JP4731315B2 - Magnetic encoder - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a small-sized magnetic encoder used for, for example, detecting the rotation angle of each joint of an articulated robot, detecting the position of a steering wheel of an automobile, and controlling a brushless DC motor.

Some conventional magnetic encoders are coaxially attached to the end face of the motor body opposite to the output side. In this magnetic encoder, a disk-shaped back yoke made of a magnetic material is fixed to a disk-shaped boss fixed to the outer periphery of the base end portion of the motor shaft, and a disk-shaped pole magnet is attached to the surface of the back yoke. Further, the substrate is fixed at a position away from the pole magnet in the motor axial direction. A Hall element is mounted on the substrate at a position facing the pole magnet. And in order to protect these components, the cover is fixed to the motor main body (for example, refer patent document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-308171 (page 3, FIG. 1)

  The conventional magnetic encoder described above has a structure in which a cable lead-in portion is provided on the side of the cover, and the cable itself is inserted into the lead-in portion so that the element wire is connected to the substrate. If the magnetic encoder is placed in an environment subject to the influence of an external magnetic field (excluding magnetic noise from the motor), the magnetic shield area on the side of the cover's retracting portion will be reduced by the retracting portion, and the It was difficult to secure a sufficient shield.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a magnetic encoder capable of suppressing the influence of an external magnetic field on the Hall element by making the magnetic shield area of the cover as large as possible. Objective.

  The magnetic encoder according to the present invention has a magnet fixed to the tip of the shaft and a Hall element that detects a magnetic field change accompanying the rotation of the magnet, and calculates the rotation angle of the shaft based on the detection of the Hall element. And an arithmetic processing unit that generates various signals based on the rotation angle information, a plurality of circuit units that output various signals generated by the arithmetic processing unit to the outside, an arithmetic processing unit, and a plurality of In a magnetic encoder having a power supply circuit section for supplying power to the circuit section, the shaft, magnet, and arithmetic processing section are used as an encoder body section, and a cable for connecting to the controller side is connected to the encoder body section. A relay unit having a plurality of circuit units and a power supply circuit unit is provided on the way, and the encoder main unit includes a substrate on which the arithmetic processing unit is mounted and a magnet that operates on the substrate. A housing that rotatably supports the shaft so as to face the control portion, a cover that fits into the housing so as to cover the substrate, and a wire lead-in portion that is sandwiched between the cover and the housing and allows only the wire of the cable to be inserted And a connector that is mounted on the opposite side of the processing unit mounting surface of the board and connected to the cable wire drawn through the wire lead-in portion, and in a state where the wire lead-in portion and the cable are in contact with each other. And a holding member that covers and holds the outer peripheral portion.

In the present invention, since only the wire of the cable is passed through the wire lead-in portion sandwiched between the cover and the housing, the shape of the wire lead-in portion can be reduced. The area of the holding surface (magnetic shield area) can be made as large as possible, and the influence of the external magnetic field on the Hall element from the holding surface can be suppressed. In addition, since only the flexible wire is provided between the wire lead-in portion and the connector, excessive stress is not applied to the connector.
In addition, a shaft, a magnet, and an arithmetic processing unit are used as an encoder main unit, a cable for connecting to the controller side is connected to the encoder main unit, and a relay unit having a plurality of circuit units and a power circuit unit is provided in the middle of the cable. Therefore, the encoder main body can be miniaturized.

FIG. 1 is an external view of a partial cross section showing a magnetic encoder according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing an encoder main body in the embodiment.
The magnetic encoder of the present embodiment includes an encoder body 10, a cable 20 attached to the encoder body 10, and a resin member (not shown) that is connected to the cable 20 at one end and molded by a hot melt method. ) Covered with a relay part 30 and a cable (not shown) connected to the other end of the relay part 30. This cable is connected to a controller (not shown).

  The encoder body 10 includes a shaft 11 having a recess 11a formed at the tip, a magnet 12 having a magnetic flux density of, for example, 12 kGs inserted into the recess 11a of the shaft 11, and a recess 13a formed at the upper portion. The seal bearing 13b is arranged in the circumferential direction, the housing 13 that rotatably supports the tip of the shaft 11 by the recess 13a, and the IC chip 14 that is disposed above the magnet 12 and faces the magnet 12 on the lower surface (calculation) The processing unit is mounted on the substrate 15, for example, the male connector 16 mounted on the upper surface of the substrate 15, and the plurality of strands 20 a of the cable 20 are connected, and the female connector is detachably connected to the male connector 16. Type connector 17, cover 18 made of magnetic material fitted to housing 13, and dust-proof gouged between cover 18 and housing 13, for example. It is composed of a wire pulling member 19 made of. With this configuration, the outer dimensions of the encoder body 10 are 15 mm × 15 mm × 22 mm.

  The above-described IC chip 14 is centered on the central axis of the shaft 11, and a hall element (not shown) for detecting a magnetic field change accompanying the rotation of the magnet 12 around the center is an interval of 90 degrees. Has been placed. The IC chip 14 calculates the rotation angle of the shaft 11 based on detection of the Hall element, and outputs the absolute data (rotation angle information) in the form of a PWM signal and a digital signal (for serial communication). Generate an incremental signal. As this incremental signal, there are an A phase / B phase signal, a brushless DC motor commutation signal (U phase / V phase / W phase signal), etc., and these signals are switched by setting the signal mode. ing.

  The male connector 16 mounted on the upper surface of the substrate 14 has a plurality of connection pins (not shown) protruding forward on one end face, and from the same end face so as to surround the connection pins from four sides. A square guide portion 16a protruding forward is provided. Although not shown, a resin sealing material is applied to the outer surfaces of the cover 18 and the housing 13 other than the shaft protruding surface. This sealing material is based on a hot melt method in which the sealing material is molded by inserting it into the mold from the cover 18 side of the encoder body 10 and pouring a liquid sealing material into the gap with the mold.

  Although not shown in the figure, the relay unit 30 is arranged in the direction of the central axis of the board, the first and second connectors mounted so as to face each other on the surface of the board 20 in the direction of the central axis, and the cable 20 of the board. It is composed of third and fourth connectors mounted on the back surface so as to face each other, a power supply circuit unit mounted on the substrate, a low-pass filter unit, a communication interface unit, an output circuit unit, and the like. The power supply circuit unit, the low-pass filter unit, the communication interface unit, the output circuit unit, and the like are peripheral circuits that are mounted on the same substrate as the IC chip 14 and are separated from the substrate. Each of the connectors described above is composed of, for example, an L-shaped board-in connector, and a plurality of terminals are inserted into through holes (not shown) arranged in the width direction of the board (direction orthogonal to the central axis of the cable 20). And are fixed by soldering.

  The power supply circuit unit is a circuit that converts the power supply 5V from the controller to a constant voltage and supplies it to the IC chip 14 and the like of the encoder body unit 10, and the low-pass filter unit converts the PWM signal into an analog signal. When the communication interface unit receives a request for rotation angle digital data from the controller, the communication interface unit notifies the IC chip 14 to that effect, and when a digital signal (absolute) is received from the IC chip 14 in response to the notification. Transfer (serial) to the controller. The output circuit unit is a circuit that outputs an incremental signal from the IC chip 14 to the controller.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a notch 18 a is formed on one side of the cover 18 described above, and a protrusion 13 c is formed on the housing 13 to be fitted to the lower part of the notch 18 a of the cover 18. Yes. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the wire lead-in part 19 includes a base part 19 a and a cylindrical part 19 c formed so as to protrude from the base part 19 a. The base 19a is provided with a hole (not shown) having a diameter that allows the plurality of strands 20a of the cable 20 to pass therethrough, and a groove into which the notch 18a of the cover 18 and the protrusion 13c of the housing 13 are fitted in the outer periphery. 19b is provided. The cylindrical portion 19c has a hole 19d having the same diameter centering on the central axis of the hole provided in the base portion 19a. The outer diameter of the cylindrical portion 19c is the same as the outer diameter of the cable.

  The wire lead-in part 19 is sandwiched by fitting the notch 18a of the cover 18 into the groove 19b provided in the base 19a, and then fitting the housing 13 into the cover 18. In this case, the protrusion 13c of the housing 13 enters the groove 19b in the lower portion of the base 19a. Before the wire lead-in part 19 is sandwiched between the cover 18 and the housing 13, first, the cable 20 is passed through the heat shrinkable tube 40, and the plurality of wire 20 a of the cable 20 is connected to the cylindrical part 19 c of the wire lead-in part 19. The hole 19d and the base 19a are passed through. Then, the tip end surface of the cylindrical portion 19c of the wire lead-in portion 19 and the end surface of the outer peripheral portion excluding the wire 20a of the cable 20 are brought into contact with each other, and the portion is covered with the heat shrink tube 40 previously passed through the cable 20, The heat shrinkable tube is shrunk by heat, and the cylindrical portion 19c and the cable 20 are tightened. Due to the shrinkage of the heat shrinkable tube 40, the cable 20 is connected to the wire lead-in portion 19 and is held.

  Thus, since the outer diameter of the cylindrical portion 19c of the wire lead-in portion 19 is the same as the outer diameter of the cable 20, the wire lead-in portion 19 can be reduced in size compared to the conventional case in which the cable 20 itself is inserted into the lead-in portion. As a result, the encoder main body 10 itself can be made small, and the area (magnetic shield area) of the wire drawing portion 19 of the cover 18 can be made as large as possible. The influence of an external magnetic field on can be suppressed. Further, since only the flexible wire 20a is provided between the wire lead-in portion 19 and the female connector 17, excessive stress is not applied to the male and female connectors 16,17.

1 is an external view of a partial cross section showing a magnetic encoder according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view which decomposes | disassembles and shows the encoder main-body part in embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Encoder main part, 11 Shaft, 11a Recessed part, 12 Magnet, 13 Housing, 13a Recessed part, 13b Seal bearing, 14 IC chip, 15 Substrate, 16 Male connector, 16a Guide part, 17 Female connector, 18 Cover, 18a Notch Part, 19 strand drawing part, 19a base part, 19b groove, 19c cylindrical part, 19d hole, 20 cable, 30 relay part, 40 heat shrinkable tube.

Claims (3)

A magnet fixed to the tip of the shaft and a Hall element that detects a magnetic field change accompanying the rotation of the magnet, calculates the rotation angle of the shaft based on the detection of the Hall element, and information about the rotation angle An arithmetic processing unit that generates various signals based on the signal, a plurality of circuit units that output various signals generated by the arithmetic processing unit to the outside, and supplies power to the arithmetic processing unit and the plurality of circuit units In a magnetic encoder having a power supply circuit unit
The shaft, the magnet, and the arithmetic processing unit are used as an encoder main unit, a cable for connecting to the controller main unit is connected to the encoder main unit, and a relay unit including the plurality of circuit units and the power supply circuit unit in the middle of the cable. Prepared
The encoder body is
A substrate on which the arithmetic processing unit is mounted;
A housing that rotatably supports the shaft so that the magnet faces an arithmetic processing unit on the substrate;
A cover fitted to the housing so as to cover the substrate;
A wire lead-in part that is sandwiched between the cover and the housing and allows only the wire of the cable to pass through;
A connector that is attached to the surface opposite to the arithmetic processing unit mounting surface of the substrate and connected to the cable strand drawn through the wire lead-in portion,
The magnetic encoder according to claim 1, further comprising a holding member that covers and holds the outer peripheral portion of the wire drawing portion and the cable in contact with each other. The wire lead-in part
A base provided with a hole having a diameter sufficient to pass through the strands of the cable, and a groove formed in the outer peripheral portion into which the side wall of the cover and the housing is fitted;
A cylindrical portion having a hole of the same diameter centered on the central axis of the hole, formed to protrude from the base,
The magnetic encoder according to claim 1, wherein an outer diameter of the cylindrical portion is the same as an outer diameter of the cable. The magnetic encoder according to claim 1, wherein the holding member is a heat shrinkable tube that shrinks by heat.

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