JPH0530201B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a physical quantity measuring device for measuring a physical quantity of a measurement target.

[Problems to be solved by conventional technology and invention]

Conventional measurement and monitoring equipment usually uses a method in which the power is turned on by manually operating a mechanical power switch when taking a measurement, and the power is turned off again after the measurement is completed. For this reason, failures of the switch and the main body attached to the switch are likely to occur, and troubles may occur due to forgetting to turn off the switch.

In order to improve this drawback, the present inventors have proposed that when a physical quantity measuring device that measures temperature is placed in a measurement state, power is turned on to the processing section, and the oscillation frequency of the temperature detection section is changed from the conversion time to a digital value. is set for a long time, the detection power of the temperature detection section is made high resolution,
He devised an invention that limited the actual power consumption time only to the time of measurement, and filed a patent application for this invention on December 28, 1981.
Filed as No.-214320 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 113826-1983)
issue). However, in this invention, since the measurement period is constant, unnecessary measurements are required in a standby state.
On the other hand, there was still room for improvement in that there was a limit to the resolution under measurement conditions.

In addition, in conventional physical quantity measuring devices, the processing device remains powered on regardless of the measurement cycle during measurement, and there is a limit to reducing power consumption, especially in integrated circuits. Therefore, there was a limit to miniaturization.

In addition, there is an electronic thermometer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 158381/1983) that turns off the power to the temperature-sensitive measuring section when holding and displaying the measured temperature value, but the power cannot be turned on or off during measurement. It is not automatically controlled.

An object of the present invention is to determine whether a physical quantity measuring device that measures a physical quantity such as temperature is in a non-operating state that determines the start of measurement or an operating state that is measuring, and in the former case, it measures physical quantities in a long period. In the latter case, the measurement cycle is set to measure the physical quantity at a predetermined short cycle, eliminating wasteful power consumption in the non-operating state, and making it possible to measure the physical quantity with high resolution in the operating state. In addition, by dividing the measuring device into a measuring means and a processing means, turning on the power to the processing means only when the measurement is in operation, and controlling power off even in the operation state, the power consumption can be reduced. An object of the present invention is to provide a physical quantity measuring device that can measure using electric power.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention has been made to achieve the above object.

That is, the present invention includes a detection means for detecting a physical quantity of an object to be measured, a measurement means for receiving an output signal from the detection means and measuring the physical quantity, and a measuring means for receiving an output signal from the measurement means and measuring a predetermined value for the physical quantity. A physical quantity measuring device comprising: a processing means for performing arithmetic processing;
a separating means for separating the processing means into an operating state and a non-operating state; and based on the classification by the separating means, when the processing means is in the operating state, the measuring means is operated at a predetermined period; control means for operating the measuring means at a cycle longer than the predetermined cycle when in the operating state; and power supply control means for controlling stopping and starting of power supply to the processing means according to the operating state of the measuring means. This is a physical quantity measuring device characterized by comprising:

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of a physical quantity measuring device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The part that extracts and outputs electrical signals from the detection element. The measuring circuit section 2, which is a measuring means, converts the electrical output corresponding to the physical information from the detecting section 1 into a data signal, and operates the processing circuit section 3, which is a processing means, as necessary. The processing circuit section 3 is a section that processes data signals and sends the processed physical quantities to the display section 4. The control circuit unit 5, which is a control means, is a part that controls the basic operations of the measurement circuit unit 2, the processing circuit unit 3, and the display unit 4.

The control circuit section 5 mainly has the function of a clock signal generator that forms a time base, and when the processing circuit section 3 is in an operating state, it generates a constant short-period clock signal 25 that starts the measurement process, and also outputs a constant short-period clock signal 25 that starts the measurement process. A long period clock signal 22 is outputted to operate the measuring circuit section 2 when the section 3 is not operating.

When the processing circuit section 3 is not operating, the measurement circuit section 2 starts operating upon activation of the long-period clock signal 22 that is periodically output from the control circuit section 5, and stops when the necessary steps are completed. The same process is repeated in accordance with the long-period signal.

When the measurement circuit section 2 is in operation, it takes in the electrical output 21 corresponding to the temperature information from the detection section 1 and outputs the data signal 24, and also determines whether or not to start the processing circuit section 3. A circuit section activation signal 23 is output. After the processing circuit unit activation signal 23 is input to the processing circuit unit 3,
The processing circuit section 3 starts operating in accordance with the short period clock signal 25 from the control circuit section 5. The short-cycle clock signal 25 is completely synchronized with the long-cycle signal 22, and when the processing circuit section 3 starts operating, the measurement circuit section 2 starts measuring with a short-cycle clock signal (not shown) through the processing circuit section 3. will be instructed. In this way, when the processing circuit section 3 is in an operating state, the measuring circuit section 2 operates at a fixed short period, and when the processing circuit section 3 is not in an operating state, it operates at a fixed longer cycle for a fixed period of time. become.

A standard clock signal 26 output from the control circuit section 5 is input to the processing circuit section 3 and is used to control the operation of the basic processing steps of the processing circuit section 3 and to measure elapsed time and time. When the processing circuit section 3 enters the operating state, it reads the data signal 24 output from the measurement circuit section 2 and performs data processing. The content of data processing depends on the purpose of implementation, such as calculating the average value of input data per unit time, finding the maximum value and rate of change, and calculating predictions of changes in the future. Do this. When the physical data is processed in the processing circuit section 3 according to the purpose, the processing result is sent to the display section 4 as a display signal 28 at each predetermined short period.

The processing circuit section 3 normally stops operating, but starts operating in response to an activation signal 23 from the measurement circuit section 2 which is activated in response to a long period clock signal 22 from the control circuit section 5. When the elapsed measurement time handled by the processing circuit section 3 exceeds a predetermined value or the measured physical quantity begins to comply with a predetermined standard,
The processing circuit section 3 sends a stop signal 27 to the measurement circuit section 2, returns the measurement circuit section 2 to the intermittent monitoring operation state according to the long period signal 22, and at the same time stops its operation.
At this time, the final processing result is displayed on the display section 4 and held until the processing circuit section 3 operates again. Further, 29 is a display control from the control circuit unit 5.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. 2, which shows a detailed configuration example of a portion embodying the basic functions, and FIG. 3, which shows the operation flow.

The long-period clock signal 22 output from the control circuit section 5 is input to the clock input terminal of the D-type flip-flop 10 in the measurement circuit section 2, and the D terminal of the flip-flop 10 is kept in the HIGH state. , first long period clock signal 2
2, the flip-flop 10 is set (step 100) and the activation signal 33 is output. In the measurement circuit section 2, the circuit is activated by the activation signal (step 101), and a physical quantity is measured based on the electrical output 21 from the detection section 1 (step 102). When the measurement is completed and the data of the processing circuit section 3 is sent by the data signal 24, the measurement circuit section 2 transmits the stop signal 34 to the previous D.
The signal is output to the reset terminal of the type flip-flop 10, the start signal 33 is reset, and the measurement operation is stopped (step 103). Based on the measurement results at this time, it is determined whether or not to operate the processing circuit section 3, and if it is necessary to operate the processing circuit section 3, the processing circuit section 3
A starting pulse 30 for starting the flip-flop 11 is applied to the clock input terminal of the D-type flip-flop 11 to set the flip-flop 11 (step 104-Y). If the processing circuit section 3 is not activated, the process returns to step 100 (step 104-N).

Here, the judgment as to whether or not to start the processing circuit section 3 is made, for example, by determining whether the physical information from the detection section 1 exceeds a certain value, or whether it shows a certain change, or by giving another measurement instruction. It can be arbitrarily configured depending on the purpose of measurement and monitoring, such as whether an event has occurred or whether the long-period clock signal 22 has matched a predetermined number of times.

When the flip-flop 11 is set, the Q output of the flip-flop sends the processing circuit activation signal 23 to the processing circuit 3 (step 105).

The input side of the AND gate 9 of the processing circuit section 3 is connected to a processing circuit section start signal 23 and a short period clock signal 25 which is constantly outputted by the control circuit section 5, and the processing circuit section start signal 23 is inputted. Then, a repetitive operation instruction signal 31 corresponding to the short period clock signal 25 is output (step
106). This repetitive operation instruction signal 31 is connected to the clock input terminal of the D-type flip-flop 8 whose D input is kept in the "H" state, and the flip-flop 8 is connected every time the short-period clock signal 25 is input to the processing circuit section 3. A processing circuit activation signal 32 for controlling the processing circuit 6 is output (step 107). Processing circuit start signal 3
2, the analog switch 7, which is the power switch for the processing circuit 6, is turned "ON" and the power 12 is supplied to the processing circuit 6 (step 108).

The measurement circuit section 2 includes a circuit that, when the processing circuit section activation signal 23 is being outputted, resets the D-type flip-flop 43 that starts the measurement operation with the short period clock signal 25 and outputs the activation signal 44. The measurement circuit section 2 is configured to repeat its operation in accordance with the short period clock signal 25 when the processing circuit section 3 enters the operating state.

The basic operation of the processing circuit 6 follows the clock signal 26 from the control circuit section 5, and as soon as the processing circuit 6 starts operating in response to the processing circuit startup signal 32, it reads the data signal 24 from the measurement circuit section 2 (step 109). ), performs arithmetic processing on the data signal 24 (step 110). Thereafter, the processing circuit 6 stores data such as the elapsed time since the processing circuit section 3 became operational, the data signal 24, and the arithmetic processing results in the memory 13 via the input/output line 36 (step 111). Further, the arithmetic processing results corresponding to the purpose are sent to the display unit 4 via the display output 28 and displayed (step 112).

At the same time, the elapsed time, data signal, and arithmetic processing results of the data signal are monitored each time to see if they meet predetermined standards depending on the purpose, and are checked to determine whether all the intended measurements have been completed (step 113). When the predetermined criteria are not met, that is, when the measurement is not completed (step 113-N)
In step 114, the processing circuit 6 outputs the processing circuit stop signal 35 and resets the start signal 32 to stop the processing circuit (step 114), and turns the analog switch 7 to "OFF" to temporarily stop the processing circuit 6. (Step 115). After that, the process returns to step 105 and outputs the processing circuit activation signal again, and short-cycle clock signal 2 is output.
5, repeat the series of operations. The processing circuit is also stopped when the elapsed time handled by the processing circuit, the data signal which is a physical quantity handled by the processing circuit, and the arithmetic processing results thereof meet a predetermined standard, that is, when the measurement is completed. (Step 116), after turning the analog switch “OFF” and stopping the processing circuit (Step 117),
Sends a measurement circuit section stop signal 27 to the measurement circuit section 2,
The measurement circuit section 2 is stopped (step 118), and the processing circuit section activation signal 23 is reset (step 118).
119), the operation of the measurement circuit section 2 and the processing circuit section 3 according to the short period clock signal 25 is stopped.

At this time, the display state of the display unit 4 consisting of the data latch, driver and display element is maintained in the final display state instructed by the display signal 28 by the display control signal 29.

When the desired measurement and arithmetic processing display is achieved, the device returns to the start state and operates in accordance with the long-cycle clock signal 22 in order to return the device to a standby state.

By the way, the reason for turning off the power to the processing circuit 6 under the control of the analog switch 7 (steps 115 and 117) during the short-cycle operation according to the short-cycle clock signal 25 and bringing it into a stopped state is to further reduce power consumption. I have no choice but to suppress it. In addition, the long-period clock signal 2 of the measurement circuit section 2
It is also possible to make the signal generation conditions different from the stop signal 34 during a repetitive operation according to 2 and the stop signal (not shown in the figure) during a repetitive operation according to the short period clock signal 25. For example, during a long period repetitive operation. Alternatively, the conditions for generating the stop signal 34 may be set such that the stop signal 34 is generated in a shorter time. Needless to say, by doing so, the average power consumption of the device can be further reduced.

The embodiments are not limited to FIGS. 1 and 2, but include any embodiment as long as it is within the scope of the claims.

The present invention does not particularly limit the display items on the display section 4 either. For example, when the processing circuit section 3 is stopped, it is of course permissible to leave the time when the processing circuit section 3 last sent the display signal 28 on the display section 4. By leaving several displays one after another in this way, it is possible to later observe when and what kind of phenomenon occurred using a video device or the like. This effect is thought to be significant in monitoring devices in the industrial field.

FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are examples in which the present invention is implemented in an electronic thermometer. However, the illustration of parts that overlap with FIG. 2 is omitted. That is, they are combined with those in FIG. 2 to form the main parts of the measurement circuit section 2 in FIG. 4 and the processing circuit section 3 in FIG. 5, respectively.

In FIG. 4, the resistance value of the thermistor 14, which is a temperature sensing element that changes its electrical resistance value according to the temperature, is converted into a temperature data signal 24 by the resistance-temperature conversion circuit 15 which receives a conversion command from the activation signal 33.
is converted to When the conversion is completed, a stop signal 34 is output. The activation signal 33 was originally provided by the long period clock signal 22 of FIG.
When measuring physical quantities that change relatively slowly, such as body temperature, long-period clock signals last for 1 second or more.
Repeating for about 10 seconds is appropriate. A cycle that is too short is undesirable from the perspective of reducing power consumption, and a cycle that is longer than 10 seconds may cause the measurement to be missed or result in some lost time in order to obtain the final display. be. Resistance-
A data signal 37 is sent from the temperature conversion circuit 15 for carrying out the determination process of step 104 in the flowchart of FIG. Data signal 37 may be essentially the same as data signal 24, but may be a relatively less accurate signal for implementing the decision process of step 104. The determination circuit 16 includes a circuit that outputs a starting pulse 30 if the temperature data signal 37 is within a certain range, and if the rate of change is greater than a certain value by counting the difference from the previously captured data signal. There is. When measuring body temperature in a normal environment, when examining many temperature change curves during body temperature measurement, it is found that the temperature detected by the detection part exceeds approximately 30 degrees Celsius, and the temperature at the initial stage of measurement is approximately 0.02 degrees Celsius or more per second on average. This indicates an increase in body temperature, and if this condition is met, body temperature measurement can be properly started, and if calculation processing and display are performed, almost any body temperature measurement can be performed. If the temperature is simply 30°C or higher, the measurement operation will be repeated constantly even when not measuring body temperature in an environment of 30°C or higher, so it is not possible to achieve power savings under these conditions.
Conversely, conditions with a rate of change of 0.02°C/second or higher are somewhat superior to conditions with a rate of change of 30°C or higher. This is because when the purpose is to measure body temperature, the former condition is less likely to hold true for purposes other than measuring body temperature. However, if you become infected, the processing circuit can easily start by touching the detection part with your hand for a split second, so in order to eliminate these problems even a little, it is necessary to keep the temperature above 30℃. It is better to add conditions as well.

FIG. 5 shows that when the temperature handled by the processing circuit section 3 no longer shows an increase above a certain value, or after it is determined that the temperature no longer shows an increase above a certain value, the newly read temperature value is This figure shows the main part of the function of stopping the operation of the processing circuit section 3 and keeping the measuring circuit section 2 in an intermittent monitoring operation state when the temperature is lower than the temperature handled by the section 3 by a predetermined value or more.

The data signal 24 from the measuring circuit section 2 in FIG. 2 is sent to the counter register 17 of the processing circuit section 3 at the cycle of the short-cycle clock signal 25 while the processing circuit section 3 is in operation. The read pulse 38 is synchronized with the short period clock signal 25 and gives an instruction to read the contents of the counter register 17 at the same period.
Data output 39 is stored in RAM (random access memory) 13 every cycle. The data stored in RAM13 is read out by pulse 4 as needed.
0 is read out and arithmetic processing is performed by the arithmetic circuit 19. Arithmetic processing is performed every cycle according to a short-cycle clock signal. For example, in order to prevent the arithmetic results from being greatly affected by slight fluctuations in data, the continuous latest information stored in the RAM 13 for each past cycle is used. calculation of the average value (moving average value) of the data, detection of the maximum value from the past, calculation of other temperature changes per cycle, measurement of the elapsed time since the processing circuit unit started operating, A prediction calculation of the final equilibrium temperature based on the temperature and elapsed time is performed.

Both of these calculation results are sent by the write signal 41.
It is sent to RAM13 and accumulated every time. The basic operation of the arithmetic circuit 19 is performed in accordance with the clock signal 26.

Now, the result of the arithmetic processing in the arithmetic circuit 19 is sent to the display unit 4 through the display signal 28. The content to be sent differs depending on the purpose of the embodiment, and for so-called real-time thermometers, the input data as is or the average value (moving average value) of the input data mentioned above, for so-called direct-reading thermometers, the maximum value, predictive type For thermometers, this is the predicted value of equilibrium temperature. The arithmetic circuit may be configured according to the purpose, or it may be possible to select it using a switching terminal or the like. A termination determination signal 42 is output from the arithmetic circuit 19, and this signal can also be used by the arithmetic circuit 19 depending on the purpose.
Either one or two or more different types of signals of the calculation results including the data before processing are used. Real-time thermometers only measure the elapsed time, but direct reading and predictive types
The amount of change in the moving average value or the elapsed time is combined. Since these termination determination signals 42 are input to the determination circuit 18, the termination determination can be made by selecting one according to the purpose. For example, when the above-mentioned moving average value no longer shows a change of 0.1°C or more per minute, or when the moving average value
When 10 seconds or more have passed after no longer showing a change of 0.1℃ or more in 30 seconds, or when the maximum value of the past moving average no longer shows an increase of more than a certain value, or when the moving average value remains constant. When the newly read temperature is 0.1°C or more lower than the maximum value of the moving average value after it no longer shows an increase above the value, or after the elapsed time exceeds 60 seconds, the moving average value is 0.1°C or more lower than the maximum value of the moving average value. You can create judgment criteria that best suit your purpose, such as when you get old. When the determination result of whether or not the measurement is completed in the determination circuit 18 is that the measurement is completed (step 113-Y), a measurement circuit stop signal 27 is sent to the measurement circuit 2, and the measurement circuit is placed in an intermittent monitoring state. Stopping the operation of the processing circuit section 3 (step 118, step
119). This determination of the end of measurement is essential in the present invention, and it is important that when the target measurement is completed, the device itself determines the end of measurement and stops its operation. For example, with the thermometer in the example, the direct reading type takes about 5 to 10 minutes, and the predictive type takes about 5 to 10 minutes.
Although the measurement ends after an elapsed time of 0.5 to 2 minutes, it is possible to determine that the measurement has ended using the temperature information from the detection part, and by moving the thermometer away from the measurement site, One important method is to use a decrease in the detected temperature to determine the end of the process. In this case, since the purpose cannot be achieved if the measurement is in the middle of the process, the reliability of the results is improved by setting constraints such as after a certain period of time has elapsed or that the increase in temperature is below a certain value.

In this way, when the measuring circuit section stop signal 27 is output from the determination circuit 18, the display section 4 holds the displayed value at that time and stops. Therefore, an extremely rational, easy-to-use, low-power electronic thermometer that automatically starts and stops measurement and retains measurement results until the next measurement is started is realized. .

It goes without saying that the arithmetic circuit 19, determination circuit 18, etc. can be realized by a microcomputer.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In the physical quantity measuring device according to the present invention, the measuring means operates at a slow cycle in a non-operating state when making a determination,
The target physical quantity is intermittently monitored at long time intervals, it is determined whether the measurement results should be processed, and only when processing is necessary, the measuring means and the processing means operate at a faster cycle. After the processing operation is completed again, it enters a monitoring state and becomes a non-operating state. For this reason,
In the non-operating state, the amount of conversion of a physical quantity into a processable electrical signal is reduced, and the average power consumption of the measuring device can be extremely reduced. At the same time, since the measurement period in the operating state is set short, measurements can be performed with higher resolution.

Further, the power to the processing means is turned on only during the measurement operation state, and the power supply to the processing means is controlled even during the operation state, so that the power consumption of the measurement apparatus can be further reduced.

In addition, with current technology, extremely low power consumption
Since the CMOS IC and the liquid crystal display can be the main components of the control circuit section and the display section, even if both are constantly operating, the effect on the power consumption of the entire device can be reduced. Therefore, the intermittent monitoring state of the measurement circuit section and the operation of the processing circuit section only when necessary are of great significance in reducing the power consumption of the entire device. Furthermore, if the power consumption of the device is reduced to a sufficient level, the power switch of the device will become unnecessary, and the device can be expanded to the point where it can be used for monitoring purposes. Devices that do not require a switch are generally suitable for downsizing, and naturally there are problems with the failure associated with switches.
This also instantly solves problems caused by forgetting to turn off the switch.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of this embodiment, Fig. 2 is a detailed view of the processing circuit section and its surroundings, Fig. 3 is an operation flowchart, and Fig. 4 is a partial block diagram when the present invention is implemented in an electronic thermometer. , FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of another control circuit section of the present invention. In the figure, 1...Detection section, 2...Measuring circuit section, 3...Processing circuit section, 4...Display section, 5...Control circuit section, 6...Processing circuit, 13...RAM, 1
4...Temperature thermistor, 15...Resistance-temperature conversion circuit, 17...Counter register, 19... Arithmetic circuit, 22...Long period clock signal, 25... Short period clock signal.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Detection means for detecting a physical quantity of an object to be measured;
A physical quantity measuring device comprising: a measuring means that receives an output signal from the detecting means and measures the physical quantity; and a processing means that receives the output of the measuring means and performs predetermined arithmetic processing on the physical quantity. Based on whether the rate of change or amount of change of the physical quantity measured by the means is within a predetermined value,
a separating means for separating the processing means into an operating state and a non-operating state; and based on the classification by the separating means, when the processing means is in the operating state, the measuring means is operated at a predetermined period; control means for operating the measuring means at a cycle longer than the predetermined cycle when in the operating state; and power supply control means for controlling stopping and starting of power supply to the processing means according to the operating state of the measuring means. A physical quantity measuring device comprising: 2. The physical quantity measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the physical quantity to be measured is the temperature of the part to be measured. 3. The physical quantity measuring device according to claim 2, characterized in that the operation of the processing means is stopped when the temperature processed by the processing means no longer shows an increase of more than a certain value in a unit time. 4. After it is determined that the temperature processed by the processing means no longer shows an increase of more than a certain value, when the newly read temperature value is smaller than the temperature handled by the processing means by a predetermined value or more, the processing means The physical quantity measuring device according to claim 2, characterized in that the operation of the physical quantity measuring device is stopped.