JP2016062461A - Wireless plug tag - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the management cost of a local management system for electronic apparatuses using a built-in battery type wireless tag.SOLUTION: The wireless plug tag comprises: an outlet inserted into the AC inlet of an apparatus to be managed; an inlet inserted by a plug attached at the tip of an AC cable; a plug body part for supplying AC electric power to the apparatus to be managed and functioning as a plug connector for wiring; and an active tag arranged inside the plug body part. The local management system for electronic apparatuses can operate outside an area having electric power supplied by a reader antenna and reduce maintenance.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless type wireless tag, and relates to a technique suitable for use in a location management system for electronic devices.

  Patent Document 1 proposes a dynamic management system for managing a device by attaching a wireless tag to the device to be managed and communicating with the wireless tag. This dynamic management system communicates within the checkpoint with a reader attached to a passing checkpoint in a management target area such as a factory, a warehouse, a store, a school, or a hospital, so that the communication date and time and the leader ID (area information) can be obtained. Record in the wireless tag memory.

  By taking out this record and processing the data, it can be used for location management of equipment in factories, warehouses, schools, stores, hospitals, etc. that automatically determine the status such as rental / maintenance / operation rate / temperature history / impact / non-impact It is used.

  The wireless tag used for such an application is ideally a passive tag having no battery, but it is necessary to take a communication distance for location management in a wide management area. Therefore, the reader side needs to have a large wireless power supply capability for supplying power to the tag, and cannot be operated outside the area fed by the reader antenna. There was a problem that it was necessary to increase the number of antennas to be installed to cover all the management target areas.

  For this reason, there are many cases where the tag for managing the location of the device adopts an active method, and most of them are equipped with a primary battery. In this case, when the battery has reached the end of its life, battery replacement is a great effort and management costs are high, which has been a major obstacle to introduction.

For example, like the location management system proposed in Patent Document 2, there is also a proposal that monitors the remaining battery voltage and informs the system side of the battery replacement time.
According to the technique proposed in Patent Document 2, the battery life can be determined more accurately, and the wireless tag can be replaced at an appropriate time before the wireless tag with a built-in battery becomes inoperable. It becomes possible.

JP 2006-48399 A JP 2010-33134 A

However, in the case of the location management system of Patent Document 2, there is a problem that is not a fundamental solution for reducing the management cost.
That is, when a primary battery mounted tag is used in the electronic device location management system using a wireless tag, it is necessary to replace the primary battery of the wireless tag attached to the managed device. Since the wireless tag is attached to the electronic device to be managed and the number of devices is large, it takes a lot of trouble to replace the primary battery of the wireless tag.

In general, since there are multiple types of electronic devices managed by the location management system, the mounting position of the wireless tag differs depending on the type of electronic device, and it is somewhat difficult to grasp the mounting position. Both needed experience.
In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to reduce the management cost of a location management system for an electronic device using a wireless tag with a built-in battery.

  The wireless plug tag of the present invention includes an outlet portion to be inserted into an AC inlet of a managed device, and an inlet into which a plug attached to the tip of an AC cable is inserted, and supplies AC power to the managed device. And a plug main body functioning as a plug-in connector for wiring, and an active tag disposed inside the plug main body. This tag is hereinafter referred to as a plug tag.

According to the present invention, even if there are a plurality of types of devices to be managed, the structure of the AC inlet is standardized, so the mounting mode of the wireless tag is the same, so the battery replacement of the wireless tag or the wireless tag itself Maintenance work such as replacement can be simplified. Thereby, the management cost of the location management system of the electronic device using the wireless tag with a built-in battery can be reduced.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a charging circuit that rectifies a voltage applied between the wires wired between the plug portion of the plug tag and the inlet, and a secondary charged by the charging circuit. Since the battery is provided, the frequency of battery replacement work can be greatly reduced.
Another feature of the present invention is that an AC monitor circuit for detecting the operating power of the managed device is mounted, so that it is detected that the device is in operation by detecting the power consumption of the managed device. It is possible to manage the operation rate of the equipment.
Further, another feature of the present invention is that a temperature sensor for managing the temperature of the management target device is mounted, so that it is possible to reliably manage whether or not the temperature of the device is outside the management range.
Another feature of the present invention is that the G sensor for detecting the impact applied to the device to be managed is mounted, so that the managed device can reliably manage whether or not there is a history of impact exceeding the specified level. Can do.

It is a figure which shows embodiment of this invention and shows the structural example of the location management system of an electronic device. It is a figure which shows the outline of a radio | wireless type plug tag, and an internal substrate. It is a figure which shows an example which attaches a plug tag to the apparatus to manage. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the internal board | substrate of a wireless type plug tag. It is a figure which shows an example of an AC monitor circuit. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the microcomputer for control. It is a figure explaining an example of the operation example of apparatus rental management. It is a figure which shows an example of an internal structure of a radio | wireless type plug tag. It is a figure which shows an example of the wiring with respect to a control board and a charge and AC monitor board. It is a figure explaining a mode that a plug tag is attached and used for apparatus. It is a figure which shows the outlet of the AC cable by which standard is unified, an electrode plug, and AC 3 pole outlet. It is a figure explaining the example which uses a plug tag when the AC cable has come out directly from the apparatus. It is a figure explaining the zero cross signal of AC input.

First, an outline of the wireless plug tag of the present invention will be described.
The wireless plug tag (hereinafter referred to as a plug tag) of the present embodiment is a charge-type RF active tag that is used by being inserted into an AC inlet of a managed device body.

  The plug tag of this embodiment is equipped with a rechargeable secondary battery, a charging circuit, a wireless circuit, and a memory assigned an ID number. The communication date and time and leader ID (area information) are recorded in the memory by communicating within the checkpoint with the reader attached to the passing checkpoint in the management target area such as a factory, warehouse, store, school, or hospital. To do. In addition, by installing sensors such as temperature and impact, when the temperature is out of the control range or when the impact exceeds the specified level, it is recorded.

  The plug tag of this embodiment is equipped with a rechargeable secondary battery, and the plug tag has a plug shape that can be attached to the AC power input inlet of the device. The AC tag is supplied from an AC outlet supplied via an AC cable. It has a structure that can be charged with electric power.

  The secondary battery of the plug tag is trickle charged when the device with the plug tag attached is plugged into an AC outlet and energized to keep the battery life long. (Method of charging by current). The charging place may be a device rental center or a place where the device is used.

  In addition, the plug tag of this embodiment is equipped with a function that detects the ON / OFF state of the device power supply and records the operation state in the built-in memory because the AC power supply is energized when the device is used. You can also This means that the device operation rate can be managed by managing the power ON / OFF state together with the time information.

The time information may be accumulated by an RTC (Real time clock) circuit provided exclusively in the plug tag or a zero cross counter circuit having a power supply frequency of 50 Hz / 60 Hz. This time information is stored in a memory in the tag periodically and retrieved by a non-contact command from a separately prepared reader.
The detection of the power ON / OFF state can be realized by providing a circuit for discriminating the difference between standby power and operating power.

The plug tag is used in the form of being sandwiched between the device and the AC cable. However, since the AC cable is usually removed during storage, the device ID number cannot be specified unless it is fixedly attached to the device. . Therefore, it is desirable that the plug tag has a structure having a lock mechanism so that the plug tag is firmly attached to the inlet on the device side, and is attached so as to remain on the device side even when the AC cable is removed.
Moreover, you may make it adhere | attach an apparatus and a plug tag using an adhesive agent or a double-sided tape.

[First embodiment]
Hereinafter, embodiments of the plug tag of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example in which a location management system for an electronic device is configured using the plug tag of the present invention.
The electronic device location management system according to the present embodiment manages the location of the plug tag 20 attached to the device 2, and includes a plurality of RFID readers 31 to 33, a database server 40, and a client PC 50. Yes. The RFID readers 31 to 33, the database server 40, and the client PC 50 are connected via a LAN network 60.
The plug tag 20 functions as a plug-in connector for wiring, and is used by being attached to the AC inlet 2a of the device 2 to be managed.

  FIG. 2 is an external view of the plug tag 20 and a structure diagram of the internal substrate. As shown in FIG. 2A, the plug tag 20 includes an outlet 20a that is directly inserted into the AC inlet 2a on the device side, and an inlet 20b that can connect an electrode plug attached to the tip of the AC cable so that a current can be passed during use. It is equipped with. In addition, the wireless tag 1 is disposed inside the plug body of the plug tag 20 as shown in FIG. As will be described later, the wireless tag 1 is provided with a control board, an AC monitor circuit, a charging circuit, and the like.

FIG. 3 shows an example of how the plug tag 20 is used.
As shown in FIG. 3, the plug tag 20 is used by inserting the outlet 20 a into the AC inlet 2 a of the device 2 and attaching it to the device 2. In this state, the inlet 20b of the plug tag 20 functions as the AC inlet 2a of the device 2, and when operating the device 2, the outlet 70a of the AC cable 70 is inserted into the inlet 20b to supply AC power to the device 2. . Details of this connection state will be described later with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the plug tag 20. In this structure, three AC electrodes (L, N, FG) are wired between the outlet 20a and the inlet 20b with electric wires. In addition, a charging circuit 3, an AC monitor circuit 4, a sensor 5, a rechargeable secondary battery 6, and a control board that transmits and receives RF are rectified inside to charge a secondary battery 6 by rectifying a voltage applied between electric wires. 7 is installed.

  The control board 7 receives the radio waves received by the control microcomputer 8 holding the ID unique to the plug tag 20, the first antenna 1 (11) that receives the RF radio waves from the reader, and the first antenna 1 (11). RF receiving circuit 9 for filtering, amplification and digital processing, plug tag unique ID signal is received from control microcomputer 8, RF transmission circuit 10 for modulating and amplifying and converting to RF analog signal, and RF transmission signal is emitted by radio waves A second antenna 2 (12) is mounted.

  As an example of the radio wave, an RF signal from a reader is used for a carrier of 125 KHz, and an RF signal from a plug tag 20 is used for a carrier of 315 MHz. This is because the communicable distance is generally within a range of several meters at 125 KHz and does not fly too far beyond necessity, and the plug tag 20 has the advantage of increasing the frequency for miniaturization of components. .

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the AC monitor circuit 4.
The AC monitor circuit 4 includes a voltage detection circuit 41, a current detection circuit 42, and a multiplication circuit 43. FIG. 5 also shows a circuit configuration in which the AC input is rectified by the rectifier circuit 44 and supplied to the charging circuit 3 to charge the secondary battery 6.

FIG. 6 shows a configuration example of the control microcomputer 8.
The control microcomputer 8 of the present embodiment includes a CPU 81, a memory 82, an input port 83, an output port 84, and the like.
The memory 82 stores a program for operating the CPU 81, and the CPU 81 executes a predetermined operation set in advance according to the program.
In addition, the CPU 81 records communication records with the RFID readers 31 to 33 and data input from the sensor 5 in the memory 82.

FIG. 7 shows an operation example of a location management system for an electronic device using the plug tag 20 of the present embodiment.
The correspondence between the attachment positions of the leaders MARD1 to MRD4 for managing the four states of the storage state S1, the rented state S2, the rented S3, and the return / maintenance state S4 and the management flow is shown.

  As shown in FIG. 7B, a device management reader MERD is attached to a location suitable for location management. For example, in the device management center 700 that manages a large number of devices, the first leader MERD 1 is stored in the storage 71, the second reader MERD 2 is located in front of the lending counter 72, and the third passage 73 is located in the entrance / exit passage 73 of the management center. Attach the leader MERD3 and the fourth leader MERD4 to the return port 74 of the management center.

  Therefore, the flow of movement and management of the equipment at the time of lending is the storage 71 → lending counter 72 → the passage 73 at the entrance / exit of the management center, and the plug tag 20 attached to the equipment 2 is connected to the second readers MERD2 and 3rd. By communicating with the leader's leader MERD3, equipment rental management can be realized.

  The flow of equipment movement and management at the time of return is as follows: passage 73 at the entrance / exit of the management center → return port 74 at the management center → storage 71. Therefore, in this case, the plug tag 20 attached to the device 2 enters the maintenance room 75 by communicating with the third reader MARD3 and the fourth reader MARD4.

  The plug tag 20 operates in the normal power saving mode because the control board 7 operates with power supplied from the secondary battery 6 in the storage state S1, the rental state S2, and the return / maintenance state S4 in which AC is not supplied with power. Thus, the consumption of the secondary battery 6 is suppressed as much as possible. When the movement of the plug tag 20 is detected by the sensor 5, the control microcomputer 8 is started. At this time, when a 125 kHz RF signal from the reader MARD is detected, an ID signal of 315 MHz is generated at a cycle of about 1 second. Send.

  When the 125 kHz RF signal is no longer detected, the ID transmission is stopped and the power saving mode is entered. As a result, the reader MERD can detect the ID signal of the plug tag 20, so that the device management center 700 can grasp the location of the plug tag 20.

In the state S3 in which the plug tag 20 is lent out, it is managed as a situation where the device 2 is used. In this state, the device management center 700 can grasp that the device 2 is being lent.
In addition, regarding the management of the operation rate, which is a feature of the plug tag 20 of the present embodiment, the plug tag 20 under the rented S3 is AC-powered when the device 2 is used. The power consumption is measured by the AC monitor circuit 4 built in the device 2 to detect whether the device 2 is in operation.

  If the power consumption is detected under the rented S3, the information indicating that it has been used is recorded in the memory 82 of the plug tag 20. Although not shown in the drawing, the wireless tag 1 is equipped with a built-in RTC (real-time clock) or a function for counting the number of AC zero crossings so that time information and time information are recorded in the memory 82 every moment. In addition, the time used can be known later by programming the control microcomputer 8.

  By knowing the operation time of the device in the rented S3, the operation rate can be grasped later by reading the information recorded in the memory 82 later by the reader MARD. This is a very useful function because the actual use of the device 2 can be known for the purpose of effective use and capital investment.

  In the return / maintenance state S4, information indicating whether or not power is supplied at this time is recorded in the memory 82. It is also possible to manage whether or not the maintenance operation has been checked by reading it later with the reader MERD.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the plug tag 20 includes the charging circuit 3, the rechargeable secondary battery 6, the wireless circuit (the RF receiving circuit 9, the RF transmitting circuit 10, the first antenna 1 (11), the second Antenna 2 (12)) and a memory 82 assigned with an ID number. Thereby, the plug tag 20 can communicate with a reader attached to a checkpoint passing through a management area such as a factory, a warehouse, a school, or a hospital, and information at the time of recording, for example, communication date and time, reader ID ( Area information) and tag ID (device information) can be recorded in the memory 82.

  Moreover, since the plug tag 20 of this embodiment is equipped with the sensor 5 such as a temperature sensor and a G sensor in order to detect temperature, impact, etc., whether or not the temperature is out of the management range, or more than specified. It is possible to record in the memory 82 whether or not there has been an impact of As a result, by reading the information recorded in the memory 82 and processing the data, it is possible to reliably manage conditions such as rental / maintenance / operation rate / temperature history / impact / non-impact.

  In particular, since the plug tag 20 of the present embodiment includes the secondary battery 6 that is charged when the device 2 is used, an electronic device that can be operated outside the area fed by the reader antenna. In the device location management system, the trouble of replacing the battery can be eliminated, and the maintenance of the electronic device location management system can be reduced.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, the charging circuit 3 that rectifies the current flowing through the electric wires L and N wired between the outlet 20a and the inlet 20b of the plug tag 20 and the secondary charged by the charging circuit 3 Since the battery 6 is provided, the frequency of battery replacement work can be greatly increased.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, since the AC monitor circuit 4 that detects the operating power of the management target device and the zero cross point of the AC waveform is mounted, the power consumption of the management target device 2 can be detected. From the detected value, the device 2 is determined to be in an ON state (operating) and in an OFF state (standby), and a power consumption detection output (ON / OFF signal) and a zero cross detection signal are output to the microcomputer 8.

  The power consumption detection output (ON / OFF signal) is a level signal, and the zero cross detection signal is a pulse signal generated at the timing of the zero cross point. This signal waveform is shown in FIG. For example, this signal outputs 100 pulses per second when AC is 50 Hz. The microcomputer 8 counts the number of zero cross detection signals while the device 2 is in the ON state, and stops counting when the device 2 is in the OFF state. This count value is recorded in the memory 82 in the microcomputer 8.

  In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the AC monitor circuit 4 is provided with a zero-cross detection function for measuring time. However, as shown in FIG. 4, a real-time clock (real-time clock) that is an IC for a clock is used. (Abbreviated as RTC) 13 may be mounted on the control board 7 and the change time of the power consumption detection output may be stored in the memory 82 in the microcomputer 8 by the microcomputer 8. By reading the data in the memory 82 from the plug tag at the device management center 700, it is possible to know the time from lending to return and the time during operation. Thereby, the operation rate of the apparatus 2 can be managed.

  In the return / maintenance state S4, the AC monitor circuit 4 detects information indicating whether power is supplied at this time and records it in the memory 82. It is also possible to manage whether or not the maintenance operation has been checked by reading it later with the reader MERD.

[Second Embodiment]
In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the charging circuit 3 and the secondary battery 6 are provided inside has been described. However, the plug tag of the present invention is also suitable for application to a wireless tag including a primary battery.
That is, since it is disposed in the plug tag 20 used by being inserted into the AC inlet 2a of the device 2, even if the type of the device 2 to be managed is changed, the primary battery to be replaced is placed in the plug tag 20 having the same shape. It is attached uniformly. Therefore, the trouble at the time of exchanging the primary battery can be simplified.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the internal configuration of the plug tag 20.
As shown in FIG. 8, the inside of the plug tag 20 can be exposed by removing the lid 20c. As shown in FIG. 8A, the control board 7 and the charging / AC monitor board 36 are accommodated in the plug tag 20, and the secondary battery 6 is disposed on the charging / AC monitor board 36. .

Since it is not preferable for the user to disassemble the battery pack, in this embodiment, the control board 7 and the charging / AC monitor board 36 are insulated by a heat shrinkable tube 80 as shown in FIG. In this example, the plug tag 20 is connected to the AC line via the wirings 80a, 80b, and 80c.
FIG. 9 shows an example of wiring for the control board 7 and the charging / AC monitor board 36.

[Third Embodiment]
In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the plug tag 20 is used by being inserted into the AC inlet 2a of the device 2 to be managed has been described.
FIG. 10 illustrates an example in which the AC cable 70 is connected to the device 2 via the plug tag 20 of the embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 10A, the device 2 is provided with an inlet 2a. Further, as shown in FIG. 10B, the plug tag 20 is provided with an outlet 20a and an inlet 20b. The AC cable 70 is provided with an outlet 70a and an electrode plug 70b.

Since these inlets and outlets are standardized, the outlet 20 a of the plug tag 20 can be fitted into the inlet 2 a of the device 2. Further, the outlet 70 a of the AC cable 70 can be fitted into the inlet 20 b of the plug tag 20. Furthermore, the electrode plug 70b of the AC cable 70 can be fitted into the AC three-pole outlet 100 shown in FIG.
FIG. 11 shows the outlet 70a, the electrode plug 70b, and the AC three-pole outlet 100 of the AC cable 70 that are standardized.

  The plug tag 20 of the present embodiment is not easily removed from the state in which it is fitted to the inlet 2a of the device 2. For a mechanism that cannot be easily removed, an arbitrary mechanism such as providing a lock mechanism can be used. Thus, the user uses the device 2 by inserting / removing the outlet 70a of the AC cable 70 to / from the inlet 20b of the plug tag 20, and the plug tag 20 can be always attached to the device 2.

[Fourth Embodiment]
There is a case where an AC cable is directly output from the device 2 to be managed. In such a case, an AC cable electrode plug is inserted into the plug tag inlet for use.
FIG. 12 illustrates an example in which the AC cable 170 is directly output from the device 2. In this example, the electrode plug is an electrode plug 170b having L and N2 poles, but it may be a three-pole plug. The plug tag 120 of this embodiment includes an inlet 120b that fits into the electrode plug 170b of the AC cable 170, and an outlet 120a that fits into the two-pole AC outlet 200.

  In the present embodiment, since the device 2 and the AC cable 170 are integrated, the plug tag 120 is attached to the device 2 by preventing the electrode plug 170b and the plug tag 120 of the AC cable 170 from being easily detached. Can always be attached.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wireless tag 2a Inlet 2 Apparatus 3 Charging circuit 4 AC monitor circuit 5 Sensor 6 Secondary battery 7 Control board 8 Control microcomputer 9 RF receiving circuit 10 RF transmitting circuit 11 Antenna 1
12 Antenna 2
20 Plug Tag 20a Outlet 20b Inlet 31-33 RFID Reader 40 Database Server 50 Client PC
60 LAN network

Claims (7)

An outlet to be plugged into the AC inlet of the managed device and an inlet into which a plug attached to the tip of the AC cable is plugged, functioning as a plug-in connector for wiring for supplying AC power to the managed device Plug body to be
An active tag disposed inside the plug body,
A wireless plug tag comprising: The active tag is a charging type RF active tag,
A charging circuit for rectifying a current flowing in an electric wire wired between the outlet and the inlet;
The wireless plug tag according to claim 1, further comprising a secondary battery charged by the charging circuit.   The wireless plug tag according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising an AC monitor circuit that detects operating power of the managed device.   The wireless plug tag according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a temperature sensor that manages a temperature of the device to be managed.   The wireless plug tag according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a G sensor that manages an impact applied to the device to be managed. A wiring plug for supplying AC power to the managed device, comprising an inlet into which a plug attached to the tip of an AC cable connected to the managed device is inserted and an outlet into an AC outlet A plug body that functions as a connector;
An active tag disposed inside the plug body,
A wireless plug tag comprising: The active tag is a charging type RF active tag,
A charging circuit for rectifying a current flowing in an electric wire wired between the outlet and the inlet;
The wireless plug tag according to claim 6, further comprising a secondary battery charged by the charging circuit.

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