JP2000181382A - LED destination display device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide an LED destination display device capable of suppressing current consumption, suppressing heat generation of an LED, and maintaining use for a long period of time. SOLUTION: A CPU 4 obtains lighting dot number data from display character data of input data of a PC card 60, and obtains a total dot number setting value and a limit lighting rate setting value from the input data of the PC card 60. Calculate the luminance applicable lighting rate and select the value below the luminance applicable lighting rate from the range of 0% to the maximum 100% of the 8-level luminance applicable lighting rate setting value (%) to obtain the display luminance setting data Then, the display character data and the display luminance setting data are converted into the display control units 6-1 and 7-.
1, 8-1, and display control units 6-1, 7-1, 8-
1 changes the brightness by changing the brightness control pulse width.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an LED destination display device for a vehicle such as a bus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a destination display of a bus is performed by using a mechanical destination display device installed at a predetermined position on the front, rear and side surfaces of a vehicle body. The destination display device includes a pair of drums capable of rotating forward and backward, a film curtain wound between the drums and having a plurality of destination names printed thereon, and a motor for rotating the pair of drums forward or reverse. And a drive mechanism, a fluorescent lamp for illuminating the back side of the character exposure surface of the film curtain, and a predetermined power supply to the motor, which is installed near the driver's seat and operated by a driver until a desired destination name is displayed. It consists of a controller.

In order to change the destination, information corresponding to the destination of the bus is input to the on-vehicle device connected to the controller. When the information is input from the on-vehicle device, the film curtain moves upward. Or, it is wound down, and in the process, the destination name is sequentially displayed on the display window. When the desired destination name is displayed on the display window, the movement of the film curtain is stopped.

In the above bus destination display device,
Since printing is performed on the film curtain in consideration of all destinations, there is a problem that a long waiting time is required to display a desired destination when the number of destinations is large.

[0005] In order to solve such a problem,
In recent years, a destination display device using LEDs (light emitting elements) arranged in a matrix in a display unit has been developed.

[0006]

However, in the destination display device using the above-mentioned LED for the display section, the display content varies depending on the bus operator, and the number of lit dots on the display section also changes. Assuming that the number of lit dots in the display content of the display unit is all lit, the current consumption increases, a large-capacity power supply is required, and the heat generated by the LEDs shortens the life of the destination display device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to suppress current consumption, suppress heat generation of LEDs, and maintain use for a long period of time. It is an object of the present invention to provide an LED type destination display device that can perform the above.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in order to attain the above object, according to the present invention, a control means is provided for controlling a lighting dot number data, a total dot number setting value and a limit lighting rate setting value from input data of a storage medium. Is obtained and the lighting rate corresponding to the luminance is calculated, and the lighting rate% corresponding to the brightness equal to or less than the calculated value is selected from the range of 0% to the maximum 100% of the n-step brightness corresponding lighting rate set value (%) and displayed. Device brightness setting data, and outputs display character data and display device brightness setting data to the display control means,
The display control means changes and controls the brightness control pulse to change the brightness based on the display character data and the display brightness setting data.

As described above, since the brightness can be changed by making the brightness control pulse variable according to the number of lighting dots, current consumption can be suppressed, heat generation of the LED can be suppressed, and the use of the destination display device can be reduced. Can be maintained for a long time.

[0010]

The LED destination display device according to the first aspect of the present invention has a display section in which a large number of light-emitting elements are arranged in a matrix and selectively drives these light-emitting elements. A display unit that displays a predetermined pattern on the display unit and is provided on any of the front, rear, and side surfaces of the vehicle body, and an interface that can read data from a storage medium. Obtain the setting value of the number of dots and the setting value of the limit lighting rate, calculate the lighting rate corresponding to the luminance by the following formula, and the lighting rate% corresponding to the brightness = (total number of dots / number of lighting dots) x limit lighting rate% The calculated value or less Control means for selecting the luminance corresponding lighting rate% from the range of 0% to a maximum of 100% of the n-step luminance corresponding lighting rate set value (%) to obtain the display luminance setting data; Display control means for changing the brightness control pulse by inputting the setting data to change the brightness of the light emitting element of the display unit.

With this configuration, the control unit obtains the lighting dot number data, the total dot number setting value, and the limit lighting rate setting value from the input data of the storage medium, and calculates the lighting rate corresponding to the luminance. For example, if the total number of dots is 100 and the number of lit dots is 50, and it is desired to reduce the limit lighting rate to 30%, the lighting rate corresponding to the luminance may be set to 60% or less. Accordingly, 0% to a maximum of 1% of the lighting rate setting value (%) corresponding to the n-level luminance
Select 60% or less from the range up to 00% and acquire the display luminance setting data. Next, the display character data and the display luminance setting data are output to the display control means, and the display control means changes and controls the luminance control pulse based on the display character data and the display luminance setting data to change the luminance. .

As described above, the brightness can be changed by making the brightness control pulse variable according to the number of lighting dots. For this reason, while suppressing the current consumption, L
The heat generation of the ED can be suppressed, and the use of the destination display device can be maintained for a long time.

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

FIG. 1 is a side view of a bus provided with an LED type destination display device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a mounting state of a front display unit of the LED type destination display device, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a mounting state of a rear display unit of a D type destination display device, FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a mounting state of a side display unit of the LED type destination display apparatus, FIG. 5 is a front view of a front display unit, and FIG. 7 (1) is a front view of the LED unit, FIG. 7 (2) is a cross-sectional view of the LED unit, FIG. 8 is a configuration explanatory view of a control device of the LED destination display device, FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a main control unit of the control device, FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an operation unit of the control device, and FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a display control unit of the control device.

The bus 70 is provided with a front display unit 6 at the top front, a rear display unit 7 at the rear, and a side display unit 8 at the side. As shown in FIG. 5, the front display unit 6 has a display section 6A in which a large number of yellow LEDs (light emitting elements) are arranged in a matrix, fixes the display section 6A, and controls the display of the display section 6A. It comprises a main body 6B having a built-in section 6-1.

The display section 6A is configured by combining a plurality of LED units (light emitting element units) 21. As shown in FIG. 7, these LED units 21 are mounted on an LED board 21A with LEDs 22 of high luminance and yellow emission color at fixed intervals in the vertical and horizontal directions (Y, X).
Are soldered to a driver board 23 and connected to an IC 24 or the like via a wiring pattern on the driver board 23.

The front display unit 6 is mounted on the front of the bus 70 while being housed in a protective case (not shown). In this case, the front side of the ceiling of the bus 70 has A pair of left and right stay members 19 are disposed in the protective case, and the front display unit 6 is suspended by the stay members 19.

The display unit 6A of the front display unit 6
As shown in FIG. 5, a large display size is assigned to the destination, and a route number (for example, 222) is provided adjacent to this.
The alphabetical display of “a”, the intermediate stop “b”, and the final stop “c” are simultaneously displayed in yellow.

The rear display unit 7 is a downsized version of the front display unit 6, and as shown in FIG. 5, a display section 7A in which a large number of yellow LEDs are arranged in a matrix, and this display section 7A is fixed. In addition, the main unit 7B includes a display control unit 7-1. And the display unit 7
A is configured by combining a plurality of LED units 21.

The rear display unit 7 configured as described above is mounted on the rear surface of the bus 70 in the same state as the front display unit 6.

As shown in FIG. 6, the side display unit 8 has a display section 8A in which a large number of yellow LEDs are arranged in a matrix.
The display unit 8A is fixed, and the display control unit 8-
1 is built in from a main body 8B.

The display section 8A has a horizontal display section 27 horizontally arranged on the upper side so that a plurality of displays having different contents can be performed.
And vertical display sections 28, 29, 30, and 31 arranged vertically below and at regular intervals in the horizontal direction. The number display m and the destination display n are displayed in yellow on the horizontal display unit 27, and the stopovers o are displayed in order on the vertical display units 28, 29, and 30.

As shown in FIG. 8, the control device for managing the control of the destination display is a controller 1 as a control means.
A display control unit (display control means) 6-1 of the front display unit 6 controlled by the controller 1, a display control unit (display control means) 7-1 of the rear display unit 7,
Display control unit (display control means) of the side display unit 8-
1.

The controller 1 has an interface capable of reading data from a PC card (storage medium) (flash ATA) 60. Based on the data read from the PC card 60, the controller 1 displays information related to bus operation on a display control unit 6-1, The information is displayed on the front, rear and side display units 6, 7, and 8 via 7-1 and 8-1. The controller 1 is configured using the main control unit 3 and the operation unit 2. Then, the main control unit 3 displays the contents of the display data read out from the PC card 60 and specified by the operation of the operation unit (keyboard) (operation unit) 2 on the display control units 6-1, 7-1 and 8-. 1 has a function of transmitting a bit map (which stores how bit images are arranged).

As shown in FIG. 9, the main control unit 3 includes a CPU 4, an external signal I / F 5-1 for performing communication between the CPU 4, a PC card I / F 5-2, and various on-board equipment I / Fs 5. -3, display unit I / F 5-4, operation unit I / F 5-5, ROM 9 storing display processing programs and connected to CPU 4 via a bus, CPU
SRAM for temporarily storing display data read in step 4
10, flash memory 11, connected to CPU 4, C
An RTC 61 connected to the PU 4 to set the current date and time and a set date, and a field programmable gate array (hereinafter referred to as an FPGA) connected to the CPU 4
12 and a VRAM 13 and the like connected to the FPGA 12. The FPGA 12 includes a PC card I / F 12a, a display memory control unit 12b, a serial I / F 12c, an LED I / F 12d, and a CPU I / F 12d.
F12e.

The operation unit I of the controller 1
/ F5-5 includes an operation unit 2 having a display 2a for displaying and inputting various instructions and a key switch 2b.
Is connected. Further, various signals such as a bus condition signal (an engine stop signal, an end bus signal, a night signal, etc.) are input to the controller 1 via each channel of the external signal I / F 5-1.

Various on-vehicle device I / Fs of the controller 1
The vehicle-mounted device 48 is connected to the vehicle-mounted device channel 5-3. The in-vehicle device 48 is a device for performing various kinds of guidance associated with vehicle traveling and operation by voice and display. This vehicle-mounted device 4
8 is connected to a tape deck (not shown) and an in-vehicle display unit (not shown).

The display controller 6-1 of the front display unit 6 mounted on the front of the bus and displaying a destination and the like is mounted on the FPGA 12 of the controller 1, and the side display unit mounted on the side of the bus and displaying the destination and the like. 7 display control unit 7-1
And a display control unit 8-1 of a rear display unit 8 mounted on the rear surface of the bus and displaying a destination or the like, using a signal line 14.

The display control unit (display control board) 6-1 of the front display unit 6, the display control unit (display control board) 7-1 of the rear display unit 7, and the display control unit (display control) of the side display unit 8 Substrate) 8-1 corresponds to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a field programmable gate array (hereinafter referred to as FPGA) 40, a VRAM 46 having a two-sided structure of a write-only memory and a read-only memory,
An instantaneous countermeasure circuit 47 is provided.

The display control unit 6-1 (display control unit 7-
1. The dip switch 49 and the rotary switch 50 in the display control section 8-1) are for manually setting information on which display the board is mounted on and information necessary for LED control. It is.

The FPGA 40 is connected to a serial / parallel converter 41, a command / data analyzer 42 connected to the output side of the serial / parallel converter 41, and to one output side of the command / data analyzer 42. A command register 43, a VRAM control unit 44 connected to the other output side of the command / data analysis unit 42 to exchange data with the VRAM 46, and a command register 43
And an output control unit 45 connected to each output side of the VRAM control unit 44.

Using a personal computer as a character input device, display character data to be displayed on the display units 6A, 7A, 8A of the front display unit 6, the rear display unit 7, and the side display unit 8 of the bus is created. You.

As display character data, for example, front display data is as shown in FIG. 14A, rear display data is as shown in FIG. 14B, and side display data is as shown in FIG. As shown in (3).

Then, the display character data described above is written to the PC card 60 by a personal computer. Along with the display character data, the PC card 60 includes, as setting information items, an I / F method, a switching method, a basic luminance adjustment value, a limit lighting rate adjustment value (% value), a luminance adjustment value corresponding to an illuminance sensor, and eight levels of luminance. The lighting ratio% value, the total number of dots on the front, side, and back are written. Also, the number of front lighting dots is displayed on the front display data, the number of side lighting dots is displayed on the side display data, and the rear lighting is displayed on the rear display data. The number of dots is written respectively.

Table 1 shows a dump image of the contents of the setting information (setting information item) written in the PC card 60.

[0036]

[Table 1]

The designation of the I / F method among the setting information items corresponding to the dump image [Table 1] is a designation of switching the use of the interface between the control unit 3 of the controller 1 and the external communication device. This is the selection method designation data for the display data that is switched in the middle of the display data. As the basic brightness adjustment value, the brightness adjustment values (eight levels from 0 to 7) of the LEDs 22 of the front, side, and rear display units 6, 8, and 7 and the operation unit (operation unit 2) are set for each condition.

As the limit lighting rate adjustment value (%), the limit adjustment value (%) at the time of luminance calculation based on the lighting rate is set for each of the front, side, and rear display units 6, 8, and 7. The front lighting rate limit (%), the side lighting rate limit (%), and the rear lighting rate limit (%) specify a range up to 100%.

The eight-step luminance corresponding lighting rate setting value (n-step luminance corresponding lighting rate setting value) (%) is a constant setting created by a personal computer as display character data. The corresponding% value at the time of lighting ratio calculation corresponding to (8 steps of 7) is set. 0%-maximum 1
Set a range up to 00%. In this case, the data in hexadecimal notation (64 5A 50 46 3C 32 28 1E) stored at addresses 00A4 to 00AB in [Table 1] of the dump image,
That is, in decimal system (100%, 87.5%, 65
%, 42.5%, 17.5%, 0%).

The total number of dots on the front, side, and rear surfaces is determined by the front, side, and rear display units 6 used in calculating the lighting ratio.
The total number of dots for each of the display units 6A, 8A, and 7A of 8 and 7.

Next, the operation of the LED destination display device will be described with reference to a functional processing flow.

After initializing the CPU 4 and the FPGAs 12 and 40, the PC card 60 storing data (display character data) is inserted into the controller 1, and the CPU 4 operates the FPG according to an instruction from the key switch 2B of the operation unit 2.
Using PCMCIA I / F12a in A12, PC
The data of the card 60 is transferred to the flash memory 11 in the controller 1 (Step S1, Step S2,
Step S3).

Communication signals transmitted from the vehicle-mounted device 48 connected to the vehicle-mounted device channels of the various vehicle-mounted I / Fs 5-3 are:
It is taken into the CPU 4 by either the receiver (RS-232C receiver) 34 or the insulating I / F (isolate) 35 in the controller 1. In accordance with the received display instruction item, the CPU 4 changes the data to be displayed from the data stored in the flash memory 11 into the FPGA.
Data is transferred from the display memory control unit 12b in the VRAM 12 to the VRAM 13 (Steps S4 and S5).

The display control unit 6-1 of the front display unit 6,
The display data to the display control unit 7-1 of the side display unit 7 and the display control unit 8-1 of the rear display unit 8 is transmitted via the serial I / F 12c of the FPGA 12 independently of the CPU 4 of the controller 1 ( Step S6). That is, the FPGA 12 reads out the display data stored in the VRAM 13 and sets the serial I / F 1
After level conversion from 2c by a driver (RS458 driver) 37, the display control unit 6-1 of the front display unit 6
Data is sent to the display control unit 7-1 of the side display unit 7 and the display control unit 8-1 of the rear display unit 8.

The display control unit 6-1 of the front display unit 6,
The display control unit 7-1 of the side display unit 7 and the display control unit 8-1 of the rear display unit 8 convert the data received by the receiver 51 via the serial / parallel conversion unit 41 in the FPGA 40 into a command / data analysis unit 42. If the command / data analysis results in data, the data is stored in one of the two VRAMs 46 of the display memory. If it is a command, a process corresponding to the command is performed on the output control unit 45 through the command register 43 (step S7, step S8).

The display controller 6-1 of the front display unit 6, the display controller 7 of the side display unit 7 from the controller 1.
-1 and the display control unit 8-1 of the rear display unit 8 include:
Even if there is no change in the display contents, the data is continuously transmitted. Thereby, the display control unit 6-1 of the front display unit 6 and the display control unit 7 of the side display unit 7 should be used.
Even if the display data is lost due to the trouble of the display control unit 8-1 of the rear display unit 8, the display is not affected because the data is constantly updated.

The output control unit 45 in the FPGA 40
The data for one screen is read from the AM 46. After the data transmission for one screen is completed, the read target memory is switched and the data of the next screen is transmitted. However, the display control unit 6-1 of the front display unit 6 uses the data for one screen.
(The display control unit 7-1 of the side display unit 7 and the display control unit 8-1 of the rear display unit 8).
If no new data is sent from the controller 1,
Continue to display the currently displayed data. Even when the controller 1 is not connected, the front display unit 6 (the side display unit 7 and the rear display unit 8) can continue to display the data currently stored by itself (step S9).

The display control unit 6-1 of the front display unit 6 which has received the status signal requested from the controller 1
(The display control unit 7-1 of the side display unit 7 and the display control unit 8-1 of the rear display unit 8) send an error state during communication to the controller 1 (step S10,
Step S11, Step S12). If an error occurs during communication (step S13), the data in the VRAM 46 is not updated. This prevents display of incorrect information (step S14).

Next, the brightness control pulse (lighting pulse width) of the LED 22 of the display unit 6A (8A, 7A) in the front display unit 6 (side display unit 8, rear display unit 7) is varied according to the number of lighting dots. A control method for controlling the luminance will be described.

As shown in FIG. 13, the display character data (display data) of the input data written on the PC card 60 by the personal computer
By inserting “0” into the controller 1, the data is transferred to the controller 1, and the CPU 4 obtains the number of dots of the front-side lit dots from the display character data of the front display unit 6A (the side display unit 8A and the rear display unit 7A). (Step U
1), (Step U2), the set value of the total number of dots and the set value of the limit lighting rate are obtained from the input data of the PC card 60 (Step U3), (Step U4), and the corresponding lighting rate is calculated (Step U3). U5).

The formula for calculating the luminance-equivalent lighting rate is: luminance-equivalent lighting rate% = (total dot number / lighting dot number) × limit lighting rate%.

For example, if the total number of dots is 100 and the number of lit dots is 50, and it is desired to reduce the limit lighting rate to 30%, the lighting rate corresponding to the luminance may be set to 60% or less.

Next, the lighting rate setting value (%) corresponding to eight levels of luminance
Is selected from a range of 0% to a maximum of 100% to acquire display luminance setting data (step U).
6). Next, the display character data and the display luminance setting data are written in the designated location of the VRAM 13 by using the display memory control unit 12b in the FPGA 12 (step U7).

Further, the FPGA 12 reads the display luminance setting data from the VRAM 13 (Step U8),
The display luminance setting data is sent from the display I / F to the display control unit 6-1 (7-1, 8-1) (step U).
9). The display control unit 6-1 (7-1, 8-1) receives the data (step U10), changes the brightness control pulse (controls the pulse width) (step U11), and changes the brightness (step U11). U12).

[0055]

As described above, the LE according to the present invention is used.
According to the D-type destination display device, the control means obtains the lighting dot number data, the total dot number setting value, and the limit lighting rate setting value from the input data of the storage medium, calculates the lighting rate corresponding to the brightness, and calculates the lighting rate corresponding to the brightness. A value equal to or less than the rate is selected from a range of 0% to a maximum of 100% of the lighting rate setting value (%) corresponding to the n-level brightness to obtain the display brightness setting data. Output to the display control means, and the display control means changes and controls the brightness control pulse based on the display character data and the display brightness setting data to change the brightness.

As described above, since the brightness can be changed by making the brightness control pulse variable according to the number of lighting dots, the current consumption can be suppressed, the heat generation of the LED can be suppressed, and the LED destination display device can be controlled. Use can be maintained for a long time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a bus provided with an LED destination display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a mounting state of a front display unit of the LED destination display device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a mounting state of a rear display unit of the LED destination display device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a mounting state of a side display unit of the LED destination display device.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the front display unit.

FIG. 6 is a front view of the side display unit.

FIG. 7A is a front view of the LED unit. FIG. 7B is a sectional view of the LED unit.

FIG. 8 is a configuration explanatory view of a control device of the LED type destination display device.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a main control unit of the control device.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an operation unit of the control device.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a display control unit of the control device.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a display function process of the control device.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a luminance function process of the control device.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of display character data.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 controller (control means) 2 operation unit 3 main control unit (control means) 4 CPU (control means) 6 front display unit 6-1 display control unit (display control means) 6A display unit 7 rear display unit 7-1 display control Unit (display control unit) 7A display unit 8 side display unit 8-1 display control unit (display control unit) 8A display unit 9 ROM 10 SRAM 11 flash memory 12 field programmable gate array (FPG)
A) 22 LED (light emitting element)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display having a plurality of light-emitting elements arranged in a matrix and selectively driving these light-emitting elements to display a predetermined pattern on the display, and a front and rear surface of a vehicle body. Or a display unit provided on one of the side faces, and an interface that can read data from a storage medium, and obtains lighting dot number data, a total dot number setting value, and a limit lighting rate setting value from input data of the recording medium. Calculate the lighting rate corresponding to the luminance by the following formula, and calculate the lighting rate% corresponding to the brightness = (total number of dots / the number of lighting dots) x the limit lighting rate%. Control means for obtaining display brightness setting data by selecting from a range of 0% to a maximum of 100% of the value (%); and inputting the display brightness setting data from the control means and setting a brightness control pulse. And a display control means for changing the brightness of the light emitting element of the display unit by controlling the change of the display device.