JPS5925261B2 - vending machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a portable memory for storing sales data;
By inserting this portable memory, it is possible to sell stored products,
Regarding a vending machine equipped with a vending machine that writes sales data into the portable memory each time a product is sold, product replenishment is performed in a manner that particularly prevents overflow of the portable memory. It is something.

An example of this type of vending machine is a vending machine that is equipped with a portable memory, such as a guest room key chain held by a hotel guest, that stores data on sales of products from vending machines installed in hotel guest rooms. In such vending machines, a guest inserts the key holder of his or her room into a designated spot on the vending machine, opens the door of the vending machine, and takes out a product such as food or drink.
When the door is closed, the sales data during that time is stored in a portable memory built into the key holder, and when the customer checks out, the customer can perform accounting processing based on the sales data in the portable memory. In such a vending machine, it is necessary to handle overflow of the portable memory. For example, if a predetermined number of products are set in a vending machine in a guest room, and the products are not refilled until checkout, the storage capacity of the portable memory is sufficient for one loading, but if customers If products can be replenished as needed, taking into consideration the accommodation location and use by groups, it becomes impossible to specify an upper limit for the storage capacity of the portable memory. Therefore, in order to deal with this, simply increasing the storage capacity cannot be expected to improve the cost performance of vending machines.
In order to effectively utilize storage capacity, it is desirable to have a system configuration that allows replenishment of products until just before the portable memory overflows. An object of the present invention is to efficiently utilize portable memory and improve cost performance.
To provide a vending machine which generates a warning when the vending machine is replenished with merchandise until the memory overflows in relation to sales data in a portable memory. The present invention includes a portable memory for storing sales data, allows the sale of stored products by inserting this portable memory, and writes sales data into the portable memory each time a product is sold. In the vending machine, the vending machine includes a memory that stores inventory data indicating the inventory amount of the product in the vending machine and the sales data, and a memory that stores the sales data when replenishing the vending machine with products. means for updating inventory data with product replenishment data; and determining whether the sum of the updated inventory data and the sales data exceeds a specific value corresponding to the storage capacity of the town transport memory; The present invention is characterized by being provided with means for generating an alarm to stop replenishment of the product when a specific value is exceeded.

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a vending machine of the present invention, where 1 is a vending machine installed in a guest room or the like, and 2 is a portable memory. The vending machine 1 includes a contact input section 11 that generates a sales data signal in response to sales of inventory items in the vending machine, a data processing section 12, a vending machine memory 13, and a load control section 14.
The portable memory 2 is assumed to be built into a hotel guest's key chain or an appropriate case. In this vending machine, a key chain with a built-in portable memory 2 is attached to the vending machine in the guest room.
The door of the vending machine 1 opens by inserting the vending machine into the socket at a predetermined location, and when the customer takes out the desired food or drink stored in the vending machine and closes the door of the vending machine, the vending machine 1 opens. The sales operation is completed. The contact input unit 11 scans the switches placed in the vending machine corresponding to each product when the outer door is opened for sale or when replenishing products, and receives inventory data signals immediately after the door is opened and immediately after the door is closed. Then, these inventory data signals are transferred to the data processing section 12. The data processing unit 12 processes these inventory data signals and stores them in the vending machine memory 13. This vending machine memory 13 consists of at least three areas A2B and C. Area A stores the inventory data immediately before the door of the vending machine is opened, and area B stores the inventory data immediately after the door is closed. Assume that area C stores sales data indicating the sales amount up to the previous time. This sales data is also written into the portable memory 2 at the same time. Therefore, the sales data in area C is the same as the data written in the portable memory 2 before the current sale. Then, the data currently stored in areas A, B, and C are {A}. {B
If L{C}, the data {X} newly written to the portable memory 2 becomes {X}={A}-{B}+{C},
The data processing section 12 performs this arithmetic processing and writes the data {X} into the portable memory 2, and also writes the data {X} into the area C of the vending machine memory 13 in preparation for the next data processing. The load control unit 14 detects the insertion of a key chain with a built-in portable memory 2, the opening of the outer door of the vending machine, the opening of the inner door of the vending machine, etc., and controls the data processing unit 12 based on these detection outputs to output the vending machine memo. Controls writing to and reading from areas A, B, and C for month 3.

Regarding vending machines, for example, guests can only open and close the outer door of the vending machine using a key chain, but hotel staff can open and close the outer and inner doors of the vending machine using a designated key. , products can be replenished by opening the inner door. Therefore, when the internal door of the vending machine is opened, the load control section 14 issues a product replenishment command and the data processing section 1
Supply to 2. Next, when replenishing the vending machine 1 with products, the staff opens the outer and inner doors of the vending machine as described above and supplies a product replenishment command from the load control section 14 to the data processing section 12. As a result, under the control of the data processing unit 12, only the inventory data {A} in area A of vending machine memo I month 3 is sequentially changed as merchandise is replenished. The data processing unit 12 adds the inventory data {A} that has been updated as the product is replenished and the sales data {C} just before replenishment, and when the addition result exceeds a predetermined value, the data It is determined that there is a risk of an overflow. Then, the data processing unit 12 instructs the load control unit 14 that an overflow has occurred, generates an alarm to prevent further replenishment of the product, and closes the storage section for the product so that the vending machine does not accept the product. to lock. As will be described later, such replenishment control can be executed for each individual product.The above-mentioned transportation memory 2 can be configured with, for example, a 36-bit (18-bit x 2) shift register, and its bit pattern is as follows. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the first and second bits are set as the start bit,
Key chain from 3rd bit to 10th bit (guest room)
Address code corresponding to the number, 11th bit to 3rd bit
Up to 5 bits are allocated to sales data for products such as beer and whiskey, and the 36th bit is allocated to a parity bit.

Then, when the vending machine finishes selling the product and writes the sales data {C} into the area C of the vending machine memory 13, the data processing unit writes the same data into the portable memory 2 using the shift register. 12 controls. In the example of the bit pattern shown in FIG. 2, a maximum of 15 pieces of data can be stored for beer. Now, if the sales data before product replenishment is 10 bottles, this data is also stored in area C of the vending machine memory 13, so let's replenish the beer stock in the vending machine to 6 bottles. In this case, as mentioned above, the load control section 14 will generate an alarm, and even if there is enough space for beer in the vending machine, the storage section will be automatically closed so that the sixth beer cannot be refilled. to lock. As described above, according to the present invention, with a relatively simple configuration, it is possible to sell and replenish products until just before the portable memory with limited storage capacity overflows, thereby improving the cost performance of the vending machine. do.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a vending machine according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a bit pattern of a shift register used as a portable memory in FIG. 1...Vending machine, 2...Portable memory, 2
...Contact input section, 12...Data processing section, 13...Memory for vending machine, 14...
・I agree with you.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A vending machine that includes a portable memory for storing sales data, and that allows the sale of stored products by inserting the portable memory, and writes the sales data to the portable memory each time a product is sold. In the vending machine, the vending machine includes a memory for storing inventory data indicating the inventory amount of the product in the vending machine and the sales data, and a memory that stores the inventory data in the memory when replenishing the vending machine with products. means for updating with product replenishment data; and determining whether the sum of the updated inventory data and the sales data exceeds a specific value corresponding to the storage capacity of the portable memory, and determining whether the sum exceeds the specific value. A vending machine characterized by being provided with means for generating an alarm to stop replenishment of the product when the replenishment amount exceeds the limit.