JPH09224353A - Geared motor control system and motor-driven toilet stool using the system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To switch a manual opening/closing action to a motor-driven automatic opening/closing action easily by a method wherein a geared motor control system in which a potentiometer which receives the very slight position change of a cover, etc., is provided is linked with the cover, etc., of the motor-driven toilet stool. SOLUTION: A first flat gear 1 is geared with a pinion gear P fixed to the shaft of a motor M and attached to a casing with a small diameter shaft so as to rotate freely. A second flat gear 2 is geared with the first flat gear 1 and attached to the easing with a small diameter shaft so as to rotate freely. An output shaft consists of the second flat gear 2 and is linked with a toilet sheet, a toilet cover, etc. A play is provided between the gears 1 and 2 and the sheet, cover, etc., linked with the output shaft can be turned manually by the play. An elastic brush B is provided on the flat gear 2 and made to slide on a circuit board 3 to compose a potentiometer which controls the motor M through a control circuit. With this constitution, the smooth automatic opening/closing without an impact noise can be realized.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a geared motor control system and an electric toilet using the system, and more particularly, to a geared motor control system which is connected to a lid to smoothly open and close the lid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a geared motor has a large reduction gear ratio, and therefore a large rotational torque is required to manually rotate the output shaft. In particular, when a small DC motor of the cored type is used as a drive source, a stronger rotating torque is required due to the cogging torque. Normally, as a countermeasure against this, a solenoid clutch is used to open and close the gear connection to facilitate manual rotation. You can think of what you did. As for opening and closing the lid of an electric toilet, it is known that the presence of a user is detected by a sensor or the like to automatically open or close the toilet lid or the toilet seat.

[0003]

However, in the structure in which the gears are manually disconnected by the clutch as described above, the output shaft is connected to a relatively large heavy object such as a toilet seat or a lid of a toilet bowl. However, the shock noise becomes a problem when opening and closing because it opens and closes easily.
As a countermeasure against this, it is conceivable to apply a highly viscous oil damper process to the output shaft, gear shaft, etc., but there are many variations and it is difficult to adjust the torque and it becomes expensive, and the oil damper itself becomes Therefore, it is a problem from the viewpoint of energy saving.

Further, in the automatic opening / closing type electric toilet, when the toilet seat or the toilet lid is opened / closed, the motor switch O
Although N / OFF operation is performed, the gear teeth of the geared motor and the device itself are damaged by trying to open / close the lid forcefully against the load torque without knowing that the operation is unfamiliar or automatic. It was very difficult to handle. As described above, even in the automatic opening / closing type electric toilet bowl, it has been desired that the lid body can be opened / closed in combination with the manual operation.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a geared motor used as an automatic opening / closing structure for a lid,
By using a slight change in the position of the lid etc., the opening and closing can be easily performed, and the opening and closing speed can also be easily controlled so that there is no impact sound due to the opening and closing. There is something I did.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a geared motor control system equipped with a potentiometer capable of capturing a slight positional change of a lid or the like. By connecting to the lid of the electric toilet, it is possible to easily switch from the manual opening / closing operation to the automatic opening / closing operation by a motor drive even when the manual opening / closing operation is performed.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The geared motor control system of the present invention is provided with a potentiometer which responds to the output of the geared motor, and controls the motor by the output of the potentiometer. Further, a potentiometer responsive to the output shaft is arranged, a position change of the potentiometer when the output shaft is manually operated is detected as a voltage change, and the motor is controlled based on the detection. It is preferable that the potentiometer includes a printed resistor arranged on the circuit board and a brush that is in sliding contact with the printed resistor. Furthermore, it is effective to connect such a geared motor to the lid of the electric toilet. Then, it is preferable to control the opening / closing speed of the lid.

In the electric toilet using the geared motor control system constructed as described above, when the user tries to open or close the lid such as the toilet seat or the toilet lid, the play between the gears, that is, the so-called back The lid moves slightly due to the rush. The slight positional change is read, and the subsequent opening / closing operation is automatically performed by driving the motor.
This allows the toilet seat or the toilet lid to be easily opened and closed as needed.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the construction of one embodiment of the geared motor control system of the present invention will be explained based on FIG. In the figure, M is a motor, and a pinion gear P is fixed to the shaft of the motor M. The first spur gear 1 is meshed with the pinion gear P and is rotatably arranged in a casing (not shown) via a shaft having a small diameter. A second spur gear 2 is meshed with the spur gear 1, and is similarly rotatably arranged in the casing via a shaft having a small diameter.

The second spur gear 2 constitutes an output shaft and is connected to a toilet seat, a toilet lid and the like in this embodiment. Since there is play between the gears meshed in this way, so-called backlash, the toilet seat / toilet lid connected to the output shaft can be rotated by the amount of backlash even if it is manually operated. . Further, an elastic brush B is arranged on the flat gear 2, and a circuit board 3 is arranged so that the brush B is in sliding contact with the flat gear 2 to form a potentiometer.

As shown in FIG. 2, two circular arc patterns 3a and 3b are formed on the brush sliding surface of the circuit board 3 so as to be concentric with the output shaft.
a is configured as a printing resistor. And brush B
Are configured to be in sliding contact with the arc patterns 3a and 3b. Further, the output of the potentiometer configured as described above is input to the control circuit, and the control circuit is configured to control the drive of the motor M according to the input situation.

Now, a specific opening / closing structure will be described. As described above, the output shaft of the second spur gear 2 is connected to the lid body such as the toilet seat and the toilet lid of the electric toilet.
If the opening / closing angle of the lid is set to α, the brush B is slidably slidably contacted within the α opening angle as shown in FIG. Therefore, if the state where the lid is closed is set to X1 point and the opened state is set to X2 point, the contact position between the brush B and the resistance pattern 3a is different, and the resistance value at that point changes. Then, the potentio output at that point changes, and as shown in FIG. 3A, the potentio output at the closed point X1 becomes E1 and at the open point X2 becomes E2.

Thus, within the opening / closing angle α, E
Since the voltage changes of 1 to E2 occur, it is possible to obtain the potentio output according to the opening / closing position of the lid. By identifying the potentiometer output thus obtained by the control circuit, the drive of the motor M is controlled while accurately recognizing the open / closed position of the lid body.

That is, when the user tries to open and close the toilet seat or the toilet lid, these lids are manually operated by the amount of backlash. As shown in FIG. 3A, the output increases by ΔE1 with respect to the movement amount ΔX1 at this time, and in this situation, the control circuit indicates that the user is trying to open the lid. When the potentiometer output is determined, the control circuit sends a drive signal to the motor M, and the subsequent operation is automatically performed. When the potentiometer output E2 at the open point X2 is read, the motor M is read.
To stop driving.

On the other hand, if the user moves the lid when the user tries to close the lid, the moving amount ΔX2
In contrast, the control circuit recognizes that the user is trying to close the lid by decreasing the output by ΔE2, and drives the motor M in the opposite direction to the previous time, and the potentiometer output E1 at the closing point X2 is changed. The drive is stopped when it is read.

In this way, even if the user is unfamiliar with the electric toilet bowl or opens and closes the lid without knowing that it is an electric toilet bowl, it is the same as a normal toilet bowl. By using it, the movement amount of the lid at that time can be read by the control circuit via the potentiometer, the intention of the user can be accurately discriminated, and the automatic opening / closing can be realized.

That is, the lid opening / closing structure of the present invention allows the user to perform an initial operation by himself / herself, and then automatically opens / closes in accordance with the initial operation. The person only has to open and close the lid for the amount of backlash, and does not have to open and close the lid to which load torque is applied. Therefore, it can be operated accurately in accordance with the operation of the user, and its handleability becomes extremely excellent.

Further, in the geared motor control system thus constructed, the control circuit is provided with an arithmetic unit and a memory so that the voltage change in the opening / closing angle range of the lid is sampled at every predetermined angle. By storing the information, the opening / closing position of the lid can be recognized at any time from the potentiometer output, and the opening / closing direction of the lid can be easily grasped.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the opening / closing speed of the lid during the automatic opening / closing can be adjusted arbitrarily. As indicated by the dotted line in the figure, when the operation between X1 and X2 (between the output voltages E1 and E2) is operated at a constant speed, there is a problem at the opening / closing point. At the open point, it may open up more due to the reaction and cause a failure,
Further, at the closing point, an impact sound when the lid is closed becomes a problem.

Therefore, when the lid is opened, the output voltage Ea at that time is detected when passing through the point Xa before the closing point X2 as shown by the solid line in the figure, and the control circuit detects the output voltage Ea based on this detection result. The drive signal to the motor is controlled to gradually reduce the motor speed. Further, when the lid is closed, the motor speed is gradually reduced when passing the point Xb as shown by the chain line in the figure. In this way, the impact of the lid during the automatic opening and closing can be alleviated, so that the occurrence of failure due to the impact can be reduced and the lid can be opened and closed quietly.

In this embodiment, the potentiometer is constituted by the printing resistor arranged on the circuit board and the brush which is in sliding contact with the printing resistor. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a variable resistor or the like is output. It does not matter if it is arranged on the shaft.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, if a potentiometer that responds to the output of a geared motor is arranged and the motor is controlled by the output of the potentiometer and it is connected to the lid, it will be extremely effective. It is possible to provide an automatic opening / closing mechanism that is inexpensive and structurally simple. In addition, a potentiometer that responds to the output shaft is arranged, and the position change of the potentiometer when the output shaft is manually operated is detected as a voltage change, and the motor is controlled based on the detection to the lid of the electric toilet bowl. If they are used in combination, they can be operated accurately according to the user's operation, and they are extremely easy to handle without adding a sensor or the like. Further, since the opening / closing speed of the lid of the electric toilet can be adjusted, impact noise at the time of opening / closing can be prevented, and smooth automatic opening / closing can be easily realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a geared motor control system in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a potentiometer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a graph showing an opening / closing angle of a lid and a voltage change at that time in the present invention, and FIG. 3B is a graph showing a relationship between voltage and speed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 M: Motor 1: 1st spur gear 2: 2nd spur gear 3: Circuit board 3b: Resistance pattern B: Brush

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A geared motor control system in which a potentiometer that responds to the output of a geared motor is arranged and the motor is controlled by the output of the potentiometer. 2. A geared motor in which a potentiometer responsive to an output shaft is provided, a positional change of the potentiometer when the output shaft is manually operated is detected as a voltage change, and the motor is controlled based on the detected voltage change. Control system. 3. The geared motor control system according to claim 1, wherein the potentiometer is composed of a printing resistor arranged on a circuit board and a brush slidingly contacting the printing resistor. 4. An electric toilet bowl in which the geared motor control system according to claim 1 or 2 is connected to a lid. 5. The electric toilet bowl according to claim 4, wherein the opening / closing speed of the lid is electrically controlled.