JPH0333038B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

(a) Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a dehydrating washing machine. (b) Conventional technology Conventionally, an unbalance detection lever has been installed at the upper end of the dehydration tank to detect abnormal vibrations in the dehydration tank due to unbalanced dehydration load. The safety switch is configured to temporarily turn OFF in conjunction with the displacement of the lever when it collides with the lever.
It is common to use an OFF signal to detect imbalance. This safety switch also serves as a switch that operates when the top cover is opened. The device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-29394 (D.06F 37/40) is designed to detect abnormal vibrations caused by unbalanced loads by temporarily turning off the safety switch. , cut off power to the drive motor,
Close the drain valve. Then, reset the dehydration time, supply water, hold for 1 minute, rinse, drain, correct the unbalanced load, and restart dehydration. When the dehydration time is reset three times or more, the buzzer makes an intermittent sound for a certain period of time or until the stop key is operated, and the LED flashes until the stop key is operated to notify of an abnormality. Then, by canceling the abnormality notification using the stop key and operating the start key, the dehydration operation can be restarted. Additionally, the safety switch may temporarily
You can tell whether it is dehydration imbalance or the top lid is open by the time it is turned off (it takes a longer time when the top lid is open). (C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the conventional example, when abnormal vibration is detected during the dewatering operation after the abnormality alarm is canceled, the same corrective operation is performed again. However, at this point, the abnormality alarm has just been canceled and the user is near the washing machine, so the user can correct the imbalance himself, and it would be a waste of time and water to go to the trouble of performing the above-mentioned corrective action. It is. In view of the above problems, the present invention provides efficient control to correct spin imbalance in a spin washing machine. (d) Means for solving the problem The dehydrating washing machine of the present invention includes a microcomputer that controls rotation of the dehydrating tank and unbalance correcting operation, a means for notifying the outside, and canceling the detection operation by the notifying means. means, when the microcomputer detects the unbalance a plurality of times in succession during the same dehydration process, the notification means notifies the outside of the abnormality, and also detects the unbalance during the dehydration operation immediately after the notification operation is canceled. The structure is such that when an abnormality is detected, an abnormality is immediately notified. (E) Effect In other words, the user is near the washing machine when the abnormality alarm is canceled, so if a spin imbalance occurs during the spin immediately after, the user will be notified of this, and the user will be informed of this. Correct the imbalance yourself. (f) Embodiments Examples of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a fully automatic washing machine, where 1 is a machine frame, and 2 is a top plate placed on the upper end of the machine frame 1. This top plate 2 is a frame part that forms a clothes slot 3. 4
and an operation unit 5 that houses electrical components such as a control board.
and a water supply section 7 in which a water supply device and a power switch 6 are installed. 8 is an upper lid pivotally supported on the rear edge of the frame portion 4 to cover the clothing input port 3;
9 is a drainage hose. FIG. 2 shows various operation keys arranged on the operation panel 5a on the front side of the operation unit 5, 10 is a selection setting key for washing water level (high, medium, low, small amount),
Light emitting diode 19 corresponding to each water level...
(hereinafter referred to as LED) is installed, and each time the button is pressed, the water level changes and the corresponding LED lights up at the same time.
11 is a selection setting key for water flow strength (strong, standard, soft, silk/wool), and LED20 is arranged corresponding to each water flow, and each time the key is pressed, the water flow changes and corresponds at the same time. The LED lights up. In addition, each water flow is based on the standard, the strong water flow has a long rotation time per unit time, the soft water flow has a short rotation time, and the silk/wool water flow will be described later.
The rotational speed of the rotor is reduced, resulting in a water flow that is even weaker than the soft water flow. 12 is the washing process time (12 minutes,
This is a setting key for 6 minutes, 3 minutes), and LED 21 is arranged corresponding to each time, and each time the key is pressed, the time changes from 12 minutes → 6 minutes → 3 minutes → 0 minutes → 12 minutes →... ……
The corresponding LED lights up at the same time (all lights go out at 0 minutes). 13 is a rinsing status (careful, standard, economy) setting key, and LED 22 is provided corresponding to each status, and each time the key is pressed, the rinsing status changes to ``careful'' → standard → economical → none → careful →... ...and respond at the same time.
The LED lights up (all lights go out when none).
It should be noted that a "deep" rinse means two water rinses, two "standard" rinses and two splash rinses, and one "economy" rinse and one splash rinse. 14 is the dehydration process time (6
minute, 3 minute, 1/2 minute) setting key, and LED 23 is arranged corresponding to each time.
Each time you press, the time increases from 6 minutes → 3 minutes → 1/2 minute → 0 minutes →
The time changes to 6 minutes...and the corresponding LED lights up at the same time (all lights go out at 0 minutes). Numeral 15 is a start key for a course arbitrarily programmed using the operation keys 10 to 14, and 16 and 17 are setting and start keys for A course and B course, which are constructed by combining washing, rinsing, and dehydrating steps.
Incidentally, the A course is a standard washing program, and the B course is a program that shortens the entire program and executes in about 18 minutes, and the B course is automatically executed immediately after the power switch 9 is turned on. is set. 24 is a temporary stop key for each process and program, which is released by re-operating each start key. Figure 3 shows the internal mechanism of a fully automatic washing machine.
is an outer tank, which is elastically supported within the machine frame 1. Reference numeral 25 denotes a dewatering/washing tub rotatably supported within the outer tub 24, and has a large number of dehydrating holes 26 around the periphery, and a balance ring 27 is disposed at the upper end. A rotary blade 28 is disposed at the bottom of the washing tub 25, and the rotary blade 28
The washing tub 25 is connected to a drive motor 30 via a power transmission mechanism 29. A pump chamber 32 using the back blade 31 of the rotor blade 28 is formed on the back side of the rotor blade 28, and a water supply channel 33 is connected from the pump chamber 32 to the upper part of the washing tub 25.
Washing water is pumped through. 34 is a lint filter that faces the discharge port 33a of the water supply channel 33 and is attached to the balance ring 27. Such a fully automatic washing machine is controlled by a microcomputer, hereinafter referred to as this microcomputer 3.
5 (hereinafter referred to as microcomputer) will be explained based on FIG. The microcomputer 35 includes a CPU 36, a RAM 37,
It is composed of a ROM 38, a timer 39, a system bus 40, and input/output ports 41-46. Said
The CPU 36 is composed of a control section 47 and a calculation section 48. The control section 47 takes out and executes instructions, and the calculation section 48 receives control signals from the control section 47 during the instruction execution stage. Performs arithmetic processing such as binary addition, logical operations, increase/decrease, and comparison on data provided from input devices and memory. The RAM 37 is for storing data regarding the washing machine, and the ROM 38 is for storing data related to the washing machine.
The means for operating the washing machine, the setting of conditions for judgment, the rules for processing various information, etc. are loaded in advance. The input ports 41 to 43 receive signals from an input key circuit 49 made up of the various operation keys, a detection circuit 50 such as a water level detector and a top cover safety switch linked to opening and closing of the top cover, and a load detection device 51 to be described later. is input, and based on this information, an LED drive circuit 52 consisting of the LED group, a buzzer circuit 53 for process end notification or abnormality notification, a bidirectional thyristor, etc. is input from the output ports 44 to 46. A control signal is sent to the load drive circuit 54 and the like. The load drive circuit 54 controls the operations of the left and right rotation circuits 55 and 56 of the rotary blade drive motor 30, the water supply solenoid valve drive circuit 57, and the drainage solenoid valve drive circuit 58 in accordance with control signals from the microcomputer 35. . 59 is a power supply circuit for supplying voltage to the microcomputer 35, and 60 is a reset signal generating circuit. Next, the load detection device 51 will be explained. In FIG. 5, 61 and 62 are bidirectional thyristors connected to the motor 30, which are turned on and off by signals from the microcomputer 35. To apply braking to the motor 30, the one bidirectional thyristor 61 is phase-controlled, a rectified voltage is applied to the motor 30, and so-called DC braking is applied. Reference numeral 63 denotes a current transformer, in which a voltage proportional to the current flowing through the motor 30 appears on the secondary side, and this is converted into a DC voltage V _CT through a rectifier circuit 64 and a smoothing circuit 65. Generally, when the motor 30 is driven during dewatering,
A large current flows during startup, and as the motor 30 reaches steady rotation, the motor current gradually decreases to a steady current. That is, the V _CT has a characteristic as shown in FIG. Here, the reference voltage V _REF is determined in advance, and this
A comparator 66 compares V _REF and the V _CT to obtain an output V _OUT . Figure 7 is a time chart of this V _OUT , and to explain based on the solid line in Figure 6, V _OUT shows a HIGH level (V _H ) after motor 30 is started, and when V _CT exceeds V _REF . It becomes LOW level (V _L ). Then V _CT decreases and V _REF again
When V OUT becomes smaller than , V _OUT again shows the HIGH level. Therefore, the microcomputer 35
The time T from the time of 0 startup until the aforementioned V _OUT becomes HIGH level again is counted. In reality, an abnormal current may flow immediately after startup, so counting is started after a predetermined time delay (about 1 second). The time T naturally varies depending on the amount of load, and the larger the amount of load, the longer the time T becomes.
In Fig. 6, t _A and t _B are reference values determined using ideal heavy and light loads, respectively (t _A > t _B ),
The microcomputer 35 compares the time T with the reference values t _A and t _B to set the load amount to three levels, that is, a large load (t _A ≦T), a medium load (t _B ≦ T <
t _A ) and a light load (T<t _B ). The operations based on this configuration are shown in FIGS. 8 to 10.
This will be explained according to the flowchart shown in the figure. FIG. 8 shows the control performed in the washing step and the rinsing step when the silk/wool water flow is selected using the water flow setting key 11 before starting the program. Here, in order to reduce the rotational speed of the rotary blade 28, a conventionally well-known method is used, that is, bidirectional thyristors 61 and 62 for energizing the drive motor 30 are used for half a cycle of the AC power supply voltage. A method is used in which the on/off control is performed appropriately in units of units. Specifically, the half cycle is energized once every three times, and the number of revolutions is reduced to about 1/3 compared to when the motor is continuously energized and rotated normally. Below, the former is pulse-cut operation, and the latter is continuous energization at full speed (approximately 180 rpm at full speed)
It is called. In the figure, the microcomputer 35 rotates the drive motor 30 left and right after a 3 second rest period. First, in clockwise rotation, when the motor 30 is started, time measurement of the clockwise rotation time (8 seconds) of the motor is started (S-1), and pulse cut water flow control (S-2) is executed. Pulse cut water flow control will be explained using FIG. When the water flow time has elapsed, flag A is reversed (S-4), and the full speed operation mode is entered, and the water flow time for full speed operation is set again. The above operation is repeated within the clockwise rotation time (8 seconds), and after a 3 second pause (S-5), the same pulse-cut water flow control is performed during the counterclockwise rotation. That is, each time the motor 30 rotates, the pulse cut operation and full speed operation are alternately repeated at predetermined intervals. Specifically, the predetermined time is 1.8
seconds (1) - 0.2 seconds (2) - 1.9 seconds (1) - 0.1 seconds (2) - 2 seconds (1) ((1)
:
Pulse cut operation, (2): Full speed operation). As is clear from this, the time for the pulse cut operation is about 20 times the time for full speed operation. In other words, to wash delicate items such as silk and wool, full-speed operation is sufficient for this length of time, and during pulse cut operation, full-speed operation occasionally applies a strong impact of water to the laundry. Encourage vertical interchange. Also, only the first full-speed operation (0.2 seconds) is longer than the others, but this is because the rotation of the laundry is still slow immediately after starting, and in order to facilitate the upper and lower rotation, it is necessary to This is because it is necessary to strengthen the Figures 11 and 12 show the silk/
Wool products (solid line in Figure 11) and silk products (solid line in Figure 12) were removed by the wool water stream, and the rotary blades were reversed in the full speed operation for a predetermined period of time, which can also be called conventional examples, and then reversed in the pulse cut operation for a predetermined period of time. The solid line is the result of comparing the results with those shown by the dotted line in each figure. As shown in the figure, in the past, full-speed operation was the main mode, and the rotation of the rotor blades changed the speed of the water flow to facilitate the changing of the laundry, so the intense impact caused by the reversal of the blades was applied to the fabric. The effect was strong, resulting in a high shrinkage rate (shrinkage) of the laundry. On the other hand, the silk/wool water stream of this embodiment forms an extremely gentle water stream and facilitates changing of laundry by running at full speed for a short period of time.
Can wash wool and silk products evenly without shrinking them. Next, FIG. 9 shows control operations based on signals from the load detection device 51. In this embodiment, washing, rinsing, and dewatering steps are sequentially executed according to a program under the control of the microcomputer 35. However, when transitioning from washing to rinsing and when repeating rinsing, a short intermediate dehydration operation is performed. Incidentally, if a given process time is set to zero using each of the operation keys 12 to 14, that process is omitted. Note that each LED lights up at the same time as the program is set, but turns off sequentially as the process progresses. Then, when the power switch 6 is turned on,
The microcomputer 35 is initially reset, and at the same time the water level is set to a high level (S-10), and the corresponding LED
19 lights up (S-11). In this state,
The user changes the water level, water flow, and each process time to desired ones, or selects a predetermined course (A course, B course) (S-12). At this time, the microcomputer 35 turns on the corresponding LED as shown in FIG.
7 at a predetermined address (S-
13) (S-14). Thereafter, each step is performed according to the program (S-15) to (S-18). Now, in the intermediate dehydration process after the washing process is completed and before proceeding to the rinsing process, the load detection device 51
Control as shown in FIG. 9B is carried out by signals from . That is, the drain electromagnetic valve is opened to discharge the detergent liquid (S-19), and when the water level in the tank drops to a predetermined water level, the drive motor 30 is energized and the washing tub 25 rotates at high speed. Start (S-
20). At this time, the microcomputer 35 starts measuring the time T after a one second delay in order to detect the amount of laundry (S-21). In this embodiment, the reference time _tA is set to 16 seconds, _tB is set to 8 seconds, and T≧
If 16, large load (3.0Kg or more) (S-22), 8≦
If T<16, medium load (1.0~3.0Kg) (S-23),
If T<8, it is judged as a light load (1.0Kg or less) (S-24), and as shown in the table below, the optimal water level, intermediate dewatering time, and rinsing process time per time are determined according to each load. At the time of the final dehydration process, the subsequent program is corrected (S-25), and at the same time, the lighting of the LED is changed to the corresponding one. Incidentally, if the process time is set to zero in advance, such correction is not performed.

[Table] When the upper lid 8 is opened or the temporary stop key 18 is operated during the dewatering operation, the power to the drive motor 30 is cut off, the DC braking is applied, and the drain solenoid valve is closed. However, if such an operation is performed during the aforementioned load amount judgment (during time T measurement), the load amount measurement is immediately stopped (S-26) as shown in Fig. 9 (c), and the subsequent program is executed. Perform control based on large loads (S-27) (S-
28). In other words, if the rotation of the drive motor 30 is stopped, it becomes impossible to measure the time T, so as a safety measure, washing is performed with the largest amount of water (high water level) (if the amount of water is small, if the load is large, (Causes damage to the fabric.) Therefore, in this case, only the water level may be changed. When all programs are finished, the microcomputer 35 turns on the buzzer for 0.5 seconds - 0.5 seconds as shown in Figure 9.
The user is notified of this by making a sound for 16 seconds at an OFF cycle, and when the notification operation is completed (S-29), the water level corrected in the load detection operation described above is canceled, and the water level is canceled in (S-14). The uncorrected water level data stored in the RAM 37 and set by the user himself is automatically set (S-30). As a result, when the user repeatedly performs the washing operation, the water level frequently used on a daily basis is preset, so that the setting operation becomes easy. Note that data other than the water level before correction may also be set at this time. In addition, the dehydrating washing machine of this embodiment employs an auto power-off mechanism that automatically shuts off the power circuit if no key input is made for 10 minutes after the end of the washing operation. When the LED is cut off, all the LEDs are turned off and the contents stored in the RAM 37 are also cancelled. Next, FIG. 10 shows control when the washing tub 25 vibrates abnormally due to unbalance of the dewatering load during the dewatering operation.As is conventionally known, when the dewatering unbalance is detected by displacement of the unbalance detection lever ( S-30), determines whether the program was started from the dehydration process (S-31), and if not, counts 1 in the counter (S-32) and corrects the imbalance. Processing is performed (S-33). In this unbalance correction process, the drain solenoid valve is closed, a small amount of water is supplied into the tank, and the rotor blade 28 is
is briefly reversed. In the same dehydration process, this unbalance correction process is performed twice (counter content is 2), and when dehydration imbalance is detected again, the dehydration is temporarily stopped without performing the unbalance correction process, and at the same time the buzzer sounds. The abnormality is notified to the user (S-33). At this time, the counter contents are left at 2 without being cleared. Since the abnormality notification operation can be canceled by pressing the temporary stop key 18, the user only has to restart the dehydration operation after canceling the abnormality notification operation. If dehydration imbalance is detected again during this restart operation, the counter content is already 2, so an abnormality is immediately notified. This is because, in most cases, dehydration imbalance occurs when dehydration is started, and if the abnormality alarm is canceled immediately after the abnormality alarm is canceled, there is no need to correct dehydration imbalance because the user is nearby, and the user can correct it by himself/herself. Because you can. Similarly, in (S-31), if the program was started from the dehydration process, the user is nearby, so the abnormality is immediately notified. (G) Effects of the Invention The present invention provides a method for correcting the unbalance when the unbalanced dehydration occurs in a dehydrating washing machine when the user is likely to be nearby, such as during the dehydrating operation immediately after the abnormal dehydration alarm is released. Since the abnormality is immediately notified without performing any control, the user can correct the imbalance by himself, and the time and money spent on the imbalance correction control can be omitted, which is very efficient.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the dehydrating washing machine of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of the operation panel, Fig. 3 is a diagram of the internal mechanism, Fig. 4 is a block circuit diagram of the control mechanism, and Fig. 5 is the load. Detection circuit diagram, Figure 6 is a motor current characteristic diagram during dehydration, Figure 7 is an output characteristic diagram of the load detection device, Figure 8 A and B are flowcharts showing the operation during washing and rinsing, and Figure 9 I. ~F is a flowchart showing a series of operations of a dehydrating washing machine, FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing operations during dehydration, and FIGS. 11 and 12.
The figure is a cleaning characteristic diagram. 18... Temporary stop key (cancellation means), 24...
Dehydration/washing tub, 35...microcomputer,
53... Buzzer circuit (notification means).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A device that detects abnormal vibrations in the dewatering tank due to unbalanced dewatering load, performs an action to correct the unbalance, and then continues the dewatering operation, and a microcontroller that controls the rotation of the dehydrating tank and the unbalance correcting action. The microcomputer includes a computer, a means for notifying the outside, and a means for canceling the notifying operation by the notifying means, and when the microcomputer detects the unbalance a plurality of times in succession in the same dehydration process, the microcomputer notifies the 1. A dehydrating washing machine, characterized in that the dehydrating washing machine is configured to notify the outside of the abnormality by a means, and to immediately notify the abnormality if an imbalance is detected during the dehydrating operation immediately after the notification operation is canceled.