JP2000207623A - Controller for vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To transmit data to plural centers, which have modems different by operation conditions, by one modem. SOLUTION: A vending machine transmits data to centers A and B through a modem 4 and a public line 9. In this case, a modem 10 of the center A and a modem 12 of the center B are different by operation conditions. Then, operation conditions of modems 10 and 12 of centers A and B are preliminarily stored, and the vending machine sets an operation condition of its own modem 4 in accordance with the operation condition of the modem in the transmission destination when transmitting data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a vending machine control device having a function of transmitting internal data of a vending machine to a center.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, vending machines record sales data and failure data of sold products, and vending machine managers can read the sales data and failure data with a handy terminal or use a public line. It manages vending machines by receiving it via communication using. Among them, when exchanging sales data and failure data by communication using a public line, a modem is provided on each of the vending machine side and the center side for communication.

[0003]

When the same manager at the center receives sales data and failure data from a vending machine, communication can be performed by a predetermined communication procedure using a predetermined modem. No problem. However,
When it is necessary to send data to a different manager for one vending machine, for example, in an vending machine that can trade with electronic money, send electronic money transaction data to a company that performs electronic money settlement, It may be necessary to send failure data to another company that maintains vending machines.

[0004] In such a case, the operating conditions of the modem may differ depending on the receiving company, and it becomes necessary for the vending machine to incorporate a plurality of modems corresponding to them, resulting in an increase in cost. There was a problem.

The present invention solves such a problem and solves the problem.
An object of the present invention is to enable one modem to transmit data to a plurality of centers having modems with different operating conditions.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a vending machine control device according to the present invention is a vending machine control device for transmitting data to a plurality of destinations having different operating conditions of a modem. The operating conditions of the plurality of transmission destination modems are stored in a memory, and when transmitting data,
The operating conditions of the modem at the transmission destination are read out from the memory, and the operating conditions of the own modem are set. In this way, one modem can transmit data to a plurality of destinations having modems with different operating conditions.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a data transmission system diagram of a vending machine. The main control device 1 integrally controls a terminal control unit that controls each unit of the vending machine, such as the input device 3, the modem 4, the card receiving device 5, the coin identification device 6, the customer service control device 7, and the sales organization 8.

The input device 3 sets various data.
The modem 4 communicates with an external center through a public line 9. The card receiving device 5
Each data of the card is read by a manual insertion type, a motor retraction type, a hand scan type, or the like, and the main controller 1 is notified. When a coin is inserted, the coin identification device 6 identifies the denomination and notifies the main control device 1 of the denomination. The customer service control device 7 controls a product selection button and a price indicator (not shown). The sales mechanism 8 carries out the product selected by the product selection button.

The center A is, for example, a card company that manages transaction data of electronic money, and the center B is, for example, an operator of a vending machine.
B includes modems 10 and 12 and computers 11 and 13 for data management, respectively. The computer 11 of the center A totals transaction data of electronic money sent from a large number of electronic money terminals including vending machines. Further, the computer 13 of the center B manages operation data such as failure data transmitted from each vending machine that is managed by the center B.

The modems 10 and 12 of the centers A and B have different specifications and operating conditions such as, for example, the presence or absence of error correction and the presence or absence of data compression. Therefore, it is necessary for the vending machine to change the setting of the modem 4 when transmitting the transaction data of the electronic money to the center A and when transmitting the failure data to the center B. Therefore, in the vending machine, the telephone number of the center A and the operating condition of the modem 10 and the telephone number of the center B and the operating condition of the modem 12 are stored in the memory 2 in addition to the transmission data to be transmitted to the center. And memorize it. The telephone numbers of the centers A and B and the operating conditions of the modems 10 and 12 are input by the input device 3 and set in the memory 2.

When transmitting the electronic money transaction data to the center A, the operating conditions of the modem 10 of the center A are read from the memory 2 and set in the modem 4, and the failure data is transmitted to the center B. When sending,
The operating conditions of the modem 12 at the center B are read from the memory 2 and set in the modem 4, and then data transmission is performed. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing these operations.

FIG. 2 (a) shows a vending machine from a center A.
It is a flowchart at the time of transmitting electronic money transaction data to the Internet. This process is started by pressing a call button provided on the input device 3 or provided independently. Step A1: Read the telephone number of the center A and the operating conditions of the modem 10 from the memory 2 and set them in the modem 4. Step A2: A call is sent to the telephone number of the center A. Step A3: The electronic money transaction data is read from the memory 2 and transmitted to the center A through the modem 4 and the public line 9.

FIG. 2 (b) shows a state in which a vending machine is used for a center B.
5 is a flowchart in the case of transmitting failure data to a computer.
This process is automatically started when a failure occurs in the vending machine. Step B1: Read the telephone number of the center B and the operating conditions of the modem 12 from the memory 2 and set them in the modem 4. Step B2: A call is sent to the telephone number of the center B. Step B3: The failure data of the vending machine is read from the memory 2 and transmitted to the center B via the modem 4 and the public line 9.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operating conditions of a plurality of destination modems having different operating conditions of a modem are stored in a memory, and when transmitting data, the operating conditions of the destination modem are determined. Since the operating conditions of the own modem are set according to the operating conditions, data can be transmitted by one modem to a plurality of centers having modems having different operating conditions.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a data transmission system of a vending machine.

FIG. 2 is a data transmission flowchart in the vending machine control device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Main control device 2 ... Memory 3 ... Input device 4 ... Modem 5 ... Card receiving device 6 ... Coin identification device 7 ... Customer control device 8 ... Sales organization 9 ... Public line 10,12 ... Modem 11,13 ... Computer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vending machine control device for transmitting data to a plurality of destinations having different operating conditions of a modem, wherein the operating conditions of the modems of the plurality of destinations are stored in a memory, and the data is stored in a memory. A control device for a vending machine, wherein when transmitting, the operating condition of a modem of a transmission destination is read out from the memory and the operating condition of its own modem is set.