JPS6117312B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a timepiece device equipped with a pointer mechanism for displaying time.

Currently, for example, wristwatches display the time using hands, and are equipped with optical display devices consisting of liquid crystals, light emitting diode elements, etc., which display information that is difficult to display using hands, such as the date and day of the week, as well as alarm time and timer time. A clock device that displays information such as the following on an optical display device has been considered.

In such a timepiece device, for example, a power supply battery is used as a drive source for the hands (and a power source for an optical display device), and this battery rotates a step motor to drive a wheel train mechanism and move the hands. However, if, for example, the step motor stops rotating due to a drop in the power supply voltage of the power supply battery, or if the wheel train mechanism malfunctions and stops due to external impact force, the pointer will stop moving. The disadvantage is that it becomes impossible to represent the time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a timepiece device that can be used conveniently by allowing the time to be read even when the operation of the pointer mechanism for displaying the time has stopped.

Embodiments of the present invention illustrated in the drawings will be described below.

Figures 1 and 2 show an example of a mechanical mechanism in a timepiece device, and this figure shows a wheel train mechanism, a pointer, and a pointer operation stop detection mechanism, and these mechanisms are assembled. It is installed inside the watch case. First, the wheel train mechanism will be explained. In the figure, 101 is a substrate made of an insulating material;
Reference numeral 2 denotes a main plate, and 103 an intermediate plate provided between the substrate 101 and the main plate 102. The substrate 101 corresponds to the back cover of the watch, and the main plate 102 corresponds to the front glass. An hour hand shaft 104 is rotatably supported between the central portion of the main plate 102 and the intermediate plate 103 , and a minute hand shaft 105 is rotatably inserted into the clock shaft 104 . It extends over the substrate 101 and is supported by the substrate 101. The hour hand 106 is located at the upper end of the hour hand shaft 104 protruding from the main plate 102, and the minute hand shaft 106
At the upper end protruding from the hour hand shaft 104 at 5, there is a minute hand 1.
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07 are attached to each. The hour hand shaft 104 has an hour gear 108 between the main plate 102 and the intermediate plate 103.
For example, a minute unit gear 109 is provided integrally on the minute hand shaft 105 between the substrate 101 and the intermediate plate 103.
is fitted and fixed. Further, a first intermediate gear 111 is fitted to a shaft 110 supported between the substrate 101 and the intermediate plate 103.
1 transmits the rotation of the rotor of a step motor (not shown), and is integrally provided with a first pinion 112 that meshes with a minute unit gear 109.
A shaft 113 supported between the base plate 101 and the ground plate 102
A second intermediate gear 114 is fitted between the substrate 101 and the intermediate plate 103, and this second intermediate gear 1
14 meshes with a second pinion 115 provided integrally with the minute unit gear 109. The second intermediate gear 114 has an hourly gear 1 between the main plate 102 and the intermediate plate 103.
A third pinion 116 that meshes with 08 is integrally provided, and thus a wheel train mechanism is constructed. A pointer mechanism is constituted by the step motor, the wheel train mechanism, and the pointers 106 and 107.

Furthermore, the detection mechanism which is the mechanical mechanism of the pointer operation stoppage detection means will be explained. Minute gear 1
A metal detecting pawl wheel 117 placed on the substrate 101 is rotatably fitted in the lower part of the detection pawl 09, and a pawl 117a is formed on the inner peripheral portion of the metal detecting pawl wheel 117. A spring member 118 made of, for example, spring steel is located and fixed to the lower end of the minute unit gear 109 inside the detection ratchet wheel 117.
The pawl 1 of the detection pawl wheel 117 extends in the radial direction and has a tip thereof.
17a. Now, looking at the relationship between the pawl 117a of the detection pawl 117 and the spring member 118, the spring member 118 is connected to the minute unit gear 10.
The pawl 117a of the detection pawl wheel 117 allows (slides) the spring member 118 to move in the a direction, and also allows the minute hand to move in the a direction (clockwise). When finished, the elastic force of the spring member 118 causes the opposite b
It has a shape that prevents movement in the direction (counterclockwise). However, the detection ratchet wheel 117 is the minute unit gear 10.
9 is free and can rotate on the substrate 101, so when the spring member 118 is elastically engaged with the pawl 117a and rotated (rotated) together in the direction a, when the spring member 118 is restored by the spring force. Also claw 117a
Due to the engagement, they are rotated (rotated) together in the b direction.

Further, a pin-shaped movable contact 119 is formed protruding in the radial direction on the outer periphery of the detection ratchet wheel 117, and a stopper pin 120 is provided on the b-direction side on the board 101 so as to sandwich the movable contact 119 in the a-direction. A pin-shaped fixed contact 121 is provided protruding from each side.
Therefore, the detection ratchet wheel 117 is connected to the stopper pin 120.
The movable contact 119 rotates back and forth within the range between the fixed contact 121 and the fixed contact 121, and when rotating in the direction a together with the spring member 118, the movable contact 119
It collides with b and stops, and due to the restoring force of the spring member 118 b
When rotating in the direction, the movable contact 119 collides with the stopper pin 120 and stops. Note that the detection ratchet wheel 117 is normally set to b due to the restoring force of the spring member 118.
When the spring member 118 moves in the a direction, the detection ratchet wheel 117 rotates in the a direction, and when the restoring force of the spring member 118 acts again, it immediately returns to the rotation direction in the b direction. Furthermore, the movable contact 119 is connected to the ground side from the metal detection ratchet wheel 117 via another minute unit gear 109, etc., and the fixed contact 121 is connected to the ground side via an LSI (large scale integrated circuit) provided on a circuit board (not shown). ) is electrically connected to the electronic circuit. That is, when the detection ratchet wheel 117 rotates in the direction a and the movable contact 119 collides with the fixed contact 121, a switching operation is performed between both contacts 119 and 121, and one detection signal (one pulse) is generated. The signal is sent to the drive stop detection circuit of the electronic circuit, the details of which will be described later. In this way, a detection mechanism is configured to detect whether the minute hand 107 and hour hand 106 are operating normally.

Next, the operation of each mechanism will be explained. Rotation from a step motor (the rotor of this step motor is driven to rotate in units of 1 second by clock pulses with a period of 1 second from a frequency dividing circuit in the control system) is transmitted to the first intermediate gear 111 and the first pinion 11.
2, it is converted into a rotation with a period of 1 minute and transmitted,
The minute unit gear 109 rotates by a minute unit, that is, an angle range of 3 degrees. At the same time, the minute hand shaft 105 rotates integrally, so the minute hand 107 rotates by one minute, and one minute is displayed on the time scale formed on the display section provided on the watch case. The minute unit gear 109 rotates intermittently every minute and completes one rotation in 60 minutes=1 hour. The rotation of the minute unit gear 109 is caused by the second pinion 11
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5. It is converted into hour units via the second intermediate gear 114 and third pinion 116 and transmitted to the hour unit gear 108. When the minute gear 109 rotates once, the hour gear 108 rotates by one hour, that is, by an angle of 30 degrees, and at the same time, the hour hand 106 also rotates by one hour to display the time on the display. On the other hand, minute unit gear 10
9 rotates in the direction a for one minute, the spring member 118
move together to rotate the detection pawl wheel 117 in the same direction. As the detection pawl wheel 117 rotates, the movable contact 119 moves and collides with the fixed contact 121, causing the detection pawl wheel 1 to rotate.
17, but at this time both contacts 119 and 121
One detection signal is generated by the switching operation. The spring member 118 detects the ratchet wheel 11 with its restoring force.
7 immediately returns to direction b. Therefore, in the pointer mechanism, one detection signal is generated from the detection mechanism every minute and sent to the drive stop detection circuit. However, the pointer mechanism may stop driving due to a drop in power supply voltage such as a power supply battery or an external impact, causing the pointer (minute hand 10
7. When the hour hand 106) stops moving, the spring member 118 and the detection ratchet wheel 117 also stop, so no detection signal is generated.

Note that the pointer mechanism is not limited to the configuration of this embodiment, and may have other configurations, such as having a second hand, and the detection mechanism that detects the movement of the pointer by emitting a detection signal every minute may also be used. It is also possible to have the following configuration.

Next, an example of a control system in a timepiece device will be described with reference to FIG. The control system includes means for driving the pointer mechanism, means for detecting stoppage of the pointer mechanism, and an optical display. In the figure, 1 is an electronic circuit composed of an LSI (Large Scale Integrated Circuit) or the like. 2 is an oscillation circuit that outputs a reference oscillation signal, and the oscillation signal output from this oscillation circuit 2 is sent to a frequency divider circuit 3 and divided, with a period of 1.
A second clock pulse is sent to the drive control circuit 4 which drives and controls the step motor 5. Then, the wheel train mechanism 6 is driven by the rotation of the step motor 5,
The minute hand 107 and hour hand 106 are rotated to display the time on the display section 7 provided in the watch case. In addition, the clock pulse with a period of 1 second outputted from the frequency dividing circuit 2 is sent to a counter 8 in, for example, 64-decimal (61-decimal or higher is sufficient since 60 seconds is the standard, but 64-decimal is preferable based on actual conditions). is counted and also sent to the counting circuit 9.
The minutes and hours are counted. The 64-digit counter 8 is supplied with a minute-by-minute signal outputted from a detection mechanism combined with the wheel train mechanism 6 when the pointer is operating normally as a reset input. However, 64
The carry signal of the advance counter 8 is sent to the set input terminal S of the flip-flop 10. here,
A detection means is constituted by a detection mechanism which is a mechanical mechanism, and a counter 8 and a flip-flop 10 which are electrical circuits. The reset input terminal R of this flip-flop 10 is given the minutely signal from the wheel train mechanism 6, and the set output Q is supplied to the AND circuit 11 as a gate control signal and is passed through the inverter 12 to the AND circuit. It is also supplied to circuit 13. On the other hand, when counting is performed in the counting circuit 9, time information of minutes is sent to the AND circuit 11 and also supplied to the matching circuit 14. The matching circuit 14 is also supplied with the alarm time from the alarm time storage circuit 15, and when the time information and the alarm time match, a matching signal is sent to the sound alarm device 17 to generate an alarm. In addition, the time information of the counting circuit 9 and the alarm time storage circuit 1
The alarm time No. 5 is set in advance by a setting signal from a time setting circuit (not shown). Something,
The alarm time is determined by AND circuit 13 and OR circuit 1
6, the signal is sent to a digital display section 7a, which is an optical display device including, for example, a liquid crystal element, provided in a display section 7, and is digitally displayed.

Therefore, according to this control system, when the wheel train mechanism 6 is driven by the pointer mechanism, that is, the step motor 5, and the pointer is normally displaying the time, a reset signal is sent to the counter 8 every minute. Since the carry signal is not output and the flip-flop 10 is not set, the AND circuit 1 whose gate is opened by the inverter 12
3 and the OR circuit 16, and the alarm time is displayed on the digital display section 7a. However, if the step motor 5 stops due to a drop in the power supply voltage of the power source battery or the like, or the wheel train mechanism 6 breaks down and stops, and the pointer stops moving, the counter 8 outputs a carry signal. Therefore, the flip-flop 10 is set to the set state, and the time information from the counting circuit 9 is given to the digital display section 7a instead of the pointer via the AND circuit 11 and the OR circuit 16, so that the digital table
Since the display section 7a automatically optically displays the current displayed time, the time can be read from the display on the digital display section 7a even if the index stops.

Note that the detection mechanism for detecting whether or not the pointer is operating normally in the pointer means is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and may be configured to detect whether or not a step motor is rotating, for example. In addition, devices such as wristwatches that use batteries as a power source, for example, electronic circuits use 1.5V, and step motors use batteries at 1.5V.
For those operating at 3V, the battery voltage is
If the voltage drops below 3V, the step motor will stop rotating, but the electronic circuit will operate normally. For this reason, the hours and minutes may be displayed optically by detecting that the battery voltage has become 3V or higher. Further, although the alarm time is usually displayed on an optical display device, the normal display content may also be, for example, month, day information, or timer time.
Furthermore, normally nothing may be displayed.

As described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and can be implemented with various modifications without changing the gist thereof.

As explained above, the timepiece device of the present invention detects when the time display operation of the pointer mechanism stops and uses the optical display device to display the time instead of the pointer, so that accurate time reading is possible. This is possible and very convenient for the user, and also allows the user to know when the hand mechanism has stopped operating from the time display on the display device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1 and 2 are a sectional view and a front view of main parts, respectively, showing an embodiment of a pointer mechanism in a timepiece device according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic circuit. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Electronic circuit, 2... Oscillation circuit, 3... Frequency dividing circuit, 4... Drive control circuit, 5... Step motor, 6... Wheel train mechanism, 7... Display section, 8... Counter, 9... Counting circuit, 10... Flip-flop, 11... AND circuit, 12... Inverter, 13... AND circuit, 14... Matching circuit, 1
5... Alarm time storage circuit, 16... OR circuit, 17... Sound alarm device, 101... Board, 102
...Main plate, 104...Hour hand axis, 105...Minute hand axis, 106...Hour hand, 107...Minute hand, 108...
...Hour unit gear, 109...Minute unit gear, 117...
...Detection ratchet wheel, 118...Spring member, 119...Movable contact, 120...Stopper pin, 121...Fixed contact. 〓〓〓〓〓

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A stepper motor rotated by a clock pulse of a predetermined period obtained based on a reference oscillation signal from an oscillation circuit, and a pointer driven via a wheel train mechanism according to the rotation of this stepmotor, and displays the time on the pointer. In the clock device, there is provided a counter circuit that counts time information corresponding to the time displayed on the hand based on the reference oscillation signal, and a detection circuit that detects that the hand is not driven when the clock pulse of the predetermined period is output. and an optical display device that displays time information counted by the counting circuit at the time of detection output from the detection means.