JPH01256808A - Radio receiver and its channel selection system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the time required for automatic channel selection by storing a broadcast frequency stored in an external storage device in a location corresponding to the preset button of an internal storage device respectively. CONSTITUTION:In case of loading an IC card 11 to an IC card reader 12, written information is read from a control microcomputer 13. The control microcomputer 13 gives an N-value corresponding to the reception frequency to a PLL synthesizer 14 in a radio receiver 15, receives a signal representing the reception of a broadcast radio wave from the radio receiver 15 or gives various kinds of control signals for AM/FM switching or the like. Moreover, CH1-CH5 keys 21-25 for preset channel selection, an automatic searchup key 26, an automatic search-down key 27, an automatic scanup key 28, an automatic scan-down key 29, an AM/FM changeover SW 30, and a power switch 31 or the like are connected to the control microcomputer 13. Furthermore, a display device 40 to display the operating state and the reception state of the radio receiver 15 by the keys as above is connected to the microcomputer 13.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Required] A removable external storage device is provided, the broadcasting frequencies of the area are stored in the external storage device, and the broadcasting frequencies of the area are stored before automatic frequency search or scanning. Speed up search or scan operations by searching or scanning for unique broadcast frequencies, or use frequencies stored in a removable external storage device as recent frequencies to set preset frequencies when changing coverage areas. This is a radio receiver and its channel selection method that makes it easy to change.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a radio receiver and its tuning method, particularly to a radio receiver having an automatic tuning function and/or a preset function, and its tuning method, and is particularly useful in a car-mounted radio receiver.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, many radio receivers have an automatic channel selection function. While increasing or decreasing the reception frequency in steps, the signal is transmitted over the entire reception band until the level of the reception signal exceeds a predetermined value.
The switching is performed within the range of z.

In addition, car-mounted radio receivers in particular are equipped with several preset buttons, each of which is assigned a broadcast frequency for that area, and by pressing one of the preset buttons, the desired broadcast can be received immediately. Many have a preset channel selection function.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the radio receiver with the automatic tuning function described above, it usually takes about 0.05 seconds after switching the reception frequency to compare the level of the reception signal and reach a conclusion as to whether or not to switch further. There is. In this case, for example, the reception band is 7
When automatically selecting an FM broadcast band from 6 to 90 MHz, the time required to receive a broadcast at 85.1 MHz, for example, by increasing the frequency in steps of 0 and 1 MHz from the lowest frequency of 76.0 MHz. This calculation requires several seconds of waiting time, which is usually far longer than a human can tolerate, and poses a problem in terms of operability.

Furthermore, with the aforementioned radio receiver with the preset channel selection function, when used in a car, for example, if there is frequent movement between areas with different broadcast frequencies, it is necessary to change the preset frequency through complicated operations each time. There is a problem.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a radio that has an automatic tuning function with excellent operability, and also has a preset tuning function that allows the setting to be easily changed even when moving between regions with different broadcast frequencies. The purpose is to provide a receiver and its channel selection method.

[Means to solve the problem]

A radio receiver of the present invention that solves the above-mentioned problems is a radio receiver characterized by being equipped with a removable external storage device that stores one or more broadcast frequencies.

The tuning method of the radio receiver of the present invention is the tuning method of the radio receiver described above, in which a predetermined frequency is used as a unit,
In an automatic tuning method in which the tuning operation is continued by increasing or decreasing the reception frequency stepwise within a predetermined reception frequency range until radio waves of a predetermined level or higher are received, the stepwise increase or decrease The automatic tuning method is one in which the automatic tuning is performed by a tuning operation in which the broadcast frequencies stored in the external storage device are sequentially set as the receiving frequencies, or one or more pre-sent buttons are used. , and an internal storage device that stores broadcast frequencies at positions corresponding to each of the preset buttons, wherein when one of the preset buttons is operated, the internal storage device stores the broadcast frequency at a position corresponding to each of the preset buttons. In the preset tuning method, which sets the broadcast frequency stored in the corresponding position in the device as the reception frequency,
This is a channel selection method in which broadcast frequencies stored in the external storage device are stored in positions corresponding to the preset buttons of the internal storage device.

[For production]

The number of broadcast stations that can be received in one area is only a few times, so even if you switch each station in 0.05 seconds and switch all stations, it will only take 1
It never exceeds seconds. Furthermore, since the external storage device described above is removable, even if the user moves to a region where the broadcasting frequency is different, it can be easily handled by replacing the external storage device.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a radio receiver of the present invention. In this embodiment, the above-mentioned external storage device is realized by the IC card 11.

This IC card 11 can be thought of as a card-shaped electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and various information is electrically written therein by an appropriate writing device (not shown).

When this IC card 11 is inserted into the IC card reading device 12, the written information can be read from the control microcomputer 13 side. In addition, the control microcomputer 13, like the microcomputer in a known electronic tuning radio with a built-in microcomputer,
Give an N value corresponding to the reception frequency to the PLL synthesizer 14 in the radio receiver 815, receive a signal indicating that broadcast waves have been received from the radio receiver 15, or
Provides various control signals such as M/FM switching. In addition, the control microcomputer 13 has CHI to CH for preset channel selection.
5 keys 21-25, automatic search software.

key 26, automatic search down key 27, automatic scan up key 28, automatic scan down key 29, AM/F
An M switch 30, a power switch 31, etc. are connected, and a display 40 for indicating the operating status and reception status of the radio receiver 15 by these keys is also connected.

Table 1 shows an example of information written in the IC card 11.

In the IC card 11, the numbers in the above table are encoded as they are, or the corresponding N value (an integer value given to the PLL synthesizer 14) is encoded and stored. In the table, "?" indicates that there is no information with a specific code.

FIG. 2 shows, as a first embodiment of the tuning method in the embodiment of the radio receiver shown in FIG. 1, an example in which the automatic tuning method is applied to an automatic search up function. .

The automatic search down function is also similar to this, so a description thereof will be omitted.

Based on FIG. 2, the software processing of the control microcomputer 13 in the radio receiver to which the method of the present invention is applied will be explained. After the program is started, predetermined initial processing is performed (step a), and then the control loop is entered. . First, it is determined in step b) whether the IC card 11 has been inserted or replaced, and if so, the IC card 11 is inserted or replaced.
The written information is read out via the card reading device 12 and stored in the internal memory, and the step C) control loop is repeated. In the control loop, first, it is determined whether or not the power switch 31 for turning on and off the power of the radio receiver 15 has been operated or not (step d), and if it is determined that the power switch 31 has been operated, the power of the radio receiver 15 is switched from on to off. The operation is turned on or from off to on (step e), the operating state is displayed on the display 40, and the control loop is repeated.

If the power switch 31 is not operated, then it is determined whether the radio receiver 15 is turned on and in an operating state (step f), and if it is not in an operating state, a message to that effect is displayed (step m), and control is performed. Repeat the loop.

If it is in the operating state, it is determined whether or not the various operation switches have been operated, and if it is determined that they have been operated, predetermined processing is performed. -As an example, AM/FM selector switch 3
0 is operated (step g), reception band switching processing is performed (step h).

In all cases, the operation is displayed in a predetermined format on the display 40 each time the loop is passed (step m).

When the search up key 26 is pressed (step i), search up processing is performed (step j).

This is a main part of the present invention, and the details of its processing are shown in FIG. First, among the information read from the IC card 11, the smallest one among the frequencies higher than the current receiving frequency is displayed. If all of them are smaller than the current receiving frequency, the lowest frequency among all is selected (step a).

In order to set the output frequency as the receiving frequency,
The corresponding N value is output to the PLL synthesizer 14 (step b). After a certain period of time has elapsed, the magnitude of the intermediate frequency signal or the magnitude of the field strength signal is checked to determine whether reception has been achieved (step C). If it can be received, the process ends. If the information in the IC card 11 cannot be received, it is determined whether the information in the IC card 11 has gone through one round (step d).
The process moves on to the next broadcast station in the list. step a %
If it is not possible to receive signals from all the stations in the IC card 11 while repeating the loop in step d, there is a possibility that the IC card 11 has been inserted incorrectly, and in that case, the conventional search-up process is continued, that is, the channel separation value is set as a unit. The stepwise switching operation is repeated until reception is received (step e).

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the channel selection method in the embodiment of the radio receiver shown in FIG. 1, which shows an example in which the automatic channel selection method is applied to an automatic scan-up function. . The automatic scandown function is also similar to this, so a description thereof will be omitted.

The flowchart in FIG. 4 is different from that in FIG.
j, that is, the process when the automatic scan up key 28 is pressed, is the same as in FIG. 2 except for the process, and therefore the explanation will be omitted. Details of the scan up process (step j) when the automatic scan up key 28 is pressed are shown in FIG.

The processing in steps a to d in FIG. 5 is performed in step a in FIG.
This is the same as the processing in steps 1 to d, and the reception processing is performed sequentially based on the information in the IC card 11 until the information in the IC card 11 completes one cycle or a broadcast is received. Similar to FIG. 3, once the information in the IC card 11 has gone through the cycle, the conventional scan-up process is performed (step e). Once received, wait only 5 seconds for the automatic scan up key 28 to be pressed again (steps f, g), and if the automatic scan up key 28 is pressed again during that time, to continue receiving the station being received. Finish the process.

If 5 seconds elapse without being pressed, the process returns to step a to receive the next station.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which the precent tuning method is applied as a third embodiment of the tuning method in the embodiment of the radio receiver shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is the same as FIG. 2 representing the first embodiment, but
The details of the processing in step C are different.

In step C, in the first embodiment, the IC card 11
The information read from the preset channel selection process was previously stored in an area separate from the memory for preset channel selection processing, but in this embodiment, this information is stored in the preset memory. By doing this, you can use CHI to CH5 keys 2 for preset channel selection.
When any one of 1 to 25 is pressed (step k), a frequency based on information from the IC card 11 stored in the corresponding position is set as the reception frequency (step l).

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the radio receiver and its tuning method of the present invention, the time required for automatic tuning such as automatic search up/down and automatic scan up/down can be significantly shortened, and users can instantly It is possible to automatically tune into a station in a time that seems like it would be 50% off, and since the information is stored in a removable external storage device, it can be easily changed even when moving between areas with different broadcast frequencies. Furthermore, if applied to the preset channel selection function, it is possible to extremely easily change the setting value when moving to an area where the broadcast frequency is different.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the radio receiver of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of the channel selection method of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is the search knob processing of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a flowchart representing the second embodiment of the channel selection method of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a flowchart representing details of the scan-up process of FIG. 4; FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a third embodiment of the channel selection method. In the figure, 11... IC card, 13... Control microcomputer,
15...Radio receiver, 21-31...Each operation switch, 40...Display device. Flowchart showing details of the search up process in Figure 2 Part 3

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. A radio receiver comprising a removable external storage device for storing one or more broadcast frequencies. 2. A channel selection method in a radio receiver according to claim 1, wherein the channel selection operation is performed by increasing or decreasing the reception frequency stepwise within a predetermined reception frequency range using a predetermined frequency as a unit, In an automatic tuning method that continues until radio waves of a predetermined level or higher are received, the broadcasting frequency stored in the external storage device is sequentially set as the reception frequency before the stepwise increase or decrease. A channel selection method in which automatic channel selection is performed by a channel selection operation. 3. A channel selection system in a radio receiver according to claim 1, comprising one or more preset buttons and an internal storage device that stores broadcast frequencies at positions corresponding to each of the preset buttons, In the preset tuning method, when one of the buttons is operated, the broadcast frequency stored in the corresponding position in the internal storage device is set as the reception frequency. A channel selection method in which a channel is stored in a storage device at a position corresponding to each of the preset buttons.