Differential version upgrading method for indoor unit and outdoor unit of air conditioner

Abstract

The invention provides a differential version upgrading method for indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner, and relates to the technical field of air conditioner upgrading. The method comprises the steps that respective upgrading links of a program module and a parameter configuration module are constructed according to version nodes; determining a dependency condition required for upgrading to the corresponding version node according to the dependency relationship and the constraint requirement of each version node; judging whether the current module needing to be upgraded meets the dependence condition required by upgrading or not, and if yes, directly upgrading; and if not, determining upgrading paths of other modules according to the dependency conditions, requesting upgrading packages of other modules from the cloud server according to the upgrading paths, and after other modules are upgraded, directly upgrading the module needing to be upgraded to the target version. According to the method, the upgrading link is constructed, the dependency relationship and the constraint requirement between the versions are constructed according to the version adaptability, the upgrading path meeting the version compatibility requirement is generated, and the problem that the function is unavailable or the problem occurs in air conditioner operation after the air conditioner indoor and outdoor unit differential version upgrading is solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of air conditioner upgrading, and particularly relates to a method for upgrading different versions of the indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner. Background Art

[0002] With the intelligent development of air conditioner technology, the OTA remote upgrading technology of air conditioners has become increasingly mature. For example, the OTA upgrading technology supports independent upgrading of two program modules, namely, the driving board program of the indoor unit and the main control program of the outdoor unit, or supports independent upgrading of the parameter configuration module, so that the parameter configuration module can be upgraded without following the upgrade of the program module.

[0003] The independent upgrading of each program module and parameter configuration module will result in differences between versions. For example, the version of the main control program is higher than that of the driving board program. Due to the fact that the program module and the parameter configuration module can be upward or downward compatible with other versions of each other, within the allowable range of compatibility, this type of differential version upgrade is allowed to be executed. However, once it exceeds the allowable range of compatibility, it may cause other current version program modules to be unable to adapt to the upgraded program module, resulting in the unavailability of the upgraded function or problems in the operation of the air conditioner. At this time, other current version program modules or parameter configuration modules also need to be upgraded accordingly to adapt to the upgraded program module. Moreover, the version numbers of each program module are intricate. For users, they are unable to upgrade other current version program modules by themselves, or due to the reason of independent upgrading, the cloud will not push or accurately push the upgraded versions of other current version program modules together. Therefore, how to solve the above problems brought by differential version upgrading is the current research direction. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of the problems raised in the background art, the present invention proposes a method for upgrading different versions of the indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner.

[0005] To achieve this purpose, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions: A method for upgrading different versions of the indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner includes: Before performing the differential version upgrade operation, the following steps are included: Step A: Obtain all versions of the program modules and parameter configuration modules that support independent upgrading in the indoor and outdoor units of the air conditioner. Take each version as a version node, and construct the upgrade links of the program modules and parameter configuration modules respectively according to the version nodes. Step B: Determine the dependency relationship and the constraint requirements of the dependency relationship between each version node of each upgrade link according to the version compatibility between each program module and parameter configuration module. Determine the dependency conditions required to upgrade to the corresponding version node according to the dependency relationship and constraint requirements of each version node. When performing the version differential upgrade operation, the following steps are included: Step C: Determine the current version and target version of the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded; Step D1: determine whether the program module or parameter configuration module currently to be upgraded meets the dependency conditions required for upgrading the current version to the target version. If so, the program module or parameter configuration module currently to be upgraded is upgraded from the current version to the target version; if not, execute step D2; Step D2: According to the dependency conditions, the upgrade path of other program modules or parameter configuration modules is determined in the upgrade link, and the upgrade packages of the corresponding versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules are requested from the cloud server according to the version nodes in the upgrade path. After the other program modules or parameter configuration modules are upgraded to the corresponding versions according to the upgrade packages, the program modules or parameter configuration modules that need to be upgraded currently meet the dependency conditions required to upgrade the current version to the target version, and the program modules or parameter configuration modules that need to be upgraded are then directly upgraded to the target version.

[0006] Preferably, step A comprises: Obtain all versions of each program module or parameter configuration module, use each version as a version node, arrange and associate the version nodes in order from low to high according to the version number, and build an upgrade link for each program module or parameter configuration module.

[0007] Preferably, for an upgrade link, if there is at least one version node between a version node with a lower version number and a version node with a higher version number, it is determined whether the version node with the lower version number and the version node with the higher version number can be upgraded across levels. If so, the version node with the lower version number is associated with the version node with the higher version number across levels.

[0008] Preferably, in step B, determining the dependency relationship between each version node between each upgrade link includes: For any version node in the upgrade link where the current program module or parameter configuration module is located, obtain other version nodes that are compatible with the version node in the upgrade link where other program modules or parameter configuration modules are located, use the other version nodes as multiple dependent version nodes respectively, and establish a dependency relationship between the version node and the multiple dependent version nodes; The dependency relationship indicates that if the current program module or parameter configuration module is to be upgraded to the target version, it is necessary to rely on the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules to adapt to the target version, that is, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules must be the dependent versions corresponding to the target version.

[0009] Preferably, in step B, determining the constraint requirements of the dependency relationship includes: Establish constraint requirements for multiple dependency relationships between a version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes respectively. The constraint requirements include mandatory constraints and non-mandatory constraints. Mark the dependency relationships with established mandatory constraints as mandatory dependency relationships, and mark the dependency relationships with established non-mandatory constraints as non-mandatory dependency relationships; When there are mandatory dependency relationships among the multiple dependency relationships between a target version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes, when the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded to the target version, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules need to be forcibly upgraded to be higher than or equal to the dependent versions corresponding to the mandatory dependency relationships; When there are no mandatory dependency relationships among the multiple dependency relationships between a target version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes, and all these multiple dependency relationships are non-mandatory dependency relationships, when the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded to the target version, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules only need to be the dependent versions corresponding to any non-mandatory dependency relationship.

[0010] Preferably, in the step D1, it includes: Step D11: Determine whether there are mandatory dependency relationships among all the dependency relationships of the target version of the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently; Step D12: If there are mandatory dependency relationships, then determine whether the current versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules are higher than or equal to the dependent versions corresponding to the mandatory dependency relationships. If they are higher than or equal to, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded from the current version to the target version. If not, then execute step D2; Step D13: If there are no mandatory dependency relationships, then determine whether the current versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules are any one of the dependent versions corresponding to all non-mandatory dependency relationships. If so, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded from the current version to the target version. If not, then execute step D2; Preferably, in the step D2, it includes: Step D21: Gradually determine the upgrade paths of other program modules or parameter configuration modules according to the dependency conditions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules; Step D22: Request the upgrade packages of the corresponding versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules from the cloud server according to the version nodes in the upgrade paths; Step D23: other program modules or parameter configuration modules are gradually upgraded from low to high according to the version number of the upgrade package, so that other program modules or parameter configuration modules are upgraded from the current version to a dependency version higher than or equal to the mandatory dependency relationship corresponding to step D12, or upgraded to any dependency version corresponding to all non-mandatory dependencies in step D13; Step D24: The program module or parameter configuration module that currently needs to be upgraded is upgraded from the current version to the target version.

[0011] Preferably, when performing step D1 and step D2, the method further includes: Determine whether the current versions of all program modules or parameter configuration modules can be upgraded to the corresponding target version. If so, all program modules or parameter configuration modules only need to download the upgrade package of the target version from the cloud server and perform an upgrade operation once to upgrade directly from the current version to the target version; if not, all program modules or parameter configuration modules need to download the upgrade package of the corresponding version from the cloud server in sequence according to the upgrade path, and perform multiple upgrade operations to upgrade from the current version to the target version one by one.

[0012] The beneficial effects of the present invention compared to the prior art are as follows: The present invention builds an upgrade link for all versions of all program modules or parameter configuration modules that support independent upgrades, builds dependencies and constraints between versions of different modules according to version adaptability, and generates the shortest effective upgrade path that meets the version compatibility requirements. The dependency and constraint conditions are used to avoid the situation where other current versions of program modules cannot adapt to the upgraded version of program modules, resulting in unavailable functions or problems in air conditioning operation after the differentiated versions of the air conditioner indoor and outdoor units are upgraded. The present invention improves the compatibility and stability of the air-conditioning system after the differentiated versions of the air-conditioner indoor and outdoor units are upgraded, and improves the upgrade efficiency and success rate. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] Figure 1 It is a flow chart of the differentiated version upgrade of the indoor and outdoor units of the air conditioner of the present invention; Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of an upgrade link of an external unit main control board program module, an internal unit drive board program module and a parameter configuration module according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of an upgrade link for leapfrogging the version of the program module of the internal machine driver board according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the dependency relationship between the versions of the external machine main control board program module and the internal machine drive board program module according to another embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5Schematic diagram of the dependency relationship between the versions of the outdoor unit main control board program module, the indoor unit drive board program module, and the parameter configuration module in an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the mandatory dependency relationship in an embodiment of the present invention and the non-mandatory dependency relationship in another embodiment; Figure 7 Schematic diagram of the dependency relationship and constraint requirements between the versions of the outdoor unit main control board program module, the indoor unit drive board program module, and the parameter configuration module in an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed implementation manners

[0014] The technical solution of the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and through specific implementation manners.

[0015] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the solution of the present invention, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0016] The terms "first", "second", etc. in the specification and claims of the present invention and the above-mentioned drawings are used to distinguish different objects, rather than to describe a specific order. In addition, the terms "include" and "have" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, device, product, or terminal that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally further includes steps or units not listed, or optionally further includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products, or terminals.

[0017] Referring to "embodiment" herein means that a specific feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. The phrase appears in various places in the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor is it an independent or alternative embodiment mutually exclusive with other embodiments. Those skilled in the art will explicitly and implicitly understand that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

[0018] In the existing upgrade technology for air conditioner indoor and outdoor units, the independent upgrade of each program module and parameter configuration module will result in differences between versions. For example, the version of the main control program is higher than that of the driver board program. Due to the fact that the program module and the parameter configuration module can be upward or downward compatible with other versions of each other, within the allowable range of compatibility, this differential version upgrade is allowed to be executed. However, once it exceeds the allowable range of compatibility, it may cause other program modules of the current version to be unable to adapt to the program modules after the upgrade version, resulting in the unavailability of the upgraded functions or problems with the operation of the air conditioner. At this time, other program modules or parameter configuration modules of the current version also need to be upgraded accordingly to adapt to the program modules after the upgrade version. Moreover, the version numbers of each program module are intricate. For users, they are unable to upgrade other program modules of the current version by themselves, or due to the independent upgrade, the cloud will not push or accurately push the upgrade versions of other program modules of the current version together.

[0019] To solve the above problems, this application proposes a method for differential version upgrade of air conditioner indoor and outdoor units. This method includes the preparatory operations before performing the differential version upgrade. The preparatory operations are used to process all versions of all program modules and parameter configuration modules, build upgrade links and the required dependency conditions for the upgrade for all versions. When performing the differential version upgrade operation, the upgrade links and dependency conditions can be used to accurately determine whether other program modules or parameter configuration modules need to be synchronously upgraded if the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is to be upgraded, so as to ensure that the functions after the upgrade of the program module that needs to be upgraded currently can be used or will not cause problems with the air conditioner, and at the same time, accurately determine the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules that need to be synchronously upgraded. In this embodiment, the program modules or parameter configurations described in this application include the indoor unit driver board program module, the outdoor unit main control board program module, and the parameter configuration module that supports the functions of the indoor and outdoor units. The above modules are all independently upgradeable modules.

[0020] Specifically, before performing the differential version upgrade operation, the following steps are included: Step A: Obtain all versions of the program modules and parameter configuration modules that support independent upgrade in the air conditioner indoor and outdoor units. Take each version as a version node, and build the respective upgrade links of the program modules and parameter configuration modules according to the version nodes; In this embodiment, the present application will obtain all versions of all program modules and parameter configuration modules that support independent upgrade in the indoor unit and outdoor unit of the air conditioner. The program modules and parameter configuration modules described here are, for example, the indoor unit drive board program module, the outdoor unit main control board program module, and the parameter configuration module that supports the functions of the indoor unit and outdoor unit mentioned above. We will obtain all versions of these modules and use these versions as version nodes to construct an upgrade link. For example, there are 5 versions of the indoor unit drive board program module, including the current latest version and other older versions. For these 5 versions, 5 version nodes will be correspondingly set, and an upgrade link will be constructed for these 5 version nodes. Similarly, the outdoor unit main control board program module and the parameter configuration module will also construct their own upgrade links. Therefore, in this embodiment, it can be understood that we will construct 3 independent upgrade links corresponding to the indoor unit drive board program module, the outdoor unit main control board program module, and the parameter configuration module that supports the functions of the indoor unit and outdoor unit. When new versions of the above-mentioned modules are released, the new versions will also be added to the already constructed upgrade link.

[0021] Further, constructing an upgrade link specifically includes: Obtain all versions of each program module or parameter configuration module, use each version as a version node, and arrange and associate the version nodes in ascending order according to the version number to construct an upgrade link for each program module or parameter configuration module.

[0022] As Figure 2 shown, in this embodiment, we have obtained 5 versions of the indoor unit drive board program module, including [V1.0, V2.0, V3.0, V4.0, V5.0], 6 versions of the outdoor unit main control board program module [V1.0, V2.0, V3.0, V4.0, V5.0, V6.0], and 4 versions of the parameter configuration module [V1.0, V2.0, V2.1, V3.0]. After obtaining all the upgrade versions of these three modules, use the versions of each module as version nodes respectively, and arrange and associate them in ascending order according to the version number to obtain three upgrade links. The upgrade link is actually the version upgrade path of each module. For example, from the upgrade link, we can see that if the current version of the outdoor unit main control board program module is V1.0 and it needs to be upgraded to V3.0, its upgrade path is V1.0→V2.0→V3.0. In this upgrade path, if the outdoor unit main control board program module cannot be directly upgraded from the V1.0 version to the V3.0 version by skipping levels, then when the cloud pushes the upgrade package, it will push the upgrade packages of both the V2.0 version and the V3.0 version at the same time. The outdoor unit main control board program module needs to upgrade the V2.0 upgrade package first and then the V3.0 upgrade package to avoid the situation that the cloud directly pushes the V3.0 upgrade package and the outdoor unit main control board program module cannot be upgraded from the V1.0 version to the V3.0 version due to the skip-level upgrade restriction.

[0023] Preferably, for an upgrade link, if there is at least one version node between a version node with a lower version number and a version node with a higher version number, it is determined whether the version node with the lower version number and the version node with the higher version number can be upgraded across levels. If so, the version node with the lower version number is associated with the version node with the higher version number across levels.

[0024] In this embodiment, if Figure 3 As shown in the figure, for the version upgrade of some modules, it is possible to upgrade by leaps and bounds. We support the version that can be upgraded by leaps and bounds, and its priority is higher than the level-by-level upgrade of the version. Because compared with the level-by-level upgrade, the leap-level upgrade can skip the intermediate versions and save the storage impact brought by the intermediate version upgrade package. At the same time, it also speeds up the upgrade efficiency. Especially for the upgrade path, the shortest upgrade path is one direction of optimization of this algorithm.

[0025] Further, such as Figure 3 As shown, when we detect that there is at least one version node between a version node with a lower version number and a version node with a higher version number, we need to determine whether the version node with the lower version number supports leapfrogging to the version node with the higher version number. For example, the V2.0 version of the internal machine driver board program module can be leapfrog upgraded to the V4.0 version, and similarly, the V2.0 version can also be leapfrog upgraded to the V5.0 version. For version nodes that can be leapfrog upgraded, we will associate them to facilitate the subsequent shortest upgrade path.

[0026] Step B: According to the version compatibility between each program module and parameter configuration module, the dependency relationship and constraint requirements of each version node between each upgrade link are determined, and the dependency conditions required for upgrading to the corresponding version node are determined according to the dependency relationship and constraint requirements of each version node; After building the independent upgrade links for each module, we also need to determine the dependency conditions between the upgrade links according to the compatibility between the versions of different modules. Because for different modules, not all versions are compatible and supportive of each other. For example, among the 5 versions of the indoor unit driver board program module and the 4 versions of the parameter configuration module mentioned above, the V1.0, V2.0, and V2.1 versions of the parameter configuration module support the V3.0 version of the indoor unit driver board program module, but do not support the V4.0 and V5.0 versions of the indoor unit driver board program module. The V3.0 version of the parameter configuration module supports the V4.0 and V5.0 versions of the indoor unit driver board program module. Therefore, if we want to upgrade the indoor unit driver board program module to the V4.0 or V5.0 version, it needs to depend on the V3.0 version of the parameter configuration module. This dependency relationship is a mandatory dependency; if we want to upgrade the indoor unit driver board program module to the V3.0 version, it depends on the V1.0 version or V2.0 version or V2.1 version of the parameter configuration module. This dependency relationship is a non-mandatory dependency; this mandatory or non-mandatory is the constraint requirement of the dependency relationship described in this embodiment.

[0027] Therefore, there is a dependency relationship between the V1.0, V2.0, and V2.1 versions of the parameter configuration module and the V3.0 version of the indoor unit driver board program module. There is also a dependency relationship between the V3.0 version of the parameter configuration module and the V4.0 and V5.0 versions of the indoor unit driver board program module. The constraint requirements of the dependency relationship are also different. These dependency relationships and constraint requirements constitute the dependency conditions required for each version upgrade. Through the dependency conditions, we can clearly know whether other program modules or parameter configuration modules need to be correspondingly upgraded and to what version when the current program module is upgraded. In the following text, we will elaborate on what the dependency relationship and constraint requirements are with more detailed embodiments.

[0028] Preferably, in step B, determining the dependency relationship between each version node in each upgrade link includes: For any version node in the upgrade link where the current program module or parameter configuration module is located, obtain other version nodes in the upgrade links of other program modules or parameter configuration modules that are compatible with this version node, respectively use the other version nodes as multiple dependent version nodes, and establish a dependency relationship between this version node and the multiple dependent version nodes; The dependency relationship means that if we want to upgrade the current program module or parameter configuration module to the target version, it needs to depend on the version of other program modules or parameter configuration modules that is compatible with the target version, that is, the version of other program modules or parameter configuration modules needs to be the dependent version corresponding to the target version.

[0029] In this embodiment, as Figure 4As shown, there are 3 versions [V1.0, V2.0, V3.0] of the outdoor unit main control board program module A and 2 versions [V1.0, V2.0] of the indoor unit drive board program module B, where: 1. The V1.0 version of A is only compatible with the V1.0 version of B, but the V1.0 version of A is not compatible with the V2.0 version of B; Then the dependent version node of the version node of the V1.0 version of A is the version node of the V1.0 version of B, and the dependent version node of the version node of the V1.0 version of B is the version node of the V1.0 version of A. The V1.0 versions of A and B are mutually dependent versions, that is, a dependency relationship is established between the V1.0 version of the outdoor unit main control board program module A and the V1.0 version of the indoor unit drive board program module B; That is to say, when the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module is V1.0, the version of the indoor unit drive board program module can only be V1.0. If the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is not V1.0, the outdoor unit main control board program module will have a problem of not being supported, which may cause the outdoor unit main control board program module to be unusable.

[0030] 2. The V2.0 version of A is compatible with the V1.0 version and the V2.0 version of B; Then the dependent version nodes of the version node of the V2.0 version of A are the two version nodes of the V1.0 version and the V2.0 version of B. The dependent version node of the version node of the V1.0 version of B is the version node of the V2.0 version of A, and the dependent version node of the version node of the V2.0 version of B is the version node of the V2.0 version of A. The V2.0 version of A and the V1.0 version and the V2.0 version of B are mutually dependent versions, that is, a dependency relationship is established between the V2.0 version of the outdoor unit main control board program module A and the V1.0 version and the V2.0 version of the indoor unit drive board program module B respectively; That is to say, when upgrading the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module from V1.0 to V2.0, the version of the indoor unit drive board program module needs to be V1.0 or V2.0; when the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is V1.0, the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module needs to be V1.0 or V2.0; when upgrading the version of the indoor unit drive board program module from V1.0 to V2.0, since the V2.0 version of the indoor unit drive board program module does not support the V1.0 version of the outdoor unit main control board program module, it is necessary to upgrade the outdoor unit main control board program module from V1.0 to V2.0. Otherwise, when the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is upgraded to V2.0 and the outdoor unit main control board program module is still at V1.0, the functions of the outdoor unit main control board program module may not be available or the functions of the V2.0 version of the indoor unit drive board program module may not be available.

[0031] 3. Version V3.0 of A is only compatible with Version V2.0 of B, but Version V3.0 of A is not compatible with Version V1.0 of B; Then the dependent version node of the version node of Version V3.0 of A is the version node of Version V2.0 of B, and the dependent version node of the version node of Version V2.0 of B is the version node of Version V3.0 of A. Version V3.0 of A and Version V2.0 of B are mutually dependent versions. That is, a dependency relationship is established between Version V3.0 of the outdoor unit main control board program module A and Version V2.0 of the indoor unit drive board program module B; That is to say, when upgrading the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module from V1.0 or V2.0 to V3.0, the version of the indoor unit drive board program module needs to be V2.0; or when upgrading the indoor unit drive board program module from Version V1.0 to Version V2.0, the version of the outdoor unit drive board program module needs to be upgraded to Version V2.0 or V3.0.

[0032] Furthermore, the dependency relationship between program modules or parameter configuration modules not only exists between two program modules or between a program module and a parameter configuration module, but also includes mutual dependencies among multiple modules. For example, Figure 5 As shown, for the convenience of explaining the relationship, two upgrade links of the same parameter configuration module C are placed in Figure 5 . These two are essentially the same. There are 3 versions of the outdoor unit main control board program module A [V1.0, V2.0, V3.0], 2 versions of the indoor unit drive board program module B [V1.0, V2.0], and 3 versions of the parameter configuration module C [V1.0, V2.0, V2.1], where: 1. Version V1.0 of A, Version V1.0 of B, and Version V1.0 of C are mutually compatible; Then Version V1.0 of A, Version V1.0 of B, and Version V1.0 of C are mutually dependent. That is, a mutual dependency relationship is established among Version V1.0 of the outdoor unit main control board program module A, Version V1.0 of the indoor unit drive board program module B, and Version V1.0 of the parameter configuration module C; That is to say, when the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module is V1.0, the versions of the indoor unit drive board program module and the parameter configuration module can only be V1.0. If the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is not V1.0 or the version of the parameter configuration module is not V1.0, the outdoor unit main control board program module will have an unsupported problem, which may cause the outdoor unit main control board program module to be unusable.

[0033] 2. Version V2.0 of A is compatible with Version V1.0, Version V2.0 of B, and Version V1.0, Version V2.0 of C. Version V2.0 of B is compatible with Version V2.0, Version V2.1 of C; Then the V2.0 version of A is mutually dependent with the V1.0 version and V2.0 version of B, the V2.0 version of A is mutually dependent with the V1.0 version and V2.0 version of C, and the V2.0 version of B is mutually dependent with the V2.0 version and V2.1 version of C. Establish the dependency relationships among the three at the corresponding version nodes according to this; That is, it means that when upgrading the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module from V1.0 to V2.0, the version of the indoor unit drive board program module needs to be the V1.0 version or V2.0 version, and the version of the parameter configuration module needs to be the V1.0 version and V2.0 version. When the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is the V2.0 version, the version of the parameter configuration module needs to be the V2.0 version or V2.1 version; Therefore, there are the following two upgrade paths. The first upgrade path is that when the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module is upgraded from V1.0 to V2.0, the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is V1.0, the version of the parameter configuration module is V1.0, and the V1.0 version of the indoor unit drive board program module is adapted to the V1.0 version of the parameter configuration module. So it is expressed as: Outdoor unit main control board program module V1.0 → V2.0, indoor unit drive board program module V1.0, parameter configuration module V1.0; The second upgrade path is that when the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module is upgraded from V1.0 to V2.0, the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is V2.0. At this time, since the V2.0 version of the indoor unit drive board program module only adapts to the V2.0 version of the parameter configuration module, and the V2.0 version of the parameter configuration module also adapts to the V2.0 version of the outdoor unit main control board program module, the version of the parameter configuration module can only be the V2.0 version. So it is expressed as: Outdoor unit main control board program module V1.0 → V2.0, indoor unit drive board program module V1.0 → V2.0, parameter configuration module V1.0 → V2.0; 3. The V3.0 version of A is adapted to the V2.0 version of B and the V2.1 version of C; Then the V3.0 version of A is mutually dependent with the V2.0 version of B, the V3.0 version of A is mutually dependent with the V2.1 version of C, and the V2.0 version of B is mutually dependent with the V2.0 version and V2.1 version of C; That is, it means that when the version of the outdoor unit main control board program module is upgraded to the V3.0 version, the version of the indoor unit drive board program module can only be the V2.0 version, and the version of the parameter configuration module can only be the V2.1 version; when the version of the indoor unit drive board program module is upgraded to the V2.0 version, the version of the parameter configuration module can be the V2.0 version or V2.1 version; Therefore, there is only one upgrade path: when the program module of the outdoor unit main control board is upgraded from version V1.0 or V2.0 to version V3.0, the program module of the indoor unit drive board needs to be upgraded to version V2.0. Although the V2.0 version of the program module of the indoor unit drive board is compatible with the V2.0 version and V2.1 version of the parameter configuration module, the V3.0 version of the program module of the outdoor unit main control board is only compatible with the V2.1 version of the parameter configuration module. Therefore, the parameter configuration module can only be the V2.1 version, so it is expressed as: Outdoor unit main control board program module V1.0 or V2.0 → V3.0, indoor unit drive board program module V1.0 → V2.0, parameter configuration module V1.0 or V2.0 → V2.1.

[0034] Similarly, when the program module of the indoor unit drive board is upgraded, it is also necessary to determine whether the program module of the outdoor unit main control board and / or the parameter configuration module needs to be upgraded; when the parameter configuration module is upgraded, it is also necessary to determine whether the program module of the outdoor unit main control board and / or the program module of the indoor unit drive board needs to be upgraded; To sum up, no matter which program module or parameter configuration module needs to be upgraded currently, the upgrade path or the final upgrade version of other program modules or parameter configuration modules can be determined according to the dependency relationship, so that other program modules or parameter configuration modules are adapted to the currently upgraded program module or parameter configuration module.

[0035] Preferably, in step B, the constraint requirements for determining the dependency relationship include: Establish constraint requirements for the multiple dependency relationships between a version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes respectively. The constraint requirements include mandatory constraints and non-mandatory constraints. Mark the dependency relationships with mandatory constraints as mandatory dependency relationships, and mark the dependency relationships with non-mandatory constraints as non-mandatory dependency relationships; When there are mandatory dependency relationships among the multiple dependency relationships between the target version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes, when the currently required program module or parameter configuration module is upgraded to the target version, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules need to be compulsorily upgraded to be higher than or equal to the dependent versions corresponding to the mandatory dependency relationships; When there are no mandatory dependency relationships among the multiple dependency relationships between the target version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes, and these multiple dependency relationships are all non-mandatory dependency relationships, when the currently required program module or parameter configuration module is upgraded to the target version, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules only need to be the dependent versions corresponding to any non-mandatory dependency relationship.

[0036] Such as Figure 6As shown in 6-a, for example, among the three dependencies where the program module A of the outdoor unit main control board in version V2.0 adapts to the program module B of the indoor unit drive board in versions V1.0, V2.0, and V3.0, a mandatory constraint is added to the dependency A's V2.0 → B's V2.0, and this dependency is marked as a mandatory dependency. Then, although the V2.0 version of A also adapts to the V1.0 version of B, due to the mandatory constraint, when A is upgraded to the V2.0 version, B must be forcibly upgraded to the V2.0 or V3.0 version. Because in some practical applications, although the V1.0 version of B adapts to the V2.0 version of A, it may cause some functions in the V2.0 version of A to be unusable. However, these unusable functions do not affect the normal operation of the air conditioner. Therefore, for the situation where the V1.0 version of B is carried on the V2.0 version of A, we allow it to exist; but if a mandatory dependency relationship appears, it means that B must be forcibly upgraded to version V2.0 and above to avoid affecting the normal operation of the air conditioner after A is upgraded to V2.0; for this forced upgrade situation where B must be upgraded to the V2.0 or V3.0 version, generally we will only upgrade B to the V2.0 version to make the version of B meet the minimum requirements for A to be upgraded to the V2.0 version, which helps to shorten the upgrade path and improve the upgrade efficiency.

[0037] Furthermore, as Figure 6 shown in 6-b, if there is no mandatory constraint added to the three dependencies A's V2.0 → B's V1.0, A's V2.0 → B's V2.0, and A's V2.0 → B's V3.0, then these three dependencies will be recognized as non-mandatory dependencies. So when A needs to be upgraded to V2.0, any one of the V1.0 version, V2.0 version, and V3.0 version of B can be used.

[0038] When performing the version differential upgrade operation, the following steps are included: Step C: Determine the current version and target version of the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently. Step D1: Judge whether the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently meets the dependency conditions required to upgrade the current version to the target version. If so, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded from the current version to the target version; if not, execute Step D2. Specifically, Step D1 also includes: Step D11: Judge whether all the dependencies of the target version of the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently have mandatory dependency relationships. Step D12: If there is a mandatory dependency relationship, determine whether the current version of other program modules or parameter configuration modules is higher than or equal to the dependency version corresponding to the mandatory dependency relationship. If it is higher than or equal to, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded from the current version to the target version. If not, execute Step D2; Step D13: If there is no mandatory dependency relationship, determine whether the current version of other program modules or parameter configuration modules is any one of the dependency versions corresponding to all non-mandatory dependency relationships. If so, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded from the current version to the target version. If not, execute Step D2; Step D2: According to the dependency conditions, determine the upgrade paths of other program modules or parameter configuration modules in the upgrade link. Request the upgrade packages of the corresponding versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules from the cloud server according to the version nodes in the upgrade paths. After other program modules or parameter configuration modules are upgraded to the corresponding versions according to the upgrade packages, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently can meet the dependency conditions required to upgrade from the current version to the target version, and then the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded is directly upgraded to the target version.

[0039] Preferably, in the said Step D2, it includes: Step D21: According to the dependency conditions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules, gradually determine the upgrade paths of other program modules or parameter configuration modules; Step D22: Request the upgrade packages of the corresponding versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules from the cloud server according to the version nodes in the upgrade paths; Step D23: Other program modules or parameter configuration modules are gradually upgraded from low to high according to the version numbers of the upgrade packages, so that other program modules or parameter configuration modules are upgraded from the current version to a version higher than or equal to the dependency version corresponding to the mandatory dependency relationship in Step D12, or upgraded to any one of the dependency versions corresponding to all non-mandatory dependency relationships in Step D13; Step D24: The program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded currently is upgraded from the current version to the target version.

[0040] In one embodiment, three upgrade links are respectively constructed for 3 versions [V3.0, V4.0, V5.0] of the outdoor unit main control board program module A, 2 versions [V3.0, V4.0] of the indoor unit drive board program module B, and 3 versions [V2.0, V3.0, V4.0] of the parameter configuration module C. The dependency relationships and constraint requirements among the various versions are as Figure 7As shown, the current version of the outdoor unit main control board program module is V3.0, the current version of the indoor unit drive board program module is V3.0, and the current version of the parameter configuration module is V2.0. If it is necessary to upgrade the outdoor unit main control board program module to V5.0, the judgment logic is as follows: The upgrade path for the outdoor unit main control board program module from V3.0 to V5.0 is V3.0 → V4.0 → V5.0, that is, the outdoor unit main control board program module needs to be upgraded to V4.0 first. Then it is necessary to first determine whether the versions of the current indoor unit drive board program module and the parameter configuration module support the upgrade of the outdoor unit main control board program module to V4.0. As Figure 7 can be seen, the current version V3.0 of the indoor unit drive board program module and the current version V2.0 of the parameter configuration module do not support it because there is no dependency relationship with V4.0 of the outdoor unit main control board program module; Next, judge the dependency relationship and constraint requirements for the upgrade of the outdoor unit main control board program module to V4.0. As Figure 7 can be seen, V4.0 of the outdoor unit main control board program module is not strongly dependent on versions V3.0 and V4.0 of the parameter configuration module, but is strongly dependent on V4.0 of the indoor unit drive board program module. Therefore, it is necessary to upgrade the indoor unit drive program module from version V3.0 to version V4.0, and upgrade the parameter configuration module from version V2.0 to version V3.0 or V4.0; Next, judge the dependency relationship and constraint requirements of the indoor unit drive program module and the parameter configuration module, and find that when upgrading the indoor unit drive program module from version V3.0 to version V4.0, it is strongly dependent on the parameter configuration module needing to be upgraded to version V4.0. Therefore, the parameter configuration module can only be strongly upgraded to version V4.0; After upgrading the parameter configuration module to version V4.0 and the indoor unit drive program module to version V4.0, at this time, it has met the requirement to upgrade the outdoor unit main control board program module from V3.0 to V4.0; Next, judge the dependency relationship and constraint requirements for the upgrade of the outdoor unit main control board program module from V4.0 to V5.0, and find that when the outdoor unit main control board program module is upgraded to V5.0, it is not strongly dependent on V4.0 of the parameter configuration module and V4.0 of the indoor unit drive board program module, and at this time, both the parameter configuration module and the indoor unit drive board program module meet this dependency condition. Therefore, upgrade the outdoor unit main control board program module to version V5.0.

[0041] The overall upgrade path is: 1. Parameter configuration module V2.0 → V3.0 → V4.0; 2. Indoor unit drive board program module V3.0 → V4.0; 3. Outdoor unit main control board program module V3.0 → V4.0 → V5.0; Then, according to the upgrade path, the V3.0 version upgrade package and the V4.0 version upgrade package of the parameter configuration module are requested from the cloud server in sequence, and the parameter configuration module is gradually upgraded to the V4.0 version. Then, the V4.0 version upgrade package of the indoor unit driver board program module is requested from the cloud server in sequence, and the indoor unit driver board program module is upgraded to the V4.0 version. Then, the V4.0 version upgrade package and the V5.0 version upgrade package of the outdoor unit main control board program module are requested from the cloud server in sequence, and the outdoor unit main control board program module is gradually upgraded to the V5.0 version.

[0042] Preferably, when performing step D1 and step D2, the method further includes: Determine whether the current versions of all program modules or parameter configuration modules can be upgraded to the corresponding target version. If so, all program modules or parameter configuration modules only need to download the upgrade package of the target version from the cloud server and perform an upgrade operation once to upgrade directly from the current version to the target version; if not, all program modules or parameter configuration modules need to download the upgrade package of the corresponding version from the cloud server in sequence according to the upgrade path, and perform multiple upgrade operations to upgrade from the current version to the target version one by one.

[0043] As mentioned above, when we build an upgrade link, we will determine whether the version node with a lower version number can be upgraded to the version node with a higher version number. For versions that can be upgraded, you can download the final version upgrade package to implement a one-time upgrade. For versions that cannot be upgraded, you need to download the intermediate version upgrade package and upgrade step by step.

[0044] For example, the above Figure 7 The upgrade path of the embodiment is: 1. Parameter configuration module V2.0 → V3.0 → V4.0; 2. Internal machine driver board program module V3.0 → V4.0; 3. External unit main control board program module V3.0 → V4.0 → V5.0; If the V2.0 version of the parameter configuration module can be upgraded to the V4.0 version, and the V3.0 version of the external unit main control board program module can be upgraded to the V5.0 version, then the upgrade path is: 1. Parameter configuration module V2.0→V4.0; 2. Internal machine driver board program module V3.0 → V4.0; 3. External unit main control board program module V3.0 → V5.0; According to the upgrade path, you only need to request the V4.0 version upgrade package of the parameter configuration module from the cloud server. There is no need to request the V3.0 version upgrade package of the parameter configuration module. The parameter configuration module is upgraded to version V4.0 at one time, and then request the V4.0 version upgrade package of the indoor unit driver board program module from the cloud server in sequence. The indoor unit driver board program module is upgraded to version V4.0, and then request the V5.0 version upgrade package of the outdoor unit main control board program module from the cloud server in sequence. There is no need to request the V4.0 version upgrade package of the outdoor unit main control board program module. The outdoor unit main control board program module is upgraded to version V5.0 at one time.

[0045] The technical principle of the present invention is described above in conjunction with specific embodiments. These descriptions are only for explaining the principle of the present invention and cannot be interpreted as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention in any way. Based on the explanations herein, those skilled in the art can associate other specific implementations of the present invention without paying creative labor, and these methods will fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for upgrading differentiated versions of indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner, characterized in that: Before performing a differential version upgrade, perform the following steps: Step A: Obtain all versions of program modules and parameter configuration modules that support independent upgrades in the indoor and outdoor units of the air conditioner, use each version as a version node, and construct respective upgrade links for the program modules and parameter configuration modules according to the version nodes; Step B: According to the version compatibility between each program module and parameter configuration module, the dependency relationship and constraint requirements of each version node between each upgrade link are determined, and the dependency conditions required for upgrading to the corresponding version node are determined according to the dependency relationship and constraint requirements of each version node; When performing a version differential upgrade operation, the following steps are performed: Step C: Determine the current version and target version of the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded; Step D1: determine whether the program module or parameter configuration module currently to be upgraded meets the dependency conditions required for upgrading the current version to the target version. If so, the program module or parameter configuration module currently to be upgraded is upgraded from the current version to the target version; if not, execute step D2; Step D2: According to the dependency conditions, the upgrade path of other program modules or parameter configuration modules is determined in the upgrade link, and the upgrade packages of the corresponding versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules are requested from the cloud server according to the version nodes in the upgrade path. After the other program modules or parameter configuration modules are upgraded to the corresponding versions according to the upgrade packages, the program modules or parameter configuration modules that need to be upgraded currently meet the dependency conditions required to upgrade the current version to the target version, and the program modules or parameter configuration modules that need to be upgraded are then directly upgraded to the target version.

2. According to claim 1, a method for upgrading differentiated versions of indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner is characterized by: The step A comprises: Obtain all versions of each program module or parameter configuration module, use each version as a version node, arrange and associate the version nodes in order from low to high according to the version number, and build an upgrade link for each program module or parameter configuration module.

3. According to claim 2, a method for upgrading the differentiated versions of the indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner is characterized by: For an upgrade link, if there is at least one version node between a version node with a lower version number and a version node with a higher version number, determine whether the version node with the lower version number and the version node with the higher version number can be upgraded across levels. If so, associate the version node with the lower version number to the version node with the higher version number across levels.

4. According to claim 3, a method for upgrading the differentiated versions of indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner is characterized by: In step B, determining the dependency relationship between each version node between each upgrade link includes: For any version node in the upgrade link where the current program module or parameter configuration module is located, obtain other version nodes that are compatible with the version node in the upgrade link where other program modules or parameter configuration modules are located, use the other version nodes as multiple dependent version nodes respectively, and establish a dependency relationship between the version node and the multiple dependent version nodes; The dependency relationship indicates that if the current program module or parameter configuration module is to be upgraded to the target version, it is necessary to rely on the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules to adapt to the target version, that is, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules must be the dependent versions corresponding to the target version.

5. According to claim 4, a method for upgrading the differentiated versions of indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner is characterized by: In step B, determining the constraint requirements of the dependency relationship includes: Establish constraint requirements for multiple dependency relationships between a version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes, respectively. The constraint requirements include mandatory constraints and non-mandatory constraints. Mark the dependency relationships with mandatory constraints as mandatory dependencies, and mark the dependency relationships with non-mandatory constraints as non-mandatory dependencies. When there is a mandatory dependency among the multiple dependency relationships between the target version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes, when the program module or parameter configuration module currently required to be upgraded is upgraded to the target version, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules must be forcibly upgraded to a dependency version higher than or equal to the dependent version corresponding to the mandatory dependency relationship; When there is no mandatory dependency among the multiple dependency relationships between the target version node and its corresponding multiple dependent version nodes, these multiple dependencies are all non-mandatory dependencies. When the program module or parameter configuration module that currently needs to be upgraded is upgraded to the target version, the versions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules only need to be the dependent versions corresponding to any non-mandatory dependency.

6. According to claim 5, a method for upgrading differentiated versions of indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner is characterized in that: In the step D1, it includes: Step D11: determining whether there is a mandatory dependency among all dependencies of the target version of the program module or parameter configuration module currently to be upgraded; Step D12: If there is a mandatory dependency relationship, determine whether the current version of other program modules or parameter configuration modules is higher than or equal to the dependency version corresponding to the mandatory dependency relationship. If so, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded is upgraded from the current version to the target version. If not, execute step D2; Step D13: If there is no mandatory dependency, determine whether the current version of other program modules or parameter configuration modules is any of the dependency versions corresponding to all non-mandatory dependencies. If so, the program module or parameter configuration module that needs to be upgraded is upgraded from the current version to the target version. If not, execute step D2.

7. According to claim 6, a method for upgrading differentiated versions of indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner, characterized in that: In the step D2, it includes: Step D21: according to the dependency conditions of other program modules or parameter configuration modules, gradually determine the upgrade path of other program modules or parameter configuration modules; Step D22: Requesting the cloud server for the corresponding version upgrade package of other program modules or parameter configuration modules according to the version node in the upgrade path; Step D23: other program modules or parameter configuration modules are gradually upgraded from low to high according to the version number of the upgrade package, so that other program modules or parameter configuration modules are upgraded from the current version to a dependency version higher than or equal to the mandatory dependency relationship corresponding to step D12, or upgraded to any dependency version corresponding to all non-mandatory dependencies in step D13; Step D24: The program module or parameter configuration module that currently needs to be upgraded is upgraded from the current version to the target version.

8. According to claim 3, a method for upgrading differentiated versions of indoor and outdoor units of an air conditioner is characterized by: When executing step D1 and step D2, it also includes: Determine whether the current versions of all program modules or parameter configuration modules can be upgraded to the corresponding target version. If so, all program modules or parameter configuration modules only need to download the upgrade package of the target version from the cloud server and perform an upgrade operation once to upgrade directly from the current version to the target version; if not, all program modules or parameter configuration modules need to download the upgrade package of the corresponding version from the cloud server in sequence according to the upgrade path, and perform multiple upgrade operations to upgrade from the current version to the target version one by one.

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