KR102432803B1 - Hi-pass Terminal and Hi-pass Fee Collecting System having Self-Examining Function - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a hi-pass terminal having a malfunction diagnosis function and a hi-pass billing system. The terminal or system includes: a transmission part for transmitting an infrared communication signal; a reception part for receiving the infrared communication signal; a signal intensity detection part detecting the signal intensity of the signal looped back from the transmission part to the reception part; and a control part determining whether the transmission part and/or the reception part is malfunctioning based on the signal intensity. Therefore, a manufacturer or a user can personally diagnose whether the terminal or system is malfunctioning. The terminal or system can accurately identify a main factor causing a hi-pass communication issue in an existing system, and can effectively reduce time, manpower and costs required for unclear partial verification.

Description

Hi-pass Terminal and Hi-pass Fee Collecting System having Self-Examing Function}

The present invention relates to a high-pass terminal and a high-pass billing system, and more particularly, to a high-pass terminal and a high-pass billing system having a self-diagnosis function for a failure that causes a failure of infrared communication.

A high-pass charging system for charging a toll is common on a vehicle driving road such as a highway. The high-pass charging system is installed at a charging point on the road, and the system communicates with the high-pass charging terminal mounted in the vehicle. Communication is performed between the high-pass billing system and the terminal of the vehicle by means of dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) using infrared rays. When the vehicle enters the communication area of the high-pass charging system, communication between the system and the terminal is made, and the charging process for the entered vehicle proceeds. Accordingly, the vehicle occupant can automatically pay tolls without performing a separate toll payment process.

In the case of the existing system, when a charging problem occurs while the vehicle passes the high pass, the vehicle terminal and the driver indicator of the base station high pass display an error message. Although this error message is the same for each manufacturer, the message “Communication was not processed normally” is expressed in voice or text, and in some terminals, only a beep sound indicates that communication has not been performed.

During this billing process, communication between the high-pass billing system and the terminal is not normally performed, so billing is not performed or incorrect billing occurs. This problem may be due to a failure of the high-pass billing system or may be due to a failure of the terminal. In the event of a billing problem, first, the driver of the vehicle applies a civil complaint to the tollgate office, and the department in charge of the highway maintenance performs a self-diagnosis and requests an inspection from the high-pass base station company. The base station manufacturer checks the antenna and equipment of the high-pass lane and, if there is no problem, requests the civil servant's terminal and proceeds with additional inspection. If a terminal malfunction is suspected, the customer is advised to send the terminal to the manufacturer for repair. When the repair of the terminal is completed, it is delivered to the customer to resolve the complaint.

However, according to this process, there is no way to determine whether the high-pass communication problem is due to a malfunction of the vehicle terminal or the malfunction of the high-pass charging system even though the customer has checked the incorrect billing message. In addition, since the message is only displayed when a problem occurs when the driver passes the high pass while driving the vehicle, there is a hassle of having to go through the toll gate directly to check the problem. very difficult to find

In addition, when a problem occurs in high-pass communication, the problem handling process is complicated and the time it takes to solve the problem is very long. In particular, when a problem occurs in the communication of the terminal, it causes a lot of economic loss such as manpower, cost, and time consumed in terms of carrying out the terminal inspection at the end after going through all the inspection processes.

The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems, and the present invention is to enable a manufacturer or user to directly diagnose the failure of a high-pass charging system and a high-pass terminal that perform a billing process through infrared communication. The purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a high-pass terminal mounted in the vehicle that performs a charging process for the vehicle through infrared communication with the high-pass charging system, and transmits an infrared communication signal to the high-pass charging system. a transmitter for transmitting; a receiver for receiving an infrared communication signal from the high-pass billing system; a signal strength detection unit for detecting signal strength of a signal loopbacked from the transmitting unit to the receiving unit; and a control unit that determines whether the transmitter and/or the receiver fail based on the signal strength.

The controller determines that the signal strength is out of a predetermined reference range as a failure.

The predetermined reference range is set based on a loopback signal generated when the transmitter and the receiver operate normally.

Preferably, the high-pass terminal of the present invention further includes an input unit for inputting a fault diagnosis operation execution command to the control unit.

When the execution command is input by the input unit, the control unit controls the transmitting unit to generate a test signal for fault diagnosis.

The controller controls the operation timing of the receiver so that the receiver receives the test signal.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a high-pass charging system for performing a charging process for a vehicle through infrared communication with a high-pass terminal mounted in a vehicle, comprising: a transmitter for transmitting an infrared communication signal to the terminal; a receiver for receiving an infrared communication signal from the terminal; a signal strength detection unit for detecting signal strength of a signal loopbacked from the transmitting unit to the receiving unit; and a control unit that determines whether the transmitter and/or the receiver fail based on the signal strength.

The controller determines that the signal strength is out of a predetermined reference range as a failure.

The predetermined reference range is set based on a loopback signal generated when the transmitter and the receiver operate normally.

Preferably, the high-pass billing system of the present invention further includes an input unit for inputting a failure diagnosis operation execution command to the control unit.

When the execution command is input by the input unit, the control unit controls the transmitting unit to generate a test signal for fault diagnosis.

The controller controls the operation timing of the receiver so that the receiver receives the test signal.

According to the present invention, the manufacturer or the user can directly diagnose whether the high-pass charging system performing infrared communication and the high-pass terminal fail. Accordingly, it is possible to clearly identify the subject causing the high-pass communication problem in the existing system, and it is possible to effectively reduce the time, manpower, and cost required to verify the unclear part.

1 is a diagram illustrating a high-pass terminal and a high-pass charging system to which the present invention is applied.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration for fault diagnosis installed in the high-pass terminal or the high-pass charging system of FIG. 1;

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

1 is a diagram illustrating a high-pass terminal and a high-pass charging system to which the present invention is applied. The high-pass charging system 20 (hereinafter referred to as 'system') is installed at a charging point on the road, and this system 20 is a high-pass terminal 10 (hereinafter referred to as 'terminal') mounted in a vehicle. ) to communicate with Communication is performed between the system 20 and the terminal 10 by means of dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) using infrared rays. When the vehicle enters the communication area of the system 20, communication between the system 20 and the terminal 10 is made, and a charging process for the entered vehicle is performed.

In the present invention, the terminal 10 and the system 20 have a function of self-diagnosing a failure of infrared communication. This self-diagnosis function may be provided in both the terminal 10 and the system 20, or may be provided in only one. By having such a function, it is possible to easily determine whether the subject of the failure is the terminal 10 or the system 20 when a billing failure or an incorrect billing occurs due to abnormal performance of infrared communication. Furthermore, by using it for the purpose of testing whether a normal operation is performed even before a billing failure occurs, billing failure, etc. can be prevented in advance.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration for fault diagnosis installed in the high-pass terminal or the high-pass charging system of FIG. 1 . The configuration for the fault diagnosis function of FIG. 2 is equally provided in the terminal 10 and the system 20 . Hereinafter, it is assumed that the configuration of FIG. 2 is applied to the terminal 10 , and this description is also referred to for the system 20 . In addition, in the following description, in order not to obscure the gist of the present invention, general configuration (eg, an IC card on which information required for billing is recorded) that is not directly related to the configuration of the present invention will be omitted.

The terminal 10 of the present invention includes a transmission unit 31 , a reception unit 32 , a signal strength detection unit 40 , a control unit 37 , an input unit 38 , and a display unit 39 .

The transmitter 31 transmits an infrared communication signal to the system 20 , and the receiver 32 receives an infrared communication signal from the system 20 . As an example, the transmitter 31 is configured of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) and the receiver 32 is configured of a Photo Diode (PD). The transmitter 31 and the receiver 32 are usually disposed adjacent to each other. Accordingly, most of the infrared signal generated by the transmitter 31 is radiated toward the system 20 , but some infrared signals are re-introduced into the receiver 32 as a loopback signal.

The signal strength detector 40 detects the signal strength of a signal loopbacked from the transmitter 31 to the receiver 32 . The signal strength detection unit 40 includes an I-V circuit 33 , an amplifier 34 , a filter 35 , and an A/D converter 36 . The I-V circuit 33 converts the output current of the PD constituting the receiver 32 into a voltage. The amplifier 34 amplifies the voltage output from the I-V circuit 30, and the filter 35 filters and reduces noise from the amplified voltage. The A/D converter 36 converts the output of the filter 35 into a digital signal. With this configuration, the output value of the A/D converter 36 has a value corresponding to the signal strength of the loopback signal received by the receiver 32 .

The control unit 37 determines whether the transmission unit and/or the reception unit is faulty based on the signal strength output by the signal strength detection unit 40 . At this time, when the signal strength of the control unit 37 is out of a predetermined reference range, it is determined as a failure. The predetermined reference range is preset based on a loopback signal generated when the transmitter and the receiver operate normally.

Specifically, when both the transmitter 31 and the receiver 32 operate normally, the transmitter 31 transmits an infrared signal with a preset signal strength. Since a part of the signal generated by the transmitter 31 is looped back to the receiver 32 , the signal strength of the loopback signal received by the receiver 32 is proportional to the signal intensity of the normally transmitted signal of the transmitter 31 . In the control unit 37, the range of the signal strength by the normal transmission signal is set in advance as a 'reference range'. This reference range may be different for each product, and may be set theoretically or experimentally. If the transmitter 31 generates an infrared signal with a signal strength lower than a normal signal strength due to a failure, the receiver 32 receives an infrared signal with a signal strength lower than that of a normal loopback signal. Accordingly, when a loopback signal having a signal strength out of the reference range is received, that is, when the signal strength detecting unit 40 outputs an output value out of the reference range, the control unit 37 may determine that a failure has occurred. As another example, if the transmitter 31 is operating normally, but a failure occurs in the receiver 32, the receiver 32 misrecognizes this even though the signal strength of the loopback signal is within the reference range and a current value higher or lower than the reference range. will output Accordingly, the signal strength detection unit 40 outputs a value out of the reference range, and the control unit 37 may determine that a failure has occurred based on this. In this way, when an output value out of the reference range is obtained, the controller 37 may determine that a failure has occurred in at least one of the transmitter 31 or the receiver 32, and through this, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the terminal 10 can judge

The input unit 38 is provided to input a fault diagnosis operation execution command to the control unit 37 . The fault diagnosis of the present invention may be performed at all times or periodically, but by providing the input unit 38, a user or operator may manually input an execution command. That is, when the user manipulates the input unit 38 to input an execution command, the control unit 37 performs a process for fault diagnosis.

Specifically, when an execution command is input by the control unit 37 input unit 38, the transmission unit 31 is controlled to generate a test signal for fault diagnosis. A part of this test signal is received by the receiver 32 as a loopback signal. The controller 37 controls the operation timing of the receiver 32 so that the receiver 32 receives the test signal. In general, the terminal 10 separates and controls a time period in which the terminal 10 transmits a signal and a time period in which the signal is received in order to smoothly perform infrared communication with the system 20 . In the transmission time interval, the transmitter 31 is activated and the receiver 32 is deactivated, and in the reception time interval, the transmitter 31 is deactivated and the receiver 32 is activated. In consideration of this, in a state in which the control unit 37 controls the transmission unit 31 to generate the test signal, the control unit 37 further controls the reception unit 32 to determine the test signal generation timing so that the receiver 32 transmits the signal. Control the reception timing to receive. Accordingly, when the operator arbitrarily inputs an execution command for fault diagnosis, the fault diagnosis operation can be accurately performed in accordance with this.

The display unit 39 functions to externally display the result of the failure diagnosis. The display unit 39 is configured by, for example, a display so that the user recognizes the result visually, or is configured as a speaker so that the user recognizes the result by hearing.

As described above, the configuration of FIG. 2 may be employed in the system 20, and accordingly, the system 20 may also check whether the infrared transmission/reception operation is normally performed through the self-diagnosis function.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiment shown in the drawings, which is only exemplary, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Accordingly, the true technical protection scope of the present invention should be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

Claims (12)

In the high-pass terminal mounted in the vehicle, performing a charging process for the vehicle through infrared communication with the high-pass charging system,
a transmitter for transmitting an infrared communication signal to the high-pass billing system;
a receiver for receiving an infrared communication signal from the high-pass billing system;
a signal strength detection unit for detecting signal strength of a signal loopbacked from the transmitting unit to the receiving unit; and
a control unit for determining whether the transmitting unit and/or the receiving unit have failed based on the signal strength;
includes,
The control unit, but if the signal strength is out of a predetermined reference range, it is determined as a failure,
The predetermined reference range is a high-pass terminal, characterized in that it is set based on a loopback signal generated when the transmitter and the receiver operate normally.
delete delete The method of claim 1,
an input unit for inputting a fault diagnosis operation execution command to the control unit;
High-pass terminal, characterized in that it further comprises.
5. The method of claim 4,
The control unit, when the execution command is input by the input unit, controls the transmitter to generate a test signal for fault diagnosis.
6. The method of claim 5,
The control unit, the high-pass terminal, characterized in that for controlling the operation timing of the receiving unit so that the receiving unit receives the test signal.
In the high-pass charging system for performing a charging process for a vehicle through infrared communication with a high-pass terminal mounted in the vehicle,
a transmitter for transmitting an infrared communication signal to the terminal;
a receiver for receiving an infrared communication signal from the terminal;
a signal strength detection unit for detecting signal strength of a signal loopbacked from the transmitting unit to the receiving unit; and
a control unit for determining whether the transmitting unit and/or the receiving unit have failed based on the signal strength;
includes,
The control unit, but if the signal strength is out of a predetermined reference range, it is determined as a failure,
The high-pass charging system, characterized in that the predetermined reference range is set based on a loopback signal generated when the transmitter and the receiver operate normally.
delete delete 8. The method of claim 7,
an input unit for inputting a fault diagnosis operation execution command to the control unit;
High-pass billing system, characterized in that it further comprises.
11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein, when the execution command is input by the input unit, the control unit controls the transmitter to generate a test signal for fault diagnosis.
12. The method of claim 11,
The control unit, high-pass billing system, characterized in that for controlling the operation timing of the receiving unit so that the receiving unit receives the test signal.

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