JPH11101880A - Generator for controlling electronic control type mechanical timepiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a generator for controlling electronic control type mechanical timepiece which can stabilize an electromotive voltage and make the detection of rotating periods easier. SOLUTION: A generator 30 for controlling electronic control type mechanical timepiece is constituted of a rotor 12 which rotates in an interlocking way with the rotation of a wheel train, platy stators 31 and 32, and first and second coils 33 and 34 which are respectively wound around the stators 31 and 32. The first coil 33 is connected to the output terminal for control of an electronic circuit 40 to brake the rotation of the generator 30 and the second coil 34 is used for generating an electromotive force as the driving power source of the electronic circuit 40 and, at the same time, for detecting the rotation of the rotor 12. Since the coils 33 and 34 are used for different purposes, electromagnetic braking does not affect the waveform of an electromotive voltage or rotation detecting output and the electromotive voltage is stabilized and the rotation period detection can be made easier.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece that operates a rotation control means to control a rotation cycle while operating using mechanical energy at the time of opening of a mainspring as a driving source. The present invention relates to an improvement of a generator used for the above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The driving principle of an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece is to drive a wheel train using a mainspring as an energy source, but instead of a mechanical speed control mechanism consisting of a balance and an escape wheel, which is unique to a mechanical timepiece, a braking generator is used. Is used. The generator rotates in response to rotation from the wheel train, and its rotation cycle is controlled by an electronic circuit, and the speed is controlled by braking the wheel train.

[0003] Therefore, in this structure, electric power is only the driving source of the electronic circuit, so that even if the battery capacity is very small, it can be sufficiently long-lasting and at the same time as high precision as a conventional battery-driven electronic timepiece can be obtained.

Further, by using the electromotive force generated in the generator as power for driving an electronic circuit, a battery is not required at all, and there is no need to replace the battery at all.

[0005] As an example of the prior art of a hybrid type timepiece which does not require such a battery at all, there is a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-5758 previously developed by the present applicant. In this technology, the rotor of the generator is connected to the last stage of the train that rotates by the rotating power of the mainspring.
It has a rotor, a stator, and a coil wound around the outer periphery of the stator, and has almost the same configuration as a conventional step motor for driving a battery-powered electronic timepiece.

However, when this motor is used as a generator, the larger the number of windings, the more advantageous it is. Therefore, a part of the magnetic path constituted by the stator should be prevented from being connected to other parts. A magnetic core is connected, a coil is wound around the outer periphery of the magnetic core to form a coil block, and the coil is connected in series to a stator-side coil, thereby providing a generator which functions both for generating electromotive force and for braking.

The generator supplies power obtained by the rotation of the rotor by the power of the mainspring to an electronic circuit having a crystal oscillator, and the electronic circuit detects the rotation of the rotor and operates the rotor in accordance with the reference frequency. The operation of sending the rotation control signal to the coil is repeated. As a result, the wheel train always rotates at a constant rotational speed according to the control power.

[0008]

However, the generator having the above structure has the following technical problems.

In other words, since the coil of the generator is used for both electromotive force generation and braking, when the electromagnetic brake is applied, it competes with the power generation action and the electromotive voltage is increased by the amount of the braking force applied. FIG. 7 (b)
As shown in (1), there is a problem that a complex mountain-shaped waveform is disturbed in each cycle.

In particular, when the output waveform is disturbed, it becomes difficult to detect the rotor rotation cycle using the waveform,
There is also a problem that the rotation control based on the detected value becomes difficult.

As a prior art similar to the present invention,
Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-119812 discloses a three-pole stator type generator in which the functions of power generation, detection, and braking are shared by two coils.

However, one of the coils in this structure is a brake-dedicated coil, and the other coil is used for generating electricity.
Since the detection function and the braking function are used, the braking operation of the function still affects the power generation and the detection as described above.

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece capable of realizing stabilization of an electromotive voltage and easy detection of a rotation period by completely differentiating the functions of two coils wound on a stator. It is to provide a control generator.

[0014]

A generator for controlling an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to the present invention drives a wheel train using a mainspring as an energy source, and rotates a generator that rotates by receiving rotation from the wheel train. By controlling the cycle by an electronic circuit, a control generator of an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece to control the speed by braking the wheel train, the generator has at least two coils, At least one of these coils is used for rotation control,
At least one of the other coils is used for generating an electromotive force for supplying power to the electronic circuit.

As described above, when a plurality of coils are provided, the function of each coil is completely separated, so that the electromotive voltage does not decrease due to the application of the electromagnetic brake, and the voltage is stabilized. Distortion of the output waveform can be eliminated.

At this time, at least one of the coils used for generating the electromotive force may also be used for detecting power generation. Also in this case, since the disturbance of the voltage waveform can be eliminated, the rotation period of the rotor can be easily detected, and the detection method is simplified.

Further, the present invention drives the wheel train using the mainspring as an energy source, and controls the rotation cycle of a generator that rotates by receiving rotation from the wheel train by an electronic circuit, thereby braking the wheel train. A control generator for an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece that is adapted to be adjusted over time, wherein the generator is:
At least two coils may be used, and at least one of these coils may be used for rotation control, and at least one of the other coils may be used for power generation detection. Also in this case, by dividing each coil into one for rotation control and one for power generation detection, disturbance of the output waveform of the power generation detection coil can be eliminated, and rotation detection of the rotor becomes easy.

In this case, since there is no coil for generating an electromotive voltage, a battery for driving the electronic circuit may be provided separately.

Further, the stator may be constituted by a pair of stators each forming a stator hole surrounding the periphery of the rotor, and each of the coils may be wound around an outer periphery of each of the stators.

If a pair of stators is used, the output waveform can be a sine wave, and rotation detection can be further facilitated.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 3 and FIG. 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention.

First, FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example of the structure of a timepiece according to the present invention. In this timepiece, a second wheel 7 and a third wheel 8 are supplied with rotational power from a barrel car 1 having a built-in mainspring. , The fourth wheel 9, the fifth wheel 10, and the sixth wheel 11, the speed of which is increased and connected to the generator 30 according to the present invention.

The rotation of the gear wheel of the barrel wheel 1 is increased seven times and the second wheel 7 of the wheel trains 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 is rotated.
The vehicle is sequentially increased by 6.4 times to the third wheel 8, to 9.375 times to the fourth wheel 9 to 3rd speed to the fifth wheel 10, 10
It is doubled in speed and transmitted to the sixth wheel & pinion 11 to the rotor 12 of the generator 30 of the present invention by a factor of 10 and then to a total of 126,000 times to transmit the power.

As shown in FIG. 2, the center pinion 7a is fixed to the second wheel & pinion 7a, the minute hand 13 is fixed to the center pinion 7a, and the second hand 14 is fixed to the fourth wheel & pinion 9 respectively. Therefore, the second wheel 7 is set to 1
In order to rotate the fourth wheel 9 at 1 rpm at rph,
The rotor 12 may be controlled to rotate at 5 rps. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 2 denotes a main plate, and reference numeral 3 denotes a train wheel receiver.
The rotor 12 has a rotor magnet 12b and a rotor inertial disk 12c integrally mounted around an axis of a rotor pinion 12a rotating in connection with a sixth wheel & pinion 11.

As shown in detail in FIG. 1, the stator of the generator 30 is composed of a combination of a narrow stator 31 and a wide stator 32. The second coil 34 having a large number of turns is wound.

The tip portions 31a, 3 of the stators 31, 32,
2a, a semicircular stator hole 3
5 and 36 are formed facing each other, and rotatably house the rotor magnet 12b.

The tip portions 31a and 32a are individually fixed to the base plate 2 via screws 21 so that both stators 3a and 32a are fixed.
The rear end portions 31b, 32b of the stators 1, 32
In order to form a magnetic path by connecting the two to each other, they are formed in an overlapping shape, and a common screw 21 is inserted into the overlapped center and fastened to the base plate 2 together.
The two magnetic loops are one.

In the above configuration, the first coil 33 is
Second coil 3 with a large number of turns used as a braking coil
Reference numeral 4 is exclusively used as a coil for power generation and rotation detection.

FIG. 3 shows the circuit configuration. An electronic circuit 40 composed of an IC includes an oscillating circuit 42 for driving a quartz oscillator 41, and a reference which becomes a time signal based on a clock signal generated in the oscillating circuit 42. Frequency dividing circuit 43 for generating frequency signal
A detection circuit 44 for detecting the rotation of the rotor 12,
A comparison circuit 45 that compares the rotation cycle obtained by the detection circuit 44 with the reference frequency signal and outputs the difference, and a control circuit 46 that sends a braking control signal to the generator 30 according to the difference. It is configured. Note that the quartz oscillator 41
Instead, the clock signal may be generated using various reference standard vibration sources.

Each of the circuits 42 to 46 is driven by the electric power generated in the second coil 34. When the rotor 12 of the generator 30 rotates in one direction in response to the rotation from the wheel train,
An AC output is generated in the second coil 34, and this output is boosted and rectified by a boosting charging circuit including a diode 47 and a capacitor 48.
Drive 0.

A part of the AC output of the second coil 34 is extracted as a detection signal of the rotation cycle of the rotor 12 and is input to the detection circuit 44. FIG. 7A shows an output waveform output from the second coil 34, and an accurate sine wave is drawn every one rotation cycle. Therefore, the detection circuit 44
A / D converts this signal into a time-series pulse signal, compares this detection signal with a reference frequency signal by a comparison circuit 45, and a control circuit 46 outputs a control signal corresponding to the difference to the first coil 33. To the short circuit 49 functioning as a brake circuit.

Then, based on a control signal from the control circuit 45, the short circuit 49 short-circuits both ends of the first coil 33, applies a short brake, and regulates the rotation cycle of the rotor 12.

As shown in FIG. 4, the short circuit 49 includes a pair of diodes 51 for passing currents in opposite directions, a switch SW connected in series with each of the diodes 51, and a switch SW connected to each of the diodes 51. It is composed of a bidirectional switch composed of a parasitic diode 50 connected in parallel. Thereby, the brake control can be performed using the full wave of the AC output of the first coil 33, and the brake amount can be increased.

According to the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

1) The functions of the coils 33 and 34 wound around the stators 31 and 32 are completely separated, and the first coil 33
Is used only for brake control, and the second coil 34 is used only for power generation and rotation detection.
This eliminates the effect of the electromagnetic brake on the generated voltage, stabilizes the electromotive voltage, and improves the power generation efficiency.

2) Since the output of the second coil 34 is not affected by the electromagnetic brake, as is clear from the characteristic diagram shown in FIG. In addition, an accurate sine wave can be output without any disturbance, and the output waveform can be easily detected by binarizing the signal by dividing it by an appropriate threshold value, and the rotation speed of the rotor 12 can be easily detected. Therefore, it is possible to accurately and easily control the timepiece using the output waveform of the generator.

3) Since the short circuit 49 connected to the first coil 33 is constituted by a two-way switch, a full-wave can be used, a brake amount can be increased, and brake control can be effectively performed.

4) Since the stators 31 and 32 are fixed in the vicinity of the stator holes 35 and 36 with the screws 21, the positional accuracy of the stator holes 35 and 36 with respect to the rotor 12 can be improved.

5) Rear ends 3 of the two stators 31 and 32
Since 1b and 32b are directly connected by the screw 21, an annular loop through which the magnetic flux flows only by the two stators 31 and 32 can be formed, the number of contacts can be reduced, the magnetic flux can easily flow, and the number of parts increases. Can also be suppressed.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. Except for the main part of the second embodiment, the configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3, and therefore, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. Will be explained.

In this embodiment, a rotation sensor 60 for detecting the rotation of the rotor 12 is provided in place of the detection of the AC output waveform, and the detection value of the sensor 60 is input to the detection circuit 44. It is the same as the form. In addition, as the rotation sensor 60, various sensors such as an optical sensor that can detect the rotation of the rotor 12 can be used.

In the above embodiment, the output of the second coil 34 is used only as a power supply for driving the electronic circuit 40.

In this embodiment as well, the same effects as 1), 3) to 5) of the first embodiment can be obtained, and 6) the second coil 34 can be used only for power generation. There is an advantage that the power generation efficiency can be improved.

However, since the rotation sensor 60 is required separately, the first embodiment is more advantageous in terms of cost and structure.

FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. In addition, this embodiment is the same as the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 except for the main part. Therefore, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. Will be explained.

In this embodiment, the second coil 34 is connected only to the detection circuit 44 and is used only for detecting the rotation of the rotor. For this reason, the electronic circuit 40 includes the battery 70
It is driven by. The battery 70 may be a normal replaceable button battery, or may be a non-replaceable battery using a solar cell, a piezoelectric element, a thermoelectric element, or the like.

In this embodiment as well, the same effects as 2) to 5) of the first embodiment can be obtained.
7) The second coil 34 is exclusively used only for detecting the rotation cycle of the rotor 12 and can eliminate the need for power generation for driving the electronic circuit 40. Therefore, the number of coil turns can be reduced and the generator 30 itself can be reduced in size. .

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but includes modifications and improvements as long as the object of the present invention can be achieved.

For example, in each of the above embodiments, the brake control by the first coil 33 is performed by using the short circuit 49. However, as a means for varying the amount of current flowing through the coil 33, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-101284 A method of varying the resistance of the load control circuit connected in parallel with both ends of the coil 33 as described in the first embodiment, a method of varying the number of boosting stages as described in the second embodiment, and the like are used. May be.

In the above-described embodiment, the generator 30 is constituted by the two stators 31 and 32. However, an integrated stator consisting of one stator having a stator hole may be used. In this case, one stator has two coils 3
It is sufficient to wind the coils 33 and 34. However, if there are structural or layout restrictions, a coil block may be separately attached to the stator, and the coils 33 and 34 may be wound around the stator and the coil block, respectively. In short, the stator of the present invention only needs to substantially function as a stator, and the shape and configuration of the stator, the number of turns of the coils 33 and 34, and the like may be appropriately set in implementation.

Further, in a generator having three or more coils as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-212152, the plurality of coils are used for controlling rotation, generating electromotive force and detecting power generation. By dividing, the same effect can be obtained. When three or more coils are provided, each coil may be used for rotation control, for generating electromotive force, and for detecting power generation.

[0053]

As apparent from the above description, according to the control generator of the electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to the present invention,
When multiple coils are provided, the function of each coil,
In particular, since the braking function and the function of power generation and rotation detection are completely separated, the coil for power generation does not have a drop in electromotive voltage due to the application of the electromagnetic brake, and can stabilize the voltage. In, the disturbance of the output waveform is eliminated, and the rotation period of the rotor can be easily detected according to the waveform.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to a first embodiment including a generator of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a circuit block diagram showing a connection form between the generator and an electronic circuit.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing a short circuit of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a circuit block diagram illustrating a connection form of a generator according to a second embodiment of the present invention with an electronic circuit.

FIG. 6 is a circuit block diagram illustrating a connection form of a generator according to a third embodiment of the present invention with an electronic circuit.

FIG. 7A is a graph showing a voltage waveform of a generator according to the present invention, and FIG. 7B is a graph showing a voltage waveform of a conventional generator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 barrel car (spring) 2 main plate 7 second wheel 8 third wheel 9 fourth wheel 10 fifth wheel 11 sixth wheel 12 rotor 30 generator 31, 32 stator 33 first coil 34 second coil 40 electronic circuit 49 short circuit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A wheel train is driven using a mainspring as an energy source, and the rotation cycle of a generator rotating by receiving rotation from the wheel train is controlled by an electronic circuit, thereby braking the wheel train and adjusting the speed. A generator for controlling an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece, wherein the generator has at least two coils, and at least one of these coils is used for rotation control, and A control generator for an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece, wherein at least one of the coils is used to generate an electromotive force for supplying power to the electronic circuit. 2. The control generator for an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the coils used for generating the electromotive force also serves to detect power generation. A generator for controlling an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece. 3. A wheel train is driven by using a mainspring as an energy source, and a rotation cycle of a generator rotating by receiving rotation from the wheel train is controlled by an electronic circuit, thereby braking the wheel train and regulating the speed. A generator for controlling an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece, wherein the generator has at least two coils, and at least one of these coils is used for rotation control, and A generator for controlling an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece, wherein at least one of the coils is used for detecting power generation. 4. The control generator for an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the stator is constituted by a pair of stators each forming a stator hole surrounding a periphery of the rotor. Each of the coils is wound around an outer periphery of each of the stators, wherein the generator is used for controlling an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece.