JPH0373886A - Electronic clock with data storage function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent data from being erased by driving an oscillation circuit part only at the time of reading out stored data without executing clocking operation when the service life of a battery reaches its end. CONSTITUTION:At the time of detecting the a battery voltage is dropped less than a fixed value, a voltage detecting circuit 8 sets up the flag BLD in a RAM 6, transmits a signal to an oscillation control part 10 and stops the oscillation of an oscillation circuit 2, so that no timing signal is sent from a frequency dividing circuit 3 to respective circuits through a timing generator 4 and stops clock display operation. However, power is continuously supplied to the RAM 6 and its stored contents are held. To check the data of the RAM 6, the oscillation of the circuit 2 is restarted from a keying part 9 through an oscillation control part 10. Thereby, the data to be displayed as the result of key processing are displayed on a display part 5. Consequently, the stored data can be prevented from being erased.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field of invention] The present invention relates to an electronic timepiece with a data storage function.

[Prior art and its problems] Conventionally, electronic watches have the function of storing a large amount of data, such as telephone number data, sequentially specifying the data manually using keys, and displaying the data on the display. Electronic watches with data bank functions are in practical use. This type of electronic clock detects the power battery voltage and issues a warning when the voltage falls below a certain value, in order to avoid situations where stored data is lost without realizing the lifespan of the power battery. Some devices are designed so that if the battery is replaced during the warning (for example, by displaying a warning on the display), the stored data can be prevented from being lost using the charging power of the built-in capacitor.

By the way, when a lithium battery is used as a power source in an electronic watch such as the one mentioned above, the voltage decreases gradually over the lifespan, so the above warning period is long and it is rare to miss the battery replacement period, but silver oxide batteries When using a device with a sudden voltage drop such as
The stored data will be erased in 2 to 3 days, and you will lose the opportunity to replace the battery.

[Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention stops the operation of the oscillation circuit section and does not perform timekeeping operation when the life of the power supply battery approaches, and key operation for reading stored data is performed. The gist of the present invention is that the oscillation circuit section is operated to provide a timing instruction for a read operation only when there is a problem.

[Example] The present invention will be specifically described below based on an example shown in the drawings.

[Objective of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances. Even if a battery is used whose voltage drops rapidly when it approaches the end of its lifespan, the opportunity to replace the battery will be missed and stored data will be lost. To provide an electronic watch with a data storage function that does not cause data storage.

Configuration FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the circuit configuration of this embodiment, in which the CPU
I is the center, and other circuit sections are connected to it. The CPU 1 is a circuit that processes and sends data from other circuit units, and also sends a control l@ signal to each circuit to control them.

The oscillation circuit 2 is a circuit that sends out a constant frequency signal under the control of an oscillation # control unit 10, which will be described later.The 0 frequency divider circuit 3 divides the signal from the oscillation circuit 2 to a predetermined frequency and adjusts the timing. This is a circuit that sends out data to the generator 4. The timing generator 4 generates various timing signals based on the signals sent from the frequency dividing circuit 3, and the 0 display section 5, which is a circuit section that sends these signals to each circuit section, takes timing based on the timing signal from the timing generator 4. C
This is a circuit unit that displays current time data or telephone number data from the PUI.

The RAM 6 is a storage circuit that exchanges data with the CPU, and stores a large number of telephone number data, as well as registers T, mode register M, and pointer P.
and a flag BLD. The storage data count register T is a register in which the total number of telephone number data stored in the RAM 6 is set, and the mode register M is a register that specifies the mode. A time display mode for displaying the time is specified, and when l is set, a data bank mode for displaying telephone number data on the display section 5 is specified. Data pointer P is a pointer that specifies telephone number data by the row address of the row in which it is stored, and 7-lag BLD is a flag that is set when the voltage of the power battery falls below a predetermined value due to its life. be. ROM7 is CPU
The programs and various data that control the I are stored in a fixed manner, and they are sequentially transferred to the CPU under the control of the CPU.
This is a circuit that gives The voltage detection circuit 8 detects the voltage of the power supply battery under the control of the CPUI, and sends the result to the CPUI.
This is the circuit that sends the signal to.

The key input section 9 includes a large number of key switches, and when any one of them is operated, a corresponding key human power signal is output to the CP.
The 0 oscillation control unit 1O, which is a circuit unit that sends signals to U1 or the oscillation control unit 1O, is a circuit that starts or stops oscillation of the oscillation circuit 2 upon receiving a signal from the CPUI or the key input unit 9.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the oscillation circuit 2 in detail. One pole of the crystal oscillator 15 is connected to the negative pole of a battery 19 whose positive pole is grounded, and the other pole of the crystal oscillator 15 is grounded via a variable capacitor 18 . Further, between the two poles of the crystal resonator 15, a switching transistor 16 which is opened and closed by a signal from a resistor R1 and an oscillation control unit 1O is connected in parallel. Furthermore, crystal oscillator 1
The input side of the inverter 17 is connected to one pole of the inverter 5,
The output side of the inverter 17 is connected to the other pole of the crystal resonator 15 via a resistor R2.

When the switching transistor 16 is turned on by a signal from the oscillation control section 10, both poles of the crystal resonator 15 are short-circuited, and the oscillation of the circuit is stopped.

Operation Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained. FIG. 3 is a general flowchart schematically showing the operation of this embodiment, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing details of the timekeeping process (step S3) and normal key process (step S8) in FIG. 3, respectively. It is. Further, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing in detail the data bank read key processing (step 535) in FIG. Hereinafter, with reference to these flowcharts, the operation will be explained separately for when the voltage of the power source battery is still sufficiently high and when the battery life is approaching and the voltage has decreased below a predetermined value.

(b) When the pressure of the power supply battery is as high as 10 minutes, it is checked whether there was any key power when the power was turned on (step S1), and if there was no key power, check that the flag BLD has not been set yet (step S2); The process proceeds to the next timekeeping process (step S3). In this timekeeping process, as shown in FIG. 4, it is determined whether there is a 16Hz signal from the timing generator 4 (step 515). Proceeding to the next battery voltage detection process (step S4), when there is the 16Hz signal, R
Step S16) adds 1716 seconds to the time register in AM5, and then proceeds to battery voltage detection processing (step S4). In the battery voltage detection processing of step S4, a signal is sent to the voltage detection circuit 8. Then, the voltage of the power supply battery is detected and the detection result is obtained. Then, to confirm that this detection result is not below a certain value (step S5), the process proceeds to step S6, and a display process is executed to display the current time or telephone number data on the display unit 5 according to the mode at that time. , return to step Sl. Thereafter, the same operations as described above will be repeated.

In the above state, when a key of the key input unit 9 is operated and there is a key force, it is detected in step Sl, it is confirmed in step S7 that the flag BLD is not set yet, and the normal key processing is performed in step S8. In other words, the process proceeds to the flowchart of FIG. 5. In step S20, it is determined whether the operated key is a mode key, and if it is a mode key, the value of the mode register M is changed from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0. However, if the operated key is not a mode key, the process proceeds to step S22, and in this step S22, the mode specified by the mode register M is determined and the time display mode is switched. When in data bank mode, execute time display mode key processing to correct the current time, etc.
Furthermore, it is determined whether the read mode or the write mode is specified (step 524), and if the write mode is specified, the process proceeds to data bank write key processing in step S26, and the new data is stored in the RAM 6. In the read mode, the process proceeds to step 325, which is the data bank read key processing, that is, the flowchart of FIG. 6. In other words, it is determined whether the operated key is a key, In this case, the value of pointer P is When the number of data exceeds the total number of stored data and an unmemorized row address is specified, the pointer P
Set the value to 1 and return to specifying the phone number data in the first line (
Steps S32, 533), on the other hand, in step S30,
When it is determined that the operated key is not a key, the process proceeds to step 334, and it is checked whether the operated key is a Δ key. When the operated key is the Δ key, the pointer P is decremented by -1 (step 535), and the phone number data is stored in the address of the previous line of the phone number data that was displayed up until then. Specify phone number data to be displayed. In this case, when the value of pointer P becomes O and a row address beyond the first row address is specified, the number of stored data is stored in pointer P, and the value of register T, that is, the last telephone number data is stored. Step S36.53
7) Specify the telephone number data as a display target.

Data bank read key processing as described above (flowchart in FIG. 6, step 5 in the flowchart in FIG. 5)
25) or when the data bank write key processing in step 326 of the flowchart in FIG. 5 is completed, the process proceeds from step S8 to the display processing in step S9 in the flowchart in FIG. The specified data is displayed on the display section 5, and then step S
Return to l.

(a) When the power battery is nearing the end of its life In this case,
It is detected in step S5 that the battery voltage obtained in the battery voltage detection process (step 34) after the time measurement process (step S3) has decreased below a certain value, and a flag BLD is set.
(Step 5IO), and sends a signal from the oscillation control unit 10 to stop the oscillation of the oscillation circuit 2 (Step S1
1) As a result, signals are no longer sent from the frequency divider circuit 3 to the timing generator 4, timing signals are no longer sent from the timing generator 4 to each circuit, and the timekeeping 1 display section, etc. is stopped and the power supply battery is consumed. However, in order to maintain memory in the RAM 6, power continues to be supplied.

In the above state, when confirming the telephone number data stored in the RAM 6, a predetermined key is operated.
The oscillation control unit 1O restarts the oscillation of the oscillation circuit 2 (step 512), and the flag B
Make sure that the LD is already standing (Step S2)
, confirm that a predetermined period of time has not yet passed since the above key operation (step 513).
, return to step Sl. Hereinafter, step S2.513,
The process of Sl will be repeated, but if a key or Δ key is operated during this time, it will be detected in step S1 and it will be confirmed that the flag BLD has already been set. In this step S14, the data bank reading process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 described above, that is, step S of FIG.
Processing similar to step S15 is performed, and new telephone number data corresponding to the operation of the key or Δ key is displayed.Next, in step S15, the telephone number data that has been displayed in the data bank successive key processing is displayed. is displayed on the display unit 5, and then returns to step S1, and steps S2. S13.31(7)fi
You will have to repeat the process. Furthermore, if a key or the like is operated before the predetermined period of time has elapsed, the telephone number data displayed on the display section 5 is updated in the same manner as described above (steps S1, S7.314, S15, Sl,
S2, S13, Sl).

If no key operation is performed for the certain period of time, this is detected in step 313, and the process proceeds to step S1l, where the oscillation of the oscillation circuit 2 is stopped and the display on the display section 5 is also stopped. .

In other words, when the power supply battery is nearing the end of its lifespan, the current time will no longer be counted or displayed, which will reduce power consumption, make the user more aware that the battery is nearing the end of its lifespan, and improve memory. This means that when confirmation of telephone number data is necessary, it can be displayed.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and can be modified and applied in various ways without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, when the life of the power supply battery approaches the end of its life, the oscillation circuit section stops operating, does not perform timekeeping operation, and does not require key operation to read stored data. This is related to an electronic watch with a data storage function that operates the oscillation circuit section to provide timing instructions for read operations only when the battery is nearing the end of its life. To provide an electronic watch with a data storage function that does not cause the opportunity for battery replacement to be missed and stored data to be lost even when the watch is used.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of the oscillation circuit in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a general flowchart showing an overview of the operation of this embodiment. Fourth
The figure is a flowchart showing details of the timekeeping process in Figure 3;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing in detail the normal key processing in FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing in detail the data bank read key processing in FIG. 5 and FIG. l...CPU, 2...Oscillation circuit, 3.
...Frequency divider circuit, 4...Timing generator, 5...Display section, 6...RAM
, 7...ROM, 8...Voltage detection circuit, 9...Key manual section, 10...Oscillation control section, 15... Crystal oscillator, 16...
Switching transistor, 17... Inverter, 18... Variable pull capacitor, 19...
...Battery, BLD...Flag, T...
...Stored data number register, M...Mode register, P...Pointer. Figure 2 Procedure correction tooth (voluntary) September 28, 1999

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Time counting means for obtaining the current time by counting signals from an oscillation circuit; storage means for storing a plurality of data; and a current time counted by the time counting means or stored in the storage means. a display unit that displays data on the oscillation circuit unit; a voltage detection unit that detects the voltage of the power source battery; and a voltage detection unit that detects a decrease in the battery voltage to a predetermined value or less, and that causes the oscillation circuit unit to oscillate. oscillation stopping means for stopping the counting operation of the time counting means; and oscillation stopping means for stopping the oscillation of the oscillation circuit in response to a key input when the oscillation of the oscillation circuit is stopped. Data characterized by comprising: oscillation restarting means for restarting oscillation; and reading means for reading data from the storage means and displaying it on the display section when the oscillation restarting means restarts oscillation of the oscillation circuit. Electronic clock with memory function.