SYSTEM OF A HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE AND AN ACCUMULATOR HAVING AN OPTICAL DISPLAY MEANS

Abstract

A system of a household appliance has an appliance housing, an accumulator having an accumulator housing and an integrated optical display, and a display control for controlling a display of information on the accumulator display. The appliance has a detector for determining appliance states of the appliance, which do not relate to the accumulator, wherein the detector is configured to transmit the detected appliance state to the display control, wherein the display control is configured to control the accumulator display to display the received appliance state. The display control is configured to control the display of a remaining running time, which specifies how long a charging capacity, which is still available in the accumulator, will last, to complete an activity, which is currently performed, wherein the remaining running time relates to a combination of an appliance parameter of the appliance and of the current charging capacity of the accumulator.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of German Application No. 10 2020 121 218.6 filed Aug. 12, 2020, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a system of a household appliance having an appliance housing, an accumulator having an accumulator housing and an optical display means integrated therein, and a display control means for controlling a display of information on the display means of the accumulator, wherein the household appliance has a detection means for determining appliance states of the household appliance, which do not relate to the accumulator, wherein the detection means is set up to transmit the detected appliance state of the household appliance to the display control means, wherein the display control means is set up to control the display means of the accumulator to display the received appliance state of the household appliance.

2. Description of the Related Art

Household appliances of the above-mentioned type are known in the prior art. They can be, for example, floor treating appliances, food processors, tools, or the like. It is known to use an accumulator, which can be connected, in particular separably, to the household appliance and which has an optical display means, for example a display, for displaying information. The information displayed on the optical display means relates to information about the accumulator, for example the state of charge thereof.

The published application WO 2019/031273 A1 discloses, for example, a printer comprising a battery pack, which has a display for optically displaying information. The display includes a state of charge display of the accumulator as well as error notifications, by means of LEDs, which flash at a different frequency.

The published application WO 2018/162057 A1 discloses a battery-operated vacuum cleaner comprising a battery means, which has its own display. The battery means can be plugged into a holder of the vacuum cleaner from the outside, so that the display of the battery means is readable for a user.

WO 2019/031273 A1 discloses an accumulator, on the display of which an error state of the electrical appliance having the accumulator is displayed, namely the exceeding of a maximally permissible temperature at a measuring point of the electrical appliance.

DE 10 2013 218 019 A1 discloses an accumulator, on the display of which a speed of an electric motor is displayed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Based on the above-mentioned prior art, it is the object of the invention to further develop a system of a household appliance and an accumulator, in the case of which the user can be informed about relevant parameters of the system with consistent size of the appliance surface.

To solve this object, it is proposed that the display control means is set up to control the display of a remaining running time, which specifies how long a charging capacity, which is still available in the accumulator, will last, in order to complete an activity, which is currently performed, wherein the remaining running time relates to a combination of an appliance parameter of the household appliance and of the current charging capacity of the accumulator.

The accumulator has an optical display means, on which appliance parameters of the household appliance can be displayed. For this purpose, the optical display means of the accumulator can be controlled by means of the display control means of the system in such a way that the appliance states of the household appliance, which do not relate to the accumulator itself, are displayed on the optical display means of the accumulator. The information relating to the appliance states of the household appliance are transmitted from the household appliance to the display control means by means of a communication interface, and are then used for control commands, which prompt the display of the information on the optical display means of the accumulator. The outer surface of the appliance housing of the household appliance, which is generally only available to a limited extent, can thus be used optimally, namely in that the optical display means of the accumulator does not only display the accumulator's own states, but, on the contrary, also appliance states of the household appliance, which do not relate to the accumulator itself at all. The additional accommodation of a further display means for the display of appliance parameters of the household appliance can thus be dispensed with. The space requirement on the appliance housing required as a whole for optical display means is reduced and thus also the resulting costs, in particular also because, for example, the same components of the system can be used for several tasks, for example housing parts, holders, electric cables, and others. Moreover, it is advantageous for the user that all states of interest, namely states of the household appliance on the one hand, and optionally states of the accumulator itself on the other hand, can be read on one and the same optical display means, and a display of information does not take place distributed over the appliance housing of the household appliance.

It is proposed that the optical display means of the accumulator has a display and/or at least one light-emitting diode. The display can be, for example, a TFT display or LCD display, in particular also a so-called touchscreen, on which the user can make inputs at the same time. In addition or in the alternative, one or in particular several light-emitting diodes can also be provided as indicators. It is advisable in particular that the household appliance does not have any additional indicators spaced apart from the optical display means, but that they are in fact locally concentrated in the proposed integrated optical display means or, in the case of separate light-emitting diodes, respectively, are arranged in the immediate vicinity of a display of the optical display means.

It is in particular proposed that the display control means is a component of the accumulator. Even though the display control means can generally also be formed separately from the accumulator and then transmits control signals to the accumulator, for example by means of an electrical supply line, it is advisable that the display means controls is integrated in the accumulator housing of the accumulator. In addition to a charging and discharging interface, the accumulator or the display control means, respectively, corresponding to the household appliance, is then preferably also equipped with a communication interface, via which the display control means can receive information about one or several appliance states of the household appliance from the household appliance. The household appliance therefore has a corresponding communication interface as well as preferably additionally also a charging and discharging interface. In the alternative, it is possible that the display control means is a component of the household appliance, and is thus installed in the appliance housing of the household appliance. In this case, the household appliance or the display control means thereof, respectively, can control the optical display means of the separately formed accumulator.

It is proposed that the accumulator is accommodated in the appliance housing of the household appliance, wherein the display means of the accumulator can be read through a housing recess of the appliance housing. According to this embodiment, the accumulator is integrated into the housing surface of the household appliance with the surface having the optical display means, namely preferably parallel to and in a plane therewith. A step to the optical display means, to which, for example dust and dirt could adhere, thus does not result on the outer side of the appliance housing. Provided that the optical display means of the accumulator is offset from the surface plane of the appliance housing of the household appliance, however, a disc for compensating a height difference, which is arranged on the outside above the optical display means, can serve, for example, to compensate a height difference.

It is proposed that the accumulator is connected to the appliance housing of the household appliance in a reversibly separable manner. The accumulator can thus be removed from the household appliance, for example for charging purposes. The optical display means is preferably separated from the appliance housing as one piece, together with the accumulator. An alternative embodiment can generally also provide, however, that the optical display means is not an integrated part of the accumulator, and, when removing the accumulator from the appliance housing of the household appliance, thus remains therein. So that the accumulator can be released easily from the appliance housing of the household appliance, the household appliance preferably has a holder and/or a shaft, which is molded within the appliance housing and into which the accumulator can be inserted. The holder or the shaft, respectively, is then arranged within the appliance housing so as to correspond to the size and shape of the accumulator in such a way that, in the assembled state of the accumulator, the optical display means is visible from the outside through a material recess of the appliance housing.

It can be provided that the display control means is furthermore set up to also display an accumulator state on the display means of the accumulator. The accumulator state can in particular be a charging state or an aging state of the accumulator. The display control means thus does not only display information relating to the household appliance, but, on the contrary, also information about the accumulator itself, for example the charging state or aging state thereof. All relevant information is thus available to the user on one and the same optical display means. It is not required to install two separate optical display means in the appliance housing. The display control means assigned to the optical display means thus accesses external appliance states of the household appliance, i.e. determined outside of the accumulator, on the one hand, and internal accumulator states of the accumulator, on the other hand. This results in a combination of a display of externally input appliance parameters and the accumulator's own accumulator parameters.

The display means of the accumulator can be formed to display an appliance state and/or accumulator state as color signal, text and/or image. The display means can thus display information about appliance states and/or accumulator states in the form of displayed colors or patterns as well as as text. In terms of a color signal, for example states, which lie within or outside of a tolerance range, respectively, can be displayed by means of a green or red color signal, respectively. An image display can include, for example, a successively increasing or decreasing structure, respectively, for example a progress bar or a pyramid. Based on an advancing service requirement of a component of the household appliance, for example the fill level of a filter bag, for example a displayed pyramid structure can increase more and more completely, the higher the fill level of the filter bag becomes. A text display on the optical display means can include, for example, a series of numbers and/or a series of letters, in particular words. A series of numbers can be, for example, a percentage display, which specifies a percentage progress of an activity, which is currently performed by the household appliance.

It can be provided that the system does not only have one, but two interchangeable accumulators, which, based on the displayable appliance states and/or accumulator states, have display means, which are formed so as to be different from one another. According to this design, at least one second accumulator, which has a different display range of the optical display means, is kept ready within the system. The states or information displayed by the optical display means of the two or more accumulators, can thus differ. For example, an optical display means of a first accumulator can be formed to display a fill level of a dust container and a speed of a suction fan, while the optical display means of a second accumulator is formed to display the fill level of a liquid container and a liquid delivery rate from the liquid container. Corresponding thereto, the display control means of the system can preferably initially obtain information about which accumulator is currently connected to the household appliance, so as to then concretely only transmit those appliance states, which can in fact also be displayed, i.e. for the display of which the currently used accumulator is suitable, to the optical display means or display them thereon, respectively. In the alternative, however, it can also be possible that the display control means generally processes and/or outputs all known appliance states and optionally also accumulator states for a display on the optical display means, and only those, for which the actual options for a display are also created, are then in fact displayed on the optical display means of the accumulator. This is so, because if, for example, the optical display means does not have any colored indicators or display elements, a related command, which includes color information, cannot be implemented, so that corresponding information is then not displayed at all, or is transformed, for example, into information, which is not displayed in color.

As already proposed, the household appliance can be a floor treating appliance, in particular a cleaning appliance. In the alternative, the household appliance, however, can also be a food processor, such as, for example, a universal cooker-mixer. Household appliances formed according to the invention can also be tools, such as, for example, drills, sanders, polishers, or others.

The appliance parameter of the household appliance displayed on the optical display means of the accumulator is preferably selected from the quantity: cleaning power, suction power, liquid delivery rate, fill level of a container for a liquid or a solid, temperature of a component, service requirement of an appliance component. Appliance error, collision status of the household appliance with an obstacle, remaining running time until the completion of an activity, activity of a communication interface, relative spatial orientation of a handle that is movably arranged on the appliance housing of the household appliance, handling parameters of the household appliance, accessory parameters of an accessory that is separably connected to the household appliance, in particular of a suction nozzle or of a cleaning element. A cleaning power can, for example, be the intensity of a floor treatment, which is characterized, e.g., by the speed of a rotating cleaning element or the frequency of an oscillating cleaning element. In addition, this can also be understood as a suction power of a suction fan. A liquid delivery rate can be, for example, the amount of liquid, which is delivered by a mopping appliance for each time unit to a surface to be cleaned or a cleaning element. The fill level of a container for a liquid or a solid can relate, for example, to a cleaning agent container, a dirty liquid tank, a container for cleaning additives, or the like. The temperature of a component, such as in particular of an electrical consumer of the household appliances, in particular of an electric motor, which drives a rotating cleaning element, a running gear or the like, is also particularly interesting. The appliance parameter can furthermore also include a current or foreseeable service requirement of an appliance component, for example that a liquid container of the household appliance needs to be filled up shortly, that a dirt container needs to be emptied, that consumable material of the household appliance needs to be refilled, that a cleaning element or other component of the household appliance needs to be cleaned, and the like. In addition, the status of a communication means can be displayed. The communication means can preferably be a wirelessly communicating means, such as, in particular, a radio module. The status can be an on status, off status, standby status, error status. In addition, an appliance parameter can also be an appliance error of the household appliance or of certain components of the household appliance, respectively. A collision status of the household appliance can also be displayed, i.e. a situation, in which the household appliance has collided with an obstacle, and is in particular also damaged, for example, i.e. is immovably stuck in a room situation. The collision status can thereby display a collision that has already taken place, or also an impending collision that is expected to happen, if the household appliance continues to move within the environment as before. A remaining running time of the household appliance, until an activity performed by the household appliance is expected to be completed, is also particularly interesting as displayed appliance parameter. According to the invention, a remaining running time displayed on the optical display means indicates, how long a charging capacity, which is still available in the accumulator, will last, in order to complete a currently performed activity. In the case of this remaining running time indication, appliance parameters on the one hand, and also accumulator parameters on the other hand, are thus considered, namely the current activity or appliance setting, respectively, of the household appliance on the one hand, and the state of charge of the accumulator on the other hand. In addition, the activity of a communication interface can be specified, for example an on state, off state, or a standby state. The display can in particular take place in the form of a color display or as display by means of an activated, i.e. luminous, or non-activated light-emitting diode. Further appliance parameters can relate to special structural states of the household appliance, for example, in which position a movable handle of the household appliance is located, or whether and which accessory is connected to the household appliance. The accessory can be, for example, an accessory, which is separably arranged on the appliance housing of the household appliance, such as a suction nozzle or a cleaning element. For example, the household appliance can be a floor treating appliance, comprising a base appliance and attachments, which can be separably connected thereto. It can be determined via a detection means, whether and which accessory is currently located at an appliance interface of the household appliance. Information about this can subsequently be displayed on the display of the accumulator by means of the display control means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed as an illustration only and not as a definition of the limits of the invention.

In the drawings,

FIG. 1 shows a system according to the invention of a household appliance and an accumulator;

FIG. 2 shows the accumulator in isolation; and

FIG. 3 shows an optical display means of the accumulator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 initially shows an exemplary household appliance 1, which is formed here only in an exemplary manner as a floor treating appliance, namely as vacuum cleaner, which is manually guided by a user. However, the invention described below can also be used in the case of any other form of household appliance 1, for example in the case of tools, food processors, or the like. Regardless on the type and form of the household appliance 1, the invention works without being affected by this. The household appliance 1 illustrated here has a handle 12, which can be pivotably moved around a joint 14 and which the user can use during a cleaning activity, in order to guide the household appliance 1 over a floor surface to be cleaned. He thereby usually guides the household appliance 1 away from himself or towards himself, respectively, in consecutive movements. To be able to additionally also use the household appliance 1 as household appliance 1, which is portable during the floor treatment, the handle 12 can be pivoted around the joint 14 closer towards the appliance housing 6, in particular so that the handle 12 is aligned anti-parallel to the position illustrated in FIG. 1. This results in a compact, portable appliance, the center of mass of which is located close to the hand of a user. In addition, the household appliance 1 has an appliance housing 6 as well as a connecting region 15 arranged or formed on the appliance housing 6, respectively, for connecting an accessory 13. Here, the accessory 13 is, for example, a suction nozzle, through which suction material can be sucked from a surface to be cleaned into a container 11 of the household appliance 1. A detection means 7, which detects whether an accessory 13 is currently connected to the connecting region 15 of the appliance housing 6, is located at the connecting region 15. In addition, a detection means 7, which can detect a suction material fill level inside the container 11, is also assigned to the container 11. The detection means 7 for detecting the fill level can be, for example, a pressure sensor, a light barrier, or the like. In addition, an accumulator 2 comprising an integrated display means 3 is inserted into the appliance housing 6 of the household appliance 1. The display means 3 is visible from the outside through a housing recess 10 of the appliance housing 6. For example, the optical display means 3 of the accumulator 2 engages in a flush-mounted manner through the housing recess 10 of the appliance housing 6, so that a flat surface with the smallest possible gap size between the appliance housing 6 and the optical display means 3 of the accumulator 2 results from the outside. A display control means 4 of the household appliance 1 is assigned to the display means 3. Here, the display control means 4 is, for example, a component of the household appliance 1, and is connected to the display means 3 of the accumulator 2 in a wired or wireless manner. In addition, the detection means 7 of the household appliance 1 are in communication with the display control means 4.

As illustrated in more detail in FIG. 2, the accumulator 2 is formed separately from the household appliance 1 and the appliance housing 6 thereof, so that the accumulator 2 can be reversibly removed from the appliance housing 6. For this purpose, the appliance housing 6 preferably has an insertion shaft, into which the user of the system can insert the accumulator 2. The insertion shaft can connect, for example, to the housing recess 10. Connecting elements for connecting the accumulator 2 to corresponding means of the household appliance 1, for example electrical contacts of a charge interface or also an electrical connection to the display control means 4 of the household appliance 1, are then preferably located in this shaft. Here, the optical display means 3 is inseparably connected to the accumulator housing 5 preferably of the accumulator 2. In the alternative, although not preferred, the optical display means 3, however, can also be separable from the accumulator housing 5 or can only be in communication with the accumulator 2 as separate display means 3. However, a formation of the accumulator 2 with the display means 3 as one means is preferred, as illustrated here.

FIG. 3 shows an example for a possible formation of an optical display means 3 of the accumulator 2 in detail. The display means 3 initially has a display 8, which can be a TFT or LCD display. It is in particular advisable to form the display means 3 as optical touchscreen, so that the user can also simultaneously make manual user inputs via the display means 3. The display means 3 has a display 8, and information fields 9 displayed thereon. A digitally illustrated name is assigned to each information field 9 on the display means 3, here, for example “stage 1”, “stage 2”, “stage 3”, which are, for example, suction power stages of a motor-fan means of the household appliance 1. Depending on the suction power stage, which is selected by a user or which is automatically set, that information 9 of the display means 3 lights up, which is arranged next to the name of the currently activated stage. Under the listing of the suction power stages, the display means 3 additionally displays a running time indication “07” in numerical form, which is, for example, a minute indication here, which specifies, how long an activity, which is currently performed by the household appliance 1, will still be active until a complete cessation. According to the invention, the illustrated running time relates to a parameter of the system, which relates to a combination of an appliance parameter of the household appliance 1 and an accumulator parameter of the accumulator 2, for example, a current cleaning power of the household appliance 1, and a current charging capacity of the accumulator 2. A combined computation is made from these parameters, for how long the amount of energy, which is currently available in the accumulator 2, will still last, in order to use the household appliance 1 with the currently used appliance parameters (cleaning power). The illustrated running time indication of “07” minutes here thus specifies that the activity of the household appliance 1 will likely be finished in seven minutes if the user continues to operate the household appliance 1 with the currently set appliance parameters.

Even though this is not illustrated here in the selected example, the optical display means 3 of the household appliance 1 can also be formed in a different way. In addition to the display 8, the display means 3 can also have, for example, separate light-emitting diodes.

In addition, the displayed parameters can be changed as a function of an accessory 13, which is currently connected to the appliance housing 6 of the household appliance 1. In this case, the detection means 7 detects, for example, which accessory 13 is currently connected to the appliance housing 6, and the display control means 4 transmits this information, which then provides corresponding fields for the appliance parameters of the household appliance 1 or of the accessory 13, respectively, on the optical display means 3. Provided that the accessory 13 is, for example, an attachment comprising a rotating cleaning element, an information field 9 for a speed indication can therefore be displayed on the optical display means 3 of the accumulator 2. The parameters of the household appliance 1 (or optionally also additionally of the accumulator 2 itself, respectively) can be displayed on the display 8 as text and/or image. The display of a color signal is also possible, wherein color signals can generally also be displayed with the help of, for example, separate colored light-emitting diodes. The displayed appliance states or also accumulator states are not limited to the exemplary embodiment described here. On the contrary, an appliance state can also be a cleaning power, suction power, liquid delivery rate, fill level of the container 11, temperature of a component, service requirement of an appliance component, status of a communication means, appliance error, collision status of the household appliance 1 with an obstacle, activity of a communication interface, spatial orientation of the handle 12, handling parameters of the household appliance 1, or others.

A special embodiment provides a system comprising a household appliance 1 and several accumulators 2, which can be connected thereto, wherein the two accumulators 2 are embodied so as to be different from one another, namely with respect to the appliance states, which can be displayed on the display means 3 of the respective accumulator 2. For example, only one of the accumulators 2 has a display means 3 comprising colored information fields 9, while the other accumulator 2 has a display 8, on which states can only be displayed in the form of black/white text and/or image. The display control means 4 of the household appliance 1 can recognize, which accumulator 2 is currently inserted in the appliance housing 6 of the household appliance 1, and can therefore transmit control commands, which correspond to the options for displaying states on the respective display means 3.

Although only a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that many changes and modifications may be made thereunto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

• 1 household appliance
• 2 accumulator
• 3 display means
• 4 display control means
• 5 accumulator housing
• 6 appliance housing
• 7 detection means
• 8 display
• 9 information field
• 10 housing recess
• 11 container
• 12 handle
• 13 accessory
• 14 joint
• 15 connecting region

Claims

1. A system of a household appliance (1) having an appliance housing (6), an accumulator (2) having an accumulator housing (5) and an optical display means (3) integrated therein, and a display control means (4) for controlling a display of information on the display means (3) of the accumulator (2), wherein the household appliance (1) has a detection means (7) for determining appliance states of the household appliance (1), which do not relate to the accumulator (2), wherein the detection means (7) is set up to transmit the detected appliance state of the household appliance (1) to the display control means (4), wherein the display control means (4) is set up to control the display means (3) of the accumulator (2) to display the received appliance state of the household appliance (1), wherein the display control means (4) is set up to control the display of a remaining running time, which specifies how long a charging capacity, which is still available in the accumulator (2), will last, in order to complete an activity, which is currently performed, wherein the remaining running time relates to a combination of an appliance parameter of the household appliance (1) and of the current charging capacity of the accumulator (2).

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the optical display means (3) of the accumulator (2) has a display (8) and/or at least one light-emitting diode (9).

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display control means (4) is a component of the accumulator (2).

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the accumulator (2) is accommodated in the appliance housing (6) of the household appliance (1), wherein the display means (3) of the accumulator (2) can be read through a housing recess (10) of the appliance housing (6).

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the accumulator (2) is connected to the appliance housing (6) of the household appliance (1) in a reversibly separable manner.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display control means (4) is furthermore set up to also display an accumulator state, in particular a charging state or an aging state of the accumulator (2), on the display means (3) of the accumulator (2).

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display means (3) of the accumulator (2) is formed to display an appliance state and/or accumulator state as color signal, text and/or image.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising two interchangeable accumulators (2), which, based on the displayable appliance states and/or accumulator states, have display means (3), which are formed so as to be different from one another.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the household appliance (1) is a floor treating appliance, in particular a cleaning appliance.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the appliance parameter is selected from the quantity: cleaning power, suction power, liquid delivery rate, fill level of a container (11) for a liquid or a solid, temperature of a component, service requirement of an appliance component, appliance error, collision status of the household appliance (1) with an obstacle, remaining running time until the completion of an activity, activity of a communication interface, relative spatial orientation of a handle (12) that is movably arranged on the appliance housing (6) of the household appliance (1), handling parameters of the household appliance (1), accessory parameters of an accessory (13) that is separably connected to the household appliance (1), in particular of a suction nozzle or of a cleaning element.