Analog timepiece and control method of analog timepiece
AssigneeSeiko Instruments Inc.
InventorKosuke Yamamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is provided an analog timepiece including an hour hand, a minute hand, and a second hand which are rotated by a unit step operation of a stepping motor. The analog timepiece includes a rotor that rotates the hour hand, the minute hand, and the second hand, and that has a magnetic polarity, a stator that includes magnetic pole portions disposed around the rotor, coils that excite the magnetic pole portions, and a control unit that controls each unit step of the rotor in accordance with each pulse group by applying a pulse group including a rotary pulse for rotating the rotor and a braking pulse for braking rotation of the rotor, which is applied before the rotary pulse is applied, to the coil.
Claims7
An analog timepiece which includes at least one indicating hand rotated by a unit step operation of a stepping motor, comprising:
- a rotor configured to rotate the at least one indicating hand, the rotor being configured to have opposite magnetic polarities;
- a stator configured to rotatably support the rotor and include more than one magnetic pole portion disposed around the rotor, wherein the more than one magnetic pole portion is arranged to provide the rotor with at least one stop position where potential energy is low;
- a coil configured to excite the more than one magnetic pole portion;
- and
- a control unit configured to control each unit step of the rotor by applying a series of consecutive electrical pulses to the coil, wherein the series of consecutive electrical pulses begins with a braking pulse applied to magnetize the more than one magnetic pole portion to hold the rotor at the at least one stop position, the braking pulse being immediately followed in the series of consecutive electrical pulses by at least one rotary pulse applied to magnetize the more than one magnetic pole portion to rotate the rotor to a next stop position.
A method of controlling an analog timepiece that includes at least one indicating hand rotated by a unit step operation of a stepping motor, the analog timepiece including a rotor configured to rotate the at least one indicating hand, the rotor being configured to have opposite magnetic polarities, a stator configured to rotatably support the rotor and include more than one magnetic pole portion disposed around the rotor, wherein the more than one magnetic pole portion is arranged to provide the rotor with at least one stop position where potential energy is low, and a coil configured to excite the more than magnetic pole portion, the method comprising:
- controlling each unit step of the rotor by applying a series of consecutive electrical pulses to the coil, the series of consecutive electrical pulses begins with a braking pulse applied to magnetize the more than one magnetic pole portion to hold the rotor at the at least one stop position, the braking pulse being immediately followed in the series of consecutive electrical pulses by at least one rotary pulse applied to magnetize the more than one magnetic pole portion to rotate the rotor to a next stop position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.