Control device and method for detecting an actuation of operating elements integrated into sensor circuits by a user

Abstract

Control device for detecting an actuation of operating elements (B1...Bn) integrated in sensor circuits (S1...Sn) by a user, comprising: a control signal generator (14) for generating a control signal with which the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) containing the operating elements (B1... Bn) are put into an active state; a plurality of signal inputs (18) for receiving measurement signals from the sensor circuits (S1...Sn), wherein a sensor circuit (S1...Sn) can be connected to each of the plurality of signal inputs (18); a memory access device (20, 22) for storing the measurement results corresponding to the received measurement signals in a working memory (24); and the RAM (24), characterized by the fact that the memory access device (20, 22) is designed to generate a further control signal when the measurement results of all connected sensor circuits (S1...Sn) are stored in the working memory (24); and the control device is designed to generate a further control signal to deactivate the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) when the memory access device (20, 22) generates the further control signal.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a control device and a method for detecting an actuation of operating elements integrated in sensor circuits, in particular touch- and / or proximity-sensitive pushbutton switches, by a user.

[0002] Detecting a user's actuation of control elements integrated into sensor circuits requires a significant amount of time and power on the part of the microcontroller, particularly in the case of a large number of such control elements or sensor circuits in conventional control devices. Software actions such as analog-to-digital conversion, changing the state of the control signal generator to generate a pulse signal for the sensor circuits, and the like are required for each control element. As a result, in many cases, one microcontroller is used to execute the application software and another microcontroller to detect actuation of the control elements, and / or the number of control elements is limited by the microcontroller's capabilities.

[0003] DE 196 53 648 A1 discloses a method and an arrangement for detecting an actuation of operating elements integrated in sensor circuits by a user, on which the preambles of the independent claims are based.

[0004] The invention is based on the object of providing an improved control device and an improved method for detecting a user actuation of operating elements integrated in sensor circuits, which have greater performance. In particular, the inventive solution should enable a larger number of operating elements to be processed and / or should enable a smaller number of microcontrollers or the use of less powerful microcontrollers.

[0005] This object is achieved by the teaching of the independent claims. Particularly preferred embodiments and further developments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

[0006] The control device according to the invention for detecting a user actuation of operating elements integrated in sensor circuits comprises: a control signal generator for generating a control signal with which the sensor circuits containing the operating elements are placed into an active state; a plurality of signal inputs for receiving measurement signals from the sensor circuits, wherein a sensor circuit can be connected to each of the plurality of signal inputs; a memory access device for storing the measurement results corresponding to the received measurement signals in a working memory; and the working memory.

[0007] The invention is based on the idea of ​​using the microcontroller's peripheral components, which are usually already present, to detect a user's actuation of control elements integrated into sensor circuits, thus reducing the load on the microcontroller itself. As a result, it is possible to connect a larger number of sensor circuits to the control device, use lower-performance microcontrollers in the control device, reduce the number of microcontrollers required in the control system, assign additional tasks to the microcontroller of the control device, and / or automate the detection process.

[0008] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the control device further comprises an analog-to-digital converter having the plurality of signal inputs. This means that the measurement signals from the sensor circuits are input to an analog-to-digital converter and digitized. If the sensor circuits already provide digital measurement signals, the analog-to-digital converter in the control device can be omitted.

[0009] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the memory access device has an internal register. Preferably, the memory access device is a direct memory access (DMA), a data transfer controller (DTC), or the like.

[0010] According to the invention, the memory access device is configured to generate a further control signal when the measurement results of all connected sensor circuits are stored in the main memory, and the control device is configured to generate a yet further control signal for deactivating the sensor circuits when the memory access device generates this further control signal. Due to the further control signal, the generation of the control signal for activating the sensor circuits by the control signal generator can be interrupted, so that the sensor circuits are deactivated.

[0011] In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the control device further comprises a timer for outputting a control command to the control signal generator for generating the control signal and / or triggering the analog-to-digital converter.

[0012] The inventive method for detecting a user actuation of operating elements integrated in sensor circuits comprises the steps of: outputting a control signal to the sensor circuits in order to put the sensor circuits containing the operating elements into an active state; inputting measurement signals from the sensor circuits into various signal inputs; and storing measurement results corresponding to the received measurement signals in a working memory by means of a memory access device, wherein the memory access device generates a further control signal when the measurement results of all sensor circuits are stored in the working memory in order to generate a yet further control signal for deactivating the sensor circuits.

[0013] The advantages and advantageous embodiments of this method correspond to those of the control device of the invention described above.

[0014] The above and other features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description of a preferred, non-limiting embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which, partly schematically: Fig. 1 is a diagram of a control device according to an embodiment of the invention, illustrating the structure and operation of a control device according to the invention; and Fig. 2 a timing diagram to illustrate the operation of the Fig. 1 shown control device.

[0015] The Fig. The control device shown in Figure 1 can be used, for example, to detect a user's actuation of control elements of an electronic household appliance (e.g., laundry appliance, dishwasher, hob, stove, microwave oven, refrigerator and / or freezer, etc.). The control elements are, for example, touch- and / or proximity-sensitive pushbutton switches (e.g., capacitive, inductive, optical, piezoelectric, etc.). However, the invention is not limited to these areas of application.

[0016] The control device comprises a hardware area A1, which contains the microcontroller and the peripheral components, and a software area A2. In an external area A3 outside the control device, there are a plurality of sensor circuits S1...Sn, each containing at least one control element B1...Bn that can be operated by a user. To control the operation of the electronic household appliance, the control device must first detect whether and which of the control elements has been operated by a user.

[0017] The hardware area A1 has a timer 12, which is controlled by a software command 10. The timer 12 is connected to a control signal generator 14 and an analog-to-digital converter 16, allowing it to trigger these two components. The control signal generator 14 outputs a control signal that sets the connected sensor circuits S1...Sn to an active state, allowing them to detect a user actuation of their control elements B1...Bn. The control signal is, for example, a pulse-width modulated (PWM) control pulse.

[0018] The analog-to-digital converter 16 has a plurality of signal inputs 18. A sensor circuit S1...Sn can be connected to each of these signal inputs 18. The sensor circuits S1...Sn input their analog measurement signals to the analog-to-digital converter 16 via these signal inputs 18 for digitization.

[0019] The analog-to-digital converter 16 is connected to a memory access device, which in this embodiment is configured as a direct memory access (DMA) with an internal register. The direct memory access (DMA) has, in particular, a first channel 20 in which the digitized measurement signals are temporarily stored as measurement results, and a second channel 22 for setting the internal register.

[0020] The first channel 20 of the direct memory access (DMA) is connected to a random access memory (RAM) 24 for storing the measurement results. The microcontroller (not shown) of the control device can then retrieve and evaluate the measurement results from this RAM 24.

[0021] The functionality of the control device constructed in this way is now explained using the Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 is explained in more detail.

[0022] If the detection process is started (step a), the software 10 first starts the timer 12 (step b). The timer 12 then sends a control command to the control signal generator 14 (step c) so that it generates a control signal (e.g., a control pulse) to activate the sensor circuits S1...Sn (step d). This control signal is then output to the sensor circuits S1...Sn (step e), so that they are put into their active state, in which they can detect a user actuation of the respective integrated control element B1...Bn.

[0023] After activating the sensor circuits S1...Sn, the timer 12 triggers the analog-to-digital converter 16 (step f), allowing it to receive the analog measurement signals from the sensor circuits S1...Sn via its signal inputs 18 (step g). The signal inputs 18 are enabled one after the other, allowing all sensor circuits S1...Sn connected to the control device to be scanned and their measurement signals digitized.

[0024] The measurement signal digitized by the analog-to-digital converter 16 (step h) of the enabled signal input 18 is forwarded as a measurement result to the first channel 20 of the direct memory access (step i), in which it is temporarily stored before being stored in the main memory 24 (step k).

[0025] After storing the measurement result in the main memory 24 (step k), the analog-to-digital converter 16 sends a control command to the second channel 22 of the direct memory access (step 1) to raise the internal register of the direct memory access (step m). Subsequently, the second channel 22 of the direct memory access returns a corresponding control command to the analog-to-digital converter 16 (step n) to enable the next signal input 18 according to the raised register and to receive and digitize the measurement signal of the next sensor circuit S1...Sn.

[0026] Steps c to n are repeated in a first process loop x1 until the measurement results of all sensor circuits S1...Sn connected to the control device have been received, digitized, and stored in the main memory 24. Once the measurement results of all sensor circuits S1...Sn have been acquired in this way (step o), the first channel 20 of the direct memory access sends a corresponding further control signal to the software (step p). The software then terminates the acquisition (step q) and interrupts the control of the timer 12. The microcontroller can retrieve the measurement results stored in the main memory 24 (step r) and further evaluate them.

[0027] The process loop x2 with the steps b to r is repeated at a predetermined time interval in order to continuously monitor the operation of the control elements B1...Bn.

[0028] The form of the measurement signals generated by the sensor circuits S1...Sn depends on the type of control elements B1...Bn (e.g., capacitive touch switches) and the design of the sensor circuits S1...Sn. If the sensor circuits S1...Sn are designed to provide digital measurement signals, the analog-to-digital converter 16 can be omitted. The signal inputs 18 can then be connected to a simple register or directly to the first channel 20 of the direct memory access (DMA). REFERENCE NUMBER LIST A1 Hardware area A2 Software area A3 external area B1..n Control elements, e.g. touch and / or proximity sensitive push buttons S1..n sensor circuits 10 software commands 12 timers 14 Control signal generator 16 analog-to-digital converters (ADC) 18 signal inputs 20 first channel of a memory access device (DMA, DTC) 22 second channel of a memory access device (DMA, DTC) 24 RAM a Start recording b Start timer c Control command to control signal generator d Generate control signal to activate the sensor circuits Output control signal to sensor circuits f Send trigger signal to ADC g Input measurement signals to ADC h Perform analog-to-digital conversion i send digitized measurement signal to first channel of memory access device k Save measurement result to memory l Send control command to second channel of memory access device m raise register n Send control command to ADC o Measurement signals of all sensor circuits recorded p Send control signal to software q Stop recording r Retrieve measurement results from memory x1 Loop for recording and storing the measurement results of all sensor circuits x2 Loop for recording the sensor states of all sensor circuits

Claims

[1] Control device for detecting an actuation of operating elements (B1...Bn) integrated in sensor circuits (S1...Sn) by a user, comprising: a control signal generator (14) for generating a control signal with which the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) containing the operating elements (B1...Bn) are put into an active state; a plurality of signal inputs (18) for receiving measurement signals from the sensor circuits (S1...Sn), wherein a sensor circuit (S1...Sn) can be connected to each of the plurality of signal inputs (18); a memory access device (20, 22) for storing the measurement results corresponding to the received measurement signals in a working memory (24); and the main memory (24), characterized by , that the memory access device (20, 22) is designed to generate a further control signal when the measurement results of all connected sensor circuits (S1...Sn) are stored in the working memory (24); and the control device is designed to generate a still further control signal for deactivating the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) when the memory access device (20, 22) generates the further control signal. [2] The control device of claim 1, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter (16) having the plurality of signal inputs (18). [3] Control device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the memory access device (20, 22) comprises an internal register. [4] Control device according to one of the preceding claims, further comprising a timer (12) for outputting a control command to the control signal generator (14) for generating the control signal. [5] Control device according to one of claims 2 to 4, further comprising a timer (12) for triggering the analog-to-digital converter (16). [6] Method for detecting an actuation of operating elements (B1...Bn) integrated in sensor circuits (S1...Sn) by a user, comprising the steps: Outputting a control signal to the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) in order to put the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) containing the control elements (B1...Bn) into an active state; Input of measurement signals of the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) into various signal inputs (18); and Storing measurement results corresponding to the received measurement signals in a working memory (24) by means of a memory access device (20, 22), characterized by , that the memory access device (20, 22) generates a further control signal, when the measurement results of all sensor circuits (S1...Sn) are stored in the working memory (24), to generate a further control signal for deactivating the sensor circuits (S1...Sn). [7] Method according to claim 6, in which the measuring signals of the sensor circuits (S1...Sn) are input to an analog-digital converter (16) via the signal inputs (18) and digitized. [8] Method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the measurement results corresponding to the received measurement signals are temporarily stored in a register of the memory access device (20, 22). [9] Method according to one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the control signal generator (14) is triggered via a timer (12). [10] Method according to one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the analog-digital converter (16) is triggered via a timer (12).

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