AU600124B2

AU600124B2 - Coin selector

Info

Publication number: AU600124B2
Application number: AU15307/88A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Shinji Yokomori
Original assignee: Fuji Electric Co Ltd
Current assignee: Fuji Electric Co Ltd
Priority date: 1987-05-06
Filing date: 1988-04-29
Publication date: 1990-08-02
Anticipated expiration: 2008-04-29
Also published as: JP2501850B2; AU1530788A; KR880014498A; JPS6453292A; KR910008807B1

Description

i ;il 3 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA6 0 2 FORM PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECT FTlATTCN FOR OFFICE USE: Class Int.Class Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: o Priority: Related Art: Ob4 ame of Applicant: 0 This document contains the amendrmnts made under Section 49 and is correct for printig.

^c.lt>run FUJI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.

Address of Applicant: I n S ctual Inventor: *Actual Inventor: 1-1, Tanabeshinden, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki, 210 Japan Shinui Yokomori Address for Service: SHELSTON WATERS, 55 Clarence Street, Sydney Complete Specification for the Invention entitled: 4 a "COIN SELECTOR" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- -1-

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1. Detailed Description of the Invention: Industrial Field The present invention relates to a coin selector provided with a coin selecting sensor along a coin passage, so that the genuiness of the coin rolling in the coin passage may be discriminated based on the output of this coin selecting sensor.

Prior Art Fig. 3 is a principle structural drawing showing c t f t2 t r 9$/ 2 n 4i I 1 1

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i a principal part of a coin selector of this type which is installed in an automatic vending machine, etc.

A coin 3 which is thrown in through a coin charing port 1 rolls in a coin passage 2, and the characteristics of the coin 3 are detected by a coin selecting sensor L1 consisting of a selecting coil provided along this coin passage 2. The characteristic value thus detected is compared with an upper limit value and a lower limit value stored beforehand in a memory (not shown). If the detected 0 t characteristic value falls between the upper limit value and the lower limit value, the coin is judged as a specie, and otherwise, as a false coin. Then, a distributing gate 4 is driven based on the result of such judgement: thereby to contain a specie by distributing it to a specie passage 5 and to return a false coin by distributing it to a return passage 6.

<Problems to Be Solved by the Invention> Now, in such a coin selector, dispersion is generated in the characteristic value detected with a charged coin by the coin selecting sensor because of the dispersion in the characteristic of the coin selecting Ssensor. Therefore, it is required to set abovementioned upper limit value and lower limit value for genuiness -3-

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discrimination conforming to the detected characteristic value of the coin selecting sensor for every coin selector. Furthermore, these upper limit value ',nd lower limit value require programmable special memory for setting and must be set for every coin type to be selected.

Accordingly, in case of a mass production of the coin selector, the more the variety of coin is, the larger capacity of the special memory for setting the upper limit value and the lower limit value is required, and the setting confirmation work performed after assembling the coin selector becomes more complicated accordingly.

It is an object of the present invention which has been made in view of the problems described above to provide a coin selector which is capable of correcting dispersion for each coin selector only by setting a central value in accordance with the detected characteristic value of the coin selecting sensor after assembling individual coin selector.

Means to Solve the Problems According to one broad form the present invention provides a coin selector provided with a coin selecting sensor for detecting characteristics of a coin passing through a coin passage, comprising: a first memory which stores a central value of a detected characteristic value of said coin selecting sensor in case a specie is passing through said coin passage; a second memory which stores a tolerance for judging 4

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the coin passing through said coin passage to be a specie; and a genuiness discriminating means for discriminating the genuiness of the coin passing through said coin passage by judging whether the detected characteristic value of said coin selecting sensor falls within said tolerance against said central value or not, said genuiness discriminating means includes a difference computing circuit which computes an absolute value being the difference between the detected characteristic value tiff of said coin selecting sensor and said central value and a t t r comparator which compares the absolute value with said I •tolerance; and wherein the tolerance memory stores an upper limit width and a lower limit width as said tolerance, and the genuiness discriminating means also includes an adder which adds said central value to said upper limit width, a subtracter which subtracts said lower limit width from said central value, and a comparator which compares the detected characteristic value of said coin selecting sensor with the addition output of said adder and the subtraction output of said subtracter.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter referring to drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing a principal part of a circuit configuration in an embodiment according to the present invention; Fig. 2 shows characteristic diagrams for explaining the embodiment shown in Fig. 1; 5 Fig. 3 i~s a principle structural drawing showing a principal part of the configuration employed in a conventional device and in an embodiment according to the present invention; a 00 00040 h0 00 0 a *G 0 0 0 000060 0 0 -6 Fig. 4 is a block circuit diagram showing a principal part of the circuit configuration in another embodiment according to the present invention; and Fig. 5 shows characteristic diagrams for explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing the composition of principal circuit in an embodiment according to the present invention, wherein the arrangement of a coin passage 2 and a coin selecting sensor L1, etc. are provided similarly to those shown in a,a Fig. 3. Fig. 2 shows characteristic diagrams for 0000 explaining the operation of this embodiment.

Oo In Fig. 1, a bridge circuit 10 is formed with coin selecting sensor Ll, inductance L2, and resistors RI, R2, and an oscillator OSC is connected as a power supply of this bridge circuit 10. The detected voltage of this bridge circuit 10 is applied to a differential amplifier o circuit 11, and the output voltage thereof is converted, a. into a detected characteristic value A in a digital value through an AD converter 13 and input to a difference computing circuit 14. At another input terminal of the difference computing circuit 14 is given a central value M #Goo*: B iB classified by coin type which is output from a central Svalue memory 17, and an absolute value I A-MI which is the I difference by coin type obtained by subtracting each central value M from the detected characteristic value A is output from this difference computing circuit 14 and input to a comparator 15. At another input terminal of i U-7- 7N O's

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the comparator 15 is given a tolerance N by coin type which is output from a tolerance memory 18. In the comparator 15, the absolute value IA-MI of the differences for respective coin types is compared consecutively with respective corresponding coin types, and in case A-M 4 N, viz, 4 A 4 logical is output, and in case IA-M I N, logical is output, and the output is input to a discriminating circuit 16.

Fig. 2 shows the elapsed variation of the output value (detected characteristic value) A of the AD converter 13 when the coin 3 is charged in the coin passage 2 (Fig. and Fig. 2 shows the elapsed variation of the output CP corresponding to Fig. 2 Here, the genuiness discrimination is performed in such a manner that, if the peak value of the detected characteristic value A lies between and for a St particular coin type when the coin 3 passes the coin selecting sensor L1 as shown in Fig. 3 it is judged as a specie of relevant coin type as shown in Fig, In other words, when a pulse which shows only once is input to the discriminating circuit 16 from the comparator 15, the coin is judged as a specie in this embodiment. In this embodiment, the genuiness discriminating means is consisted of the difference computing circuit 14, the 1comparator 15 and the discriminating circuit 16, Fig. 4 is a block circuit diagram showing a circuit configuration of a principal part in another embodiment according to the present invention. Same symbols are 8- 1 ii i given to the parts same as those shown in Fig. 3 and Fig.

1. Fig. 5 shows characteristic diagrams for explaining the operation of this embodiment. In Fig. 4, a bridge circuit 10 is formed with coin selecting sensor L1, inductance 2 and resistors R1, R2, and an oscillator OSC is connected. The output of this bridge circuit 10 is applied to the differential amplifier 11, converted into the detected characteristic value A in a digital value through a rectifying circuit 12 and an AD converter 13, and input to a comparator 150. An upper limit width NH *O t and a lower limit width N L are stored in a tolerance memory 180 as a tolerance. NH is input to an adder 141 and NL is input to a subtracter 142, respectively. At another input of the adder 141 and the subtracter 142 is input a central value M stored in a central value memory 17. The addition output M+NH from the adder 141 and the tH subtraction output M-NL from the subtracter 142 are input to the comparator 150, respectively, and compared with the detected characteristic value A. When M-NL A K M+NH, the output CP of the comparing circuit 150 shows and when A M-N L or M+NH A, the output CP shows and it is input t, the discriminating circuit 16.

Here, the specie discrimination is made in such a A, manner that, in case the peak value of the detected SI characteristic value A lies between M-NL and M+NH when the coin 3 passes the coin selecting sensor LI, the coin is judged as a specie as shown in Fig. 5. In other words, when a pulse which shows only once is input to the

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9 discriminating circuit 16 from the comparator 150, the coin is judged as a specie in this embodiment. In this embodiment, the genuiness discriminating means is consisted of the adder 141, the subtracter 142, the comparator 150 and the discriminating circuit 16.

In this embodiment, a tolerance is stored which defines an upper limit width and a lower limit width to be used on every coin specie as opposed to storing individual values for each specie. Therefore, it is possible to make it easy to exclude a false coin which shows characteristics closely resembling to one side by makin the tolerance width thereof smaller.

Effects of the Invention f, According to the present invention described above, a central value memory and a tolerance memory are provided, and dispersion for each coin selector can be corrected only by setting a central value corresponding to the detected characteristic value of the coin selecting sensor after assembling individual coin selector. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the capacity of a special memory for setting a central value as compared with a conventional memory for setting the upper limit value and f the lower limit value, thereby to reduce the setting S confirmation work, too.

i ^Thus, the cost may be reduced sharply by applying the 1 ,present invention in mass production of the coin selector.

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Claims

1- 1I:1 YI THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:- 1. A coin selector provided with a coin selecting sensor for detecting characteristics of a coin pass,. ough a coin passage, comprising: a first memory which stores a central value of a detected characteristic value of said coin selecting sensor in case a specie is passing through said coin passage; a second memory which stores a tolerance for judging 00 the coin passing through said coin passage to be a 0 aS 0**a10 specie; and to\ a genuiness discriminating means for discriminating o" the genuiness of the coin passing through said coin 1 passage by judging whether the detected characteristic value of said coin selecting sensor falls within said tolerance against said central value or not, said genuiness discriminating means includes a difference computing circuit which computes an absolute value being 0. 0 the difference between the detected characteristic value of said coin selecting sensor and said central value and a 20 comparator which compares the absolute value with said S tolerance; and wherein the tolerance memory stores an S-'i upper limit width and a lower limit width as said tolerance, and the genuiness discriminating means also includes an adder which adds said central value to said upper limit width, a subtracter which subtracts said lower limit width from said central value, and a comparator which compares the detected characteristic value of said 1- 12 I I ~nJC~ coin selecting sensor with the addition output of said adder and the subtraction output of said subtracter.

2. A coin selector substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 or Figures 4 and 5 of the accompanying drawings. DATED this 14th day of May, 1990. FUJI ELECTRIC CO., LTD. Attorney: WILLIAM S. LLOYD Fellow Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia of SHELSTON WATERS *t s I *1 I 4 0 a 12