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Determination of necessity for regeneration

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1. TO CIRCUIT 50 48a SODIUM STATE RESIN EXPANDED 493 FIG 3B CALCIUM STATE RESIN SHRUNK FIG 3A TO CIRCUIT 50 4 469 602 4 469 602 Sheet 4 of 9 Sep 4 1984 U S Patent WOO A d d O2cd 380 080 SER Q U S Patent 4 1984 Sheet 5 of 9 4 469 602 TO FROM CKT 50 4 FIG 4 SEN SN Wo u NA lt lt gt 4 A m FIG 4a U S Patent Sep 4 1984 Sheet 6 of 9 4 469 602 200 FIG 5A SSIES 7 ENTER DEFAULT 2 VALUES TO FIG 5B SET DAILY Y 228 INPUT FOR Sioa TRANSITION Zov 209 70 YES FIND SWITCH INCREMENT DISPLAY LN COUNT CLOCK TOGGLE FLOW LED I NCREMENT POWER LOSS Zab COUNTER ANS OUTPUT DIGIT TO E DISPLAY Deom ERROR CODE OUTPUT DIGIT 2 AND _ OTHER DATA U S Patent Sep 4 1984 FROM Ca FIG 5A 220 RELOAD SEC COUNTER gt TO FIG 5C amp 2 o lt 10 COUNT 214 CONVERT PULSES 210 GALLONS ADD GALLONS TO 278 DAILY TOTAL 239 1 212 2 ADD DAILY TOTAL AND TOTAL 279 3 SINCE LAST REGERATION CLEAR RESIN CAPACITY
2. Col 17 line 31 L E D s should be L E D Col 18 line 14 powre should be power Col 21 line 14 279 9 should be Step 279 9 Col 21 line 19 279 1 should be Step 279 1 Col 22 line 12 to to program should be to program Col 22 line 21 step 286 should be Step 286 Col 27 line 25 toal should be total Signed and Sealed this Twenty third Day of July 1985 SEAL Attest DONALD J QUIGG Attesting Officer Acting Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
3. Input data representing the flow of softened water leaving resin tank 12 of FIG 1 is supplied from a flow meter 110 FIG 1 disposed in the outlet 236 to the highest order line 17 of the first of the two ports of microcomputer 58 terminating at pin Referring now to FIG 4 which is a cut away view of the inlet 23b taken along lines 4a 4a of FIG 1 flowmeter 110 is comprised of a turbine 111 having a magnet 112a em bedded in the periphery of turbine so that the south magnetic pole is facing radially outwardly A counter weight 112 is located in the turbine periphery opposite magnet 112a to balance the turbine The turbine is jour naled at its rightward most end by a first bearing 113a secured in a bearing strut 114 disposed in the righward end of the outlet Turbine 111 is journaled at its leftward most end by a bearing 1135 carried in a bearing strut 116 that is disposed in the interior bore of a collar 117 which is dimensioned to be received in the leftward most end of the outlet An O ring 118 is disposed in sealing en gagement between the collar and the outlet to prevent water leakage As water flows through the outlet the force of the water drives the turbine 111 so that the magnet passes a Hall Effect switch 119 disposed in a wall of the outlet adjacent to the turbine Returning now to FIG 4 Hall Effect switch 119 which typically comprises a model UGN 3040 T Hall Effect switch as manufactured by Sprague Elec
4. common terminal of the power supply and the emitter of a transistor 176 Transistor 176 is coupled at its col lector through a dropping resistor 177 to the 5 volt supply whereas the transistor base is coupled to the microcomputer pin P16 As will become better under stood by reference to the description of the program stored within the microcomputer if following initia tion and completion of a regeneration cycle the resin bed 14 remains depleted as determined by sensor 49 of FIG 1 then the microcomputer 58 generates a logic high level signal at pin P16to render transistor 176 con ductive When transistor 176 becomes conductive light emitting diode 175 which is mounted behind window 42 opposite the indicia is energized Once energized the light emitting diode 175 serves to illuminate the indicia REGEN to signify that 0 20 25 30 40 45 50 16 even though regeneration was initiated the resin bed remains depleted because of mechanical fault or lack of regenerant As indicated previously within the internal memory of microcomputer 58 of FIG 4 is a program which controls the microcomputer to enable the microcom puter to process the incoming data to determine whether or not motor 48 of FIGS 2 and 3 should be energized to initiate regeneration as well as to enable the microcomputer to display the time of day on L E D displays 134a and 1346 of FIG 4 PROGRAM START UP
5. provide a control that requires no input information other than to set the internal microcomputer clock as to the time of day other information is determined automatically by the microcomputer from the flow meter and the resin bed sensor This simplifies installa tion Yet another object of the invention is to provide a water softener control which indicates the efficacy of regeneration Following initiation and completion of regeneration of the resin bed the sensor may be interro gated by the microcomputer to determine if the regen eration was effective If the sensor indicates that regen 4 469 602 5 eration was not effective because of a failure of some part of the control or the associated control value or because of a lack of regenerant then the failure is indi cated so that the user may refill the regenerant supply or make the necessary repairs BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention both as to organization and method of operation together with further objects and advantages thereof may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which FIG 1 is a resin bed type water softener embodying the control of the present invention FIG 2 is a side view of the control of the water softener illustrated in FIG 1 FIG 3 is a front view of the control of the water softener illustrated in FIG 1 FIG 3A is a cross sectional view of the re
6. puter checks whether the internal microcomputer timer has resumed counting Step 242 and continues to check until the internal microcomputer timer records the pas sage of one second as will normally occur once power is reapplied to the microcomputer Upon a determina tion that one second has elapsed the microcomputer branches to program block A FIG 5B and the one second register is reloaded Step 226 However after checking the power loss counter Step 238 if no power loss has been detected then the microcomputer branches to step 222 to recheck the one second register to determine whether or not one second has elapsed TIME SETTING STEPS 244 265 Referring to FIG 5B following completion of checking the one second register Step 224 and reload ing of the register Step 226 the microcomputer deter mines whether or not the internal microcomputer timer ten second register has counted out the passage of ten seconds Step 243 after the one second register has been reloaded If ten seconds have not elapsed the microcomputer branches to block B and determines whether or not the relay flag has been set Step 244 as illustrated in FIG 5C As will become better under stood by reference to the remaining steps of the pro gram once the microcomputer determines that regener ation should occur microcomputer 58 sets a relay causing a high logic voltage to appear at microcom puter data bus DB in response to which t
7. Because the internal microcomputer timer counts time in accordance with the alternations of the a c 4 469 602 11 supply voltage as processed by clocking circuit 70 the microcomputer must be alerted as to whether the a c supply voltage frequency is 60 Hz as is the case in the United States or 50 Hz as is the case in many European countries To alert the microcomputer as to the a c supply voltage frequency a switch 81 is coupled be tween the second highest order microcomputer data bus line 7 which terminates at pin DB and the power supply common terminal After determining whether or not that bus is at a ground potential i e whether or not switch 79 is closed the microcomputer then knows whether the a c supply voltage is 50 or 60 Hz respec tively Normally the microcomputer power is provided from power supply 59 and the timing signal for clock ing the internal timer is provided from the clocking circuit 70 However should the a c supply voltage fail then not only does the clocking circuit fail to supply periodic pulses but more importantly the internal mi crocomputer memories which store collected data may be erased To keep at least the microcomputer memo ries from being erased a battery 82 is coupled at its positive terminal via Zener diode 84 to the standby voltage input pin VDD of the microcomputer 58 The negative terminal of the battery is coupled to the power supply common terminal While there is an a c v
8. STEPS 200 206 Referring now to FIGS 5A through 5D which illus trate in flow chart form the program executed by the mirocomputer and in particular FIG 5A execution of the microcomputer program is commenced Step 200 when power is applied to the microcomputer Follow ing program startup a default value for the time of day is entered into the register of the internal microcom puter timer for time keeping purposes Step 202 Typi cally this default value is 12 noon However the default value can be incremented when switch 79 of control circuit 50 is actuated so that if the correct hour of the day is other than 12 noon then the appropriate value can be entered into the timer register Following entry of the default value into the timer register an internal microcomputer flag designated as the daily usage default flag is set to indicate that actual values of the daily water usage and the resin bed capacity are not yet available Since the microcomputer of the present invention operates to initiate water softener regenera tion when the actual treating capacity of resin bed 14 of FIG 1 is less than a reserve quantity calculated in ac cordance with the actual average daily soft water con sumption the entry of finite artificial values for the daily amount of soft water consumed in place of the value zero 0 stored in memory enables the microcom puter to better regulate the frequency of water softener regeneration during the fi
9. bed has been depleted to a predetermined percentage of the total resin bed treating capacity The resin bed sensor is con nected to a microcomputer which is also coupled to a flow meter to receive data therefrom indicative of the quantity of treated water leaving the water treatment device over a given period of time When the resin bed sensor signals microcomputer that the resin bed has been depleted to the predetermined capacity th mi crocomputer calculates the total softening capacity of the resin bed Each day the microcomputer computes both the total quantity of treated water consumed since the last regeneration and the remaining capcity of the resin bed The microcomputer also maintains a record in memory of the previous 7 days usage and the aver age usage is calculated to establish a soft water reserve value Should the remaining resin bed capacity be less than the established soft water reserve the regeneration is initiated 9 Claims 11 Drawing Figures 469 602 4 Sheet 1 of 9 Sep 4 1984 U S Patent AAN C A V LN ts ys 6 wi 37 9 ry O CIRCUIT 5 P AR eR IA L2 ar 1555 U S Patent Sep 4 1984 Sheet 2 of 9 4 469 602 Al 1 3 AA AC U S Patent Sep 4 1984 Sheet 3 of 9
10. daily usage default flag be set before setting of the sensor flag as occurs during the interval time between initial power up and depletion of the resin bed to 50 of its original capacity then the microcomputer executes a jump instruction Step 305 2 to branch control to pro gram block C and to commence execution of Step 216 In this way the microcomputer delays regeneration for another 24 hours following initial power up if the resin bed has not yet been depleted to 50 of its origi nal refining capacity to maximize the control efficiency In addition by branching to Step 216 if the daily usage default flag is set the microcomputer is prevented from calculating any reserve value before the default capac ity value is entered in memory during Step 279 7 Other wise the microcomputer might calculate the capacity where only zero values are contain d in its memory so as to yield an erroneous result Upon determination that the default flag is not set indicating that at least 5096 of the resin bed capacity has been depleted then the microcomputer proceeds to determine whether or not regeneration is to occur As indicated previously the decision to initiate regenera tion results from a determination that the anticipated soft water demand is greater than the remaining resin bed capacity In order to determine the anticipated soft water demand the microcomputer first calculates the average daily amount of soft water consume
11. device commencing with the steps of measuring the quantity of water leaving the softener over a given period of time and then determining the actual daily average of the soft water consumed and the amount of soft water consumed since the last regeneration ac cordance with the measured amounts of soft water leaving the softener Thereafter a reserve quantity of soft water is established from the calculated daily aver age of soft water consumption The treating capacity of the resin bed is sensed to determine if a predetermined percentage of the total resin bed treating capacity has been depleted and if so then the total resin bed treating capacity is established as a proportion of the quantity of treated water consumed since the previous regenera tion The remaining resin bed capacity is then deter mined by subtracting the quantity of water consumed from total resin bed capacity Periodically usually once a day during a period of infrequent water use the re maining resin bed treating capacity is compared to the established treated water reserve and if the treated water reserve is greater than the remaining resin bed treating capacity then regeneration is effected In the operation of my improved control a mi crocomputer monitors the flow meter and records the actual amount of treated water leaving the water treat ment device during the previous 24 hour period Typi 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4
12. has been depleted the resin bed is flushed with a sodium chloride brine solution so that the minerals and other impurities can be released from the resin bed and carried out of the tank In practice the brine solution is stored in a sepa rate tank 18 and is admitted to the softener tank 12 during regeneration through a tube 20 and a air check valve 22 The control of brine flow into tank 12 from brine tank 18 as well as the control of hard water flowing into the tank via inlet 23a and the flow of soft water leaving the tank via outlet 23b is accomplished by a valve module 24 threaded on the top of tank 12 so as to be in commu nication with the tank inlet not shown and draw pipe 16 Valve module 24 typically comprises a control body such as manufactured by Autotrol Corporation Glen dale Wis under part No 24N As best illustrated in FIG 2 valve module 24 includes seven disc type valves 25a through 25g respectively In the present valve module valves 25e and 257 are designated as the outlet 25 30 45 50 60 65 6 and inlet valves respectively as the valves 257 and 25 each regulate the flow of hard water into tank 12 from inlet 23a and the flow of soft water up from draw pipe 16 FIG 1 out through to outlet 236 respectively Valve 25g serves to regulate the flow of brine from brine tank 18 into tank 12 and is therefore referred to as the brine valve The valve 25d controls water flow in the valve module throu
13. junction between resistance 74 and transistor 73 and transistor 78 has its collector to emitter portion coupled between the junction resistances 75a and 75b and the power supply common terminal The conduction of transistor is controlled by transistor 73 and when tran sistor 73 is conductive transistor 73 shunts current from the base of transistor 78 to keep transistor 78 from con ducting While transistor 73 is nonconductive transistor 78 is supplied with base current and becomes conduc tive In this way transistor 78 acts as a logic inverter so that the logic level voltage appearing across transistor 78 which is supplied to the microcomputer at pin T1 to strobe the internal timer will be logically inverse to the logic level voltage appearing across the collector to emitter portion of transistor 73 In order for the internal microcomputer timer to keep the correct time the timer must usually be initially set to the appropriate time Setting of the timer is accom plished by closing a switch 79 coupled between the microcomputer timing input at pin To and the power supply common terminal input to force the voltage at the timing input to a logic low voltage level In practice switch 79 is activated by depressing button 42 FIG 3 protruding through the cover 38 FIG 3 While switch 79 is open the timing input is maintained at a high logic level voltage via a resistance 80 coupled between the pin To and the 4 5 V power supply terminal
14. the microcomputer 58 establishes the total refining capacity of the resin bed 14 as a proportion of the amount of 4 469 602 13 water consumed since previous regeneration In this way the microcomputer 58 establishes a more accurate value for the total resin bed refining capacity than is achieved by calculating the resin bed refining capacity in accordance with the ratio of the theoretical resin bed refining capacity and a single water hardness value Normally all the input information required for the microcomputer 58 to control the regeneration of the resin bed 14 is provided from the Hall Effect switch 119 of the flow meter 110 and from the microswitch 49 of 10 the resin sensor 49 However should a fault occur in the operation of the microcomputer it is usually desirable to enter one or more test instructions to aid in the diag nosis of the fault Input test commands to alter the mi crocomputer operation are entered to the microcom puter by connecting one one more of the data bus pins DBo DBs and port pins 2 2 to the microcomputer port pin P14 via jumper 120 Referring now to FIG 3 to facilitate entry of the test command in this manner each of the microcomputer port pins P29 P23 and the mi crocomputer data bus pins DBo DBs are connected to each of the terminals of a terminal block 122 mounted on the circuit board 124 which carries the components of the control circuit 50 such as the microcomputer 58 The cove
15. up resistance 141 and is coupled to the third lowest order line 12 of the first port of the microcomputer terminating at pin P12 so as to receive a high logic level voltage therefrom at appropriate inter vals during execution of the microcomputer program to energize L E D 1345 segments a d e and g Segment b of L E D display 1346 is coupled to the power supply common terminal via a resistance 144 in series with the collector to emitter portion of a transistor 146 Transis tor 146 is supplied at its base with a regulated five volt d c voltage from the power supply through a pull up resistance 148 and is also supplied in its base with the logic level output signal appearing on the third lowest line 13 of the first port of the microcomputer which terminates at microcomputer pin P13 Segment c of L E D display 1346 is suitably connected by the first contactor 150A of a double pull double throw switch 150 to resistance 144 The second contactor 1505 of double pull double throw switch 150 couples one ter minal of a resistance 152 between the decimal point segment d p of the L E D display 1345 and segment c of light emitting diode 1345 The other terminal of resis tance 152 is coupled by the collector to emitter portion of a transistor 154 to the power supply common termi nal Transistor 154 is supplied at its base with the five volt regulated d c output voltage of the power supply via pullup resistance 155 and is also supplied at it
16. 279 1 As will be explained hereinafter the sensor flag is set each time that the resin bed capacity is updated Thus the status of the resin bed sensor flag indicates whether or not the microcomputer should proceed further with regard to updating the resin bed capacity If the sensor flag has not been set then the microcomputer checks to see whether or not switch 497 is non conductive Step 279 2 As will be recalled the Switch 49 remains non conductive for so long as the water at the half level of the resin bed 14 of FIG 1 is soft A determination that the switch is no longer non conductive thus signifies that the resin bed capacity has been depleted to 50 of its original capacity Should switch 49 be found conductive during execution of Step 279 2 then the microcomputer proceeds to add the daily total soft water consumption to the total value of the soft water consumed since the last regeneration Step 279 3 to determine the total amount of soft water consumption which resulted in depletion of the resin bed 14 to 5046 of its original refining capacity Thereafter the previous value in memory represent ing the resin bed capacity is cleared Step 279 4 and then the microcomputer proceeds to calculate an up dated resin capacity value Step 279 5 The microcom puter accomplishes such a calculation by simply dou bling the total soft water consumption value calculated in Step 279 3 Since the soft water consumption calcu lated dur
17. 36g respectively to a corresponding one of the outputs 01 07 of a display driver circuit 138 which typically comprises a model 74 LS 47 display driver such as manufactured by Texas Instruments Dallas Tex In addition to being coupled to the 5 V and common terminals of power supply 59 so as to receive a regu lated 5 volt d c voltage therefrom display driver cir cuit 138 has its four input terminals 11 14 coupled to a separate one of the four highest lines 24 27 of the first port of microcomputer 58 which terminate at mi crocomputer pins 24 27 respectively During execu tion of its internally stored program microcomputer 58 outputs a four bit binary signal at pins P24 P27 repre senting the least significant digit of the hour of the day which is supplied to the display driver 138 which in turn energizes the appropriate segments of L E D display 134a to display this least significant digit of the hour of the day To enable control circuit 50 of the present invention to be utilized both domestically and internationally it is desirable that L E D displays 134a and 1345 display the hour of the day either in a 12 hour fashion or 24 hour fashion To this end segments a d e and g of display 1345 are each coupled to the common terminal of the power supply through resistance 139 in series with the collector to emitter portion of a transistor 140 Transis tor 140 is coupled at its base to the power supply 5 V terminal via a pull
18. 7741 CALCULATE UPDATED ENTER DAILY CAPACITY USAGE DEFAULT VALUES CLEAR DAILY USAGE DEFAULT FLAG SET SENSOR 214 5 FLAG 4 469 602 Sheet 7 of 9 FIG 5B NO 2 0 5 MIN COUNT 60 291 INCREMENT HOUR COUNT 255 YES 7 16 50 2 288 YES 290 NO TURN IT OFF 4 234 TURN IT ON 295 290 YES O U S Patent Sep 4 1984 Sheet 8 of 9 250 4 SURE IT IS OFF 4 469 602 RESTORE DATA FOR DISPLAY 225 U S Patent 4 1984 Sheet 9 of 9 4 469 602 or FIG 5B FIG 5D ADD TODAY S DOH GALLONS TO TOTAL BETWEEN REGENERATION CALCULATE BBA REMAINING MES CAPACITY Slo TO RESERVE CALCULATE TON 7 DAY AVERAGE 22 CALC 120 OF AVG REGERATION SINCE START UP NO NO VALUE DO 240 TO COMPARE GAINST ANO NO 220 TOGGLE LED 175 327 4 376 4 469 602 1 MICROCOMPUTER CONTROLLED DEMAND SCHEDULED WATER SOFTENER HAVING AUTOMATIC RESIN BED SENSING RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation in part of U S pa tent application Ser No 412 279 filed Aug 27 1982 now U S Pat No 4 426 294 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to a control unit for a resin bed type water softener and more particularly to an improved microcomputer ba
19. United States Patent Seal 4 469 602 Sep 4 1984 u1 Patent Number 4 Date of Patent 54 MICROCOMPUTER CONTROLLED DEMAND SCHEDULED WATER SOFTENER HAVING AUTOMATIC RESIN BED SENSING 75 Inventor 9 David Seal Waukesha Wis 73 Assignee Corporation Milwaukee Wis 21 Appl 502 967 22 Filed Jun 10 1983 Related U S Application Data 63 Continuation in part of Ser No 412 279 Aug 27 1982 Pat No 4 426 294 51 Int B01J 49 00 52 U S CL 210 662 210 85 210 89 210 98 210 140 210 143 364 502 58 Field of Search 210 662 670 687 89 210 98 102 103 109 140 143 190 191 269 85 364 500 502 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 237 538 12 1980 Le Dall 364 500 4 257 887 3 1981 Rak et ab 210 96 1 4 275 448 6 1981 Le Dall 4 332 678 6 1982 Spiegl 4 385 357 5 1983 Davis et al OTHER PUBLICATIONS Operating Manual Compute A Save System Water Refining Company Middletown Ohio Jul 1 1978 Sales Literature Water King Sta Rite Industries Delafield Wisc Sales Literature The Lindsay KNOW IT ALL The Lindsay Corporation Primary Examiner Ivars Cintins Attorney Agent or Firm Quarles amp Brady 57 An improved control for water softener includes resin bed sensor for sensing when the resin
20. ad only memories of the microcomputer The internal timer of the microcomputer which as indicated serves as a real time clock is strobed or clocked in accordance with the alternations of the a c supply voltage Since the supply voltage is accu rately maintained either at 50 or 60 Hz depending on the custom the frequency of alternations of the a c supply voltage can be used as a basis of measuring real time To strobe the internal microcomputer timer a clocking circuit 70 is provided for supplying microcomputer at its T1 pin with a logic level voltage which changes logic states in accordance with the alternations of the a c supply voltage Clocking circuit 70 includes a diode 71 and a resistance 72 serially coupled between the one of the two secondary winding terminals of transformer 60 and the base of a first transistor 73 whose collector to emitter portion is coupled in series with a resistance 74 between the 5 V and common terminals of power supply 59 Transistor 73 is also coupled at its base to the 5 V terminal of the power supply through a pair of serially coupled resistances 75a and 750 Each time the a c voltage at the secondary 60b of transformer 60 undergoes an alternation the transistor 73 is rendered conductive A filter comprised of the parallel combina tion of a capacitance 76 and a resistance 77 filters stray noise to prevent false conduction of transistor 73 A second transistor 78 has its base coupled to the
21. al point segment d p of light emitting diode display 134a is turned on Step 294 to indicate that the time is now post meridian rather than an timeridian When the microcomputer has determined that the hour register has not counted twelve during Step 288 then the hour register is checked to determine whether or not the number of hours counted equals thirteen Step 296 A count of 13 requires that the number of hours counted by the hour register be reset to one Step 298 before the program executes jump instruction 299 to branch to to program block B to re execute Step 244 Otherwise if the count of the hour register is other than thirteen then the program executes jump instruction 299 to branch to Step 244 directly without resetting of the hours register DECIDE IF REGENERATION IS REQUIRED STEPS 286 328 Should the microcomputer determine during execu tion of step 286 that the time of day is 2 00 a m or such other offhour time as designated for regeneration then the microcomputer proceeds to determine whether or not regeneration should occur by branching to block D and executing the following steps illustrated in flow chart form in FIG 5D First the total number of gal lons used during the just elapsed 24 hour period as determined during execution of Steps 274 278 are added to the total number of gallons used since previous regeneration Step 304 Next the status daily usage default flag is checked Step 305 1 Should the
22. and the quan tity of water consumed Qc 6 The method according to claim 3 further including the steps of determining if the particle bed refining capacity remains depleted following initiation of regenera tion and b providing an indication when the particle bed remains depleted following regeneration 7 A control for a water treatment device having a particle bed requiring periodic regeneration compris mg a flowmeter for measuring the volume of flow leav ing the water treatment device a particle bed sensor for sensing when the treating capacity of the particle bed has been depleted to a predetermined percentage of the toal particle bed treating capacity and a controller for controlling a water treatment device to initiate regeneration of the particle bed including a timer for measuring the passage of time a memory for storing data indicative of the quan tity of treated water used over a period of days in accordance with the flow measured by said flow meter and a central processor coupled to said timer and to said memory for determining the total quantity of treated water consumed since the previous regeneration and the actual average daily quan tity of treated water consumed and establishing a 10 15 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 65 28 treated water reserve quantity indicative of the amount of treated water likely to be consumed prior to the next possible regeneration as a pro por
23. are any errors Step 216 Detection of an error results in a code indicative of the error being displayed on L E D s displays 134a and 1345 Step 218 Otherwise if no errors are detected then the microcomputer causes L E D 1345 to display the least significant digit of the hour of the day Step 220 and causes L E D display 134a to display the most significant hour of the day Step 221 TIME KEEPING AND FLOW DETECTION STEPS 222 234 After displaying either the time of day assuming that no errors exist or after displaying the error code the microcomputer then checks the one second count re corded by the internal microcomputer timer Step 222 When the microcomputer has completed this task Step 224 that is to say that the lapse of one second has been recorded by the one second register then the mi crocomputer branches to program block A and reloads the one second register Step 226 as indicated in FIG 5B Otherwise while the microcomputer is waiting for one second to elapse the microcomputer checks the flow meter Step 228 by inputting the logic level out put voltage of the flow meter The output logic level voltage of the flow meter 15 compared to a reference level stored in memory Step 230 A determination that the logic level voltage produced by flow meter equals the stored reference value is indicative of the passage of water through the flow meter In response an internal microcomputer counter storing a
24. as been depleted to a predetermined percentage of the total particle bed treating capacity and a a controller coupled to said flowmeter for determin ing the total quantity of treated water leaving the water treatment device and for determining the actual average of the daily consumption of treated water and establishing a treated water reserve in accordance with said actual average daily con sumption of treated water said controller coupled to said particle bed sensor for determining the par ticle bed treating capacity when said sensor has sensed that the particle bed treating capacity has been depleted to said predetermined percentage and said controller initiating regeneration of the water treatment device particle at a predeter mined time of day if the remaining particle bed 5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 26 treating capacity is less than said established treated water reserve 2 The invention according to claim 1 wherein said controller includes gt microcomputer having an internal timer for recording the passage of time an internal memory for storing data from said flow meter indicative of the amount of treated water leaving the water treatment device over a given period of time and a central processing unit programmed to each day total quantity of treated water consumed since the previous particle bed regeneration and to calculate from th
25. bed in accordance with the ratio of the unit s softening capacity as measured in kilograins to the incoming water hardness as measured in grains gallon The remaining capacity is then ob tained from the difference between the total resin bed softening capacity in gallons and the quantity of water used since the previous regeneration The calculation of the remaining water softener resin bed capacity performed by the control of my previous invention assumes that the hardness of the water re mains constant and that the total treating capacity of the water softener resin bed also remains constant How ever in practice the hardness of the water entering the water softener frequently varies for many reasons Ad ditionally the treating capacity of the water softener resin bed itself may vary from the specified treating capacity because the treating capacity of the resin itself may vary from that specified by the manufacturer Fur thermore the amount of salt used for each regeneration may vary because of inaccuracies in the control opera tion This will cause the capacity of the resin to vary proportionately Also the resin bed volume may not be accurately known so that the calculated remaining water softener resin bed capacity may not always equal the actual remaining water softener resin bed capacity In an effort to overcome these possible deficiencies the present invention concerns an improved microcom puter based water softener c
26. cal clock type water soft 10 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 ener control units the frequency at which such de mand type water softener control units initiate regener ation is dependent on the selected reserve value repre senting the anticipated amount of soft water which will be used prior to the next regeneration interval Since the actual amount of soft water used will likely not remain constant but will vary greatly from day to day the chosen reserve value must be made large to assure that soft water will always be produced by the water soft ener Thus regeneration will likely occur at a greater frequency than is actually necessary In an effort to overcome the disadvantages of prior art water softener control units I previously invented the Microcomputer Controlled Demand Scheduled Water Softener described and claimed in copending U S patent application Ser No 412 279 filed Aug 27 1982 now U S Pat No 4 426 294 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention The water softener described in that patent application operates to initiate water softener regeneration when a reserve value cal culated in accordance with the average daily soft water consumption exceeds the remaining treatment capacity of the water softener The remaining treatment capacity of the water softener resin bed is mathematically calcu lated by first determining the total treating capacity of the water softener resin
27. cally 7 daily values are stored to reflect the softened water usage over a week From the stored daily values of treated water consumption the total amount of treated water consummed since the previous regenera tion is determined as well as the actual average of the daily treated water consumption As the incoming water is treated by the resin bed of the softener the treating capacity of the particle bed is being depleted When the particle bed treating capacity has been depleted to a predetermined percentage typi cally 50 of the total treating capacity then the resin bed sensor alerts the microcomputer From information provided by the resin bed sensor the microcomputer establishes the total resin bed treating capacity as a proportion of the amount of treated water consummed since the previous regeneration The calculated value of the total resin bed capacity obtained in this way re places the total resin bed capacity value previously stored in the microcomputer memory during the last operation cycle so that the microcomputer memory always contains a total resin bed capacity value truly representative of the actual resin bed capacity From the total resin bed capacity value stored in the mi crocomputer memory the actual remaining resin bed capacity can easily be calculated by subtracting from the total resin bed capacity the amount of soft water consumed At a designated time each day typically at 2 00 a m or such other off hour as i
28. count rep resentative of a passage of a certain quantity of water through the flow meter during a given interval is incre mented Step 232 and thereafter the decimal point segment of light emitting diode display 1340 FIG 4 is energized or toggled Step 234 to indicate water flow through the softener POWER LOSS DETECTION STEPS 236 242 Following a determination that the output logic level voltage of the flow meter has not changed states or 20 25 30 40 45 55 60 65 18 following toggling of the L E D display decimal point segment an internal microcomputer register designated as a power loss counter is incremented Step 236 This register is referred to power loss counter be cause its count continues to be incremented during the period while the microcomputer is awaiting its internal timer to record the lapse of one second Failure of the power loss counter to be incremented indicates failure of the internal microcomputer timer to record the pas sage of one second thus indicating a loss of a c power By checking the count of the power loss counter Step 238 a power loss can be detected If the count of the power loss counter has not been incremented as deter mined during Step 238 a powre failure has occurred and the microcomputer than blanks the display of light emitting diodes 1344 and 1346 of FIG 4 Step 240 to conserve on power After the display has been blanked the microcom
29. d over the past seven days excluding the just elapsed day by summing the seven separate values representing the daily soft water consumption for that day and dividing the total sum by seven Step 306 Once the average of the daily consumption of soft water is calculated this average value is compared to the previous day s total consumption Step 308 If the previous day s consump tion is greater than 2096 or any other small portion of the average daily consumption then the previous day s usage is stored in memory as the amount of water con 4 469 602 23 sumed for that day causing each of the daily stored values of the water consumption to be shifted in mem to now represent one earlier days usage Step 310 before proceeding to the next step Note that the earliest day s usage will be erased However when the previous day s usage is less than 20 of the average daily con sumption it is added to the total amount of water used between regenerations but it is not stored in memory as the amount of soft water consumed during that day so that no data shifting occurs In this way an unusually low daily consumption of soft water is ignored to avoid a zero average daily consumption of soft water such as might occur during intervals of non usage such as dur ing vacations Following execution of Step 310 or following execu tion of Step 308 if the consumption for a given day is less than 2096 of the average daily consumption the m
30. e particle bed treating capacity of the softener has been depleted to a predetermined percent age typically 50 of the total particle bed treating capacity A controller is coupled to the flow meter and in accordance with flow data supplied therefrom the controller determines both the total quantity of treated water leaving the softener since the time of the previous regeneration and also determines the average of the daily consumption of treated water In accordance with the average daily consumption of treated water the controller establishes a treated water reserve represent ing the amount of treated water likely to be used during the interval prior to the next possible regeneration During each operational cycle of the control which corresponds in duration to the scheduled period be tween possible regenerations the control determines the total resin bed capacity which resulted from the previous regeneration in accordance with information from the resin bed sensor and the flow meter From the total resin bed treating capacity the amount of soft water consumed since the previous regeneration is sub tracted to yield the remaining resin bed capacity If the remaining resin bed treating capacity is less than the established reserve then regeneration of the resin bed is initiated In accordance with another aspect of this invention I have provided an improved method for controlling regeneration of the particle bed of a water treatment
31. e to locate resin bed sensor 49 outside of the resin tank and to feed water through the special resin 49c by way of connecting tubes not shown Although water softener resin bed regeneration is normally effected when control circuit 50 energizes motor 48 there may be instances when manual regener ation is desired To enable manual regeneration gear 32 has a hub 52 extending forwardly of the gear and through an opening 54 FIG 1 in cover 38 Gear 32 and hub 52 are spring biased from shaft 32a so that when the hub 52 of the gear is pushed inwardly gear 32 becomes disengaged from idler gear 44 so as to allow the cam shaft to be manually rotated upon rotation of the hub As the hub is rotated either manually or upon the gear 32 being driven by the motor 48 an arrow 55 on the hub points to indicia not shown on the face of cover 38 representing the various states of water soft ener operation to indicate which step of the regenera tion cycle is then being executed or whether valves are presently in the service position Protruding outwardly from the gear 32 is a member 56 which as the gear rotates comes into contact with the spring biased arm 57a of a leaf switch 57 Leaf switch 57 is connected to control circuit 50 in a manner described hereinafter The switch is actuated either by member 56 as the gear is rotated or when the hub is simply depressed since the outward force of the mem ber 56 keeps the spring biased arm 57a from norma
32. e total quantity of treated water consumed the actual average of daily consumption of treated water and to establish treated water reserve from said actual average daily treated water consump tion said central processing unit coupled to said particle bed sensor and in response to a signal therefrom indicating depletion of said particle bed to said predetermined percentage P ex pressed as a decimal of the total particle bed tr ating capacity said central processing unit determining the total particle bed treating capac ity in accordance with the ratio of the quan tity of treated water consumed Qc to the pre determined percentage of depletion said central processing unit initiating regeneration of said particle bed at said prescribed time each day when said remaining particle bed treating capac ity determined in accordance with the dif ference between the total particle bed treating capacity the quantity of water con sumed Qc is less than said established treated water reserve 3 method of controlling a water treatment device having a particle bed requiring a regeneration compris ing the steps of a measuring quantity of treated water leaving the water treatment device for a given period of time b determining the total quantity Qc of treated water consumed since the previous regeneration in accordance with the measured quantity of treated water leaving sa
33. eeds directly to set the sensor flag 279 9 TIME UPDATE STEPS 280 298 Following setting of the sensor flag Step 279 9 or following a determination that the sensor flag had been set 279 1 or that the switch 49 was on Step 279 2 then the microcomputer proceeds to check whether or not the 10 second register which counts the passage of 10 second increments has counted out six times thus indicating the passage of a minute Step 280 If the ten second timer has not counted out six times then the microcomputer jumps to program block B to re execute Step 244 and those following it described previously to make sure that the relay flag is set or not set and then to cause the time of day to be flashed the L E D s 134a and 1346 of FIG 4 When however the ten second register of the inter nal microcomputer timer has in fact counted out six times indicating the passage of a minute then the mi crocomputer checks the 60 minute register to determine whether or not the number of minutes that have been counted equals sixty Step 282 indicating the passage of an hour The microcomputer will execute a jump in struction Step 283 to branch to block B of the program if an hour has not elapsed so that the microcomputer commences re execution of Step 244 Otherwise if the number of minutes counted does equal sixty then the hour register which counts the number of hours that have elapsed is incremented by one Step 285 Followi
34. eneration Step 322 Should the count of a register recording the number of days since regeneration be 7 or greater indicating that 7 or more days have elapsed since the previous regeneration then the microcomputer will execute jump instruction 320 to branch control to program block E and Step 324 which when executed initiates water softener regenera tion In this way regeneration is automatically effected every 7 days if no previous regenerations have occurred as is sometimes required by the health laws of countries foreign to the U S When the microcomputer has determined that the power frequency is not 50 Hzor if the power frequency is 50 Hz and 7 days have not elapsed since the previous regeneration then the microcomputer proceeds to determine the remaining refining capacity of the resin bed 14 Step 334 The remaining treating capacity of resin bed 14 is determined by the microcomputer as follows If 1 the total treating capacity of the resin bed as determined in Step 279 5 and Qc is the quantity of water consumed thus far which represents the amount of treating capacity depleted thus far as deter mined in Step 304 then Qg the remaining capacity is given by the formula 2 Typically the units for these capacities are in gallons value representing the remaining water softener capacity is then compared to the reserve value Step 336 previously calculated either during Step 314 or Step 316 Following c
35. er recording the number of elapsed seconds Step 252 Thereafter the microcomputer then clears the timer ten second register recording the number of ten second intervals that have elapsed Step 254 Next the microcomputer clears the register recording the num ber of 60 second or one minute intervals that have elapsed Step 256 before the microcomputer incre ments the register of the internal microcomputer timer which records the passage of hours Step 258 Upon incrementation of the hour register of the inter nal microcomputer timer a flash flag is reset Step 260 before clearing the register storing the error codes Step 262 The purpose of the flash flag will be ex plained below After either the microcomputer has cleared the error code register Step 262 or after the computer has determined that the time switch 79 of FIG 4 has not been closed Step 248 the microcom puter determines whether the flash flag has been set Step 264 During execution of the presently described pro gram an internal flag within the microcomputer re ferred to as the flag is alternately set and reset every second As will become clear immediately herein after the alternation of the state of the flash flag causes the display of light emitting diodes 1340 and 1345 to flash on and off during alternate seconds A determina tion that the flash flag was unset when checked during Step 264 causes the microcomputer 58 to execute a jum
36. er the remaining portion of the interior of housing 49b In this way switch 497 remains unexposed to the water within the resin bed Referring now to FIG 3B if the water passing through openings 49d in the outer housing 49a and entering inner housing 49 is hard then the special resin 49c shrinks in volume so that the diaphragm 49g is no longer urged by the volume of special resin 49c against spring 491 The amount of shrinkage shown in FIG has been exaggerated for purposes of illustration With the volume of the special resin now reduced spring 497 urges the diaphragm downwardly so as to displace arm 49e to its lower most position With arm 49e at its low er most position the leaf arm 49j of the leaf switch 497 is no longer contacted by the head 49i of the arm so that switch 49 now becomes conductive In practice with the resin sensor 49 located approximately half way into the resin bed 14 within tank 12 of FIG 1 switch 497 becomes conductive when resin bed capacity has been depleted to approximately one half 50 of its original treating capacity It should be understood that the particular embodi ment of sensor 49 described above is only exemplary and that other types of resin bed sensors could be uti lized For example a resin bed sensor responsive to the water conductivity such as disclosed in U S Pat No 4 257 887 could be utilized in place of resin bed sensor 49 Moreover in certain instances it may be desirabl
37. gh a port not shown in com munication with inlet 23a and outlet 235 so that when the inlet and outlet valves are closed water may flow directly through the inlet and out the outlet while valve 254 is open The remaining valves 25 25b and 25c serve to control the flow of water and brine from the tank into a drain conduit 30 FIG 1 During a regeneration cycle each of valves 25a through 25g is actuated at an appropriate interval by a separate one of the corresponding cams 26a through 26g carried on a cam shaft 28 when the cam shaft is rotated to bring the corresponding cam into contact with the valve Cam shaft 28 is journaled at its rearend into a cam shaft support 31 extending upwardly from the valve module The forward rightward end of cam shaft 28 has forwardly extending shank for engaging the shaped slot in the rearward end of the outwardly ex tending shaft 32a of a gear 32 FIG 3 As best illus trated in FIG 3 gear 32 is journaled for rotation within the cavity 33 of a control housing 34 Returning to FIG 2 control housing 34 is slidably secured to the forward end of the valve module 24 by a pair of support guides 36 FIGS 1 and 2 which each engage complimentary flanges not shown on the exterior of the control hous ing What has been described thus far with respect to the construction and operation of the valve module 24 is well known in the art The cavity 33 FIG 3 within the forward end of the control
38. gulated d c i disse to energize microcom puter 58 is supplied to the microcomputer at its Vcc pin by a power supply 59 comprised of a transformer 60 whose primary winding 60a is coupled to a supply of 110 220 volt 50 60 Hertz a c supply not shown Because of the lack of space within the cavity 33 for the transformer transformer 60 is mounted to the rear of the control housing as shown in FIG 2 The low volt age a c produced across the center tapped transformer secondary winding 605 when the primary is coupled to the a c supply voltage is rectified by a pair of diodes 614 and 616 whose anodes are each coupled to one of opposite ends of the transformer secondary winding 605 With the diode cathodes connected together an unregulated d c voltage appears between the junction of the diode cathodes hereafter referred to as the power supply unregulated voltage unreg output terminal and the transformer center tap hereinafter referred to as the power supply common terminal The unregulated d c voltage present between the unregulated voltage and common terminals of power supply is filtered by a pair of parallel coupled capacitors 62a and 62b before being supplied to a voltage regulator 63 The 5 volt regulated d c voltage produced at the output of the regulator which is designated as the 5 V output of the power supply is filtered by a pair of capacitances 64a and 645 coupled in parallel between the 5 V power suppl
39. he ratio of resin bed capacity measured in kilograins of hardness to the incoming water hardness in grains gal lon and the amount of the soft water consumed since the previous regeneration The operation of my previ ous water softener control thus assumes that the incom ing water hardness and the resin bed capacity remain constant However in practice neither the incoming water hardness nor the water softener resin bed capac ity are constant Thus the required amount of regener ant and water may vary because of inaccuracies of con trol operation overcome this disadvantage the water softener control of the present invention includes a resin bed sensor 49 typically located approximately half way down into the bed 14 as illustrated in FIG 1 for provid ing an electrical indication when the refining capacity of resin bed 14 of FIG 1 has been depleted to a prede termined percentage typically 50 of the total resin bed refining capacity A better understanding of the resin bed sensor 49 may be gained by reference to FIGS 3A and 3B which are cross sectional views of the resin bed sensor in its expanded and contracted state respectively Referring now to both FIGS 3A and 3B the resin bed sensor 49 comprises an outer housing 49a which is typically made from a water and brine impervious mate rial such as plastic or the like Within housing 49a is an interior housing 496 which contains a quantity of spe cial resin 49c whose vo
40. housing 34 is closed by a cover 38 which is secured to the forward end of the control housing by screws 39 illustrated in FIG 3 Referring now to FIG 3 which is a frontal view of control housing 34 showing portion of cover 38 cut away cover 38 15 generally opaque except for a window 40 which carries the indi cia WATER FLOW and REGEN As will become clear hereinafter by reference to FIG 4 window 40 allows displays within the cavity to display certain information as well as to illuminate the indicia on the window Immediately below window 40 is a passageway 41 through the cover which has a spring biased button 42 protruding outwardly therethrough As will also become clear by reference to FIG 4 but ton 42 is depressed to set the time displayed by the display through window 40 With a portion of cover 38 broken away in FIG 3 it can be observed that not only is gear 32 journaled within the cavity 33 but an idler gear 44 is also jour naled within cavity 33 and is in meshing engagement with gear 32 Idler gear 44 is driven by a gear 46 which is carried on the forward end of the shaft of motor 48 FIG 2 the motor being mounted on the rear of the control housing so that its shaft extends through the control housing 34 and into the cavity to receive gear 46 Motor 48 of FIG 2 which is typically a 1 RPM A C clock motor is energized with alternating current by a control circuit 50 of FIG 4 described hereinaf
41. ial resin 49c within the sensor 49 of FIGS 3A and 3B should be soft Thus a determination that switch 49 is non conductive sents the normal state of affairs following regenerations so that if the microcomputer finds the switch 49 to be off the microcomputer executes Step 328 to branch to program block C In practice the status of the switch is checked at the end of the regeneration cycle Should the conduction state of switch 49 be on when checked during execution of Step 327 3 then the mi crocomputer outputs a logic high level signal at pin 16 FIG 4 to toggle light emitting diode 175 Step 327 4 to signal that no regeneration was effected notwith standing the fact that a regeneration cycle was initiated thereby alerting the user to take the appropriate steps such as adding regenerant or having the unit repaired to assure proper operation After light emitting diode 175 is turned on the microcomputer then executes a jump instruction Step 328 to branch to program block C If however a regeneration has occured since start up of the microcomputer following a power failure then jump instruction 320 is not executed but rather the mi crocomputer branches to Step 321 during which step the microcomputer checks to see whether the fre quency of the incoming power is 50 Hz If the frequency is 50 Hz then the microcomputer checks to see whether 7 or any other predetermined number of days have elapsed since the last reg
42. icrocomputer then checks whether or not the previ ous day s consumption was greater th n 200 of the average daily consumption Step 312 Should the pre vious day s consumption of soft water be greater than 200 of the seven day s average consumption of soft water due to a sudden increase in water consumption which may result from the arrival of weekend guests for example then this previous day s usage is stored in memory as a reserve value Step 314 This reserve value represents the total amount of soft water likely to be consumed during the next 24 hour interval before the microcomputer will again make a determination as to whether or not regeneration is necessary Otherwise the reserve value is determined as a percentage of the calcu lated seven day average Step 316 Typically if the previous day s consumption is less than 200 of the calculated average the reserve calculated during Step 312 is obtained by multiplying the seven day average by 1 2 After the reserve is established either during tion of Step 314 or Step 316 depending whether the previous day s consumption was greater than or less than 20096 of the calculated seven day average respec tively then the microcomputer checks whether a re generation has occurred following start up after a power failure Step 318 If no regeneration has oc curred following start up after a power failure then the microcomputer initiates regeneration by executing jump
43. id water treatment device c determining the actual average of daily consump tion of treated water in accordance with said mea sured quantity of treated water leaving the water treatment device d establishing a reserve quantity of treated water as a proportion of the actual average daily quantity of soft water consumed e determining if the particle bed water treating ca pacity has been depleted to a predetermined per centage P of the total water treatment device treating capacity and if so calculating the total particle bed treating capacity Q7 as a proportion of the total quantity of treated water consumed since the previous regeneration f calculating the remaining particle bed treating capacity from the total resin bed capacity 07 and quantity of treated water consumed since the previous regeneration Qc and g initiating regeneration of the particle bed if the remaining particle bed treating capacity is less than said established treated water reserve 4 469 602 27 4 The method according to claim 3 wherein the total water treatment particle bed treating capacity is determined in accordance with the ratio of the quantity of water consumed Qc to the predetermined percent age P of depletion The method according to claim 3 wherein the remaining particle bed treating capacity is calcu lated in accordance with the difference between the total particle bed treating capacity
44. ing Step 279 3 caused a depletion of 50 of the resin bed refining capacity it is logical to assume that consumption of twice as much soft water will result in complete depletion of the resin bed The total treating capacity Q7 of the resin bed can be expressed mathematically as Where Qc is quantity of soft water consumed since the previous regeneration and P is the percentage deple tion expressed as a decimal of the resin bed as sensed by sensor 49 Thereafter the microcomputer 58 checks to see whether or not the daily usage default flag has been set as occurs during Step 204 following an initial pow er up Step 200 A determination that the daily usage default flag was set causes the microcomputer to enter 4 469 602 21 the daily usage default values into memory Step 279 7 since actual usage values are not available because the microcomputer has not yet been operational for a suffi cient period of time to enable their calculations Typi cally each of the seven memory locations storing the daily total soft water consumption is filled with 1 of the value calculated in Step 278 Following entry of the daily default usage values the daily usage default flag is cleared Step 279 8 following which the sensor flag is set Step 279 9 to indicate updating of the capacity value If at the time the daily usage default flag is checked Step 279 6 the flag has not been set then the microcomputer proc
45. instruction 320 to branch to program block E and Step 324 Step 324 when executed causes the mi crocomputer to set the previously described relay flag which results in the energization of motor 48 of FIGS 1 and 2 to initiate regeneration of the water softener In this way regeneration always occurs after a power fail ure but not until the resin bed capacity is 50 depleted to assure that soft water always leaves the softener which may not otherwise occur if a large quantity of soft water is consumed during the power failure After the relay flag has been set then the memory location within the internal microcomputer memory storing the data representing the number of galions used since the previous regeneration is cleared Step 326 Once this memory location has been cleared the internal mi crocomputer register which keeps track of the number of days between regeneration intervals is reset Step 327 1 Following resetting of the internal microcomputer register recording the elapsed days between tions the sensor flag is cleared Step 327 2 to facilitate subsequent calculation of the total resin bed capacity upon execution of Steps 279 1 279 9 during the next 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 24 operational cycle Thereafter status of switch 49 checked Step 327 3 Normally switch 497 should be come non conductive after regeneration since the water in communication with the spec
46. ion cou pled in series with resistance 108 between the mi crocomputer reset input terminating at the RESET pin and the power supply common terminal During inter vals while a c is supplied to the power supply transis tor 96 is rendered conductive to divert current from the base of transistor 106 to keep it from conducting thereby keeping the impedance at the microcomputer reset input high However once the a c supply voltage fails and then is reapplied to the power supply transis tor 96 which had become nonconductive once the a c supply voltage failed will not again become conductive until the unregulated output voltage of the power sup ply 59 reaches the threshold voltage of Zener diode 94 In the meantime with transistor 96 temporarily noncon 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 ductive transistor 106 becomes conductive once power is reapplied to provide a low impedance path between the microcomputer reset input and the power supply common terminal to reset the microcomputer As will become better understood by reference to flow chart FIGS 5A 5D microcomputer 58 is pro grammed to initiate water softener resin bed regenera tion when the reamining resin bed treating capacity as determined from the amount of water used since the previous regeneration and the water hardness is less than a reserve value circulated as a percentage of the actual average daily soft water consumption
47. lly moving downwardly to actuate the switch When switch 57 is actuated the control circuit initiates regen 9 eration Thus regeneration be effected not only by manually rotating hub 52 but by simply depressing the hub to activate switch 57 The details of control circuit 50 are set forth schemat ically in FIG 4 At the heart of control circuit 50 is a data processing unit 58 which in the presently pre ferred embodiment takes the form of a single chip mi crocomputer such as a model 8048 microcomputer as manufactured by Intel Corporation Santa Clara Calif Microcomputer 58 includes on board random access memory for storing data previously entered to the mi crocomputer or developed during the course of opera tion thereof Also the microcomputer includes on board read only memory in which is stored the operat ing program to be described in greater detail with re spect to FIGS 5A to 5D This program controls the operation of the internal microcomputer arithmetic logic unit which performs the necessary calculations and logic determinations to decide whether regenera tion should be effected In addition to the on board memory and the arithmetic logic unit microcomputer 58 also includes an internal timer which serves as a real time clock For a further more complete description of the Model 8048 microcomputer reference should be had to the MCS 48 User s Manual published by Intel Corporation A 5 volt re
48. lume varies in accordance with the softness of the water exposed to it Openings 49d are provided through the outer wall of the outer housing 49a and openings 49d are provided in the outer wall of the inner housing 495 to allow the water within the tank 12 of FIG 1 to be exposed to the special resin 49c held within housing 492 Extending vertically downwardly through the top wall of housing 496 into the interior of the inner housing is arm 49e whose lower end is mounted by way of a screw 49f to a diaphragm 49g A spring 49h is inter posed between the top wall of the inner housing 495 and the diaphragm 49g to yieldably urge the diaphragm 49g against the volume of special resin 49c As best illus trated in FIG 3A while the water passing through openings 494 in outer housing 496 is soft the volume of _ special resin 49c is fully expanded so as to bias the dia 0 20 25 35 40 45 65 8 phragm 49g against spring 491 Arm 49e is thus urged to its upward most position While arm 49e remains at its upward most position the head 497 of the arm 49e bears against the leaf arm 49k of a leaf switch 49 to render the leaf switch non conductive Although not shown means taking the form of a gasket or the like is pro vided to seal the housing 495 within the interior of the housing 49 so that the water entering openings 49d only enters the interior of housing 495 in communica tion with the openings but does not ent
49. mputer outputs a logical high level voltage at pins 1 and during the interval when the time of day is between 1000 and 2000 hours During the interval when the time of day as determined by the internal microcomputer timer is between 2000 hours and 0100 hours then the microcomputer outputs a logic high level voltage at both pins P13 and pin 1250 that segments a d e and g are energized by transistor 140 and segment b is energized by transistor 146 to display a 2 at display 1345 L E D display 134a like display 134b is also pro vided with a decimal point segment d p which is linked via a resistance 158 to the lowest order line 10 of the first microcomputer port terminating at pin During intervals other than when regeneration is occurring that is during intervals when soft water is flowing through resin bed 14 of FIG 1 and out outlet 235 of FIG 2 then microcomputer 58 outputs a logic level voltage at pin which alternates between a high and low logic level to alternately energize the decimal point segment d p of L E D display 134a Decimal point segment d p of display 1345 appears behind the indicia WATER FLOW on window 40 of FIG 3 so that while water is flowing through the softener the decimal point seg ment d p of L E D 134a flashes In addition to light emitting diode displays 134a and 134b control circuit 50 advantageously includes an additional light emitting diode 175 coupled between the
50. ng incrementation of the hour register the microcomputer then determines whether or not the particular time of day as determined by the count of the hour counter is 2 00 a m Step 286 so that the mi crocomputer can determine whether or not regenera tion should occur at this time of day when treated water use is unlikely in a household Should the time not be 2 00 a m then the microcomputer checks the count of the hour register to determine whether or not the count of the hour register is twelve which would indicate a time of either 12 00 noon or 12 00 midnight step 288 Upon determination that the count of the hour counter was 12 the microcomputer then checks whether or not the decimal point segment d p of light emitting diode 134a of FIG 4 was previously energized Step 290 If at the time the count of hour register equals 12 the microcomputer has determined that the decimal point segment d p of L E D 134a of FIG 4 was previously on indicating that the time of day was after 11 00 p m but before 12 00 midnight then the decimal point segment d p is turned off Step 292 indi cating that the time is now after midnight and before noon However if the decimal point segment d p of the light emitting diode 134a had previously been off or de energized before the count of the hour register reached twelve then after the hour counter has counted 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 22 twelve the decim
51. ns 4 469 602 17 DBo DBs and port pins to pin 14 If the mi crocomputer is operating in the self test mode then the microcomputer checks to see which of any of the switches connected thereto such as switch 150 have been actuated Step 208 Should a particular switch be actuated then a particular code representing the switch is displayed Step 210 DISPLAY OF TIME OF DAY STEPS 212 221 Once the microcomputer 58 has determined that it is not operating in the self test mode the microcomputer examines the conduction state of switch 81 to determine whether not the incoming a c supply to the primary of transformer 60 is at 50 or 60 hertz Step 212 The frequency of the a c supply voltage is important since the internal timer of microcomputer 58 is clocked in response to the alternations of the a c power supply voltage If frequency of the a c input voltage is 50 hertz then microcomputer 58 operates light emitting diode displays 134a and 1345 FIG 4 as a 24 hour clock Step 214 assuming that switch 150 has been set to the 24 hour position In a location where the frequency of the a c supply voltage is 50 hertz time is usually mea sured in 24 hour fashion rather than a 12 hour fashion Following either a determination that the a c supply voltage is 60 hertz or following the operation of the L E D 1340 and 1345 FIG 4 in a 24 hour clock mode microcomputer 58 checks to see whether or not there
52. oltage at the input to the power supply 59 a regulated d c voltage is provided to pin Vga from the power supply via a diode 86 Usually the battery voltage is less than the sum of the break over voltage of the Zener diode 34 and the volt age drop across diode 86 but is greater than the Zener diode break over voltage Thus only when the supply voltage fails will battery 82 render Zener diode 84 con ductive and supply voltage to the microcomputer Note that a capacitance could be substituted as an energy storage device in place of battery 82 A capacitor 87 is connected between microcomputer pin and the power supply common terminal to filter any noise Once the a c supply does fail resetting of the mi crocomputer is usually necessary A reset circuit 90 for accomplishing resetting of microcomputer upon power up includes a resistance 92 and a Zener diode 94 coupled in series between the power supply unregu lated voltage output terminal and the base of a first transistor 96 whose collector to emitter portion is cou pled in series with a resistance 98 between the power supply unregulated voltage output terminal and the power supply common terminal The base emitter junc tion of the transistor is shunted by the parallel combina tion of a resistance 100 and a capacitance 102 second transistor 106 has its base coupled to the junction between resistance 98 and transistor 96 and transistor 106 has its collector to emitter port
53. omparison of the reserve value to the calculated value representing the remaining water softener resin bed treating capacity the microcomputer then determines whether or not regeneration should occur Step 340 If the reserve value as previously calculated during either Step 314 or Step 316 is greater ee 4 469 602 25 than the remaining water softener resin bed capacity so that it is highly improbable that the water softener would be able to treat that amount of soft water likely to be consumed during the next 24 hour interval then regeneration is effected by branching to Step 324 to cause the relay flag to be set and motor 48 of FIGS 1 and 2 to be energized Otherwise when the remaining water softener capacity calculated during step 334 is greater than the reserve calculated during either of steps 314 or 316 then no regeneration need be effected Upon this event the microcomputer executes jump instruction 328 to branch to program block C and Step 216 Following execution of Step 216 the microcom puter then executes an appropriate sequence of Steps 220 265 in the manner described previously Execution of the above described program occurs continuously during operation of the water softener without any need for manual intervention The entire operation is automatic since data regarding soft water consumption and the refining bed capacity is supplied as required by the flowmeter 110 and the resin bed sensor 49 Even a power
54. ontrol unit which includes a resin bed sensor for sensing when approximately one half or any other portion of the resin bed treating capacity has been depleted Information from the resin bed sensor indicative of a predetermined depletion of the total resin bed refining capacity is processed by the microcomputer together with data indicative of the measured volume of the soft water consumed to yield a value as measured in gallons of the total resin bed capacity that results from the previous regeneration This affords a much more accurate manner of determin ing the actual resin bed capacity than calculating the resin bed capacity using a theoretical value of the bed capacity and a single value of the water hardness At a given time each day the microcomputer based control 4 469 602 3 system initiates water softer regeneration if a reserve value calculated in accordance with the actual soft water consumption exceeds the remaining water soft ener resin bed capacity as previously determined from the resin sensor information and the measured value of soft water consumed BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly in accordance with the preferred embodi ment of the invention I have provided an improved control for a water softener requiring periodic resin bed regeneration comprising a flow meter for detecting the quantity of softened water leaving the softener My improved control also includes a particle bed sensor for sensing when th
55. or is energized with a c current to drive cam shaft 28 of FIGS 1 3 thereby initiating resin bed regeneration To filter the voltage switched by optical triac 130 a resistance 132 is coupled in series with a filter capacitor 134 across terminals 1 and M2 of the optical triac As will be recalled a switch 57 FIG 3 is positioned within cavity 33 so that the switch is actuated either upon depression of hub 52 and gear 32 or upon rotation of the gear Returning to FIG 4 switch 57 has its contacts connected to collector and emitter of transistor 124 respectively Thus when switch 57 is actuated the switch shorts the collector to emitter portion of the transistor to energize the optical triac 130 In addition to the previously described subcircuitry of the control circuit 50 the control circuit 50 also includes a display comprised of a pair of 7 segment light 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 60 65 14 emitting diode L E D displays 134a and 1345 for displaying not only the time of day as measured by the number of alternations of the a c supply voltage re corded by the internal microprocessor timer but also for providing an indication of soft water flow from the tank 12 Both of L E D s display 134a and 1346 are coupled to the 5 V and unregulated output voltage terminals of the power supply 59 Each of the seven segments a g of L E D display 134a is connected via a separate one of pull up resistances 1362 through 1
56. outage will not totally prevent execu tion of the internal microcomputer program controlling the water softener although it is necessary for be resumed in order for the control circuit 50 to effec tively control water softener regeneration Although the control circuit of the present invention has been described for use with a resin bed water soft ener it is equally useful for controlling other types of water treatment devices having a filter bed requiring periodic regeneration The foregoing describes an improved control circuit for a water softener for controlling regeneration of a water softener resin bed in accordance with the actual average daily consumption and the resin refining capacity so as to prevent the water softener from regen erating too often or not often enough While only certain preferred features of the invention have been shown by way of illustration many modifica tions and changes will occur to those skilled in the art It is therefore to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as will fall within the true spirit of the inven tion What is claimed is 1 A control for a water treatment device having a particle bed requiring periodic regeneration compris ing a flowmeter for detecting the quantity of treated water leaving the water treatment device particle bed sensor for sensing when the treating capacity of the particle bed h
57. p instruction Step 265 to branch to program block C so that Step 216 is re executed after which either the appropriate error code is displayed Step 218 or if no error exists then the time of day is displayed on LED 134a and 1345 of FIG 4 Steps 220 and 221 However a determination that the flash flag is set causes the mi crocomputer 58 to check to see whether another flag referred to as the alter flag has been set Step 266 This flag is set each time the time of day data to be displayed by the light emitting diodes has been altered or changed as will occur when the hour of the day has changed When the alter flag has been set then the altered time of day data to be displayed is stored in microcomputer memory in place of the previous time of day data Step 268 and jump Step 265 is then executed so that program control branches to step 216 If the alter flag has not been set then the time of day data is stored Step 270 in a section of memory other than that associ ated with the data to be displayed on the light emitting diode display and data representing a blank display is moved into the memory location where the time of day data to be displayed is usually stored Step 272 before jump step 265 is executed When data representing a blank is stored in this memory location of the mi crocomputer memory and when steps 220 and 221 are executed neither of light emitting diode displays 134a and 1346 are energized so as to effectivel
58. r 38 serves to shroud the terminal block 122 along with the other components of the control circuit to prevent access thereto except by an authorized ser vice technician Returning to FIG 4 if the microcomputer deter mines from the input flow meter data and from the resin bed sensor data that regeneration is required then the microcomputer outputs a high level logical voltage on the second highest order data bus line 6 terminating at pin DBs This voltage is supplied to the base of a transis tor 124 which is also supplied with a regulated 5 volt d c voltage from the power supply via pull up resis tance 126 Transistor 124 has its collector to emitter portion coupled in series with a resistance 128 between the power supply common terminal and one of the light emitter input terminals L2 of an optical triac 130 whose other light emitter input L is coupled to the unregu lated voltage output terminal of the power supply When transistor 124 is rendered conductive by mi crocomputer 58 the transisor provides a completed circuit path for current to pass in the light emitter of the optical isolator 130 to render the optical isolator con ductive Optical isolator 130 when rendered conduc tive provides a completed circuit path between its input terminals and 12 which are supplied with an a c voltage and output terminals M1 and M2 respectively which are coupled to motor 48 Thus when transistor 124 is rendered conductive themot
59. ransistor 124 of FIG 4 is rendered conductive to energize the optical triac 130 of FIG 4 The optical triac then ener gizes motor 48 FIG 2 to drive cam shaft 28 FIGS 1 and 2 to initiate regeneration After regeneration is initiated by setting of the relay flag the relay flag re mains set for ten minutes to assure that the optical triac keeps motor 48 of FIG 2 energized Once the motor has been energized to drive the camshaft 28 of FIGS 1 and 2 via gears 46 44 and 32 the switch 57 is kept closed by the rotation of the gears to keep the motor energized well after the 10 minutes has elapsed so that the entire regeneration cycle which usually takes between 1 2 hours will be completed Returning to FIG 5C if the relay flag has been set or is on the microcomputer makes sure that the relay flag has been set Step 246 before determining whether or not switch 79 of FIG 4 has been closed Step 248 to set the time displayed by light emitting diodes 134a and 134b of FIG 4 Alternatively the microcomputer makes sure that after having not detected a set relay flag that no flag was in fact set Step 250 before check 4 469 602 19 ing to see whether switch 79 is closed to alter dis played time Step 248 Following the determination that switch 79 has been closed to set the time display by the light emitting di odes 134a and 1346 of FIG 4 microcomputer then clears the internal microcomputer timer one second regist
60. rst week of operation Each of the seven artificial values representing the daily con sumption of soft water used for a particular day of the week is initially entered during latter execution of the program as hereinafter described However once an operational cycle has been completed these values are replaced with the actual value of the daily consumption of soft water as determined from the flow meter during later operation of the water softener control In my previous water softener control described and claimed in U S patent application Ser No 412 279 the capacity value was entered by jumpering one or more of the microcomputer port pins to a corresponding data plus pin However such provisions are made in the 60 65 present water softener control for inputting the capac ity so that an alternate method must be available for entering default values to enable a first determination of the capacity of the sensor SELF TEST MODE STEPS 206 210 Following setting of the daily default usage flag to indicate daily usage values representing the amount of soft water used for each of the seven days of a week are required Step 204 the microcomputer 58 then checks whether it is operating in a self test mode Step 206 During installation as well as during intervals when the operation of microcomputer 58 is to be evaluated the microcomputer is placed in a self test mode by jumper ing certain of the microcomputer data bus pi
61. s regeneration may actu ally be occurring too often if actual soft water consump tion is less than the anticipated soft water consumption or not often enough when the actual soft water con sumption exceeds the anticipated soft water consump tion Regenerating the water softener resin bed when sufficient capacity still exists to treat an amount of water equal to or in excess of the anticipated soft water con sumption is wasteful of salt and the water needed in regeneration Conversely failure to regenerate the water softener resin bed after the resin bed capacity has diminished to a point below that required to treat the actual quantity soft water demanded results in hard water leaving the water softener In an effort to better regulate the frequency of water softener resin bed regeneration demand type water softener control units have been developed which sense the remaining capacity of the water softener resin bed to soften water Most present day demand type water softener control units operate to initiate regeneration of the water softener resin bed at an off peak time usually 2 00 a m if the remaining capacity of the water softener resin bed as sensed by the control is less than that required to refine the amount of water which would likely be used prior to the next regeneration interval While demand type water softener control units do achieve better regulation of water softener resin bed regeneration than do mechani
62. s base with the logic level voltage of the second lowest order line 11 of the first microcomputer port terminating at microcomputer pin 4 469 602 15 When switch 150 is set at the 12 Hr position so that the decimal point segment d p of display 134b is cou pled to resistance 152 and segment c is coupled in paral lel with segment b then when transistor 154 is rendered conductive as a result of a microcomputer generating a logic high voltage at pin which is the case during the p m hours of the day as determined by the internal microcomputer timer decimal point segment d p of light emitting diode display 1345 is energized Once energized the decimal point segment d p illuminates the indicia PM on the outer face of window 40 of FIG 3 to indicate the hourly time displayed by L E D displays 134a and 134b is after noon With switch 150 in the 12 Hr position a 1 is displayed by L E D dis play 1346 when transistor 146 is rendered conductive by the microcomputer This will occur when the time of day as determined by the internal microcomputer timer is between either 10 00 a m and 1 00 p m or 10 00 p m and 1 00 a m If however switch 150 is set at the 24 Hr position so that transistor 154 now drives segment c of L E D display 1345 then L E D 134b displays a 1 when both transistor 154 and transistors 146 are rendered conductive to energize segments b and c This will occur when the microco
63. s desirable the mi crocomputer compares the remaining resin bed treating capacity of the water softener to the established reserve If the reserve is greater than the remaining resin bed capacity then regeneration of the particle bed is initi ated Otherwise the microcomputer only updates the data received from the flow meter and waits at least another 24 hour period before determining whether or not regeneration should occur It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved microcomputer based water softener control unit which utilizes a sensor for sensing the treating capacity of the resin bed It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved microcomputer based water soft ener control unit which initiates water softener resin bed regeneration when the remaining resin bed capac ity as sensed by the resin bed sensor is less than a re serve value calculated in accordance with the actual soft water consumption so that regeneration of the resin bed only occurs when necessary thereby achieving a savings of regenerant and water Another object of the present invention is to provide a water softener control which dynamically maintains a value of the total resin bed capacity during each opera tional cycle in accordance with the water hardness and other variables that in fact affect the resin bed capacity In this way greater efficiency is achieved Still another object of the present invention is to
64. sed control unit for a resin bed water softener which initiates regeneration of the water softener resin bed only when necessary The most common type of water softener is the ion exchange resin type softener having a tank which holds a bed of resin through which the hard water is passed to remove undesirable minerals and other impurities The capacity of the resin bed to absorb minerals and impuri ties is finite and it is thus necessary to periodically re charge or regenerate the resin bed with a regenerant typically a brine solution so as to restore the capacity of the resin bed for further water treatment With the earliest types of water softeners regenera tion was effected manually only after it was discovered that the treatment capacity of the resin bed has been exceeded and the water flowing therethrough was no longer soft In an effort to eliminate the need for manual regeneration water softener control systems were de veloped utilizing a mechanical clock which initiated water softener regeneration on a periodic basis the frequency of such regeneration being set in accordance with the known capacity of the resin bed and the antici pated daily usage of soft water While mechanical clock type water softener control units have alleviated the need for manually regenerating the water softener resin bed such water softener control units are subject to the disadvantage that by regenerating the water soft ener resin bed at fixed interval
65. sin bed sensor for sensing the remaining resin bed treating ca pacity as shown in its expanded resin state FIG 3B is a cross sectional view of the particle bed sensor of FIG 3A shown in its concentrated resin state FIG 4 is an electrical schematic diagram of the cir cuitry embodied in the control of the water softener illustrated in FIG 1 FIG 4a is a cut away view of the water softener of FIG 1 taken along lines 4a 4a and FIGS 5A through 5D illustrate in flow chart form the program executed by the water softener control of the present invention during operation DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the Figures FIG 1 illustrates a resin bed type water softener 10 which includes a tank 12 containing a resin bed 14 As incoming hard water enters the tank through an opening not shown in the top thereof the water in the tank is forced through the resin bed and out the draw pipe 16 extending through the center of the resin bed so that water exiting via the draw pipe has been treated by the resin bed to remove minerals and other impurities The capacity of resin bed 14 to absorb the minerals and impurities of the incoming hard water is finite and depends on the treating capac ity of the resin in the tank as measured in kilograins of hardness as well as the hardness of the incoming water as typically measured in grains per gallon To regener ate the resin bed once its treating capacity
66. ter when the control circuit determines in accordance with a particular algorithm that regeneration should be ef fected Motor 48 when energized from control circuit 4 469 602 7 50 drives cam shaft 28 through gears 46 44 and 32 to cause cams 26a through 26g to actuate a corresponding one of valves 25 through 25 respectively The cams 26 26 are shaped such that valves 25a through 257 respectively are actuated in a particular sequence for a particular duration during a single revolution of the cam shaft so that the backwash brining slow rinse and brine refill amp purge steps which are normally required to complete resin bed regeneration are performed in the desired sequence Following a single revolution of the cam shaft the valves return to the service position so as to allow normal water flow through the softener As will be described in greater detail hereinafter the control circuit 50 operates to effect regeneration of the resin bed 14 of FIG 1 when a soft water reserve value representing the amount of soft water likely to be used prior to the next possible regeneration interval exceeds the remaining treating or refining capacity of the resin bed In my previous water softener control described in co pending patent application Ser No 412 279 the remaining refining capacity of the resin bed was calcu lated in accordance with the difference between the total refining capacity of the resin bed established by t
67. tiation of regeneration if said particle bed sensor senses that the particle bed is depleted to said predetermined percentage of its total treating capacity k amp cd ilr aue UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT 4 469 602 Page 1 of 2 DATED September 4 1984 INVENTOR S J David Seal it is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below IN THE ABSTRACT Line 14 capcity should be capacity Col 3 line 1 softer should be softener Col 5 line 55 and a air should be and an air Col 8 line 45 desired enable should be desired enable Col 12 line 26 righward should be rightward Col 13 line 52 themotor should be the motor Col 14 line 22 Po4 Po7 should be 24 27 UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 4 469 602 Page 2 of 2 DATED September 4 1984 INVENTOR S J David Seal It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below Col 14 line 54 suitably should be switchably Col 15 line 23 transistors 146 should be transistor 146 Col 15 line 31 pins and should be pins and 2 Col 17 line 3 which of any should be which if any
68. tion of the actual average daily quantity of treated water consumed said central processor coupled to said particle bed sensor for determin ing the remaining particle bed treating capacity in accordance with a set relationship between the total quantity of treated water consumed since the last regeneration and the predeter mined percentage of particle bed treating capac ity depletion as sensed by said particle bed sensor and said central processing unit initiating regen eration of the water treatment device particle bed when the determined remaining particle bed treating capacity is less than the established treated water reserve 8 The invention according to claim 7 further includ ing an indicator coupled to said central processing unit for indicating when the particle bed treating capacity remains d pleted not withstanding initiation of regener ation 9 In combination with a control for a water treat ment device having a particle bed for initiating regener ation of the particle bed the improvement comprising a particle bed sensor for sensing when the particle bed has been depleted to a predetermined percent age of the total particle bed treating capacity an indicator for indicating that no regeneration of the particle bed has occurred and a circuit responsive to initiation of particle bed regen eration by the control and coupled to said indicator and said particle bed sensor for energizing said indicator following ini
69. tric Co Concord N H is coupled at its input terminal I and its ground terminal to 5 V and common terminal of the power supply A capacitance 1195 shunts the I and G input level to filter any stray noise When ener gized in this manner the Hall Effect switch generates high logic level voltage at its output terminal each time the magnet of the turbine passes the switch This volt age is supplied to the microcomputer at line 17 of the second microcomputer port terminating at the mi crocomputer pin By counting the number of volt age level transistions the microcomputer can determine the turbine velocity which is directly related to the flow rate of water leaving the softener A pull up resistance 119c couples the microcomputer pin to the 5 V power supply terminal to prevent random noise from causing an erroneous flow measurement Input data indicative of the remaining refining capac ity of the resin bed 14 is supplied to the microcomputer on line 15 by coupling the microcomputer pin Pis through switch 49 10 the 5 volt terminal of the power supply When switch 49 is closed as occurs when the refining capacity of the resin bed 14 has been depleted to 50 of its original refining capacity then the mi crocomputer 58 is supplied at its pin P15 with a 5 volt d c voltage As will be better understood from a de scription of the program illustrated in flow chart form in FIGS 5A 5D when switch 49 is closed then
70. y display a blank WATER FLOW CALCULATION STEPS 274 278 Returning now to FIG 5B when the internal mi crocomputer timer has in fact counted ten seconds then the program branches to Step 274 after the ten second register has counted out rather than to Step 244 as was 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 20 described previously Upon execution of Step 274 the microcomputer increments the ten second register Fol lowing incrementation of the ten second register the previously stored count representing the number of transitions of the logic level of the flowmeter output voltage is converted into gallons Step 276 This is accomplished by multiplying the flowmeter output voltage transition count by a constant The constant is actually a conversion factor which equals the number of gallons flowing past the flowmeter during the interval between each transition of the flowmeter output volt age The calculated amount of soft water that left the softener during this 10 second interval is added to the previously calculated daily volume of soft water al ready stored in memory Step 278 to keep an ongoing record of the amount of soft water passing through the softener for that day RESIN BED CAPACITY CALCULATION AND DEFAULT VALUE ENTRY STEPS 279 1 279 9 Immediately following execution of step 278 the microcomputer then checks to see whether or not a sensor flag internal to the microcomputer has been set Step
71. y terminal and the power supply common terminal before being supplied to pin Vcc of the microcomputer Although the regulated 5 volt d c voltage produced by the power supply is well filtered it is desirable to connect a filter capacitance 65 between microcomputer pin Vcc and the power supply common terminal completed circuit between the power sup ply and the microcomputer 58 is accomplished by con necting the microcomputer ground pin Vss to the power supply common terminal Within the microcomputer 58 is a master oscillator not shown whose periodic clock signals control the internal microcomputer timer and arithmetic logic unit The frequency of this oscillator is determined from the reactance appearing across the microcomputer pins 4 469 602 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 XTALA and 2 In the present preferred embodi ment this reactance is established by a inductance 66 coupled across the XTAL1 and XTAL2 pins of mi crocomputer 58 and a pair of capacitances 68a and 68b each coupled between a separate one of the microcom puter XTAL1 and XTAL2 pins and the power supply common terminal The power supply common terminal is also coupled to microcomputer pin to assure that during microcomputer operation all memory ac cesses by the internal arithmetic logic unit in response to periodic timing signals from the internal master oscil lator are made from the internal random access and re

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