JPH0338877B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field) The present invention relates to a washing machine that controls washing and rinsing operations by optically detecting changes in turbidity of a washing liquid.

(Prior Art) Various washing machines have been proposed in the past that are equipped with optical turbidity detectors to determine the completion of washing and rinsing operations. If a failure occurs, the detection state will be the same as when the turbidity is extremely high. On the other hand, turbidity also increases significantly when laundry is washed with oily or muddy soil. Therefore, if a failure alarm is issued when the turbidity reaches a very large value, there is a possibility of a false alarm.
There was definitely a lack of reliability in reporting failures of turbidity detectors.

(Purpose) The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and by determining that the detected value by the turbidity detector exceeds a predetermined value only during the rinsing operation and notifying the user of a malfunction, the present invention eliminates oil stains unlike the conventional method. This system is designed to prevent false alarms caused by dirty or muddy laundry.

(Example) Examples of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control system of a washing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 1, 1
is an outer washing tank, 2 is a cleaning solution, 3 is an inner washing tank, 4 is a pulsator, 5 is a communication pipe, 6 is an optical turbidity detector,
7 is a conduction pipe for draining the water in the tank through the drain valve 11, 8 is a motor, 9 is a motor control section, 10 is a turbidity detection section, 11 is a drain valve, 12 is a drain valve control section, 13 is a sequence The control section 14 is a notification section consisting of a lamp and a buzzer. When the motor 8 rotates, the pulsator 4 rotates at the same time, so that the cleaning liquid 2 in the tank flows as shown by the arrow: inner tank 3 → outer tank 1 →
Communication pipe 5 → Conduction pipe 7 → Hole at the bottom of inner tank 3 → Inner tank 3
It circulates. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the internal configuration of the optical turbidity detector 6 and the turbidity detection section 10.
In Figure 2, 15 is a light emitting element, 16 is a light receiving element, 17
is a power supply, 18 is a resistor for limiting the light emission intensity of the light emitting element 15, 19 is a resistor for adjusting the light receiving sensitivity of the light receiving element 16,
20 is an A/D conversion circuit, 21 is a logic circuit, and 22 is a light emitting element 15 that passes through the circulating water in the tank.
This is the transmitted light transmitted from the light receiving element 16 to the light receiving element 16. The amount of transmitted light changes depending on the turbidity, and the A/D conversion circuit 2
The analog voltage value V ₁ input to 0 changes.
Figure 3 shows the correlation between turbidity and _V1 . When the turbidity is small, V ₁ is also small, and when the turbidity is large, V ₁ is also large.
Point B indicates a state where the turbidity is zero and V ₂ is equal to the saturation voltage of the light receiving element 16. FIG. 4 shows V ₁ and turbidity detection status when the light emitting element and light receiving element fail. As shown by numbers 1, 2, and 3 in FIG. 4, if the light emitting element is in failure or the light receiving element is in an open failure, the turbidity is detected to be greater than a certain predetermined value. As shown in number 4, if the light-receiving element has a short-circuit failure, it is detected that the turbidity is low. On the other hand, when washing heavily oily or muddy laundry, the washing water turns black and becomes extremely turbid. Therefore, the detector failure determination is as follows:
The failure of the light-emitting element and the open failure of the light-receiving element cannot be handled accurately by the washing operation, but can be handled accurately by the rinsing operation. That is,
When the turbidity detection unit 10 determines that the turbidity of the cleaning liquid is higher than a predetermined value and a corresponding signal is input to the sequence control unit 13, the sequence control unit 13 determines whether the currently executed operation is a washing operation or a rinsing operation. If it is a washing operation, the notification unit 14 is not activated,
If it is a rinsing operation, the notification section 14 is operated to notify a failure of the turbidity detector 6. Therefore, in the washing operation, when laundry with oil stains or mud stains is washed and the turbidity of the cleaning liquid exceeds a predetermined value, the notification section 14 does not operate, and false notifications are prevented.

Incidentally, when it is determined that the turbidity of the cleaning liquid is lower than a predetermined value, the notification section 14 is operated to issue a failure notification regardless of whether the washing operation or the rinsing operation is performed.

(Effects) According to the present invention, when the turbidity detection signal exceeds a predetermined value during washing, it is determined whether the current washing operation or rinsing operation is being performed, and a notification is made only when the rinsing operation is being performed. Since notification is not performed during operation, it is possible to accurately notify the user of a malfunction of the turbidity detector.

In other words, if there is heavy dirt during the washing operation, the turbidity detection signal may exceed the predetermined value even if the turbidity detector is not malfunctioning; Even if there is no notification,
There is no possibility of mistakenly reporting a failure during the washing operation. On the other hand, during the rinsing operation, the turbidity does not become extremely large, so when the turbidity detection signal exceeds a predetermined value, it is definitely a failure of the turbidity detector. Therefore, by notifying the user of a failure when the turbidity detection signal exceeds a predetermined value during this rinsing operation, it is possible to accurately notify the user of the failure of the turbidity detector. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the control system of a washing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the turbidity detector and turbidity detection section, and Figure 3 is the turbidity and light reception unit as described above. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the detection level of the element and the failure determination of the turbidity detector. 6: Turbidity detection unit, 10: Turbidity detection unit, 13: Sequence control unit, 14: Notification unit, 15: Light emitting element, 16: Light receiving element.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A device that is provided with a turbidity detector that optically detects a change in the turbidity of a cleaning solution and that controls washing and rinsing operations based on a signal from the turbidity detector, wherein: during washing. An operation determining means for determining whether the operation is a washing operation or a rinsing operation is provided, and a turbidity determining means is provided for determining whether a turbidity detection signal from the turbidity detector exceeds a predetermined value. A washing machine, characterized in that a washing machine is provided with a notification means for notifying only when a rinsing operation is to be performed based on the operation determination when the turbidity exceeds a predetermined value based on the turbidity determination means.