HVAC ZONE CONTROL PANEL

• US 20080134098A1
• Filed: 04/09/2007
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Paine, Brad, Arneson, David J., Hoglund, Steven R., Wolff, Steven L., Schwendinger, Paul G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,913,180 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/841
• 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 11/49 ensuring correct operation, e.g. by trial operation or configuration checks
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/523 for displaying temperature data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/63 Electronic processing
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/65 for selecting an operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/10 Temperature

Abstract

A zone control panel that is easy and intuitive to use and to program. In some embodiments, a zone control panel may be configured to have an easy to use, single level menu structure with, for example, a configuration mode and/or a checkout mode. The configuration mode may, if present, include a number of menu screens sometimes without any sub-menu levels. Likewise, the checkout mode may, if present, include a number of menu screens sometimes without any sub-menu levels. A mode selector may be provided to select a particular mode, after which, the menu screens that correspond to the selected mode may be sequentially displayed to the user. Other features and aspects are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A zone control panel having two or more menu modes, the zone control panel comprising:

a mode selector for selecting a menu mode from the two or more menu modes;

a display for displaying a selected menu on the display, wherein the selected menu corresponds to the selected menu mode and has two or more menu screens; and

one or more buttons for interacting with the selected menu.

2. The zone control panel of claim 1, wherein the one or more buttons are used to move about the menu and, if desired, make one or more changes to one or more programmable parameters identified by the menu.

3. The zone control panel of claim 2, wherein if one or more changes were made to one of more programmable parameters, the zone control panel is configured to cause a query to be displayed querying whether the one or more changes made to the programmable parameters should be saved prior to exiting the menu mode.

4. The zone control panel of claim 3, wherein the zone control panel is configured to save the changes made to the programmable parameters if an indication is received in response to the query that the changes should be saved, and discard the changes made to the programmable parameters if an indication is received in response to the query that the changes should not be saved.

5. The zone control panel of claim 2, wherein if one or more changes were not made to one of more programmable parameters, the zone control panel is configured to not cause a query to be displayed querying whether the one or more changes made to the programmable parameters should be saved prior to exiting the menu mode.

6. The zone control panel of claim 1, wherein the selected menu has three or more menu screens that are traversed sequentially between a first menu screen and a last menu screen.

7. The zone control panel of claim 6, wherein the zone control panel is configured to permit a user to exit the selected menu before reaching the last menu screen of the selected menu.

8. The zone control panel of claim 6, wherein the zone control panel is configured to permit a user to exit the selected menu mode before reaching the last menu screen of the selected menu.

9. A zone control panel configured to have one or more menu modes, the zone control panel comprising:

a MODE selector that permits selection of a mode from the one or more menu modes;

one or more buttons for making one or more changes to one or more programmable parameters of the zone control panel while in a selected menu mode;

wherein the zone control panel is configured to track if any programmable parameters have been changed while the zone control panel is in a selected menu mode.

10. The zone control panel of claim 9, the zone control panel is configured to query if changes to the programmable parameters should be saved when exiting the selected menu mode when the zone control panel determines that one or more programmable parameters have been changed via the one or more buttons.

11. The zone control panel of claim 10, wherein the zone control panel is configured to save the changes made to the programmable parameters if an indication is received in response to the query that the changes should be saved, and discard the changes made to the programmable parameters if an indication is received in response to the query that the changes should not be saved.

12. The zone control panel of claim 9, wherein the selected menu mode comprises a configuration mode.

13. The zone control panel of claim 12, wherein the configuration mode includes an advanced settings portion, and the zone control panel is configured to exit the configuration mode if a user declines entry into the advanced settings portion.

14. The zone control panel of claim 12, wherein the configuration mode comprises a single level menu structure

15. The zone control panel of claim 9, wherein, for a selected menu mode, the zone control panel is configured to provide a menu that has three or more menu screens that are traversed sequentially from a first menu screen to a last menu screen.

16. The zone control panel of claim 15, wherein the zone control panel is configured such that one or more of the buttons is used to traverse the three or more menu screens sequentially between a first menu screen and a last menu screen.

17. The zone control panel of claim 16, wherein the zone control panel is configured to permit a user to exit the menu before reaching the last menu screen.

18. The zone control panel of claim 17, wherein the zone control panel is configured to permit a user to exit the menu before reaching the last menu screen by activating the MODE selector.

19. The zone control panel of claim 9, wherein the zone control panel is configured to exit the selected menu mode if no activity is detected after a predetermined length of time.

20. A method of navigating a menu running on a zone control panel, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying menu settings;

inputting changes to menu settings; and

confirming whether any changes should be saved.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising a step of discarding any inputted changes if the changes are not to be saved.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising a step of saving any inputted changes if the changes are to be saved.