Batch upgrading method for inverters

Abstract

The invention provides a batch upgrading method for inverters. The batch upgrading method comprises the following steps: S1, providing a cloud platform and inverters with data communication modules; s2, the cloud platform stores the information of all inverters, and it is determined that the cloud platform stores the information of all inverters which are not upgraded; s3, submitting a list containing the equipment identification numbers of all the to-be-upgraded inverters to a processing module through a display module; s4, forming a group in which the inverters are upgraded at the same time, periodically judging the number of the inverters in the group by the processing module, and if the number is smaller than or equal to a first threshold value, adding the inverters to be upgraded into the group so as to increase the number and ensure that the increased number is smaller than or equal to a second threshold value; s5, the processing module judges whether the inverters in the group are online or not, and if yes, the inverters are upgraded; if not, a timeout judgment step is carried out; and S6, judging whether batch upgrading is completed or not in real time. According to the method, large-batch upgrading can be realized.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of inverters, and in particular to the technical field of batch upgrading methods of photovoltaic inverters. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, with the rapid development of new energy enterprises, photovoltaic inverter equipment has been shipped in large quantities to countries around the world, and the difficulty of equipment maintenance and inspection has increased. Under this premise, enterprises have provided remote firmware upgrade functions. The traditional batch remote firmware upgrade function supports a small number of devices, has low batch upgrade efficiency, and consumes a lot of manpower and material resources. The number of devices has increased rapidly with the increase in shipments and installed capacity, so a large number of remote firmware upgrade functions are needed to conveniently and quickly solve the problems of firmware upgrades and defect repairs for large quantities of devices.

[0003] In the existing technology, the low efficiency of OTA of a large number of device firmware, the waste of manpower, time and financial resources have become problems that need to be solved urgently. Summary of the invention

[0004] The object of the present invention is to provide a method for upgrading inverters in large quantities.

[0005] In order to achieve the above objectives, the present invention is implemented by the following technical solutions:

[0006] A batch upgrade method for inverters is provided, comprising:

[0007] S1. Provide a cloud platform and an inverter with a data communication module, wherein the cloud platform includes a communication module, a storage module, a processing module and a display module connected in sequence;

[0008] S2, the cloud platform stores information of all inverters, and determines that the cloud platform stores information of all inverters that have not been upgraded; the cloud platform obtains a firmware file for target upgrade;

[0009] S3, submitting a list of device identification numbers of all inverters to be upgraded to the processing module through the display module;

[0010] S4, forming a group of inverters being upgraded simultaneously, the processing module periodically determining the number of inverters in the group, and if the number is less than or equal to a first threshold, adding inverters to be upgraded to the group to increase the number, and ensuring that the increased number is less than or equal to a second threshold;

[0011] S5, the processing module determines whether the inverter in the group is online, and if so, upgrades the inverter; if not, performs a timeout determination step;

[0012] S6. Determine in real time whether the batch upgrade is completed.

[0013] Further, in step S4, the second threshold is greater than the first threshold.

[0014] Furthermore, in step S5, the timeout judgment step is: judging whether the time that the inverter is offline exceeds a first time threshold; if so, marking the inverter as an inverter that has failed to upgrade and no longer arranging the upgrade; if not, keeping the inverter in the group and queuing for upgrade.

[0015] Furthermore, in the step S1, the communication module is used to perform data interaction with the data communication module of the inverter, and is also used to transmit the acquired data to the storage module and the processing module.

[0016] Furthermore, the storage module is used to store version information corresponding to each inverter.

[0017] Furthermore, in the step S6, whether the batch upgrade is completed is determined in real time by comparing the version information corresponding to the inverter stored in the storage module with the current version information in real time to see whether there is any change; if there is a change, the inverter that has changed is marked as an inverter that has successfully upgraded; if there is no change within a second threshold time, the inverter that has not changed is marked as an inverter that has failed to upgrade; the batch upgrade is completed until the number of inverters that have successfully upgraded + the number of inverters that have failed to upgrade = the number of all inverters to be upgraded in step S3.

[0018] Furthermore, the version information is obtained by the storage module from the data communication module of the inverter via the communication module.

[0019] Furthermore, in step 5, the inverter is upgraded as follows:

[0020] The data communication module of the inverter receives the upgrade instruction and downloads the firmware file according to the address in the upgrade instruction;

[0021] The data communication module of the inverter sends the download result information to the cloud platform;

[0022] The data communication module of the inverter verifies the firmware file and sends the verification result to the cloud platform;

[0023] The data communication module of the inverter pushes the firmware file to the inverter, and reads the upgrade progress in real time and sends it to the cloud platform.

[0024] Furthermore, in step 5, upgrading the inverter further includes modifying version information of the inverter to current version information if the inverter is successfully upgraded.

[0025] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following advantages:

[0026] The batch upgrade method provided by the present invention sets a first threshold and a second threshold, and adds inverters to be upgraded to the group to increase the number, ensuring that the increased number is less than or equal to the second threshold, thereby ensuring the robustness of the entire system, thereby achieving large-scale upgrades and being able to upgrade hundreds of thousands of inverters at a time; not only that, the failure reason of the inverter that failed to upgrade can be found according to the inverter mark, whether it is because it is not online, because the download fails, or because the verification fails. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for the description. Obviously, the drawings described below are an embodiment of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work:

[0028] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the cloud platform and inverter provided by the present invention;

[0029] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a batch upgrade method for inverters provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] The scheme proposed by the present invention is further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific implementation methods. According to the following description, the advantages and features of the present invention will be clearer. It should be noted that the accompanying drawings are in a very simplified form and use non-precise proportions, which are only used to conveniently and clearly assist in explaining the purpose of the implementation method of the present invention. In order to make the purposes, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, please refer to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the structures, proportions, sizes, etc. illustrated in the accompanying drawings of this specification are only used to match the contents disclosed in the specification for people familiar with this technology to understand and read, and are not used to limit the limiting conditions for the implementation of the present invention, so they have no technical substantive significance. Any structural modification, change in proportional relationship or adjustment of size, without affecting the effects that the present invention can produce and the purposes that can be achieved, should still fall within the scope of the technical content disclosed by the present invention.

[0031] Figure 1 The schematic diagram of the cloud platform and inverter provided by the present invention is shown as follows: Figure 1 As shown, the inverter device includes a data communication module 201 and an inverter 202. The data communication module 201 and the inverter 202 are connected to each other for data communication between the inverter and the outside world.

[0032] The cloud platform includes a communication module 101, a storage module 102, a processing module 103 and a display module 104 connected in sequence. The communication module 101 is used to interact with the data communication module 201 of the inverter and to transmit the acquired data to the storage module 102 and the processing module 103. The processing module 103 is used to process the data, and the display module 104 is used for human-computer interaction, such as at least one of a display, a mouse, a keyboard, an operation panel or a Pad. Preferably, the storage module 102 is used to store the version information corresponding to each inverter.

[0033] Figure 2 The invention shows a batch upgrade method for inverters, such as Figure 2 As shown, the batch upgrade method includes:

[0034] S1. Provide cloud platform and inverter with data communication module;

[0035] Optionally, the cloud platform is Figure 1 The cloud platform shown, the inverter is Figure 1 Inverter device shown.

[0036] S2. The cloud platform stores information of all inverters, and determines that the cloud platform stores information of all inverters that have not been upgraded; the cloud platform obtains a target upgraded firmware file.

[0037] Optionally, the cloud platform stores the information of all inverters, for example, in the storage module 102, wherein all inverters are every inverter that has been produced, or every inverter that has been sold and unsold, which is large in scale and related to production volume or shipment volume, and can reach millions. Preferably, the information of the inverter is the device identification number of the inverter and its corresponding version information. For example, the version information corresponding to inverter SN20230001 is V2.99, the version information corresponding to inverter SN20230002 is V2.99, and the version information corresponding to inverter SN20230003 is V3.01, etc.

[0038] The determining that the cloud platform stores information of all non-upgraded inverters is to count all non-upgraded inverters. Further optionally, all non-upgraded inverters can be displayed through the display module 104, so as to facilitate operators to select which inverters need to be upgraded.

[0039] S3, submitting a list of device identification numbers of all inverters to be upgraded to the processing module through the display module;

[0040] Among them, all inverters to be upgraded are a subset of all inverters that have not been upgraded. The operator can select the inverters to be upgraded as needed and submit a list of device identification numbers of all inverters to be upgraded to the processing module 103 through the display module 104 .

[0041] S4, forming a group of inverters being upgraded simultaneously, the processing module periodically determining the number of inverters in the group, and if the number is less than or equal to a first threshold, adding inverters to be upgraded to the group to increase the number, and ensuring that the increased number is less than or equal to a second threshold;

[0042] Wherein, in step S4, the second threshold is greater than the first threshold. As an example, the first threshold is 1400 units and the second threshold is 1500 units. By continuously increasing the number of inverters to be upgraded in the group, the robustness of the entire system is ensured, and a large-scale upgrade is achieved. The second threshold is determined by the load, computing power or bandwidth of the system.

[0043] S5, the processing module determines whether the inverter in the group is online, and if so, upgrades the inverter; if not, performs a timeout determination step;

[0044] Wherein, optionally, in step 5, upgrading the inverter is:

[0045] The data communication module 201 of the inverter receives the upgrade instruction and downloads the firmware file according to the address in the upgrade instruction; wherein the upgrade instruction is sent by the cloud platform.

[0046] The data communication module 201 of the inverter sends the download result information to the cloud platform; for example, it sends the download success or download failure to the cloud platform. If the download is successful, the subsequent upgrade steps will be carried out. If the download fails, the cloud platform will mark the inverter as a download failure. If the download fails for more than a certain period of time, it will be marked as an inverter that has failed to upgrade.

[0047] The data communication module of the inverter verifies the firmware file and sends the verification result to the cloud platform; for example, it sends the verification result to the cloud platform, and if the verification is correct, the upgrade step is performed; if the verification fails, the cloud platform marks the inverter as a verification failure and marks the inverter as an inverter that failed to upgrade. Verifying the firmware file can prevent the firmware file from being incomplete or tampered with by hackers.

[0048] The data communication module of the inverter pushes the firmware file to the inverter, and reads the upgrade progress in real time and sends it to the cloud platform. In this step, the inverter performs the upgrade steps and sends the progress to the cloud platform.

[0049] Upgrading the inverter also includes modifying the version information of the inverter to the current version information if the inverter is successfully upgraded. For example, the version information V2.99 of the inverter (for example, the device identification number corresponding to the inverter is SN20230001) is modified to the current version information V3.01.

[0050] In step S5, the timeout judgment step is: judging whether the time that the inverter is offline exceeds the first time threshold; if so, marking the inverter as an inverter that has failed to upgrade and no longer arranging the upgrade; if not, keeping the inverter in the group and queuing for upgrade.

[0051] S6. Determine in real time whether the batch upgrade is completed.

[0052] In the step S6, whether the batch upgrade is completed is determined in real time by comparing the version information corresponding to the inverter stored in the storage module with the current version information in real time to see whether there is any change; if there is a change, the changed inverter is marked as an inverter that has been successfully upgraded; if there is no change within a second threshold time, the unchanged inverter is marked as an inverter that has failed to upgrade; the batch upgrade is completed until the number of successfully upgraded inverters + the number of failed inverters = the number of all inverters to be upgraded in step S3.

[0053] Subsequently, for the inverters that failed to upgrade, the reasons for the upgrade failure can be determined based on the marks, and manual upgrades or online upgrades after repairs can be performed based on the reasons.

[0054] In the above batch upgrade method, the version information is obtained by the storage module from the data communication module of the inverter via the communication module.

[0055] The batch upgrade method provided by the present invention sets a first threshold and a second threshold, and adds inverters to be upgraded to the group to increase the number, ensuring that the increased number is less than or equal to the second threshold, thereby ensuring the robustness of the entire system, thereby achieving large-scale upgrades and being able to upgrade hundreds of thousands of inverters at a time; not only that, the failure reason of the inverter that failed to upgrade can be found according to the inverter mark, whether it is because it is not online, because the download fails, or because the verification fails.

[0056] It should be noted that, in this article, relational terms such as first and second, etc. are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "comprise" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device. In the absence of further restrictions, the elements defined by the sentence "comprise a ..." do not exclude the existence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or device including the elements.

[0057] Although the content of the present invention has been described in detail through the above preferred embodiments, it should be appreciated that the above description should not be considered as a limitation of the present invention. After reading the above content, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and substitutions of the present invention will occur. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be limited by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A batch upgrade method for inverters, characterized in that: include: S1. Provide a cloud platform and an inverter with a data communication module, wherein the cloud platform includes a communication module, a storage module, a processing module and a display module connected in sequence; S2, the cloud platform stores information of all inverters, and determines that the cloud platform stores information of all inverters that have not been upgraded; the cloud platform obtains a firmware file for target upgrade; S3, submitting a list of device identification numbers of all inverters to be upgraded to the processing module through the display module; S4, forming a group of inverters being upgraded simultaneously, the processing module periodically determining the number of inverters in the group, and if the number is less than or equal to a first threshold, adding inverters to be upgraded to the group to increase the number, and ensuring that the increased number is less than or equal to a second threshold; S5, the processing module determines whether the inverter in the group is online, and if so, upgrades the inverter; if not, performs a timeout determination step; S6. Determine in real time whether the batch upgrade is completed.

2. The batch upgrade method of inverters according to claim 1, characterized in that: In the step S4, the second threshold is greater than the first threshold.

3. The batch upgrade method of inverters according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S5, the timeout judgment step is: judging whether the time that the inverter is offline exceeds the first time threshold; if so, marking the inverter as an inverter that has failed to upgrade and no longer arranging the upgrade; if not, keeping the inverter in the group and queuing for upgrade.

4. The batch upgrade method of inverters according to claim 1, characterized in that: In the step S1, the communication module is used to perform data exchange with the data communication module of the inverter, and is also used to transmit the acquired data to the storage module and the processing module.

5. The batch upgrade method of inverters according to claim 4, characterized in that: The storage module is used to store version information corresponding to each inverter.

6. The batch upgrade method of inverters according to claim 5, characterized in that: In the step S6, whether the batch upgrade is completed is determined in real time by comparing the version information corresponding to the inverter stored in the storage module with the current version information in real time to see whether there is any change; if there is a change, the changed inverter is marked as an inverter that has been successfully upgraded; if there is no change within a second threshold time, the unchanged inverter is marked as an inverter that has failed to upgrade; the batch upgrade is completed until the number of successfully upgraded inverters + the number of failed inverters = the number of all inverters to be upgraded in step S3.

7. The method for batch upgrading of inverters according to claim 5, characterized in that: The version information is obtained by the storage module from the data communication module of the inverter through the communication module.

8. The method for batch upgrading of inverters according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step 5, the inverter is upgraded as follows: The data communication module of the inverter receives the upgrade instruction and downloads the firmware file according to the address in the upgrade instruction; The data communication module of the inverter sends the download result information to the cloud platform; The data communication module of the inverter verifies the firmware file and sends the verification result to the cloud platform; The data communication module of the inverter pushes the firmware file to the inverter, and reads the upgrade progress in real time and sends it to the cloud platform.

9. The method for batch upgrading of inverters according to claim 8, characterized in that: In step 5, upgrading the inverter further includes modifying the version information of the inverter to the current version information if the inverter is successfully upgraded.

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