JPS61160065A - Bar graph indicator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To discriminate the magnitude of an analogue input signal by the length and luminance of a bar graph, by stepwise changing the luminances of plural light emitting elements arranged unidimensionally corresponding to the magnitude of an input signal. CONSTITUTION:For example, in five-stage luminance distinction, max. luminance is set to 5 and four subsequent luminances are set to 4, 3, 2 and 1. Five pulses with a pulse width t0 are supplied to a light emitting diode D1 at time T0 and an average current corresponding to luminance 5 is supplied to the light emitting diode D. In the same way, the average current corresponding to the luminance 5 is respectively supplied to light emitting diodes D2, D3, D4 at times T1, T2, T3. At the next time T4, two pulses with a pulse width t0 are supplied to supply the average current corresponding to luminance 2 to a light emitting diode D5. By this method, a display device can be constituted of the reduced number of light emitting elements.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a bar graph indicator, and more particularly to a bar graph indicator using a light emitting element suitable for displaying the magnitude of an input signal in the form of a bar graph. It is something.

[Background of the invention]

Conventional bar graph indicators display and display the magnitude of an analog input signal by reflecting the length of the bar graph, allowing the observer to recognize the magnitude of the analog input signal. K, which can be recognized by sense, requires the use of a display with a large number of light emitting elements. In addition, there was a problem in that the drive unit became large. Regarding the bar graph indicator, for example,
There is a publication.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object thereof is to provide a bar graph indicator that can reflect and display the magnitude of an input signal in the length and brightness of a bar graph. be.

[Summary of the invention]

A feature of the present invention is that the brightness of the nine or more light emitting elements arranged one-dimensionally that constitute the bar graph display device is changed stepwise in accordance with the size of the input signal. The structure includes a driving means for displaying the magnitude of the input signal by the magnitude of the input signal and the luminance.

[Embodiments of the invention]

The present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 4, and 5.

This will be explained in detail using the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 and FIGS. 3 and 6.

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the bar graph indicator of the bar graph indicator of the present invention, which is constructed from 20 light emitting diodes. In Figure 1, D1 to D
20 is a light emitting diode, AO to A3 are anode twins, CO to C4 are cathode lines, and the light emitting diode DI-D20 emits light in a gold bar graph shape. In order to cause the light emitting diodes D1 to D4 to emit light at five levels of brightness, pulses as shown in FIG. 2 are supplied to the anode lines AO to A3 and the cathode lines CO to Ct. .

Here, in order to easily distinguish between the five levels of brightness, the maximum brightness is set as brightness 5, and hereinafter referred to as brightness 4, 3, and 2.1. The light-emitting diodes D1 to D4 of the display in figure s1 are turned on at a brightness of 5, and the pulses when the light-emitting diode D5 is turned on at a brightness of 2 and displayed in a bar graph form are shown in Figure 2. At time To, the pulse width is 1. 5 pulses are supplied to the light emitting diode D1, and an average current corresponding to a brightness of 5 is supplied to the light emitting diode D1,
Similarly, at time T5, the light emitting diode D2 is activated at time T! At time T3, an average current corresponding to a brightness of 5 is supplied to the light emitting diode D3, and to the light emitting diode D4 at time T3. Then, at the next time T4, an average current corresponding to a brightness of 2 is supplied to the light emitting diode D5 by supplying two pulses of 1 tlto. Therefore, if the above-mentioned operation is performed periodically, it becomes possible to display a bar graph indication as shown in FIG. 3 on the display of FIG. 1.

Here, we will explain using Figures 1 and 2, and using the drive method of the bar graph display, we will introduce a part that converts the magnitude of the input signal into a digital quantity in the previous stage, and a part that converts the above drive method. By providing a drive pulse generator and a light emitting diode driver, a bar graph indicator can be manufactured using a relatively small number of light emitting elements.

FIG. 4 is a basic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the bar graph indicator of the present invention. In Fig. 4, 1 is an A converter that converts an analog input signal into a digital signal, 2 is a 7-node drive pulse generator, 3 is a cathode drive pulse generator, and 2.3 is a monostable multivibrator. , a ring counter and a shift register. 4 is a seven node drive section, 5 is a cathode drive section, and 6 is a bar graph display.

However, the configuration shown in FIG. 4 has the disadvantage that the circuit configuration is complicated and large. Therefore, in the present invention, a microprocessor is used in the drive pulse generation section to simplify and downsize the circuit configuration. FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing an example at that time. In FIG. 5, 7 is a microprocessor having the functions of the A-D converter 11, anode drive pulse generator 2, and cathode drive pulse generator 3 in FIG. 4, 8a and 8b are decoders, and 4 is an anode drive unit. , the light emitting diodes Di-D20 of the bar graph indicator 6 are arranged one-dimensionally.

FIG. 6 is a charm chart of the drive pulses in FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart of processing in the microprocessor 7 of FIG. The operation of FIG. 5 will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. The microprocessor 7 has a function of converting the magnitude of an analog input signal into a corresponding digital quantity, and a function of creating and outputting a display lighting code corresponding to the digital quantity.

Indicator lighting codes are prepared for each of the light emitting diodes D1 to D20, which are the components of the display 6, and the input signal is 1 to 1 of the full scale.
When it is 5%, the lighting code of light emitting diode D1 corresponds to it, when it is 6% to 10%, the lighting code of light emitting diode D2 corresponds to it, and when it is 11% to 15%, the lighting code of light emitting diode D3 corresponds to it. A lighting code corresponding to the digital amount of the input signal is assigned, such that the number corresponds to the input signal. That is, an analog input signal of θ~100 is converted to 100 normal values, and then 20
The microprocessor 7 is provided with the function of converting the light into individual lighting codes.

For example, FIG. 6 shows the operation of the drive pulse when the input signal is 43-. The input signal of 43chi is 4
It is converted to a normal value of 3, and further the light emitting diode D9
It is converted into a lighting code and output. The normal value is then decremented to 42. Furthermore, it is converted into a lighting code for light emitting diode D9 corresponding to the normal value 42,
It is output after a time 1o from the output of the above code. Similarly, the normal value is decremented by 1, and the lighting code for the light emitting diode corresponding to the normal value is output after time to, and this operation is repeated until the normal value becomes zero. As a result, during the time 3to (To) in FIG. 6, the lighting code of the light emitting diode D9 is output, and during the next time 5tO (TI), the lighting code of the light emitting diode D8 is output, and the next time 5to ( To ), a lighting code is outputted from the light emitting diode D7. In other words, the light emitting diode D9 has a brightness of 3, which corresponds to a brightness of 3;
An average current is supplied, and an average current corresponding to a brightness of 5 is supplied to the light emitting diodes D8 to D1. Also, the no-lighting code is output from the time the normal value becomes zero, and the time 10Q
The output continues until t6. therefore,
If such operations are performed continuously, a bar graph indicator with five levels of brightness can be realized.

As described above, according to one embodiment of the present invention, since the nine-bar graph indicator needle has five levels of brightness, the indicator 6 composed of 20 light emitting diodes Dl-D20 can be used to indicate the range of θ to 100. Bar graph indication is possible, and the overall size can be reduced.

In the above-described embodiments, a light emitting diode is used as the light emitting element, but it goes without saying that a fluorescent display tube or a plasma display may also be used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the magnitude of an analog input signal is recognized by the length and brightness of a bar graph, so that an observer can easily recognize the magnitude of an input signal without losing the analog feeling. The display device can be recognized with a relatively small number of light emitting elements, and can be downsized including the drive device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the bar graph indicator of the bar graph indicator of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a time chart of drive pulses, and Fig. 3 is a bar graph display of the bar graph indicator of the present invention. Figure 4 is a basic configuration diagram showing an example of the bar graph indicator of the present invention, IJXS is a circuit configuration diagram showing an example of the bar graph indicator of the present invention, t
FIG. a6 is a time chart of drive pulses for explaining the operation of FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of processing in the microprocessor of FIG. 5. D1-D2G...Light emitting diode, 4...Anode driver, 6...Bar graph display, 7...Microprocessor, 8a, 8b...Decoder. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 7

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A bar graph display in which a plurality of light emitting elements are arranged one-dimensionally and the respective light emitting elements are connected through a matrix circuit, the magnitude of the input signal is displayed in the form of a bar graph. In an indicator configured to emit light, the luminance of the light emitting element is changed stepwise in accordance with the magnitude of the input signal, and the magnitude of the input signal is displayed by the length and luminance of a bar graph. A bar graph indicator characterized by comprising a driving means for. 2. The driving means converts the magnitude of the input signal into a digital quantity, and generates a driving pulse for supplying a current to the light emitting element for indicating a bar graph of length and brightness according to the digital quantity. A bar graph indicator according to claim 1, which is configured as follows. 3. The bar graph indicator according to claim 2, wherein a microprocessor is used in the drive pulse generating section of the drive means.