JP2002122681A - Time piece corrected by radio wave, and method of displaying reception therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a clear and accurate radio wave-corrected time piece where wasteful illumination display is eliminated to suppress electric power consumption, and where display change in reception is simple and clear. SOLUTION: A reception discriminating means 64 determines a reception condition of a radio wave. A drive control means 52 step-operates the second pointer with an interval longer than usual to display the reception condition in a reception-completed condition, when a silencing control means 66 brings a time signal means 68 into a silenced condition, based on the reception condition. A step operation of needle is conducted with a usual interval or stopped to display the reception condition in an incompleted condition. The illuminated display is stopped to reduce the electric power consumption in a night time, by this manner.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention obtains accurate time information by receiving a standard time signal indicating Japan Standard Time,
The present invention relates to a radio-controlled timepiece that automatically corrects a display time at a time corresponding to the time information, and particularly to a radio-controlled timepiece capable of displaying a radio wave reception state and a method of displaying and receiving the time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This type of radio-controlled timepiece automatically corrects time based on time information obtained by receiving radio waves.
Unless it is indicated whether or not the radio wave has been successfully received, it may not be possible to determine whether the currently displayed time is the time before the reception or the correct time corrected after the reception. . Therefore, in conventional radio-controlled watches,
A display indicating whether or not a radio wave was received was provided.

The reception display indicating whether or not the radio wave has been received indicates the reception state by turning on or blinking an LED provided on the front of the timepiece. That is,
In some cases, two LEDs having different emission colors are provided, for example, a red LED is turned on when no reception is performed, and a green LED is turned on when reception is completed. In addition, when receiving, the LED blinks so as to light once per second, when reception is completed, blinks so as to light once every two seconds, and when reception is not possible, the light is turned off.
Some display the reception status.

[0004]

In general, in consideration of environmental issues, in portable electronic devices and the like, power consumption is reduced as much as possible to extend battery life, and power sources other than batteries such as generators are used. The use of is becoming widespread. The same is true for radio-controlled timepieces, and there is a demand for reducing power consumption as much as possible. However,
Providing a light-emitting display for displaying by constantly turning on an LED as in the above-described prior art increases power consumption and requires improvement.

[0005] Further, even if the reception state is displayed by a light-emitting display at night, many users are sleeping and the display is useless, and furthermore, some users feel that blinking light is alarming. Many users wanted other display methods.

[0006] Further, some users find that the display at night is useless and alarming, while others want to display the reception status even at night. There is also a desire to see the moment when a radio wave is received more clearly, and it has been required to develop a reception display that can respond to a user's request.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the related art, and has the following effects.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a radio-controlled timepiece which is clearer than a light-emitting display and in which a display change upon reception is easy to understand, and a reception display method thereof.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A reception display method for a radio-controlled timepiece according to the present invention displays a time with a second hand, a minute hand, and an hour hand based on time information obtained by receiving a radio wave, and has a time notification function. In a radio-controlled timepiece having a mute function to stop timekeeping, when the timepiece is stopped by the mute function, if the radio wave is being received, the second hand is stepped at a longer interval than usual. The reception is displayed, and if the radio wave has not been received, the second hand is moved stepwise at regular intervals to indicate that the radio wave has not been received.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a reception display method for a radio-controlled timepiece, in which the time is displayed by a second hand, a minute hand, and an hour hand based on time information obtained by receiving a radio wave, and a timekeeping function and timekeeping are stopped. In a radio-controlled timepiece having a muffling function, when the time is stopped by the muffling function, if the radio wave is being received, the second hand step is stepped at a longer interval than usual and received. When the radio wave has not been received, the second hand is stopped at a predetermined position to indicate that the radio wave has not been received.

Further, the radio-controlled timepiece of the present invention includes a receiving means for receiving a radio wave to obtain time information, a time measuring means for measuring time based on the time information obtained by the receiving means, a second hand, a minute hand and an hour hand. Pointer driving means for driving, reception discriminating means for discriminating a reception state of the receiving means, timing means for performing timing, silencing control means for stopping timing by the timing means, and the timing means When the reception discriminating unit determines that the hand is being received when the mute control unit stops the timing, the second hand step is performed at a longer interval than usual. A step of moving the second hand step at regular intervals to display the fact that the signal has not been received. And control means, and has a.

Further, the radio-controlled timepiece of the present invention comprises a receiving means for receiving a radio wave to obtain time information, a time measuring means for measuring time based on the time information obtained by the receiving means, a second hand,
Pointer driving means for driving the minute hand and the hour hand, reception discriminating means for discriminating the reception state of the receiving means, time-measuring means for performing time-measuring, mute control means for stopping time-measuring by the time-measuring means, When the hand driving means is driven and controlled based on the time measured by the time keeping means, and when the mute control means stops reporting, when the reception determining means determines that the time is being received, the second hand step is normally performed. Display that it is receiving by stepping the hand at longer intervals than
And a drive control means for stopping the second hand at a predetermined position when the reception discriminating means judges that the signal has not been received, and displaying that the signal has not been received.

Further, the radio-controlled timepiece has reception display means for lighting and displaying the reception state in accordance with the reception state determined by the reception determination means, and turning off the light when the mute control means stops reporting. ing.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
The time based on the received time information is displayed by driving the second hand, the hour hand and the minute hand, respectively. In this radio-controlled timepiece, when the time is stopped by the mute function, it is determined whether the radio wave reception state is the non-reception state or the reception completion state, and in the case of the reception completion state, the second hand is longer than usual. A reception display method is used in which the hands are moved stepwise at intervals, and in a non-receiving state, the steps are moved at regular intervals. Therefore, reception display can be performed without using light emission display, power consumption is reduced, and power consumption does not increase because the display is performed by the second hand.

In the present invention, as described above, the reception state is discriminated and displayed when the mute state is set, and the mute for stopping the time signal is generally set when the set time at night or around the clock becomes dark. Since the light-emitting display is performed at night, the light-emitting display is wasteful and unobtrusive, so that it is possible to confirm the reception state without extra power consumption and inconspicuously. In addition, at this time, if the reception is completed, the second hand moves stepwise at an interval longer than a normal step, so that noise related to driving the second hand at bedtime can be reduced.

In a radio-controlled timepiece having a function of stopping the second hand at night, the power consumption is further reduced by stopping the second hand when no signal is received.

Further, in the radio-controlled timepiece having a function based on the above-described reception display method, when the time is stopped by the mute control means as described above, the reception state is determined by the reception determination means for determining the reception state. Based on this, the drive control means switches the state of the second hand step movement. At this time, in the case of the reception completion state, the reception is indicated by moving the second hand, for example, once every 10 seconds for 10 steps so as to be recognizable at a glance, so as to be recognized at a glance, If the signal has not been received, the normal hand is moved, that is, the second hand is moved once a second, one step at a time, or 12 seconds.
By stopping at the hour position, it indicates that no reception has been made. Then, when the stop at the time of reporting by the silence control means is released, the state shifts to a normal hand operation state.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional explanatory view showing a configuration of a radio-controlled timepiece according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the radio-controlled timepiece.

As shown in FIG. 2, the circuit configuration of the radio-controlled timepiece according to the present embodiment has a reception circuit 1 comprising a crystal oscillation circuit 4, an antenna 6, and reception control means 8 with a CPU 2 as a center.
0, motors 12 and 14 for driving the hands,
An external operating member 30 including wheel trains 16 and 18 and second hand 20 and hour / minute hand 22 driven by the motor 14, a motor drive buffer 24 for driving the motors 12 and 14, a mute setting switch 26 and a time setting switch 28, respectively; A ROM 32 and a RAM 34 for storing information necessary for alarming and silencing, and information about an input time, a hand operation state, and the like;
A coincidence detection circuit 36 for detecting coincidence between the time measured by and a set time (such as the hour), a reception display unit 38 made of an LED or liquid crystal for displaying a reception state by emitting or lighting, a coincidence detection An alarm sound generation circuit 40 that is driven when the circuit 36 detects a coincidence, a speaker 42 that generates an alarm sound based on a signal from the alarm sound generation circuit 40, and a sensor 44 that includes CdS or the like that detects light and darkness around the clock. It is generally configured.

The radio-controlled timepiece of this embodiment having the above-described circuit configuration has a functional configuration as shown in FIG. That is, 46
Is a receiving means for receiving a standard signal, and includes a receiving circuit 10.

Reference numeral 48 denotes time measuring means for measuring time.
The function includes the function of the PU 2 and the function of the crystal oscillation circuit 4. In the present embodiment, the time is always corrected to an accurate time based on time information obtained from the standard signal received by the receiving means 46. .

Reference numeral 50 denotes a pointer driving means for driving the second hand 20 and the hour / minute hands 22. The motor driving buffer 24, the motors 12, 14 and the wheel trains 16, 1 driven by them.
8 includes the respective functions.

Reference numeral 52 denotes drive control means for controlling the driving state of the hands, which is constituted by the function of the CPU 2. The drive control unit 52 controls the normal hand movement, for example, the second hand at one second.
A normal hand moving means 54 for driving control such as moving the hand one step at a time, and a hand moving state in which the second hand is stepped at a longer interval than the normal step when the reception is completed, for example, 10 steps every 10 seconds. Reception hand movement means 56 for driving and controlling the hands to move in steps, hand movement stop means 60 for stopping the second hand at the 12 o'clock position in accordance with the detection state of the light / dark detection means 58 comprising the sensor 44, and hand movement switching means 62 for switching the hand movement state. have.

Numeral 64 denotes a reception judging means for judging the reception completion from the receiving state of the receiving means 46, and is constituted by the function of the CPU 2. The reception determining means 64 in the present embodiment includes:
If the receiving means 46 has received the standard signal within 24 hours, it is determined that the reception has been completed, and if the receiving means 46 has not received the standard signal within 24 hours, it has been determined that it has not been received. Is set to The receiving means 60 gives the result of the determination to the hand movement switching means 62 to determine the hand movement switching state.

Reference numeral 66 denotes a muffling control means, which comprises the functions of the CPU 2 and the like. This mute control means is provided when the light / dark detection means 58 detects a dark state, or during a mute time zone set in advance (for example, PM 11:00 to 5:00), or a mute setting means including a time setting switch 28. 67
In accordance with the conditions such as the time set by (1), the timing of the timing means described later is stopped. Further, in response to the stoppage of the alarm by the silence control means 66, the hand movement switching means 62
Switches the hand operation state.

Reference numeral 68 denotes a time notification means having the following functional configuration. The time setting means 70 preliminarily sets and stores a time (for example, every hour) at which the time is to be reported, and inputs / outputs the time from the time setting input means 78 composed of the time setting switch 28 to turn on / off the time or report the time. It is also possible to select the hourly sound and set the alarm notification time. The function of the CPU 2 and the ROM 32, RAM 3
4 functions. Match detection means 72
Includes a function of the CPU 2 and detects the coincidence between the time measured by the clock unit 48 and the time set in the time setting unit 70. The time control means 74 includes a CP
The function of U2 and the function of the alarm sound generation circuit 40 and the like are included, and the sound generation means 76 includes the function of the speaker 42. The time control means 74 controls the sound generating means 76 to generate a time sound when the coincidence detecting means 72 detects the coincidence.

Reference numeral 80 denotes a reception display unit including the reception display unit 38. The reception display means 80 displays a reception state when the mute state is not set.

Next, the operation of the radio-controlled timepiece of this embodiment having the above-described functional configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of the display operation shown in FIG. 3 and the explanatory diagram showing the second hand operation shown in FIG. First, in step ST1, the light / dark detection means 58
Detects a dark state, enters a mute period set in advance, or sets the mute control unit 66 to the mute state according to the condition set by the mute setting unit 67. It is determined that the sound has been muted, and the hand operation switching means 62 switches the operation of the second hand. At this time, the display by the reception display means 80 is turned off in step ST3. Then, step ST4
When the reception determining means 64 determines that the reception of the radio wave has been completed, the hand movement switching means 62 switches to the hand operation by the reception hand operation means 56 in step ST5. As a result, the second hand is in a state of being moved by 10 steps once every 10 seconds, indicating that the reception is completed. Then, when the light / dark detection means 58 detects the light state, or after a preset mute time period has passed, or when the mute control means 66 releases the mute state in accordance with the condition set by the mute setting means 67, step ST2 It is determined that the mute state has been released in step ST6. In step ST6, the hand movement switching means 62 switches to the hand movement by the normal hand movement means 54, and returns to the normal one-second step movement.

The operation of the second hand is as shown in FIG. That is, at 11:00 PM (or in the dark state), the mute control means 66 sets the time-measuring means 68 to the mute state, and at this time, the second hand moves in 10 second steps. This 10
The second step is then continued until AM 5:00 (or a bright state) and the mute state is released. And
When the mute state is released, the second hand returns to the one-second step.

If the reception display is set to be performed by the hand movement stopping means 60 by an external operation or the like, the hand movement switching means 62 switches to the stop of the hand movement by the hand movement stopping means 60 in step ST4. In ST5, the movement of the second hand is stopped at the 12 o'clock position. In this case, as in the case of the above-described 10-second step, when the mute state is released, the processing returns to the normal one-second step.

On the other hand, if the reception discriminating means 64 determines in step ST4 that no reception has been made, the hand movement switching means 62 continues the hand movement by the normal hand moving means 54 in step ST7. Then, if it is in a non-receiving state, the hand movement is performed in a normal state. FIG. 4B shows the hand movement state at this time. Further, as shown in FIG. 4C, when the hand movement stopping means 60 also has a function of stopping the hand movement in response to the detection of the dark state from the light / dark detection means 58, the hand movement is stopped in the dark state. .

In step ST4, even if the reception discriminating means 64 determines that no reception has been made, then in step ST8, the receiving means 46 performs automatic reception at night and the reception of radio waves is completed. In this case, in step ST9,
The reception determining means 64 determines that the reception has been completed, and proceeds to step ST5.
In response to the completion of the reception in the mute state, the hand movement switching means 62 switches to the 10-second step movement by the reception hand movement means 56. As shown in FIG. 4 (d) or (e), even if the normal hand movement or the hand movement stop in the normal state is being performed at this time, by switching to the 10-second step hand movement, It is possible to confirm that the automatic reception has been performed.

[0032]

According to the present invention, when the sound is muted at night or the like, the reception state of the radio wave is displayed by the movement of the second hand. Therefore, it is possible to stop the light emission display and display the reception state with the pointer. Power consumption can be reduced.

In addition, the hand movement of the second hand is stepped at intervals longer than normal hand movement during reception, and is performed when the hand movement is in the silence state at night, so that there is no extra power consumption and The reception state can be confirmed unobtrusively and surely, and the noise caused by driving the second hand when sleeping can be reduced.

Further, by using the reception display by switching the hand movement of the second hand together with the second hand stop function at night,
Useless reception display during sleep can be omitted, and power consumption can be further reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional explanatory diagram showing a functional configuration of a radio-controlled timepiece according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional explanatory diagram showing a circuit configuration of a radio-controlled timepiece according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a reception display operation of the radio-controlled timepiece shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a hand operation state of the radio-controlled timepiece shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 CPU 4 Crystal oscillation circuit 10 Receiving circuit 12, 14 Motor 16, 18 Wheel train 20 Second hand 22 Hour hand / Minute hand 26 Mute setting switch 28 Report time setting switch 32 ROM 34 RAM 44 Sensor 46 Receiving means 48 Timing means 50 Hand driving means 52 Driving control means 64 Reception discriminating means 66 Mute control means 67 Mute setting means 68 Reporting means

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A radio-controlled timepiece having a second hand, a minute hand, and an hour hand to display time based on time information obtained by receiving a radio wave, and having a time-keeping function and a sound-deadening function of stopping time-keeping. When the time is stopped by the function, if the radio wave is being received, it indicates that the second hand step is being stepped at a longer interval than usual and is being received, and the radio wave has not been received. And displaying the fact that no reception has been made by moving the second hand step at regular intervals. 2. A radio-controlled timepiece having a time display function and a mute function of stopping time information based on time information obtained by receiving a radio wave, the time being indicated by a second hand, a minute hand, and an hour hand. When the time is stopped by the function, if the radio wave is being received, it indicates that the second hand step is being stepped at a longer interval than usual and is being received, and the radio wave has not been received. And stopping the second hand at a predetermined position to indicate that no signal has been received. 3. Receiving means for receiving radio waves to obtain time information, clocking means for measuring time based on the time information obtained by the receiving means, hand driving means for driving a second hand, a minute hand and an hour hand; Reception determination means for determining the reception state of the reception means; time-measurement means for performing timekeeping; silence control means for stopping the timekeeping by the time-measurement means; and the pointer driving based on the time measured by the timekeeping means Along with controlling the driving of the means, when the silencing control means stops the timing, if the reception determining means determines that it is receiving, the second hand step is stepped at a longer interval than usual and received. Drive control means for displaying that the reception has not been received, and when the reception determination means determines that the reception has not been performed, the second hand step is moved by a step at regular intervals to display that the reception has not been performed. Radio-controlled timepiece which is characterized. 4. Receiving means for receiving a radio wave to obtain time information, clocking means for measuring time based on the time information obtained by the receiving means, hand driving means for driving a second hand, a minute hand and an hour hand; Reception determination means for determining the reception state of the reception means; time-measurement means for performing timekeeping; silence control means for stopping the timekeeping by the time-measurement means; and the pointer driving based on the time measured by the timekeeping means Along with controlling the driving of the means, when the silencing control means stops the timing, if the reception determining means determines that it is receiving, the second hand step is stepped at a longer interval than usual and received. And a drive control means for stopping the second hand at a predetermined position to display the fact that the signal has not been received when the reception determining means determines that the signal has not been received. Timepiece. 5. A reception display unit that lights up and displays the reception state according to the reception state determined by the reception determination unit, and turns off the light when the mute control unit stops reporting. The radio-controlled watch according to 3 or 4.