CN215003792U - Low-cost independent intelligent water meter cover - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a low-cost independent intelligent water meter cover, which reads the pointer position of a dial of a base meter in a light reflection mode so as to calculate the actual water consumption and optimize the structure of a collecting head. Meanwhile, the intelligent meter cover can adopt measures such as high sealing and shielding, is tightly combined with a base meter, has extremely high capacity of preventing interference such as electricity, magnetism, light, humidity, dust and the like, and greatly prolongs the service life of the intelligent meter cover. The normal operation can be realized without or only by modifying the pointer of the base meter dial, the existing mechanical water meter production line can be utilized, the intelligent water meter is produced after the intelligent meter cover is additionally arranged, and the upgrading and the reconstruction of the old meter can be very conveniently realized.

Description

Low-cost independent intelligent water meter cover

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of water flow measurement, in particular to a method for automatically and intelligently measuring and reading water flow in tap water supply.

Background

In the field of tap water supply, automatic and intelligent control of water flow is urgently needed, and intelligent reading of water flow data is the most important factor. The current intelligent reading of water flow data mostly adopts a fully electronic or electromechanical integrated mode. The electromechanical integrated mode adopts the original high-stability mechanical water meter and an electronic identification mechanism. Electronic parts are susceptible to various environmental influences (e.g., high temperature, low temperature, high humidity, corrosion, dust, lightning, electromagnetic interference, power supply) causing data loss, a crash, and the like, and in the case of damage to electronic parts, it is difficult to ensure that the data stored therein can be reproduced. Meanwhile, the more complex the electronic component is, the higher the cost required for improving the stability and reliability thereof. The mechanical water meter has high adaptability to the environment, cannot be influenced by thunder, electromagnetic interference, power supply and the like, and can possibly obtain original water volume data even under the condition of extremely serious physical damage. The factors such as comprehensive cost and reliability, most of the current intelligent water meters adopt an electromechanical integrated mode, and most of the current intelligent water meters also reserve a mechanical counting part.

At present, the intelligent water meter in an electromechanical integrated mode mainly comprises: the utility model discloses a water meter, including impeller, round pointer or mechanical count number word wheel, the mechanical part of electric parts direct entering basic table, the rotation continuous count that adopts magnetism or light to impeller, round pointer or mechanical count number word wheel etc. carries out the flow and reads, or improve mechanical counter number wheel structure and directly read the word data with the photoelectric type, these two kinds of modes have electric parts, if this mode is used to traditional wet-type water gauge, the electronic sensing module receives high strength water pressure's impact, leads to sealing performance relatively poor, can't guarantee the life of electronic sensing module and the reliability of reading. Also adopt the camera to gather the image of counter and carry out OCR, this kind of mode involves microprocessor to the collection and the OCR of image data, the requirement to microprocessor's speed and memory space etc. is very high, OCR may consume great operating time, and adopt the camera to gather the image, certain distance of shooing needs to have, the volume of water gauge has very big change, can cause the water gauge to be difficult to at original water gauge incasement direct mount, the data of former counter has been hidden to the camera simultaneously, it is not very convenient … that the user reads original data

To sum up, the intelligent water meter of the electromechanical integrated mode at present mainly has the following defects:

1. the electronic part is connected with the mechanical part or needs direct mechanical or electrical connection, and the electronic part is difficult to be completely independent, so that the electronic part is difficult to be made into a truly independent intelligent electronic meter cover. It is also difficult to attach directly to the watch. Once the electronic part fails, it cannot be independently repaired. When old district intelligent transformation, periodic cycle inspection, electronic part trouble maintenance, the not totally independent table needs whole dismouting or whole change, causes the wasting of resources. The mechanical part for sensing or the data acquisition part in the base table has mechanical abrasion, and the service life is influenced.

2. The electronic part or the complete sealing and the complete shielding are difficult, and the anti-interference capability to electricity, magnetism, light, humidity, dust and the like is weak.

3. The electronic part or the counter window part of the original mechanical base table is shielded, and the user is not convenient to read the original data.

4. The electronic part is too complex, and the requirements on the speed, the memory space and the like of the microprocessor are very high.

5. The electronic part needs to operate continuously, which is not favorable for energy conservation and the like.

6. Or the whole volume is too large, which causes the difficulty of directly installing the water meter in the original water meter box.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the existing defects, the inventor proposes an independent intelligent tap water meter cover, and the application numbers are as follows: 2020213163686, the invention adopts 10 AD converters to convert the voltage signal on each photosensitive sensor into digital signal, the cost is higher, the invention provides a low-cost independent intelligent tap water meter cover, optimizes the structure of the original collecting head, adopts 10 low-power point light sources and 1 photosensitive sensor, can correctly collect water volume data only by 1 AD converter, greatly reduces the hardware cost. The invention provides a low-cost independent intelligent tap water meter cover which is not directly mechanically or electrically connected with a water meter base meter (original mechanical water meter), and the unique collecting head is adopted to read the pointer position of a dial of the base meter through a light reflection mode so as to further calculate the actual using flow. The invention does not need to shield the mechanical counter of the base meter, so the counting of the base meter can be directly read through the observation window of the intelligent meter cover; the rotation condition of the base meter circular pointer of the water meter can be checked through the circular pointer viewing port, and whether water is used or not is judged. Meanwhile, the invention only needs the light transmission of the collecting head, therefore, the intelligent meter cover can adopt measures such as high sealing, shielding and the like, can be tightly combined with the base meter, has extremely high interference capability of preventing electricity, magnetism, light, moisture, dust and the like, does not have the conditions of mechanical abrasion and the like, and greatly prolongs the service life of the intelligent meter cover. This intelligent table lid need not or only need modify base table dial pointer just can normal operating, not only usable current mechanical water meter production line, convenient install intelligent table lid additional after production intelligent water gauge, also very convenient the upgrading transformation that is used for old table. The completely independent intelligent meter cover is very beneficial to later-stage operation and maintenance, the intelligent meter cover is failed, field maintenance can be completed by simple replacement, and the overall operation and maintenance cost is greatly reduced.

The invention provides a low-cost independent intelligent water meter cover which only needs to use a photosensitive sensor to collect the brightness signal of the reflected light of each point light source at regular time, so that the requirements on the speed and the memory space of a microprocessor are very low, the reading speed is very high, the energy consumption is low, and simultaneously, the reading data is collected on an X0.1 dial, so that the water quantity reading precision can be further improved.

The intelligent meter cover is suitable for remote intelligent reading and other systems, and has the characteristics of convenience in installation, high data precision, accuracy in metering, reliability in reading and the like.

The invention provides a low-cost independent intelligent tap water meter cover, which comprises: a microprocessor (4); a PCB board (5); 10 point light sources (7, 9) in total; a light-sensitive sensor (8); the observation window (10) can directly view the reading of the original mechanical counter below without detaching the intelligent meter cover; a light shield (12); the circle pointer viewing aperture (13) can directly observe the rotation of the base meter circle pointer through the viewing aperture without disassembling the intelligent meter cover and the like, see the attached figures 8 and 9, and the parts are sealed and packaged together by using a metal shielding cover to form the intelligent meter cover. The intelligent meter cover is tightly connected with the base meter through the sealing gasket (3), and the connection can be further reinforced, so that the pollution and the interference of the outside to the glass of the dial plate of the base meter are prevented.

The top of this independent intelligent water meter table lid is equipped with shield (6). The dustproof cover (6) is connected with the intelligent meter cover through a movable hinge; the dustproof cover (6) can protect the observation window (10) and the round pointer observation port (13) from being polluted by dust; the dustproof cover (6) is opened, the reading of the counter of the base meter can be directly read through the fully transparent observation window (10), the rotation of the round pointer of the base meter can also be directly observed through the fully transparent round pointer observation port (13), and the intelligent meter cover does not need to be detached.

The 10 point light sources (7, 9) are arranged on a light shield (12) around a photosensitive sensor (8) at the center to form a collecting head, the front ends of the point light sources and the photosensitive sensor arranged on the light shield are provided with light holes and shading holes, and the point light sources light holes (21) and the photosensitive sensor shading holes (22) are all transparent, which is shown in fig. 3 and 4. The number of the point light sources is 10, and the point light sources are arranged right above each scale of the dial and correspond to the scales of 0-9 on the dial one by one. The point light source emits light to the dial through a light-transmitting hole (21) in the light shield. The light sensor receives light reflected by the dial through a light blocking aperture (22).

The light rays of the micro-power consumption laser head and the high-brightness white light LED can generate ideal point light sources through condensation of a condenser lens and the like; the spot size that the pointolite jetted out should satisfy through dial surface reflection, and the light just in time can shoot the photosensitive sensor in center, and through dial pointer reflection, the light can not shoot the photosensitive sensor in center.

The working principle of the collecting head is shown in figure 4: the point light source (7) on the left side of fig. 4 does not have the arrow portion of the dial pointer underneath, so that light can be directed onto the dial, and reflected by the dial surface, and can be directed to the central photosensor (8) (see the light path indicated by the dashed line 19 in fig. 4), so that the photosensor (8) can detect a strong light intensity. Whereas the point light source (9) on the right in fig. 4 has the arrow part of the dial pointer thereunder, so that the light of the point light source cannot directly strike the dial, but is reflected by the arrow part of the dial pointer at a higher position, and the light cannot strike the photosensor (8) in the center (see the light path indicated by the broken line 18 in fig. 4), so that the photosensor (8) can detect a darker light intensity.

From the above principle, it can be seen that if the photosensitive sensor (8) detects darker brightness, it indicates that the currently-illuminated point light source has an arrow of the dial pointer below it, i.e., the scale indicated by the current dial pointer is the scale value of the dial corresponding to the point light source.

In order to ensure that the scale marks can be correctly obtained at any time, the design is to ensure that the arrow of the pointer of the scale can at least intercept at any time (the pointer of the scale intercepts and reflects the light rays towards the scale in advance, so that the light rays cannot be directly reflected onto the photosensitive sensor, the same applies below) the light rays emitted by one point light source enter the photosensitive sensor (namely, at least one point light source emits light rays, and the photosensitive sensor detects darker brightness), the arc angle of the point light source at the tip part of the pointer is ensured to be between 36 and 72 degrees (which is recommended to be slightly larger than 36 degrees), and the design is as shown in fig. 5: the virtual circular arc 23 is a light irradiation area formed by connecting light spots irradiated on the dial by each point light source; the arc line 24 is a spot irradiation area of the point light source irradiating on the dial pointer; the arc angle of the imaginary arc line 24 to the central axis of the pointer is controlled to be between 36 and 72 degrees.

Because the arc angle of the area irradiated by the point light source at the pointer tip part is between 36 degrees and 72 degrees, 2 adjacent point light sources can possibly appear to enable the photosensitive sensor to measure darker light brightness, and the scale of the dial corresponding to the point light source can be uniformly specified to be larger (or smaller) when the microprocessor processes the light.

According to the principle of the collecting head, the following modes are adopted to effectively improve the brightness of light entering the photosensitive sensor or improve the intensity difference of light and dark light:

1. increasing the brightness of the point source or focusing the light to be finer (smaller spot).

2. The distance between the light reflected by the dial and the light reflected by the pointer can be increased by appropriately increasing the height of the dial pointer from the dial.

3. By appropriately increasing the incident angle of the light, the distance between the dial reflection light and the pointer reflection light can be increased.

4. The dial is made of high-light-reflection materials, so that the brightness of the light reflected by the dial can be improved; the pointer of the dial is made of a weak light-reflecting material, so that the brightness of light reflected by the pointer of the dial can be reduced.

5. The shape of the arrow portion of the dial pointer is modified to make the dial pointer more efficient at intercepting light. See fig. 6, 7.

According to the principle of the collecting head, the inclined installation angle of each point light source is comprehensively determined according to the thickness of dial glass, the position of a dial and the position of a pointer of the dial, so that light rays emitted by the point light sources can be normally emitted into the photosensitive sensor after being reflected by the dial, and the light rays emitted by the point light sources can not be emitted into the photosensitive sensor after being reflected by the pointer of the dial.

The pick-up head is mounted on an X0.1 dial of the water meter. The dial indicator rotates one circle into one cube.

The water meter has the following relevant provisions for flow rate according to relevant standards: the 4 minutes (15mm) table has three flows of N0.6, N1 and N1.5, wherein the common flow of N1.5 is 1.5 square/hour, and the maximum flow is 3 square/hour; 6 minutes (20mm) table N2.5 the usual flow rate is 2.5 square/hour, the maximum flow rate is 5 square/hour; 1 inch (25mm) table N3.5 general flow 3.5 square/hour, maximum flow 7 square/hour; 1.5 inch (40mm) N10 flow rate is 10 square/hour, maximum flow rate is 20 square/hour; 2 cun (50mm) N15 is usually used in 15 formula/hr, maximum 30 formula/hr.

When the microprocessor is programmed, the time for reading data of the acquisition head at the maximum flow design interval of each water meter can be referred, so that the dial pointer cannot rotate fully within one circle in the acquisition time interval. For example, as shown in the table N1.5, a maximum of 1200 seconds X0.1 is required to read data once every 1000 seconds. N3.5 table, maximum 514 seconds X0.1 dial pointer is rotated once, and data is read once every approximately 500 seconds.

When the microprocessor uses the collecting head to collect data, 10 point light sources can be sequentially lightened, the voltage signal on the photosensitive sensor at each time is converted into a digital signal by the AD converter (the higher the light brightness on the photosensitive sensor is, the higher the voltage generated by the photosensitive sensor is), the current point light source is closed in time after single collection, and 10 times of data are collected totally. The microprocessor records the scale of the dial corresponding to the 10 point light sources and the collected voltage signal data on the photosensitive sensor at the same time, and binds the data in sequence. And sequencing the 10 data from high to low, taking the average value of the maximum 8 data, wherein the average value should be obviously different from the minimum one (10 th), and otherwise, adjusting the brightness of the point light source and re-collecting the data. Judging whether the 10 th data is obviously different from the 9 th data, wherein the scales corresponding to the 10 th point light source are the current data; if the 10 th data and the 9 th data have no obvious difference, the scales corresponding to the two point light sources are adjacent, and the larger scale value corresponding to the 10 th and the 9 th point light sources is taken as the current data according to the program convention; if the 10 th data and the 9 th data have no obvious difference, but the scales corresponding to the two point light sources are not adjacent, the brightness of each point light source is adjusted, and the data are collected again. The voltage signal on the photosensor can also be shaped and then directly converted into an I/O signal (it is assumed here that the higher the brightness of the light on the photosensor, the higher the voltage it generates, i.e. the higher the brightness is at a high level, and the lower the brightness is at a low level), and the corresponding state of each point light source is read by the I/O channel. In 10I/O data, if only 1 time is low level, the scale corresponding to the point light source is the current data; if the two points of light sources are low level for 2 times and the scales corresponding to the two points of light sources are adjacent, taking a larger value according to the program convention; if the situation is not the case, the brightness of the light source of each point is adjusted, and data is collected again.

When the microprocessor is programmed, if the acquired data is the same as the data acquired last time, indicating that water is not used in the interval; the acquired data is larger than the last time, and the one-bit non-carry bit of the water consumption in the interval is represented; the data collected was smaller than the last time, indicating that a carry in one bit of water was used in that interval (note: the dial indicator did not make a full turn in one time interval).

In order to read water quantity data with higher precision, the collecting head can also be arranged on other dial plates of the water meter, and the timing collecting time interval of the microprocessor also needs to be correspondingly adjusted.

It can be seen from the above that the electronic part of the cover of the low-cost independent intelligent running water meter is very simple, the requirements on the speed of the microprocessor, the memory space and the like are very low, meanwhile, the electronic part does not need to continuously operate, is in a dormant state for most of time, has extremely high reading speed, and is very beneficial to energy conservation and the like. The long-time dormant state also greatly improves the anti-interference performance and the like of the meter cover. Simultaneously, the additional thickness of this low-cost independent intelligent table lid can be controlled within the several centimeters completely, can not influence the water gauge and directly install in original water meter box.

Drawings

FIG. 1: a schematic diagram of a water meter dial;

FIG. 2: a dial;

FIG. 3: a pick head schematic;

FIG. 4: a schematic view of a pick head;

FIG. 5: a pick head and a dial;

FIG. 6: is a modified dial pointer of fig. 2;

FIG. 7: another dial pointer modified from that of fig. 2;

FIG. 8: the whole structure diagram of the intelligent water meter;

FIG. 9: the structure diagram of the intelligent meter cover part;

the reference numbers are as follows:

1. a dial; 2. a dial pointer; 3. a gasket; 4. a microprocessor; 5. a PCB board; 6. a dust cover; 7. a point light source; 8. a photosensitive sensor; 9. a point light source; 10. an observation window; 11. a smart meter cover; 12. a light shield; 13. a circular pointer viewing port; 14. a dial glass; 15. reading window of original mechanical counter; 16. an original mechanical counter; 17. a base table; 18. an optical path; 19. an optical path; 20. an impeller (circular pointer); 21. a light-transmitting hole; 22. a light-shielding hole; 23. light spots of each point light source irradiating on the dial are connected to form a light irradiation area; 24. the point light source illuminates a spot illumination area on the dial pointer.

Detailed Description

The invention provides a low-cost independent intelligent tap water meter cover, which comprises: a microprocessor (4); a PCB board (5); 10 point light sources (7, 9) in total; a light-sensitive sensor (8); the observation window (10) can directly view the reading of the original mechanical counter below; a light shield (12); a round pointer viewing port (13) and the like, and referring to fig. 8 and fig. 9, the components are sealed and packaged together by using a metal shielding case to form the intelligent meter cover. The intelligent meter cover is tightly connected with the base meter through the sealing gasket (3), and the connection can be further reinforced, so that the pollution and the interference of the outside to the glass of the dial plate of the base meter are prevented.

The top of this independent intelligent water meter table lid is equipped with shield (6). The dustproof cover (6) is connected with the intelligent meter cover through a movable hinge; the dustproof cover (6) can protect the observation window (10) and the round pointer observation port (13) from being polluted by dust; the dustproof cover (6) is opened, the reading of the counter of the base meter can be directly read through the fully transparent observation window (10), the rotation of the round pointer of the base meter can also be directly observed through the fully transparent round pointer observation port (13), and the intelligent meter cover does not need to be detached.

The 10 point light sources (7, 9) are arranged on the light shield (12) around the photosensitive sensor (8) at the center to form the collecting head, and the point light source light-transmitting hole (21) and the photosensitive sensor light-shielding hole (22) of the collecting head are completely light-transmitting, as shown in fig. 3 and 4. The number of the point light sources is 10, and the point light sources are arranged right above each scale of the dial and correspond to the scales of 0-9 on the dial one by one. The point light source emits light to the dial through a light-transmitting hole (21) in the light shield. The light sensor receives light reflected by the dial through a light blocking aperture (22).

The light rays of the micro-power consumption laser head and the high-brightness white light LED can generate ideal point light sources through condensation of a condenser lens and the like; the spot size that the pointolite jetted out should satisfy through dial surface reflection, and the light just in time can shoot the photosensitive sensor in center, and through dial pointer reflection, the light can not shoot the photosensitive sensor in center.

Above-mentioned intelligent table lid passes through sealing washer, reinforcement etc. and installs additional in water gauge base table top, prevents external pollution and the interference to base table dial plate glass, and the shield of intelligence table lid top constitutes complete intelligent water gauge in addition.

The collecting head in the intelligent meter cover is positioned right above the base meter X0.1 dial, and the light rays of the point light source which are emitted to the dial can meet various requirements of the collecting head principle.

When the intelligent meter cover is used for the first time, the meter number, the acquisition interval time, the transmission interval time and the like are set, and the data are stored in a nonvolatile memory of the microprocessor; at the same time, the initialization program is started to initialize the integral number water volume (usually set to 0, the value is just the integral water volume used in the period of time when the water is transmitted, and the clear is 0 after the water is transmitted correctly) and the small number water volume (reading the current dial pointer), and the small number water volume is also stored in the nonvolatile memory of the microprocessor.

And starting the collecting head every time the collecting interval is reached, and collecting corresponding data. If the collected data is the same as the decimal water amount, indicating that no water is used in the interval; the acquired data is larger than the decimal place water volume, the unit of the water consumption in the interval has no carry, and the acquired data is directly written into the decimal place water volume; the acquired data is smaller than the decimal place water volume, the unit representing the water consumption in the interval has carry, the value in the integral digit water volume is added by 1, and the acquired data is written into the decimal place water volume.

Starting a transmission program when the transmission interval time or the mobile acquisition terminal arrives, transmitting the table number and the integral digital water volume, and clearing the integral digital water volume to be 0 after the correct transmission. In order to further improve the water quantity precision, the data of the decimal water quantity can be transmitted, and the decimal water quantity can be corrected by the data center.

The precision of the acquired data is further improved, the acquisition head can be arranged above an X0.01 and other scales, and the acquisition interval time can be adjusted correspondingly.

The above description is only an embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned examples, and any person who is guided by the present specification can be protected by the present invention by modifying the structure of the acquisition head, the manner of acquiring data, the manner of processing the acquired data, and other equivalents, changes, or direct or indirect applications in other related technical fields.

Claims (4)

1. The utility model provides a low-cost independent intelligent water meter table lid which characterized in that: the device comprises a microprocessor (4), a PCB (5), point light sources (7, 9), a photosensitive sensor (8), an observation window (10), a light shield (12) and a round pointer observation port (13) which are sealed and packaged together by using a metal shielding cover; the intelligent meter cover is tightly connected with the base meter by a sealing gasket (3) to prevent the outside from polluting and interfering the glass of the dial plate of the base meter, and the dust cover (6) is used for protecting the observation window (10) and the circular pointer observation port (13) from being polluted by dust; the 10 point light sources (7, 9) are arranged on a light shield (12) around a photosensitive sensor (8) at the center to form a collecting head; the front ends of the light source and the photosensitive sensor at the mounting point on the light shield (12) are provided with a light hole (21) and a shading hole (22); 10 point light sources (7, 9) are arranged right above each scale of the dial and correspond to the scales of 0-9 on the dial one by one; the light holes (21) and the light shielding holes (22) are all light-transmitting, the point light sources (7 and 9) emit light to the dial through the light holes (21), and the photosensitive sensor receives the light reflected by the dial through the light shielding holes (22).

2. The cover of a low-cost independent intelligent tap water meter according to claim 1, wherein: the collecting head reads the pointer position of the dial of the base meter in a light reflection mode, and then the actual using flow is calculated.

3. The cover of a low-cost independent intelligent tap water meter according to claim 1, wherein: a fully transparent observation window (10) is arranged above the mechanical counter of the base meter, and a dustproof cover (6) is connected with the intelligent meter cover through a movable hinge; the dustproof cover is opened, the reading of the counter of the base meter can be directly read through the observation window, and the intelligent meter cover does not need to be detached.

4. The cover of a low-cost independent intelligent tap water meter according to claim 1, wherein: a fully transparent round pointer observation port (13) is arranged above the round pointer of the base meter, and the rotation of the round pointer of the base meter can be directly observed through the observation port without disassembling the intelligent meter cover.

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