JPH10274681A - Radio wave timepiece device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a radio wave timepiece device wherein receiving intensity of a radio wave can be grasped and selection and the like of a proper set place can be performed. SOLUTION: A receiving signal from an antenna 110 is input to the digital input terminal 130A of a microcomputer 130 through amplifiers 112, 114, filters 116, 118, a rectifying circuit 120, an integration circuit 122, a differential circuit 126 and a compactor 128. Time indication data are extracted to be displayed on LCD for time indication 132. Output of the integration circuit 122 is input to the A/D conversion input terminal 130B of the microcomputer 130, and sampling for 100 msec is performed every second as the output of the differential circuit 126 is triggered. A sampling signal is A/D converted to judge a receiving intensity lever, and the 10 indication segment arrays 132A of LCD 132 are lighted and controlled to indicate the receiving intensity.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a radio-controlled timepiece that receives a radio wave including time information and displays the time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been provided a radio-controlled timepiece apparatus which receives a radio wave including time information transmitted in the atmosphere and extracts time information from the radio wave to display an error-free time. Have been.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of such a conventional radio controlled watch. The radio timepiece includes an antenna 10 for receiving radio waves,
Two-stage amplifiers 12 and 14 for amplifying the received signal from 0
Filters 16 and 18 for giving selectivity to the output signals of the amplifiers 12 and 14; a rectifier circuit 20 for rectifying the output of the subsequent filter 18; and an integrating circuit 22 for integrating the rectified output of the rectifier circuit 20. And a feedback line 24 for performing AGC (automatic gain control) of the amplifiers 12 and 14 based on the output of the integration circuit 22.

Further, a differentiating circuit 26 for differentiating the output of the integrating circuit 22 in such a receiving section, and a differentiating circuit 26
And a comparator 28 that compares the output of the microcomputer 28 with a reference voltage.
0 is input to the digital input terminal 30A. In the microcomputer 30, the comparator 2
8 is decoded, and time display data corresponding to the decoded value is sent to the time display LCD 32. The time display LCD 32 digitally displays the current time based on the time display data.

[0005]

In a house or the like in which the above-mentioned radio-controlled timepiece is installed, especially in a house with a reinforced structure such as an apartment, the radio wave intensity in the room tends to be attenuated compared to the outdoors. Is remarkable, and the radio wave environment is often poor. For this reason, depending on the location of the living room, the amount of attenuation of the radio wave may be too large to ensure a good reception state. Therefore, when the radio-controlled timepiece is installed in a living room, it is necessary to consider the receiving intensity, the directivity of the antenna, and the like, which is very complicated. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a radio-controlled timepiece device that can easily grasp the reception intensity of a radio wave, can select an appropriate installation location, and can display an effective time.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a radio clock device for receiving a radio wave including time information and displaying the time, a radio wave intensity detecting means for detecting the intensity of the received radio wave, Radio wave intensity display means for visually displaying the detection result by the radio wave intensity detection means.

In such a radio timepiece device of the present invention, the radio wave is received in a state where the device is actually installed in a living room or the like, so that the radio wave intensity at the installation position can be easily displayed by the radio wave intensity display means. Can be grasped. Therefore, in consideration of the received radio wave intensity and the use of the radio-controlled timepiece, it is possible to easily determine where to install it in a living room or the like. In addition, a reliable reception state can be obtained, and a stable clock function can be maintained.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a radio-controlled timepiece according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a radio-controlled timepiece device according to the present invention. The radio-controlled timepiece device of the present embodiment includes an antenna 110 for receiving radio waves,
Two-stage amplifiers 112 and 114 for amplifying a signal received from the antenna 110, and filters 116 and 118 for giving selectivity to the output signals of the amplifiers 112 and 114.
Rectifier circuit 1 for rectifying the output of the subsequent filter 118
20, an integrating circuit 122 for integrating the rectified output of the rectifying circuit 120, and the amplifier 11 based on the output of the integrating circuit 122.
A radio wave receiving unit is constituted by a feedback line 124 for performing AGC (automatic gain control) of 2, 114.

Further, a differentiating circuit 126 for differentiating the output of the integrating circuit 122 in such a receiving section and a comparator 128 for comparing the output of the differentiating circuit 126 with a reference voltage.
And inputs the output of the comparator 128 to the digital input terminal 130A of the microcomputer 130. Then, in the microcomputer 130,
The output of the comparator 128 is decoded, and time display data corresponding to the decoded value is displayed on the time display LCD 132.
, And the time display LCD 132 digitally displays the current time based on the time display data. Note that various key input signals and the like are input to the microcomputer 130, but are not directly related to the functions of the present invention.
Description is omitted.

In the radio-controlled timepiece of this embodiment, the output of the integrating circuit 122 is input to the A / D conversion input terminal 130B of the microcomputer 130, and the microcomputer 1
The reception intensity level is determined by sampling at 30. The segment row 13 provided on the lower side of the time display LCD 132 corresponds to the reception intensity level.
2A is turned on to display the reception intensity. That is,
In this example, ten display segments are provided, and when the reception intensity is equal to or more than a predetermined value, all the ten display segments are turned on at the maximum, and the light is turned on as the reception intensity decreases. The reception strength is displayed by reducing the number of display segments to be displayed. For example, when the reception intensity is the center value, the fifth display segment from the right is turned on.

In this embodiment, the sampling of the reception intensity is performed based on the output of the differentiating circuit 126. FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram showing an example of each output waveform of the integrating circuit 122 and the differentiating circuit 126 in this example. The output waveform of the differentiating circuit 126 rises every one second. Therefore, the A / D
By opening the gate of the conversion input terminal 130B for 100 msec, the output of the integration circuit 122 is sampled for 100 msec. Then, this sampling signal is converted to A / D
By performing the conversion, the voltage data is generated and supplied to the segment column 132A of the time display LCD 132. In this example, the display of the reception level is continuously performed for one second by one sampling signal, and the display is controlled so as to be switched every second.

[0012] With this configuration, the strength of the received radio wave can be easily determined visually, and an appropriate place to install the radio timepiece can be selected. In particular, in the present example, the output waveform of the integrating circuit 122 is sampled using the output waveform of the differentiating circuit 126 as a trigger, so that the received output waveform can be sampled at an appropriate point and the influence of noise and the like can be suppressed. Intensity detection and display can be performed.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above example, and various modifications are possible. For example, the sampling of the reception intensity may be performed based on an independent clock instead of the output of the differentiating circuit 126. Further, instead of the above-described time display LCD 132, display means such as an LED segment may be provided.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the intensity of a received radio wave is detected, and the detection result is visually displayed. For this reason, the received radio wave intensity can be easily visually determined, and an appropriate installation place of the radio timepiece can be selected. Then, a reliable reception state can be obtained, and a stable clock function can be maintained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a radio-controlled timepiece according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional radio-controlled timepiece device.

FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram showing an example of output waveforms of an integration circuit and a differentiation circuit in the radio-controlled timepiece shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

110 ... antenna, 112, 114 ... amplifier, 11
6, 118 filter, 120 rectifier circuit, 122
... Integration circuit, 124 feedback line, 12
6 Differentiator circuit, 128 Comparator, 130
Microcomputer, 130A ... digital input terminal,
130B... A / D conversion input terminal, 132... Time display LCD, 132A.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A radio-controlled timepiece that receives a radio wave including time information and displays the time, a radio wave intensity detecting means for detecting the intensity of a received radio wave, and a radio wave intensity for visually displaying a detection result by the radio wave intensity detecting means. A radio-controlled clock device comprising: a display unit. 2. The radio wave intensity detecting means detects the intensity of a received radio wave by sampling the level of a received signal from an antenna at a constant interval and converting the sampled signal into a digital signal. The radio-controlled timepiece device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. An amplifying means for amplifying a signal received from the antenna, a filter means for giving selectivity to an output signal of the amplifying means, a rectifying means for rectifying an output of the filtering means, and the rectifying means. Integrating means for integrating the rectified output of the integrating means, means for controlling the gain of the amplifying means based on the output of the integrating means, differentiating means for differentiating the output of the integrating means, and the output of the differentiating means as a reference voltage. 3. The radio-controlled timepiece according to claim 2, further comprising: comparator means for comparing; decoding means for decoding an output of said comparator means; and time display means for displaying time based on the output of said decoding means. 4. The radio wave intensity detecting means detects an intensity of a received radio wave by sampling an output of the integrating means and performing A / D conversion, using a differential output of the differentiating means as a trigger. The radio-controlled timepiece device according to claim 3, wherein: 5. The radio wave intensity display means has a display segment row in which a plurality of display segments are arranged, and selectively illuminates the display segments of the display segment row according to a detection level of the radio wave intensity detection means. 2. The radio-controlled timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the timepiece is displayed. 6. The time display means comprises an LCD display element, the radio field intensity display means is disposed near the time display means, and a display segment of the radio field intensity display means comprises an LCD display element. The radio-controlled timepiece device according to claim 5, wherein: 7. The time display means comprises an LED segment display element, the radio field intensity display means is disposed near the time display means, and a display segment of the radio field intensity display means is an LED display element. 6. The radio-controlled timepiece device according to claim 5, further comprising: 8. The radio-controlled timepiece device according to claim 6, wherein said radio wave intensity display means has a display segment row arranged laterally below the time display means.