Johnson Controls Technology Company

Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings Llp

Allen-bradley Company, LLC

Eric W Hamber

Lisa E Strand

Daniel R Gottschalk

Ryan J Bykowski

Sergey A Galchenko

Jennifer S Cayemberg

Vivek V Gupta

Daniel F Leising

Thomas J Deegan

Frank D Lucko

Gary A Turck

A building management system includes a communications bus, and devices coupled to the communications bus. The devices are coupled to the communications bus and configured to communicate on the communications bus using a master-slave token passing protocol. A first one of the devices has an active node table stored therein. The active node table includes multiple nodes. Each node represents one of the devices participating in a token passing ring used to exchange information among the devices via the communications bus using the master-slave token passing protocol. The first device is configured to monitor the active node table for new nodes and to identify a new device communicating on the communications bus in response to a determination that the active node table includes a new node.

Building management system with automatic equipment discovery and equipment model distribution

A controller for equipment includes a communications interface, a communications protocol manager, a protocol detection manager, and an equipment controller. The communications interface connects to at least one of a serial bus and a wireless communications device. The communications protocol manager communicates via at least one of the serial bus and the wireless communications device according to a communications protocol and a predetermined parameter. The protocol detection manager causes the communications protocol manager to test for multiple communications protocols and predetermined parameters to identify a communications protocol and parameter used by at least one of the serial bus and the wireless communications device. The equipment controller uses the identified communications protocol and parameter to generate protocol-specific control signals or communication signals for the equipment and use the protocol-specific control signals or communication signals to control the equipment or communicate with the equipment.

Controller with automatic field bus protocol detection

A smart communications controller for building equipment includes an equipment port and a processing circuit including a plurality of autoconfiguration objects. Each of the autoconfiguration objects corresponds to a different communications protocol and is configured to perform a protocol testing process. The protocol testing process includes sending a request message to the building equipment using the corresponding communications protocol. The request message includes a request for an equipment ID. The protocol testing process includes receiving a response message from the building equipment in response to the request message and identifying the corresponding communications protocol as being used by the building equipment in response to the response message including the requested equipment ID. The processing circuit includes an equipment controller configured to use the identified communications protocol to generate protocol-specific control signals for the building equipment and operate the building equipment to affect a variable state or condition within the building.

Building automation system with smart communications controller for building equipment

A building management system including a system manager, a zone coordinator, and one or more zone controllers configured to monitor and control building zones. The system manager includes a system bus datalink having an active node table stored therein. The zone coordinator includes a second system bus datalink and a zone bus datalink. A system bus connects the first system bus datalink to the second system bus datalink. A zone bus connects the zone bus datalink to the one or more zone controllers. The active node table includes a plurality of nodes, each node representing a system bus device communicating on the system bus. The system manager is configured to monitor the active node table for new nodes and to identify a new system bus device communicating on the system bus in response to a determination that the active node table includes a new node.

A smart communications controller for building equipment includes an equipment port connected to the building equipment and a plurality of autoconfiguration objects. Each of the autoconfiguration objects is configured to perform a protocol testing process for a particular communications protocol. The protocol testing process includes automatically determining whether the communications protocol is used by the building equipment connected to the equipment port. The smart communications controller further includes an autoconfiguration manager configured to cause the autoconfiguration objects to iteratively perform their protocol testing processes until the communications protocol used by the building equipment is identified. The smart communications controller further includes an equipment controller configured to use the identified communications protocol for the building equipment to generate protocol-specific control signals for the building equipment.

A method of transferring firmware to a non-volatile memory of a programmable controller system comprises the steps of establishing a remote network connection and transferring the firmware to the non-volatile memory of the programmable controller system by way of the remote network connection. The remote network connection is established between a first computer system utilized by a firmware provider and the programmable controller system. The first computer system is located remotely from the programmable controller system. Alternatively, the remote network connection may also be established between the first computer system and a second computer system utilized by a user of the programmable controller system and located locally with the programmable controller system. Advantageously, using a network link, firmware upgrade can be downloaded into a processor module of a programmable controller system from a firmware provider, without any transportation delays and without any significant hardware intervention. Additionally, the network link also enables the computer to be networked to a plurality of processor modules at once, so that the firmware upgrade can be nearly simultaneously downloaded to the plurality of networked processor modules at once, without significant hardware intervention. Finally, in addition to being useful in conjunction with processor modules that have built-in communication ports, the present invention is also useful in conjunction with processor modules having a communication daughterboard.

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New Berlin, WI, United States of America

Eric W Hamber