Patent Application
20060168370
The present invention is directed to industrial appliances that are connected to a communication network.
Industrial equipment, such as welders, can be connected to a communication network. The network connection for industrial equipment allows the operation of the industrial equipment to be monitored and controlled by a device located anywhere in the communications network.
While the network connection for industrial equipment provides remote monitoring and control of the operation of the industrial equipment, the network connection increases the difficulty of servicing the industrial equipment. For example, replacement of faulty industrial equipment requires reconfiguration of the communications network because the replacement equipment typically has a physical network address that is different from the replaced faulty equipment. The reconfiguration of the communications network typically requires manual processes that are inconvenient, time consuming, and prone to error.
These and other considerations have presented challenges to networked appliances. Networked industrial equipment, and networked appliances in general, that allow servicing without inconvenient, time consuming, and error prone manual processes are needed.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the above-mentioned challenges and others related to the types of devices and applications discussed above and in other applications. The present invention is exemplified in a number of implementations and applications, some of which are summarized below.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a networked industrial-application appliance, having a processor, also includes a removable modular circuit board and a memory arrangement. The removable modular circuit board includes an identity circuit memory, an external-connection port for providing communication access between the networked industrial-application appliance processor and the identity circuit memory, and electrical conductors each of which is adapted to provide a connection with the external-connection port. The memory arrangement includes a nonvolatile memory device and is adapted to store an identity profile that is particular to the networked industrial-application appliance. The networked industrial-application appliance processor is communicatively-coupled to the identity circuit memory via the external-connection port and to the identity profile in the nonvolatile memory.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describe each illustrated embodiment or every implementation of the present invention. The figures and detailed description that follow more particularly exemplify these embodiments.
The invention may be more completely understood in consideration of the detailed description of various embodiments of the invention in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
While the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specifics thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the intention is not necessarily to limit the invention to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
The present invention is believed to be applicable to a variety of networked appliances, and has been found to be particularly useful for equipment controlled or monitored via an Ethernet connection in an industrial application. For instance, example embodiments of the present invention are applicable Ethernet enabled weld controllers. While the present invention is not necessarily limited to such applications, various aspects of the invention may be appreciated through a discussion of various examples using this context.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a removable identity circuit is used to provide profile data such as the physical network address for the networked appliance. During power-up or reset of the networked appliance, the profile information is read from the identity circuit and used to initialize the configuration of the networked appliance such as the physical network address used by a network controller of the networked appliance. Transferring the removable identity circuit from a first networked appliance to a second networked appliance allows the second networked appliance to assume the identity of the first networked appliance without reconfiguration of the communication network. One example of such transferring of the removable identity circuit occurs during replacement of a first, faulty networked appliance with a second networked appliance, allowing the faulty first networked appliance to be replaced without reconfiguration of the communication network.
The processor 112 may control the networked appliance 102 and the network controller 108. The network controller 108 may implement the physical address 110 as a register having a value that may be written by the processor 112. The processor 112 may write such a network physical address 110 with a physical address value 114 obtained from the identity circuit 104. For example, the startup boot code in memory 116 for the processor 112 may read the physical address value 114 from the identity circuit 104 and write the physical address value 114 to the register of the network controller 108 for the physical address 110.
In one example embodiment, the identity circuit 104 includes a connector 118 that permits the identity circuit 104 to be coupled to a matching connector 120 on the networked appliance 102. The connectors 118 and 120 may be keyed such that there is only one possible way to connect the identity circuit 104 to the networked appliance 102. The identity circuit 104 may be removed from the networked appliance 102 by separating connector 118 from connector 120. The identity circuit 104 may be transferred to a second networked appliance, thereby transferring the value for the physical address 114 to the second networked appliance. The matching connector 120 may be located on the exterior of a cabinet for the networked appliance 102, or in another easily accessible location to expedite transfer of the identity circuit 104 to a second networked appliance. Servicing of a networked appliance 102, such as replacement of a faulty networked appliance 102 by a second networked appliance, may be simplified by the transfer of the identity circuit 104 to the second networked appliance.
According to another embodiment, the transfer of the identity circuit 104 to the second networked appliance eliminates the network 106 reconfiguration that is typically required when a networked appliance 102 is replaced by a second networked appliance having a distinct physical address. The transfer of the identity circuit 104 to a second networked appliance eliminates reconfiguring the name server, such as a dynamic host configuration protocol (DCHP) server, to map the network address, such as an internet protocol (IP) address, to the distinct physical address, and in addition, eliminates the messages of the address resolution protocol (ARP) required by all devices on the network 106 in communication with the networked appliance 102.
The Ethernet welder 202 includes an Ethernet media access controller (MAC) 210 to control communication with the Ethernet network 206. The Ethernet MAC 210 includes a MAC address 212 which may be implemented as a register that may be written by communication processor 214.
The Ethernet welder 202 includes a RS-485 interface 216 to control communication with the RS-485 network 208. The RS-485 interface 216 includes an RS-485 address 218 which may be implemented as a register that may be written by communication processor 214.
The dual port memory 220 may implement communication channels such as one or more FIFO queues between the communication processor 214 and the processor 222. Control of the operation of the Ethernet welder 202 may be divided between the communication processor 214 and the processor 222 with the communication processor 214 being primarily responsible for communication with external devices.
The communication processor 214 and the processor 222 may cooperate to transfer the MAC address value 224 from the identity circuit 204 to the register for the MAC address 212 in the Ethernet MAC 210. The communication processor 214 and the processor 222 may cooperate to transfer the RS-485 address value 226 from the identity circuit 204 to the register for the RS-485 address 218 of the RS-485 interface 216. The transfer of the MAC address value 224 and RS-485 address value 226 from the identity circuit 204 to the Ethernet MAC 210 and RS-485 interface 216, respectively, can occur during Ethernet welder 202 initialization, such as during the startup booting of the Ethernet welder 202.
The identity circuit 204 includes a keyed connector 228 that mates with a corresponding keyed connector 230 on the Ethernet welder 202. The identity circuit 204 may be removed from the Ethernet welder 202 and transferred to a second Ethernet welder, thereby transferring the MAC address value 224 and the RS-485 address value 226 to the second Ethernet welder.
The identity circuit 300 may be coupled to a networked appliance via connector 304. Connector 304 may be keyed to prevent unintended coupling of the identity circuit 300 with the networked appliance. Connector 304 may be a connector device or an edge connector that is integrated into printed circuit board 302. A serial communication protocol may be used to access the identity circuit 300, with access being read and/or write access. The serial communication protocol has a shift clock on pin 312 to control the serial data transfer. The serial communication protocol has a data-out on pin 313 used to serially transfer data from the identity circuit 300 to the networked appliance under control of the shift clock on pin 312. The serial communication protocol may have a protocol reset on pin 314 and can additionally have a data-in pin 315 to transfer data to the identity circuit 300 under control of the shift clock on pin 312. A write enable pin 316 may enable writing serial PROM 306 with serial data supplied at the data-in pin 315. A networked appliance may not connect to the data-in pin 315 and/or the write enable pin 316 to prevent changing of the contents of the identity circuit 300 by the networked appliance, and a separate programmer for the identity circuit 300 may connect to the data-in pin 315 and the write enable pin 316 to initialize the contents of the identity circuit 300. Alternatively, the serial PROM 306 may be protected by a password to prevent unauthorized modification of the contents of the identity circuit 300.
In another embodiment, the identity circuit 300 stores profile data accessed by a networked appliance through the keyed connector 304 via a serial communication protocol. The profile data is stored in the serial PROM 306 or other nonvolatile memory device and the user switches 308. The serial PROM may include profile data for an identity profile such as network address information and operation information for the networked appliance. The network address information may include the physical MAC address 318 for an Ethernet network associated with the networked appliance, the last IP address 320 mapped to the networked appliance, the subnet mask 322 of the Ethernet network directly associated with the networked appliance that is used to determine whether or not a device IP address corresponds to a device located on the same subnet, a gateway IP address 324 used to access a device that is not located on the same subnet, and the network name 326 for the networked appliance. Additionally, identity circuit 300 may contain the host name 327 for the networked appliance so networks that use DNS services do not have to be refreshed on changing the host name. The operational information may include calibration information 328 for the networked appliance including calibration information about the environment of the networked appliance, startup information 330 such as a boot path for the software of the networked appliance, service history 332 for the networked appliance such as a revision date code, and customer preference settings for the networked appliance (not shown). The user switches 308 may be used to store additional profile data such as the RS-485 address for a RS-485 network associated with the networked appliance and additional customer preference settings.
Shift register 310 is used to introduce the value of the user switches 308 into the serial communication protocol for the profile data of the identity circuit 300. The values provided by the user switches 308 may be stored in parallel in the shift register 310 during a reset operation based on the reset signal on pin 314 of connector 304. After reset, based on the reset signal on pin 314, the first data shifted out of the identity circuit 300 on data-out pin 313 are the values of the user switches 308. As the values of the user switches 308 are shifted out on data-out pin 313, profile data from the serial PROM 306 is shifted into the shift register 310, such that the profile data from the serial PROM 306 is shifted out on data-out pin 313 following the values for the user switches 308. It will be appreciated that the order can be reversed on the shift chain for the serial PROM 306 and the shift register 310.
In addition, a variety of other ways of providing a transferable identity for a device such as a networked appliance may be performed using the approaches discussed herein.
The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention. Based on the above discussion and illustrations, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that various modifications and changes may be made to the present invention without strictly following the exemplary embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein. Such changes may include, but are not necessarily limited to, eliminating the user switches and associated shift register, providing general user selected configurations for the networked appliance via the user switches, providing the RS-485 network address in the serial PROM, or providing a value for a profile data item that may be overridden as selected by the user switches with a value specified by the user switches. Such modifications and changes do not depart from the true spirit and scope of the present invention that is set forth in the following claims.
