JPH0444990B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is a sales propriety determination system that has a function of comparing the input amount with a set price set for each sales column and determining whether or not a sale can be made for each sales column. a money processing section that performs calculations on input amounts and controls such as dispensing change; and a control section that has a price setting function for each sales column; The present invention relates to a method for determining whether or not a sale is possible in a vending machine that determines whether or not a sale is possible based on data transmission, and an improvement to the method for transferring price data in the data transmission described above.

[Prior Art] A method for determining whether or not a product can be sold in a vending machine that has a large number of sales columns by transmitting data between a control unit that has a price setting function and a sales availability determination unit that determines whether or not the product can be sold. A known method is to transmit data regarding individual prices.

In this case, even if multiple columns are set at the same selling price, data is transmitted for each column to determine whether or not it can be sold.
If there are a large number of columns, it takes a long time to complete the determination of whether or not the vending machine can be sold, and the process from when money is inserted until the vending machine becomes ready for sale and the desired product is obtained is a disadvantage. It was hot.

In addition, in order to solve this drawback, there is a method in which the selling price can be set for each column, and when determining whether the product can be sold at the time of sale, the above judgment process is performed for the columns with the same selling price all at once.
No. 57-159789) has been proposed by the applicant.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above proposal, since the purchaser's input amount changes sequentially and the product price changes at an arbitrary point, the money processing unit does not process the money. While it is detected that a The drawback was that the data transfer process was complicated.

Therefore, in view of the above points, the object of the present invention is to
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sales judgment method and a data transfer method that can simplify data transfer processing regarding column set prices from a control section to a money processing section.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve these problems, the first invention compares the input amount with a set price set for each sales column, and determines whether sales are possible for each sales column. and a control section having a price setting function for each sales column. In a vending machine, when determining whether a sale is possible, the set prices are organized to avoid duplication in all columns, and only the set prices of types that do not overlap are sent from the control unit to the above when a change in the input amount is detected. The information is characterized in that the information is transmitted all at once to the saleability determination section, and the saleability determination results for each of the transmitted prices are collectively sent back from the saleability determination section to the control section.

The second invention includes a sales availability determination unit having a function of comparing the input amount with a set price set for each sales column and determining whether or not a sale can be made for each sales column, and a price setting function for each sales column. In the vending machine, the vending machine is provided with at least a control unit having a control unit, and determines whether or not a sale can be made by mutual data transmission between the determination unit and the control unit, in which the set prices are arranged to avoid duplication for all columns, and to avoid duplication. The present invention is characterized in that only the set price of each type is transmitted at once from the control unit to the sales availability determination unit when the set price changes.

[Operation] In the first invention, the start timing of a new sales permission determination is detected by detecting a change in the input amount. Since the set price is transmitted from the control section to the sales availability determination section in accordance with this detection timing, the number of data transmissions is only one time, and there is no need to repeatedly transmit data as in the prior art.

In the second aspect of the invention, a change in the set price by the operator is automatically detected by detecting a change in the set price. Therefore, since the changed set price can also be automatically transmitted from the control section to the money processing section at the time of change, the operator does not need to perform any instruction operations regarding data transmission.

Furthermore, there is no longer a need to repeatedly transmit the set price to the sales availability determining section as in the past.

[Example] The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention, where 1
2 is a control unit, and 2 is a price setting unit that sets and stores set prices for each sales column. 3 is a data transmission line.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a money processing unit, which includes a sales propriety determining unit 4A that calculates a sellable price based on the price data transferred from the control unit 1, the total amount of money input into the money processing unit 4, the presence or absence of change, etc. and has a function of transmitting the calculation results to the control unit 1.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a product selection section having product selection switches 10 to 14, and 6 a product unloading section, which unloads the products to be transported in accordance with commands from the control section 1.

The control unit 1 determines the products that can be sold based on the data transferred from the money processing unit 4 and outputs the result to the sales availability display 7.

In addition, in the price setting section 2, SP(1) to SP(m)
indicate the set prices corresponding to sales columns 1 to m, respectively.

In the above configuration, in the vending operation of the vending machine, for example, after it is detected that a coin has been inserted, the vending permission determination unit 4A sends a notification to that effect via the data transmission line 3. and transmits it to the control unit 1. The control unit 1 is then in a sales preparation state and needs to know which columns can be sold with the current deposited amount.

For this purpose, the control unit 1 is controlled by the control procedure shown in FIG. 2 or 3, for example.

In the example in Figure 2, regardless of whether coins are deposited or not,
When the power is turned on, during initial setting operation, or when the set price is changed, the sales price for each column is sent in advance to the sales availability determination unit 4A via the data transmission line 3, and the deposit amount from the customer changes. (including changes from 0 yen), the sales propriety determination result will be returned every time.

That is, in FIG. 2, when the power is turned on, in step S1, the selling prices SP(1) to SP(n) set in the price setting section 2 are arranged in ascending order, avoiding duplication. Next, in step S2, these sales prices are sent to the sales availability determining section 4A.
It is transmitted all at once via the transmission line 3.

Here, when a customer makes a deposit, sales propriety data is transmitted from the determining unit 4A to the control unit 1 via the transmission line 3.
will be forwarded to. Therefore, in step S3,
When the sellability data is received, the process proceeds to step S4, where the sellable column is displayed on the display 7.

Next, in step S5, the customer refers to the display 7 and selects the sellable column in the product selection section 5.
When selection is made by selecting and pressing selection switches 10 to 14, the process advances to step S6, where:
Perform sales actions.

If no column is selected in step S5, proceed to step S7 and select the selling price SP(1).
It is determined whether ~SP(n) has changed, and if so, the process returns to step S1. If it has not changed, the process returns to step S3 and waits for reception of sales availability data.

On the other hand, if no sales availability data is received in step S3, the process proceeds to step S5, and since there is of course no column selection here, the process proceeds to step S7, and then returns to step S3.
Step S3 until sales availability data is received.
Repeat S5 and S7.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, each time the deposit amount from the customer changes (including when it changes from zero yen), the control unit 1 transmits the sales price for each column to the sales availability determination unit 4A and sells the product. Determine whether or not it is possible and send back the result.

That is, in FIG. 3, when the power is turned on, in step S11, the selling prices SP(1) to SP(n) set in the price setting section 2 are arranged in ascending order, avoiding duplication. Next, in step S12, the process waits until data is received from the sales availability determining section 4A, and when data reception is confirmed, the process proceeds to the next step S13.

In step S13, there is a deposit from the customer, and it is determined whether or not the deposit amount has changed as a result. When the change has occurred, it is determined that there is a deposit from the customer, and the process proceeds to step S14.

In step S14, the control section 1 transmits the price types all at once to the sales availability determining section 4A. next,
In step S15, the controller 1 waits for the control unit 1 to receive the sales availability data determined by the sales availability determination unit 4A.

When the sellability data enters the control section 1, the process advances to the next step S16, and the sellability column is displayed on the display 7.

Next, in step S17, the customer refers to the display 7 and selects the sellable column from the product selection section 5.
When the selection switches 10 to 14 are selected and pressed, the process proceeds to step S18, where a sales operation is performed.

If no column is selected in step S17, the process returns to step S11. On the other hand, if there is no deposit in step S13, the step
The process moves to S19, performs other necessary processing, and then returns to step S11.

In this way, in the present invention, the sales price for each column is transmitted from the control unit 1 to the sales availability determination unit 4A,
The sales decision results for each price are sent back to the control unit 1 all at once.

As a method for transmitting and receiving data all at once in this manner, a well-known asynchronous serial transfer method, a parallel transfer method, or the like can be easily applied.

An example of a data format when transmitting and receiving data all at once is shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b.

Figure 4a is an example of set price data after batching, the first word (here 1 byte) is a mode word indicating that the following data is set price data, and the following is the number of bytes of data. and set price data S1, S2,..., Sk, and parity.

FIG. 4b shows an example of the sales availability data for this, and similarly consists of mode word data, number of bytes, sales availability determination data, and parity.

Here, the determination result of whether or not the product can be sold for each set price is expressed in advance using a predetermined corresponding bit of the determination data word. In this example, if the corresponding bit is "1", the product can be sold, and if the corresponding bit is "0", the product can be sold. If so, it now indicates that it cannot be sold.

Now, for selection switches 10 to 14, 10 yen,
It is assumed that the prices are set by the price setting unit 2 as 10 yen, 20 yen, 20 yen, and 30 yen. Upon receiving this data, the control unit 1
is 10 as price setting data in the money processing unit 4.
Transfer yen, 20 yen, 30 yen. The determination unit 4A of the money processing unit 4 compares these three types of prices to calculate whether the input amount can be sold. As a result, even if the money handling section 4 has the ability to process only three prices, the vending machine as a whole can be treated as a five-selection vending machine.

The results calculated by the money processing section 4 are transferred to the control section 1 via the transmission line 3, and in the control section 1 are converted into sellable data for five prices out of three types. In this way, by setting the number of pieces of data to be transferred to the money processing section 4 according to the type of price, the advantage is that it can also be used for Selection vending machines with a larger number of prices than the processing capacity of the money processing section 4. It is.

Next, in step S1 (Fig. 2) or S11 (Fig. 3) in the above-described flowchart, an example of the control procedure of the control unit 1 for arranging the set prices randomly set for each column in descending order of amount is shown in step 5.
As shown in the figure.

In FIG. 5, in step S21, the value obtained by subtracting 1 from the number of pieces at the price is set as m, and the next step is
In S22, set price by column in price setting section 2
Store in SP(0) to SP(m) of In step S23, n is set to 0 (column 0).

In the next step S24, SP(n) is changed to SP(n+
1), and if SP(n)<SP(n+1), go to step S28; otherwise, go to step S25, and check whether SP(n)=SP(n+1). Determine.

In step S25, when SP(n)=SP(n+1), the process proceeds to step S26, where SP(n) is set to 0, and then the process proceeds to step S28.

On the other hand, in step S25, SP(n)>SP(n+
If it is determined as 1), the process moves to step S27.

In step S27, SP(n) and SP(n+1)
Replace the contents of. As a result, SP(n+1)
>SP(n), and then the process advances to step S28.

In step S28, n is incremented by one, and the process proceeds to step S29, where it is determined whether n=m. If n=m is not the case, the process returns to step S24 and the steps S24 to S29 described above are repeated. Then, when n=m, the process proceeds to the next step S30, decrements n by 1, and then proceeds to step S31. Here n=0
If n=0, the process returns to step S23 and repeats the process up to step S31. Then, when n=0, the next step S32
Proceed to.

In step S32, it is determined whether SP(n) is 0 or not. When SP(n)=0, the process moves to step S33, where n is incremented by 1, and then
Proceed to step S34, compare n at this time with the number of pieces at the price, and if n≧the number of pieces at the price, end the process, otherwise return to step S32 and repeat the same process until the number of pieces at the price is n≧ repeat.

If SP(n)≠0 in step S32, the process moves to step S35, where m is set to 0.
In the next step S36, SP(m) is changed to SP(n), further, in step S37, m is incremented by 1, and in step S38, n is incremented by 1.

Next, in step S39, n is compared with the number of pieces at the price, and if n≧the number of pieces at the price, the process is terminated, and if not, the process returns to step S36 again, and n≧
Repeat the same process until the number of pieces reaches the price.

As described above, the set prices of two adjacent columns are compared in order starting from column 0 according to the control procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG. When the set prices are equal, the set price corresponding to the smaller column number is set to 0, and the set price is stored in the set price corresponding to the larger column number.
On the other hand, if the set prices are different, the set price corresponding to the larger column number is set to be the higher price. As a result of such processing, the set price that is set to "0" is excluded from the objects to be handled.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, set price data can be organized by type, without having to judge whether or not it can be sold for each set price, as in the past. By configuring the configuration so that only the type is sent to the sales propriety judgment unit at once when the input amount is detected, and the sale propriety data is received all at once, this data group is There is an advantage that the number of transfers is only one time and a vending machine with fast vending operation can be easily constructed. Furthermore, by automatically detecting the process of changing the set price and automatically transferring the changed price, there is no need to repeatedly transfer the data of the set price as in the prior art, and the data transfer process is simplified.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are flowcharts showing two examples of the control procedure, and FIGS. FIG. 5, which is an explanatory diagram of the format of the data and the sales decision data, is a flowchart showing an example of a control procedure for rearranging set prices in order of price type and descending order in the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Control part, 2... Price setting part, 3... Data transmission line, 4... Money processing part, 4A... Sales propriety judgment part, 5
...Product selection section, 6.Product delivery section, 7.Sellable display, 10-14.Product selection switch.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A sales availability determination unit having a function of comparing the input amount with a set price set for each sales column and determining whether or not a sale can be made for each sales column, and a price setting function for each sales column. In a vending machine that includes at least a control section having a By avoiding duplication for the columns, only set prices of types that do not overlap are sent from the control unit to the sales availability determination unit at once when a change in the input amount is detected, and each of the transmitted prices is 1. A method for determining whether a product can be sold, characterized in that the results of determining whether or not the item can be sold are sent back to the control section from the sales determination section. 2. A sales availability determination section that has a function of comparing the input amount with a set price set for each sales column and determining whether or not a sale can be made for each sales column, and a control section that has a price setting function for each sales column. At least a vending machine that determines whether or not a sale is possible by mutual data transmission between the determination section and the control section, organizes the set prices, avoids duplication in all columns, and only selects set prices of types that do not overlap. A data transfer method, characterized in that when the set price changes, the data is transmitted from the control unit to the sales availability determination unit in a batch.