JPH048405Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea]

<Technical field> This invention is equipped with a liquid crystal display (LCD),
Regarding a data processing device equipped with an EL (electroluminescence) panel, etc. as a backlight source of the liquid crystal display, a function that automatically turns off the backlight source and notifies the user that the backlight source has been turned off, especially when the backlight source is not used for a certain period of time. Regarding those that have. <Technical Field> When installing an EL panel as a back light source to improve the visibility of a liquid crystal display, in order to reduce the waste of power-on time of the EL panel,
If the EL panel remains unused for a specified period of time,
Control means for automatically turning off the EL panel is provided. However, for the user (user), when the EL panel is in the off state, the EL panel may have turned off due to a malfunction in the lighting system of the EL panel, or
The EL panel is automatically activated by the control on the device side.
It was difficult to determine whether the power had been turned off or not, causing confusion. <Purpose of the invention> In order to prevent the above-mentioned confusion, the present invention provides a notification means that notifies when the back light source such as an EL panel is turned off by the control of the device side, and even when the light is turned off. To provide a data processing device that allows a user to determine by job that a backlight source such as an EL panel is not turned off due to a failure. <Example> The configuration of the present invention will be described below. According to the present invention, a control processing means for processing data based on an applied control command and a liquid crystal display for displaying the data are provided, and the liquid crystal display is used as a back light source for illuminating the liquid crystal display from the back side.
In data processing equipment equipped with EL panels, etc.
A lighting means for causing the back light source to shine at one brightness level among several different brightness levels, and for causing the back light source to shine at a specific brightness level by manually selecting the specific brightness level by an operator. a selection means, a detection means for detecting that the control command is not applied to the control processing means for a certain period of time, a measurement means for measuring non-use time of the backlight source in response to the detection means, and an output of the measurement means. The present invention is configured to include a control means for turning off the backlight source in response to the above, and a notification lamp for notifying that the backlight source has been turned off by the operation of the control means. The determination that the control command is not applied to the control processing means for a certain period of time includes screen output processing of the liquid crystal display, input processing at an input section such as a keyboard, or access to a storage section such as a floppy disk. This is accomplished by not performing any processing. FIG. 1 is an external view of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an apparatus main body, and the apparatus main body 1 is provided with a display device consisting of a liquid crystal display LCD 2 on the front surface. Since the display element itself of this liquid crystal display 2 does not have light emitting performance, an EL (electroluminescence) panel is placed on the back of the display as a backlight. Therefore, when no data is displayed, EL is displayed over the entire display.
The amount of light emitted from the panel is transmitted and visually recognized. Next to the liquid crystal display 2, there is an EL display indicating that the data processing device 1 is in operation (power ON).
When the panel is turned off, the operator should
A notification lamp 3 is provided to notify that the panel is turned off. In addition, in the same figure, 4a is the processing device main body 1.
This is a keyboard for inputting data and control commands. This keyboard 4a is the same as that of a known electronic computer, such as a personal computer, and will not be particularly described. Further, numeral 4b is a floppy disk FD electrically connected to the processing device main body 1, and data is written or read by access from the device main body 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the driving portion of the EL panel described above. In the figure, 5 is the central processing unit CPU, read-only memory ROM, random access memory
This is a control unit composed of RAM and a timer TIMER, and various system programs are stored in the ROM. Further, 6 is an EL panel (LCD backlight), to which power is supplied by a power generation circuit 7 and the entire surface is lit. The luminance of this EL panel 6 changes depending on the AC applied voltage.
The maximum brightness is 8.5V, and the design allows for a total of 4 levels of brightness changes. i.e. approx.
There are four levels of brightness: 8.5V, approximately 6V, approximately 5V, and 0V (off). The power generation circuit 7 applies one of the voltage levels to the EL panel 6 based on a signal from a D/A (digital-analog) converter 8 . This brightness level is arbitrarily specified during initial operation of the device, and a 2-bit code is generated for each brightness level specified by the user, and the 2-bit code is held in the data latch 9. The 2-bit code is as shown in the table below.

[Table] The 2-bit code shown in the above table is decoded by the decoder 10. As a result, the D/A converter 8 is activated and selects the voltage level corresponding to each 2-bit code. The timer TIMER of the control section 5 automatically generates a lights-off code and controls the EL panel 6 to turn off the lights. The light-off code is sent to the decoder 1.
0, the EL panel 6 turns off the light, and the lamp driver 1
1 is driven, and the lighting of the notification lamp 3 is controlled. Next, the processing operation of this embodiment will be explained based on FIG. 3. In the figure, C _S , C _T and C _N represent control registers, which are a register for storing specified brightness data of the EL panel 6, a register for storing set light-off time data, and a register for storing elapsed time data, respectively. It serves as a register for storing time. Note that the register
The values of C _S and register C _T can be freely rewritten by the operator by key operations or by a program. The flowchart in FIG. 1A is the main processing routine, and the flowchart in FIG. 1B is the display return subroutine. Both routines measure time by counting the number of timer interrupts that occur at regular intervals. First, the time is measured by the timer TIMER interrupt processing (when the timer TIMER reaches a predetermined time, for example, 1 second, while performing desired data processing, the interrupt processing is performed), and sequentially, Register the elapsed time until the measurement (units are milliseconds, seconds, minutes, etc., depending on the system)
The data stored in _the register C _N is compared with the data set by the operator stored in the register C _T. As a result of the comparison, if C _N ≧ C _T , it means that the set time has elapsed, and the data latch 9 is set to a light-off code “00”. As a result, the EL panel 6 turns off. At the same time,
The notification lamp 3 lights up. If a key input, output to the screen, or access to the floppy disk is performed during time measurement, the value of register C _N is cleared once, and from then on, no key input, output to the screen, or It is possible to measure the passage of time when no access to the floppy disk is made, ie when the machine is not in use. In addition, if the non-use state continues for more than the set time, the control unit 5
If any key input, output to the screen, or access to the floppy disk is performed while the EL panel 6 is automatically turned off, it will be assumed that use has started again and the brightness of the EL panel 6 will be used. return (the specified brightness is stored in the register C _S , and return to the original brightness based on this stored value), and at the same time clear the value of the register C _N , and set the unused state elapsed time. Start counting anew. Note that when the EL panel 6 is turned off and a key input is required to check the display, the characters on the liquid crystal display 2 may not be legible or may be difficult to read when the EL panel 6 is off. Therefore, in this case, it is necessary to temporarily return the brightness to the original brightness, but there is no need to provide a dedicated key as a means for this, and any key input may be used. As a result, the complexity of the operating procedure does not increase.
However, since the EL panel 6 is in the off state and it is not known what type of key input the device is waiting for, the first key input when the light is off is treated as an invalid input, and only the brightness of the EL panel 7 is used as the basis. It is also conceivable to restore the brightness to the normal key operation after reading the display contents on the liquid crystal display 2. This is illustrated in FIG. 4, where when the first key input pulse _a1 is received when the light is turned off, the above-mentioned display processing is performed during the period A until the second key input pulse _a2 is received. Normal key input processing is performed with pulses a ₃ , a ₄ . . . after the second key input pulse a ₂ is applied. This allows you to avoid erroneous operations when the display is not visible. In the above embodiment, the condition is that there is no key input, no output to the screen, or no access to the floppy disk for the EL panel 6 to be in an unused state, but the conditions are not necessarily limited to these three conditions.
That is, the operator's operation may be used as a trigger. For example, if a voice input device is connected, it can be determined whether the device is in use based on the presence or absence of input from the device. The length of time for determining the non-use state of the EL panel may be appropriately selected by the user depending on the usage situation. <Effects> According to the present invention as described above, a data processing device equipped with a liquid crystal display equipped with a rear light source such as an EL panel has a control processing means for processing data based on an applied control command, and a control processing means for processing data based on an applied control command. A data processing device comprising a liquid crystal display for displaying a display and a back light source for illuminating the liquid crystal display from the back, an illumination means for causing the back light source to shine at one of several different brightness levels; selection means for causing the backlight source to shine at a specific brightness level by an operator manually selecting a specific brightness level; and a detection unit for detecting that the control command is not applied to the control processing means for a certain period of time. means for measuring non-use time of the rear light source in response to the detection means; control means for turning off the rear light source in response to the output of the measuring means; Since it is a data processing device consisting of a notification lamp that indicates that the light source has been turned off, the user
It is possible to determine whether the cause of turning off the back light source of an EL panel or the like is due to control on the device side or not, and there is no need for users to misunderstand the turning off of the back light source.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a data processing device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the data processing device, FIGS. 3a and 3b are flowcharts showing processing of the data processing device, and FIG. The figure is a diagram for explaining the operation of the data processing device. 1... Data processing device body, 2... Liquid crystal display, 3... Notification lamp, 4a... Keyboard, 4b... Floppy disk, 5... Control section, 6... EL panel, 7... EL panel power supply Generation circuit, 8...D/A converter, 9...Data latch, 10...Decoder.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] Data comprising a control processing means for processing data based on applied control commands, a liquid crystal display for displaying the data, and a back light source for illuminating the liquid crystal display from the back. In the processing device, an illumination means for illuminating the backlight source at one of several different brightness levels, and an operator manually selecting a specific brightness level to cause the backlight source to shine at a specific brightness level. a selection means for causing the light to illuminate in stages; a detection means for detecting that the control command is not applied to the control processing means for a certain period of time; a measurement means for measuring non-use time of the backlight source in response to the detection means; A data processing device comprising: a control means for turning off the backlight source in response to the output of the measuring means; and a notification lamp for notifying that the backlight source has been turned off by the operation of the control means. .