Selective autodiscovery system
Contents
1. 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 manual inputs of systems 10 and 20 may be observed and or effected via these media connections In the present specification some of the matter may be of a hypothetical or prophetic nature although stated in another manner or tense Although the invention has been described with respect to at least one illustrative example many variations and modi fications will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the present specification It is therefore the intention that the appended claims be interpreted as broadly as possible in view of the prior art to include all such variations and modifications What is claimed is 1 An autodiscovery system for an HVAC system compris ing a controller and at least two communicating HVAC apparatus a first link of communication between the controller and each of the at least two communicating HVAC apparatus for communicating configuration information from each of the at least two communicating HVAC apparatus to the controller and a second link of communication between the controller and each of the at least two communicating HVAC apparatus for communicating control information from the con troller to each of the at least two communicating HVAC apparatus and wherein the controller may autodiscover the at least two communi cating HVAC apparatus at least one apparatus of the at least two communicating HVAC apparatus may be m2. ment 32 The module 26 may further provide outputs to one or more additional non communicating HVAC components or equipment which may or may not resemble the components 31 or 32 The may be an additional equipment interactive module 28 connected to one or more non communicating components or equipment Besides the communicating and non communicating com ponents or equipment noted herein there may be additionally different kinds of components and equipment Illustrative examples may include sensors 45 There may be autodiscov ery information 51 such as configuration items about the sensors 45 to the thermostat or controller 33 The controller 33 may provide certain directive or controlling information 52 such as selection or adjustment signals to the sensors 45 Sensor data 53 may be conveyed to parameter controller 33 If there are sensors 45 which are not autodiscovered configu ration information may be manually input to one or more of these sensors 45 in a selective manner Configuration or set ting information may also be manually input for sensors 45 which are autodiscoverable There may be an interface mod ule similar to interface module 26 or 28 inserted in the link between the controller 33 and sensors 45 which are not auto discovered The thermostat or controller 11 33 38 may be remotely operated via telephonic 61 internet 62 or wireless 63 connec tions to respective external systems Also autodiscovery and 20 25
3. rithm may be accepted and the feature be provided If for some reason the sensor values stop being received e g the sensor is removed is faulty or the like a fault indication may be displayed If autodiscovered is selected then the control algorithm feature may be provided as long as sensor values continue to be received but a fault indication should not displayed or generated when the sensor values stop The present invention may provide individual or selective autodiscovery and manual items The autodiscovery ofa con figuration may include equipment type and existence number of stages blower pressure and number of speeds manufac turer s suggestions cycles per hour settings rates speeds and so on In the present invention the value that 1s to be autodiscov ered may be changed If the latter occurs 1 e manual set ting the other autodiscovered items may remain as such Anything may be set manually without disturbing the auto discovered items US 7 765 826 B2 3 Another part of the present system may relate to discovery of sensors In a communicating HVAC system sensors may be added to the system These sensors may sense parameters such as temperature humidity pressure and so forth and communicate the values of these parameters to a portion e g a parameter controller or thermostat ofthe system that imple ments a control algorithm If a sensor which the control algorithm requires is not present the
4. Start Up Instructions Carrier Corporation 12 pages 2004 Carrier SSYSTXCCUIZOI A Infinity Zone Control Installation Instructions Carrier Corporation 20 pages 2005 http hometoys com show news php4 section ehancedview amp id 14463768 Control4 Introduces Comprehensive Portfolio of Home Automation Products 4 pages printed May 12 2006 Continued Primary Examiner Frantz F Jules Assistant Examiner Daniel C Comings 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Crompton Seager amp Tufte LLC 57 ABSTRACT An autodiscovery system for configuration information about an HVAC system being provided to a controller or thermostat Configurations or parameters may be autodiscovered from communicating equipment Also this equipment may be manually selected and set without affecting the autodiscovery status of the remaining equipment There may also be non communicating equipment that does not provide information to the thermostat However the thermostat may control the non communicating equipment via an equipment interface 2003 0097482 Al 5 2003 DeHart et al 709 253 module 2005 0040250 Al 2 2005 Wruck 236 51 2006 0016901 Al 1 2006 Beitelmal etal 236 49 3 12 Claims 3 Drawing Sheets bd iren TELEPHONE ooo 63 62 4a 61 _ 3 11 33 38 41 COMMUNICATING HVAC 2 BI X CONTROLLER EQUIPMENT 5 22 41 v COMMUNICATIN
5. compressor stages auxiliary heating stages emer gency heating stages whether a dual fuel arrangement is used e g both a heat pump and furnace and the cycling rate used for each stage among other things For a non heat pump version the configuration description may indicate the num ber of heating stages whether the heating equipment is elec tric or fossil fuel and it may indicate the cycling rate to use for each stage However with a network in an HVAC system the heating and cooling equipment may communicate configuration information to the thermostat thereby automatically config uring the thermostat system without an installer having to manually enter the information about the equipment A thermostat or parameter controller may to some extent be acommunicating device and capable of automatically discov ering a configuration which might for example have a lack of or an exception for cycle rates which could be manually set of an HVAC system Previous to the present application such thermostat had just one mode either an autodiscovery or manual setup relative to a component having manual settings to be input In that system the installer could override the automatically discovered configuration through an interface on the thermostat for a manual settings input However in the system if any parameter was overwritten with a manual input the thermostat ceased autodiscovery of any parameters until the installer restarted aut
6. is installed Wait until no more responses occur IF autodiscovery of heat pump non heat pump system is enabled THEN IF compressor heat equipment responded THEN A heat pump system is present A non heat pump system is present ENDIF ELSE Use the manually configured heat pump non heat pump value ENDIF IF autodiscovery of compressor stages are enabled THEN IF compressor cool equipment responded THEN Use the number of compressor stages from the response ELSE There are no coo ENDIF ELSE Use the manually configured number of compressor stages ENDIF IF autodiscovery of non compressor heating stages are enabled THEN IF electric heating equipment responded THEN Use the number of heating aux stages from the response ELSEIF gas heating equipment responded THEN Use the number of heating aux stages from the response ELSE There are no heating aux stages ENDIF ELSE Use the manually configured number of heating aux stages ENDIF Selective Autodiscovery END ing stages FIG 2 shows an HVAC system 10 with an illustrative example of a thermostat or controller 11 33 38 having an autodiscovery mode for communicating equipment 12 e g furnace and manual set up for non communicating equip ment 13 e g air conditioner The connection between the thermostat and the communicating furnace may be effec tively a direct link 14 Links 15 and 17 between the thermostat and the air conditioner may be indirect via an equipment interface module EIM 16
7. Communication between the thermostat 11 and the air conditioner 13 may be temperature control information through the equipment interface module 16 with a relay output 17 to the non communicating air con ditioner 13 Another illustrative example may include a rever sal of the roles of the furnace 12 and the air conditioner 13 where the furnace is non communicating in similar manner that the air conditioner was just noted and that the air condi tioner may bea communicating device relative to the thermo stat 11 Other equipment in the HVAC system 10 may be US 7 765 826 B2 5 either non communicating in terms of a manual setup or communicating in the sense of an autodiscovery FIG 3 shows an illustrative example of an HVAC system 20 having one or more components or equipment subject to autodiscovery and one or more components or equipment subject to a manual set up relative to their configuration An example may include a communicating HVAC component or equipment 21 that may include an air conditioner a humidi fier a furnace a ventilator a boiler a dehumidifier a dual fuel configuration a heat pump a blower and or like components A thermostat or controller 11 33 38 may have a two way communication link with the equipment 21 The controller 33 may have a communication link with another a second com municating HVAC component 22 which may or may not resemble the first component 21 There may be additional such components and othe
8. G 1 RVAC EQUIPMENT smsos fH 26 27 E s 1 NON COMMUNICATING EQUIPMENT HVAC INTERFACE MODULE EQUIPMENT Za HVAC US 7 765 826 B2 Page2 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Viconics T7600 Series BACnet Multi Stage Thermostats With and Without Scheduling Capability 22 pages prior to Aug 1 2006 Honeywell T8635L Microelectronic Communicating Program Warmer et al Computerised Intelligence in Small Scale Home mable Thermostat Honeywell International Inc 20 pages 2003 Networks and Beyond 92 pages Nov 2001 Introduction to the Lonworks System Echelon Corporation 73 pages 1999 cited by examiner US 7 765 826 B2 Sheet 1 of 3 Aug 3 2010 U S Patent T Hun5Id dfiLHS TWONWA x AWSAOOSIGOLUQV 6 WH IIOWLNOO ideas IXISOWHSHHI dfiLds TIVONWA HAILOSH IJS Lt 9t AWJAOOSIGOL V US 7 765 826 B2 Sheet 2 of 3 Aug 3 2010 U S Patent c BANDIA LT LNSNOdWOO LNH8WdInO s SNILVOINWNWOO NON LNANOdWOD LNAWd IO ONT LYOINAWWOD UNTIOHLNOO INILLSOWWSHL l OT US 7 765 826 B2 Sheet 3 of 3 Aug 3 2010 U S Patent S IndOW HOVAMNSINI V L LN3WdIDOS IN3AdIQOSX MM D OVA ONTIVYTNANNOD NON J3 IQGON JOVAYALNI LN3WdIDOS INUWdID S OWAH ONT LIVOINOWWOD NON INSWdIDOS OWAH ONTLWOINAWNOD Iv Ead y INAWd INOF aera HSTIONHLNOO OVAH S
9. NILVOINWNOO DS d anonaatas ISNNSINI SHDDIJ SuOSNSHS 8C CE TIT t9 US 7 765 826 B2 1 SELECTIVE AUTODISCOVERY SYSTEM BACKGROUND The present invention pertains to heating ventilation and air conditioning HVAC systems and particularly to control lers of HVAC systems More particularly the invention per tains to controller or thermostat interactions with HVAC sys tems SUMMARY The present invention is a controller system having selec tive autodiscovery BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG 1 is a flow diagram of a selective autodiscovery sys tem FIG 2 is a block diagram of an HVAC autodiscovery system with autodiscovered equipment and manually input ted equipment and FIG 3 is a block diagram of an HVAC autodiscovery system having communicating and non communicating equipment DESCRIPTION HVAC heating ventilation and air conditioning systems may include about anything that relates to air control comfort and quality for various spaces In the related art of non communicating HVAC systems an installer may manually configure the thermostat for proper control of the heating ventilation and cooling equipment Configuring is indicating to the thermostat the kind of equipment that it is to interface with for effectively good control For example a configura tion may indicate whether the system equipment includes a heat pump The configuration may further indicate the num ber of
10. anually set while the remain ing communicating apparatus may remain autodiscov ered and the controller is a thermostat 2 The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one non communicating apparatus and wherein the controller provides parameter control informa tion to the at least one non communicating apparatus 3 The system of claim 2 further comprising an equipment interface module having an input connected to an output of the controller and having an output con nected to an input of the at least one non communicating apparatus and wherein equipment control information to the at least one non communicating apparatus is via the equipment interface module 4 The system of claim 1 wherein an autodiscovery of a communicating apparatus is a providing of configuration information about the communicating apparatus to the con troller 5 The system of claim 4 wherein configuration informa tion comprises one or more of the following apparatus model apparatus serial number heating cycle rate compressor stages cooling cycle rate apparatus existence blower pressure heating stages air purification specifications humidifier stages dehumidifier stages HVAC parameters zone descriptions and sensor information US 7 765 826 B2 7 6 The system of claim 1 further comprising sensors and wherein some of the sensors are subject to autodiscovery 7 The system of claim 6 wherein the se
11. az United States Patent Nichols US007765826B2 US 7 765 826 B2 Aug 3 2010 0 Patent No 45 Date of Patent 54 SELECTIVE AUTODISCOVERY SYSTEM 75 Inventor Steven C Nichols Maple Grove MN US 73 Assignee Honeywell International Inc Morristown NJ US Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 392 days 21 Appl No 11 461 625 22 Filed Aug 1 2006 65 Prior Publication Data US 2008 0029610 Al Feb 7 2008 51 Int CI F25D 19 00 2006 01 52 WA CL cene 62 298 62 161 236 51 700 276 58 Field of Classification Search 236 94 236 51 700 90 276 299 300 62 298 62 161 163 164 See application file for complete search history 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 6 112 246 A 8 2000 Horbal et al 6 834 298 BI 12 2004 Singer et al 6 834 303 B1 12 2004 Garg et al 2002 0077077 Al 6 2002 Rezvani et al FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS SI 20556 10 2001 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Lennox Network Control Panel NCP User s Manual 18 pages Nov 1999 Carrier Infinity Control Brochure Carrier Corporation 6 pages 2005 Carrier Infinity Control Homeowner s Guide Carrier Corpora tion 35 pages 2004 Carrier Infinity Smart Sensor for Zoning Installation and Start Up Instructions Carrier Corporation 8 pages 2004 Carrier SYSTXCCUIDOI Infinity Control Installation and
12. d the non communicating apparatus and wherein the controller may autodiscover one or more configuration information about the at least one communicating HVAC apparatus an autodiscovered parameter may be manually overridden without changing other autodiscovered parameters and the controller is a thermostat
13. may constitute at least part of an HVAC system configuration The thermostat of the present system may send out a query for configuration information Also the information may be automatically sent to the thermostat or controller during power up or periodically The system may be operated with a microprocessor as part ofthe thermostat or controller For the manual setup by the installer there may be a user interface on the processor Also there may be connections of the present 0 an 5 20 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 system to other devices such as telephones a zoning system and so on The system may be operated remotely via various connections The set autodiscover may operate on a continuous basis in the present system Its autodiscovery may indicate the default for example for a gas furnace with two stages and not necessarily a manufacturer recommended default For instance if there is no furnace then there is no default because of a lack of presence of the furnace The present system may be continuously discovered so updates can be incorporated This system may be applicable to home ther mostats The system may be enabled with various programs The following may be an illustrative instance for autodiscovery and or manual entry of various components involving heating and cooling equipment SelectiveAutodiscoveryPseudocode txt Selective Autodiscovery START Query the HVAC equipment to determine what
14. n the control algorithm cannot execute and thus a result for the value of an absent parameter expected from the control algorithm would not be provided The autodiscovery HVAC system may tell the thermostat or controller its configuration There may be a user interface which notes the kind of equipment that the thermostat is controlling A communication system may be utilized There may berelay communication with the equipment The kind of equipment or component that is to be autodiscovered by the thermostat may include for example a heat pump air con ditioner number of stages dual fuel and so on via autodis covery From some equipment which is part of an HVAC system having an autodiscovery feature there might not be autodis covery or information about the equipment or component which is not indicated to the thermostat but there still may be parameter control by the thermostat or controller ofthe equip ment For instance if some equipment is autodiscovered in the HVAC system and some is not then in the latter situation the configuration and values may be set up or entered manu ally Communication of the thermostat or controller to the latter equipment may be via an equipment interface module This module may need to know the configuration of the equipment it is talking to or providing control signals and it may get information about the equipment from the thermostat or controller Ifa certain piece of equipment is to be manuall
15. nsors communicate parameters to the controller 8 The system of claim 7 wherein the parameters comprise one or more of the following temperature humidity and pressure 9 The system of claim 3 wherein the controller is remotely operated via telephonic internet or wireless connections and remote operation comprises autodiscovery and manual inputs to and outputs from the controller 10 The system of claim 7 wherein at the same time one or more parameters can be designated to be autodiscovered and one or more other parameters can be manually selected set or entered 11 The system of claim 1 wherein automatically discov ered information can be overridden without affecting auto discovery of other information 12 An autodiscovery system for an HVAC system com prising 15 20 8 a controller and at least one communicating HVAC apparatus at least one non communicating HVAC apparatus a first link of communication between the controller and the at least one communicating HVAC apparatus for communicating configuration information asecond link ofcommunication between the controller and the at least one communicating HVAC apparatus for communicating control information an equipment interface module having an input connected to an output of the controller and having an output con nected to an input ofthe at least one non communicating apparatus for communicating control information between the controller an
16. odiscovery again which would autodiscover all of the parameters again including the manual input of the autodiscovery scheme In other words 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 the installer could not selectively designate a parameter to be autodiscovered and another parameter to be manually selected or entered There may be systems where autodiscovery is available However if some items are to be manual then they may be all manual If some items are autodiscovered then all of them may be autodiscovered In the related art and the present system there may be a limited number of autodiscovery items For the related art it may be an all or nothing autodiscovery not selective manual setting of certain autodiscovery items The autodiscovery and manual setup may be coded in There may be one keystroke for the thermostat The present system may have a different autodiscovery system than that of the related art The thermostat of the present system may have several modes including autodis covery and manual setup or input of information about a configuration of the equipment in the system FIG 1 shows a flow diagram ofthe present system A selective autodiscovery 36 and a selective manual setup 37 may go to a thermostat or controller 38 The controller or thermostat 38 may have both the autodiscovery and manual setup 39 as selected Each configuration e g including a number of stages cycle rates and so on ma
17. r kinds of communicating compo nents or equipment connected to the controller 33 A first link 41 of communication as a part of the autodis covery from the respective component 21 22 and so on to the controller 33 may include configuration information such as apparatus model apparatus serial number heating cycles per unit time compressor stages cooling cycle rate appara tus existence blower pressure heating stages air purification specifications humidifier stages dehumidifier stages equip ment type HVAC parameters recommended settings zone descriptions sensor information and other items A second link of communication 42 may include control information for example parameters such as temperature settings scheduled for certain time periods from the control ler 33 to the respective component 21 22 and so on Also FIG 3 shows a relationship of a thermostat or con troller 11 33 38 with one or more non communicating com ponents or equipment 31 32 and so on These may include non autodiscovery components of an HVAC system 20 Communication of control of the one or more components may be manually provided to controller 33 A communication link 25 may include items such as relay control from the controller 33 to an equipment interactive module 26 EMT The module 26 may provide relay outputs 27 to for example a non communicating HVAC component 31 The module may also provide relay outputs another component or equip
18. y set up then it may need to be connected to the equipment interface module for thermostat control purposes In an illustrative example of an HVAC system one may have heating that is autodiscovered and air conditioning that is not Here the furnace may communicate with the thermo stat The furnace may tell the thermostat about itself e g its configuration Since the air conditioner may not be commu nicating with the thermostat it may need an equipment inter face module for the thermostat to turn it on and off via relay control of the air conditioning for temperature of a space The thermostat might be regarded as not being compatible with the air conditioner if some of its elements are not recognized in an autodiscovery In another instance if there is hydronic heat then there typically would be no fan as part of the configuration On the other hand there may a furnace gas or electric having a number of stages and so on There may be humidity equipment with a humidifier and dehumidifier There may be ventilation equipment with air cleaners UV treatment devices to purify the air a fan with one stage i e a common on off mechanism may be just one stage a single speed air conditioning where a stage may be a speed of the compressor multi stage gas valves having for example three stages such as high medium and low There may be cycles per hour settings These items may be or might not be subject to autodiscovery however they
19. y have an individually identifiable parameter in a setup menu allowing an installer to manually set the value of each parameter however each parameter may also be set to have an autodiscover value An autodiscover may bea default selection so that each parameter will be automatically discovered if without a manual entry or setup An additional part of the present system is that when a parameter is set to autodiscover the setup menu may show that the parameter is autodiscovered and also show what the discovered value is i e enabled or disabled An installer may change any value whether autodiscovered or manually entered to another value Further the installer may override the automatically discovered value as necessary without affecting the autodiscovery of the other equipment components or parameters This characteristic of the present system is of significance This sensor approach may serve as an autodiscovered enable disable of the control algorithm If a sensor is installed the feature is provided if the sensor is not installed the feature is not provided In the present system the setup menu for a sensor may have possible values of disabled enabled or autodiscovered If disabled is selected any sensor values received by the control algorithm may be ignored and the feature not be provided If enabled is selected then the sensor values received by the control algo
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