JPH10149482A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic vending machine which can attract the notice of a purchaser through the use of existing sales lamps, sell-out lamps or an amount display part. SOLUTION: The bending machine is provided with commodity selection keys having the sales lamps 4a and the sell-out lamps, which correspond to the respective products, and the amount display part which lamp-displays the amount of supplied money on a front face. In such a case, a control means 10 lighting or putting out the sales lamps 4a or the sell-out lamps with an arbitrary pattern at the time of waiting for sales or displaying characters and marks with the arbitrary pattern on the amount display part is provided. Thus, illumination can be operated by using the existed sales lamps 4a and the sell-out lamps or the amount display part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine provided with a product selection button having a selling lamp and a sold-out lamp on the front.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a vending machine has a product selection button on the front face of an outer door for selecting various products filled therein. This product selection button has a selling lamp for revealing the button position and a sold-out lamp for indicating whether the product corresponding to this button is in a sold-out state, and the purchase operation of the product becomes easy even at night. Like that. In addition, a money amount display portion is also provided on the front surface of the outer door, and the money amount display portion displays the money amount of the inserted money and the money amount of the change.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional vending machine, as described above, the selling lamp does not make the position of the button too obvious, and the sold-out lamp and the money amount display section are in a sold-out state or a charged amount. , And these various lamps did not sufficiently draw the attention of consumers.

In view of the above, recently, a vending machine has been proposed in which a lot of so-called lottery lamps are arranged on the front surface of an outer door, and the lamps are sequentially turned on to stimulate purchase.

However, in the latter vending machine, it is necessary to install a lamp which is not indispensable for a purchase operation of a product, and there is a problem that the cost is increased accordingly.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine which can draw a buyer's attention by using an existing selling lamp, a sold-out lamp or an amount display unit.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a merchandise selection button having a selling lamp and a sold-out lamp corresponding to each merchandise on the front thereof, and a monetary value for displaying the amount of money inserted and the like. In a vending machine having a display unit, a sales lamp or a sold-out lamp is turned on / off in an arbitrary pattern during standby for sale, or characters, symbols, and the like are displayed in an arbitrary pattern on an amount display unit. I have.

[0008] Thus, the illumination can be operated using the existing selling lamp, the sold-out lamp, or the amount display unit.

[0009]

1 to 5 show one embodiment of a vending machine according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view of the vending machine, and FIG. 2 is a drive of a vending lamp of the vending machine. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control circuit, FIG. 3 is a control flowchart showing a start condition of a sales lamp illumination operation, FIG. 4 is a control flowchart showing a sales lamp illumination operation, and FIG. It is.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vending machine has a product sample section 2 on an outer door 1 on the front surface thereof. In the product sample section 2, product samples 3 corresponding to various products are provided, and a product selection button 4 is provided below each product sample 3.

The product selection button 4 has a sales lamp 4a for selecting a product on the upper side and a sold-out lamp 4b for displaying a sold-out state of the product on the lower side. Be started.

The outer door 1 has a coin insertion slot 5 communicating with a coin processing device (not shown) and a bill processing device 6 for inserting bills, respectively. The coin processing device and the bill processing device 6 shown in FIG. The money processing device 7 shown in FIG. When coins or bills are inserted into the coin processing device and the banknote processing device, the inserted amount is displayed on the amount display section 8 installed on the outer door 1, and the change amount after the sale of the product is displayed. It has become. The money amount display unit 8 incorporates a large number of LEDs as a display structure, and by emitting light in any combination of these LEDs, it is possible to display a number indicating any money amount and an arbitrary alphabet.

The vending machine thus configured has a control means 10 shown in FIG. 2 for controlling the turning on or off of the vending lamp 4a. That is, the control means 10 includes a setting controller 11, a CPU 12 having a microcomputer configuration, a memory 13, shift registers 14a and 14b, and latches 15a and 15b.
6, the driving of each sales lamp 4a is controlled.

Here, the setting controller 11 has a sales stop setting mode 11a, which can stop the illumination operation of the sales lamp 4a at the time of total selling out, at the time of prohibition of sales, and at the time of operating the remote controller. The setting controller 11 includes an illumination setting mode 11b that can arbitrarily select lighting and extinguishing including a blinking of the sales lamp 4a, and an illumination timer setting that selects a start and end time of the illumination operation (for example, a predetermined time period at night). Mode 11c.

The control means 10 constructed as described above has a structure shown in FIG.
The illumination operation is started based on the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, it is determined whether or not there is a payment from the money handling apparatus 7 (S1) and whether or not it is during the sales suspension period (S2). When there is payment, or during the sales suspension period (for example, all products are sold out). , The illumination operation is not started, and the illumination during the operation is stopped.

Further, it is determined whether or not the illumination mode is set (S3), and whether or not the illumination is in the illumination operation time zone (for example, at night) (S4). When the condition is satisfied, an illumination operation is started (S5).

When the illumination operation is started, the operation is performed as shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, when the illumination operation is started, the CPU 12 reads the timer data set in the illumination setting mode, that is, the timing of turning on / off the selling lamp 4a (S1). Thereafter, the shift registers 14a and 14a
b, and sets data "1" in one latch 15a (S2, S3). Next, data "1" is sent from the latch 15a to one shift register 14a, and the shift pulse signal is sent to the CPU by the CPU.
12 to the shift register 14a (S5).

Thus, the time interval set in the illumination setting mode 11b (for example, 0.2 second interval)
As shown in (a), (b), (c), and (d) of FIG. 5, the sales lamps 4a are sequentially turned on from "1" to "n" (S6).

Here, as shown in FIG. 5D, when the selling lamp 4a is turned on, "0" is set in the latch 15a and the shift register 14a is cleared. As a result, as shown in FIG.
a is turned off (S7, S8).

Subsequently, the other shift register 14
b and the latch 15b also transmit data in the same procedure as the shift register 14a and the latch 15a,
As shown in FIG. 5F, the sales lamps 4a are sequentially turned on from "n" to "1" (S9 to S13).

As described above, in the present embodiment, the sales lamp 4a is turned off at the time other than the time of payment or the like, that is, at the time of waiting for sales.
The illumination is operated so that "1" → "n" and "n" → "1" are reciprocally lit.

In this embodiment, the selling lamp 4a is subjected to the illumination operation. However, as shown in FIG. 6, the price display section 8 may be subjected to the illumination operation.

That is, the character "S" is displayed on the LED and is moved from right to left, and then the character "A" is displayed on the LED.
And moves it to the right of "S", displays the letter "L" with an LED and moves it to the right of "A",
The letter "E" is displayed on the right end of the LED, and then
An illumination operation for blinking the entire character “SALE” may be used.

Alternatively, the sold-out lamp 4b may be illuminated in the same manner as the selling lamp 4a.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the selling lamp 4a and the sold-out lamp 4b are separately provided on the upper and lower sides is described. However, the selling lamp 4a and the sold-out lamp 4b are constituted by a product selection button integrally formed. It is needless to say that the present invention can also be applied to a vending machine.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a vending machine having a product selection button having a sales lamp and a sold-out lamp corresponding to each product on the front surface, and an amount display unit for displaying the amount of inserted money and the like, a sales lamp or a sold-out lamp is displayed during standby for sales. Illumination using the existing sales lamp, sold-out lamp, or amount display unit, because it can be turned on and off in an arbitrary pattern, or characters and symbols are displayed in an arbitrary pattern on the amount display unit. Operation can be performed, and it is not necessary to use a separate lamp or the like as in the related art. Therefore, it is possible to promote the sale of the product at a low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a vending machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a drive control circuit of a vending lamp of a vending machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a control flowchart showing a start condition of an illumination operation of a selling lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a control flowchart showing an illumination operation of a selling lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the on / off state of the sales lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing illumination of a money amount display unit according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Outer door, 4 ... Product selection button, 8 ... Amount display part, 10
... Control means.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A vending machine having a product selection button having a selling lamp and a sold-out lamp corresponding to each product on a front surface thereof, and a value display section for displaying a value of inserted money and the like by a lamp. A vending machine having a control means for turning on / off at least one of a selling lamp and a sold-out lamp in an arbitrary pattern. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein said control means controls to display characters, symbols, and the like in an arbitrary pattern on said amount display section during standby for sale.