JP2916280B2 - Coin diameter measuring 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 coin diameter measuring device for optically measuring the diameter of a coin in a coin processor for sorting coins such as coins or medals for each type.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, for example, in a coin processing machine that sorts coins by type, coin types are discriminated by measuring the diameter of the coins, and the coins are sorted by type based on the discrimination result. It is supposed to.

Conventionally, when measuring the diameter of a coin in such a coin processor, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-6771
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4, as well as irradiating light with a light source from below a conveyed coin, a pair of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged above the coin, and when the coin passes,
The diameter of the coin is measured by detecting the shadow of the coin with a photoelectric conversion element and counting it with a counter.

However, in such a measuring method, when dust or the like is mixed in the coin conveyance path, the dust forms a shadow separately from the coin, and the shadow of the photoelectric conversion element becomes larger by the amount of the dust, and the counter has a larger size. The count value will be large,
The diameter of a coin cannot be counted accurately.

Therefore, it is necessary to prevent dust from entering the transport path or to constantly clean the light source so that the light source is not stained . For example, if a stapler needle or the like is mixed and gets stuck on the photoelectric conversion element portion of the transport path, the coin diameter cannot always be measured accurately, and the coin will be rejected. That is, the coin processor cannot process the coin even if it is inserted, which is the same as a failure, and the operating rate of the coin processor decreases. Also,
When foreign matter enters the transport path, there is a problem that the operator cannot detect the foreign matter being mixed.

[0006]

As described above, in the conventional measuring method, for example , a step is placed on a measuring portion in a transport path.
If foreign matter such as plastic needles is mixed in, there is a problem that the coin diameter cannot be measured accurately, and it cannot be detected that foreign matter has entered. It is not possible to judge whether it is due to a foreign object or a foreign object, and the operator of the coin processing machine (generally an amateur with respect to the coin processing machine) will be confused,
There was a problem that it took time to recover and the operation rate of the machine was reduced.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for measuring the diameter of a coin which can accurately measure the diameter even when a small foreign matter or dust is mixed in the measuring portion in the transporting means and can prevent a decrease in the operating rate of the coin processing machine. It is intended to provide a device.

[0008]

A coin diameter measuring apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a conveying means for conveying a coin to be measured, and provided on one side of the conveying means for irradiating the conveyed coin with light. A light source, a photoelectric conversion element provided on the other side of the transporting means facing the light source, for detecting a shadow of the conveyed coin, and counting a width of a coin shadow detection signal output from the photoelectric conversion element. Set in advance
It counts up when the constant value is counted .
Before counting up the coin from the photoelectric conversion element
When the shadow detection signal is not output, a first counter that counts contents is reset, and starts counting when the first counter has counted up, before
The width of the coin shadow detection signal output from the photoelectric conversion element
A second counter for counting, said first counter
Count has reached a preset value
Value detecting means for detecting that
Set the contents of the first counter in advance
After detecting that a certain value is obtained, the photoelectric conversion is performed.
The element no longer outputs the coin shadow detection signal
Is detected, the count content of the second counter is read , and the content of the read second counter is counted.
Determining means for determining the diameter of the coin based on the content.

[0009]

A first counter for counting the width of a coin detection signal output from a photoelectric conversion element for detecting a shadow of a conveyed coin is provided, and the photoelectric conversion is performed before the first counter counts up. The first counter is configured to be reset when the element no longer detects a coin shadow. Dust and small foreign matters are smaller than coins, and the value of the first counter is set so that the shadow of the coin disappears before the first counter counts up. When the first counter counts up, the second counter starts counting operation,
All remaining periods of the shadow of the coin are counted, and when the shadow of the coin has disappeared, the value of the second counter is read, and the diameter of the coin is determined based on the read value.

[0010]

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

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the configuration of a coin diameter measuring unit provided in the transport path of the coin processor according to the present invention. That is, the coins 1 fed one by one from a coin feeding section (not shown) are guided onto the transport path 2 and are transported in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure while pressing the center portion onto the transport path 1 by the transport belt 3. A slit 4 that is longer than the maximum diameter of the coin 1 is provided in the middle of the transport path 2 in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the coin 1 is transported. A rod-shaped light source 5 having light emitting diodes arranged side by side is provided. Above the transport path 2 facing the slit 4, a CCD type line sensor 7 as a photoelectric conversion element is disposed via a rod-shaped lens 6. With such a configuration, the light from the light source 5 passes through the slit 4 and the portion of the coin 1 is blocked, and the rod-shaped lens 6
Thereby, the shadow of the coin 1 is formed on the light receiving surface of the line sensor 7.

FIG. 1 shows an electric circuit of a coin diameter measuring apparatus according to the present invention. That is, the line sensor 7
Are driven by the drive circuit 8 for scanning. The driving circuit 8
By dividing the frequency of the clock pulse output from the oscillator 9, a clock pulse required to drive the line sensor 7 is obtained. The output signal of the line sensor 7 is shaped into a waveform of an appropriate level by the waveform shaping circuit 10,
Is supplied to the gate circuit 11. First gate circuit 11
Indicates that the output signal of the waveform shaping circuit 10 is at a high level,
When the first counter 12 is not counting up, the clock pulse from the oscillator 9 is input to the clock terminal of the first counter 12.

The output of the first counter 12 is supplied to a constant value detection circuit 13. When the content of the first counter 12 has reached a constant value, the constant value detection circuit 13 detects the content of the first counter 12 and generates a CPU (Central Processing Unit).
14 is output. Also, the first counter 1
The output of 2 is input to the clock terminal of the second counter 16 via the second gate circuit 15. When the first counter 12 counts up, the second gate circuit 15 outputs a clock pulse from the oscillator 9 to the second counter 1.
6 is input. The count value of the second counter 16 is read by the CPU 14 when the output signal of the waveform shaping circuit 10 falls. Note that the first counter 12 is reset when the output signal of the waveform shaping circuit 10 falls.

The light amount feedback circuit 17 is a circuit for giving an appropriate light amount to the line sensor 7. In general, a line sensor cannot obtain an accurate image when the light amount is large. Therefore, by controlling the light amount of the light source 5 according to the output signal of the line sensor 7, the light amount to the line sensor 7 is controlled to an appropriate value.

Next, the operation in such a configuration will be described. First, a normal coin diameter measuring operation will be described with reference to a timing chart shown in FIG. The line sensor 7 uses, for example, TD133D manufactured by Toshiba Corporation. The line sensor 7 captures one run of data between T1 and T2 as shown in FIG. FIG. 4 (a)
Is a signal for transferring the charge of the font sensor of the line sensor 7 to the shift register.
After the invalid portion for four clock pulses, an image signal is output. This output signal is shown in FIG.

The output signal of the line sensor 7 is shaped by the waveform shaping circuit 10 with the threshold voltage V1 to obtain a signal as shown in FIG.
This signal is supplied to the first gate circuit 11 and masks, for example, one pixel transfer rate (2 MHz) of the line sensor 7. When the signal in FIG. 4C is at a high level and the first counter 12 has not counted up (when the output of the first counter 12 is at a high level),
The above-mentioned 2 MHz clock pulse is generated from the first gate circuit 11.

That is, the gate of the first gate circuit 11 is opened at the hatched portion (shaded portion by coin 1) in FIG. 4C, and the first counter 12 starts counting. When the first counter 12 counts up, the output of the first counter 12 becomes low level, the gate of the first gate circuit 11 closes, and the second gate circuit 15
Is opened, and the second counter 16 starts counting. The second counter 16 is configured to be large enough to count the shadow of the coin 1.

When the output signal of the waveform shaping circuit 10 falls, the CPU 14 reads the count value of the second counter 16. Reading of data at the falling edge of the output signal of the waveform shaping circuit 10 can be easily realized by using the interrupt function of the CPU 14. CPU14
When the count value of the second counter 16 is read, the data is compared with, for example, a preset reference value for each type of coin to determine the diameter of the coin and classify the type of coin.

Next, an operation when a small shadow is generated by dust or foreign matter will be described with reference to a timing chart shown in FIG. In this case, the output signal of the line sensor 7 has a signal waveform as shown in FIG. Then, the shadow portion due to dust is counted by the first counter 12. However, the pulse width of the shadow portion due to the dust is not enough to count up the first counter 12. Therefore, the first counter 12 is reset at the falling portion of the shadow portion due to dust.

When the output signal of the line sensor 7 has a regular coin waveform, counting is started in the same manner as described above. In addition, an accurate count value of the second counter 16 can be obtained regardless of a small waveform due to dust or foreign matter. Therefore, the diameter of the coin can always be accurately determined.

In FIG. 5, the case where a small waveform is generated in front of the regular coin waveform due to dust or foreign matter has been described. Since the count value of the second counter 16 is read into the CPU 14 at the end, there is no influence at all.

Next, a case will be described in which the shadow of the coin 1 is located at a position where the shadow of dust or foreign matter overlaps. Coin 1
If the shadows are completely overlapped, the count value of the second counter 16 becomes larger than the count value of the regular coin 1, and the coin diameter cannot be accurately determined. However, since the coin 1 is being conveyed by the conveyance belt 3, the shadow of the coin 1 always moves from the shadow of the conveyance belt 3 at the center to the shadow of the regular coin 1. That is, there is always a portion where the shadow of the coin 1 does not overlap with the shadow of dust or foreign matter.

The operation will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When determining the diameter of the coin 1, when the first counter 12 starts the counting operation, the constant value detection circuit 13 determines that the first counter 12 has a constant value (for example, 16
It detects whether the value has reached 100H in radix, and outputs a signal to the CPU 14 when it detects that it has reached a constant value. CPU
As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, the output of the constant value detection circuit 13 determines whether or not the first counter 12 has reached a constant value. The falling of the signal is detected.

When falling is detected, CP
U14 reads the count value of the second counter 16.
At this time, if the count value of the second counter 16 is “0”, the CPU 14 determines that the operation of detecting the coin diameter has been performed by dust or foreign matter, and performs, for example, foreign matter notification. If the value is not "0", it is determined that the legitimate coin 1 has passed, and the coin diameter is determined as described above.

In this case, the case where the count value of the second counter 16 is "0" is set as the threshold of whether a foreign substance or a coin, but the present invention is not limited to this, and may be, for example, "1". Further, the constant value detection circuit 13 includes a first counter 12
Is for the purpose of determining that the count-up operation has been started, and the count value may be “1” or more.

[0026] If configured as described above, example <br/>, tend mingled coins taken out from the coin receiver Suthep
In the case where small foreign matter such as a stylus stuck in the measurement part in the transport path, or when the photoelectric conversion element part is contaminated with dust or dust, the diameter of the coin can be accurately measured and such In this case, an alarm of foreign matter contamination can be generated to urge the cleaning of the transport path and the like, so that the usability of the coin processor can be improved and the operating rate of the coin processor can be improved.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a coin diameter measuring device for measuring the diameter of a coin in a coin processing machine for sorting coins by type has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can also be applied to a medal diameter measuring device that measures a medal diameter in a medal processing machine that sorts medals by type.

[0028]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the diameter can be measured accurately even when small foreign matter or dust is mixed in the measuring portion in the transporting means, and the coin processing machine can be used.
It is possible to provide a coin diameter measuring device capable of preventing a decrease in the operation rate .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electric circuit.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a coin diameter measuring unit in a partially sectioned manner.

FIG. 3 is a front view partially showing a coin diameter measuring unit in section.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart illustrating a normal coin diameter measuring operation.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart illustrating an operation when a small shadow is generated by dust or foreign matter.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a CPU.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... coin, 2 ... conveying path, 3 ... conveying belt, 4 ...
Slit 5, light source 6, bar lens 7, line sensor 12, first counter 13, constant value detection circuit 14, CPU, 16 second counter.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-140860 (JP, A) JP-A-4-317192 (JP, A) JP-A-4-213007 (JP, A) JP-A-62-162 202297 (JP, A) JP-A-3-6445 (JP, A) JP-A-3-110696 (JP, A) JP-A-2-156395 (JP, A) JP-A-61-271590 (JP, A) JP-A-58-37774 (JP, A) JP-A-64-64071 (JP, A) JP-A-55-96480 (JP, U) JP-B-55-26508 (JP, B1) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G07D 5/00-5/10 G06F 15/62-15/68

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transport means for transporting a coin to be measured, a light source provided on one side of the transport means for irradiating light to the transported coin, and the other of the transport means facing the light source Provided on the side,
A photoelectric conversion element that detects a shadow of a conveyed coin, and counts the width of a coin shadow detection signal output from the photoelectric conversion element, and counts a predetermined constant value.
Then, the coin counts up, and before the count up, a coin shadow detection signal is output from the photoelectric conversion element.
A first counter whose count is reset when the count is no longer performed; and a coin which starts counting when the first counter counts up and is output from the photoelectric conversion element.
The second counter for counting the width of the shadow detection signal of the first and second counters and the count content of the first counter are preset.
Constant value detecting means for detecting that a constant value has been reached, and the constant value detecting means has a value within the count of the first counter.
Detects that the volume has reached a preset value
After that, a coin shadow detection signal is output from the photoelectric conversion element.
When it is detected that the second counter is no longer read , the count of the second counter is read , and the read second counter is read .
Diameter measuring apparatus of coins and discriminating means for discriminating the size of the coin based on the count contents of the counter, characterized by comprising a.