Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elevator system which is provided with a plurality of elevators and allows a destination floor to be registered at an elevator hall. Description of Prior Art
Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-184772) discloses an elevator system which allows a destination floor to be registered at the elevator hall. In the installation work of the elevator system equipped with such a destination floor registration element, the operation of the elevator system during the period of installation work requires the following if a hall button for registering upward or downward travel is not provided. That is, the operation of the elevator system requires the use of a device for registering a sufficiently cured destination floor or the installation of a temporary hall button called a temporary call button in one or two of the plurality of elevators installed. The destination floor registration device is treated as a designed article which involves a potential fear of defacement or breakage even though the floor is sufficiently cured. More recently, an increasing number of

3
destination floor registration devices employ an electrostatic capacitive touch panel which sometimes disables installation workers to manipulate the touch panel with gloved fingers. This dictates the need for installing a temporary hall call button as disclosed in Patent Literature 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1999-157759) .
However, an elevator system which is finally provided with no hall button is assumed to receive only an input from the destination floor registration device. Therefore, the elevator system need be installed with an additional group controller in order to receive an answer signal from the temporary hall call button.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the invention, an elevator system includes: a plurality of elevators; a group controller for control of the operations of the plurality of elevators; and a destination floor registration device as a device which is used for registering a destination floor and is installed at an elevator hall, and has an arrangement wherein the group controller includes an elevator assignment section which assigns any one of the plurality of elevators to a call from the destination floor registration device or a temporary call button, the

4
elevator assignment section includes: a destination floor registration device connection diagnosis portion for checking on the connection of the destination floor registration device; and a temporary call button connection diagnosis portion for checking on the connection of the temporary call button, and when the destination floor registration device is not connected to the group controller but the temporary call button is connected to the group controller, the elevator assignment section assigns any predetermined one of the plurality of elevators to an input from the temporary call button.
According to the invention, the temporary call buttons can be installed without providing an additional group controller for receiving the input or answer signal from the temporary call buttons.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an elevator hall of an elevator system according to an embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the elevator hall of the elevator system during a period of installation work according to the embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the elevator system according to the embodiment of the invention; and

5
Fig. 4 is a flow chart showing the steps of an operation procedure of the elevator system according to the embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
An elevator system according to an embodiment of the invention which allows a destination floor to be registered at an elevator hall is described as below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the elevator hall 1 of the elevator system according to the embodiment of the invention, where destination floor registration devices have been installed. As shown in Fig. 1, the elevator system installed with a plurality of elevators and allowing the destination floor to be registered at the elevator hall includes, for example: a landing door 2a and a hall lantern 3a of a first elevator A; a landing door 2b and a hall lantern 3b of a second elevator B; landing doors 2c to 2f and hall lanterns 3c to 3f corresponding to third elevator C to sixth elevator F, respectively; and destination floor registration devices 4a to 4d between respective pairs of elevators. The hall lanterns notify the arrival of elevators.
Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the elevator hall of the elevator system during a period of installation work.

6
Temporary call buttons 5a, 5b corresponding to the number of elevators to be used are provided in place of the destination floor registration devices 4. When a disabled-accessible elevator car is included in the plurality of elevators installed, a disabled-accessible button 6 is used in place of the temporary call button.
Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the elevator system. A group controller 7 provides an integrated control of the plurality of elevators. At an elevator hall 1 of each floor, the destination floor registration device 4 is connected to the group controller 7, while an elevator hall control unit 9 in each floor, which is connected with a hall lantern 10 notifying the arrival of the elevator and a temporary call button 12, is connected to the group controller 7 via an elevator controller 8.
The group controller 7 includes: an elevator communication section 7a which receives an input signal from and sends an output signal to each of the elevators; an elevator hall communication section 7c which receives a destination floor input signal from the elevator hall; and an elevator assignment section 7b which receives the destination floor input signal and gives an operation command to a designated elevator. When the destination floor registration device 4 is provided, the device is installed in a manner to be connectable to the elevator

7
hall communication section 7c. Each of the elevator controllers 8 is connected to the elevator communication section 7a.
The elevator hall communication section 7c of the group controller 7 sends a destination floor registration signal to the elevator assignment section 7b based on an input signal from the destination floor registration device 4.
This elevator assignment section 7b includes a destination floor registration device connection diagnosis portion for checking on the connection of the destination floor registration device 4. This portion makes diagnosis on the connection of the destination floor registration device by performing a test for a given length of time to determine whether or not the destination floor registration device 4 responds to a sent signal. The elevator assignment section 7b further includes a temporary call button connection diagnosis function portion for checking on the connection of the temporary call button 12. This temporary call button connection diagnosis function portion is actuated when the destination floor registration device connection diagnosis portion determines that the destination floor registration device is not connected. When it is determined that the temporary call button 12 is connected, the elevator assignment section 7b directs the

8
temporary call button 12 to allow upward or downward travel to be registered, operates a predetermined elevator as a temporary elevator, and outputs a predetermined command to the elevator controller 8. Alternatively, the disabled-accessible button 6 may also be used as a substitute for the temporary call button. When the destination floor registration device connection diagnosis portion determines that the destination floor registration device is not connected while the temporary call button connection diagnosis portion determines that the disabled-accessible button 6 is connected, the elevator assignment section 7b cancels settings that the disabled-accessible elevator car is called forward when the disabled-accessible button is pressed with the destination floor registration device connected, and issues, to the elevator controller 8, a predetermined instruction to operate the predesignated elevator as the temporary elevator.
Fig. 4 is a flow chart showing the steps of an operation procedure of the elevator system. In Step SI, the destination floor registration device connection diagnosis portion of the elevator assignment section 7b checks on the connection of the destination floor registration device. When it is determined that the destination floor registration device 4 is connected, the operation flow proceeds to Step S2 where the elevator

9
assignment section 7b waits for the destination floor registration device 4 to accept a destination floor registration. When the elevator assignment section 7b receives a destination floor registration signal from the destination floor registration device 4 via the elevator hall communication section 7c, the operation flow proceeds to Step S3 where the elevator assignment section 7b assigns any one of the plurality of elevators that is selected by group control algorithm to the destination floor registration signal. On the other hand, when it is determined in Step SI that the destination floor registration device 4 is not connected, the operation flow proceeds to Step S4 where the elevator assignment section 7b implements a temporary call button connection diagnosis function to check on the connection of the temporary call button. When it is determined that the temporary call button is connected, the operation flow proceeds to Step S5 where the elevator assignment section 7b registers a predetermined one of the plurality of elevators as a temporary elevator. It is noted that the temporary elevator is not necessarily limited to a particular one. Alternatively, the elevators may be designated as the temporary elevator in turn. When a travel direction is registered via the temporary call button 5a, 5b or the disabled-accessible button 6 (Step S6), the elevator

10
predetermined as the temporary elevator is assigned to the call (Step S7). A car of the elevator assigned in Step S3 or S7 arrives in Step S8. When the connection of the temporary call button is not determined in Step S4, the operation flow returns to the diagnosis in Step SI.
This embodiment is arranged such that when the destination floor registration device 4 is not connected but the temporary call button 5a, 5b or the disabled-accessible button 6 is connected, the predetermined elevator is operated as the temporary elevator, but the invention is not limited to this. For example, in case that all the destination floor registration devices 4a to 4d on the same floor fail due to device breakage or communication errors, an arrangement may be made such that if the disabled-accessible button 6 is installed, this button is adapted to allow the registration of the travel direction of all the elevators.
This embodiment ensures the prevention of device breakage during the period of installation work and the convenience for the installation workers and besides, negates the need for adding a group controller for the temporary call buttons. The embodiment also obviates the breakage or defacement of the destination floor registration devices and impairment of the convenience for the installation workers.

We claim:
1. An elevator system comprising:
a plurality of elevators; a group controller for control of the operations of the plurality of elevators; and
a destination floor registration device as a device which is used for registering a destination floor and is installed at an elevator hall, wherein
the group controller includes an elevator assignment section which assigns any one of the plurality of elevators to a call from the destination floor registration device or a temporary call button,
the elevator assignment section includes: a destination floor registration device connection diagnosis portion for checking on the connection of the destination floor registration device; and a temporary call button connection diagnosis portion for checking on the connection of the temporary call button, and
when the destination floor registration device is not connected to the group controller but the temporary call button is connected to the group controller, the elevator assignment section assigns any predetermined one of the plurality of elevators to an input from the temporary call button.

12
2. The elevator system according to Claim 1, wherein
the elevator assigned to the input from the temporary
call button is a particular one of the plurality of elevators.
3. The elevator system according to Claim 2, wherein
a disabled-accessible button is used in place of the temporary call button.
4. The elevator system according to Claim 3, wherein the
plurality of elevators include a disabled-accessible
elevator, and
when the disabled-accessible button is pressed with the destination floor registration device connected to the group controller, the elevator assignment section assigns the disabled-accessible elevator to a call from the disabled-accessible button, but when the disabled-accessible button is pressed with the destination floor registration device not connected to the group controller, the elevator assignment section assigns the predesignated one of the plurality of elevators except the disabled-accessible elevator to the call from the disabled-accessible button.