JPS60218191A - Coin thickness discrimination system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a coin thickness determination system used in public telephones, various vending machines, and the like.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, this type of thickness determination method, especially a method for electrically determining the thickness of a coin, is known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-51396.
As shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 59-2606, there is a direct method using an oscillating magnetic field with a high number of circuits so that the magnetic flux does not penetrate into the inside of the coin.

However, in such a method, since it is necessary to apply an oscillating magnetic field to the entire surface of the coin, the result of determining the width is influenced not only by the thickness of the coin but also by the outer diameter. This is clear from the fact that the outer diameter of a coin is also determined using the same arrangement and frequency of the magnetic coil as shown in the above-mentioned publicly known document. As shown, discrimination is performed by extracting one output based on the correlation between both the thickness factor and the outer diameter factor of the coin, and it is impossible to separate the two with high precision, and furthermore, According to the above-mentioned method, in order to determine each factor based on the relationship with the arrangement position of the excitation coil, the excitation coils must be arranged sequentially along the coin transfer direction, which lengthens the rolling track and causes the coin to Another disadvantage is that the entire discrimination device becomes large in size.

[Object and structure of the invention]

The present invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to be able to perform highly accurate thickness determination by extracting only the thickness factor, and to also be able to determine other factors at the thickness determination position. It is an object of the present invention to provide a coin thickness discrimination method that allows the device to be miniaturized.

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention uses a coin rail that is inclined at a certain angle with respect to the thickness direction of the coin. This is taken as a change in the height direction, and the electrical output is extracted only due to the thickness factor. below,
The present invention will be explained in detail using examples.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a front view of a coin rolling passage showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view.

In the figure, by forming a coin track 3 by providing a coin rail 2 that is inclined by a certain angle θ with respect to the direction of the rolling coin 1, changes in the thickness of the coin 1 rolling on the rail 2 can be avoided. Accordingly, the position where the coin passes through the drawer 2 changes in the height direction.

On the other hand, a light emitting source 4 consisting of a plurality of light emitting elements arranged linearly in the above-mentioned high direction with the orbit 3 in between, and a reading element 5 consisting of a plurality of similarly arranged light receiving elements 5a to 5e are arranged facing each other. In addition, the coin rail 2 is provided with slits 6 in accordance with the arrangement direction of each of the diodes and solar cells.

Therefore, if the position where the coin passes through the rail 2 changes depending on the thickness of the coin 1, the change in the height direction is
It can be extracted as a change in the output of each light receiving element constituting the reading element 5. Note that the width of the slit 6 is smaller than the dimension in the transfer direction at the position where the coin passes through the slit 6.

For example, FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an example of the configuration of a signal processing circuit when determining the thickness of a coin using the above configuration. Next, the time charts of FIGS. The operation will be explained using

First, as shown in FIG. At the rising edge of Figure 4 (a), timer 8
is activated, and each light emitting element of the light emitting source 4 becomes conductive (FIG. 4(C)) with the rise of the timer output (FIG. 4(b)). At this time, when the coin has not reached the slit 6, the light emitted from the light emitting source 4 passes through each of the light receiving elements 5a to 5 arranged in the height direction along the slit 6.
The light is received by all of the rays e, and their outputs are all at the "H" level.

On the other hand, when the coin reaches the slit 6, the output of the light receiving element whose light path is cut off by the coin becomes "Ll level. At this time, the thickness of the coin is Accordingly, as the thickness of the rail 2 decreases, the position passing through the rail 2 becomes lower, and the output of the light-receiving element below becomes the "L" level.

Therefore, the outputs 81 to S5 of these light receiving elements are amplified by the signal amplification circuits 9& to 9.
The "Hoo" and "Lll" levels are determined at ~10. exclusiveOR
, EOR), it is possible to determine from the outputs of the circuits 12a to 12d which thickness the coin has among 1a to 1d.

For example, only the latch output for the uppermost light-receiving element 5a (FIG. 4(d)) and the latch output for the second-most light-receiving element 5b (FIG. 4(e)) are "1'°. Then, the latch output for the other light-receiving element 5c (FIG. 4(f)), the latch output for the light-receiving element 5d (FIG. 4(2))), and the latch output for the light-receiving element 5e (FIG. 4()). h)) is “0”.

In this case, only one output of the EX)R circuit 12b is “
0゛°, the other output becomes 1°°, and its output C2 (Fig. 4 (i)) becomes "1°", but the other 1) OR circuit 1
For E) OR circuits 12c and 12d, all inputs are "0", so the outputs CI, C3, and C4 are "011".
There is even. As a result, it is determined that the coin has the same thickness as coin 1b. In addition, Fig. 4(d) and (e)
The broken lines in the middle indicate the outputs of the discrimination circuits 10m and 10b before latching.

Similarly, if the output C1 of the EOR circuit 12a is "1'°, then the coin has a thickness like the coin 1a, and the EOR circuit 12c
, 12d, if only the outputs C3 and C4 are "1°", it can be determined that the coins have thicknesses like the coins 1c and 1d, respectively.

After that, when the timer output of timer 8 falls, the light emitting source 4
becomes non-conductive, and a reset pulse (Fig. 4 (j)) is sent to the 7-lip-flop circuit 11 at the timing of the falling edge, changing each latch output from "1'° to °°0°". restore it.

As the light emitting source 4, for example, a plurality of high brightness light emitting diodes (LEDs) developed for power supply of OA equipment etc. are arranged.
An LED array configured as a rod-shaped solid-state light source can be used in combination with a rod-shaped lens.

Further, as the reading element 5, a structure in which a plurality of silicon solar cells are arranged, which is used for example in card readers, tape readers, various automatic machine control sensors, etc., can be used, but it is not limited to such a multi-element structure. For example, it is also possible to use an optical potentiometer using a non-contact attenuator.

'-Here, we have described an example in which an optical sensor is used as a sensor that extracts changes in the height direction of the passing position of a coin on a rail as an electrical output, but the present invention is not limited to this. Any method may be used as long as the passing position can be detected, such as one that uses magnetic flux or one that uses capacitance.

Further, the shape of the slit 6 is not limited to that shown in the drawings, and may be not limited to a so-called "slit" but may be a cutout, a perforation, or the like. Furthermore, for example, when an optical sensor is used, if part or all of the coin rail 2 is made of a transparent member, there is no need to provide the slit 6. Depending on the type of sensor and the material of the coin rail, the slit or notch □ etc. are not necessary.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the coin rail 7- which is inclined at a certain angle with respect to the thickness direction of the coin is used, and the change in the thickness of the coin is measured in the height direction of the position where the coin passes through the rail. By detecting the change in the thickness and extracting the electrical output and determining the thickness using this electrical output, it is possible to independently extract only the thickness factor and perform highly accurate thickness determination. Since other factors can be determined at the same position as the path thickness determination position, the apparatus can be made smaller. Further, by increasing the inclination angle θ of the coin rail within a range that does not hinder the transfer of coins, there is an advantage that the resolution of thickness determination can be easily increased.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a coin transfer path showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view, FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an example of the configuration of a signal processing circuit, and FIGS. ) is a time chart for explaining the operation, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are diagrams for explaining changes in the height direction of the passing position depending on the thickness of the coin. 1.1a to 1d...coin, 2...coin position -V, 3...coin trajectory, 4...light source, force 8-5...reading element, θ. ...Inclination angle. Patent applicant Tamura Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Agent Masaki Yamakawa (Iji) 2 persons), C) + O-0-0-0+ O-0-0-0-0^
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Claims (1)

[Claims] The coin rail in the coin transfer path is tilted at a certain angle with respect to the thickness direction of the coin, and changes in the rough coin rolling on the coin rail are detected as changes in the height direction of the position where the coin passes through the coin rail. A coin thickness determination method characterized by extracting an electrical output and determining the thickness of a coin based on this electrical output.