JPH08121930A - Freezer refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To flexibly vary control specifications by a method wherein a control device inputs data by which the control specifications of each functional part written in a memory means after turning-on of a power source are set and based on the read data, control of each functional part is executed. CONSTITUTION: Data by which the control specifications of the functional part of a compressor 1 are set is stored in a writable involatile memory 22. It is then decided whether or not a mode is a display mode and when it is not the display mode, a set temperature in each chamber set at a temperature regulation panel part 6 is read and the set temperature is displayed by an LED and outputted to a temperature adjusting panel part 6. A sensor signal from door switches 7 and 8 and thermistors 9 and 10 are read. Based on the information, an output device is controlled and control of operation of each functional part of the compressor 1 is started. Thereafter, a microcomputer 12 is brought into standby in a non-working state. This constitution performs variation of control specifications and effects delicate control.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronically controlled refrigerator / freezer, in which the control specifications can be changed arbitrarily and flexibly, and individual development of a refrigerator body and a microcomputer as a control device can be simplified. Freezer-refrigerator that can be performed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electronically controlled refrigerators / freezers are required to shorten the development period due to competition for the development of new models, and the refrigerator body and the control device microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as "microcomputer") are separately provided. The development of the microcomputer must be completed under the condition that the control specifications of the refrigerator body have not been decided because it is inevitable to develop them at the same time.

For this reason, conventionally, the microcomputer is provided with a number of item setting terminals which can correspond to the number of setting items in advance, and an external switching circuit is formed by using these item setting terminals to control specifications required for the operation of the refrigerator. I was able to set later.

That is, in the block diagram of the conventional refrigerator-freezer shown in FIG. 5, a compressor 1, a defrost heater 2, a cooling fan motor 3 and a damper 4 as functional parts are provided in a housing (not shown) of the refrigerator-freezer. , Duct heater 5
In addition to the above, a temperature control panel unit 6, a freezer door switch 7, a refrigerator door switch 8, a freezer thermistor 9, a refrigerator thermistor 10, an electronic circuit board 11, and the like are provided.

A microcomputer 12 is mounted on the electronic circuit board 11 and is supplied with power from an AC connector 13 to rectify the circuit 1.
It is driven by the DC voltage rectified in 4. And
The microcomputer 12 has control terminals POo, PO1, PO2,
PO3, PO4, information input terminals PIo, PI1 and information input terminals PADo, PAD1, PAD2 are provided,
Further, item setting terminals PGo, PG1, ..., PG16 are provided.

When the control terminal POo of the microcomputer 12 becomes conductive, the electromagnetic relay 15 is excited, the relay contact is closed, and the compressor 1 is operated. When the control terminal PO1 becomes conductive, the electromagnetic relay 16 is excited and the defrost heater 2 is operated. When the control terminal PO2 is turned on, the light emitting diode LD of the optical relay 17 is turned on, the light ignition thyristor PS is turned on, and the cooling fan motor 3 is operated. Similarly, when the control terminal PO3 is conducted, the light emitting diode LD of the optical relay 18 is turned on, the light ignition thyristor PS is conducted, and the damper 4 is operated. When the control terminal PO4 is conducted, the light relay 19 emits light. The diode LD lights up, the light ignition thyristor PS becomes conductive, and the duct heater 5 is operated.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Conventional functional parts 1 to 1
5 is controlled by the item setting terminals PGo to PG of the microcomputer 12.
It is set by the external switching circuit 21 in which the resistor 20 is divided and connected between 16 and the information input terminal PAD2. That is, the voltage division value of the resistor 20 is set so that the analog / digital conversion value meets the control specifications of the functional parts 1 to 5. As described above, conventionally, the microcomputer 12 is provided with a large number of item setting terminals in advance to cope with the change of the control specification of each functional component of the refrigerator / freezer, which is extremely uneconomical.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a freezer-refrigerator in which control specifications can be fluidly changed without providing a microcomputer with a large number of item setting terminals, fine control can be performed, and the control state can be easily confirmed. And

[0009]

According to the present invention, in an electronically controlled refrigerator / freezer in which each functional component is controlled via a control device having a computer configuration, a writing for storing data for setting a control specification of each functional component. Possible memory means is provided, and the control device is configured to read the data for setting the control specification of each functional component written in the memory means after the power is turned on, and to control each functional component based on the read data.

In this case, the control device has a display mode for displaying the read data, and is configured to display the data on the display section of the refrigerator-freezer cabinet in this display mode.

Further, in this case, the data for setting the control specification of each functional part includes at least data such as the on / off control temperature of the compressor, the opening / closing control temperature of the damper, the defrost heater driving time, and the presence or absence of the ice making unit. Let

[0012]

According to the present invention, at least the control specification data of the main functional parts of the refrigerator-freezer are written in the memory means and read by the control device having a computer configuration to control each functional part. The number of setting items of the control specification can be secured up to the storage capacity of the memory means, and the number of control steps for each setting item can be secured up to the bit length of the data. The change of the control specification can be dealt with only by changing the write data to the memory means.

Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a microcomputer as a control device with a large number of terminals for setting items as in the prior art, and it is not necessary to consider the precision of the voltage dividing resistor. In addition, the control device has a data display function,
By displaying the control specification data on the display unit of the refrigerator / freezer, the control specification data of the refrigerator / freezer can be easily confirmed.

[0014]

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a refrigerator-freezer according to the present invention, in which the same components as those in FIG. In the present embodiment, inside the housing (not shown) of the refrigerator / freezer, outside the functional parts such as the compressor 1, the defrost heater 2, the cooling fan motor 3, the damper 4, the duct heater 5, the temperature control panel section 6, and the sensor. Freezer door switch 7, refrigerator door switch 8, freezer thermistor 9, refrigerator thermistor 1
0 is provided.

Further, an electronic circuit board 1 for collecting these
1 is provided with a microcomputer 12, which is driven by a DC voltage supplied from an AC connector 13 and rectified by a rectifier circuit 14. Further, a non-volatile memory 22 in which control specification data is written is connected to the microcomputer 12 as a memory means, and the microcomputer 12 controls on / off of the electromagnetic relays 15, 16 and the optical relays 17 to 19 based on the data. The compressor 1, the defrost heater 2, the cooling fan motor 3, the damper 4, and the duct heater 5 are operated and controlled.

The non-volatile memory 22 is, for example, a serial input / output type E ² PROM (Electrically Erasabl).
e Programmable ROM) is used, and the nonvolatile memory 22 and the microcomputer 12 are electrically connected to each other by four signal lines of a control signal line 23, a synchronous clock line 24, a serial data output line 25, and a serial data input line 26. It is connected.

The data length for one address is 3
Bits are used, and it is possible to set up to 8 levels, which is the cube of 2 for one setting item (1 address). When a memory with a capacity of 1 kilobit (64 x 16 bits) is used, the number of addresses (number of setting items) becomes 64 addresses (items), and fine control of 512 (8 x 64) data is possible. Become.

As the control specification data written in the non-volatile memory 22, for example, the data shown in the table of FIG. 2 is used, and the address value is determined for each control specification setting item.
Control condition data is assigned to each address so that control specifications can be determined.

For example, as control specification setting items, presence / absence of an ice making unit (address 00), presence / absence of a buzzer that forgets to close the door (address 01), defrost time (address 02), compressor ON temperature (address 03), compressor O
There are FF temperature (address 04), damper fully open temperature (address 05), damper fully closed temperature (address 06), and the like. Then, eight levels of data are set for each item.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. The operation shown in this flowchart is started by inserting the AC connector 13 into an outlet (not shown) and turning on the power.

First, the microcomputer 12 performs initialization such as RAM clearing (step S1). Next, the microcomputer 12
Is read by serial communication from the non-volatile memory 22 mounted on the electronic circuit board 11 or arranged in proximity to the control circuit (step S).
2).

These data are selected from the data table as shown in FIG.
If the data for 4 is 4, the drive time of the defrost heater 2 is made longer than the initial value by 20 minutes, and if the data for address 03 is 1, the compressor 1 is turned on. The control temperature is 0.5 deg higher than the initial value. At address 0
If the data at 4 and the data at address 05 are 0, it means that both the control temperature for turning off the compressor 1 and the control temperature for fully opening the damper 4 are performed with initial values. Also, if the data for address 06 is 2, the control temperature for fully closing the damper 4 is set to 1deg below the initial value.
It means to do it at a low value.

When the reading of the data of all the setting items is completed in this way, it is next determined whether or not the display mode is set (step S3). As a result, if it is not the display mode, the set temperature in each compartment set in the temperature control panel unit 6 is read (step S4), and the set temperature is output to the temperature control panel unit 6 by LED display (step S5). Then, the sensor signals of the door switches 7, 8 and thermistors 9, 10 are read (step S
6) Based on these information, the output device control is performed to start the operation control of the functional parts such as the compressor 1, the defrost heater 2, the cooling fan motor 3, the damper 4, the duct heater 5 (step S7). After that, the microcomputer 12 stands by in the non-operating state of step S3.

If it is desired to confirm how the control specifications of the operating condition of the refrigerator / freezer are set, the display mode is selected in step S3 described above. This display mode is normally selected by a user who operates the opening / closing operation of the refrigerating compartment door once while simultaneously pressing the refrigerating compartment temperature setting operation buttons 27 and 28 of the temperature control panel section 6 shown in FIG. Perform an operation that is not performed. However, although not illustrated here, a display mode command button may be provided so that the display mode can be easily changed.

In the display mode state, the address value is displayed in binary number by using the six LEDs 29 for displaying the temperature setting of the refrigerating room of the temperature control panel section 6 (step S).
8). In the present case, it is "000100" (the LSB on the right). Next, the data value corresponding to the previously displayed address value is displayed using the three LEDs 30 that display the temperature setting of the freezer compartment of the temperature control panel unit 6 (step S9).
In this case, it is "010" (the LSB on the right).

Then, it is judged whether or not the address change is required (step S10). This determination is made based on whether or not the refrigerator compartment temperature setting operation buttons 27 and 28 of the temperature control panel section 6 are pressed. Here, if the operation button 27 for setting the temperature in the refrigerating room is pressed, the address value increases by 1, and if the operation button 28 for setting the temperature in the refrigerating room is pressed, the address value decreases by 1. By this operation, the display address data is reset (step S11), and step S
Returning to the process of No. 8, the data value corresponding to the reset address value is displayed on the LED 30 (step S9). The data value can be confirmed on the LED 30 by repeating the above operation and matching the address value of the setting item.

For example, the display example shown in FIG. 4 shows that the address value is 04 and the data value is 2, and the control temperature for turning off the compressor 1 from the data table of FIG. It can be confirmed that the control is performed at a value 1 deg lower than the value.

If it is determined in step S10 that the address change is not required, the display mode end is determined (step S12). This determination is made depending on whether or not the good night ice making operation button 31 of the temperature control panel section 6 is pressed. If not, the display mode is not finished, and the processing of steps S8 to S12 is repeated. If it is pressed, the display mode is terminated and the process returns to step S3 to enter the normal cooling operation state.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the data for setting the control specifications of the functional parts such as the compressor is stored in the writable non-volatile memory and the data is read by the microcomputer. The number of input / output terminals for electrical connection between the and non-volatile memory may be four, which can greatly reduce the number of input / output terminals of the microcomputer, reduce the size and weight of the microcomputer, and change the control specifications. Since it can be made flexible, there is an effect that the development and manufacturing of the refrigerator / freezer are extremely simplified.

Not only that, the number of control specification setting items is
Since only the storage capacity of the memory can be set and the number of control steps for each setting item can be secured up to the bit length of the data, it is possible to provide a refrigerator-freezer capable of extremely fine control.

Further, since the microcomputer has a data display function, it is not necessary to prepare a separate component such as a ROM writer and can be visually confirmed on the display section of the refrigerator / freezer, which is extremely economical.

Further, since the control data of at least the main functional parts are written in the non-volatile memory, the control conditions of the entire refrigerator / freezer can be integrated, and the refrigerator / freezer is easy to handle not only in manufacturing but also in use and maintenance. Become.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a refrigerator-freezer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a data table for determining control specifications.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a temperature control panel unit provided in the refrigerator-freezer of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional refrigerator-freezer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Compressor 2 Defrost Heater 3 Cooling Fan Motor 4 Damper 5 Duct Heater 6 Temperature Control Panel 11 Electronic Circuit Board 12 Microcomputer 22 Nonvolatile Memory 23 Control Signal Line 24 Synchronous Clock Line 25 Serial Data Output Line 26 Serial Data Input Line

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electronically controlled refrigerator-freezer that controls each functional component via a computer-configured control device, comprising writable memory means for storing data for setting control specifications of each functional component, The control device is configured to read data for setting control specifications of the functional parts written in the memory means after power-on and control the functional parts based on the read data. A freezer refrigerator. 2. The refrigerator / freezer according to claim 1, wherein the control device has a display mode for displaying the read data, and displays the data on a display unit of the refrigerator / freezer housing in the display mode. 3. The data for setting the control specifications of each of the functional parts includes at least data such as a compressor on / off control temperature, a damper opening / closing control temperature, a defrost heater driving time, and the presence or absence of an ice making unit. The freezer-refrigerator according to claim 1, which is characterized in that.