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US 11,165,376 B2Granted
Movement and electronic timepiece
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorTakashi Kawaguchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A movement includes a driver having ON and OFF states, and outputting a drive signal to a coil of a motor, a lower limit detector detecting that a current flowing through the coil is less than a lower limit, a drive controller bringing the driver into the ON state based on a result of the lower limit detector, and bringing the driver into the OFF state based on an elapsed time from the ON state, a polarity switcher switching a polarity of the drive signal when an elapsed time from the OFF state of the driver satisfies a switching condition, and a drive stopper stopping driving of the driver when the OFF time satisfies a stopping condition.
Claims17
A movement comprising:
- a motor having a coil and a rotor;
- a driver that has an ON state and an OFF state, and outputs a drive signal to the coil so as to drive the motor and rotate the rotor;
- a lower limit detector configured to determine whether a current flowing through the coil in response to the drive signal is less than a lower limit, wherein the lower limit detector (i) detects the current flowing through the coil during rotation of the rotor and at a same time that the rotor is being rotated one step and (ii) compares the current detected during the rotation of the rotor to the lower limit;
- a drive controller that brings the driver into the ON state based on a detection result in the lower limit detector, and brings the driver into the OFF state based on an elapsed time from the driver being brought into the ON state;
- a polarity switcher that switches a polarity of the drive signal when an OFF time satisfies a polarity switching condition, the OFF time being an elapsed time from the driver being brought into the OFF state;
- and
- a drive stopper that stops driving of the driver in response to the OFF time satisfying a drive stopping condition, wherein the drive stopping condition corresponds to a determination that the OFF time exceeds a first stop determination time, and wherein the first stop determination time corresponds to a predetermined time subsequent to the driver being brought into the OFF state.
4 more elements
A movement comprising:
- a driver that has an ON state and an OFF state, and outputs a drive signal to a coil of a motor so as to drive the motor and rotate a rotor of the motor;
- a lower limit detector configured to determine whether a current flowing through the coil in response to the drive signal is less than a lower limit, wherein the lower limit detector (i) detects the current flowing through the coil during rotation of the rotor and at a same time that the rotor is being rotated one step and (ii) compares the current detected during the rotation of the rotor to the lower limit;
- a drive controller that brings the driver into the ON state based on a detection result in the lower limit detector, and brings the driver into the OFF state based on an elapsed time from the driver being brought into the ON state;
- a polarity switcher that switches a polarity of the drive signal when an OFF time satisfies a polarity switching condition, the OFF time being an elapsed time from the driver being brought into the OFF state;
- and
- a drive stopper that stops driving of the driver in response to an elapsed time from a time of starting to drive the driver or a time of switching the polarity satisfying a drive stopping condition.
3 more elements
A movement comprising:
- a motor having a coil and a rotor;
- a driver that has an ON state and an OFF state, and outputs a drive signal to the coil so as to drive the motor and rotate the rotor;
- an upper limit detector configured to determine whether a current flowing through the coil in response to the drive signal is more than an upper limit, wherein the upper limit detector (i) detects the current flowing through the coil during rotation of the rotor and at a same time that the rotor is being rotated one step and (ii) compares the current detected during the rotation of the rotor to the upper limit;
- a drive controller that brings the driver into the OFF state based on a detection result in the upper limit detector, and brings the driver into the ON state based on an elapsed time from the driver being brought into the OFF state;
- a polarity switcher that switches a polarity of the drive signal when an ON time satisfies a polarity switching condition, the ON time being an elapsed time from the driver being brought into the ON state;
- and
- a drive stopper that stops driving of the driver in response to the ON time satisfying a drive stopping condition.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.