JPH0623103A - Pachinko ball launch device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the holding state of a launch strength adjusting handle with high precisisn by omitting complicated circuit configuration or wiring and to reduce an occupied volume in a PACHINKO ball launch device which launches a pinball at a speed in accordance with the manipulated variable of a handle for launch. CONSTITUTION:The circuit configuration element of a parallel resonance circuit 38 is extended as the adjusting lever of the handle for launch, and the resonating state of the element is varied by the impedance of a game player. Also, A launch motor 32 consisting of a stepping motor capable of being driven directly by an MPU 35 is employed as a power source to launch the PACHINKO ball. The resonating state of the parallel resonance circuit 38 can be directly detected via a current detection circuit 39 by scanning the frequency of a rectangular wave outputted from the output port PS of the MPU 35, and a driving signal to be sent out to a launch motor 32 can be controlled corresponding to the detection result of the resonating state.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pachinko ball launching device for launching a pachinko ball in response to an operation of a launching handle, and more particularly to a highly functional and compact device which operates by accurately determining the usage state of the handle. Related to the pachinko ball launcher.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to detect that a player grips a firing handle, an oscillation circuit is constructed, and some of the constituent elements of the oscillation circuit are extended to the firing handle. There is. In this circuit configuration, it is assumed that the oscillation of the oscillation circuit is stopped or started due to the change in impedance caused by the player gripping the handle, and the oscillation state of the oscillation circuit is detected. That is, the state in which the player holds the firing handle is detected by the presence or absence of oscillation.

Further, as a power source for the launching section, a synchronous motor which rotates at a rotational speed (so-called synchronous speed) synchronized with the frequency of the AC power source, or an induction motor which rotates at a speed slightly slower than the synchronous speed is used. The power supply to these AC motors is controlled according to the detection signal of the oscillation state detection circuit. The rotation speeds of these motors are usually kept constant, and the strength of the pachinko ball firing is adjusted by changing the tensile strength of the spring depending on the rotational position of the firing handle.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned conventional pachinko ball launching device has the following problems. An LC oscillation circuit, which is a simple high-frequency oscillation circuit, such as a Colpitts-type or Hartley-type oscillation circuit is generally used as an oscillation circuit used to detect the gripped state of the firing handle. Although these are simple oscillation circuits, since they have a feedback circuit, they have a large number of circuit components, and it takes time and effort to adjust the amplification factor and impedance for maintaining the oscillation state. .

Further, there is a limit to the detection accuracy in judging the game situation by the player by the binary judgment as to whether or not such an oscillation circuit is oscillating. That is, the impedance varies considerably depending on the environmental humidity change, the state of sweating of the player, the age and constitution of the player, and it is extremely difficult to correctly judge these.

Further, if an AC motor is adopted as a power source for the launching section, the motor itself becomes large and an AC power source as a power source is required. For this reason, an AC power supply line must be routed in addition to the DC power supply for the oscillation circuit, and the wiring process is complicated. Further, the conventional pachinko ball launching device, which is an assembly of a large number of complicated and large-sized components as described above, is extremely large and occupies an almost full space on the back surface of the portion where the launching handle of the pachinko machine is attached. Was. The pachinko ball launching device of the present invention is made for the purpose of highly accurately detecting the gripping state of the launching handle while omitting complicated circuit adjustment and wiring routing, and further, for reducing the occupied volume thereof. I picked up.

[0007]

A pachinko ball launching device according to the present invention is a launching pachinko ball launching device for launching a pachinko ball supplied to a launching part toward a pachinko ball according to an operation of a launching handle. A resonance circuit in which circuit components are extended to the firing handle, a stepping motor that is a power source of the firing unit, and power for resonance excitation is supplied to the resonance circuit at a cycle near the resonance frequency, And a control unit that detects a resonance state of the resonance circuit and controls a drive signal to be sent to the stepping motor according to a detection result of the resonance state.

Here, the control section is composed of a one-chip microprocessor having at least a digital output port and an analog input port, the output port is connected to the power supply line of the resonance circuit, and the voltage of the output port is set to a predetermined cycle. By connecting the resonance exciting means for oscillating the resonance circuit by turning on and off with the smoothing circuit to the output of the resonance circuit and connecting the output of the smoothing circuit to the analog input port of the one-chip microprocessor, It is desirable to further include a reading means for reading the resonance state of 1 as the output voltage of the smoothing circuit in order to further simplify the configuration.

Further, by the one-chip microprocessor, the ON / OFF cycle of the output port connected to the resonance circuit is changed within a range including the vicinity of the resonance frequency of the resonance circuit, and the output port of the changed output port. The reading means for reading the voltage obtained at the analog port corresponding to the on / off cycle and the judging means for judging the gripped state with respect to the firing handle from the relationship between the read on / off cycle and the voltage can be configured. In this case, the state of gripping the firing handle can be detected more accurately.

[0010]

In the detecting device of the present invention configured as described above, only a simple resonance circuit needs to be prepared, and the control unit is
Power for resonance excitation is supplied to the resonance circuit, and the gripping state of the firing handle is detected from the resonance state. The control unit directly sends a drive signal to the stepping motor, which is a power source of the launching unit, according to the detection result.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In order to further clarify the structure and operation of the present invention described above, preferred embodiments of the pachinko ball launching device of the present invention will be described below. First, a pachinko machine 1 equipped with a pachinko ball launching device 30 as an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the front view of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, a metal frame 3 is provided around an opening of a front frame 2 formed in a frame shape of a pachinko machine 1, and the metal frame 3 has a glass door frame 4 and a front plate 5. Is openable and closable. Behind the glass door frame 4, a game board 6 is detachably attached to a game board fixing frame (not shown) fixed to the back surface of the front frame 2 and arranged. On the front surface of the game board 6, a guide rail 8 for guiding a pachinko ball is erected substantially in a circle, and a game area 9 is formed in a region surrounded by the guide rail 8.

A variable winning a prize device 10 is provided substantially in the center of the game area 9. The variable winning device 10 has a pair of open / close blades 11a and 11b, and these open / close blades 11a and 11b are kept under a constant condition for a predetermined time (for example, 30
Seconds) or a fixed number (for example, 10)
The jackpot operation is performed in which the winning state is released until a prize is won, and such an open state is repeated several times (for example, 16 times) to generate a large number of winning balls in a short time.

A variable display 12 made up of a plurality of digital displays is formed below the variable winning device 10, and its display mode is the start winning openings 13a to 13c provided below the game area 9. When the pachinko ball starts winning, the stop switch 14 provided on the front frame 2 is pressed or a fixed time (for example, 5
Stops when a second has passed. Then, when the display mode of the variable display device 12 at the time of the stop is a predetermined display mode (for example, the same three-digit number), the variable winning device 10 executes the jackpot operation. .

Further, in the game area 9, general winning openings 15a to 15d are provided in addition to the above-described variable winning apparatus 10 and starting winning openings 13a to 13c, and any of the above winning apparatuses or winning openings is provided. An out port 16 is formed through which a pachinko ball that has not won a prize is guided. In addition, the front plate 5 is provided with an upper plate 18 that preferentially stores prize balls (pachinko balls) paid out by the generation of winning balls and guides the pachinko balls to the firing position. Further, below the front frame 2 and to the side of the firing handle 20, a lower plate 23 for storing the prize balls that have not been stored in the upper plate 18 is attached.

A firing handle 20 operated by the player is provided below the front frame 2. The firing handle 20 is rotatably provided with an adjusting lever X for adjusting the elastic force of a pachinko ball. The player can increase the firing strength of the pachinko ball by turning this adjusting lever X clockwise. The adjusting lever X is composed of a metal annular member and is also used as a part of a circuit element forming the parallel resonance circuit 38 of the pachinko ball launching device 30, as described later.

Next, the pachinko ball launching device 3 arranged on the back surface of the pachinko machine 1 at the mounting position of the launching handle 20.
The structure of 0 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, on the back of the mounting position of the firing handle 20,
A firing motor 32 including a stepping motor and a ball firing mechanism 40 driven by the rotational force of the firing motor 32 are provided.

The ball firing mechanism 40 includes a coil spring 42, a ball striking rod 44 urged by the coil spring 42, and a locking lever 46 which causes the ball striking rod 44 to perform a ball striking motion of a pachinko ball by a cam mechanism (not shown). It is well known.
When the firing motor 32 rotates, the locking lever 46 first pulls the ball striking rod 44 against the coil spring 42 in the leftward direction by rotation of a cam mechanism (not shown). Along with this, the coil spring 42 gradually expands. When the firing motor 32 rotates by a predetermined angle, the cam mechanism and the locking lever 46
The ball hitting rod 44 tries to return to its original position at once by the force of the coil spring 42, and at that time, hits the pachinko ball. The strength with which the batting rod 44 hits a pachinko ball is determined by the extension state of the coil spring 42 when the batting rod 44 returns, that is, the position where the locking lever 46 is unlocked.
Since this position is determined by the amount of rotation of the adjusting lever X of the firing handle 20, the pachinko ball is eventually fired with a strength corresponding to the position of the adjusting lever X.

Therefore, the above-described ball firing mechanism 40 can fire a pachinko ball at a speed proportional to the amount of rotation of the adjusting lever X, and one rotation of the firing motor 32 can fire one pachinko ball. can do. Therefore, by controlling the number of revolutions of the firing motor 32, it is possible to adjust the number of pachinko balls fired per unit time or to stop the firing of pachinko balls.

The rotation speed control of the firing motor 32, which determines the firing state of the pachinko ball firing, is executed by the control circuit 34 arranged near the firing motor 32. An electric circuit block diagram of the pachinko ball launching device 30 including the control circuit 34 and the launching motor 32 is shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, the control circuit 34 is mainly composed of a one-chip microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as MPU) 35 in which peripheral circuits are contained in one chip. In this embodiment, as the MPU 35, Toshiba TM
P68HC11A8 was used. That is, MPU35
Is a CPU 35a which is a core, a ROM 35b which stores various programs to be described later, a RAM 35c which temporarily stores information, a counter / timer 35d which counts time and generates an interrupt at a necessary timing, an MPU.
From an external circuit of 35, an input / output port (hereinafter referred to as an I / O port) 35e that supports input / output of various information, and an 8-bit A / D converter 35f that converts an analog signal input to the port PA into a digital signal. Become.

The counter timer 35d counts the clock frequency determined by the crystal 36 externally attached to the MPU 35, and when the count value matches the value CX set by the CPU 35a, sends a count-up signal to the CPU 35a. This signal is sent to the CPU 35
It is treated as an interrupt signal requesting an interrupt process for a. Therefore, if the set value CX is set again together with other processing in the interrupt processing routine activated by this interrupt request, the CPU 35a divides the clock frequency by a desired frequency division ratio and is determined by the time. A specific interrupt process can be activated and executed at intervals. In this process, if the set value CX to the counter timer 35d is appropriately changed to change the frequency division ratio, it is easy to change the interval at which the interrupt process is activated.

The four output ports PΦ1 to PΦ4 of the MPU 35 are used as excitation signals for each phase of the firing motor 32. As described above, the firing motor 32 of this embodiment is composed of a stepping motor. Therefore, the rotation speed can be accurately controlled only by controlling the excitation timing for each excitation phase and applying the DC voltage. Therefore, the four output ports PΦ1 to PΦ4 of the MPU 35 are assigned to each phase excitation signal of the firing motor 32, and the firing motor 32 is directly driven. The firing motor 32
The driver that supplies enough current to drive the
Although it is provided between the ports PΦ1 to PΦ4 of the U35 and the firing motor 32, the illustration thereof is omitted.

From the other output port PS of the MPU 35,
A rectangular wave having a predetermined cycle is output by the processing of the MPU 35. In this embodiment, a rectangular wave-sine wave conversion circuit (hereinafter, referred to as a waveform conversion circuit) 37 that converts a rectangular wave into a sine wave is connected to the port PS. This is for simplifying the resonance condition in the resonance circuit 38, which will be described later, but if the influence of the high frequency component superimposed on the rectangular wave is ignored, the waveform conversion circuit 37 may be omitted. be able to. The waveform conversion circuit 37 is composed of an active band filter that extracts only the fundamental wave of a rectangular wave in order to obtain a sine wave with little distortion, and the simplest is a level shift circuit for shifting the level of the rectangular wave or a simple integration circuit. It is composed of In addition to this, a digital circuit constructed by connecting a plurality of output ports of the MPU 35 to a resistor network.
It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which a pseudo sine wave is output using an analog converter, a configuration in which a sine wave is similarly output using an MPU 35 that directly supports analog output, and the like.

The sine wave signal output from the waveform conversion circuit 37 is used as a power source for the parallel resonance circuit 38 of the coil L and the capacitor C, and the current i flowing by resonance in the parallel resonance circuit 38 is detected by the current detection circuit 39. And is input to the analog input port PA of the MPU 35 as a voltage signal.

The adjusting lever X of the firing handle 20 described above is electrically connected to the parallel resonance circuit 38. Therefore, when the player grips the adjusting lever X and starts the game, the impedance Z presented by the player is connected in parallel to the parallel resonant circuit 38 via the adjusting lever X as shown in FIG. Affects resonance.

The pachinko ball launching device 30 of the present embodiment configured as described above operates as follows. 4 and 5 are flowcharts of the main program stored in the ROM 35b of the MPU 35 and the counter timer interrupt program executed at the time of the count-up interrupt of the counter timer 35d. Since these two programs are processed in close relation to each other, the operation of the pachinko ball launching device 30 will be described with reference to both figures.

First, when the pachinko ball launching device 30 is powered on, the MPU 35 stores the main program in the ROM.
Read from 35b and execute initial processing (step 1
00). Here, the initial process means that the counter timer 3 used in the counter timer interrupt program after the hard check including the check of the RAM 35c is executed.
This is a process of setting initial values to 5d and the flag F.
When such initial processing (step 100) is completed, M
The PU 35 proceeds to the reference Q storage process (step 110).

Here, the storage process of the reference Q (step 11
0) is a process of storing the criterion of the sharpness Q of resonance of the parallel resonance circuit 38 including the adjustment lever X of the firing handle 20. The reference sharpness Q may be given as a predetermined value in advance, or may be learned immediately after the power is turned on, provided that the player does not touch the adjustment lever X immediately after the power is turned on. After that, the MPU 35 executes the processing from step 120 onward, but the CPU 35a immediately after the storage of the reference Q is shown in FIG. 5 by the interrupt signal from the counter timer 35d in which the set value CX is set by the initial processing. The processing of the counter timer interrupt program is repeatedly executed at predetermined intervals. The counter timer interrupt processing routine shown in FIG. 5 will be described below.

When this interrupt processing routine is activated, the CP
The U35a determines whether or not the output state of the output port PS is at the high level "H" (step 200), and if the output is already "H", changes it to the low level "L" (step 210). If the output is "L", it is changed to "H" (step 220). After that, the state of the flag F indicating the frequency increase / decrease instruction is confirmed (step 2
30), if the flag F is "H", the counter timer 35
Increment the set value CX of d (step 24
0), if the flag F is "L", the set value CX is decremented (step 250).

By the increment or decrement processing of the set value of the counter timer 35d, the output of the output port PS changes from "H" to "L" and "L" to "H".
The period that changes to will gradually increase or decrease. In other words, the cycle T of the rectangular wave output from the output port PS is gradually changed to longer or shorter by this process, and the flag F is used as a switch for changing the increase or decrease of the cycle T.

When the set value CX of the counter timer 35d is incremented, it is judged whether or not the value is equal to or more than the upper limit value CH (step 260). When the value is equal to or more than the upper limit value CH, the cycle is increased. Has reached the limit, sets the flag F to "L" (step 270),
One processing of this program ends. Similarly, when the set value CX of the counter timer 35d is decremented, it is determined whether or not the value is equal to or lower than the lower limit value CL (step 280), and when the value is equal to or lower than the lower limit value, the flag F is set to ""H" (step 29) and the program ends.

FIG. 6 shows a rectangular wave signal output from the output port PS of the MPU 35 by the counter timer interrupt program, and a waveform conversion circuit 3 for inputting the rectangular wave signal.
7 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a sine wave signal obtained from FIG. As can be easily understood from this figure, the frequency f of the AC signal applied to the parallel resonance circuit 38 is gradually increased or gradually decreased by this counter timer interrupt program. In the present embodiment, the resonance frequency fQ of the parallel resonance circuit 38 is designed to be about 8.5 [KHz], and the resonance frequency f is set.
The upper limit value CH and the lower limit value CL of the set value CX are determined so that the frequency of the signal output from the output port PS centering on Q is scanned, and in the embodiment, about 7 [KH
The scan is repeated in the frequency band from z] to about 10 [KHz].

When the reference Q is learned as the reference Q storage processing (step 110) shown in FIG. 4, the frequency is scanned by the frequency scan of this counter timer interrupt program (FIG. 5) immediately after the power is turned on. Obi 7-10
The sharpness Q of resonance of the parallel resonance circuit 38 is detected by applying an AC signal of [KHz] to the parallel resonance circuit 38 and reading the output value in from the current detection circuit 39 at each frequency, and this is stored. However, in this case, it is premised that the player does not hold the adjusting lever X of the firing handle 20. FIG. 7 shows the storage process of the reference Q (step 11
It is a graph which shows the frequency characteristic learned or preset by 0). The characteristic indicated by the solid line in the figure is stored as a reference Q in a predetermined area of the RAM 35c.

The pachinko machine 1 is subjected to the initial processing (step 100) and the reference Q storage processing (step 110).
When the initial state of is determined, the pachinko ball launching device 30 enters a steady process (steps 120 to 180), and repeatedly executes this steady process until the power is turned off. In addition,
Needless to say again, the counter timer interrupt program shown in FIG.
It is repeatedly executed at the timing set by the PU 35a.

At the beginning of the routine processing, the counter timer 35
The current set value CX of d and the value of the flag F are input (step 120), and the output value in of the current detection circuit 39 at that time is stored (step 130). By this processing, the frequency f of the AC signal applied to the parallel resonant circuit 38 by the execution of the counter timer interrupt program
A value, a frequency scan state (increase or decrease), and a resonance state of the parallel resonance circuit 38 can be input.

Next, it is judged whether or not the value of the flag F has been inverted from the previous state (step 140), and if it has not been inverted yet, the processes of steps 120 to 140 are repeatedly executed. That is, steps 120 to 140 are performed until the frequency of the AC signal applied to the parallel resonance circuit 38 is scanned once for 7 to 10 [KHz].
Is repeatedly executed. When it is determined by the determination process of step 140 that the flag F is inverted, that is, when it is determined that the frequency of the AC signal has been scanned once for 7 to 10 [KHz], the frequency scanning is performed once. Based on the obtained data, the current parallel resonant circuit 38
The sharpness Q of the resonance is calculated (see the dotted line in FIG. 7), and the data obtained so far for the next process is erased (step 150).

Then, in the next step 160, it is judged whether or not the current resonance sharpness Q calculated in step 150 and the reference Q stored in step 110 are close to each other. Here, the determination as to whether or not the approximation is performed is as shown in FIG.
The resonance frequency fQ shift width Δf, the maximum impedance difference ΔZ at the resonance frequency, the frequency width fz difference at which the maximum impedance is ½, etc., or by combining these information as appropriate, the resonance state It is to judge the change of.

When it is determined in step 160 that the reference Q and the current Q are not close to each other, that is, when the player touches the adjusting lever X, the resonance state of the parallel resonance circuit 38 is significantly changed. Is the output port P
The excitation signals are output from Φ1 to PΦ4 to control the rotation of the firing motor 32 at a predetermined rotation speed, and the monitor 1 process is executed (step 170). The monitor 1 process is to learn and store the amount of deviation between the reference Q and the current Q, measure the degree of influence of the player's own impedance on the parallel resonance circuit 38, and perform the approximation judgment executed in step 160. Refers to processing that improves accuracy.

On the other hand, when it is judged by the approximation judgment processing in step 160 that the reference Q and the current Q are close to each other, the output ports PΦ1 to PΦ1 are replaced with the output ports PΦ1 to PΦ.
The excitation signal output from Φ4 is stopped to stop the rotation of the firing motor 32, and the monitor 2 process is executed (step 18).
0). The monitor 2 process here is to store a subtle change in the reference Q due to an environmental change such as humidity and temperature or a change over time, based on the deviation amount between the reference Q calculated in step 160 and the current Q. This is a process such as updating the value of the reference Q used for the process of 160.

It should be noted that an approximation
These monitor 1 processing and monitor 2 processing do not necessarily have to be performed as long as the presence / absence of the player's contact with the adjusting lever X of the firing handle 20 is determined only by non-approximation.

According to the pachinko ball launching apparatus 30 of the present embodiment having the above-described configuration, the following effects can be obtained. In order to detect the game state in which the player is holding the adjusting lever X, the parallel resonant circuit 38 having a simple circuit configuration including the coil L and the capacitor C is adopted in this embodiment. Therefore, the circuit elements of the pachinko ball launching device 30 as a whole are largely omitted, and the device can be made compact and inexpensive. Further, unlike the conventional oscillation circuit, no circuit adjustment such as amplification factor and feedback phase is required, which simplifies the manufacturing process and enables mass production of stable quality products.

Further, the judgment as to whether or not the player is holding the adjusting lever is carried out by changing the change state between the reference Q and the current Q into the deviation width Δf of the resonance frequency fQ, the difference ΔZ of the maximum impedance at the resonance frequency, The difference between the frequency widths fz at which the maximum impedance is halved or the like is used alone, or by combining these pieces of information, it is appropriately determined. Therefore, the determination accuracy is significantly improved as compared with the conventional binary determination of whether the oscillation circuit is oscillating. Moreover, after performing such a highly accurate determination, the monitor 1 or monitor 2 process is executed to learn or update the impedance information unique to each player and the situation where the pachinko ball launching device 30 is placed. It is possible to adapt to various changes so that the determination accuracy does not decrease.

Furthermore, the pachinko ball launching device 30 of this embodiment
Employs a firing motor 32, which is a stepping motor that can be directly driven by the MPU 35, as a power source for firing a pachinko ball. Therefore, as compared with the conventional large-sized AC motor, the pachinko ball launching device 30
In addition, the AC power line does not need to be routed, and it has become possible to make it compact.

In this way, the pachinko ball launching device 3 of this embodiment is used.
Since 0 can be configured extremely easily and in a small size, it is possible to configure the firing motor 32 and the control circuit 34 as one body without separately configuring them as shown in FIG. Moreover, when the control circuit 34 and the firing motor 32 are integrally configured in this way, all of them can be built in the firing handle 20 because the entire occupied volume is extremely small. Since the occupied volume can be made extremely small, it is possible to dispose other components such as a card reader of a card-type pachinko ball lending machine on the back surface of the firing handle 20 of the pachinko machine 1.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and it is needless to say that the present invention can be implemented in various modes without departing from the gist of the present invention. is there. For example, in the present embodiment, the gripping state of the adjusting lever X is changed to the LC parallel resonance circuit 38.
However, instead of this, a CR resonance circuit or a series resonance circuit may be adopted. Instead of detecting the current i flowing in the resonance circuit to detect the resonance state of the resonance circuit, the impedance of the resonance circuit is detected using a bridge circuit or the like, or the phase difference between the voltage and the current is detected. It is embodied in various modes. In addition, the determination of the deviation amount of the resonance state is also performed by the resonance frequency fQ shown in the present embodiment.
It is not limited to the parameter such as the deviation amount Δf.

Further, in this embodiment, the circuit constant is designed so that the parallel resonance circuit 38 exhibits the sharpest resonance state when the player is not holding the adjusting lever, but a general player It may be designed so that the sharpest resonance state is obtained when the adjustment lever is gripped. Furthermore, the MPU 35 is communicated with a main control device (not shown) that controls the gaming status of the pachinko machine 1 to monitor how the impedance presented by the player changes in accordance with the gaming status of the pachinko machine 1 to monitor the player. It is also possible to collect the psychological information of, and change the control of the pachinko machine 1, for example, the display content or music according to the result.

Further, since the detection of the grip of the firing handle 20 and the control of the firing motor 32 are performed by using the one-chip microcomputer 35, various games can be made by utilizing the unused input / output ports. If you capture the conditions,
The firing motor 32 can be controlled by compositely determining the conditions for prohibiting the firing of a pachinko ball. For example, the driving of the firing motor 32 is prohibited by a signal from a computer for hall management or a signal from a fraud detection circuit,
The firing of pachinko balls can be stopped. Further, it is easy to add a signal for determining such a prohibition condition.

[0049]

As described above, according to the pachinko ball launching apparatus of this embodiment, it is possible to accurately determine the game situation of the player with the resonance circuit having a simple structure, and to drive directly from the control circuit. Pachinko balls can be fired using a possible small stepping motor as a power source. Therefore, it is possible to detect the gripping state of the firing handle with high accuracy while omitting complicated circuit adjustment and wiring arrangement, and to reduce the occupied volume.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a pachinko machine provided with a pachinko ball launching device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial configuration diagram showing a back surface around a firing handle 20 of the pachinko machine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electric circuit of a pachinko ball launching device 30 which is an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a main program executed by the pachinko ball launching device 30.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a counter timer interrupt program that is also executed by the pachinko ball launching device 30.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a frequency scan executed by the counter timer interrupt program.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of various parameters for determining the deviation of the resonance state.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Pachinko machine 20 ... Launching handle 30 ... Pachinko ball launching device 32 ... Launching motor 34 ... Control circuit 35 ... MPU 35a ... CPU 35b ... ROM 35c ... RAM 35d ... Counter timer 35e ... I / O port 35f ... A / D Converter 37 ... Waveform conversion circuit 38 ... Parallel resonance circuit 39 ... Current detection circuit 40 ... Ball firing mechanism 42 ... Coil spring 44 ... Hitting rod 46 ... Clutch mechanism C ... Capacitor L ... Coil PA ... Analog input port PS ... Output port PΦ1 or 4 ... Output port X ... Adjustment lever

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pachinko ball launching device for launching a pachinko ball supplied to a launching part toward a pachinko ball according to an operation of a launching handle, wherein a circuit component element is extended to the launching handle. A resonance circuit, a stepping motor serving as a power source of the launching unit, and power for resonance excitation at a cycle near the resonance frequency to the resonance circuit, and detect a resonance state of the resonance circuit,
A pachinko ball launching device comprising: a control unit that controls a drive signal to be sent to the stepping motor according to a detection result of the resonance state. 2. The pachinko ball launching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises a one-chip microprocessor having at least a digital output port and an analog input port, the output port being a power supply line of the resonant circuit. And a resonance exciting means for oscillating the resonance circuit by turning on / off the voltage of the output port at a predetermined cycle, and a smoothing circuit is connected to the output of the resonance circuit to connect the output of the smoothing circuit. A pachinko ball launching apparatus comprising: a reading unit that reads the resonance state of the resonance circuit as an output voltage of the smoothing circuit by connecting to the analog input port of the one-chip microprocessor. 3. The pachinko ball launching apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the one-chip microprocessor sets an ON / OFF cycle of an output port connected to the resonance circuit to a value near a resonance frequency of the resonance circuit. From the relationship between the read / write cycle and the read means for reading the voltage obtained at the analog port corresponding to the changed on / off cycle of the output port A pachinko ball launching device, comprising: a determination means for determining the state of gripping the firing handle.