GB2202068A - Microcomputer parking meter - Google Patents

Abstract

A microprocessor based automobile parking meter operating on a re-chargeable or dry cell and/or in conjunction with the motorcar accumulator which is to be displayed from inside a car, for payment of parking fees from credit (in time units or monetary units) as stored in an electronic memory 'coupon'. Light Emitting Diode (LED) or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Gas-Discharged or Plasma Displays and/or other electronic means as visual displays are provided to display time, periodic security number, credit balance, parking-area-authority code, parking fees rate/s. Programming buttons are provided to programme the parking fees rate/s (also pre-set buttons for parking fees rate) and to programme parking fees rate/s in conjunction with time of the day. <IMAGE>

Description

INVENTION OF MICROCOMPUTER PARKING METER (MPM).

I, CHONG SZE CHOON, I/C No: 4636594 of 80 Lorong Zaaba, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, do hereby declare the invention, for which9 pray that a patent may be granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The e invention is for the utilisation of electronic signals for the management of parking fees payment and/or collection employing digital means.

The continous updating and technological advances in manufacturing technology and the application of robotics has reduced the cost of the motorcars in relative terms, This coupled with the general increase in living standards of the people has brought about a situation whereby the motorcar is within the means of an increasing number of the ordinary people resulting in an ever increasing population of motorcars. Also modern living has resulted that a motorcar is almost an indispensable part of one's lifestye.

In providing the public parking space, collection of parking fees and management of errant paying owners of these motorcars, most often paper parking coupon, mechanical parking meters or parking attendants are employed, The management and utilisation of public car parks presents unique problems in identification of errant motorcar owners, collection and payment of parking fees for the actual time the parking space was used.

In the collection and payment of parking fees, it is most desirable to pay/receive fees for the actual time used of these parking space.

In the parking atttendant system, the payment is usually charged in blocks of 1/2 hours or 1 hour and part thereof - and commences when the parking attendant writes a parking notice for the individual motorcars which may not necessarily reflect the actual time the motorcar has commenced utilisation of the parking space.

Termination of parking charges in the semi-automatic collection system using electronic timer at car park entry-exit point, mechanical meters, paper coupon and parking attendant system usually results in parking time charged/paid but not fully utilised by the motorists. In thecoupon or attendant system, parking time exceeded the parking time initially charged/prepaid are frequently not noticed by the parking attendant. In the case of prepaid parking by the prepaid paper coupon or mechanical meter, it is very often difficult to estimate the parking time.

In the exit-entry car park management system, employing attendant or even with the aid of electronic timers, collection of parking fees at the exit point presents traffic flow bottle necks.

One prior art solution to these problems has been to install a microcomputer parking meter in each individual car. The parking fees credit is stored digitally as an integral part of the MPM or as an electronic-parking-coupon (EPC) in the form of a detachable card. The payment of the parking fees to be on a real time basis electronically.

As will be described with the invented microcomputer parking meter and a low cost electronic parking coupon, the collection/payment of parking fees, will be on a real time basis through the use of a digital signal reader & writer, reading & BR< writing on the electronic parking coupon, electronic timer and a microprocessor. Errant parking payment motorists will be conspicously and visually identified to the parking supervision through the use of digital and/or discrete displays.

According to the present invention, the system consists of essentially a microcomputer main unit and works in conjunction with a detachable electronic coupon.

The heart of the the Microcomputer Parking Meter (MPM) is a MicroComputer Unit (MCU) which may include a Real Time Calendar Clock (RTCC), while any one of the plurality of commercially available microprocessors such as M6800 or Z80 or 8080, 80386, and Real Time Calendar Clock such as MC146818 may be employed.

The MCU drives a set of segmented T;ED and/or alphanumeric display and discrete LED indicators, senses the control switches and programs the electronic coupon. The electronic coupon consists of an Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM) and a digital counter.

The microprocessor unit controls the various Input/Output (I/O) devices by means of its set of peripheral ports. The timing signals for the MCU are provided by the Real Time Calendar Clock.

The Real Time Calendar Clock communicates with the MCP and keeps the calendar and time. The processor memory and real time calendar clock are powered continously for 24 hours a day.

Information on the detachable electronic coupon includes an indentification and verification header, a set of alpha and/or numeric electronic-coupon-code and programmable 'bits'. All the 'bits' are set to '1' in a new or unused electronic coupon. They are programmed to '0' by the main unit during normal operation.

The number of unused bits, the parking area authority code as well as the electronic-coupon-code can be read by the main unit and displayed on a Light Emitting Diode (LED) or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Gas-Discharged or Plasma and/or other electronic means on a Display Panel.

While a variety and plurality of operational and display features can be programmed by one skilled in the art, in the present preferred embodiment, the microcomputer parking meter is programmed with the following operational and display features: i) Display for CREDIT BALANCE in TIME UNITS (hours) or MONETARY UNITS ii) OPERATIONAL POWER ON/OFF SWITCH iii) CARRY FORWARD button iv) TIMER and CLOCK button v) START push button vi) Push & preprogrammed button; programming for FIRST RATE and its display.

vii) Push button programming for SECOND RATE and its displays.

viii) Three-way selection switch to select: 5.00 P.M. stop 10.30 P.M. stop 5.00 P.M. - 10.30 P.M.: 1/2 rate ix) Overparked indicating display x) Battery low indicating display xi) Send meter back indicating display xii) Display for a) electronic-memory-coupon code.

b) time of day c) security code d) parking area authority code.

f) rates as preset by the motorist xiii) Updates & Displays the remaining or unconsumed number of 'bits' used during the current session.

When an electronic-coupon containing less than a certain e.g. 10 unused bits (as preset in the operating system) is inserted, its remaining bits may be carried forward to the next electronic coupon bearing the same electronic-coupon-code by depressing the CARRY FORWARD switch. In such a situation, all the remaining bits in the former are programmed to '0'and the number of bits carried forward is stored in the main unit to be used in conjunction with the second electronic coupon of the same code.

A quartz crystal-based clock is provided by the main microcomputer unit for keeping time. When updating is in progress, the time elapsed ater START switch was first depressed may be shown on the code-display LEDs by depressing the TIMER switch.

The present invention will be described further, by the accompanying diagram in which: FIG. 1 is an illustration of the physical display of the invented microcomputer parking meter.

FIG.2 is a general block diagram illustrating the invented microcomputer parking meter in its present embodiment.

FIG.3 & FIG.4 are the detail system diagrams of the invented microcomputer parking meter.

FIG.5 is the detail system diagram of the electronic coupon.

FIG. 6 is the power supply detail for the microcomputer parking meter system.

In the following description, numerous well known circuits are shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the described inventive concepts in unnecessary detail. In other instances, very specific details such as frequencies, number of bits, specific codes, etc., are provided in order that these concepts may be clearly understood. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the described concepts may be employed without use of these specific details.

In its present embodiment, the overall block diagram of the system is shown in Fig.2. It consists of a MC68705U3 microcomputer unit controlling the various input/output (I/O) devices by means of its set of peripheral ports. A programmable timer in the MCU allows a real time clock to be set up for keeping time. Output devices in the system are a set of 7-segment LEDs and/or alphanumeric and the discrete LEDs. Input devices are a set of push-to-make switches and a set of push-to-make exclusive switch. A special peripheral device is an EPROM electronic-coupon which requires both sensing and writing by the MCU.

Port B and one half of Port A of the MCU are used in conjunction with decoder and drivers for controlling the 7-segment LED and/or alphanumeric display. Port D, being an input port, is used to sense the various switches of the system. The remaining of Port A is used for the discrete LEDs. Port C is used for reading and programming a detachable EPROM electronic-coupon which requires a 25V source during the programming mode. This high voltage source is provided by an on-board switching power supply.

External power supply to the system is 1 2V d.c. at a load current of 200 mA. A continous standby power for the MCU, RTCC and memory contents are provided by a 5V Dry Cell (NRCDC) and a further continous standby power source for the memory content is provided by another 5V dry cell.

The circuit diagrams of the main unit are shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4. The 8-bit MC68705U3 MCU (U1) operates at a clock frequency of 1.000 MHz with a quartz crystal of 4.000 MHz (Y1) using the one-chip clock circuit together with C2. R16 and Cl provide sufficient delay for auto-reset upon power-up.

The LED segment drives are provided by transistor source followers such Q1, R18 and R28 driven by Port B of the MCU (pins 25 through 32). The emitter of each driving transistor is connected to the corresponding segment anode of all the LEDs.

Digit selection of individual 7-segment LED is done by sinking the common cathode of the LED by means of a SN7406 TTL inverting buffer (U2, U4 or U5). These buffers are controlled by MC1451B four-to-sixteen decoder (U3) which is connected to PAO through PA3 of the MCU.

Seven lines of Port D (pins 17, 19 through 24) are used as input lines to sense the closure of the switches. These lines are pulled low by resistors R5 through R12 when the switches are open.

Seven lines of Port C (pins 11 through 16) are used for the EPROM electronic coupon. PC2 (pin 11) switches the Vpp of the EPROM between 5V and 25V depending on whether the EPROM is being read.or programmed. This is done by U2, R15, Q9 and D1. PC7 (pin 16) is connected to bit 0 of the Eprom data bus. This line is programmed as an input line for reading the code and remaining bits in the EPROM and programmed as output line during writing operation. The insertion of the EPROM electronic-coupon is sensed via PC3 (pin 12) with R13, R14 and C3 acting as contact debouncing circuit.

J1 and J2 are Molex miniature connectors for connecting the main board to the display panel and the detachable electronic-coupon respectively.

The circuit diagram of the EPROM electronic coupon is shown in Fig.5. It consists of only two integrated circuits U7 and U8. U7 is a MCM2716C EPROM which contains a sixteen-bit verification and identification header, a twenty-bit key code representing a set of alphabet and/or digit codes and 'bits' of information. These bits in the unused state are 'l's. When a bit is used up, it is programmed to '0' by the MCU. U8 is a MC14040B counter used for setting up the address of the EPROM. The set of alphabet and/or digital code represents motorist personal and/or which parking area authority the electronic coupon can be used and for which the parking fees credit has been paid to. Each 'bit' of information represent suitable currency denomination or suitable time of parking duration.

The power supply of the system is shown in Fig.6. It takes from a 1 2V d.c source and provides 5V and 25V d.c supplies for the unit.

The 5V supply is provided by a standard positive regulator MC7805CT (U7) with dropping resistors R36, R37 and filtering capacitors C8 and C9. D3 protects the unit against reversed input polarity.

The 25V is provided by U6 (NE555) with its associated components acting as switching power supply. Zener Diode ZD1 acts as a shunt regulator to provide stable 25V for programming the EPROM.

Claims (6)

1. WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. An electronic microprocessor-based automobile parking meter operated by a direct current source, comprising an alpha and/or numeric and programmable digital displays, means for deducting parking fees credit electronically on a real time basis parking fees credit of the parking area authority stored as an integral or detachable electronic coupon.
2. 2. The apparatus defined by Claim 1 where said alpha and/or numeric means to display parking area authority code or its abbreviation.
3. 3. The apparatus defined by Claim 2 where said programmable digital display means to display programmed payment rate either on a flat rate basis, single-rate basis or progressive rate basis, payment at a rate programmed on the display/s and on a real time basis, parking fees units available on the electronic parking coupon, cummulative parking fees paid during each parking session.
4. 4. The apparatus defined by Claim 3, where said electronic coupon means comprises digital bits stored in an erasable programmable read only memory or programmable read only memory or programmable memory as credit and parking area authority code information.
5. 5. The apparatus defined by Claim 4 where said programmable display input and microprocessor means determines period and updates digital bits stored on the electronic coupon.
6. 6. A microcomputer for use as an automobile parking meter as in Claim 5 and substantially herein before described, with references to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.