JPH1114768A - Electronically controlled mechanical clock - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece capable of increasing the rotation speed of a rotor when a generator is driven, shortening the operation time of rotation control means, and reducing the hand setting error. SOLUTION: An electronically controlled mechanical timepiece is provided with a rotation drive means 70 having a drive lever 71 for applying a rotational force by contacting a fifth wheel & pinion 10 of a wheel train connected to a generator. Fifth car 10
The drive lever 71 abutted on the fifth wheel 10 is moved away from the fifth wheel 10 by interlocking with the operation of the crown 60, and the frictional force at that time causes the fifth wheel 10
To apply a mechanical rotational force to the rotor to rotate the rotor. Since the rotation speed of the rotor increases from the start-up time and the output of the generator can be increased in a short time, the time from the start of driving of the generator to the activation of the rotation control means can be shortened,
Needle alignment error can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention converts mechanical energy when a mainspring is opened into electric energy by a generator.
The present invention relates to an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece that accurately drives a pointer fixed to a wheel train by controlling a rotation cycle of a generator by operating a rotation control unit using the electric energy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A generator converts mechanical energy when a mainspring is opened into electric energy by a generator, and operates a rotation control means using the electric energy to control a current value flowing through a coil of the generator, thereby forming a wheel train. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H8-5758 discloses an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece that accurately drives a fixed pointer and displays the time accurately.

At this time, electric energy from the generator is once supplied to a smoothing capacitor, and the circuit control means is driven by the power from this capacitor. This capacitor has an alternating current synchronized with the rotation cycle of the generator. Therefore, it is not necessary to maintain power for enabling operation of the circuit control means including the IC and the crystal oscillator for a long period of time. For this reason, conventionally, a capacitor having a relatively small capacitance capable of operating an IC or a quartz oscillator for about several seconds has been used.

[0004] This electronically controlled mechanical timepiece has the feature that it does not require a motor because the mainspring is driven by a mainspring as a power source, has a small number of parts, and is inexpensive. Moreover,
Only a small amount of electrical energy required to operate the electronic circuit was required, and the watch could be operated with low input energy.

[0005]

However, the electronically controlled mechanical timepiece has the following problems. That is,
When adjusting the time (time adjustment), which is usually done by pulling out the crown, the hour, minute,
The second hand was stopped. Stopping the guidelines
To stop the train, the generator was also stopped.

For this reason, while the input of the electromotive force from the generator to the smoothing capacitor is stopped, the IC continues to be driven, so that the electric charge stored in the capacitor is discharged to the IC side, and the terminal voltage decreases. As a result, the circuit control means has also stopped.

[0007] Therefore, even if the crown is pushed in after the needle adjustment and the generator is driven, the terminal voltage of the capacitor becomes I
It took a long time to charge until the drive start voltage of C (voltage at which the IC could be driven) was reached. In particular, since the rotor of the generator is provided with an inertial disk, when the generator rises, the rotor gradually rotates at a higher speed. For this reason, a large torque is required when the rotor starts to rotate, and it takes time for the rotation speed to increase. It takes a long time to charge the battery until the voltage reaches the IC drive start voltage (voltage at which the IC can be driven). For this reason, from the start of driving of the generator, IC
There is a problem that it takes a long time to operate, and during that time, accurate time control cannot be performed.

An object of the present invention is to increase the rotational speed of the rotor at the start of driving of the generator, as compared with the prior art,
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece in which the time from the start of driving of the generator to the activation of the rotation control means can be shortened, and the error in hand adjustment can be reduced.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to the present invention is connected to a mainspring, a generator for converting mechanical energy of the mainspring transmitted through the wheel train into electric energy, and coupled to the wheel train. And an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece having a rotation control means driven by the converted electric energy to control a rotation cycle of the generator, in a return operation from a hand setting operation in which the generator is stopped. It is characterized in that it is provided with a rotation driving means for driving the generator by mechanically applying a rotational force to a rotation target gear provided in a wheel train connected to the generator in conjunction therewith.

According to the present invention, when a return operation is performed from the time of hand adjustment when the generator is stopped, a rotational force is mechanically applied to the rotation target gear of the wheel train by the rotation driving means in conjunction with the operation. . Therefore, only at the beginning of the generator startup,
In addition to the rotating force of the mainspring, the mechanical rotating force of the rotating drive means is applied to the generator rotor via the wheel train, so that a large rotating force is temporarily applied to the rotor to increase the rotating speed of the rotor. Can be increased from.

Therefore, the power output from the generator can be increased to a large value in a short time, the time from the start of driving of the generator to the activation of the rotation control means is shortened, and the error of the hand setting is reduced. Can be.

Here, it is preferable that the gear to be rotated by the rotation drive means is a gear two or three steps before the rotor of the generator in the wheel train.

The speed increase ratio of each gear of the wheel train is limited to about 12. For this reason, if the gear one stage before the rotor is the rotation target gear, the rotation target gear must be rotated relatively large in order to give a relatively large rotation angle to the rotor, and the configuration of the rotation drive means is complicated. Become. On the other hand, if the gear four or more stages ahead of the rotor is the gear to be rotated, the speed increase ratio becomes very large, so that a very large force is required to rotate the gear. Is complicated, and a large force is applied to the teeth, so that there is a possibility that the teeth may be worn.

For this reason, the rotation target gear is set to the rotor
By using the gear before the step, the rotation amount of the rotor with respect to the rotation amount of the rotation target gear can be made relatively large, and the rotating force at that time can be made relatively small.

[0015] The rotation driving means may be configured such that, when the crown is pulled out, the rotation contact gear is pressed against the outer peripheral edge of the object gear to be rotated, and when the crown is pushed in, the rotation object moves away from the object gear to be rotated in conjunction with the operation. A gear provided with a lever for applying a mechanical rotational force to a gear can be used.

The operability can be improved by using a lever interlocking with the crown operation as the rotation driving means. In addition, the lever is made to abut on the outer peripheral edge of the gear to be rotated, and a mechanical rotating force is applied by a force when the gear is separated therefrom, so that the operation of the lever can be simplified and the configuration can be simplified.

In this case, it is preferable that the lever is configured to be separated from the rotation target gear by a constant force by a spring force. If the lever is actuated by spring force, a constant rotational force can always be applied to the gear to be rotated, and the generator can also operate in a constant manner.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a main part of an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are sectional views thereof.

The electronically controlled mechanical timepiece includes a barrel wheel 1 comprising a mainspring 1a, barrel gear 1b, barrel barrel 1c, and barrel lid 1d. The mainspring 1a has a barrel gear 1 at the outer end.
b, the inner end is fixed to barrel barrel 1c. The barrel case 1c is supported by the main plate 2 and the train wheel bridge 3, and is fixed by a square hole screw 5 so as to rotate integrally with the square hole wheel 4.

The square wheel 4 is meshed with a hammer 6 so as to rotate clockwise but not counterclockwise. The method of rotating the hour wheel 4 in the clockwise direction and winding the mainspring 1a is the same as the automatic winding or the manual winding mechanism of the mechanical timepiece, and thus the description is omitted.

The rotation of the barrel gear 1b is increased by a factor of 7 to the second wheel & pinion 7, and is sequentially increased by 6.4 times to the third wheel & pinion 8.
Increased 5 times to 4th car 9 Increased 3 times to 5th car 10
The speed is increased by a factor of 10 to the sixth wheel 11 and to the rotor 12 by a factor of 10 to increase the speed by a total of 126,000 times.

The second wheel & pinion 7 is fixed with a cannon pinion 7a, the cannon pinion 7a with a minute hand 13 and the fourth wheel & pinion 9 with a second hand 14 respectively. Therefore, in order to rotate the second wheel & pinion 7 at 1 rpm and the fourth wheel & pinion 9 at 1 rpm, the rotor 12 must rotate at 5 rpm.
What is necessary is just to control so that it may rotate. At this time, the barrel gear 1b becomes 1/7 rph.

The generator includes a rotor 12, a stator 15, and a coil block 16. The rotor 12 includes a rotor magnet 12a, a rotor pinion 12b, a rotor inertial disk 12
c. The rotor inertia disk 12c is a barrel car 1
This is for reducing the variation in the number of revolutions of the rotor 12 with respect to the variation in the driving torque. The stator 15 is formed by winding a 40,000-turn stator coil 15b around a stator body 15a.

The coil block 16 is provided with
The coil 16b of 10,000 turns is wound. Here, the stator body 15a and the magnetic core 16a are made of PC permalloy or the like. Further, the stator coil 15b and the coil 16b are connected in series so that an output voltage is obtained by adding the respective generated voltages.

Next, a control circuit of the electronically controlled mechanical timepiece will be described with reference to FIG.

The AC output from the generator 20 is boosted and rectified through a boosting rectifier circuit comprising a boosting capacitor 21 and diodes 22 and 23, and is charged into a smoothing capacitor 30. The rotation control means 50 including the IC 51 and the crystal oscillator 52 is connected to the capacitor 30. This capacitor 30 is a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a capacitance of about 1 μF. As the capacitor 30,
Although an electrolytic capacitor or the like may be used, it is more preferable to use a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a longer life and a product life of several tens of years as compared with the electrolytic capacitor.

Then, a predetermined voltage capable of driving the IC 51 and the crystal oscillator 52, for example, 1V, is applied to the capacitor 30.
Is stored, the IC 51 and the crystal oscillator 52 are driven by the stored power, and the amount of current flowing through the coil of the generator 20 is varied to adjust the electromagnetic brake amount.
That is, the rotation period of the pointer is adjusted.

The means for varying the amount of current flowing through the coil is described in Example 1 of JP-A-8-101284.
The method of varying the resistance of the load control circuit connected in parallel with both ends of the generator 20 as described in the above, and the method of varying the number of boosting stages as described in the second embodiment are effective.

FIG. 5 shows such an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece.
As shown in FIGS. 7 to 7, a rotation drive unit 70 that is operated in conjunction with the operation of the crown 60 is provided. Rotation driving means 7
0 is a drive lever 71 for rotating the fifth wheel & pinion 10 in the middle of the train wheel to drive the generator 20;
And a click spring 91 for regulating the rotational position of the lever 81.

The balance 81 is rotatably supported about a shaft 82 and is engaged with the shaft 61 of the crown 60. The click spring 91 includes a positioning pin 83 that is engaged with two engagement grooves 92 and 93 formed on the click spring 91, and a contact pin 84 that contacts the drive lever 71.

The drive lever 71 is made of a metal, plastic, or the like having a spring property, is rotatably supported on a shaft 72, and extends from the shaft 72 in three directions. It is provided with. A lock lever 73, which is one of the extensions, is in contact with a lock pin 63 fixed to a timepiece, and the rotation of the drive lever 71 in the clockwise direction from the state of FIG. 5 is restricted. .

Further, another one of the extension portions of the drive lever 71 is provided.
The contact lever 74 is configured to be able to contact the outer peripheral edge of the fifth wheel & pinion 10.

Further, a position regulating lever portion 75, which is another extension of the drive lever 71, has a groove 76 and a contact surface 77 on which the contact pin 84 of the above-mentioned damper 81 is arranged and abuts. Crystal storage case 5 for vibrator 52
3 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 8, the crystal housing case 53 containing the crystal oscillator 52 is held by the base plate 2 and the circuit receiver 66.

The operation of the rotation driving means 70 in this embodiment will be described.

First, when the crown 60 is in the normal position where it is pushed in, the positioning pin 83 of the damper 81 is engaged with the engaging groove 93 of the click spring 91 as shown in FIG.
The contact pin 84 is engaged with the groove 76 of the drive lever 71. In this state, the collision portion 78 is in contact with the crystal storage case 53, and the contact lever portion 74 is at a position away from the fifth wheel & pinion 10.

Then, as shown in FIG. 6, when the crown 60 is pulled out, the damper 81 rotates counterclockwise about the shaft 82, and the positioning pin 83 is moved to the click spring 91.
In the engaging groove 92. At the same time, the contact pin 84 of the pushing lever 81 moves toward the contact surface 77 of the drive lever 71,
The drive lever 71 is rotated clockwise about the shaft 72. However, since the locking lever 73 of the drive lever 71 is in contact with the locking pin 63, the locking lever 73 cannot move. For this reason, the contact lever 74 and the position regulating lever 75 are displaced with respect to the locking lever 73 by the spring force (elastic force) of the drive lever 71 itself. Contacted.

At this time, the contact lever portion 74 is connected to the tangent line 9 of the outer peripheral edge of the fifth wheel & pinion 10 passing through the center of the shaft 72 of the drive lever 71.
It is configured to have an angle with respect to 0 (not parallel), and more than the contact point of the tangent line 90 with the fifth wheel & pinion 10,
The fifth wheel & pinion 10 is configured to be in contact with the fifth wheel & pinion 10 on the near side in the normal rotation direction. Also, the position regulating lever 75
Is separated from the crystal storage case 53.

After the crown 60 is turned to perform the needle setting operation, when the crown 60 is depressed to perform the needle setting end operation, in conjunction with the operation, as shown in FIG. When the contact pin 84 is rotated in the
6, the biasing force applied to the drive lever 71 is released, and the contact lever 74 returns to the original position by the spring force of the drive lever 71.

At this time, the contact lever 74 moves slightly obliquely from the contact position with the fifth wheel & pinion 10, as indicated by an arrow 100 in FIG.
A mechanical rotational force is applied in the direction of arrow 101 due to the frictional force with the above.

When the crown 60 is depressed to return from the needle adjusting operation, the generator 20 starts to operate.
Because the rotational force applied to the fifth wheel & pinion 10 is transmitted to the rotor 12 via the sixth wheel & pinion 11, a large rotational force is temporarily applied to the rotor 12, and the rotational speed of the rotor 12 increases from the start. The electric power output from the generator 20 has a large value in a short time.

At the same time, the collision portion 78 collides with the crystal storage case 53, whereby an impact is applied in the vibration direction of the crystal oscillator 52, and the crystal oscillator 52 vibrates. When the generator 20 starts to be driven by pushing the crown 60, a voltage is also applied to the crystal oscillator 52 and oscillation starts. However, in addition to the oscillation by this voltage, mechanical vibration due to the collision of the collision portion 78 is applied. When the crystal oscillator 52 starts to oscillate, the vibration increases, and the time until stable oscillation decreases.

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

The fifth wheel & pinion 10 is provided with a rotary drive means 70 comprising a drive lever 71, a lever 81 and a click spring 91 which are operated in conjunction with a return operation from the needle adjusting operation of pushing the crown 60. Since the force is applied, when the generator 20 rises, the mechanical rotation force of the rotation drive means 70 can be applied to the rotor 12 of the generator 20 via the wheel train in addition to the rotation force of the mainspring. Therefore, a large rotational force is temporarily applied to the rotor 12, the rotational speed of the rotor 12 can be increased from the start, and the electric power output from the generator 20 can be increased in a short time. Therefore, the time from the start of driving of the generator 20 to the activation of the rotation control means 50 can be shortened, and the error in hand adjustment can be reduced.

Since the gear to be rotated is set on the fifth wheel & pinion 10 two stages before the rotor 12, the rotation of the rotor 12 with respect to the rotation of the gear to be rotated can be made relatively large, and the rotation applied to the gear at that time can be relatively large. The force can be relatively small.

For example, since the speed increase ratio from the fifth wheel & pinion 10 to the sixth wheel & pinion 11 is 10, and the speed increase ratio from the sixth wheel & pinion 11 to the rotor 12 is 10, the rotor 12 is rotated by 90 degrees. In addition, while the sixth wheel & pinion 11, which is one step ahead, has to be turned 9 degrees, the fifth wheel & pinion 10, which is two steps ahead, only needs to be turned 0.9 degrees. Since it is only about 5 degrees that the gear can be stably rotated by the frictional force like the drive lever 71, when the sixth wheel & pinion 11 is used as the rotation target gear, the rotor 12 can be largely rotated. I can't,
In the present embodiment, since the fifth wheel & pinion 10 is used as a rotation target gear,
Even if the rotation angle of the fifth wheel & pinion 10 is small, the rotor 12 can be rotated large (about 100 times).

Further, since the speed increasing ratio from the fifth wheel & pinion 10 to the rotor 12 is 100, the fourth wheel 9 and the third wheel 8 having the larger speed increasing ratios are set as compared with the case where the rotation target gears are used. It is not necessary to increase the force applied by the drive lever 71 so much, the configuration of the drive lever 71 can be simplified, and friction of the teeth of the fifth wheel & pinion 10 can be prevented.

The contact lever 74 of the drive lever 71 is
Since it moves by the spring force at the time when the urging by the ramming 81 is released, it can move at a constant speed (force) regardless of the pushing speed of the crown 60. For this reason, the rotational force applied to the fifth wheel & pinion 10 can be always constant,
It is possible to apply a stable and constant rotational force to the rotor 12, and it is not necessary to consider the pushing speed of the crown 60, so that the operability can be improved.

Since the rotation driving means 70 is operated in conjunction with the operation of pushing the crown 60, which is the operation of returning from the needle setting, the rotation driving means 70 can be operated without the operator's consciousness, and the operability is further improved. be able to.

Since the crystal oscillator 52 is vibrated by applying an impact to the crystal storage case 53 by the collision portion 78 of the drive lever 71, the time required for the crystal oscillator 52 to stably oscillate can be reduced. Thereby, the rotation control means 50
As a result, the time during which accurate time control cannot be performed can be shortened, and the error during the hand adjustment operation can be further reduced.

Since the drive lever 71 is operated in conjunction with the operation of returning from the needle setting operation of pushing the crown 60, the quartz crystal 52 is almost simultaneously started when the generator 20 starts up and a voltage is applied to the quartz oscillator 52. The crystal oscillator 52 can be mechanically vibrated by applying an impact to the storage case 53. Therefore, the vibration when the crystal oscillator 52 starts to oscillate can be increased, and the time until stable oscillation is more efficiently shortened as compared with the case where a shock is applied when the crystal oscillator 52 oscillates to some extent. be able to.

The position regulating lever 75 of the drive lever 71
Is moved by the spring force at the time when the biasing force of the pressing member 81 is released, so that the crystal storage case 53 can be impacted at a constant speed (force) regardless of the pushing speed of the crown 60. For this reason, the mechanical force applied to the crystal unit 52 can always be kept constant, the time required for stable oscillation can be made almost constant, and errors can be easily corrected. Furthermore, since the impact force does not change depending on the speed at which the crown 60 is pushed, the operator does not need to consider how to push the crown 60, and the operability can be improved.

Crystal storage case 5 by drive lever 71
The shock to 3 is a crown 60 which is a return operation from the needle setting.
Since the operation is performed in conjunction with the operation of pressing, the operation can be performed without the operator being conscious, and the operability can be further improved.

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

For example, the configuration of the rotation driving means 70 is not limited to the one in the above-described embodiment, but may be any as long as the rotation target gear can be rotated in conjunction with the returning operation from the hand setting.

As the gear to be rotated, the fifth wheel & pinion 10
The present invention is not limited to this, and other gears such as a sixth wheel 11, a fourth wheel 9, and a third wheel 8 may be used. However, from the viewpoint of the amount of rotation of the rotor 12 and the force applied to the gear to be rotated, it is preferable that one of the fifth wheel 10 and the fourth wheel 9 two to three stages before the rotor 12 be the gear to be rotated.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the collision portion 78 is formed in which the drive lever 71 of the rotary drive means 70 collides with the crystal storage case 53. However, the collision portion 78 may be omitted, or the crystal storage case may be omitted. An impact lever for applying an impact to 53 may be provided separately from drive lever 71.

The return operation from the hand setting is as follows.
The invention is not limited to the one using the crown 60. For example, when a button for adjusting the needle is separately provided, the rotation driving unit 70 may be configured to be operated in conjunction with the operation of pressing the button. At this time, since the drive lever 71 is operated in conjunction with the operation of pressing the button, an impact is applied to the crystal storage case 53 at the same time.

Further, the timing of applying a shock to the crystal storage case 53 by the drive lever 71 or the shock lever is as follows.
The voltage need not be applied at the same time as the voltage is applied to the crystal oscillator 52, but may be applied before the crystal oscillator 52 stably oscillates.

[0061]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The rotation speed of the rotor at the start of driving of the generator can be increased as compared with the conventional case, thereby shortening the time from the start of driving of the generator to the activation of the rotation control means,
Needle alignment errors can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a main part of an electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a main part of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a control circuit of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a rotation drive unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing the operation of the rotation driving means of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the rotation driving means of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing a holding structure of the quartz oscillator of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 barrel car 1a mainspring 2 main plate 3 wheel train receiver 12 rotor 13 minute hand 14 second hand 15 stator 16 coil block 20 generator 50 rotation control means 51 IC 52 crystal oscillator 53 crystal storage case 60 crown 70 rotation drive means 71 drive lever 73 Stop lever part 74 Contact lever part 75 Position regulating lever part 81 Tapping 91 Click spring

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A mainspring, a generator for converting mechanical energy of the mainspring transmitted via a train wheel into electric energy, a pointer coupled to the wheel train, and driven by the converted electric energy, An electronically controlled mechanical timepiece including: a rotation control unit configured to control a rotation cycle of the generator; wherein the generator is provided in a wheel train connected to the generator in conjunction with a return operation from a hand setting operation in which the generator is stopped. An electronically controlled mechanical timepiece comprising: a rotation driving means for driving the generator by mechanically applying a rotational force to the rotating gear to be rotated. 2. The electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the rotation target gear to be rotated by the rotation drive means is a gear two or three stages before a generator rotor in a wheel train. An electronically controlled mechanical clock. 3. The electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to claim 1, wherein the rotation drive means presses against an outer peripheral edge of the rotation target gear when the crown is pulled out, and An electronically controlled mechanical timepiece comprising: a lever for applying a mechanical rotational force to the rotation target gear by being pushed away from the rotation target gear in conjunction with the operation. 4. The electronically controlled mechanical timepiece according to claim 3, wherein the lever is configured to be separated from the rotation target gear with a constant force by a spring force. .