Comment
Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
The radial edges of the radial vanes on both faces of the pill storage wheel are covered by the annular disks which rotates with the modified wheel. Only the gaps between the outer edges of the radial vanes and the inner cylindrical surface 102e will be of any significance with the modified wheel. The annular disk that is adjacent to door 104 must be removable to provide access for loading the modified pill storage wheel with pills. If desired, door 104 may be omitted when the modified pill storage wheel is used. A pill release gate 110 is interposed in cylindrical surface 102e to cover pill discharge outlet 102i. Gate 110 is affixed to a pivot shaft 110a that is supported by a shaft bearing hole 110b through surface 102f and surface 102h. Shaft 110a extends beyond surface 102h. The inside surface of gate 110 follows the contour of surface 102e. The area covered by gate 110 is the area on surface 102e between two adjacent radial vanes 100b. A pushbutton 112 protruding from the top of cabinet 102 operates gate 110. Beneath gate 110 is a pill receptacle housing 102b. Housing 102b provides space for gate 110 when the gate is opened, and space for placement of a removable pill receptacle or box 114. Also located in housing 102b is a contact switch 116 that is actuated by the removal and replacement of pill box 114. A pill loading indicator template 118 is an annular shaped piece of thin flat metal, plastic, or other suitable material of a size to fit on annular surface 100e of wheel 100. Template 118 is divided into sectors or areas which correspond with the pill storage compartments of wheel 100, and the template sectors are identified with distinctive indicants. The template sectors are either marked with specific symbols or covered with specific colors to assign a specific symbol or a specific color code for each pill storage compartment. The pill loading indicator template shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is an example template that uses two colors as distinctive indicants. The vertical hatch lines in the drawings indicate a green color and the horizontal hatch lines indicate a yellow color. Hence the colors of the successive sectors of template 118 in FIGS. 4 and 5 are alternating green and yellow. Template retaining hole 118c is in a green sector and hole 118d in a yellow sector adjacent to hole 118c. There is a template retaining post 118a protruding from annular surface 100e near the adjacent compartment counterclockwise from radial block 100d. A template retainer 118b is located opposite to post 118a. Template 118 is held on annular surface 100e by placing template retaining hole 118c or 118d over post 118a and securing template 118 to template retainer 118b. Numerals 120a, 120b, and 120c depict pill loading indicator labels placed on pill supply vials A, B, and C in pill vial storage compartment 102c. A blinking LED 122 is a bright blinking light emitting
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