Intercom system

Abstract

This intercom system provides a method for performing thorough connection diagnostics in conjunction with normal inspections by measuring the reception level of communication frames sent and received by the call terminal. [Solution] The intercom system 1 comprises a dwelling unit terminal 2 installed in each dwelling unit as a communication terminal, a main entrance unit 4 as a calling terminal for calling the dwelling unit terminal 2, and a control device 5 that controls these devices. The dwelling unit terminal control unit 25 of the dwelling unit terminal 2 has the function of a downlink level measuring unit that measures the magnitude of the reception level of the downlink frame D1 received from the control device 5. The dwelling unit terminal 2 measures the reception level of the downlink frame D1 received from the control device 5 during communication inspections, etc., records it in a storage unit 26, and notifies the control device 5 of the reception level data stored in the storage unit 26 at a predetermined timing.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an intercom system having a function of diagnosing the communication state of a plurality of communication devices.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, in an intercom system installed in an apartment house, a household terminal as a communication terminal for responding to a call for each household is provided, and a configuration for checking the connection status of the household terminal is known. For example, in the intercom system described in Patent Document 1, connection diagnosis is started by operating the main unit in the management room, a diagnosis request command is transmitted to each household terminal under the control of the control device, and the household terminal that has received this command returns a diagnosis response command, and it is described that the diagnosis is sequentially performed for each individual household terminal.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] However, in the above conventional intercom system, there may be cases where problems occur during actual use even though it is judged to be normal. This is because the above connection diagnosis is a diagnosis by parity check or checksum, and is only a simple inspection content.

[0005] Therefore, in view of such problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an intercom system capable of performing sufficient connection diagnosis in combination with the above inspection by measuring the reception level of the communication frame transmitted and received by the communication terminal.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] To achieve the above objective, the invention described in claim 1 is an intercom system comprising a calling terminal, a plurality of call terminals for responding to calls from the calling terminal, and a control device for controlling communication between each terminal, wherein the calling terminal can select any call terminal to perform a call operation, each call terminal comprises a downlink reception level measuring unit for measuring the reception level of downlink frames transmitted from the control device to the call terminal, and a terminal storage unit for storing the measured reception level, the control device has a control storage unit for storing reception level data, and at the timing when the reception level is measured by the downlink level measuring unit of the call terminal or at a predetermined timing, the reception level data stored in each terminal storage unit is notified from each call terminal to the control device, and the notified reception level data is stored in a table in the control storage unit corresponding to each call terminal. Furthermore, the invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention described in claim 1, the control device has an uplink level measuring unit that measures the reception level of uplink frames transmitted from each call terminal to the control device, and the control device stores the reception level data measured by the uplink level measuring unit in a table corresponding to each call terminal in the control storage unit. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present invention, the system measures and records the reception level of frames during communication between a call terminal and a control device. Therefore, during installation, it is possible to check whether the reception level is appropriate to the relative positions of each call terminal, making it easy to determine whether or not a malfunction has occurred. In addition, by referring to past reception level data, connection inspections during equipment upgrades become easier, and it is possible to assist in investigating the cause of malfunctions when they occur. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This diagram shows an example of an intercom system according to the present invention, with some of the components shown in a block diagram. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 shows an example of the intercom system 1 according to the present invention, and is a configuration diagram showing some of the equipment in a block diagram.

[0010] The intercom system 1 includes dwelling unit terminals 2 installed in each dwelling unit as call terminals to answer calls, and a management room terminal 3 installed in the management room and equipped with call terminal functions. In addition, a communal entrance unit 4 is installed in the entrance as a call terminal where visitors select their destination, i.e., select the dwelling unit terminal 2, and a control device 5 controls these devices. Furthermore, 6 is a personal computer (hereinafter simply referred to as "PC") that serves as a display terminal for displaying diagnostic results, etc., and in Figure 1 it is connected to the control device 5 via a telephone line or a communication network N such as the Internet. Unlike Figure 1, a configuration in which the PC 6 is directly connected to the control device 5 may also be adopted. The signal frames transmitted from the control device 5 to each device will be referred to as downstream frames D1, and the signal frames transmitted from each device to the control device 5 will be referred to as upstream frames D2 in the following explanation.

[0011] The dwelling unit terminal 2 is connected to one of the multiple main lines M installed from the control device 5. In this embodiment, four main lines M, from the first main line M1 to the fourth main line M4, are installed from the control device 5, and an independent main line M is installed from the control device 5 for each floor to which the dwelling unit terminal 2 is connected. In this embodiment, multiple dwelling unit terminals 2 are connected to each main line M.

[0012] The dwelling unit terminal 2 includes an operation unit 21 for performing various operations, including a call button to answer calls; a call unit 22 equipped with a microphone and speaker; a display 23 that displays various information, including visitor video transmitted from the main entrance unit 4; a dwelling unit terminal communication unit 24 that communicates with the control unit 5; a dwelling unit terminal control unit 25 that controls the dwelling unit terminal 2; and a storage unit 26 that stores various information.

[0013] The dwelling unit terminal communication unit 24 transmits and receives voice data, video data, and control data to and from the control device 5. The dwelling unit terminal control unit 25 functions as a downlink level measuring unit that measures the magnitude of the received level [dB] of the downlink frame D1 received from the control device 5. The storage unit 26 records the received level data measured by the dwelling unit terminal control unit 25 according to various settings and communication results.

[0014] The control room terminal 3, like the dwelling unit terminals 2, has a display, an operation unit, and a communication unit. The operation unit also has the function of selecting and calling any dwelling unit terminal 2, and after calling the selected dwelling unit terminal 2, communication becomes possible. Furthermore, it can respond to calls from dwelling unit terminals made by the main entrance unit 4 with a predetermined operation.

[0015] The main entrance unit 4 has the function of selecting a dwelling unit, calling the dwelling unit terminal 2 of the unit to be visited, and communicating with the resident who answers. It is also equipped with a camera that captures images of visitors, transmits the captured images to the dwelling unit terminal 2 of the unit to be called, and displays the captured images on the display 23.

[0016] The control device 5 includes a plurality of communication units 51 (in this case, four units, the first communication unit 51a to the fourth communication unit 51d) that communicate with the dwelling unit terminal 2, a control unit 52 that controls the control device 5, and a control storage unit 53 that stores various information, including diagnostic result information for each device.

[0017] The communication unit 51 performs frame communication with connected devices to send and receive video signals, audio signals, control signals, etc.

[0018] The control unit 52 controls communication between devices and also functions as an inspection unit that performs communication inspections to check the connection and communication status of devices, and a determination unit that diagnoses the overall communication status of the system based on the results of the communication inspections. Communication inspections of connected devices by the control unit 52 are performed by the operation of the personal computer 6 during installation or maintenance. Alternatively, communication inspections may be pre-programmed or determined by the operation of the personal computer 6 to be performed periodically at predetermined intervals, such as one week. Inspection methods by the control unit 52 include inspections by sending and receiving signals between the control unit 52 and each device based on parity checks or checksums, and inspections by sending and receiving signals between the control unit 52 and each device using CRC codes. In addition, the control device 5 periodically performs self-diagnosis, and the diagnosis results are stored in the control storage unit 53.

[0019] Furthermore, the control unit 52 functions as an uplink level measuring unit that measures the reception level of the uplink frame D2 transmitted from each device. The control unit 52 then records the reception level of the uplink frame D2 for each table corresponding to each device (for example, the room number corresponding to the dwelling terminal 2).

[0020] The intercom system 1 configured as described above operates as follows. However, the operation of residents calling via the main entrance unit 4, the response operation of the dwelling unit terminal 2 that receives the call, and the operation of sending visitor video from the main entrance unit 4 to the dwelling unit terminal 2 in conjunction with the call are the same as before, so their explanation will be omitted. Here, we will explain the specific operation of measuring the reception level of the downstream frame D1 by the dwelling unit terminal 2 and measuring the reception level of the upstream frame D2 by the control device 5.

[0021] The household terminal 2 measures the reception level of the downstream frame D1 at a predetermined timing by the household terminal control unit 25. As the timing when the household terminal 2 measures the reception level, for example, during the initialization communication of the entire intercom system 1, during the initialization communication of the household terminal 2 when a new household terminal 2 is added and activated to the intercom system 1, and during the communication inspection by the control unit 52, etc. can be mentioned. When the household terminal 2 measures the reception level, the reception level is measured at regular intervals, and the average data of the measured reception levels is recorded in the storage unit 26 as the data of the reception level. Then, the household terminal 2 notifies the control unit 52 of the control device 5 of the data of the reception level recorded in the storage unit 26 at a predetermined timing. As the timing when the household terminal 2 notifies the control device 5 of the data of the reception level, when the household terminal 2 measures the reception level and records it in the storage unit 26, when the communication inspection by the control unit 52 ends, and when an instruction is given by the operation of the personal computer 6, etc. can be mentioned. When the household terminal 2 notifies the control device 5 of the reception level, the household terminal 2 may be configured to notify all the data of the reception levels stored in the storage unit 26, or may be configured to notify the data of the latest reception level stored in the storage unit 26, or may be configured to notify the data of the reception level selected appropriately. Then, the control device 5 records the data of the reception level notified from each household terminal 2 in a table such as the room number corresponding to each household terminal 2 in the control storage unit 53.

[0022] The control device 5 measures the reception level of the upstream frame D2 received at a predetermined timing such as during communication inspection. The data of the measured reception level is recorded in a table of room numbers etc. corresponding to each of the household terminals 2 in the control storage unit 53 of the control device 5, similar to the data of the reception level notified from the household terminal 2. The data of the reception level of each household terminal 2 stored in the control storage unit 53 of the control device 5 is displayed on the personal computer 6 by operating the personal computer 6. And since the reception level becomes smaller as the distance between the household terminal 2 and the control device 5 increases, it is possible to confirm whether there is a correlation with the positional relationship of each household terminal 2, and to confirm whether there is no difference between the data of the past reception level and the data of the most recently measured reception level, thereby making it possible to confirm whether there is a problem with the connection. These methods of confirming the connection may be performed by the user, or may be automatically performed by diagnostic software pre-installed in the personal computer 6 or the like.

[0023] According to the above-described intercom system 1, it is configured to measure and record the reception level of the frame during communication between the household terminal 2 and the control device 5. Therefore, it becomes possible to confirm whether the reception level corresponds to the positional relationship of each household terminal 2 during construction, and it becomes easy to judge whether there is a problem. Also, by referring to the data of the past reception level, the connection inspection at the time of equipment update becomes easy, and it becomes possible to help investigate the cause when a problem occurs.

[0024] Note that the intercom system according to the present invention is not limited to the aspects of the above-described embodiment, and not only the overall configuration of the intercom system but also the configuration of the call terminal etc. can be appropriately changed as needed.

[0025] For example, in the above-described embodiment, it is configured to measure the reception level of the frame transmitted and received by the household terminal 2, but a configuration may be adopted in which the reception level of the frame transmitted and received by the management room terminal 3 is measured in the same manner as the household terminal 2.

Explanation of Signs

[0026] 1...Intercom system, 2...Residential unit terminal (communication terminal), 3...Management room terminal (communication terminal), 4...Main entrance unit (calling terminal), 5...Control device, 25...Residential unit terminal control unit (downward level measurement unit), 26...Storage unit (terminal storage unit), 52...Control unit (upward level measurement unit), 53...Control storage unit, D1...Downward frame, D2...Upward frame.

Claims

1. An intercom system comprising a calling terminal, a plurality of communication terminals for responding to calls from the calling terminal, and a control device for controlling communication between each terminal, wherein the calling terminal can select any of the communication terminals to make a call, Each of the aforementioned call terminals includes a downlink reception level measuring unit that measures the reception level of downlink frames transmitted from the control device to the call terminal, and a terminal storage unit that stores the measured reception level. The control device has a control storage unit that stores received level data, An intercom system characterized in that, at the timing when the communication terminal measures the reception level using the downlink level measuring unit or at a predetermined timing, each communication terminal notifies the control device of the reception level data stored in each terminal storage unit, and the notified reception level data is stored in a table in the control storage unit corresponding to each communication terminal.

2. The control device has an uplink level measuring unit that measures the reception level of uplink frames transmitted from each call terminal to the control device. The intercom system according to claim 1, characterized in that the control device stores the received level data measured by the upward level measuring unit in a table corresponding to each call terminal in the control storage unit.

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