Enterprise wide system and methods for configuring, diagnosing, and updating appliances

摘要

A system and methods to provide appliance field support personnel with a tool that, together with proper interface modules, simplifies the execution of diagnostic procedures and provides an easy way to configure, reconfigure, or update electronic boards in the home on a client side of an enterprise wide system. The electronic boards serve as electronic controllers in the appliances and are programmable generic service boards. With such a system, it is possible to update and re-configure electronic boards and interact directly with an electronic controller of an appliance while an appliance is operating. Software, configuration data, and control data are downloaded from a server-side configuration of the enterprise wide system to update the electronic boards.

主权项

1. A client-side configuration of an enterprise wide system to provide appliance field support, said client-side configuration comprising:
a portable field computer configured to access a web server of a server-side configuration of said enterprise wide system via a network; a client software application residing on said portable field computer and including computer-executable instructions providing a uniform user interface which is independent of an appliance type under test and which is common across all appliances of the enterprise wide system; an appliance independent of the field computer and the client software, wherein said appliance includes a programmable universal control board comprising programmable control firmware inside the appliance configured to be programmed for one of a plurality of appliance types of said enterprise wide system; and an appliance connection kit configured to operatively directly connect the programmable universal control board of the appliance with said portable field computer without communicating, over a network device.