JP3372795B2 - IC contact block detection circuit - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an IC contact block detection circuit. More specifically, the present invention relates to an IC contact block detection circuit capable of electrically determining whether or not a card reader has an IC contact block.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Although a magnetic card as a data recording medium is widely used, in recent years, a recording card which can be used not only as a magnetic card by attaching an IC chip to the magnetic card but also as an IC card is becoming popular. Therefore, one card reader must be provided with both a magnetic head for inputting / outputting data to / from a magnetic stripe on the card and an IC contact block for inputting / outputting data to / from an IC chip. There is. That is, since a card reader having an IC contact block and a card reader not having an IC contact block are distributed in the market, it is necessary to be able to electrically detect which type of card reader it is.

Conventionally, in order to electrically detect whether or not the card reader has an IC contact block, an attempt is made to actually read / write the IC card, or I
The inference was performed based on the logic of the output signal of the C contact drop detection sensor.

That is, when actually trying to read / write the IC card, it has an IC contact block when the read / write succeeds and I when it fails.
It was judged that it did not have a C contact block. on the other hand,
When inferring from the logic of the output signal of the IC contact drop detection sensor, the IC contact block is provided when the output signal of the IC contact drop detection sensor changes due to the output of the drive signal to the solenoid that advances the IC contact block. Therefore, when it did not change, it was determined that it did not have an IC contact block.

[0005]

However, when actually trying to read / write the IC card, the IC
A card read / write circuit is required, and for example, it cannot be applied to a product to which the read / write circuit is attached after shipment. Further, even if it has a read / write circuit, an unnecessary operation is required to perform a mechanical operation such as lowering of the IC contact block, and it takes time to detect the efficiency. Was bad. further,
A trial IC card is needed.

On the other hand, according to the logic of the output signal of the IC contact drop sensor, when there is no IC contact block,
In a circuit configuration in which the logic of the output signal of the IC contact drop sensor is the same when there is a C contact block and the IC contact has not dropped, it also takes time because of mechanical operation such as lowering of the IC contact block. It was inefficient.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an IC contact block detection circuit capable of efficiently performing electrical detection without involving mechanical operation and obtaining highly reliable results. .

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a case where an IC contact block for reading and writing data from and to an IC card is attached to a main body of a card reader and the attachment. An IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader that may or may not be connected, wherein a terminal to which one end of a solenoid coil for moving the IC contact block to a read / write position is connected is connected to a power source, and the other end of the solenoid coil is connected. An IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit is connected to the terminal to which is connected, and an H level signal is output from the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit when the solenoid coil is not connected.

Therefore, when the solenoid coil is connected to the power source and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, the power supply voltage is applied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit via the solenoid coil. That is, an H level signal is supplied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit inverts this H level signal and outputs it as an L level signal. On the other hand, when the solenoid coil is not connected to the power supply voltage and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, the power supply voltage is not applied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit. That is, an L level signal is supplied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit inverts the L level signal and outputs it as an H level signal. In this case, a negative voltage may be used as the power supply voltage, and in this case, the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit outputs a -H level signal. If the solenoid coil is broken, the power supply voltage is I
The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit is supplied with L as in the case where it is not connected to the C contact block presence / absence detection circuit.
The level signal is inverted and output as an H level signal. The presence / absence of the solenoid coil, that is, the IC contact block can be detected based on the output signal of the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, and the disconnection of the solenoid coil can be detected.

In this case, as in the invention described in claim 2,
It is desirable that a switching circuit for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil is connected to the other end of the solenoid coil. Therefore, in this case, the solenoid coil can be turned on / off by the switching circuit.

Further, in this case, as in the invention described in claim 3, the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit has an inverting circuit, and when the input side of the inverting circuit is connected to the power source through the solenoid coil, the inverting circuit is provided. It is preferable that the circuit is configured to output an L level signal. Therefore, the level of the signal supplied to the IC setting block presence / absence detecting circuit is inverted by the inverting circuit.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The structure of the present invention will be described below in detail based on the best mode shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an embodiment of an IC contact block detection circuit according to the present invention. This IC contact block detection circuit is an IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader that may or may not be equipped with an IC contact block for reading / writing data from / to an IC card in the card reader body. . That is,
Some card readers have an IC contact block and others do not, but the IC contact block detection circuit electrically detects the presence or absence of an IC contact block. The external appearance of the card reader body is shown in FIG.
The IC contact block 1 includes an IC contact for reading and writing data from and to an IC chip of an IC card, a solenoid coil 2 for moving the IC contact forward or backward, and an IC contact drop detection sensor for detecting the forward movement of the IC contact. , A substrate and the like.

The IC contact block detection circuit connects the terminal 3 to which one end of the solenoid coil 2 for moving the IC contact block 1 forward and downward to move to the read / write position is connected to the power source 4, and the other solenoid coil 2 The terminal 5 to which the end is connected is connected to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6. The power source 4 is, for example, DC 24V.

The terminal 5 at the other end of the solenoid coil 2
A switching circuit 7 for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil 2 is connected to. The switching circuit 7 is, for example, an NPN transistor (hereinafter,
It is referred to as a transistor 7, and the terminal 5 at the other end of the solenoid coil 2 is connected to the collector of the transistor 7.

The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 has an inverting circuit 8. The inverting circuit 8 is, for example, an inverter IC. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6
The resistance values R1 and R2 of the resistors 9 and 10 are
It is set to an appropriate value in consideration of the threshold voltage of C8 and the required input voltage. Furthermore, the capacitor 11
Is to prevent malfunction due to noise,
For example, several hundreds [pF] is used.

Inversion circuit (hereinafter referred to as inverter IC)
When the input side of 8 is connected to the power supply 4 via the solenoid coil 2, in other words, when the IC contact block 1 is present in the card reader, an L (low) level signal is output from the inverter IC 8. On the other hand, when the solenoid coil 2 is not connected to the power source 4 and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6, in other words, when the IC contact block 1 does not exist in the card reader, the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 outputs H (high ) Level signal is output.

That is, the IC contact block 1 has terminals 3 and 5 respectively.
When the solenoid coil 2 is connected to and is not disconnected, the voltage at the point B becomes the voltage drop of the solenoid coil 2 with respect to the voltage at the point C. This means that even if the transistor 7 is off, the point B is connected to the power source 4, so that the point B still has the voltage value lowered by the solenoid coil 2. If the IC contact block 1 is absent, or the solenoid coil 2 is open even if the IC contact block 1 is present, the voltage at the point C becomes the voltage of the power supply 4 and the voltage at the point B becomes 0V. Become.

On the other hand, the voltage at the point A is the voltage at the point B × R2 /
It is calculated by (R1 + R2). Therefore, each resistor 9, 10
By optimally setting the resistance values R1 and R2 of the IC, the output of D becomes H level when the IC contact block 1 is absent or the solenoid coil 2 is disconnected,
When there is the contact block 1, it becomes L level.

Therefore, in this IC contact block detection circuit, the output signal of the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 does not cause the solenoid coil 2 to operate, and I
Presence / absence of the C contact block 1 and disconnection of the solenoid coil 2 can be electrically detected. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 is inexpensive because it is composed of one inverter IC, two resistors, and one capacitor.

The above-mentioned embodiment is an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, instead of using the inverter IC8 for the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6, for example, a comparator IC12 may be used as shown in FIG. When the comparator IC12 is used, the setting range of the resistance values R1 and R2 of the resistors 9 and 10 can be widened even when the voltage fluctuation of the power supply 4 is large. In addition, capacitor 1
Reference numerals 3 and 14 are for preventing malfunction due to noise, and are, for example, several hundreds [pF]. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 has an inexpensive circuit configuration including one comparator IC, two resistors, and two capacitors.

The H level signal output from the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 is not limited to the + H level signal, but may be the -H level signal.

[0023]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the IC reader block may or may not be equipped with the IC contact block for reading / writing data from / to the IC card. An IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader, wherein a terminal to which one end of a solenoid coil for moving the IC contact block to a read / write position is connected is connected to a power supply,
Since the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit is connected to the terminal to which the other end of the solenoid coil is connected, the H-level signal is output from the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit when the solenoid coil is not connected. When the coil, that is, the IC contact block exists, an L level signal is output, and when the IC contact block does not exist or the solenoid coil is broken, an H level signal is output. Therefore, the presence / absence of the IC contact block can be efficiently detected electrically without involving a mechanical operation such as lowering of the IC contact block and without requiring an IC card. Moreover, since the disconnection of the solenoid can be detected, the reliability of the detection result is improved.

In this case, as in the invention described in claim 2,
A switching circuit for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil is preferably connected to the other end of the solenoid coil. With this configuration, the solenoid coil can be turned on / off by the switching circuit.

According to the invention of claim 3, an IC is provided.
It is preferable that the contact block presence / absence detection circuit has an inverting circuit, and that when the input side of the inverting circuit is connected to a power source via a solenoid coil, an L level signal is output from the inverting circuit. With this configuration, the level of the signal supplied to the IC setting block presence / absence detecting circuit can be inverted by the inverting circuit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an electric circuit diagram showing an example of an embodiment of an IC contact block detection circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a card reader body.

FIG. 3 is an electric circuit diagram showing another embodiment of an IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit of the IC contact block detection circuit of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 IC contact block 2 solenoid coil 4 power supply 6 IC contact block presence detection circuit 7 NPN type transistor (switching circuit) 8 Inverter IC (inversion circuit)

Front page continuation (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06K 17/00

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader, which may or may not be equipped with an IC contact block for reading / writing data from / to an IC card in a card reader body. A terminal connected to one end of a solenoid coil for moving the IC contact block to the read / write position is connected to a power source, and an IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit is connected to a terminal connected to the other end of the solenoid coil. An IC contact block detection circuit, wherein the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit outputs an H level signal when the solenoid coil is not connected. 2. The IC contact block detection circuit according to claim 1, wherein a switching circuit for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil is connected to the other end of the solenoid coil. 3. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit has an inverting circuit, and when the input side of the inverting circuit is connected to the power source through the solenoid coil, an L level signal is output from the inverting circuit. 3. The IC contact block detection circuit according to claim 1, wherein the IC contact block detection circuit is configured as described above.