JPH10162107A - Ic contact block detecting circuit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform efficient electric detection without any mechanical operation and to improve the reliability of the detection result. SOLUTION: This is an IC contact block detecting circuit of a card reader, which has a case wherein an IC contact block 1 for reading and writing data out of and to an IC card is fitted to a card reader main body and a case wherein the IC contact block 1 is not fitted, and a terminal 3, to which one end of a solenoid coil 2 for moving the IC contact block 1 to the read/write position is connected, is connected to a power source 4 and an IC contact block presence/ absence detecting circuit 6 is connected to a terminal 5 to which the other end of the solenoid coil 2 is connected. When the solenoid coil 2 is not connected, the IC contact block presence/absence detecting circuit 6 outputs an H-level signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an IC contact block detection circuit. More specifically, the present invention relates to an IC contact block detection circuit that can electrically determine whether a card reader has an IC contact block.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Magnetic cards are widely used as data recording media. In recent years, however, recording cards that have an IC chip mounted on a magnetic card and can be used not only as a magnetic card but also as an IC card have become widespread. Therefore, one card reader is provided with both a magnetic head for inputting / outputting data to / from a magnetic stripe on the card and an IC contact block for inputting / outputting data to / from an IC chip. There is. That is, since a card reader having an IC contact block and a card reader not having an IC contact block are commercially available, it is necessary to be able to electrically detect which type of card reader is used.

Conventionally, in order to electrically detect whether or not a card reader has an IC contact block, an attempt is made to actually read / write an IC card, or
Inference has been made based on the logic of the output signal of the C contact drop detection sensor.

That is, when actually trying to read / write an IC card, the IC card has an IC contact block when the read / write succeeds, and the IC contact block when the read / write fails.
It was determined that it did not have a C contact block. on the other hand,
In the case where inference is performed based on the logic of the output signal of the IC contact drop detection sensor, the IC contact block is provided when the output signal of the IC contact drop detection sensor changes due to the output of a drive signal to the solenoid that advances the IC contact block. Therefore, when it did not change, it was determined that there was no IC contact block.

[0005]

However, when actually trying to read / write an IC card, the
A read / write circuit for the card is required, and for example, it cannot be applied to a product to which the read / write circuit is attached after shipping. Further, even if a read / write circuit is provided, an unnecessary operation is required to perform a mechanical operation such as lowering of an IC contact block, and a long time is required for detection. Was bad. further,
An IC card for trial is required.

On the other hand, when the logic of the output signal of the IC contact drop sensor is used, when there is no IC contact block,
In a circuit configuration in which the logic of the output signal of the IC contact drop sensor when the IC contact block does not drop due to the presence of the C contact block is the same, it also takes time due to the mechanical operation such as lowering of the IC contact block. It was inefficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an IC contact block detection circuit capable of efficiently performing electrical detection without mechanical operation and obtaining a highly reliable result. .

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to a case where an IC contact block for reading / writing data from / to an IC card is attached to a card reader body. An IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader, which may not be connected to a power supply, a terminal to which one end of a solenoid coil for moving the IC contact block to a read / write position is connected to a power supply, and the other end of the solenoid coil is connected. Is connected to a terminal to which is connected, and an H level signal is output from the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit when the solenoid coil is not connected.

Therefore, when the solenoid coil is connected to the power supply and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, the power supply voltage is applied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit via the solenoid coil. That is, the H-level signal is supplied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit inverts the H-level signal and outputs it as an L-level signal. On the other hand, when the solenoid coil is not connected to the power supply voltage and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, the power supply voltage is not applied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit. That is, the L level signal is supplied to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit inverts the L level signal and outputs it as an H level signal. In this case, a negative voltage may be used as the power supply voltage. In this case, the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit outputs a signal at the -H level. When the solenoid coil is disconnected, the power supply voltage becomes I
The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit operates in the same manner as when the IC is not connected to the C contact block presence / absence detection circuit.
The level signal is inverted and output as an H level signal. Based on the output signal of the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit, the presence / absence of the solenoid coil, that is, the presence / absence of the IC contact block can be detected, and the disconnection of the solenoid coil can be detected.

In this case, as in the second aspect of the present invention,
It is desirable that a switching circuit for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil be connected to the other end of the solenoid coil. Accordingly, in this case, the solenoid coil can be turned on / off by the switching circuit.

In this case, the IC contact block presence / absence detecting circuit has an inverting circuit, and when the input side of the inverting circuit is connected to a power supply via a solenoid coil, the inverting circuit is activated. It is preferable that an L level signal is output from the circuit. Therefore, the level of the signal supplied to the IC setting block presence / absence detection circuit is inverted by the inversion circuit.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The configuration of the present invention will be described below in detail based on the best mode shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an embodiment of an IC contact block detection circuit according to the present invention. This IC contact block detection circuit is an IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader in which an IC contact block for reading / writing data from / to an IC card is attached to a card reader main body or not. . That is,
Some card readers have an IC contact block, and some do not. The IC contact block detection circuit electrically detects the presence or absence of the IC contact block. FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the card reader body.
The IC contact block 1 includes an IC contact for reading and writing data from and to an IC chip of an IC card, a solenoid coil 2 for moving the IC contact forward or backward, and an IC contact drop detection sensor for detecting the advance of the IC contact. , A substrate and the like.

An IC contact block detecting circuit connects a terminal 3 to which one end of a solenoid coil 2 for moving the IC contact block 1 forward and downward to a read / write position is connected to a power source 4 and a power supply 4 other than the solenoid coil 2. The terminal 5 to which the end is connected is connected to the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6. The power supply 4 is, for example, a DC 24 V power supply.

The terminal 5 at the other end of the solenoid coil 2
Is connected to a switching circuit 7 for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil 2. The switching circuit 7 includes, for example, an NPN transistor (hereinafter, referred to as an NPN transistor).
A terminal 5 at the other end of the solenoid coil 2 is connected to the collector of the transistor 7.

The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 has an inversion circuit 8. This inversion circuit 8 is, for example, an inverter IC. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6
Resistances R1 and R2 of resistors 9 and 10 of inverter I
It is set to an appropriate value in consideration of the threshold voltage of C8 and the required input voltage. Further, the capacitor 11
Is to prevent malfunction due to noise.
For example, one having several hundred [pF] is used.

Inverting circuit (hereinafter referred to as an inverter IC)
When the input side of the power supply 8 is connected to the power supply 4 via the solenoid coil 2, in other words, when the IC contact block 1 exists in the card reader, an L (low) level signal is output from the inverter IC 8. On the other hand, when the solenoid coil 2 is not connected to the power supply 4 and the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6, in other words, when the IC contact block 1 does not exist in the card reader, the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 outputs H (high). ) Level signal is output.

That is, the IC contact block 1 is connected to the terminals 3 and 5
And the solenoid coil 2 is not disconnected, the voltage at point B is the voltage drop of the solenoid coil 2 with respect to the voltage at point C. This means that even if the transistor 7 is off, the point B is still connected to the power supply 4, so that the point B has the voltage value dropped by the solenoid coil 2. If there is no IC contact block 1 or if the solenoid coil 2 is disconnected even if there is an IC contact block 1, the voltage at the point C becomes the voltage of the power supply 4 and the voltage at the point B becomes 0V. Become.

On the other hand, the voltage at point A is the voltage at point B × R2 /
(R1 + R2). Therefore, each resistor 9, 10
By optimally setting the resistance values R1 and R2, the output of D becomes H level when there is no IC contact block 1 or when the solenoid coil 2 is disconnected.
When there is a contact block 1, the level becomes L level.

Therefore, in this IC contact block detection circuit, the output signal of the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 allows the solenoid coil 2 to be operated without operating the solenoid coil 2.
The presence or absence of the C contact block 1 and the disconnection of the solenoid coil 2 can be electrically detected. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 is inexpensive because it is composed of one inverter IC, two resistors, and one capacitor.

The above-described embodiment is an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but is not limited thereto, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, instead of using the inverter IC 8 for the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6, for example, a comparator IC 12 may be used as shown in FIG. When the comparator IC 12 is used, the setting range of the resistance values R1 and R2 of the resistors 9 and 10 can be widened even when the voltage fluctuation of the power supply 4 is large. Note that capacitor 1
Reference numerals 3 and 14 are for preventing malfunction due to noise, and are, for example, several hundred [pF]. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 has an inexpensive circuit configuration including one comparator IC, two resistors, and two capacitors.

The H-level signal output from the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 6 is not necessarily limited to a + H-level signal, but may be a -H-level signal.

[0023]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there are cases where an IC contact block for reading / writing data from / to an IC card is attached to a card reader body and when it is not attached. An IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader, wherein a terminal to which one end of a solenoid coil for moving the IC contact block to a read / write position is connected to a power source,
The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit is connected to the terminal to which the other end of the solenoid coil is connected, and an H level signal is output from the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit when the solenoid coil is not connected. When a coil, that is, an IC contact block is present, an L-level signal is output, and when there is no IC contact block or the solenoid coil is disconnected, an H-level signal is output. Therefore, the presence / absence of the IC contact block can be efficiently and electrically detected without mechanical operation such as lowering of the IC contact block and without requiring an IC card. In addition, since the disconnection of the solenoid can be detected, the reliability of the detection result is improved.

In this case, as in the second aspect of the present invention,
It is preferable to connect a switching circuit for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil to the other end of the solenoid coil. With this configuration, the solenoid coil can be turned on and off by the switching circuit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, an IC
It is preferable that the contact block presence / absence detecting circuit has an inverting circuit, and when the input side of the inverting circuit is connected to a power supply via a solenoid coil, an L level signal is output from the inverting circuit. With this configuration, the level of the signal supplied to the IC setting block presence / absence detection circuit can be inverted by the inversion circuit.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an electric circuit diagram showing an example of an embodiment of an IC contact block detection circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a card reader main body.

FIG. 3 is an electric circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit of the IC contact block detection circuit of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 IC contact block 2 Solenoid coil 4 Power supply 6 IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit 7 NPN transistor (switching circuit) 8 Inverter IC (inverting circuit)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An IC contact block detection circuit in a card reader, wherein an IC contact block for reading / writing data from / to an IC card is attached to a card reader main body and sometimes not. A terminal to which one end of a solenoid coil for moving the IC contact block to the read / write position is connected to a power source, and an IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit is connected to a terminal to which the other end of the solenoid coil is connected. An IC contact block detection circuit, wherein an H level signal is output from the IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit when the solenoid coil is not connected. 2. The IC contact block detection circuit according to claim 1, wherein a switching circuit for switching the on / off state of the solenoid coil is connected to the other end of the solenoid coil. 3. The IC contact block presence / absence detection circuit has an inversion circuit, and when the input side of the inversion circuit is connected to the power supply via the solenoid coil, an L level signal is output from the inversion circuit. The IC contact block detection circuit according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the IC contact block detection circuit is configured to be configured as follows.