Liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air
View Patent ↗A liquid beverage flow meter having a flow guide chamber and a mounting chamber in a main body is provided. An upper end and a lower end of the main body are provided with a tube while a liquid sensing module is disposed adjacent to the tube. A fan blade mounted in the flow guide chamber is connected with and sensed by a flow sensing module. Thereby a processing module is driven by the liquid sensing module to calculate total rotation times of the fan blade from the flow sensing module and convert the rotation times into liquid flow to be displayed on a display module once the liquid sensing module detects liquid flowing through the tube while users drink the liquid. If no liquid flow is detected, the processing module will not be driven to operate. Thereby water intake volume is calculated more accurately.
1 . A liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air comprising:
a main body having a housing, a partition mounted in the housing and dividing a space in the housing into a flow guide chamber and a mounting chamber, and a first tube and a second tube respectively connected with an upper end and a lower end of the housing and both communicating with the flow guide chamber;
a flow detection unit mounted in the flow guide chamber of the main body and including a fan blade and a rotating shaft disposed on a center of the fan blade and provided with at least one end arranged at a chamber wall of the flow guide chamber; and
a circuit unit mounted in the mounting chamber of the main body and including a circuit board, a processing module, a flow sensing module, a liquid sensing module, and a battery module; the processing module, the flow sensing module, the liquid sensing module, and the battery module all electrically connected to the circuit board; the liquid sensing module used for detecting liquid flowing while the flow sensing module connected with and sensing the fan blade of the flow detection unit to detect how many times the fan blade is rotated; wherein the liquid sensing module is a capacitive touch integrated circuit (IC), configured to detect in a non-contact manner whether a conductive liquid flows through the first tube or the second tube;
wherein, when the conductive liquid flows through the first tube or the second tube, a capacitance value of the liquid sensing module changes, and the liquid sensing module accordingly transmits a signal to the processing module to drive the processing module to calculate a cumulative total of rotation counts of the fan blade detected by the flow sensing module;
and wherein, when non-conductive air flows through the first tube or the second tube, the capacitance value of the liquid sensing module remains unchanged, such that the processing module is not activated and an amount of liquid consumed by a user is calculated accurately.
2 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fan blade of the flow detection unit is provided with at least one magnet; wherein the flow sensing module is a Hall element for connecting with and sensing the magnet of the fan blade.
3 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fan blade of the flow detection unit is a metal fan blade; wherein the flow sensing module is a Hall element for connecting with and sensing the metal fan blade.
4 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the flow sensing module is a reed switch or an infrared sensor.
5 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the liquid sensing module is arranged adjacent to the first tube or the second tube.
6 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the battery module is a solar cell while the housing of the main body is transparent.
7 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the battery module includes a storage battery and a USB socket electrically connected with the storage battery.
8 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the battery module includes a storage battery and a wireless charger electrically connected with the storage battery.
9 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the circuit unit includes a display module electrically connected with the circuit board.
10 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the circuit unit includes a communication module not only electrically connected with the circuit board but also having wireless communication with a mobile phone.
11 . The liquid beverage flow meter able to distinguish air as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the main body is in a straw-like shape.