JP2003121357A - Snowfall/mist detector and snowfall/mist detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a snowfall/mist detector that can be easily installed, can detect snowfall and mist, is compact, and can reduce power consumption. SOLUTION: Power is supplied from a solar battery panel or the like to a power supply apparatus 11 having an intermittent timer, and is partially recharged to a recharging apparatus 113. Power is intermittently supplied from the power supply apparatus 11 to an infrared emission section 121, an infrared reception section 122, a signal-processing section 13, and a judgment section 14. Infrared rays from the infrared emission section 121 hit against a snow particle S and mist G and are reflected and are received by the infrared reception section 122, and the signal is sent to the signal-processing section 13 and the judgment section 14, thus detecting snowfall and mist. The operation is made intermittently, and a counter circuit, an oscillation circuit, and the like need not be provided, thus reducing the power consumption of the detector.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a snowfall / fog detector which is small in size, consumes little current, and detects visibility problems caused by heavy snowfall such as snowstorms and dense fog. It is preferably used for peripheral equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a device for detecting a visibility problem caused by snowfall or fog, there is, for example, an infrared laser interception type snowfall meter, in which a light emitting part and a light receiving part are arranged facing each other.
A method has been used in which an infrared laser is pulsed from a light emitting unit toward a light receiving unit, the number of pulses interrupted by snowfall or fog is counted, and snowfall is determined based on the number.

Further, there is a device for judging the situation of snowfall or fog by intermittently emitting infrared rays as a pulse, receiving reflected light due to irregular reflection thereof, and counting the number of times the reflected light is received. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-325162.

[0004]

However, in the infrared laser cutoff method, it is necessary to accurately align the optical axes of the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit so that the infrared light from the light emitting unit can be reliably received by the light receiving unit. It is complicated at the time of installation,
There is a problem that detection cannot be performed when the optical axes of the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit are deviated due to vibration or the like.

Further, in the method of receiving the reflected light due to the irregular reflection of infrared rays and counting the number of times the light is received, there is no fear of a malfunction due to the shift of the optical axis, but a counter circuit for counting the number of times the light is received and a pulse are intermittently applied. It is necessary to provide an oscillation circuit for firing, and the detector itself becomes large. In addition, the current consumption increases by providing the counter circuit and the oscillation circuit, and when only the solar cell is used as the power source,
There is a problem in that an extremely large solar cell panel is required to add it to the road auxiliary equipment, and if a commercial power source is also used, wiring for it is required.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a snowfall / fog detector that is easy to install and can detect snowfall and fog, and that is small in size and consumes less power.

[0007]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the infrared light emitting unit, the infrared light receiving unit, and the signal processing unit are provided. The infrared light receiving unit receives the infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting unit toward snowfall and / or fog and reflected by the snowfall and / or fog, and outputs a signal. A detector for detecting snowfall and / or fog based on the intensity of infrared rays received by the infrared receiving section by the processing section, wherein the operating voltage is 5 V or less, the circuit current of the infrared emitting section and the infrared receiving section is 25 mA or less,
In addition, the infrared light emitting part and the infrared light receiving part are operated intermittently by the intermittent timer, and the operating time is set to 1/5 or less of the non-operating time, and the power consumption is set to 1 W · h / day or less. It is what

The infrared rays emitted from the infrared ray emitting section are diffusely reflected by snowfall or fog, and are received by the infrared ray receiving section and converted into electronic signals by the signal processing section, whereby the presence of snowfall or fog is detected. Since the infrared rays are received by the diffusely reflected infrared rays, it is not necessary to accurately align the optical axes of the light emitting section and the light receiving section. Further, it is possible to simplify the detector because it is not necessary to provide a counter circuit, an oscillation circuit, etc., and it is possible to reduce the detector size and power consumption.

The operating voltage is set to 5 V or less, and the operating time of the infrared emitting section and the infrared receiving section is set to 1
By setting it to / 5 or less, the circuit current in the whole detector is 48
Must be mA or less. In the snowfall / fog detector according to the present invention, the circuit current is large in the infrared light emitting portion and the infrared light receiving portion. By setting the circuit currents of these mA to 25 mA or less, the circuit current of the entire detector is reduced to a certain degree of safety. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the current to 48 mA or less.

The power consumption is reduced by such a method,
By controlling the power consumption to 1 Wh / day or less, it becomes possible to operate the detector with the power generated by only small solar cells, and it is possible to detect snowfall and fog without using external power such as commercial power. Is possible. Therefore, it can be easily added to the road auxiliary equipment without the need for wiring used for external electric power.

When the detector according to the present invention is further provided on the road auxiliary equipment and the light emitter is further provided, it is necessary to generate the power consumption of the detector by the solar cell in addition to the power consumption of the light emitter. By reducing the power consumption of the device to within 1 W · h / day, even when using a solar cell with general efficiency, a solar cell with an area of 50 mm square or less is added to the solar cell with the area required for the light emitter. It is possible to operate the detector to the extent that

Further, it is preferable to use an infrared light emitting part capable of emitting light with a current of 10 mA or less. Among the detectors, the infrared light emitting section tends to have the highest power consumption, and reducing the power consumption as much as possible increases the effect of suppressing the power consumption of the entire detector.

The signal processing section may output the intensity of infrared rays received by the infrared receiving section by an analog voltage.

The signal processing section is preferably provided with an operational amplifier for amplifying the signal obtained by the infrared light receiving section, and the circuit current of the operational amplifier during standby is preferably 50 μA or less.

Further, a power supply device for supplying electric power to the snowfall / fog detector according to the present invention may be provided, and the power supply device may generate electricity by a solar cell panel. As described above, the snowfall / fog detector according to the present invention is small in size, consumes less power, and can operate sufficiently with only the power supplied by the solar cell. A solar cell panel can be used.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a snowfall / fog detector and a detector according to the present invention. The electric power generated in the power supply device is supplied to the light emitting / receiving unit and the signal processing unit, and the power generation unit in the power supply device is a solar cell panel. The voltage of the electric power generated by the solar cell panel is increased by the DC-DC converter,
The constant voltage power supply circuit keeps the voltage constant. A part of the electric power is charged into an electric double layer capacitor, which is a charging means, and is used as electric power at night or in rainy weather. Further, the power supply device is provided with an intermittent timer, so that the electric power supplied to the light emitting / receiving unit and the signal processing unit is intermittent, so that the electric power can be saved as compared with the case where the electric power is supplied continuously. Therefore, the solar cell panel can be made small, and it is not necessary to request a power source other than the solar cell panel.

The infrared ray emitted from the infrared ray emitting section of the light emitting / receiving section is diffusely reflected by the generated snowfall or fog, and the reflected infrared ray is received by the infrared ray receiving section, and an electric signal is emitted from the infrared ray receiving section. It is recognized as snowfall and fog. The electric signal emitted from the infrared light receiving unit is filtered by a filter of a band amplifier to remove signals other than a specific band, thereby preventing erroneous recognition due to reflected light from a passing vehicle or a pedestrian.

Since the electric signal in the specific band due to snowfall or fog is weak, it is amplified by the voltage amplifier,
It is converted into an appropriate analog voltage by the peak hold circuit and operational amplifier and output. The output analog voltage may be recognized as snowfall or fog when a certain threshold value is set and an analog voltage above the threshold value is detected, or the degree of diffuse reflection depending on the extent of snowfall or fog. Therefore, the degree of snowfall or fog may be determined based on the strength of the analog voltage.

The obtained analog voltage is sent to a judging section provided with a certain threshold value in advance, and when it exceeds the threshold value, it is recognized as a visibility obstacle of snowfall or fog, and the light emitting section of the light emitter emits light. When the visibility of the light emitter is impaired, the light emitting unit emits light to increase the visibility.

Here, if a solar cell having a normal efficiency of about 50 mm square is used for the operation of the detector according to the present invention for downsizing, the power generation capacity of the solar cell in the period near the winter solstice is It will be about 1 Wh per day. If the detector according to the present invention is to be operated at 5V, in order to suppress the power consumption to 1 W · h / day or less, it is necessary to set the circuit current of the detector as a whole to about 8 mA or less.

If the intermittent timer is used to supply electric power to the light emitting / receiving unit and the signal processing unit for 10 seconds within one minute, for example, the allowable value of the current of the circuit is 6 times 4 times.
It will be 8 mA. The infrared ray emitting section uses a highly efficient LED that can efficiently emit infrared rays with a current of about 10 mA, and the infrared ray receiving section has high sensitivity of receiving infrared rays with a current of about 15 mA and converting it into an electric signal, that is, photoelectric conversion efficiency. By using a good photodiode or phototransistor, the circuit current of the light emitting / receiving unit becomes about 25 mA.

Regarding the signal processing section, there is no device with a particularly large circuit current, and normally the signal processing section as a whole has a current of 5 to 10 mA.
Among them, the device that has a relatively large circuit current is an operational amplifier. The circuit current can be suppressed by suppressing the circuit current of the operational amplifier to about 50 μA during standby.

As described above, the total circuit current of the devices that require electric power is about 30 to 35 mA, which is within the circuit current of 48 mA mentioned as a prerequisite, with a sufficient margin, and an ordinary solar cell is used. The operation of the detector may be sufficiently possible by adding an area of about 50 mm square. Further, since the circuit current has a margin as described above, the surplus power generated by the solar cell can be stored in the power storage means, and the power generation amount of the solar cell is temporarily increased for some reason. Even when the power consumption decreases, the power can be supplied from the power storage unit to continue the operation.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which a snowfall / fog detector is provided with a power supply device for supplying electric power, and the power supply device is a solar battery panel for generating power. Shows an example in which is combined with a luminous body. The light emitter 2 has a shape in which the arrow points downward, and is designed to emit a light beam onto the curb E between the road R and the sidewalk H, and when the fog occurs, the curb E is illuminated to illuminate the curb R. It is easy to recognize the edge of the snow, and if the curb E becomes invisible due to snow, the snowplow etc.
It is installed so that the edge of can be recognized. The light-emitting body 2 is supported by the column 20, and the solar cell panel 111 and the snowfall / fog detector 1 are attached to the column 20, and the power consumed by the light-emitting body 2 and the snowfall / fog detector 1 is covered by the solar cell panel 111. It is being appreciated. When a snowfall or fog visibility obstacle occurs and the snowfall / fog detector 1 detects the visibility obstacle, the light emitter 2 is instructed to emit light from the snowfall / fog detector 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the details of the snowfall / fog detector shown in FIG. The electric power generated by the solar cell panel is transmitted by the power cable C1, passes through the power supply device 11, and is the infrared light emitting section 121 and the infrared light receiving section 122.
And sent to the signal processing unit 13. The determination unit 14 is provided in the same box as the signal processing unit 13 and includes the infrared light receiving unit 12
The signal from the signal processing unit 1 is connected to the signal processing unit 1 by the signal cable C2.
3. It is sent to the light emitting unit through the determination unit 14. The devices that make up the snowfall / fog detector 1 are small and consume a small amount of electric power, and the size of the snowfall / fog detector 1 itself can be made small, so that it can be easily attached to the support posts of road-related equipment. Can be possible.

FIG. 4 shows the details of the luminous body shown in FIG. The light-emitting body 2 has an arrow-like shape that faces downward, a lower end thereof serves as a light-emitting portion 21, and a light beam is emitted downward.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing an example of a modification according to the present invention, in which a light-emitting body is used for road auxiliary equipment installed around the road R. In addition to the arrow-shaped luminous body 2a shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, an information display plate 2b is installed,
When the visibility of the visibility is detected by the snowfall / fog detector 1, the information display portion 2b1 displays "snowfall / fog caution" and "poor visibility. Running caution". The information display part 2b1 is a part in which characters are drawn by the light emission of a plurality of light emitting diodes,
It is easy to see when visibility is impaired, and the visibility at night is secured.

Further, a light-emitting body 2c1 for emitting light around the marker plate 2c is provided, and characters such as "stop" are drawn on the marker plate 2c. The characters drawn on the board 2c can be emphasized and recognized by the road user.

The light-emitting body may be installed near the surface of the earth like the road tack 2d, and the light-emitting portion 2d1 provided on the road tack 2d emits light when the visibility is obstructed and the edge of the road R is surrounded. To be easily recognized. In addition, in the present embodiment, the light emission of the light emitting portion 2d1 of the road tack 2d is that the solar cell panel 111 and the snowfall / fog detector 1 are provided at one location. The plurality of light emitting units 2d1 emit light in response to the instruction.

[0031]

The infrared rays emitted from the infrared ray emitting section are
The presence of snowfall or fog is detected by being diffusely reflected by snowfall or fog, received by the infrared light receiving section, and converted into an electronic signal by the signal processing section. Since the infrared rays are received by the diffusely reflected infrared rays, it is not necessary to accurately align the optical axes of the light emitting section and the light receiving section. Further, it is possible to simplify the detector because it is not necessary to provide a counter circuit, an oscillation circuit, etc., and it is possible to reduce the detector size and power consumption.

The power consumption is reduced to 1 W · h.
/ By suppressing to less than a day, it becomes possible to operate the detector with the electric power generated only by a small solar cell,
It is possible to detect snowfall and fog without using external power such as commercial power. Therefore, it can be easily added to the road auxiliary equipment without the need for wiring used for external electric power.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a process of operation of a snowfall / fog detector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing details of the snowfall / fog detector shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing details of the light emitting body shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Snowfall and fog detector 11 power supply 111 solar panel 112 DC-DC comparator 113 Electric Double Layer Capacitor 114 low voltage power supply circuit 115 intermittent timer 12 Light emitting / receiving unit 121 Infrared emitting section 122 Infrared receiver 13 Signal processor 131 band amplifier 132 voltage comparator 133 Peak hold circuit 134 Operational amplifier 14 Judgment section 2 luminous body 21 Light emitting part 2a Arrow-shaped luminous body 2b Information display board 2b1 Information display section 2c sign board 2d road tack 20 props

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An infrared ray receiving section receives an infrared ray emitted from the infrared ray emitting section toward snowfall and / or fog and reflected by snowfall and / or fog. A detector for detecting snowfall and / or fog based on the intensity of infrared rays received by the infrared ray receiving section by the signal processing section, and having an operating voltage of 5V.
Below, the circuit current of the infrared light emitting part and the infrared light receiving part is 25
mA or less, and the infrared light emitting unit and the infrared light receiving unit are intermittently operated by the intermittent timer, and the operating time is set to 1/5 or less of the non-operating time so that the power consumption is 1 W.
A snowfall / fog detector characterized by being set to h / day or less. 2. The snowfall / fog detector according to claim 1, wherein the infrared light emitting portion is capable of emitting light with a current of 10 mA or less. 3. The snowfall / fog detector according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the signal processing unit outputs the intensity of the infrared light received by the infrared light receiving unit by an analog voltage. 4. The signal processing unit is provided with an operational amplifier for amplifying the signal obtained by the infrared light receiving unit, and the circuit current of the operational amplifier during standby is 50 μA or less. The snowfall / fog detector described in any of 3. 5. The snowfall according to any one of claims 1 to 4.
A snowfall / fog detection device characterized in that a power supply device for supplying electric power to the fog detector is provided, and the power supply device generates electric power by means of a solar cell panel.