JP3203956B2 - Remote 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 remote control device such as a household equipment device in which the power consumption of a receiving circuit is reduced by intermittently waiting for a signal to extend a battery life.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a water heater as this kind of housing equipment. The conventional technology will be described below based on the case of a water heater.

[0003] In recent years, the mainstream of hot water heaters has a heat source unit installed outdoors, an operation unit provided indoors, and a wire connected to a control unit of the heat source unit for operation. On the other hand, there is a demand to simplify installation work, and proposals have been made to realize such needs using radio waves. Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 57-77671 discloses this type of water heater. FIG. 6 is an external perspective view when the transmission / reception system using a radio wave signal is applied to a remote control of an instantaneous gas water heater. The gas water heater 101 is usually installed outdoors or in a machine room. The gas supplied from the gas supply pipe 102 is burned to heat the water supplied from the water pipe 103, and the hot water is supplied to the shower 107 in the bathroom 105 and the faucet 108 in the kitchen 106 through the hot water supply pipe 104. Remote controls 109 and 11 are provided in bathroom 105 and kitchen 106.
0 is provided so that the operation for adjusting the hot water supply temperature and the operation state of the gas water heater 101 can be monitored. Operation signals from remote controllers 109 and 110 to gas water heater 101 and remote controller 10 from gas water heater 101
9 and 110 are radio wave signals 111 and 112.
Therefore, there is no need to wire signal lines between them. In addition, the use of a battery as a power source has an advantage that the installation place is less limited. But,
On the other hand, since the replacement of the battery is troublesome, reducing power consumption for reducing the frequency of battery replacement is a very important technical problem.

As a device for solving this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei.
There is a 132323 publication. This will be described with reference to FIG. That is, the remote controller 201 and the water heater main body 204 have timing means (timer section 211 and timing generator 208), respectively.
Power supply timing to the receiving unit 209 of the remote control controller 201 in order to wait for a signal emitted from the
The power consumption is minimized by synchronizing the signal emission timing from the water heater main body 204.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional configuration, there is no consideration regarding the power supply to the receiving unit 209 of the remote control controller 201 in the standby operation of the signal from the water heater main body 204, and the standby operation is not performed. There was a problem that power saving was not performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and reduces power consumption when waiting for a radio signal emitted from a transmission side of a household equipment or the like, thereby extending battery life and reducing the frequency of battery replacement. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention intermittently converts a radio wave signal emitted from a transmitting side into an intermittent one.
A reception circuit composed of several circuit groups for standby reception, and a reception unit power supply control circuit that separately performs power on / off control for each of the circuit groups, wherein the reception unit power supply control circuit is a structure for controlling the power supply timing for each circuit group, the
Each circuit group of the receiving circuit is
After power on / off control,
Power supply control
The circuit controls the turning on and off of the power to each of the circuit groups.
Later, the functions of all circuit groups will be enabled almost simultaneously
As described above, the power-on timing of each circuit group is controlled .

The receiving circuit comprises: a voltage-controlled oscillator for converting the frequency of the received signal; a PLL circuit for outputting a DC voltage value corresponding to the oscillation frequency to the voltage-controlled oscillator ; the electrostatic and RF circuit for amplifying a high-frequency reception signal output from the RF circuit
MIX circuit for mixing and oscillating with an oscillation signal output from a pressure control type oscillator, an IF circuit for selectively amplifying a frequency-converted intermediate frequency reception signal output from the MIX circuit, and an IF circuit And a DET circuit for returning the intermediate frequency reception signal output from the transmitter to the original baseband signal. When the radio wave signal emitted from the transmission side waits , the power supply timing is initially set to the PL level.
A circuit group consisting of an L circuit and the voltage controlled oscillator ,
Subsequently, after a predetermined delay time, the RF circuit, the MIX circuit,
IF circuit, and power on the circuit group consisting DET circuit, when the predetermined time received signal after this is not detected, but immediately turns off the power to all circuit groups, the
If a received signal is detected in between, all the circuits
The power supply of the groups is continued to be turned on, and the power of all the circuit groups is turned off after the reception is completed.

The receiving circuit includes: a voltage-controlled oscillator for converting the frequency of a received signal; a PLL circuit for outputting a DC voltage value corresponding to the oscillation frequency to the voltage-controlled oscillator ; the electrostatic and RF circuit for amplifying a high-frequency reception signal output from the RF circuit
MIX circuit for mixing and oscillating with an oscillation signal output from a pressure control type oscillator, an IF circuit for selectively amplifying a frequency-converted intermediate frequency reception signal output from the MIX circuit, and an IF circuit and CDT circuit for detecting the presence or absence of a received signal from the output signal consists of such DET circuit for returning to an intermediate frequency reception signal to the original data signal output from the IF circuit, emitted from the transmitting side Power supply timing when waiting for a radio signal
A first circuit group composed of the PLL circuit and the voltage-controlled oscillator at the beginning, followed by the RF circuit after a predetermined delay time, MIX circuit, the power supply of the second circuit group consisting of IF circuit and CDT circuit turned, when the received signal at a fixed time the CDT circuit after this is not detected, but immediately turns off the power to all circuit groups, the
When a received signal is detected by the CDT circuit, the power supply of the third circuit group including the DET circuit is turned on to start the reception operation, and the power supply of all the circuit groups is turned off after the reception operation is completed. It is.

[0010]

According to the present invention, when receiving and receiving a radio wave signal emitted from a transmitting side of a household equipment or the like, the present invention performs power supply control at appropriate timing for each of several divided circuit groups. By doing so, power saving of the receiving circuit is realized.

The power supply to the receiving circuit is performed intermittently at a preset cycle in accordance with the timing of the radio wave signal emitted from the transmission side of the household equipment or the like, and waits for the radio wave signal. Do.

[0012] receiving unit power supply control circuit controls the power supply containing timing to each circuit group as functions of all circuits group after power is substantially at the same time effective.

The power supply control circuit of the receiving section turns on the power first from a circuit group having an oscillating circuit which requires time until oscillation stabilizes.

The power supply control circuit of the receiving section first turns on the power supply of the first circuit group consisting of the PLL circuit and the voltage controlled oscillator to set the oscillation frequency and start the oscillation. Thereafter, after the oscillation is stabilized after a predetermined delay time, the power supply of the circuit group including the other circuits is turned on. Thereafter, when no reception signal is detected for a certain period of time, the power supply of all the circuit groups is turned off immediately to terminate the standby operation.If a reception signal is detected during this time, the power supply of all the circuit groups is turned on. Continue
Then , after the reception is completed, the power of all the circuit groups is turned off.

The receiving section power supply control circuit first turns on the power supply of the first circuit group including the PLL circuit and the voltage controlled oscillator to set the oscillation frequency and start the oscillation. After the oscillation is stabilized after a predetermined delay time, the RF circuit, the MIX circuit, the IF circuit, and the CD
The power is supplied to the second circuit group including the T circuits, and the reception signal is detected. When no received signal is detected by the CDT circuit for a certain period of time, the power of all the circuit groups is turned off immediately. However, when a received signal is detected by the CDT circuit, the power of the third circuit group composed of the DET circuit is turned off. Is turned on to start the receiving operation, and after the receiving operation is completed, the power of all the circuit groups is turned off.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a remote control device for household equipment, wherein 1 is a reception circuit, 2 is a transmission circuit, 3 is a transmission / reception control means, 4 is an antenna, 5 is a battery, and 51 is a regulator. Reference numeral 6 denotes a power control circuit of the receiving unit, 7 denotes a power control circuit of the transmitting unit, 8 denotes an operation unit, and 9 denotes a display unit.

The receiving circuit 1 further includes a VCO circuit (voltage control).
A first circuit group 18 composed of an oscillator 16 and a PLL circuit 17 and a second circuit group 19 composed of an RF circuit 11, a mixer circuit 12, an IF circuit 13, and a DET circuit 14. The high-frequency radio wave signal coming from the antenna 4 is selectively amplified by the RF circuit 11, and then mixed by the mixer circuit 12 with the oscillation signal 16a from the local oscillator constituted by the VCO circuit 16 and the PLL circuit 17. The frequency is converted to a low intermediate frequency received signal. After selectively amplifying the received signal of the intermediate frequency by the IF circuit 13, the signal is demodulated by the DET circuit 14 into the original data signal before transmission, and input to the transmission / reception control means 3 as an RD signal to be decoded. The local oscillator constituted by the VCO circuit 16 and the PLL circuit 17 is configured such that the oscillation frequency fR is selectively set by the RST signal from the transmission / reception control means 3, and returns the RLK signal to the transmission / reception control means 3 when the oscillation is stabilized. .

The power supply to each circuit group of the receiving circuit 1 is performed by a receiving unit power control circuit 6, and on / off control is performed by control signals P 1 and P 2 from a transmission / reception control unit 3. The receiving section power supply control circuit 6 includes two switch circuits, that is, a first switch circuit (SW1 circuit) 61 and a second switch circuit (SW2 circuit) 62. The first circuit group 18 which has an oscillation circuit such as a PLL circuit 17 and a VCO circuit 16 and takes a long time from power-on to its function, that is, oscillation stabilization, is supplied by SW
One circuit 61 controls the power supply of the second circuit group 19 in which the time from when the power is turned on to the RF circuit 11, the MIX circuit 12, the IF circuit 13 and the DET circuit 14 until the function becomes effective is SW2. Controlled by circuit 62.

When transmission data TD is output from transmission / reception control means 3 to transmission circuit 2, a carrier signal is modulated to form a transmission signal. The carrier signal oscillator in the transmission circuit 2 is configured so that the oscillation frequency fs is selectively set by the TST signal from the transmission / reception control means 3, and returns the TLK signal to the transmission / reception control means 3 when the oscillation is stabilized. The power supply to the transmission circuit 2 is performed by a switch circuit (SW4
P4 from the transmission / reception control means 3
On / off control is performed by a signal.

The transmission / reception control means 3 controls the reception circuit 1, the transmission circuit 2 and the respective power supply control circuits 6 and 7 as described above, and utilizes a microcomputer to effectively control the program. Can be realized.

The voltage of the battery 5 stabilized by the regulator 51 is supplied to the receiving unit power control circuit 6 and the transmitting unit power control circuit 7.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 shows the transmission / reception timing between the household equipment and the remote controller. FIG. 7A shows the transmission timing signals 21a, 21b, 21c,.
Indicates a cyclic signal at a time interval T1.
FIG. 3B shows a transmission signal 22 transmitted from the house equipment to the remote controller at irregular intervals, and shows a case where transmission is started at the timing of the transmission timing signal 21c. (C) shows the signal waiting operation 31a, 31b, 31c,... And the receiving operation 32 on the remote control device side, and the transmission timing signals 21a, 21b, 21c,. At the same time interval T2 (= T1), synchronized signal waiting is performed. The standby operations 31a, 31b, 31c,... Correspond to the transmission timing signals 21a, 21 on the housing equipment side.
b, 21c,... slightly earlier (T
3) When the transmission starts and the transmission signal arrives, the receiving function is stably and reliably received. Also, the standby processing time T4 is determined in consideration of the deviation between the transmission timing signals 21a, 21b, 21c,... And the standby timing.

In a system in which the remote control device intermittently waits for and receives the transmission signal 22 emitted irregularly from the housing equipment in this way, reducing the power consumption during the standby operation makes the battery last longer. This is an important point.

FIG. 3 shows the power supply timing for each circuit group during the standby operation on the remote control device side.
The standby operation starts at the timing of, and ends at the timing of C. B is a timing at which all the circuit blocks of the receiving circuit 1 function and a receiving operation becomes possible, and it is determined whether or not a signal is emitted from the household equipment during a time T7 from B to C. FIG. 11A shows the PLL circuit 17 and the VCO controlled by the SW1 circuit 61.
The circuit current I of the first circuit group 18 comprising the circuit 16
1 (b) shows a second circuit group 1 comprising the other circuit blocks controlled by the SW2 circuit 62.
9 shows the circuit current I2, and FIG. 9C shows the sum of them. This clearly reduces the power consumption corresponding to the shaded portion 33 as compared to the case where all the circuits are powered on at the same time.

The power supply to the first circuit group 18 is performed at the timing A at time T5 before the time T5 from the time point B in FIG.
This is performed at the timing of D before. Each time length is determined by the length of time required from when the power of each circuit group is turned on until the function becomes effective. As a result, at the time point B, all the circuit blocks of the receiving circuit 1 function, and
The signal from the housing equipment can be received. The time length of time T7 is the transmission timing on the house equipment side (cycle T1)
And the reception timing (cycle T2) on the remote controller side is determined in anticipation of a deviation. It is necessary to repair the timing deviation periodically before the timing is completely lost.

FIG. 4D shows the circuit current (I1 + I2) when there is a signal from the house equipment between B and C and the receiving operation is started. After that, the receiving operation is completed. At the same time, all power supplies of the receiving circuit 1 are turned off.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The same functions as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description is omitted.

The receiving circuit 1 further includes a CDT circuit 15 for detecting whether there is a received signal from the output signal of the IF circuit 13.
And the detection signal (CD signal) is transmitted and received by the transmission / reception control means 3.
And is reflected in the power control by the receiving unit power control circuit 6. The CDT circuit 15 is normally configured as a circuit for detecting a carrier signal of a received signal.

The receiving section power supply control circuit 6 includes three switch circuits, that is, a first switch circuit (SW1 circuit) 61,
It is composed of a second switch circuit (SW2 circuit) 62 and a third switch circuit (SW3 circuit) 63. SW1 circuit 61 to a first circuit group 18 composed of PLL circuit 17 and VCO circuit 16, and SW2 circuit 62 to a second circuit group 19 composed of RF circuit 11, MIX circuit 12, IF circuit 13 and CDT circuit 15. of,
The power supply to the third circuit group 20 including the DET circuit 14 is controlled by the SW3 circuit 63, respectively.

FIG. 5 shows the power supply timing of each circuit group during the standby operation on the remote control device side. The standby operation starts at the timing A and ends at the timing C. B is the timing at which the first and second circuit groups function to enable the CDT circuit 15 to detect the carrier signal of the received signal. During the time T7 from B to C, a signal is output from the housing equipment. It is to determine whether or not it has been fired. FIG. 9A shows the circuit current I1 of the first circuit group 18 controlled by the SW1 circuit 61.
FIG. 4B shows the second state controlled by the SW2 circuit 62.
The circuit current I3 of the circuit group 19 of FIG.
Is the sum of them. This is clearly the third
The circuit current (I = I1 + I3 + I4) when all the circuit blocks of the receiving circuit 1 including the DET circuit 14 of the circuit group 20 of FIG.
4 is reduced.

The power supply to the first circuit group 18 is turned on at the timing of A before the time T5 from the time of B in FIG.
Also, the power supply to the second circuit group 19 is performed at the timing D before the time T6. Each time length is determined by the length of time required from when the power of each circuit group is turned on until the function becomes effective. This gives B
At this point, carrier signal detection for determining the presence or absence of a received signal is enabled. The time length of the time T7 is determined in consideration of a difference between the transmission timing (period T1) of the household equipment and the reception timing (period T2) of the remote controller. It is necessary to repair the timing deviation periodically before the timing is completely lost.

FIG. 4D shows the time T from B to C.
7 shows the state of the circuit current when the received signal is detected by the CDT circuit 15 during the period 7, and as soon as the received signal is detected at the point E, the power is supplied to the third circuit group 20 by the SW3 circuit 63. The circuit current at this time is I = I
1 + I3 + I4. It takes time T8 for the DET circuit 14 to be activated after power is turned on, and becomes ready for reception at the point F. Thereafter, the receiving operation is started, and upon completion of the receiving operation, all the power supplies of the receiving circuit 1 are turned off.

In the two embodiments described above, the receiver power control circuit 6 is divided into two or three circuit groups.
Although the configuration has been described in which the power consumption timing is controlled to reduce the power consumption required for the signal standby operation, the present invention is, of course, not limited to this. For example, the PLL circuit 1 in the first circuit group 18
7 and VCO circuit 16 at different power-on timings,
The power supply of the PLL circuit 17 may be turned on to set a desired oscillation frequency, and then the power supply of the VCO circuit 16 may be turned on to start oscillation.

As described above, in the case of intermittently waiting for a signal as in the present invention, reference numerals 31a, 31b and 3 in FIG.
In most cases, such as 1d and 31e, only a standby operation is performed without detecting a received signal.
As shown in FIG. 5C and FIG. 5C, the configuration of the present invention in which the circuit current during the standby operation is minimized can save a very large amount of power and has the effect of extending the battery life.

[0037]

As described above, the remote control device of the present invention
The arrangement has the following effects.

(1) Since the receiving circuit is divided into several circuit groups and the power-on timing is controlled for each circuit group, a remote control device for waiting for a radio signal emitted from a transmitting side such as a household equipment or the like. Power consumption can be reduced.

(2) Each circuit group of the receiving circuit is divided according to the length of time required until the function becomes effective after the power is turned on, and until the oscillation is stabilized after the power is turned on like an oscillation circuit. In other words, optimize the power-on timing for each circuit group so that all circuit groups enable the function almost simultaneously, such as by turning on the power first for the circuit group that takes a long time before the function becomes effective Therefore, the power consumption of the remote control device can be minimized.

(3) By these means, the life of the battery used as the power supply of the remote controller can be extended, and a remote controller with less frequent battery replacement can be provided.

(4) Since a small-capacity battery can be used, the size and weight of the remote control device can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a transmission / reception unit of a remote control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial timing chart showing the operation of the apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a detailed timing chart of a part of the operation of the apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a circuit configuration diagram of a transmission / reception unit of a remote control device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a detailed timing chart of a part of the operation of the apparatus.

FIG. 6 is an external perspective view showing an installation state when the apparatus is used for a gas water heater.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a conventional transmission / reception circuit.

[Description of Signs] 1 reception circuit 3 transmission / reception control means 4 antenna 5 battery 6 reception unit power supply control circuit 18 first circuit group 19 second circuit group 61 first switch circuit 62 second switch circuit

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI H04B 7/26 H04B 7/26 X (72) Inventor Yoshihiro Ueda 1006 Ojidoma, Kadoma, Osaka Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 56) References JP-A-1-265726 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F23N 5/26 F24H 1/00 F24H 1/10 H03J 9/00-9 / 06 H04B 1/38-1/58 H04B 7/24-7/26 H04Q 7/00-9/16

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A radio wave signal emitted from a transmitting side is interposed.
A receiving circuit composed of several circuit groups for intermittent standby reception, and a receiving unit power control circuit for performing power on / off control for each of the circuit groups,
The receiver power control circuit is configured to control the power supply timing for each of the respective circuit groups, the receiver circuit
Each circuit group is connected to the power supply of each circuit group.
The time required for the function to become effective after
Divided by length, the receiver power control circuit
After turning on and off the power to each circuit group,
Each circuit so that the functions of the
It is configured to control the timing of turning on the power to the group.
Remote control device . 2. A receiving circuit comprising : a circuit group having an oscillation circuit;
And the receiver power control circuit includes the oscillation circuit.
That the power of the circuit group to be turned on is turned on first
Item 7. The remote control device according to Item 1. 3. The receiving circuit converts the frequency of a received signal.
Voltage controlled oscillator for the
PLL that outputs a DC voltage value corresponding to the oscillation frequency of
Path and RF for selectively amplifying high frequency received signals
Circuit and a high-frequency reception signal output from the RF circuit.
Mixed with the oscillation signal output from the voltage controlled oscillator
A MIX circuit for frequency conversion and the MIX circuit
Select the frequency-converted intermediate frequency reception signal output from the
And an output from the IF circuit
The received intermediate frequency signal back to the original baseband signal
For the DET circuit, etc.
The power supply timing when waiting for a radio signal is
First, it consists of the PLL circuit and the voltage controlled oscillator
Circuit group, followed by the RF circuit after a predetermined delay time
Path, MIX circuit, IF circuit, DET circuit
Turn on the power of the loop, and then detect the received signal for a certain period of time
If not, immediately turn off the power to all circuit groups.
Turn off, but if a received signal is detected during this time,
Also, continue with the power supply of all the circuit groups turned on,
Turn off the power of all circuit groups after reception is completed
The remote control device according to claim 1 having a configuration . 4. A receiving circuit converts a frequency of a received signal.
Voltage controlled oscillator for the
PLL that outputs a DC voltage value corresponding to the oscillation frequency of
Path and RF for selectively amplifying high frequency received signals
Circuit and a high-frequency reception signal output from the RF circuit.
Mixed with the oscillation signal output from the voltage controlled oscillator
A MIX circuit for frequency conversion and the MIX circuit
Select the frequency-converted intermediate frequency reception signal output from the
Circuit for amplifying the output signal, and an output signal of the IF circuit.
CDT circuit for detecting the presence or absence of a received signal from a signal
And the intermediate frequency reception signal output from the IF circuit.
And a DET circuit for returning to the data signal of
Power supply when waiting for the radio wave signal emitted from the receiving side
The supply timing is initially determined by the PLL circuit and the voltage control.
A first group of circuits consisting of controlled oscillators,
After the delay time, the RF circuit, MIX circuit, IF circuit and
And power on the second circuit group consisting of CDT circuits
Thereafter, the received signal is detected by the CDT circuit for a certain period of time.
If not, immediately turn off the power to all the circuit groups.
When the received signal is detected by the CDT circuit,
Power off the third circuit group consisting of the DET circuit
And start the receiving operation.
2. The power supply of a circuit group is turned off.
Remote control device.