JPH0227685B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides the following features:
This invention relates to a key input method for arbitrarily setting input values for multiple input items.

In recent years, various equipment, both industrial and consumer,
The electronicization of internal functions, especially the adoption of microcomputers, has led to remarkable miniaturization and multifunctionality.
A mechanism for inputting numerical values and control commands into devices is becoming one of the obstacles to further progress in miniaturization and multifunctionalization.

For example, it is generally advantageous in terms of operability for PID controllers used for process control to be designed so that various control constants and target values can be set by operating keys on the front panel. . On the other hand, in order to reduce the mounting space on a control panel etc., the overall shape of a PID controller is often decided so that the vertical and horizontal dimensions are smaller than the depth dimension, and the front panel area is generally small. , the key array space is considerably limited. This restriction has become even more severe due to the recent progress in miniaturization, and it has become increasingly difficult to arrange enough keys to support a variety of functions.

To deal with this, it is important to devise ways to reduce the number of keys, since miniaturization of keys has its limits in terms of operability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a new key input method for setting input values for a large number of input items using a small number of keys.

In the present invention, a key is used to instruct a device (input target device) such as a PID controller that requires setting input values for a plurality of input items to change the input items sequentially in a fixed order. , a key for instructing to sequentially move the position of the changed digit of the input value in a round cycle from the upper or lower direction, and a key for instructing to move the value of the changed digit of the input value round from the minimum value to the maximum value or vice versa. By combining the operations of these three types of keys, input values can be arbitrarily set for arbitrarily selected input items.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a temperature regulator according to the present invention.

In the figure, 100 is a group of input keys, which are arranged on the front panel of the temperature controller. The input key group includes a left digit movement key 101 and a value increase key 10.
2, item change key 103, and other keys.

160 is a display device provided on the front panel. This display 160 is made of a well-known display element such as a light emitting diode or a liquid crystal, and is divided into an item digit 161 and a numerical digit 162. In this example, the item digit is 1 digit and the numerical value digit is 4 digits. Note that the numerical value is displayed in decimal digit 162.

The internal mechanism of the temperature regulator includes a key input circuit 110, a register group 120, an arithmetic/control circuit 130, a display circuit 150, a nonvolatile memory 140,
There is an external input circuit 170 and an external output circuit 180.

The key input circuit 110 repeatedly scans each key (key switch matrix) of the input key group 100 in order, and when a pressed key is detected, sends the key code and strobe signal of the pressed key to the calculation/control circuit 130. do. External input circuit 1
70 converts the temperature (control amount) signal of the controlled object into a digital signal and inputs it to the arithmetic/control circuit 130 .

The register group 120 is used for the calculation of the calculation/control circuit 130, and the input item register 12
1. Changed digit register 122, input value register 12
3 etc. are included. The calculation/control circuit 130 performs calculations and controls related to key inputs for various input items, in addition to detecting deviation amounts and calculating operation amounts.
It performs display control and read/write control for the nonvolatile memory 140.

The display circuit 150 displays data provided from the arithmetic/control circuit 130 on the display 160. Further, the external output circuit 180 converts the manipulated variable data given from the arithmetic/control circuit 130 into a required signal format and supplies it to an external control target.

Since the actual operation of the temperature regulator is not directly related to the present invention, only the key input operation will be described below.

Here, there are 10 types of input items, A to J.
Specifically, the target temperature, proportional band width, integral time, differential time, upper limit temperature, lower limit temperature, etc. The input item is selected by pressing the item change key 103. That is, when the item change key 103 is pressed, the corresponding key code and strobe signal are output from the key input circuit 110. This key code and strobe signal are output repeatedly in the key scanning cycle while the item change key 103 is pressed. In this case, each time the arithmetic/control circuit 130 receives the strobe signal, the input items are sequentially changed to A, B, C, . . . , J, A, B, . . . as shown in FIG. The input items at each time point are set in the input item register 121 and displayed on the item digit 161 of the display 160 through the display circuit 150. Therefore, the operator can select the desired input item by releasing the depression of the item change key 103 when the desired input item is displayed on the display 160. Note that when the item change key 103 is pressed again, changing of the input items starts from the input item next to the input item selected so far. When an input item is selected, the arithmetic/control circuit 130 reads the previously set input value for that input item from the nonvolatile memory 140 and stores it in the input value register 123.
At the same time, it is displayed on the numerical digit 162 of the display 160 through the display circuit 150.

The input value of the selected input item is set by a combination of the left digit shift key 101 and value increase key 102.

The left digit movement key 101 is used to move the digit to be changed (changed digit) of the input value. That is, when the left digit shift key 101 is pressed, the key code and strobe signal are repeatedly output from the key input circuit 110 at the key scanning period during the pressing period. Every time the arithmetic/control circuit 130 receives the key code of the left digit movement key and the strobe signal, it changes the changed digit pointer on the changed digit register 122 to the first, second, and third digits as shown in FIG. , the fourth digit, the first digit, and so on, in order as if in a complete cycle. The position of the changed digit indicated by this changed digit pointer may be displayed by blinking the corresponding numerical digit on the display 160, but in this example, the changed digit at each point in time is the unit digit. Move the decimal point. In other words,
The numerical digit on which the decimal point is displayed on the display 160 is the changed digit. This simplifies display control and eliminates the need for a key for setting the decimal point position, which is advantageous in reducing the number of keys. The operator can designate the desired digit as the change digit by releasing the left digit shift key 101 while looking at the display 160 when the decimal point has moved to the desired digit position.

The value increase key 102 is a key for setting the value of the change digit of the input value. That is, when the value increase key is pressed, the key code and strobe signal are output from the key input circuit 110. The arithmetic/control circuit 130 changes the value of the changed digit on the input value register 123 as 0, 1, 2, . . . , as shown in FIG.
The number is increased sequentially in a cycle of 8, 9, 0, 1, and so on. Naturally, the value of the changed digit of the input value changes in the same way on the display 160. Therefore, the operator can set the change digit to the desired value by releasing the value increment key 102 while watching the display on the display 160 when the change digit reaches the desired value.

An example of the setting operation will be explained with reference to FIG. Here, for a certain input item, the input value is "12.34".
Assume that the input value set last time for that input item was "20.98".

When the desired input item is selected by pressing the item change key 103, the display of numerical digits on the display 160 becomes as shown in FIG. 5A. Therefore, the changed digit at this point is the third digit.

Although you may start setting the value from any digit, here we will start setting the value from the third digit.
Therefore, the value increase key 102 is pressed to set the third digit to "2" as shown in FIG. 5B. Next, the left digit shift key 101 is pressed to move the decimal point one digit to the left, resulting in the state shown in FIG. 5C. Press the value change key 102 and set the change digit, that is, the 4th digit, to "1"
Set to . Then, press the left digit shift key 101 to return the decimal point to the first digit as shown in FIG. Press the value increase key 102 to increase the first value as shown in Figure 5.
Set the digit to "4". The decimal point is moved to the left as shown in Figure 5G, and then the second digit is set to "3" as shown in Figure 5C. Finally, left digit movement key 10
If you press 1 and move the decimal point one place to the left, the fifth
Desired input values are set as shown in the figure.

Note that if you press the item change key 103 after this, the input value "12.34" in the input value register 123 will be changed.
is stored by the arithmetic/control circuit 130 at an address corresponding to the input item in the nonvolatile memory 140.

Although one embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment itself.
Various modifications can be made.

For example, if there is enough keyboard space,
As shown in FIG. 6, a right digit shift key 104 and a value decrease key 105 can also be added to the input key group 100. Here, the right digit movement key 104 is a key for moving the changed digit (decimal point) to the right as shown by the broken line in FIG. This is a key that decreases sequentially as shown. Adding these keys makes input operations faster and easier.

Further, in the above embodiment, the keys 101, 102, 10
If 3 is continued to be pressed, the change digit movement, change digit value increase, and input item change are automatically repeated. However, it may be configured such that the change digit moves by one digit each time the key 101 is pressed once. The same applies to the other keys 102 and 103.

Furthermore, the present invention can be applied to various devices other than temperature controllers.

The present invention has been described in detail above, and it is possible to set input values for a large number of input items using fewer keys than in the past, and it greatly contributes to miniaturization and multifunctionality of devices. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially omitted functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram explaining the changing order of input items, FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining the moving order of changed digit positions, and FIG. Figure 4 is a diagram explaining the increase/decrease in the value of the changed digit, Figure 5 is a diagram explaining an example of the setting operation procedure,
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a modified embodiment of the present invention. 100...Input key group, 101...Left digit movement key,
102...Value increase key, 103...Item change key, 1
10... Key input circuit, 120... Register group, 13
0... Arithmetic/control circuit, 140... Nonvolatile memory, 1
50...Display circuit, 160...Display device, 170...External input circuit, 180...External output circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Keys and keys for instructing the input device to change the input items in a certain order when setting input values for multiple input items on the input device by key operation. Keys for instructing the change of value to move the position of the digits sequentially in a round cycle from the upper or lower direction, and keys for instructing to change the value of the input value digits to be sequentially increased from the minimum value to the maximum value or vice versa. In the key input method, an input value is arbitrarily set for an arbitrarily selected input item by a combination of these three types of keys, and the change digit of the input value is A key input method characterized by having the function of a decimal point and the function of clearly indicating a digit to be changed by moving the decimal point position of an input value to follow the movement of the digit to be changed so that the digit is always a unit digit.