JPH0484796A - Photosensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To contrive the detection of an exactly spherical object by equipping an infrared-ray emission means arranged on a first side and emitting infrared rays toward a second side, an infrared-ray receiving means arranged on the second side and a output means of the signal through the spherical object. CONSTITUTION:A photosensor 1 is arranged in a gaining passage 43 in a vertical pinball machine. The photosensor 1 is attached so as to transmitt light in the neighborhood of the passage 43 corner show, so that an infrared rays beam 45 emitted from an infrared rays generation diode 7 pass and are received by an infrared rays phototransistor 9. In addition, the photosensor 1 is placed at the position different from the center of pinballs 41 passing the passage 43 to block the beam 45. In the case where the pinballs 41 pass continuously, a quantity of light of the beam 45 received by the transistor 9 decreases and, when the pinballs 41 completely blocks the beam 45, it becomes the minimum quantity of light. Thereafter, when the pinballs 41 move to receive the beam 45, the quantity of light increases. When light is not intercepted at all by the pinballs 41, it becomes the maximum quantity of the light. A quantity of light- output current caused by the change of the quantity of the light is counted to exactly detect the number pf passage of the pinballs 41.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a photosensor that detects passage of a substantially spherical object.

[Prior art] Conventionally, as a photosensor, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-28268
There is a technique disclosed in Publication No. 4.

This device includes a light-emitting device and a light-receiving device, and is configured to reduce the current flowing through the light-emitting device when an object passes between the light-emitting device and the light-receiving device and blocks the light. By having such a configuration, the external terminal of the photosensor can be made into two wires, and compared to a three-wire type photosensor that has a dedicated power supply terminal and an output terminal, the following improvements can be achieved. It was planned.

In other words, the number of inspection items is reduced, for example, when diagnosing a failure of a photosensor disposed in a prize ejecting device in a game machine or when detecting that a fraudulent act has been performed on this photosensor.

For example, if a photosensor with two terminals is used compared to three terminals, it is difficult to tamper with the photosensor, and furthermore, it becomes impossible to disconnect or change the wiring.

In conventional photosensors, the light emitting means and the light receiving means are arranged to face each other in order to prevent abnormalities from occurring due to disturbance light, such as light from a flash or blinking light bulb in a game sensor, etc., or sunlight. , the supports supporting these were formed in a ring shape to prevent the intrusion of ambient light. Moreover, a structure is required in which the object to be detected passes through approximately the center of the opposing positions of the light emitting means and the light receiving means.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional technology, in order to eliminate the adverse effects of ambient light or due to structural problems, the detection speed of approximately spherical objects, such as pachinko balls, has been increased to, for example, 550 balls or more per minute. The problem was that it was difficult to do so. In other words, when trying to detect a highly reflective object, such as a pachinko ball with a diameter of 10.5 m, by passing it through a ring-shaped support, the ring-shaped support will prevent the pachinko ball from passing through. Therefore, if the diameter of the ring is increased, the disturbance light will enter the inside of the ring, and the light receiving means will receive strong disturbance light. In addition, since the light that was conventionally emitted was visible light with a high reflectance of 200 to 60 Qnm, increasing the outer diameter of the ring causes light to leak and be transmitted between the inner surface of the ring-shaped support and the outer surface of the pachinko ball. The amount of light emitted increases. This reduces the amount of light shielding and causes detection errors. In the past, it was difficult to increase the outer diameter of the ring while maintaining detection accuracy to improve the passing speed of, for example, pachinko balls.

Furthermore, conventionally, the amount of light shielded when a substantially spherical object passes through the object has not been significantly reduced by disturbance light, reflected light, or the like. For this reason, for example, when pachinko balls come in succession, the amount of change in the amount of light shielding becomes small, sometimes resulting in detection errors. Therefore, in the past, there was a problem in that the approximately spherical object had to be flowed in a separated state, making it impossible to increase the detection speed.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and thereby provide a photosensor that has low resistance to passage of a substantially spherical object and can improve detection accuracy.

[Means for Solving the Problems] As a means for achieving the above object, the photosensor of the present invention is composed of a first side and a second side that are connected at an angle, and is configured to detect the passing state of a substantially spherical object. an infrared light emitting means arranged on the first side and emitting infrared light toward the second side; and an infrared light emitting means arranged on the second side and receiving the infrared light. The gist of the present invention is to include an infrared light receiving means and a passing signal outputting means for outputting a passing signal of the substantially spherical object according to the light receiving state of the infrared light receiving means.

[Function 1] The photosensor of the present invention has two sides connected at an angle, and infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting means disposed on one side is received by the infrared light receiving means disposed on the other side. Ru. When a substantially spherical object passes between the infrared light emitting means and the infrared light receiving means and blocks infrared light, the light receiving state of the infrared light receiving means changes. When the light receiving state of the infrared light receiving means changes, the passing signal outputting means outputs a passing signal of the substantially spherical object.

That is, when a substantially spherical object passes through the photosensor, a passing signal is output.

Here, the passing signal output from the photosensor is not affected by disturbance light caused by visible light.

Also, since the amount of infrared rays reflected is small compared to visible light, the infrared rays reflected and transmitted between the approximately spherical object and the two sides connected at an angle have a large effect on the passing signal. There isn't. Furthermore, since the shape of the photosensor is composed of two sides connected at an angle, there is no resistance to the passage of a substantially spherical object.

Examples] Next, an embodiment of the photosensor of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 shows an external view of the photosensor 1 of this embodiment, FIG. 2 shows a circuit diagram of the photosensor 1, and FIG. 3 shows a circuit diagram of the interface circuit 3 of the photosensor 1.

The photosensor 1 detects the passing of a pachinko ball, and as shown in FIG. 15.

As shown, the main body 5 has a right-angled shape with two sides.

The infrared light emitting diode 7 is disposed on one side 5a of the main body 5, and is attached at a position where it emits infrared light toward the other side 5b. Infrared light emitting diode 7
emits infrared rays of 800 to 11,000 nm.

The infrared phototransistor 9 is disposed on the other side 5b of the main body 5, and is attached at a position to receive the infrared light emitted by the infrared light emitting diode 7 disposed on one side 5a. The infrared phototransistor 9 is 800 to 11
It receives only infrared rays of 000n.

The control circuit 11 is arranged inside the main body 5,
Infrared light emitting diode 7, infrared phototransistor 9, external terminal 13. '15 is connected.

The external terminals 13.15 are provided at the coupling portion 5C of the main body 5, as shown. A connector 17 is fitted onto the external terminals 13 and 15. Connector 17 is connected to interface circuit 3.

The circuit configuration of the photosensor 1 is configured as shown in FIG. That is, the infrared light emitting diode 7 is connected between the external terminal 13 and the first terminal 11a of the control circuit 11 in the forward direction. A conductive wire 19 is connected between the external terminal 15 and the second terminal 11b. Between the third terminal 11C of the control circuit 11 and the conducting wire 19,
An infrared phototransistor 9 is connected. The collector of the infrared phototransistor 9 is connected to the third terminal 11C, and the emitter is connected to the conducting wire 19.

The control circuit 11 is configured as shown in FIG.
It is configured to have the same functions as.

In other words, when a pachinko ball passes between the infrared light emitting diode 7 and the infrared phototransistor 9 and blocks infrared rays, the external terminal 13
It has a function of changing the output current 1out flowing to the external terminal 15 in a stepwise manner with hysteresis, as shown in FIG.

The interface circuit 3 shown in FIG.
and a pachinko ball ejector 21 in a pachinko machine (not shown)
The diode 23 and the resistor 25.2 are interposed between the diode 23 and the resistor 25.2.
7, a capacitor 29, and a CMOS gate IC 31, and outputs a pachinko ball passing signal SP to the pachinko ball discharging machine 21 in accordance with the output current 1out of the photosensor 1. In other words, the interface circuit 3
The change in the output current 1out is converted into a signal standard conforming to the input signal standard of the pachinko ball ejecting machine 21.

The pachinko ball discharging machine 21 is disposed in a pachinko machine (not shown) and discharges pachinko balls according to winning balls, and the pachinko ball ejecting machine 21 (not shown) discharges pachinko balls corresponding to the number of passing winning balls detected by the photosensor 1. Dispense onto the top plate of the pachinko ball.

Next, the operating state of the photosensor 1 will be explained.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the mounting state of the photosensor 1, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the state in which a pachinko ball 41 passes through the foot sensor 1, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the state in which the output current 10 ut changes.

As shown in FIG. 5, the photosensor 1 is arranged in a winning ball path 43 of a pachinko machine (not shown).

The photosensor 1 is installed so that an infrared beam 45 emitted from the infrared light emitting diode 7 and received by the infrared phototransistor 9 passes near one corner of the winning ball passage 43, as shown in the figure. As a result, the photosensor 1 detects the infrared beam 45 due to the position shifted from the center of the pachinko ball 41 passing through the winning ball path 43.
is shaded.

When pachinko balls 41 pass continuously as shown in FIG. 6 through the photosensor 1 arranged as shown in FIG. 5, the amount of infrared beam 43 received by the infrared phototransistor 9 is: It changes as shown in FIG. That is, when the pachinko ball 41 starts passing, the amount of light is reduced as shown in the figure. 41 pachinko balls or 4 infrared beams
When 3 is completely shielded from light, the amount of light becomes the minimum as shown in the figure.

After that, the pachinko ball 41 moves and the infrared beam 43
When light is received, the amount of light increases as shown in the figure. When the light shielding by the pachinko ball 41 is completely eliminated, the amount of light reaches the maximum as shown in the figure (3).

Therefore, even if the pachinko balls 41 continuously flow, a state in which light is completely blocked by the pachinko balls 4] and a state in which light is not blocked at all occur alternately.

When the amount of light changes as described above, the photosensor 1
Since it has the light amount-output current 1out characteristic shown in the figure, the output current Jout of the photosensor 1 changes in a rectangular waveform as shown in FIG. Note that the main change in the output current ■○U has a slight delay with respect to the change in the amount of light. In other words, the output current JOu↑ indicates whether or not the pachinko ball 41 passes. Therefore, by counting the falling edge of the output current (output) of the photosensor 1, the number of passing pachinko balls 41 can be accurately detected.

Since the photosensor 1 described above is a two-terminal type, the items for fault diagnosis and checking for unauthorized acts performed on the photosensor 1 are: ■ disconnection inspection of the output terminal 13;
The only tests are (1) disconnection inspection of the output terminal 15 and (2) short-circuit inspection between the output terminals 13 and 15. In the past, inspection equipment could be made smaller and more expensive.

Since the photosensor 1 has a right-angled shape, it has extremely excellent effects as shown below.

The passage portion of the pachinko ball 41 has an open shape, and there is no resistance to the passage of the pachinko ball 41.

However, the counting speed can be improved by increasing the flow speed of the pachinko balls 41. Furthermore, a slit is provided in the path of the pachinko ball 41, and attachment by inserting the ball into the slit becomes possible. However, the number of man-hours required for installing the device to the device is reduced. Furthermore, since the passage of the Pachinko balls 41 is detected by the position shifted from the center of the Pachinko balls 41, the number of Pachinko balls 41 that are continuously flowing can be accurately counted. Therefore, the flow speed of the pachinko balls 41 can be increased to make the counting speed extremely high. Moreover, since the shape may have two sides, the number of component parts and the number of assembly steps can be reduced, and productivity can be improved and costs can be reduced.

Since the photo sensor 1 uses infrared rays as its detection light source, it operates normally even in a place where a flash lamp emits light or under sunlight. It can also be used in places where visible light must not be emitted to the outside, such as in the dark.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various embodiments can be implemented without changing the gist of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] Since the photosensor of the present invention has a structure in which two sides with an angle are connected, the portion through which a substantially spherical object passes is open, and there is no possibility that it will become a passage resistance object for a substantially spherical object. do not have. Moreover, since it has a structure that detects positions offset from the center of approximately spherical objects, it is not possible to accurately detect individual approximately spherical objects even if approximately spherical objects are continuously flowing. can.

As a result, it is possible to provide a photosensor with low passing resistance and high detection accuracy, which is an extremely excellent effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the photosensor of the embodiment, Fig. 2 is a circuit diagram of the photosensor, Fig. 3 is a circuit diagram of the interface circuit of the photosensor, Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the photosensor, Fig. 5 The figure is an explanatory diagram of the mounting state of the photosensor, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are explanatory diagrams of the operating state of the photosensor. 1...Photo sensor 3...Interface circuit 5...Main body 7...Infrared light emitting diode 9...Infrared phototransistor 11...Control circuit 41...Pachinko ball

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A photosensor comprising a first side and a second side connected at an angle and detecting the passing state of a substantially spherical object, the photo sensor being disposed on the first side, and comprising a first side and a second side connected at an angle. an infrared light emitting device that emits infrared light toward a second side; an infrared light receiving device disposed on the second side that receives the infrared light; A photosensor comprising a passing signal output means for outputting a passing signal.