JPS6336245Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to an automobile odometer, and relates to a method for reading and determining the total distance traveled and the distance traveled during an arbitrary period.

Generally, odometers for automobiles have two types of display: an odometer that shows the total distance traveled, and a trip meter that shows the distance traveled during a given period.

Conventionally, most distance meters have used mechanical counters, which transmit wheel rotation to an eddy current speedometer via a transmission cable to indicate the speed, and are also installed inside the speedometer. The rotation is transmitted as a subtractive value to a counter, which is then rotated to display the distance traveled.

Incidentally, in recent years, along with the electronicization of instruments such as speedometers, there has been a significant shift to optical display of odometers, and various similar proposals have been made.

In particular, with the development of non-luminous memory semiconductors, when used in odometers that continuously store the total, it has become possible to count and display the distance traveled extremely accurately without worrying about the consumption of the vehicle's on-board power supply. ing.

In addition, since it is an optical display as mentioned above, it is easy to use both the odometer and trip meter mechanisms, which was extremely difficult with conventional mechanical counters.
In automobiles, where the display space tends to expand due to the increase in the number of various warning devices, the reduction in space due to the above-mentioned sharing has become extremely effective.

Here, when displaying both the odometer and trip meters mentioned above on the same display, a means is needed to determine whether the displayed value is the total distance traveled corresponding to the odometer or the distance traveled during any period corresponding to the trip meter. It's coming.

Therefore, as the above-mentioned discrimination means, it is conceivable to provide other display means such as one that changes the display color for each display, or a light emitting diode that emits light only when one distance is displayed, but the former is Not only is this expensive, and the latter contradicts the purpose of reducing display space,
The drawback is that it cannot be identified at a glance.

The purpose of this invention is to use a portion of each segment of unused upper digits in the numeric display.
To provide an odometer having easy and reliable discrimination ability without using an expensive display having a multicolor display function or providing other special discrimination display means.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below based on the accompanying drawings.

In Fig. 1, numeral 1 denotes a distance sensor that generates a pulse signal every predetermined distance traveled by the vehicle, which shapes the waveform of an alternating current signal proportional to the vehicle traveling speed from an electromagnetic pickup sensor installed in a gearbox, etc. It consists of a processing circuit that performs appropriate frequency division processing.

2 is a first counter for a so-called trip meter that counts pulse signals from the distance sensor 1 for an arbitrary period and can be reset to zero by operating an external reset switch 3; 4 continuously counts the pulse signals for the entire trip; A second counter for a so-called odometer that records distance, and is composed of a non-luminous memory element of the MOS type, for example. Reference numeral 5 denotes a selection circuit which selects and passes the binary coded decimal output signals of the first and second counters, and the selection control is performed by operating an external selection switch 6. 7 is the output from the selection circuit 5, that is, the first counter 2 or the second counter 4.
This is a decoder that converts an evolved decimal output signal into a display signal, and has a zero suppression function. 8
determines the presence or absence of the display signal output from the decoder 7 for each digit, passes the digits for which the display signal is output as is, and passes the digits for which the display signal is not output, that is, zero-suppressed non-digits. This is a gate circuit that outputs a display signal corresponding to a discriminating symbol other than a number in a digit corresponding to the upper digit used.

9 is a display device that displays numbers or discrimination symbols corresponding to the display signal from the gate circuit 8;
A 7-segment type 6-digit display device as shown in FIG. 2 is used.

Now, as an example of the gate circuit 8, FIG. 3 shows a circuit configuration in which a discrimination symbol is displayed by the combination of segments C, d, and g shown in FIG. 2. 71 is a decoder corresponding to the most significant digit of the display 9, and when the BI terminal is in the L state, the BRI terminal is in the H state, and all signal inputs from the selection circuit 5 are in the L state, the BRO terminal is in the H state. When this happens, no display signal is output.

That is, a CMOS IC configured to be zero suppressed is used.

In addition, the above BRO terminal is connected to the next stage decoder 72.
It is connected to the BRI terminal, and is configured so that zero suppression processing is performed in the same manner starting from the most significant digit.

Further, the output of the decoder 71 is connected to the input of the NOR circuit 8a1 in the gate circuit 8, and the NOR circuit 8a1 is connected to the input of the NOR circuit 8a1 in the gate circuit 8.
The output of the circuit 8a1 is connected to one input of the AND circuit 8b1, and the other input of the AND circuit 8b1 is connected to the selection switch 6.

The output of the selection switch 6 is set to be in the L state when set to the odometer side, and to be in the H state when set to the tripmeter side. Further, among the outputs of the decoder 71, the outputs corresponding to segments C, d, and g are sent to an OR circuit 8c.
The output of the NOR circuit 8a1 is connected to the other input of the OR circuit 8e1, and the output of the AND circuit 8b1 is connected to the other input of the OR circuit 8c1, 8d1. ing.

The above circuit configuration shall be applied to all digits of the display 9 except for the lower two digits, and the corresponding The decoder output and display segment shall be directly connected.

This is so that when the counter content to be displayed is zero, that is, when the trip meter counter 3 is reset, the zero is displayed in the lower two digits.

Next, in the above configuration, the display form on the display 9 will be explained with reference to FIG. 4 when the total distance traveled as an odometer is 567.8 km and the distance traveled during an arbitrary period as a trip meter is 87.6 km. Here, the lowest digit of the display 9 is in units of 100 m, the upper digit is in units of Km, and the division is the boundary point P.
It shall be held at

First, if the selection switch 6 is set to the odometer side, a binary coded decimal output signal corresponding to the total mileage counted by the second counter 4 is applied to the decoder 7 via the selection circuit 5.ゝMoni,
from the selection switch 6 to the gate circuit 8.
The output to the AND circuit 8b is in the L state.

Furthermore, since the outputs of the decoders 71 and 72 corresponding to the unused upper digits 91 and 92 of the display 9 are zero-suppressed and are all in the L state, the outputs of the NOR circuits 8a1 and 8a2 are in the H state, and the OR circuit 8e1 , 8e2, the corresponding segments g are displayed on the display 9 as shown in FIG. 4a, and it is determined that this value is the total distance traveled.

Next, if the selection switch 6 is set to the trip meter side, a binary coded decimal output signal corresponding to the mileage during an arbitrary period counted by the first counter 2 passes through the selection circuit 5 and is applied to the decoder 7. The lower three digits of the display 9 are displayed as shown in FIG. 4b.

In addition, the outputs of the decoders 71, 72, 73 corresponding to the unused upper digits 91, 92, 93 are zero suppressed and are all in the L state, so the same applies as above.
The outputs of the NOR circuits 8a1, 8a2, and 8a3 are in the H state, and the corresponding segment g is displayed via the OR circuits 8e1, 8e2, and 8e3.

At the same time, the output from the selection switch 6 to the gate circuit 8 becomes H state, so that the AND circuits 8b1, 8b2,
The OR circuits 8c1 and 8b3 are both in a passing state.
The corresponding segments c and d are displayed via 8c2, 8c3 and 8d1, 8d2, and 8d3, respectively. As a result, it is determined that the value on the display 9 is the travel distance for an arbitrary period of time.

That is, the display 9 at this time functions as a trip meter.

The above example shows a circuit in which the discrimination symbol is set inside the gate circuit 8 and the discrimination symbol is displayed on all unused high-order digits. However, by applying the gate circuit 8 only to the highest digit, the fourth Discrimination symbols such as those shown in Figures a' and b' can be easily achieved, and furthermore, by providing an external discrimination symbol setting circuit that sets and outputs the display signal for the discrimination symbol, it is easy to distinguish according to the user's preference. It is also possible to arbitrarily set the symbol. FIG. 5 shows another embodiment, in which the decoder 7
The system utilizes the zero suppression function of 2015 to display the discrimination display using a simpler circuit configuration.

In this case, the gate circuit 8 of FIG. 1 is simplified and added to the decoder 7, and the AND circuit 7a of FIG. 6 performs zero suppression control of the decoder 7.

That is, the output of the selection switch 6 is connected to one input of the AND circuit 7a, and the output is connected to the BRI terminal of the decoder 71 corresponding to the most significant digit. The other input of the AND circuit 7a is configured such that an H state is applied only when the outputs of the counters corresponding to the decoder 71 are all L-shaped.
The BRO terminal of the decoder 72 is connected to the BRI terminal of the next-stage decoder 72, and all the other decoders except for the lower two digits are connected in the same manner. Furthermore, the output of the selection switch 6 is set to be in the L state when set to the odometer side, so if the user wants to know the total distance traveled and the selection switch 6 is set to the odometer side, the output of the selection switch 6 is set to the odometer side. The count contents of the second counter 4 are applied to the decoder 7 via the selection circuit 5.
The signal is converted into a display signal and 567.8 is displayed in the lower four digits of the display 9 as shown in FIG. 7a.

Further, since the output of the selection switch 6 is in the L state, the AND circuit 7a is in the blocking state, and the BRI terminal of the decoder 71 is in the L state. Therefore, the BRO terminal of the decoder 71 is also in the L state,
It is applied to the BRI terminal of the next stage decoder 72.

Below, the signal is transmitted to the lower decoder in the same way,
In the end, all the BRI terminals of the decoders corresponding to the upper four digits go to the L state, so zero suppression is not performed, and signals for displaying the number 0 are output from the decoders 71 and 72 whose corresponding counter outputs are all in the L state. . Therefore, the unused upper digit 9 of the display 9
1 and 92 are displayed as 0, and it is determined that this value is the total distance traveled.

Next, if the selection switch 6 is set to the trip meter side, a binary coded decimal output signal corresponding to the mileage during an arbitrary period counted by the first counter 2 passes through the selection circuit 5 and is applied to the decoder 7. The signal is converted into a display signal by the decoder 7, and 87.6 is displayed on the lower digit 3 of the display 9 as shown in FIG. 7b.

At the same time, since the output of the selection switch 6 is in the H state, the AND circuit 7a is in the pass state, and since all the counter outputs corresponding to the decoder 71 are in the L state, the H state is also applied to the other input of the AND circuit 7a. Ru. Therefore, the H state is applied to the BRI terminal of the decoder 71, the BRO terminal becomes the H state, and the output to the display 9 is suppressed to zero and becomes the L state. Therefore, the display 9
Nothing is displayed in the unused upper digits 91, 92, and 93, and it is determined that the lower three digits are the mileage for an arbitrary period.

As described in detail above, the present invention includes a first counter that counts pulse signals generated from a distance sensor every fixed travel distance for an arbitrary period and that can be reset using an external reset switch. The second counter counts independently, and a selection circuit is provided to select and pass either of the counted contents of the first or second counter by operating an external switch, and the same display displays the above counts. It is designed to switch and display the mileage for an arbitrary period or the total mileage counted by the first and second counters, and one of the unused high-order digits that are not displayed numerically among all the display digits of the above-mentioned display. By displaying different symbols depending on the combination of segments in the digits or in all digits, it is possible to determine whether the mileage for an arbitrary period or the total mileage is displayed, thereby providing other special discrimination display means. without any
It is possible to provide an inexpensive odometer that can also be used as a part of the distance display.

Furthermore, by using the same display unit, the discrimination symbol is displayed consecutively with the distance number, and a reliable discrimination effect with good visibility can be expected.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 3 are circuit configuration diagrams showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view for explaining the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a display form achieved by the circuit configuration of FIG. 1. 5 and 6 are circuit configuration diagrams showing other embodiments, and FIG. 7 is a display form diagram of the circuit configuration diagram of FIG. 5. 1... Distance sensor, 2, 4... Counter, 3...
...Reset switch, 5...Selection circuit, 6...Selection switch, 7...Decoder, 8...Gate circuit, 9...Display device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] The pulse signal generated from the distance sensor for each fixed distance traveled is counted independently by a first counter that counts for any period of time that can be reset by an external switch operation, and a second counter that counts continuously. At the same time, the count contents of the first and second counters are passed through a selection circuit which selects and passes either one of the count contents of the first and second counters by operating an external switch.
In a vehicle odometer having a multi-digit digital display with a segment date display that switches between displaying the mileage for an arbitrary period or the total mileage counted by the first and second counters, A gate circuit that performs signal conversion to display an arbitrary combination of segments in some or all of the counter outputs corresponding to unused upper digits that are blanked out due to zero suppression during the distance display process among all display digits. intervening in at least one counter output, and the unused high-order digits are used to distinguish the mileage of the other counter.