JPH0443011Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a device for notifying the timing of watering flowers planted in flower pots or the like placed indoors.

[Conventional technology]

When appreciating flowers, plants, etc. (hereinafter referred to as flowers), they are generally planted directly in the garden, or
Flower pots, planters, etc. are filled with soil and flowers are planted in them. Particularly when viewing indoors, flowerpots are often used because they can be easily moved and installed.

In this way, when flowers are planted in flower pots and cultivated indoors, there is no natural irrigation from rainwater, so it is necessary to water them as appropriate. Since the capacity of the soil in the flower pot is small, it will become dry in a short period of time, and if you forget to water, the flowers will quickly wither. On the other hand, overwatering can cause the roots of the plant to rot. Therefore, it is necessary for a person to check the condition of the flowerpot at relatively short intervals, for example, every day, and water the flowerpot as appropriate.

However, determining whether or not irrigation is necessary just by looking at the flowers and the soil in the flowerpot requires experience, and it is troublesome to check the condition of the flowerpot every day.

To address this issue, some test paper, which changes color due to a chemical reaction depending on the amount of water, is inserted into the soil in a flower pot so that the color change indicates when it is time to water. By using such test paper, it becomes possible to judge whether or not irrigation is necessary just by visual inspection.

However, even in this case, it is still the same as before that you have to go around looking at the flower pots every day.
Having to be careful like this every day is not easy in actual daily life, and I often end up forgetting to water or watering too much at one time, causing the flowers to wither. . In particular, when there are a large number of flowerpots, it becomes more difficult to look around the flowerpots.

Therefore, the present applicant has proposed an irrigation timing notification device that notifies the timing of watering by electrically detecting the dry state of the soil in a flowerpot, and has applied for application No. 1-55067.
It is proposed as a number.

The irrigation timing notification device of this prior application has a pair of electrodes planted in the housing, detects the resistance value between the pair of electrodes in the housing, and emits an alarm when the resistance value exceeds a certain value. The apparatus is provided with a device and means for detecting light around the casing and prohibiting operation of the alarm device when the amount of the light is below a certain level.

[The problem that the idea attempts to solve]

However, in the irrigation timing notification device of this prior application, an alarm is always emitted when the conditions that the soil in the flowerpot is dry and the surrounding area is bright are met, which may be inconvenient in some cases. Ta.

For example, in a relatively quiet place such as a restaurant, coffee shop, or store, where customers come and go, if an alarm goes off during business hours, there is a risk that it will disrupt the atmosphere of the store and hurt the mood of the customers. There is.

On the other hand, in noisy places such as department stores and supermarkets, or in large places, if the alarm sound is too low, people will not notice it, so it is necessary to make the alarm sound louder. However, in this case, the power consumption of the reporting device increases and the life of the battery is shortened.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned irrigation timing notification device of the prior application, since all the circuits are constantly operating, there is also a problem that power consumption is large.

Therefore, the present invention enables detection and alarm operation to be performed only at predetermined times, making it possible to know when to water without interfering with business operations, and reducing power consumption. With the goal.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the irrigation timing notification device of the present invention detects the resistance value between an electrode part equipped with a pair of electrodes and the pair of electrodes, and sounds an alarm when the resistance value is above a certain value. a detection/alarm unit that emits;
The present invention is characterized in that a timer section is provided for supplying operating voltage to the detection/alarm section from the power supply section only at predetermined times.

〔Example〕

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The features of the present invention will be specifically described below based on embodiments with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal circuit of the irrigation timing notification device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the irrigation timing notification device, and Fig. 3 shows how the irrigation timing notification device is used. It is a schematic diagram for explanation.

The irrigation timing notification device 1 includes a detection/alarm unit 2 that detects the resistance value of the soil in a flowerpot and emits an alarm when the resistance value is above a certain value, and a power source that includes a battery 3a that supplies operating voltage to the detection/alarm unit 2. 3 and a timer section 4 that controls the time during which the operating voltage _Vcc is supplied from the power supply section 3 to the detection/alarm section 2.

In the detection/alarm unit 2, for example, 2kHz
The output of the oscillation circuit 5, which oscillates at , is supplied to one electrode 8a of the electrode section 8 via the buffer 6 and the DC cut capacitor 7. The resistance r of soil is applied to the other electrode 8b provided adjacent to one electrode 8a.
The alternating current signal obtained through the AC-DC (AC-DC)
The input voltage V io is converted into a DC input voltage V _io by the DC) conversion circuit 9 and supplied to one input terminal of the voltage comparator 10 , and the operating voltage V _cc is supplied to the other input terminal of the voltage comparator 10 . A reference voltage V _th divided by a resistor 11 is supplied. Voltage comparator 10
The output of is supplied to the alarm sound generation circuit 12a.
Here, a musical tone generation integrated circuit called a melody IC is used as the alarm sound generation circuit 12a, and the output of the alarm sound generation circuit 12a is supplied to a sounding body 12b such as a ceramic speaker. This alarm sound generating circuit 12a and the sounding body 12b make up the alarm device 1.
2 is constructed.

The pair of electrodes 8a, 8b has a diameter, for example.
Made of stainless steel, etc., 1.4mm long and 50mm long.
As shown in FIG. 2, it is planted at a certain distance from the bottom of the synthetic resin box-shaped housing 1a of the irrigation timing notification device 1. These electrodes 8a, 8b are independent from the housing 1a, and are inserted into the soil 14 by holding the housing 1a and pushing it into the flower pot 13, as shown in FIG. Note that 15 is a flower planted in the flowerpot 13.

Further, the timer section 4 includes a digital clock circuit 16 which is an integrated circuit, a time setting switch 17 for setting the current time of the digital clock circuit 16, and setting an alarm start time and an alarm end time. An alarm time setting switch 18 and a liquid crystal display 19 for selectively displaying the current time and each alarm time are provided.
The alarm time setting switch 18 is capable of setting multiple sets of alarm start times and alarm end times. The digital clock circuit 16 has a built-in power supply control circuit (not shown), and only during the alarm possible time from the alarm start time to the alarm end time set by the alarm time setting switch 18, the power supply section is activated. 3
Oscillation circuit 5, buffer 6, AC-DC conversion circuit 9, voltage comparator 10, variable resistor 11, alarm sound generation circuit 12a of alarm unit 2 detects operating voltage _Vcc from
etc. Note that the timer section 4 itself is constantly supplied with the operating voltage _Vcc from the power supply section 3. Note that the battery 3a of the power supply unit 3 is connected to the irrigation timing notification device 1.
It is built in the battery storage part 1b in the housing 1a.

Next, the operation of the above-mentioned irrigation timing notification device 1 will be explained. It is assumed that the current time has already been set by the time setting switch 17.

First, an alarm time is set using the alarm time setting switch 18 of the timer section 4. For example, suppose that the business hours of the store where flowerpot 13 (see Figure 3) is located are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the working hours of employees are from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. , set the first set of alarm start times and alarm end times to 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., and set the second set of alarm start times and alarm end times to 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Set to minutes.

Therefore, the power supply control circuit (not shown) of the digital clock circuit 16 is activated only during the one-hour alarm time from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. is turned on, and the operating voltage _Vcc from the power supply section 3 is supplied to the detection/alarm section 2.

The current time is within the alarm possible time,
Assuming that the water in flower pot 13 is decreasing,
Since the resistance r of the soil 14 existing between the electrodes 8a and 8b increases, the AC voltage obtained at the electrode 8b decreases, and the DC input voltage _Vio obtained from the AC-DC conversion circuit 9 also decreases. This input voltage V _io is the reference voltage
When the voltage becomes lower than V _th , the output of the voltage comparator 10 becomes, for example, a high level, and the alarm sound generation circuit 12a
starts operating, and an alarm sound is generated from the sounding body 12b.

Therefore, the people around the flowerpot 13 are
Even if the user does not always pay attention to the flowerpot 13, the user can hear the alarm and know that the flowerpot 13 requires watering.

Further, in this embodiment, the detection/alarm section 2 is controlled by the timer section 4, so that the detection/alarm section 2 is operated during non-business hours of a store or the like. This prevents the alarm from suddenly sounding in a relatively quiet place such as a restaurant, coffee shop, or store, destroying the atmosphere of the store or offending customers.

In addition, even in noisy places such as department stores and supermarkets, it is quiet before business hours, so the alarm can be noticed even with a small sound, and the power consumption of the alarm sound generator 11 can be reduced.

Furthermore, since the time for operating the detection/alarm section 2 is shortened, the power consumption in the detection/alarm section 2 can be significantly reduced, and the life of the battery 3a of the power supply section 3 can be extended. for example,
In this embodiment, since the alarm time is 1 hour, the power consumption of the detection/alarm unit 2 can be reduced by 1/24 in principle.
It can be done.

Note that since the amount of water required for flowers differs depending on the type of flowers, the timing of emitting the alarm sound can be adjusted accordingly. For example, cactus is resistant to dryness, so variable resistor 11
The reference voltage V _th may be lowered by adjusting the reference voltage V th so that the alarm will sound only when the soil 14 is extremely dry. Also, in order to simplify the voltage comparator 10,
It is also possible to use a CMOS gate element and utilize the operating threshold of the gate element itself as the reference voltage V _th .

Next, another embodiment of the above-mentioned irrigation timing notification device will be described.

FIG. 4 shows an example in which the electrode section 20 is provided separately from the irrigation timing notification device main body 21 and the two are connected by a connecting cord 22. The irrigation timing notification device body 21 is provided with a time setting switch 23, an alarm time setting switch 24, a liquid crystal display 25, etc., as in the embodiment shown in FIG.

In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the flower pot includes an electrode section 20 that includes a pair of electrodes 20a, 20b and a holder 20c that holds these electrodes in an insulated state.
Since only one is installed, the appearance will not be spoiled. Furthermore, management can be facilitated by using a plurality of irrigation timing notification devices, installing electrode portions 20 in each of a plurality of flower pots, and arranging each irrigation timing notification device main body 21 near the employee.

Note that in the above embodiment, the melody IC
Although the alarm device 12 is comprised of an alarm sound generating circuit 12a such as the above and a sounding body 12b such as a ceramic speaker, a normal buzzer or the like may be used instead.

[Effect of idea]

As described above, according to the present invention, by simply inserting the electrode provided in the irrigation timing notification device into the soil of a flowerpot or the like, it is possible to easily know the irrigation timing by hearing the alarm sound. Moreover, since the alarm sound only occurs at preset times, it will not suddenly sound in a quiet place and disturb business operations. Also,
In a noisy place during business hours, by outputting the alarm sound during quiet hours before business hours, the alarm sound can be noticed even with a small output, and the power consumption of the irrigation timing notification device can be reduced. Furthermore, since the operating time is shortened, current consumption is further reduced. Furthermore, since the time at which the alarm sound is output is determined, management is facilitated by paying attention to the alarm sound only during that time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal circuit of the irrigation timing notification device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the irrigation timing notification device, and Fig. 3 shows how the irrigation timing notification device is used. A schematic diagram for explanation, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of another embodiment. 1...Irrigation timing notification device, 1a...Housing, 1b
...Battery storage section, 2...Detection/alarm section, 3...Power supply section, 3a...Battery, 4...Timer section, 5...
Oscillation circuit, 6... Buffer, 7... Capacitor,
8, 20... Electrode part, 8a, 8b, 20a, 20
b... Electrode, 9... AC-DC conversion circuit, 10...
Voltage comparator, 11...Variable resistor, 12...Alarm device, 12a...Alarm sound generation circuit, 12b...Sounding body, 13...Flower pot, 14...Soil, 15...Flower, 16...Digital clock circuit, 17, 23
...Time setting switch, 18, 24...Alarm time setting switch, 19,25...Liquid crystal display,
20c...Holder, 21...Irrigation timing notification device main body, 22...Connection cord.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] an electrode section including a pair of electrodes; a detection/alarm section that detects a resistance value between the pair of electrodes and emits an alarm sound when the resistance value is above a certain value;
An irrigation timing notification device comprising: a timer section for supplying operating voltage to the alarm section from a power supply section only at predetermined times.