JPH0964993A - Reporting equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely replace a battery by counting a replacement time after the connection of a battery to detect the replacement period thereby reporting the battery replacement period. SOLUTION: The equipment is provided with a network control means to e connected to a notice destination via a telephone line, a replacement period storage means to store a replacement period of a battery, a battery detection means to detect the connection of the battery and the time count is started after the battery detection means detects the connection of a battery and when it is decided that the count time reaches the replacement time based on data stored in the replacement time storage means, the replacement time of the battery is reported to the notice destination by the network control means. Then the network control means is make up of a trunk line circuit 18 and a control section 15, and the replacement time storage means is made up part of memory space of a memory 14. Moreover, the battery detection means is made up of a battery connection detection circuit 12 and the control section 15, and the replacement time information transmission means is made up of part of the memory space of the memory 14, the control section 15 and a timer 13.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a reporting device for automatically reporting a detection result or state of a detector, a device or the like to a remote place via a telephone line according to a preset condition or time. Relates to a notification device capable of automatically notifying a battery life period.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a notification device of this type does not have a function of notifying the life of a storage battery for a backup power source. For this reason, the worker who installed the storage battery
The date of installation or the construction period was described in a designated memo field, etc., and during the periodic inspection, the memo was checked and the storage battery was replaced.

For this reason, the replacement time of the storage battery is often confirmed by the operator's memo writing or memory, and the replacement time is often missed, and the life of the storage battery often causes a power failure or the like when necessary. There was an inconvenience that it did not work.

As a means for detecting the life of such a storage battery, there is known a notification device for detecting the voltage of a power supply unit, which is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-252301. That is, the structure is shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, 25 is a line terminal device, 27 is a telephone line, 28 is a network control unit, and 29 is a network control unit.
Is a data transmission unit, 30 is a communication terminal interface unit,
26 is a communication terminal, 33 is a test starter, 31 is a power supply, 3
5 is a voltage measuring unit, and 34 is a test result notifying unit.

Therefore, for example, when an abnormality occurs in the gas meter of the communication terminal device 26, the data is transmitted to the communication terminal interface unit 30, and this data is transmitted to the network control unit 28 via the data transmitting / receiving unit 29. . The network control unit 28 dials a preset telephone number to establish a communication line with the center terminal 1 and sends data. The center terminal 1 knows from this data that an abnormality has occurred in the gas meter.

In addition, the clock in the test starting unit 33 is set to 24
After a lapse of time, the test starting section 33 is operated by the voltage measuring section 1
A test start signal is sent to 5 to activate the voltage measuring unit 35. The voltage measuring unit 35 A / D converts the voltage of the power supply unit 31 and outputs it to the test result notifying unit 34. The test result notifying unit 34 converts the input data into a telegram data format and then outputs the data to the network control unit 28. The network control unit 28 dials a preset telephone number to establish a communication line with the center terminal 1 and sends data. Data can also be collected from the center terminal 1 by center polling.

In this way, the center terminal 1 can grasp the power supply voltage of each line terminal device 25 as shown in FIG. 3. For example, in the same area A, TN3 and TN4 which have dropped to a voltage necessary for replacement and It can be seen that there is a TN2 that cannot be used, and the number of dispatches required for replacement can be reduced.

[0008]

However, such a line terminal device 25 measures the voltage of the power supply unit 31 and
In order to send this to the center terminal 1, a test start unit 33 that sends a test start signal periodically and a voltage measuring unit 35 having an A / D conversion circuit are required, which makes the device complicated and increases the cost. Further, the center terminal 1 also has to receive voltage data periodically sent from each line terminal device 25, analyze it, and judge whether or not replacement is necessary, which is complicated. Further, depending on the nature of the storage battery, it may be difficult to judge the life of the storage battery simply by changing the voltage.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to notify the battery life period only with a simple structure, so that the battery can be reliably replaced. To provide a reporting device.

[0010]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a network control means for connecting to a report destination via a telephone line, and a replacement time storage means for storing the replacement time of a battery. , Battery detecting means for detecting that a battery is connected, and time counting is started after the battery detecting means detects that a battery is connected, and the measured time is the data stored in the replacement time storing means. Therefore, when it is judged that it is time to replace the battery, the network control means is provided with a replacement time information sending means for notifying the notification destination of the battery replacement time.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of a notification device according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is the information about the replacement time of the battery 11, other devices targeted by the reporting device 5, the reporting destination for reporting information on the device, 7 is a telephone line,
Reference numeral 5 is a notification device, and 11 is a battery such as a backup storage battery connected to the notification device 5.

Further, 18 is a report destination 1 via the telephone line 7.
In order to send the necessary information to the station, a line circuit for connecting / disconnecting the line, dialing the number of the callee 1 and the like, 12 is a battery connection detection circuit for detecting that the battery is connected, and 13 is a timing operation A timer for execution, 14 is a memory composed of semiconductor elements such as ROM and RAM, and 15 is these station line circuit 18, battery connection detection circuit 12, timer 13, memory 14
It is a control unit that is connected to and receives information and performs necessary control.

The station line circuit 18 is, for example, an NCU (Network).
It can be configured by well-known technical means in telephone communication such as rk Control Unit, and the battery connection detection circuit 12 can be extremely simple in configuration by directly detecting the battery by a mechanical contact, but other electrical means (voltage,
It can also be detected by magnetic means. Further, the timer may use an external dedicated IC, or a timer unit which is modularized and whose time count can be set by an attached dial or the like, and allows the CPU of the control unit to perform a time count operation by a program. good. The control unit 15 is composed of a CPU and its peripheral parts, a control program and the like.

The network control means is composed of the local line circuit 18 and the control section 15, the replacement time storage means is composed of a part of the storage space of the memory 14, and the battery detection means is the battery connection detection circuit 12 and the control. Is composed of the part 15,
The exchange time information sending means is composed of a part of the storage space of the memory 14, the control unit 15 and the timer 13.

Next, the operation of the notification device having such a configuration will be described. First, the life of the battery 11 can be predicted to some extent depending on the type of the battery 11 and the usage environment. Therefore, a value obtained by multiplying the predicted life of the battery 11 by a certain safety factor is stored as a replacement time of the battery 11 in a predetermined area of the memory 14 which is a replacement time storage means. When the battery 11 is attached to the notification device 5 and detected by the battery connection detection circuit 12, this detection signal is sent to the control unit 15, and the control unit 15 starts the operation of the timer 13, at which time the timer 13 decrements. Either a timer or an addition timer may be used, and if it is a subtraction timer, the value stored in advance in the replacement time storage means is set in the timer 13.

When confirming that the timer 13 has counted the same time as the replacement time, the control unit 15 stops the timer 13 and reads the data of the report destination 1 stored in a predetermined area of the memory 14 in advance, The circuit 18 connects the callee 1 via the telephone line 7. When the control unit 15 confirms that the other party has been connected, the control unit 15 sends information about the replacement time stored in a predetermined area of the memory 14 to the local line circuit 18.
Send through.

In this way, the notification device 5 is sent to the notification destination 1.
You can confirm that it is time to replace the battery 11 of
1 is definitely exchanged. In addition, although the battery 11 has been described here as an example of a backup storage battery, the battery 11 is not limited to this, and may be a primary battery, a so-called super capacitor, or the like.

Here, the detector connected to the reporting device 5 and other devices and the information obtained from these are reported to the reporting destination 1
The details of the configuration and operation for sending the data to the above are omitted because they are described in the above-mentioned conventional example or can be obtained by using well-known technical means.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the replacement time is detected by measuring the time from the connection of the battery to the replacement time, and the notification destination is notified of the replacement time of the battery. With a simple configuration, and by notifying only the life of the battery, the battery can be reliably replaced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a reporting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional line terminal device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a notification system using a conventional line terminal device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 reporting destination 5 reporting device 7 telephone line 11 battery 12 battery connection detection circuit 13 timer 14 memory 15 control unit 18 station line circuit 21 center terminal 22, 23, 24 switch 25 line terminal device 26 communication terminal 27 telephone line 28 network control unit 29 data transmission / reception unit 30 communication terminal interface unit 31 power supply unit 33 test start unit 34 test result notification unit 35 voltage measurement unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A network control means for connecting to a report destination via a telephone line, a replacement time storage means for storing a replacement time of a battery, and a battery detection means for detecting that the battery is connected. When the battery detection means detects that a battery is connected, the clocking is started, and when the clocking time is judged to be the replacement time based on the data stored in the replacement time storage means, the network control means A notification device comprising: a replacement time information sending means for sending a notification of the battery replacement time to the notification destination.