JP2011078834A - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate a defect in a conventional vacuum cleaner wherein the voice announcement is uncomfortable for a user because means for changing or stopping the content of the voice announcement according to the user's preference is not considered at all in the conventional vacuum cleaner. <P>SOLUTION: The vacuum cleaner includes announcement means for announcing the motion or an abnormal state of devices associated with the vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner has a switch not to start the operation of an electric blower even if a switch portion is operated while the electric blower is stopped. By operating the switch, the content of the announcement by the announcement means is changed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly to a vacuum cleaner that improves user convenience by freely switching notification contents.

  Generally, a blinking / lighting display using a light emitting diode (LED) is often used as a means for notifying the user of the operation of the vacuum cleaner. By attaching it to the main body of the vacuum cleaner, it is possible to express a state such as clogging of the vacuum cleaner with a simple configuration.

  However, in this method, since the user needs to check the blinking / lighting state by facing the direction of the LED, the content of the notification cannot be confirmed immediately. For example, even if the specification is such that the LED blinks during the protection operation due to clogging, the user may not know that the operation is normal (entering the protection operation) unless the user looks at the LED to confirm.

  Therefore, a voice notification method is given as a notification method other than vision. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-105630 discloses an audio notification method.

JP-A-4-105630

  However, in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, no consideration is given to means for changing or stopping the voice notification content according to the user's preference. For this reason, there is a drawback that the user who does not need the notification is troublesome.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems and provide an interface that can easily change notification contents according to user's preference.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized by a vacuum cleaner main body having an electric blower and a dust collecting chamber, a hose connected to the vacuum cleaner main body, and a hose connected to the hose. Hose hand operation part having a switch part for switching operation, an extension pipe connected to the hose hand operation part, a suction body connected to the extension pipe, operation of an apparatus related to a vacuum cleaner, or an abnormal state In the vacuum cleaner provided with an informing means for informing, a switch that does not start the operation of the electric blower even when the switch unit is operated while the electric blower is stopped is provided, and by operating the switch The notification content of the notification means is switched.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to set the alerting | reporting content of a cleaner according to a user's liking, and a user-friendly cleaner can be realized.

The flowchart which shows the flow until the audio | voice alerting | reporting content switching which concerns on this invention. The whole perspective view of the vacuum cleaner concerning the present invention. The figure which shows the hand switch part 30 which concerns on this invention. The operation transition diagram of the cleaner concerning the present invention. The control block diagram which concerns on this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of the electric vacuum cleaner according to the present invention. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a vacuum cleaner main body that houses an electric blower 7, a control circuit 6, a cord reel (not shown), and the like. A removable paper pack filter is installed in the dust collection chamber. Reference numeral 2 denotes a hose which is connected to the cleaner body 1 at one end and communicates with the dust collecting chamber to convey the dust into the paper pack filter. Reference numeral 3 denotes a hand operating unit having one end connected to the other end of the hose 2, and the hand operating unit is provided with a switch unit for operating and stopping the electric blower 7 and the motor of the suction body 5. Reference numeral 4 denotes an extension pipe having one end connected to the other end of the hand operation unit. Reference numeral 5 denotes a suction body connected to the other end of the extension pipe 4. The suction body 5 has a built-in rotary cleaning body that scrapes dust on the floor and an electric motor 10 (described later) that drives the rotary cleaning body. Has been. The suction body 5 of the present embodiment is a power brush that drives the rotary cleaning body with the electric motor 10.

  An electric blower 7 is accommodated in the cleaner body 1 and generates a suction force. 8 is an alerting means for notifying the operation of the equipment related to the vacuum cleaner or an abnormal state. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the operation start time of the dust removing device 11 (FIG. 5) that removes dust attached to the paper pack filter is notified. Reference numeral 9 denotes a setting storage unit which stores, for example, the contents notified by the notification means 8 and the setting state such as notification on / off.

  In this embodiment, a voice notification unit is used as the notification unit 8, and specifically, a separately-excited buzzer is used. However, the notification unit 8 may be realized by using a method using an FM sound source or PCM. The output frequency is between 880 and 2200 Hz in consideration of the human audible range.

  FIG. 3 shows the details of the hand switch 30 of the hand operating unit 3 according to the present invention. Each of the four types of power brush switch 31, strong / weak operation switch 32, standard / attentive switch 33, and off switch 34 is shown. There is a switch operation section. By pressing these switches, the user can select the input of the electric blower 7 according to the application.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the transition of the operation mode when the switch is pressed, and FIG. 5 is a control block diagram according to the present invention. In FIG. 5, 11 is a power supply circuit that receives commercial power and supplies power to the control circuit 6, 70 is an electric motor drive circuit that drives the electric blower 7, and 10 is a mouthpiece incorporated in the mouthpiece 5. It is an electric motor.

For example, when the strong / weak switch 32 of the hand switch unit 30 is pressed once while the electric blower 7 is stopped 41, the pressing signal is transmitted to the control circuit 6, and the control circuit 6 becomes the strong operation 42. Thus, the electric blower 7 is controlled. When the strong / weak switch 32 is pressed once again in this state, the pressing signal is transmitted to the control circuit 6, and the control circuit 6 switches from the strong operation 42 to the weak operation 43 and controls the electric blower 7 with the weak operation 43. Thus, every time the strong / weak switch 32 is pressed, the strong operation 42 and the weak operation 33 are alternately switched.

  Similarly, each time the standard / attention switch 33 is pressed, the standard operation 44 and the attention operation 45 are switched. In this embodiment, the relationship between each operation mode and the input to the electric blower is strong> standard> weak> attentive.

  On the other hand, when the power brush switch 31 is pressed while power is supplied to the electric blower, the mouthpiece motor 10 incorporated in the mouthpiece 5 can be operated and stopped. Further, the off switch 34 stops the operation of the electric blower 7 and the suction body motor 10, and sets the stop state 41.

  In the present embodiment, the dust removing device 11 is operated before the electric blower 7 is started and after the operation is stopped, so that the dust removal operation of the paper pack filter is performed to prevent the paper pack filter from being clogged and the suction force is maintained. Yes. And before this dust removal operation is performed, the notification means 8 is used to notify the user of the dust removal operation of the dust removal device 11. As a notification method, a buzzer or a melody is used. However, depending on the user, there is a demand that notification is unnecessary or that it is desired to change the buzzer sound or melody sound to be notified. The changing method will be described below.

  When the electric blower 7 is stopped, the electric blower 7 and the suction body motor 10 do not operate even when the power brush switch 31 or the turn-off switch 34 is pressed. That is, since it is not directly related to the cleaner operation, a setting operation such as voice notification content switching can be assigned to these switches without providing a special switch.

  However, in the same detection of pressing as usual, the setting operation is accepted even though the user does not want it, and the usability becomes worse. Therefore, the setting operation is accepted when the user intentionally presses the switch for a long time.

  FIG. 1 shows a flow until a setting operation is accepted. The microcomputer of the control circuit 6 determines that the electric blower 7 is stopped (101), and if it is stopped, determines whether the power brush switch 31 has been pressed for a predetermined time (102). Here, it is a condition that the button is continuously pressed for 5 seconds. If it is determined that the button has been pressed for a certain time, the notification content is switched (103), and then notification (104) is performed. And the setting content memorize | stored in the setting memory | storage part 9 is rewritten, and notification information recording (105) is performed.

  There are two types of notification contents in this embodiment: a melody sound of about 6 seconds or no sound. In this way, a setting operation that does not notify the user may be performed.

  Also, the voice notification when switching from the melody ringing state to the absence of ringing and the voice notification when switching from no ringing to the melody ringing state may be performed separately.

  For example, when switching from a melody sounding state to no sound, a single sound is played shortly, and when switching from no sounding to a melody sounding state, a melody is sounded so that the notification content is switched more clearly. It is possible to tell the person.

  Furthermore, it is also possible to apply the switching of the melody sounding state only during a specific operation. For example, the melody state can be switched only when the user performs an operation, while the melody sounded during the clogging operation can be the same regardless of the melody switching information.

  In the present embodiment, the setting information is recorded using a part of the recording area of a microcomputer (not shown) that controls the vacuum cleaner as the setting storage unit 9. In addition to the present embodiment, a nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM can be used as the setting storage means. By adopting such a configuration, even if the vacuum cleaner is turned off, the previous settings are recorded when the user uses the vacuum cleaner again, so there is no need to re-set it. A user-friendly vacuum cleaner can be realized.

  In the present embodiment, the setting state is switched by the power brush switch 31; however, for example, a switch 34 of an electric blower may be used.

  According to the present embodiment, when switching the setting information, the special switch is not used, but the existing switch is also used (the power brush switch 31 and the off switch 34). It is possible to prevent an erroneous operation such as pushing, reduce the complexity of the switch operation due to an increase in the number of switches, and provide an easy-to-use vacuum cleaner.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vacuum cleaner main body 2 Hose 3 Hand operation part 4 Extension pipe 5 Suction port 6 Control circuit 7 Electric blower 8 Notification means 9 Setting memory | storage part

Claims (5)

A vacuum cleaner main body having an electric blower and a dust collecting chamber, a hose connected to the vacuum cleaner main body, a hose hand operating portion connected to the hose and having a switch portion for switching the operation of the electric blower, In the vacuum cleaner provided with the extension pipe connected to the hose hand operation section, the suction body connected to the extension pipe, the operation of the equipment related to the vacuum cleaner, or a notification means for notifying the abnormal state,
A switch is provided in which the operation of the electric blower is not started even when the switch unit is operated while the electric blower is stopped, and the notification content of the notification means is switched by operating the switch. Characterized vacuum cleaner. In claim 1,
The vacuum cleaner is characterized in that the switch is a cut-off switch for stopping the operation of the electric blower. A vacuum cleaner main body having an electric blower and a dust collecting chamber, a hose connected to the vacuum cleaner main body, a hose hand operating portion connected to the hose and having a switch portion for switching the operation of the electric blower, An extension pipe connected to the hose hand operation section, a mouthpiece connected to the extension pipe, an electric motor that drives a rotary cleaning body arranged in the mouthpiece, and an operation or an abnormal state of equipment related to the vacuum cleaner In a vacuum cleaner provided with a notification means for notifying
The switch part is provided with a power brush switch for turning on and off the operating state of the motor of the suction body, and the notification content of the notification means is switched by operating the power brush switch. Electric vacuum cleaner. In claim 3,
The power brush switch is configured to switch notification contents when operated with the electric blower stopped. In any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4,
A vacuum cleaner characterized in that the notification means is a buzzer sound, and the frequency of the buzzer sound is 880 to 2200 Hz.

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