JPS6029157B2 - vending machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vending machine that is controlled by a microcomputer and sells multiple types of products mixed with multiple types of raw materials, and particularly relates to an inexpensive vending machine that reduces control information input to the microcomputer. The composition of the control input circuit makes it possible to control the mixing of raw materials for a wide variety of products.

As a preferred example of a product sold in this type of vending machine, a carbonated beverage with the trade name Coca-Cola will be explained.The ingredients of this carbonated beverage are prepared in the following manner.

Brix value = amount of water in syrup. Carbonation value = carbonated water + cold water, that is, the blending ratio of concentrated raw materials and diluted raw materials.IJx value represents the ratio of syrup to total water,
The carbonation value represents the ratio of carbonated water to the sum of carbonated water and pure cold water, and syrup, carbonated water, and cold water are mixed according to these mixing ratios. be exposed.

Therefore, this type of soft carbonated drink consists of: 1. Syrup discharge amount, or discharge time; 2. Discharge amount of carbonated water, or discharge time; 3. Cold water discharge amount, or discharge time, set at a predetermined ratio. This product is sold by mixing water and cold water.

However, in an actual vending machine, in addition to controlling the mixing ratio of raw materials, there are various controls such as managing coins inserted, taking out the container of the product drink, and mixing ice into the product drink as necessary. This must be done outside the microcomputer, and the microcomputer is required to perform a wide variety of complex control functions. In order to perform such complex control functions, there are conventional vending machines that use a sequencer equipped with a disc drum, and by adjusting the position of the disc in the sequencer, the discharge time of various raw materials can be adjusted. setting and adjusting the discharge amount of each raw material. but,
Recently, as vending machines have become larger, the types of products they sell have increased, and some disk-type sequencers are unable to adjust the discharge amount of a wide variety of raw materials for a wide variety of products.
Additionally, manufacturing costs increase significantly, making them difficult to use.Recently, it has become common for large vending machines that require such complex control functions to be electronically controlled using microcomputers. be. However, even when a disk-type sequencer is used or when a microcomputer is used, the control function is mainly the control of operating time such as raw material discharge time.

In other words, directly measuring and controlling the discharge rate of raw materials is disadvantageous in terms of manufacturing costs due to the need for discharge rate sensors, etc., and the control program in the microcomputer becomes significantly complicated. , the discharge amount is indirectly controlled by relatively simple control of time such as discharge time. Therefore, syrup,
For various raw materials such as carbonated water and cold water, the discharge amount per unit time is kept constant, and the ratio of discharge amount between each raw material can be mechanically adjusted, so that the discharge amount of each raw material can be adjusted individually. Generally, this can be done by simple time control of the ejection time. As mentioned above, the blending adjustment of raw materials for drinks, which are sales products in this type-shift vending machine, involves sequencer-like operations, such as moving the position of the disc to set the discharge time of raw materials, and turning on external contacts. - It is common for a microcomputer to directly control the opening time of the raw material discharge means in response to input of control information due to turning off.

When performing such control, even for beverage products of the same type, it is necessary to perform different time controls depending on the size of the sales volume at one time, that is, large-sized cup sales and small-cup sales. In addition, it is necessary to perform different time controls depending on whether ice is necessary or not. Therefore, even when electronic time control is performed using a microcomputer, when various raw materials are mixed in various ways to form various beverage products, the number of control input signals to the microcomputer is Moreover, it becomes necessary to reset the operating time of each part every time the sales volume or the mixing ratio of raw materials differs, which not only increases the manufacturing cost of the control device itself, but also increases the A problem arises in that the cost of maintaining and operating the vending machine also increases. The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and to sell products such as a wide variety of beverages prepared using a plurality of types of raw materials controlled by a microcomputer. By using a control signal indicating a numerical value representing the composition of the raw material composition of a product to be sold, such as a Brix value or a carbonation value, as a control input of a microcomputer, without setting the discharge time of each raw material separately, By reducing the number of control input signals of the microcomputer and simplifying the configuration of the control input circuit, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost of the control system and easily respond to changes in the sales volume of beverage products at one time. Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vending machine in which maintenance costs such as adjustment and setting of a control system can be reduced.

That is, in the first embodiment of the present invention, in a vending machine that mixes water and multiple types of raw materials and sells multiple types of products, a total water amount designation switch that specifies the total amount of water to be used in one sale; , a container designation switch that designates the size of the container that accommodates the specified product, and a first container that stores data indicating the relationship between the total amount of water and the size of the specified container.
a table, a total sales amount determining means for determining the total sales amount in one sale based on data read from the first table in response to specified input from the total water amount designation switch and the container designation switch, and a specified product. an ice presence/absence designation switch for designating the presence or absence of ice; and an ice amount subtraction means for subtracting an amount corresponding to the amount of ice from the total sales amount determined by the total sales amount determining means when ice is designated by the ice presence/absence designation switch. , a mixture ratio designation switch that specifies the mixture ratio of raw materials, and a second switch that stores the mixture ratio of raw materials in advance.
The discharge time for each raw material is calculated by referring to the mixture ratio read from the second table according to the table, the total sales amount from the ice amount subtraction means, and the mixture ratio designation input from the mixture ratio designation switch. It is also characterized by comprising a raw material discharge time calculation means and a discharge control means for discharging the raw material and water into the container according to the discharge time of each raw material calculated by the calculation means.

In a second embodiment of the present invention, a vending machine that mixes water and multiple types of raw materials to sell multiple types of products includes a total water amount designation switch that specifies the total amount of water to be used in one sale; A container designation switch that specifies the size of the container that accommodates the product, a first table that stores data indicating the relationship between the total water volume and the specified container size, and the total water volume designation switch and the container designation switch. a total sales amount determining means that determines the total sales volume in one sale based on the data read from the first table in response to a specified input; a mixture ratio designation switch that specifies the mixture ratio of raw materials; and a mixture ratio of raw materials. is stored in advance, the total sales amount from the total sales amount determining means, and the mixture ratio designation input from the mixture ratio designation switch. The method is characterized by comprising a raw material discharge time calculation means for calculating the discharge time of each raw material, and a discharge control means for discharging the raw material and water into the container according to the discharge time of each raw material calculated by the calculation means.

Here, multiple types of raw materials are carbonated water and syrup,
At the start and end of the sum of the discharge times of carbonated water and water, a predetermined length of mixing time can be removed, and the time can be set as the syrup discharge time.

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

First, the basic configuration of the present invention is shown in FIG.

Here, in one sale, the total amount of water to be used is designated by the total water amount designation switch 31. A cup size designation switch 32 is used to designate the size of a container, such as a paper cup, that accommodates the product designated to be purchased. In the first data table 33, data indicating the relationship between the total amount of water to be sold at one time and the specified size of the container is written in advance. Total sales amount determining means 34
Then, in response to each designation input from the switches 31 and 32, the first data table 33 is referred to and the total sales amount for one sale is determined based on the read data.

Furthermore, in a vending machine that requires specification of the presence or absence of ice, the presence or absence of ice is specified by the ice presence/absence specification switch 35. Here, when ice is required, ice amount subtraction means 3
6, the amount corresponding to the amount of ice is subtracted from the total sales amount determined by the total sales amount determining means 34. When ice is not required, the ice presence/absence designation switch 35 and the ice amount subtraction means 36 are not required. The blending ratio of various raw materials is designated by a blending ratio designation switch 37.

Data indicating the blending ratio of raw materials is stored in the second data table 38 in advance. The raw material discharge time calculating means 39 calculates the discharge time for each raw material by referring to the mixture ratio read from the second data table 38 according to the total sales amount from the means 34 or 36 and the mixture ratio input from the switch 37. The time is calculated, and according to the calculated time, the discharge control means 401 discharges various raw materials, water,
If necessary, ice is dispensed into the container. Here, the calculation of the discharge time of the valley raw material can be determined by the flow described later in FIG. 4, and each raw material and ice are discharged at the timing as described later in FIG. 3.

In the configuration example shown in FIG. 1 of a control electronic circuit using a microcomputer in a vending machine of the present invention that sells various soft drinks as products, the microcomputer 1 is an IJ-only memory (ROM).
, a random access memory (RAM), an input/output circuit, a clock oscillator, and other electronic circuits that perform computer functions are built into a single chip.

Control signal generation sources in a vending machine equipped with a control electronic circuit having such a configuration include the following. (1
! Product selection switch t2} Product sales price setting switch '3' Sales volume setting switch for each product (4' Product raw material blending timing setting switch [5] Timer for setting other timings ■ Quantity of various raw materials such as syrup, carbonated water, etc. The amount of digital signals input to these control circuits reaches several hundred bits, and the contact input circuit 7 handles a huge amount of control input signals.
is configured, for example, as shown in FIG.

In the illustrated contact input circuit, the cross-marked parts indicate on/off contacts 21, and so-called deep switches and digital switches are generally used as various setting switches. These contacts 21 are arranged in a matrix forming a so-called dynamic key scan, and for each column, the output voltage from the decoder 6 in the configuration shown in the first figure is supplied to the microcomputer 1, and the output voltage from the decoder 6 in the configuration shown in FIG. By changing the input port voltage of the microcomputer according to the on/off state of the contact 21, the microcomputer 1 determines the setting state of each contact. Further, the diode 22 shown in FIG. 2 is used to prevent interference between the contacts 21 when scanning the contacts 21 in each row. A coin sensor unit 13 that determines the amount of coins inserted into the vending machine is connected to the microcomputer 1. The coin sensor unit 13 calculates the amount of coins inserted based on the determination output signal from the sensor 13, and calculates the amount of coins inserted. It is displayed on the display 4 via the display control circuit 5. Following the insertion of a coin into the vending machine, when each product selection switch provided in the input acid point circuit 7 forming the key scanning section is pressed, the amount of coins inserted reaches the selling price of the selected product. If so, the microcomputer 1 issues a command to start mixing and selling the selected beverage product, and the output amplifier circuit 2 sends the various load circuit elements 3 in the product blending and discharging mechanism to each contact input circuit 7. A control signal corresponding to the set state of the contact is supplied to cause each contact 21 to operate as set. The various load circuit elements 3 shown in the figure are only typical ones, and there are many load circuit elements other than those shown, such as a counter, a change dispensing solenoid, and a motor. Each load circuit element 3 can be driven directly by an electronic circuit or indirectly via an electromagnetic relay, and can be appropriately designed according to the type of each load circuit element. I can do it. For vending machines, in addition to dispensing and discharging beverage products as described above, it is important to display various lamp circuits related to the sales process.In general, it is important to display various lamp circuits related to the sales process. In addition to displaying sold out items due to shortages, there is also a sellable display lamp that corresponds to the product selection switch for products that become available for sale according to the amount invested, and if you press the product selection switch according to the display, , only the lamp corresponding to the selected product continues to be lit, and the others are turned off.

In addition to controlling the vending operation described above, the microcomputer 1 that controls the vending machine also turns off the solenoid that enables the acceptance of inserted coins when the amount of coins inserted exceeds the upper limit. , prevent the acceptance of coins, or control various operations such as dispensing change after a product is sold.Furthermore, it operates a compressor depending on the temperature of cold water used as raw material and the amount of ice stored, or controls the water storage level. It also performs controls such as turning on and off valves so that the temperature is maintained within a predetermined range.

Regarding the control outputs for the various lamp displays mentioned above, for example, if there are 12 types of products for sale, each product will have two types of display: available for sale and sold out, resulting in a total of 24 displays. In addition to the lamps, there are also several auxiliary indicator lamps that indicate on-sale status, out of change, etc., so it is necessary to send out control output signals for the 3-strong indicator lamps. Therefore, the control output terminals provided on ordinary microcomputers are insufficient.
As shown in FIG. 1, shift register stages SR, SR2
,...,SRN using the shift register 8,
By shifting the control output data DATA using the clock pulse CL, the number of control output terminals can be increased, and the number of lamp display circuits consisting of the amplifier 9, the AND circuit 10, the display lamp 11, the product-specific counter 12, etc. can be increased arbitrarily. Do it like this. CT is a counter timing signal, which is used to cause the product counter 12 to count the number of products to be sold. Next, an example of the structure of the control input signals applied to the microcomputer in the vending machine having the structure shown in FIG. A chart is shown in FIG. 3, and a flowchart for setting the control timing is shown in FIG. 4 for explanation.

In carbonated soft drinks made from carbonated water, cold water, and syrup, the amount of each raw material discharged per unit time is mechanically adjusted appropriately so that the blending ratio of each raw material is at a predetermined value, and then the required Brix is adjusted. An example of a control sequence in which the discharge time of each raw material is set respectively so as to obtain the carbonation value and the carbonation value is shown in FIGS. 3A, B, and C.

The time TC shown in FIG. 3C, which is approximately equal to the sum of the carbonated water discharge time TA shown in FIG. 3A and the cold water discharge time mB shown in FIG. 3B, is the syrup discharge time. Before and after the discharge time TC, a delay of a certain time Tr and T9 is provided to improve mixing with the syrup. The discharge times TA, TB, and TC of each raw material must be set externally as control inputs given to the microcomputer, but generally, such discharge times are x. x seconds and 1G
Since it is a two-digit number, by setting those numbers by turning on and off the contacts of a digital switch, it can be expressed as an 8-bit binary number. In addition, when the amount sold at one time changes due to the presence or absence of ice addition, the size of the cup size, etc., the total length of the discharge time (TA + TB), which is the discharge time of the total amount of water, changes, so the discharge time corresponding to the change in the discharge conditions changes. Additional control inputs are required to facilitate changing time settings. Therefore, the discharge time T of the three types of raw materials mentioned above
The total number of bits of the control input binary number required for setting A, TB, and TC is as follows.

Product X with ice Discharge time TA Discharge time TB Discharge time TC Product X with ice
8 bit 8 bit (8 bit) Product x with ice Sales volume change 8 bit 8 bit (8 bit) Product x without ice 8 bit 8
Bit (8 bits) 8 bits 8 bits (8 bits) In order to simplify the logical operations for controlling these many discharge time settings, 24 bits each are binary for each of the four discharge time setting conditions described above. Although it would be sufficient to provide the control signal to the microcomputer, this would require a huge number of control input setting elements, significantly increasing manufacturing costs.

Therefore, in the vending machine of the present invention, the value of each dispensing time under each setting condition is not directly set individually, but the total length of dispensing time TA + TB is
By giving the ratio between TB and TB, thus the so-called carbonation value, as a control input to the microcomputer along with the total length of dispensing time, and therefore the sales volume at one time, it is possible to significantly reduce the number of control input setting elements required. Make it.

Furthermore, since the amount sold at one time varies depending on the cup size, a binary control signal representing the cup size is also provided. As mentioned above, the sales volume per sale is set based on the total water volume and cup size determined by the total discharge time TA + TB of carbonated water and cold water, and each control is also performed depending on whether or not ice is added and the carbonation value. Tanimoto's settings in the input setting conditions Jijocho A, TB,
A flowchart of control input setting for setting TC is shown in FIG. Discharge time T of the total amount of water corresponding to one sales amount in the control input of the above configuration
The numerical values for each setting condition of A+TB are, for example, the following 16 types of data.

Each value of the total discharge time mentioned above is stored in a data table in advance in the microcomputer with each data number attached to it, and when setting the sales volume for one time, each value of each data number 0 to 15 mentioned above is stored in advance in the microcomputer. 4 representing
A required numerical value is read from a data table in the microcomputer using a bit binary control signal and a 1-bit binary control signal representing the cup size, and the sales amount for one piece is set.

According to the flowchart shown in Figure 4, after setting the sales volume for one time as described above, the necessity of adding ice is set according to the purchaser's operation of the selection switch. , the amount equivalent to the amount of added ice will be subtracted from the above sales amount.

Next, calculate the ratio of carbonated water and cold water, divide the total length of the discharge time corresponding to one sales volume according to the carbonation value, and calculate the carbonated water discharge time TA and the cold water discharge time TB, respectively. The carbonation value is usually set in about 8 different values.
If you add them to the data table, you can deal with the sale of various soft drinks, so by reading out those values from the data table using a 3-bit binary control signal that specifies eight different carbonation values, It is possible to calculate the ejection times TA, TB, and therefore TC according to their carbonation values. Calculation of such a dispensing time can be easily performed using the arithmetic function of a normal microcomputer, and in calculating the syrup dispensing time TC, as described above,
It is calculated by subtracting the mixing times Tf and Tg before and after, respectively, from the discharge time TA+TB of the total amount of water. If the control input settings are made in the manner described above, an 8-bit binary control signal will be sufficient as the control input signal to be given to the microcomputer, except for the setting of whether or not to add ice. Compared to the case where each kettle discharge time is set individually, the number of bits of the control input binary number can be significantly reduced.

However, ``the manufacturing cost of a control device using a microcomputer is determined by the configuration of the control input/output circuit rather than the manufacturing price of the microcomputer itself, so simplifying the control input signal is This is an important element in manufacturing the seed control device.
In the flowchart for setting the discharge time of each raw material shown in the figure, the Brix value, which represents the ratio of syrup to total water volume, does not appear directly, but the reason is that syrup discharge time TC is equal to total water volume discharge time TA + TB. The mixing time Tr, Tg is set by subtracting the mixing time Tr, Tg from the front and rear ends of , it is difficult to keep the Brix value constant.

That is, for example, since the total water discharge time TA+TB changes depending on whether or not ice is added, the total water discharge time T
The ratio of the syrup discharging time obtained by subtracting the preceding and following mixing times Tf and Tg from A+TB changes somewhat depending on whether or not ice is added, and the Brix value changes. However, from a practical point of view, the total water discharge time TA + TB is much longer than the total mixing time Tf + Tg.
The above-mentioned change in Brix value has little effect on the quality of the soft drinks sold, and remains within a practically acceptable range. Further, as mentioned above, the carbonation value can be summarized in the form of a data number representing about eight types of ratios between the carbonated water discharge time TA and the cold water discharge time TB and used as a control input signal. Even if the number of products to be sold increases, it can be easily set using a binary control input signal of about 4 bits. As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a control input signal for mixing raw materials in a vending machine that sells soft drinks etc. mixed with various raw materials is generated using a binary control input signal with a relatively small number of bits. It is possible to control the discharge time corresponding to the discharge amount of each raw material by reading out the required control data from a data table pre-stored in the microcomputer using the relatively simple control input signal, and it is possible to control the discharge time corresponding to the discharge amount of each raw material. Even when sales conditions change, raw materials for sales products can be mixed at low cost using a control input circuit with a simple configuration and with an extremely small amount of control input signals.

The vending machine of the present invention can be used not only for selling the soft drinks mentioned above, but also for selling other drinks such as coffee. It can be done just as easily.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a control circuit for a vending machine according to the present invention. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the structure of the bran input circuit, FIG. 3 A, B, and C are time charts showing examples of the control mode, and FIG. 4 is the same. A flowchart showing an example of the control process, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the basic structure of the present invention. 1... Microcomputer, 2... Output amplification circuit, 3...
...Output circuit, 4...Display device, 5...
Display control circuit, 6... Decoder, 7...
・Contact input circuit, 8...Shift register, 9・
...Amplifier, 10...AND circuit, 11...
...Display lamp, 12...Counter by product, 13...Input sensor, 21...Contact, 22...Diode, 31... ...Total water quantity specification switch, 32...Container size specification switch, 33...First data table, 34...
...Total sales amount determining means, 35...Ice presence/absence designation switch, 36...Ice amount subtraction means, 37...
. . . Mixing ratio designation switch, 38 . . . Second data table, 39 . . . Raw material discharge time calculation means, 40 . . . Discharge control means. Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 1 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A vending machine that mixes water and multiple types of raw materials to sell multiple types of products, including a total water amount designation switch that specifies the total amount of water to be used in one sale; a container designation switch that designates the size of the container that accommodates the product; a first table that stores data indicating a relationship between the total water volume and the designated container size; the total water volume designation switch and the container; Total sales amount determining means for determining the total sales amount in one sale based on the data read from the first table in response to a specified input from the specified switch; an ice presence/absence designation switch; an ice amount subtraction means for subtracting an amount corresponding to the amount of ice from the total sales amount determined by the sales total amount determining means when ice is designated by the ice presence/absence designation switch; and a combination of the raw materials. a mixing ratio designation switch that specifies the ratio; a second table that stores the mixing ratio of the raw materials in advance; the total sales amount from the ice amount subtraction means; and a mixing ratio designation input from the mixing ratio designation switch. a raw material discharge time calculation means for calculating the discharge time for each of the raw materials with reference to the blending ratio read from the second table; A vending machine comprising a discharge control means for discharging water into the container. 2. In the vending machine set forth in claim 1,
The plurality of types of raw materials are carbonated water and syrup, and the time obtained by removing a predetermined length of mixing time at the start and end of the sum of the discharge times of carbonated water and water is defined as the discharge time of the syrup. A vending machine characterized by: 3. In a vending machine that mixes water and multiple types of raw materials and sells multiple types of products, a total water amount designation switch that specifies the total amount of water to be used in one sale, and a container that stores the specified products. a first table storing data indicating the relationship between the total water volume and the size of the designated container; and designation inputs from the total water volume designation switch and the container designation switch. a total sales amount determining means that determines the total sales amount in one sale based on the data read from the first table according to the above; a mixture ratio designation switch that specifies the mixture ratio of the raw materials; and a mixture ratio of the raw materials. a second table in which is stored in advance, and a mixture ratio read out from the second table according to the total sales volume from the total sales volume determining means and the mixture ratio designation input from the mixture ratio designation switch; A raw material discharge time calculation means for calculating the discharge time for each raw material, and a discharge control means for discharging the raw material and water into the container according to the discharge time of each raw material calculated by the calculation means. A vending machine featuring 4. In the vending machine set forth in claim 3,
The plurality of types of raw materials are carbonated water and syrup, and the time obtained by removing a predetermined length of mixing time at the start and end of the sum of the discharge times of carbonated water and water is defined as the discharge time of the syrup. A vending machine characterized by: