JPH1151740A - Gas meter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate connection of an inside circuit and a communication wire and improve waterproofness by connecting the inside circuit of a gas meter and an outside communication wire through an inserting and pulling connector. SOLUTION: Connectors 13, 14 previously attaching communication wires 15-18 respectively are inserted in the inside of a housing 11 through a connector insertion opening formed on the lower part of the housing 11, the terminals 19, 20 of each connector 13, 14 are electrically connected to female connectors 28, 29 provided on the inside of the housing 11, and an inside circuit 12 and the communication wires 15-18 are connected to one another. Thereby the inside circuit 12 of a gas meter 10 and the communication wires 15-18 can be simply connected by insertion of the connectors 13, 14. In addition, since the female connectors 28, 29 connecting the connectors 13, 14 are formed at a position slightly retreated into the inside of the housing 11 from the lower face of the housing 11, the connectors 13, 14 can be protected from rain and the like.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a gas meter,
In particular, the present invention can be applied to a gas meter configured to perform communication between an internal circuit unit housed in a housing and an external device via a communication line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of gas meter is generally called a microcomputer gas meter, which is detected by a gas meter such as gas security data, automatic meter reading data, gas remaining amount management data, etc. using a telephone line at a consumer's house. In addition to transmitting the detection data to the information center, the information center transmits meter control value setting data, remaining amount warning level value setting data,
Various setting data such as remaining amount counter value setting data are received.

In this type of gas meter, an internal circuit of the gas meter main body is connected to a gas leak alarm or a seismometer by a communication line, and when a gas leak or an earthquake is detected, the internal circuit of the gas meter main body operates. In some cases, the shutoff valve is closed to stop the gas supply.

Conventionally, the connection between these communication lines and the internal circuit of the gas meter is made by a gas meter 1 as shown in FIG.
The communication is performed by electrically connecting the communication line 4 to the terminal 3 corresponding to the communication line 4 among the plurality of terminals 3 provided on the terminal block 2 built in the device.

[0005]

By the way, in practice, this connection work involves first removing the terminal cover 6 fixed to the front of the gas meter 1 with screws 5 to protect the inside of the gas meter 1 from rain or the like, and then removing the grommet. 7, the communication line 4 is drawn into the gas meter 1, the communication line 4 is peeled off, the screw of the terminal 3 is loosened, and then the conductive portion of the communication line 4 is connected to the terminal 3. Met.

In consideration of the downsizing of the gas meter 1, it is not possible to make a large space for the communication line 4 drawn into the gas meter 1 through the grommet 7 to escape. If too long, there is a disadvantage that the terminal cover 6 is difficult to close. Further, if the fitting property between the terminal cover 6 and the gas meter 1 is poor, the waterproof property is deteriorated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims to propose a gas meter which can easily connect an internal circuit of a gas meter to a communication line and is excellent in waterproofness. .

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a gas meter according to the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems, as shown in FIG. The communication between the internal circuit 12 and the communication lines 15 to 18 is performed through the connectable connectors 13 and 14 in the gas meter 10 configured to perform communication between the internal circuit 12 housed in the gas meter and the outside. did.

As a result, the internal circuit 12 and the communication lines 15-1
8 can be performed by a simple operation such as insertion and removal of the connectors 13 and 14. Further, when a communication line is drawn into a conventional housing, the space inside the housing required for releasing an extra communication line can be omitted, and thus the gas meter 10 can be downsized.

The gas meter 10 according to the second aspect of the present invention is provided with the connectors 13 and 14 according to the first aspect.
Are composed of first and second connectors 13 and 14 which are formed separately and can be inserted and removed independently of each other. , 16 and the second connector 14 is used to connect the communication lines 17 and 18 to the internal circuit unit where the communication with the outside is allowed to be temporarily interrupted.

In the above configuration, the shut-off valve is forcibly closed by receiving a control signal for forcibly closing the shut-off valve from an internal circuit (for example, the sensor 33 in FIG. 1) for notifying the information center of an abnormality such as a gas leak or the information center. A first connector 13 for connecting the communication lines 15 and 16 which need to communicate with the outside at all times, such as the communication lines 15 and 16 input to the closing control circuit, and the internal circuit 12; And a second connector for connecting to the communication lines 17 and 18 for inputting various setting information from an external setting device to the first memory 32). By doing so, the second connector 14 can be freely inserted and removed without inadvertently unplugging the first connector 13, so that the workability of inserting and removing the connector 14 can be improved and the communication can be improved. Capable of realizing high sexual gas meter 10.

Further, in the gas meter 10 according to the third aspect of the present invention, the connector connecting portions 28 and 29 connected by the connectors 13 and 14 are slightly retracted from the lower surface of the housing 11 into the housing 11. It was formed at the position of the elbow.

As a result, since the connectors 13 and 14 can be protected from rain and the like, a highly reliable gas meter 10 having excellent waterproofness can be realized.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a gas meter as a whole, and a housing 11 has an internal circuit 12 built therein. The gas meter 10 connects the internal circuit 11 to the outside via a first connector 13 and a second connector 14.

That is, the communication lines 15 and 16 are
By inserting the first and second connectors 13 and 14 to which the first and second connectors 17 and 18 are attached into the inside of the housing 11 through connector insertion openings formed in the lower portion of the housing 11,
By electrically connecting the terminals 19 and 20 of the connectors 13 and 14 to the female connectors 28 and 29 provided inside the housing 11, the internal circuit 12 and the communication lines 15 to 18 are connected. .

Thus, in the gas meter 10, the connection between the internal circuit 12 of the gas meter 10 and the communication lines 15 to 18 can be performed by a simple operation such as simply inserting the connectors 13 and 14.

The connector connecting portions for connecting with the connectors 13 and 14, ie, the female connectors 28 and 29,
The gas meter 10 is formed so as to be able to prevent the connectors 13 and 14 from rain or the like.

Here, claw portions 21 and 22 are formed on the side surface of the first connector 13 and the second connector 1 is formed.
4 are formed on the side surfaces thereof with claw portions 23 and 24, and connect the first and second connectors 13 and 14 to the female connectors 28 and 29.
When the first and second connectors 13 and 14 are connected to the connecting position, the first and second connectors 13 and 14 are locked by the locking portions 25, 26 and 27 formed integrally with the housing 11. From being accidentally dropped.

The communication lines 15 and 16 connected to the internal circuit 12 by the first connector 13 are connected to the communication line for transmitting an abnormality such as a gas leak to the information center and the gas meter 10 forcibly from the information center. This is a communication line for receiving a control signal for closing a shut-off valve (not shown) built in, and is a communication line that always requires external communication.

On the other hand, the communication lines 17 and 18 connected to the internal circuit 12 by the second connector 14 are communication lines for inputting various setting information to the internal circuit 12 from an external setting device, for example. In this case, the communication line is allowed to be temporarily interrupted.

As described above, in the gas meter 10, the connectors are formed separately from each other, and are constituted by the first and second connectors 13 and 14 which can be inserted and removed independently, and the first connector 13 constantly connects to the outside. The connection between the internal circuit unit 12 that requires communication and the communication lines 15 and 16 is performed, and the internal circuit 12 and the communication line 1 that are allowed to temporarily stop communication with the outside by the second connector 14 are connected.
The connection with the connectors 7 and 18 allows the second connector 14 to be freely inserted and removed without inadvertently disconnecting the first connector 13, thereby improving the workability of connector insertion and removal. Obtainable and highly reliable gas meter 10
Can be realized.

Here, the female connector 28 is connected to a CPU (Central Procedures) for controlling the entire internal circuit 12 via a modem 30.
sing unit) 31 and the female connector 29 is directly connected to the CPU 31. The CPU 31 is connected to a sensor 33 that detects a gas flow rate and the like, an alarm unit 34 that warns of gas leakage and a decrease in the remaining battery level, and a memory 32.

When abnormality is detected by the sensor 33, the abnormality information is transmitted to the information center via the signal line 15, for example. Various setting information from an external setting device is stored in the memory 32 via the communication line 17. Although FIG. 1 shows only a part of the internal circuit 12 for simplicity of description, the internal circuit 12 actually has a circuit part having many other functions.

Thus, according to the above configuration, the internal circuit 1
2 that can be connected to and disconnected from communication lines 15 to 18
The gas meter 10 that can easily connect the internal circuit unit 12 and the communication lines 15 to 18 can be realized by performing the connection via the lines 3 and 14.

In the above-described embodiment, the connector is constituted by first and second connectors 13 and 14 which are separately formed and can be inserted and removed independently, and are always connected to the outside by the first connector 13. The communication between the internal circuit unit 12 and the communication lines 15 and 16 which require communication, and the communication between the internal circuit 12 and the communication line 17 where communication with the outside is allowed to be temporarily interrupted by the second connector 14 are permitted. 18
Has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, and the first and second connectors 13 and 14 are not limited thereto.
May be integrally configured.

[0027]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the connection between the internal circuit and the communication line is performed through the connector that can be inserted and removed, so that the internal circuit of the gas meter and the communication line are connected. Can be realized easily. In addition, since a space inside the housing for releasing an extra communication line drawn into the housing can be omitted, the gas meter can be downsized.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the connector is composed of first and second connectors which are separately formed and can be inserted and removed independently, and are always connected to the outside by the first connector. In addition to the connection between the communication line and the internal circuit unit that requires communication, the connection between the internal circuit and the communication line where the communication with the outside is allowed to be temporarily interrupted by the second connector is performed. This allows the second connector to be freely inserted and removed without inadvertently unplugging the first connector, thereby improving the workability of inserting and removing the connector and realizing a highly reliable gas meter.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the connector connection portion is formed at a position slightly recessed into the housing from the lower surface of the housing, the connector can be prevented from rain and the like, and can be waterproofed. A highly reliable gas meter with excellent reliability can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a connection structure of a communication line in a gas meter of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially broken front view showing a connection structure of a communication line in a conventional gas meter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 gas meter 11 housing 12 internal circuit 13 first connector 14 second connector 15-18 communication line

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A gas meter configured to communicate between an internal circuit housed in a housing and the outside via a communication line, wherein a connection between the internal circuit and the communication line can be inserted and removed. A gas meter, wherein the measurement is performed via a connector. 2. The internal circuit section, wherein the connector comprises first and second connectors which are separately formed and can be inserted and removed independently of each other, and wherein the first connector always requires communication with the outside. And a connection between the communication line and an internal circuit unit which is allowed to temporarily stop communication by the second connector. Item 2. The gas meter according to Item 1. 3. The gas meter according to claim 1, wherein the connector connection portion is formed at a position slightly retracted from the lower surface of the housing into the housing.