JP5624408B2 - Power connector - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a power connector that is connected to a power supply facility mainly used for charging an electric vehicle and receives a power supply from the power supply facility.

  Recently, electric vehicles equipped with batteries have attracted attention because of social demands such as environmental protection and reduction of energy consumption, and some have already been put into practical use. Charging is indispensable for such electric vehicles. However, since charging an electric vehicle takes a longer time than refueling a gasoline vehicle, a power supply facility is installed in the vehicle owner's home or accommodation facility. It is considered to charge each electric vehicle parked using equipment. By the way, in the conventional power supply equipment, no consideration has been given to its unauthorized use. For this reason, the power supply equipment is used without permission by a person who has entered the parking lot. There was a problem that there was a risk of being.

  In order to cope with the above problems, an RFID tag is mounted on a plug provided at the tip of an electric cable extending from an electric vehicle, an RFID authentication unit is mounted on an outlet of a power supply facility, and a plug having the above RFID tag is mounted. A charging system for an electric vehicle that can supply power from a power supply facility only when authentication is established in the plug-in RFID authentication unit is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In this charging system, since only a user who has a plug in which an RFID tag is mounted in advance can use the power supply facility, it is possible to reliably avoid the possibility that the power supply facility is used by a person who does not have the authority to use. it can.

JP 2010-158135 A

  However, in the charging system as described above, it is possible to reliably eliminate unauthorized use of the power supply facility, but it is necessary to mount an RFID authentication unit in the outlet in advance and an RFID tag in each plug. For this reason, there is a problem that mounting man-hours are required and the cost is significantly increased.

  This invention is made | formed in view of such a subject, and it aims at providing a simple structure and a low-cost power supply connector while preventing unauthorized use of an electric power supply equipment reliably.

In order to solve the above-described problems, a power connector according to the present invention includes a power receiving plug (for example, the electric plug 40 in the embodiment) having a standardized connection shape provided in a power receiving device that receives power and power. A power connector used to electrically connect a power receptacle provided in a power supply facility that supplies power (for example, the power receptacle section 22 in the embodiment), and the power receptacle is directly connected to the power receptacle. In order not to be able to do so, it has a dedicated special connection part shape different from the standardized connection part shape. The power connector has a standardized shape corresponding to the power receiving plug, and a connection receptacle portion (for example, the plug-side receptacle portion 3 in the embodiment) to which the power receiving plug is inserted and connected. A connection plug portion (for example, the power supply side plug portion 7 in the embodiment) having a special shape formed exclusively for connection to the power supply receptacle and inserted and connected to the power supply receptacle; and the connection receptacle A housing (for example, the housing 2 in the embodiment) that holds the connection portion and the connection plug portion in an electrically connected state, and the power reception from the power supply facility through the connection plug portion and the connection receptacle portion. An electric energy measuring unit for measuring the electric energy supplied to the apparatus, and an electric energy provided in the housing and measured by the electric energy measuring unit. And a power amount display section for displaying the quantity, and so it is possible to electrically connect the power receiving plug via the power supply connector to the power receptacle.

  In the power connector according to the present invention, a charge calculation unit for calculating a power usage fee for the power amount measured by the power amount measurement unit, and a power usage fee calculated by the charge calculation unit provided in the housing are displayed. It is preferable to provide a charge display unit.

According to the power connector of the present invention, the power supply facility is configured to have a specially shaped power receptacle , and a plug having a specified shape cannot be directly inserted into the power receptacle . Therefore, unauthorized use of the power supply facility by a person who does not have the power connector according to the present invention can be reliably prevented. In addition, the power plug can be used in a simple configuration and the cost can be reduced because the power plug can be connected to the power plug and the power receptacle of the power supply facility can be made into a special shape to prevent unauthorized use. Can do. Furthermore, since the power connector according to the present invention is provided with the power amount measuring unit and the power amount display unit, the user and the administrator of the power supply facility can easily determine the amount of power supplied from the power supply facility. The effect that it can grasp is acquired.

  Furthermore, when the power connector includes a charge calculation unit and a charge display unit, users and managers of power supply facilities do not have to calculate the power usage fee for the amount of power themselves, and the power usage fee can be easily grasped. It is possible to collect the electricity usage fee smoothly.

It is a figure which shows the power supply connector which concerns on this invention, (a) is a front view, (b) is the perspective view seen from front upper direction, (c) is a rear view, (d) is the perspective view seen from back upper direction. It is. It is a figure which shows the power supply side outlet socket which connects the said power supply connector, (a) is a front view, (b) is the perspective view seen from the front upper direction. It is a block diagram which shows the flow of the electrical signal between the said power supply connector, power supply equipment, and a power receiving apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows the modification of the flow of the said electric signal.

  Embodiments of a power connector according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The power connector 1 is a device lent from a manager of the accommodation facility or the like to a user of a power supply facility provided in the accommodation facility or the like for charging the battery of the electric vehicle. Only the user who has it can charge an electric vehicle etc. using a power supply equipment. In the following description, for the sake of convenience, as indicated by arrows “up / down, front / rear, left / right” in each figure, the direction in which the display panel 5 is provided with respect to the casing 2 described later is the forward direction, the opposite direction is the rear direction, In the following description, the direction in which the display panel 5 is provided with respect to the connecting portion 3 is defined as the upward direction, the opposite direction as the downward direction, and the direction perpendicular to the front-rear direction and the vertical direction as the left-right direction. However, these directions are definitions for convenience of explanation, and this does not define the mounting direction and usage direction of each member.

  The power connector 1 includes a housing 2, a plug-side receptacle unit 3, a display panel 5, an operation button 6, a power-side plug unit 7, and a battery built-in unit 9. The housing 2 is made of an insulating material and is formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape. The housing 2 is fixedly held in a state where the plug-side receptacle portion 3, the display panel 5, the operation buttons 6, the power-side plug portion 7, and the battery built-in portion 9 are exposed. To do. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the plug-side receptacle 3 includes a plug fitting recess 3a and terminal connection portions 3b, 3c, and 3d. The plug fitting recess 3a is provided in a circular recess in the lower front part of the housing 2, and the terminal connection portions 3b, 3c, 3d have terminals made of a conductive material and are respectively recessed in the plug fitting recess 3a. Formed with. The shape of the plug-side receptacle part 3 conforms to the AC200V standard, and an electric plug 40, which will be described later, of an electric cable extending from the electric vehicle is fitted into the plug fitting recess 3a, and each terminal connection part 3b, The electrical plug 40 can be electrically connected to the power supply connector 1 by connecting the terminals 41a, 41b, 41c of the electrical plug 40 to 3c, 3d (see FIG. 3).

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the display panel 5 displays a power amount display unit 5a for displaying the amount of power supplied to an electric vehicle from a power supply facility, which will be described later, and a usage fee for the amount of power used. A charge display unit 5b to be displayed, and a current display unit 5c to display the value of the current supplied from the power supply facility. However, on the display panel 5, any one of the power amount display unit 5 a, the charge display unit 5 b, and the current display unit 5 c can be highlighted and displayed by operating an operation button 6 described later. It has become.

  Four operation buttons 6 are provided side by side at the upper part of the plug-side receptacle 3 and the lower part of the display panel 5, and are provided for performing the setting operation of the power connector 1. Specifically, a backlight (not shown) built in the display panel 5 is turned on by operating the operation button 6 to make the display easy to see, or the display items (the power amount display unit 5a, the charge on the display panel 5 described above) The display 5b and the current display 5c) can be selected. It is also possible to input a password that only the administrator of the power connector 1 knows by operating the operation button 6, and an administrator-only menu (not shown) is displayed on the display panel 5 by inputting the password. It can also be displayed. In the administrator-dedicated menu, the operation button 6 can be operated to set, for example, a usage fee per unit power amount or reset a measured value of the power amount measuring unit 11 described later.

  The power supply side plug 7 and the battery built-in part 9 are provided on the back surface of the housing 2 as shown in FIGS. The power supply side plug 7 includes a fitting protrusion 7 a and terminal portions 7 b, 7 c, 7 d, and the fitting protrusion 7 a is provided to protrude in a circular shape from the lower rear part of the housing 2. The terminal portions 7b, 7c, and 7d are formed to protrude from the fitting protrusion 7a in a columnar shape, the terminal portion 7b is at the upper left portion of the fitting protrusion 7a, and the terminal portion 7c is the protrusion of the fitting protrusion 7a. In the upper right portion, the terminal portion 7c is provided so as to protrude rearward from the lower left and right central lower portions of the fitting protruding portion 7a, and the amount of protruding backward is larger in the order of the terminal portions 7b, 7c, 7d. The power supply side plug portion 7 configured as described above and the plug side receptacle portion 3 described above are held in an electrically connected state by the housing 2.

  The battery built-in portion 9 is provided on the power supply side plug 7 of the housing 2 and includes a battery housing portion that houses the battery and a sealing member that seals the battery housing portion. The battery accommodated in the battery built-in unit 9 includes an electric energy measuring unit 11 that measures the electric energy supplied to the electric vehicle, a charge calculating unit 12 that calculates a usage fee for the measured electric energy, and the measured electric energy and It is used for power supply for operating the memory 13 that stores and holds the usage fee (detailed later).

  The electric energy measuring unit 11 includes a current sensor and a voltage sensor (not shown). The electric energy measuring unit 11 is electrically connected to the power supply side plug 7 and the plug side receptacle unit 3 in the housing 2. The power amount is measured by measuring the power from the current value and the voltage value detected by, and integrating the measured power over time. The charge calculation unit 12 calculates a power usage fee by multiplying the power amount measured by the power amount measurement unit 11 by the value of the charge per unit power amount stored in the memory 13 described later. The memory 13 stores various types of information related to the setting of the power supply connector 1 in addition to the amount of power measured by the power amount measuring unit 11 and the power usage fee calculated by the fee calculating unit 12. Information stored in the memory 13 is automatically maintained after a predetermined period of time, and can be manually cleared by operating the operation button 6 in the administrator menu.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 2, the power supply side outlet 20 which connects the power connector 1 mentioned above is demonstrated. The power supply outlet 20 includes a housing 21 and a power supply receptacle 22. The casing 21 is made of an insulating material and is formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape. The casing 21 is fixedly held in a state where the power supply side receptacle portion 22 is exposed on the surface. The casing 21 is fixed so as not to be removed due to the initial electrical work.

  The power supply side receptacle portion 22 includes a connector fitting recess 22a and terminal connection portions 22b, 22c, and 22d. The connector fitting recess 22a has a circular shape on the front surface of the housing 21, as shown in FIG. It is provided to be recessed. The terminal connection portions 22b, 22c, and 22d are formed to be recessed in a columnar shape inside the connector fitting recess 22a, and each have a terminal made of a conductive material. The terminal connection portion 22b is provided at the upper left portion of the connector fitting recess 22a, the terminal connection portion 22c is provided at the upper right portion of the connector fitting recess 22a, and the terminal connection portion 22d is provided at the lower left and right center of the connector fitting recess 22a. The amount of depression is larger in the order of the terminal connection portions 22b, 22c, and 22d. Only the power supply side plug portion 7 of the power supply connector 1 described above can be fitted and connected to the power supply side receptacle portion 22 configured as described above, and a fitting protrusion 7a of the power supply side plug portion 7 is provided. While being fitted into the connector fitting recess 22a, the terminal portions 7b, 7c and 7d of the power supply side plug portion 7 are inserted into the terminal connection portions 22b, 22c and 22d of the power supply side receptacle portion 22, respectively. The side outlet 20 is electrically connected. Moreover, the power supply side receptacle part 22 is connected to the 200V AC power supply 30 (refer FIG. 3) through the back surface of the housing | casing 21 by the initial electrical construction, and electric power is supplied from the AC power supply 30 and the power supply side outlet 20. A power supply facility capable of charging a car is configured.

  By the way, in such a power supply facility capable of charging an electric vehicle, if the standardized electric plug 40 can be directly connected to an outlet, the power supply facility may be used without permission. However, in the present embodiment, as described above, the shape of the power supply side receptacle portion 22 (connector fitting concave portion 22a and terminal connection portions 22b, 22c, 22d) of the power supply side outlet 20 is made a special shape and the electric plug 40 is directly inserted. Therefore, unauthorized use of the power supply facility can be reliably prevented. In addition, the shape of the power supply side plug portion 7 of the electrical connector 1 is a special shape corresponding to the power supply side receptacle portion 22, and the shape of the plug side receptacle portion 3 is standardized so that the electric plug 40 can be inserted. By adopting the shape, since the power supply facility can be used when the power connector 1 is provided, the person having the power connector 1 can be permitted to use the power supply facility. As the above-mentioned special shapes of the power supply side receptacle portion 22 and the power supply side plug portion 7, for example, an overseas standard outlet can be used. Since it becomes unnecessary, the mounting cost of the power connector 1 and the power outlet 20 can be further reduced.

  By the way, the user of the power supply facility fits and connects the power-side plug portion 7 on the back of the power connector 1 to the power-side receptacle portion 22 of the power-side outlet 20 to power the electric plug 40 of the electric vehicle. By fitting and connecting to the plug-side receptacle 3 on the front surface of the connector 1, power can be supplied from the power supply facility to the electric vehicle via the power connector 1 to charge the battery of the electric vehicle. Hereinafter, a method of displaying and billing for the amount of electricity used for power supply using the electrical connector 1 will be described.

  First, the user of the power supply facility borrows the power connector 1 from the manager of the accommodation facility, etc., and connects the power connector 1 to the power outlet 20 as described above to connect the power connector 1 to the power connector 1. Charging is started by connecting the plug 40. At this time, the power output from the 200 V AC power supply 30 is supplied to the power supply connector 1 via the power supply receptacle portion 22 of the power supply outlet 20 and the power supply plug portion 7 of the power supply connector 1. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the amount of power supplied from the AC power supply 30 is measured by the power amount measuring unit 11. The measured power amount is stored in the memory 13 and displayed on the power amount display portion 5a. In addition, the fee calculation unit 12 calculates the usage fee from the electric energy measured by the electric energy measurement unit 11, and the calculated fee is stored in the memory 13 and displayed on the fee display unit 5b. Further, after the charging of the electric vehicle is completed, that effect is displayed on the display panel 5. The user of the power supply facility finishes charging and disconnects the electric plug 40 from the power supply connection portion 1, then removes the power supply connector 1 from the power supply side outlet 20 and takes the power supply connector 1 to the manager at the front of the accommodation facility. Go. Then, the administrator can collect the fee from the user by looking at the fee displayed on the fee display portion 5b.

  As described above, in the power connector 1 according to the present embodiment, the power source provided in the accommodation facility or the like simply by making the shapes of the power source plug portion 7 of the power connector 1 and the power source receptacle portion 22 of the power outlet 20 into a special shape. This makes it possible to prevent unauthorized use of supply facilities. Accordingly, it is not necessary to use an anti-theft device on which an expensive RFID tag or the like is mounted, so that the cost for preventing the theft can be reduced.

  Moreover, in the power supply connector 1 in this embodiment, the example provided with the electric energy measurement part 11 and the charge calculation part 12, and the electric energy display part 5a and the charge display part 5b which display the measured electric energy and its charge was demonstrated. However, by providing these, the user and the administrator can easily grasp the amount of electric power used and the fee, and the fee can be collected smoothly.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 4, for example, by providing a switch 51 between the AC power source 30 and the power source outlet 20, and a switch operation unit 52 at the front of the accommodation facility, the manager of the front desk can The power supply from 30 can be operated by itself. Accordingly, it is possible to more effectively prevent theft. However, in this case, since the cost of mounting the switch 51 and the switch operation unit 52 is required, the switch 51 and the switch operation unit 52 may not be provided when considering cost reduction.

  The power connector 1 has been described as an example in the present embodiment, but the power connector according to the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. That is, the power connector according to the present invention can be arbitrarily changed without departing from the spirit thereof. For example, in the above, the shapes of the power connector 1 and the housing 2 and the housing 21 of the power outlet 20 are substantially rectangular parallelepiped. However, these shapes do not have to be a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, and the power connector 1 does not use the substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing 2 but the plug-side receptacle 3 is attached to one end and the other end. Alternatively, a cable-like one to which the power supply side plug portion 7 is attached may be used.

  Moreover, about the display panel 5, although the example provided with the electric energy display part 5a, the charge display part 5b, and the electric current display part 5c was demonstrated above, the item displayed on the display panel 5 is not limited to these. That is, the date, time, etc. may be displayed, or a timer for measuring the charging time may be provided inside the housing 2 to cause the timer to measure the charging time and display the charging time. In addition, regarding the charge calculation of the charge calculation unit 12, the power usage charge may be calculated from the charging time instead of the amount of power.

  The number and manner of the operation buttons 6 are not limited to the above. Further, the operation button 6 is not necessarily provided as a means for performing the setting operation of the power connector 1. For example, the display panel 5 may be used as a touch panel and operated on the display panel 5. Furthermore, for operations that can only be performed by the administrator, that is, operations such as the above-described setting of charges per unit electric energy and resetting of electric energy measurement values, a separate hidden switch is provided to allow the administrator to operate this hidden switch. Also good.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the power connector 1 is used for charging an electric vehicle has been described. However, the power connector according to the present invention can be used for a power receiving device other than an electric vehicle, It can also be applied to uses other than charging. Further, the installation location is not limited to the accommodation facility described above. That is, according to the present invention for any use and place as long as the purpose is to prevent power theft by an unspecified number of persons, to allow a specific person to use power, and to collect usage fees from the specific person. Power connector can be applied.

1 Power connector 2 Housing (housing)
3 Plug side receptacle (power receiving device side receptacle)
5a Electric power amount display part 5b Charge display part 7 Power supply side plug part 11 Electric energy measurement part 12 Charge calculation part 20 Power supply side outlet 22 Power supply side receptacle part 30 AC power supply (power supply)
40 Electrical plug 41 Terminal (plug)

Claims (2)

A power supply connector used when electrically connecting a power receiving plug having a standardized connection shape provided in a power receiving device that receives power supply and a power receptacle provided in a power supply facility that performs power supply ,
The power supply receptacle has a dedicated special connection part shape different from the standardized connection part shape so that the power receiving plug cannot be directly connected,
The power connector is
A standardized shape corresponding to the power receiving plug, and a receptacle portion for connection to which the power receiving plug is inserted and connected;
A plug portion for connection having a special shape formed exclusively for connection with the power supply receptacle and inserted and connected to the power supply receptacle;
A housing for holding the connection receptacle part and the connection plug part in an electrically connected state;
An electric energy measuring unit for measuring electric energy supplied from the power supply facility to the power receiving device via the connecting plug unit and the connecting receptacle unit;
An electric energy display unit that is provided in the housing and displays the electric energy measured by the electric energy measurement unit ;
A power connector, wherein the power receiving plug can be electrically connected to the power receptacle via the power connector. A charge calculation unit that calculates a power usage fee for the amount of power measured by the power amount measurement unit;
The power connector according to claim 1, further comprising: a charge display unit that is provided in the housing and displays a power usage charge calculated by the charge calculation unit.

Images