JP6623623B2 - Battery-powered gas combustion device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a battery-powered gas combustion device such as a battery-powered gas instantaneous water heater or a battery-powered gas stove that operates using a battery as a power source.

  2. Description of the Related Art In general, a battery-powered gas combustion device such as a battery-powered gas instantaneous water heater or a battery-powered gas stove has a gas supply pipe for supplying a fuel gas to a gas burner as disclosed in Patent Document 1 below, for example. An original gas solenoid valve is provided in the middle of the path, and the gas supply pipe is opened and closed by the original gas solenoid valve.

  The original gas solenoid valve is configured to perform a valve opening operation by driving a plunger by an adsorption coil, and to hold the valve open state by a holding coil when the valve is opened (for example, see Patent Document 2).

JP 2000-11161 A JP 2014-25649 A

  Since the original gas solenoid valve is opened every time it is ignited, the plunger reciprocates tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands times if the service life is 10 years. The original gas solenoid valve is designed to withstand such multiple operations.However, when the plunger reciprocates tens of thousands of times, the plunger surface wears out and the cross-sectional area decreases slightly, causing the same drive to be performed on the plunger. There is a tendency for the attraction and holding currents required to generate the force to increase. Therefore, in the circuit design, the number of times of opening and closing operations per day is assumed, and the attracting current and the holding current necessary for driving the solenoid valve are calculated at the end of the warranty period.

  On the other hand, a gas instantaneous water heater or a gas stove often uses a dry battery as a power source, but the dry battery has a characteristic that its output voltage decreases as it is consumed. The circuit design in consideration of the attraction current and the holding current has little margin in design in consideration of worst conditions such as battery life, variation in characteristics of electronic components, variation in coil resistance value of the solenoid valve, and operating temperature. For this reason, when attempting to open a solenoid valve that has been repeatedly opened and closed more than the expected number of times, if a battery whose battery life is approaching is used as a power source, the power supply voltage has dropped and the In some cases, the necessary suction current cannot be supplied, and accordingly, it may be notified that the solenoid valve has failed even though the solenoid valve has not failed.

  However, even in this case, if the battery is replaced with a battery that has not reached the end of its service life, it can be used without any problem.If the user reports a solenoid valve failure and replaces and repairs the solenoid valve with a service call There is a problem that a higher repair cost is required than replacing the battery.

  In view of the above, the present invention provides that the battery life is notified when it is determined that the battery can be used continuously by replacing the battery based on the number of times the solenoid valve is driven, and that unnecessary failure notification is performed by prompting the battery replacement. The purpose is to avoid.

  The present invention has taken the following technical measures in order to achieve the above object.

  That is, the present invention interchangeably accommodates an electromagnetic valve that opens and closes a gas supply pipe, a control unit that controls the opening and closing operation of the electromagnetic valve, and a battery that is a power supply for driving the electromagnetic valve and the control unit. The battery-powered gas combustion device, comprising: a battery accommodating unit that performs a battery voltage detection function for detecting a voltage value of the battery; and a required battery voltage for estimating a required battery voltage required for driving the solenoid valve. An estimating function, a first battery life determining function for determining that the battery life is reached when the voltage value detected by the battery voltage detecting function is lower than the required battery voltage, and determining that the battery life is reached. A battery life notification function for notifying the user that the battery life has expired in this case (claim 1).

  According to the battery type gas combustion device of the present invention, when the detected battery voltage is lower than the required battery voltage required for driving the solenoid valve, the battery life is determined to be informed, and the opening and closing operation of the solenoid valve is performed. If the battery voltage to perform is insufficient, it is determined that the battery life has expired, and this is notified, thereby prompting the user to replace the battery. Normal use can be continued, and unnecessary replacement of the solenoid valve can be avoided.

  The battery voltage used for the determination by the first battery life determination function may be the battery voltage at the time of opening / closing the solenoid valve (for example, at the time of operating the adsorption coil or holding coil of the original gas solenoid valve), , May be an open circuit voltage. In order to make a more accurate determination, it is preferable to make the determination based on the battery voltage during the operation of the suction coil in which a large current (several hundred mA) of the suction current flows.

In battery-powered gas combustion apparatus of the present invention, the required battery voltage estimating function may estimate the required battery voltage based on the cumulative number of times the sum of the number of opening and closing operation of the solenoid valve (claim 3) . According to this, when there is a characteristic that the battery voltage value required for the opening / closing operation of the solenoid valve increases as the cumulative number of times of operation of the solenoid valve increases, the necessary battery voltage is set in advance in accordance with the characteristic. By doing so, the battery life can be determined using an appropriate required battery voltage according to the deterioration of the solenoid valve. The method of counting the total number of times may be an appropriate method. For example, the number of times the solenoid valve is opened from the closed state may be counted, or one count may be performed every 10 times the valve is opened. May be something. In the case of an electromagnetic valve having an attraction coil and a holding coil, the number of times that current has flowed through the attraction coil may be counted, or the number of times may be counted until the electromagnetic valve opens due to some malfunction. In the case where the current is supplied twice, the number of times that the valve opening operation is confirmed may be counted. Also, instead of the number of valve opening operations, the number of valve closing operations from an open state can be counted.

In the above-mentioned battery-operated gas combustion apparatus of the present invention, the control unit further includes an electromagnetic valve failure determination function for determining failure of the electromagnetic valve, and the first battery life determination function is performed by the electromagnetic valve failure determination function. The determination that the battery life is reached may be made only when it is determined that the solenoid valve is faulty (claim 1 ). According to this, it is possible to avoid that the battery life notification by the first battery life notification function based on the required battery voltage is performed when it is determined that the solenoid valve is not malfunctioning. It is possible to prevent the usable battery from being replaced.

Further, the control unit determines that the solenoid valve has failed by the solenoid valve failure determination function, and when the first battery life determination function does not determine that the battery life has elapsed, the solenoid valve fails. it may further include a solenoid valve fault report function for reporting and are (claim 2). According to this, when it is determined that the battery has reached the end of its service life, the solenoid valve failure notification is performed, so that the replacement of the solenoid valve is performed even though the battery is still usable even if the battery is replaced. Can be avoided.

Further, the control unit further includes a second battery life determination function for determining that the battery life is reached when the voltage value detected by the battery voltage detection function is lower than a predetermined battery life determination threshold value. corresponds to the cumulative number of times at least more than a predetermined number of battery voltage may have been set to a higher voltage value than the battery life determination threshold (claim 4). According to this, even when the second battery life determining function for determining the battery life based on only the battery voltage determines that the battery life is not the battery life when the solenoid valve performs the opening / closing operation at least a predetermined number of times. If it is determined that the solenoid valve is malfunctioning, the first battery life determining function uses the required battery voltage that is a voltage value higher than the battery life determining threshold value used for the determination by the second battery life determining function. By determining that the battery life has expired, it is possible to prompt the user to replace the battery once before the notification of the failure of the solenoid valve. Further, by providing the second battery life determining function separately from the first battery life determining function, it is not determined that the solenoid valve is faulty. When the battery voltage becomes insufficient, the battery life can be notified.

  As described above, according to the battery-operated gas combustion apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention, it is determined that the battery life is reached when the detected battery voltage is lower than the required battery voltage required for driving the solenoid valve. If the battery voltage is insufficient for opening and closing the solenoid valve, it is determined that the battery has reached the end of its service life, so that the user is notified and the user is prompted to replace the battery. If this is the case, the use of the deteriorated solenoid valve can be continued normally, and unnecessary replacement and repair of the solenoid valve can be avoided.

Further, according to the battery-operated gas combustion apparatus according to claim 3 of the present invention, a case where the battery voltage value required for opening and closing the solenoid valve increases as the cumulative number of times of operation of the solenoid valve increases. By setting the required battery voltage in advance in accordance with the characteristics, the battery life can be determined using an appropriate required battery voltage according to the deterioration of the solenoid valve.

According to the battery-operated gas combustion apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, the battery life notification by the first battery life notification function based on the required battery voltage is performed when it is determined that the solenoid valve is not malfunctioning. It is possible to prevent the battery that is still usable from being replaced by unnecessary battery life notification.

In addition, according to the battery-operated gas combustion device according to claim 2 of the present invention, when it is determined that the battery has reached the end of its life, the solenoid valve failure notification is performed, so that the battery can be still used if the battery is replaced. Nevertheless, it is possible to prevent the solenoid valve from being replaced and repaired.

Further, according to the battery-operated gas combustion apparatus according to claim 4 of the present invention, when the solenoid valve performs the opening / closing operation more than at least a predetermined number of times, the second battery life is determined based only on the battery voltage. Even when the battery life determining function determines that the battery life is not reached, when the solenoid valve failure is determined, the threshold value is a voltage value higher than the battery life determining threshold value used for the determination by the second battery life determining function. , The first battery life determination function determines that the battery life has expired, so that the user can be urged to replace the battery once before the solenoid valve failure notification. Further, by providing the second battery life determining function separately from the first battery life determining function, it is not determined that the solenoid valve is faulty. When the battery voltage becomes insufficient, the battery life can be notified.

It is a schematic structure figure of a battery type instant water heater as a battery type gas combustion device concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a graph which shows the relationship between the cumulative number of times of driving of the original gas solenoid valve and the required battery voltage (open circuit voltage) for driving the adsorption coil in the same embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an overall schematic configuration of a battery-type instantaneous water heater (battery-type gas combustion device) according to an embodiment of the present invention. The battery-type instantaneous water heater includes a control board 1 (control unit). A combustion can 4 having a combustion burner 2 and a heat exchanger 3, a gas supply pipe 5 for supplying fuel gas to the burner 2, and a gas supply pipe 5 provided in the middle of the gas supply pipe 5 to open and close the pipe 5. A gas inlet valve 7 for guiding water supplied from tap water to the heat exchanger 3, a water tapping line 8 for discharging hot water heated by passing through the heat exchanger 3, A battery case 10 (battery accommodating portion) capable of accommodating a battery 9 such as a dry battery in a replaceable manner. In the present embodiment, a power supply voltage of 3 V when new is obtained by connecting two dry batteries in series. According to specifications, the power supply voltage drops to around 2.0 V in open voltage due to deterioration of the dry batteries. It is designed to be able to perform hot water supply operation.

  The control board 1 includes a microprocessor 11 as a control center, and a power port Vdd of the microprocessor 11 is connected to a positive electrode of the battery 9 via a power line 12 so that the microprocessor 11 Is driven as a power supply. A battery voltage detection circuit 15 is connected to the power supply line 12, and a monitoring signal (detection voltage) output from the battery voltage detection circuit 15 is input to a battery voltage monitoring signal input port of the microprocessor 11. Numeral 11 is capable of detecting a battery voltage value (battery voltage detection function).

  The control board 1 is provided with a drive circuit 16 for the original gas solenoid valve 6. The original gas solenoid valve 6 has a suction coil 61 and a holding coil 62 built therein. When a control signal for driving the suction coil is output from the suction coil control signal output port of the microprocessor 11 to the drive circuit 16, the suction coil 61 is turned on. When the predetermined adsorption current flows, the original gas solenoid valve 6 is opened from a closed state. When the control signal for driving the holding coil 62 is output from the holding coil control signal output port of the microprocessor 11 to the drive circuit 16 and the output of the suction coil control signal is stopped in a state where the valve is opened, a predetermined holding current is applied to the holding coil 62. Flows, the attraction current of the attraction coil 61 ceases to flow, thereby enabling the original gas solenoid valve 6 to be kept open with a small drive current.

  The current values of the attraction current and the holding current are determined by the battery voltage value and the circuit resistance value when each coil is driven. In the illustrated example, a circuit resistance switching circuit 16a is provided in the drive circuit 16, and when no suction coil control signal is output, the holding resistance is set to a circuit resistance value that allows a holding current to flow through the holding coil 62, and the suction coil control signal is output. And the circuit resistance value of the circuit resistance value switching circuit 16a is such that an attraction current flows through the attraction coil 61. In addition, each of the attraction coil 61 and the holding coil 62 may be individually connected to the power supply line 12 via a fixed circuit resistor.

  Further, the control board 1 is provided with coil drive voltage detection circuits 17 and 18 each including a voltage divider circuit for detecting a drive voltage applied to the attraction coil 61 and the holding coil 62, and these detections are performed. The monitoring signals output by the circuits 17 and 18 are input to the suction coil monitoring signal input port and the holding coil monitoring signal input port of the microprocessor 11, respectively.

  The combustion can 4 is provided with an igniter 20 as an ignition device and a thermocouple 21 as a flame detection device. The drive of the igniter 20 is controlled by the microprocessor 11, and the detection signal of the thermocouple 21 is transmitted to the microprocessor 11. Is entered.

  When starting the combustion operation control (hot water supply operation control), the microprocessor 11 outputs an adsorption coil control signal to drive the adsorption coil 61 of the original gas electromagnetic valve 6 to open the valve and to output a holding coil control signal. By switching, the fuel cell is supplied to the burner 2 while keeping the valve open. Further, the ignition is performed by driving the igniter 20, and it is determined whether or not the ignition has been normally performed based on the detection signal of the thermocouple 21.

  Here, if it is not confirmed that the ignition has been performed normally even if the above-described ignition operation control is repeated several times even though no abnormality in the circuit is detected, the microprocessor 11 (Electromagnetic valve failure determination function).

  The microprocessor 11 counts the total number of times of opening the original gas solenoid valve 6 by the above-described ignition operation control (ignition operation number), and outputs a value indicating the total number of times inside or outside the microprocessor 11. (Electromagnetic valve drive count function).

  The non-volatile memory stores, at the time of shipment, data on the relationship between the cumulative number of times of operation of the source gas solenoid valve shown in FIG. 2 and the required battery voltage for driving the adsorption coil 61 in an appropriate form such as a table or mathematical formula. Is held.

  In the present embodiment, when the failure determination of the original gas solenoid valve 6 is performed, the failure of the solenoid valve is not immediately notified in the present embodiment. Is calculated or extracted by referring to the above-mentioned relation data, and the necessary battery voltage is estimated as necessary for the adsorption operation of the original gas solenoid valve 6 (necessary battery voltage estimation function). If the detected battery voltage value (open-circuit voltage value) at the time when the failure is determined is lower than the required battery voltage value estimated as described above, it is determined that the battery life has expired (first battery life determination function). When it is determined that the battery has reached the end of its battery life, a notification unit (not shown) such as a buzzer circuit or an LED display device is driven and controlled to notify that the battery has reached its end of life (battery life notification). function)When the user replaces the battery according to the battery life notification, the battery voltage value returns to 3.0 V. Therefore, if the solenoid valve 6 has not failed, the ignition operation is performed normally and the hot water supply operation is performed normally. It becomes possible.

  On the other hand, when the detected battery voltage value at the time of the failure determination is equal to or higher than the required battery voltage value, it is estimated that the battery life is not reached. Yes (solenoid valve failure notification function).

  Further, in the present embodiment, the microprocessor 11 determines the battery life based only on the detected battery voltage value, separately from the battery life determination function (first battery life determination function) linked with the solenoid valve failure determination described above. (A second battery life determination function).

  The second battery life determination function is, for example, a function that determines that the battery life is reached when the detected battery voltage value during no load or low load becomes a predetermined battery life determination threshold value (for example, less than 2.3 V). When it is determined that the battery has reached the end of the battery life, the notification unit is informed that the battery has reached the end of life by controlling the drive of the notification unit. The battery life notification when the battery life is determined by the second battery life determination function is the battery life notification when the battery life is determined by the first battery life determination function. May be the same or different.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the required battery voltage used for the determination by the first battery life determination function is used by the second battery life determination function until the total number of times the solenoid valve 6 is driven is about 200,000 times. Since the battery life is smaller than the battery life determination threshold value of 2.3 V, the battery life is determined by the second battery life determination function before the battery life is determined by the first battery life determination function. Battery replacement is performed. On the other hand, when the cumulative number of times of operation of the solenoid valve 6 exceeds about 200,000 times, the required battery voltage used for the determination by the first battery life determination function becomes larger than the battery life determination threshold value. When the determination is made, the first battery life determination function determines that the battery life is reached.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and the design can be changed as appropriate. For example, the present invention can be applied to an appropriate gas combustion device using a battery as a power source, such as a battery-powered gas stove.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 5 Gas supply pipe line 6 Solenoid valve 9 Battery 10 Battery storage part

Claims (4)

An electromagnetic valve that opens and closes a gas supply pipe, a control unit that controls the opening and closing operation of the electromagnetic valve, and a battery housing unit that exchangeably houses a battery that is a power supply for driving the electromagnetic valve and the control unit. In the battery type gas combustion device provided,
The control unit has a battery voltage detection function for detecting a voltage value of the battery, a required battery voltage estimation function for estimating a required battery voltage required for driving the solenoid valve, and the battery voltage detection function that is detected by the battery voltage detection function. A first battery life determining function for determining that the battery life is reached when the voltage value is lower than the required battery voltage, and a battery life notification for notifying that the battery life is reached when the battery life is determined. and a function,
The control unit further includes a solenoid valve failure determination function for determining a failure of the solenoid valve, wherein the first battery life determination function is determined to be a solenoid valve failure by the solenoid valve failure determination function. A battery-operated gas combustion apparatus , wherein the determination that the battery life is reached is made only when the battery life is reached. 2. The battery-operated gas combustion device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit determines that the solenoid valve has failed by the solenoid valve failure determination function, and determines that the battery life has been reached by the first battery life determination function. 3. A battery-operated gas combustion device further comprising a solenoid valve failure notification function for notifying that the solenoid valve has failed when the determination is not made. 3. The battery-powered gas combustion device according to claim 1 , wherein the required battery voltage estimating function estimates the required battery voltage based on a total number of times of opening and closing operations of the solenoid valve. 4. Battery-operated gas combustion device. 4. The battery-operated gas combustion device according to claim 3 , wherein the control unit determines that the battery life is reached when a voltage value detected by the battery voltage detection function is lower than a predetermined battery life determination threshold. 5. further comprising a battery life determination function of, one corresponding to the cumulative number of times at least more than a predetermined number of the required battery voltage, battery, characterized in that it is set to a voltage higher than the battery life determination threshold Gas combustion device.

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