TWI704277B - Electronic locks - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic lock includes an electric lock mechanism, a touch panel and a control module. The touch panel includes a plurality of touch circuits, and a shielding circuit shielded between the touch circuits and the reference ground of the circuit substrate. When the control module starts the scan operation in the sleep mode, it scans each touch circuit in sequence, and charges the self-capacitance between the touch circuit and the reference ground with a constant current for a predetermined time under the condition of non-charge saturation. The shielding circuit applies a driving signal to charge the mutual capacitance between the shielding circuit and the touch circuit to a voltage higher than the self-capacitance voltage, and switches to the working mode when the electrical signal changes of the self-capacitance and the mutual-capacitance meet the human touch conditions. Through the structural design of the touch panel and the scanning function design of the control module, the electronic lock of the present invention can indeed improve the problem of false triggering by water.

Description

Electronic locks

The invention relates to a lock, especially an electronic lock.

Since electronic locks do not need to use traditional keys to unlock and lock, it can effectively avoid the dilemma of forgetting to replace the key when going out. In addition, many current electronic locks have the function of communicating with home network systems or mobile devices, so most of them Electronic locks have been used in all new projects, of which touch-sensitive electronic locks are more common. At present, the input interface of many touch electronic locks uses a capacitive touch panel. In addition to the touch operation feel which is closer to that of the current general mobile device, it is also relatively difficult to damage.

Capacitive touch panels mainly detect whether they are touched by sensing the change in the coupling capacitance between the touch point and the reference ground of the circuit board. Since the human body is mainly composed of water, which has a large dielectric property, Human body contact will cause significant changes in the aforementioned coupling capacitance. However, the current capacitive touch panel structure design used by many electronic locks has the problem of being falsely triggered by water, mainly because the design of this type of capacitive touch panel will reduce the interference of surrounding noise on the touch point. A ground wire is set around each touch point for shielding, but this design will also produce a response similar to human contact when the water droplets touch the touch point. When the water droplet touches the touch point, the water droplet will generate a capacitive coupling reaction with the touch point. It will also produce a strong capacitive coupling reaction with the ground wire, which will eventually cause the coupling capacitance between the touch point and the circuit board reference ground to become larger, causing the capacitive touch panel to generate a response signal similar to the human body contact operation, and the control of the electronic lock The circuit will be triggered by this reaction signal and switch from sleep state to working state. Therefore, when the electronic lock is easily triggered and woken up by mistake due to high humidity in the surrounding environment or rainwater, this will increase the energy consumption of the electronic lock, and sometimes even It will cause the electronic lock to malfunction.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an electronic lock that can improve at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art.

Therefore, the electronic lock of the present invention includes an electric lock mechanism, a touch panel for touch operation, and a control module that can scan and analyze the touch results of the touch panel to correspondingly control the action of the electric lock mechanism. The touch panel includes a circuit substrate, a plurality of touch circuits disposed on the circuit substrate, and a touch circuit disposed on the circuit substrate and surrounding the touch circuits for shielding and blocking the touch circuits and the circuit substrate The shielding circuit between the reference ground. The control module includes a scan control unit. The scan control unit is built-in with a working mode and a sleep mode that can be switched on. When the sleep mode is activated, a scan action is performed at a predetermined time interval to scan the A touch control circuit will charge a self-capacitance generated by coupling each touch circuit to be scanned and the reference ground of the circuit substrate with a constant current under the condition of no charging saturation for a predetermined time, and apply the shielding circuit A driving signal that charges a mutual capacitance generated by coupling the shielding circuit and the touch circuit to a voltage higher than the voltage of the self-capacitance, and analyzes the self-capacitance and the self-capacitance of the touch circuit to which the scanning signal is currently applied When the change of the electrical signal generated by the cooperation of the mutual capacitance meets a human touch condition, the working mode is switched and activated.

The effect of the present invention is: through the structural design of the touch circuits and the shielding circuit of the touch panel, and the functional design of the scanning control unit of the control module to scan the touch panel, the electronic lock of the present invention can be A more accurate judgment of whether the touch panel is operated by a human body can indeed improve the problem that the conventional electronic lock will be triggered by water and switch from the sleep state to the working state.

Before the present invention is described in detail, it should be noted that in the following description, similar elements are represented by the same numbers.

Referring to Figures 1, 2, and 3, an embodiment of the electronic lock of the present invention includes an electric lock mechanism 3 that can be controlled to be actuated to switch between an unlocked state and a locked state, and an electric lock mechanism 3 for the user to touch and operate The touch panel 4 for inputting a password and a signal connect the electric lock mechanism 3 and the control module 5 of the touch panel 4. Since the electric lock mechanism 3 has many types and is not the focus of the present invention, it will not be described in detail.

The touch panel 4 is a capacitive touch panel and includes a circuit substrate 41, and a plurality of touch circuits 42 and a shielding circuit 43 arranged on the circuit substrate 41 at intervals. The circuit substrate 41 has a front surface 411 and a back surface 412 opposite to each other. It must be noted that, during implementation, the touch panel 4 will also include a cover layer (not shown) of insulating material stacked on the front surface 411 of the circuit substrate 41 for human contact, and a capacitive touch panel. For other common components common to the control panel, since the cover layer and the common components are of many types and are not the focus of the present invention, the following will only describe the design of the touch circuit 42 and the shielding circuit 43.

Each touch circuit 42 has a sheet-shaped touch point 421 arranged on the front surface 411 of the circuit substrate 41 and used for sensing human touch, and a touch trace arranged on the back surface 412 of the circuit substrate 41 422. One end of the touch wire 422 is electrically connected to the touch point 421 and extends outward from the touch point 421, and its end far away from the touch point 421 is electrically connected to the control module 5. Since it is a conventional technology to electrically connect the touch traces 422 and the touch points 421 provided on the opposite sides of the circuit substrate 41, it will not be described in detail.

The shielding circuit 43 has a plurality of annular shielding ring portions 431 arranged at intervals on the front surface 411 of the circuit board 41, and a shielding ring portion 431 electrically connected to the shielding ring portions 431 and arranged on the back surface 412 of the circuit board 41后Shield 432. The shielding ring portions 431 are respectively adjacent to the touch points 421. The rear shielding portion 432 is relatively covering and shielding on the back side of the touch points 421, and the shielding is distributed on both sides of the length of the touch wires 422. The circuit structure design of the shielding circuit 43 can be used to shield the interference of the reference ground of the circuit substrate 41 to the touch circuits 42. In this embodiment, the rear shielding portions 432 are distributed in a mesh shape, but the implementation is not limited to this. Since it is a conventional technology to electrically connect the shielding ring portions 431 and the rear shielding portion 432 provided on the opposite sides of the circuit substrate 41, it will not be described in detail.

The control module 5 includes a scanning control unit 51 and a lock control unit 52. The scanning control unit 51 is built in a sleep mode and a working mode that can be switched on, and a plurality of corresponding touch circuits 42 are built in, and used to determine whether the touch circuits 42 are touched by a human body operated by the human body. Control conditions. When the scan control unit 51 starts the sleep mode, it executes a scan action every predetermined time interval to determine whether the touch panel 4 is operated, and when the work mode is started, it repeats the scan action. Next, to determine which touch point 421 of the touch panel 4 is touched by the human body.

When the scanning control unit 51 performs the scanning operation, it scans each touch circuit 42 in sequence. When scanning a touch circuit 42, it will use a constant current to the touch circuit 42 without charging saturation. A self-capacitance generated by coupling 42 with the reference ground of the circuit substrate 41 is charged for a predetermined time, and a driving signal is applied to the shielding circuit 43, and a mutual capacitor generated by coupling the shielding circuit 43 and the touch circuit 42 is charged to The voltage is higher than the voltage of the self-capacitance. Then, while the touch circuit 42 is scanned, measure and analyze the electrical signal changes generated by the capacitance changes of the self-capacitance and the mutual capacitance, and determine whether the electrical signal changes meet one of the built-in human touch conditions . If it is determined that the electrical signal change meets the corresponding human body touch condition, the operating mode is switched and activated, and if it is determined that the electrical signal change does not match the corresponding human body touch condition, the sleep mode is continued to be maintained.

When the scanning control unit 51 switches and activates the working mode and starts to perform the scanning operations repeatedly, it will generate a touch signal corresponding to the touch point 421 when it is analyzed and determined that one of the touch points 421 is operated by the human body.

In this embodiment, a square wave driving signal is applied to the shielding circuit 43, and the mutual capacitor is continuously charged to a high level voltage (for example, 5V) higher than the charging voltage of the self-capacitor, and a voltage lower than the The low-level voltage (for example, 0V) of the charging voltage of the self-capacitor, and analyze the charging voltage generated by charging the self-capacitor of the touch circuit 42 currently being scanned, respectively relative to the high-level voltage of the mutual capacitor The voltage difference with the low-level voltage changes (that is, the electrical signal change), and when the voltage difference changes meet a human body touch condition, the operating mode is switched and activated.

When scanning one of the touch circuits 42, when the touch point 421 of the touch circuit 42 is not touched by water or human body, the capacitance of the self-capacitance and the mutual capacitance will be approximately Constant, so the self-capacitor will be charged to a charge voltage of a predetermined potential (for example, 4V). The charge voltage of the self-capacitor is measured and analyzed relative to the high-level voltage (for example, 5V) and the low-level voltage of the mutual capacitor. The voltage difference of the level voltage (for example, 0V) is maintained at a predetermined value, for example, 1V and 4V.

When water touches the touch point 421 being scanned, the water will have capacitive coupling with the touch circuit 42 and the shielding circuit 43, and also with the reference ground of the circuit board 41, which will cause the The self-capacitance becomes larger, but the coupling between the water and the reference ground of the circuit substrate 41 is relatively weak (that is, the impedance is larger). In the case of charging the self-capacitor with a constant current for a predetermined time, the charging voltage of the self-capacitor will drop (for example, to 3V), and the high-level voltage and the low-level voltage of the mutual capacitor are respectively relative to the charging The voltage difference will change, such as 2V and 3V.

When a human body touches the touch point 421 being scanned, the human body will capacitively couple with the touch circuit 42 and the shielding circuit 43, and will also strongly couple with the reference ground of the circuit board 41, and because the human body is A grounded large capacitor, the contact of the human body will cause the increase of the self-capacitance to be significantly greater than that of water contact, and at the same time, it will provide a discharge path between the mutual capacitor and the reference ground of the circuit substrate 41, causing the mutual capacitor voltage to drop to 0V . At this time, when the self-capacitor is charged with a constant current for a predetermined time, the charging voltage of the self-capacitor will drop significantly (for example, down to 1V), and the charging voltage of the self-capacitor will have a difference with respect to the voltage of the mutual capacitor. It is 1V. When the scanned touch point 421 has water and is touched by the human body at the same time, the capacitance value of the self-capacitance will change greatly, and the measured electrical signal will change more.

Through pre-analysis and establishment of the corresponding electrical signal changes of each touch circuit 42 under water contact, human body contact, and water contact with the human body, etc., and the human body touch conditions are established accordingly to enable the The scanning control unit 51 determines whether the currently scanned touch circuit 42 is touched by a human body according to the human touch conditions, and only switches and activates the working mode when it is determined that the touch circuit 42 is touched by a human body. Therefore, the false trigger problem caused by water contacting the touch panel 4 can be eliminated.

The lock control unit 52 can be used to preset one or more correct password sets, and when the scan control unit 51 starts the working mode, it will receive a plurality of touch signals generated by the scan control unit 51 within a predetermined time An input code group is established, and when it is determined that the input code group matches one of the correct code groups, the electric lock mechanism 3 is controlled to act, for example, the electric lock mechanism 3 is controlled to lock or unlock.

In summary, through the structural design of the touch circuits 42 and the shielding circuit 43 of the touch panel 4, and the functional design of the scanning control unit 51 of the control module 5 to scan the touch panel 4, When the electronic lock of the present invention is used, the control module 5 can more accurately determine whether the touch panel 4 is touch-operated by the human body, which can indeed improve the conventional electronic lock that is triggered by water and switches from the sleep state to the The problem of working status is a rather innovative electronic lock design, which can greatly improve the quality of electronic locks. Therefore, the purpose of the invention can indeed be achieved.

However, the above are only examples of the present invention. When the scope of implementation of the present invention cannot be limited by this, all simple equivalent changes and modifications made in accordance with the scope of the patent application of the present invention and the content of the patent specification still belong to Within the scope of the patent for the present invention.

3: Electric lock mechanism 4: touch panel 41: Circuit board 411: front 412: back 42: Touch circuit 421: Touch point 422: Touch trace 43: shielding circuit 431: Shield Ring 432: Rear shield 5: Control module 51: Scan control unit 52: Lock control unit

Other features and effects of the present invention will be clearly presented in the embodiments with reference to the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram schematically illustrating the circuit configuration of the front surface of a touch panel of an embodiment of the electronic lock of the present invention; 2 is a schematic diagram schematically illustrating the circuit configuration of the back side of the touch panel of the embodiment; and Fig. 3 is a functional block diagram of the embodiment.

3: Electric lock mechanism

4: touch panel

5: Control module

51: Scan control unit

52: Lock control unit

Claims (5)

An electronic lock, including: An electric lock mechanism; A touch panel for touch operation, including a circuit substrate, a plurality of touch circuits disposed on the circuit substrate, and a touch circuit disposed on the circuit substrate and surrounding the touch circuits for shielding and blocking the The shielding circuit between the touch circuit and the reference ground of the circuit substrate; and A control module, which can scan and analyze the touch result of the touch panel to control the action of the electric lock mechanism correspondingly, includes a scan control unit, and the scan control unit has a built-in work mode and a sleep mode that can be switched on. When the sleep mode is activated, a scan action is performed at a predetermined time interval to scan the touch circuits sequentially, and a constant current is applied to each touch circuit and the circuit being scanned under the condition of non-charge saturation A self-capacitor generated by the reference ground coupling of the substrate is charged for a predetermined time, and a driving signal is applied to the shielding circuit, and a mutual capacitor generated by coupling the shielding circuit and the touch circuit is charged to a voltage higher than the voltage of the self-capacitor , And will analyze the electrical signal change generated by the cooperation of the self-capacitance and the mutual capacitance of the touch circuit to which the scan signal is currently applied, and switch to start the working mode when the touch condition of a human body is met. The electronic lock according to claim 1, wherein when the scan control unit activates the sleep mode and executes the scan operation, it applies a square wave driving signal to the shielding circuit to charge the mutual capacitance to a high level voltage And a low-level voltage, and analyze a charging voltage generated by charging the self-capacitance of the touch circuit currently being scanned, respectively relative to the voltage difference between the high-level voltage and the low-level voltage, and then When the voltage difference change meets a human body touch condition, the working mode is switched to start. The electronic lock according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the scanning control unit repeatedly executes the scanning action multiple times when the working mode is switched and activated, and analyzes and judges the self-capacitance of a touch circuit being scanned When the change of the mutual capacitance meets the human body touch condition, a touch signal corresponding to the touch circuit is output. The electronic lock according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the circuit substrate has a front surface and a back surface opposite to each other, and each touch circuit has a touch point disposed on the front surface and used for sensing human touch , And a touch trace arranged on the back surface and electrically connecting the touch point and the control module, the shielding circuit has a plurality of shielding rings arranged on the front surface of the circuit substrate and respectively surrounding the touch points Part, and a rear shield part electrically connected to the shield ring parts and arranged on the back surface of the circuit substrate, and the rear shield part is relatively covering and shielding on the back side of the touch points, and the shielding is distributed on the The touch trace is long to both sides. The electronic lock according to claim 4, wherein the rear shielding part is distributed in a net shape.

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