JP2011167368A - Drive and stop control method of step motor for game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve lowered power consumption and miniaturization by connecting both the ends of a coiled wire to a VDD potential by turning on respective H arms in a bipolar constant voltage drive system reel drive unit. <P>SOLUTION: In a drive and stop control method of step motor for a game machine, the reel stop condition in which the condition for stopping reels by a controller is generated, is generated, thereafter the respective H arms (3, 7) in the respective H bridges (1, 2) are all turned on, when the step motor (5) is stopped by connecting both ends of two-phase coiled wire (10) to a power source potential, after the generation of the reel stop condition, once one face coiled wire (6 or 9) of the two-phase coiled wire (10) is excited, and the respective H arms (3, 7) are turned on after the elapse of a time set as a parameter in the controller (20) in advance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a drive / stop control method for a step motor for a gaming machine, and in particular, by turning on both sides of an H arm of an H bridge circuit in a bipolar constant voltage drive reel drive unit, both ends of the winding are connected to the VDD potential. The present invention relates to a novel improvement for achieving simplification of circuit configuration, low power consumption, and miniaturization.

  Conventionally, as this type of step motor drive / stop control method, a method of driving and stopping a step motor by a unipolar constant voltage drive method is generally employed. (A phase, A bar phase, B phase, B bar phase) is a method in which the motor is braked by torque generated by exciting all phases.

In the case of the bipolar system, in the case of a reel drive unit based on the bipolar constant voltage drive system, as an example of the stop control, the stop is realized by grounding both ends of the motor winding.
The aforementioned unipolar constant voltage driving method and bipolar constant voltage driving method are disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 described later.

JP 2002-11148 A JP 2007-7192 A

Since the conventional drive / stop control method for a step motor for gaming machines is configured as described above, the following problems exist.
That is, in general, when the unipolar constant voltage driving method and the bipolar constant voltage driving method are compared, there are the following advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages and disadvantages of unipolar drive: Easy drive circuit configuration and control (FET etc. can be configured with 4 points)
Disadvantages: Since only half of the motor winding can be used when driving, the winding efficiency is poor.
If the same torque standard is used, the motor will be larger than the bipolar system. Advantages and disadvantages of bipolar drive: Since all the windings can be excited, the motor can be downsized if the same torque is used as a standard. The drive circuit configuration and control become complicated (8 FETs are required)

  In the above-mentioned unipolar constant voltage drive system, all-phase excitation stop control is performed when the reel of the gaming machine is stopped, but all currents flowing through all-phase windings are reactive currents, resulting in less power consumption in the motor. It was supposed to increase.

In the above-mentioned bipolar constant voltage drive system, since both ends of the motor winding are grounded and stopped, a through current may be generated due to the on / off delay of the H arm and L arm of the bridge. In order to prevent the occurrence of the above, it is necessary to make a dedicated IC having a function including the above-described on / off delay control and the through current protection circuit, and it is difficult to reduce the cost.
As another method, it is possible to avoid the through current in advance by selecting the characteristics of the delay time from on to off and the delay time from off to on in the H arm and L arm elements. The selection of the characteristics of the elements to be combined in this way requires a great deal of labor and has been a major obstacle to mass production.

  According to the present invention, a stepping motor driving / stopping control method excites a two-phase winding by switching between an H arm and an L arm in each H bridge of a bipolar constant voltage driving system, thereby driving and stopping the step motor stepwise. In the method for controlling the driving / stopping of the step motor for a gaming machine in which the operation of the reel is controlled by the controller, a condition for stopping the reel is generated by the controller. When all the H-arms are turned on and both ends of the two-phase winding are connected to a power supply potential to stop the step motor, after the reel stop condition is generated, one phase of the two-phase winding is temporarily Only the windings are energized, and each H arm is turned on after the time set in advance in the controller as a parameter. It is a method to.

Since the drive / stop control method of the step motor for gaming machines according to the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained.
That is, a gaming machine in which a two-phase winding is excited by switching between an H arm and an L arm in each H bridge of a bipolar constant voltage drive system, and a step motor is step driven and stopped to control a reel operation by a controller. In the step motor drive / stop control method, after the reel stop condition is generated by the controller, a condition for stopping the reel is generated, and all the H arms in the respective H bridges are all turned on. By connecting both ends to the power supply side and stopping the step motor, only the control configuration consisting of a controller is used instead of the conventional bridge IC, etc., avoiding the generation of through current, miniaturization of the step motor and low power consumption In addition, both ends of the winding are connected to the VDD potential during stop control. Accordingly, it is possible to perform the step motor stop control without passing current.
In addition, it can contribute to cost reduction by reducing power consumption and size.

It is a block diagram which shows the drive / stop control method of the step motor for game machines by this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the excitation state at the time of the stop of FIG. It is a block diagram for applying the drive / stop control method of the present invention.

  In the present invention, both ends of the H arm of the H bridge circuit in the bipolar constant voltage drive reel drive unit are turned on to connect both ends of the winding to the VDD potential, thereby simplifying the circuit configuration, reducing power consumption, and reducing the size. An object of the present invention is to provide a drive / stop control method for a step motor for a gaming machine that is achieved.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a stepping motor drive / stop control method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a bipolar constant voltage drive circuit for constituting the motor drive unit 26 of FIG. 3 according to the present invention. The bipolar constant voltage drive circuit includes known H bridges 1 for A phase and B phase, The H bridge 1 is composed of elements AH and A bar H on the H arm 3 side connected to VDD and A bars L and AL on the L arm 4 side connected to AG on the ground side. Thus, the A phase winding 6 of the step motor 5 is connected between the A and A bars between the H arm 3 and the L arm 4.

The B-phase H bridge 2 is composed of elements BH and B bar H on the H arm 7 side connected to VDD and B bars L and BL on the L arm side 8 connected to AG on the ground side, A B-phase winding 9 of the step motor 5 is connected between the B and B bars between the H arm 7 and the L arm 8.
The A-phase winding 6 and the B-phase winding 9 described above form a two-phase winding 10 for driving the step motor 5 with a bipolar constant voltage.

Next, a case where a reel (not shown) of a gaming machine such as a slot machine is driven / stopped by the step motor 5 using the aforementioned bipolar constant voltage driving circuit will be described.
AH, AL, BH, BL, A bar H, A bar L, B bar H, B bar which are the switching transistors of the bridges 1, 2 connected to the A phase winding 6 and the B phase winding 9, respectively. L is driven and controlled by the control unit 20 as a controller shown in FIG. 3 along each pattern 0 to 7 shown in the first table of Table 1 below, so that the reel of the gaming machine is connected via the step motor 5. (Not shown) can be rotated and stopped.

  In the case described above, when the reel being rotated is to be stopped, the player's operation of the stop buttons 31, 32 and 33 (button on operation) in FIG. In order to stop at the position, the controller 20 measures the timing and performs the reel stop processing. When the reel stop condition for stopping this reel is established (generated) as described above, the step motor 5 has eight ways. Any one of the excitation combinations (patterns 0 to 7 described above) is excited.

  At the above-mentioned time, all the AH, A bar H, BH and B bar H of each H arm 3, 7 of each H bridge 1, 2 proposed by the present invention are turned on, and both ends of each winding 6, 9 are connected. When connected to the VDD side, the step motor 5 shifts to a stop state.

In the above-described case, if the H arms 3 and 7 and the L arms 4 and 8 of the bridges 1 and 2 and the L arms 4 and 8 are delayed, there is a possibility that a through current as in the conventional case is generated. After the reel stop condition is generated, only one phase of the two-phase winding 10 of the step motor 5 is excited once, and each H arm 3 of each H bridge 1, 2 is passed after a time set as a parameter in the controller. 7, 7 AH, A bar H, BH and B bar H are turned on and both ends of the windings 6 and 9 are connected to the power supply potential and stopped, thereby reliably avoiding a through current and The rotation can be stopped.
Therefore, the on / off delay of each element of each of the H bridges 1 and 2 is controlled, and the conventional dedicated IC having a function of including a through current protection circuit or the like is not used, and only the simple control configuration is used. Stop control that avoids generation of a through current can be performed only by the controller 20.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for applying the stepping motor drive / stop control method for the gaming machine according to the present invention. The configuration of this gaming machine is divided into a control unit 20 as a controller, an operation unit 21, and a motor drive unit 26. The control unit 20 includes a microcomputer 23 and memories ROM 24 and RAM 25, and has an I / O 27 that performs input signal processing from the operation unit 21 and control output processing to the motor drive unit 26.
The operation unit 21 includes a start lever 30 for a reel rotation start operation by a player and three stop buttons 31, 32, 33 for stopping three reels. Inputs of the start lever 30 and the three stop buttons 31 to 33 are connected to the I / O 27 of the microcomputer 23.
The motor driving unit 26 is constituted by an A-phase H bridge 1 and a B-phase H bridge 2 which are composed of driving elements such as transistors shown in FIG. 1, and the transistors are connected to an I / O 27 of the microcomputer.

The player operates the start lever 30 so that the microcomputer 23 receives a signal from the start lever 30 via the I / O 27 and receives the driving pulse shown in Table 1 for rotating the step motor 5 in the microcomputer 23. And a signal for rotating three reels (not shown) is output to the motor drive unit 26 via the I / O 27.
The motor drive unit 26 starts rotation of the step motor 5 with this drive pulse, and switches to constant speed rotation control when the target rotation speed is reached.
When the player operates the stop buttons 31, 32, 33 in a state where the reel is rotated at a constant rotation, the microcomputer 23 receives signals from the stop buttons 31, 32, 33 via the I / O 27, and there are three. In order to stop the reel corresponding to one of the operated stop buttons 31 to 33 among the stop buttons 31 to 33, stop control to the reel is output to the motor drive unit 26 via the I / O 27.
Therefore, the motor drive unit 26 can stop the reel with the instructed control pattern.

  The drive / stop control method for a step motor for a gaming machine according to the present invention can be applied not only to a gaming machine but also to stop driving of a machine tool or the like.

1, 2 A-phase, B-phase H bridge 3, 7 H arm 4, 8 L arm 5 Step motor 6 A phase winding 9 B phase winding 10 Two phase winding 20 Controller (control unit)

Claims (1)

Two-phase winding (10) is excited by switching between H arm (3, 7) and L arm (4, 8) in each H bridge (1, 2) of bipolar constant voltage drive system, and step motor (5) In the drive / stop control method for a step motor for a gaming machine in which the operation of the reel is controlled by the controller (20) by step driving and stopping,
After the reel stop condition has occurred, the reel stop condition for stopping the reel by the controller (20) is generated. Then, all the H arms (3, 7) in the respective H bridges (1, 2) are turned on, and the two When the step motor (5) is stopped by connecting both ends of the phase winding (10) to the power supply potential, after the reel stop condition is generated, the winding of one phase of the two-phase winding (10) is temporarily performed. Driving a step motor for a gaming machine, wherein only the wire (6 or 9) is excited, and each H arm (3, 7) is turned on after the time set in the controller (20) in advance as a parameter. -Stop control method.

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