A method of commissioning physical hvac devices of an hvac system for an hvac application

Abstract

A method of commissioning physical HVAC devices for an HVAC application including communicatively connecting physical HVAC devices to a communication bus, one physical HVAC device being selected as master HVAC device, identifying the physical HVAC devices connected to the communication bus, determining device type(s) of the physical HVAC devices, receiving an application model including a device list listing virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application, generating, by the master HVAC device, a mapping of the physical HVAC devices to the virtual HVAC devices using the device type(s) of the physical HVAC devices and of the virtual HVAC devices.

1 . A method of commissioning physical HVAC devices of an HVAC system for an HVAC application, the method comprising:
 communicatively connecting a plurality of physical HVAC devices to a communication bus via each physical HVAC device's bus communication interface, one of the plurality of physical HVAC devices being selected as master HVAC device;   identifying, by the master HVAC device, the physical HVAC devices connected to the communication bus by retrieving respective identification data of the physical HVAC devices;   determining, by the master HVAC device, device type(s) of the physical HVAC devices using the respective identification data;   receiving, by the master HVAC device, an application model comprising a device list listing a plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application and, comprising data indicative of a device type of each virtual HVAC device;   generating, by the master HVAC device, a mapping of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application using the respective determined device type(s) of the plurality of physical HVAC devices and the device type(s) of the virtual HVAC devices.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1  further comprising:
 retrieving, by the master HVAC device, device profile(s) corresponding to the determined device type(s) and/or the identification data of the physical HVAC devices; and 
 enabling, by the master HVAC device using the respective device profile(s) and the mapping, data communication between the HVAC application and the plurality of physical HVAC devices. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the HVAC application resides and/or is executed by the master HVAC device and/or a remote computer communicatively connected to the master HVAC device via a remote communication interface and wherein the HVAC application comprises computer readable instructions for generating control data for controlling the physical HVAC devices and/or for processing operational data received from the physical HVAC devices. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a selection of an HVAC application amongst a list of available HVAC applications; and   retrieving, by the master HVAC device, an application model corresponding to the selected HVAC application.   
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein:
 the list of available HVAC applications comprises HVAC applications stored locally in the master HVAC device and/or stored on a remote computer communicatively connected to the master HVAC device via a remote communication interface; and   the master HVAC device retrieves the application model corresponding to the selected HVAC application from a data storage of the master HVAC device and/or from a remote computer communicatively connected to the master HVAC device via a remote communication interface.   
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein generating the mapping of physical HVAC device(s) to virtual HVAC device(s) comprises one or more of:
 automatically mapping each singular physical HVAC device of a device type to a singular virtual HVAC device;   providing a selection list of a plurality of physical HVAC devices having compatible device type(s) with the device type(s) of the virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application and receiving user input indicative of a selection of one or more physical HVAC devices from the selection list to be mapped.   
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 2 , wherein the device profile(s) comprise device-specific processing data corresponding to the physical HVAC devices identified by the identification data; and wherein enabling data communication between the HVAC application and the plurality of physical HVAC devices comprises:
 processing, by the master HVAC device, operational data received from the physical HVAC devices using the device-specific processing data and forwarding the thereby processed operational data to the HVAC application; and/or   processing, by the master HVAC device, control data generated by the HVAC application using the device-specific processing data and forwarding the thereby processed control data to the respective physical HVAC devices.   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the device-specific processing data comprises calibration data specific to the physical HVAC devices identified by the identification data, wherein the processing by the HVAC gateway device comprises:
 applying the calibration data to operational data received from the physical HVAC devices and/or   applying the calibration data to control data generated by the HVAC application.   
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the device-specific processing data comprises conversion data including conversion parameters and/or conversion formulae, wherein the processing by the master HVAC device, comprises applying the conversion parameters and/or conversion formulae to operational data received from the physical HVAC devices. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the step of testing the HVAC application using the mapping of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein, the control data comprises actuator values, the method further comprising: actuating, by actuator(s) of the respective physical HVAC devices, of one or more mechanically connected actuated parts in accordance with actuator values of the control data as processed and forwarded by the master HVAC device. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying, by the master HVAC device, a physical HVAC device to be replaced;   identifying, by the master HVAC device, a replacement physical HVAC device; and   updating, by the master HVAC device, the mapping of a virtual HVAC device from the physical HVAC device to be replaced with the replacement physical HVAC device.   
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 12 , further comprising:
 retrieving operational data from the physical HVAC device to be replaced and transmitting the retrieved operational data to the replacement physical HVAC device; and/or   updating parameters of the device profile of the replacement physical HVAC device using parameters of the device profile of the physical HVAC device to be replaced.   
     
     
         14 . A master HVAC device comprising:
 a bus communication interface for communicatively connecting one or more further physical HVAC device(s);   a processor;   wherein the processor is configured to control the master HVAC device to carry out the method according to  claim 1 .   
     
     
         15 . The master HVAC device according to  claim 14 , further comprising one or more actuator(s) for actuating mechanically connected actuated part(s) and/or one or more sensor(s). 
     
     
         16 . An HVAC system comprising:
 the master HVAC device according to  claim 14 ; and   one or more physical HVAC devices comprising one or more actuator(s) for actuating mechanically connected actuated part(s) and/or one or more sensor(s),   wherein the master HVAC device and the one or more physical HVAC devices are communicatively connected by a communication bus via respective bus communication interfaces.   
     
     
         17 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which, when executed by a processor of a master HVAC device, cause the master HVAC device to carry out the method according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium according to  claim 17 , further comprising instructions, which, when executed by the processor of the master HVAC device, cause generation of a user interface comprising:
 display elements for displaying a list of available HVAC applications;   user interaction elements for receiving a selection of a HVAC application amongst the list of available HVAC applications;   display elements for displaying the device list listing a plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the selected HVAC application;   display elements for displaying a list of physical HVAC devices connected to the communication bus; and   display elements for displaying a visual representation of mapping of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium according to  claim 18 , wherein the user interface further comprises:
 display elements for displaying a device type of virtual HVAC devices of the selected HVAC application; and   user interaction elements for altering one or more parameters of the device types of the virtual HVAC devices of the selected HVAC application.