JPS6122304Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to an electronic watch that has a built-in function to display various phenomena other than seconds, minutes, and hours, and in particular, to display special periodic phenomena in which the length of the period gradually changes, as faithfully as possible to the phenomenon. The purpose is to provide a function for automatically displaying information within a clock mechanism.

The seconds, minutes, hours, or days of the week displayed by conventional clocks are all repeated at a fixed cycle, although the units of the cycle are different, and each is in a serial relationship, with minutes being the unit of seconds and hours being the unit of minutes. Therefore, the timekeeping mechanism is extremely simple, and a circuit for displaying time can be obtained by simply connecting in series counters whose units are the periods of each event, and clocks, especially wristwatches, have achieved full electronics of the mechanism. However, while the purpose of clocks is to display periodic phenomena, conventional clocks have not been able to automatically display complex periodic phenomena that cause periodic fluctuations, or even general phenomena in which it is difficult to find periodicity before and after the fluctuations, except for fixed periodic phenomena such as hours, minutes, and seconds.

In general, there are many natural phenomena or artificial phenomena that are considered to have periodicity in a broad sense.

These periodic phenomena may be closely connected to our daily lives, just as the time of day and the day of the week are important to our daily lives. Moreover, some of these phenomena do not have a fixed period but exhibit complex periodicity. To give familiar examples, it occurs in planets such as the Earth and the Moon, in the movement of satellites themselves, and in connection with these movements. lunar lull,
Alternatively, although tides and the like are periodic phenomena, the period gradually changes in a complicated manner. This type of periodic phenomenon often shows seemingly complex periodic fluctuations due to the interaction of multiple periodic motion factors, and it has been difficult to display this with a simple timekeeping mechanism.

The present invention is to automatically display such complicated periodic phenomena, and even phenomena whose periodicity is difficult to find, faithfully and automatically to the fluctuations of the phenomenon, and has an efficient circuit configuration that takes advantage of the clock function. .

This will be explained below using a circuit block diagram. FIG. 1 shows the most typical example of the phenomena that the present invention aims to display on a watch. In FIG. 1, the horizontal axis represents the passage of time, that is, real time, and the vertical axis represents the length of the repetition period of the phenomenon. The curve shows the periodic fluctuation characteristics of the phenomenon in question, and each point on the curve
T ₂ , T ₃ , T ₄ , T ₅ ,... are each actually real time
Represents the length of the period at t ₂ , t ₃ , t ₄ , t ₅ , ...
It is clear from Figure 1 that the average period of this phenomenon is T ₁ , and the period is centered around T ₁ and is equal to the period TA.
It gradually fluctuates along the SIN curve.

Each period T ₂ that appears as a result of the phenomenon,
The amount of change in each value of T ₃ , T ₄ , etc. is seemingly discontinuous, and if we only pay attention to changes in superficial phenomena, we can see that the fixed cycle display method of seconds, minutes, hours, etc. in conventional watches is not continuous. Therefore, it is impossible to display the phenomenon.

The periodic phenomenon in Figure 1 can be seen as the result of interference of one phenomenon with period T ₁ with another phenomenon with period TA. In general phenomena, there are many cases in which a plurality of interference factors are included in addition to the example shown in FIG. Moreover, many of these complicated periodic phenomena can be regarded as combinations of periodic functions expressed in a first order such as trigonometric functions by performing a periodic analysis for each factor.

To explain the above-mentioned example in more detail, the lunar lunar phenomenon occurs periodically at approximately 15-day intervals, and the lunar period is approximately equal to 15 days.
It repeats with an average cycle of 29 and 53 days, but in actual cycles, there is a maximum increase or decrease of about 6 hours with respect to the average cycle, and the increase/decrease phenomenon is repeated periodically. These phenomena are the result of the superimposed movements of the moon, the earth's satellites, and the planets. In addition, the tidal movement repeats ebb and flow at an average interval of about 6 hours, but in reality, the cycle of increase and decrease is about 1 hour at most, and the repetition of increase and decrease takes on a seemingly discontinuous periodic motion. Tides are caused by the moon and Earth's satellites, planetary motion, and rotational motion.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a period display circuit block of an electronic timepiece according to the present invention. In Figure 2,
The time standard generation part and the fixed counter part connected in series for seconds, minutes, hours, etc. are omitted. The time standard generator circuit is, for example, a crystal or other solid state oscillator circuit,
Alternatively, it is a conversion circuit or buffer circuit that converts a time signal supplied from outside the watch body into a watch circuit signal, and in short, it refers to a time standard signal source as seen from the watch circuit. A fixed counter is a counter for further frequency-dividing a time standard signal or a signal obtained by frequency-dividing a time standard signal at a fixed period corresponding to seconds, minutes, hours, etc. Reference numerals 1 and 11 in FIG. 2 are time signals, which are outputs of seconds, minutes, hours, etc. from a group of fixed counters for watches, or any counter output before or after the second, or a composite output thereof, In addition, a signal suitable as a reference signal for the periodic phenomenon to be displayed is output from the clock circuit. Hereinafter, the phenomenon to be displayed will be represented by P, the average period of P will be T ₁ , and the actual period will be Tx. In Fig. 2, 2 is a main counter for representing each period of P, and 5 is a main counter that receives the output 10 and/or clock signal 11 of the main counter 2 and changes each period of P as one unit, depending on the periodic fluctuation of P. This is a secondary counter that changes accordingly. 4 is a converter for setting a period value or period condition for each period of P for the main counter 2 according to the output of the sub-counter 5, such as a coefficient unit, a function generator, a code converter, etc. represents. 3 is a circuit that compares the output of the main counter 2 and the output of the converter 4 and extracts a matching signal. In FIG. 2, 4 is surrounded by a box because the converter 4 is not necessarily necessary, and depending on the characteristics of P, the period may be set directly by the output of the counter 5. For example, when P has a sawtooth periodic variation, the converter 4
may be unnecessary. At this time, the output 10 of the main counter 2 generates a cycle end pulse every time P passes through one cycle, and the sub counter 5 is a simple alp counter or down counter that receives 10 cycle end pulses as input. The comparator circuit 3 compares the output signal corresponding to the periodic variation among the outputs of the main counter 2 with the converter 4.
The outputs, that is, the period setting signals, are constantly compared and a matching signal is detected. When a match signal is detected, the main counter 2 is reset and one cycle ends. The sub-counter 5 advances one bit state by the reset output of the main counter 2 or an equivalent output pulse of the time signal 11. 2. FIG. 6 shows the initial value preset signal input of the main counter 2, and 7 represents the initial period condition preset input. FIG. 3 shows a part of a circuit block when the periodic phenomenon P includes a plurality of interfering events. Blocks 1 through 11 are the same as each block shown in FIG. 1
2 and 13 are inserted in parallel with 4 and 5, respectively, in the circuit, 12 is a converter, and 13 is a sub-counter.

P represents the events that cause periodic fluctuations, respectively F ₁ and
When expressed as F ₂ , if F ₁ and F ₂ interfere with P independently, as shown in Figure 3, 4 and 5 corresponding to F ₁ and 12 and 13 corresponding to F ₂ are independent. The periodic fluctuation of P is set by inputting the time signal or the reset signal 10 of the main counter 2, respectively. Comparator 3 converts the output of main counter 2 into converter 4,
Each of the 12 outputs is compared independently to detect a matching signal. F ₁ and F ₂ interfere with the other party and F
Converters 4 and 12 are the cause of periodic fluctuations.
It is also possible to integrate them into a function generator or converter that inputs two variables.

By selectively supplying the necessary signals from the outputs 9 or 10 of the main counter 2 to the display circuit, it becomes possible to display the special periodic phenomenon that was initially intended. In addition to the example described above, the clock of the present invention can also automatically display, for example, the number of days that change each month, and a so-called correction mechanism is completely unnecessary.

The converters 4 and 12 shown in FIG. 2 or 3 are coefficient units, function generators, etc., but to give an example of a specific circuit configuration, the sub counter 5 is an address counter, and 4 is a one-dimensional It can be configured with read-only memory. In the event that F ₁ and F ₂ interfere with each other, it is also possible to use the converters 4 and 12 together to create a two-dimensional read-only memory configuration in which 5 is the X address input and 13 is the Y address input. Furthermore, if the converters 4 and 12 are configured with programmable memories or registers instead of fixed converters, the user of the watch can arbitrarily select and set the periodic phenomenon he or she wishes to display.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an example of a periodic phenomenon that fluctuates, and shows a case where the periodic fluctuation is expressed by a SIN curve. The vertical axis represents the period, and the horizontal axis represents real time, with black points T ₂ , T ₃ , T ₄ , etc.
... represents each actual period. FIGS. 2 and 3 show circuit block diagrams of the electronic timepiece according to the present invention. 2... Main counter for periodic display, 3... Comparator, 4... Converter, 5... Sub-counter corresponding to periodic fluctuation.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A main counter 2 that inputs and counts time signals of a constant period, a sub-counter 5 that counts the output of the main counter 2, and a preset coefficient or function corresponding to the count value of the sub-counter 5 is generated as a period setting signal. The counting period of the main counter 2 is changed to the counting period of the sub counter 5 by detecting a match between the output signal of the converter 4 and the main counter 2 and the period setting signal of the converter 4 and resetting the main counter 2. An electronic timepiece characterized by comprising a comparator that controls according to a count value.