JPH074462B2 - Washing machine controller - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a washing machine control device that detects the amount of cloth such as clothes and controls the dehydration time, rinse time, etc. according to the amount of cloth.

2. Description of the Related Art A load amount detecting means for setting a dehydration or rinsing time in a conventional washing machine detects a capacitor terminal voltage at the start of dehydration or rinsing operation in a capacitor motor, that is, by a capacitor terminal voltage according to a load amount. The dehydration or rinsing time is controlled. In this control, as shown in FIG. 6, the change in the capacitor voltage at the time of dehydration start-up is such that as the cloth amount increases,
It takes longer to reach V _C. In Fig. 6, A is the maximum amount of cloth, B is about half of it, and C is almost no load,
The time t _C until reaching the set voltage V _C does not change significantly between A and B.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such a conventional load amount detection method, the influence of the amount of water contained at the start of dehydration is large, and as shown in FIG. Even if there is a difference, the startup time t _C3 and t _C2
It was difficult to detect the amount of cloth accurately.

The present invention solves such a problem, and is intended to realize a cloth amount detection means having good linearity with the cloth amount of the dehydration start time even if the water content at startup changes depending on the kind of cloth. Is.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve this problem, the present invention provides a motor, a capacitor connected between the motor windings, a switching means for controlling energization of the motor, and a rotation of the motor. A motor rotation detection circuit for detecting a change and a control circuit for controlling ON / OFF of the switching means. In the cloth amount detection step, the control circuit intermittently drives the motor by the switching means to perform intermittent dewatering. At the same time, the amount of cloth is detected by the time until the number of rotations from the motor rotation detection circuit reaches a predetermined reference value.

By such intermittent driving of the dehydration motor, the dehydration start time changes linearly according to the change in the amount of cloth, and more accurate detection of the amount of cloth is possible. That is, when the cloth is intermittently driven, the water contained in the cloth is dehydrated at the first driving, and at the time of driving from the next time, the rotation speed changes according to the amount of cloth. Further, since the rotation changes according to the cloth amount even during the pause period of the intermittent drive, it is possible to detect the cloth amount more accurately.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a washing machine controller according to the present invention, which is used in a fully automatic washing machine. Figure 2 shows
FIG. 3 shows changes in the number of revolutions when the motor is intermittently driven at the dehydration start, and FIG. 3 similarly shows changes in the capacitor voltage at the intermittent start. 4 and 5 show flow charts for detecting the amount of cloth according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is an AC power supply, and this AC power supply 1
The motor 2 is connected to and the capacitor 3 is connected between the windings of the motor 2. A drain valve solenoid 4 and a water supply valve solenoid 5 are connected to the AC power source 1 as an electric load of the fully automatic washing machine. The motor 2
Is controlled by switching means 6a, 6b for forward / reverse rotation control, and drives the drain valve solenoid 4 interlocked with the brake clutch at the time of dehydration by the switching means 6c. When the switching means 6a is driven, dehydration is started. Has become. The switching means 6d drives the water supply valve solenoid 5. The control circuit 7 is composed of a microcomputer, and is composed of a motor rotation detection circuit 8, a sensor input circuit 10 such as a water level sensor, and an operation display input circuit 9 including a key switch and a display unit.

FIG. 2 shows a change in the spin-drying speed when the switching means 6a is intermittently driven to start spin-drying. Since the cloth amount of A is larger than that of B, the rotation speed gradually increases.

FIG. 3 shows changes in the capacitor voltage. When the switching means 6a conducts, the rotation speed increases and the capacitor voltage increases, and when the switching means 6a turns off, the capacitor voltage becomes a value approximately equal to the AC power supply voltage. B indicates the case where the amount of cloth is small, and the time to reach the set voltage V _C t _C
Is the third cycle, and when the amount of cloth is large, it is detected in the fifth cycle.

In FIG. 4, the dehydration start time is intermittently activated, and the time t _C at which the capacitor voltage reaches the set voltage V _CS is stored, and the size of t _C is discriminated to determine the next dehydration or Control rinse time. Numeral 703 is an intermittent activation cycle counter, and 704 determines the intermittent activation cycle. After 705, the on / off time of the intermittent dehydration is controlled.When the dehydration motor is on, the magnitude of the capacitor voltage V _C is determined and the set voltage is set.
When it becomes higher than V _CS , the flag F is set and the time t _S is set to t _C. The intermittent cycle N at that time is N _S. Only when the flag F is 0, t _C = t _S. Figure 5 is intended to change the drainage time t _SP and rinsing time t _R according to t _C, t _C is the longer the t _SP and t _R longer. 714 to 718 control the dehydration and rinsing time in the next step by discriminating the magnitude of t _C.

In the above embodiment, the amount of cloth is detected at the time of starting the intermediate dehydration process after the washing process of the fully automatic washing machine is performed, and the dehydration time and the rinse time after the next process are controlled, but it is not limited to the fully automatic washing machine. In addition, it can be applied to a two-tub type washing machine, and is particularly effective in a washing machine for rinsing a dehydration tub.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As is apparent from the above description of the embodiments, according to the present invention, the motor is intermittently driven at the time of dehydration start, and the cloth amount is detected by the time until the motor rotation speed reaches a predetermined value. And, there is a feature that the rise of the number of revolutions largely changes due to the change of the cloth amount by the intermittent driving. In particular, the influence of water contained in the cloth at the initial stage can be reduced, and the number of revolutions decreases according to the quantity of cloth during the rest period, so that it is more likely to change due to the influence of load. Further, by intermittently driving in the intermediate dehydration process before the rinsing of the fully automatic washing machine, it is possible to eliminate the start-up failure due to the foam of the detergent. Also, by controlling the rinsing and dehydration time according to the amount of cloth,
When the amount of cloth is small, the amount of water for rinsing can be saved or the dehydration time can be shortened. Further, when the amount of cloth is large, rinsing may be insufficient in the past, but sufficient rinsing and dehydration are automatically possible. Although not described as an example, if the water level or the water supply amount is controlled according to the amount of cloth, it is possible to further save water for the rinse water. The same effect can be obtained in dehydration rinsing of a two-tub type washing machine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of an embodiment of a controller for a washing machine according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows the number of rotations when a dehydration motor is intermittently driven according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a change characteristic diagram, FIG. 3 is a change characteristic diagram of the capacitor voltage at the time of intermittent driving, FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the load amount detecting method according to the present invention, and FIG. A flowchart for controlling the rinsing time is shown. FIG. 6 is a capacitor voltage characteristic diagram of an example of conventional load amount detection. 2 ... Motor, 3 ... Capacitor, 6a, 6b ... Switching means, 7 ... Control circuit, 8 ... Motor rotation detection circuit.

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Ken Nakamura 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (56) References JP 55-141293 (JP, A) JP 60-156491 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A motor, a capacitor connected between the motor windings, a switching means for controlling energization of the motor, a motor rotation detection circuit for detecting a change in rotation of the motor, and an on-state of the switching means. , A control circuit for controlling the OFF, the control circuit performs intermittent dewatering by intermittently driving the motor by the switching means in the cloth amount detection step, and the rotation speed from the motor rotation detection circuit reaches a predetermined reference value. A washing machine control device that detects the amount of cloth by the time it takes to reach it. 2. The washing machine control device according to claim 1, wherein the motor rotation detection circuit for detecting a change in rotation of the motor detects a terminal voltage of a capacitor between the motor windings.