Programmable billing system

Abstract

A programmable billing system for use in an automatic copying machine having wide flexibility in the automatic calculation of total bills using a single meter readout to count pulse trains weighted in proportion to the mode of operation of the machine and the billing rate per copy during operation in the selected mode. The system includes a copy counter for generating a unique binary code for each copy made from the same original. The output of the copy counter addresses a semiconductor memory device which is programmed to generate a set of unique binary billing rate signals for each different input or group of inputs from the copy counter during operation in a particular machine mode. The binary billing rate signals are programmed to be representative of the billing rate for the copy then being processed by the machine and are fed to a count down counter which generates a single pulse or a plurality of pulses or each copy, each pulse being representative of a single billing unit or rate. The total number of output pulses from the count down counter for a given copy is therefore a weighted output proportional to the relative cost of the given copy. An output pulse counter receives and counts the total number of output pulses generated by the count down counter and operates a billing meter. The total bill for operation of the copy machine may be calculated subsequently by simply multiplying the output meter reading by the known billing unit charge.