information for one of the plurality of devices;

a display device; and

a query engine configured to display one of the data records, formatted according to its referenced template, on the display device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the query engine is further configured to:

read the one data record;

read the referenced template; and

dynamically format the one data record for display on the display device in accordance with the referenced template.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data records describe one of:

a diagnostic flow definition,

a technical manual,

a troubleshooting method, and

a instructional tutorial.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one data record includes one or more links to other ones of the plurality of data records.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the query engine, in response to an input signal, is further configured to display on the display device a second data record, from among the other ones of the plurality of data records, in accordance with the template referenced by the second data record.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of second files, each second file associated with one of the plurality of devices.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the query engine is configured to display on the device a list of the plurality of second files.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of second files also reference the templates referenced by the first file.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic apparatus is a portable computing platform.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic apparatus is a Personal Digital Assistant.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic apparatus is located remotely from the plurality of devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a communications port configured to connect with the one device.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one data record includes a command to retrieve information from the one device, and wherein the query engine is further configured to:

receive a input signal,

send the command via the communications port to the device, and

receive from the device information regarding operating parameters.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of predetermined templates include a menu template, a yes/no template, a directive template, a cause/corrective template, and a data input template.

15. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein each template record identifies one or more entities and respective locations to be displayed as a screen on the display device, and

wherein each data record identifies configurable attributes of the one or more entities identified in its referenced template.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

receiving input in response to displaying the formatted one record;

determining a second record from the data record file based on the input, said second record file referencing a second template record;

executing the form-generation routine to dynamically format the second record in accordance with the second template record; and

displaying the formatted second record.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

querying the one appliance for operating parameters;

receiving the operating parameters from the one appliance; and

displaying the received operating parameters.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

downloading another data record file associated with a second of the appliances.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

detecting one or more of the appliances that are available to communicate with;

displaying a list of detected appliances;

receiving input in response to the displayed list; and

determining the data record file to read based on the received input.

16. A method of providing a data-driven diagnostics tool for a plurality of appliances, comprising the steps of:

reading one template record from a template file comprised of a plurality of template records;

reading one record from a data record file, said record referencing the one template record and said data record file is associated with one of the plurality of appliances;

executing a form-generation routine to dynamically format the one record in accordance with the one template record; and

displaying the formatted one record.

21. A diagnostic database development system comprising:

a plurality of template records, each template record corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of predetermined templates and identifying one or more entities and their respective locations on a display screen;

respective device description files, each such file corresponding to an appliance from among one or more appliance;

a graphical user interface tool for each of the template records, each said tool comprising a sequence of screens to gather information for customizing those entities that are configurable in order to create a record; and

a database builder configured to combine any record created by each of the graphical user interface tools into a database file.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a communications application configured to transfer the database file to a remote device.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the communications application is further configured to transfer the template records and a device description file corresponding to an appliance related to the database file.

24. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

a file translator configured to convert the database file to a device file compatible with an operating system of the remote device.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the device file is a flat file.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the predetermined templates include a menu template, a yes/no template, a directive template, a cause/corrective template, and a data input template.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein a device description file includes command strings for querying its corresponding appliance, and the database builder embeds the command strings in one or more records of the database file.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising the step of:

storing the database locally and transferring the database to a remote device.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising the step of:

before transferring the database to a remote device, translating the database to a file format compatible with an operating system of the remote device.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the steps of selecting and customizing are performed via a graphical user interface development tool.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the configurable variables and data for a respective template include a link to jump to a subsequent node of the diagnostic flow definition database.

28. A method for developing a diagnostic flow definition database comprising the steps of:

selecting an appliance that corresponds to the diagnostic flow definition database, the database comprising a plurality of nodes;

for each of the nodes creating a respective record;

selecting a respective template, and

customizing variables and data that are configurable for the respective template; and

combining the records to form the diagnostic flow definition database.

33. A method of providing a dynamically generated diagnostic flow for an appliance, comprising the steps of:

executing a query engine to display a sequence of screens on a portable device, wherein said executing step includes the steps of;

a) reading a data record from among a plurality of data records, each data record including information related to one of the sequence of screens and referencing a template;

b) reading the referenced template from among a plurality of template records;

c) displaying the information from the read data record according to a format specified by the referenced template; and

d) repeating steps a)-c) by selecting a next data record in the sequence based on the information from the read record.