JP3378928B2 - Exchange sign device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for exchanging signs for railway signals, and more particularly to an apparatus for exchanging signs indicating the number of a line to which a vehicle should enter. 2. Description of the Related Art A conventional exchange sign device has two blocks: a display unit using a signal bulb and a control unit for converting a control signal from an interlocking device into an electric signal necessary for lighting the signal bulb. And each block was installed on a concrete pillar or the like beside the track. In the display section, a large number of signal bulbs are incorporated in a matrix to display characters or numbers 0 to 9. When actually constructing these,
For example, when there are 30 incoming lines, two signal bulbs are combined and the numbers of the incoming lines are displayed from 1 to 30, and the cable connecting the display unit and the control unit has at least the number of light bulbs. It was necessary to use a thick cable of about 50 cores. Further, the number of control lines extending from the interlocking device to the control unit also requires a number corresponding to the switching of the number display by each signal bulb. [0005] As described above, the connection between the interlocking device and the control unit and the connection between the control unit and the display unit require a thick multi-core cable. Since the cables are routed over long distances, the wiring is cumbersome, and the sufficient space required for the installation of the multi-core cable and the control unit has to be ensured beside the track. [0006] In the signal equipment, failure is not allowed,
In the event of a failure, a so-called fail-safe function that operates on the safe side is required. In the past, the display of the exchange sign was directly switched by a signal from the interlocking device.However, means for returning the response state of the display unit at a remote location to the signal to the interlocking device have been taken. However, it is difficult for the interlocking device to determine an abnormality of the device, for example, an input error, a display error, a disconnection of a signal bulb, an abnormality of a multi-core cable, and the like. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a switching sign device capable of simplifying a wiring structure by using a communication line defining a communication protocol and easily determining an abnormality of a remote line indicator. [0008] In order to achieve the above object, a switching sign device according to the present invention has a master station and a slave station, and a communication cable is provided between the two stations via a communication terminal. The two stations communicate with each other using a serial code transmission method according to the communication protocol, and issue a command to the slave station from the master station, display a response from the slave station to the master station, A replacement sign device that monitors the presence or absence of an input abnormality to a station or an abnormality of a slave station at a master station, wherein the master station is installed in a signaling device room, has a code converter and a monitoring display, The code converter converts the line display command input for vehicle replacement into a serial code and outputs it to the communication terminal, and further compares the received content of the serial code data transmitted from the slave station with the line display signal and compares the state at that time. Is output to the monitoring display, and the monitoring display receives the It displays the display command display error, the line display command input input error to the master station, or the slave station error. The slave station is installed in a premises where vehicles are exchanged, and has a character conversion circuit and track display. Device, a disconnection detection circuit, and an internal abnormality detection circuit, the character conversion circuit converts the serial code of the line display command input transmitted from the master station to character pattern data, and converts the data to a line display device. The line display has a plurality of LED chips arranged vertically and horizontally in a dot matrix, and outputs based on the character pattern data or the output of the internal abnormality detection circuit. The LED chip is selectively turned on to display a line display character or a display abnormal character (stop symbol) according to a command from the master station, and the data of the position of the LED chip constituting the actually lit display character is displayed. A line detection circuit, and outputs to the internal abnormality detection circuit, the disconnection detecting circuit,
The specified position of the LED chip required for the configuration of the character specified by the character pattern data is compared with the lighting position of the LED chip output from the line indicator, and when the specified position is different from the lighting position, this is determined. And output a display error to the communication terminal as a disconnection.
The internal abnormality detection circuit compares the designated number of the LED chips with the number of lightings, and when the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined number, detects the occurrence of an internal abnormality in the other slave station and displays when the line display is impossible. The abnormality is output to the line indicator and the communication terminal. [0009] The display contents of the exchange line of the vehicle are converted into serial codes required for the communication protocol by the code converter of the master station.
The data is transmitted to the slave station by a communication terminal via a two-core communication cable. The line display content transmitted to the slave station is converted by a character conversion circuit of the slave station into character pattern data necessary for expressing the line display in characters. The line indicator of the slave station is
Based on the converted character pattern data, the track display contents are displayed in characters on the display surface. On the other hand, the master station monitors an abnormal input of the line display contents to the slave station or an abnormality in the slave station. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display element. Referring to FIG. 1, the present invention relates to a master station A and a slave station B.
Consists of Master station A is installed in the signal equipment room,
The slave station B is installed in a premises where vehicles are switched, for example, near a branch point of a track. The master station A has a code converter 2, a monitoring display 3, and a communication terminal 4. On the other hand, the slave station B is installed as a unit with a not-illustrated switching signal, and includes a communication terminal 5, a character conversion circuit 6, a line display 7, a disconnection detection circuit 8, and an internal abnormality detection circuit 9. And The interlocking device 1 installed in the signaling equipment room changes the display of the exchange signal in the hall based on the exchange information, and changes the display information of the changed exchange line to the code converter of the master station A. 2 is output. The code converter 2 converts the line display content of the vehicle incoming line output by the interlocking device 1 into a serial code and outputs the serial code to the master station communication terminal 4, and converts the received content based on the data-transmitted serial code into a line display signal. The state at that time is output to the monitoring display 3 in comparison with the above. The converted serial code is transmitted between the master station and the slave station by a communication protocol between the communication terminals. The monitoring display 3 displays an abnormal display command received from a slave station, an abnormal input of a line display command input to the master station,
Alternatively, it indicates the abnormality of the slave station. The master station communication terminal 4 and the plurality of slave station communication terminals 5 are connected via a two-core communication cable 10 and perform data mutual communication using a communication protocol described later. The character conversion circuit 6 of the slave station B converts the serial code data received by the slave station communication terminal 5 into a character pattern, and converts the character pattern data into an LED display 7, a disconnection detection circuit 8 and an internal circuit. This is output to the abnormality detection circuit 9. The character pattern data is a command signal for displaying characters for notation of the line display contents on the display surface of the LED display 7. As shown in FIG. 2, the line indicator 7 has a plurality of LED chips 12 arranged on a printed board 11 in a dot matrix in a matrix. Track indicator 7
Is a dot matrix LED chip 12 based on the character pattern data or the output of the internal abnormality detection circuit 9.
Is selectively lit to display on the display surface a line display character according to a command from the master station or an abnormal display character according to a command from the internal abnormality detection circuit 9. The disconnection detecting circuit 8 includes an LED chip 12 necessary for forming a character specified by character pattern data.
Is compared with the lighting position of the LED chip 12 output from the line indicator 7, and when the designated position is different from the lighting position, a display abnormality is output to the communication terminal as disconnection of the LED chip 12. Things. The internal abnormality detecting circuit 9 compares the designated number of the LED chips with the number of lightings, and when the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined number, the other communication terminal 5, the character converting circuit 6, the disconnection detecting circuit 8 And outputs an abnormality display signal to the LED display 7 and the communication terminal when the line cannot be displayed. The operation of the present invention will be described below with reference to the communication protocol shown in FIG. The communication protocol is
It is configured as shown in FIG. 3 to realize the fail-safe property. That is, the master station communication terminal 4 outputs the ENQ signal to the slave station communication terminal 5 via the communication cable 10,
It prompts the slave station communication terminal 5 to respond according to the communication protocol. The slave station communication terminal 5 transmits the ACK signal to the master station communication terminal 4.
Output to Next, the master station communication terminal 4 checks the ANK signal from the slave station communication terminal 5 and outputs the serial code data from the code converter 2 to the slave station communication terminal 5 as a TEXT signal. The slave station communication terminal 5 outputs an ACK signal when receiving the TEXT signal. During the operation of the communication protocol, the master station communication terminal 4 retries the slave station communication terminal 5 up to three times if there is no response operation of the slave station communication terminal 5 or if error information is detected. I do. As a result, when the slave station communication terminal 5 does not respond, it is determined that an error has occurred in the display content from the master station to the slave station, and an error is displayed on the monitor 3. Further, the internal abnormality detecting circuit 9 includes an internal CPU
If the slave station communication terminal 5 is not connected due to runaway of the communication cable 10 or an accident of the communication cable 10, the display of the line display 7 is forcibly switched to an abnormal display. Also, the internal abnormality detection circuit 9
Releases the abnormal display on the line indicator 7 when the communication line is recovered and the communication between the master station and the slave station communication terminals 4 and 5 becomes possible. When normal communication or communication is restored,
The slave station communication terminal 5 outputs the serial code data from the master station communication terminal 4 to the character conversion circuit 6. The character conversion circuit 6 converts the serial code data from the local station communication terminal 5 into character pattern data,
Output to the display 7, the disconnection detection circuit 8, and the internal abnormality detection circuit 9. The line display 7 selects and turns on the dot matrix LED chip 12 based on the character pattern data output from the character conversion circuit 6, and displays characters indicating the line display on the display surface. On the other hand, the disconnection detecting circuit 8 compares the designated position of the LED chip necessary for the construction of the character designated by the character pattern data with the lighting position of the LED chip output from the line display 7 and determines the designated position. When the lighting position is different from the lighting position, the display abnormality is output to the communication terminal as disconnection of the LED chip. The internal abnormality detection circuit 9 is provided with an LED for forming a character specified by the character pattern data.
The specified number of chips and the LED output from the track display 7
The number of lighting of the chip 12 is compared, and when the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined number, an abnormal signal is output to the line display 7.
With the output of this abnormal signal, the display of the track display 7 is
Switch from track display to abnormal display. The abnormality signal from the internal abnormality detection circuit 9 is transmitted to the master station A by the communication terminals 4 and 5 and displayed on the monitor 3. The internal abnormality detection circuit 9 monitors the operations of the communication terminal 5, the character conversion circuit 6, and the disconnection detection circuit 8, and outputs an abnormality signal when an abnormality occurs in any of them. With the output of the abnormal signal, the display of the track display 7 is switched from the track display to the abnormal display. The abnormal signal from the internal abnormality detecting circuit 9 is transmitted to the master station A by the communication terminals 4 and 5 and displayed on the display 3. As described above, according to the present invention, the line display contents of the vehicle exchange are converted into serial codes by the code converter of the master station, transmitted to the slave station, and transmitted to the slave station. Since the character pattern is restored to the character pattern by the character conversion circuit and displayed, the master station and the slave stations are connected by a simplified wiring structure using a two-core communication cable, and the wiring connection operation can be easily performed. In addition, only a two-core communication cable needs to be laid between the master station and the slave station, which requires more installation space beside the track than when a large control unit and a multi-core cable are installed as in the past. Can be smaller. Further, the input abnormality of the line display contents from the master station to the slave station and the malfunction of the slave station are sequentially reported to the master station, so that the master station can constantly monitor the display abnormality at a remote place. This has the effect of improving maintainability.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view showing a line indicator used in the exchange sign device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a communication protocol in consideration of fail-safe. [Explanation of Codes] A master station B slave station 1 interlocking device 2 code converter 3 monitoring display 4 master station communication terminal 5 slave station communication terminal 6 character conversion circuit 7 line display 8 disconnection detection circuit 9 internal abnormality detection circuit 10 2-core communication cable 12 LED chip

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-63-38078 (JP, A) JP-A-3-136971 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B61L 1/00-29/32 G09G 3/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1] It has a master station and a slave station, both stations are connected by a communication cable via a communication terminal, and uses a serial code transmission method according to a communication protocol. The two stations exchange data with each other, issue a command from the master station to the slave station, display the response from the slave station on the master station, and determine whether there is an input error to the slave station or whether there is an error in the slave station. The master station is installed in the signal equipment room, has a code converter and a monitoring display, and the code converter serially inputs a line display command for vehicle change. The output is converted to a code and output to the communication terminal, and the received content by the serial code transmitted from the slave station is compared with the line display signal and the state at that time is output to the monitoring display. , Display command received from slave station, display error,
This is to display the input error of the track display command input or the error of the slave station. The slave station is installed in the premises where the vehicle is switched, and the character conversion circuit, the track indicator, the disconnection detection circuit, and the internal fault The character conversion circuit converts the serial code of the line display command input transmitted from the master station into character pattern data, and converts the data to a line display, a disconnection detection circuit, and an internal abnormality detection circuit. The line indicator has a plurality of LED chips arranged vertically and horizontally in a dot matrix, and selectively turns on the LED chips based on the output of the character pattern data or the internal abnormality detection circuit. A line detection character or a display abnormal character according to a command from the master station is displayed, and a data of a position of an LED chip constituting a display character which is actually lit is provided with a disconnection detection circuit,
The disconnection detection circuit outputs the specified position of the LED chip required for the configuration of the character specified by the character pattern data and the lighting position of the LED chip output from the line indicator. When the designated position and the lighting position are different, the LED chip is disconnected and the display abnormality is output to the communication terminal, and the internal abnormality detecting circuit determines the designated number and the lighting number of the LED chip. In addition to the comparison, when the difference is equal to or more than a predetermined number, the occurrence of an internal abnormality in the slave station is detected, and when the line cannot be displayed, the display abnormality is output to the line display and the communication terminal. Exchange sign device.