JPH01114297A - Remote controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease energy consumption and to correctly report a power source exchanging time by providing a power source voltage monitoring circuit in a remote controller and transmitting the output of the power source voltage monitoring circuit to a circuit to be controlled by a data code. CONSTITUTION:A voltage monitoring circuit 7 compares the voltage of a power source 3 with a reference voltage, a microcomputer 1 fetches the output of the voltage monitoring circuit 7 and decides whether or not the power source voltage is lower than the reference voltage. In the case of the lower voltage, it is converted and modulated into the data code corresponding to this and it is transmitted to the circuit to be controlled. The circuit to be controlled demodulates received data and informs a remote controller user by an LED, a video, a voice, etc. Thus, the power consumption of the remote controller is decreased and the power source exchanging time can be correctly reported.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a remote controller, and particularly to a remote controller suitable for detecting that the power supply voltage of the remote controller has decreased below a specified voltage.

[Conventional technology]

As a conventional device, for example, Utility Model No. 55-7655
There is something like the one described in Publication No. 2. The infrared light emitting diode lighting circuit of this conventional device includes a visible light emitting diode 11, as shown in FIG.

A resistor 12 is connected in parallel with this, an infrared light emitting diode 16 and a driving transistor 14 are connected in series to the parallel circuit of the visible light emitting diode 11 and the resistor 12.
It is composed of.

In this device, when the driving transistor 14 is turned on or off by a signal supplied from the control signal section, the infrared light emitting diode 15 is turned on or off accordingly, and a remote signal is sent to the controlled device. . Since the visible light emitting diode 11 is connected in series with the infrared light emitting diode, the visible light emitting diode also blinks at this time.

In the conventional device, a remote controller user detects a decrease in the power supply voltage of the remote controller by determining a decrease in the brightness of the visible light emitting diode 11.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the above conventional technology, current flows through the infrared light emitting diode 16 and the visible light emitting diode 11 at the same time. Therefore, there was a problem in that the power consumption increased and the power life of the remote controller was significantly shortened.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the problems of the prior art described above,
To provide a remote controller that can accurately notify a remote controller user of the time to replace the power supply of the remote controller without shortening the power supply life of the remote controller.

[Means for solving problems]

The above object is achieved by providing a power supply voltage monitoring circuit within the remote controller and making it possible to transmit the output of the power supply voltage monitoring circuit to a controlled circuit in the form of a data code.

[Effect]

A power supply voltage monitoring circuit included within the remote controller compares the power supply voltage with a reference voltage and identifies whether the power supply voltage has decreased below the reference voltage. This identification signal is converted into a data code, modulated, and transmitted to the controlled device.

The controlled device demodulates the received data, and if it receives a data code indicating a reduced power supply voltage of the remote controller, it notifies the remote controller user with L'ED, video, audio, etc.

In this way, the present invention can accurately notify the remote controller user of the time to replace the power supply of the remote controller without consuming much power of the remote controller.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of the invention.

In the figure, the remote controller of this embodiment includes a microcomputer 1 and a local oscillation circuit 2 for driving the microcomputer 1.

Power supply 5, input key group 4, LED drive circuit 5, L
It consists of an ED 6 and a voltage monitoring circuit 7.

Here, the voltage monitoring circuit 7 compares the voltage of the power supply 6 (that is, the power supply voltage) with the reference voltage, and if the power supply voltage is equal to or higher than the reference voltage, outputs a signal of "1", for example, and It consists of a comparison means that outputs a signal of "0" if the voltage is below the voltage.

Next, one embodiment of the microcomputer 1 will be described in the first embodiment.
This will be explained with reference to the figures and FIG. The microcomputer 1, which has been brought into operation from the standby state by the manual input of keys from the input key group 4, first detects which one is selected (step S1). Next, the selected key input is converted and modulated into a corresponding data code and sent to the LED drive circuit 5 (step 52). As a result, the ED drive circuit 5 blinks the LED 6,
A command signal corresponding to the data code is transmitted to the controlled device.

Next, the microconbeater 1 receives the output of the voltage monitoring circuit 7 and determines whether the original voltage has fallen below the reference voltage (step S6). If a voltage reduction result is obtained (step S6 is YES),
The data code is converted and modulated into a data code corresponding to the voltage reduction, and transmitted to the controlled device (step S4). As a data code corresponding to this voltage reduction, one of the data codes not used by the input key is used. Thereafter, the microcomputer 1 enters a standby state and waits for key human power.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the operation of the receiving microcomputer of the controlled device (not shown).

When an interrupt due to a received signal occurs, the microconbeater demodulates the received data (step R1). Next, it is determined whether the received data code is a data code meaning reduced voltage (step R2). If the received data code is a data code meaning reduced voltage (step R2 is NO), processing corresponding to the received data is performed. (Step R3), the interruption ends.

On the other hand, if the determination result is a data code that means reduced voltage (step R2 is YES), an LED installed on the controlled device is used to notify the remote controller user that the power supply voltage of the remote controller has decreased. is turned on (step R4). After this, one interrupt ends.

In order to further reduce the power consumption of the remote controller, the voltage monitoring circuit 7 may be operated only when the microcomputer in the remote controller is in operation.

Further, as a means for the controlled device to notify the remote controller user of the voltage reduction, in addition to lighting the LED, means may be used such as blinking the LED, displaying the display, or using sound.

Furthermore, although the above embodiments have been described using a remote controller using infrared rays as an example, the present invention is not limited thereto.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, since the remote controller does not need to be equipped with a visible light LED for monitoring power supply voltage, power consumption is reduced and the power life of the remote controller is improved.

Further, since the controlled device notifies the time to replace the power supply of the remote controller, it is possible to avoid a situation in which erroneous transmission or transmission failure due to voltage drop in the remote controller occurs.

Furthermore, since a circuit for notifying the remote controller of the voltage reduction of the remote controller is not required, there is an effect that the circuit of the remote controller can be made smaller.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a remote controller according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of a microcomputer used in the remote controller shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram similar to the one shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the receiving microcomputer used in the controlled circuit when the remote controller shown in FIG. 1......Microcomputer 2.
......Local oscillation circuit 5...
...Power supply 4...Input key group 5...
...LED drive circuit 6 ......
・・・LED7・・・・・・・・・・・・Voltage monitoring circuit representative Patent attorney Katsuo Ogawa Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a remote controller comprising a power supply independent of a controlled device and means for creating and transmitting a signal for controlling the controlled circuit, it is determined that the power supply voltage has decreased below a reference voltage. What is claimed is: 1. A remote controller comprising voltage monitoring means for detecting voltage monitoring, means for converting the determination result into a data code, and means for transmitting the data code to a controlled device. 2. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the remote controller is an infrared remote controller, and the data code is transmitted to the controlled device by infrared rays.