JPS635100Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a vending machine, and more specifically, the invention is configured to be able to measure the time required for maintenance work on the vending machine.

[Prior Art] Traditionally, vending machine route workers open the door of the vending machine to perform maintenance work such as replenishing sales items, collecting inserted coins, cleaning the inside of the machine, and inspecting and repairing equipment. When such maintenance work is completed, sales information such as product sales quantity by type and sales amount is read out from the storage unit built into the vending machine to collect information. As a vending machine having these functions, the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-54557 is widely known.

An outline of these functions will be explained using FIG.
In the vending machine, a coin control circuit 2 that responds to coin insertion controls the operation of a product delivery circuit 3, and also counts sales amount information from the coin control circuit 2 and product delivery information from the product delivery circuit 3. It is supplied to the circuit 4 to store sales information. Then, each time maintenance work is completed, the information recording device 6 externally connected via the transmission control circuit 5 records the
Information collection is performed by reading the sales information stored in the information counting circuit 4.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] However, in managing various information about vending machines, in addition to the normal sales information mentioned above, the time required for maintenance work itself is also important information. However, conventional vending machines have a problem in that they are not provided with any means for measuring and recording the time required for such operations.

The purpose of this invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned conventional problems and to create a vending machine that can accurately and automatically time the door opening time even if the door is opened or closed during operation. Our goal is to provide the following.

[Means for solving the problem] The present invention includes a door switch circuit that detects that the door is opened and sends out a door opening detection signal;
a timer counter that measures the time during which the door open detection signal is being sent; a latch circuit that is reset when the door open detection signal rises and resets the timer counter by a set output; and a latch circuit that measures the time measured by the timer counter. and a transmission control circuit that sets the latch circuit after transmitting to the recording device.

[Function] In the present invention, the latch circuit for resetting the timer counter is reset at the rising edge of the door opening detection signal, and is set after the transmission control circuit transmits the time measured by the timer counter. The latch circuit is reset the first time the door is opened, and remains reset regardless of whether the door is opened or closed until the timer counter time is transmitted for recording. Since the timer counter is reset by the set output of the latch circuit, even if the door is opened or closed during the reset period of the latch circuit, it is possible to accurately time the time for the door opening.

[Example] Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a vending machine to which the present invention is applied. The illustrated configuration shows only the additional portion connected to the transmission control circuit 5 in the configuration of the conventional vending machine illustrated in the first figure. Here, 7
Reference numeral 8 indicates a door switch circuit that outputs an open door detection signal using a door switch (not shown) that detects the opening of the door, and 8 indicates a timer counter that starts time measurement based on the open door detection signal sent from the door switch circuit 7. Reference numeral 9 denotes a latch circuit that is set by a control signal sent from the transmission control circuit 5 that controls reading of time information from the timer counter 8.

By the way, when the time required for maintenance work is to start work by opening the door and then open the door when the work is completed using a combination of the door switch and timer counter as described above, the time required for maintenance work is determined by turning the door switch on and off. It is common to control the start, stop and reset of timer counters.
In response, transportation of replenishment products, replacement of cleaning water,
When leaving the vending machine location for work such as wastewater treatment on food and beverage vending machines, it is necessary to close the open door.
If the timer counter is reset and controlled only by turning on and off the door switch, it will not be possible to accurately measure the time required for the work. For example, when the door is closed even though the maintenance work has not been completed, the timing operation ends, and when the door is opened and the maintenance work starts again, the timing starts from the beginning. In this case, it becomes difficult to obtain accurate work required time.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the timer counter is controlled as described below.

The operation of measuring work time in this embodiment will be explained below. In FIG. 2, when the door is opened at the start of maintenance work, a door open detection signal is output from the door switch circuit 7. Since the reset latch circuit 9 is reset by detecting the rise of the door opening detection signal, the reset of the timer counter 8 is canceled and the measurement of the maintenance work time is started.

If the door must be closed while the timer counter 8 is measuring time, that is, during maintenance work, the operation of the timer counter 8 will be temporarily stopped due to the interruption of the door open detection signal, but the time information up to the door closing will be deleted. If the door is opened again, timing will continue.

By connecting the information recording device 6 at the end of the maintenance work, the time information of the timer counter 8 is sent to the information recording device 6 via the transmission control circuit 5. After the information is stored in the information recording device 6, the latch circuit 9 is set under the control of the transmission control circuit 5, and the timer counter 8 is reset by its output signal.

During this time, the door is open, so the door open detection signal is always sent from the door switch circuit 7 to the timer counter 8.
However, since the latch circuit 9 is set, the timer counter 8 is reset, so the timer counter 8 does not operate, and no time is counted even though the door is opened. After collecting the sales information, the timer counter 8 enters a standby state by closing the door.

Note that instead of using a door switch (not shown), for example, an existing door switch for controlling the blinking of the inside of the machine, which lights up the inside of the machine during maintenance work, can be used.

[Effect of the invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the invention, the time required for the maintenance work itself required for information management of the vending machine can be reduced even if the door is opened or closed during the work. Since it can be automatically measured and stored and collected together with sales information that is carried out each time maintenance work is completed, this can be useful for the operation and management of vending machines.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional vending machine, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a vending machine to which the present invention is applied. 1... Vending machine, 2... Coin control circuit, 3...
...Product delivery circuit, 4...Information counting circuit, 5...Transmission control circuit, 6...Information recording device, 7...Door switch circuit, 8...Timer counter, 9...Latch circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] A door switch circuit that detects that the door is open and sends out an open door detection signal; a timer counter that measures the time during which the door open detection signal is sent; It is reset when the door detection signal rises,
A vending machine comprising: a latch circuit that resets the timer counter by a set output; and a transmission control circuit that sets the latch circuit after transmitting the time measured by the timer counter to an information recording device.