KR200241770Y1 - System for report fluid measuring - Google Patents

Abstract

The object of the present invention is to provide a system for automatically checking and guiding the amount of fluid used by adding a simple device to a flow rate measuring device such as a water meter and including a sensor input part connected to an existing flow meter for detecting the operation of the flow meter 300); A microcomputer 400 for measuring a flow rate by processing a signal detected by a sensor input unit; And a transfer unit 700 connected to the computer for transferring a control signal from the computer to the microcomputer via the communication line and for transmitting the measured value from the microcomputer to the computer via the communication line. A counting function capable of inputting and receiving data from the sensor input unit 300 and measuring the flow rate by inputting and receiving a signal through the transmission unit 700 according to a communication protocol with the computer, .

Description

[0001] SYSTEM FOR REPORT FLUID MEASURING [0002]

The present invention relates to a flow measurement guidance system used, for example, attached to a water meter.

Generally, the current water rate is calculated by visiting households hired by each water service establishment one by one at each subscriber's household, scaling the scale of the water meter in the household of the subscriber (for example, every month) When the subscriber himself checks the scale of the water meter in his house and informs the corresponding water service establishment, he has maintained the system of charging based on this.

Therefore, the actual water rate charges a fee for the water usage one month ago, and in the case of the country where frequent moving, the settlement between the previous tenant and the new tenant was necessary, which caused unnecessary friction. Also, In some cases it was inaccurate, and most of all it was cumbersome.

The object of the present invention is to solve the conventional problems as described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a flow rate measuring apparatus, such as a water meter, To provide a system for notifying the water service establishment.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an overall block diagram of a flow measurement guidance system according to the present invention;

2 is a circuit diagram of the power supply unit of Fig.

3 is a circuit diagram of the sensor input unit of Fig.

FIG. 4 is a detailed circuit diagram of a portion of the flow measuring unit of FIG. 1 except for the sensor input portion. FIG.

Fig. 5 shows the appearance of the sensor module according to the present invention.

6 shows a display screen of the LCD display unit according to the present invention.

7 is a flowchart of a computer program for realizing a guidance method related to the flow measurement guidance system of the present invention.

8 and 9 are each an example of an input window for realizing a computer program for realizing a guidance method related to the flow measurement guidance system of the present invention.

Description of the Related Art

100: Power supply unit 101: AC220 commercial power input terminal

102: bridge diode 103: voltage regulator

200: emergency battery

300: sensor input unit 301: photo-interrupt

302: first adjusting variable resistor 303: second adjusting variable resistor

400: Microcomputer 401: RS232 connector

402: RS232 converter 403: crystal oscillator

404: Microcomputer IC 405: LCD module IC

406: Array Resistor 407: Serial Memory IC

500: EEPROM 600: LCD display unit

700:

In order to achieve the above object, a flow measurement guidance system of the present invention includes a sensor input unit 300 connected to an existing flow meter to detect whether the flow meter is operating; A microcomputer 400 for measuring a flow rate by processing the signal detected by the sensor input unit; And a transmission unit 700 connected to the computer for transmitting a control signal from the computer to the microcomputer via a communication line and for transmitting the measurement value from the microcomputer to the computer via the communication line, 400 has an input / output function for sending and receiving serial communication through the transmission unit 700 according to a communication protocol with the computer, as well as receiving a signal from the sensor input unit 300 and data processing to measure the flow rate And has a counting function capable of counting the number of times the counting operation is performed.

Preferably, the system further comprises: a memory (500) for temporarily storing measured values under the control of the microcomputer; And a display unit 600 for displaying the measured values under the control of the microcomputer. The microcomputer further has an input / output function with the memory 500 and the display unit 600,

More specifically, the microcomputer 400 receives a flow sensor input signal and an external control signal through an input terminal, digitizes an on / off signal of the input flow sensor input signal to measure a flow rate, The digitally processed data is temporarily stored or temporarily stored in the serial memory IC 407 through the input / output terminal and is read out from the serial memory IC 407 and output to the input / output converter 402 through the output terminal TXD Output converter 401 to a computer or a control signal from a computer received via the input / output connector 401 via the input / output connector 402 is input through the input terminal RXD .

Preferably, the computer is connected to the microcomputer of the flow rate measuring unit through a communication line and a transfer unit, and issues a flow rate reading command to the flow rate measuring unit, receives the read signal transmitted from the flow rate measuring unit, It is advisable to display it on the device.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a flow measurement guidance system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a circuit diagram of a power supply unit of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a sensor input unit of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a flow- Is a detailed circuit diagram of the portion excluding the sensor input portion.

First, a flow measurement guidance system according to the present invention will be schematically described with reference to FIG. 1. A power supply (for example, AC220V power source) that converts a power source (for example, DC5V power source) A supply unit 100 and a battery 200 for supplying emergency power to the commercial power source are connected to a flow measuring device (dotted line in FIG. 1) related to the present invention.

The flow rate measuring apparatus according to the present invention includes a sensor input unit 300 connected to a conventional flow meter, a microcomputer 400 for processing a value measured by the sensor input unit, An EEPROM 500, an LCD display unit 600, and a computer (not shown) for storing and displaying data and transmitting control signals from the computer to the microcomputer, And a transfer unit 700 for transferring data to the computer via the line.

Therefore, the microcomputer 400 functions as a kind of peripheral device for the computer, and the transmitter 700 has hardware for data conversion / demodulation and must comply with a proper communication protocol.

An example of the power supply unit 100 and the emergency battery 200 circuit is shown in FIG. 2, the AC 220 V commercial power applied to the plug 101 as an input terminal is supplied to a proper DC power source (for example, DC 5 V) through the transformer TR, the bridge diode 102 and the electrolytic capacitors C1 and C2 Stabilized through the voltage regulator 103, and then stored in the electrolytic capacitor C3. The stored stable DC 5V voltage is applied to the flow measuring apparatus according to the present invention, which will be described later, as operating power for the apparatus.

In addition, it is preferable that the emergency battery 200 is connected to the output terminal of the message supply unit 100 so that the device related to the present invention can operate even when the commercial power is turned off.

Meanwhile, a sensor input unit 300 is connected to a flow meter (not shown) such as a conventional water meter, and the flow rate value data actually measured is input to the microcomputer 400. An example of a sensor input 300 circuit is shown in FIG. 3, and an external view of the sensor input module is shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, a photointerruption 301 (photo sensor of FIG. 5) constituted by a light emitting diode and a light-sensitive transistor connected to a DC power supply 5V through a resistor R1 is connected to, for example, And the flow rate is measured by sensing the switching state of 'on' and 'off' sensed by the photosensitive transistor of the photointerrupter according to the rotation of the needle.

The emitter output terminal of the phototransistor 301 of the photointerrupt 301 is connected to the base end of the first transistor Q1 and the collector side of the phototransistor transistor and the first transistor Q1 is connected to the base end of the second transistor Q2 And is connected to the DC power supply 5V through the resistors R2 and R3 at the same time. A first variable resistor (VR1) and a bias resistor (R4) are connected in parallel with the first transistor to the ground. The collector side of the second transistor Q2 is connected to the base end of the third transistor and grounded through the resistor R5 to the DC power source and the emitter side through the emitter resistor R6. A first adjusting pin 302 (0.9V terminal in FIG. 5) is attached to the base end of the third transistor Q2, and the base terminal of the third transistor Q3 is grounded through the electrolytic capacitor C4. The first adjusting variable resistor VR1 (the 0.9V sensitivity adjusting variable resistor in Fig. 5) must be adjusted so that the voltage of the first adjusting pin is maintained at 0.9V.

The collector side of the third transistor Q3 is connected to the inverting input terminal (-) of the comparator T1 and is connected to the DC power source 5V through the resistor R7. The emitter side is connected to the emitter resistor R8 Lt; / RTI > The non-inverting input terminal (+) of the comparator T1 is connected to the second adjusting pin 303 (Fig. 5B) in which the divided voltage of the voltage dividing resistors R9 and R10 and the second adjusting variable resistor VR2 is applied as a reference voltage, Of 3.6V) is attached. The second adjusting variable resistor VR2 (the variable resistor for 3.6V sensitivity adjustment in Fig. 5) should be adjusted so that the voltage of the second adjusting pin is kept at 3.6V. The output of the comparator T1 is input to the microcomputer 400 and is connected to the DC power source 5V through a resistor R11.

Therefore, when the photo-interrupt is in the light-sensitive mode, the first transistor is turned on, the second transistor is turned off, and the third transistor is turned on, . On the other hand, when the photo-interrupt is in the light-shielding mode, the first transistor is turned off, the second transistor is turned on, and the third transistor is turned off, And input to the microcomputer.

Now, the remainder of the flow measuring portion of the present invention, except for the sensor input portion, will be described with reference to FIG.

The microcomputer 400 receives a flow sensor input signal and an external control signal through input terminals INT0 and INT1. The on / off signal of the inputted flow sensor input signal is digitally processed by the microcomputer to measure the flow rate. In this case, the rotation operation of the needle should preferably be considered. For example, in the case of a rotating needle of 1 liter in a household water meter, the signal is treated as a normal input when the signal is continuously on for 0.2 seconds in order to process it as an 'on' signal, 'Signal, the signal should be processed in the' off 'state when the signal continues to be' off 'for one second. The microcomputer IC 404 may be, for example, a 89C51 chip.

The digitally processed data is temporarily stored in the serial memory IC 407 via the input / output terminals AD5 and AD6, and temporarily stored data is read out from the IC 407. [ Alternatively, the digitally processed data may be output to an RS232 converter 402 via an output terminal TXD and transmitted to a computer via an RS232 connector 401, and vice versa via an RS232 connector 401, A control signal from the computer received by the input terminal RXD may be input through the input terminal RXD. For example, the serial memory IC 407 may implement the AT24C02 chip, and the RS232 converter 402 may implement the MAX232 chip.

The output terminal P1.0-P1.7 of the microcomputer is connected to the LCD module IC (not shown) through the array resistor 406, 405 to output the data for displaying the measured value of the flowmeter. FIG. 6 shows an example of an LCD output window. In FIG. 6, the serial number of the device is displayed at the top, the next flow accumulation value is displayed in units of 10 liters, and the monthly usage amount is also displayed in units of 10 liters. For reference, the cumulative value of the flow rate continues to increase from the time of installation of the device. Monthly usage can be visually checked for this month if you set this value to '0' after the meter reading last month.

Reference numerals R12 to R16 denote resistors, reference character VR3 denotes a variable resistor, reference characters C5 to C10 denote capacitors, and reference numeral 403 denotes a crystal oscillator.

A computer program for realizing the flow measurement guidance method according to the present invention will now be described with reference to Figs. 7 to 9. Fig. This can be achieved by connecting a computer and an RS232 transmission unit via a communication line and executing a communication program previously installed in the program.

First, when the program of the flow measurement guidance system related to the present invention is started, an input window as shown in Fig. 8 is displayed on the computer monitor. If the user wishes to set the serial number, he / she clicks the 'Serial Number Setting' button in FIG. 8 (S2 in FIG. 7). In this case, the input window for inputting the serial number on the right side is activated, Can be input. When the serial number is input (S4), the serial number is set, and a confirmation value for confirming the serial number is displayed (S6).

When the next user wants to know the flow rate measurement value of the flow meter, if the 'Fluid Meter Reading' button in FIG. 8 is clicked (S8), the computer commands the flow measurement device corresponding to the serial number to send out the read signal ), Reads the flow meter value transmitted from the flow meter (S12), and displays the value on the right side.

When the next user wants to know the flow accumulation value, he clicks the 'Fluid Value New Setting' button. At this time, the computer updates the flow accumulation value and displays the value on the left side (S14-S16).

If the user wants to know the monthly usage amount again, the user clicks the 'Month Value New Setting' button. At this time, the computer updates the monthly usage amount and displays the value on the left side (S18-S20).

Meanwhile, the user can set the COM port of the computer by clicking the 'RS232_Setup' button of FIG. 9, which is similar to setting a communication port in a normal computer, and therefore a detailed description will be omitted (S3 and S5).

As described above, the computer controls the microcomputer of the flow measuring apparatus according to the present invention and receives data on the flow measurement value. An example of the serial communication protocol and commands between the computer and the microcomputer will be described below.

Communication between the computer and the microcomputer is performed by using an 8-bit data bit and a 1-bit stop bit. The communication command includes a command for confirming a serial number, a reading command for reading a measured value, And a usage reset command.

It is desirable that the serial number is assigned at the time of manufacture and can not be modified,

'S' + serial number (14 bytes) + CR

If the serial number is confirmed and correct,

'S' + ',' + serial number (14 bytes) + CR

As shown in FIG. However, if the serial number is not correct,

'SError' + CR + LF

And the like.

Next, at the time of assigning the serial number to the master (this is registered when the device is manufactured)

'MaSe' + serial number (14 bytes) + CR

When the microcomputer receives this, the current serial number is replaced with a new serial number,

'S' + ',' + serial number (14 bytes) + CR + LF

.

The communication can be used by confirming the serial number. When there is no communication for about 10 seconds, the communication is automatically stopped and closed.

Next, the signal to read the measured value is,

'R' + CR

And when the microcomputer receives it,

'R' + ',' + 'xxxxx.xx0' + ',' + 'xxx.xx0' + CR + LF

, The first data 'xxxxx.xx0' is the accumulated flow value, and the second data 'xxx.xx0' represents the monthly usage amount.

Since the apparatus according to the present invention is installed in a flow meter such as an existing water meter, the flow accumulation value must be set equal to the value of the existing meter at the time of initial installation,

'FL' + '12345.670' + CR

, The initial flow accumulation value is set to 12345.670 liters.

'R' + ',' + '12345.670' + ',' + 'xxx.xx0' + CR + LF

.

Finally, the command to find out the monthly usage,

'Zr' + '000.000' + CR

In this regard,

'R' + ',' + 'xxxxx.xx0' + ',' + '000.000 "+ CR + LF

As shown in FIG.

Accordingly, the microcomputer 400 must also have an input / output function to transmit and receive serial communication through the transmission unit 700 according to the communication protocol with the computer, as well as an on / off signal from the sensor input unit 300 It is necessary to have a counting function for inputting and counting and measuring the flow rate, and an EEPROM 500 or an LCD display unit 600 and an input / output function. For example, 89C51 chip So that detailed description will be omitted.

Although the above description has been made with reference to the flow rate measuring apparatus connected to the water meter, it is possible to implement the invention without changing the technical idea of the present invention, as well as communication with the computer has been described with reference to the serial communication. It will be readily understood by anyone with ordinary knowledge of the present invention that the present invention can easily be modified and applied by applying a communication method and that the present invention does not exceed the scope of the present invention.

While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, and that various modifications are possible within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the limitations of this invention should be limited only by the following utility model registration claims.

As described above, according to the flow measurement guidance system according to the present invention, it is possible to measure and confirm the flow rate without confirming the scale of the water meter one by one, and it is also possible to check the flow rate by the central computer connected through the communication line It is possible to easily check the flow accumulation value and the monthly usage amount by controlling the microcomputer of the flow rate measuring apparatus attached to the water flow meter, and it is possible to measure and confirm more accurately than the conventional water flow meter and confirm in real time, It is possible to promptly charge for the amount of fluid used.

Claims (4)

A sensor input unit 300 connected to an existing flow meter to detect whether the flow meter is operated; A microcomputer 400 for measuring a flow rate by processing the signal detected by the sensor input unit; And And a transfer unit (700) connected to the computer, for transferring a control signal from the computer to the microcomputer through the communication line, and for transferring the measured value from the microcomputer to the computer via the communication line, The microcomputer 400 has an input / output function capable of exchanging serial communication through the transmission unit 700 according to a communication protocol with the computer, as well as receiving a signal from the sensor input unit 300, And a counting function capable of measuring the flow rate of the fluid. The method according to claim 1, A memory (500) for temporarily storing measured values under the control of the microcomputer; And And a display unit (600) for displaying the measured value under the control of the microcomputer, Wherein the microcomputer further has an input / output function with the memory (500) or the display unit (600). 3. The method of claim 2, The microcomputer 400 receives a flow sensor input signal and an external control signal through an input terminal and digitizes an on / off signal of the input flow sensor input signal to measure a flow rate, The digitally processed data is temporarily stored or temporarily stored in the serial memory IC 407 through the input / output terminal and is read out from the serial memory IC 407 and output to the input / output converter 402 through the output terminal TXD Output converter 402 to be input to the computer via the input / output connector 401, and the control signal from the computer received via the input / output connector 402 to the input / output converter 402 is input via the input terminal RXD And the flow rate measurement guide system. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, Wherein the computer generates a flow rate reading command to the microcomputer of the flow rate measuring unit and receives the read signal transmitted from the flow rate measuring unit and displays the read signal on a separate display device.