JP7281032B2 - Geared motors and geared motor units - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to motors, and more particularly to motors that can be used in toys, machine tools, and the like.

In the field of toys, machine tools, etc., movable toys such as robot toys and animal toys can incorporate a driving device to move limbs in a complex manner. To control the movement of such toys, the toys are equipped with servo motors and position detection sensors. For example, a position detection sensor detects a rotation angle of a foot or the like, and a servomotor performs feedback control based on the detected rotation angle (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 4695243

When using a servo motor, a control program must be designed and a control circuit must be mounted on the board. In addition, the position detection sensor must also be configured to enable accurate position detection in order to perform feedback control. This results in excessive drive control for machines such as toys, machine tools, and the like, which simply require movement according to the user's preference.

Therefore, there is a demand for a drive system that has a simple configuration and that can cause a toy or the like to perform actions that suit the user's taste.

A geared motor, which is one aspect of the present invention, includes a rotating member attached to an output shaft of a motor capable of forward and reverse rotation, and a gear case provided around or inside a gear case to set rotation limit positions of the rotating member in forward and reverse rotation directions. and a detectable position detection sensor. The motor is rotatable between rotation limit positions in forward and reverse rotation directions according to rotation limit position detection by the position detection sensor.

On the other hand, a geared motor according to another aspect of the present invention includes a position detection sensor capable of detecting rotation limit positions in each of forward and reverse rotation directions of the rotating member, and the rotating member is detachable. When the rotary member is attached to the output shaft of the motor from the output shaft end side, the position detection sensor can detect the rotational limit position of each of the forward and reverse rotation directions of the rotary member. Such a geared motor includes a motor capable of forward and reverse rotation and a contact switch provided around or inside the gear case. A geared motor can be constructed in which the switch contacts the rotating member at the rotation limit positions of each of the forward and reverse rotation directions of the rotating member.

The rotating member of the present invention, which can be attached to such a geared motor, can be detachably attached to the output shaft of the geared motor from the output shaft end side, and is connected (directly or indirectly) to the driven object. It has a power transmission member to be connected and a flange whose shape changes at the boundary of the rotation limit position, that is, at the boundary of its rotatable range.

Further, the geared motor described above, an operation unit operated to turn the motor on and off in each of the forward and reverse rotation directions, a motor driver connected to the motor, the operation unit, and the position detection sensor, and a power supply. The motor driver stops driving the motor when the rotating member rotates to the rotation limit position in each of the forward and reverse rotation directions.

According to the present invention, it is possible to operate a driven object such as a toy with a simple configuration so as to suit the user's preference.

The perspective view of a geared motor is shown. The top view of a geared motor is shown. The front view of a geared motor is shown. The side view of a geared motor is shown. It is an electric circuit diagram of a geared motor unit. FIG. 11 is a top plan view of another example of the rotating member;

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 to 4 are diagrams showing configurations of a geared motor and a geared motor unit according to the present embodiment. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a geared motor, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the geared motor viewed from above. 3 is a front view of the geared motor, and FIG. 4 is a side view of the geared motor.

A geared motor 10 including a gear 30 and a motor 40 such as a DC motor is configured here as a small geared motor applicable to toys, machine tools, and the like. A gear 30, which is a reduction mechanism, is housed in a gear case 30C. The gear case 30C is fixed to the motor 40 (motor case), and the gear 30 and the motor 40 are integrated.

The geared motor 10 has a substrate 60 . The substrate 60 is arranged near the gear case 30C and the motor 40, and arranged along the direction of the output shaft 45 of the motor 40 (see FIG. 4, etc.). Along with the substrate 60, substrates 62 and 64 are arranged along the output shaft side end surface 30T of the gear case 30C and the end surface 40T of the motor 40, respectively (see FIG. 4).

The substrate 60 is fixed to the gear case 30C with screws or the like. On the other hand, the projection 60T of the substrate 60 fits into the recess 62T of the substrate 62, while the projection 64C of the substrate 64 fits into the rectangular opening 60C of the substrate 60. As shown in FIG. The board 60 and the boards 62 and 64 are fixed and supported with respect to the gear 30 and the motor 40 by such connection and soldering of the boards.

A detachably attachable rotating member 20 is attached to an output shaft 45 of the motor 40 . The rotating member 20 includes a gear 22, a flange 24, and a tubular portion 26 for transmitting the driving force of the motor 40 to an object to be driven such as a toy (see FIG. 4). The gear 22 can be connected to a gear mechanism (not shown) that connects with the driven object. For example, when a rotating object to be driven is coupled with the gear 22 , the object to be driven rotates according to the rotation of the motor 40 .

A flange 24 formed between the gear 22 and the tubular portion 26 regulates its own rotation range and rotates at a position separated by a predetermined distance S from the gear case 30C. The shape of the flange 24 here is a disk shape with different diameters along the half circumference. Flange 24 may be integrally formed, such as by manufacturing with a 3D printer. It should be noted that the gear 22 can also be composed of other power-transmissible members such as a servo horn.

The position detection sensor 50 is arranged on a protrusion 60T which is an end of the substrate 60, and is constituted by a two-way output lever-type contact switch here. The movable contact piece 55 of the position detection sensor 50 faces the direction along the substrate 60 , ie, the direction along the output shaft 45 of the motor 40 , and can swing along the substrate 60 .

The position detection sensor 50 is positioned so as to switch from the non-contact state to the contact state depending on the rotational position of the rotating member 20 . Specifically, the positions along the output shaft direction and A distance D from the axial center X of the output shaft 45 to the movable contact piece 55 is defined. 1 to 4 show the state where the rotating member 20 does not contact the movable contact piece 55, that is, the second flange portion 24B is adjacent to the movable contact piece 55. FIG.

The substrate 60 is connected to a power supply and an operation unit (not shown here), and has a motor driver mounted thereon. Power is supplied to the motor 40, and the user operates the operation unit to rotate and stop the motor 40 (hereinafter, these elements are referred to as a geared motor unit). In this embodiment, by using the geared motor unit as the driving system of the driven object, the driven object is driven according to the user's manual operation, and the driving range is limited. This will be explained below.

FIG. 5 is an electric circuit diagram of the geared motor unit.

The motor driver 80 is connected to the position detection sensor 50 , the operating section 70 and the power supply 90 , and is also connected to the motor 40 via signal lines formed on the substrates 60 and 64 . The operation unit 70 includes a pair of switches (hereinafter referred to as operation switches) 72 and 74, which are connected to input terminals 82 and 84 of the motor driver 80, respectively. When the operation switch 72 is pressed to be turned on, the motor 40 rotates in the forward rotation direction (clockwise) CW and continues to rotate until it is turned off. When the operation switch 74 is pressed to be turned on, the motor 40 rotates in the reverse rotation direction (counterclockwise) CCW and continues to rotate until it is turned off.

The position detection sensor 50 includes a pair of switches (hereinafter referred to as position detection switches) 52, 54, which are connected to input terminals 82, 84 of the motor driver 80, respectively. When the rotary member 20 rotates in the forward rotation direction CW and the stepped portion B2 comes into contact with the movable contact piece 55, the position detection switch 52 is turned on. On the other hand, when the rotating member 20 rotates in the reverse rotation direction CCW and the step portion B1 comes into contact with the movable contact piece 55, the position detection switch 54 is turned ON. When the position detection switch 52 or the position detection switch 54 is turned ON, the motor driver 80 sets the drive signal to the motor 40 to the OFF state, and stops driving the motor 40 .

When the geared motor unit described above is used as a drive system that rotates a driven object such as a toy in both directions, the user can rotate the driven object by operating either of the operation switches 72 and 74. . For example, if a geared motor unit is used as the drive system for the turret of a battleship model, the user can experience movements similar to those of the actual turret by alternately pressing the operation switches 72 and 74. Note that it is also possible to cause the object to be driven to reciprocate linearly.

On the other hand, when the motor 40 continues to rotate, the rotating member 20 contacts the movable contact piece 55 of the position detection sensor 50, and the motor 40 stops driving. The rotating member 20 is rotatable clockwise CW and counterclockwise CCW within the range (half circumference here) where the movable contact piece 55 contacts the step portions B1 and B2, and the rotation range is less than one rotation. regulated by

Therefore, even if the user continues to press either of the operation switches 72 and 74, when the rotating member 20 rotates to the contact position (hereinafter referred to as the rotation limit position) with the movable contact piece 55, the rotation of the driven object also stops. Since the rotatable range (movable range) of the driven object follows the rotatable range of the rotating member 20, by adjusting the gear ratio of the coupling mechanism between the driven object and the gear of the rotating member 20, It is possible to limit the movable range of the object to be driven. For example, if the movable range of the turret of the battleship model is set to a range in which the cannon does not come into contact with other parts, the user's operation will not cause the turret to over-rotate.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the geared motor 10 includes the rotating member 20 , the position detection sensor 50 and the substrate 60 . The rotating member 20 has a flange 24 with a different diameter at the rotation limit position, and the movable contact piece 55 of the position detection sensor 50 contacts when the rotating member 20 rotates to the step portions B1 and B2 at the rotation limit position. A motor driver 80 incorporated in the substrate 60 stops driving the motor 40 in response to detection of the rotation limit position by the position detection sensor 50 .

By constructing the geared motor 10 including the rotating member 20 and the position detection sensor 50, it is possible to set the movable range of the object to be driven. 70 can be operated to move the object to be driven as intended.

The geared motor 10 of this embodiment differs from a general-purpose geared motor having a gear 30 and a motor 40 by mounting the rotating member 20 on the output shaft 45, arranging the substrate 60 along the output shaft 45, and positioning the motor 40. It has an easy-to-assemble configuration in which the detection sensor 50 is mounted on the substrate 60 . As a result, it is possible to provide a drive system capable of achieving reliable operation even for a user's own product.

In particular, the movable range can be specified only by the combination of the rotating member 20 and the position detection sensor 50, and it is necessary to configure a feedback control system that controls based on continuous output signals from the position detection sensor like a servomotor. There is no Further, since manual operation is performed by the user operation unit 70, there is no need for programming to move the object to be driven (motor 40).

Furthermore, by providing the position detection sensor 50 and the rotating member 20 near or around the gear case 30C of the geared motor 10, the structure for contacting the position detection sensor 50 and the rotating member 20 becomes easy, and the position detection sensor 50 can be used for general purposes. It is possible to construct a switch having a movable contact piece 55 that is practical.

In this embodiment, the position detection sensor 50 is composed of a two-way output contact switch. Therefore, the rotation of the motor 40 can be readily and reliably stopped at the rotation limit position of the rotating member 20 . In particular, since the lever-type movable contact piece 55 is composed of a switch that swings, it is possible to detect the rotation limit positions in both the forward rotation direction CW and the reverse rotation direction CCW with only one movable contact piece 55. The rotation tolerance of the rotating member 20 can be made larger or smaller.

Furthermore, a pair of position detection switches 52 and 54 constituting the position detection sensor 50 are connected to a forward rotation direction input terminal 82 and a reverse rotation direction input terminal 84 of the motor driver 80, respectively, like the pair of operation switches 72 and 74. ing. With such a simple circuit configuration, the rotating member 20 that is rotating (during user operation) can be automatically stopped at the rotation limit position.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the substrate 60 on which the position detection sensor 50 and the motor driver 80 are mounted is fixed and attached to the geared motor 10 (gear case 30C). With such an integrated configuration, there is no need to dispose the motor driver in a space different from that of the geared motor 10 , and the drive system can be constructed simply by connecting the operation unit 70 and the power supply 90 to the substrate 60 . Further, by arranging the substrate 60 along the output shaft 45 , it becomes easy to determine the installation of the position detection sensor 50 so that the movable contact piece 55 is brought into contact with the rotating member 20 .

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of another example of the rotating member. However, the gear 22 is not shown.

The rotating member 20 is detachable from the output shaft 45 as described above, and a rotating member having another flange shape can be attached. The rotary member 120 shown in FIG. 6(a) has a flange 124 partially formed with a notch portion 124A, and the rotary member 20 rotates within the range (within 60°) of the stepped portions B1 and B2 where the shape changes. rotatable. On the other hand, the rotating member 220 shown in FIG. 6(b) has a flange 224 formed with a fan-shaped projecting portion 224A. Thereby, the rotating member 220 can rotate in a range of 300° or more.

Considering that a rotating member having various rotatable ranges can be attached to the output shaft 45, the connection structure between the geared motor 10 and the driven object can be left as it is, and the movable range of the driven object can be changed. Rotating members (rotating members 120, 220 in FIG. 6, etc.) having appropriate rotation limit positions can be selectively attached to the output shaft 45. FIG. The shape of the flange may also be a shape other than that shown in FIG. A flange whose shape changes at the boundary of the rotatable range is formed in accordance with the rotation limit positions of both forward and reverse rotation, and the position is detected at the boundary where the shape change appears without contacting the position detection sensor 50 in the rotatable range. Contact with the sensor 50 is sufficient.

On the other hand, the position detection sensor 50 can also be configured by an optical sensor or the like. In this case, the rotation limit position of the rotating member 20 is detected by radiating light along the output shaft 45 and hitting the flange whose shape changes with respect to the rotation limit position in each of the forward and reverse rotation directions. can be done. Alternatively, the circuit board 60 may not be integrated with the geared motor 10, but may be installed in a separate space. The motor 40 may be automatically driven without providing the operation unit 70 .

The gear case 30C may be configured as a case in which the gear 30 is partially exposed and which is composed of a receiving plate, a strut, and the like. In this case, the position detection sensor 50 may be provided inside the gear case 30C. The geared motor 10 and the geared motor unit can also be applied to driven objects other than toys and machine tools.

10 geared motor 20 rotating member 22 gear (power transmission member)
24 Flange 30 Gear 30C Gear case 40 Motor 50 Position detection sensor 52, 54 Position detection switch 55 Movable contact piece 60 Board 70 Operation part 72, 74 Operation switch 80 Motor driver 90 Power supply

Claims (2)

A geared motor in which a gear case housing a reduction mechanism is fixed to the motor case,
a motor capable of forward and reverse rotation;
a rotating member coaxially attached detachably to the geared motor output shaft;
a position detection sensor provided around or inside the gear case and capable of detecting rotation limit positions in forward and reverse rotation directions of the rotating member ;
a substrate fixed to the gear case and mounted with the position detection sensor and a motor driver connected to the motor ;
a power transmission member connected to an object to be driven is provided on an end side of the output shaft of the geared motor where the rotating member is connected;
A geared motor, wherein the motor is rotatable between rotation limit positions in forward and reverse rotation directions according to rotation limit position detection by the position detection sensor. 2. A geared motor according to claim 1 , wherein said substrate is arranged along said geared motor output shaft.

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