Silent upgrading method for air conditioner

Abstract

The invention provides a silent upgrading method for an air conditioner, and relates to the technical field of air conditioner upgrading, the method comprises the following steps: receiving an incremental upgrading package to obtain upgrading resource demand estimation information, and monitoring key environment parameters; judging whether to trigger a refrigeration interval period identification mechanism of the air conditioner or not according to the key environment parameters; after a refrigeration interval period identification mechanism is triggered, multiple refrigeration interval periods are identified to obtain historical interval data, and the prediction duration of the refrigeration interval periods under multiple different temperature difference ranges is predicted according to the historical interval data; and when the air conditioner enters the current refrigeration interval period, the duration of the current refrigeration interval is determined according to the key environment parameters, and the duration of the current refrigeration interval period, the key environment parameters and the upgrading resource demand estimation information are compared to judge whether silent upgrading operation is executed or not in the current refrigeration interval period. According to the method, whether the air conditioner has enough resources to complete silent upgrading or not is judged by utilizing the pre-cooling release time of the refrigeration interval period of the air conditioner, and non-stop silent upgrading of the air conditioner is achieved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of air conditioner upgrades, and in particular relates to a silent upgrade method for an air conditioner. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of air conditioning technology, upgrade techniques are also constantly improving. Silent upgrades are a common upgrade method. Silent upgrades involve the system automatically launching an upgrade program during idle time, completing the upgrade while the user is not using the air conditioner. Existing silent upgrade solutions stagger the user's air conditioner usage times, utilizing the air conditioner's standby time to complete the upgrade. This method requires analyzing user usage habits to determine the air conditioner's idle standby time, but it cannot complete the silent upgrade while the user is using the air conditioner. Therefore, achieving silent upgrades while the user is using the air conditioner is a current research and development direction for upgrade technology. Summary of the Invention

[0003] In response to the problems raised in the background technology, the present invention proposes a silent upgrade method based on upgrade time selection.

[0004] To achieve this object, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions: A silent upgrade method for an air conditioner, comprising: Upgrade preparation phase: Step A: Receive the incremental upgrade package, perform security verification and decryption on the incremental upgrade package, and obtain estimated upgrade resource requirements; While receiving incremental upgrade packages, monitor key environmental parameters; Upgrade opportunity detection and prediction phase: Step B: Determine whether to trigger the cooling interval recognition mechanism of the air conditioner based on key environmental parameters; Step C: After the cooling gap period identification mechanism is triggered, multiple cooling gap periods are identified to obtain historical gap data, and the predicted duration of the cooling gap period under multiple different temperature difference ranges is predicted based on the historical gap data; Silent upgrade phase: Step D: When the air conditioner enters the current cooling gap period, the predicted duration of the cooling gap period under the corresponding temperature difference range is obtained based on the key environmental parameters, and the predicted duration is used as the duration of the current cooling gap. The duration of the current cooling gap period, the key environmental parameters and the estimated upgrade resource demand information are compared, and based on the comparison results, it is determined whether the current cooling gap period meets the requirements for performing a silent upgrade operation. If so, the silent upgrade operation is performed.

[0005] Preferably, the step A comprises: Step A1: The air conditioner main control system receives an encrypted incremental upgrade package from the cloud server through a preset communication interface. The incremental upgrade package includes a target firmware version number, a digital signature, incremental patch data, and estimated upgrade resource requirements information. Step A2: The air conditioner main control system verifies the integrity and source legality of the incremental upgrade package in the isolated security area. After passing the verification, it decrypts the incremental upgrade package in the isolated security area and temporarily stores the incremental patch data in the non-volatile storage area. Step A3: While receiving the incremental upgrade package, the air conditioner main control system continuously monitors key environmental parameters in real time. The key environmental parameters include outdoor temperature, indoor temperature, the set temperature currently used by the air conditioner, the current operating mode, historical data of the compressor start-stop cycle, fan speed, CPU utilization rate, and memory occupancy rate.

[0006] Preferably, in step B, determining whether to trigger the refrigeration interval identification mechanism of the air conditioner includes: When the indoor temperature is within the proximity range of the set temperature and the absolute value of the temperature change rate is continuously less than a preset fluctuation value, trigger the refrigeration interval identification mechanism. Calculate the temperature change rate according to the following formula: ; TCR represents the temperature change rate; represents the current indoor temperature; represents the indoor temperature in the previous unit time interval; t represents the unit time interval.

[0007] Preferably, in step C, identifying the refrigeration interval includes: Step C1: Determine whether the compressor state is in a shutdown state or a low-speed operation state, whether the CPU utilization rate is gradually decreasing, and whether the fluctuation range of the memory occupancy rate is becoming smaller. If so, obtain the current temperature change rate. Step C2: Determine whether the absolute value of the current temperature change rate is less than the temperature change rate threshold. If so, it is determined that the air conditioner enters a refrigeration interval.

[0008] Preferably, in step C, obtain historical interval data, and predict the predicted duration of the refrigeration interval in multiple different temperature difference ranges according to the historical interval data, including: Step C3: Obtain the indoor-outdoor temperature difference and the duration of each refrigeration interval when the air conditioner enters each refrigeration interval. Step C4: Take the average of the durations of N refrigeration intervals with the indoor-outdoor temperature difference within the same temperature difference range to predict the predicted duration of the refrigeration interval in multiple different temperature difference ranges.

[0009] Preferably, in the step D, it includes: Step D1: When the air conditioner enters the current refrigeration interval period, obtain the predicted duration under the temperature difference range to which the current indoor-outdoor temperature difference belongs, and use this predicted duration as the duration of the current refrigeration interval period; Step D2: Obtain the CPU utilization rate and memory occupancy rate of the air conditioner during the current refrigeration interval period to determine the available CPU resource rate and available memory resource rate; Step D3: According to the estimated information on the upgrade resource requirements of the incremental upgrade package, obtain the estimated duration required for upgrade under the condition of "typical idle load", the estimated minimum CPU resource requirement for the upgrade task, and the estimated peak memory requirement for the upgrade task; Step D4: Determine the upgrade safety time according to the safety factor and the duration of the current refrigeration interval period; judge whether the available CPU resource rate is greater than or equal to the reference CPU resource under the condition of "typical idle load". If so, execute Step D5. If not, trigger the dynamic adjustment strategy; Step D5: Judge whether all of the upgrade safety time is greater than the duration required for upgrade, the available CPU resource rate is greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement, and the available memory resource rate is greater than the peak memory requirement are satisfied. If satisfied, perform the silent upgrade operation during the current refrigeration interval period. If not, it is considered that the current refrigeration interval period does not meet the requirements of the silent upgrade operation, and wait for the next refrigeration interval period.

[0010] Preferably, in the step D4, triggering the dynamic adjustment strategy includes: Step D41: Calculate the estimated duration required for upgrade under the current available CPU resource rate according to the following formula: ; represents the estimated duration required for upgrade under the current available CPU resource rate; represents the estimated duration required for upgrade under the condition of "typical idle load"; represents the reference CPU resource under the condition of "typical idle load"; represents the current available CPU resource rate; Step D42: When the estimated duration required for upgrade under the current available CPU resource rate is less than the upgrade safety time, execute Step D5; When the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the current CPU resource availability rate is greater than or equal to the upgrade safety time, if the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the current CPU resource availability rate is still within the duration of the current cooling gap period, and the CPU resource availability rate is greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement and the memory resource availability rate is greater than the peak memory requirement, a silent upgrade operation is performed with a safety margin mechanism during the current cooling gap period.

[0011] Preferably, performing a silent upgrade with a safety margin mechanism during the current cooling gap period includes: Setting a boundary time. When the silent upgrade operation does not complete the upgrade within the boundary time, the silent upgrade operation is forced to pause and all occupied resources are released.

[0012] Preferably, when the air conditioner performs a silent upgrade operation during the current cooling gap period, it further includes: When it is determined that the air conditioner exits the current cooling gap period or the air conditioner main control system receives a user control instruction, the silent upgrade operation is forced to pause, all occupied resources are released, and after waiting for the air conditioner to enter the next cooling gap that meets the conditions for performing the silent upgrade operation, the silent upgrade operation is restarted.

[0013] Preferably, after the air conditioner enters the current cooling gap period, if the compressor state changes to a high-speed operation state, or the CPU utilization rate and / or the memory occupancy rate rise to a level insufficient to support the silent upgrade operation, or the absolute value of the current temperature change rate exceeds the temperature change rate threshold, it is determined that the air conditioner exits the current cooling gap period.

[0014] Advantages of the present invention over the prior art: By utilizing the pre-cooling release time of the cooling gap period of the air conditioner, the present invention determines whether the air conditioner has sufficient resources to complete a silent upgrade. Different from passively waiting for the standby state or forced shutdown, the present invention accurately identifies and utilizes the low-load window that naturally exists in the operation law of the air conditioner itself and does not affect the user's comfort for upgrading. Based on the profound combination of the physical working characteristics of the air conditioner and the software upgrade requirements, the present invention realizes the silent upgrade of the air conditioner without shutting down. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Figure 1 is a flowchart of the silent upgrade method for the air conditioner of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0016] The technical solutions of the present invention will be further described below with reference to the drawings and through specific embodiments.

[0017] 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 of the embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts belong to the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0018] 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 "comprising" and "having" 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.

[0019] Referring to "embodiments" herein means that specific features, structures, or characteristics described in connection with the embodiments can be included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. The phrase appears in various places in the specification and 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.

[0020] This application proposes a silent upgrade method for an air conditioner, as Figure 1 shown, including: Upgrade preparation stage: Step A: Receive the incremental upgrade package and perform security verification and decryption on the incremental upgrade package to obtain the estimated information on upgrade resource requirements; While receiving the incremental upgrade package, monitor key environmental parameters; Specifically, the said Step A includes: Step A1: The air conditioner main control system receives the encrypted incremental upgrade package from the cloud server through a preset communication interface. The incremental upgrade package includes the target firmware version number, digital signature, incremental patch data, and estimated information on upgrade resource requirements; Step A2: The air conditioner main control system verifies the integrity and source legality of the incremental upgrade package in the isolated security area. After passing the verification, decrypt the incremental upgrade package in the isolated security area and temporarily store the incremental patch data in the non-volatile storage area; Step A3: While receiving the incremental upgrade package, the air conditioner main control system continuously monitors key environmental parameters in real time. The key environmental parameters include outdoor temperature, indoor temperature, the set temperature currently used by the air conditioner, the current operating mode, historical data of the compressor start-stop cycle, fan speed, CPU utilization rate, and memory occupancy rate.

[0021] In this embodiment, the air conditioner main control system receives an encrypted incremental upgrade package from a cloud server or a local gateway through a preset communication interface, such as Wi-Fi, LoRa, cellular network, etc. The target firmware version number in the incremental upgrade package is used to determine whether the base version number for this upgrade is correct. The integrity and source legality of the upgrade package can be verified through digital signatures. The incremental patch data is used for the parameters to be updated and replaced in this update. The upgrade resource requirement estimation information includes the estimated duration, the required CPU resources, and the peak memory data temporarily occupied for this upgrade obtained under the condition of "typical idle load" of the air conditioner. After security verification in the isolation security area (such as TrustZone), the incremental patch data in the incremental upgrade package will be decrypted and temporarily stored in the non-volatile storage area, waiting to be extracted and used by the air conditioner main control system when it detects a suitable upgrade opportunity. The non-volatile storage area can be a dedicated upgrade partition such as Flash. Furthermore, while receiving the incremental upgrade package, the air conditioner main control system will start continuously monitoring key environmental parameters in real time. The key environmental parameters are used for subsequent judgment of the upgrade opportunity, and the specific analysis is as follows.

[0022] It should be noted that the silent upgrade method of the air conditioner in this application is applicable to incremental upgrade operations. The upgrade of the air conditioner usually includes full upgrade and incremental upgrade. In the full upgrade method, the entire dataset or program is processed each time, and all old version files will be replaced by new version files. In the incremental upgrade method, only the data that needs to be updated needs to be processed each time, with less data processing volume and little impact on the overall operation of the machine when updating and replacing parameters. The silent upgrade method in this application is based on the characteristic of intermittent cooling of the air conditioner when it is in a non-stop state. When the indoor temperature approaches or reaches the set temperature, the compressor will stop working. When the compressor stops rotating, there is still residual refrigerant flowing in the pipeline, which is the "residual cold release period". This intermittent time is used to achieve the silent upgrade of the air conditioner, ensuring that the user does not experience downtime and completing the silent upgrade while using the air conditioner. Therefore, the duration required for the upgrade should not be too long, and the parameters to be updated and replaced should not be too many to avoid forced shutdown of the air conditioner during the upgrade process. Therefore, the incremental upgrade method is most suitable for this method.

[0023] For the silent upgrade method of the full upgrade package, the present application also proposes the following method: When the air conditioner main control system detects that the upgrade package is a full upgrade package, it monitors key environmental parameters in real time. After the security verification and decryption of the full upgrade package, it determines whether the air conditioner is in an operating state at the current time according to the key environmental parameters. If so, it does not trigger silent upgrade. If not, it obtains the user's historical usage habit data and, based on the user's historical usage habit data, determines how much idle time remains until the user's next use of the air conditioner at the current time. When the idle time is greater than the duration required for the full upgrade, it performs the full upgrade. If the idle time is less than the duration of the full upgrade, it waits until the time point when the idle time is greater than the duration required for the full upgrade, and performs the full upgrade at this time point.

[0024] Upgrade timing detection and prediction stage: Step B: Determine whether to trigger the cooling gap period recognition mechanism of the air conditioner according to the key environmental parameters, specifically including: When the indoor temperature is within the proximity range of the set temperature and the absolute value of the temperature change rate is continuously less than the preset fluctuation value, trigger the cooling gap period recognition mechanism; Calculate the temperature change rate according to the following formula: ; TCR represents the temperature change rate; represents the current indoor temperature; represents the indoor temperature in the previous unit time interval; t represents the unit time interval.

[0025] In this embodiment, for example, the outdoor temperature is 35 °C, the indoor temperature before turning on the air conditioner is 32 °C. After the user turns on the air conditioner, the set temperature is 26 °C, and the proximity range of the set temperature determined by the air conditioner main control system is , then the proximity range is 25.5 °C to 26.5 °C. As the usage duration of the air conditioner increases, the indoor temperature gradually decreases. When the indoor temperature drops from 32 °C to the range of 25.5 °C to 26.5 °C, the first condition for triggering the cooling gap period recognition mechanism of the air conditioner is satisfied. Then, continue to judge the second condition, whether the absolute value of the temperature change rate is continuously less than the preset fluctuation value. When the set unit time interval t is 5 minutes, it means that the temperature change rate is calculated every 5 minutes. For example, in the first 5-minute time period, the indoor temperature drops from 32 °C to 30 °C, in the second 5-minute time period, from 30 °C to 28 °C, in the third 5-minute time period from 28 °C to 27 °C, in the fourth 5-minute time period from 27 °C to 26.2 °C, and in the fifth 5-minute time period from 26.2 °C to 26 °C. Then the temperature change rate in the first 5-minute time period , a negative number indicates that the temperature is dropping. The temperature change rate in the second 5-minute period is also -0.4, the temperature change rate in the third 5-minute period is -0.2, the temperature change rate in the fourth 5-minute period is -0.16, and the temperature change rate in the fifth 5-minute period is -0.04. When the preset fluctuation value is 0.25, the absolute values of the temperature changes from the third to the fifth are less than the preset fluctuation value for 3 consecutive times, then it is determined that the second condition of the cooling gap period recognition mechanism for starting the air conditioner is satisfied. When both of these conditions are met, we believe that the indoor temperature is close to the set temperature, the temperature drop rate is very slow, approaching the equilibrium point. At this time, the compressor may be in a stopped state or a low-speed operation state, and this is the time to identify the cooling gap period.

[0026] Step C: After triggering the cooling gap period recognition mechanism, identify multiple cooling gap periods to obtain historical gap data, and predict the predicted duration of the cooling gap periods under multiple different temperature difference ranges based on the historical gap data; Preferably, in the said Step C, identifying the cooling gap period includes: Step C1: Determine whether the compressor state is in a stopped state or a low-speed operation state, whether the CPU utilization rate is gradually decreasing, and whether the fluctuation range of the memory occupancy rate is getting smaller. If so, obtain the current temperature change rate; Step C2: Determine whether the absolute value of the current temperature change rate is less than the temperature change rate threshold. If so, it is determined that the air conditioner enters a cooling gap period once.

[0027] In this example, when the refrigeration interval recognition mechanism is triggered by the formula in step B, four judgment conditions are required to truly confirm whether the air conditioner enters a refrigeration interval. The first judgment condition is that the compressor is detected to be in a stopped state or a low-speed operation state. The second judgment condition is that the CPU utilization rate gradually decreases. For example, when cooling down from the initial high indoor temperature to the set temperature, the CPU utilization rate gradually decreases from 85% to 45%. This means that since there is no longer a need for complex compressor drive and some high-load algorithms to achieve a large temperature drop. The third judgment condition is that the fluctuation range of the memory occupancy rate becomes smaller. For example, during the rapid refrigeration stage at startup, with the scheduling of load algorithms and compressor drive, the fluctuation range of the memory occupancy rate will be large or small. When it is detected that the fluctuation range of the memory occupancy rate becomes smaller, for example, it basically maintains an occupancy rate of 65%. After the first three judgment conditions are met, obtain the current temperature change rate, and determine whether the absolute value of the current temperature change rate is less than the temperature change rate threshold. For example, if the current temperature change rate is +0.08 °C per minute, and its absolute value 0.08 is less than the preset temperature change rate threshold of 0.2 °C per minute, it means that the temperature is relatively stable, indicating that the air conditioner enters a refrigeration interval. It should be noted that when the compressor just stops or changes from a high-speed operation state to a low-speed operation state, the indoor temperature will continue to drop for a period of time at this time, that is, the value of the current indoor temperature change rate is negative, such as -0.02 °C per minute. After the compressor stops, the room temperature begins to slowly rise due to the heat load, and the value of the current indoor temperature change rate is positive, for example, +0.08 °C per minute.

[0028] Preferably, in step C, historical interval data is obtained, and the predicted duration of the refrigeration interval under multiple different temperature difference ranges is predicted according to the historical interval data, including: Step C3: Obtain the indoor-outdoor temperature difference when the air conditioner enters each refrigeration interval and the duration of each refrigeration interval. Step C4: Take the average of the durations of N refrigeration intervals with the indoor-outdoor temperature difference within the same temperature difference range to predict the predicted duration of the refrigeration interval under multiple different temperature difference ranges.

[0029] In this embodiment, as the usage duration of the air conditioner increases, the air conditioner may enter multiple refrigeration interval periods. At this time, we can obtain the duration of each refrigeration interval period. However, since different indoor-outdoor temperature differences will result in different durations of each refrigeration interval period, we need to classify the durations of different refrigeration interval periods based on the indoor-outdoor temperature difference when the air conditioner enters each refrigeration interval period. This is beneficial for predicting the duration of the next refrigeration interval period and ensuring that the predicted duration of the next refrigeration interval period is more accurate. In one embodiment, for example, the duration of the first refrigeration interval period is 3 minutes, the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is 4°C, the duration of the second refrigeration interval period is 7 minutes, the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is 8°C, the duration of the third refrigeration interval period is 6.5 minutes, the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is 8.2°C, and the duration of the fourth refrigeration interval period is 8 minutes, the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is 8.8°C. Then, the indoor-outdoor temperature differences of the second to fourth refrigeration interval periods are within the same temperature difference range of 8°C to 9°C. So, take the average value of the durations of the second to fourth refrigeration interval periods, that is, (7 + 6.5 + 8) ÷ 3 ≈ 7.17 minutes. Based on conservative judgment, a slightly lower integer value of 7 minutes can be taken for 7.17 minutes. Then, we predict that when the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is within the range of 8°C to 9°C, the duration of the next refrigeration interval period entered is about 7 minutes. Through the above operations, we can obtain the predicted durations of the refrigeration interval periods under different temperature difference ranges.

[0030] Silent upgrade stage: Step D: When the air conditioner enters the current refrigeration interval period, obtain the predicted duration of the refrigeration interval period under the corresponding temperature difference range based on the key environmental parameters. Take this predicted duration as the duration of the current refrigeration interval. Compare the duration of the current refrigeration interval period, the key environmental parameters, and the estimated information on upgrade resource requirements. According to the comparison result, determine whether the current refrigeration interval period meets the condition for performing the silent upgrade operation. If so, perform the silent upgrade operation. Specifically, it includes: Step D1: When the air conditioner enters the current refrigeration interval period, obtain the predicted duration under the temperature difference range to which the current indoor-outdoor temperature difference belongs. Take this predicted duration as the duration of the current refrigeration interval period; In this embodiment, through steps C3 and C4, we obtain the predicted durations of the refrigeration interval periods under different temperature difference ranges. Then, when the air conditioner enters the current refrigeration interval period, by obtaining the current indoor-outdoor temperature difference, we can obtain the predicted duration under the corresponding temperature difference range. Take this predicted duration as the duration of the current refrigeration interval period. For example, in the previous example, it is predicted that when the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is within the range of 8°C to 9°C, the duration of the next refrigeration interval period entered is about 7 minutes. If the indoor-outdoor temperature difference range of the current refrigeration interval period entered by the air conditioner is within the range of 8°C to 9°C, then take 7 minutes as the duration of the current refrigeration interval period.

[0031] Step D2: Obtain the CPU utilization rate and memory occupancy rate of the air conditioner during the current cooling idle period to determine the available CPU resource rate and available memory resource rate; In this embodiment, after the air conditioner enters the cooling idle period, obtain the CPU utilization rate and memory occupancy rate of the air conditioner at this time. For example, the CPU utilization rate is 45% at this time, and the memory occupancy rate remains at 65%. If the main control system of the air conditioner is set to safely allocate resources to the background for upgrade operations when the CPU utilization rate is lower than 70%, then the available CPU resource rate is 70% - 45% = 25%, which means that 25% of the CPU time slices can be used to execute the upgrade operation; if the upgrade task is estimated to require 10% of additional temporary memory, and the current memory occupancy rate is 65%, then the available memory resource rate is 100% - 65% = 35%. Since 35% > 10%, it indicates that there is sufficient memory resource to execute the upgrade operation.

[0032] Step D3: According to the estimated information on the upgrade resource requirements of the incremental upgrade package, obtain the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the condition of "typical idle load", the estimated minimum CPU resource requirement for the upgrade task, and the estimated peak memory requirement for the upgrade task; In this embodiment, the air conditioner main control system can obtain the estimated information on the upgrade resource requirements from the incremental upgrade package received from the cloud server. The upgrade resource estimation information includes the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the condition of "typical idle load", the estimated minimum CPU resource requirement for the upgrade task, and the estimated peak memory requirement for the upgrade task. The "typical idle load" condition means that 30% of the available CPU resources of the system can be continuously allocated to the upgrade task. For example, according to tests, based on a 30% available CPU resource rate of the system, the estimated duration required for this upgrade is 4.5 minutes, the estimated minimum CPU resource requirement to complete the upgrade task is 15%, and the estimated peak memory requirement to complete the upgrade task is 10%; Step D4: Determine the upgrade safety time according to the safety factor and the duration of the current cooling idle period; judge whether the available CPU resource rate is greater than or equal to the benchmark CPU resource under the condition of "typical idle load". If so, execute Step D5; if not, trigger the dynamic adjustment strategy; In this embodiment, when the available CPU resource rate is greater than or equal to the benchmark CPU resource under the condition of "typical idle load", execute Step D5. The benchmark CPU resource is the 30% available CPU resource rate described in Step D3. For example, when the available CPU resource rate is 40%, which is greater than the benchmark CPU resource of 30%, then the operation of Step D5 can be executed; for another example, in the embodiment of Step D2, the available CPU resource rate is 70% - 45% = 25%, and 25% < 30%, then the dynamic adjustment strategy is triggered; The upgrade safety time is determined based on the safety factor and the duration of the current refrigeration interval period, which can be interpreted as: In this embodiment, the set safety factor can be 0.7. If the duration of the current refrigeration interval period is 7 minutes in the embodiment of step D1, the upgrade safety time is 4.9 minutes, which means that on the premise of reserving sufficient buffer time (7 - 4.9 = 2.1 minutes), the estimated upgrade time can be completed within the predicted interval period; Step D5: Determine whether all of the following conditions are met: the upgrade safety time is greater than the required upgrade duration, the available CPU resource rate is greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement, and the available memory resource rate is greater than the peak memory requirement. If all conditions are met, perform a silent upgrade operation during the current refrigeration interval period. If not, it is considered that the current refrigeration interval period does not meet the requirements of the silent upgrade operation, and wait for the next refrigeration interval period.

[0033] In this embodiment, taking the data exemplified in steps D1 to D5 as an explanation, when the upgrade safety time of 4.9 minutes is greater than the required upgrade duration of 4.5 minutes, and the available CPU resource rate of 40% is greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement of 15% for completing the upgrade task, and the available memory resource rate of 35% is greater than the peak memory requirement of 10% for completing the upgrade task, then perform a silent upgrade operation during the current refrigeration interval period, that is, the upgrade time meets the conditions, the memory resources meet the conditions, the CPU resources meet the conditions, and the current refrigeration interval period is the best window for silent upgrade. Then we determine that the current refrigeration interval period can perform a silent upgrade; if any of the above conditions is not met, we consider that the upgrade window of the current refrigeration interval period is too small or the resources are insufficient, which does not meet the requirements of the silent upgrade, abandon the current refrigeration interval period, and continue to monitor and wait for the next refrigeration interval period.

[0034] Furthermore, when performing a silent upgrade, the air conditioner main control system dynamically adjusts the task priorities. For example, tasks that maintain basic comfort, such as reading temperature control sensor data and basic fan control, are set to the highest real-time priority to ensure their absolute priority execution. The upgrade tasks (such as firmware erasure and verification) are set as low-priority background tasks and are only executed using the idle computing power cycles and idle CPU resources of the main control system.

[0035] Furthermore, it also includes starting a coprocessor (such as a low-power MCU or FPGA): offloading the computation of computationally intensive incremental patches in the incremental upgrade package (such as binary difference merging and data block checksum calculation) to the coprocessor for execution. The air conditioner main control system transfers the incremental patch data stored in the upgrade partition to the coprocessor in chunks. The coprocessor, according to the incremental patch instructions, combines the old firmware data in the current running partition to calculate the content and checksum of the data blocks corresponding to the new firmware. The coprocessor returns the calculated new data blocks and checksum to the air conditioner main control system. The air conditioner main control system uses the idle cycles to write the new data blocks into the firmware partition and immediately verifies the correctness of the written data using the checksum provided by the coprocessor after writing, thus completing the silent upgrade.

[0036] In addition, after the air conditioner main control system enters the "silent upgrade mode", this mode has no prompt for the user interface (such as indicator lights, display screens) or only makes log records with extremely low visibility.

[0037] Preferably, in step D4, triggering the dynamic adjustment strategy includes: Step D41: Calculate the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the current CPU resource availability rate according to the following formula: ; represents the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the current CPU resource availability rate; represents the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the condition of "typical idle load"; represents the benchmark CPU resources under the condition of "typical idle load"; represents the current CPU resource availability rate; As mentioned above, when the CPU resource availability rate is less than the benchmark CPU resources under the condition of "typical idle load", the dynamic adjustment strategy is triggered. For example, in the embodiment of step D2, the CPU resource availability rate is 70% - 45% = 25%, and 25% < 30%, so the dynamic adjustment strategy is triggered; because the estimated duration required for the upgrade is calculated on the premise that 30% of the CPU resources in the system can be continuously allocated to the upgrade task. For example, the estimated duration required for the upgrade at a 30% CPU resource availability rate is 4.5 minutes, but the actual CPU resource availability rate of this machine is only 25%, which means that the actual allocated resources are less than the estimated resources. If the estimated duration required for the upgrade is calculated according to the 25% CPU resource availability rate, it will be more than 4.5 minutes. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the current CPU resource availability rate , as shown in the above example, the benchmark CPU resources under the "typical idle load" condition are 30%, the current CPU resource availability is 25%, and the estimated upgrade time required under the "typical idle load" condition is 4.5 minutes. Then minutes, that is, the actual estimated time required to complete the upgrade task is 5.4 minutes.

[0038] Step D42: When the estimated upgrade time required under the current CPU resource availability is less than the upgrade safety time, execute Step D5; When the estimated upgrade time required under the current CPU resource availability is greater than or equal to the upgrade safety time, if the estimated upgrade time required under the current CPU resource availability is still within the duration of the current cooling gap period, and the CPU resource availability is greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement and the memory resource availability is greater than the peak memory requirement, perform a silent upgrade operation with a safety margin mechanism during the current cooling gap period.

[0039] Furthermore, when it is calculated that the estimated upgrade time required under the current CPU resource availability is less than the upgrade safety time, it means that even if the CPU resource availability is less than the benchmark CPU resources under the "typical idle load" condition, there is still enough upgrade time to complete the upgrade task; but if the estimated upgrade time required under the current CPU resource availability is greater than or equal to the upgrade safety time, for example, in the above example, the calculated actual estimated time required to complete the upgrade task is 5.4 minutes, and the upgrade safety time is 4.9 minutes, then it means that although the previously estimated upgrade time of 4.5 minutes under the benchmark CPU resources of 30% under the "typical idle load" condition is within the upgrade safety time of 4.9 minutes, in the local environment, the actual estimated upgrade time of 5.4 minutes exceeds the upgrade safety time. At this time, more factors need to be considered. The upgrade safety time of 4.9 minutes is calculated based on a safety factor of 0.7 and the predicted duration of the current cooling gap period of 7 minutes, that is, we have reserved a buffer time of 2.1 minutes. If the buffer time is removed, the actual estimated time required of 5.4 minutes is within the predicted duration of the current cooling gap period of 7 minutes, and the time required to complete the upgrade is still sufficient. Therefore, the system will not abandon the upgrade just because 5.4 minutes is greater than 4.9 minutes. At this time, if the CPU resource availability is still greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement and the memory resource availability is still greater than the peak memory requirement, then a silent upgrade operation will be performed with a safety margin mechanism; Of course, if the actual estimated time required is greater than the predicted duration of the current cooling gap period, then the current cooling gap period is not suitable for upgrading, and the current upgrade needs to be abandoned during the current cooling gap period, and wait for the next cooling gap period.

[0040] Preferably, performing a silent upgrade with a safety margin mechanism during the current cooling gap period includes: Set a boundary time. When the silent upgrade operation fails to complete within the boundary time, forcefully pause the silent upgrade operation and release all occupied resources.

[0041] In this embodiment, performing a silent upgrade with a security boundary mechanism can be understood as follows: Since the re-estimated upgrade time of 5.4 minutes exceeds the upgrade security time of 4.9 minutes but is still within the total window (7.0 minutes), the system can choose to start the upgrade as planned but strictly monitor the actual progress. Set a boundary time. For example, if the upgrade is not completed when the upgrade time reaches the boundary time. For example, the boundary time is obtained by subtracting 1 minute of processing time from the predicted duration of 7 minutes, that is, 6 minutes. If the upgrade is not completed within the 6 minutes, the silent upgrade is forcefully paused because the estimated actual upgrade duration is only 5.4 minutes.

[0042] Preferably, when the air conditioner performs a silent upgrade operation during the current cooling gap period, it further includes: When it is determined that the air conditioner exits the current cooling gap period or the air conditioner main control system receives a user control instruction, forcefully pause the silent upgrade operation, release all occupied resources, and wait until the air conditioner enters the next cooling gap that meets the conditions for performing the silent upgrade operation, and then re-perform the silent upgrade operation.

[0043] Preferably, after the air conditioner enters the current cooling gap period, if the compressor state changes to a high-speed operation state, or the CPU utilization rate and / or memory occupancy rate rises to a level insufficient to support the silent upgrade operation, or the absolute value of the current temperature change rate exceeds the temperature change rate threshold, it is determined that the air conditioner exits the current cooling gap period.

[0044] In this embodiment, the silent upgrade of this method is performed during the cooling gap period. When the air conditioner exits the cooling gap period, we need to forcefully pause the silent upgrade operation because exiting the cooling gap period means that the CPU usage resources, memory occupancy rate, etc. of the air conditioner will change, which may result in insufficient resources to complete the upgrade. Similarly, when receiving a control instruction issued by the user, we also default that the air conditioner has exited the current cooling gap period.

[0045] Furthermore, the determination condition for exiting the current cooling gap period is that the compressor state changes to a high-speed operation state, or the CPU utilization rate and / or memory occupancy rate rises to a level insufficient to support the silent upgrade operation, or the absolute value of the current temperature change rate exceeds the temperature change rate threshold. As long as one of these three determination conditions is met, it is determined that the air conditioner exits the current cooling gap period.

[0046] The technical principles of the present invention have been described above in connection with specific embodiments. These descriptions are only for explaining the principles of the present invention and cannot be construed in any way as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention. Based on the explanations herein, those skilled in the art can readily conceive of other specific embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts, and these embodiments will all fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A silent upgrade method for an air conditioner, characterized in that: Upgrade preparation stage: Step A: Receive an incremental upgrade package and perform security verification and decryption on the incremental upgrade package to obtain estimated information on upgrade resource requirements; While receiving the incremental upgrade package, monitor key environmental parameters; Upgrade timing detection and prediction stage: Step B: Determine whether to trigger the refrigeration gap period identification mechanism of the air conditioner according to the key environmental parameters; Step C: After triggering the refrigeration gap period identification mechanism, identify multiple refrigeration gap periods to obtain historical gap data, and predict the predicted duration of the refrigeration gap periods under multiple different temperature difference ranges according to the historical gap data; Silent upgrade stage: Step D: When the air conditioner enters the current refrigeration gap period, obtain the predicted duration of the refrigeration gap period under the corresponding temperature difference range based on the key environmental parameters, use this predicted duration as the duration of the current refrigeration gap, compare the duration of the current refrigeration gap period, the key environmental parameters, and the estimated information on upgrade resource requirements, and determine whether the current refrigeration gap period meets the requirements for performing a silent upgrade operation according to the comparison result. If so, perform the silent upgrade operation.

2. The silent upgrade method for an air conditioner according to claim 1, characterized in that: The said Step A includes: Step A1: The air conditioner main control system receives the encrypted incremental upgrade package from the cloud server through a preset communication interface. The incremental upgrade package includes the target firmware version number, digital signature, incremental patch data, and estimated information on upgrade resource requirements; Step A2: The air conditioner main control system verifies the integrity and source legality of the incremental upgrade package in the isolated security area. After passing the verification, decrypt the incremental upgrade package in the isolated security area and temporarily store the incremental patch data in the non-volatile storage area; Step A3: While receiving the incremental upgrade package, the air conditioner main control system continuously monitors the key environmental parameters in real time. The key environmental parameters include outdoor temperature, indoor temperature, the set temperature currently used by the air conditioner, the current operating mode, historical data of the compressor start-stop cycle, fan speed, CPU utilization rate, and memory occupancy rate.

3. The silent upgrade method for an air conditioner according to claim 2, characterized in that: In the said Step B, determining whether to trigger the refrigeration gap period identification mechanism of the air conditioner includes: When the indoor temperature is within the proximity range of the set temperature and the absolute value of the temperature change rate is continuously less than the preset fluctuation value, trigger the refrigeration gap period identification mechanism; Calculate the temperature change rate according to the following formula: ； TCR represents the temperature change rate; Indicates the current indoor temperature; Indicates the indoor temperature in the previous unit time interval; t represents the unit time interval.

4. The silent upgrade method for an air conditioner according to claim 3, characterized in that: In the said Step C, identifying the refrigeration gap period includes: Step C1: Determine whether the compressor state is in the shutdown state or low-speed operation state, whether the CPU utilization rate is gradually decreasing, and whether the fluctuation range of the memory occupancy rate is becoming smaller. If so, obtain the current temperature change rate; Step C2: Determine whether the absolute value of the current temperature change rate is less than the temperature change rate threshold. If so, it is determined that the air conditioner enters a refrigeration gap period once.

5. The silent upgrade method for an air conditioner according to claim 4, characterized in that: In the step C, historical gap data is obtained, and the predicted durations of the refrigeration gap periods under multiple different temperature difference ranges are predicted based on the historical gap data, including: Step C3: Obtain the indoor-outdoor temperature difference when the air conditioner enters each refrigeration gap period and the duration of each refrigeration gap period; Step C4: Take the average of the durations of N refrigeration gap periods with the indoor-outdoor temperature difference within the same temperature difference range to predict the predicted durations of the refrigeration gap periods under multiple different temperature difference ranges.

6. The silent upgrade method of an air conditioner according to claim 5, wherein: In the step D, it includes: Step D1: When the air conditioner enters the current refrigeration gap period, obtain the predicted duration under the temperature difference range to which the current indoor-outdoor temperature difference belongs, and use this predicted duration as the duration of the current refrigeration gap period; Step D2: Obtain the CPU utilization rate and memory occupancy rate of the air conditioner during the current refrigeration gap period to determine the available CPU resource rate and available memory resource rate; Step D3: According to the upgrade resource requirement estimation information of the incremental upgrade package, obtain the estimated upgrade required duration, the estimated minimum CPU resource requirement for the upgrade task, and the estimated peak memory requirement for the upgrade task under the condition of "typical idle load"; Step D4: Determine the upgrade safety time according to the safety factor and the duration of the current refrigeration gap period; Judge whether the available CPU resource rate is greater than or equal to the benchmark CPU resource under the condition of "typical idle load". If so, execute step D5. If not, trigger the dynamic adjustment strategy; Step D5: Judge whether all of the upgrade safety time is greater than the upgrade required duration, the available CPU resource rate is greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement, and the available memory resource rate is greater than the peak memory requirement are satisfied. If satisfied, perform the silent upgrade operation during the current refrigeration gap period. If not satisfied, it is considered that the current refrigeration gap period does not meet the requirements of the silent upgrade operation, and wait for the next refrigeration gap period.

7. The silent upgrade method of an air conditioner according to claim 6, wherein: In the step D4, triggering the dynamic adjustment strategy includes: Step D41: Calculate the estimated upgrade required duration under the current available CPU resource rate according to the following formula: ； Indicates the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the current CPU resource availability rate; Indicates the estimated duration required for the upgrade under the "Typical idle load" condition; Indicates the reference CPU resources under "typical idle load" conditions; Indicates the current available CPU resource utilization rate; Step D42: When the estimated upgrade required duration under the current available CPU resource rate is less than the upgrade safety time, execute step D5; When the estimated upgrade required duration under the current available CPU resource rate is greater than or equal to the upgrade safety time, if the estimated upgrade required duration under the current available CPU resource rate is still within the duration of the current refrigeration gap period, and the available CPU resource rate is greater than the minimum CPU resource requirement and the available memory resource rate is greater than the peak memory requirement, perform the silent upgrade operation with the safety boundary mechanism during the current refrigeration gap period.

8. The silent upgrade method of an air conditioner according to claim 7, wherein: Performing the silent upgrade with the safety boundary mechanism during the current refrigeration gap period includes: Set the boundary time. When the silent upgrade operation has not completed the upgrade within the boundary time, forcefully pause the silent upgrade operation and release all occupied resources.

9. The silent upgrade method of an air conditioner according to claim 4, wherein: When the air conditioner performs the silent upgrade operation during the current cooling interval period, it further includes: When it is determined that the air conditioner exits the current cooling interval period or the air conditioner main control system receives a user control instruction, the silent upgrade operation is forcibly paused, all occupied resources are released, and after waiting for the air conditioner to enter the next cooling interval that meets the condition for performing the silent upgrade operation, the silent upgrade operation is restarted.

10. The silent upgrade method of an air conditioner according to claim 9, wherein: After the air conditioner enters the current cooling interval period, if the compressor state changes to a high-speed operation state, or the CPU utilization rate and / or the memory occupancy rate rise to a level insufficient to support the silent upgrade operation, or the absolute value of the current temperature change rate exceeds the temperature change rate threshold, it is determined that the air conditioner exits the current cooling interval period.

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