JP6736325B2 - Gas stove - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a gas stove.

In the field of gas appliances, a system has been proposed in which internal information can be taken out from a remote controller. For example, in the heat source machine system disclosed in Patent Document 1, the remote control is provided with a light emitting element and a light emission control unit, and by controlling the light emission of the light emitting element, an optical signal representing information of the heat source machine system is emitted. Is output from the outside.

JP, 2015-21675, A

By the way, when the internal information of a gas appliance is taken out, it may be desired to take out directly from the appliance main body instead of taking out from a remote controller like patent document 1. For example, many gas stoves do not use a remote controller as in Patent Document 1, and in this case, internal information cannot be extracted by the method in Patent Document 1.

For this reason, in the case of a gas stove, if internal information about the equipment is required for maintenance, etc., the top plate and internal parts can be removed to access the controller, and the information in the controller can be read using a special reading device. Internal information must be acquired by such a method. However, in such a method, the labor of the operator becomes large, and it takes time to acquire the internal information.

On the other hand, in the field of electronic devices, a method has been considered in which an RFID tag is attached to an internal component and the RFID tag is read from the outside as necessary to acquire the internal information of the device. However, it is difficult to apply this method to a gas stove. The gas stove case is made of a metal material in consideration of durability and heat dissipation, so even if an RFID tag is attached to the internal parts, it will be shielded by the metal case at the time of reading and the reading will be difficult. This is because it cannot be performed well.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a gas stove that can read internal information favorably without disassembling the casing.

The gas stove of the present invention is
A gas burner,
A casing part having a top plate part and a front face part, and containing at least a flow path of gas to be supplied to the gas burner;
A light emitting portion that emits visible light toward the outside of at least one of the top plate portion or the front surface portion,
A control unit that is provided inside the housing unit and performs visible light communication that transmits information corresponding to a change in the light emission state to the outside by changing the light emission state of the visible light emitted from the light emitting unit,
including.

In the gas stove of the present invention, the control unit performs visible light communication and changes the light emitting state of visible light emitted from the light emitting unit, so that information corresponding to the change in the light emitting state can be transmitted to the outside. Therefore, the internal information of the gas stove can be read without disassembling the container. In addition, when the housing portion contains a metal component, it is difficult to read the internal information by the RFID technique, but this method enables the internal information to be read well.

In the present invention, the light emitting unit may have a display unit that displays at least one of a symbol and a figure. The control unit may be configured to perform control to display information based on at least one of a symbol and a graphic on the display unit.

According to this configuration, the information display by clearly indicating the symbol or the graphic and the information transmission by the visible light communication can be combined in the same portion. In particular, if the display section is also used for visible light communication, it is possible to reduce the number of parts and costs, and it is advantageous in terms of space.

In the present invention, the control unit may be configured to transmit at least information different from the information that can be displayed on the display unit to the outside by visible light communication.

With this configuration, even information that is not displayed by the display unit can be output to the outside.

The present invention may include a storage unit that stores information. The control unit may be configured to transmit the information stored in the storage unit to the outside by visible light communication.

According to this configuration, it is possible to read the information stored in the storage unit without disassembling the housing unit.

In the present invention, the information stored in the storage unit may include history information of errors that occurred in the past.

With this configuration, it is possible to grasp the history of errors that have occurred in the past without disassembling the housing, and it is possible to perform error analysis more easily.

In the present invention, the information stored in the storage unit may include at least one of unique information uniquely assigned to the gas stove and type identification information that identifies the type of the gas stove.

According to this configuration, it becomes possible to accurately read the unique information of the gas stove or the type-specific information of the gas stove as electronic data without performing the work of disassembling the housing.

FIG. 1 is a front view schematically showing a part of the gas stove according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing a part of the gas stove according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the electrical configuration of the gas stove according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of display control performed in the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the blinking display performed in the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a visible light signal transmitted during a lighting period during blinking display. FIG. 7A is an explanatory diagram illustrating the content transmitted by visible light communication, and FIG. 7B is an explanatory diagram illustrating another example of the content transmitted by visible light communication. FIG. 8 is a front view schematically showing a gas stove according to another embodiment. FIG. 9 is a front view schematically showing a gas stove of another embodiment different from FIG.

<Example 1>
Hereinafter, a gas stove 1 embodying an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. These drawings are used for explaining the technical features that can be adopted by the present invention. Unless otherwise specified, the structure and the like of the device described below are not intended to be limited thereto and are merely illustrative examples.

In the gas stove 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a housing 2 is composed of a top plate 3 and a housing body 4, and the housing 2 constitutes an outer wall portion of the gas stove 1, and the gas burners 5 and 6 are provided. It accommodates the flow path of the gas to be supplied. The housing portion 2 is configured such that a top plate portion 3 configured in a plate shape is detachably attached to the housing body 4.

The housing body 4 is formed of, for example, a metal material as a box-shaped case body having an open upper side, and is configured to house various components in an internal space surrounded by walls at the front, rear, left, and right. The housing body 4 includes a front surface portion 4A that constitutes a front wall portion of the gas stove 1, and a rear surface portion (not shown) is provided on the rear side of the front surface portion 4A. Further, side surfaces are provided in a pair on the left and right, and the front surface portion 4A, the rear surface portion, and the side surface portion form a box-shaped case body.

The top plate portion 3 is configured as a metal plate-shaped member, and is assembled to the housing body 4 from above so as to close the opening on the upper side of the housing body 4. The top plate portion 3 functions as an upper surface portion of the gas stove 1 when assembled on the housing body 4 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The top plate portion 3 is attachable to and detachable from the housing body 4, and openings are formed on both left and right sides of the top plate portion 3 so as to penetrate the top plate portion 3 in the thickness direction.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a gas burner 5 is provided inside the opening on the left side of the top plate 3, and a gas burner 6 is provided inside the opening on the right side. Gotoku 11 and 12 are provided in the upper part of each opening, respectively. The Gotoku 11 and 12 have a configuration in which a cooking container such as a cooking pot (not shown) can be placed on the upper surface of each. The gas burners 5 and 6 function to burn the combustion gas to heat the cooking containers placed on the Gotoku 11 and 12.

As shown in FIG. 1, a sensor unit 15 is provided at the center of the gas burner 5, and a sensor unit 16 is provided at the center of the gas burner 6. The sensor portions 15 and 16 are capable of moving in the vertical direction and are biased upward by a spring (not shown). The sensor unit 15 is provided with the thermistor 7 shown in FIG. 3, and is configured to be pushed down when the cooking pot is placed on the Gotoku 11 and the thermistor 7 serves to detect the cooking pot placed on the cooking pot. Detect the bottom surface temperature. The sensor unit 16 is provided with the thermistor 8 shown in FIG. 3, and is configured to be pushed down when the cooking pot is placed on the Gotoku 12, and the thermistor 8 is used to Detect the bottom surface temperature.

As shown in FIG. 2, on the upper surface side of the gas stove 1, ignition switches 21 and 22 are provided so as to penetrate the top plate portion 3 in regions near the front end and the right end of the top plate portion 3, respectively. The ignition switches 21 and 22 are both arranged so as to project above the top plate portion 3, and the ignition switch 21 on the left side is a switch for performing an ignition operation of the gas burner 5. Further, the ignition switch 22 on the right side is a switch for performing an ignition operation of the gas burner 6. An exhaust cover portion 13 is formed as a part of the top plate portion 3 in a region near the rear end of the top plate portion 3 so as to cover a grille exhaust port (not shown). The hole 13A is formed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a grill door 17 and a grill ignition switch 23 are provided on the front surface of the gas stove 1. The grill ignition switch 23 is configured as a switch for performing an ignition operation of a grill burner (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 3, the gas burner 5, the gas burner 6, and the grill burner are provided with igniters 25 to 27, respectively. The igniters 25 to 27 are devices that interlock with ignition operations of the ignition switches 21 to 23 to discharge sparks and ignite various burners. In addition, the gas stove 1 has a first gas supply pipe (not shown) for supplying gas to the gas burner 5, a second gas supply pipe (not shown) for supplying gas to the gas burner 6, and a gas for the grill burner. And a third gas supply pipe (not shown) for supplying the gas.

The electrical configuration of the gas stove 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
In the gas stove 1, a power supply unit 40 is housed inside the housing body 4. The power supply unit 40 has a configuration in which, for example, two dry batteries are connected in series, and is fixed to the housing body 4 directly or indirectly via another member. Further, inside the housing body 4, there is provided a main board 9 in which various electronic components are mounted on the board body. The main board 9 is also directly connected to the housing body 4 or indirectly through another member. It is fixed to.

The main board 9 is provided with a microcomputer (hereinafter, also referred to as a microcomputer) 50 that functions as a control circuit. The microcomputer 50 includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like, and further includes a timer, an I/O interface, and the like, which are not shown. The CPU of the microcomputer 50 integrally controls various operations of the gas stove 1, and can perform various arithmetic processing. Further, various control programs for the gas stove 1 are stored in the ROM of the microcomputer 50.

A power supply circuit 41, a switch input circuit 42, a thermistor input circuit 43, an igniter circuit 45, a safety valve circuit 46, a solenoid valve circuit 47, a drive circuit 62, etc. are connected to the microcomputer 50.

The power supply circuit 41 has a function of receiving a power supply from a power supply unit 40 (for example, two dry batteries mounted in a battery box) and generating a DC power supply to be applied to various circuits. The switch input circuit 42 detects pressing of the ignition switches 21 to 23, respectively. The igniter circuit 45 drives the igniters 25 to 27 of various burners. The safety valve circuit 46 opens and closes the safety valves 28 to 30 provided in the above-described first to third gas supply pipes, respectively. The solenoid valve circuit 47 opens and closes the solenoid valves 31 and 32 respectively provided in the above-mentioned first and second gas supply pipes. The microcomputer 50 is a part that can control opening and closing of the solenoid valve 31 and the safety valve 28 provided in the first gas supply pipe that continues to the gas burner 5, and the second gas supply pipe that continues to the gas burner 6 can be controlled. This is a part that can control opening and closing of the provided solenoid valve 32 and safety valve 29.

The gas stove 1 shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is provided with only a light emitting section 60 composed of a single lamp as a light emitting component. The light emitting section 60 is composed of a light emitting element such as an LED, for example, and is configured to emit light to the outside (front side) of the front surface portion 4A.

The microcomputer 50 is configured to give a drive circuit 62 an instruction to drive the light emitting unit 60. The drive circuit 62 controls turning on and off of the light emitting unit 60 according to a command from the microcomputer 50. The microcomputer 50 corresponds to an example of a control unit, is provided inside the housing unit 2, and changes the light emission state of visible light emitted from the light emitting unit 60 to output information corresponding to the change in the light emission state to the outside. Function to make visible light communication to send to.

A voltage detection circuit 49 is connected to the microcomputer 50. The voltage detection circuit 49 is configured as a known voltage detection circuit that detects the voltage of the power supply unit 40 (battery), and the microcomputer 50 monitors the detection value from the voltage detection circuit 49 to detect the battery voltage. I have a grasp.

Next, visible light communication performed by the gas stove 1 will be described.
The display process shown in FIG. 4 is a process that is repeatedly executed by the microcomputer 50 every predetermined short time after the gas stove 1 is turned on. In the process of FIG. 4, the battery remaining amount is determined with the start of the process (S1). In S1, it is determined whether the voltage of the power supply unit 40 (battery voltage) is less than the threshold voltage. If the voltage of the power supply unit 40 (battery voltage) is less than the threshold voltage, the process proceeds to Yes in S1. When the process proceeds to Yes in S1, the light emitting unit 60 is displayed in the first light emitting state (lighting state) (S4). When the light emitting unit 60 is turned on in S4, the light emitting unit 60 is continuously and continuously emitted.

When it is determined in S1 that the voltage of the power supply unit 40 (battery voltage) is equal to or higher than the threshold voltage, the process proceeds to No in S1. When the process proceeds to No in S1, it is determined whether a predetermined error has occurred (S2). In the gas stove 1, a plurality of error types such as ignition failure, operation of a fire extinguishing function, and operation of an abnormal heating prevention function are registered in advance as predetermined errors.

If it is determined that no error has occurred at the time of the determination process of S2, the process proceeds to No in S2 and the process of FIG. 4 ends. When it is determined that any error has occurred in any part at the time of the determination process of S2, the process proceeds to Yes in S2.

When the process proceeds to Yes in S2, the light emitting unit 60 is displayed in the second light emitting state (blinking state) (S3). When displaying in a blinking state in S3, for example, the light emitting unit 60 is blinked and displayed so as to alternately repeat a lighting state for about several seconds and a non-lighting state for about several seconds. Then, visible light communication is performed during the lighting period during the blinking display.

As described above, in this configuration, when the display control is performed by the microcomputer 50 corresponding to the control unit and the first condition is satisfied (specifically, the power supply unit 40 (battery) is in a predetermined output reduction state). When the detection unit detects that), the light emitting unit 60 is controlled to the first light emitting state (lighting state). Then, when the second condition is satisfied (when an error state different from the predetermined output reduction state of the power supply unit 40 (battery) occurs), the light emitting unit 60 is set to a first light emitting state (lighting state) different from the first light emitting state. The second light emission state (blinking state in which the lighting state and the extinguishing state are repeated) is controlled. Then, visible light communication is performed when controlling to the second light emitting state, and by changing the light emitting state of the visible light emitted from the light emitting unit 60, information corresponding to the change in the light emitting state is transmitted to the outside.

When it is determined that an error has occurred in S2 (when a predetermined abnormal state has occurred), the microcomputer 50 performs the process of S3 to control the light emitting unit 60 to the second light emitting state and The detailed information regarding the error (predetermined abnormal state) is transmitted by the visible light communication performed in the light emitting state.

When the light emitting unit 60 is blinked and displayed so that the lighting state and the extinguishing state are alternately repeated in S3, the visible light signal is superimposed during the lighting state period. FIG. 5 is an image diagram of blinking display. When blinking display is performed, lighting and extinguishing of the light emitting unit 60 are repeated in a minute time during the lighting period. During the turn-off period, the light emitting unit 60 is continuously turned off.

As shown in FIG. 6, a unit time Δt (minute time) that is sufficiently smaller than the lighting time T1 is set as the lighting time T1 (period of the lighting state) in the blinking display state. The visible light signal combined with the extinguishing signal of the unit time Δt is emitted every short time. Note that FIG. 6 exemplifies drive waveforms for driving the light emitting unit 60. The light emitting unit 60 is turned on during the L level period and is turned off during the H level period. The L level waveform is a lighting signal and represents "1", and the H level waveform is a lighting signal and represents "0".

In the example of FIG. 6, when the period of the visible light signal S1 is divided into unit time Δt, it becomes a lighting signal, a light-off signal, a light-off signal, a light-off signal, a light-off signal, a light signal, a light signal, and a light signal. The optical signal S1 represents the data “10000111”. When the period of the visible light signal S2 is divided into unit time Δt, the signal is a lighting signal, a light-off signal, a light-off signal, a light signal, a light-off signal, a light signal, a light signal, and a light-off signal. 10010110" data is represented. As described above, in each period of the visible light signals S1, S2, S3,... Set for each short time, the value of "1" is transmitted by the lighting signal of the unit time Δt, and the value of "1" is transmitted by the lighting signal of the unit time Δt. The value of "0" is transmitted. Necessary information can be transmitted by transmitting such data.

In S3 of FIG. 4, the detailed information described above is transmitted by such a visible light signal. The detailed information includes, for example, unique information uniquely attached to the gas stove 1, appliance type identification information that identifies the type of the gas stove 1, abnormal species identification information that identifies the type of abnormality that has occurred in the gas stove 1, and the like. These pieces of information are stored in the memory 52, for example. The memory 52 corresponds to an example of a storage unit, and is configured by a known semiconductor memory such as a non-volatile memory.

The detailed information can have a data structure as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 7A, a unique ID (serial number) is included as the unique information uniquely assigned to the gas stove 1. Further, the appliance type characteristic information for identifying the appliance type of the gas stove 1 includes a product number (article number) and a lot number. These pieces of information are stored in the memory 52 in advance, and in the visible light communication performed in S3, these pieces of information are read from the memory 52 and transmitted to the outside.

In addition, in the visible light communication performed in S3, as shown in FIG. 7A, the information to be transmitted includes information such as the type of error determined in S2 and the part (error location) where the error has occurred. be able to. When a plurality of types of errors have occurred, it is possible to include all the information related to the error that has occurred, as shown in FIG.

In the process of S3 of FIG. 4, such detailed information can be transmitted from the light emitting unit 60 by visible light communication and transmitted to an external receiving device (device capable of receiving and analyzing a visible light signal). it can.

As described above, in the gas stove 1, the microcomputer 50 corresponding to the control unit performs visible light communication and changes the light emission state of the visible light emitted from the light emitting unit 60 to thereby obtain information corresponding to the change in the light emission state. Can be sent to the outside. Therefore, the internal information of the gas stove 1 can be read without disassembling the housing 2. Further, when the housing portion 2 contains a metal component, it is difficult to read the internal information by the RFID technique, but this method allows the internal information to be read well.

The gas stove 1 includes a memory 52 (storage unit) that stores information. Then, the microcomputer 50 corresponding to the control unit is configured to transmit the information stored in the memory 52 to the outside by visible light communication. With this configuration, the information stored in the memory 52 (storage unit) can be read without disassembling the housing unit 2.

The information stored in the memory 52 (storage unit) in the gas stove 1 includes at least one of unique information uniquely attached to the gas stove 1 and type identification information that identifies the type of the gas stove 1. With this configuration, it is possible to accurately read the unique information of the gas stove or the type-specific information of the gas stove as electronic data without performing the work of disassembling the housing unit 2.

<Other Examples>
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described by the above description and drawings, and the following examples are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.
(1) In the first embodiment, as the information stored in the memory 52 (storage unit), the information as shown in FIG. 7A is given. However, as shown in FIG. The history information may be included. For example, error information (error date and time, error location, error type, etc.) may be stored in the memory 52 each time an error occurs, and such error history information may be transmitted when performing visible light communication. For example, in the process of S3 of FIG. 4, the error history information generated in the past as shown in FIG. 7B may be transmitted by visible light communication, and when some special operation is performed on the gas stove 1. The error history information as shown in FIG. 7B may be transmitted by visible light communication. In any case, according to this configuration, it is possible to grasp the history of errors that occurred in the past without disassembling the housing unit 2, and it is possible to perform error analysis more easily.
(2) In the above-described embodiments, the example in which the light emitting portion 60 is provided on the front surface portion is shown, but the light emitting portion may be provided on the top plate portion.
(3) In the above-described embodiments, the light emitting unit 60 configured as a dot-shaped or circular display unit is illustrated, but the light-emitting unit is configured as a display unit that displays at least one of other symbols and figures. It may be. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the light emitting unit 260 may be configured in a form imitating a battery figure. Also in this case, the display process can be performed in the same flow as in FIG. 4, and when the process proceeds to Yes in S1 (when the battery voltage is less than the threshold value), the light emitting unit 260 (the display unit simulating the battery figure). Is lit, and display control is performed so that the battery graphic is lit. On the other hand, if the process proceeds to No in S1 and to Yes in S2, the same visible light communication as that in the first embodiment is performed, and information that cannot be represented by the graphic of the light emitting unit 260 (the display unit simulating the battery graphic) is transmitted. can do. According to this configuration, it is possible to combine the information display by clearly displaying the symbol or the graphic and the information transmission by the visible light communication in the same portion. In particular, if the display section is also used for visible light communication, the number of parts can be reduced and the cost can be reduced, which is advantageous in terms of space.
(4) In the first embodiment, the light emitting unit 60 configured as a simple circular type lamp is illustrated, but it may be configured as a display unit capable of displaying characters and numbers, for example. In FIG. 9, a 2-digit, 7-segment type light emitting unit 360 is used in place of the light emitting unit 60. The light emitting unit 360 can display characters and numbers. In this case as well, the display process can be performed in the same flow as in FIG. 4, and in the case of proceeding to Yes in S1 (when the battery voltage is less than the threshold value), for example, the light emitting unit 360 is turned on and a predetermined code ( Display a code indicating that the battery level is low. On the other hand, if the process proceeds to No in S1 and proceeds to Yes in S2, the code of the error that has occurred is displayed on the light emitting unit 360 in S3, and the light emitting unit 360 is controlled by visible light communication from the light emitting unit 360. Information that cannot be represented graphically (for example, information as shown in FIG. 7) can be transmitted. Even in this case, the microcomputer 50 corresponding to the control unit can transmit at least information different from the information that can be displayed on the light emitting unit 360 (display unit) to the outside by visible light communication, and the light emitting unit 360 (display unit). ), it is possible to output even information that is not displayed.
(5) In the first embodiment, the first light emitting state is the lighting state and the second light emitting state is the blinking state. However, the first light emitting state is the blinking state and the second light emitting state. The state may be a lighting state.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Gas stove 2... Casing part 3... Top plate part 4A... Front part 5, 6... Gas burner 40... Power supply part 50... Microcomputer (control part)
60... Light emitting part

Claims (6)

A gas burner,
A casing part having a top plate part and a front face part, and containing at least a flow path of gas to be supplied to the gas burner;
A light emitting portion that emits visible light toward the outside of at least one of the top plate portion or the front surface portion,
A control unit that is provided inside the housing unit and performs visible light communication that transmits information corresponding to a change in the light emission state to the outside by changing the light emission state of the visible light emitted from the light emitting unit,
Only including,
The light emitting unit has a display unit for displaying at least one of a symbol and a figure,
The control unit is
When the first condition is satisfied, the light emitting unit is controlled to the first light emitting state, and information is displayed by clearly indicating the display unit,
If the second condition is satisfied, the light emitting unit is controlled to a second light emitting state different from the first light emitting state, and the visible light communication is performed when controlling to the second light emitting state, and the display is performed. A gas stove that transmits information that is not displayed by the unit by the visible light communication . The gas stove according to claim 1, wherein the information display by the indication on the display unit is information display on at least one of a symbol and a graphic. The gas stove according to claim 2, wherein the control unit transmits at least information different from information that can be displayed on the display unit to the outside by the visible light communication. A storage unit for storing information,
The gas stove according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the control unit transmits the information stored in the storage unit to the outside by the visible light communication. The gas stove according to claim 4, wherein the information stored in the storage unit includes history information of errors that have occurred in the past. The gas stove according to claim 4, wherein the information stored in the storage unit includes at least one of unique information uniquely assigned to the gas stove and type identification information that identifies a type of the gas stove.