Patent ID: 7908052

Claim:
A maintenance system comprising: a plurality of equipment units each associated with a monitoring unit, the monitoring unit being configured to monitor the respective equipment unit, the monitoring unit including, a test unit configured to test proper operation of each equipment unit and to issue fault messages when testing indicates a failure of the respective equipment unit, and a non-volatile memory unit configured to store at least the fault messages; a central maintenance unit configured to communicate with test units of the plurality of equipment units, the central maintenance unit including a diagnosis unit configured to check a state of the plurality of equipment units by using the fault messages, and to generate a report on an overall state of operation of the maintenance system; and a data transmission link configured to provide a data connection between the plurality of equipment units and the central maintenance unit, wherein the central maintenance unit makes the report available on the data transmission link, and each of the plurality of equipment units include a detection circuit configured to detect and capture the report from the data transmission link, and to transfer the report from the data transmission link into a respective non-volatile memory unit after the report is available on the data transmission link.