JP2005056331A - Charging device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that incorrect determination is made due to the effect of the waveform of a power line current and the temperature of a rectifying and smoothing circuit. <P>SOLUTION: This charging device for charging for the use of a toll device includes detection means 1-3 for sampling the power line current of the toll device in a predetermined period, and a determining means that compares the values detected by the detection means to a threshold to convert the values into digital values and to determine whether or not the toll device is in use on the basis of the digital values. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a billing apparatus that charges for use of a pay device such as a television receiver, a washing machine, and a refrigerator.

  Conventionally, a billing device detects a power supply line current of a paid device with a detecting means such as a current transformer, and rectifies and smoothes the detected voltage with a rectifying and smoothing circuit to convert the detected voltage into a DC voltage. It is determined whether the device is in use or in a standby state, and charging is performed when the pay device is in use.

  In the above charging device, the detection voltage of a detection means such as a current transformer is rectified and smoothed by a rectifying and smoothing circuit and converted into a DC voltage, and whether the pay device is in use or in a standby state is determined from the magnitude of the DC voltage. Since the determination is made, an incorrect determination may be made due to the influence of the waveform of the power line current or the temperature of the rectifying / smoothing circuit, and charging cannot be performed accurately.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a billing apparatus that can perform billing without being affected by the waveform of the power line current and the temperature.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a charging device that charges for use of a pay device, a detection means for sampling a power line current of the pay device at a predetermined period, and the detection means The detection value is compared with a threshold value and converted into a digital value, and from the digital value, determination means for determining whether the pay device is in use or in a standby state is provided.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the charging apparatus according to the first aspect, the determination unit binarizes the detection value of the detection unit with a threshold value, and “1” of a predetermined period in the binary signal or From the number “0”, it is determined whether the pay device is in use or in a standby state.

  According to the present invention, billing can be performed without being affected by the waveform of the power line current and the temperature.

  FIG. 1 shows a part of a charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Paid devices such as a television receiver, a washing machine, and a refrigerator are connected to a single-phase power line (commercial power supply line) and can be used by power supplied from the power line. The current supplied from the power supply line to the pay device is detected by a current transformer 1 as current detection means, converted into a voltage by a load resistor 2, and half-wave rectified by a diode 3 to be a load detection voltage as shown in FIG. Is input to an AD terminal of a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as CPU) (not shown). Note that the output voltage of the current transformer 1 may be full-wave rectified by a full-wave rectifier circuit or a high-frequency component may be removed through a high-pass filter.

  The load detection voltage from the diode 3 increases as shown in FIG. 3 due to the use of the power of the pay device during use of the pay device, and as shown in FIG. It becomes so small. 3 and 4, t is the period of the commercial power supply, and is 20 ms if the frequency of the commercial power supply is 50 Hz. Therefore, the interval between the time points a, b, and c at which the load detection voltage from the diode 3 reaches a peak is 20 ms.

  The CPU periodically samples the load detection voltage from the diode 3 and A / D converts it into a digital signal (here, a binary signal). The sampling period at which the CPU periodically samples the load detection voltage is desirably a period sufficiently smaller than the period of the load detection voltage from the diode 3 (20 ms if the frequency of the commercial power supply is 50 Hz), and is 1 ms here. The CPU binarizes the load detection voltage into binary values of “1” and “0”, and sets a threshold value for converting the sampling cycle into bit data of “1” and “0” with the sampling period as one bit period. Then, after the A / D conversion, the load detection voltage is compared with the threshold value to determine whether it is higher or lower than the threshold value, and the result (bit information) is stored in the memory.

  FIG. 5 shows the load detection voltage when using a pay device, and the load detection voltage is sampled at sampling timings S, S + 1, S + 2... An example of a bit arrangement is shown. This bit arrangement is preferably at least one period of the load detection voltage period (20 ms if the frequency of the commercial power supply is 50 Hz). Here, the bit arrangement is a 20-bit arrangement.

  FIG. 6 shows the load detection voltage and the load detection voltage when using a pay device after 5 ms from the bit arrangement of FIG. 5 and the load detection voltage is sampled at sampling timings S4, S + 5, S + 6. A bit arrangement obtained by performing A / D conversion and comparing with a threshold value is shown.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a bit arrangement in which “1” does not continue even when a pay device is used due to the current characteristics of the pay device.
FIG. 8 shows the load detection voltage when the pay device is in a standby state (standby state), and the threshold value after the CPU samples the load detection voltage at sampling timings S, S + 1, S + 2,. An example of the bit arrangement obtained by comparing with.

  The CPU determines whether or not the number of “1” s in the bit information stored in the memory is greater than or equal to a predetermined value at a certain period, and the number of “1” s in the bit information for a certain period is greater than or equal to the predetermined value. In this case, it is determined that the pay device is in use, and if the number of “1” s in the bit information for a certain period is less than the specified value, it is determined that the pay device is in a standby state. In this case, the CPU determines that the pay device is in use if the number of “1” s exceeds the specified value even if “1” in the bit information for a certain period is not continuous. When it is determined that the pay device is in use, the CPU charges the pay device and collects a charge for the use of the pay device as in the conventional case.

  Note that the specified value can be freely changed according to the difference in the pay device used. In addition, it is desirable that the specified value is freely selected from two or more values in consideration of noise and the like. If the specified value is 3 to 6, it is possible to reliably determine whether the pay device is in use and in the standby state. In addition, when a high response is not required, the CPU performs the determination of the standby state a plurality of times while using the pay device to increase the reliability of the determination of the standby state while using the pay device. The standby state may be determined during use of the pay device.

  According to this embodiment, the detection means (current transformer 1, load resistor 2, diode 3 and CPU) that samples the power supply line current of the pay device at a predetermined cycle, and the detection value of this detection means are compared with a threshold value. Since it is converted into a digital value and is provided with a judgment means (CPU) for judging whether the paid device is in use or in a standby state from the digital value, it is not affected by the waveform of the power line current or the temperature. Can be charged.

  In addition, the determination means binarizes the detection value of the detection means with a threshold value, and whether the pay device is in use or in a standby state based on the number of “1” or “0” in the predetermined period in the binary signal. By determining whether there is a charge, it is possible to easily charge without being affected by the waveform of the power line current and the temperature.

  The present invention relates to a billing apparatus that charges for use of a pay device such as a television receiver, a washing machine, and a refrigerator.

It is a block diagram which shows a part of charging apparatus which is one Embodiment of this invention. It is a wave form diagram which shows the load detection voltage of the embodiment. It is a wave form diagram which shows the load detection voltage in using the pay apparatus of the embodiment. It is a wave form diagram which shows the load detection voltage at the time of pay apparatus standby of the embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the bit arrangement | sequence obtained by comparing the load detection voltage at the time of use of the pay apparatus of the same embodiment, and a threshold value after sampling the load detection voltage by CPU and performing A / D conversion. In the same embodiment, the load detection voltage when the pay device is used after 5 ms from the load detection voltage and bit arrangement of FIG. 5 is compared with the threshold after the load detection voltage is sampled and A / D converted by the CPU. It is a figure which shows the obtained bit arrangement. It is a figure which shows the example of the bit arrangement | sequence which "1" does not continue even when using a pay apparatus by the current characteristic of a pay apparatus in the same embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the bit arrangement | sequence obtained by comparing with the threshold value after sampling the load detection voltage at the time of standby of a pay apparatus in the same embodiment, and A / D-converting this load detection voltage in CPU.

Explanation of symbols

1 Current transformer 2 Load resistance 3 Diode

Claims (2)

  In a billing apparatus that charges for the use of a pay device, a detection means for sampling the power line current of the pay device at a predetermined period, and a detection value of the detection means is compared with a threshold value and converted to a digital value, A billing apparatus comprising: a judging unit for judging whether the pay device is in use or in a standby state from the digital value. 2. The billing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit binarizes the detection value of the detection unit with a threshold value, and calculates the fee from the number of “1” or “0” in a predetermined period in the binary signal. A charging apparatus for determining whether a device is in use or in a standby state.

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