JP3099332B2 - Battery power unit - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a device for detecting a decrease in electromotive force of a dry battery used for various devices and the like.

(B) Conventional technology When the electromotive force of a dry battery used in various devices falls below a certain limit, the functions of the above devices and the like stop, so that it is detected that the electromotive force of the dry battery has dropped to the above limit. There is a need.

Further, when the function is stopped, for example, it is necessary to maintain the solenoid valve in a closed state, such as a solenoid valve for controlling flush water of the flush toilet, in such a case, the electromotive force of the dry battery,
It is necessary to give notice of the time to replace batteries before the device stops functioning.

Therefore, the voltage drop detection element is connected to the dry cell to monitor the voltage of the power supply, and when the power supply voltage falls below a certain level, the user is notified of the replacement time by turning on the LED or activating the buzzer. Was.

In addition, in the case of dry batteries, the electromotive force gradually decreases as the use period elapses, but in an intermittently operated device, the power supply voltage temporarily drops only during the period when the device is operating and consuming power. Therefore, if this temporarily dropped power supply voltage is detected and dry battery replacement is announced, the replacement of dry batteries will be announced even though the batteries have sufficient electromotive force to operate the device. This leads to waste of batteries.

Therefore, the output of the voltage drop detecting element is counted according to the operation of the device, and when the output is continuously detected for a certain number of times or more, the replacement time is notified in advance to prevent waste of the dry battery. It is considered.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in an apparatus having a plurality of loads having different power consumptions, when the output of the voltage drop detecting element is continuously detected for a certain number of times or more, the dry battery replacement time is notified in advance. In such a configuration, a decrease in the electromotive force of the dry battery may not be detected in some cases.

That is, in an intermittently operated device, the power supply voltage is, as shown in FIG. 5, a time constant determined by the electromotive force of the battery, the internal resistance, the load, etc., only temporarily while the device is operating and consuming power. Because it descends according to
If the power consumption period is long, the voltage drop is large, and the voltage drop detection element can detect a drop in the power supply voltage. However, if the power consumption time is short, the voltage drop is small and the voltage drop cannot be detected. Sometimes, while counting the power supply voltage below a certain level, it is possible that the load of short-time power consumption causes a small voltage drop and the voltage drop cannot be detected.
If the number of times is too long, the counting is restarted, and there is a possibility that a state in which a decrease in the electromotive force of the dry battery cannot be notified before the device stops functioning may occur.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems According to the present invention, in a battery power supply device capable of controlling the power supply from a battery power supply to a load, a detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a decrease in the electromotive force of the battery every time power is supplied to the load. And a notifying unit for notifying about the decrease in the electromotive force of the battery when the number of times of detection of the presence of the electromotive force drop during the recent predetermined number of power supplies reaches the set number of times set in advance to a value smaller than the predetermined number of times. The present invention relates to a battery power supply device comprising:

(E) Function / Effect According to the present invention, in a battery power supply device capable of controlling power supply from a battery power supply to a load, a detection unit that detects whether or not the electromotive force of the battery has decreased for each power supply to the load; When the number of times of detection of the presence of the decrease in the electromotive force during the predetermined number of recent power supplies reaches a predetermined number of times set in advance to a value smaller than the predetermined number of times, there is provided notification means for reporting a decrease in the electromotive force of the battery. As a result, it is possible to prevent a dry battery from being replaced by a one-time temporary voltage drop and to prevent wasteful use of the battery.In addition, the power consumption time is short and the voltage drop is small. Even if it cannot be detected, the counting of the number of times that the electromotive force has decreased during the predetermined number of recent power supplies can be continued. Succoth can.

Therefore, it is possible to completely use the electromotive force of the dry battery while preventing the function of the apparatus from being stopped due to running out of the dry battery.

(F) Example The present invention detects the presence or absence of a user and discharges cleaning water.
A description will be given based on an embodiment applied to the water supply device (A) of the flush toilet (1) that automatically controls the stop.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a flush toilet (1), and a water supply device (A) is disposed above the toilet (1).

As shown in FIG. 2, the water supply device (A) is a sensor (S) for detecting the presence or absence of a toilet in the control device (C), that is, the presence or absence of a human body in front of the flush toilet (1), such as an infrared sensor. When a human body detection signal from the sensor (S) is input, a pulse-like opening / closing signal corresponding to the signal is output from the control device (C) to the solenoid driver (2), and the solenoid valve ( The opening and closing control of 3) is performed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the solenoid valve (3) is provided with opening / closing coils (4) and (5) and a valve mechanism (6) at a lower portion. When the plunger (7) is pulled up and the closed coil (5) is energized, the plunger (7) is pushed down.

The valve mechanism (6) includes a valve seat (8), a valve element (9), a diaphragm (10), and a pilot valve (11).
An orifice (12) having a resistance greater than the flow resistance when the pilot valve (11) is opened is bored in the diaphragm (10).

Therefore, when the open coil (4) is energized, the pilot valve (11) opens and the pressure on the upper surface of the diaphragm (10) decreases, and the water pressure from the inflow port (13) pushes up the valve body (9) to lift the valve. Open the seat (8) and hold this state.

When the closed coil (5) is energized, the pilot valve (11) closes, the pressure of the upper surface of the diaphragm (10) rises due to the water flowing from the orifice (12), and the valve body (9) is pushed down to release the valve. The seat (8) is closed and this state is maintained.

As described above, since the switching coils (4) and (5) only operate the plunger (7) for opening and closing the pilot valve (11), the current for driving the coils (4) and (5) is extremely small. Since the open / close state of the solenoid valve (3) is latched by water pressure, power consumption is small.

In addition, since the plunger (7) is biased (14) in the valve closing direction, a large power consumption state occurs during the valve opening operation and a small power consumption state occurs during the valve closing operation.

Further, in FIG. 2, (D) is a voltage drop detecting element. As shown in the equivalent circuit diagram of FIG. 4, a reference voltage circuit (Ref) is built in the input terminal (D).
The output voltage of the battery (B) input from 1) is compared with the reference voltage by the comparator (D2). When the power supply voltage becomes lower than the reference voltage, the output terminal (D
The signal is output from 3) to the control device (C).

(D4) is a power supply terminal, (D5) is a constant current circuit, (D6) is a hysteresis setting terminal, and (D7) is a ground terminal.

Although the connection of the power supply terminal (D4) and the hysteresis setting terminal (D6) are not shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2, these terminals are connected to specific components used as the voltage drop detection element (D). In this case, a voltage appropriate for the circuit design is input as appropriate. Usually, a power supply voltage for driving the voltage drop detection element (D) is input to the power supply terminal (D4), and a voltage is input to the hysteresis setting terminal (D6). Inputs a voltage obtained by dividing the power supply voltage.

In FIG. 4, the constant current circuit (D5) stabilizes the reference voltage, while the hysteresis setting terminal (D6) is used when the output voltage of the battery (B) is substantially equal to the reference voltage. In order to stabilize the operation of the comparator (D2).

FIG. 5 shows the voltage monitored by the voltage drop detecting element (D). When the water supply device (A) operates, there is a temporary voltage drop, and in the large power consumption state, power is consumed for a long time. In a large voltage drop and small power consumption state, there is a small voltage drop because power is consumed for a short time.

Therefore, in the process where the electromotive force of the dry battery (B) decreases, the reference voltage may be crossed during the valve opening operation with large power consumption, but not crossed during the valve closing operation with small power consumption. .

The control device (C) outputs to the solenoid valve (3) based on the signal from the sensor (S) to control the discharge / stop of the washing water.

The control device (C) is a solenoid valve (3) to be counted.
A shift register having the same number of addresses as the number of actuations is built in, and a signal input from the voltage drop detection element (D) to the register is shifted in accordance with the actuation of the solenoid valve (3). During output, when the number of high-level bits reaches a preset number, an LED (15) for notifying the battery replacement time is output and turned on.

That is, the control device (C) counts a signal from the voltage drop detecting element (D) input in response to the operation of the solenoid valve (3) a certain number of times in recent times, and the counted number is a preset number. Is reached, an LED (15) is output to notify the dry battery replacement time, and this is blinked.

Therefore, when the number of times that the voltage drop detecting element (D) detects the voltage drop of the dry battery (B) reaches a preset number of times with respect to the recent operation of the solenoid valve (3), the dry battery Since the notification of the decrease in the electromotive force of (B) is notified, it is possible to prevent the dry battery (B) from being wastefully used by notifying the replacement of the dry battery by a single temporary voltage drop, and to prevent the use of the dry battery (B). During the operation of the solenoid valve (3) for a fixed number of times, even if the power consumption time is short and the voltage drop is small and the voltage drop cannot be detected, the count of the voltage drop is continued. The number of times of voltage drop during power consumption of the battery can be detected.
As long as it has enough electromotive force to operate the battery, it is possible to fully use the electromotive force of the dry battery (3) without notifying the replacement of the dry battery, and before the water supply device (A) stops functioning. Can be notified of the replacement of batteries.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a flush toilet provided with a device for detecting a decrease in electromotive force of a dry battery according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control device, FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a solenoid valve, and FIG. FIG. 5 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the voltage drop detecting element, and FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between the power consumption of the dry battery and the voltage drop. (D): voltage drop detection element (1): flush toilet (A): water supply device (B): dry battery (D): voltage drop detection element

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Tatsuya Yoshida 2-8-1, Motomura, Chigasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Tochiki Kikai Co., Ltd. Chigasaki Plant (56) References JP-A-61-247980 (JP, A) 63-214280 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01R 31/36 G01R 19/165 H02J 7/00 H01M 10/42-10/48

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A battery power supply device capable of controlling power supply from a battery power supply to a load, comprising: detecting means for detecting whether or not the electromotive force of the battery has decreased every time power is supplied to the load; And a notifying unit for notifying about the decrease in the electromotive force of the battery when the number of times of detection of the presence of the decrease in the electromotive force in has reached a set number of times set in advance to a value smaller than the predetermined number of times. Battery power supply.