JPS601236B2 - Liquid dispenser control circuit - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a control circuit for a liquid dispenser (hereinafter referred to as a dispenser) that dispenses an amount of beverage into a container according to the dimensions of the container. The system detects this and automatically controls the amount of beverage dispensed safely and reliably.

In conventional dispensers of this type, a manual lever is used to open and close an electromagnetic valve that dispenses beverages such as hot tea or chilled water, and dispenses beverages according to the size of the container while visually checking the contents of the container. I was adjusting the output.

In addition, in a vending machine that sells a predetermined amount of beverages in the same way as such dispensers, only one type of container such as a cup can be used, and a cam of a shape that fits the size of that one type of container. A timer is driven by a motor equipped with a motor to adjust the amount of beverage dispensed, making it impossible to change the amount of beverage dispensed to suit containers of different sizes. Apart from the above-mentioned vending machines, dispensers that are installed in business offices, rest areas, etc. to serve beverages to a large number of people can shorten the time it takes to dispense beverages to individual containers, especially during peak service times. Unless the container is filled with the appropriate amount of beverage, you must keep pressing the manual lever while dispensing the beverage, so you cannot leave the spot. Since it is troublesome and time-consuming to operate, it has various drawbacks, particularly that it takes a long time and causes congestion.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional technology and to provide automatic and safe control of the amount of beverage dispensed so that the appropriate amount of beverage can be dispensed into multiple types of containers of different sizes. An object of the present invention is to provide a control circuit for a disvenser.

That is, the control circuit of the present invention provides a dispenser for dispensing an amount of beverage according to the size of the container into the container, and a plurality of container size detection means and containers respectively arranged at different positions depending on the size of the container. The present invention is characterized in that the dispensed amount of the beverage is automatically controlled by at least one of the content detection means.

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

A preferred configuration example of the control circuit of the present invention is shown in FIG.

In the figure, DO-L, DO-M, and DO-S are light emitting elements, for example, light emitting diodes (LEDs) as shown in the figure, and it is preferable that the emitted light is converted into a light beam by a simple lens system. , DI-L, DI-M, and D wing-S are light-receiving elements, for example, phototransistors as shown in the figure, and light-emitting diodes DO-L, DO-M,
Each light beam from the DO-S is received and converted into an electrical signal.

Those light emitting diodes DO-L, DO-M, DO-S
and phototransistors D-L, DI-M, and DI-S, as shown in FIG.
-M and 6-S are placed horizontally close to the front surface of the case CS with the glasses sandwiched between them, thereby forming three sets of cups and a content detection means. The three sets of cups and the content detection means are arranged at the top and bottom as shown in Fig. 2 in accordance with the height near the upper edge of the three types of large, medium and small cups installed in the dispenser.
The light beams from the light emitting diodes are arranged in three tiers (middle, bottom, or L, M, and S), and the phototransistors receive the light beams from the light-emitting diodes that are reflected by the cups that are sized according to the height of each group. The output electric signals are combined to determine whether the size of the cup is large, medium, small L, M, or S, and the detection output signal of the content sensor is combined to determine whether each size of cup is filled with the drink. Determine whether or not. The content sensors 6-L, 6-M, and 6-S are, for example, a cup CP in which an electrode plate is arranged with respect to the case CS as shown in FIG.
This is an oscillation circuit in which the capacitance of capacitors placed close to each other changes depending on the presence or absence of contents in the opposing portions of the cup is incorporated into the tuned circuit. It is possible to use a CR oscillator, etc., in which the oscillation conditions change due to a change in the capacitance, and the oscillation stops and the oscillation starts. The size of the cup is determined by the combination of the and the light-receiving element, and the content sensor determines the dispensing state of the content beverage, and the time-limited circuits described later are activated, only during the time that matches the size of the cup. Relays x for opening and closing beverage dispensing valves (not shown) are controlled in a dual manner to safely and reliably dispense a predetermined amount of beverage that matches the size of each cup. Next, 1 is a power reset circuit, which resets the multipipetrators 3 and 8, which are the main parts for the timed operation of the control circuit of the present invention that controls dispensing of an appropriate amount of beverage, when the power is turned on.2 is an oscillator. In order to be able to clearly distinguish the light beam from the light emitting diode DG incident on the outside of the phototransistor from the continuously incident ambient light such as sunlight or illumination light, the light beam of the light emitting diode DO is Oscillate at a frequency suitable for periodically intermittent light emission.

The multipipelator 3 is driven by its oscillator 2 to cause the light emitting diode DO to periodically emit light via the transistors Trl and Tr2. 4-L, turtle-M, 4-
S is a differential and integral circuit, and includes light emitting diodes DO-L,
The pulse train signals supplied from the phototransistors D unit L, D wing M, and DI-S that received the light beams from DO-M and DO-S, respectively, are once differentiated, and the sequential differentiated output waveforms are It is integrated so that it can be clearly distinguished from the DC output signal components from the phototransistors D-Kiichi L, DI-M, and D-S due to ambient light.

Further, 7-L, 7-M, and 7-S are flip-flops, which are set when large, medium, and small sized cups are placed in front of the light emitting diode ○0 and phototransistor DI, and each cup is filled with contents. When the cup is filled, it is reset by the output signal from the content sensor 6, and operates so that each cup is filled with the appropriate amount of beverage. Also,
The multipipulator 8 includes phototransistors DI-L,
Differential and integral circuit 4-L in response to light reception of DI-M and DI-S,
It is set by the light reception detection output signal from either 4-M or 4-S and activates the beverage dispensing relay X, and the cups are set to be large, medium or small by the volumes IQ-L, 10-M and 10-S, which will be described later. A beverage dispensing valve (not shown) is opened for a correspondingly set length of time to dispense the appropriate amount of beverage. The illustrated control circuit of the present invention comprising the circuit components described above operates as follows.

According to the size of the cup attached to the dispenser,
Light emitting diodes DO-L and DO arranged in three stages: top, middle and bottom
-M, DQ-S are driven by the multi-pipe reliator 3 at the oscillation frequency of the oscillator 2, and a pulse-like large current repeatedly flows to emit strong light, and these light emitting diodes DO-L
, DO-M, and DO-S as shown in Figure 3, some small cups will reflect only the light beam from the light emitting diode DO-S, and some medium cups will reflect only the light beam from the light emitting diode DO-S. Light emitting diode DO-S and DO-M
The light beams from all the light emitting diodes are reflected together by the large cup, and the light beams from all the light emitting diodes are reflected by the large cup.
, DI-M, and DI-S, respectively.

The light reception detection output signal from the phototransistor DI-S is
After the waveform is shaped by the differential and integral circuit 5-S, it is supplied to the volume 10-S through the NAND circuit 5-S and the diode D2-S in order, and the level is set so that the operating time of the multi-pipe layer 8 is the shortest. After being adjusted, it is supplied to the multipipelator 8. Further, the light reception detection output signal from the phototransistor DI-M is transmitted to the differential and integral circuit 5.
After being waveform-shaped by -M, the signal is supplied to a NAND circuit 5-M. The NAND circuit 5-M is also supplied with a light reception detection output signal from the phototransistor DI-S, and therefore both phototransistors DI-S and DI
A low logic output signal from the NAND circuit 5-M is obtained only when the light reception detection output signals from -M are all aligned. Furthermore, the light reception detection output signal from the phototransistor DI-L is waveform-shaped by the differential and integral circuit 5-LI, and then is waveform-shaped by the NAND circuit 5-LI.
However, the NAND circuit 5-L is supplied with a low logic output signal from the NAND circuit 5-S via the diode D3, and a low logic output signal from the NAND circuit 5-M. is also supplied via the diode D4, so the three phototransistors D-S, DI-M, D
A low logic output signal from the NAND circuit 5-L is obtained only when the light reception detection output signals from IL are all aligned. therefore,
The small cups CP to be arranged as shown in FIG. 5A are
As shown in FIG. 5B, even if the phototransistors DI-M and DI-L are arranged floating with respect to the case CS and receive light detection output signals from the phototransistors DI-M and DI-L, the phototransistors DI
- If a light reception detection output signal is not obtained from S, it will not operate. The low logic output signals of NAND circuits 5-M and 5-L are connected to diodes D2-M and D2, respectively.
Volumes 10-M and 10-U are supplied via the 1L, and the levels are adjusted so that the operating time of the multipipelator 8 is the middle and longest, and then supplied to the multipipelator 8. The multipipulator 8 has a volume 10-S,1 connected in parallel to its input terminal.
The Nand circuit 11 and the transistor are controlled preferentially to the volume that provides the longer operating time among 01M and 10-L, and the NAND circuit 11 and the transistor Activate the beverage supply relay x via Tr3. On the other hand, phototransistor DI-S,
The light reception detection output signal of DI-M, D1-L is output from each differential and integral circuit 4-S, 4-M, 4-L and NAND circuit 5-S, 5.
-M and 5-L, respectively, and are supplied to respective set input terminals of flip-flops 7-S, 7-M, and 7-L, respectively.

7-S, 7-M, and 7-L, respectively. The reset input terminals of these flip-flops 7-S, 7-M, 7-L are connected to the aforementioned content sensors 6-S, 6-M.
, 6-L are connected to each other, and are set by the detection output signals of the content sensors that detect that the appropriate amount of beverage is filled in a cup of each size. Those flip-flops 7-S, T-M, 7
-L output signals are all passed through the OR circuit 9 to the NAND circuit 1? is supplied to. The NAND circuit 11 that drives the beverage dispensing relay x includes a NAND circuit 5- in addition to the low logic output signals from the multipipelator 8 and flip-flops 7-S, 7-M, and 7-L. A low logic output signal from S is also provided.

Therefore, the NAND circuit 11 receives a signal from the multipiperator 8 that detects the size of the cup, and a signal from the flip-flops 7-S, 7-M, and 7-L that indicates that the cup is filled with the appropriate amount of beverage. The control circuit of the present invention can obtain the output signal that drives the beverage dispensing relay X only while the signal from the NAND circuit 5-S and the signal from the NAND circuit 5-S detecting that the cup is placed in the stereotaxic pupil are available. As a result, the dispenser's beverage dispensing can be safely and reliably controlled in a double or triple manner. As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the size of the cup is automatically detected and the amount of beverage dispensed is adjusted according to the size of the cup, instead of the conventional manual type. By automatically adjusting and automatically detecting that the appropriate amount of beverage has been dispensed, it is much easier to simply place the cup in the stereotaxic layer and the rest of the beverage dispensing process is automatically performed. This improves the operability of the dispenser and greatly simplifies the process.

The control circuit of the dispenser of the present invention can be similarly applied to detecting a cup similar to that described above in a conventional vending machine, and to automatically stop dispensing a beverage when a cup falls over.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The turtle figure is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the control circuit of the present invention,
Figure 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration and arrangement of various sensing elements;
The figure is a line diagram showing an example of the arrangement of the cup with respect to the dispenser, Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of the external shape of the contents sesame, and Figs. 5 A and B are line diagrams showing other examples of the arrangement of the cup with respect to the dispenser. It is. 1... Power supply reset circuit, 2... Oscillator, 3, 8... Multi-pipe layer, 4-S, 4-M,
4-L...Calculus circuit, 5-S? 51M, 51L
, Take 1...Nand circuit, 6-S, 6-M, 6-
L...Content sensor "7-S, 7-M, 7-L...
W flip-flop, 9...OR circuit, 10-S,
10-M, 01L...volume, DO-S, DO mountain M9DO-L...4 light emitting diode LDI-S, DI
-M DI-L...Phototransistor, D2-S, D2
-M, D2-L, D3, D4, D5...Diode, T
rl, Tr2, Tr3...transistor, X...
Relay, CS...Case, CP. ．． ...6 pieces. Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 1 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a dispenser that dispenses an amount of beverage into the container according to the size of the container, a plurality of container size detection means and container contents are arranged at different positions depending on the size of the container, respectively. A control circuit for a liquid dispenser, characterized in that the dispensed amount of the beverage is automatically controlled by at least one of the detection means. 2. In the control circuit according to claim 1, the container size detecting means comprises a light emitting element that periodically and intermittently emits light, and a light receiving element that receives reflected light from the container of the light emitted from the light emitting element. A control circuit for a liquid dispenser, characterized in that it is configured with a combination of the following. 3. In the control circuit according to claim 1, the container content detection means includes a capacitive element that constitutes an oscillation circuit and has a capacitance that changes depending on the presence or absence of the beverage at a predetermined position in the container. A control circuit for a liquid dispenser, characterized by comprising: 4. In the control circuit according to claim 1, the beverage is supplied by at least one of a multivibrator driven by the container size detection means and a bistable circuit driven by the container size detection means and the volume content detection means. A control circuit for a liquid dispenser, characterized in that the length of time for which the liquid is dispensed is controlled.