JP2020000600A - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a vacuum cleaner which does not stop operating due to sudden reduction of a battery voltage.SOLUTION: The vacuum cleaner comprises: a secondary battery 16; motor-driven blower driving means 12 driving a motor-driven blower 11 generating suction force; motor-driven blower control means 13 transmitting a driving signal to the motor-driven blower driving means 12; body control means 21 transmitting a signal for driving the motor-driven blower 11 to the motor-driven bower control means 13 on the basis of input to a hand operation part (not shown in Fig) operated by a user; and battery residual quantity notification means 23 notifying the residual quantity of the secondary battery 16. The body control means 21 sets different determination voltage and different determination time according to the operation condition of the motor-driven blower 11 when determining the residual quantity of the secondary battery 16 from output of a body voltage detection means 22 detecting the voltage of the secondary battery 16 and notifies the operation control of the motor-driven blower 11 and the residual quantity of the secondary battery 16, so that the operation of the vacuum cleaner is not suddenly stopped during cleaning because the determination time is changed for each of the operation condition of the motor-drive blower 11 and determination criteria.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a rechargeable vacuum cleaner using a secondary battery as a power source, and more particularly to a vacuum cleaner that determines a remaining capacity of a secondary battery in consideration of drive control of a secondary battery and an electric blower. It is.

  Conventionally, in a vacuum cleaner using a secondary battery of this type as a power source, a criterion for determining a remaining capacity of a battery is changed for each operation mode, that is, for each amount of power supplied to an electric blower, to improve the determination accuracy (for example, see Patent There has been proposed a device that changes the input control rule based on dust detection according to the remaining capacity of the battery and uses up the battery efficiently (for example, see Patent Document 2).

JP 2002-34878 A JP 2014-212826 A

  When operating a vacuum cleaner using a secondary battery, when the battery voltage decreases to a predetermined voltage, it is necessary to stop the operation of the vacuum cleaner and to prompt the storage battery to be charged. If the battery is over-discharged and the battery voltage is excessively reduced, the life of the battery will be shortened.However, if the margin is increased and the battery is stopped at a higher voltage, the cleaning time is limited, so the performance is particularly high. In general, a control is performed to accurately monitor and stop a voltage that does not affect the service life of a battery.

  However, when the amount of power is changed for a large load such as an electric blower, the battery voltage drops due to the internal resistance of the battery and the resistance component in the device. In such a case, a larger voltage fluctuation (undershoot) or the like may occur temporarily, and a voltage drop occurs due to an increase in the amount of electricity due to dust detection, and the vacuum cleaner may suddenly stop. There were challenges.

  In recent years, in the case of high-performance battery units, those having a voltage detection function and a power supply cutoff function for protecting overdischarge also inside the battery unit have become common, and the main body control side has It is faster than the main unit control side voltage judgment, which takes a predetermined time to improve the accuracy against a sudden voltage drop when the remaining capacity approaches 0 in an attempt to operate to fully use the battery capacity. There is also a risk that the protection function of the battery unit may be activated, and that it may be determined that an abnormality has occurred in the control of the main body.

  The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and provides an easy-to-use vacuum cleaner that can prevent the vacuum cleaner from suddenly stopping during cleaning and can efficiently use a limited battery capacity to the end. The purpose is to do.

In order to solve the conventional problems, a vacuum cleaner according to the present invention includes a battery unit including a secondary battery and a secondary battery control unit, an electric blower that generates a suction force, and an electric blower that drives the electric blower. A motor unit including a drive unit and an electric blower control unit that sends a drive signal to the electric blower drive unit, a hand operation unit operated by a user, and the battery unit as a power source based on an input of the hand operation unit, In a vacuum cleaner including: a main body control unit that transmits a signal for driving the electric blower to the electric blower control unit; and a battery remaining amount notifying unit that notifies a remaining amount of the secondary battery, the main body control unit includes the second unit. In determining the remaining amount of the secondary battery from the output of the main body voltage detecting means for detecting the voltage of the secondary battery, the determination voltage differs from a different determination voltage according to the operation state of the electric blower. It sets a cut-off time to notify the operation control of the electric blower and the remaining amount of the secondary battery, and includes a plurality of battery voltage judgment standards, and also changes the operation time of the electric blower and the judgment time for each judgment standard. In addition, it is possible to provide an easy-to-use vacuum cleaner that can prevent the vacuum cleaner from suddenly stopping during cleaning while suppressing deterioration in accuracy, and can efficiently use the limited battery capacity to the end.

  The vacuum cleaner of the present invention is provided with a plurality of battery voltage determination criteria, the operating time of the electric blower and the determination time are changed for each determination criteria, and the vacuum cleaner stops immediately during cleaning while suppressing deterioration in accuracy. And an easy-to-use vacuum cleaner that can efficiently use the limited battery capacity to the end can be provided.

Perspective external view of a vacuum cleaner according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. System block diagram of the vacuum cleaner The figure which showed the discharge characteristic of the secondary battery of the same vacuum cleaner

  A first invention provides a battery unit including a secondary battery and a secondary battery control unit, an electric blower for generating a suction force, an electric blower driving unit for driving the electric blower, and a drive signal for the electric blower driving unit. A motor unit having an electric blower control unit for sending, a hand operation unit operated by a user, and a signal for driving the electric blower by the electric blower control unit using the battery unit as a power source based on an input of the hand operation unit. In a vacuum cleaner comprising: a main unit control unit for transmitting a voltage of the secondary battery; and a battery remaining amount notifying unit for notifying the remaining amount of the secondary battery, the main unit control unit includes a main unit voltage detecting unit for detecting a voltage of the secondary battery. When judging the remaining amount of the secondary battery from the output, a different judgment voltage and a different judgment time are set according to the operation state of the electric blower, and the operation control of the electric blower is performed. And, it notifies the remaining amount of the secondary battery, includes a plurality of battery voltage determination criteria, changes the operation time of the electric blower and the determination time for each of the determination criteria, and suppresses the deterioration of the accuracy and suddenly reduces the electric power during cleaning. It is possible to provide an easy-to-use vacuum cleaner that can prevent the vacuum cleaner from stopping and can efficiently use the limited battery capacity to the end.

  In the second invention, in particular, the main body control means of the first invention, when judging a plurality of battery voltages, sets a longer judgment time for a reference having a smaller remaining battery power, that is, a lower battery voltage. If the battery is short and the voltage change is small according to the remaining capacity of the secondary battery, and the battery has a certain amount of remaining capacity, the judgment accuracy is high, and the remaining battery power is small and the slope of the voltage change is steep. By making a quick decision, it is possible to provide an easy-to-use vacuum cleaner that can use up the battery capacity without imposing a burden on the secondary battery.

The third invention particularly includes a dust detection means for detecting the presence or absence of sucked dust according to the first or second invention, and supplies electric power to the electric blower according to the amount of dust detected by the dust detection means. When controlling the supply amount, the control width of the power supply amount to the electric blower is reduced when the capacity is smaller than a predetermined battery remaining amount, and the battery remaining amount is almost exhausted during the input control. To stop the operation by notifying the battery, and when the battery capacity is low, it prevents sudden and large input fluctuations and prevents the battery from being over-discharged while keeping the battery level low and the voltage low. By quickly determining when the slope of the change becomes steep, it is possible to provide an easy-to-use vacuum cleaner that can use up the battery capacity without imposing a burden on the secondary battery.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited by the embodiment. In the following, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference symbols throughout all the drawings, and redundant description will be omitted.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a perspective external view of a vacuum cleaner according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of the vacuum cleaner, and FIG. 3 is a discharge characteristic of a secondary battery of the vacuum cleaner. .

    1 and 2, a motor unit 2, a battery unit 3, and a main control unit 4 are housed in a cleaner main body 1 (hereinafter, referred to as “main body 1”) of the vacuum cleaner according to the present embodiment.

    The motor unit 2 includes an electric blower 11, an electric blower driving unit 12 including a switching element for driving the electric blower 11, and an electric blower control unit including a control IC for controlling the electric blower driving unit 12. 13 and an electric blower rotation detecting means 14 for detecting the number of rotations of the electric blower 11.

    The battery unit 3 includes a secondary battery 16 configured by a lithium ion battery or the like, a secondary battery control unit 17 configured by a control IC or the like to supply power to the outside, and cells and / or cells of the secondary battery 16. It comprises a secondary battery voltage detecting means 18 for detecting a voltage in the assembled state and sending a signal to the secondary battery control means 17.

    The main control unit 4 includes a main body control unit 21 including a microcomputer, a main body voltage detection unit 22 that detects a voltage supplied from a power supply and sends a signal to the main body control unit 21, and a main body voltage detection unit 22. And a battery remaining amount notifying unit 23 composed of an LED for notifying the user of the remaining amount of the battery determined by the main body control unit 21 based on the detection result of the battery. The abnormality notification means 24 is provided.

    Further, in the main body 1, a dust collecting portion 6 for storing the sucked dust, and infrared light receiving / emitting which is provided in a suction path (not shown) and detects the sucked dust and sends a signal to the main body control means 21. There is a dust detection unit 5 and the like constituted by elements (not shown). An extension pipe 9 and a floor suction tool 10 are connected to the other end of a hose 7 whose one end is connected to a suction port (not shown) of the main body 1. A hand operation unit 8 provided with a switch (not shown) for operation is provided.

    FIG. 3 shows an example of characteristics when the voltage of the secondary battery 16 is discharged from a state where charging is completed.

    For example, when the discharge is performed with the input current of input A having a relatively large current, the voltage decreases quickly, and then the voltage gradually decreases. When the discharge amount approaches 100%, the voltage is quickly reduced. In contrast, when the discharge is performed with the input B having a larger amount of current, the voltage gradually decreases from the beginning, and when the amount of discharge approaches 100%. The voltage suddenly drops.

In addition, the voltage protection line is used by the battery unit 3 itself, based on the voltage detected by the secondary battery voltage detection unit 18, to allow the secondary battery control unit 17 to discharge the secondary battery 16 in order to prevent the secondary battery 16 from falling into an overdischarged state. Indicates the voltage protection standard to be stopped. The main body control means 21 includes the main body voltage detection means 2
From the output of 2, the consumption of the rechargeable battery 16 is determined at the previous stage (for example, in the voltage range of 18V to 19V in FIG. 3), and the battery remaining amount informing unit 23 notifies.

    The operation and operation of the vacuum cleaner according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described below.

    The user operates the hand operation unit 8 to instruct the operation of the vacuum cleaner. The main body control unit 21 receives a signal output from the hand operation unit 8 by this operation, determines the amount of power to the electric blower 11, and prepares to send a signal to the electric blower control unit 13.

    Here, the main body control means 21 also receives the voltage information of the secondary battery 16 detected by the main body voltage detection means 22 via the secondary battery control means 17, and if the voltage is lower than a predetermined start permission voltage, the operation is started. Is not started, the battery remaining amount informing means 23 informs the user that there is no remaining battery capacity, and returns to the power stopped state.

    If the voltage is equal to or higher than the voltage of the start permission setting, the prepared signal is actually sent to the electric blower control means 13, and the electric blower control means 13 sends a signal to the electric blower drive means 12 based on the received signal. Then, the operation of the electric blower 11 is started.

    When the electric blower 11 starts operating, the rotation thereof is detected by the electric blower rotation detecting means 14, and a signal corresponding to the number of rotations is sent to the main body control means 21. The main body control means 21 determines the operation status of the electric blower 11 based on the rotation speed information. At this time, for example, if it is determined that the electric blower 11 is not rotating despite issuing a driving instruction, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the electric blower 11, and the abnormality is notified to the user by the abnormality notification means 24 including an LED and a buzzer. Notify that there is.

    In addition, the dust detection unit 5 detects the dust sucked by driving, and sends the detection information to the main body control unit 21 so that the main body control unit 21 determines the amount of the sucked dust. Depending on the operation mode instructed by the user, the amount of power supplied to the electric blower 11 is controlled in accordance with the amount of the dust, and the suction force is increased when the amount of dust is large, and the suction force is increased when the amount of dust is small. By reducing power to save power, battery capacity can be used efficiently.

    Further, while the operation is continued, the main body control unit 21 notifies the user of the remaining battery level by the remaining battery level notification unit 23 according to the voltage detected by the main unit voltage detection unit 22 and the current operation mode. I do.

    In FIG. 3, when the operation is performed with the input A, when the voltage drops to A1, it is notified that the remaining battery level is low, and when the voltage drops to A2, it is assumed that the rechargeable battery 16 is almost completely used up. The rechargeable battery 16 is stopped, and the user is notified that the remaining battery power has run out, and the user is prompted to charge the secondary battery 16.

    In addition, when the operation is performed at the input B, when the voltage drops to B1, the fact that the remaining battery level is low is notified, and when the voltage drops to B2, the operation is stopped because the secondary battery 16 is almost used up. Inform the user that the remaining battery power has run out, and urge the user to charge the secondary battery 16.

At this time, when the battery voltage is A1, B1, the change in the battery voltage is relatively gradual, and the load state of the electric blower 11 constantly changes according to the operation state of the vacuum cleaner, so that the power also constantly changes slightly. Therefore, if the battery voltage is determined in a very short time, it may cause an erroneous determination. When the voltage further decreases and drops to A2 and B2, the change in battery voltage becomes slightly steep, so that it is possible to make a determination in a shorter time as compared with the time points A1 and B1.
Also, the input A and the input B have different slopes, and the judgment time is optimally set in consideration of the time until the voltage to be stopped. It is possible to determine that the capacity is used up.

  If the operation is switched to the input A operation at the time when the operation is set at the input B operation and approaches the voltage B2, the voltage drops to near A3 at a stretch. In this vicinity, the voltage change is further steep, and before the main body control means 21 judges the stop in the same judgment time as A2 from the detection of the main body voltage detection means 22, the detection result of the secondary battery voltage detection means 18 The output of the secondary battery 16 may be stopped by the secondary battery control means 17 performing overdischarge protection determination.

    Since the rechargeable battery 16 may be excessively loaded, in order to prevent this, a criterion for determining the voltage of F in FIG. 3 as a second termination voltage determination criterion in a shorter time is provided. This voltage is a voltage that does not decrease due to a normal input fluctuation due to cleaning up to A2 in the input A operation or B2 in the input B operation, and a voltage higher than the voltage protection line that the secondary battery control unit 17 determines as overdischarge. By setting, there is no possibility of erroneous determination even in a short determination time, and the protection for the secondary battery 16 is also provided. In the control for using up the battery capacity as much as possible, the use time of the secondary battery 16 can be further extended without exhausting the rechargeable battery 16 to the overdischarge region at the time of input fluctuation.

    Since the discharge characteristics vary depending on the type of the secondary battery 16, the configuration as the battery unit 3, and the input control to the electric blower 11, the characteristics are grasped in advance and optimal settings are made, so that the accuracy of battery capacity determination is improved. In addition, an easy-to-use rechargeable vacuum cleaner that uses up capacity and prolongs use time can be provided.

    In addition, in addition to switching the input as an operation setting, in a control in which the input is varied according to the amount of detected dust, a variation immediately before the battery capacity is completely used has a large effect. Therefore, the variation range of the power itself is changed in advance according to the voltage. This is also useful, and when the battery capacity is reduced, it is possible to use up the battery capacity while increasing the accuracy of determining the battery capacity by suppressing the range of the power fluctuation. By linking with the notification of the battery remaining amount notification means 23, the user can be more reliably notified of the decrease in the battery capacity, and the user can be encouraged to charge the secondary battery 16.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the input control is performed using the secondary battery as a power source, and the voltage is detected to detect the cutoff voltage at which the operation should be stopped. It is possible to provide an electric vacuum cleaner that can prevent sudden stop of operation due to a small voltage drop and can efficiently use the battery capacity to the end.

  As described above, the vacuum cleaner according to the present invention can accurately determine the remaining battery level of the secondary battery, increase the use time, and improve the usability. It can be applied to various vacuum cleaners for business, business, and stores.

1 Vacuum cleaner body (main body)
2 Motor unit 3 Battery unit 4 Main control unit 5 Dust detecting means 6 Dust collecting unit 7 Hose 8 Hand operating unit 9 Extension tube 10 Floor suction tool 11 Electric blower 12 Electric blower driving means 13 Electric blower control means 14 Electric blower rotation detection Means 16 Secondary battery 17 Secondary battery control means 18 Secondary battery voltage detection means 21 Main body control means 22 Main body voltage detection means 23 Battery remaining amount notification means 24 Abnormality notification means

Claims (3)

A battery unit including a secondary battery and a secondary battery control unit, an electric blower that generates a suction force, an electric blower driving unit that drives the electric blower, and an electric blower control unit that sends a drive signal to the electric blower driving unit. A motor unit provided, a hand operation unit operated by a user, and a main body control unit that uses the battery unit as a power source based on an input of the hand operation unit and transmits a signal for driving the electric blower to the electric blower control unit. And a vacuum cleaner having a battery remaining amount notifying unit for notifying the remaining amount of the secondary battery, wherein the main unit controlling unit detects the secondary battery from an output of a main unit voltage detecting unit for detecting a voltage of the secondary battery. In performing the remaining amount determination, a different determination voltage and a different determination time are set according to the operation state of the electric blower, and the operation control of the electric blower and the secondary Vacuum cleaner for notifying the remaining amount of the pond. 2. The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the main body control unit shortens the determination time with respect to a reference having a smaller remaining battery level, that is, a lower battery voltage, when determining a plurality of battery voltages. 3. A dust detection unit for detecting the presence or absence of dust to be sucked in, when controlling the amount of electric power supplied to the electric blower in accordance with the amount of dust detected by the dust detection unit, a capacity smaller than a predetermined remaining battery level; The control width of the amount of power supply to the electric blower is reduced when the power supply is set to be smaller, and the determination time for stopping operation by notifying that the remaining battery power is almost exhausted during input control is further reduced. The vacuum cleaner according to 1 or 2.