JPH07231486A - Lighting control terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suppress welding of contacts due to a rush current by closing contacts in the vicinity of a zero cross point even when an operating tide of an output relay is fluctuated in the case of closing the contacts of the output relay of the lighting control terminal equipment to be controlled remotely. CONSTITUTION:A contact open/close time measurement means measures a time till contacts of an output relay 7 are closed based on a signal output from a signal processing circuit 6 and a zero cross of an AC power source 5 is detected and a signal from a zero cross detection section 13 to the output relay is outputted by a time delay decided by a time delay means. Then the delay time is corrected so that the sum of the contact closing time and the delay time is equal to an interval of zero cross points of the AC power supply.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for suppressing an inrush current during lighting corresponding to a change in operating time of a remote control lighting switch in a lighting control system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional remote control terminal used in a lighting control device, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-103099. In the figure, 1
Is a lighting control terminal device, 2 is a controller that sends a command signal to the lighting control terminal device 1 via a communication line 3, 4 is a lighting load, and 5 is a lighting load.
Is an AC power supply that supplies power to the lighting load 4. 6 is a signal processing circuit in which a microprocessor (CPU) is incorporated, 7 is an output relay, and the signal from the signal processing circuit 6 is turned on through the relay drive circuit 8 to turn on the lighting load 4.
It is turned off and a latching relay is generally used. Reference numeral 9 is a monitoring circuit for monitoring the state of the output relay 7 and feeding back the information to the signal processing circuit 6. Ten,
Reference numeral 11 denotes an address setting unit and a load number setting unit for setting the control target number from the controller 2 for the lighting control terminal 1. Reference numeral 12 is a power supply circuit for converting a part of the control signal of the communication line 3 into the control power supply of the lighting control terminal 1.

The conventional lighting control device is configured as described above, and the controller 2 sends a control signal designating a control target address number. When the signal processing circuit 6 receives this and matches the address number of itself, the output relay 7 is turned on or off according to the control content and the lighting load 4 is turned on or off.

In general lighting equipment, an inrush current of several times the rated current flows when the lighting equipment is turned on. Since welding of the contacts may occur due to this inrush current, for example, the actual open flat 3-313.
There is a type in which a zero-cross point of an AC power source is detected and a contact of an output relay is closed with a certain delay time until the output relay contact is closed, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.

[0005]

The structure for selecting the zero cross point and closing the contact of the output relay 7 in the lighting control terminal 1 can be easily manufactured. However, the output relay 7, which is a latching relay, has a mechanical mechanism until it receives a control signal and closes the contact. The operating time of the spring and lubricating oil incorporated in these mechanical mechanisms fluctuates depending on the ambient temperature. In addition, due to the delay of the operating time due to the wear of the sliding parts, closing the contacts with a constant delay time by the above-mentioned conventional zero-cross point detection does not always close the contacts near the zero-cross point, and the inrush current causes There is a problem that welding of the contacts occurs.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and changes in operating time due to the ambient temperature of springs and lubricating oil incorporated in a mechanical mechanism, delay in operating time due to wear of sliding parts, etc. The purpose of the invention is to obtain a lighting control device that keeps the contact closure near the zero cross point by following the above.

[0007]

A lighting control terminal according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises contact opening / closing time measuring means for measuring a time from signal output from a signal processing circuit to contact closing of an output relay, Time delay means that detects the zero cross of the AC power supply and delays and outputs the signal from the zero cross detection to the output relay for a predetermined time, and corrects the delay time so that the sum of the contact closing time and the delay time becomes equal to the zero cross interval of the AC power supply. And a correction means for performing the correction.

An illumination control terminal according to a second aspect of the present invention corrects the delay time of the contact closing time by using the past moving average value.

An illumination control terminal according to a third aspect of the present invention corrects the delay time by weighting the contact closing time and using a moving average value.

The lighting control terminal according to claim 4 of the present invention comprises an abnormality notifying means for notifying the control controller of an abnormality when the contact closing time and the contact opening time exceed predetermined times. Is.

[0011]

By correcting the delay time by the zero-cross detection and correction means, the sum of the contact closing time and the delay time from the zero-cross detection becomes equal to the zero-cross interval of the AC power supply, and the contact closing is performed at the zero-cross point.

Then, by using the past moving average value for the contact closing time, it is possible to prevent the contact closing from extremely deviating from the zero cross point.

Further, by using the moving average value by weighting the contact closing time, the fluctuation of the time until the contact closing of the output relay is swiftly followed.

By detecting that the contact closing time and the contact opening time have exceeded the predetermined time, a failure or malfunction of the output relay or the relay drive circuit is detected.

[0015]

【Example】

Example 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a remote control terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 to 12 are the same as those of the conventional device. Reference numeral 13 is a zero-cross detection circuit, which detects a zero-cross point of the AC power supply 5 and outputs the result to the signal processing circuit 6. Then, the CPU in the signal processing circuit 6 compares the zero-cross detection result with the change in the monitoring state of the output relay 7, and executes the processing described below.

FIG. 2 shows the relationship between the waveform of the AC power supply 5 and each control signal. The zero cross detects the fall of the AC power supply 5. Then, the signal processing circuit 6 delays the delay setting time A and outputs an operation signal from the relay drive circuit 8 to the output relay 7. The output relay 7 is added with the delay time B (time until contact closure) due to the above-mentioned mechanical mechanism, and contact closure is delayed by (A + B) time from zero cross detection. If the delay time (A + B) is equal to one cycle T of the AC power supply 5, the contact is closed at the zero cross point and no inrush current is generated. However, in reality, the zero-cross difference time C occurs at the zero-cross point and the contact closure due to the variation of the delay time B due to the mechanical mechanism.

The present invention reduces the zero-crossing difference time C to suppress the inrush current, and the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the operation flowchart of FIG. First,
It is confirmed from the controller 2 that the control signal addressed to its own address is a switch-on command (301). Since this switch-on command is issued at random timing, the starting point is the first zero-cross detection (302) at which the switch-on command is input. Then, the output relay 7 is turned on via the relay drive circuit 8 with a delay of the delay setting time A.
(303). Further, after the operation of the relay mechanism, the delay time B of the relay mechanism until the contact is closed is measured via the monitoring circuit 9 (304). A zero-cross difference time C between the time (A + B) from the zero-cross detection at the starting point to the closing of the contact and the next zero-cross detection is calculated (305). For one cycle T of the AC power supply 5, a value obtained in advance by initial processing from the zero-cross detection at the time of starting the apparatus is used. Next, the delay setting time A is corrected to the zero cross difference time C (306). In this way, the contact closure is set to the zero cross point by performing the process of setting the next zero cross difference time C to zero.

Example 2. In the first embodiment, the output relay 7
If there is a change in the mechanical operation time B, it is difficult to close the contact close to the zero cross point by following the zero cross difference time C. Mechanical operation time B
It is considered that the ambient temperature and the delay of the operation time due to the wear of the sliding portion are the factors that cause the fluctuation and the variation, but the former has a periodicity and the latter has a tendency. Taking these factors into account, the next mechanical operation time B is predicted and the time until contact closure (A +
The delay setting time A is set so that B) is approximately equal to one cycle T of the AC power supply 5.

A moving average is used as a general prediction when there is fluctuation. In the second embodiment, the actual measured values of the mechanical operation time B of the past several times (5 to 6 times) are stored and held, and the zero-cross difference time C is calculated by the average value thereof, and the delay setting time A is set. . As another means, the delay setting time A may be set by using the average value of the calculated zero-cross difference times C for the past several times.

Example 3. In the second embodiment, several memory areas for storing and holding the measured values B or the calculation results C for the past several times for the moving average are required. Further, the shift process is required to update the data in the memory area, and the process is complicated. In the third embodiment, the memory area is minimized and the shift processing is unnecessary.

Next, the operation of the third embodiment will be described with reference to the operation flowchart of FIG. In the figure, steps 301 to 306 are the same as those described in the first embodiment. α is a weighting coefficient of the moving average, and an arbitrary value in the range of 0 <α <1 is set. Am is a value in the temporary memory for calculation, and An is a predicted delay setting time for explanation. Here, the number of data holding memory areas for prediction may be two, α and Am.

The delay setting time corrected in step 306 is stored in the memory as Am, and the predicted delay setting time An is set.
The predicted value is obtained by the formula of An = α · Am + (1-α) A (3
07). Here, A is the predicted value of the delay setting time one time before, and in fact, the prediction is made by A = α · Am + (1-α) An-1. Therefore, the predicted delay setting time An for explanation is the memory area. Not needed (308). Further, if the value of the weighting coefficient α is close to 0, the predicted delay setting time is less affected by the latest correction delay setting time Am, and if the value is close to 1, the predictive delay setting time with followability is obtained. Become. Therefore,
By selecting and setting the weighting coefficient α according to the type of the output relay 7, the contact closure can be made closer to the zero cross point. Normally, the weighting coefficient α is 0.2 to
Often 0.5 is applied.

Example 4. FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the fourth embodiment. In the figure, steps 301 to 308 are the same as those described in the third embodiment. In the figure, D is the time until the contact of the output relay 7 is opened, E is the error detection time limit when the contact is on, and F is the error detection time limit when the contact is off. In step (304) of the series of processes, the time B from when the signal processing circuit 6 outputs the ON signal to the output relay 7 until the contact is closed is measured. The error detection time period E is compared (409). If B <E as a result of the comparison, normal processing is executed. If B> E, it is regarded as an abnormal state and the error processing described later is executed. This abnormal state is caused by a failure of the output relay 7 or the relay drive circuit 8, an abnormal delay of the contact-on time due to wear of the mechanical mechanism of the output relay 7, a lighting failure of the lighting load 4 due to a defective conduction due to a foreign object being caught between the contacts. It can be detected.

Also, when the OFF signal is input from the controller 2, the time D until the contact opening of the output relay 7 is measured by the OFF signal from the signal processing circuit 6 (410). This contact opening time D is compared with the error detection time limit F when the contact is off (411). If the comparison result D <F, normal processing is executed. If D> F, it is regarded as an abnormal state, a message for reporting an abnormality of the device is edited (412) and transmitted to the controller 2 (413). The message editing (412) and transmission (413) are also applied to the abnormality detection when the contact is turned on. This processing detects the case where the lighting load 4 is not turned off even when the controller 2 issues an OFF command, and it is possible to detect a failure of the output relay 7 or the relay drive circuit 8 and the inability to open the contact due to the contact welding of the output relay 7.

[0025]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, the spring incorporated in the mechanical mechanism of the output relay, the fluctuation of the operating time depending on the ambient temperature of the lubricating oil, and the operation due to the abrasion of the sliding portion. Following the time delay, the contacts can be kept closed near the zero cross point, and the welding of contacts due to inrush current can be suppressed.

Further, by detecting that the contact closing time and the contact opening time have exceeded the predetermined time, it is possible to detect a failure or malfunction of the output relay or the relay drive circuit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a remote control terminal device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship between a waveform of an AC power supply and each control signal.

FIG. 3 is an operational flowchart illustrating the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operational flowchart illustrating a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart illustrating a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration block diagram of a conventional remote control terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Lighting Control Terminal 2 Controller 3 Communication Line 4 Lighting Load 5 AC Power Supply 6 Signal Processing Circuit 7 Output Relay 8 Relay Drive Circuit 9 Monitoring Circuit A Predicted Delay Setting Time Before One Time B Contact Closing Time C Zero Cross Difference Time D Time until contact opening of output relay E Error detection time limit when contact is ON F Error detection time limit when contact is OFF T AC power supply cycle

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A lighting control terminal device comprising a signal processing circuit having a microprocessor for turning on / off a lighting load in response to a command signal from a controller, wherein an AC power supply for the lighting load is supplied by a signal from the signal processing circuit. An output relay that turns on and off, a monitoring circuit that monitors the state of this output relay and feeds back that state to the signal processing circuit, a zero-cross detection circuit that detects the zero-cross of the AC power supply, and a time delay determined from the zero-cross detection. And a time delay means for outputting a signal to the output relay, and contact opening and closing time measuring means for measuring the time from the signal output from the signal processing circuit to the contact closing of the output relay and the time to contact opening. , The contact closing time and the delay time should be equal to the zero crossing interval of the AC power supply. An illumination control terminal device comprising a correction means for correcting the extension time. 2. The lighting control terminal according to claim 1, wherein the delay time is corrected by using a past moving average value of the contact closing time. 3. The lighting control terminal according to claim 1, wherein the contact closing time is weighted and the delay time is corrected using a moving average value. 4. An abnormality notifying means for notifying an abnormality to the controller when the contact output closing time and contact opening time of the output relay exceed a predetermined time from the signal output from the signal processing circuit. The lighting control terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 3.