JPS63234924A - Shower apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a shower device, and particularly to an improvement in a shower device having a transmitting unit for remote control in a shower head.

(Prior art) A shower that includes a hot water generation mechanism equipped with a hot water control circuit, a shower head that supplies hot water from the hot water generation mechanism, and a remote control unit that remotely controls the hot water control circuit in the shower head. The device is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 80-114.
221, etc. This type of device is used when the control unit ( ) that adjusts the shower temperature, etc. is installed on the wall of the shower room or outside.
This idea was proposed in order to eliminate the inconvenience of having to move or take a different position to make adjustments, and furthermore having to put the shower head back on the hook.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, with such a shower device, the power supply of the signal unit that receives the remote control signal on the hot water control circuit side is always operating, which causes an increase in power consumption. was. Such inconvenience becomes a serious problem when multiple shower devices are installed in public facilities such as hotels and dormitories.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an economical shower device that is equipped with a transmitting unit in a shower head, allows remote control, is easy to use, and consumes less power in the receiving section.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides a hot water supply device having a hot water control circuit (18) and capable of supplying hot water at a desired temperature, and this hot water supply device. a shower head (8) capable of supplying hot water; and a shower head (8) that is electrically connected to the hot water control circuit (19) of the hot water supply device and receives a radio wave signal for remotely controlling the hot water control circuit (13). a receiving unit (20), and the shower head (8).
The hot water control circuit (19) of the hot water supply device is incorporated into the hot water supply device.
and a transmitting unit that emits a radio wave signal for remote control via the receiving unit, wherein the receiving unit (20) intermittently turns on power to operate each part of the receiving unit. Power control circuit (2
9).

According to such a configuration, the power consumption in the receiving unit can be reduced to only the power consumption of the circuit when the power supply is activated and the power consumption of the power supply control circuit.

(Example) The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the same reference numerals in each figure indicate similar objects.

FIG. 1 shows a shower device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
In the drawing, (1) is a water supply pipe that supplies water from a water supply source (not shown), (2) is a heat exchanger for turning cold water supplied by water supply pipe (1) into hot water, and (3) is a water supply pipe that supplies water from a water supply source (not shown). A burner that heats the heat exchanger (2), (4) heats the heat exchanger (2).
) is a hot water mixing valve that mixes the hot water heated by the hot water supply pipe (1) with the water from the water supply pipe (1) in an appropriate ratio, and (5) is the hot water mixing valve (an electromagnetic opening/closing valve such as a latching solenoid that supplies or shuts off hot water from 0). , (8) is an adapter that guides hot water at a desired temperature to the shower head (8) via a hose.

The shower head (8) is provided with, for example, a temperature adjustment dial (3) and a hot water supply switch (10). These temperature adjustment dials (9) and hot water switch (10)
), etc. are part of a known transmitting unit (not shown) incorporated in the shower head (8), and the shower head (
The transmitting unit 8) transmits command radio waves for remote control.

A hot water supply device consisting of a water supply pipe (1), a heat exchanger (2), a burner (3), a hot water mixing valve (0), an electromagnetic opening/closing valve (5), etc. is controlled by a hot water control circuit (18). Here, the hot water mixing valve (0 is a hot water mixing valve equipped with a known thermostatic mixing valve or an on-off valve made of a ceramic movable plate and a fixed plate).

The hot water control circuit (19) also includes an operation panel (18).
) or via the receiving unit) (20) of the operating means (9) of the shower head (8);
, (10), and the burner ignition command (
A), a hot water mixing valve adjustment command (B), and an electromagnetic opening/closing valve opening/closing command (C). In addition, the hot water control circuit (19) inputs detection signals from various sensors (not shown), and controls the hot water control circuit (18) to safely supply hot water at a desired temperature. The operation panel (18) that inputs operation signals to the control circuit (18) is installed, for example, on the inner wall of the shower room or the wall near the outside entrance of the shower room, and is used to control the shower temperature, water discharge, water stop, etc. It has operating means that allow it to be adjusted. A similar operation signal is also input from the transmitting unit side of the shower head (8) via the receiving unit (20), and the receiving unit according to the embodiment of the present invention) (20
) is equipped with a power supply control circuit (29).

FIG. 2 is a system diagram illustrating such a receiving unit (2°O), which is capable of receiving a signal obtained by amplitude modulating a digital code signal. That is, the radio wave carrying the operation command is high-frequency amplified in the RF amplification section (21), and then only the operation command is extracted at the detection section (22) and amplified to an appropriate voltage in the low-frequency amplification section (23). Ru. Thereafter, the waveform shaping section (24) performs necessary shaping and inputs the signal from the signal output section (25) to the load driving section (19a) of the hot water control circuit (19). Load drive section (19a)
includes, for example, a plurality of switching transistors, selects which load to operate according to the type of the received operation command signal, and instructs the load to operate the amount as necessary.

Each of the circuits (20) constituting such a reception
21) to (25) are driven by a common power supply circuit (2B), and according to the present invention, this power supply circuit (26) is controlled by a power supply control circuit (29). This power supply control circuit (29) instructs the power supply circuit (2B) to operate intermittently, and is constituted by, for example, an astable multivibrator or a monostable multivibrator.

According to such a configuration, when an operation command signal (sl) is generated from the 0 transmitting unit that operates as shown in FIG.
29) sends out a control signal (s2) at a fixed period (tl) according to the time constant of the circuitb), and the power supply circuit (26) is turned on for a fixed period of time (10) according to this control signal (s2), and the power is turned on. Voltage (s3) is established (C), then 1
If a transmitted radio wave is present, the receiving unit (20) produces an output (s4) in the waveform shaping section (24) (d), and can generate a signal (s5) by the signal output (25) (e). ), in this way, the power supply circuit (28) is intermittently
22) (20) can be reduced. That is, reception 22)
The current consumption can be reduced to tO/ll compared to the case where (20) is always activated. Here, since the generation cycle (tl) of the output (s2) of the power supply control circuit (29) is determined by the time constant or set time of the circuit, the power supply circuit (2B) is generally turned on at a constant cycle.

However, it is also possible to include a microprocessor in the power supply control circuit (28), input the reception frequency to the processor, and change the time constant for generating the control signal (s2) accordingly, thereby changing the generation cycle of the control signal. Possible 0 For example, if the shower is used frequently, the cycle can be shortened, and if the shower is not used more than MI at a certain time, the cycle can be lengthened. This further reduces the number of times the power supply circuit (2B) is turned on per hour, further reducing power consumption.

Also, when the power supply circuit (26) is cut off, the power supply control circuit (28)
) is operating, but for example, the microprocessor of the circuit (29) is operated only during reception operation and when determining the presence or absence of a signal, and the same (tl) is operated until the next predetermined synchronization (tl) elapses.
) Power consumption can be further reduced compared to the case where the microprocessor is constantly operated by cutting off the power supplies other than the built-in timer for generation (using the stop or sleep state of the one-chip microcomputer).

Note that digital codes have a format in which 1, for example, league bits, address bits, data bits, check bits, etc. are consecutive, but it takes time to receive all bits each time (therefore, consumption increases).
It is also conceivable that the presence or absence of the signal is determined by determining whether the received signal has league bits and address bits, and the power to the microprocessor is immediately turned off.

The invention consists of the above configuration, and its operation will be described below.

First, turn on the water heater so that the kitchen can ignite the burner using the control panel.

Then, set the desired temperature using the temperature adjustment dial on the operation panel or shower head transmission unit. After that, when you press the hot water supply switch, the hot water mixed pulp is activated to discharge water at a predetermined temperature according to the hot water mixed pulp adjustment signal of the temperature control circuit, and the latching solenoid, which is an electromagnetic opening/closing valve of the temperature control circuit, is turned in the open direction. Move and spray water from the shower head.

If you turn the temperature adjustment dial on the sending unit of the shower head (the state shown in Figure 3 (a)), a predetermined signal will be generated from the signal output section of the receiving unit, and the temperature control circuit will turn on the hot water mixing valve again. According to the adjustment command (e) in FIG. 3, the temperature of the shower water becomes the temperature after the change. When you want to stop discharging water from the shower head, press the operation panel or the hot water supply switch on the shower head again, and the solenoid valve open/close signal of the hot water control circuit will be generated, and the latching solenoid, which is the solenoid valve, will move in the closing direction. This blocks the flow of mixed water and prevents water from being spewed from the shower head.

In the above, we have explained the case where a digital signal using AM radio waves is sent from the transmitting unit to the receiving unit (20) as an operation signal, but it goes without saying that FM radio waves can also be used, and the code format of the signal can also be changed. P
Any arbitrary content such as CM can be adopted.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the invention, by controlling the power supply circuit of the receiving unit intermittently as described above, remote control is possible and the device is easy to use.

Furthermore, it is possible to obtain an economical shower device with less power consumption in the receiving unit. In addition, since it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the receiving unit in this way, the power source of the receiving unit can be changed to manganese, alkaline manganese,
It is also possible to use a battery such as a lithium dry battery, and furthermore, the present invention can be applied to a battery-powered shower device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of a shower device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a system diagram of a receiving unit which is a main part of the shower device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a system diagram of a shower device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the shower device according to the embodiment. In the drawing, (1) indicates a water supply pipe that constitutes a hot water supply device, (2) a heat exchanger that constitutes a hot water supply device, and (3) a water supply pipe that constitutes a hot water supply device.
) is a burner that makes up the hot water supply system. (0 is the hot water mixing valve that constitutes the hot water supply device. (5) is the electromagnetic opening/closing valve that constitutes the hot water supply device, (8
) is the shower head, (9) and (10) are the operation means of the transmitting unit, (19) is the hot water control circuit, (20) is the transmitting unit, (2B) is the power supply circuit of the receiving unit, (2
9) is a power control circuit for the receiving unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A hot water supply device having a hot water control circuit and capable of supplying hot water at a desired temperature, a shower head capable of supplying hot water of the hot water supply device, and the hot water control of the hot water supply device. a receiving unit that is electrically connected to the circuit and receives a radio wave signal for remotely controlling the hot water control circuit; and a receiving unit that is incorporated into the shower head and remotely controls the hot water control circuit of the hot water supply device via the receiving unit. and a transmitting unit that emits radio wave signals for the purpose of transmitting radio signals, wherein the receiving unit is equipped with a power control circuit that intermittently turns on power to operate each part of the receiving unit. .