JPH0221013Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea] (b) Industrial application fields The present invention relates to a washing machine.

(b) Conventional technology Conventionally, in washing machines, the acting force of the rotor blades is changed by changing the reversal time of the rotor blades, etc., to create strong, medium, and weak water flows in the tub. known to form. For example, Tokuko Showa 60-58999
In the device disclosed in the publication, the intermittent energization time to the motor is controlled by varying the oscillation frequency of a multivibrator, thereby obtaining a wide range of water flow intensities.

Generally, when washing a small amount of thin laundry or delicate laundry such as wool, such a washing machine is set to a weak water flow in order to prevent fabric damage. In this case, only a small amount of water is required, and if the user unknowingly sets the water level to the highest level, that amount of water will be wasted.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention The present invention eliminates wastage of water in a washing machine, especially when washing a small amount or thin laundry.

(d) Means for solving the problem The washing machine of the present invention has a water flow intensity setting means and a water level setting means in the washing tub, and the water level in the washing tub is adjusted according to the weak water flow setting by the water flow intensity setting means. and control means for automatically changing the water level to a lower water level than the highest water level.

(E) Effect: In other words, when the water flow is weak and the water level is set to the highest water level, the water level is automatically changed to a lower rank than the highest water level.

(f) Examples Embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a machine frame, 2 is an operating section provided at the rear of the upper part of the machine frame 1, 3 is an outer tank installed inside the machine frame 1, 4 is installed inside the outer tank 3, 5 dehydration holes around
An inner tank serving as a washing and dewatering tank has..., 6 is a rotary blade disposed at the bottom of the inner tank 4, and 7 is a drive motor, which is connected to the inner tank 4 and the rotor 6 via a power transmission mechanism 8. When washing, the rotary blade 6 is rotated,
During dewatering, both the inner tank 4 and the rotor 6 are rotated at high speed. 9 is a drain port provided at the bottom of the outer tank 3; 10 is a drain electromagnetic valve; 11 is a drain hose; 12 is an air trap provided at one corner of the bottom of the outer tank 3;
It communicates with a water level sensor 13 inside via a pressure hose 14. 15 is a water supply electromagnetic valve provided in the water supply channel 16, 17 is a water temperature sensor attached to the bottom of the air trap 12, 18 is a water overflow port provided at the top of the outer tank 3, and 19 is a water overflow hose.

Here, the water level sensor 13 will be explained based on FIG. 3.

13a is a plastic case, the inside of which is connected to the primary side 13c and the secondary side 1 by a diaphragm 13b.
It is divided into 3d and 3d. A pressure introduction pipe 13e is formed on the primary side 13c, and the pressure hose 1
4 is connected. A core-shaped magnetic body 20 is attached to the secondary side 13d of the diaphragm 13b, and moves inside the coil 21 in accordance with the movement of the diaphragm 13b as pressure changes within the air trap 12. The inductance of the coil 21 is changed. As shown in FIG. 4, the coil 21 constitutes an oscillation circuit 24 together with capacitors 22 and 23, and the oscillation frequency changes as the inductance of the coil 21 changes. This signal is shaped and amplified by a buffer amplifier 25, and is input as a pulse signal to a control device to be described later. The control device receives the input oscillation frequency signal (pulse signal)
Determine the current water level from In this embodiment, the number of pulses input within a certain period of time (for example, one second) is counted, and the determination is made based on that number. By doing so, changes in the water level in the tank can be detected over a wide range and continuously.

FIG. 2 shows various light emitting diodes (hereinafter referred to as LEDs) arranged on the front panel 2a of the operation section 2.
26 is a water flow intensity switching button, which can be set to four levels: "Strong", "Standard", "Weak", and "Soft". 27 is a washing time setting button, 28 is a rinsing number setting button, and when set to "Careful", the water pouring rinse (rinsing while pouring water) is
Repeat 3 times, ``standard'' rinse (rinsing without pouring water above the set water level) twice, and ``save'' rinse once. Reference numeral 29 is a dehydration time setting button, 30 is a start button for a favorite course that can be performed by arbitrarily inputting each process time, and 31 is a water level setting button, which can be set to four levels: high, medium, low, and small amount. 3
2 is the start button for the speedy course, which completes the entire process in about 18 minutes, 33 is the start button for the standard course, 3
4 is a start button for a wool washing course, 35 is a pause button, and 36 is a display section for the temperature of the washing water detected by the water temperature sensor 17. Each of the various operation buttons corresponds to an LED, which turns on and off as appropriate depending on the operation.

FIG. 5 shows a block circuit diagram of the control mechanism of the washing machine centered on the control device 37, in which 38 is a clock control that controls the division ratio of the clock output from the clock generator, and 39 is the input of the count pulse. A timer counter has a comparator that compares the contents of the count register and the modulo register, which are incremented each time the contents of the modulus register are incremented, and outputs a match signal when they match. 40 is an interrupt control that controls the selection of interrupt terminals and the acceptance and disabling of interrupts. , 41 is a serial interface for exchanging data with an external circuit, 42 is a program counter that holds program address information, and 43 is an arithmetic operation for binary addition, logical operation, increase/decrease, comparison, etc., and bit processing. A logic unit 44 is a carry flag that is set by carrying from the most significant bit when an arithmetic instruction is executed, and 45 is an access block that stores the arithmetic results and exchanges data with memory, I/O boats, registers, etc. 46 is a program memory for storing programs, data tables, etc., 47 is an instruction recorder for decoding instructions, 48 is a general-purpose register, and 49 is a stack that holds information on the top address of the stack in the data memory. A pointer 50 constitutes an oscillation circuit together with an external circuit 51, and a clock signal generator that oscillates a clock;
52 is a standby control for stopping the clock; 53 is a data memory for storing processed data; and 54 and 55 are the various operation buttons 26 to 3.
58 to 60 are the input port buffers that relay inputs from the input key circuit 56 and the top lid safety switch 57 that are linked to the opening and closing of the top lid.
This is an output boat latch buffer that relays output to an LED lighting circuit 61, a buzzer circuit 62, and a load drive circuit 63, which are composed of a group of LEDs. The load drive circuit 63 includes drive motor left and right rotation circuits 64 and 65 and water supply and drainage valve drive circuits 66 and 67 according to the output.
control the behavior of

A power transformer 68 supplies voltage to the control device 37 through a rectifier circuit 69. 70 is a reset signal generation circuit, 71 is a power frequency synchronization output generation circuit, and 72 is a temperature detection circuit composed of the water temperature sensor 17. The water level sensor 1
Signals from oscillation circuit 3 and oscillation circuit 24 are also input to the control device.

Now, when the "strong" or "standard" water flow is selected using the water flow switching button 26, the control device 37
The applicant developed the reversal cycle of the rotor blade in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1986-
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 11096, it is executed by configuring a single cycle group in which the rotation time in one direction is long and the rotation time in the other direction is short. Of course, the rotation time of the strong water flow is relatively longer than that of the standard water flow.

Furthermore, when "weak" or "soft" water flow is selected, switching control of the motor control bidirectional thyristor is performed to energize the motor intermittently, lowering the rotational speed compared to when the motor is continuously energized. below,
This "weak" or "soft" water flow will be explained.

73 is an electronic circuit externally attached to the control device 37, which controls the secondary voltage of the transformer 68 (sixth
Figure A) is rectified by diodes D ₁ and D ₂ and resistor R ₁ ,
The comparator 74 compares the voltage divided by R ₂ (Fig. 6 B) with the voltage obtained by dividing the DC voltage V _DD by resistors R ₃ and R ₄ (Fig. 6 C), and the comparison output ( 6D) is input to the interrupt control 40.

This comparison output is synchronized with the zero-crossing point of the power supply voltage, and the controller 37 adopts the pulse of the input comparison output once every third time when the "soft" water flow is selected, and processes it internally. After that, a gate signal (FIG. 6(e)) is sent to the gate terminal of the bidirectional thyristor for motor control. As a result, the voltage applied to the motor (FIG. 6) becomes intermittent, and the rotation speed drops to about 1/3. When the wool washing only course is selected, the "soft" water flow is unconditionally fixed.

When the "weak" water flow is selected, the comparison output pulses are applied two out of three times, reducing the rotation speed to about 2/3.

Operations based on such a configuration will be explained according to each flowchart.

First, the user selects the water flow, water level, and each process time, and presses the start button 30 of the desired course.
Through operations 32 to 34, a series of programs consisting of washing (including water supply), rinsing (including water supply), and dehydration are executed.

As shown in FIG. 7, the control device 37
When the water flow is set to "weak" and the water level is set to "high", the water level during the washing process is automatically changed to "medium" water level. This is to avoid wasting water by using the "high" water level, since when the "low" water level is set, there is generally less laundry to be done and less water is needed. However, during the rinsing process, the detergent components are diluted and the rinsing effect is improved as the amount of water increases, so whatever water level is set, it is automatically changed to the "high" water level.

Due to this operation, for example, when washing delicate wool, a relatively small amount of washing water is used, so the laundry is placed on the rotary blade 6, and the rotary blade 6 and the laundry are Compared to washing with a large amount of washing water, the detergent permeates through the fibers and washes them, resulting in higher cleaning efficiency.

Next, water level change during program execution will be explained based on FIG. 8.

When the water level setting button 31 is operated to change the water level during the washing or rinsing process after water supply, the control device 37 temporarily stops the operation of the rotary blade 6 currently in operation and simultaneously counts the time T. . Time T is a time period during which the rotation of the rotor blade 6 does not affect water level detection. (2 seconds), the current water level is detected, and if the current water level is equal to or higher than the changed water level, the rotary blade 6 is re-driven and the program is restarted. If the current water level is below the changed water level, the water supply solenoid valve 15 is opened and the program is restarted after water is supplied to the set water level. Note that this operation may also be applied to changing the water level during water supply (in this case, the water supply valve is stopped).

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the control device 37 constantly controls the oscillation circuit 24 during the washing and rinsing steps.
We are focusing on the oscillation frequency from
When the oscillation frequency a is between the oscillation frequency a when the water level in the tank is zero and the oscillation frequency b when the tank is filled with water (see Figure 10), that is, when b≦≦a, the water level sensor 13 and the oscillation circuit 24 are normal, and the program continues. However, if is a value outside this range, there may be a malfunction of the water level sensor 13 or a poor contact in the circuit, so immediately remove the drive motor 7 and the supply. , stops the operation of the drain solenoid valves 15 and 10, and notifies the user by sounding a buzzer and flashing all LEDs. This prevents the washing machine from operating with an inaccurate water level.

Note that, due to the influence of noise, a peculiar oscillation frequency may be input even though it is normal, so it is preferable to determine that there is an abnormality when a peculiar oscillation frequency is continuously input for a predetermined period of time.

(G) Effect of the invention The washing machine of the invention automatically changes the water level to a lower rank than the highest water level when the water flow is set to a weak water flow to wash a small amount or thin laundry. However, it is possible to save wasted water due to washing with a large amount of water.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the internal mechanism of the washing machine of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of the operating section, Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the water level sensor, Fig. 4 is an oscillation circuit diagram, and Fig. 5 The figure is a block circuit diagram of the control unit, Figure 6 is a diagram of main output waveforms of the electronic circuit externally attached to the control device, Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the washing operation, and Figure 8 is the flowchart showing the water level changing operation. Chart, Figure 9 is a flowchart showing the water level detection abnormality detection operation, Part 1
Figure 0 is an oscillation frequency characteristic diagram of the oscillation circuit with respect to the water level. 3...Washing tub, 6...Rotary blade, 7...Drive motor (drive means), 26...Water flow switching button (water flow intensity setting means), 31...Water level setting button (water level setting means), 37... Control device (control means).

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A washing tub, a rotary blade disposed in the washing tub, rotational driving means for the rotary blade, control means for controlling the operation of the driving means, A water flow intensity setting means for inputting a signal to the control means to change the driving force of the driving means, and a water level setting means for inputting a signal to the control means for changing the water level in the washing tub, The means is configured to cancel the maximum water level setting operation by the water level setting means and automatically change the water level to a lower water level than the maximum water level in response to a weak water flow setting signal from the water flow intensity setting means. washing machine. (2) The control device is configured to cancel the highest water level only during the washing process, and automatically change the water level to the highest water level during the rinsing process. washing machine.