JPH02303333A - Automatic changeover device for battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease maintenance by changing a primary battery over to the spare battery side when the battery voltage becomes under the specified value, and connecting this spare battery to load as a new primary battery, and informing a user that the life of the original primary battery has expired as a power source. CONSTITUTION:When it is judged that the battery has come to the time of exchange, relay driving terminals 26e and 26f output signals for changing over a latching relay 5 to the space battery 2b side, and also they drive an indication means 7a connected to a primary battey 2a. This indication means 7a consists of, for example, a light emitting diode, and to this a switching transistor 6a and a battery 2a are connected in series, and this blinks by turning on or turning off the switching transistor 6a by the pulse signal of a control part 26. This way, in case that the life of the primary battery has expired, the power source is automatically changed over to the spare battery 2b. Hereby, the capacity of the battery can be redoubled equivalently, and the number of maintenance times can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an automatic battery switching device that automatically switches to a spare battery when a battery reaches the end of its service life.

(Prior Art) In order to reduce the frequency of maintenance required due to a dead battery in a device using a dry battery as a power source, efforts have been made to reduce the power consumption of the circuit and use a battery with a large capacity.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, there are limits to reducing circuit consumption or increasing battery capacity. Therefore, it is conceivable to equivalently increase the battery capacity by connecting batteries in parallel, but in such a case, problems arise due to the batteries becoming lopsided.

Therefore, the present invention provides an automatic battery switching device that can increase the battery capacity without considering the problem of one-side slippage, and can easily tell when it is time to replace the battery, thereby making maintenance easy and reducing the number of times. The purpose is to provide.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a main battery that is connected to a load and used as a power source, a spare battery prepared as a spare for this main battery, and a voltage source of the main battery. and a voltage detection means for detecting the voltage, and when the battery voltage becomes below a predetermined value based on the output signal of the voltage detection means, the main battery is switched to the spare battery side, and the spare battery is used as a new main battery to be applied to the load. It is characterized by comprising a switch means for connecting, and a display means for notifying that the battery has reached the end of its life using the original main battery whose voltage has decreased as a power source.

(Function) According to such a configuration, the battery capacity is equivalently the sum of the capacities of the main battery and the spare battery, and the capacity can be increased. Furthermore, since they are not connected in parallel, there is no problem of one-sided filling. Furthermore, since the display means is driven by a battery whose battery capacity has decreased, maintenance times can be displayed without consuming power from the main battery.

(Embodiments) Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are block diagrams showing the configuration of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a load and 2a.

2b... is a battery used as a power source to drive this load, 2a is a main battery, 2b is a spare battery, 3 is a voltage detection means for these batteries, and 4 is a voltage detection means based on the output signal of this voltage detection means 3. When the voltage of the main battery 2a drops below a predetermined value, the switch 5a is opened to disconnect the load as shown in FIG. 2, and the switch 6a is closed to indicate the life of the battery. This is a switch means for lighting the battery 7a and closing the switch 5b to connect the spare battery 2b to the load l.

An example in which this automatic switching device is used in a toilet bowl will be shown below.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of the toilet, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the toilet, FIG. 5 is a perspective view, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an automatic switching device.

The toilet bowl 8 has a bowl portion 10 separated by a partition wall 9 and a trap drainage channel 11. The trap drainage channel 11 is connected to the bowl portion 1
An inlet 12 opened at the lower part of the rear wall of the toilet bowl 8 and an outlet 13 opened at the rear bottom of the toilet bowl 8 are bent into a substantially inverted U-shape and communicate with each other. In the trap drainage channel 11, a discharge channel jlb on the downstream side of the weir portion 11a is formed into a substantially straight pipe shape.

A rim water passage 16 is formed in the rim part 15 at the upper peripheral edge of the bowl part 10 in an annular shape so as to protrude inward of the bowl part IO, and rim water injection ports 17 are formed at appropriate intervals on the bottom surface of the rim water passage 16. It is opened diagonally to the bowl portion 1o. Also,
The rim water passage communicates with the rim water supply chamber 18 at the rear.

A seat switch 20 for detecting a user is provided between the rim portion 15 and the toilet seat 19.

A jet nozzle 21 is attached to the bottom of the bowl portion 10, and the jet nozzle 21 is oriented toward the inlet 12 of the trap drainage channel 11.

As shown in Figure N5, a box 22 is provided from both sides of the toilet bowl 8 to the rear upper part, and a water supply control system 23 is housed within this box 22. The water supply control system 23 is provided approximately in the center of the rear of the box section, and is connected to the bowl section 1 via the rim water passage 16.
An electric valve 24.25 that independently supplies water to the 0 and jet supply channels 21c, a control section 26 provided on the negative side thereof, and a side section of the toilet bowl in front of the control section 26. It consists of an operating section 27 that is provided in the side box and gives an operating signal to the control section 26, a pressure sensor 29 that detects the water supply pressure of the water supply pipe 28, and a rim and jet vacuum breaker 30.31.

Also, a box section 22 provided with a control section 26 and an operation section 27
On the opposite side, there is a deodorizing aroma unit 32 at the rear thereof,
A vapor holder 33 is provided at the front, and a control system 2 is installed between them.
A battery box 34 is provided that serves as a power source for the electric valves 3, 24, 25, and the like. A lithium battery is used here.

The toilet bowl of this embodiment is provided with a connection jack 35 for connecting to an AC adapter (not shown) so that an AC power supply can also be used.

The control unit 26 is a device inch 20 consisting of an input interface circuit, a microprocessor unit, memory, a timer, an output interface circuit, etc. Pressure sensor 2
In addition to driving and controlling the electric valves 24 and 25 based on input signals from 9 and the like, automatic switching is performed by determining the lifespan of the batteries 2a and 2b.

The circuit configuration for automatic switching will be explained below based on FIG. 6.

In this embodiment, the main battery 2a includes one spare battery 2b, but it may include two or more.

A latching relay 5 is connected between the main battery 2a and the spare battery 2b.
In the illustrated state, the main battery 2a is connected to the power supply terminal 26a of the control unit 26 via the solenoid drive circuit 1a of the electric valve as a load and the voltage regulator 35, and is also connected to the voltage detection means 3. ing.

The voltage detection means 3 includes a switch section 3a and a comparator section 3.
The switch part 3a is composed of a NOR circuit 3C connected to the solenoid drive signal output terminals 26b and 26c by the control part 26, and a NOR circuit 3C connected to the solenoid drive signal output terminals 26b and 26c from the control part 26. and a switch transistor 3d that closes the switch. Further, the comparator 3b is a resistor 3e that divides the voltage of the battery.

3f, a diode 3g that generates a reference voltage, and an amplifier 3h that compares and amplifies this reference voltage and the divided voltage.

The output signal of this amplifier 3h is transmitted to the input terminal 26 of the control section 26.
d, and it is determined whether the divided voltage of the battery has fallen below the reference voltage, that is, whether it is time to replace the battery.

When it is determined that it is time to replace the battery, a signal is output from the relay drive terminals 26e and 26f to switch the latching relay 5 to the spare battery 2b side. It also drives the display means 7a connected to the main battery 2a. This display means 7a is made of, for example, a light emitting diode, and has a switching transistor 6a and a battery 2a connected in series, and is turned on and off by turning on and off the switching transistor 6a in response to a pulse signal from the control section 26.

In this way, when the main battery reaches the end of its lifespan, the power source is automatically switched to the spare battery, which makes it possible to double the battery capacity isometrically, reduce the number of maintenance operations, and save battery life. The need for maintenance can be easily known by lighting up the display means to notify that the life has come to an end.

In this embodiment, a display means 7b made of a light emitting diode is provided on the spare battery side in the same way as the display means fa, and the above operations are performed alternately.
does not necessarily need to be provided. Further, although switching between the main battery 2a and the spare battery 2b is performed using the latching relay 5, the present invention is not limited to this, and a transistor or the like may be used. Further, although this embodiment shows an example of application to a toilet bowl, the present invention can be broadly applied to other devices using batteries as a power source.

(Effects of the Invention) As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, when a battery reaches the end of its life, the power source is automatically switched to the spare battery, so the number of maintenance operations can be reduced, and Since the display indicates when the battery has reached the end of its life, it is easy to know when it is time for maintenance. Since this display is performed using the battery that has reached the end of its life as a power source, the power of the power source battery is not used, and the effects of the present invention can be further enhanced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 and 2 are block diagrams showing the configuration of the present invention, and Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention.
The figure is a sectional side view showing the toilet bowl, FIG. 4 is a perspective view thereof, FIG. 5 is a perspective view thereof, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an automatic switching device. In the drawing, 1 is a load, 2a, 2b are batteries, 3 is a voltage detection means, 4, 5, 5a, 5b are switch means, 7a,
7b is a display means. Patent applicant Toto Kiki Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney 2 1) Yong - Immediate inquiry Patent attorney
Kuni Ohashi Patent Attorney Koyama
Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] A main battery connected to a load and used as a power source; a spare battery prepared as a spare for the main battery; a voltage detecting means for detecting the voltage of the main battery; and a voltage detecting means for detecting the voltage of the main battery. a switch means for switching from the main battery to a spare battery when the battery voltage falls below a predetermined value, and connecting the spare battery to the load as a new main battery;
An automatic battery switching device characterized in that it uses the original main battery whose voltage has decreased as a power source and further comprises a display means for notifying that the battery has reached the end of its life.