JP2594288Y2 - Automotive ammeter - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is used as an ammeter for displaying the charge / discharge of a battery mounted on a vehicle in a driver's seat of the vehicle. The present invention relates to a digital ammeter using a Hall IC sensor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various types of devices for displaying the state of charge and discharge of a battery mounted on an automobile in a driver's seat have been known for a long time. In recent years, warning lights have been turned on only in abnormal discharge states without displaying the current in ordinary vehicles due to improvements in battery performance and the introduction of automatic control in the charging circuit. What is done is widespread.

However, the electric equipment of a large vehicle is complicated. For example, the electric equipment for loading and unloading luggage is provided, and a lighting lamp for work is provided. May still need to be displayed.

In the conventional structure, a circuit for supplying an extremely large current from a battery, such as a starting motor of an engine, is separated from a circuit and a charging circuit of general electric components of an automobile, and is not displayed on an ammeter. . In other words, when an engine starting motor is used,
The display of the ammeter is different from the actual battery current. This is because the ammeter basically has a structure in which a series resistor is inserted in the current path and the terminal voltage of the resistor is detected. Because it becomes larger.

On the other hand, in recent years, a technique has been developed in which a Hall IC sensor is used for an ammeter circuit for a vehicle. In this method, a cable connected to a terminal of a battery is directly inserted into a Hall IC sensor, and the output of the sensor is amplified to obtain an output corresponding to a current value flowing through the cable. This is an excellent structure that does not require the connection of a series resistor for measurement. This Hall IC sensor has a structure in which a slight change in magnetic lines of force generated outside due to a current flowing through a cable is detected to obtain a voltage corresponding to the value of the current flowing through the cable. By using this sensor, the current can be displayed on the driver's seat even for a circuit that supplies an extremely large current.

[0006]

However, it has been found that it is not always convenient to display the current in the driver's seat according to the output of the Hall IC sensor. This is because the discharge current and charge current of the battery generated when using a general electrical device are about 5A to 20A, but the current of the engine start motor is several hundred A. It is several tens of amps. Therefore, if the scale of the current indicator is linear, it is difficult to read and understand.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an ammeter display which is improved on the above and is displayed rationally in the driver's seat, so that the driver can easily understand it.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a Hall IC sensor having a cable connected to a battery terminal inserted therein, a processing circuit including an amplifier for amplifying the sensor output, and an output of the processing circuit are displayed. An ammeter for a vehicle having an indicator, wherein the processing circuit includes an identification circuit having a plurality of comparators for identifying a range of current values of the current passing through the cable in a stepwise manner. is roughly divided in finely divided high value in absolute value is smaller value of the current value, the indicator, the optical display element the display element is sequentially optically displayed in accordance with the output of the previous Ki識 by circuit Have a structure in which a plurality are arranged in a line.

[0009]

The IC Hall sensor detects the current value passing through the cable connected to the battery terminal, amplifies the detected value, and divides the detected value into small values in the range of small absolute values, and roughly divides the values in the range of large absolute values. And identify them step by step. The values identified stepwise are displayed corresponding to the optical display elements arranged in a plurality in a line. The stepwise identification is performed by giving an output detected by the IC Hall sensor to a comparison circuit including a plurality of comparators .

[0010] Thus, the range of the value of the current passing through the cable connected to the battery terminal can be clearly displayed in a step-by-step manner so that it can be easily determined.

[0011]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
Is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of the identification circuit in the embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 3A is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of the optical display elements in the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing another example of the arrangement.

As shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment of the present invention includes a process including a Hall IC sensor 2 through which a cable 1 connected to a terminal of a battery 11 is inserted, and an amplifier 3 for amplifying an output of the Hall IC sensor 2. A circuit 4 and an indicator 5 for displaying the output of the processing circuit 4 are provided. Further, as a feature of the present invention, the processing circuit 4 identifies the range of the current value of the current passing through the cable 1 in a stepwise manner. Multiple comparators 12-0
Includes identification circuit 6 having a comparator circuit 12 including a to 12-n, the range of the current value is roughly divided in finely divided high value in absolute value is smaller value of the current value. The display 5 includes a plurality of optical display elements 7 in which the display elements are sequentially optically displayed according to the output of the identification circuit 6. The display 5 is an optical display element lighting circuit 8
Is connected to the identification circuit 6, and a reference power is supplied from the power supply circuit 9 to the identification circuit 6.

As shown in FIG. 2, the identification circuit 6 receives the output voltage of the amplifier 3 as an input, and determines whether or not the polarity of the output voltage indicates a charging state.
-0, a comparator circuit 12 which includes a plurality n discharge detection comparators 12-1 to 12-n to the output voltage is compared with different reference voltages V _cc for polar showing a discharge state,
A control circuit 13 receives the output of the comparison circuit 12 and controls the lighting of the plurality of optical display elements 7 of the display 5 via the optical display element lighting circuit 8.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the display 5 has an optical display element 7a for indicating that the battery is in a charged state, and a display for displaying a discharged state. 5A "and optical display elements 7b and 11A for displaying
An optical display element 7c that displays “10A” when the discharge range is from 30A to 30A, an optical display element 7d that displays “30A” when the discharge range is from 31A to 100A, and a range of 100A or more Is provided with an optical display element 7e for displaying "100A".

As another example, as shown in FIG. 3B, the state of charge is divided into two, and an optical display element 7a ₁ indicating that the battery is charged with a current of 10 A or more, and 0 to 10
Optical display element 7a ₂ displayed when the charging range is A
And the display indicating the discharge state can be configured in the same manner as the example shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the embodiment according to the present invention will be described.

When the key switch is operated and the engine is started to enter a running state, a charging current is supplied from the generator to the battery 11 via the cable 1. Further, a discharge current is supplied from the battery 11 to the electric device of the vehicle. A subtraction current between a charging current and a discharging current flows through the cable 1, and the Hall IC sensor 2 detects this and sends a detection signal to the amplifier 3.

The amplifier 3 receives and amplifies the output signal from the Hall IC sensor 2 and amplifies the output voltage. The output voltage is compared with the charge detection comparator 12-0 and the discharge detection comparator 12-1 to 12-1 of the identification circuit 6.
2-n. The charge detection comparator 12-0 and the discharge detection comparators 12-1 to 12-n each compare with a different reference voltage _Vcc, and compare the comparison result with the control circuit 13
To send to.

If the input is from the charge detection comparator 12-0, the control circuit 13 operates the optical display element lighting circuit 8 to light the optical display element 7a indicating that the battery is in a charged state. Let it. When the display mode shown in FIG. 3 (b), or the charging current is not less than 10A, classified whether the range of 0～10A, the optical display element 7a ₁ lit when it is charged at 10A or more turns on the optical display element 7a ₂ when being charged in the range of 0～10A.

The input is a discharge detection comparator 12-1.
~ 12-n, the discharge current is 0 ~ 1
0A, 11A-30A, 31A-100A, or 1
00A or more, the optical display element lighting circuit 8 is operated, and the corresponding optical display element 7
One of b, 7c, 7d, and 7e is turned on.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, a positive or negative current flowing in a cable connected to a battery terminal is detected, and the current value is divided into small ranges when the current value is small, and a range where the absolute value is large. Then, by roughly dividing the display into a plurality of optical elements arranged in a row on the display so that they can be identified in a stepwise manner, it is possible to rationalize the state of charge or discharge and the range of the current value. There is an effect that can be displayed in a simple manner and can be simply understood.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of an identification circuit in the embodiment of the present invention.

3A is a diagram showing an example of an array of optical display elements according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing another example of the array.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Cable 2 Hall IC sensor 3 amplifier 4 processing circuit 5 display 6 identification circuit _{7,7a, 7a 1, 7a 2,} 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e
Optical display element 8 Optical display element lighting circuit 9 Power supply circuit 11 Battery 12 Comparison circuit 12-0 Charge detection comparator 12-1 to 12-n Discharge detection comparator 13 Control circuit

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G01R 19/00-19/32 G01D 7/00 B60R 16/02

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A vehicle comprising a Hall IC sensor having a cable connected to a battery terminal inserted therein, a processing circuit including an amplifier for amplifying the sensor output, and a display for displaying an output of the processing circuit. In the ammeter, the processing circuit includes an identification circuit having a plurality of comparators for identifying a range of a current value of the current passing through the cable in a stepwise manner, and the current value range has a small absolute value of the current value. is roughly divided in finely divided value greater than the value, the indicator, the optical display element the display element is sequentially optically displayed in accordance with the output of the previous Ki識 specific circuits are aligning multiple An ammeter for automobiles having a structure.