JPH046825B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention provides water supply to water washers such as toilet bowls and hand wash basins.
The present invention relates to a water supply control device that automatically controls the water supply based on the detection of the use of a water washer by a sensing unit, and particularly relates to a water supply control device whose driving power source is a battery.

(Prior art) Conventionally, as a water supply control device, for example,
As disclosed in Publication No. 126831, a battery emits infrared rays from a light emitting element, and a light receiving element receives the reflected light when it hits the user of the toilet.
Some devices output a sensing signal to open the water supply section. On the other hand, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 53-28449, there is a sensing device that emits light intermittently and consumes much less power than continuous light projection;
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 101123, a valve using a latching solenoid as a driving source that consumes less power is also known.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) Therefore, when trying to obtain a water supply control device using a battery as a driving power source, it is necessary to use an intermittent light-emitting type sensor unit with low power consumption or a water supply system using a latching solenoid as a driving source. Although it is conceivable to adopt some parts, simply adopting these parts may cause malfunctions due to the influence of ambient light and the like. The present invention has been made in view of such conventional circumstances, and aims to provide a sensing section and a water supply section with a structure that consumes less power in order to use a battery as a driving power source, and also to prevent malfunctions caused by external light, etc. .

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, in the water supply control device of the present invention, a pulse generation circuit is connected to the light emitting element of the sensing part to intermittently emit light at a cycle of several seconds, and the water supply part is Consists of a solenoid valve that opens and maintains the valve open state based on the valve open signal from the control unit, closes the valve based on the valve close signal and maintains the closed state, and stops energizing the water supply unit while the valve is open. This reduces power consumption, and also reduces the influence of ambient light by disconnecting the auto-zero circuit that stores the disturbance light level immediately before the light is emitted in the light receiving element of the sensing section and subtracts it from the reflected light for the emitted light. It eliminates the

(Function) In the water supply control device configured as described above, the sensing section detects when the light emitting element is in an intermittent non-emitting state.
The water supply parts do not consume electricity when the valve is maintained in the open state.

On the other hand, the sensing section uses an auto-zero circuit to memorize the disturbance light level immediately before the light is intermittently emitted from the light emitting element, and subtracts this from the reflected light from the external light, resulting in a signal that remains after the disturbance light has been removed. Based on the user's sense.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the water washer 1 is a urinal 1a, and above the urinal 1a,
To be more precise, the sensing section 2 is embedded in a wall surface A at a height corresponding to the height of the user's chest when the user is standing in front of the urinal 1a.

The sensing part 2 is a light emitting element 2 made of a light emitting diode.
It is a diffuse reflection type infrared sensor equipped with a light receiving element 2b consisting of a phototransistor and a light receiving element 2b. The infrared rays emit approximately
By emitting light for 0.14 m seconds, this infrared light hits the user standing in front of the urinal 1a to relieve himself and is diffusely reflected, and a part of the reflected light is received by the light receiving element. converted into an electrical signal.

The output of the light receiving element 2b is amplified by an amplifier circuit 2d and sent to an auto-zero circuit 2e.

The auto-zero circuit 2e remembers the level of ambient light such as sunlight or fluorescent light just before the light is projected, and cancels the ambient light by subtracting this from the level of reflected light from the projected light, so that the signal after cancellation is higher than a certain level. The presence or absence of a user is determined based on whether the level is above or below, and this sensing signal is sent to the control section 3 via the level recovery circuit 2f.

In the case of this embodiment, the control section 3 includes a 5 second prohibition timer circuit 3a, a 1 second output timer circuit 3b, a 20 msec timer circuit 3c, a load direction selector circuit 3d, and a load driver circuit 3e, as shown in the block diagram of FIG. When a sensing signal is sent from the level recovery circuit 2f, the 5-second prohibition timer circuit 3a is activated at the same time.

In order to prevent malfunction, the 5-second prohibition timer circuit 3a does not output an output unless the sensing signal from the level recovery circuit 2f continues for 5 seconds, and if the output from the level recovery circuit 2f disappears after 5 seconds have elapsed, , activates the 1 second output timer circuit 3b,
The 1 second output timer circuit 3b outputs an output.

This output corresponds to the operating time of the water supply section 4 and is output for 1 second, but due to the rise and fall of this output, the
The second timer circuit 3c is activated, and the load direction selector circuit 3d determines the current flow direction of the load driver circuit 3e, and the water supply unit 4 is activated in accordance with the current flow of the load driver circuit 3e.

That is, when the 1 second output timer circuit 3b is activated,
At the same time, a water supply unit 4 (to be described later) receives current from a battery 5 such as lithium, which is separately connected to the control unit 3.
The drive solenoids 4a and 4b are energized for 20 msec, and one second after the start of energization, the drive solenoid 4a is energized again in the opposite direction to the above current.

The water supply section 4 has a diaphragm 4c as shown in FIG.
The pilot hole 4d opened in the center of the urinal 1a is opened and closed by a plunger 4e operated by drive solenoids 4a and 4b, and the lower surface of the diaphragm 4c is brought into and out of contact with the valve seat 4f, thereby opening and closing the valve portion 4g. The driving solenoids 4a and 4b are connected to two flux plates 4, upper and lower.
It is clamped and fixed between h and 4i so as to cover its upper and lower surfaces, respectively.

An upper flux plate 4 is provided inside one of the drive solenoid 4a in which the plunger 4e is installed.
A fixed head 4j is arranged at
A permanent magnet 41 is mounted on the outside of the drive solenoid 4a, and upper and lower flux plates 4h, 4i are connected to the drive solenoid 4a.
Clamp and fix it between the two.

Inside the other driving solenoid 4b are iron cores 4 fixed to upper and lower flux plates 4h and 4i, respectively.
A permanent magnet 41 is sandwiched and fixed between these iron cores 4m and 4n.

Next, to explain the operation of the water supply section 4, in a normal state, the magnetic fluxes generated by the permanent magnets 4l and 4o are in the same phase with each other, so the magnetic flux is directed from the permanent magnet 41 to the upper flux plate 4h. There is no magnetic flux that passes through the lower flux plate 4i through both iron cores 4m and 4n, and through the head 4j and plunger 4e. Therefore, the pilot hole 4d is closed by the lower surface of the plunger 4e, and the valve portion 4g is closed.
keeps the valve closed.

Now, when the driving solenoids 4a and 4b are energized for a moment, the polarity of the permanent magnet 4o changes and becomes the opposite phase to the permanent magnet 4l, and the plunger 4e is attracted to the head 4j by the action of the driving solenoid 4a, and the pilot hole which had been closed is closed. 4d opens and the water in the pressure chamber 4p formed behind the diaphragm 4c is discharged from the pilot hole 4d to the secondary side, and when the lower surface of the diaphragm 4c separates from the valve seat 4f, the valve portion 4g opens. do.

In this state, the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet 4l passes through the upper flux plate 4h, the head 4j, and the plunger 4e, and reaches the lower flux plate 4i, and the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet 4o passes from the iron core 4m, through the upper flux plate 4h, to the head 4j, and the plunger. 4e, a lower flux plate 4i, and an iron core 4n form a circuit, and the plunger 4e remains attracted to the head 4j, that is, maintains the open state shown in FIG. 5.

In addition, in order to change the valve from the open state to the closed state again, if the current is momentarily reversed to the drive solenoid 4a, magnetic fluxes of different phases are generated between the head 4j and the plunger 4e, and the head 4j and the plunger 4e become opposite to each other. The plunger 4e is moved away from the head 4j by the force of the release spring 4k, and the polarities of both permanent magnets 4l and 4o become in phase with each other, resulting in the state shown in FIG. 4 above.

Further, the block diagram of FIG. 6 and the time chart of FIG. 7 are other embodiments, in which the light emitting element 2a is controlled by the output of the pulse generating circuit 2c at a period of several seconds, for example, at a period of one second. It is designed to emit four pulses of infrared light in approximately 0.14 m seconds, and the output of the light receiving element 2b is amplified by the AC amplifier circuit 2g, which amplifies only the high frequency of the reflected light, and then the bypass filter circuit. The disturbance light is canceled in 2 hours, and the presence or absence of the user is determined based on whether the canceled signal is above or below a certain level.

Incidentally, in the above embodiment, the water washer 1 is the urinal 1.
Although the case of case a is shown, the washing machine 1 is not limited to this, and for example, as shown in FIG. 8, the washing machine 1 may be a hand washing machine 1b.

In this case, a sensing unit 2 is provided on the wall W of the rear upper surface of the handwash basin 1b, and the sensing unit 2 detects the human body by infrared rays emitted from the body of a person who approaches the handwash basin 1b to wash their hands. 4 and water spouting tool 1.
Water supply starts from b ₁ , and when the human body is removed from the washbasin 1b, no infrared rays enter the sensing section 2, and when the sensing signal disappears, the water supply is stopped.

Furthermore, the sensing section 2 need not be of the embedded type, and the valve structure of the water supply section 4 is not limited to the pilot type.

Further, the solenoid valve of the present invention may be used as a relief valve in a normal FV to open and close the FV.

(Effects of the Invention) Since the present invention has the above configuration, it has the following advantages.

Since the light emitting element emits infrared rays at a predetermined period, for example, one second, compared to conventional devices equipped with a sensing section that constantly emit infrared rays several thousand times per second. The number of times the light is emitted is small, and power consumption can be reduced accordingly.

The water supply section is energized only when the valve is opened or closed, and the valve state is maintained by itself even if the water supply section is not energized while the valve is open or closed. The power consumption of the water supply section can be reduced by that much compared to the case where the water supply section needs to be continuously energized.

Together, the above factors extend the battery life and eliminate the need for frequent battery replacement.
Not only does it have the economical advantage of significantly reducing maintenance costs (battery costs), but it also greatly reduces the hassle of replacing batteries.

The auto-zero circuit memorizes the disturbance light level just before the light is intermittently emitted from the light emitting element, and by subtracting this from the reflection of the light, the user senses the signal based on the signal that remains after the disturbance light has been removed. Even with intermittent light projection, malfunctions caused by external light can be prevented.

Therefore, compared to conventional systems that emit light intermittently from the light emitting element, the light emitting power is lower and the amount of current to the sensing section can be reduced, reducing power consumption without degrading reliability. .

Therefore, the battery life is extended.

It is easy to replace the existing one and wiring is also easy.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional side view of a water supply control device showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the sensing section and control section, Fig. 3 is a time chart, and Fig. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal section of the water supply section. The figure shows the valve in the closed state, FIG. 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the water supply section and shows the valve in the open state, and FIGS. 6 to 8 show other embodiments of the present invention. A block diagram of the control section, FIG. 7 is a time chart, FIG. 8 is a partially cutaway front view showing the case where the water washer is a hand wash, FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the sensing section and control section, and FIG. 10 is the same time chart. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Washer, 2...Sensing unit, 2a...Light emitter, 2b...Light receiving element, 3...Control unit, 4...Water supply unit, 5...Battery, 2c...Pulse generation circuit, 2
e...Auto zero circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A water washer, a sensing part that detects the use of the water washer, a control part that sends an opening/closing signal to the water supply part based on a sensing signal from the sensing part, and a water supply that opens and closes a valve based on the opening/closing signal from the control part. In the water supply control device which is equipped with a battery as a driving power source, the sensing section is constituted by an infrared sensor having a light emitting element and a light receiving element, and causes the light emitting element to emit light intermittently at intervals of several seconds. A pulse generation circuit is connected, and an auto-zero circuit is connected to the light receiving element, which stores the disturbance light level just before the light is emitted and subtracts it from the reflected light from the light emitted, and the water supply part is opened by a valve opening signal from the control part. 1. A water supply control device comprising an electromagnetic valve that maintains the valve in an open state when the valve closes, maintains the valve in the closed state by closing the valve in response to a valve close signal, and stops energizing the water supply section while the valve is open.