JPS58123168A - Automatic note handling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify the maintenance/checking work at a higher speed, by performing early the readjustment of an optical sensor as well as the cleaning, replacement, etc. of a photodetecting element, a light emitting element, etc. CONSTITUTION:The output signal of a photodetecting element 19B of an optical sensor is amplified by an amplifier 20 and supplied to an analog switch 21. The switch 21 is turned on by a chip selection signal produced by a microcomputer 22 and feeds the output signal of the amplifier 20 to an A/D converter 23 which is shared by sensors. The converter 23 converts an analog output signal into a digital signal. A microcomputer 22 fetches the digital signal to perform a prescribed process and at the same time transfers the signal to a memory 25 to store it there. The sensor selection signal is properly supplied while an automatic note handling device is executing a transaction so as to select a single or plural units of optical sensors in a prescribed procedure and in response to the travelling of the note or the handling condition.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is applicable to automatic cash dispensers, automatic deposit machines, and automatic deposit/withdrawal machines operated by banks and other financial institutions.
The present invention relates to an automatic banknote handling device equipped with a plurality of optical sensors that detect passage, etc.

Conventionally, banknote detection methods implemented in automatic cash handling devices such as automatic teller machines and automatic teller machines detect when the voltage level output from a photoelectric conversion element exceeds a preset threshold (slice level). This was done in a way that detected the presence of banknotes. These preset slice levels may be fixed, adjustable by volume, etc., or may be selected from a number of preset fixed levels by some means. However, in order to detect semi-transparent media such as banknotes, these methods cannot sufficiently absorb factors that change over time, such as a decrease in the output of the light source or dirt on the photoelectric conversion element, so maintenance personnel must periodically monitor the light source. Grain +7. where the photoelectric conversion element was cleaned. - A method was used to maintain the initial performance by readjusting the system. However, with this method,
In recent years, @ring-type cash withdrawal transaction devices have appeared that integrate deposit and withdrawal mechanisms and send deposited banknotes for payment.The mechanism is extremely complex and requires a sensor to detect banknotes. The number of such devices has become extremely large, and the light source and photoelectric conversion elements are extremely susceptible to dirt due to dust falling from the banknotes when the device is placed in a poor installation environment or when the banknotes are transported at high speed. It's dark. Furthermore, since the mechanism is complicated, it is difficult to re-examine the cleaning of the sensor, which requires a great deal of time and effort.

In view of the actual situation of the banknote handling device, the present invention scans and detects each output level of a plurality of optical sensors when a banknote is not detected, and stores a dinotal value representing the detection level in association with each sensor, The device is characterized in that the output instruction means outputs maintenance information corresponding to the digital value, and is capable of readjusting the plurality of optical sensors and cleaning and replacing the light-receiving element, light-emitting element, etc. of the sensor. The purpose of the present invention is to make it possible to carry out such operations at an early stage, so as not to interfere with transactions and banknote counting, and to simplify and speed up maintenance and inspection work. Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an automatic deposit/withdrawal device that is an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a customer's bankbook insertion slot, 2 is a cash card insertion slot, 3 is a CRT display, etc. 4 is an operation display section that displays the operation status of this device; 5 is a display device for discharging bills to be paid, and depositing bills; 6 is a bill slot for inserting a banknote and ejecting a receipt recording transaction information, and 6 is an operation key consisting of a numeric keypad for inputting a personal identification number, amount, etc., and a transaction execution key.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing the internal structure of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and the operation of the structure will be briefly explained. In other words, when depositing money, the bill entrance shutter 7 opens, and when the customer inserts a bill into the rotary drum 8, the shutter 7 closes, the rotary drum 8 rotates, and the bill is separated into one sheet. Sent to ゛9. Here, the bills separated one by one are transferred to the left and right by the transfer belt 10 via the bill validating section 1, and separated into left and right by the switching valve 12k, and the bills that are determined to be true by the validating section 1 are temporarily transferred to the stacking vehicle 14k. Banknotes determined to be fake are stored in the storage section 13A, and banknotes determined to be fake are temporarily stored in the storage section 13B by the collection vehicle 14B.
are accumulated in each. The banknotes accumulated in the temporary storage section 13B are either sent to the banknote in/out rotary drum 8 and returned to the customer as they are, or are sent again to the single sheet separation 9, conveyed by the conveyor belt 10, and then re-differentiated in the banknote discrimination section 11. Ru. This re-examined banknote has a switching valve of 12k.
The temporary storage section 13k is reached by following the same route as described above.
Alternatively, the banknotes are accumulated in the temporary storage section 13B. Based on the result of this reexamination, the banknotes accumulated in the temporary storage section 13B are returned to the customer via the banknote entrance rotary drum 8. The banknotes accumulated in the temporary storage unit 13k are stored by pressing a confirmation button provided on the customer operation unit (not shown) after the customer confirms the display of the amount. After passing through the inlet/outlet rotary drum 8, the bills are again sent to the bill separating section, where they are separated one by one, and then passed through the bill validating section 1, where they are then switched to the denomination storage box by the switching valve 12B. The denomination storage boxes 1,000,000,000 and 10,000,000 yen storage box 1 are connected via the switching valves 12D and 12E, respectively.
6 and are sequentially stacked at the top of each storage box by the m collection car 7 (D, J4E). Note that banknotes determined to be defective based on the reexamination results and banknotes that are not to be withdrawn are collected by the switching valve 12F. The money is sent to the accumulation car 14F and accumulated in the deposit storage box 11 all at once.

Next, to explain the operation when withdrawing money, storage box by denomination 1
5. The banknotes stacked in 16 are separated into single sheet separation parts 9D and 9E.
The bills are separated one by one and conveyed in the direction of the arrow by the banknote discriminating section 11, and then accumulated in the temporary storage section 13k.At this time, the bills determined to be defective by the bill discriminating section 1) are transferred to the switching valve 12B.

The banknotes 12C send the banknotes to the reject banknote storage box 18, and the banknotes are stacked by the stacking car 14C. In addition, the temporary storage section 13k
The banknotes accumulated in the banknotes are fed into a banknote entrance rotary drum 8, the banknote entrance shutter 7 is opened, and the banknotes are paid to the customer.

Further, reference numeral 19 denotes an optical sensor consisting of a combination of a light emitting element and a light receiving element, and a large number of these optical sensors are provided at predetermined positions of the apparatus, as indicated by the same symbol.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the banknote detection subcircuit of the many optical sensors described above. The output signal of the light receiving element 19B of the optical sensor is amplified by an amplifier 20 and supplied to an analog switch 21. This analog switch 2 is turned on by a sensor select signal generated by a microcomputer 22, and the A-D converter/S-control switch 23 is shared by each sensor.
The output signal of the amplifier 20 is input to the input terminal. The A/D converter 23 converts the analog output signal into a digital signal corresponding to the signal level. microcomputer 2
2 takes in this digital signal via path 24,
It executes a given process, which will be described later, and also transfers it to the memory 25 and stores it. The above sensor select signal is used to select one or more optical sensors according to the running or handling status of banknotes according to a predetermined procedure while the device is in the process of executing a transaction that handles banknotes such as payment or deposit. Supplied as appropriate.

Figures 4 (a), (b), and (c) illustrate the output waveforms of the optical sensor in each state, (1k)
(b) shows a state in which the optical sensor is heavily soiled or the output of the light source has decreased, and (C) shows a state in which the optical sensor can no longer guarantee banknote detection. In the figure, a level close to 0■ is a state in which no banknotes are detected, and a level rising to the cutoff level VcoL side at which light to the light receiving element is completely blocked is a banknote detection state. The level difference VD between the banknote non-detection level VNDL and the slice level ■8L is set in advance taking into consideration the discrimination accuracy, S, etc., and the level difference and slice level are stored in the memory 25 in the form of digital information. remembered. VDL is a banknote detection level.

A-D controller 23 detects banknotes during transaction execution.
The output of the optical sensor and the slice level taken in as a dinotal value are sent to the microcomputer 22.
When the sensor output level exceeds the slice level, it is determined that there is a "bill". Slice level 1) The settings of the bell are corrected one by one in order to ensure the above-mentioned level difference according to the change over time of the banknote non-detection level of the optical sensor.

On the other hand, when the device is considered not to be handling banknotes, that is, when it is not operating, for example, when inserting a cash card or passbook, pressing a transaction execution key, or detecting that the user is in front of the device, At an arbitrary time such as when a transaction is completed, the micro combinator 22 uses a sensor to sequentially scan and select the outputs of the first to Nth optical cells and capture digital information of the output levels. A select signal is given to each analog switch 21. The micro combinator 22 has a built-in scanning counter for scanning the optical sensor, and the contents of this counter specify the analog switch 21tl- which supplies the sensor selection signal.

The digital information of the banknote non-detection level of each optical sensor thus taken in is stored by the microcomputer 22 at an address associated with each optical sensor in the memory 25 based on the contents of the scanning counter. This memorized output level information of each optical sensor is sent to the maintenance operation unit 26 (see FIG. 3) provided inside the device shown in FIG. 1 by a staff member or maintenance worker who instructs output of the maintenance information of the optical sensor. When an operation such as pressing a butane button is performed, the microcomputer 22 detects this and reads it from the memory 25, edits and creates maintenance information according to the output level for each optical sensor, and sends it to the printer control 27 via the path 24. Or transfer it to the display control 28. The printer control 27 controls a printer 29 that prints bankbooks, journals, receipts, etc.
Print the above maintenance information on the glossary or receipt.

The display control 28 also controls the display 30 of the operation guidance display section 3 shown in FIG. 1 to display maintenance information on the screen. It may be arbitrarily selected whether the optical sensor maintenance information is output to the printer 29 or the display 30.

Figure 5 shows an example of the maintenance information for the optical sensor output as described above, with columns for ``Se/Su'' provided at each position.
The level column shows the degree of change over time set based on the memorized output level of the optical sensor. For example, if the level is 6 or higher, "Inspection Required" will be displayed on the right side. The text in kana is output. In the case of an optical sensor that outputs "inspection required" in this way, the output level when the banknote is not detected is very close to the cut-off level as shown in Figure 4(c), so it is possible to correctly detect the presence or absence of banknotes. exceeds a certain level that is not guaranteed.

By looking at the above maintenance information, maintenance personnel or staff can immediately know which optical sensors require inspection, and optical sensors that are likely to require inspection at some point can also be placed in the above level column. You can tell from the numbers. Therefore, maintenance personnel can quickly begin work such as adjusting, cleaning, or replacing the target optical sensor, and by periodically outputting and monitoring the above maintenance information, it is no longer possible to detect the presence or absence of banknotes. It is also possible to carry out preventive maintenance and inspection before such optical failure occurs.

In addition, in the above embodiment, it was stated that scanning detection of the output level of each optical sensor when a banknote is not detected may be performed in response to a discretionary operation such as inserting a bankbook or card, or the start or end of a transaction. A button may be provided on the maintenance operation unit to indicate the trigger for scanning detection, and the microcomputer 22 may detect when a maintenance worker or the like presses this button to start the scanning detection operation.

As described above, the automatic banknote handling device of the present invention switches the level of the photoelectric conversion element that detects the passage of banknotes using an analog switch, inputs it into an A-D converter, converts the voltage level into a digital signal, and then converts the voltage level into a digital signal. The level of the photoelectric conversion element read when the machine is not operating (for example, in an idle state) is stored as a digital signal so that the presence or absence of a medium is detected by directly reading the signal level itself into a so-called control device such as In a device that detects the medium when the level changes by more than a predetermined value after the machine starts operating, it may be caused by a decrease in the output of the light source or bending of the photoelectric conversion element, etc. In addition to making it possible to detect the medium while following the level change of the photoelectric conversion element that occurs, the output level of the photoelectric conversion element during non-operation can be used by the equipment by performing certain operations by staff or maintenance staff. It is possible to output using the link mechanism and display device that are installed, and to operate the device normally, such as the location of dirty optical sensors, the location of sensors that are easily contaminated, and the location of sensors that are expected to issue alarm signals soon. The purpose of this system is to make it easy for maintenance personnel to obtain valuable maintenance information for maintenance, thereby reducing the work that maintenance personnel have to do to disassemble, assemble, attach and detach the machine, and clean it. Therefore, compared to conventional devices, the automatic banknote handling device of the present invention has the following remarkable effects.

That is, (1) it is only necessary to clean or readjust only the optical sensor that has become undetectable and the sensor whose level output is expected to soon become undetectable; Therefore,
It is always possible to perform preventive maintenance before an abnormal optical sensor occurs, and by capturing the amount of change in the level, it is also possible to predict when each sensor will become undetectable. Become.

(2) The cleaning cycle becomes longer, making it possible to maintain a large amount of equipment with fewer maintenance personnel.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of its internal configuration, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a banknote detection control circuit for a plurality of optical order sensors, and Fig. 4 is an optical The waveform diagram in each state of the sensor, FIG. 5, is an example of maintenance information for the optical sensor. 1... Passbook insertion slot, 2... Card insertion slot, 3...
Customer operation guidance, 4...Display section, 5...Banknote entrance/exit. Receipt exit, 6... Operation key, 7... Bill inlet/outlet door, 8... Bill insertion slot rotary drum, 9, 9D. 9E...Single sheet separation section, 10...Transport belt, 11.
...Banknote discrimination section, 12A-12F...Switching valve, 13A
. 13B...Temporary storage unit, 14A-14F...Collection car, 15-18...Banknote storage box, 19...Optical sensor, 20...Ang, 21...Analog switch, 22
...Microcomputer, 23...A-D:ff/
/data, 24... microcomputer bus, 2
5...Memory, 26...Maintenance operation section, 27...Printer control, 28...Display control, 29...Printer, 30...Display. Figure 2 VCOL 1 key a”r) v v

Claims (1)

[Claims] While separating bills one by one, the passage of bills, number of bills,
In an automatic banknote handling device equipped with a plurality of optical sensors for detecting authenticity, denomination, etc., when a banknote is not detected, the output level of each of the plurality of optical sensors is scanned and detected, and a digital value representing the detection level is obtained. What is claimed is: 1. An automatic banknote handling device, characterized in that the digital values are stored in association with each sensor, and sensor maintenance information corresponding to the digital values is outputted by an output instruction means.