JP2001248208A - Safety device of electric appliance for stool - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the generation of troubles, coping with a failure in an electrical loading circuit for an electric appliance for a stool. SOLUTION: The safety device for a warm-water flushing device copes with the failure in the electrical loading circuit 42 containing a feed valve 21. The safety device has a micro computer 29 outputting a control signal to the electrical loading circuit 42, a conduction detector 43 for detecting the conductive state of the electrical loading circuit 42, a power relay circuit 45 for interrupting power supply to the electrical loading circuit 42, a failure decision circuit 46 deciding the failure of the electrical loading circuit 42 on the basis of the corresponding relationship of the control signal and a detection conductive state, a forced driver circuit 47 driving the power relay circuit 45 for forcibly interrupting an AC power 49 supplied to the circuit 42 when the failure of the circuit 42 is decided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric appliance such as a hot water washing device, a hot air drying device and a heating toilet seat device provided in a toilet, and more particularly to a failure in an electric load circuit of the electric appliance. The present invention relates to a safety device for an electric appliance for a toilet bowl.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, electric appliances such as a hot water washing device, a hot air drying device and a heating toilet seat device provided in a toilet have been known. This type of electric appliance is provided with an electric load circuit including an electric load and a drive circuit thereof, and performs a predetermined function by operating the electric load circuit.

For example, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a hot water washing apparatus as one of toilet appliances. In this apparatus, warm water is ejected from a shower nozzle 7 or a charm nozzle 8 to clean a human body part. This device has a water supply valve 21 for controlling the flow of water from the water supply system.
A hot water tank 30 for storing flowing water from the water supply valve 21 and heating the hot water with the hot water heater 23; and a three-way valve 22 for selectively switching the flow of hot water from the hot water tank 30 to the shower nozzle 7 or the charm nozzle 8. Prepare. The apparatus further includes a water supply valve 21, a three-way valve 22, and a hot water heater 23 as electric loads, triacs 24, 26 for driving them, triac drive circuits 25, 27, and a heater drive circuit 28, and control of them. And a control switch 10 operated by a user. Each of the water supply valve 21 and the three-way valve 22 is configured by an electromagnetic valve. These devices 21 to 23 and circuits 24 to 28 constitute an electric load circuit of the electric appliance for a toilet.

[0004]

In the case of the hot water washing apparatus, for example, if a short-circuit failure occurs in the water supply valve 21 or the corresponding triac 24, the water supply valve 21 is inadvertently turned on (opened). State), and the control by the microcomputer 29 may not be possible. As a result, a problem such as water leakage may occur in the flowing water system such as the hot water tank 30 and the nozzles 7 and 8. Such a problem in the electric load circuit is also considered in other toilet appliances such as a hot air drying device and a heating toilet seat device, and therefore, it is necessary to take some measures.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to cope with a failure in an electric load circuit of an electric appliance for a toilet and to prevent the occurrence of the failure before it occurs. To provide a safety device for electrical appliances.

[0006]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a safety device for coping with a failure in an electric load circuit including an electric load of an electric appliance provided in a toilet. A control circuit for outputting a control signal to the electric load circuit, an energization detection circuit for detecting an energized state in the electric load circuit, a power cutoff circuit for shutting off power supplied to the electric load circuit, A failure determination circuit for determining whether or not the electric load circuit is defective based on the correspondence between the output control signal and the detected energized state, and when the electric load circuit is determined to be defective, And a forced drive circuit for driving a power cutoff circuit to forcibly cut off power supplied to the electric load circuit.

According to the configuration of the present invention, when no failure occurs in the electric load circuit, the correspondence between the control signal from the control circuit and the energization state detected by the energization detection circuit is determined by:
The electrical load circuit is determined not to be faulty by the fault determining means. Therefore, supply of power to the electric load circuit is permitted, and the electric load circuit operates based on a control signal from the control circuit to control the electric appliance. On the other hand, when a failure occurs in the electric load circuit, from the correspondence between the control signal from the control circuit and the energization state detected by the energization detection circuit,
The electrical load circuit is determined to be faulty by the fault determining means.
Therefore, the power supply cutoff circuit is driven by the forced drive circuit, and the supply of power to the electric load circuit is forcibly cut off,
The operation of the appliance is forcibly stopped.

[0008] In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 2 is a safety device for dealing with a failure in an electric load circuit including an electromagnetic valve of a hot water washing device provided in a toilet as an electric load. A control circuit for outputting a control signal to the load circuit; an energization detection circuit for detecting an energization state in the electric load circuit; a power supply cutoff circuit for shutting off power supplied to the electric load circuit; A failure determination circuit for determining whether or not the electric load circuit is defective based on the correspondence between the detected control signal and the detected energized state; and an electric load when the electric load circuit is determined to be defective. And a forced drive circuit for driving a power cutoff circuit to forcibly cut off power supplied to the circuit.

According to the configuration of the present invention, similarly to the first aspect of the invention, when it is determined that the electric load circuit is not faulty, supply of power to the electric load circuit is permitted, and control from the control circuit is performed. The electric load circuit operates based on the signal to control the hot water washing device. On the other hand, similarly to the first aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that the electric load circuit has failed, the supply of power to the electric load circuit is forcibly cut off, and the operation of the hot water cleaning device is forcibly stopped.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the toilet appliance of this embodiment. This electric appliance includes a hot water washing device 2, a hot air drying device, and a heating toilet seat device 3 provided in the toilet 1.

The hot water washing device 2 includes a main body 4 provided on the rear upper surface of the toilet 1, and a toilet lid 5 and a toilet seat 6 rotatably provided on the main body 4. Below the rear of the toilet seat 6,
The shower nozzle 7 and the charm nozzle 8 provided on the main body 4 are arranged. These nozzles 7 and 8 are for cleaning a local part of a human body sitting on the toilet seat 6.

An electric heater, an electric fan and the like (not shown) constituting the hot air drying device are provided in the main body 4. The heating toilet seat device 3 includes a toilet seat 6 and a toilet seat heater 9 provided therein. Various operation switches 1 are provided on the upper surface of the main body 4.
0 is provided. The main body 4 is connected to water supply pipes 11, 12 and the like that communicate with the tap water pressure source. A power supply device 14 attached to an outlet 13 is connected to the main body 4.

The electrical configuration of the hot water cleaning apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is the same as that of the conventional apparatus described with reference to FIG. 4, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted. As shown in FIG. 4, the hot water cleaning device 1 includes a water supply valve 21 and a three-way valve 22 each of which is an electromagnetic valve, and a hot water heater 23 as electric loads. In order to drive the water supply valve 21, the three-way valve 22 and the hot water heater 23, a triac 24 and a triac drive circuit 25, respectively, and a triac 2
6, triac drive circuit 27 and heater drive circuit 2
8 are provided. The water supply valve 21, the corresponding triac 24, and the triac drive circuit 25 constitute one electric load circuit. The three-way valve 22 and the corresponding triac 26 and triac drive circuit 27 constitute one electric load circuit. Further, the hot water heater 23 and the corresponding heater drive circuit 28 constitute one electric load circuit. The water supply valve 21, the three-way valve 22, and the hot water heater 23 are driven by energization as needed.

In the event that a failure occurs in the electric load circuit of the water supply valve 21 or the three-way valve 22, the water supply valve 21 or the three-way valve 22 remains on, and these microcomputers (microcomputer) 29 Control may not be possible. Thereby, the hot water tank 3
Problems such as water leakage may occur in the flowing water system such as the nozzles 0 and the nozzles 7 and 8. Therefore, the hot water cleaning device 2 of this embodiment is provided with a safety device for coping with the above-mentioned problem.

FIG. 1 shows an electrical configuration of a safety device provided corresponding to the water supply valve 21. This safety device is provided corresponding to the electromagnetic coil 41 of the water supply valve 21, the electric load circuit 42 including the triac 24 and the triac drive circuit 25. One terminal of the triac 24 is connected to one end of the electromagnetic coil 41. The triac drive circuit 25 is connected to the gate of the triac 24.

This safety device includes a microcomputer 29, an energization detection circuit 43, a power supply circuit 44, a power supply relay circuit 45, a failure determination circuit 46, and a forced drive circuit 47.

The microcomputer 29 outputs a control signal to the triac drive circuit 25 for controlling the water supply valve 21, and corresponds to the control circuit of the present invention. The operation switch 10 and the triac drive circuit 25 are connected to the microcomputer 29. Further, a DC power supply 48 is connected to the microcomputer 29.

The power supply circuit 44 is connected to a household AC power supply 49, and includes a full-wave rectifier 49 for rectifying an AC current, and a resistor 51 connected thereto. One terminal of this circuit 44 connected to an AC power supply 49 is
The other terminal of the circuit 44 is connected to the other terminal of the triac 24 via the power supply relay circuit 45.

The power supply relay circuit 45 includes an electric load circuit 42.
To cut off the AC power supply 49 supplied to the power supply, and corresponds to a power supply cutoff circuit of the present invention.

The forcible drive circuit 47 includes a power supply relay circuit 45 for forcibly shutting off the AC power supply 49 supplied to the electric load circuit 42 when the electric load circuit 42 judges that the electric load circuit 42 has failed. Is driven. This circuit 47 comprises a silicon controlled commutator (SCR) 5
2 and a latch circuit 53. The anode of the SCR 52 is connected to the power supply relay circuit 45. The SCR 52 is configured to open the power relay circuit 45 when a high level signal is input to its gate and turned on. The latch circuit 53 is connected to the gate of the SCR 52. The latch circuit 53 holds a high-level or low-level signal state input to the gate of the SCR 52.

The energization detection circuit 43 detects the energization state of the electric load circuit 42. This circuit 43 includes a photocoupler 54 and two resistors 55 and 56. The photocoupler 54 includes a pair of light emitting diodes 54a and 54b and a phototransistor 54c connected in parallel in opposite directions. One resistor 55 is a photocoupler 54
Are connected in series. These resistors 55 and photocouplers 5
4 is connected in parallel to the electromagnetic coil 41. The other resistor 56 is connected to the AC power supply 49 via the collector of the phototransistor 54c. Therefore, the electromagnetic coil 41
Does not flow through the photocoupler 54, the phototransistor 54c is turned off. When a current flows through the electromagnetic coil 41, a current also flows through the photocoupler 54 to turn on the phototransistor 54c.

The failure determination circuit 46 determines whether or not the electric load circuit 42 has failed based on the correspondence between the control signal output from the microcomputer 29 and the conduction state detected by the conduction detection circuit 43. It is. This circuit 46
Is connected to an exclusive OR circuit (Ex-OR circuit) 57, a resistor 58 connected to the input terminal A of the circuit 57, a resistor 59 connected to the input terminal B, and an output terminal Z of the circuit 57. NOT circuit 60. The resistance 58 of the input terminal A is connected to the collector of the phototransistor 54c. The resistor 59 of the input terminal B is connected to the microcomputer 29. The NOT circuit 60 is connected to the SCR 52 of the forced drive circuit 47.
Connected to the gate.

FIG. 3 is a truth table showing the input / output relationship of the Ex-OR circuit 57. As is clear from this table,
The output of the Ex-OR circuit 57 is low when both the inputs to the input terminals A and B are high or low, and one of the inputs to the input terminals A and B is high. Sometimes the output goes high.

As described above, according to the safety device of this embodiment, in FIG. 1, the microcomputer 29 opens the water supply valve 21 to the triac drive circuit 25 with the power supply relay circuit 45 closed in advance. When no control signal is output, the input to the input terminal B of the Ex-OR circuit 57 is at a low level. At this time, if the electric load circuit 42 is normal, no current flows to the photocoupler 54 and the output thereof becomes low level, and the input terminal A of the Ex-OR circuit 57
Is set to a high level due to the bias potential of the resistor 56. Therefore, the output of the output terminal Z of the Ex-OR circuit 57 becomes high level, the output from the NOT circuit 60 to the forced drive circuit 47 becomes low level, and the power supply relay circuit 4
5 remains closed.

When a control signal is output from the microcomputer 29 to the triac drive circuit 25 in order to open the water supply valve 21 with the power supply relay circuit 45 closed in advance, Ex-
The input to the input terminal B of the OR circuit 57 is at a high level. At this time, if the electric load circuit 42 is normal, a current also flows through the photocoupler 54, the output thereof becomes high level, and the input to the input terminal A of the Ex-OR circuit 57 becomes low level. Therefore, the output terminal Z of the Ex-OR circuit 57
Becomes high level, the output from the NOT circuit 60 to the compulsory drive circuit 47 becomes low level, and the power supply relay circuit 45 remains closed.

On the other hand, for example, when a short-circuit fault has occurred in the triac 24 of the electric load circuit 42, even if the microcomputer 29 does not output a control signal, the electromagnetic coil 4
1, a current flows through the photocoupler 54, a current flows through the photocoupler 54, and the output thereof becomes a high level, and an input to the input terminal A of the Ex-OR circuit 57 becomes a low level. Therefore, Ex-O
The output of the output terminal Z of the R circuit 57 becomes low level,
The output from the OT circuit 60 to the forced drive circuit 47 becomes high level, and the power relay circuit 45 is opened. As a result, the supply of the AC power supply 49 to the electric load circuit 42 is forcibly cut off, no current flows through the electromagnetic coil 41, and the water supply valve 21 is forcibly closed. For this reason, even if a short-circuit fault has occurred in the triac 24 of the electric load circuit 42 of the hot water washing device 2 provided in the toilet 1, the water supply valve 2 is handled in response to the short-circuit fault.
1 can be prevented from being opened carelessly, and the hot water tank 30 and the nozzles 7 and 8 of the hot water washing device 2 can be prevented.
It is possible to prevent problems such as water leakage from occurring in the flowing water system.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but may be carried out as follows without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the above embodiment, the safety device for the electric load circuit 42 in which the electromagnetic coil 41 of the water supply valve 21 in the hot water washing device 2 is used as an electric load has been described.
On the other hand, a safety device for an electric load circuit using the hot water heater 23 of the hot water washing device 2 as an electric load may be provided according to the configuration shown in FIG. Further, a safety device for an electric load circuit using the toilet seat heater 6 of the heating toilet seat device 3 as an electric load may be provided according to the configuration shown in FIG. Or,
A safety device for an electric load circuit using an electric heater or a conduction fan of the hot air drying device as an electric load may be provided according to the configuration shown in FIG.

[0029]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
It is possible to cope with a failure in the electric load circuit of the electric appliance for a toilet, and it is possible to prevent a trouble from occurring.

According to the configuration of the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to cope with a failure in the electric load circuit including the solenoid valve of the hot water washing device as an electric load, and to prevent the occurrence of problems such as water leakage. It has the effect of being able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing an electrical configuration of a safety device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a hot water washing device and the like provided in the toilet.

FIG. 3 is also a truth table showing an input / output relationship of an Ex-OR circuit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the hot water cleaning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 toilet bowl 2 hot water washing device (electric appliance) 3 heating toilet seat device (electric appliance) 9 toilet seat heater (electric load) 21 water supply valve (electric load) 23 hot water heater (electric load) 42 electric load circuit 43 conduction detection circuit 45 power supply relay Circuit (power cutoff circuit) 46 Failure judgment circuit 47 Forced drive circuit 49 AC power supply

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Noriyoshi Ochi 2-1-1 Asahi-cho, Kariya-shi, Aichi F-term (reference) in Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. 2D038 JB02 JC11 JC15 JF01 KA07 5G053 AA16 BA04 CA01 EA01 EC01 EC03 EC04 FA07

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A safety device for coping with a failure in an electric load circuit including an electric load of an electric appliance provided in a toilet, a control circuit for outputting a control signal to the electric load circuit, and the electric load circuit. A power supply detection circuit for detecting a power supply state in the power supply circuit, a power supply cutoff circuit for cutting off power supplied to the electric load circuit, and a correspondence relationship between the output control signal and the detected power supply state. A failure determination circuit for determining whether or not the electric load circuit is defective based on: when the electric load circuit is determined to be defective, forcibly shutting off power supplied to the electric load circuit. And a forced drive circuit for driving the power cutoff circuit. 2. A safety device for coping with a failure in an electric load circuit including an electromagnetic valve of a hot water washing device provided in a toilet as an electric load, a control circuit for outputting a control signal to the electric load circuit, An energization detection circuit for detecting an energization state in the electric load circuit; a power cutoff circuit for interrupting power supplied to the electric load circuit; and the output control signal and the detected energization state. A failure determination circuit for determining whether or not the electric load circuit is defective based on the correspondence relationship; and, when the electric load circuit is determined to be defective, forcibly reducing power supplied to the electric load circuit. And a forced drive circuit for driving the power cutoff circuit to shut off the power supply.