JP2003004873A - Radio clock and method for displaying its receiving state - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a radio clock for displaying a receiving state recognizable at a glance without using a luminescent display or the like, and to provide a method for displaying its receiving state. SOLUTION: A pointer display unit 6 displays a time by continuously handling a second hand, maintains continuous handling when a reception of a radio signal is succeeded, or switches the second hand to a step handling of the hand to display the time when the reception of the radio signal is failed. A drive of such a pointer display unit 6 is executed by a drive means 8, and a variation of the handling of the hand in response to the receiving state is executed by controlling the means 8 by the control means 4. Thus, when the receiving state is displayed by the handling state of the hand, it can be displayed without providing the luminescent display or the like.

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 corrects and displays the time by receiving a standard radio signal including time information, and in particular, an analog display type based on a pointer used in automobiles and the like. The present invention relates to a radio clock and a method of displaying the reception status thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A radio-controlled watch corrects and displays an accurate time by receiving a radio signal. It is not possible to judge whether is accurate.
Therefore, conventionally, in a radio-controlled timepiece, a reception mark simulating a radio tower is provided in a liquid crystal display device, or a light-emission display including an LED is provided. When reception is successful, the reception mark is lit or the light-emission display is performed at regular intervals. It blinked to indicate that the reception was successful.

[0003]

In the above radio-controlled timepiece, it is necessary to constantly display the reception status so that the reception status can be confirmed at any time.
For this reason, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, the current is always supplied to the light emitting display, which affects the battery life.
Further, there is a clock that stops the blinking of the light emission display at night, but it is necessary to provide an optical sensor such as CdS that detects that it is at night, which causes an increase in cost.

Further, in the case of an automobile timepiece, there are many displays of instruments and warning lights in the surroundings, and providing a reception status display such as a reception mark or a light emission display further complicates the display.
It was not possible to increase the display unnecessarily.

Further, in a timepiece that emphasizes design, there is no place to provide a light emitting display by LED,
In some cases, it was not possible to provide a light-emitting display because it was not preferable in terms of design. Therefore, another reception display has been strongly demanded.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and is a reception state that can be recognized at a glance without using a light emitting display or the like and without affecting the time display, other display or design. It is an object of the present invention to provide a radio-controlled timepiece for displaying and a method for displaying its reception state.

[0007]

A radio-controlled timepiece according to the present invention is a radio-controlled timepiece which receives a radio signal including time information and displays the time on a pointer display device by driving the pointer display device to move the hands. And driving means for controlling the driving means according to the reception state of the radio wave signal so as to change the hand movement state of the pointer display device. The drive means in this radio-controlled timepiece is configured to change the hand movement state by switching and driving the second hand of the pointer display device from continuous hand movement to step hand movement or from step hand movement to continuous hand movement. Further, the driving means in this radio-controlled timepiece changes the hand movement state by switching the hand movement interval of the step movement of the second hand of the pointer display device to drive. Further, the drive means in this radio-controlled timepiece changes the hand movement state by switching the hand movement interval of the step movement of the second hand of the pointer display device in accordance with the unreceived time. Furthermore, the drive means in this radio-controlled timepiece is
When the reception fails, only the movement of the second hand of the pointer display device is stopped to change the movement state.

On the other hand, according to the method of displaying the reception state of the radio-controlled timepiece of the invention, in the radio-controlled timepiece which receives a radio signal including time information and displays the time on the pointer display device, the hand movement state of the pointer display device is indicated by the radio signal. The reception status is displayed by changing the reception status according to. In the method of displaying the reception state of the radio-controlled timepiece, the movement of the hands can be changed by continuous movement, step movement, step movement with a movement interval different from the step movement, or any one of the movement states when the second hand movement is stopped. It consists of switching to the hand movement state.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the radio-controlled timepiece of the present invention, the reception state is displayed by changing the hand movement state of the second hand without providing a light emitting display or the like. That is, in the present invention, normally, the second hand is continuously moved to display the time, and when the reception of the radio wave signal is successful, the continuous hand movement is maintained, and when the reception of the radio wave signal is failed, the second hand is switched to the step hand movement. Display the time. As described above, in the present invention, the reception state is displayed by the movement state of the second hand. Such a variable hand movement state may be not only switching from continuous hand movement to step hand movement but also switching from step hand movement to continuous hand movement.In addition, the hand movement interval of step hand movement may be changed, The step movement interval may be varied according to the unreceived time (not received within 24 hours, not received within 48 hours, etc.), or only the second hand may be stopped when reception fails.

The driving of the pointer display device accompanied by the change of the hand movement state is performed by the drive means, and the change of the hand movement state according to the reception state is performed by controlling the drive means by the control means.

As described above, if the reception state is displayed by the hand movement state, it is possible to display it without providing a light emitting display or the like. In particular, the hand movement state is only changed, and it does not require power consumption other than driving the pointer, such as light emitting display. Further, since the display is based on the hands, the display is clear, it is not mistaken for other displays, and it does not affect the design of the timepiece at all.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a radio-controlled timepiece according to an embodiment of the present invention. The main part of the radio-controlled timepiece in this embodiment is composed of a combination of a microcomputer and an electronic circuit.

Reference numeral 2 is a receiving means, which comprises a long wave receiving circuit and the like. The receiving means 2 receives a standard radio signal including time information.

Reference numeral 4 is a control means, which comprises a microcomputer or the like. The control means 4 corrects the time based on the received time information and controls the hand movement state according to the reception state. The reception operation of the radio signal is automatically performed several times at a preset time, it is automatically received 24 hours a day on the hour, it is forcibly received by the user operating the button, and the watch for the automobile is used. In this case, the setting is made so that the signal is received when the engine key is turned off so as not to be affected by noise from the engine, and the control means 4 also controls this receiving operation.

Reference numeral 6 is a pointer display device, and in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, an hour hand 14a, a minute hand 14b and a second hand 14c, a train wheel 16 for driving them, and this train wheel 16 are driven. It is composed of a motor 10.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a driving means, which is composed of one function of the microcomputer and a driving circuit. This drive means 8
By driving the motor of the pointer display device 6 based on the signal from the control means 4, the second hand is moved continuously or stepwise. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the driving means 8 is composed of a buffer circuit 12 connected to the motor 10, and the control circuit 4 applies a pulse signal as shown in FIG. 3 to the buffer circuit 12. Changes the drive state of the motor 10.

That is, when the second hand is moved continuously, the second hand 14c is moved to 1 by driving the motor 10 by applying the continuous hand movement pulse shown in FIG.
One second is sent every second for continuous hand movement. Also, the second hand 14c
In the case of moving the needle step by step, the buffer circuit 12 shown in FIG.
By applying the step movement pulse shown in FIG.
By driving the second hand 14c to feed for 1 second in 0.5 seconds and stop for 0.5 seconds, for example.
Make the step move.

When the second hand 14c is continuously moved, a smooth operation is obtained by setting the rotor of the motor to rotate by magnetic force and then maintain the rotation by inertia. As shown in a), the applied voltage to the motor 10 is set to about 3 V to weaken the magnetization of the stator of the motor 10. Further, when the second hand 14c is moved in steps, it is necessary to strongly magnetize the stator in order to temporarily stop the rotor of the motor 10, as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the voltage applied to the motor 10 is increased to about 3.5V.

Next, the operation of the radio-controlled timepiece having the above structure will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Step S
When the processing operation starts at T1, a continuous hand movement pulse is output from the control means 4 at step ST2, and the driving means 8
Drives the motor of the pointer display device 6 to continuously move the second hand to display the time.

Here, when it is the hour of the hour or when the engine key is turned off in the case of the automobile timepiece, the control means 4 judges this in step ST3, and step ST3
At 4, the receiving operation is started. After that, in step ST5, the control means 4 determines whether the reception of the radio wave signal is completed, that is, whether the reception is successful. Whether or not the reception is successful is determined by whether or not the marker or the specific information included in the received time information can be detected by the control means 4, or a fixed time such as 10 minutes. If all the time information cannot be read even after the elapse, it is determined that the reception has failed.

If it is determined that the reception is successful, the control means 4 corrects the time measured in step ST6 and supplies a fast-forward pulse or the like to the drive means 8 to fast-forward the pointer of the pointer display device 6. Correct the time by doing such as. Then, in step ST7, in order to indicate that the reception has been successful, the control means 4 supplies a continuous hand movement pulse (FIG. 3 (a)) to the drive means 8 to cause the second hand of the pointer display device 6 to continuously move.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step ST5 that the reception has failed, the control means 4 displays a step failure pulse (FIG. 3 (b)) to the driving means 8 in order to display that the reception has failed in step ST8. It is supplied and the pointer of the pointer display device 6 is moved in steps.

After that, when the reception operation is performed again on the hour or when the engine key is turned off (step ST3), etc. (step ST4), it is judged whether or not the reception is successful as described above (step ST5). Even if the reception is unsuccessful and the step movement is performed, if the reception is successful at this point, the time is adjusted (step ST6), and then the continuous movement operation is performed to display that the reception is successful (step ST6). ST7).

As described above, the second hand moves continuously or stepwise to indicate the success or failure of reception. At this time, the hour hand and the minute hand display the time as usual, and the second hand also moves. There is no difference in displaying the seconds accurately, only by the way the hands are moved.

Further, in the above embodiment, the reception success is indicated by the continuous movement of the second hand and the reception failure is indicated by the step movement of the second hand. However, the reception success is indicated by the step movement of the second hand and the reception failure is indicated by the continuous movement of the hand. You may display with.

Further, the success of reception is displayed by step movement at an interval of 1 second (1 second is sent for 0.5 seconds and stopped for 0.5 seconds), and the reception failure is displayed at an interval of 2 seconds (2 seconds are sent for 1 second). It may be displayed by changing the hand movement interval of the step movement, such as by displaying a step movement of 1 second).

Furthermore, the interval between step movements of the second hand may be varied according to the unreceived time. For example,
In order to distinguish between the case where the radio wave signal cannot be received within 24 hours and the case where the radio wave signal cannot be received within 48 hours, the second hand that normally moves in steps at 1 second intervals, If not received within 24 hours, the step is moved to the step of 2 seconds, and if not received within 48 hours, the step is changed to the step of 3 seconds. As a result, it is possible to know that the reception has failed because the interval between the step movements has changed, and it is possible to know when the reception has not been completed. The control unit 4 can also perform such measurement of the unreceived time and change of the step movement.

Further, the hour hand 14a, the minute hand 14b and the second hand 1
In a radio-controlled timepiece in which 4c are driven by separate motors, even if the second hand 14c is stopped, the hour hand 14a and the minute hand 1
4b can be driven to display the time. Therefore, in such a radio-controlled timepiece, when the reception fails, the fact that the reception has failed may be displayed by stopping the movement of only the second hand 14c.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the reception state can be displayed only by the pointer without providing a light emitting display or the like.
For this reason, it is not necessary to provide a dedicated display for displaying the reception status, or to require electric power to drive it.
Cost and power consumption can be suppressed.

Further, since the reception state is displayed according to the hand movement state, the reception state can be clearly displayed without affecting the time display by the hands.

Further, since the reception state can be displayed without providing a light emitting display or the like which has a great influence on the design, a reception state display function can be added without being restricted by the design.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a radio-controlled timepiece according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B are explanatory diagrams showing the configurations of a driving unit and a pointer display device shown in FIG. 1, where FIG. 2A shows a state during continuous hand movement, and FIG. 2B shows a state during step hand movement.

FIG. 3 is a time chart showing a hand movement pulse supplied to the driving means shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a reception display processing operation of the radio-controlled timepiece shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Receiving means 4 Control means 6 Pointer display device 8 drive means 10 motors 12 Buffer circuit 14a hour hand 14b minute hand 14c second hand 16 trains

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A radio-controlled timepiece which receives a radio signal including time information and displays the time on a pointer display device, and driving means for driving the pointer display device to move a pointer, and a reception state of the radio signal. And a control means for varying the hand movement state of the pointer display device according to the above. 2. The hand movement state is changed by switching the second hand of the pointer display device from continuous hand movement to step hand movement or step hand movement to continuous hand movement to drive the second hand of the pointer display device. Radio clock. 3. The radio-controlled timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the drive means changes the hand movement state by switching and driving the hand movement interval of the step movement of the second hand of the pointer display device. 4. The hand movement state is changed by switching the hand movement interval of the step movement of the second hand of the pointer display device according to the unreceived time and driving the drive means. Radio clock. 5. The radio-controlled timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the drive means changes the hand movement state by stopping only the movement of the second hand of the pointer display device when the reception fails. 6. A radio-controlled timepiece that receives a radio signal including time information and displays the time on a pointer display device, by changing the hand movement state of the pointer display device according to the reception state of the radio signal. A method for displaying the reception status of a radio-controlled watch, characterized by displaying. 7. The variable hand movement state is changed from a continuous movement movement, a step movement movement, a step movement movement having a movement movement distance different from the step movement movement, and a movement movement state from any one of the movement movements of the second hand movement stop to any other movement movement state. 7. The method for displaying the reception status of a radio-controlled timepiece according to claim 6, characterized in that the reception status is replaced with another one.