JPH05247986A - Water supply controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten a response time required for sensing a user by flood-light ing a plurality of pulses at every flood period and repeating pulse floodlighting until reflected light in the fixed number of sensing decision is obtained when reflected light is detected. CONSTITUTION:A sensing confirming means composed of a flood-pulse generating circuit 42 and a sensing confirming circuit 6 is constituted to a water supply controller 1 using a reflection type sensor 2, in which the reflection signal of a signal intermittently transmitted from a floodlighting section 4 is detected by a light-receiving section 5 and a user is sensed. A preset number of pulses are transmitted at regular time intervals. When the reflection signal is detected by the light-receiving section 5, pulse transmission is repeated until the reflection signal in the preset number of sensing decision is detected within the range of preset maximum delivery number of pulses when the number of the detected pulses is smaller than the number of pulses transmitted. Accordingly, the accuracy of detection can be improved at every flood period.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a reflection type sensor for detecting a user of a urinal or the like by detecting reflected light of light intermittently projected from a light projecting section at a predetermined time interval by a light receiving section. The present invention relates to improvement of a water supply control device using a sensor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Single pulse light projection (for example, 140 microseconds) is performed every predetermined period (for example, 2 seconds), and reflected light is continuously detected for a predetermined number of times (for example, 3 times). Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-294032 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-1564 disclose a technique for controlling water supply to a urinal or the like by using a reflection type sensor having a configuration in which it is determined that a user exists.
It is known from Japanese Patent Publication No. 46 and the like.

[0003]

However, since the configuration is such that the reflected light of a single pulsed light projection is detected, if the reflected light detection output is not obtained for some reason even if the user is present, use it. The response time until the person sensing output is obtained becomes long.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object thereof is to improve the detection accuracy in each light projection cycle and reduce the delay in the response time required for user detection. To provide.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the water supply control device according to the present invention is designed so that the water supply control device n
(N is an integer of 2 or more), and when the number of pulses detected by the receiving unit is 1 or more and less than the number of transmitted pulses n, it is preset within the range of the maximum number of transmitted pulses. It is characterized by further comprising a sensing confirmation means for repeating pulse transmission until the number m of sensing determinations (m is an integer of 2 or more) are continuously detected.

[0006]

[Operation] A plurality of pulsed light is emitted for each light emission cycle,
If the reflected light is detected by even one of them, the pulsed light projection is repeated until the reflected light of the predetermined number of detection judgments is obtained, so that the detection accuracy in each light projection cycle is improved. Therefore, the response time required for the user's sensing can be shortened.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a cleaning water supply apparatus according to the present invention. The cleaning water supply device 1 includes a reflective sensor 2
And a water supply controller 3 that controls water supply to a urinal (not shown) based on the user-sensed output 2a output from the reflective sensor 2.

The reflective sensor 2 includes a light projecting section 4 and a light receiving section 5.
And a detection circuit 6 that cooperates with the light-emission pulse generation circuit 42 in the light-emission unit 4 to improve the detection accuracy of the user U for each intermittent light-emission cycle, and a determination circuit 7. The pulse generation circuit 42 and the detection confirmation circuit 6 constitute a detection confirmation means.

The light projecting section 4 generates an intermittent light projecting control circuit 41 which determines an intermittent light projecting cycle, and a light projecting pulse train signal 42a based on the intermittent light projecting timing signal 41a output from the intermittent light projecting control circuit 41. The light emitting pulse generating circuit 42 and the light projecting circuit 43 are included. The light projecting unit 43 includes a light projecting element L such as a light emitting diode which emits infrared light, an NPN transistor Q, and an emitter resistor R, and controls the light projecting element L to a constant current based on the light projecting pulse train signal 42a. It is configured to drive. Reference numeral VB indicates a battery power source.

The light receiving section 5 includes a light receiving element P such as a PIN photodiode or a phototransistor that receives the light reflected by the user U, and an amplifier 51 that amplifies the received light output.
The level of the amplified light receiving signal 51a is the detection threshold VT.
While exceeding H, for example, H level reflected light detection signal 5
A comparator 52 that outputs 2a is provided.

The sensing confirmation circuit 6 is a shift register formed by connecting three stages of D-type flip-flops (hereinafter referred to as FFs) 61, 62 and 63 in series, and an OR of the Q outputs of the FFs 61 to 63. An AND circuit 65 that takes a circuit and a logical product, an edge detection circuit 66, and a delay circuit 67 are provided. The reflected light detection signal 52a which is the output of the light receiving unit 5 is supplied to the D input terminal of the FF61 in the first stage. FF6 of each stage
The Q outputs of 1 and 62 are supplied to the D input terminals of the FFs 62 and 63 of the next stage, respectively.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the signal waveform of each part of the reflection type sensor. The intermittent light emission control circuit 41 sets a preset maximum light emission allowable time T (for example, 2.24 milliseconds) for each preset intermittent light emission cycle KT (for example, 2 seconds).
It is configured to output the intermittent light emission timing signal 41a (FIG. 2a) having the pulse width of.

The light projecting pulse generating circuit 42 has a cycle of T / n (for example, n = 8 and a cycle of 280) in synchronization with the rising edge of the intermittent light projecting timing signal 41a, as shown in FIG. 2B.
In the nanoseconds), the light projection pulse train signal 42a having a duty of 50%, for example, is configured to generate a minimum of 3 pulses and a maximum of n pulses. Then, when the light projecting request signal 64a described later is applied, the light projecting pulse generation circuit 42 repeatedly outputs the light projecting pulse train until the detection confirmation signal 65a described later is supplied.

As shown in FIG. 2 (c), the delay circuit 67 outputs the light emitting pulse train signal 42a to about 1 / th of its cycle T / n.
The signal delayed by 4 times is output as the shift clock 67a. The shift clock 67a is
It is supplied to the clock input terminals C of the FFs 61 to 63, respectively.

The edge detection circuit 66 includes a circuit for detecting rising and falling edges, a pulse generation circuit, and the like, and is based on the rising edge of the intermittent light emission timing signal 41a shown in FIG.
While outputting the reset signal 66a shown in (d),
2 from the time of the fall of the intermittent light emission timing signal 41a.
The latch signal 66b is output after the delay time Td (e.g., T / 4n) shown in (e) has elapsed. The reset signal 66a is
It is supplied to the reset input terminal R of each FF. The latch signal 67b is supplied to the latch input terminal 7a of the determination circuit 7.

The determination circuit 7 has a detection confirmation signal input terminal 7b.
Detection confirmation signal (output of AND circuit 65) 6 supplied to
5a is fetched on the basis of the latch signal 7b, and when the fetched feeling determination signal 65a has the logic level coincident three times in a row, for example, the logic level is validated and the user sensing output 2a is outputted. ..

The water supply control unit 3 includes a water supply control circuit 31 and an electromagnetic opening / closing valve 32 using a latching solenoid.
A water supply pipe 33 is connected to one end of the electromagnetic on-off valve 32, and the other end is connected to a urinal (not shown) or the like via a cleaning water supply pipe 34. The water supply control circuit 31 monitors the user-sensed output 2a of the reflective sensor 2. For example, when the user leaves, the water supply control circuit 31 generates a valve opening pulse 31a to start water supply, and closes after a predetermined water supply time elapses. The valve pulse 31b is generated to terminate the water supply. The pre-cleaning water supply may be performed at the time when the user is detected.

Next, the operation of the reflection type sensor will be described. Each FF is reset by a reset signal generated by the edge detection circuit 66 based on the rise of the intermittent light emission timing signal 41a. Next, in synchronization with the rising edge of the intermittent light emission timing signal, three pulse lights are emitted first. When the user U is present and the reflected light exceeds the threshold value, the reflected light detection output is at the H level for all three times, so that the Q outputs of the FFs forming the shift register are all at the H level. Therefore, the detection confirmation signal 65a output from the AND circuit 65 becomes H level. The H-level detection confirmation signal 65a causes the light projecting pulse generation circuit 42 to stop the fourth and subsequent pulse light projects.

When the user U does not exist and no reflected light is detected, the Q outputs of the FFs are all at the L level, so the continuous light emission request signal 64 which is the output of the OR circuit 64.
a is an L level. Therefore, the light projection pulse generation circuit 42 does not carry out the fourth and subsequent pulse light projections.

When the reflected light is detected at least once for the three pulsed light projections, the Q output of either FF becomes H.
Since it is at the level, the continuous light emission request signal 64a becomes the H level. In this case, the light projection pulse generation circuit 42 continues pulse light projection. Then, as a result, the reflected light is detected three times in succession, and when the detection confirmation signal 65a becomes the H level, new light projection is stopped at that time. If the reflected light is not detected three times in a row, the continuous light emission request signal 64a becomes L level, and the light emission is stopped. Then, based on the latch signal 66b generated by the edge detection circuit 66 in response to the trailing edge of the intermittent light emission timing signal 41a, the determination circuit 7 reads the user detection result in the current light emission cycle.

As described above, since the number of pulsed light projections is increased as necessary for each light projection cycle to reliably detect the presence of the user, the detection accuracy for each cycle is improved. It should be noted that a plurality of pulses of light may be emitted only when the user is present, and a single pulse may be emitted when the user is not present. Further, the plural pulses may be projected only when the user is present and when the user is not present, or vice versa.

Although a configuration in which individual circuits are combined is shown in FIG. 1, the signal processing units other than the light projecting circuit 43 and the light receiving unit 5 may be configured by software using a microcomputer. In addition, the minimum number of light emitting pulses, the maximum number of light emitting pulses, and the number of continuous detection pulses required for judgment are
It can be changed to any value.

[0023]

As described above, the cleaning and water supply apparatus according to the present invention performs a plurality of pulse light projections in each light projection cycle, and if even one of them emits a reflected light, a predetermined detection is performed. Since the pulsed light projection is repeated until the determined number of reflected lights are obtained, the detection accuracy for each light projection cycle is improved. Therefore, the response time required for the user's sensing can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a cleaning water supply device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing a signal waveform of each part of the reflective sensor.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Washing water supply device, 2 ... Reflective sensor, 4 ... Projector, 5
... light receiving part, 6 ... sensing confirmation circuit which cooperates with a light emitting pulse generation circuit to form a sensing confirmation means, 7 ... judgment circuit, 41 ... intermittent light emitting control circuit, 42 ... light emitting pulse time generating circuit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Miki Ueki 2-1, 1-1 Nakajima, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture Totoki Equipment Co., Ltd. (72) Tomohiro Nishi Nishi 2 Nakajima, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 1st-1st Totoki Equipment Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A water supply control device using a reflection type sensor, which detects a reflected signal of a signal intermittently transmitted from a transmitting unit at a receiving unit to detect a user, in a predetermined number of pulses at a predetermined time interval. When the transmitted signal is transmitted and the reflected signal is detected by the receiver and the number of detected pulses is less than the number of transmitted pulses, the number of detection judgments set in advance within the preset maximum number of transmitted pulses A water supply control device comprising: a sensing confirmation unit that repeats pulse transmission until the reflection signal of is detected.