Electric Drive System and Method of Operating the Electric Drive System

Abstract

An electric drive system has a multiplicity of electrical controllers, the electrical controllers each having a nonvolatile memory that is configured to store controller data of the respective controller, and a bus system. The multiplicity of electrical controllers are able to be coupled to one another by way of the bus system in order to exchange data. The electrical controllers are each configured to store controller data of other controllers in their memory.

Claims

1-5. (canceled)

6. An electric drive system, comprising: a multiplicity of electrical controllers, the electrical controllers each having a memory that is configured to store controller data of the respective controller; and a bus system, wherein the multiplicity of electrical controllers are coupleable to one another by way of the bus system in order to exchange data, and the electrical controllers are each configured to store controller data of other controllers in their memory.

7. The electric drive system according to claim 6, wherein the respective controller data contain one or more of: process data of a respective electrical controller, program code of a respective electrical controller, operating parameters of a respective electrical controller, and logbook data of a respective electrical controller.

8. The electric drive system according to claim 6, further comprising: at least one electric motor, wherein at least one of the electrical controllers is a frequency converter that is configured to drive the at least one electric motor.

9. The electric drive system according to claim 6, wherein the memory is a non-volatile memory.

10. A method for operating an electric drive system having a multiplicity of electrical controllers, the electrical controllers each having a nonvolatile memory that is configured to store controller data of the respective controller; and a bus system, the multiplicity of electrical controllers being able to be coupled to one another by way of the bus system in order to exchange data, wherein the electrical controllers are each configured to store controller data of other controllers in their memory, the method comprising the step of: when changing the controller data in a respective controller, storing the changed controller data in the memory of at least one other controller.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein when exchanging a respective controller for a replacement controller, operating data of the exchanged controller that are stored in the memory of another controller are transferred from the other controller to the replacement controller and then stored in the memory of the replacement controller.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0020] FIG. 1 shows an electric drive system according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0021] FIG. 1 shows an electric drive system 1 with a multiplicity of electrical controllers 2_1, . . . , 2_n in the form of frequency converters. n denotes a natural integer whose range of values may lie for example between 2 and 50.

[0022] The electrical controllers 2_1, . . . , 2_n each have a nonvolatile memory 3 that is designed to store controller data 4_1, . . . , 4_n of the respective controller 2_1, . . . , 2_n. In this case, the reference sign 4_1 denotes controller data of the controller 2_1, the reference sign 4_2 denotes controller data of the controller 2_2 and the reference sign 4_n denotes controller data of the controller 2_n.

[0023] The electric drive system 1 furthermore has a field bus system 5, wherein the multiplicity of electrical controllers 2_1, . . . , 2_n are coupled to one another by way of the field bus system 5 in order to exchange data.

[0024] As illustrated symbolically, the electrical controllers 2_1, . . . , 2_n are each designed to store controller data 4_1, . . . , 4_n of other controllers 2_1, . . . , 2_n in their memory 3.

[0025] In addition to its own controller data 4_1, the controller 2_1 thus also stores the controller data 4_2 and 4_n of the controllers 2_2, respectively 2_n. In addition to its own controller data 4_2, the controller 2_2 also stores the controller data 4_1 and 4_n of the controllers 2_1, respectively 2_n. In addition to its own controller data 4_n, the controller 2_n also stores the controller data 4_1 and 4_2 of the controllers 2_1, respectively 2_2.

[0026] The controller data may be for example process data of a respective controller 2_1, . . . , 2_n and/or program code of a respective electrical controller 2_1, . . . , 2_n and/or operating parameters of a respective electrical controller 2_1, . . . , 2_n and/or logbook data of a respective electrical controller 2_1, . . . , 2_n.

[0027] The electric drive system 1 furthermore has an electric motor 6, wherein the controller 2_1 is designed to drive the electric motor 6. It is understood that further electric motors, not illustrated, may be present, which are driven by way of an associated frequency converter 2_2 to 2_n.

[0028] The controllers 2_1 to 2_n are designed such that, when changing the controller data 4_1, . . . , 4_n in a respective controller 2_1, . . . , 2_n, the changed controller data 4_1, . . . , 4_n are stored or updated in the memory 3 of at least one other controller 2_1, . . . , 2_n.

[0029] An exchange of the controller 2_2 for a replacement controller 2_e is described below.

[0030] The operating data 4_2 of the exchanged controller 2_2, which are stored in the memory 3 of the controller 2_1 and 2_n, are transferred from one of the other controllers 2_1, respectively 2_n to the replacement controller 2_e, whereupon the replacement controller 2_e stores the operating data 4_2 in its own memory 3 and thus has memory content that corresponds to the exchanged controller 2_2. A burdensome manual memory update of the memory 3 of the replacement controller 2_e is therefore not necessary.