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EP-4654754-B1 - INTELLIGENT FIRMWARE UPDATE TOOL

EP4654754B1EP 4654754 B1EP4654754 B1EP 4654754B1EP-4654754-B1

Inventors

  • NETZER, HARALD
  • KUCERA, Clemens

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240522

Claims (15)

  1. Method for updating firmware of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of a lighting system (1), wherein the lighting system (1) comprises a control bus (8) for connecting a plurality of the devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17), and at least one device (3, 16, 17) includes a bus power supply for supplying the control bus (8); wherein the lighting system (1) performs updating of the firmware of the devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) via the control bus (8); and the method includes steps of: acquiring information on the at least one bus power supply from the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) via the control bus (8); selecting devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) based on the acquired information, wherein the selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) exclude at least one of the devices (2, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) that includes the bus power supply outputting a supply current to the control bus (8); updating the firmware of the selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17).
  2. Method for updating firmware according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises switching selectively via the control bus (8) the bus power supply of devices (3, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) between a state in which the bus power supply is enabled to output a supply current to the control bus (8) and a state in which the bus power supply is disabled.
  3. Method for updating firmware according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the method comprises acquiring the information on the at least one bus power supply from the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) includes information on at least one of presence, state, and current output power of the at least one bus power supply.
  4. Method for updating firmware according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the method comprises determining a difference between the number of the selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) and the number of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) based on the acquired information on the at least one bus power supply, and in case of the determined difference being equal or smaller than one, generating information requesting use of an external power supply device for the control bus (8) and outputting the generated information via a human machine interface (19) to a user.
  5. Method for updating firmware according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the method comprises determining a total output power of the devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) excluding the selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) based on the acquired information on the at least one bus power supply, and in case of the determined total output power being smaller than a predetermined minimum power, generating information requesting use of an external power supply device for the control bus (8) and outputting the generated information via a human machine interface (19) to a user.
  6. Method for updating firmware according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the method comprises selecting devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) based on the acquired information includes determining a first group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) and at least one second group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) based on the acquired information, wherein each of the first and the at least one second group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) comprise at least one device (2, 16, 17) that include the bus power supply, and wherein each of the first and the at least one second group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) exclude at least one of the devices (2, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) that includes the bus power supply; and updating respectively the firmware of the first group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) and the at least one second group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) time-sequentially.
  7. Method for updating firmware according to claim 6, wherein the method comprises switching selectively the bus power supply of the selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the first group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) and the at least one second group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) into an enabled state and a disabled state via the control bus (8) for controlling updating the firmware of the first group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) and the at least one second group of selected devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) time-sequentially.
  8. Method for updating firmware according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the method comprises determining based on information on the at least bus power supply whether an electric current output by the at least bus power supply exceeds the maximum current specified for the control bus (8).
  9. Method for updating firmware according to claim 8, wherein the information on the at least one bus power supply comprises information on the number of bus power supplies of the lighting system (1) and an electric current output by individual bus power supplies of the bus power supplies.
  10. Method for updating firmware according to claim 8 or 9, wherein acquiring the information on the at least one bus power supply via the control bus (8) includes acquiring information on a maximum power or a maximum current output by individual bus power supplies of the bus power supplies.
  11. Method for updating firmware according to one of the preceding claims, wherein information on the at least one bus power supply from the plurality of devices (3, 16, 17) includes identification information of a type of at least one of individual devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) and the at least one bus power supply; and the method comprises associating the acquired identification information with information on the type of at least one of individual devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) of the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) and the at least one bus power supply stored in a look-up table.
  12. Method for updating firmware according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the method comprises the plurality of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) includes plural light driver devices (3, 4, 5, 16, 17) each including a control bus interface (9, 10), wherein at least one control bus interface (10) of the plural light driver devices (3, 4, 5, 16, 17) comprises the at least one bus power supply.
  13. Method for updating firmware of devices (2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the control bus (8) includes a lighting control bus (8) according to at least one DALI series standard.
  14. A computer program comprising instructions, which, when a computer (18) executes the program, cause the computer (18) to carry out the method of one of the preceding claims.
  15. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon the computer program of claim 14.

Description

The invention is in the field of lighting systems, light driver devices, lighting control and lighting management. The invention in particular concerns a method for updating firmware of devices of the lighting system. Contemporary building infrastructure systems include a plurality of infrastructure devices, arrange them all over a building and connect the individual infrastructure devices with a control bus for communicating messages between the infrastructure devices for controlling the building infrastructure system. A typical example for an infrastructure system is a lighting system that uses a control bus for controlling the individual devices of the lighting system, which may include luminaires and control devices, e.g., ambient light sensors, presence sensors, push-button devices, dimming devices, and lighting servers. The control bus of the lighting system may operate according to a standard from the series of technical standards known as Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALIRTM) standardized in IEC 62386, and known as DALI, DALI-2, and D4i. A DALI control bus comprises at least one application controller and bus power supply, sometimes in form of a dedicated device. More often, at least the bus power supply is arranged integrated with another device of the lighting system, e.g. in a light driver device equipped with a DALI interface. The application controller may configure, query, and control each device on the control bus via a bi-directional data exchange. Multiple application controllers may coexist on the same control bus. The DALI interface, or more generally, the control bus interface and the devices of the infrastructure system often include firmware for implementing specific functionalities of the device and the infrastructure system via software in a versatile manner. Updating the firmware of the devices of the infrastructure system distributed all over the building via the existing control bus connecting the devices of the infrastructure system offers significant advantages in terms of cost and time. However, updating the firmware of the devices of the infrastructure system via the control bus results in a problem occurs if intending to update the firmware of a device including the control bus interface with the integrated bus power supply. In temporary implementations of the firmware update function in infrastructure devices, the device software ceases running when a firmware update process starts running. In consequence, the control of the internal bus power supply of device may also stop operating and ceases to supply the control bus. The result is a lockout situation, as the bus power supply ceases to supply the control bus due to a program code that controls, e.g. a Flyback converter providing the control bus voltage not being executed any more in firmware update mode. The update process cannot continue due to the missing control bus power. EP 3 855 871 A1, US 2017/364348 A1 and US 2013/205288 A1 relate to methods for performing a firmware update of devices in a lighting system. It is an object of the invention to improve the updating processes of devices of a lighting system via a control bus. The method for updating firmware of devices of a lighting system according to independent claim 1, the program and the computer-readable medium according to the corresponding independent claims 14 and 15, respectively, provide advantageous solutions to the aforementioned problem. The dependent claims define further advantageous embodiments. The first aspect concerns a method for updating firmware of devices of a lighting system, wherein the lighting system comprises a control bus for connecting a plurality of the devices, and at least one device includes a bus power supply for supplying the control bus. The lighting system performs the update of the firmware of the devices via the control bus. The method includes steps of acquiring information on the at least one bus power supply from the plurality of devices via the control bus, and selecting devices of the plurality of devices based on the acquired information. The selected devices exclude at least one of the devices of the plurality of devices that includes the bus power supply outputting a supply current to the control bus. The method then updates the firmware of the selected devices of the plurality of devices. The method presents an intelligent firmware update tool. On start of the firmware update process for the devices of the lighting system, the method scans all the devices of the lighting system connected to the control bus. The method provides the framework for acquiring information from all the internal bus power supplies of all connected devices present of the bus. Based on the information obtained from the bus power supplies by the scan and the queries, the method selects devices that do not supply the control bus with power for the update, ensuring that during an update process always at least one bus power supply remain