KR-20260067545-A - ROAD STUD IDENTIFYING DAY/NIGHT USING SOLAR CELL

Abstract

A road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include: a main body having a space formed therein; a solar panel disposed outside the main body or in the space; a rechargeable battery disposed in the space and electrically connected to the solar panel to store electricity produced by the solar panel; and a PCB module disposed in the space and electrically connected to the solar panel and the rechargeable battery; wherein the PCB module may include a light-emitting module comprising an LED that emits light by receiving power from the rechargeable battery; a control module configured to supply or cut off power from the rechargeable battery to the light-emitting module; and a voltage sensor installed at an output port of the solar panel to detect the output voltage of the electricity produced by the solar panel and transmit it to the control module.

Inventors

• 김정기
• 최수경

Assignees

• 주식회사 에코데이

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20241106

Claims (4)

1. Regarding road markers installed on a road, A main body having a space formed inside; A solar panel disposed outside the main body or in the space above; A rechargeable battery disposed in the above space and electrically connected to the solar panel to store electricity produced from the solar panel; and A PCB module disposed in the above space and electrically connected to the solar panel and the battery; comprising The above PCB module is A light-emitting module including an LED that emits light by receiving power from the above-mentioned rechargeable battery; A control module configured to supply or cut off power from the rechargeable battery to the light-emitting module; and A road marker including a voltage sensor installed at the output port of the solar panel to detect the output voltage of the electricity produced by the solar panel and transmit it to the control module.
2. In claim 1, The above control module is It is configured so that a threshold voltage can be set, and When the output voltage received from the voltage sensor is smaller than the threshold voltage, power is supplied to the light-emitting module, and A road marker characterized by being configured such that when the output voltage received from the voltage sensor is greater than the threshold voltage, the power to the light-emitting module is cut off.
3. In claim 2, The above solar panel includes n solar cells connected in series, and A road marker characterized by the above threshold voltage being n*(0.25~0.3)V.
4. In claim 2, The above PCB module further includes a switching element installed in a section that electrically connects the rechargeable battery and the light-emitting module; A road marker characterized by the above control module being configured to supply or cut off power from the rechargeable battery to the light-emitting module by turning the above switching element on or off.

Description

Road studs that identify day/night using solar cells The disclosed content relates to road markers installed on roads, and more specifically, to road markers that distinguish between day and night using solar cells without an illuminance sensor. Unless otherwise indicated in this specification, the contents described in this section are not prior art for the claims of this application, and are not to be recognized as prior art simply because they are included in this section. Road studs are devices installed for road safety, primarily serving to visually guide drivers to road boundaries and help maintain visibility even at night or in inclement weather. These studs are installed on road center lines, lanes, or guardrails, and are designed to allow drivers to clearly recognize the road by reflecting the light from vehicle headlights through reflectors. There are various types of road markers, including reflective and luminous markers. Reflective markers primarily emit light by reflecting sunlight or vehicle headlights, while luminous markers emit light independently using electricity, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Each type of marker is designed differently depending on its installation location and purpose, and is used in various places such as highways, general roads, and intersections. In the case of light-emitting markers, it is common to use primary batteries or secondary batteries charged by solar panels to supply power to the light-emitting diodes. In order to save power, it is common practice to operate road markers by turning off the light-emitting diodes during the day and turning them on only when it is dark at night. To distinguish between day and night in this way, conventional road markers used illuminance sensors. However, road markers that distinguish between day and night using illuminance sensors had a problem where they misidentified night as day due to the light from streetlights in environments with streetlights. Additionally, since the illuminance sensor had to be activated at regular intervals to determine day/night, this resulted in power consumption. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a PCB module of a road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 4 shows the difference in wavelength distribution between sunlight and LED streetlights. Hereinafter, embodiments disclosed in this specification will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Identical or similar components regardless of drawing symbols are assigned the same reference number, and redundant descriptions thereof will be omitted. The suffixes "module" and "part" used for components in the following description are assigned or used interchangeably solely for the ease of drafting the specification and do not inherently possess distinct meanings or roles. Furthermore, in describing the embodiments disclosed in this specification, if it is determined that a detailed description of related prior art could obscure the essence of the embodiments disclosed in this specification, such detailed description will be omitted. Additionally, the attached drawings are intended only to facilitate understanding of the embodiments disclosed in this specification; the technical concept disclosed in this specification is not limited by the attached drawings, and it should be understood that they include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutions that fall within the spirit and technical scope of the invention. Terms including ordinal numbers, such as first, second, etc., may be used to describe various components, but said components are not limited by said terms. These terms are used solely for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. In this application, terms such as “comprising” or “having” are intended to specify the existence of the features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof described in the specification, and should be understood as not precluding the existence or addition of one or more other features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof. Hereinafter, a road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a PCB module (400) of a road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and FIG. 4 is a difference in wavelength distribution between sunlight and an LED street light. A road marker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include a main body (100), a so