U.S. patent application number 10/269416 was filed with the patent office on 2004-04-15 for method and apparatus for a plug and play polling loop system.
This patent application is currently assigned to Honeywell International, Inc.. Invention is credited to Bruns, Jon C., Marino, Francis C..
Application Number | 20040071155 10/269416 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32042887 |
Filed Date | 2004-04-15 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040071155 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Marino, Francis C. ; et
al. |
April 15, 2004 |
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A PLUG AND PLAY POLLING LOOP SYSTEM
Abstract
A polling loop system provides all products to be prewired to
the polling loop by technically unskilled labor followed by a plug
and play enrollment process. The system combines the advantages of
DIP switch zone addressing with smart serial number (S/N)
addressing, which simplifies installation and replacement
requirements. The system is fully backward compatible and is
intended for a next generation of commercial polling loop
systems.
Inventors: |
Marino, Francis C.; (Dix
Hills, NY) ; Bruns, Jon C.; (Central Islip,
NY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
101 COLUMBIA ROAD
P O BOX 2245
MORRISTOWN
NJ
07962-2245
US
|
Assignee: |
Honeywell International,
Inc.
Morristown
NJ
|
Family ID: |
32042887 |
Appl. No.: |
10/269416 |
Filed: |
October 11, 2002 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
370/452 ;
370/252 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 12/42 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
370/452 ;
370/252 |
International
Class: |
H04L 012/42 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for a plug and play polling loop system comprised of a
plurality of product devices such as sensors in different zones of
the polling loop system which are controlled by a system control,
comprising: prewiring all of the product devices to the polling
loop, wherein during installion a zone address for each product
device, which is derived from a polling loop site plan, is set by a
person installing the device by setting an n-bit DIP switch;
enrolling all of the prewired product devices connected to the
polling loop, during which the system control uses serial number
(S/N) group global polling protocols for global polls of the S/Ns
of a number of product devices at one time; for each of the unique
S/Ns thus obtained, the system control follows with a S/N unit poll
to receive from the product its associated zone address, such that
the control automatically enters all of the unique S/Ns and their
associated zone addresses into its data base.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein following the S/N unit poll,
further including gathering characterizing attributes associated
with each zone address such as response type, partition number,
reporting code, etc.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of product devices is
a maximum number of product devices at one time as indicated by the
most significant nibble of each zone address.
4. The method of claim 1, including using an 8-position DIP switch
for setting of the zone address.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the setting of the 8-position DIP
switch to the hex code FF causes the polling loop device to respond
to standard S/N addressing in order to be backward compatible to
commercial systems utilizing present protocols.
6. The method of claim 4, including dividing the 8-position DIP
switch into two 4-bit sections comprising two nibbles of a Hex code
per zone number, such that the product requires only a single
16-row address table which can be referred to for each hex code
position comprising the zone number in Hex from 00-FE.
7. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of gathering additional
information per zone is performed by a computer download routine
operation over a control telephone connection.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the computer download routine
includes all of the necessary attributes for the site plan that
were previously determined prior to the wired installation of the
product devices.
9. The method of claim 1, including using a keypad to enter an
enrollment mode to start an enrollment process.
10. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of gathering is
performed by a menu-driven manual entry procedure.
11. The method of claim 1, performed in a 2-wire polling loop.
12. The method of claim 1, performed in a 2-wire Vplex polling
loop.
13. A plug and play polling loop system comprising: a plurality of
product devices such as sensors connected to different zones of the
polling loop which are controlled by a system control, wherein each
product device is prewired to the polling loop and includes an
n-bit DIP switch which is set to a zone address for each product
device, which is derived from a polling loop site plan; the system
control includes serial number (S/N) group global polling protocols
which are used for global polls of the S/Ns of a number of product
devices at one time, to enroll all of the prewired product devices
connected to the polling loop; the system control further includes
a S/N unit poll which is used to receive from a product, by its
unique S/N previously obtained, its associated zone address, such
that the control automatically enters all of the unique S/Ns and
their associated zone addresses into its data base.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the system control further
includes a gathering attributes unit poll which is used for
gathering characterizing attributes associated with each zone
address, such as response type, partition number, reporting code,
etc.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the serial number (S/N) group
global polling protocols are used for global polls of the S/Ns of a
maximum number pf product devices at one time as indicated by the
most significant nibble of each zone address.
16. The system of claim 13, wherein the DIP switch comprises an
8-position DIP switch.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the 8-position DIP switch is
divided into two 4-bit sections comprising two nibbles of a Hex
code per zone number, such that the product requires only a single
16-row address table which can be referred to for each hex code
position comprising the zone number in Hex from 00-FE.
18. The system of claim 14, wherein a control telephone connection
allows the gathering attributes unit poll to be performed by a
computer download routine operation.
19. The system of claim 13, wherein the system control includes a
keypad which is used to enter an enrollment mode to start an
enrollment process.
20. The system of claim 14, wherein the attributes gathering unit
poll includes a menu-driven manual entry procedure.
21. The system of claim 13, in a 2-wire polling loop.
22. The system of claim 13, in a 2-wire Vplex polling loop.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates generally to a method and
apparatus for a plug and play registration system for each sensor
product serial number and DIP switch number in a polling loop
system, and more particularly pertains to a new Vplex polling loop
system wherein all Vplex sensor products on the Vplex polling loop
are pre-wired by technically unskilled labor, followed by a truly
plug and play enrollment process for each sensor product serial
number and DIP switch number. The system combines the advantages of
DIP switch zone addressing with the advantages of smart serial
number (S/N) addressing to simplify installation and replacement
requirements. The system is fully backward compatible and is
intended for the next generation of commercial Vplex systems.
[0002] Present commercial polling systems in the security systems
market use either DIP switches alone, or random serial numbers
alone, to uniquely address each of a variety of sensors in
protected areas, or zones, of the system. None of the known
systems, using either addressing method alone, solves a long
desired goal of installing and prewiring all of the sensors in the
system by technically unskilled labor, and subsequently enrolling
data on each sensor automatically into the database of an
associated commercial control. The present invention accomplishes
that goal for the first time by providing sensors which employ both
DIP switches and specially-configured serial numbers for each
sensor in combination with unique polling protocols.
[0003] Some present commercial security systems use sensors made
with a family of ASICs, and employ a tri-level baseband polling
system (named "Vplex") which includes a feature described as global
polling with contention-based address identification, as disclosed
in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,515. The ASIC specification includes a
variety of new and backward-compatible polling protocols. Among the
new protocols are those providing for Plug and Play (PnP) serial
number (S/N) addressing, 8-bit alias zone addressing, group
supervision polling, and protective loop diagnostics. The later two
features are explained in patent application Ser. Nos. 09/861,129
and 09/996,492, respectively.
Vplex Polling Loop System Background
[0004] The use of in-circuit EEPROM (E.sup.2) programming in a new
Vplex family of products allows a 22-bit S/N address to be
sequentially assigned and controlled by the supplier of the present
Vplex ASIC specifications. To facilitate the enrollment process,
each Vplex product contains one or more labels revealing the S/N
address in 7-digit decimal notation. These labels are printed and
affixed to each product during final test and assembly in factories
after reading the S/N which is prestored in the product's ASIC.
[0005] Previous to the introduction of a prefabricated unique S/N
per ASIC, Vplex products used ASICs which derived the address, or
zone number, of the associated product from an 8-position DIP
switch located physically on each product which could physically
accommodate the DIP switch. Smaller products, which could not
physically accommodate an 8-position DIP switch, utilized a special
ASIC with 8 programmable bits of E.sup.2. A hand-held programmer
was developed and sold to installers to enable them to program the
8-bit address into the product's 8-bit E.sup.2.
[0006] Actual field experience reported from a variety of
installers over the past several years has resulted in a better
understanding of the likes and dislikes of installers regarding the
use of DIP switch addressing vs the use of predetermined S/Ns with
identifying address labels. Each addressing method has specific
advantages and disadvantages based on the manner in which many
installers prefer to install and repair the polling loop
systems.
DIP Switch Vs. S/N Addressing
[0007] In systems using DIP switch addressing, an 8-position DIP
switch is set to the system zone number (derived from a 0-255
address table contained in the product's II). The installer must
subsequently enter the system control's programming mode via a
control keypad and enter that zone number in addition to associated
information such as the zone response type, partition number,
report code, and input type. This additional information is
required by the security control to properly process activations
from that device.
[0008] In systems using the present prerecorded S/Ns, the installer
must enroll the product by first entering the control's programming
mode using one of the system keypads. The required zone number is
then entered followed by the same type of information listed
previously for the DIP switch system. In this case, however, the
enrollment process must include the addition of the unique
pre-installed S/N which, at the appropriate point in the
programming process, may be entered manually by keying in the
7-digit decimal address on the product's label. Alternatively the
S/N may be entered by activating the product while connected to the
polling loop in order for the control to automatically read the
product's S/N via use of the Vplex global polling feature.
[0009] The keyboard entry process is subject to transcription
errors and some products, such as motion, shock, and glass break
detectors, must be activated in the proper manner and sequence in
order for the control to recover the correct S/N for that product
using the Vplex global polling feature of U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,515.
This is one reason why some installation companies prefer to
manually enter the product's S/N from the 7-digit label physically
affixed to each product despite the propensity of making
transcription errors.
[0010] The use of DIP switches for establishing the zone number
simplifies defective unit replacement since all that is required is
to duplicate the defective unit's DIP switch settings onto the DIP
switch of the replacement unit. The disadvantages of DIP switch
zone addressing are the cost and size of the DIP switch and the
difficulty of subsequently locating duplicate addresses.
[0011] Neither the DIP switch method nor the S/N addressing method
facilitates the ability of first, prewiring the complete system
with unskilled labor, and secondly, completely enrolling all data
via an installer-friendly procedure at the keypad.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] The present invention relates generally to a method and
apparatus for a plug and play registration system for each sensor
product serial number and DIP switch number in a polling loop
system, and more particularly pertains to a new Vplex polling loop
system wherein all Vplex sensor products on the Vplex polling loop
are prewired by technically unskilled labor, followed by a truly
plug and play enrollment process. The system combines the
advantages of DIP switch zone addressing with the advantages of
smart serial number (S/N) addressing to simplify installation and
replacement requirements. The system is fully backward compatible
and is intended for the next generation of commercial Vplex
systems.
[0013] The present invention also provides a new S/N group global
polling protocol which, in conjunction with the use of DIP switch
sensor addressing, applies the principle of global polling of U.S.
Pat. No. 5,347,515 in predetermined groups of 16 sensor products,
or another number, that can be electronically handled without
overloading the polling loop drive circuits, independent of the
number of sensors that may be connected to the loop. The end result
is a true plug and play polling loop registration system not
available in any other low cost, low baud rate, 2-wire, polling
loop security system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary Vplex plug and play smart
polling protocols SP1-SP5.
[0015] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary Vplex sample plug and play
database table.
[0016] FIG. 3 illustrates a plurality of serially addressable
devices coupled to an exemplary polling loop with a central
controller which can use the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0017] The present invention adds an 8-bit DIP switch to every
sensor product which is used to set the address of the associated
protected area, or zone, from information presented on a site plan
of the security system. It also includes five (5) new polling
protocols, illustrated in FIG. 1, which the security control
employs to acquire the zone and unique S/N of every sensor into its
database in a truly plug and play registration operation. The
procedure is a three (3) step process as follows:
[0018] Step 1: The total of all of the system's products are
prewired to the polling loop by technically unskilled labor. During
this installation the basic zone number of each device, which is
derived from a pre-established site plan, is set by the person
installing the device using the 8-bit DIP switch per product.
[0019] To simplify the DIP switch setting, the 8-position DIP
switch can be divided into two 4-bit sections comprising two
nibbles of a Hex code per zone number. In this way the product
requires only a single 16-row address table, as illustrated in FIG.
2, which can be referred to for each hex code position comprising
the zone number in Hex from 00-FE.
[0020] FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary Vplex plug and play smart
polling protocols SP1-SP5. Each of the smart protocols SP1-SP5
includes a PnP preamble 101 of three bits, and a post preamble GP
poll 1010 of four bits, which identifies the poll as a Vplex smart
poll, as distinguished from other polls. These first seven bits are
identical for all smart protocols SP1 through SP5, and identify the
poll as a Vplex smart poll. Referring to smart protocols SP1
through SP5, the first seven bits are followed by three bits which
identifies each particular Vplex smart poll. Thus, smart polling
protocol SP1 for a group S/N global poll with no response has
identifier bits 001, smart polling protocol SP2 for a group S/N
global poll with a response has identifier bits 010, smart polling
protocol SP3 to get the dip switch (DS) address using the serial
number (S/N) address has identifier bits 011, smart polling
protocol SP4 to get the serial number (S/N) address using the dip
switch (DS) address has identifier bits 100, and smart polling
protocol SP5 to get the characterization bits has identifier bits
111.
[0021] Referring to smart polling protocols SP1 and SP2, the three
identifier bits are followed by a 4 bit code of the most
significant nibble of the DIP switch address (0000-1111). The 4-bit
code is followed by an even parity bit PE, which is an error check
bit.
[0022] Referring to smart polling protocol SP1, the even parity bit
PE is followed by three bits 111 indicating no response to a group
S/N global poll.
[0023] Referring to smart polling protocol SP2, the even parity
check bit PE is followed by three bits 110, indicating a response
to a group S/N global poll, followed by data on the ASIC 22 bit S/N
address, followed by an odd parity bit PO which is an error check
bit, followed by an activity bit A, which goes to zero (0) as an
indication of activity from the addressed ASIC independent of the
parity checking.
[0024] Referring to smart polling protocol SP3, the identifier bits
011 are followed by the ASIC 22 bit S/N address, followed by an
even parity bit PE, followed by the eight bit DIP switch address,
followed by an odd parity bit PO, followed by an activity bit A,
which goes to zero (0) as an indication of activity.
[0025] Referring to smart polling protocol SP4, the identifier bits
100 are followed by the 8 bit DS address, followed by an even
parity bit PE, followed by the 22 bit S/N address, followed by an
odd parity bit PO, followed by an activity bit A, which goes to
zero (0) as an indication of activity.
[0026] Referring to smart polling protocol SP5, the identifier bits
111 are followed by the ASIC 22 bit S/N address, followed by an
even parity bit PE, followed by an unknown number, n, of
characterization bits followed by an odd parity bit PO, followed by
an activity bit A, which goes to zero (0) as an indication of
activity.
[0027] Step 2: To enroll all of the products prewired and connected
to the polling loop, a keypad is used to enter the proper
enrollment mode and a single key is activated to start the
enrollment process. During this process, the control panel uses the
special S/N group global polling protocols SP1 and SP2 which
perform automatic global polls of the S/Ns of a maximum of 16
products at a time, as indicated by the most significant nibble of
the DIP switch zone address. Limiting the responses to the global
poll to only 16 products at a time prevents overloading of the
Vplex driver circuits independent of the total number of products
on the polling loop.
[0028] For each of the unique S/Ns thus obtained, the system
control follows with the S/N unit poll SP3 to receive from each
product the associated DIP switch pre-wired zone address. In this
way the control automatically enters all of the unique S/Ns and
their associated basic zone numbers into its data base.
[0029] The time required to get the S/N and its associated DIP
switch zone number per product is approximately 0.1 second based on
the Vplex tri-level polling baseband operating at the nominal speed
of 1 kilobaud. A maximum system of 255 products will take less than
26 seconds to complete the S/N and associated zone number database
of all the products pre-wired on the polling loop. This is less
than the time it now takes to manually enter the zone number and
S/N for a single product.
Automatic Identification of Duplicate Addresses
[0030] If more than one product was mistakenly assigned the same
DIP switch zone address, they can be easily identified and
enunciated, or logged, by the control from the unique associated
S/N address per device, by using the SP3 poll since only 1 DIP
switch address is allowed per unique S/N.
[0031] Conversely, in the extremely rarer case where a S/N is
duplicated in more than one product, either a S/N contention error
will occur during the SP2 and SP3 polls for a given group of 16
products, or different DIP switch addresses will result in the same
S/N, using subsequent SP4 polls within that same group of 16
products. In either case, the control can eventually identify the
DIP switch addresses which return the same S/N by the SP4 poll.
Recognizing Product Type
[0032] In addition to a unique factory-generated S/N, the plug and
play S/Ns contain information describing the product type, such as;
smoke, motion, shock or glass break detector; single or multiple
input device; single or multiple output device; etc. This
information enables the control S/W (software) to employ special
commands as may be appropriate to the product type via individual
or broadcast commands. For example, all of the motion detector
products connected to the loop may be commanded not to respond to
global polls to eliminate unnecessary processing by the control
when the system is disarmed, and to make them all respond to global
polls for fastest response when the system is armed.
[0033] Step 3: The final step is to gather the necessary
characterizations, or attributes, associated with each zone such as
response type, partition number, report code, etc. This can be
obtained via a computer download operation using the control's
telephone connection. The download routine can contain all of the
necessary attributes for the given site that was previously
determined prior to the procurement and wired installation of the
products devices. No further manual entries would then be required
by the installer.
[0034] If the computer download operation is not available, a
manual entry procedure can be used to obtain the attributes for
each protected point in the polling loop system. To facilitate this
process, the following menu-driven method is suggested.
[0035] Following the automatic gathering of S/Ns and zone numbers
into the control's database in Step 2, another single key is
activated by the installer to cause the control to display the
first basic zone number. The basic zone number is identical to the
DIP switch address. For Vplex products with more than a single
protective loop input that is to be actively used in the system,
the installer will be sequentially prompted for zone number
extensions of the basic DIP switch zone address for each of the
additional inputs, or outputs, to be enrolled in the system.
[0036] FIG. 2 illustrates a sample database enrollment table which
the control can utilize. In this sample table, the Zone number
consists of the DIP switch address and the actual input or output
associated with that Zone number. An (X) in a box represents
location of a logic level indicating the state of that box. The
INO, tri-level, input is represented by a (XX) because two bits are
required to represent the state of a (supervised) tri-level input.
A (-) in a box represents a non-selection, which will always be
transmitted as a logic 0. A blank box indicates that the associated
input or output is not available for zone assignment for the given
product type. Blank box status bits will also be transmitted as
logic 0.
[0037] For each applicable zone number, the installer is
subsequently prompted to enter the corresponding zone response
type, partition number, etc. by depressing an appropriate single
(Yes/No) key response per prompt. This continues in sequence until
all of the required attributes are entered to complete the
attributes for that zone. The process continues until all of the
newly enrolled protected points have been thus characterized and
completely enrolled into the system control.
[0038] The present invention combines DIP switch and S/N addressing
in a method of installing a complete polling loop system, with
modified Vplex products and control S/W, combining the advantages
of DIP switch and Plug and Play (PnP) S/N addressing per
product.
[0039] If desired, the associated S/N per product may also be
displayed as part of the menu-driven characterization process.
[0040] It should be noted that the above plug and play installation
method essentially eliminates the need to generate and affix a
factory-printed label of the unique S/N to each Vplex product since
the S/N is no longer required to be entered during the enrollment
process. This provides a cost reduction that can reduce, or
eliminate, the offsetting cost of the DIP switch per product.
[0041] The above process applies to Vplex products which
incorporate 8-bit DIP switches and ASICs modified with new smart
protocols. This includes products large enough to incorporate the
8-bit DIP switch, such as smoke, motion, shock, glass break,
multiple input/output products, etc. Standard surface and recessed
contacts can be wired to protected inputs of a variety of multiple
input products.
[0042] A miniature plastic case containing a DIP switch and a SIM
(Serial Input Module) circuit can be made with SIM flying leads to
replace the existing shrink tubing version. Some present products,
such as the Vplex smoke and motion detectors, already contain DIP
switches and require only a change to the modified ASICs.
[0043] The modified ASICs will resort to standard S/N addressing
and protocols by setting the DIP switch address to the two Hex
nibbles, FF. The associated product is then backward compatible to
commercial systems utilizing the present Vplex protocols.
Security System Diagnostics
[0044] The modified Vplex ASIC can include unit poll protocol SP5,
which can be used by the system control to read certain
factory-configured characterization bits contained in every ASIC
associated with each model product. These bits describe product
information such as product type, active inputs and outputs, and
Power-On conditions. The number of required bits is large enough to
select additional product information from the database such as the
polling loop power requirements, production and revision dates, and
other information which can be useful in diagnosing the quality of
a given Vplex polling loop installation.
[0045] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary polling loop which can use
the present invention in a security system 30 in which a central
controller 32 is coupled to three serially addressed devices 34 via
a two-wire polling loop 36. In general, the devices 34 need not be
identical provided they utilize the same communications module to
communicate along the polling loop. Thus, the serially addressed
device can be placed within devices utilized in a multi-point
security system, for example. These devices can be contact
switches, key switches, keypads, PIR detectors or smoke detectors,
for example.
[0046] While several embodiments and variations of the present
invention for a method and apparatus for a plug and play polling
system are described in detail herein, it should be apparent that
the disclosure and teachings of the present invention will suggest
many alternative designs to those skilled in the art.
* * * * *