JP2002090203A - Meter box and water supply - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make good the transmission and reception of radio waves to ensure the communication for reading a radio reading water supply meter, obtain the best communication condition and check the margin of the receiving intensity of radio waves during communication. SOLUTION: A liquid crystal display of a water supply meter 30 has symbol marks showing the intensity of received radio waves in a plurality of levels for seeing the received wave intensity during communication. A cover 17 of the water supply meter is manually operated to turn a meter indicator 19, thereby changing the orientation of an internal antenna, and stop at a position for maximizing the received wave intensity. The radio waves propagate through a hole 27 bored through a cover 26 of a meter box 23.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a meter box used for installing a water meter, and a water facility including the meter box and a water meter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The applicant of the present invention has proposed a water meter for wireless meter reading that can be metered using wireless communication in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-151742 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-19927). This water meter is provided with a synthetic resin case on the upper part of the meter weighing unit. The case includes a power supply battery, a meter electronic unit for integrating the measured values, and a wireless unit for transmitting the integrated data as a radio signal in the form of a radio wave. The built-in antenna connected to the wireless unit is buried in the case or the synthetic resin opening / closing lid provided in the case. Generally, a water meter is installed in a meter box when it is installed. Meter boxes are often made of metal.

[0003]

When the lid of the meter box is made of metal, there is a problem that transmission and reception for wireless meter reading is difficult because radio waves do not pass through. Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a meter box that can solve such a problem. It is a second object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a water supply facility capable of transmitting and receiving radio waves satisfactorily during meter reading.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a meter box in which a hole for transmitting a radio wave is formed in a lid.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a water supply system including a meter box and a wireless meter reading water meter installed in the meter box. The water supply equipment is characterized in that the direction of the water supply can be changed in a horizontal plane, and a plurality of holes are formed in the lid of the meter box around the center of the water meter.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the water supply system according to the second aspect, a symbol mark for displaying a radio wave reception intensity in a plurality of stages is provided on a liquid crystal display section for displaying a flow rate integrated value of a water meter. It is a feature.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2, reference numeral 30 denotes an electronic water meter for wireless meter reading connected to a water pipe 21, and reference numeral 22 denotes a water stopcock connected in series with the water meter 30. Reference numeral 23 denotes a meter box, which comprises a side wall portion 24 having four side walls, and a lid 26 which is hingedly attached to the bottom and the side wall portion 24 so as to be opened and closed. 24 a is a side wall portion for passing the water pipe 21.
It is a notch formed in. The lid 26 has 16 slit-shaped holes 27 formed by dividing the circumference into 16 equal parts around the center YY of the water meter. As shown in FIG. 2, the hole 27 is formed so as to be radial with respect to the center Y of the water meter, that is, so that the longitudinal direction of the slit is oriented in the radial direction. The hole 27 is filled with a resin stopper 40 to prevent rain and dust from entering. The upper surface taper of the hole 27 prevents the stopper from falling.

In FIG. 2, a hole 28 formed below the cover 26 is not a hole through which a radio wave passes but a well-known hole (strictly, a notch) for a finger hook for opening the cover 26.

As shown in FIG. 3, the water meter 30 has a symbol mark which allows the direction of the antenna 14 to be changed in a horizontal plane and displays the radio wave reception intensity on the liquid crystal display section 12 for displaying the integrated flow rate in a plurality of stages. 12a to 12e.

In the water meter 30 shown in FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b), water flowing from the inlet 1A of the lower case 1 passes through the strainer 2 and the nozzle of the inner case 3 to form a jet and rotate the impeller 4. Let it. The impeller 4 is rotatably supported by a pivot 5 that stands vertically at the center of the bottom of the inner case 3. Permanent magnet 4A provided at the upper end of the shaft of impeller 4
Rotates together with the impeller 4 to generate a rotating magnetic field. Pressure plate 6
Is mounted on the upper opening of the lower case 1 via an O-ring 7, and is attached to the lower case 1 in a water-tight manner by screwing a holding screw 8 into a female screw on the upper part of the lower case 1.

An electronic circuit board 10 of the electronic circuit section 9 has a magnetic sensor 11 for detecting the rotating magnetic field of the permanent magnet 4A and converting it into an electric signal, and an electronic circuit for calculating an integrated flow value from the electric signal of the magnetic sensor 11. A circuit, a liquid crystal display section 12 for displaying the integrated flow rate, a battery 13 for power supply, and an antenna 14 for transmitting the integrated flow rate by radio waves are mounted, and a lower plate 15 made of a non-magnetic material and a packing 16 are mounted on the lower plate 15. The electronic circuit section 9 is built in a watertight manner into an indicator section case 18 composed of a transparent cover 17 attached in a watertight manner through the lower plate 1.
5. Thus, the indication unit case 18 and
The electronic circuit section 9 including the electronic circuit board 10 and the antenna 14 incorporated in the case 18 constitutes a meter indicating section 19.

The liquid crystal display unit 12 has five square symbol marks 12a to 12a in addition to the numerals indicating the integrated flow rate values.
12e are arranged side by side, and these symbol marks light up according to the intensity of the received radio wave. In this case, the received signal strength is displayed in five levels. That is, only the symbol mark 12a is turned on in the weakest radio wave, and 12a and 12
b lights up. As the reception intensity increases, the number of symbol marks illuminated as 12c, 12d, and 12e further increases, and when the reception intensity is strongest, five symbol marks 12a to 12e are illuminated as illustrated. Thus, the symbol marks 12a to 12e form a so-called bar graph.

By the way, the meter indicating section 19 abuts the lower plate 15 of the indicating section case 18 on the upper part of the holding screw 8 so that the
It is slidably and rotatably mounted on the upper part of the holding screw 8 by curling 0. Thus, the meter indicating unit 1
Numeral 9 is relatively rotatable with respect to the lower case 1 constituting the measuring section 21 and is capable of holding (fixing) its angular position at an arbitrary angle A relative to the lower case 1. The meter indicating section 19 is arranged to rotate about the axis Y-Y of the impeller 4, and the magnetic sensor 11 is arranged on the axis Y-Y of the impeller 4. This axis YY corresponds to the center YY of the water meter.

[0015] As shown in FIG.
Water meter 30 connected to the inlet and outlet of the
Is the axis XX connecting the inlet and the outlet of the lower case 1.
Faces the direction determined by the water pipe 21. In this installation environment, it may be difficult to obtain the best transmission / reception state depending on the directivity of the antenna 14 and the orientation of the antenna 14. At this time, the cover 17 is manually operated to rotate the meter indicating section 19, and the direction of the meter indicating section 19 is changed to the angle A in FIG. 3 so as to obtain the best reception state. By doing so, the direction of the antenna 14 is changed, and a good transmission / reception state is obtained.

In this way, when the direction of the meter indicating section 19 is changed to search for the best reception state, the symbol mark displayed in a plurality of stages as a display function for monitoring the reception state serves as a guide. In addition, the slit-like holes 27 allow radio waves to pass effectively.

[0017]

Since the meter box according to the present invention is constructed as described above, even if the lid is made of metal, there is no risk that radio waves will be transmitted through the holes and obstruct communication during wireless meter reading. According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to obtain the best transmission and reception state by changing the direction of the antenna according to the installation environment. According to the third aspect of the present invention, the reception strength
The optimum direction of the antenna can be determined by checking the margin of the reception state with the symbol mark, and the reliability of communication is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an embodiment of a water supply system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the embodiment of FIG.

3 (a) is a longitudinal sectional view and FIG. 3 (b) is a plan view of the water meter used in the embodiment of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 Liquid crystal display section 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d, 12e Symbol mark 14 Antenna 21 Water pipe 23 Meter box 26 Cover 27 hole 30 Water meter Y-Y meter center

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G01F 1/075 G01F 1/075 15/06 15/06 G08C 17/00 G08C 17/00 Z

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A meter box, wherein a hole for passing a radio wave is formed in a lid. 2. In a water supply system including a meter box and a wireless metering water meter installed in the meter box, an orientation of an antenna of the water meter can be changed in a horizontal plane, and a cover of the meter box has A water supply system characterized by drilling a number of holes around the center of the water meter. 3. A water supply system according to claim 2, wherein a symbol mark for displaying a radio wave reception intensity in a plurality of stages is provided on a liquid crystal display section for displaying a flow rate integrated value of the water meter.