U.S. patent application number 14/709333 was filed with the patent office on 2016-11-17 for system and approach for remote room controller and device diagnostics and health monitoring.
The applicant listed for this patent is Honeywell International Inc.. Invention is credited to James Barrette, Wei Hua, Robert Klamka, Christopher Martin, Ajay Nair, Upender Paravastu, Jijji Ramanathan, Mallikarjuna Nonayinakere Sugandharajappa, Liwen Yu.
Application Number | 20160337203 14/709333 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 57277262 |
Filed Date | 2016-11-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20160337203 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Nair; Ajay ; et al. |
November 17, 2016 |
SYSTEM AND APPROACH FOR REMOTE ROOM CONTROLLER AND DEVICE
DIAGNOSTICS AND HEALTH MONITORING
Abstract
The disclosure reveals a system and approach for remote health
monitoring and diagnostics of room controllers, networks and
devices. A master room controller may be used to open a system
health page or a diagnostic page for other controllers. A system
health page may provide an overview of virtually all of the other
room controllers. A tool of the present system may be used to
trouble shoot issues remotely at another room controller in lieu of
doing a visit to the respective room controller. A user may
navigate from the system health page to virtually any place on the
room controller to diagnose issues. The navigation may be done by
hyper linking from the system health page. The healthy controllers
may be hidden from the page so that the unhealthy systems can be
viewed in one shot.
Inventors: |
Nair; Ajay; (Bangalore,
IN) ; Paravastu; Upender; (Bangalore, IN) ;
Ramanathan; Jijji; (Bangalore, IN) ; Sugandharajappa;
Mallikarjuna Nonayinakere; (Bangalore, IN) ;
Barrette; James; (Ashburnham, MA) ; Yu; Liwen;
(Acton, MA) ; Martin; Christopher; (Sterling,
MA) ; Hua; Wei; (Acton, MA) ; Klamka;
Robert; (Westford, MA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Honeywell International Inc. |
Morristown |
NJ |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
57277262 |
Appl. No.: |
14/709333 |
Filed: |
May 11, 2015 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 43/0817 20130101;
H04L 41/0695 20130101; H04L 41/22 20130101; H04L 41/044
20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04L 12/24 20060101
H04L012/24; G06F 3/0482 20060101 G06F003/0482; G06F 3/0483 20060101
G06F003/0483; G06F 3/0484 20060101 G06F003/0484 |
Claims
1. A system for remote room controller monitoring, comprising: one
or more remote room controllers; a master room controller connected
to the one or more remote room controllers; and a user interface
connected to the master room controller; and wherein: the user
interface is used to obtain an at-a-glance overview of system-wide
issues to provide an at-a-glance overview of a system-wide health
status of the one or more remote room controllers; the user
interface is used to obtain a diagnostics page corresponding to a
selected remote room controller; and the user interface is used to
pull up a tool to remotely troubleshoot issues of the selected
remote room controller in accordance with issues indicated in the
diagnostics page corresponding to the selected remote room
controller.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is used to go
to a website to get the at-a-glance overview of system-wide issues
and go to the website to troubleshoot any issues as indicated in
the at-a-glance overview of system-wide issues in the one or more
remote room controllers.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the system health summary screen
reveals the at-a-glance overview of system-wide issues to indicate
health of each remote room controller for helping a technician to
remotely check one or more health items of each remote room
controller.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more health items are
selected from a group consisting of a status of an application
control engine, a status of one or more networks in the application
control engine, a status of devices in the one or more networks,
and a hyperlink of the application control engine to allow a user
to navigate to a diagnostics screen of the application control
engine, mode, errors, or alarm conditions.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is launched from a
health page for a remote room controller from a workbench at the
master room controller.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein the health page comprises one or
more remote room controllers with overall health indicators remote
room controller health, network health, and device health.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the system health page
incorporates a link to a diagnostics page for each remote room
controller in a table.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein upon clicking the link, the
diagnostics page for selected remote room controller health,
network health and/or a device health comes up on the display.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the remote room controller health
on the diagnostics page revealed on the display comprises one or
more details selected from a group consisting of central processing
unit usage, memory usage, heap usage and resources.
10. The system of claim 8, wherein the display shows a list of
devices connected to one or more networks having a health indicator
and details of one or more devices on the list with alarm and error
details.
11. The system of claim 8, wherein the display shows details of the
one or more networks.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein: the mode, error and alarm
details for a device may highlighted with an indicator for showing
a first, second or third color; the first color indicates that
something is wrong and one or more of the conditions exceed a
threshold; the second color indicates that a connection has not
been established; and the third color indicates a healthy
condition.
13. A method for health monitoring and diagnosis, comprising:
developing a diagnostics page for one or more remote room
controllers; clicking on a link to obtain for one or more remote
room controllers the diagnostics page on a display of a processor;
developing a tool for troubleshooting an issue with a device of the
one or more remote room controllers; and entering into a system to
get to a health page incorporating one or more remote room
controllers having overall health indicators; and wherein the
diagnostics page shows the remote room controllers having overall
health indicators.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the overall health indicators
reveal a health of one or more items of a group consisting of
remote room controllers, networks, and devices.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the diagnostics page is for a
selected remote room controller.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the diagnostics page comprises
details of remote room controller health, network health and device
health for a selected remote room controller.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein details of the remote room
controller health incorporate one or more items of a group
consisting of central computing unit usage, memory usage, heap
usage and resource details.
18. The method of claim 16, wherein a list of devices is connected
to one or more networks with a health indicator and additional
details of a selected device with mode, alarm and error details
displayed.
19. A system having monitoring and diagnostics comprising: one or
more remote room controllers; a master room controller connected to
the one or more remote room controllers; and a display with an
input mechanism connected to the master room controller; and
wherein the master room controller comprises: an application to
develop a remote room controller health page and a diagnostic page;
and a tool to remotely troubleshoot issues based on the diagnostics
page of a device at a remote room controller.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the display can show a screen
that provides a system-wide health status of the one or more remote
controllers.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the one or more remote
room controllers comprises one or more items selected from a group
consisting of an application control engine, networks connected to
and in the application control engine, and a hyperlink of the
application control engine to allow a user to navigate to a
detailed diagnostics screen of the application control engine,
modes, errors, or alarm conditions.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein: a user can remotely check one
or more items of a group consisting of the application control
engine, networks in the application control engine, and the
hyperlink of the application control engine of the application
control engine to allow a user to navigate to the detailed
diagnostics screen of the application control engine, modes,
errors, or alarm conditions; each of the one or more remote room
controllers has a unique internet protocol address; a user can use
an internet protocol address at the master room controller to open
a system health page or a diagnostics page for a remote room
controller having the internet protocol address; and the user can
troubleshoot a device having a property issue spotted with the
diagnostics page.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] The present disclosure pertains to controllers, and
particularly to monitoring of controllers.
SUMMARY
[0002] The disclosure reveals a system and approach for remote
health monitoring and diagnostics of room controllers, networks and
devices. A master room controller may be used to open a system
health page or a diagnostic page for other controllers. A system
health page may provide an overview of virtually all of the other
room controllers. A tool of the present system may be used to
trouble shoot issues remotely at another room controller in lieu of
doing a visit to the respective room controller. A user may
navigate from the system health page to virtually any place on the
room controller to diagnose issues. The navigation may be done by
hyper linking from the system health page. The healthy controllers
may be hidden from the page so that the unhealthy systems can be
viewed in one shot.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0003] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an illustrative example of a system
for remote room controller and device health monitoring;
[0004] FIG. 2 is a diagram of an approach for obtaining health and
diagnostics of room controllers, networks and devices;
[0005] FIG. 3 is a diagram of a system health summary screen;
[0006] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a summary of conditions for an
application control engine health, network status and device
status;
[0007] FIG. 5 is diagram of a screen shot certain properties of an
application control engine;
[0008] FIG. 5a is a diagram of thresholds related to the
application control engine;
[0009] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a diagnostics page; and
[0010] FIG. 7 is a diagram of device tab that may display virtually
all devices connected to a network and with error and alarm
status.
DESCRIPTION
[0011] The present system and approach may incorporate one or more
processors, computers, controllers, user interfaces, wireless
and/or wire connections, and/or the like, in an implementation
described and/or shown herein.
[0012] This description may provide one or more illustrative and
specific examples or ways of implementing the present system and
approach. There may be numerous other examples or ways of
implementing the system and approach.
[0013] A Tridium.TM. Niagara.TM. AX Framework may be a base
software application to develop a remote room controller
diagnostics page and a tool for troubleshooting the devices.
Further, the present system and approach may have a tool that may
be used to troubleshoot issues remotely and thus a technician may
be required to visit a customer site to troubleshoot any issues of
a device.
[0014] FIG. 1 is a diagram 71 of an example layout of a system for
remote controller and device health monitoring. A master room
controller 72 may be connected to one or more remote room
controllers 73, 74 and 75. A connection between controller 72 and
controllers 73-75 may be via a web 76, a direct wire connection 77
or a wireless connection. Master room controller 72 may have a user
interface 78 that is integral to controller 72 or apart from
controller 72. User interface 78 may have a display 79 and keyboard
81 and so forth. Display 79 could be a touch screen for selection,
response and input. Several screens of pages may be shown on
display 79. The screens may incorporate an at-a-glance page 82, a
system health page 83, a diagnostics page 84, a troubleshooting
page 85, and other pages 86, as desired.
[0015] A system health summary screen 31 revealed in a diagram of
FIG. 3 may be a web page to provide an "at-a-glance" overview of
system-wide health status. The system health summary screen 31 may
indicate the health of each room controller. Examples of
controllers noted may be MIT RMC Bldg 1 and MIT RMC Bldg 2. MIT RMC
Bldg 1 may be noted in FIGS. 3 and 5-7.
[0016] The present disclosure, such as a system health summary
screen to indicate the health of each room controller, may help for
instance, a Phoenix Controls.TM. technician to remotely check, for
example, the following items: 1) a status of JACE.TM. (Java
application control engine); 2) a status of Lon Networks in the
JACE; 3) a status of devices in the one or more Lon.TM. networks;
4) a hyperlink of the JACE to allow a user to navigate to a
detailed diagnostics screen of the JACE; and 5) mode error and
alarm conditions.
[0017] A Phoenix.TM. technician may launch a system health page
directly from a Phoenix workbench room controller. This controller
may be a master room controller. A master room controller may be a
master of all other room controllers, which has a direct connection
to other room controllers. Each of the room controllers may have a
unique IP address assigned to it which can let a user open a system
health page or a diagnostics page.
[0018] The system health page may provide an overview of virtually
all room controllers for that Phoenix job as shown in a screen shot
in a diagram 31 of FIG. 3. For an offline job, each room controller
may be running in a simulated unique port. If the room controller
has a dual LAN card, both of the card details may be displayed.
[0019] The categories 32 of information in screen 31 may be a room
controller, location, primary LAN with IP address and DHCP (dynamic
host configuration protocol), a secondary LAN with IP address and
DHCP, JACE health, LON status with LON 1 and LON 2, and device
status. Example indicators 33 may be either green (Gn), red (R) or
gray (Gy).
[0020] FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example 10 of the present
approach. A start at symbol 11 may proceed to one of several
approaches which in the present case may be to launch a system
health page on an RMC from a workbench at symbol 12, or to enter
the via the system health URL in a web browser at symbol 13. From
either symbol 12 or 13, a login page at symbol 14 may appear for
entry of a user name and password. Then, one may press an enter
button or click on a login button at symbol 15. A result may be
indicated at symbol 16, which may be login failed or of login
success. A login failed may have the user return to the login page
at symbol 14 or quit the attempt.
[0021] With login success to symbol 17, there may be a system
health page containing room controllers with overall health
indicators like RMC/RMI health, LON health and device health and
containing a link to a diagnostic page for each RMC in the table.
Then the link for diagnostics may be clicked.
[0022] A logic page may appear at symbol 18 and a user name and
password can be entered according to symbol 19. There may be a
login failed or a login success. A login failed may have the user
return to the logic page at symbol 18 or quit the attempt.
[0023] With login success, one may go to symbol 20. There may be a
diagnostics page for selected RMC with detailed RMC/RMI health, low
health and device health as represented by symbols 21, 22 and 23,
respectively. Symbol 21 may indicate a display detailed RMC/RMI
health containing CPU usage, memory usage, heap usage, and resource
details. Symbol 22 may indicate a display of details about the LON
network. Symbol 23 may indicate a display of devices connected to
LON networks with a health indication and additional details of a
selected device with alarm and error details. Upon review of one or
more of the instances of information as revealed in the symbols,
one may end the inquiry at symbol 24.
[0024] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a summary 35 of conditions. As to
JACE health 37, a green indication may show a healthy status. A red
indication may show that something is wrong or that one or more of
the conditions exceeded a threshold. Chart 36 at the top of the
diagram of FIG. 4 is shown in a diagram of FIG. 5a. A gray
indication may show that a connection has not been established.
[0025] As to LON status 38, a green indication may indicate a LON
status to be healthy. A red indication may indicate something to be
wrong. A condition may be revealed with a status mask of
"FAULT|DOWN|STALE|NULL". If any of the bits in the mask is set in
any of the Lon networks, then it may be marked as red. Gray may
indicate a connection not to be established.
[0026] As to device status 39, green indication may reveal a status
to be healthy. Red may indicate something to be wrong. A condition
may be revealed with a status mask of "FAULT|DOWN|STALE|NULL". If
any of the bits in the mask is set in any of the LON devices, then
it may be marked as red. A gray indication may indicate a
connection not established.
[0027] A user may navigate from the system health to any component
on the room controller to diagnose the issues. This may be done by
hyper linking from the system health page. Also, it may provide the
flexibility to hide healthy systems (i.e., no errors or alarms in
JACE health, LON status, and device status), so that one can view
unhealthy systems in a shot. A polling interval may be set which
can poll based on the interval (e.g., 5 minutes) set in a Phoenix
workbench.
[0028] A screen shot in a diagram 41 of FIG. 5 may show that the
memory usage (marked in red -2999.7) of indicator 42 may have
exceeded a threshold defined, i.e., 80 percent in the present
example, according to indicator 43 in a diagram 36 of FIG. 5a. The
JACE health may display virtually all of the parameters of the room
controller like CPU usage, alarm resources, component count, engine
queue actions, engine life time, queue timers, heap usage, some of
which are noted by indications 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48, respectively,
and so forth. Alarms may be generated because of low available
files, low disk space, low heap, low memory, and RAM also shown on
a dashboard.
[0029] FIG. 6 is a diagram 51 showing a diagnostics page. JACE
health tab 52 may show various parameters related to health of the
component. A LON (Lon) health tab 53 may display virtually all the
Lon related parameters such as health, alarm, fail time, status,
and so forth. A device tab, for an instance of a hood, may display
virtually all of the Lon devices connected to the Lon network and
its error and alarm status as shown in a diagram 61 of FIG. 7. An
error value may be read from "nvoPhxStatus/nvoAppStatus" of a
Niagara property and an alarm may be read from
"nvoAlarmStatus".
[0030] To recap, a system for remote room controller monitoring,
may incorporate one or more remote room controllers, a master room
controller connected to the one or more remote room controllers,
and a user interface connected to the master room controller. The
user interface may be used to obtain an at-a-glance overview of
system-wide issues to provide an at-a-glance overview of a
system-wide health status of the one or more remote room
controllers. The user interface may be used to obtain a diagnostics
page corresponding to a selected remote room controller. The user
interface may be used to pull up a tool to remotely troubleshoot
issues of the selected remote room controller in accordance with
issues indicated in the diagnostics page corresponding to the
selected remote room controller.
[0031] The user interface may be used to go to a website to get the
at-a-glance overview of system-wide issues and go to the website to
troubleshoot any issues as indicated in the at-a-glance overview of
system-wide issues in the one or more remote room controllers.
[0032] The system health summary screen may reveal the at-a-glance
overview of system-wide issues to indicate health of each remote
room controller for helping a technician to remotely check one or
more health items of each remote room controller.
[0033] The one or more health items may be selected from a group
consisting of a status of an application control engine, a status
of one or more networks in the application control engine, a status
of devices in the one or more networks, and a hyperlink of the
application control engine to allow a user to navigate to a
diagnostics screen of the application control engine, mode, errors,
and/or alarm conditions.
[0034] The system may be launched from a health page for a remote
room controller from a workbench at the master room controller.
[0035] The health page may incorporate one or more remote room
controllers with overall health indicators remote room controller
health, network health, and/or device health. The system health
page may incorporate a link to a diagnostics page for each remote
room controller in a table. Upon clicking the link, the diagnostics
page for selected remote room controller health, network health
and/or a device health may come up on the display.
[0036] The remote room controller health on the diagnostics page
revealed on the display may incorporate one or more details
selected from a group consisting of central processing unit usage,
memory usage, heap usage and/or resources.
[0037] The display may show a list of devices connected to one or
more networks having a health indicator and details of one or more
devices on the list with alarm and error details.
[0038] The display may show details of the one or more
networks.
[0039] The mode, error and alarm details for a device may be
highlighted with an indicator for showing a first, second or third
color. The first color may indicate that something is wrong and one
or more of the conditions exceed a threshold. The second color may
indicate that a connection has not been established. The third
color may indicate a healthy condition.
[0040] An approach for health monitoring and diagnosis, may
incorporate developing a diagnostics page for one or more remote
room controllers, clicking on a link to obtain for one or more
remote room controllers the diagnostics page on a display of a
processor, developing a tool for troubleshooting an issue with a
device of the one or more remote room controllers, and entering
into a system to get to a health page incorporating one or more
remote room controllers having overall health indicators. The
diagnostics page may show the remote room controllers having
overall health indicators.
[0041] The overall health indicators may reveal a health of one or
more items of a group consisting of remote room controllers,
networks, and devices.
[0042] The diagnostics page may be for a selected remote room
controller. The diagnostics page may incorporate details of remote
room controller health, network health and/or device health for a
selected remote room controller.
[0043] Details of the remote room controller health may incorporate
one or more items of a group consisting of central computing unit
usage, memory usage, heap usage and/or resource details.
[0044] A list of devices may be connected to one or more networks
with a health indicator and additional details of a selected device
with mode, alarm and/or error details displayed.
[0045] A system having monitoring and diagnostics may incorporate
one or more remote room controllers, a master room controller
connected to the one or more remote room controllers, and a display
with an input mechanism connected to the master room
controller.
[0046] The master room controller may incorporate an application to
develop a remote room controller health page and a diagnostic page,
and a tool to remotely troubleshoot issues based on the diagnostics
page of a device at a remote room controller.
[0047] The display may show a screen that provides a system-wide
health status of the one or more remote controllers.
[0048] Each of the one or more remote room controllers may
incorporate one or more items selected from a group consisting of
an application control engine, networks connected to and in the
application control engine, and a hyperlink of the application
control engine to allow a user to navigate to a detailed
diagnostics screen of the application control engine, modes,
errors, and/or alarm conditions.
[0049] A user may remotely check one or more items of a group
consisting of the application control engine, networks in the
application control engine, and the hyperlink of the application
control engine of the application control engine to allow a user to
navigate to the detailed diagnostics screen of the application
control engine, modes, errors, and/or alarm conditions.
[0050] Each of the one or more remote room controllers may have a
unique internet protocol (IP) address. A user can use an internet
protocol address at the master room controller to open a system
health page or a diagnostics page for a remote room controller
having the internet protocol address. The user may troubleshoot a
device having a property issue spotted with the diagnostics page.
Any publication or patent document noted herein is incorporated by
reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or
patent was specifically and individually indicated to be
incorporated by reference.
[0051] In the present specification, some of the matter may be of a
hypothetical or prophetic nature although stated in another manner
or tense.
[0052] Although the present system and/or approach has been
described with respect to at least one illustrative example, many
variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled
in the art upon reading the specification. It is therefore the
intention that the appended claims be interpreted as broadly as
possible in view of the related art to include all such variations
and modifications.
* * * * *