JPH06335071A - Remote controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a remote controller in which a size of a display section is made small thereby making the main body small. CONSTITUTION:A liquid crystal display section 2 is provided to an upper side of a main body 1. The liquid crystal display section 2 is provided with 7-segment indication patterns 41, 42 for displaying a numeral such as a temperature or a time of timer and picture display patterns 43, 44 representing an increase/ decrease direction of a numeral in an idle space of the inside of the 7-segment indication patterns 41, 42. A correction value with respect to a standard setting temperature is displayed on the 7-segment indication patterns 41, 42 and the direction of increase/decrease in the correction value is displayed by the display patterns 43, 44.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control device used in an air conditioner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An air conditioner is equipped with a remote control device for setting operating conditions such as a cooling mode, a heating mode, a dry mode, a blowing mode, an indoor temperature, and a timer time. An example is shown in FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 101 denotes a main body of a remote control device, which has a door 102 on its upper surface so as to be openable and closable.
When this door 102 is opened, the LCD panel 10
3 and the operation unit 104 are provided.

The liquid crystal display unit 103 has a display pattern of characters and pictures for displaying the operation mode, a 7-segment display pattern for displaying the set temperature, and a 7-segment display pattern for displaying the timer time. is doing.

The operation unit 104 is provided with a driving / stop key, a laundry key, a driving switching key, a sleep key, a wind direction key, an air volume switching key, a timer input key, a timer cutting key, a reservation key, a cancel key, and a power select key. Has been. Although not shown, a temperature setting key is provided on the front surface side of the door 102.

Further, as shown in FIG. 28, a holder 110 for accommodating the main body 101 is prepared. This holder 110 is attached to a pillar or the like by two screws 111, and holds the main body 101 at a position where it can be easily picked up or operated.

On the other hand, as a remote control device, for example, as shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-755, there is a remote control device that automatically sets an indoor temperature optimum for an operation mode as a standard set temperature. In the case of this remote controller, as shown in FIG. 27, a display pattern 121 "standard" is provided next to the 7-segment display pattern 120 for temperature display, and it lights up when the standard set temperature is automatically set.

After the automatic setting, the set temperature can be corrected by operating the temperature setting key on the front side of the door 102. In this correction, the correction amount of how much the set temperature is increased or decreased from the standard value is displayed in the 7-segment display pattern 120.

At the position where the character pattern 121 is vertically sandwiched, 3
Display patterns 121 and 122 each having a line of books arranged vertically are provided, and the display pattern 121 lights up when the correction direction of the set temperature rises, and the display pattern 122 lights up when the correction direction of the set temperature falls.

[0010]

A large number of display patterns are arranged in the liquid crystal display section 103. For this reason,
Since the shape of the liquid crystal display 103 tends to be large,
It is adversely affecting the miniaturization of 1.

The present invention takes the above circumstances into consideration,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote control device that can reduce the size of the display unit and thereby reduce the size of the main body.

[0012]

A remote control device according to the first aspect of the present invention provides a 7-segment display pattern for displaying a numerical value and an increasing / decreasing direction of the numerical value provided in an empty space inside the 7-segment display pattern. And a display pattern for.

A remote control device of a second invention is the remote control device of the first invention,
The values displayed in the 7-segment display pattern are temperature and timer time.

[0014]

In the remote control device of the first invention,
The numerical value is displayed in a 7-segment display pattern, and the increasing / decreasing direction for the displayed numerical value is displayed in a display pattern inside the 7-segment display pattern.

In the remote control device of the second invention, the temperature or timer time is displayed in a 7-segment display pattern, and the increasing or decreasing direction for the displayed temperature or timer time is displayed in a display pattern inside the 7-segment display pattern. To be done.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body of a remote control device, which is provided with a liquid crystal display unit 2, temperature setting keys 3 and 4, and a start / stop key 5 at a portion above the upper half thereof. The liquid crystal display unit 2 has a display pattern such as characters and pictures for displaying the operation mode, and 7 for displaying numerical values such as temperature and timer time.
It has a segment display pattern.

A concrete example of the liquid crystal display unit 2 is shown in FIG. 7, and in addition to having a display pattern of characters and pictures showing various operating conditions, a 7-segment display pattern 41 for displaying numerical values such as temperature and timer time is shown. , 42, display patterns 43, 4 of a triangular pattern for showing increase and decrease of numerical values
4, clock mark 45, and "standard" character pattern 4
Have six.

Of the display patterns 41 and 42, the display pattern 41 displays the tens digit and the display pattern 42 displays the tens digit. Display patterns 43, 4
4 is provided in a vacant space inside the display pattern 41 so as to sandwich the middle element 41g of the display pattern 41 vertically. The upper display pattern 43 represents a numerical increase and the lower display pattern 44 represents a numerical decrease.

A door 6 is provided on the lower part of the upper surface of the main body 1.
Is openable and closable. When the door 6 is opened, the board surface appears, and the operation switching key 11 and the air volume switching key 1 are placed there.
2, wind direction key 13, sleep key 14, humidity setting key 15,
A power select key 16, a laundry key 17, a timer input key 18, a timer off key 19, a reservation key 20, and a cancel key 21 are provided. The humidity setting key 15 is a slide type switch and has three setting positions of low humidity, standard humidity and high humidity.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a holder 7 for accommodating the main body 1 is prepared. This holder 7
Is a projecting piece 7a for hooking the main body 1 and a screw hole 7
b, has two protrusions 7c, 7c for preventing rotation, and has a screw 8
It is attached to a pillar or the like by means of which the main body 1 is held at a position where it can be easily picked up or operated.

As shown in FIG. 3, a rectangular mounting hole 9 is formed on the back surface of the main body 1. By hooking the upper edge of the mounting hole 9 onto the protruding piece 7a of the holder 7, the main body 1
Can be held by the holder 7.

When the main body 1 is used by placing it on a table or the like, as shown in FIG.
It is stored in the mounting hole 9 from the side of c, 7c. By doing so, the protruding piece 7a protrudes from the back surface of the main body 1 and the main body 1
The upper part of the table floats from the table surface by a height L,
The main body 1 is tilted to facilitate the operation.

FIG. 6 shows a control circuit mounted in the main body 1. Microcomputer 30 which is a control unit
The liquid crystal display unit 2, the battery power supply 31, the key matrix circuit 32, and the transmission unit 33 are connected to the. The key matrix circuit 32 has each key on the main body 1 as a constituent element,
A signal corresponding to a key operation is input to the microcomputer 30. The transmitter 33 transmits operating conditions set by key operation to an air conditioner body (not shown) by infrared light, for example.

The microcomputer 30 mainly comprises a functional means for setting operating conditions according to key operations on the main body 1, a functional means for displaying the set operating conditions on the liquid crystal display section 2, and the operating conditions set above. The transmitter 3
3 to the air conditioner main body.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. When the operation switching key 11 is operated to set the automatic operation mode, an arbitrary operation mode is selected according to the ambient temperature (indoor temperature). An optimum standard set temperature is predetermined for each operation mode, and one standard set temperature corresponding to the selected operation mode is selected. Then, the selected standard set temperature is displayed in the display patterns 41, 4
It is displayed as 2.

When the operation / stop key 5 is turned on, the operation is started so that the room temperature becomes the standard set temperature.
At this time, the selected standard set temperature is displayed in the display pattern 42.
Is displayed.

When it is desired to raise the room temperature, the temperature setting key 3 may be operated. When the temperature setting key 3 is turned on, the correction amount for increasing or decreasing the set temperature from the standard value is displayed in the display pattern 42, and the increasing / decreasing direction is displayed in the display patterns 43 and 44.

For example, if the temperature setting key 3 is turned on twice, the set temperature is raised by 2 ° C. from the standard value.
As shown in, the numerical value “2” is displayed in the display pattern 42 and the upward display pattern 43 is lit.

When the temperature setting key 4 is turned on once, the set temperature is lowered by 1 ° C. from the standard value. As shown in FIG. 9, the numerical value “1” is displayed in the display pattern 42 and the downward display pattern 44. Lights up. When the set temperature is the standard value, only the "standard" character pattern 46 is turned on and the display patterns 42, 43, 44 are turned off.

When the operation switching key 11 is operated to specify the cooling operation mode or the heating operation mode, the set temperature can be manually set by the temperature setting keys 3 and 4, and as shown in FIG. Is display pattern 4
Two digits are displayed for 1,42. Neither of the display patterns 43 and 44 is illuminated.

The description so far is about temperature setting. From here, regarding timer time setting, FIG. 11 and FIG.
2, and will be described with reference to FIG. Timer entry key 18
When is turned on for the first time, the timer ON setting mode is entered, and the character display "Enter after time" is displayed and the clock mark 45 blinks. Then, each time the timer input key 18 is turned on, the timer time increases by 0.5 hours, which is displayed by the display patterns 41 and 42. The timer time advances from 0.0 hours to 9.5 hours in 0.5 hour steps, and from there, 10 hours, 11 hours, 12 hours,
Go to ... every 1.0 hour.

When the reservation key 20 is turned on when the desired timer time is displayed, the displayed timer time is fixed and the timer ON setting mode ends. At the end of this,
As shown in FIG. 2, the character display of “Enter after time” disappears, the timer time display of the display patterns 41 and 42 disappears, and the clock mark 45 lights up continuously.

When the timer off key 19 is turned on,
If it is the first time, the timer off setting mode is entered, and as shown in FIG. 11, the character display "Time expires" is displayed and the clock mark 45 blinks. Then, each time the timer cut-off key 19 is turned on, the timer time increases, which is displayed in the display patterns 41 and 42.

When the reservation key 20 is turned on when the desired timer time is displayed, the displayed timer time is fixed and the timer off setting mode ends. At the end of this process, the state shown in FIG.

After the timer time is once set, each time the reservation key 20 is turned on, the set timer time is displayed in the display patterns 41 and 42 for a certain time ts based on the time chart t.

Regarding the humidity setting, by sliding the humidity setting key 15, three levels of low humidity, standard humidity and high humidity can be set. If there is a louver at the air outlet of the air conditioner body, it is necessary to select whether to swing the louver or fix it. This is based on the operation of the air volume switching key 12 as shown in Table 1 below. According to the setting of air volume mode (automatic / quiet / fine / weak / strong)
It is automatically selected.

[0037]

[Table 1]

Thus, the 7-segment display pattern 4
By using 1 and 42 for both temperature display and timer time display, the number of 7-segment display patterns can be reduced. Moreover, the display patterns 43 and 44 for displaying the increasing / decreasing direction of the temperature are replaced by the 7-segment display pattern 41.
Display pattern 4 because it is provided in the empty space inside
There is no need to prepare a dedicated space for 3,44. Therefore, the shape of the liquid crystal display unit 2 can be reduced, which in turn can greatly contribute to downsizing of the main body 1.

Whether or not the timer time has been set is notified by blinking or continuous lighting of the clock mark 45, and the set timer time is displayed in the 7-segment display patterns 41 and 42 as necessary. There is no inconvenience caused by using the patterns 41 and 42 for both temperature display and timer time display.

Regarding the humidity setting, since a slide type humidity setting key 15 is provided and both setting and display functions are provided, it is not necessary to prepare a dedicated display pattern for the humidity display. However, it can contribute to the downsizing of the liquid crystal display unit 2, and thus the downsizing of the main body 1.

Since the louver swing and the selection of fixing are interlocked with the operation of the air volume switching key 12, an operation key dedicated to the louver is not required and the board surface of the main body 1 is simplified.

In the above embodiment, the triangular pattern display patterns 43 and 44 are provided to display the temperature increasing / decreasing direction, but instead of this, the vertical bar pattern display pattern 51 as shown in FIG. , 52 may be provided. in this case,
Regarding the temperature increase, as shown in FIG. 15, the display pattern 51, 52 and the center element 41g of the display pattern 41 are turned on, and the character "+" is displayed. Regarding the temperature decrease,
As shown in FIG. 16, the display patterns 51 and 52 do not light up, but only the middle element 41g of the display pattern 41 lights up.
The character "-" is displayed.

Other means for displaying the temperature increasing / decreasing direction is shown in FIG. here,
A "+" character display pattern 61 and a "-" character display pattern 62 are provided. That is, as for the temperature increase, as shown in FIG. 18, the display pattern 61 is turned on and the character "+" is displayed. For temperature reduction, see Fig. 1.
As shown in FIG. 9, the display pattern 62 is turned on and the character "-" is displayed.

When displaying the display patterns 43 and 44 of the triangular pattern used in the above-mentioned embodiment, if the central element 41g of the display pattern 41 is displayed together as shown in FIG. 20, the display is easy to see. Become.

Other examples of the format of the display pattern of the liquid crystal display unit 2 are shown in FIGS. 21, 22, 23, and 2.
4 and those shown in FIG. An example of the key arrangement inside the door 6 of the main body 1 is shown in FIG. Moreover, although the application to the air conditioner has been described, the application to other devices is also possible.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, a 7-segment display pattern for displaying numerical values and a display provided in an empty space inside the 7-segment display pattern for indicating the increasing / decreasing direction of the numerical values. Since the pattern is provided, it is possible to reduce the shape of the display unit, and thereby to provide a remote control device that can downsize the main body.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a main body and a holder of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the back side of the main body of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining storage of a holder in the main body of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a state where the main body of the embodiment is placed on a table by using a holder.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a specific configuration diagram of the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which an increase in set temperature is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example in which a decrease in set temperature is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of a manual set temperature on the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a display example of a timer off mode on the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display example after the timer time is set on the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining control of timer time setting according to the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a view showing a modified example of the liquid crystal display unit of the same embodiment.

15 is a diagram showing an example in which an increase in set temperature is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit of FIG.

16 is a diagram showing an example in which a decrease in set temperature is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit of FIG.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing another modification of the liquid crystal display unit of the same embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example in which an increase in set temperature is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit of FIG.

19 is a diagram showing an example in which a decrease in set temperature is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit of FIG.

FIG. 20 is a view showing still another modification of the liquid crystal display unit of the same embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing another format example of the display pattern of the liquid crystal display unit.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing another format example of the display pattern of the liquid crystal display unit.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing another format example of the display pattern of the liquid crystal display unit.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing another format example of the display pattern of the liquid crystal display unit.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing another format example of the display pattern of the liquid crystal display unit.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing another example of the key layout of the main body.

FIG. 27 is a configuration diagram of a conventional remote control device.

28 is a perspective view showing the remote control device and the holder of FIG. 27. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Main body, 2 ... Liquid crystal display, 3, 4 ... Temperature setting key, 5
... Run / stop key, 6 ... Door, 30 ... Microcomputer, 41, 42 ... 7 segment display pattern, 43, 4
4 ... Display pattern.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Junichi Mukobo 336 Tatehara, Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture Toshiba Corporation Fuji Factory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A remote control device for setting operating conditions according to key operation, and a 7-segment display pattern for displaying a numerical value and an increasing / decreasing direction of the numerical value provided in an empty space inside the 7-segment display pattern. A remote control device comprising a display pattern for displaying. 2. The remote control device according to claim 1, wherein the 7-segment display pattern is for displaying temperature and timer time.