JPH0752229B2 - Electronic clock - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an electronic timepiece that uses electric energy as an energy source, such as a quartz timepiece that has become mainstream in recent years.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, batteries are almost all energy sources for electronic timepieces. This battery has a battery life determined by its capacity and current consumption of the watch body, and the troublesomeness of battery replacement has always been a major drawback of electronic timepieces. Therefore, attempts have been made to provide a power generation mechanism inside the timepiece in order to eliminate this drawback. The trial is as in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 50-17866, the power generation efficiency is poor, the size is large, and the durability is problematic, so that it has not been put into practical use. Further, the rectifier circuit of the conventional AC generator has four diodes assembled in a bridge as shown in FIG. 4, and the number of elements is large and the application to a small device such as a watch is avoided.

〔Purpose〕

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks and provides an electronic timepiece having extremely high power generation efficiency, a highly flexible size and a highly durable power generation mechanism inside the timepiece, which does not cause the trouble of battery replacement. Is what you are trying to do.

〔Overview〕

An electronic timepiece according to the present invention has a rotor having at least one permanent magnet, a hole made of a high magnetic permeability material and concentric with the rotor so as to surround the entire circumference of the rotor, and a magnetic flux of the magnet in a coil. A stator arranged so as to guide, a coil in which a coil is wound around a magnetic core made of a high magnetic permeability material, a converter including a fixing means for fixing the stator and the magnetic core, and a rotating means for rotating the rotor, Speed increasing means for increasing the speed of rotation of the rotating means and transmitting it to the rotor; rectifying means for rectifying the alternating current generated by the converter; power storage means including a capacitor for storing the rectified power; A limiter for preventing overcharge for preventing overcharge is provided, the rotating means is composed of a rotating portion whose center of gravity is different from the rotation center, and the rectifying means is composed of one backflow preventing means. In addition, it is arranged between a wiring path connecting the coil and the limiter.

〔Example〕

 The present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the concept of a quartz wristwatch system that effectively utilizes the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 is a means for generating a rotating torque, and is a rotating means composed of an unbalanced wheel (rotary weight) in which the center of rotation and the center of gravity are eccentric. The rotational movement of the rotating means 1 is transmitted to the speed increasing train wheel 2.
The speed is increased by and the rotor of the converter A3 as a power generation mechanism is rotated to generate an alternating current. Rectifier circuit 4
Is rectified and stored in the storage means 5. In this embodiment, an electric double layer capacitor, which is a large-capacity capacitor, is used as the electricity storage means. The control circuit 6 including a crystal, which is a time standard, and the drive circuit 7 controlled by the control circuit 6 operate using the large-capacity capacitor as a power source. Energy is supplied by the drive circuit 7 to operate the converter B8, and the movement of the converter B8 is transmitted to the pointer 10 by the reduction gear train 9 to display the time.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the converter A3 as a power generation mechanism.

Stator 2 so that rotor 20 including permanent magnet 20a
1 is placed. The coil 22 is wound around a magnetic core 22a, and the magnetic core 22a and the stator 21 are fixed to each other by screws 23.

By rotating this rotor 20, the coil Electromotive force A current represented by

N: Number of turns of coil φ: Number of magnetic flux passing through magnetic core 22a t: Time R: Resistance of coil w: Rotational speed of rotor 20 L: Inductance of coil This electromotive force is an AC having a sin curve. Further, the rotor 20 and the hole of the stator 21 that encloses it are concentric circles, and the rotor magnet is enclosed over almost the entire circumference. As a result, the force (pulling torque) that tends to stop at the rotor is minimized.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view for explaining the mechanism from the rotating means 1 to the converter A3 via the speed increasing train wheel 2. In FIG. 3, an unbalanced wheel 31 in which the center of rotation and the center of gravity are eccentric is used as the rotating means. 32 is the main plate and 33 is the bridge. The rotational movement caused by the unbalance of the unbalanced wheel 31 becomes the rotational movement of the rotor magnet 20a by the speed increasing train wheel 31a, 34 and the rotor pinion 22b. Reference numeral 22b denotes a coil lead board, which is used for terminal treatment of the coil, and the coil lead board 22b and the circuit board 35 are brought into contact with each other to transmit the electric power induced in the coil to the circuit.

As described above, if the pulling torque of the rotor is small, the unbalance amount of the unbalanced wheel 31 may be small. The minimum condition is (rotor pulling torque) <(unbalanced torque of unbalanced vehicle).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional rectifier circuit.

The rectifier circuit is composed of four diodes 41, 42, 43 and 44. Reference numeral 5 denotes a storage means, and in this embodiment, an electric double layer capacitor which is a large capacity capacitor is used. When the electric power indicated by the thin line 45 is induced in the coil 22, the current flows as indicated by the thin line and is stored in the capacitor 5. When the electric power indicated by the broken line 46 is induced in the coil, a current flows as indicated by the broken line and is also stored in the capacitor 5 in the same direction as when 45.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a charging circuit according to the present invention. Rotary weight
The torque generated by 51 is transmitted to the rotor 53 by the speed increasing train wheel 52. The change in the magnetic field caused by the rotation of the rotor 53
Is transmitted to the coil 55 via the and the induced electric power is generated at both ends of the coil. 57 is a capacitor, which is a storage means, and a coil
The power generated at 55 is stored through 0 ₁ and 0 ₂ , and the power is supplied to the timepiece 56. A limiter 58 is an overcharge prevention circuit having a withstand voltage equal to or higher than the withstand voltage of the capacitor 57. Reference numeral 59 is a backflow prevention diode that half-wave rectifies the AC power generated in the coil 55. Moreover, it also serves to prevent the power stored in the capacitor 57 from being lost through the coil 55 when the coil 55 is not generating power.

Further, by disposing the diode 59 between the coil 55 and both the limiter 58 and the capacitor 57, in the non-charging period (the period of 66 in FIG. 6), the current in the reverse direction is supplied to the coil 55 through the limiter 58. Not flowing.

Therefore, the magnetic field is not generated in the coil 55 and the electromagnetic brake applied to the rotor 53 is small, so that the charging efficiency is prevented from lowering.

FIG. 6 shows the waveform of the current flowing through the storage means 57 in comparison with the conventional rectifier circuit shown in FIG. 4 and the rectification by one diode 59 according to the present invention shown in FIG.

60 is the reference line. 61 is the current generated in the conventional rectifier circuit,
62 is the generated current in the present invention, 63 is the loss due to the voltage drop in the conventional rectifier circuit, and 64 is the loss due to the voltage drop in the rectifier circuit according to the present invention. The amount of electric charge stored in the power storage means is conventionally the area covered by 61 and 63, and that according to the present invention is the area covered by 62 and 64. In this area comparison, there is almost no difference, and the storage performance is the same. The reason why there is no difference in the storage performance with half-wave rectification compared to conventional full-wave rectification is described below. During the period in which the half-wave rectification is cut (indicated by 66 in FIG. 6), no current flows through the coil 22, and the brake torque applied to the rotor is small, so the rotary weight moves faster. That is, the energy in the period of 66 is stored as the kinetic energy of the rotary weight and is released at the time of power generation. Therefore, the peak value of 62 is larger than that of 61. In addition, the rectification loss is also advantageous in that two diodes are reduced to one and the number is halved. As a result, the power generation and storage performance of the half-wave rectification is not worse than that of the full-wave rectification.

Control circuit 6, drive circuit from the storage means 5 in FIG.
7, the converter B8, the reduction gear train 9, and the pointer 10 are the same as the conventional ones, and well-known mechanisms are used.

According to the present embodiment described above, since the unbalanced wheel is used as the rotating means, the self-winding quartz timepiece is realized. Regarding the power generation mechanism, the movable coil unit type disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 50-17866 has a limit in increasing the size of the coil because of the rotation of the coil, and the power generation efficiency cannot be increased. In addition, the brush is a mechanical contact, and there is always concern about wear. Also, in terms of size, in order to obtain the number of turns of the coil, there is no choice but to thicken it. Further, it is difficult to process a thin-walled cylinder as a magnet, and it is difficult to use a strong magnet such as a rare earth magnet which has been put into practical use in recent years, and this has a drawback that the power generation efficiency cannot be increased. According to this, it is possible to arrange the magnet and the coil, which are the components of the power generator, in the layout without cutting, and it is possible to set them according to the required characteristics. The coil can be made much larger than the coil rotation type unit type, and the power generation efficiency can be increased. Further, the magnet is also a thick-walled cylinder type and is extremely easy to process, and any magnet such as a rare earth magnet can be used. In addition, since the magnetic circuit is formed by taking out the magnetic flux of the magnet from the high magnetic permeability material such as the stator and the magnetic core, the number of magnetic flux φ interlinking the coils is extremely large. Therefore, from this aspect as well, the power generation efficiency is greatly increased.

Further, since each element can be arranged in a distributed manner, the layout of the entire timepiece can be taken into consideration, and it can be freely arranged in other components such as a train wheel and a clearance of a circuit, which is extremely space efficient.

Further, in this embodiment, a large-capacity capacitor is used as the electricity storage means. The capacitor is a physical phenomenon, not a chemical reaction such as a silver battery, and the life of the storage means itself is extremely long.The system according to the present embodiment provides the same life as a conventional mainspring watch, and of course, like battery replacement. It is possible to realize a highly accurate timepiece such as a quartz timepiece without any trouble.

Further, by performing half-wave rectification by one diode as the rectifying circuit, four elements which were required in the past become one, which is extremely advantageous in terms of space. In addition, the mounting is simple, and the cost is not only reduced by three diodes, but also the yield of the entire circuit is improved and the effect is great.

The reliability is also improved by the simple structure.

In addition, by arranging the diode on the generator side of the limiter, the current flows to the limiter when the current is cut by half-wave rectification (when the reverse current occurs), and the adverse effect that the electromagnetic brake acts on the rotor is also prevented. , Improve the charging efficiency.

Further, the unbalanced portion of the unbalanced vehicle is arranged in substantially the same cross section as that of the speed increasing train wheel and the power generator in FIG.

Further, the unbalanced portion 31b is not limited to this structure and can be of course other.

For example, if it is arranged on the bridge 33 in FIG. 3, a large amount of unbalance can be easily taken.

Further, although the configuration from the control circuit after the storage means to the pointer which is the display means in FIG. 1 is shown as an example of the needle display, the display means may not be the needle but a digital display such as LCD.

[Effect] As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, by performing half-wave rectification by one backflow prevention unit, the reverse current does not flow in the coil during the period in which the current is cut, and therefore the rotor The brake torque applied to is reduced. Therefore, the rotary weight moves faster, and the cut energy is stored as kinetic energy of the rotary spindle, and can be taken out at the time of the next power generation in which the direction of the current is the forward direction of the backflow prevention means.

Further, in the present invention, since the rotation of the rotating means is further accelerated by the speed increasing means, higher output can be obtained. Therefore, in the case of power generation in which rotation is not constant to obtain mechanical energy for changing the magnetic field when the rotary weight is used, sufficient power can be extracted by half-wave rectification. In addition, the voltage loss due to rectification is small because only one stage of voltage drop is required when passing through a diode or the like.

Further, since there is only one backflow prevention means, it is space efficient in mounting the circuit arrangement and the like, and has an effect that it is extremely advantageous in terms of manufacturing cost because the circuit configuration is simple. is there.

Further, the structure in which the backflow prevention means is arranged between the coil and the limiter can prevent the power stored in the capacitor, which is the electricity storage means, from being lost through the coil, and the reverse direction when not charging. The current can be prevented from flowing to the coil through the limiter and the electromagnetic brake acting on the rotor, and the charging efficiency can be improved.

Also, by using a capacitor as a secondary battery,
Since the power storage means is a physical phenomenon, the life of the power storage means is very long and the reliability of the timepiece can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a power generation mechanism diagram of one embodiment. FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a train wheel portion of one embodiment. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional rectifier circuit. Fig. 5: Illustration of rectifying circuit according to the present invention Fig. 6: Waveform diagram of stored current 1 ... Rotating means 2 ... Speed increasing train 3 ... Power generation mechanism 4 ... Rectifying circuit 5 ... Storage means 22 ... … Coil 51 …… Diode

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An electronic timepiece using electric energy as an energy source, comprising: a rotor having at least one permanent magnet; and a concentric hole portion made of a high magnetic permeability material and surrounding the entire circumference of the rotor. A stator having a stator arranged to guide the magnetic flux of the magnet to the coil, a coil in which the coil is wound around a magnetic core made of a high-permeability material, and a converter including fixing means for fixing the stator and the magnetic core, It comprises a rotating means for rotating the rotor, an increasing means for increasing the rotation of the rotating means and transmitting the rotation to the rotor, a rectifying means for rectifying an alternating current generated by the converter, and a capacitor for storing the rectified electric power. The rotating means includes an electric storage means and an overcharge-preventing limiter for preventing the electric storage means from being overcharged. An electronic timepiece characterized in that the rectifying means is composed of one backflow preventing means, and is arranged between a wiring path connecting the coil and the limiter.