JPH0649881A - Automatic water supply device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify a counting device for an automatic water supply device by lessening the consumption of electric power, and reducing the number of counting for a fixed time required for considering that a user is standing in front of a washing equipment. CONSTITUTION:An automatic water supply device is provided with a control section 4 which outputs opening and closing signals to a water supply section 3 on the input of a sensing signal issued from a human body sensing device 2 composed of an optical sensor having a light projecting element and a light receiving element, and the water supply section 3 which opens and closes a valve on the input of opening and closing signals issued from the control section 4. A power source is a battery 5. The light is intermittently projected from the light projecting element of the human body sensing device 2 every fixed period. After a reflecting signal received by the light receiving element is sensed once, the signal is set up as the first one, and only when a specially numbered reflecting signal set up among plural numbered reflecting signals following the first one is sensed, a valve opening signal is sent to the water supply section 3, and the number of counting for a fixed time required for considering that a user is standing in front of a washing equipment is thereby reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for reducing power consumption and prolonging battery life in an automatic water supply system using a battery as a power source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a human body sensing device always projects infrared rays from a light projecting element several thousand times per second, hits the user of a urinal and reflects the infrared light, and the reflected light is received by a light receiving element. When the light receiving element receives reflected light, the timer provided in the control unit is energized to start its operation, and the timer has timed out. The valve open signal is output to the water supply unit only when light reception continues until later, and the valve open signal is not output when the reception of reflected light is stopped before the timer is up, preventing malfunction of the human body sensing device. . Therefore, the human body detection device consumes a large amount of power because it is no different from continuously emitting infrared rays. Also, it is necessary to energize the timer for malfunction prevention provided in the control unit, which further reduces power consumption. It had grown up. That is, the above conventional one consumes a large amount of power even though the driving power source is a battery, so that the battery life is short and it is necessary to replace the battery frequently, which is not only troublesome,
It is also uneconomical.

As a solution to this problem, Japanese Patent Publication No.
No. 77896 is proposed. According to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-77896, infrared rays emitted from a light emitting element are intermittently emitted in a predetermined cycle, and reflected light received by a light receiving element is counted in order, and the count number is a predetermined number. The open signal is output to the water supply section only when the temperature reaches.

[0004]

By the way, it can be considered that the user is standing in front of the urinal in a certain period of time when the user is standing in front of the urinal.
In the conventional example disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 77896, the light-emitting element emits light n times during a certain period of time which is required only when the user is considered to be standing in front of the urinal.
At the same time, during this time, the person standing in front of the urinal is reflected
The reflected light will be received twice, and in the conventional case,
An open signal is output to the water supply unit when the number of received light has reached n since the first light reception. Therefore, in the past, it was considered that the user was standing in front of the urinal. There is a problem in that the number of counts increases during a certain period of time that is necessary only for the eye to see, and as a result, the device for counting becomes complicated. In particular, the shorter the cycle of the infrared light projection pulse of the light projecting element, the more the time lag with the time when the user stands in the urinal can be eliminated. If the cycle is shortened, there is a problem that the number of received light is further increased, and the device for further counting becomes complicated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. The purpose of the present invention is to reduce the power consumption, and moreover, the user stands in front of the water washer. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic water supply device which can reduce the number of counts for a certain period of time required to be regarded as being considered and can simplify the device for counting.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional example and achieve the object of the present invention, an automatic water supply apparatus of the present invention has a water washing device 1, a light projecting element and a light receiving element. A human body sensing device 2 which is composed of an optical sensor and senses a human body by the optical sensor and outputs a sensing signal; and a control unit 4 which outputs an opening / closing signal to the water supply unit 3 based on the sensing signal input from the human body sensing device 2. In the automatic water supply device 2 that includes a water supply unit 3 that opens and closes a valve in response to the input of an opening / closing signal from the control unit 4, in the automatic water supply device 2 that uses the battery 5 as a power source, intermittent light emission is performed from the light emitting element of the human body detection device 2 at a predetermined cycle. However, after the reflected signal received by the light receiving element is sensed once, this is set as the first, and the water supply unit 3 is opened only when the set specific reflected signal among the following plural reflected signals is sensed. Characterized by outputting a valve signal It is intended.

[0007]

According to the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, however, the light projecting element of the human body sensing device 2 intermittently projects light at a predetermined cycle, and the light receiving element senses a reflected signal once and then detects this. First, the valve opening signal is output to the water supply unit 3 only when the set specific specific reflection signal among the plurality of subsequent reflection signals is sensed, thereby preventing malfunction and preventing reflection of reflected light. The number of counts can be reduced.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. A urinal 1 as a flushing device 1 is shown in FIGS.
FIG. 3 is a front view and FIG. 4 is a rear view. A water outlet 9 is provided above the urinal 1a, and a human body sensing device 2 is provided above the water outlet 9. The human body sensing device 2 is composed of an optical sensor having a light projecting element and a light receiving element, and senses the human body by the optical sensor and outputs a sensing signal. A control box 6 is installed in a recess on the back surface of the urinal 1a, and the human body sensing device 2 and the control box 6 are connected by a signal line 7.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the control box 6 is provided with a control unit 4 composed of a microcomputer, and a battery 5 serving as a power source is housed therein. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 8 denotes a battery lid, which is slid to open half. Reference numeral 3 is a water supply unit, which is constituted by an electromagnetic valve. An opening / closing signal is output from the control unit 4 in response to the input of a detection signal from the human body sensing device 2 to control the opening / closing of the electromagnetic valve of the water supply unit 3, and the water supply unit 3 is opened / closed to spout water from the spout 9 or to stop water spouting. It is supposed to be. That is, the human body sensing device 2 detects the human body in front of the urinal 1a to perform pre-cleaning, and the controller 4 controls the water supply unit 3 to perform main cleaning after the human body has left the front of the urinal 1a. It has become. In this case, further, in the present invention, after intermittently projecting light from the light projecting element of the human body sensing device 2 at a predetermined cycle and sensing the reflected light received by the light receiving element once, this is set as the first, and a plurality of subsequent The feature is that the valve opening signal is output to the water supply unit 3 only when the specified specific reflection signal of the reflection signals of 1 is detected. In FIG. 4, 10 is a water shutoff valve, 11 is a strainer, and 12 is a check valve.

FIG. 5 shows a timing chart for explaining the operation of the present invention. The control unit 4 is the human body sensing device 2
When there is no sensing signal from (that is, there is no person in front of the urinal 1a) and waiting for the sensing signal input (hereinafter, this state is referred to as a standby state), as shown in FIG. The light projecting element is pulse-driven at a constant cycle Tm. In this state, if there is a sensing signal input synchronized with the light emitting pulse, the reflected signal of the light emitting pulse at this time is set as the first reflection signal and the specified specific reflection of the following plural reflection signals is set. The valve opening signal is output to the water supply unit 3 only when the signal is sensed. In the embodiment, if there is a sensing signal input synchronized with the first projection pulse as shown in FIG. 5, the projection reflection signal at this time is set to the first, and then the third projection 2Tm later. Determines the sensing signal input synchronized with the pulse. If this input is present, the sensing signal input is judged in synchronization with the fifth light emitting pulse 4 Tm after the first light emitting pulse, and if this input is present, 4 Tm after the first light emitting pulse. The detection signal input is determined in synchronism with the fifth light projection pulse of No. 1, and if there is this input, the presence detection of the user is confirmed and a valve opening signal is output to the water supply unit. If there is no sense signal input synchronized with the third or fifth light emitting pulse, the next light emitting pulse is put into the standby state again. When the presence detection of the user is confirmed as described above, a valve opening signal is output to the electromagnetic valve forming the water supply unit 3 to perform pre-cleaning from the water discharge port 9. At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, the determination of the light emitting pulse output and the detection signal input is stopped in the presence sensing state. Pre-cleaning is performed for a predetermined time, and after the pre-cleaning, the determination of the light projection pulse output and the sensing signal input is restarted. In the presence sensing state after the pre-washing, if the sensing signal input synchronized with the light emitting pulse of the Tm cycle does not continue for a predetermined number of times (for example, twice), it is considered that a person has left the urinal 1a, and the water is supplied to the water supply unit 3. An open signal is output and main cleaning is performed. In the meantime, the determination of the light emitting pulse output and the detection signal input is stopped, and after a lapse of a predetermined time, a valve closing signal is output to the water supply unit 3 to complete the main cleaning. After the main cleaning, it returns to the standby state again as shown in FIG.

In the above embodiment, the urinal is shown as an example of the flushing device, but the flushing device is not limited to this and may be a hand washing device.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the light projecting element of the human body sensing device intermittently projects light at a predetermined cycle,
Since there is an intermittent non-projection state that does not consume power, the response accuracy is significantly reduced compared to the conventional one equipped with a sensing unit that constantly projects infrared rays several thousand times per second. It is possible to reduce the number of times the infrared light is projected, and to reduce the power consumption by that amount. Also, after the reflected signal received by the light receiving element is sensed once, this is set as the first, and the subsequent multiple The valve opening signal is output to the water supply section only when the set specific reflection signal of the second reflection signal is detected, so until the timer for malfunction prevention provided in the control unit times out as before. Compared to a device that outputs a valve opening signal to the water supply unit and opens the valve only when light continues to be received, it is not necessary to energize the malfunction prevention timer and power consumption can be reduced accordingly. Battery life The longer one in which the frequency of battery replacement can be reduced. Moreover, after the reflected signal received by the light receiving element is sensed once, this is set as the first, and the valve is opened in the water supply section only when the set specific reflected signal of the following plural reflected signals is sensed. Since it outputs a signal,
To count when the number of reflection signals counted during a certain period of time required only for the user to be considered to be standing in front of the water washing device is less than the number of times of light emission from the light emitting element during the certain period of time. The device can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the relationship between a control box, a human body sensing device, and a solenoid valve of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway side view of the above control box.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the above urinal.

FIG. 4 is a rear view showing the internal mechanism of the above urinal.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the above.

[Explanation of reference symbols] 1 water washing device 2 human body sensing device 3 water supply unit 4 control unit 5 battery

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A human body sensing device comprising a water washing device, an optical sensor having a light projecting element and a light receiving element, which senses a human body by the optical sensor and outputs a sensing signal, and an input of the sensing signal from the human body sensing device. In an automatic water supply system using a battery as a power source, a human body detection device is provided with a light source, which includes a control unit that outputs an opening / closing signal to a water supply unit based on the above, and a water supply unit that opens and closes a valve by inputting an opening / closing signal from the control unit. After intermittently projecting light from the element at a predetermined cycle, the reflected signal received by the light receiving element is sensed once, then this is set as the first, and the specified specific reflected signal is detected among the following plural reflected signals. An automatic water supply device that outputs a valve opening signal to the water supply unit only when the water is supplied.