An I/O unit comprises: two front-stage terminals; a slave processing circuit; two rear-stage terminals; and a selection circuit for selecting whether to connect the front-stage terminal and the rear-stage terminal, and the front-stage terminal and the rear-stage terminal, or to connect the front-stage terminal and the rear-stage terminal, and the front-stage terminal and the rear-stage terminal. The selection circuit connects to the rear-stage terminal via the slave processing circuit.

A master unit for transmitting signals to devices connected to I/O units is divided into: a connector module having a first connector and a main module having a master processing circuit, a second connector, a branch terminal, and a power supply part. The second connector and the master processing circuit are connected by first connection terminals provided to the connector module and the main module.

An I/O unit comprises: a preceding stage-side mainstream terminal and a preceding stage-side branch terminal that are connected to preceding-stage master units; a next stage-side branch terminal that is connected to the preceding-stage branch terminal and connected to another I/O unit; a slave processing circuit that is connected to the preceding stage-side branch terminal and the next stage-side branch terminal; and a next stage-side mainstream terminal connected to the preceding stage-side mainstream terminal and a master unit in the next stage.

An I/O unit transmits signals between a master unit and instruments. The master unit has two redundant master processing circuits. The I/O unit includes: a first slave processing circuit that performs input and output of signals with respect to one of the two master processing circuits; and a second slave processing circuit that performs input and output of signals with respect to the other one of the two redundant master processing circuits.

A master unit that transmits a signal with a device via an I/O unit comprises: a connector module having a first connector and a power source unit; and a signal processing module having a branch terminal and a master processing circuit. The connector module and the signal processing module further comprise connection terminal units that connect the first connector and the power source unit with the master processing circuit.

A control device includes a cyclic communication part and a communication management part. The cyclic communication part controls communication of first control data and second control data. The first control data is control data of which arrival in a first guarantee time is guaranteed according to a preset cyclic period. In the second control data, arrival in a second guarantee time longer than the cyclic period is guaranteed and a sequence of information included is determined. When a data volume of second control data exceeds a communication volume for second control data based on the cyclic period, the communication management part divides the second control data into a plurality of communication data. The communication management part attaches an identifier indicating communication in a divided manner, a data volume, and a communication order to the plurality of communication data.

The device includes a master module and a slave module. The master module includes a control unit for controlling overall operation of the master module, a power unit electrically for storing electricity to supply the master module, an electricity transmission unit for receiving electricity from the power unit and wirelessly transmitting the electricity; and a communication unit for communicating of the master module. The slave module is electrically connected to the master module and includes a control subunit for controlling overall operation of the slave module, a communication subunit for wirelessly communicating with the communication unit, an electricity reception unit for wirelessly receiving the electricity from the power unit of the master module, a storage unit for storing electricity from the electricity reception unit and supplying power to each unit of the slave module, and an electricity transmission subunit for wirelessly outward transmitting electricity of the storage unit.

An apparatus for controlling appliances aboard a vehicle, including a first data processing device having a network interface that can have a vehicle network for bidirectional data transmission between the first data processing device and connected network appliances. Also provided are an input/output device, a graphics processor device connected to the screen thereof and to the first data processing device, a user interface module provided in the first data processing device and that implements a graphical user interface having pages, and at least one separate second data processing device connected to the first data processing device via a separate bidirectional data link and having a network interface for connection to a vehicle network. Via each bidirectional data link it is exclusively possible to transmit predefined data records having data of predefined data types for display on pages from the second data processing device to the first data processing device.

The present disclosure relates to a method for managing a parameter of a communication-based master-slave control system, and has an effect of storing and applying parameters of all slave devices in a non-volatile memory in a master device, thereby enabling the slave devices to be set-up in a position where an operator is difficult to access or dangerous by a parameter stored in the master device, thereby simplifying maintenance of the slave devices and ensuring safety of a user.

A control system includes a master apparatus that includes a calculation unit and a communication processing unit, and one or more slave apparatuses connected to the master apparatus via a network. The communication processing unit is configured to manage cyclic transmission, on the network, of a data sequence containing data that is handled by the master apparatus and the one or more slave apparatuses. The communication processing unit is configured to start cyclic transmission of a first data sequence that contains output data for the one or more slave apparatuses in conjunction with execution of output processing in the operation unit, and to start, a predetermined time period before execution start of input processing in the operation unit, cyclic transmission of a second data sequence for obtaining information collected by the one or more slave apparatuses from the control target.