WO1992016452A1

WO1992016452A1 - Control system for fuel dispensing outlets

Info

Publication number: WO1992016452A1
Application number: PCT/CA1991/000091
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lakhbir S. Gandhi
Original assignee: Echno Designs Ltd.
Priority date: 1991-03-25
Filing date: 1991-03-25
Publication date: 1992-10-01

Abstract

A control system for fuel dispensing outlets wherein access to dispense or vend fuel is permitted only by means of ID cards. Each vending transaction is then recorded in association with the particular fuel pump, the ID of the attendant, the time and amount of the transaction, whereby loss of revenue due to unaccounted for fuel is drastically curtailed.

Description

CONTROL SYSTEM FOR FUEL DISPENSING OUTLETS

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to computer controlled fluid dispensing and vending in general, and in particular to a system for controlling fuel vending at gasoline stations and the like. More particularly still, it relates to controlling and recording of fuel vending transactions from a plurality of fuel pumps operated by several identified attendants.

Background Art

Self-service gasoline stations have been known to employ systems that permit a single attendant located in a booth to monitor several fuel pumps without actually leaving the booth. A central display terminal in the booth indicates the amount of fuel dispensed by each pump and the associated cost for every transaction. When a self-serve customer is at a fuel pump, the attendant enables the pump and clears the previously displayed fuel volume and cost. At the end of the transaction the pump is disabled by the attendant.

In full-service gas stations there is more than one attendant, each of whom may operate any one of several fuel pumps. And while there may be a central display for showing each vending transaction, there is no means of keeping track of which attendant operated which fuel pump for any given transaction. As a result, and as a fact lamented by fuel dispensing station owners and operators, at the end of the day there invariably appears to be a loss of revenue due to unpaid-for fuel. This loss may amount to several hundred dollars per month and so far has been very difficult to control, presumably because it is impractical to make each attendant accountable exactly for many vending transactions from several fuel pumps.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention endeavors to mitigate the revenue loss problems by providing a control system wherein each individual attendant is provided with a unique identifying code which must be entered every time an attendant wishes to dispense fuel from a pump. The system then verifies the attendant code before activating the pump and records all desired parameters of the fuel vending transaction. At the end of the attendant's shift or at the end of the business day, or both, the system may provide a record of all vending transactions performed by an attendant and would match total revenue for an attendant with the total fuel volume dispensed. Of course, where desired the system may provide, at any given time of day, the current status of the entire operation giving a breakdown of sales by pump, attendant, etc. Each attendant is given an access card bearing the associated unique identifying code and is thereby made solely responsible for his/her vending transactions.

According to the present invention a control system for fuel dispensing outlets comprises:

(a) a master CPU, having a data bus (DB) and an address bus (AB);

(b) program storage means for storing instructions to said CPU;

(c) addressable storage means for storing details of fuel dispensing transactions under control of said CPU;

(d) a real-time clock for providing real¬ time data associated with each of said fuel dispensing transactions;

(e) Identification data (ID) entry means for permitting selective access to said fuel dispensing outlets;

(f) means for enabling said fuel dispensing outlets upon identification of valid ID entry by said CPU; and (g) said CPU associating at least said ID entries, said fuel dispensing outlets and said real-time data and storing them in said addressable data storage means as said details of fuel dispensing transactions.

In a narrower aspect, the control system further comprises a slave control unit communicating with the master CPU for expanding the number of fuel dispensing pumps under control of the master unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail in conjunction with the annexed drawings, in which« Figure 1 is a block schematic of the control system according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a block schematic of the slave control unit shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a flow-chart illustrating the respected start software routine of the CPU in Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a flow-chart illustrating the Card Handling Routine (CHR) for reading the card shown in Figure 1; and Figure 5 is a flow-chart illustrating the communications routine between a slave control unit and the master CPU as shown in Figure 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to Figure 1 of the drawings, the control system comprises a master CPU 10 (Rockwell 65C02) having an eight-bit Data Bus (DE) and a sixteen-bit Address Bus (AB). The CPU 10 communicates via DB and AB with: an EPROM 11 holding the system software: a transactions storage RAM 12; a 32 KHZ Real-Time Clock (RTC) 13; an Asynchronous Communicators Interface Adapter

(ACIA) 14; and In/Out interfaces (I/O 1 and I/O 2) 15 and 16. A system clock 17 runs at 16 MHZ and divides in divider 18 into three clocks 4 MHZ, 2 MHZ, and 1 MHZ, which provide actual clocking for system components. The CPU 10 is normally clocked at 4 MHZ, but when it communicates with slower system components it is temporarily "geared down" to 2 MHZ or 1 MHZ as required by means of clock select 19, which is addressed via the address bus AB.

The ACIA 14 communicates via transmit and receive leads TX and RX with Slave Control Unit (SCU) 20 (shown in Figure 2 in detail), which is remote-controlling two fuel dispensing nozzles or pumps 21 and 22.

The I/O Interfaces 15 and 16 share the task of interfacing with a keyboard 30, a system printer 31, a system cash register 32, a card reader 33 for reading a card 34, an optical isolator switch 35 for directly switching ON and OFF a fuel pump 36. Thus, one or two fuel pumps may be controlled directly by the master CPU 10, rather than via the SCU 20. Of the latter there may be several, each controlled via a dedicated ACIA identical to the ACIA 14.

As shown in Figure 2, the SCU 20 comprises a slave CPU 23, which monitors and controls peripherals such as card reader 24, pump motor current sensor 25, optical isolator switch 26 which controls pump motor 27, fuel flow meter 28 which supplies one pulεe-per- eter rotation. In case of mechanical flow meters, the pulse-per- revolution is conveniently magnetically induced. For electronic meters, the pulse is electronically induced. The CPU 23 also strobes cost counter 29 to read and store the cost of fuel dispensed in any transaction. A plurality of DIP switches DIPS set the price of fuel in cent-per-pulse of the flow meter 28. In Figure 2 only the components associated with the pump 21 are shown; only the price setting DIPS may be shared with the second pump 22, if the latter is dispensing the same fuel.

Following is a list of the preferred commercially available types for system components shown as Figures 1 and 2: Master CPU 10 Rockwell 65C02

Slave CPU 23 Intel or AMD 87C51 RTC 13 Intersil ICM7170

ACIA 14 Rockwell 65C51

I/O 15 and 16 Rockwell (VIA) 6522 The remaining components are widely available from various sources. The respective publications by the manufacturers of the above listed components are referred to for details of use of such components, and are incorporated herein by reference. The operation of the system will be described with reference to the flow-charts in the remaining drawing Figures.

As the system is switched on, all fuel pumps are off, and the master CPU 10 commences the routine shown in Figure 3, whereby every millisecond (40) the fuel pumps are polled to identify any pump that was switched on (41), if HO the polling recommences. If YES is indicated for any pump, the system checks whether it has been switched off (42), if NO polling recommences. As soon as any pump that was ON has been switched OFF, that is where YES is the answer in block 42, the system performs three tasks (43);

(a) it initializes the Card Handling Routine (CHR) (Figure 4) for the particular pump to be ready for the next vending transaction;

(b) it stores the previous transaction value; and (c) it signals a new transaction and causes printing of transaction details as well as cost registration in the cash register 32, if one is connected. The CHR is shown in Figure 4, and the routine, while initialized by the system after every transaction has been completed, is in fact entered only when a card reader 33 detects clock pulεeε (50), whence it commences reading one data bit stored on the card 34 for every clock pulse (51) until the 10-bitε of the identification code have been read-in (52). If the 10-bit code is not identified as valid (53) the CHR is reinitialized (54). If the 10-bit code is validated (55), then the card ID iε stored, the pump motor 37 is switched ON via optical isolator 26, and counting of pulses from the flow meter 28 iε commenced. The system then exits the CHR routine and returns to the start (A) in Figure 1.

The slave control unit 20 communicates with the CPU 10 via the ACIA 14 in the manner shown by the flow-chart of Figure 5. This routine is entered (60) upon reset or power being switched on and immediately questionε whether a new transaction has taken place. If YES, it checks (61) whether the communication link to the CPU 20 is busy and if it iε waits (62) for a time equal to the (slave number) x ø.l sec. and then tries again. If the link is not busy, the byteε identifying the εlave unit 20 are transmitted (63) to the master CPU 10, which repeats the byteε just received back to the CPU 23, which in turn determines if the echo is correct (64) by comparing the echo to what was sent originally. If the echo is correct, the CPU 23 sends an "acknowledge" (65) and waits for the echo to verify it (66) upon which the CPU 23 sends the εlave unit number (67) and a command "add new transaction (68) followed by the transaction number and the card ID (69), and finally a command "break link" (70) to terminate communication between master and slave. The CPU 23 then waits for a period equal to (εlave number) x 0.1 sec. (71) before turning to the initial state.

Claims

THE EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE ARE CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A control system for fuel dispensing outletε, or the like, comprising:

(a) a maεter CPU, having a data bus (DB) and an addreεε buε (AB);

(b) program storage means for storing instructions to εaid CPU;

(c) addreεsable storage means for storing details of fuel dispensing transactions under control of said CPU;

(d) a real-time clock for providing real- time data asεociated with each of εaid fuel diεpenεing transactions;

(e) identification data (ID) entry means for permitting selective access to εaid fuel diεpenεing outletε; (f) eanε for enabling εaid fuel diεpenεing outletε upon identification of valid ID entry by said CPU; and (g) said CPU asεociating at leaεt εaid ID entries, εaid fuel dispensing outlets and said real-time data and storing them in said addreεsable data storage means aε εaid details of fuel dispensing tranεactionε.