DE29716382U1 - Time display - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to a time display with several counter-controlled digit groups.

Time displays on digital timepieces of any design (pocket watches, wall clocks, etc.) normally show the hours, minutes and seconds one after the other as two-digit groups of numbers, with all groups of numbers being controlled by at least one counter that counts up. The counter that shows the seconds passes a pulse to the counter that shows the minutes after every 59 pulses until 59 seconds are reached on this counter, whereupon the counter that shows the minutes passes a pulse to the counter that shows the hours until 12 or 24 hours are displayed. The actual time (actual time) is therefore displayed in each case.

In order to determine how much time is available until the hour, it is necessary to calculate the difference between the hour and the actual time, which requires a certain amount of mental effort.

The invention is based on the object of determining the time difference up to the hour in a simple manner without the need for calculation.

The subject of the invention is therefore a time display with several counter-controlled digit groups, which is characterized in that at least a first digit group is controlled by a downward counting counter and a second digit group is controlled by an upward counting counter.

Preferably, the minutes (and if necessary the

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The group of digits (&eegr;) indicating the seconds is controlled by the downwards counter, while the group of digits indicating the hours is controlled by the upwards counter. Each group of digits contains two digits (e.g. 10 sec., 10 min., 23 hrs.).

The group(s) of digits indicating the minutes (and, where applicable, the seconds) are arranged to the left of the group of digits indicating the hours in the plan view. The group of digits indicating the minutes can be arranged either to the left or to the right of the group of digits indicating the seconds.

The invention is explained by the following drawing.

Show it:.

Figure 1 shows a digital time display;

Figure 2 shows a variant of the display in Figure 1.

The display in Figure 1 is designated by the general reference number 1 and represents a liquid crystal display of a known type. 2 designates the group of digits indicating the seconds, 3 designates the group of digits indicating the minutes and 4 designates the group of digits indicating the hours. Between the groups of digits 2 and 3 or 3 and 4 are the separating markings (:) 5 and 6. The group of seconds digits 2 is controlled by the counter Z1 and the group of minutes digits 3 by the counter Z2; the group of hours digits 4 is controlled by the counter Z3. The counters Z1 and Z2 count downwards, the counter 3 counts upwards. The counter Z1 controls the group of seconds digits from 59 to 00 and then passes a counting pulse on to the counter Z2. If the counter Z1 has a second cycle from 59 to 00,. run through, another counting pulse is sent to the counter Z2.

which causes it to count down and reduce the minute digit group by one unit. The process is repeated until the counter Z2 is switched back from 59 to 00, whereby a pulse is sent to the counter Z3, which increases the value of the hour digit group 4 by one unit.

In the illustration in Figure 1, the second digit group 2 and the minute digit group 3 are each at 59, and the hour digit group 4 is at 15, i.e. the display shows the time "59 seconds and 59 minutes before 3 p.m." When the down-counting counter Z1 has reached 00, it gives the down-counting counter Z2 a pulse, so that the number 58 appears in the minute digit group and the number 59 appears in the second digit group. It is therefore "59 seconds and 58 minutes before 3 p.m." at this time.

After another 59 seconds, the minute digit group 3 is reset to 57. The process is repeated until the second digit group 2 has reached the value 00 and the minute digit group 3 has reached the value 00 (i.e. at exactly 3 p.m.) one second later the display shows the value 59 at 2, the value 59 at 3 and the value 16 at 4, i.e. it is now "59 seconds and 59 minutes before 4 p.m."

Figure 2 shows a similar arrangement to Figure 1, but the colons 5 and 6 are each replaced by the symbol >. This makes it clear that the digit groups 2 and 3 are each controlled by a downward-running counter (Zl, Z2), so that confusion with a normal time display is excluded.

According to a further embodiment, a time display can be provided for two operating modes, namely a normal operating mode and a counting down operating mode. In this embodiment, in the normal operating mode, the separating markings

ments 5 and 6 as colons (as in Fig. 1) and in the downward counting mode as " > ".

According to a further variant of the time display according to the invention, the counter Z2 can control the digit group 2 and the counter Z1 can control the digit group 3 (indicated by the dashed lines in Fig. 2), so that the time reading is then "59 minutes and 59 seconds before 3 p.m." In addition, for the sake of simplicity, the second digit group can be omitted, so that the time indication in Fig. 2 is only "59 minutes before o'clock."

The time display according to the invention can also be used to display start-up processes, whereby the hour digit group is set to the starting point.

Claims (3)

EXPECTATIONS 1. Time display (display) with several counter-controlled digit groups (2,3,4), characterized in that at least a first digit group (2,3) is controlled by a downward counting counter (Z1, Z2) and a second digit group (4) is controlled by an upward counting counter (Z3). 2. Time display according to claim 1, characterized in that the first group(s) of digits indicating the minutes (and optionally the seconds) are controlled by the downward counting counter (Z1, Z2), while the second group of digits (3) indicating the hours is controlled by the upward counting counter (Z3). 3. Time display according to claim 2, characterized in that the group(s) of digits (2, 3) indicating the minutes (and optionally the seconds) are arranged in plan view to the left of the second group of digits (4) indicating the hours.