JPH0675066A - Timepiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow checking each of a plurality of functions of a timepiece through a simple operation. CONSTITUTION:Upon closing a demonstration switch 21, a control circuit 1 sounds a melody 1 stored in a sound data memory circuit 18 and clears a counter 23 to produce a reverse rotation drive signal for rotating a hand 13 reversely. The counter 23 counts the reverse rotation pulses and when the count reaches 126, the control circuit 1 stops sounding of the melody 1 and rotation of the hand 13 and flickers a light emitting section 15 two times. Upon finish of flickering, a melody 2 is sounded and the hand 13 is rotated reversely and when the position of the hand 13, i.e., the time designated by the hand, matches with the time measured by a current time measuring circuit 9, sounding of the melody 2 and rotation of the hand 13 are stopped.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a timepiece having an alarm function and an hourly time signal function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, when an alarm time comes, a desired melody is played out from a plurality of stored melodies, and a time display hand is danced in accordance with the melody or the hands are played while playing the melody. There is an alarm clock that aims at visual effects by repeating forward and reverse.
An alarm timepiece that performs this kind of special operation has a function of executing the above operation by operating a demonstration switch (hereinafter referred to as a demo switch) in order to appeal the product value to consumers at a store.

[0003]

However, in the above, only the melody selected at that time is played by operating the demo switch, and the pointer only makes a special movement. Only the actions that are performed are performed. Therefore, in order to listen to all the melody, it is necessary to operate the melody changeover switch while monitoring by operating the demo switch to switch the melody.

Further, in recent years, the number of functions of watches has been increasing, and in addition to the alarm function, there is one that has a lighting function and a high-speed timing function using a pointer that can be rotated forward and backward. In order to do so, each function had to be actually operated, and the operation for that purpose was troublesome and time-consuming.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to confirm each function of a timepiece having a plurality of functions by a simple operation.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention achieves the above object by providing a control means for operating a sounding device, a lighting device and a display device in accordance with a series of sequences by operating a demonstration switch.

[0007] Then, by operating the demonstration switch, the alarm sound is sequentially generated by the alarm sound data stored in the storage means, and the control means for moving the time display hands according to the alarm sounds is provided.
It has achieved the above objectives.

Further, the control means causes the alarm sound to be sequentially output by each alarm sound data stored in the storage means by operating the demonstration switch, and also moves the time hand in accordance with each alarm sound, and the illumination device. Is desirable.

Further, by operating the demonstration switch, the control means for sequentially making a sound by the respective sound data stored in the storage means and for moving the time display hands in the forward and reverse directions in accordance with the sound. The above-mentioned object is achieved by providing.

Further, the control means sequentially makes a sound by the respective sound data stored in the storage means by the operation of the demonstration switch, and the time display hands are rotated normally and reversely in accordance with the sound. It is desirable to move the hand in the direction and operate the lighting device.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a control circuit which constitutes a control means, and comprises a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, a crystal oscillator and the like, and controls various operations. An alarm time storage circuit 2 is composed of a RAM or the like and stores the alarm time input by the input unit 3. The input unit 3 includes a mode switch 4 for switching modes such as a timing mode and an alarm time mode, an up / down key 5, an alarm set switch 6, a melody switching switch 7, a light emitting switch 8 and the like. Reference numeral 9 denotes a current time counting circuit, which is composed of a RAM or the like, and counts the reference signal output from the control circuit 1 to measure the current time. A coincidence detection circuit 10 generates a coincidence output when the time measured by the current time measurement circuit 9 matches the alarm time stored in the alarm time storage circuit 2.
Reference numeral 11 denotes a digital timepiece display section, which comprises an LCD or the like, and displays the present time, date, and alarm time stored in the alarm time storage circuit 2. Reference numeral 12 denotes an analog timepiece display portion constituting a display device, such as a time display pointer 13 (see FIG. 2) including an hour hand 13a and a minute hand 13b, a forward / reverse rotation motor (not shown) for moving the time display pointer 13, and the like. The hand movement motor drive circuit 14 operates the forward / reverse rotation motor to display the current time. Reference numeral 15 denotes a light emitting unit that constitutes an illuminating device. In this example, an EL (Electro Luminescence) is used to illuminate the analog timepiece display unit 12 by operating the light emitting switch 8 or the like. Reference numeral 16 is a light emitting unit driving circuit, which is a light emitting unit 1.
Drive 5 Reference numeral 17 denotes an alarm device, which is an alarm data storage circuit 18 for storing alarm data of a plurality of melodies, and an amplifier 1.
9 and the speaker 20 and the like. It should be noted that the report sound data storage circuit 18 constitutes a storage means, and in this example, stores two kinds of report sound data (melody 1 and melody 2). Reference numeral 21 is a demonstration switch (hereinafter referred to as a demo switch), which starts a demonstration operation.
Reference numeral 22 denotes a pointer position detection circuit, which is composed of a counter or the like, and detects the display time of the time display pointer 13. In this example, the hour hand 1 is read by reading the identification code of the digit, which is provided on the disk that rotates in synchronization with the hour hand 13a, with the sliding contact.
The position of the minute hand 13b is detected by counting the drive pulse of the minute hand 13b output from the hand movement motor drive circuit 14. The above minute hand 13
The counter that counts the drive pulse of b is the minute hand 13b.
Is cleared by the output of a sensor (not shown) that produces a detection output when the position reaches 0 minutes.
23 is a counter. A coincidence detection circuit 24 detects the coincidence between the current time data measured by the current time clock circuit 9 and the display time data of the time display hands 13 detected by the pointer position detection circuit 22.

FIG. 2 is a front view of an embodiment of the present invention.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG.

When the demo switch 21 is closed (step 3a), the control circuit 1 performs the following operation control according to the demonstration operation data stored in the ROM in the control circuit 1.

An address signal for reading the sound data of the melody 1 is output to the sound data storage circuit 18, and the sound data of the melody 1 is sent to the amplifier 19.

The amplifier 19 outputs the sound data of the melody 1 to D
A / A conversion and amplification are performed and the sound is played from the speaker 20 (step 3b).

Next, the control circuit 1 clears the counter 23 and outputs a reverse rotation drive signal to the hand movement motor drive circuit 14.

The hand movement motor drive circuit 14 outputs a reverse rotation pulse by inputting a reverse rotation drive signal, and the forward / reverse rotation motor is driven by this reverse rotation pulse to rotate the time display hands 13 in the reverse direction, that is, counterclockwise (step 3c). ).

At this time, the counter 23 counts the reverse rotation pulse and outputs the count value to the control circuit 1.

The control circuit 1 judges whether the count value of the counter 23 has reached "126" (step 3d), and when the count value reaches "126", the address signal and the reverse rotation drive signal for reading the sound data of the melody 1 are read. Of the melody 1 and the rotation of the time display hands 13 are stopped.

In this example, the reverse rotation pulse "126" pulse is output in about 15 seconds, and the output causes the time display hands 13 to move counterclockwise for about 1 hour. The speed of the time display hands 13 is adjusted to the tempo of the melody 1.

Then, the flashing light emission signal is sent to the light emitting section drive circuit 1
6 to operate the light emitting unit drive circuit 16, and the light emitting unit 1
5 is blinked a predetermined number of times (two times in this example) (step 3e).

When the control circuit 1 finishes the output of the flashing light emission signal, it outputs an address signal for reading the sound data of the melody 2 to the sound data storage circuit 18, and the melody 2
The report sound data of is sent to the amplifier 19.

The amplifier 19 outputs the sound data of the melody 2 to D
A / A conversion and amplification are performed and a sound is played from the speaker 20 (step 3f).

Next, a normal rotation drive signal is output to the hand movement motor drive circuit 14.

The hand movement motor drive circuit 14 outputs a normal rotation pulse in response to the input of the normal rotation drive signal, and the forward rotation motor drives the forward rotation motor to rotate the time display hands 13 in the forward rotation, that is, the clockwise direction ( Step 3g). In addition,
In this example, the melody 2 has an up-tempo higher than the melody 1, and the rotation speed of the time display hands 13 in the forward rotation is set to double the rotation speed in the reverse rotation, so that the time display is performed according to the type and tempo of the melody. The rotation speed is changed along with the rotation direction of the pointer 13, so that all the functions can be appealed efficiently as well as being visually pleasing.

Next, the control circuit 1 detects whether the coincidence output is detected from the coincidence detection circuit 24, that is, the time display pointer 1
It is determined whether the detection time of the pointer position detection circuit 22 that detects the display time of 3 and the current time measured by the current time clock circuit 9 match (step 3h).

When the coincidence output is detected from the coincidence detection circuit 24, that is, when the time display hands 13 reach the position of the present time, the control circuit 1 reads out the address sound data of the melody 2 and the normal drive signal. Of the melody 2 and the time display pointer 13 by stopping the output of
To stop the rotation and finish the demonstration operation.

In the above example, the EL is used as the light emitting unit, but the light emitting unit is not limited to this and may be a lamp or the like.

Further, the count value of the number of drive pulses serving as a reference for switching the hand movement direction of the time display hands and switching of the melody is not limited to the above 126 pulses, and can be appropriately changed.

In the above example, there are two types of sound information data stored in the sound data storage circuit.
The number of types is not limited to three, and three or more types may be used, and the same effect as above can be obtained with one type. If there are three or more types of report sound data, the report sounds may be switched during the movement of the demonstration movement.

Further, in the above-described example, in the demonstration operation, both the hand movement direction of the time display hands and the melody are switched by the value of the driving pulse number of the time display hands. The hand movement direction may be switched by the value of the drive pulse number of the time display hands similarly to the above, and the melody may be switched by the melody sounding time. In this case, it is preferable that the melody sounding time and the predetermined count time of the drive pulse match.

When the alarm set switch 6 is set, the above alarm clock plays the melody designated by the melody changeover switch 7 by the coincidence output output at the alarm time, and emits light by operating the light emitting switch 8. It is an example in which the present invention is applied to an alarm timepiece in which the section 15 emits light. When the alarm set switch 6 is set, when the present invention is applied to an alarm clock that only plays the melody specified by the melody changeover switch 7 by the coincidence output output at the alarm time, the light emission is performed. It suffices to perform the operation while omitting the light emission of the section 15.

In the above example, the present invention is used for the alarm timepiece, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the same effects as above can be obtained by applying the present invention to a timepiece timepiece having a light emitting function or the like.
For example, in a case where a plurality of hourly notification melody are prepared and any one of them is selected and notified, the same operation as described above is performed.

[0036]

According to the present invention, by providing the control means for operating the sounding device, the lighting device and the display device in accordance with a series of sequences by operating the demonstration switch, each function of the timepiece having a plurality of functions can be simplified. It becomes possible to confirm by operation, and for example, in an alarm clock or a time signal clock having a function of illuminating the time display portion, each function can be confirmed by operating the demonstration switch, and the function explanation can be smoothly performed at the store.

Then, by operating the demonstration switch, the alarm sound is sequentially generated by the alarm sound data stored in the storage means, and the control means for moving the time display hands according to the alarm sounds is provided.
For example, in the case of a clock capable of sounding a plurality of types of melodies at the alarm time or on the hour, all the melodies can be auditioned by a simple operation in addition to the above effects. Moreover, since the hands for time display move according to the melody, you can enjoy listening.

Further, the control means sequentially makes a beep sound by each beep sound data stored in the storage means by operating the demonstration switch, moves the time display hands in accordance with each beep sound, and By operating the lighting device, the lighting function can be confirmed in accordance with the same effect as described above.

Further, by operating the demonstration switch, a warning sound is sequentially generated by the respective warning sound data stored in the storage means, and the time display hands are moved in the forward and reverse directions according to the respective warning sounds. By providing, it is possible to audition all melody with a simple operation, and the function explanation can be smoothly performed at the store. Moreover, since the time display hands move in the forward and reverse directions according to the melody, it is possible to enjoy listening and to confirm the forward and reverse function of the time display hands.

Further, the control means sequentially makes a beep sound by each beep sound data stored in the storage means by operating the demonstration switch, and the time display hands are rotated forward and backward in accordance with the beep sounds. In addition to the above effects, the illumination function can be confirmed by moving the hand in the direction and operating the illumination device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control means 12 Display device 13 Time display pointer 15 Illumination device 17 Sound device 18 Storage means 21 Demonstration switch

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A sounding device for performing a sounding operation at a set time, a lighting device, a display device for displaying the current time, a sounding device, the lighting device, and the display device by operating a demonstration switch. A timepiece comprising: a control unit that operates according to a series of sequences. 2. A storage means for storing a plurality of types of warning sound data, and a warning sound is sequentially generated by operating each of the warning sound data stored in the storage means by operating a demonstration switch, and a time is set in accordance with each of the warning sounds. A timepiece having a control means for moving a display pointer. 3. The control means according to claim 2, wherein the control means sequentially makes an alarm sound by each alarm sound data stored in the storage means by operating a demonstration switch, and a time hand is moved according to each alarm sound. A timepiece characterized by causing the lighting device to operate. 4. A forward / reverse time display hand, a storage means for storing a plurality of kinds of sound information data, and a sound switch for sequentially making sound by the sound data stored in the storage means by operating a demonstration switch. In addition, the timepiece is provided with a control means for moving the time display hands in the forward and reverse directions in accordance with each of the above-mentioned beep sounds. 5. The control means according to claim 4, wherein the control means sequentially makes an alarm sound by each alarm sound data stored in the storage means by operating a demonstration switch, and the time display hands are synchronized with each alarm sound. A timepiece characterized by moving the hand in the forward and reverse directions and operating the lighting device.