EP1796799B1 - Trim-corrected roulette cylinder, and gambling table comprising same - Google Patents

Abstract

Roulette wheel including a bowl, a disk rotatably mounted inside the bowl, and an assembly for adjusting the leveling of the bowl. The adjustment includes an inclination detector attached to the bowl ( 1 ) and actuators for automatically correcting the leveling of the bowl as a function of information supplied by the inclination detector. This roulette wheel with leveling correction is placed on the playing surface of a roulette table.

Description

The present invention relates to a roulette cylinder, and a game table carrying such a cylinder.

As is known per se, an essential member of the roulette game, French or American, is the roulette wheel.

Such a cylinder, like that described in the prior art document GB-A-978 701 , comprises, conventionally, a generally wooden bowl inside which is rotatably mounted a tray itself generally metal.

Numbers are marked on the periphery of this plate, and cells separated from each other by dividers are arranged opposite these numbers, radially inward with respect to the latter.

In operation, the tray is rotated by hand by means of a knob mounted in the center thereof, and a ball is launched on the upper track of the bowl.

This ball turns on this track, then joins the turntable, and is finally positioned in one of the boxes of the board, allowing the designation of a random number.

So that the rotation of the tray with respect to the bowl can be carried out correctly, and so that the trajectory of the ball is not influenced by any slope effect whatsoever, it is essential that the plate of the bowl can be adjusted perfectly horizontal.

To achieve this result, the bowl is conventionally mounted on manually adjustable feet, and periodically verifies the horizontality of the cylinder plate by means of a spirit level: if necessary, the adjustment of the feet is adjusted to find horizontality.

These periodic adjustment operations require a lot of care, and consume a lot of time.

There is therefore a need for a system for adjusting the attitude of a roulette cylinder which allows the trim to be adjusted quickly and with great precision.

The present invention satisfies this need with a roulette cylinder, of the type comprising a bowl and a rotatably mounted plate inside this bowl, and means for adjusting the plate of said bowl, remarkable in that said adjusting means comprise tilt detection means mounted integral with said bowl, and means for automatically correcting the attitude of said bowl according to the information provided by said inclination detecting means.

Thanks to the presence of tilt detection means, it is possible to know continuously the effective attitude of the bowl of the roulette cylinder, and to correct it immediately and with great precision with the automatic correction means.

According to an optional feature of the roulette roll according to the invention, said inclination detecting means comprises a bi-axis inclinometer.

Such an inclinometer is commercially available in the form of an integrated circuit and makes it possible to achieve, with a small footprint and at low cost, the attitude correction function.

According to another optional feature of the roller cylinder according to the invention, said automatic correction means comprise a three-legged base supporting said bowl, said base incorporating on at least two of the three feet an actuator adapted to vary the effective length of the foot. corresponding.

According to another optional feature of the roller cylinder according to the invention, said automatic correction means comprise two actuators disposed under said bowl, each adapted to rotate said bowl about an axis passing through the other actuator and by a point d support provided under said bowl, and control means of said actuators according to the information provided by said inclination detection means.

The presence of two actuators is sufficient to allow the attitude of the roulette wheel to be altered in all directions of the space, and makes it possible to carry out the attitude correction simply and economically.

According to another optional feature of the roulette cylinder according to the invention, said actuators are of the linear electromechanical type.

Linear actuators are commonly available on the market, allowing for high precision adjustments.

According to another optional feature of the roulette cylinder according to the invention, said control means comprise means for storing the information provided by said inclinometer corresponding to a calibration plate of said bowl, and for automatically bringing said bowl of any plate to said calibration base.

The presence of means for memorizing a calibration plate makes it possible to store in memory the information provided by the inclinometer corresponding to the ideal attitude of the roulette cylinder, and to subsequently control the actuators so as to converge the current information. provided by the inclinometer to said information stored in memory.

Thus, once calibration is done, we can at any time reduce the current attitude of the roulette cylinder to its ideal attitude.

According to another optional feature of the roller cylinder according to the invention, this cylinder comprises means for notifying an attitude correction impossibility taking into account the information provided by said inclinometer and the actual positions of said actuators.

The presence of these warning means makes it possible to indicate to the operator when the system according to the invention is not sufficient to perform the automatic attitude correction, and therefore when a manual intervention is necessary.

According to another optional feature of the roulette cylinder according to the invention, said inclinometer and / or said actuators are mounted inside housing opening under said bowl.

The fact of placing the inclinometer and the actuators inside the bowl of the roulette cylinder makes it possible not to increase the size of this cylinder, and thus not having to modify the roulette game tables intended to be equipped with this cylinder.

A spirit level allows the calibration of a roulette cylinder in accordance with the above. It comprises a skylight containing a bubble, mounted on a support structure with three points of support adapted to rest on the upper track of the bowl of the roulette cylinder.

The present invention also relates to a roulette game table, notable in that it carries a roulette cylinder according to the above.

• la figure 1 représente une vue en perspective d'un cylindre de roulette selon l'invention,
• la figure 2 représente une vue en coupe selon la ligne A-A de la figure 4 de ce cylindre de roulette,
• la figure 3 est une vue de dessus d'un détail de la figure 2,
• la figure 4 est une vue schématique de dessous du cylindre de roulette selon l'invention et de ses moyens de commande, et
• la figure 5 est une vue schématique de dessus du cylindre de roulette selon l'invention, en cours d'étalonnage.

The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the light of the following description of an embodiment of a roulette wheel according to the invention given by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: which :

• the figure 1 represents a perspective view of a roulette cylinder according to the invention,
• the figure 2 represents a sectional view along the line AA of the figure 4 of this roulette cylinder,
• the figure 3 is a top view of a detail of the figure 2 ,
• the figure 4 is a schematic bottom view of the roulette cylinder according to the invention and its control means, and
• the figure 5 is a schematic top view of the roller cylinder according to the invention, being calibrated.

We refer to Figures 1 and 2 , on which it can be seen that the roulette roll according to the invention comprises a bowl 1 preferably made of hardwood or synthetic material, inside which is rotatably mounted a plate 5 formed preferably and conventionally of a plurality of metal parts assembled together, of which it is not useful here to give details.

Optionally (and not imperative for the embodiment of the present invention) a tank 3 preferably made of metal is fixedly mounted on the bowl 1 and serves as a housing for the plate 5. The plate 5 is pivotally mounted, with ball bearings appropriate, on an axis 7 itself attached to the bottom of the tank 3

A knob 9 is integrally connected to the plate 5.

As is known per se, the plate 5 has at its periphery numbers 11 and, radially inside and opposite these numbers, cells 13 separated from each other by dividers 15.

We are now referring more specifically to Figures 2 to 4 , on which we see that the bowl 1 of the roulette cylinder according to the invention comprises three housings opening on its underside.

Inside two of these housings are actuators 17a, 17b, and in the third housing is a bi-axis inclinometer 19.

It will be further noted that the bowl 1 comprises, on its lower external face, a support member 21.

Preferably, and as is visible on the figure 4 the two actuators 17a, 17b and the support member 21 are arranged substantially at the three vertices of an equilateral triangle centered with respect to the bowl 1, and the inclinometer 19 can be arranged in the vicinity of the support member 21, on the mediator of the segment delimited by the two actuators.

The two actuators 17a, 17b are preferably linear electromechanical actuators, such as those sold by HAYDON SWITCH & INSTRUMENT INC., Located at Waterbury, CT 06705 USA.

For a conventional roller cylinder weighing between 70 and 120 kg, these two actuators are dimensioned so as to be able to exert a thrust of the order of 80 kg, on a stroke of the order of 13 mm.

The bi-axis inclinometer 19 may be an integrated circuit of the SCA100T type, sold by VTI TECHNOLOGIES, located in Dearborn, MI 48126, USA.

Such an inclinometer is capable of detecting a variation of inclination angle of the order of 0.1 degree in two perpendicular directions symbolized by two arrows 23 (see FIG. figure 3 ) marked on the top of the integrated circuit.

The two actuators 17a, 17b and the inclinometer 19 are connected by appropriate electrical connections 25a, 25b, 25c to an electronic control member 27 which can comprise electrical supply means, calculation means and a memory zone 29.

The control member 27 is preferably located outside the roller cylinder, but one could also imagine a variant in which this body would be integrated in the bowl 1.

The mode of operation and the advantages of the invention result directly from the foregoing description.

The roulette cylinder is intended to be placed on the plate 31 of a gaming table 33 (shown schematically in partial section) as shown in FIG. figure 2 .

A preliminary operation consists in calibrating the correction means of the plate of the bowl 1.

This operation can be done either on the gaming table 33 or elsewhere, and in particular on another support that the gaming table where the roulette cylinder is intended to be installed.

We first start by placing a spirit level at three points of support, in this case and without limitation, a tripod bubble 36 so that its three feet 37a, 37b, 37c are supported on the track upper portion of the bowl 1, as shown in FIG. figure 5 .

The plate of the bowl 1 is then manually adjusted so that the bubble 39 of the tripod 36 is exactly in the middle of the observation window 40 of this tripod, thus indicating that the plate of the bowl 1 is perfectly horizontal.

The manual adjustment of the plate of the bowl 1 can be carried out in any appropriate manner, and in particular by placing shims under this bowl, or by adjusting the height of the feet of the support (game table or other) on which this bowl is placed.

Once the attitude of the bowl 1 is thus set, the control member 27 is actuated (for example by means of a calibration button) so as to memorize in the memory means 29 the information supplied by the user. Inclinometer 19 corresponding to this plate.

The tripod 36 can then be removed and the manual adjustment means (shims, adjustable foot support, etc.) removed, and the roll roll 1 is positioned as indicated on the drawing. figure 2 , that is to say that the support member 21 and the rods 35 of each of the actuators 17a, 17b bear against the upper face of the plate 31 formed in the game table 33.

It then acts on the control unit 27 (for example by means of a suitable control button) so that this member controls the adjustment of the lengths of the rods 35 of the two actuators 17a, 17b until the current information provided. by the bi-axis inclinometer 19 coincide with the stored information corresponding to the horizontal attitude determined preliminary manner as indicated above.

Note that the presence of two actuators is generally sufficient, each actuator can rotate the bowl 1 about an axis passing through the other actuator and the fulcrum 21, which allows to change the base of the bowl 1 in all directions of space. However it is possible alternatively to replace the support member 21 by a third linear electromechanical actuator of the type of actuators 17a and 17b.

Without departing from the scope of the present invention, the roller cylinder could rest on a base with three feet, at least two of the three feet, or even three feet, incorporating an actuator adapted to vary its effective length.

It should be noted that warning means, for example sound, can be provided, indicating to the operator that it is impossible to automatically correct the attitude of the bowl 1, taking into account the information provided by the inclinometer 19 and the actual positions of the plates. actuators 17a, 17b.

These warning means can be triggered in particular when the stroke of the rods 35 of the actuators 17a, 17b is insufficient to reach a horizontal attitude.

It should be noted that other warning means can also be provided, indicating to the operator that automatic correction of the attitude of the bowl 1 is being carried out.

It will also be noted that provision can be made for the triggering of an automatic correction operation of the plate of the bowl 1 to be carried out on the order of an operator, as indicated above, or, alternatively, in a programmed manner periodic.

It can also be expected that this triggering occurs automatically whenever the attitude measured by the inclinometer 19 deviates from a predetermined amplitude of the ideal attitude established as indicated above.

Of course, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described and shown, provided by way of illustrative and non-limiting example.

For example, two mono-axis inclinometers could be used instead of a bi-axis inclinometer.

Claims (9)

1. A roulette wheel, comprising a bowl (1) and a disk (5) rotatably mounted inside said bowl (1), and means (17a, 17b, 19, 27) of adjustment for adjusting the levelling of said bowl (1), characterised by the fact that the aforementioned means of adjustment comprise an inclination detection means (19) attached to said bowl (1) and means (17a, 17b, 27) of correction for automatically correcting the levelling of said bowl (1) based on information provided by said inclination detection means (19).
2. The roulette wheel according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that the aforementioned inclination detection means comprises a two-axis inclinometer (19).
3. The roulette wheel according to claims 1 or 2, characterised by the fact that said means of automatic correction comprises a tripod stand with three feet that supports said bowl, said tripod stand having at least two of the three feet comprising an actuator capable of varying the effective length of the corresponding foot.
4. The roulette wheel according to claims 1 or 2, characterised by the fact that said means of automatic correction comprises two actuators (17a, 17b) disposed under said bowl (1), each capable of pivoting said bowl (1) about an axis that passes through the other actuator and through a bearing point (21) under said bowl (1), and a means of control (27) for controlling said actuators based on information provided by said inclination detection means (19).
5. The roulette wheel according to claims 3 or 4, characterised by the fact that said actuators (17a, 17b) comprise linear electromechanical type actuators.
6. The roulette wheel according to any of claims 1 to 5, characterised by the fact that said means of control (27) comprises a means of storage (29) to store the information provided by said detection means (19) corresponding to a calibration levelling of said bowl (1) and for automatically moving said bowl (1) from any levelling whatsoever to said calibration levelling.
7. The roulette wheel according to any of claims 2 to 6, characterised by the fact that said wheel comprises a means of warning, for warning that the levelling of the bowl cannot be corrected given the information provided by said inclinometer (19) and the effective positions of said actuators (17a, 17b).
8. The roulette wheel according to any of claims 2 to 7, characterised by the fact that said inclinometer (19) and/or said actuators (17a, 17b) are mounted inside open housings under said bowl (1).
9. A roulette gaming table characterised by the fact that said table carries a roulette wheel in accordance with any of the previous claims.

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