Johnson Service Company

Johnson Controls Technology Company

Robert R Singers

David E Rasmussen

Clay G Nesler

Michael E Wagner

Gaylon M Decious

Karen L Woest

James K Stark

Gregory A Pascucci

Otto M Mageland

Dan J Spacek

Paul W Madaus

David L Koch

Darrell E Standish

Donald A Gottschalk, Jr

Vairavan Vairavan

Susan M Hyzer

James R Garbe

Dennis E Burkhardt

Linda S Endres

Donald A Gottschalk

Jeffrey J Gloudeman

Michael Piotrowski

Vairavan E Vairavan

A control system includes a plurality of sensors configured to produce a plurality of sensor signals in response to a sensed condition; a plurality of controllers configured to produce a plurality of control signals in response to one or more sensor signals; a plurality of operational units, each respective operational unit receiving one or more control signals, each respective operational unit configured to produce a control effect in response to the one or more control signals; and a display device which produces a starfield display in response to the plurality of sensor signals and the plurality of control signals. The starfield display conveys operational information about the control system to an operator.

Method and apparatus for displaying operational information of a control system by a starfield display

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices.

Networked facilities management system

A computer implemented environmental process control apparatus for displaying the condition of selected attributes of a plurality of environmental control components or zones within a facility. One embodiment of the apparatus is configured to create a river of time display including a rivulet having an historical and future data segment corresponding to each of the plurality of components or zones. In order to create the river of time, the apparatus includes a memory having a plurality of first instances of a data structure and a plurality of second instances of a data structure for storing historical and future data, respectively, means for establishing a look back value, means for establishing a look forward value, an historical data processing module, a future data processing module, a graphic engine, and a data access logic device. The historical and future data processing modules receive and commnunicate historical and future data, respectively, to the first and second instances of the data structure. The data entries are then selectively retrieved by the data access logic device and communicated to the graphic engine such that the graphic engine creates the river of time display over a time interval that the data access logic device calculates based upon the look back and look forward values.

Analog spectrum display for environmental control

The operational state of a complex control system, with a number of operating units controlled by a plurality of sensing and input devices, can be dynamically displayed as a starfield. In the starfield, each operating unit is depicted by a separate cluster of stars representing the states of the sensing devices for that operating unit. The position and other display attributes of the stars denote the functional state of the associated device. An archive of starfields is maintained in a storage device with each such starfield depicting the state of the control system for a particular operating condition, such as a specific system error. When an unusual starfield occurs, it can be compared to the archived starfields to determine whether a problem exists and if so determine a solution.

Starfield display of control system diagnostic information

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. Nodes store restoration characteristics of loads controlled by the nodes. After being shed to limit energy consumption, software local to the node restores the loads under predefined circumstances independently of the load shed commands to achieve distributed load management.

Networked facilities management system having a node configured with

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. An optical isolator is connected between signal line outputs from a node and a line driver connected to a pair of lines on a bus. Similarly, an optical isolator is connected between signal line receiving inputs and a line receiver. The signal lines can be biased to predetermined levels to reduce node sensitivity to noise.

Networked facilities management system with optical coupling of local

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. Nodes are provided with ports which may accommodate a non-configured device. When a non-configured device is identified on a port, a drop identifier specifying the port is transmitted to the non-configured device for use in establishing a network address by which the non-configured device can be accessed.

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. In each node a time stamp indicates the most recent update of the node's data base. Periodically each node transmits its time stamp. When a node receives a time stamp later than its own, the receiving node requests the transmitting node to transmit its data base to update the receiving node with the earlier time stamp.

Networked facilities management system with time stamp comparison for

A network system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems includes network controllers which continuously process data related to building and industrial, environmental, security and other automated system controls. Each network controller has a network address indicative of a communication link to which the network controller is connected, a local address and a node drop ID to determine whether the network controller is a configured or non-configured device. Data stored in an archive device is downloaded to a destination network controller in the absence of a routing table in the destination network controller by transmitting a download request message from the archive device to an intermediate network controller with a routing table. The intermediate network controller assumes control of the download request by transmitting the message to the destination controller. The destination controller acknowledges receipt of the message by transmitting an acknowledge message back to the intermediate network controller, which passes the acknowledge message to the archive device in accordance with the routing information stored in the intermediate network controller. Thus, as certain network controllers are connected, disconnected or disabled during the operation of the network, the control of a process is not interrupted. Additionally, the network controllers are not configured to store large amounts of routing data because a path to a device can be established through other controllers with routing information.

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Brown Deer, WI, United States of America

Robert R Singers