JPH063628B2 - Coin storage device - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an improvement of a coin storage device such as a public telephone.

(Prior Art) As shown in FIG. 1, a coin storage device in a conventional public telephone has a sensor 5 including a coin mechanism 10, storage funnels 21 and 22, a safe 30, a safe 40, a light emitter and a light receiver.
1 to 56, which were installed at predetermined positions in the telephone body 60.

In the above configuration, 100-yen coins (or 10-yen coins) inserted from the coin insertion slot 61 of the telephone body 60 are sorted by the sorting passage (orbit) 11 of the coin mechanism unit 1 and
00 yen accumulation passage (orbit) 12 (or 10 yen accumulation passage 1
3) and the lever 14 (or 1) that is initially protruding
5) It is locked and accumulated by the caller, and the lever 16 (or 17) is projected and the lever 14 (or 15) is withdrawn according to the response of the called side, and the funnels 21 are stored one by one.
(Or 22) and then stored in the safe 30.

Here, detection of the fact that a large amount of coins are stored in the safe 30 is full (1) despite the lever 16 (or 17) protruding and the lever 14 (or 15) retreating, the storage passage 12 (or The storage confirmation sensor 51 (or 52) in 13) does not turn off. (2) The storage confirmation sensor 53 (or 54) turns on despite the signal of the sensor 51 (or 52) turning off. No. (3) The sensor 53 (or 54) was already turned on when the user tried to use the public telephone by turning it off. In addition, it will be stored at the time of off hook 21
If the safe full sensor 55 (or 56) in (or 22) is on, the safe is full and the telephone is stopped.

However, in any of the above methods, the safe 30 is full of coins, and the safe full can be detected only when the coins reach the storage funnel 21 (or 22) or the passage 12 (or 13), and the safe is full. It was impossible for the safe 30 to be pulled out of the safe 40 due to coins clinging to it, or to take an alarm before the safe was full.

Further, the lid 31 of the safe 30 is provided with a lock mechanism (not shown) for preventing the safe 30 from being reattached after being pulled out from the safe 40. When the new safe (including the case where coins are collected and reused) 30 is mounted in the safe room 40, the lock mechanism is pushed by a protrusion 41 provided in the safe room 40 to cover the lid. The coin inlet (not shown) provided directly under the storage funnels 21 and 22 of 31 is opened, but after the safe 30 is pulled out from the safe chamber 40 and the projection 41 is once removed, a seal (not shown) is provided. ) And the lid 31 is not opened to prevent the protrusion 41 from entering, and the safe 30 is prevented from being attached to the safe 40 again. Such a locking mechanism is required to prevent the loss of coins during the safe collecting operation and to ensure that all the coins stored in the public telephone are collected, but the structure is complicated and a failure occurs. There are many drawbacks, such as increasing the size, weight and price of the safe 30.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention eliminates these drawbacks and realizes a coin storage device that can detect coins in a safe before it is full, and in addition, does not require a lock mechanism of a safe lid. The purpose is to do.

(Structure of the Invention) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a coin storage device having a mechanism for storing coins, a sensor for detecting the storage of coins, and an attachable / detachable safe for storing the stored coins. , The number of coins in the safe in the installed state,
First storage means for storing the stored amount and the like, second storage means for storing the stored amount in the safe collected immediately before, a safe sensor for detecting whether or not the safe is mounted, and the sensor. The number of stored coins, the stored amount of coins, etc. detected in step 1 are added to the first storage means, and the storage amount of the first storage means is written in the second storage means when the safe sensor detects that the safe is removed. And a section.

(Embodiment) FIGS. 2 and 3 (a) and (b) show an embodiment of the coin storage device of the present invention. In the drawings, the same components as those of the conventional example are represented by the same reference numerals. That is, 10 is a coin mechanism unit, 20 is a storage funnel, 51 to 54 are sensors, 70 is a safe, 80 is a safe room, 90 is a safe sensor, 101 is a drive / detection circuit,
102 is a control unit, 103 is a transmission / reception circuit (MODEM), 10
4, 105, 106 are first, second, and third storage means, for example, memory, 107 is a secondary battery, 108 is a power supply circuit, 1
Reference numeral 09 is a display, and 110 is an operation button.

The safe 70 is similar to the safe 30 except that it does not include the locking mechanism described above, and the safe 80 is similar to the safe 40 except that it does not include the protrusion described above. The storage funnel 20 is a coin inlet (not shown) in which both the 100-yen coin and the 10-yen coin are provided on the lid 71 of the safe 70.
Lead to. The safe sensor 90 is made up of a light emitter (for example, a light emitting diode) and a light receiver (for example, a phototransistor), is installed at a position sandwiching the safe 70, and detects whether or not the safe 70 is installed in the safe room 80. . The drive / detection circuit 101 sends a drive current to the sensors 51 to 54 and the cashbox sensor 90, detects the signal, and sends it to the control unit 102. Transmitter / receiver circuit 1
Reference numeral 03 sends a safe full alarm, which will be described later, to the station, and sends a command from the station to the control unit 102 via a telephone communication circuit (not shown) of the telephone. The memory 104 stores the number of coins in the safe 70 currently mounted (the number of 100-yen coins and the number of 10-yen coins and the total number thereof are shown. The same applies hereinafter) and the total amount thereof. The memory 105 also stores the total amount of coins in the safe 70 collected immediately before. Furthermore, the memory 106 is adapted to store the accumulated amount of money stored in the safe 70 since it was last read. The secondary battery 107 and the power supply circuit 108 are the memories 104 to 106.
The power supply is normally supplied from a commercial power supply through the power supply circuit 108, and is supplied from the secondary battery 107 at the time of power failure. The memory 104-
The power for the circuits other than 106 is supplied from the power supply for communication on the communication line. Further, the display 109 is the memory 104 to 10
6 is for displaying arbitrary contents, and the display contents are selected by the operation button 110.

Next, the operation of the apparatus will be described in accordance with the flow chart of the control unit 102 shown in FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b). Where M is memory 1
The contents of the 05 in addition to the specific case of a variable for not rewritten, the original is set to "1" (S _1).

First, when the user turns off the handset and inserts a coin, the coin is detected by the sensor 51 (or 52), and the control unit 102 determines that a call is in progress (S ₂ ). The control unit 102 sends a coin storing instruction (S ₃ ) to the mechanical unit 10.
To eject the lever 16 (or 17) from the passage 12 (or 13) and retract the lever 14 (or 15) to store the coin, and while the coin falls to the safe 70, the sensor 53 (or 54). Is read from the drive / detection circuit 102 to turn on / off the
00 yen coins accumulated accommodating sheets (or 10 yen coin accumulative storage number) and the total accumulated number to the number of the accommodated coins, for example, by adding "1", and adds the amount of further housed in the total amount (S _4). Also, the stored amount is added to the amount stored in the memory 106 (S ₅ ). Next, the control unit 102 compares the total cumulative number of sheets in the memory 104 with the full number of sheets in the safe 70 (the number having a sufficient margin from the number in which the safe 70 is full in a normal state) (S ₆ ), for example, the total number. When the cumulative number of sheets reaches 90% of the full number of sheets, the power is retained even after the user goes on-hook. For example, "111" is automatically called and dialed on the test stand of the telephone station, and the safe full warning ( A "subscriber number" that can identify the "safe 9th minute signal" based on a predetermined code and the installation location of the public telephone
Etc.) (S ₇ ).

On the other hand, the test bench that has received the alarm determines whether the safe 70 should be collected as soon as possible, or whether it should be collected through a collection route several days later, depending on the frequency of use of the public telephone.

If there is inquiry safe number from the test stand station other than during a call (S _8), to the control unit 102 sends the contents of the memory 104 at that time via the transceiver circuit 103 (S _9). On the test bench side, an appropriate safe collection route can be set together with the data of the total cumulative number of other public telephones, and planned safe collection work becomes possible.

Further, if there is an inquiry from the station regarding the amount of money stored in the safe (S ₁₀ ), the control unit 102 sends the contents of the memory 106 (S ₁₀ ).
₁₁ ) Do. Here, as described above, the memory 106 stores the amount of money stored since the last time it was read, which allows the station to periodically issue an invoice to a trustee entrusting safe management (for example, monthly). ) Can be issued, and the stored amount information transmitted from the public telephone for each call can be omitted. The contents of the memory 106 after being read, is returned to "0" (S _12).

If there is an inquiry about the amount of money stored in the safe collected from the station (S
_13), the control unit 102 sends the contents of the memory 105 (S _14). As described above, the amount of money stored in the safe 70 immediately before is stored in the memory 105, and is collected at any time after the safe recovery work (for example, when the safe 70 is actually delivered to the user). It is possible to know the planned amount of money, which allows checking for lost coins during collection work, thus eliminating the conventional lock mechanism of a safe. After the contents of the memory 105 are read, they are reset to "0" (S
₁₅ ) be done. Also then, M is (M-1) to the set (S _16).

When the safe 70 is pulled out by the safe collecting operation, the control unit 102 receives a signal from the sensor 90 and detects this (S
₁₇ ) and if M ≦ 1 (S ₁₈ ), the memory 1 at that time
The amount stored in 04, that is, the stored amount stored in the safe 70 is written in the memory 105 (S ₁₉ ). After that, M is set to (M + 1) (S ₂₀ ), an empty safe 70 is further mounted in the safe 80, and when this is detected by the sensor 90, all the contents of the memory 104 are returned to “0” ( S
₂₁ ).

The processes S ₁₆ , S ₁₈ , and S ₂₀ are for performing the process S ₁₉ only after the public telephone is accessed from the station and the contents of the memory 105 are once read. once drawer from vault 80 safe 70 should, take out the coin again inserted from inside, further drawer again, attempting to contents of the memory 105 to "0" Repeat insertion, abnormal (error by processing S ₁₈ ) Processing (S
₂₂ ) and judged impossible.

In the above explanation, the case where the public telephone is accessed from the station side or the telephone automatically calls the station has been described.
The maintenance person goes to the installation place of the telephone and operates the operation button 110.
It is also possible to display the contents of the memories 104 to 106 on the display 109 to confirm the contents.

Needless to say, as the memories 104 to 106, one memory in terms of hardware can be used as the three memories as described above by dividing the addresses.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, a coin storage device having a mechanism for storing coins, a sensor for detecting the storage of coins, and a safe for mounting / removing the stored coins. In, the first storage means for storing the number of coins in the safe in the mounted state, the stored amount, etc., the second storage means for storing the stored amount in the safe collected immediately before, and the safe mounted A safe sensor for detecting whether the safe is removed or not, and a first memory when the safe sensor is detected by the safe sensor in which the number of stored coins, the stored amount of coins, etc. detected by the sensor are added to the first storage means. Since the control section for writing the stored amount of money into the second storage means is provided, the number of coins in the safe can be read when necessary, and the storage status can be grasped, so that the safe jam can be prevented. Prevent, Collection work can be carried out systematically and efficiently. In addition, it is possible to read the stored amount of money in the safe that has been recovered, and prevent the loss of coins during recovery work.
Therefore, there is an advantage that the lock mechanism of the conventional safe can be eliminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings are provided for explaining the present invention. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a coin storing device in a conventional public telephone, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a structural explanatory view showing an embodiment of a coin storage device of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) are operation flow charts of a control unit. 10 ... Coin mechanism part, 51, 52, 53, 54 ... Sensor,
70 ... Safe, 90 ... Safe sensor, 102 ... Control unit, 10
3 ... Transmitting / receiving circuit, 104, 105, 106 ... First, second and third memories.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A coin storage device having a mechanism for storing coins, a sensor for detecting the storage of coins, and an attachable / detachable safe for storing the stored coins. A first storage means for storing the number of sheets, the stored amount, etc., a second storage means for storing the stored amount in the safe collected immediately before, and a safe sensor for detecting whether or not the safe is mounted. , The number of stored coins, the stored amount of coins, etc. detected by the sensor are added to the first storage means, and the stored amount of the first storage means is stored in the second storage means when the safe sensor is detected. A coin storage device comprising: a control unit for writing.