Electrical household appliance

STATE OF THE ART

p0001The invention relates to an electric household appliance, such as a dishwasher, a dryer, a washing machine, a lighting device, a heating control or the like according to the preamble of the main claim.

p0002From the magazine Elektronik 18/1995 "The networked home", Meinrad Happacher, pp 50 to 58, it is known to connect several or all electric home appliances to a home bus or data bus, wherein the central control of these Hasugeräte a personal computer (PC) is also connected to this home bus. The aim of such central control of home appliances is the ecology, the economy and to increase security at the household and at the same time to achieve a relief of routine tasks. An intelligent control in particular savings in the heat supply and water supply and the use of time-variable tariffs are to be achieved. At the same time the safety and reliability should be increased, for example, sensors can be for protection against fire, gas and water outlet constantly monitored. A disadvantage of such a system is the relatively high investment and installation costs and the often existing reluctance of operators of home appliances, to deal with a PC. Moreover, they often lack user-friendly software, so that there are from the outset reservations about the acquisition of such a system.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

p0003The inventive electrical domestic appliance with the characterizing feature of the main claim has the advantage that it can be connected to such a house-bus system, but need not be connected. A PC as a control computer is omitted, and adapted to a slot of the household appliance control computer can be infected there or in any other Hausherät, which also has such a slot. The location of the central control option can be freely selected and changed at any time convenient, resulting in much greater flexibility. The control computer therefore need only be pulled out of the slot of a domestic appliance and plugged into the slot on another household appliance, which perhaps has a more favorable position for the central control. The threshold associated with a PC-condition, in particular the need for experience in dealing with MS-WINDOWS applications is overcome by such an application adapted control computer which may contain the main function keys, for example, directly and need to be designed for this intended use. The choice of the scope and convenience of such a central control option is completely free and floating. To enter with little initial investment in such a networked system, such home appliances can be operated without a bus system and without control computer, for example, initially, which can then be purchased at a later time and then only needs to be plugged into a slot. The bus system can be installed separately, for example by laying pipes on walls or in conduits or may be designed already originally in cost-effective manner when building a house and be taken later after the purchase of a control computer in operation, if sufficient appropriate home appliances are available. The arrangement, number and type of home appliances is almost arbitrarily selectable, so that the designed system is highly variable. It has no capacity for a control computer are provided, as this can be inserted in a variable manner in various home appliances.

p0004The measures specified in the dependent claims, advantageous refinements and improvements of the main claim domestic appliance are possible.

p0005The slot a household appliance is preferably designed as insertion shaft in which the control computer is arranged in a protected and integrated after insertion. The end of the shaft inside the domestic appliance is expediently provided with the contact arrangement of the interface, so that automatically connect to the interface and power connectors is produced upon insertion of the control computer.

p0006If the domestic appliance is not operated by a control computer or is this. In another household appliance, so used a manhole cover advantageously for closing the Einsteckschachts

p0007In order to use the control computer and the non-inserted state and use can, for. example, on the kitchen table, an adapter cable to connect the not the slot arranged control computer is provided with the contact arrangement with the slot.

p0008A large variability is achieved in that the attachable selectively in various home appliances control computer is all designed to control to the bus system connected home appliances that these are, however, additionally provided with conventional controls, such as switches, buttons, knobs, or the like for independently from the control computer operation so that each device can be operated conventionally, regardless of whether it is connected to the bus system or not.

p0009The modular designed control computer has particular an LC display and / or a function key containing numeric keypad and / or an infrared receiver and / or a synthetic speech output device. This modular design any combination of these functional units or a full version can be selected so that the investment costs are variable selectable here.

p0010For wireless remote control infrared manual control for control and communication is provided with the IR receiver of the control computer expediently. Preference is given here to the control computer has an infrared decoder to implement the signals of the infrared receiver in bus telegrams.

p0011Advantageously, the control computer can also be provided to the bus system connected home appliance having a device for functional testing, diagnosis and troubleshooting of all.

p0012To avoid losing data when position change of the control computer of a home device to another home device, the control computer is equipped advantageously with a storage battery or a storage capacitor for data backup.

p0013The bus connection modules in the individual home appliances are connected to sensors and / or actuators of the respective domestic appliance, so that the sensor signals to the control computer and control signals of this can be transmitted to the actuators of the household appliance, bring about the desired control of the domestic appliance.

p0014As bus system, in particular the EIB (European Installation Bus) bus system is.

DRAWING

p0015An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawing and explained in more detail in the following description. Show it:<dl id="dl0001"><dt>figure 1</dt><dd>a schematic representation of several to a bus system connected home appliances,</dd><dt>figure 2</dt><dd>a perspective view of a formed as a dishwasher domestic appliance with a Slot for a control computer also shown in perspective, and</dd><dt>figure 3</dt><dd>a manhole cover for closing the Einsteckschachts in the absence of the control computer.</dd></dl>

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

p0016According to Figure 1 five electric home appliances are connected to a bus system 10, in which it is a data bus, for example, as a standardized EIB (European formed Installation Bus). Of course, other known bus systems can be used for this purpose, eg. As Bati-Bus, EHS, LON, CEBus, HBS or the like. The five connected home appliances is a shutter control 11, a washer 12, an illumination device 13, a dishwasher 14 and a heater control 15 of a heating system. Of course, these home appliances may also be connected several times or even more home appliances on the bus system 10, for example, a dryer, an alarm system, a ventilation system, a telephone system or the like. The bus system 10 is installed, for example, in a private home or an Apartment, but also an installation in other buildings is possible in principle.

p0017The connection of the electrical home appliances 11-15 to the bus system 10 is made via a port 16 through which the connection is made in each case with a not shown bus connection block in the respective home device. On this bus terminal block required for the respective home device actuators and sensors are connected, said control commands are supplied from the bus 10 from the actuators, while the sensors proposed on the bus connection module and the interface 16 to output to the bus 10th

p0018Reception and processing of the votes to the bus system 10 transmitter signals is a central control computer 17. This also generates the necessary control commands for all of the bus system 10 connected home appliances. This control computer 17 is in the embodiment shown in an insertion shaft 18 of the dishwasher 14 positioned or inserted, the insertion shaft 18 and the control computer 17 are formed in shape so that the control computer 17 closes in the inserted state with the outer wall of the dishwasher 14 and not protrudes over this. The connection to the bus system 10 via a contact assembly 19 on the inner end wall of Einsteckschachts 18, said contact assembly 19 is connected to the interface of this dishwasher 14 or these forms. Upon insertion of the control computer 17 in the insertion shaft 18, the electrical connection to the bus system is prepared automatically.

p0019Instead of Einsteckschachts 18 can be provided on the respective home device in principle, other embodiments of a slot for the control computer 17th It is essential here is that several of the devices connected to the bus system 10 Hausgeräte 10-15 have such an insertion shaft 18, so that the control computer 17 can be made of the withdrawn a home device and plugged into another home device without thereby control functions for the connected home appliances would also change. The control computer 17 can be positioned at the most favorable location and also be changed in its position when another position is more beneficial.

p0020In order to accept the repositioning of the control computer 17 no data loss in purchasing, has the control computer 17 a buffer memory, such as a storage battery or a storage capacitor. In the inserted state it uses power from the contact assembly 19 with the necessary electrical energy.

p0021The dishwasher 14 has - as well as the other connected to the bus system 10 Hausgeräte 11 - 13, 15 - in addition, the conventional controls 20 as key switches, rotary switches, pilot lights and the like, to the desired operating functions in the normal way without the intervention of the control computer 17 be able to perform. This means that all home devices connected to the bus system 10 11 - 15 can be operated without control computer 17th This allows for a gradual construction of the overall arrangement with initially lower initial investment without control computer, which can then be added later. The control is then either manually via the conventional controls 20 or via the central control computer 17th

p0022With an empty insertion shaft 18 that can be closed by the one shown in Figure 3 manhole cover 21 to firstly protect the contact assembly 19 from dirt and damage, and to continue a visually pleasing appearance of the dishwasher 17 or the other provided with such insertion shaft 18 home appliances to to accomplish.

p0023It is also possible, the devices connected to the bus system 10 Hausgeräte 11-15 to operate by means of not inserted in an insertion control computer 18 17th For this purpose, the contact assembly 19 of the household appliance has to be connected via a cable, not shown to the control computer 17, which can then be arranged on a disposed adjacent to the domestic appliance table or console.

p0024The control computer 17 shown in Figure 2 is equipped modular and has an LCD display 22, a numeric keypad 23 function keys, an infrared (IR) receiver 24 and a loudspeaker 25 for a synthetic speech output. While the full version shown in Figure 2 contains all of these elements, these can also be partially present in simpler versions, z. B. only a numeric keypad 23, or only an IR receiver 24, in which case the control via an IR remote control device 26 takes place. The IR receiver 24 then includes an IR decoder for converting the received IR signals into bus telegrams.

p0025The application program in the control computer 17 to control and query the devices connected to the bus system 10 actuators and sensors in the various home appliances, for example, be stored on a memory not shown as EPROM / EEPROM. The corresponding software is menu-driven, the operator using the numeric keypad 23 in connection with some special keys in a simple manner is possible. In addition, the program may be a function verification, diagnostics and troubleshooting in the home devices connected to the bus system 10 perform, whereby both an error indication with troubleshooting tips by the customer, as well as remote diagnostics via a modem by the customer service is possible if an appropriate terminal is available.