JPH0135356B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improvement in a display device, particularly a display device whose display element is an electrochromic display that requires erasing energy.

Electrochromic displays (ECDs) have recently been put into practical use as display elements, and are used in various display devices because of their advantage of being easily visible even from oblique directions. E.C.D.
is an energy storage type display element that stores energy as chemical energy when writing energy is applied, and maintains the display for a certain period of time (for example, about several tens of milliseconds) until the energy disappears, and continuously provides driving energy. It has the advantage that it is not necessary and power saving is easy. However, over a long period of time, leakage resistance associated with the ECD itself and the circuitry reduces the energy and degrades the quality of the display, and appropriate rewriting may be necessary. Furthermore, in order to quickly erase the written ECD display, it is necessary to apply erasing energy, but if this energy is too small, not only will it not be possible to erase the display sufficiently, but also excess energy will accumulate when writing next time. If it is too large, it will shorten the life of the ECD. In other words, if the erasing energy is not always appropriate, the uniformity of display quality (darkness and lightness) and lifespan will be adversely affected. For example, a large number of stocks, such as stock price information display devices installed at the counters of securities companies, are a mixture of those that are rewritten extremely frequently and those that are rarely rewritten. , and if you need to rewrite quickly, use the above method.
Conventional ECD display devices that do not have adequate measures for ECD erasing energy are bound to have problems. Furthermore, although ECD has the advantage of continuing to display data even if the power is cut off during display, it is also true that it takes a certain amount of time to rewrite, and even if the power is cut off during the rewriting operation, Therefore, some kind of countermeasure is required to prevent display problems from occurring.

The present invention detects a value corresponding to the amount of energy in the display element using a dummy circuit, and erases the display with appropriate erasing energy, thereby maintaining uniform display quality and extending the length of the display element. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a display device that has a long service life, minimizes the probability of display data being lost even in the event of a momentary power interruption during a rewriting operation, and completes the rewriting operation immediately after the power is restored from the instantaneous power interruption. shall be. The following explanation will be made regarding an ECD display device for stock price information, but the present invention is applicable not only to stock price data but also to an ECD display device for data of multiple items, and the type of display element is also limited to ECD. isn't it.

Generally, a stock price information display device displays a set of multi-digit numerical data by arranging multiple numerical displays for each stock.When using an ECD as a display element, usually a numerical display for each single digit is used. consists of a plurality of segment display elements (hereinafter simply referred to as segments). Assuming that data is currently being displayed for a certain issue, in order to rewrite it with new data for the issue sent from the stock exchange, first each segment that is currently being displayed is After erasing the segments by applying erasing energy corresponding to their stored energy, write energy must be applied to the segments to be newly displayed. However, if each segment of each numeric display is equivalent, there is no need to determine the erase energy separately for each individual segment, and all currently displayed segments will have equal energy when data is written. Since it can be assumed that the given energy holds the same energy as the actual value, one dummy circuit (an electrical circuit that shows the same energy decreasing tendency as the segment) is set up for each brand, and this is used to calculate the energy equivalent to the write energy of that brand. The erasing energy may be determined by applying an energy to the segment, and at the time of erasing, a value corresponding to the erasing energy of the segment is read out from this value.

To summarize the above, the present invention aims to prevent the display from disappearing when the data to be displayed is frequently updated or when the power is momentarily cut off while displaying data. The brand information allows display data to be rewritten accurately every time data is input. The present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a display device when the present invention is implemented in a terminal of a market report system, where 1 is a central device, M is a modem, and A to F form terminals. However, the wiring boards, protection devices, etc. provided at both ends of the line L between the modems are omitted. Now, the operation shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

(A) Central device 1 to modem M of the market reporting system
Stock price information is sent to the terminal from time to time via line L.

(B) On the terminal station or terminal side, this is accepted by the control unit A via the modem, but the information on which brand is to be displayed at which position on the display device F is stored in the non-volatile memory B, and the power is turned on. Control information necessary for display by the control unit A is expanded and stored in the control memory C.

(C) The control section A refers to the control memory C for the data received from the line L, learns the position to be displayed on the display section, and writes the received data to the corresponding display memory D.

(D) The data written to the display memory D is sent to the control unit A.
is displayed by the display control unit E according to the following procedure. Data to be displayed can be displayed by erasing the previous data at that data position and then writing the received new data to the display element of the display section F. The procedure at this time can be represented by the flow diagram shown in FIG.

Two areas of non-volatile memory are provided in memory B and are used to store data memory for each brand and memory to be explained below.

When rewriting the display with new data, (1) When new data is received, it is written to non-volatile memory B (the previous data is rewritten). It's crowded.

(2) When the power is turned on to operate the display unit, the control unit A inputs control information necessary for display into the control memory C.

(3) Transfer the data of B to display memory D.

(4) As shown in the configuration diagram in Figure 4, the display section F has three circuits, each corresponding to the number of brands. is one brand display section, and is a write energy detection circuit (including a dummy circuit) is an erase energy detection circuit. The currently written energy state is determined by the write energy detection circuit, and energy equivalent to the erase energy is applied to the erase energy detection circuit. Note that the output 11 of the circuit is sent to the erasing circuit, and the output 6 of the circuit is sent to the writing circuit.

(5) Delete the corresponding old data on display memory D. This erasing energy is read from and applied to the corresponding display element of the display section F to erase the old data.

(6) Next, the newly received data has been written from the control unit A to the display memory D by referring to the output of At the same time, energy (dummy data) is also given to the circuit.

(7) The display unit sets the energy of the erase energy detection circuit to zero, and at the same time inputs the erase and write end signals from the display unit to clear (erase) the memory B as well.

As described above, the display element of the corresponding brand is erased and written with appropriate energy, but even if the power is cut off during this rewriting, the corresponding information (for example, B) can be obtained.

Next, as a means for restarting the display after a momentary power failure, which is the object of the present invention, the following operation is performed.

(11) When the power is turned on, process (B) following (A) above. The subsequent processing is as shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, (12) as shown in FIG. 3, it is determined whether data is being processed from memory ' in display memory D (moved from memory B). If data is not being processed, it will be in the normal state. If data is being processed, it is determined that the power has been cut off during an erase or write operation, and the following processing is performed.

(13) Determine whether or not erasing is in progress using the erasing energy detection circuit, and if erasing is in progress, perform the subsequent sequence processing shown in FIG. 2 {continue below}.

(14) If erasing is completed, the write energy detection circuit determines whether writing is in progress, and if writing is in progress, proceed to Figure 2, and if writing is completed, proceed to Figure 2. . In this way, data can be retained even if the power supply is momentarily cut off during rewriting.

Next, the write energy detection circuit and the erase energy detection circuit will be explained. Writing and erasing are performed by applying a reverse voltage. FIG. 5 shows an example of a write energy detection circuit, and 2 in the figure is a dummy circuit, which actually uses an ECD segment. 3
is the write signal input, 4 is the read signal input, and 5 is the A/
A D (analog to digital) converter 6 is an output to the data bus of the control section A. When writing, a write signal 3 is used to write to the segment of the display ECD, and at the same time, a write signal is also sent to the write energy detection circuit p as shown in Fig. 5, which is provided in the same number as each brand of display ECD. 3 to charge the dummy (transistor Tr ₂ is off at this time), and its state is A/D
It becomes an output 6 to the data bus of the control unit A through the converter 5. During erasing, when read signal 4 is input, the energy of dummy 2 is discharged through R ₁ and Tr ₂ , so the voltage change of dummy 2 is A/D converted, the energy is read from 6, and erasing is performed.

Figure 6 is an example diagram of the erase energy detection circuit, and the circuit is displayed on the display section F together with the circuit.
There are the same number of ECDs. 7 in the figure is a signal for erasing,
8 is a dummy circuit, and it is convenient to use ECD as in Fig. 5. 9 is an A/D converter, 10 is a read signal, and 11 is an output to the data bus. As is clear from the figure, the voltage in this circuit is opposite to that in Figure 5, and when the erase signal is applied, the dummy 8 is negatively charged (at this time, transistor Tr ₄ is off), and the erase energy is reduced. The status is output from 11 via 9 to the data bus. To erase this energy, when a read signal 10 is applied, the energy of the dummy 8 is discharged through Tr ₄ and resistor R ₂ and the energy during erasing is detected by 11. Furthermore, the fifth
The reason for using the two circuits shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 6 is that the polarities of the write and erase energies are opposite.

As described above in detail, data is frequently updated in devices that display stock price information that changes from moment to moment. Although detailed control of the power supply of such a device has not been performed conventionally, implementation of the present invention is a very effective countermeasure as described above. Furthermore, since the ECD, which is an element of the display device, can be appropriately rewritten and reerased, the energy given to the ECD is appropriate and the life span is significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a display device when the present invention is implemented in a terminal of a market reporting system, and Figure 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a display device.
Figure 3 is a flowchart of the second stage of processing after the power is turned on when restarting after a momentary power outage; Figure 4 is the configuration of the display unit for each brand in Figure 1. 5 and 6 respectively show a writing energy detection circuit and an erasing energy detection circuit provided for each brand. 1... Central unit, 2, 8... Dummy, 3... Write signal input, 4... Read signal input, 5, 9... A/D converter, 6, 11... Output to data bus, 7... Erase signal input , 10... readout signal input, M... modem.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display unit that displays a plurality of items using a large number of storage type display elements that require erasing energy to erase previously displayed data, and a display unit that displays a plurality of items using a large number of storage type display elements that require erasing energy to erase previously displayed data; a nonvolatile memory for writing the state; a plurality of write energy detection circuits corresponding to the number of display items for holding write energy corresponding to the energy for displaying the new input data on the display element; and the previous display data. a plurality of erasure energy detection circuits corresponding to the number of display items to hold erasure energy corresponding to the energy for erasing the display element; a control unit that controls displaying new input data on the display element, and the control unit is configured to display the display device when the contents of the memory are not being processed when the power is turned on again after an instantaneous power interruption. At the same time as displaying the new input data on the element, the write energy is applied to the write energy detection circuit, and when it is determined that the contents of the memory are in a data processing state and are being erased based on the output of the erase energy detection circuit. applying erase energy to the display element; applying the write energy to the display element when the content of the memory is in a data processing state and it is determined that writing is in progress based on the output of the write energy detection circuit; A display device configured to erase the contents of the memory by setting the energy of an erasing energy detection circuit to zero.