JPH11203529A - Paper money identification device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display the contents of an abnormality in detail, without using an inspection device and a personal computer, in a state where a paper money identification device is fitted to an automatic vending machine as it is. SOLUTION: A plurality of entrance lamps 2 and 2 provided at the insertion port 1 of paper money are flickered in response to the detection result of an abnormality detection means for detecting an abnormality inside the device. Either of the entrance lamps 2, the right entrance lamp 2, for example, is flickered at a prescribed interval as a clock lamp. The flicker of the left entrance lamp 2 when the clock lamp is lighted is made to correspond to '1' and '0' and the content of the abnormality is encoded and shown with a time- sequential combination.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bill validating apparatus which is attached to a vending machine or the like and which accepts a bill inserted from a bill insertion slot after authenticating the bill.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a vending machine in which bills can be used, a bill identifying device is provided together with a coin identifying device. In such a bill identification device, an abnormality such as a jammed bill or a full bill safe occurs. In the conventional bill validator, when such an abnormality occurs inside, it is notified to the main control unit of the vending machine through a serial communication line, and the content of the abnormality is coded and displayed.

[0003]

However, in the conventional vending machine, not only the bill discriminating apparatus but also other parts such as a coin discriminating apparatus and a vending mechanism are displayed on one display unit. Therefore, it is not possible to display the details of the abnormality in each part. Therefore, for the bill identification device, it is possible to display the rough facts such as the fact that the bill has been jammed and the fact that the bill safe has become full, but which part of the bill has jammed or which part has failed. There was a problem that it was not possible to display even detailed items such as.

[0004] Therefore, in order to examine such detailed matters, the banknote discriminating apparatus having the abnormality is removed from the vending machine and replaced with a new one, and the removed banknote discriminating apparatus is brought back to the inspection apparatus or the inspection apparatus. There was no choice but to connect a personal computer etc. and it was very troublesome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and it is possible to display detailed contents of an abnormality without using an inspection device or a personal computer while a bill validator is attached to a vending machine. It is intended to do so.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bill validating apparatus, comprising: an abnormality detecting means for detecting an abnormality occurring inside; and a plurality of entrance lamps provided at a bill insertion slot. And a lamp blinking control unit that changes a blinking method of the entrance lamp for each content of the abnormality based on a detection result of the abnormality detecting unit. In this way, it is possible to display detailed contents of the abnormality without using an inspection device, a personal computer, or the like in a state where the bill validator is attached to the vending machine.

[0007] The bill discriminating apparatus according to claim 2 is
One of the plurality of entrance lamps is blinked at predetermined time intervals as a clock lamp, and the content of the abnormality is represented by a time-series combination of the blinking states of the remaining entrance lamps when the clock lamp is turned on or off. It is characterized by doing so. This makes it easy to confirm the display.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the internal structure of the bill validator, and FIG. 2 is a front view thereof. 1 and 2,
1 is a bill insertion slot, 2 is an entrance lamp, 3 is an optical sensor, 4 is a transport motor, 5 is a belt, 6 is an identification sensor, 7 is a microcomputer, 8 is a slide switch, 9 is a main board, 10 is a sensor board, 11 is a bill safe, and 12 is a safe switch.

When a bill is inserted from the bill insertion slot 1, it is sensed by the optical sensor 3 and the transport motor 4 is driven.
As a result, the belt 5 moves to feed the bill in the direction of the arrow in the figure. Then, when the bill passes the position of the identification sensor 6, the authenticity of the bill is identified by optical and magnetic methods,
If it is a genuine bill, it is sent as it is and stored in the bill safe 11. On the other hand, when the identification sensor 6 cannot determine that the bill is a genuine bill, the belt 5 is reversed and the bill is returned to the bill insertion slot 1. These controls are performed by the microcomputer 7.

In such a bill discriminating device, entrance lamps 2 and 2 are provided at the upper inside of the bill insertion slot 1 so that the position of the bill insertion slot 1 can be clearly recognized even at night or in the dark, and they are always lit. . In the present invention, the abnormality contents of the bill validator are displayed using the entrance lamps 2, 2. Therefore, the entrance lamps 2 and 2 can be individually controlled to blink.

Normally, the entrance lamps 2 and 2 are turned on in the same manner as the conventional ones, and illuminate the bill insertion slot 1 brightly. However, when a service person or the like inspects the bill validator, the entrance lamps 2, 2 are blinked in a predetermined order according to the state inside the bill validator, thereby notifying the internal state. And the lighting of the entrance lamps 2, 2
To switch from the normal mode to the inspection mode, the slide switch 8 attached to the main board 9 is used. The operation of the slide switch 8 is performed with the banknote safe 11 removed.

Instead of switching the mode with the slide switch 8, the mode may be switched using a safe switch 12 for detecting the mounted state of the banknote safe 11. That is, when the banknote safe 11 is removed and mounted repeatedly a predetermined number of times (for example, three times) and when the banknote safe 11 is repeatedly turned on and off accordingly, the microcomputer 7 detects this and enters the inspection mode. You may do so.

Abnormality detection in the bill validator is always and regularly performed by an inspection program provided in the microcomputer 7. Then, the content of the detected abnormality is stored in a memory attached to the microcomputer 7, and when the mode is switched to the inspection mode,
The contents of the abnormality stored in the memory are displayed using the entrance lamps 2 and 2.

Next, a description will be given of a method of displaying the contents of an abnormality using the entrance lamps 2 and 2. An abnormality code is determined in advance corresponding to the content of the abnormality. For example, if the abnormal code of the disconnection of the identification sensor 6 is “31”, it becomes “0011,0001” in binary display. It is the entrance lamp 2,
Displayed by blinking 2.

When the entrance lamps 2 and 2 blink, "0011,0" is displayed.
In order to display a code such as "001" in an easy-to-recognize manner, one of the two entrance lamps 2 and 2, for example, the left entrance lamp 2 is flashed every second using a clock,
The data is indicated by the blinking of the right entrance lamp 2. That is,
When the left entrance lamp 2 is lit, the right entrance lamp 2 is set to “1” when the left entrance lamp 2 is lit.
When is turned on, the value is set to "0" if the right entrance lamp 2 is turned off.

In the case of the code "0011...", The result is as shown in FIG. At first, as shown by A,
For 1 second, “0” is indicated by left lighting and right lighting. Next, B
, Both are turned off for 1 second, then C,
Again, for 1 second, left-side lighting and right-side lighting indicate "0". Hereinafter, the blinking is switched every second, such as D, E, F, G,... To represent “0011.

For data division, for example, the left and right entrance lamps 2 are turned on for 2 seconds so that the divisions can be recognized. At the end of the display contents, the left and right entrance lamps 2 are turned on for 5 seconds, and the last is displayed. Make sure you know. After the left and right entrance lamps 2 are turned on for 5 seconds, the display is repeated again from the first display.

In this way, the banknote recognition device uses the entrance lamps 2 and 2 that are conventionally provided,
It is possible to display the details of the abnormality in detail without adding a special display device and while keeping the bill validating device attached to the vending machine.

In the above embodiment, the case where the number of the inlet lamps 2 is two has been described. However, the number of the inlet lamps 2 is not limited thereto, and the number of the inlet lamps 2 may be three or more. By doing so, an abnormality can be displayed with a small number of blinks.

[0021]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

In the banknote recognition device according to the first aspect, the manner of blinking the entrance lamp is changed for each type of abnormality, so that the inspection device can be used while the banknote recognition device is attached to the vending machine. The detailed contents of the abnormality can be displayed without using a personal computer or the like.

The bill identifying device according to claim 2 is
One of the plurality of entrance lamps is blinked at a predetermined time interval as a clock lamp, and the content of the abnormality is represented by a time-series combination of the blinking states of the remaining entrance lamps when the clock lamp is turned on or off. So,
The display can be easily checked.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an internal structural diagram of a bill validator.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the bill validator.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a failure display operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Bill insertion slot 2 ... Inlet lamp 3 ... Optical sensor 4 ... Transport motor 5 ... Belt 6 ... Identification sensor 7 ... Microcomputer 8 ... Slide switch 11 ... Bill safe 12 ... Safe switch

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An abnormality detecting means for detecting an abnormality occurring inside, a plurality of entrance lamps provided in a bill insertion slot, and the entrance lamp for each abnormality based on a detection result of the abnormality detection means. And a lamp blinking control means for changing a blinking method of the bill. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of entrance lamps is blinked at a predetermined time interval as a clock lamp, and the blinking state of the remaining entrance lamps is chronologically combined when the clock lamp is turned on or off. The bill identifying device according to claim 1, wherein the content of the abnormality is represented.