KR20040046231A - method for sensing laundry weight of washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for sensing the washing amount of a washing machine is provided to exactly sense the washing amount, in the washing machine of an inverter motor-direct drive method. CONSTITUTION: A method for sensing the washing amount of a washing machine comprises steps of deciding whether a washing command is input(S21); accelerating a pulsator if the washing command is input and beginning counting of time(S22); deciding whether the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches set speed(S23); and cutting off power if the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches the set speed and sensing the washing amount by the counted time(S24).

Description

Method for sensing laundry weight of washing machine

The present invention relates to a washing machine, and more particularly, to a method for detecting a quantity of a washing machine.

In general, a washing machine is a product that removes various contaminants attached to clothes, bedding, etc. by using the emulsification of the detergent and the friction action of the water flow due to the rotation of the washing blade, and the impact of the pulsator on the laundry. By detecting the amount and type of laundry, the washing method is automatically set, and the water level of the washing water is supplied to the appropriate level according to the amount and type of the laundry, and then washing is performed under the control of the microcomputer.

In addition, the driving method of the conventional fully automatic washing machine is a method of rotating the pulsator or the dehydration tank by transmitting the rotational power of the drive motor to the washing shaft through the power transmission belt and pulley, or to the dehydration shaft, and BLDC motor ( There is a method of rotating the washing tank and dehydration tank at different speeds when washing and dehydrating by speed control of Brushless DC Motor.

In this case, water is supplied to the washing tank to detect the amount of water in accordance with the number of times of replenishment or the rotation of the washing tank to detect the amount of water using the inclination of the rotation speed.

Meanwhile, unlike the conventional method described above, there is a method of directly driving a washing tank and a dehydration tank using an inverter method without using a belt and a pulley. Do not detect the quantity.

In the case of a washing machine directly driven by an inverter method, there is a problem in that accurate quantity detection is not performed when a conventional quantity detection method is applied.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for detecting a quantity of a washing machine, which allows accurate quantity detection in an inverter motor direct drive type washing machine.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a washing machine according to the present invention

Figure 2 is a flow chart showing a first embodiment of the quantity detection method of the washing machine according to the present invention

Figure 3 is a flow chart showing a second embodiment of the quantity detection method of the washing machine according to the present invention

According to a first embodiment of the present invention, in a washing machine which directly drives a washing tank or a pulsator by an inverter motor, accelerating the pulsator when a washing instruction is input, and until the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches the set speed. Counting the time, and comparing the counted time with a preset hourly dose table to detect a dose.

According to a second embodiment of the present invention, in a washing machine for directly driving a washing tank or a pulsator using an inverter motor, accelerating the pulsator when a washing instruction is input, and shutting off the power when the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches the set speed. Rotating the pulsator, counting the number of output pulses of the speed sensor during the inertia rotation of the pulsator, and comparing the counted pulses with a preset pulse number table for each dose Characterized by including.

According to a third embodiment of the present invention, a washing machine or a pulsator is directly driven by an inverter motor, and a first dose sensing method for sensing a quantity of water according to a time until the pulsator is accelerated to reach a set speed, and a pulsator In the washing machine equipped with the second quantity detection method which detects the quantity according to the speed sensor output pulse number during the moment of inertia rotation by turning off the power after reaching the set speed, the large quantity is divided into two stages. A first quantity detection step of determining whether the detected quantity belongs to a large or small level by performing a first subdivision into at least three stages, and performing one of the first and second dose detection methods; And a second dose detection step of detecting the final dose by performing one of the first dose detection method and the second dose detection method according to the determination result.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the quantity detection method of the washing machine according to the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a washing machine according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a flow chart showing a first embodiment of the quantity detection method of the washing machine according to the present invention, Figure 3 is a quantity detection method of the washing machine according to the present invention A flowchart illustrating the second embodiment of the present invention.

Inverter motor direct drive type washing machine according to the present invention, as shown in Figure 1, the rectifier 11 for rectifying the commercial AC power supply, the motor 12 for supplying rotational force to the washing tank or pulsator of the washing machine, a plurality Inverter having two Insulating Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), so that the first mode or the motor 12 for supplying three-phase (U / V / W) power to the motor 12 is controlled in reverse phase. Switching Mode Power Supply (SMPS) for transforming the output of the driving unit 13 and the rectifying unit 11 to a predetermined level (5V) and outputting the voltage generated by the rotation of the motor to the circuit side. 14), the speed sensor 15 for detecting the rotational speed of the motor 12, the braking resistor Rb for preventing circuit damage by dissipating the generated voltage of the motor 12 backed by the driver 13 as heat. , Transistor T1 for driving the braking resistor Rb, phase The drive unit 13 and the voltage detector 16 for detecting the output voltage level of the rectifier 11 via the braking resistor Rb, with reference to the outputs of the speed sensor 15 and the voltage detector 16. A microcomputer 17 for controlling the transistor T1, a door switch (not shown), a touch panel or a key input unit, etc. installed on the door side to notify the microcomputer 17 by detecting that the user opens the door, and the user To correspond to user operation commands input through the user interface unit 18 for inputting various operation commands, the LCD 19 for displaying the operation state of the washing machine, the buzzer 20, and the user interface unit 18. In order to drive various loads including the motor 12, various data communications including the microcomputer 17 and a control signal are performed, and abnormality of the power supply voltage is detected through communication with the microcomputer 17 so as to preset warning messages. Includes a main microcomputer (21) for driving said LCD (19) and buzzer (20) so that the buzzer sound is output.

The basic operation of the washing machine configured as described above is as follows.

First, when a user inputs a washing instruction through the user interface unit 18, the main microcomputer 21 recognizes this and transmits a predetermined control signal to drive loads according to a preset washing algorithm including a capacity detection to the microcomputer 17. do.

Therefore, the microcomputer 17 first drives the pulsator to control the drive unit 13 to detect the amount of light, and when the amount is detected, the drive unit 13 operates in the first mode to match the preset washing algorithm. The motor 12 is rotated according to the output of 15) and the loads such as the water supply valve and the drain valve are driven to perform washing, rinsing, and dehydration.

On the other hand, the main microcomputer 21 controls the LCD 19 according to the current operating state to display the operating state, etc., and to control the buzzer 20 to generate a warning sound according to the operating state.

Hereinafter, the first to third embodiments of the dose detection method according to the present invention will be described.

First Embodiment

According to the first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, first, the main microcomputer 21 determines whether a washing instruction is input (S21).

At this time, the washing instruction is input by the user through the user interface 18.

As a result of the determination (S21), when the washing instruction is input, the pulsator is accelerated and time counting is started (S22).

At this time, the main microcomputer 21 issues a pulsator acceleration command to the microcomputer 17, and when the rotation of the pulsator is sensed according to the output of the speed sensor 15, time counting is started. On the other hand, the microcomputer 17 controls the driving unit 13 according to the instructions of the main microcomputer 21 to accelerate the pulsator.

Subsequently, it is determined whether the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches the set speed (for example, 150 rpm) (S23). When the set speed is reached, the power is cut off and the quantity of water is sensed using the time counted up to now (S24).

In this case, the washing machine is almost impossible to standardize the detection of the quantity due to the difference in the structure and model, and parts, in particular, the motor. Therefore, since the products have different characteristics, tests are carried out in advance for actual quantities, and the rotation time up to the set speed is tabulated and stored in the main microcomputer 21 or the microcomputer 17. You can also store in both.

In this way, since the rotation time for each of the doses is tabulated, the time counted in step S24 is compared with the table to detect a corresponding dose.

Second Embodiment

In the third embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, first, the main microcomputer 21 determines whether a washing instruction is input (S31).

At this time, the washing instruction is input by the user through the user interface 18.

As a result of the determination (S31), when the washing instruction is input, the pulsator is accelerated (S32), and it is determined whether the set speed (for example, 150 rpm) is reached (S33).

Subsequently, when the set speed is reached, the pulsator is inertia rotated by turning off the power, and the number of pulses generated by the inertia rotation, that is, the output of the speed sensor 15 is counted (S34).

At this time, the main microcomputer 21 issues a pulsator acceleration command to the microcomputer 17, and when the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches the set speed according to the output of the speed sensor 15, the power is cut off and then the speed sensor 15 Count the number of output pulses. On the other hand, the microcomputer 17 controls the driving unit 13 according to the instructions of the main microcomputer 21 to accelerate the pulsator.

Then, it is determined whether the pulsator stops (S35), and when the pulsator stops, the amount of detected quantity is detected by the counted pulse number (S36).

In this case, the washing machine is almost impossible to standardize the detection of the quantity due to the difference in the structure and model, and parts, in particular, the motor. Therefore, since the product has different characteristics, the test is carried out in advance for each actual quantity, and the number of pulses during the inertia rotation after the set speed is reached, that is, the number of output pulses of the speed sensor is tabulated and the main microcomputer 21 or the microcomputer ( Save to 17). You can also store in both.

Since the number of pulses for each dose is tabled as described above, the number of pulses counted in step S24 is compared with the table to detect a corresponding dose.

Third embodiment

The third embodiment of the present invention uses the above-described first embodiment and the second embodiment, and the quantity detection method according to the first embodiment described above is excellent in reliability when there is a large amount of quantity, and the second embodiment. According to the quantity detection method, the reliability is excellent when the quantity is small.

Therefore, in the case of the product to which the quantity detection method according to the first embodiment is applied first, if the quantity is detected after performing the quantity detection according to the first embodiment, washing is performed according to the detected quantity. If it is detected that a small amount of water is carried out after performing the quantity detection according to the embodiment, the quantity detection according to the second embodiment is performed again to improve the accuracy of the quantity detection.

Similarly, in the case of a product to which the quantity detection method according to the second embodiment is applied first, if the quantity is detected after performing the quantity detection according to the second embodiment, washing is performed according to the detected quantity. If it is detected that there is a large amount of capacity after performing the quantity detection according to the embodiment, it is to re-execut the quantity detection according to the first embodiment to improve the accuracy of the quantity detection.

Therefore, in the third embodiment, the quantity detection algorithm according to the first and second embodiments is stored in the corresponding model, and only the priority is determined.

In the present invention, the quantity detection method of the washing machine is a direct drive type washing machine using an inverter motor, so that the detection of the quantity using the rotation of the pulsator and the method of performing the quantity detection again according to the classification of the quantity of the washing machine are applied. There is an effect that can perform the optimum amount of detection according to the characteristics of.

Claims (4)

In a washing machine that directly drives a washing tank or pulsator with an inverter motor, Accelerating the pulsator if a washing instruction is input; Counting a time until the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches a set speed; And detecting the quantity of water by comparing the counted time with a preset hourly quantity table. In a washing machine that directly drives a washing tank or pulsator with an inverter motor, Accelerating the pulsator if a washing instruction is input; Inertial rotation of the pulsator by cutting off power when the rotational speed of the pulsator reaches a set speed; Counting the number of speed sensor output pulses during the inertia rotation of the pulsator; And detecting the quantity of water by comparing the counted pulse number with a preset pulse number table for each quantity of quantity. Drive the washing tank or pulsator directly with an inverter motor, the first dose detection method that detects the quantity of air according to the time to accelerate the pulsator to reach the set speed, and power off after reaching the set speed by accelerating the pulsator In the washing machine equipped with a second quantity detection method for detecting the amount of quantity according to the number of output pulses of the speed sensor during the inertia rotation, Classifying the quantity of water into large / small two stages and simultaneously subdividing the quantity into at least three stages; A first dose detection step of determining whether the detected quantity belongs to the second / smallest stage by performing one of the first and second dose detection schemes first; And a second quantity sensing step of detecting a final quantity by performing one of the first quantity sensing method and the second quantity sensing method according to the determination result. The method of claim 3, wherein The second quantity detection step re-executes the first quantity detection method when the quantity of the result of the determination of the first quantity detection step is 'large', and when the quantity is determined to be 'small' in the first quantity detection step, the second quantity A quantity detection method of a washing machine, characterized in that the step of performing the detection method again.