JPS5940186A - Electronic timepiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To drive a stepping motor normally with low power consumption and to increasing the rate of the fast feeding of the stepping motor and return a second hand to a current time position speedily by allowing a rotation detecting means to have two kinds of decision criterion and switching the decision criteria in hand advancing operation different from the normal hand advancing operation of the stepping motor. CONSTITUTION:A switch input from an external operation member 10 is counted by a setting counter 11, whose output is stored in a latch circuit 12, the latch output of which is synchronied by an input clock signal which is the output of a coincidence circuit 15 and then led out. The output of the latch 12 controls a control circuit 3 and also drives the motor fast by the output of the coincidence circuit 13. A fast advance counter 14 handles a fast advance signal of the motor part and a coincidence circuit 13 detects a coincidence with the output of the latch circuit. After a fast driving pulse is outputted, a comparator reference level is set to an extremely small value to evade an error of the decision on whether rotation is performed or not. Thus, the possibility that a correction pulse is sent out is eliminated to increase the rate of fast advance, and the second hand is returned smoothly to a current time poisition.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an analog type electronic motor which has a so-called corrective drive system which drives the rotor with low power during normal times and re-drives it with higher power than normal when the rotor does not rotate normally for some reason. Regarding watches.

The present invention also relates to an electronic timepiece having a different hand movement means than usual, such as a fast-forwarding system for the second hand, as a means of analog multifunction.

In recent years, the practical use of so-called correction drive systems in analog electronic watches has made it possible to significantly reduce power consumption, and attempts have been made to lengthen battery life or make movements smaller and thinner by using smaller batteries.

On the other hand, with advances in engineering, there is an increasing demand for multi-functional analog devices using electrical means.

One of the methods is to use the second hand as a guide for various purposes. For example, the second position can be used as a guide for the setting time of an alarm, a guide for setting a timer, or a display of remaining time. However, by using the second hand for purposes other than displaying the seconds of the current time, the display position of the second hand will naturally be different from the current time, and after canceling the alarm or timer function, the second hand will be displayed at the current time. must be readjusted.

In this method, when the finger display is behind the current time, it is necessary to fast forward to catch up, and when it is ahead, it is necessary to stop and return to the current time by moving the hands in reverse.

If you try to add the fast forward #) function on the premise that a correction drive pulse will be output, it will take into account the case where a correction drive pulse is applied during fast forwarding, and the rotor driven by the correction drive pulse will stop. If you try to apply the next normal drive pulse after that, the time interval between the correction drive pulse and the next normal drive pulse needs to be at least 30 minutes. Therefore, the time interval between the normal drive pulse and the correction drive pulse must be at least 30 minutes. In this case, the time interval between a normal drive pulse and the next normal drive pulse is at least 6 (3 msec), and a fast forward multiplier of 16 times or more is not possible. The drawback was that it took a long time to catch up.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, to drive a step motor with low power consumption, and to increase the fast-forwarding magnification of the step motor so that the second hand can quickly return to the current time.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. Here, an example will be described in which, in an analog watch having a timer function, the setting amount for the timer changes the amount of movement of the hands of the time display member in accordance with changes in the remaining time of the timer.

In the example of a quartz watch using a crystal oscillator, the time standard 1 is a frequency dividing circuit 2 (here, the frequency is divided to the minute, for example, necessary for the timer part 7), a motor drive circuit 4, a motor 51 The time display section 6, which includes hours, minutes, and a second hand that normally moves every second, has a well-known configuration. Here is the timer part 7
As a result of the signal from the external operation member 10, the timer setting counter 11. A latch circuit 12 for storing the signal of the counter 11, a fast-forward multi-signal counter 14 that fast-forwards the second hand in conjunction with the signal from the latch circuit 12, and a signal-number circuit 13 for the latch circuit 12 and the counter 14. A second counter 169 that counts signals every second detects the coincidence between the output of the latch 12 and the second counter 16, clocks the latch 12, and resets both the fast-forward counter 14 and the second counter 16. circuit 15
has. Buzzer ringing circuit with a timer that rings the buzzer for a certain period of time when all the signals of the latch 12 become LOW.8. When there is a signal output from buzzer 9 or latch 12,
The control circuit 3 has a signal controller f@3 which judges an output signal on the latch side and inputs it to the motor drive circuit 4. Also, 20 is a motor rotation detection section, 21 is a voltage dividing section that creates a reference voltage, and 22 and 23 are bidirectional switches.
Now when a fast forward multiple signal from the fast forward counter is input, 2
2. and 23 switch. 24 is a circuit for detecting the induced voltage of the motor, and 25 amplifies this. This 2
The comparator 26 compares the induced voltage of the motor increased in step 5 with the voltage generated by the voltage dividing section 21 that creates the reference voltage, and if the induced voltage of the motor is large, it is determined that the motor has rotated, and the drive pulse control circuit 4 is giving feedback.

The operation of the present invention will be briefly explained using this block diagram. The setting counter 11 counts the number of times the switch input from the external operation member 10 is input. The counter obtains a signal from the frequency dividing circuit 2 as necessary, but here the input is in units of minutes. The output of the counter is stored by the latch circuit 12, and the latch output is output in synchronization with the input clock signal output from the coincidence circuit 15. Here, the output of the latch 12 controls the control circuit 3, and the output of the matching circuit 13 controls the motor, for example.
Drive in fast forward motion several times per second. Since the fast-forward counter 14 is involved in the signal for fast-forwarding the motor section, the minus number circuit 13 detects coincidence with the output of the launch circuit. Seconds counter 16 controls fast-forward seconds counter 14 and provides a clock input for latch 12.
It is counting seconds, and the fast forward counter 14 mentioned above
For example, when the timer is set to N = 4 minutes, the latch output is 4 minutes.
The coincidence circuit 15 detects coincidence every four seconds via the second counter 16.

The output of coincidence 15 is second counter 16 and fast-forward counter 16.
Since the motor 14 is reset each time, a fast-forward signal for four seconds is output from the motor 14, which activates the control circuit 3 to fast-forward the motor.

Similarly, when the output of the latch 12 reaches 3 (minutes), a signal for fast forwarding for 3 seconds is output from the latch 14. The number of steps in which the motor is sequentially fast-forwarded decreases, and the number of steps in which the motor is fast-forwarded as a timer decreases. The signal from this fast-forward shikarunter 14 is simultaneously sent to the rotation detection circuit 20,
The signal is transmitted to two-way switches 22 and 23. Normally, the signal from the fast-forward shikaranta 14 is "'LN," the bidirectional switch 22 is ON, 23 is OFF, and 1.2■ is the comparator 2.
Sent to 6. During fast forwarding, the signal from the fast forwarding shikaranter 14 becomes H'', the bidirectional switch 23 is turned on, the bidirectional switch 22 is turned off, and O4v is sent to the comparator 26.

Furthermore, when the control circuit 3 is activated by the fast-forward signal, the output pulse width from the drive pulse control circuit is set to a pulse 1j that is different from the normal pulse width and provides sufficient margin for hand movement. Therefore, during fast forwarding, there is no possibility that the motor will not rotate, and since the reference voltage in the rotation detection circuit 20 is also small, there is no possibility that the motor will not be determined to be non-rotating. Therefore, if the configuration is as shown in the block diagram in FIG. 1, the fast-forward multiplier during fast-forwarding can be determined without considering the correction drive pulse.

In this embodiment, the remaining time of the analog timer is displayed by the second hand movement, and the explanation was given using the second fast forward υ time as an example.
This fast-forward movement of the second hand is a function that is always required when the second hand is loaded with a function to display something other than the current time in addition to this example, and is effective in all of them.

Next, the drive pulse for fast forwarding υ will be described.

The purpose of this fast-forward drive pulse is to select the fast-forward magnification on the premise that no correction pulse is output, so the fast-forward drive pulse has enough energy to rotate the rotor one step. It is necessary to have a margin, but it does not need to be the same as the correction pulse.

The correction pulse is normally set so that the drive pulse provides just enough energy to rotate the rotor one step, so even the slightest cause (disturbance, change in the environment such as temperature) causes extremely unstable movement, so it is extremely large. It has a safety factor, and when the drive pulse for fast forwarding does not have such an unstable factor, such a safety factor is not required.

Next, the criteria for determining rotation will be described.

After outputting the fast-forward drive pulse, the comparator reference level is set to an extremely small value to avoid erroneous determination that the motor is not rotating even if it is rotating. In the above example, 0.3■
However, O and OV are also possible, and 0.3 or more is also possible. As mentioned above, the rotor rotates with sufficient torque margin due to the fast-forward drive pulse, and by setting the rotation detection level at this time low, it is determined that this is always rotating, and there is a possibility that a correction pulse will be generated. By eliminating this, it becomes possible to increase the magnification of fast forwarding and quickly return to the current time.

As described above, according to the present invention, the load on the circuit is small, and it is possible to increase the fast forward magnification without using UP, which has a great effect on increasing the commercial value of analog multifunctional watches. There is.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

112 A block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. 1... Time standard 2... Frequency divider circuit 6... Control circuit 4... Drive pulse waveform Control circuit 5...
...Motor 6...Display device 7...Timer part 2o...Rotation detection section 22,23...・More than two-way switch

Claims (1)

[Claims] A step motor whose main components include a rotor, a stator, and a coil, a rotation detection means for the rotor, and a correction drive pulse output means for supplying larger drive energy to the coil again when the rotation detection means determines that the rotor is not rotating. , and an electronic timepiece in which the step motor has at least one unusual luck means,
The electronic timepiece characterized in that the rotation detecting means has at least two types of detection criteria, and has means for switching the determination criteria between the normal hand movement of the step motor and the unusual hand movement.