JPH04332520A - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To know the standard of the time required for cleaning, and the operations such as a change of a filter, rejection of dust. etc., by converting an output of a dust sensor provided on a dust passage to a pulse signal, and providing a display part by which the dust quantity can be observed visually and confirmed by a user's operation, based on its number of pulses as a reference. CONSTITUTION:A signal of a light receiving part 2 of a dust sensor 5 provided with a light emission diode 1 and the light receiving part 2 opposed thereto is amplified by an amplifying part 4, subjected to waveform shaping by a pulse converting part 5 and inputted to a microcomputer 6. The microcomputer 6 is provided with a counting means 7, a totaling part 8, a timer part 9, and a fuzzy inference part 10. The counting means 7 counts the number of passing of dust in a unit time, and its totaling is executed by the totaling part 8. Subsequently, when a confirmation switch 12 or a turn-off switch 13 attached to the cleaner is depressed, the contents of the totaling part 8 are displayed by turning on a lamp 14 of the cleaner main body.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner equipped with means for indicating the amount of dust sucked up.

0002

[Background Art] Recently, in order to improve the cleaning efficiency of vacuum cleaners, instead of visually checking the condition of the cleaning surface, it is automatically determined and the rotation speed of the electric blower of the vacuum cleaner is controlled. is beginning to be used.

The general structure of such a conventional vacuum cleaner will be described below with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

In FIG. 5, a vacuum cleaner main body 51 has a hose 53 at its suction portion 52 and an extension pipe 54 at its tip.
A suction port 56 is detachably attached to the tip of the extension tube 54.

Reference numeral 57 denotes a hand switch provided at the tip of the hose 53, and its operation turns on/off the electric blower 58 in the cleaner body 51 and changes the rotation speed. In the conventional example shown in FIG. 5, the user manually controls the rotational speed of the electric blower 58 by observing the surface to be cleaned.

In the conventional example shown in FIG. 6, a light emitting diode 63 is provided in an air flow path 62 of a part of a hose 61, and a light receiving section 64 is attached opposite to this light emitting diode 63, so that dust passing through the air flow path 62 can be detected. 65 detects a change in the amount of light. Therefore, the light emitting diode 63 and its light receiving section 64 constitute a dust sensor 66. It has been considered to use this dust sensor 66 to automatically control the rotation speed of an electric blower of a vacuum cleaner.

However, in the former case shown in FIG. 5, depending on the surface to be cleaned and the type of dust, for example, if there is futon dust similar to the color of tatami in a tatami room, it may be difficult for the user to see it with the naked eye. Therefore, it is difficult to manually control the rotation speed of an electric blower.

In addition, in the latter conventional example shown in FIG. 6, it is difficult to check the rotation speed of the electric blower by listening to its sound, and this combined with the difficulty of visually checking the cleaning surface results in cleaning more than necessary. There are problems with cleaning that takes time or cleaning that is less than necessary. In particular, if the filter inside the vacuum cleaner is clogged with dust, the suction power will not increase even if the number of rotations of the electric blower is increased, so another display method is required for the user to know the condition of the filter. There were also issues that made it necessary.

[0009]

The problem to be solved is that the amount of dust picked up by the vacuum cleaner cannot be visually confirmed from outside the vacuum cleaner.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems by providing a dust sensor in the dust passage in a vacuum cleaner, converting the output of the dust sensor into a pulse signal, and converting the output of the dust sensor into a pulse signal. The vacuum cleaner is equipped with a display section that allows the user to visually confirm the amount of collected dust based on the number of dust collected by any operation of the user.

[0011]

[Function] By using the above-mentioned means, the user can visually check the amount of dust collected by the vacuum cleaner at any time, for example, for each area to be cleaned or for each room. When it comes to cleaning, you can know how to operate the vacuum cleaner, such as the time required for cleaning, replacing filters, and disposing of dust outside the vacuum cleaner, allowing you to clean efficiently.

0012

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. (Embodiment 1) The structure of the vacuum cleaner body, hose, etc. is the same as that of the conventional example shown in FIG.

Further, since the dust sensor is the same as the conventional example shown in FIG. 6, detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

A circuit block diagram is shown in FIG. 1. The signal from the light receiving section 2 of the dust sensor 3, which is equipped with a light emitting diode 1 and a light receiving section 2 facing thereto, is amplified by an amplifying section 4, and then sent to a pulse converting section 5. The waveform is shaped and input to the microcomputer 6. The microcomputer 6 has a counting means 7, a totalizing section 8, a timer section 9, and a fuzzy inference section 10. A phase control circuit 11 is connected to the microcomputer 6, and the motor M is connected to the phase control circuit 1.
1 controls the rotation speed.

When a confirmation switch 12 attached to the vacuum cleaner is pressed, the contents of the cumulative total section 8 are displayed by lighting a lamp 14 on the vacuum cleaner body.

The operation of the above configuration will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. Figure 2 is a time chart of the counting means.
FIG. 3 shows a flowchart explaining the processing operation. Figure 2
As shown in , the counting means 7 counts the dust 6 during unit time t1.
5 is counted, and the totalizing section 8 performs the cumulative totaling of the counting means 7. A series of cycles in the processing flowchart of FIG. 3 is performed at a half cycle of the power supply frequency. Therefore, if the power supply frequency is 60 hertz, if the timer unit 9 in step A counts 12 times, it will take 0.1 seconds.

Passage of the dust 65 occurs at any timing and is counted by the counting means 7 using an interrupt function. If the unit time has elapsed in step B, the count value of the counting means 7 is accumulated in step C, and the accumulating unit 8 performs the accumulation. Next, after clearing the count of the counting means 7, if the confirmation switch is pressed by the user in step D, the cumulative contents of the cumulative section are displayed in step E, the cumulative value is cleared in step F, and the display lamp 14 is displayed. is displayed for a certain period of time,
The series of processing ends. (Embodiment 2) The only difference between this embodiment 2 and the above embodiment 1 is that when the user operates the off switch 13 instead of the confirmation switch 12, the total amount of collected dust is displayed. different. Therefore, the explanation of FIG.
This is the same as the explanation of FIG.

FIG. 1 is also referred to in the second embodiment as in the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, stopping the operation of the vacuum cleaner with the off switch 13 is a break in cleaning and corresponds mainly to cleaning one room, so the number displayed on the lamp 14 is determined by It indicates the relative amount of dust.

[0020] Therefore, the degree of dust removal can be determined from this.

[0021]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
A vacuum cleaner equipped with a means for converting the output of a dust sensor into pulses and counting the number of pulses, and a display means that allows the user to visually check the amount of dust sucked by accumulating the number of pulses at any time. Because of this, users can get an idea of whether dust has been removed by cleaning or if there is any remaining dust, and they can make decisions about efficiency such as cleaning time, filter replacement, cleaning or disposal of collected dust inside the vacuum cleaner body. It does a good job of cleaning.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1: Circuit block diagram in an embodiment of the present invention

[Figure 2
] Time chart of the same counting method

FIG. 3 is a flowchart explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart explaining the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 5] External perspective view of a conventional vacuum cleaner

[Fig. 6] Schematic sectional view of main parts of a hose part of another conventional example

[Explanation of symbols]

3 Dust sensor 4 Amplification section 5 Pulse conversion section 6. Microcomputer 7 Counting means 8 Cumulative section 12 Confirmation switch 13 Off switch 14 Indication lamp

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A dust sensor for detecting dust passing through a dust passage, a pulse conversion means for converting the output of the dust sensor into a pulse signal, and a counting means for counting the number of pulses from the pulse conversion means within a unit time. and display means for displaying the count results of the counting means. 2. The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the count result of the counting means is a cumulative count from the start of the cleaning operation until the user operates the confirmation switch. 3. The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the count result of the counting means is a cumulative count from the start of the cleaning operation until the user operates a switch to turn off the vacuum cleaner.