JPS6159760B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a washing water transparency data generation method for obtaining washing water transparency data related to laundry stains, etc.

For example, if you measure the time required for the transparency of the washing water to drop to a predetermined value at the beginning of washing, you can know the degree of dirt on the laundry because the time required is related to the degree of dirt on the laundry. The washing time can be set based on the dirt degree signal detected in this way. However, in the case of such a method,
If the transparency detection device has an optical configuration, if the light transmittance and light receiving surfaces become dirty and the light transmittance changes, the level of the output transparency signal will differ from the actual transparency of the cleaning water, making it difficult to accurately measure the transparency. Wash water transparency data is no longer available.

The present invention has been made to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and its purpose is to improve the degree of dirtiness, washing, rinsing, etc. of laundry, even if the detection ability of the transparency detection means changes over time. To provide a method for generating wash water transparency data for a washing machine, which can accurately obtain related wash water transparency data.

The present invention will be described below as an example in which the washing operation is controlled by obtaining soiling degree data of laundry using a well-known dehydrating/washing machine controlled by an electronic circuit. FIG. 1 shows the basic structure of a washing machine with dehydrating function. In FIG. 1, 1 is an outer box, inside of which a water receiving tank 2 is suspended by an elastic support mechanism 3, and a rotating tank 4 is disposed inside the water receiving tank 2.
A stirring blade 5 is provided inside the stirring blade.
6 is a washing machine motor that selectively drives the rotating tub 4 and the stirring blades 5. Reference numeral 7 denotes a sampling chamber provided in the water receiving tank 2 so that cleaning water can pass therethrough, and on the opposite inner side thereof, a light emitting element 10 such as a light emitting diode and a light receiving element 11 such as a phototransistor are installed as transparency detecting means 9. are placed facing each other. Reference numeral 12 denotes a transparency detector composed of the transparency detecting means 9 and an integrating circuit 13. On the other hand, the electronic control circuit 14 shown in FIG. 3 is for automatically transitioning the process from the detergent washing process to the final dehydration process, and basically, as is well known, an electronic timer 15,
It is composed of an arithmetic processing unit (CPU) 16, a clock control circuit 17, a memory 18, an input buffer control circuit 19, and an output buffer control circuit 20. In the external input section A, 21 is a power switch that supplies power to the entire device, 22 is a lid switch, 23 is a water level switch that detects the water level in the water tank 2, and 24
is a program selection switch for selecting the combination of processes, and each of these states is converted into logical values (0) and (1) by state conversion elements 25 to 28, such as flip-flop circuits, respectively. The transparency detector 12 also belongs to the external input section A, and its output signal is a transparency detection signal S.
1 is the input buffer control circuit 1
9. External output section B
, 29 is a water supply valve, 30 is a drain valve, 6 is the washing machine motor, and 31 and 32 are an indicator lamp and an alarm, respectively, for notifying the end of the washing machine operation.
Each section in the external output section B is controlled to be energized by switching elements 33 to 37 such as thyristors. The arithmetic processing unit 16 reads the states of the state converting elements 25 to 28 corresponding to the states of each part in the external input section A via the input buffer control circuit 19, and also reads the process data from the memory 18. The output buffer control circuit determines processes such as washing (including water supply), draining, rinsing (including water supply), dehydration, notification, etc., and controls each part of external output section B necessary to execute the process. 20
It is controlled by giving a signal to the switching elements 33 to 37 from the washing machine, and the control method is the same as that of known methods except that the degree of dirt on the laundry is determined and the washing time is set at a time corresponding to this. .

Now, a method for obtaining laundry dirt degree data, which is an example of wash water transparency data, will be explained.
Figure 5 shows the transparency of washing water S at the initial stage of washing when laundry is put into the rotating tub 4 together with detergent.
The relationship between and time t is shown. When the washing operation is started, the transparency of the washing water naturally changes, and the output signal of the light receiving element 11 changes accordingly. In this case, since air bubbles, dirt, and other stray objects pass through the sampling chamber 7, the output signal of the light receiving element 11 includes a direct current component corresponding to the transparency and an alternating current component that changes in minute time, and this alternating current component is integrated. It is removed by the circuit 13, and therefore the transparency detector 12 outputs a direct current component transparency detection signal S1. By the way, the curve 38 shown in FIG.
shows the change in transparency of the washing water when the laundry is "heavily soiled". If the light transmittance of the light emitting surface and the light receiving surface of the transparency detecting means 9 are in an ideal state of 100%, Transparency detection signal S1 is also curve 3
It changes at the same rate as 8. On the other hand, water stains etc. adhere to the light emitting surface and the light receiving surface, and the light transmittance and therefore the detection ability decrease over time, for example, the light transmittance decreases.
Assuming that the transparency has decreased to 60%, the characteristic of the transparency detection signal S1 is such that the detection signal level decreases as shown by curves 38 to 39. The present invention attempts to obtain transparency data that is not affected by such level changes by detecting transparency over a predetermined period of time after the start of operation, such as at the beginning of operation, and from the average rate of change.
This method will be described below. The change rate determining means 40 receives the transparency detection signal S1 to measure the transparency of the cleaning water at fixed time intervals t1, t2, t3...tn, and Transparency change amount △ during short time △t at measurement time
S1, △S2...△Sn, that is, the rate of change in transparency
Find dS ₁ /dt, dS ₂ /dt, dS ₃ /dt...dSn/dt. The average value determining means 41 calculates the average transparency change rate Ab from the n transparency short-time rate conversion rates obtained in this way using the following equation.

Ab=(dS ₁ /dt/dS ₂ /dt +dS ₂ /dt/dS ₃ /dt+...+dSn- ₁
/dt/dSn/dt)/n This average rate of change in transparency Ab is used as laundry dirt degree data. The above calculations can be performed very easily using digital signal processing methods. Again in FIG. 5, the curve 38 shows the transparency change characteristic in the case of "heavy dirt" as described above, while the curve 42 shows the transparency change characteristic in the case of "slight dirt". , both curves 28,4
As can be understood from the comparison with No. 2, the transparency decreases with a steep gradient in the case of "heavy stains", whereas it decreases with a gentle gradient in the case of "slight stains". Therefore, it can be understood that data on the degree of soiling of laundry can be obtained from the average rate of change in transparency Ab. On the other hand, the curve 39 shows the characteristics of the transparency detection signal S1 when the light transmittance of the transparency detection means 9 decreases to 60% when there is "heavy dirt". As is clear from a comparison with the corresponding curve 38, there is no large difference in the average rate of change between the curves 38 and 39 as seen between the curves 38 and 42, and they can be considered to be approximately the same. I can do it. Therefore, the transparency detection means 9
Even if the detection ability decreases, it is possible to obtain substantially the same average rate of change in transparency as before the decrease, and it is possible to obtain stain degree data corresponding to "heavy stain". Note that the curve 43 is a characteristic curve of the transparency detection signal S1 with respect to the actual transparency shown by the curve 42 when the detection ability of the transparency detection means 9 has decreased to 60%. Based on the soiling degree data obtained by such a method, the subsequent washing time, water flow strength, etc. are automatically set.

According to such a transparency data generation method, the following effects can be expected. In other words, the cleaning action removes easily-removed dirt first, deepening the turbidity, and remaining difficult-to-remove dirt only gradually comes off, so just because the rate of change in transparency approaches zero does not mean that cleaning has finished. . Therefore, it is actually extremely difficult to determine the completion of cleaning by detecting the rate of change in transparency, and there is a risk of insufficient cleaning. In this point,
According to the above method, based on the assumption that if there are many stains that are easy to remove, there are also many stains that are difficult to remove, the magnitude of the rate of change during the period when the transparency is actually changing, that is, the average rate of change over a predetermined period of time after the start of operation. Since the method uses this data to obtain transparency data that estimates the overall dirtiness and uses this data to set the operating time, etc., a sufficient washing or rinsing effect can be expected. Further, the transparency of the washing water is not uniform over the entire tank, but is uneven depending on the location of the water flow, so the magnitude of the transparency detection signal fluctuates, which can be a factor in misjudgment. However, according to the above method, since the minute time alternating current component that causes errors is removed from the detection output signal, and the average value is calculated after that, the judgment is made by calculating the average value. It can be prevented. As described above, according to the above method, it is possible to accurately obtain transparency data corresponding to the degree of soiling of laundry. In addition, when obtaining an average rate of change that is highly dependent on the actual rate of change in transparency, calculate the average rate of change after removing the upper and lower limits that exceed a certain range from a large number of short-term rates of change in transparency. It is especially effective if you do this. In addition, although the above embodiment uses the example of determining the degree of dirt on the laundry based on the transparency of the washing water, it is also possible to determine the degree of washing and rinsing using the same method as above. Of course. Further, the transparency detection means is not limited to an optical one, but may be of a cleaning water resistance detection type.

As described above, the present invention is intended to accurately obtain wash water transparency data related to the degree of soiling of the laundry, the degree of washing, the degree of rinsing, etc. even if the detection ability of the transparency detection means changes over time. It is possible to provide a method for generating washing water transparency data for a washing machine.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings are for explaining the method of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional view, FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged perspective view, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the electronic control circuit, and FIG.
The figure is a signal processing explanatory diagram, and FIG. 5 is a transparency change characteristic diagram. In the figure, 9 is a transparency detection means, 40 is a change rate determination means, and 41 is an average value determination means.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Transparency detection means for detecting the transparency of washing water at regular intervals over a predetermined period of time after the start of operation;
a rate of change determination means for determining the short-time rate of change in transparency at each measurement time using a DC component transparency detection signal obtained by removing the AC component within a minute time from the output signal obtained by the transparency detection means; A method for generating wash water transparency data for a washing machine, comprising an average value determining means for obtaining transparency data by calculating an average rate of change in transparency from the rate of change. 2. Claim 1, characterized in that the average value determining means calculates the average rate of change in transparency from a large number of short-term changes in transparency, excluding the upper and lower limits. The washing machine wash water transparency data generation method described.