JP3157221B2 - vending machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine, and more particularly to a vending machine provided with a control device for minimizing damage when a counterfeit of a specific denomination is accepted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a vending machine of this kind accepts and discriminates money of a plurality of denominations, and stores the inserted money in a change storage cylinder of each denomination. Then, after the vending machine user inserts the money, the money is dispensed from the storage cylinder by an escrow operation of operating a return lever before pressing a product selection switch or a change return operation of dispensing change after selling the product.

Here, since the inserted money is accumulated from above in the change storage cylinder, the inserted money is not paid out in the escrow operation, but the money at the lower end of the change storage cylinder is paid out. That is, when 500 yen money is inserted, the input money is not paid out, but 50 yen is paid out.
Dispense 500 yen coin at the lower end of the change storage cylinder of 0 yen coin.

In some vending machines, in the escrow operation when money of a higher denomination is inserted, dispensing is performed in place of a lower denomination. That is,
If the return lever is operated after the 500-yen coin is inserted and before the commodity selection switch is operated, the payout is performed with five 100-yen coins instead of paying out the 500-yen coin. This is because the inserted 500-yen currency is not used as change but is stored directly in a safe instead of a change storage cylinder.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional vending machine, not the money inserted in the escrow operation but the money in the change storage cylinder is paid out.
If the counterfeit money is accepted, the speculum in the change storage cylinder will be paid out, causing a great deal of damage to the vending machine owner.

Therefore, conventionally, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 55-4243.
As shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 9 (G07F9 / 04), a system is adopted in which the inserted 100-yen currency is temporarily held without being accommodated in the change storage cylinder, and when the escrow operation is performed, the inserted currency itself is returned. According to this, even if the counterfeit money is accepted, the vending machine owner will not be damaged because the counterfeit money itself is returned by the escrow operation.

However, in order to realize such a temporary holding method, the money storing and paying out mechanism becomes complicated, and the entire apparatus becomes large. In particular, in recent years, 500 yen coins have been added as accepted denominations, and this problem has become even more serious, and the reality is that it has not been practically used.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a vending machine capable of minimizing the damage to a vending machine owner due to the insertion of counterfeit money without causing such mechanical complexity and size increase. is there.

[0009]

The vending machine of the present invention comprises:
A money discriminator that identifies the inserted money and outputs a money discrimination signal corresponding to the denomination, and outputs a return signal by operating a return operation unit, a product selection switch that selects a product for sale, a money discrimination signal and a product. A control device that executes sales control based on a product selection signal from the selection switch and executes change return control based on a return signal,
This control device has return acceptance determining means for prohibiting change return control until at least one sales control ends when a money identification signal of a specific denomination is input.

[0010]

[Operation] When money is inserted by a vending machine user,
The currency identification device identifies the input currency and outputs a currency identification signal corresponding to the denomination to the control device. The control device sells the selected product in accordance with a money identification signal relating to the inserted money and a product selection signal from a product selection switch.

The return acceptance determining means of the control device prohibits the return of change when the specific denomination (for example, 500 yen) is accepted, unless the product is sold at least once thereafter. Therefore, in the case of a specific denomination (500 yen), escrow is prohibited.

[0012]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electric circuit of a vending machine according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a first control device 1, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing programs of the first control device 1. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a program of the second control device 2.

In FIG. 1, a control device for controlling a vending machine according to the present invention is constituted by a general-purpose microcomputer, and a first control device 1 and a second control device 2 which are connected to each other. Consists of The first control device 1 is connected to a money identification device 3 and a money storage and payout mechanism 4, and the second control device 2 is connected to a product selection switch 5 and a product sales mechanism 6.

The money discriminating apparatus 3 discriminates the inserted money, and leads 10 yen, 50 yen and 100 yen to a change storage cylinder (not shown) of the money storing and dispensing mechanism 4, and 500 yen to a safe passage (not shown). A money identification signal corresponding to the denomination of the inserted money is output to the identification signal port of each money of the first controller 1. In addition, the money discriminating apparatus 3 outputs a return signal (so-called escrow signal) for instructing the return of the inserted amount to the first control apparatus 1 in response to the operation of a return lever as a return operation unit (not shown). Further, when the identification signal port of the first control device 1 becomes low potential (hereinafter referred to as “L”), the currency identification device 3 returns without accepting the denomination currency corresponding to the identification signal port (rejection). ).

The money storing and dispensing mechanism 4 is provided with a change detecting device (not shown) for storing change coins in the change storage cylinders by denomination and detecting presence or absence of reserved money in each change storage cylinder. That a predetermined number, for example, ten or more changes, are stored in the denomination is output to the first control device 1 as a denomination change detection signal. Further, the money storage and payout mechanism 4 executes a payout operation in response to a payout signal from the first control device 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the first control device 1 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 8, a ROM 9 in which the control operation of the first control device 1 is programmed, at least four storage units 10, RAM including 11, 12, and 14, and I / O
And an interface 13. Storage unit 10
Is a denomination inserted number counter that stores the number of inserted coins as denomination input number data in units of one sales cycle based on the denomination identification signal input from the currency identification device 3. The storage unit 11 stores a CNEX-flag (hereinafter, the flag is simply referred to as “F”) that represents a period from the time when the input currency is received in one sales cycle until the end of the sales. The storage unit 12 is for storing payable number data for each denomination, and based on a denomination change detection signal input from the money storing and dispensing mechanism 4 in a standby state, a predetermined value corresponding to the presence or absence of change. Numerical values, for example, 0 when no change is made, 10 when change is made, and data obtained by adding the number of coins inserted in one sales cycle are stored. The storage unit 14 stores an escrow prohibition F indicating a period during which the transmission of the escrow F is prohibited. Then, the first control device 1 outputs the payout end F indicating the end of the change payout by the money storage and payout mechanism 4.
And the escrow F based on the input denomination number data stored in the storage unit 10, the payable number data stored in the storage unit 12, and the escrow signal input from the currency discriminating device 3. As a signal of the serial transmission method.

The product selection switch 5 detects the selection of a product by a vending machine user, and the product selection signal is output to the second control device 2. Also, the second
Of the vending machine controls the series of operations of the vending machine, and a CREM instruction F for instructing the first controller 1 to return the inserted money, and returns to the standby state. Command F and the payout amount data indicating the amount to be paid out by the money storage and payout mechanism 4 are output as serial transmission signals, and
To execute the delivery of the product.

Next, the operation of the first and second control devices 1 and 2 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of main processing of the first control device 1, and FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of interrupt processing of the first control device 1. The interrupt processing of FIG. 4 is started periodically at a preset cycle. FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a process performed by the second control device 2.

First, the vending machine is not on sale but on standby, CNEX-F is "0", and a predetermined number of 10-yen currency and 100-yen currency (for example, 10 It is assumed that there is a change of 10 yen coin and 100 yen coin reserved. In this state, step S1
From step S2. In step S2, it is determined from the change detection signal whether or not the change has been completed for each denomination, and the storage unit 12 is determined in step S13 according to the presence or absence of change.
The payable number data of 10 yen and 100 yen in
The value is set to "0", and the payable number data of 50 yen in the storage unit 12 is set to "0" in step S3.
The first control device 1 repeats the process of the main flowchart, but detects a change in the denomination of a different denomination every time the process reaches step S2, and performs the process of step S13 or step S4 according to the result. Next, the process proceeds from step S4 to step S5, where it is determined whether or not the payable number data of 10 yen in the storage unit 12 is “0”.
Since it is "0" and not "0", the flow advances to step S6 to determine whether the payable number data of 50 yen in the storage unit 12 is "0", and since it is "0", the flow advances to step S15, and this time, It is determined whether the payable number data of 100 yen in the storage unit 12 is "10", and since it is "10", the flow proceeds to step S7 to set the 500 yen identification signal port of the first control device 1 to the input state. It is set so that 500 yen currency can be accepted. This is because 500 yen money is inserted and the change can be paid out.

In this state, when a vending machine user inserts, for example, 100 yen currency, the currency identification devices 3 to 10
Since the currency identification signal of 0 yen is input to the first control device 1, the process proceeds from step S20 to step S27 in the interrupt flowchart of FIG.
The counter of the number of inserted coins is added from “0” to “1”, and then it is determined in step S28 whether or not the inserted currency is 500 yen.
Since it is not 0 yen, 100 of the storage unit 12 is
The counter for payable number of yen is changed from “10” to “1”.
1 ". Next, from step S30, the process proceeds to step S31, in which CNEX-F is set to "1" to put the vending machine in the selling state. Next, in step S21, it is determined whether or not the escrow signal has been input from the currency discriminating apparatus 3. If the return lever is not operated, no input is made, so that the process proceeds to step S22, where the escrow F is set to "0" and sent to the second control device 2. On the other hand, when CNEX-F becomes "1", the process proceeds from step S4 of FIG. 3 to step S14, where it is determined whether or not the 500-yen insertion number counter in the storage unit 10 is greater than 0. Here, the 500-yen coin has been inserted. Since it is not present, it is 0, and the flow proceeds to step S8 to determine whether or not the payout amount data has been input from the second control device 2. Since it has not been input at this time, the flow proceeds to step S12 to execute another control. The above control is similarly performed when 10 yen or 50 yen is inserted.

The steps S27 and S27 in FIG.
Since the 100-yen insertion number counter and payable number data in the storage unit 10 and the storage unit 12 in the storage unit 10 and the storage unit 12 are changed by the addition in 30, the first control device 1 performs the following steps S25 to S37 and S26 to S38. 10 after the change to the second controller 2
The data of the number of inserted coins and the number of payable coins of 0 yen are transmitted.

In the second control unit 2, in steps S40 and S41 of FIG. 5, the first controller 1 sends the input number data of each denomination and the payable number data of each denomination by communication data input control. Enter the information to determine the availability. Next, in step S42, the product selection switch 5
Is determined whether or not the selection signal is output from the vending machine, and if the product selection switch 5 is not operated by the vending machine user, it is determined in step S43 whether the escrow F from the first control device 1 is "0", As described above, since it is "0" here, the process returns to step S40, and this is repeated thereafter.

If the return lever is operated without operating the product selection switch 5 in this state, the money identifying device 3 outputs an escrow signal. When the first control device 1 receives this escrow signal, the process proceeds from step S21 to step S32 in the interrupt flowchart of FIG. 4 to determine whether the escrow inhibition F is "1", and here, it is reset and is "0". Then, the process proceeds to step S33, where the escrow F is set to “1” and transmitted to the second control device 2.
When the escrow F “1” is input to the second control device 2,
The second controller 2 proceeds from step S43 in FIG. 5 to step S44, sends the CREM instruction F as “0” to the first controller 1, and further in step S45 payout amount data (here, sales are performed). Is sent to the first control device 1. When the CREM instruction F becomes "0", the first controller 1 proceeds to step S2 in FIG.
The process proceeds from step 3 to step S34 to set the escrow prohibition F to "0".
At step S8 in FIG. 3, the flow proceeds to step S9 in response to the payout amount data (100 yen), and repeats the steps S9 and S10 to execute the change payout control of the money storing and paying mechanism 4. Upon completion of the change dispensing operation of the money storing and dispensing mechanism 4, the process proceeds from step S10 to step S11, and the dispensing end F
Is sent to the second control device 2 as “1”, and step S
At 12, control is transferred to another control. Upon receiving the payout end F “1”, the second control device 2 proceeds from step S46 to step S47 and step S48 in FIG. 5 to set the clear command F and the CREM command F to “1” and to the first control device 1. Send out. Upon receiving the clear command F “1”, the first control device 1 proceeds from step S24 to step S35 and proceeds to CNE.
X-F is set to "0" to cancel the sales state, and step S3
In step 6, the number-of-inserted-sheets counter in the storage unit 10 is set to "0" and the process returns to the standby state.

Next, a case where a 500-yen currency as a specific currency is inserted by a vending machine user will be described.
When the 500-yen currency is inserted in the standby state in which the above-mentioned 500-yen currency can be accepted, the currency identification devices 3 to 50
Since the money identification signal of 0 yen is input to the first control device 1, in the interrupt flowchart of FIG.
The counter of the number of inserted coins is added from “0” to “1”, and then it is determined in step S28 whether or not the inserted currency is 500 yen.
Since it is 0 yen, the escrow prohibition F of the storage unit 14 is set to "1" in step S29, and the process proceeds to step S31. That is, in the embodiment, the 500-yen currency is a direct throw type, so that the 500-yen currency does not go through step S30. Next, in step S31, similarly, CNEX-F is set to "1" to put the vending machine in the sales state, and then in step S21, it is determined whether or not an escrow signal has been input from the currency discriminating apparatus 3.
If the return lever is not operated, no input is made, so that the process proceeds to step S22, where the escrow F is set to "0" and sent to the second control device 2. On the other hand, when CNEX-F becomes “1”, the process proceeds from step S1 in FIG. 3 to step S4,
From step S4, the process proceeds to step S14, where the storage unit 10
It is determined whether the 500-yen insertion number counter is greater than 0, and since it has been added to "1" in step S27, the flow advances to step S16 to set the 500-yen identification signal port to "L".
And When the 500-yen identification signal port of the first control device 1 becomes “L”, the currency identification device 3 guides to return the 500-yen currency without accepting it even if it is subsequently inserted as described above.

At this point, if the vending machine user operates the return lever without operating the product selection switch 5, the money identifying device 3 outputs an escrow signal. When the first controller 1 receives the escrow signal,
The process proceeds from step S21 to step S32 in the interrupt flowchart of FIG. 7 to determine whether the escrow inhibition F is "1". Since "1" has been set in step S29, the process proceeds to step S23 instead of step S33. Therefore, since the escrow F "1" is not sent to the second control device 2, the second control device 2 does not proceed to step S45, and therefore, the payout amount data may be sent to the first control device 1. Therefore, the first control device 1 does not pay change in step S9. That is, in the case of 500 yen currency, the escrow operation, which is a change return operation by the vending machine user before at least one product sale is performed, becomes impossible, and the vending machine user does not take any action other than purchasing the product. Can not be taken. As a result, even if the input 500 yen coin is a fake coin, the genuine coin in the money storing and dispensing mechanism 4 will not be returned as it is, and the damage to the vending machine owner will be minimized. Can be done.

When the user of the vending machine operates the product selection switch 5, a selection signal is output to the second controller 2, whereby the second controller 2 proceeds from step S42 to step S49 in FIG. Proceed to send the CREM instruction F as "0" to the first control device 1 and execute step S5.
0 to control the merchandise sales mechanism 6 to execute merchandise sales control,
Send out the selected product. Next, it is determined in step S51 whether or not there is a balance.
The program proceeds to step 45, where the change amount payout amount data is sent to the first control device 1. If there is no remaining balance, the clear command F "1" and the CREM command F are sent in steps S52 and S53.
“1” is sent to the first control device 1.

When the CREM instruction F becomes "0" at step S49, the first controller 1 proceeds to step S2 of FIG.
The process proceeds from step 3 to step S34 to set the escrow prohibition F to "0".
And if the payout amount data is received in step S8 of FIG. 3, the process proceeds to step S9.
Steps S9 and S10 are repeated to control the money storing and dispensing mechanism 4 to execute change dispensing control. When the change dispensing operation by the money storing and dispensing mechanism 4 is completed, the process proceeds from step S10 to step S11, where the dispensing end F is set to “1”, sent to the second control device 2, and the process proceeds to another control in step S12. Upon receiving the payout end F “1”, the second control device 2 proceeds from step S46 to step S47 and step S48 in FIG. 5, sets the clear command F and the CREM command F to “1”, and sets the first command to “1”.
To the control device 1. Upon receiving the clear command F “1”, the first control device 1 proceeds from step S24 to step S3.
In step S5, CNEX-F is set to "0" to cancel the sale state. In step S36, the 500-yen insertion number counter in the storage unit 10 is set to "0". Return to. This merchandise selling operation is similarly performed when another currency is inserted.

Here, if the predetermined number of 10-yen coins is not reserved in the change storage cylinder of the currency storing and dispensing mechanism 4, or if the predetermined number of 100-yen coins is not reserved, the process proceeds from step S5 to step S5. The process proceeds to step S16 or from step S15 to step S16, where the identification signal port of 500 yen of the first control device 1 is set to “L” to 50
It operates to return even if 0 yen coin is inserted. That is, when it is impossible to pay out the change due to the insertion of the 500 yen coin, the control is performed so that the 500 yen coin is not accepted.

The denomination of money is not limited to the embodiment.
The purpose of the present invention is sufficiently achieved as long as the money denominated is not limited to the yen currency and is a high denomination of the money handled.

[0030]

According to the present invention, when a specific denomination of money is accepted, it becomes impossible for a vending machine user to escrow before at least one product sale is performed. Even if it is counterfeit, the held true coin will not be returned as it is, and damage to the vending machine owner can be minimized.

In particular, there is no need for any mechanical change.
Since this is achieved by taking control measures, the apparatus does not become complicated and large.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electric circuit of a vending machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a first control device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a main process showing a program of a first control device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an interrupt process showing a program of a first control device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a program of a second control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st control apparatus 2 2nd control apparatus 3 Money discriminating apparatus 4 Money storage and payout mechanism 5 Product selection switch 6 Product sales mechanism 14 Storage part

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A money discriminating device that discriminates inserted money and outputs a money discrimination signal corresponding to a denomination, and outputs a return signal by operating a return operation unit, a product selection switch that selects a product for sale, A vending machine comprising: a control device that executes sales control based on the money identification signal and a product selection signal from the product selection switch, and performs change return control based on the return signal. A vending machine comprising a return acceptance determining means for prohibiting the change return control until at least one sales control is completed when a money identification signal of a specific denomination is input.