JP2002090204A - Meter box and water supply - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress the reflection of radio waves from the side and bottom of a meter box made of a metal, thereby eliminating the deterioration of radio wave propagation characteristics due to reflected waves, raise the communication reliability, and simply adjust for the best condition for transmission and reception. SOLUTION: Communication uses an antenna inside a water supply meter 30. Radio waves pass through a hole 27 of a cover 26 of a mail box 23. Ferrites 24b, 25b laid on the insides of its side wall 24 and bottom 25 absorb radio waves to suppress the radio waves from reflecting. A cover 17 of the meter 30 is manually turned to turn a meter indicator 19 and change the inner antenna' s orientation. An angle is selected for maximizing the receiving intensity which is checked by visually reading a symbol mark on a liquid crystalline indication.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a meter box used for installing a water meter, and a water facility including the meter box and a water meter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The applicant of the present invention has proposed a water meter for wireless meter reading that can be measured using wireless communication in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-151742 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-19927). This water meter is provided with a synthetic resin case on the upper part of the meter weighing unit, in which case a battery for power supply, a meter electronic unit for integrating the measured value, and a wireless unit for transmitting the integrated data as a radio signal in the form of a radio wave. The built-in antenna connected to the wireless unit is embedded in the case or the synthetic resin opening / closing lid provided in the case. Generally, when installing a water meter, it is arranged in a meter box. Meter boxes are often made of metal.

[0003]

When the side wall and the bottom of the meter box are made of metal, there is a problem that radio waves are reflected on these and the radio communication is hindered. Further, when the lid of the meter box is made of metal, there is a problem that the propagation of radio waves is hindered and the reliability of wireless communication deteriorates.

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a meter box which can solve such a problem. It is a second object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a water supply facility capable of transmitting and receiving radio waves satisfactorily during meter reading.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a meter box wherein at least an inner peripheral surface of a side wall and a bottom is formed of a radio wave absorber. It is.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the meter box of the first aspect, a hole for transmitting a radio wave is formed in the lid.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a water supply system including a meter box and a wireless meter reading water meter installed in the meter box. Can be changed in the horizontal plane, and multiple holes are drilled around the meter box lid around the water meter position, and at least the inner peripheral surface of the side wall and bottom of the box is radio wave absorbing. It is a water supply facility characterized by being formed by a body.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the water supply equipment according to the third aspect, a symbol mark for displaying the reception intensity of a radio wave in a plurality of stages is provided on a liquid crystal display section of the water meter.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2, reference numeral 30 denotes an electronic water meter for wireless meter reading connected to a water pipe 21, and reference numeral 22 denotes a water stopcock connected in series with the water meter 30. Reference numeral 23 denotes a meter box, which includes a side wall 24 having four side walls, and a lid 26 attached to the bottom and the side wall 24 so as to be openable and closable with hinges. 24 a is a side wall portion for passing the water pipe 21.
It is a notch formed in.

Reference numerals 24b and 25b denote radio wave absorbers attached to the inner peripheral surfaces of the side wall portion 24 and the bottom portion 25, respectively. In the embodiment, ferrite is used. Instead of attaching the ferrite to the inner peripheral surface, the side wall portion 24 and the bottom portion 25 may be formed of ferrite. These ferrites suppress the reflection of radio waves and prevent deterioration of radio wave propagation characteristics caused by the reflected radio waves.

The lid 26 has 16 slit-like holes 27 formed by dividing the circumference into 16 equal parts around the center YY of the water meter. As shown in FIG. 2 in particular, the hole 27 is formed radially with respect to the center Y of the water meter, that is, so that the longitudinal direction of the slit is oriented in the radial direction. This hole 2
Numeral 7 is filled with a resin stopper 40 to prevent intrusion of rain and dust. The top taper of hole 27 prevents the plug from falling.

In FIG. 2, a hole 28 formed below the cover 26 is not a hole through which a radio wave passes but a well-known hole (strictly, a notch) for a finger hook for opening the cover 26.

As shown in FIG. 3, the water meter 30 has a symbol mark which allows the direction of the antenna 14 to be changed in a horizontal plane and displays the radio wave reception intensity on the liquid crystal display section 12 for displaying the integrated flow rate in a plurality of stages. 12a to 12e.

In the water meter 30 shown in FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b), the water flowing from the inlet 1A of the lower case 1 passes through the strainer 2 and the nozzle of the inner case 3 to form a jet to rotate the impeller 4. Let it. The impeller 4 is rotatably supported by a pivot 5 that stands vertically at the center of the bottom of the inner case 3. Permanent magnet 4A provided at the upper end of the shaft of impeller 4
Rotates together with the impeller 4 to generate a rotating magnetic field. Pressure plate 6
Is mounted on the upper opening of the lower case 1 via an O-ring 7, and is attached to the lower case 1 in a watertight manner by screwing a holding screw 8 into a female screw on the upper part of the lower case 1.

An electronic circuit board 10 of the electronic circuit section 9 has a magnetic sensor 11 for detecting a rotating magnetic field of the permanent magnet 4A and converting the magnetic field into an electric signal, and an electronic circuit for calculating a flow integrated value from the electric signal of the magnetic sensor 11. A circuit, a liquid crystal display section 12 for displaying the integrated flow rate, a battery 13 for power supply, and an antenna 14 for transmitting the integrated flow rate by radio waves are mounted, and a lower plate 15 made of a non-magnetic material and a packing 16 are mounted on the lower plate 15. The electronic circuit section 9 is built in a watertight manner in an indicator section case 18 composed of a transparent cover 17 mounted in a watertight manner through the lower board 1.
5 is fixed. Thus, the indication unit case 18 and
The electronic circuit section 9 including the electronic circuit board 10 and the antenna 14 housed in the case 18 constitutes a meter indicating section 19.

The liquid crystal display unit 12 has five square symbol marks 12a to 12a in addition to the numerals for displaying the integrated flow values.
12e are arranged side by side, and these symbol marks are turned on according to the intensity of the received radio wave. In this case, the received signal strength is displayed in five levels. That is, only the symbol mark 12a is lit in the weakest radio wave, and 12a and 12
b lights up. In this way, as the reception intensity increases, the number of symbol marks illuminated as 12c, 12d, and 12e further increases. At the highest intensity, five symbol marks 12a to 12e are illuminated as shown. Thus, the symbol marks 12a to 12e form a so-called bar graph.

By the way, the meter indicating section 19 abuts the lower plate 15 of the indicating section case 18 on the upper part of the holding screw 8 so that
It is slidably and rotatably mounted on the upper part of the holding screw 8 by curling 0. Thus, the meter indicating unit 1
Numeral 9 is relatively rotatable with respect to the lower case 1 constituting the measuring section 21 and is capable of holding (fixing) its angular position at an arbitrary angle A relative to the lower case 1. The meter indicating section 19 is arranged to rotate about the axis YY of the impeller 4, and the magnetic sensor 11 is arranged on the axis YY of the impeller 4. This axis YY corresponds to the center YY of the water meter.

As shown in FIG.
Water meter 30 connected to the inlet and outlet of the
Is the axis XX connecting the inlet and the outlet of the lower case 1.
Faces the direction determined by the water pipe 21. In this installation environment, it may be difficult to obtain the best transmission / reception state depending on the directivity of the antenna 14 and the orientation of the antenna 14. At that time, the meter indicating section 19 is rotated by operating the cover 17 by hand, and the direction of the meter indicating section 19 is changed to the angle A in FIG. 3 so as to obtain the best reception state. By doing so, the direction of the antenna 14 is changed, and a good transmission / reception state is obtained.

In this manner, when changing the direction of the meter indicating section 19 and searching for the best reception state, the symbol mark displayed in a plurality of stages as a display function for monitoring the reception state serves as a guide. In addition, the slit-like holes 27 allow radio waves to pass effectively.

[0021]

Since the meter box of the present invention is constructed as described above, the radio wave absorber suppresses the reflection of radio waves and prevents the deterioration of radio wave propagation characteristics caused by the reflected radio waves. Therefore, transmission and reception during wireless meter reading can be reliably performed, and communication reliability is improved.

Furthermore, according to the second aspect of the present invention, even when the lid of the meter box is made of metal, the radio wave is transmitted through the hole, and there is no fear that the communication at the time of wireless meter reading is obstructed.

Furthermore, according to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to obtain the best transmission and reception state by changing the direction of the antenna according to the installation environment.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to easily determine the optimum direction of the antenna by checking the reception strength and the margin of the reception state with the symbol mark, and to improve the reliability of communication.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an embodiment of a water supply system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the embodiment of FIG.

3 (a) is a longitudinal sectional view and FIG. 3 (b) is a plan view of the water meter used in the embodiment of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 12 liquid crystal display parts 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d, 12e symbol mark 14 antenna 21 water pipe 23 meter box 24 side wall part 24b inner peripheral surface formed of ferrite 25 bottom part 25b inner peripheral surface formed of ferrite 26 lid 27 hole 30 water supply Meter Y-Y Center of meter

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G01F 1/00 G01F 1/00 Y 1/075 1/075 15/06 15/06 G08C 17/00 G08C 17/00 Z

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A meter box wherein at least an inner peripheral surface of a side wall and a bottom is formed of a radio wave absorber. 2. The meter box according to claim 1, wherein a hole for transmitting a radio wave is formed in the lid. 3. In a water supply system including a meter box and a wireless metering water meter installed in the meter box, an orientation of an antenna of the water meter can be changed in a horizontal plane, and a lid of the meter box has Water supply equipment characterized by forming a plurality of holes around the position of a water meter and forming at least an inner peripheral surface of a side wall and a bottom of the box with a radio wave absorber. 4. The water supply equipment according to claim 3, wherein a symbol mark for displaying the reception intensity of the radio wave in a plurality of stages is provided on the liquid crystal display section of the water meter.