KR100234963B1 - Water supplying control apparatus of ice machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a water supply control device for an ice maker, and includes a freezing compartment (2) and a refrigerating compartment (3) formed in the refrigerator main body (1), and an ice making vessel for ice-making water that is rotatably installed in the freezing compartment (2) 5) and a refrigerator ice maker including a water supply valve 6 for supplying water to the ice making vessel 5, wherein the water supply time is adjusted to adjust the water supply time to adjust the amount of water supplied to the ice making vessel 5. Means 32 and control means 22 for controlling the water supply valve 6 so that a predetermined amount of water is supplied to the ice making vessel 5 according to the water supply time adjusted by the water supply time adjusting means 32. It is made, by adjusting the water supply time step by step using the dip switch (SW1 ~ SW3) it is possible to change the exact water supply time, it is possible to easily adjust the amount of water supplied to the ice tray (5).

Description

Water Supply Device of Ice Maker

The present invention relates to an ice maker for a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a water supply control apparatus for an ice maker for easily adjusting the amount of water supplied to an ice maker.

In general, when the water is directly supplied to the ice making vessel from the water pipe, the ice making machine of the water direct connection method is an apparatus for making ice by ice making water by cold air, and separating the ice in the ice making vessel and automatically storing the ice in the ice storage container.

As shown in FIG. 1, the ice maker is partitioned into a plurality of spaces in the upper end of the partition wall partitioning the freezing compartment 2 and the refrigerating compartment 3 of the main body 1, that is, the freezing compartment 2 to make ice. An ice making vessel 5 is provided to ice water supplied from the water supply pipe 4, and a solenoid valve is turned on / off to supply a predetermined amount of water to the ice making vessel 5 at a predetermined position of the water supply pipe 4. (Hereinafter referred to as "water supply valve") is provided.

An evaporator 7 is installed at the lower right end of the ice making vessel 5 to heat the blown air to cool air, ie, cold, by the latent heat of evaporation of the refrigerant. The cooling fan 9 is rotated in accordance with the drive of the fan motor 8 to circulate the cold air heat exchanged by the circumference of the ice making vessel 5 to ice the water stored in the ice making vessel 5.

And, at the lower end of the ice making bowl (5), a storage container (10) for storing ice iced by the cooling fan (9) is installed, and on one side of the ice making bowl (5) the storage container (10) A storage amount detection lever 11 for detecting the amount of ice stored in the rotational center is installed around the hinge point 12, and stored at the one end of the storage amount detection lever 11 in the storage container 10. The microswitch 13 which operates on / off by the storage amount detection lever 11 which moves up and down according to the quantity of ice is provided.

In the ice maker configured as described above, when the power is applied, the microcomputer 15 determines the ice making condition and performs the ice making cycle. The general ice making cycle of the refrigerator can be divided into three processes.

The first process is the initialization process of the refrigerator and the water supply process of supplying water to the ice making vessel (5), and the second process is an ice making process of making ice by freezing water in the ice making vessel (5), and the third process is an ice making vessel. The ice formed in (5) is separated from the ice making bowl (5), and the ice is stored in the storage container (10).

By the way, in the conventional ice maker, the service man checks the water pressure of the tap water when the refrigerator is installed, and then operates the dial (screw method) to turn on the water supply valve 6 suitable for the water pressure as shown in FIG. For example, if 5 seconds, 8 seconds, 10 seconds) is selected, the water supply valve 6 is turned on in the microcomputer 15 for the selected time, and water is supplied from the water pipe 4 to the ice making vessel 5. At this time, since the water supply valve 6 operates for a set time irrespective of the water pressure of the water supplied from the water pipe 4, there is a problem that water overflows or is insufficient in the ice making vessel 5 in a region where the water pressure fluctuates severely. .

As such, when the amount of water supplied to the ice making bowl 5 is large or small, the user adjusts the amount of water by operating a dial type water regulator installed in the ice maker. Therefore, it was difficult to match the water supply at a time, and there was a problem that it was difficult to set a stepwise type for the water supply.

In addition, the mechanical type has to separate the ASS′Y of the ice maker, and the electronic type has the problem of lowering the reliability of the product to the consumer during A / S due to the inconvenience and time lost of soldering, inserting, and removing the diode when the option is changed. .

Therefore, the present invention was devised to solve the above problems, and the water supply time is set at a predetermined interval by the microcomputer program, and the water supply time is adjusted stepwise by using a dip switch to change the water supply time accurately. It is possible, and the object of the present invention is to provide a water supply control device of the ice maker to simply adjust the amount of water supplied to the ice making vessel.

In order to achieve the above object, the water supply control apparatus for an ice maker according to the present invention includes a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment partitioned in a refrigerator main body, an ice making bowl for rotating water provided to be rotated in the freezing compartment, and water in the ice making bowl. A ice maker for a refrigerator having a water supply valve for supplying water, comprising: a water supply time adjusting means for adjusting a water supply time to adjust the amount of water supplied to the ice making vessel, and the water supply bowl according to the water supply time controlled by the water supply time adjusting means. Characterized in that the control means for controlling the water supply valve so that a predetermined amount of water is supplied to.

1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a general ice maker.

2 is a water supply control circuit diagram of a conventional ice maker.

3 is a control block diagram of the water supply control device of the ice maker according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a detailed circuit diagram of the water supply time adjusting means applied to the present invention.

5 is a set chart of the water supply time applied to the present invention.

Figure 6 is a flow chart showing the water supply time adjustment operation procedure of the ice maker according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

4: water pipe 5: ice tray

6: water supply valve 20: power supply means

22: control means 24: water supply valve drive means

26: temperature sensing means 28: fan motor driving means

30: moving motor driving means 32: water supply time adjusting means

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the power supply means 20 receives a commercial AC voltage supplied from an AC power supply terminal (not shown) and a predetermined DC voltage (load driving power supply, microcomputer driving power supply) required for the operation of the ice maker. To be printed).

The control means 22 initializes the ice maker by receiving a DC voltage (microcomputer driving power) output from the power supply means 20 and controls the overall ice making operation of the ice maker according to the on / off signal of the micro switch. As a microcomputer, the control means 22 controls the on / off operation of the water supply valve 6 so that a predetermined amount of water is supplied to the ice making vessel 5 according to the water supply time adjusted by the water supply time adjusting means described later. do.

Then, the water supply valve driving means 24 receives the control signal output from the control means 22 and drives the water supply valve 6 so that water is supplied from the water pipe 4 to the ice making vessel 5, and the temperature is controlled. The detection means 26 is a temperature sensor which senses the temperature of the water supplied to the ice making vessel 5 according to the opening of the water supply valve 6 and outputs it to the control means 22.

The fan motor driving means 28 receives the control signal output from the control means 22 and drives the fan motor 8 to ice the water supplied to the ice making vessel 5, and the ice motor driving means ( 30 receives the control signal output from the control means 22 and drives the ice motor 31 to separate the ice formed in the ice tray 5 and store it in the ice storage container 10.

In addition, the water supply time adjusting means 32 is a diode (D1 ~ D3), so that a predetermined amount of water is supplied to the ice making bowl (5) by adjusting the time the water is supplied to the ice making bowl (5) from the water pipe (4), It consists of dip switches SW1 to SW3 and a resistor R1.

Hereinafter, the effect of the water supply control device of the ice maker configured as described above will be described.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the water supply time adjustment operation procedure of the ice maker according to the present invention. In FIG. 6, S denotes a step.

First, when power is supplied to the ice maker, the power supply unit 20 receives commercial AC voltage supplied from an AC power terminal (not shown) and converts it into a microcomputer driving power supply of DC 5V and a load driving power supply of DC 12V required for driving the ice maker. And print it out.

Therefore, in step S1, the DC voltage (microcomputer drive power source) output from the power supply means 20 is inputted from the control means 22 to initialize the ice maker, and the flow proceeds to step S2 to determine the temperature of the water supplied to the ice making vessel 5. The temperature sensing means 26 detects the water supply time data adjusted by the water supply time adjusting means 32.

Subsequently, in step S3, it is determined whether the ice making condition is applied, and in the case of the ice making condition (YES), the control means 22 moves the fan motor driving means 28 so as to ice the water supplied to the ice making bowl 5; Outputs a control signal.

Accordingly, the fan motor driving means 28 receives the control signal output from the control means 22 to drive the fan motor 8 so that the cooling fan 9 rotates to cool the heat exchanged in the evaporator 7. Since water is circulated around the ice tray 5, the water supplied to the ice tray 5 starts to ice, and in step S5, the temperature of the ice tray 5 that changes according to the rotation of the cooling fan 9 is measured by the temperature. It is detected at (26) to determine whether ice making is completed (temperature data is about -12 ° C).

As a result of the discrimination in step S5, when ice making is not completed (NO), the process returns to step S4 to repeat the operation of step S4 or less, and when ice making is completed (YES), the process proceeds to step S6. Reference numeral 22 outputs a control signal to the moving motor driving means 30 to store the iced ice in the ice storage container 10.

Therefore, the ice motor driving means 30 receives the control signal output from the control means 22 and drives the ice motor 31 to rotate the ice making bowl 5 by 180 ° in the ice making bowl 5. Iced ice falls into the storage container 10 and is stored in the storage container 10.

At this time, in step S7, it is determined whether the ice is completed, and if it is not completed (if NO), the process returns to the step S6 to repeat the operation of step S6 or less, and if the ice is completed (YES), Returning to S3, the operation of step S3 or less is repeated.

On the other hand, if the determination result in step S3 is not an ice making condition (NO), the flow advances to step S10 to determine whether it is a water supply condition, and when it is not a water supply condition (NO), the process returns to step S3 and the step The operation below S3 is repeated.

As a result of the determination in step S10, in the case of a water supply condition (YES), the control means 22 adjusts the water supply time by the set data adjusted by the water supply time adjusting means 32. Explained as follows.

The control means 22 presets the water supply time at a predetermined interval (for example, 6 seconds, 7 seconds, 8 seconds, ... 13 seconds) by a program, and the dip switch SW1 of the water supply time adjusting means 32. -Determine the water supply time (water supply amount) by using on / off combination information of SW3). If the dip switches SW1 and SW2 are turned on, the control means 22 transmits the signals (high signal of 5V) at regular intervals to the diodes D1, D2, and D3 through the output terminals PORT1, PORT2, and PORT3. When the signal is sent out, the signals H, H, and L are sequentially input to the input terminal PORT4 according to the ON operation of the dip switches SW1 and SW2. Determine the time as '9 seconds'.

Therefore, the control means 22 outputs a control signal to the water supply valve driving means 24 to open the water supply valve 6 to supply water only for the determined '9 seconds', so that the water from the water pipe 4 is' 9. The water supply to the ice making vessel (5) for seconds', and in step S12 to determine the temperature of the water supplied to the ice making vessel (5) in accordance with the opening of the water supply valve (6) to determine whether the water supply is complete. .

As a result of the discrimination in step S12, when the water supply is not completed (NO), the flow returns to the step S11 to repeat the operation of step S11 or less, and when the water supply is completed (YES), the water supply valve driving means 24 ), The water supply valve 6 is turned off under the control of the control means 22, the water supply operation is stopped, and the flow returns to the step S3, and the operation below the step S3 is repeatedly performed.

Accordingly, if the user changes the on / off state of the dip switches SW1 to SW3 using the water supply time chart of FIG. 5 in order to adjust the water supply according to the water supply time, the water supply time can be easily adjusted. This is possible.

Meanwhile, although one embodiment of the present invention has been described using an ice maker for a refrigerator as an example, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the same objects and effects as those of the present invention can be achieved in beverages, coffee machines, water purifiers, etc., which require a certain amount of water supply repeatedly. Of course you can.

According to the water supply control device of the ice maker according to the present invention as described above, the water supply time is set at a predetermined interval by the microcomputer program and the water supply time is adjusted step by step by using the dip switch (SW1 ~ SW3) Therefore, accurate water supply time can be changed, water supply to the ice tray can be easily adjusted, and the setting value does not change unless the dip switch is changed.

Claims (1)

In the ice maker for a refrigerator comprising a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment partitioned in the refrigerator main body, an ice making bowl for rotating water in the freezer compartment and a water supply valve for supplying water to the ice making bowl. Determination of the water supply time by detecting the dip switch (SW1 ~ SW3) for adjusting the water supply time to adjust the water supply step by step, and the input signal that changes according to the on / off operation of the dip switch (SW1 ~ SW3), And a control means for controlling the water supply valve to supply a predetermined amount of water to the ice making vessel according to the determined water supply time.