RU2694459C1 - Clocks with translucent clock-face - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: instrument engineering.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to electromechanical time devices with pointer indication. Stairway clock with a transparent clock face contains two reference fixed transparent glass, between which there are two transparent movable discs, rotating on an axis, fixed on the reference transparent glass, on one of which there is an image of the clock face. On two middle movable transparent discs are fixed minute and hour hands, wherein Dial with arrows is visible to viewers, and the disc drive and the electronic clock control circuit are located in the opaque support, on which the supporting transparent glasses are fixed. In opaque support there are two step motors with pulleys on axes; at that, each transparent disc and pulley are connected by mechanical round-term transfer in the form of round endless cord transmitting rotation from pulley to disc; circular discs are made along perimeter of disks and pulleys. On each movable transparent disc along the edge there are opaque strips with sixty holes (through 6 degrees), one of which has a rectangular shape, and the other round, rectangular hole carries information on the location of the arrow on the number "12". Optoelectronic sensors are arranged two on each movable disk opposite the holes, one sensor is actuated from all sixty holes in the disk, and the second sensor is only from one rectangular hole. Electronic control circuit, connected to sensors and step motors, has two pulse counters, two digital comparators, "12"-channel code converter to sexagesimal code, time keeper, two amplifiers and self-contained standby power supply. Outputs of optoelectronic sensors of round holes are connected to counters inputs of minutes and hours, and their inputs of "0" installation are connected to outputs of optoelectronic sensors of rectangular holes of minute and hour disks, besides, stand-by autonomous power supply source is connected to power supply circuits of all elements, except amplifiers.

EFFECT: invention is aimed at simplification of manufacture, increase of manufacturability and increase of their reliability, as well as on intensification of effect of "transparency" of dials and "weighting" of clock hands.

1 cl, 6 dwg

Description

The invention relates to electromechanical devices of time with an arrow indication and is aimed at simplifying manufacture and improving their manufacturability, as well as at increasing the effect of "transparency" of dials and "weighted" hands of clocks.

 In 1912, the Cartier Mysterieuse desk clock was made by the Swiss company Cartier, which are based on a disc time display system. The hands in this watch are printed on transparent glass or sapphire discs with jagged edges. They are driven by a mechanism that is hidden under the body. ("Whose watch is more transparent?"

 http://chronoscope.ru/2013/01/full-transparency-cartier-konstantin-chaykin/).

Currently, the Swiss company Quinting produces watches with a transparent dial. Most of the mechanism of the company's engineers managed to distribute around the perimeter of the round case and hide all its opaque parts under the metal rim. The arrows are also deposited on sapphire discs, which move clockwise by means of a gear. This solution gives Quinting designers the opportunity to experiment with visual effects. (http://chronoscope.ru/2012/11/quinting-gold-union-moscow/).

The wristwatches of the Russian businessman Chaikin K. Yu. Are known. “Mysterious watches (versions)” [description of the invention to the patent of the Russian Federation No. 2446426, IPC: G04B 45/04; published 03/27/2012]. "Mysterious wrist watch" [description of the invention to the patent of the Russian Federation No. 2526561, IPC: G04B 45/04; published on August 27, 2014]. “Mysterious clock” [description of the invention to the patent of the Russian Federation No. 2526562, IPC: published on August 27, 2014]. In all the mentioned watches, the hands are printed on transparent glass (or sapphire) disks with jagged edges, and their rotation is carried out by a mechanical drive located outside the dial behind the opaque watch case.

The closest to the technical nature of the claimed invention include a desk clock with a transparent dial, (https://mus-col.com - Museum "Collection", Moscow: Collection - Clock and mechanisms - Mantel clock and table clock - Musical table clock with half hour fight).

An unusual way of the arrow indication, which creates the effect that the viewer sees an absolutely transparent dial with hands fixed on it, regularly indicating time, without observing any rotating mechanism, was first thought out and created by the French watchmaker and illusionist Jean Eugene Robert-Houden (Jean- Eugène Robert-Houdin), which is considered the founder of modern illusory magic.

His watch, first demonstrated at the French industrial exhibition in 1839, was a bronze case-base, on which was placed a transparent crystal dial, above which hands, as it were, hung on the glass disks, moved as if by themselves, without which whatever the visible mechanism.

In reality, the movement on the crystal dial was transmitted in this watch from the mechanism located in the lower part of the case through a system of gears and screw rods.

In Jean Eugene Robert-Howden’s watch (Inventory number 2078 / MMP), the transparent dial is located on a glass transparent cylinder, inside which is placed a second transparent cylinder, transmitting rotation from a mechanical spring drive located in an opaque stand of the clock on a system of gears and screw braces located nearby with a transparent dial.

Known "Kodoupravlyaetsya analogue clock" [description of the invention to the patent of the Russian Federation No. 2502111, G04B 45/04; published on August 27, 2014], in which the arrows are mounted on coaxially located axes of a mechanical gearbox, driven by a single electromechanical drive, which is controlled by an electronic circuit. The use of one electromechanical drive increases the duration of fitting the clock to the current time values.

A disadvantage of the known constructions mentioned hours is the use of gears on a transparent rotating disks carrier arrows connecting them with a spring-loaded mechanical drive. Making teeth on movable glass discs complicates the overall design of the watch, especially when it is necessary to place the dial and mechanical drive at some distance from each other in order to increase the visual effect of the mystery of the hands "floating" in the air - it's not for nothing that Robert-Houden used in his mysterious hours one hand, which combines the minute and hour. In addition, the increase in the dimensions of such hours, for example, to the floor (increasing the diameter of the dial) creates great difficulties in the manufacture of gear drives, which also increases their weight. Moreover, the separation of the transparent dial and mechanical drive at some distance from each other leads to an increase in the size and power of the spring-loaded mechanical drive (or any other), which generally leads to an increase in the cost of hours.

These shortcomings lead to a complication of the design of watches, which makes it difficult to manufacture the increased dimensions of dials and to reduce the effect of the mystery of “floating” hands, which generally increases the cost of manufacturing watches.

The task of the invention is to simplify the design of the watch, increase the effect of the mystery of "floating" hands by increasing the distance between the dial and the stand, the possibility of increasing the diameter of the dial and achieving automatic adjustment of the readings of the hands to the current time when the power is lost.

The solution of the task is achieved by the fact that the clock is a kodo-controlled dial clock consisting of two supporting transparent glasses, between which there are two transparent movable disks rotating on an axis fixed on the supporting transparent glasses, on one of which there is an image of a dial on two medium movable transparent disks minute and hour hands are fixed, and the dial with hands is visible to the audience, and the disk drive and electronic control circuit are located in an opaque stand on which is fixed Supporting transparent glass lenses, and, the electronic control circuit of the clock contains a time keeper, two pulse counters and a stand-alone autonomous power source, according to the invention, two stepper motors are mounted on an opaque stand, with pulleys on their axes, which are much smaller than the diameter of movable transparent disks, at the same time, each transparent disk and pulley are connected by a mechanical circular gear, for this purpose circular grooves are made around the perimeter in the disks and pulleys; willows are connected by a flexible round cord, transmitting rotation from the pulley to the disk. The movement of the cord of each rotating pair passes through two rotating rollers, the axis of one of them is fixed on the stand, and the other is attached to the stand through a spring that creates tension on the cord, while the rollers change the trajectory of its movement. On each movable transparent disk, opaque, for example, for infrared radiation, strips with sixty holes (after 6 degrees - one minute division) are applied along the edge, one hole has a rectangular shape, and the remaining holes are round, a rectangular hole carries information about the position of the arrow on the number "12". Optoelectronic sensors are mounted to the stand, which are located on two sensors on each movable disk opposite the openings of opaque strips; a pair of sensors is triggered from all sixty holes in the disk, and the other pair is triggered only by rectangular holes, since their area is several times larger than round holes, in addition in the stand, the electrical leads of the optoelectronic sensors and stepper motors are connected to the electronic control circuit of the clock.

The electronic clock control circuit contains two identical digital comparators, the outputs of the minutes and hours counters having the same conversion factor equal to “60” are connected respectively to the same inputs of the digital comparators of the minutes and hours, the other inputs of the digital comparator of minutes are connected to the outputs of the minutes code of the time keeper The outputs of the watch codes of which are connected to the inputs of the digital clock comparator through the code converter, while the code converter translates the twelve hour time keeper code into the code hour meter (from 0 to 59), the code of which changes every 12 minutes by one value, the outputs of both digital comparators are connected to power amplifiers with stepper motors. The outputs of the optoelectronic sensors of the round holes of the minute and hour disks are connected to the counting inputs, respectively, of the minutes and hours counters, and their installation inputs "0" are connected respectively to the outputs of the optoelectronic sensors of the rectangular holes of the minute and hour disks, in addition, a backup independent power source is connected to power supply circuits of all elements, except amplifiers.

Introduced elements, in particular, mechanical round-trip transmission ("Machine parts. A textbook for engineering specialties of universities". M.N. Ivanov, V.A. Finogenov, p. 263. M .: Higher school, 2006), in the form flexible round cord that transmits rotation to a transparent disk from the pulley mounted on the axis of the stepper motor. In this case, the movable disk can be made of transparent acrylic plexiglass, in which the grooves are easily cut to accommodate a flexible round cord. The diameter of the movable disks with arrows can be increased to a reasonable size, then the clock can be placed in various rooms indoors. In a mechanical round-trip transmission, energy is transferred by a flexible coupling due to the friction between the belt and the pulley. To increase friction between the pulley and the round cord in the proposed watch, a spring-loaded roller is used, which creates the necessary tension of the cord, and the increase in the number of cord passes in the grooves of the pulleys also increases the friction between the cord and the pulley. The main advantages of a mechanical round gear transmission include the smoothness and noiselessness of its work, the simplicity of the design, and its operation does not require lubrication. As a round cord, you can use a kapron halyard (https://kapronka.com/harakteristika-kapronovogo-fala), which has high strength with a relatively small diameter of the cord, is flexible and durable, resistant to rubbing, has moisture-resistant qualities, resistant to UV radiation, not subject to rotting and mold. Since the mechanical round-trip transmission is a flexible connection, it is easy to change the distance between the driving pulley of the stepping motor and the movable transparent disk, the use of rollers can set the trajectory of the cord at the right angle.

Opaque strips with apertures applied along the edge of transparent discs and the use of infrared optoelectronic sensors of these openings allow the arrows to be rotated with high accuracy by 6 degrees (by one minute division) regardless of the tension of the cord, the change in its length and other destabilizing factors. Rectangular holes on the disks carry information about the position of each arrow on the number “12”, which allows you to “tie” the clocks to the time keeper's scale. The independent rotation of each movable disk by a stepper motor allows the electronic control circuit to rapidly reduce the readings of each clock hand to the values of the current time after the restoration of the power supply of the electric part of the clock.

FIG. 1 - shows the clock in front.

FIG. 2 shows a clock on the side.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged image of sensors and rollers.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged image of the axis of attachment of disks.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged image of the grooves in the disks and rollers.

FIG. 6 shows an electronic clock control circuit.

The kodo-controlled dial clock consists of two supporting transparent glasses 1 and 2, between which minute 3 and hour 4 transparent moving disks fixed on sleeves 5, 6 rotate on axis 7, fixed by screw 8, on minute disk 3 there is minute minute 9, on hour disk 4 - hour hand 10, on one of the glasses there are numbers 11 on the dial. Transparent glasses 1 and 2 in the upper part are fastened with an opaque ring 12, and from the bottom a bag of glasses 1, 2 and ring 12 are fixed on an opaque stand 13. The minute disc 3 is connected through a fixed roller 14 and a spring-loaded roller 15 with a flexible cord 16 to a pulley 17 stepper motor 18, which drives the minute hand 9. Similarly, the clock dial 4 rotates, which, through the fixed roller 19 and the spring-loaded roller 20, using a flexible cord 21, a pulley 22, mounted on the axis of the stepper motor 23, drives the hour clock ky 10, wherein the flexible tension cords 16 and 21 of the springs 24 occurs through the rollers 15 and 20, which creates friction between the flexible cord and the grooved discs and movable pulleys. For the organization of rotation by one minute division, that is, by 6 degrees of the movable disks 3 and 4, strips 25 and 26 with sixty holes 27 and 28 (360 °: 60 = 6 °) are applied along the edge, which are using optoelectronic sensors 29, 30 set this step to 6 °. To fix the arrows 9 and 10 in the upper position, that is, on the number “12”, on each strip 25 and 26 there are one rectangular opening 28 and 30, which are recognized by optoelectronic sensors 31 and 32. Optoelectronic sensors 29 and 30 recognize all openings ( round and rectangular), sensors 31 and 32 only work from rectangular holes 28 and 30, since their area is many times larger than round holes, and as a result, the infrared flux enters more and they work because they are set to receive a larger flux . The electrical leads of the optoelectronic sensors 29, 30, 31 and 32 and the stepper motors 18 and 23 are connected to the electronic control circuit 33 of the clock, located in the stand of the clock.

The electronic control circuit 33 of the clock consists of the custodian 34 of time, two identical digital comparators 35 and 36 minutes and hours respectively, the information outputs of the counter 37 minutes and the counter 38 hours are connected respectively to the inputs “A” of the digital comparators 35 and 36 minutes and hours. The 37 minutes counter and the 38 hours counter have the same conversion factor equal to “60”, so the inputs “B” of the digital comparator 35 minutes are directly connected to the outputs of the guardian’s minutes codes 34 times, the outputs of the clock codes of which through the converter 39 codes are connected to the inputs “B” of the digital comparator 36 hour codes. The outputs of both digital comparators 35 and 36 through power amplifiers 40 and 41 are connected to stepper motors 18 and 23, respectively. The outputs of optoelectronic sensors 29 and 30 round holes of minute 3 and hour 4 disks are connected respectively to counting inputs of minutes 37 and hours 38, and their The installation inputs "0" are connected respectively to the outputs of the optoelectronic sensors 31 and 32 rectangular holes of the minute 3 and hour 4 disks, in addition, the backup self-contained power source 42 is connected to the power supply circuits of all electrical elements This circuit 33 controls the clock, except amplifiers 40 and 41.

A feature of the device is that the presence of separate drives in the form of stepper motors for each movable transparent disk with arrows makes the operation of each movable pair independent, and depends only on the values of the time keeper code. Consider the work of hours on the example of testing the readings of the minute hand to match the time keeper code.

The device works as follows. Suppose that the first connection of the clock to the power supply occurred, while the code value of the minutes at the output “B” of the time keeper 34 is greater than the code values from the output “A” of the counter 37 minutes. At the output of the digital comparator 35, a signal "1" appears, turning on the amplifier 40, from which a sequence of pulses begins to arrive at the stepping motor 18, which begins to rotate the minute moving disk 3. As the disk 3 rotates, a circular opening 29 passes a circular opening on its opaque part, which is triggered and gives an electrical signal to the counting input of the counter for 37 minutes, while the code is increased by “1”, if this is “A ≠ B”, then the stepper motor 18 continues to rotate the disk until the minute hand "12" will appear on the figure. In this case, a rectangular hole 28 will face the sensor 31, which is triggered and gives an electrical signal to the installation input “0” of the counter 37, which is reset. This means that the 37 minute counter code has been linked to the position of the minute hand 9 to the number “12” on the dial 3. Since the 37 minute counter code continues to be not equal to the time keeper minute code 34 "A ≠ B", the stepper motor 18 continues rotate the movable minute disc 3. When the disc 3 rotates every 6 ° from the luminous flux through the circular holes 27, sensor 29 is triggered, which sends pulses to the counter 37-minute counter counting, increasing its value until the counter code 37 equals minutes of time keeper 34 (A = B). In this case, the digital comparator issues a “0” signal to the amplifier 40, which turns off the stepper motor 18, and the minute disc 3 stops. After one minute, the code from outputs “B” of time saver 34 is incremented by “1” and fed to the inputs of a digital comparator 35 minutes, which is triggered (A ≠ B), turns on amplifier 40 and stepper motor 18 starts rotating the movable disk 3 minute hand until until the round hole 27 is opposite the sensor 29. At the same time, the sensor 29 is activated and sends a pulse to the counting input of the counter 37, increasing the value of the code of the minute hand 9 by 1, which becomes equal to the code of the minutes of the time keeper 34 (A = B) . The digital comparator gives a “0” signal for 35 minutes, turning off the amplifier 29, the stepper motor 18 stops. Thus, the position of the minute hand 3 on the dial will correspond to the time keeper code 34. The full code of the angular position of the arrows is formed on two counters 37 and 38, which, like the comparators 35 and 36 with the code converter 39 and the time keeper 1, are powered from the backup independent power source 42 when the main mains voltage is turned off.

When the clock is connected to the power supply, testing the hour hand 10 takes place in the same way as testing the readings of the minute hand 9, discussed above. The only difference is that if the counter codes are equal 38 hours and the time keeper's clock code, the 34 hour hand 10 changes its position by 6 ° in 12 minutes. At the time of converting the readings of the arrows to the values of the current time of time keeper 34, the movable disks 3 and 4 rotate rapidly, and when the codes become equal, the minute hand changes its position once a minute, and the hour hand after 12 minutes takes 5 discrete positions within an hour.

From the above it is seen that the introduction of a set of distinctive features into the proposed invention allows, in comparison with the prototypes, to simplify the manufacture of transparent moving discs of the minute and hour hands by replacing the mechanical gear transmission with a mechanical circular gear, which, when required, allows the dial and mechanical drive to be separated by some distance from each other, to increase the visual effect of the mystery of the "arrows" floating in the air. Placing optoelectronic sensors on movable disks for fixing their rotation by 6 ° improves the accuracy of testing the course of hours by compensating for the error of stretching a round cord and its possible slippage in a kinematic pair of a pulley disk. The position sensors of both hands on the digit “12” and two stepper motors greatly reduce the time of linking the clock readings to the current time scale after the “de-energization” of the power supply to the clock. A simple clock control scheme of the present invention solves the same functions of the prototype, but in a cheaper, simpler and more reliable way.

Claims (2)

1. A dial clock with a transparent dial, consisting of two supporting transparent glasses, between which there are two transparent movable disks rotating on an axis fixed to the supporting transparent glasses, one of which has an image of the dial, two minutes on a movable middle transparent disk. the hour hand, the dial with the hands is visible to the audience, and the disk drive and the electronic control circuit of the clock are located in an opaque stand, on which are fixed transparent glass, What is the electronic clock control circuit that contains a time keeper, two pulse counters and a stand-alone autonomous power source, characterized in that two stepper motors are placed in an opaque stand, with pulleys on their axes, which are much smaller than the diameter of moving transparent disks, each with a transparent disk and the pulley are connected by a mechanical round-time transmission, for this purpose circular grooves are made in the disks and pulleys around the perimeter, in which a flexible endless cord of circular section is placed, with a rotating disk with a pulley and transmitting rotation from the pulley to the disk, moving the cord of each rotating pair passes through two rotating rollers, the axis of one of them is fixed on the stand, and the other is attached to the stand through the spring, which creates tension on the cord, the rollers change its trajectory displacements, on each moving transparent disk around the edge, there are applied opaque, for example, for infrared radiation, stripes with sixty holes (in 6 degrees - one minute division), one hole has a rectangular shape, and the remaining holes are round, a rectangular hole carries information about the position of the arrow on the number “12”, optoelectronic sensors are mounted to the stand, which are arranged in two sensors on each movable disk opposite the holes of opaque strips, while one sensor is triggered from all sixty holes in the disk, and the second works only from a single rectangular hole, which transmits more light energy, since its area is several times larger than a circular one, moreover, in the stand there are electrical outlets of optoelectro These sensors and stepper motors are connected to an electronic clock control circuit. 2. An arrow clock with a transparent dial according to claim 1, characterized in that the electronic control circuit of the clock contains two identical digital comparators, the information outputs of the minutes and hours counters, having the same conversion factor equal to "60", are connected respectively to the same inputs of the digital minute comparators and hours, other inputs of the digital comparator of minutes are connected to the outputs of the minutes code of the time keeper, the outputs of the hours codes of which are connected to the inputs of the digital hours comparator through the code converter, and The code generator translates the twelve-hour time keeper code into the hour counter code (from 0 to 59), the code of which changes every 12 minutes by one value, the outputs of both digital comparators are connected to stepper motors via power amplifiers, the outputs of optoelectronic sensors of minute holes and hourly disks connected, respectively, to the counting inputs of the minutes and hours, and their zero-setting inputs, respectively, connected to the outputs of the optoelectronic sensors of the rectangular orifices of the minute and hourly lawsuits, in addition, a backup autonomous power source is connected to the power supply circuits of all elements, except amplifiers.

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