METHOD FOR OPERATING AN ELECTRONIC SAFETY SYSTEM WITH TEMPORARY PARTICIPANTS

Abstract

A method for operating a safety system having a control unit, a bus, a plurality of bus nodes connected to the control unit via the bus, and a plurality of participants connected to the control unit via the bus nodes, wherein at least one participant is designated as a temporary participant. The method includes the step of logging the temporary participant out of the safety system by giving notice of a disconnection of the temporary participant from the safety system by a manipulation and disconnecting the temporary participant from the safety system. The safety system can be used with an elevator system for carrying out the method.

Claims

1-9. (canceled)

10. A method for operating a safety system of an elevator system having a control unit, a bus, a plurality of bus nodes connected to the control unit via the bus, and a plurality of participants, of which at least one of the participants is designed as a temporary participant, connected to the control unit via the bus nodes, comprising the steps of: logging the at least one temporary participant out of the safety system by, A) giving notice of a disconnection of the at least one temporary participant from the safety system by a manipulation of the safety system; and B) disconnecting the temporary participant from the safety system.

11. The method according to claim 10 including setting the safety system to a fault mode by the control unit if the at least one temporary participant is not disconnected from the safety system until after a predefined time after the manipulation of the safety system.

12. The method according to claim 10 including implementing a target list of the participants on the control unit, the target list including at least data on an identification number of each of the participants, and wherein the at least one temporary participant is logged out of the safety system by the control unit changing an entry of the at least one temporary participant in the target list from an active status to an inactive status.

13. The method according to claim 12 including implementing an actual list of the participants on the control unit, the actual list forming an image of the participants connected to the safety system, and wherein operation of the elevator system is only enabled if the control unit establishes a correspondence in a comparison between the participants activated in the target list and the participants in the actual list.

14. The method according to claim 10 including the manipulation of the safety system by inputting a control command at an input point or by operating a switch, wherein the input point and the switch are each connected to the safety system.

15. The method according to claim 10 wherein in an event of a power failure, a system condition of the safety system is stored in a non-volatile memory of the control unit using the target list.

16. The method according to claim 15 wherein when the safety system is put back into operation after the power failure, the stored system condition is compared with a current system condition as an actual list of the participants connected to the safety system by the control unit, and the safety system is set by the control unit to a fault mode if the at least one temporary participant is found to be missing from the actual list on the basis of the comparison.

17. A safety system for an elevator system having a control unit, a bus, a plurality of bus nodes connected to the control unit via the bus, and a plurality of participants, of which at least one participant is designed as a temporary participant, connected to the control unit via the bus nodes, wherein the safety system is configured to perform the method according to claim 10.

18. An elevator system having the safety system according to claim 17.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The invention is described in more detail below using exemplary embodiments. In the figures:

[0022] FIG. 1 schematically shows an exemplary arrangement of an elevator system according to the invention;

[0023] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary embodiment of a target list that is implemented on the control unit of the safety system; and

[0024] FIG. 3 shows a flow chart of an exemplary sequence of a logging out process of a temporary participant in the safety system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The elevator system 1 shown schematically in FIG. 1 comprises a control unit 2, which is connected to a plurality of bus nodes 41 to 49 via a bus 3. The control unit 2 can be arranged in a separate drive room 8, as shown in FIG. 1. In a preferred embodiment, the control unit 2 can also be arranged in a shaft 6.

[0026] Reference sign 6 schematically indicates a shaft 6 of a building in which the elevator system 1 is installed. The building has, by way of example, three floors, each floor being equipped with a shaft door 61, 62 and 63, respectively. The bus node 41 is assigned the shaft door 61, the bus node 42 is assigned the shaft door 62 and the bus node 43 is assigned the shaft door 63.

[0027] The respective bus node 41, 42, or 43 is assigned a participant, in this case for example a switch contact 61a, 62a, 63a, which detects information relating to the condition of the associated shaft door 61, 62 or 63 (open, closed, locked) and can generate a fault signal for the control unit 2 if necessary.

[0028] The elevator system 1 also has an elevator car 7. The elevator car 7 is equipped with an elevator door 74, which is likewise assigned to a bus node 44. The bus node 44 is assigned a further participant, for example a further switch contact 74a, which determines information relating to the condition of the associated elevator door 74 (open, closed, locked) and can generate a fault signal for the control unit 2 if necessary.

[0029] The elevator system 1 can also have a bus node 45 and a bus node 46, which are assigned further participants, namely a safety brake 75 arranged on the elevator car 7 and an emergency switch 76, respectively. The safety brake 75 is used for safety-braking the elevator car 7, for example if said car reaches an excessive speed. The elevator system 1 can be brought to an immediate standstill in an emergency situation by operating the emergency switch 76.

[0030] Also, a drive unit is arranged in a drive room 8, which drive unit is equipped with two further participants, namely with an emergency brake 87 and with a rotation speed sensor 88, which are assigned a bus node 47 and 48 respectively. In a preferred embodiment, the drive unit can be arranged in the shaft 6, omitting a separate drive room.

[0031] Furthermore, a bus node 49 is provided, which is arranged in the region of the shaft 6 and is designed to receive a temporary participant, namely a manual control device 89. The bus node 49 can be arranged in particular on the roof of the car 7 or in the bottom of the shaft 1 or at one of the doors 61-63, depending on the point of the elevator system 1 at which maintenance work that requires the elevator car 7 to be moved is to be carried out. The temporary participant 89 is therefore connected to the bus 3 or the control unit 2 via the bus node 49.

[0032] In the example shown, the temporary participant 89 can be connected to the bus 3 at a slot of the corresponding bus node 49. Alternatively, the temporary participant 89 can also be connected to bus 3 wirelessly, for example via a WLAN, Bluetooth or other type of radio connection.

[0033] The manual control device 89 is designed to control the elevator system 1 and the elevator car 7 during a maintenance mode and comprises for example four control elements, namely a button for executing an upwardly or downwardly directed movement, a button for triggering an emergency stop and a switch for activating and deactivating a maintenance mode.

[0034] The control unit 2 has a target list 5a, which defines an expectation of the control unit 2. The target list 5a comprises e.g. a list of which of the participants 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 should be connected to the bus 3 at a certain point in time. In addition, the control unit 2 has an actual list 5b, which is a list of all the participants 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 currently connected to the bus 3.

[0035] The target list 5a is explained in more detail using FIG. 2. The target list 5a comprises an entry for each participant contained therein. This entry corresponds to one row of the table. In a first column is stored a bus address ADD of a bus node 41 to 49 at which the respective participant 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 is connected. The control unit 2 can communicate with a bus node 41 to 49 and a participant 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 connected thereto via the bus address ADD. The control unit 2 can correspondingly address control signals to a corresponding participant, for example to the safety brake 75 via the bus address ADD, 45, or request conditions of the switch contact 61a in a targeted manner from the bus address ADD, 41.

[0036] In a second column is stored a first identification number ID1 of a participant 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89. This first identification number ID1 is dependent on the type of participant. For instance, the participants 61a to 63a all have the same first identification number ID1 with the value SS, since all three participants are in the form of switch contacts 61a to 63a of identical type, which monitor the condition of an associated shaft door 61 to 63. A safety brake 75, however, has a different first identification number ID1 with the value UU.

[0037] The participants can also be identified by means of a second identification number ID2. This second identification number ID2 is for example a number AAA to JJJ for each participant 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89, which number permits unambiguous identification of each participant 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89.

[0038] Finally, an activation value A or I is stored for each participant in the target list 5a, the activation value A representing an active status of a participant and the activation value I representing an inactive status. The target list 5a shown has activation values A, I for two different operating modes of the elevator system 1, namely for a normal operating mode N and for a maintenance mode W. For instance, in the entry for the temporary participant 89 or the manual control device, an activation value A is given for a maintenance mode W and an activation value I is given for a normal operating mode N. The manual control device 89 is therefore assigned an active status in the maintenance mode W and an inactive status in the normal operating mode N.

[0039] After maintenance work has finished, the manual control device 89 is logged out of the control unit 2 by, in a first step A according to FIG. 3, notifying the control unit 2 of a disconnection of the manual control device 89 from the bus 3 by resetting the activation switch on the manual control device. After the activation switch has been reset, the manual control device 89 can be disconnected from the bus 3 in a second step B. By resetting the activation switch, an expectation is created in the control unit 2, which expectation can be used for monitoring the logging out process of the manual control device 89.

[0040] In this case, the elevator system 1 is preferably set to a fault mode by the control unit 2 if the temporary participant 89 is not disconnected from the bus 3 until after a predefined time after the activation switch is reset.

[0041] Alternatively, notice can be given of the disconnection of the temporary participant 89 by means of a manipulation on the control unit 2. The notification can be made by inputting a control command at an input point provided therefor, which is connected to the bus 3 via a bus node or is arranged directly on the control unit 2. A further possible way of giving notice of the disconnection is by operating a switch. This switch can likewise be connected to the bus 3 via a bus node or be arranged directly on the control unit 2.

[0042] When the manual control device 89 is logged out, its entry in the target list 5a is set by the control unit 2 from an active status A to an inactive status I. In correspondence with the operating mode W, N stored for the inactive status I for the manual control device 89 in the entry in the target list 5a, the control unit 2 can automatically put the elevator system 1 into a normal operating mode N.

[0043] In addition, an actual list 5b of the participants 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 is implemented on the control unit 2, which list forms an image of the participants 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 connected to the safety system at a certain point in time. The actual list 5b has a very similar structure to the target list 5a and comprises substantially the first four columns of the target list 5a. The control unit 2 therefore reads out the participant 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 connected to the respective bus node 41 to 49 for each bus node 41 to 49 present or the address ADD thereof and the identification numbers ID1, ID2. Operation of the elevator system 1 is only enabled by the control unit 2 if the control unit 2 establishes a correspondence in a comparison between the identification numbers ID1, ID2, in particular the identification numbers ID1, ID2 of the entries in the target list 5a for which an active status is stored in a respective operating mode N, W, and those of the actual list 5b.

[0044] In the event of a power failure, the system condition of the elevator system 1 is stored in a non-volatile memory of the control unit 2. In particular, the target list 5a is stored in the non-volatile memory, since the target list 5a represents such a system condition. This is because all the participants 61a-63a, 74a, 75, 76, 87, 88, 89 that should have an active status at a certain point in time are listed in the target list 5a.

[0045] When the elevator system 1 is put into operation again after the power failure, the stored target list 5a acts as a check-list. The stored target list 5a is compared with the current actual list 5b to establish whether all the temporary participants 89 present before the power failure are still connected to the bus 3. If the control unit 2 finds on the basis of the comparison that a temporary participant 89 is missing from the actual list, the control unit sets the elevator system 1 to a fault mode.

[0046] In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, the present invention has been described in what is considered to represent its preferred embodiment. However, it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope.