JP2847464B2 - Water supply control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a water supply control device, and more particularly to a water supply control device for automatically supplying water to a wash basin or supplying water to a toilet bowl.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in public toilets and the like, a water supply control device for automatically supplying or stopping water when a hand is put in or out of a sink below a faucet has been used. There is an advantage that the operation of the valve handle with the hand is unnecessary. Many of such water supply control devices include a transmitting unit that periodically transmits a detection signal by receiving power supply from a power storage unit, and a receiving unit that receives a reflected signal returned by the detection signal transmitted from the transmitting unit being reflected by an object. And
The detected hand is detected, water supply is started, and at the time of water supply, the power storage means is charged by the generator.

[0003] As described above, when the faucet controller is operated in the faucet control device in which the storage battery is charged by the generator, there is a possibility that the charging is insufficient and the faucet controller malfunctions. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce unnecessary power consumption as much as possible. Therefore, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 2-66873, when the non-detection time of the human body by the human body detector is longer than a predetermined time, the operation of the human body detector is stopped, and the faucet control for preventing wasteful consumption of the storage battery is performed. A device has been proposed.

[0004] However, this proposed device completely stops the control device to stop power consumption.
It is necessary to always start manually from a stopped state with a manual switch. On the other hand, in the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-17972, which is also proposed to reduce power consumption, it is possible to reduce power consumption without having to manually operate the device.

[0005]

However, the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-17972 has a configuration in which the light emission cycle is shortened when there is a detected object such as a hand, and the light emission cycle is lengthened when there is no detected object. Therefore, the detection cycle is always long at the initial use. Therefore, the responsiveness at the time of initial use is always poor, and the water supply is not made with good timing even when the hand is outstretched, and congestion is caused particularly in a state where the frequency of use is high, such as a large number of people sequentially use the water. In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a water supply control device that can solve such an excessive amount and can ensure responsiveness in a state of high use frequency and can prevent wasteful consumption of a storage battery.

[0006]

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the present invention. The water supply control device receives a power supply from a power storage unit and periodically transmits a detection signal. Receiving means for receiving the reflected signal returned by the detected signal reflected by the object, water supply means for supplying water according to the received signal of the receiving means, and when water is supplied by the water supply means Power generation means for charging the power storage means, charge state detection means for detecting the state of charge of the power storage means, and transmission cycle changing means for lengthening the transmission cycle when the state of charge of the power storage means deteriorates Is provided.

[0007]

In the above configuration, when the state of charge of the power storage means is poor, the transmission cycle of the transmission means is changed to be long, the power consumption is suppressed, and the inoperability of the device due to a decrease in the output voltage of the power storage means is avoided. . Furthermore, in a state where the frequency of use is high such that many people use the power sequentially, the power storage means is charged by the power generation means every time water is supplied, so that the power storage means can be maintained in a good charged state. Therefore, when the frequency of use is high, the transmission period of the transmission means is short, and good responsiveness can be secured.

[0008]

FIG. 1 shows a wash basin 1 provided with a water supply control device of the present invention. A faucet 12 connected to a water supply pipe (not shown) is provided at one place of a container-like wash basin 11. As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, a water supply port 13 is provided on the lower surface of the distal end, and a light emitting element 14 as a transmitting means and a light receiving element 15 as a receiving means are arranged on both sides thereof.
A manual switch 16 is provided at the rear of the faucet 12 at the top.

Water supply control is performed by a circuit in a control box 2 provided at a distance from the basin 11, and the circuit configuration is shown in FIG. Electromagnetic coil 21 of water supply valve provided in water supply pipe
Are connected at both ends to an intermediate point between the power transistors 22A, 22B and 22C, 22D connected in series, respectively.
Power is supplied to the pair of transistors 22A to 22D from a storage battery 24 via a power switch 23. In addition to the transistors 22A to 22D, the power of the storage battery 24 is also supplied to a microcomputer 30 and a light emitting circuit 31, a light receiving circuit 32, and the like to be described later via the microcomputer 30. A backup battery 26 is connected to the storage battery 24 via a diode 25.

A generator 40 is provided, which is rotated by a water turbine (not shown) provided in a water supply pipe to generate power. The AC output is converted to DC by the full-wave rectifier 41 and then supplied to the storage battery 24 via the charging current limiting circuit 42. The charging current limiting circuit 42 includes the microcomputer 30
Is used to limit the charging current when the storage battery 24 is fully charged.

The transistors 22A to 22D are selectively energized at the diagonal positions in the drawing by driver circuits 27A and 27B which receive an output signal from the microcomputer 30, and when the transistors 22A and 22D are turned on, the electromagnetic coil 21 is turned on. When a positive current is supplied and the water supply valve is opened, and the transistors 22B and 22C are turned on, a negative current is supplied to the electromagnetic coil 21 and the water supply valve is closed.

A light emitting circuit 31 is connected to an output terminal of the microcomputer 30, and a current supplied to the light emitting element 14 is supplied by the light emitting circuit 31 in a pulsed manner at predetermined time intervals, which will be described in detail later, so as to blink. You. Light emitting element 1
The light receiving element 15 for receiving the reflected light of the light output from 4
Are connected to the microcomputer 30 via a light receiving circuit 32. A resistor 35 is connected between the manual switch 16 and a power supply, and a signal whose level changes in accordance with ON / OFF of the manual switch 16 is input to the microcomputer 30.

Voltage dividing resistors 33 and 34 are connected to power supply lines to the transistors 22A to 22D, and a voltage signal corresponding to the output voltage (power supply voltage) of the storage battery 24 is input to the microcomputer 30. The microcomputer 30 knows the state of charge of the storage battery 24 from this voltage signal. That is,
As shown in FIG. 5, the output voltage of the storage battery decreases as the remaining capacity of the storage battery decreases.
It is possible to know the deterioration of the state of charge.

Hereinafter, the processing procedure of the microcomputer will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 6, step 101
Then, the timers A, B and C are reset. Here, the timer A is for determining the cycle for measuring the voltage of the storage battery 24, the timer B is for setting the maximum opening time of the water supply valve (normally 30 seconds), and the timer C is for determining the light emission cycle of the light emitting element 14. is there.

In step 102, the voltage of the storage battery 24 is measured, and the value of the timer C is determined based on the measurement result (step 103). As the timer C value, a predetermined large value (for example, 1 second) is selected when the remaining capacity falls below 30% of the remaining capacity of the storage battery (see FIG. 5) known from the above voltage measurement. If it exceeds 40%, a predetermined small value (for example, 0.5 seconds) is selected. In step 105, it is confirmed that the timer A has expired, and if not, the timer C is started in step 109. After confirming that the manual switch 16 is turned off, the timer C waits for a time-out (steps 110 and 11).
6), the timer C is reset, and the light emitting element 14 is driven in a pulsed manner and turned on (steps 117 and 118). When reflected light is detected by the light receiving element 15 (step 11 in FIG. 7)
9) In other words, if the hand is directly under the water supply port 13, the timer B is started in step 120,
The water supply valve is opened (step 121).

In step 122, the light emitting element is driven in a pulsed manner to light it, and when the detection of reflected light by the light receiving element 15 is confirmed, the timer C is started (step 12).
3, 124). It is confirmed that the manual switch 16 is OFF (step 125), and the timer C waits for a time-up (step 126). Thereafter, the timer C is reset (step 127), and when it is confirmed that the timer B has not expired (step 128), the light emitting element 14 is driven and turned on again in step 122. Thus, since the light emitting element 14 is periodically pulsed based on the timer C value, the light emitting cycle of the light emitting element 14 becomes longer as the voltage of the storage battery 24 decreases. Then, when the reflected light of the light emitting element 14 is detected, that is, when the hand is placed just below the water supply port 13, the water supply valve is opened and the water is supplied.

When the reflected light is no longer detected in step 123, or when the timer B times out in step 128, the timer B is reset (step 129), and then the process proceeds to step 130 to close the water supply valve. In step 131, the voltage of the storage battery 24 is measured, and the value of the timer C is determined again accordingly (step 132).

If the timer A has expired in step 105 of FIG. 6, the process proceeds to step 106, where the voltage of the storage battery 24 is measured, and the timer C is set in accordance with the measurement result.
The value is determined (step 107). Then, timer A
Are reset and restarted (step 108). Thereby, in a state where the reflected light is not detected, that is, in a state where the wash basin 1 is not used, the voltage of the storage battery 24 is measured every time set by the timer A, and the value of the timer C is set according to the voltage. It is determined.

In step 110, the manual switch is turned on.
If the answer is N, the water supply valve is opened in step 111 and is opened until the manual switch 16 is turned off (steps 112 and 113). Then, step 11
At steps 4 and 115, the voltage is measured and the timer C value is determined according to the measured voltage.

The effect of the above-described control performed by the microcomputer will be described with reference to FIG. In a state where the frequency of use of the wash basin 1 ((2) in the figure) is high (P1 section in the figure), since the water turbine in the water supply pipe rotates and the generator 40 is frequently driven, the storage battery 24 is charged. The remaining capacity ((1) in the figure) increases. Therefore, in this state, the value of the timer C is reduced, and the light emission cycle of the light emitting element 14 (that is, the detection cycle) is shortened (0.5 seconds), so that quick water supply is performed. This eliminates frustration and the like when a large number of people use the devices side by side.

When the frequency of use of the wash basin 1 decreases at night or the like (section P2 in the figure), the operation frequency of the generator 40 also decreases, and the generated power is lower than the power consumption of the light emitting element 14. As a result, the remaining capacity of the storage battery 24 gradually decreases, and when the remaining capacity falls below 30% (section P3 in the figure), the timer C value is greatly changed as described above, and the light emission cycle (detection cycle) of the light emitting element 14 becomes longer. (1 second). As a result, the power consumption becomes smaller than the generated power, and the remaining capacity of the storage battery 24 starts to increase again. Even if the detection cycle is lengthened to a certain extent, the frequency of use is low, so that a situation in which a large number of people line up in front of the wash basin 1 does not occur, and the problem of irritation is avoided.

When the remaining capacity of the storage battery 24 exceeds 40%, the detection cycle is shortened again (section P4 in the figure), and this is repeated thereafter (sections P5 and P6 in the figure). When the frequency of use of the wash basin 1 increases again, the generated power increases, and the remaining capacity of the storage battery 24 becomes sufficient, the detection cycle is kept short (sections P7 and P8 in the figure).

Thus, according to the present embodiment, the generator 40
And the use of the storage battery 24 eliminates the need for frequent replacement of dry batteries. When the remaining capacity of the storage battery 24 is large, the detection cycle is shortened to quickly supply water, and when the remaining capacity of the storage battery is small, the detection cycle is lengthened within an allowable range and the discharge of the storage battery 24 is suppressed. Thus, a situation in which the apparatus is stopped due to a decrease in the power supply voltage is avoided.

In the above embodiment, the light emitting element 14
Instead of the light-receiving element 15, an ultrasonic wave transmitter and receiver may be used. If the detection cycle (light emission cycle of the light emitting element) is changed to two stages in accordance with the remaining capacity of the storage battery 24 instead of the above-described embodiment, the detection can be performed in a shorter cycle by changing to linear in accordance with the remaining capacity. You can extend the time.
Also, a backup battery is not particularly required.
For the detection of the state of charge, an integrating wattmeter or the like may be used in addition to the above-described embodiment for detecting the output voltage of the storage battery 24. The present invention is not limited to the application to the wash basin 1 but can be applied to, for example, the supply of flush water for urinals.

[0025]

As described above, according to the water supply control device of the present invention, it is possible to avoid the inoperability of the device itself due to a decrease in the output voltage of the power storage means, and to secure a good water supply response in a state where the frequency of use is high. Is done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall side view of a washstand to which a water supply control device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of a faucet of a sink;

FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of a faucet of a sink;

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of a water supply control device.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing a correlation between a remaining battery capacity and an output voltage.

FIG. 6 is a control flowchart of the water supply control device.

FIG. 7 is a control flowchart of the water supply control device.

FIG. 8 is a time chart of the water supply control device.

FIG. 9 is a diagram corresponding to claims.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 washstand 12 faucet 14 light emitting element (transmitting means) 15 light receiving element (receiving means) 2 control box 21 electromagnetic coil of water supply valve (water supplying means) 24 storage battery (power storage means) 30 microcomputer (transmission cycle changing means) 33, 34 Voltage dividing resistor (charge state detection means) 40 Generator (power generation means)

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shigeru Sakakibara 5-1-1 Koie Honcho, Tokoname-shi, Aichi Pref. (56) References JP-A-2-66871 (JP, U) JP-A-2-66873 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) E03C 1 / 05

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transmitting means for receiving a power supply from a power storage means and periodically transmitting a detection signal, and a receiving means for receiving a reflected signal returned by reflecting the detection signal transmitted from the transmitting means by an object. Water supply means for supplying water in accordance with a reception signal of the reception means, power generation means for generating power when water is supplied by the water supply means, and charging the power storage means, and charging state of the power storage means A water supply control device comprising: a state-of-charge detecting means for detecting the state of the battery; and a transmission cycle changing means for changing the transmission cycle to a longer time when the state of charge of the power storage means deteriorates.