JPH10307191A - Electronic clock with generator - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To improve the power generation efficiency, size and durability of an electronic timepiece with a power generation device. An unbalanced wheel having an eccentric center of rotation and a center of gravity, a mechanical-electrical converter comprising a coil, a plate-shaped stator, and a rotor employing a permanent magnet, and generating electric power by rotating the rotor. A speed-up wheel train that speeds up the rotation of the unbalanced vehicle and transmits it to the rotor, a rectifier that rectifies an alternating current generated by the mechanical-electrical converter, and stores the current rectified by the rectifier. The stator made of a high magnetic permeability material has a hole concentric with the rotor, and two pole pieces are connected so as to reduce the torque between the pole pieces; Is formed so as to surround the entire periphery of the rectifier, and the rectifier is constituted by a half-wave rectifier circuit each time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic timepiece with a power generator using a power generator as a power source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, batteries are almost all energy sources for portable electronic devices such as electronic watches. This battery has a battery life determined by the capacity of the battery and the current consumption of the watch body, and the trouble of replacing the battery is always associated with it.

[0003]

However, attempts have been made to provide a power generating mechanism inside a timepiece, for example, in order to solve this drawback. Such an attempt has been hitherto disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 50-17866, and the power generation efficiency is poor, the size is large, and there is a problem in durability, so that it has not been put to practical use. Therefore, these disadvantages have been eliminated and the power generation efficiency is extremely high.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a power generator having a high degree of freedom in terms of size and excellent durability.

[0004]

An electronic timepiece with a power generating device according to the present invention comprises an unbalanced wheel having an eccentric center of rotation and a center of gravity, a rotor having coils, a plate-shaped stator, and a permanent magnet. A mechanical-electrical converter that generates electric power by the rotating motion of the motor, a speed-up train that speeds up the rotation of the unbalanced wheel and transmits it to the rotor, and a rectifier that rectifies an AC current generated by the mechanical-electrical converter Means, and a power storage device for storing the current rectified by the rectifying means, wherein the stator made of a material having high magnetic permeability has a hole concentric with the rotor and two pole piece portions are pole piece portions. The rotor is connected so as to reduce the torque between the rotors and surrounds the entire circumference of the rotor, and the rectifier is constituted by a half-wave rectifier circuit.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that a wristwatch was used as an example of a portable device in which a small power generation device was incorporated.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the concept of a quartz wristwatch system that makes effective use of the present invention. Numeral 1 is a means for generating a rotational torque, which is constituted by an unbalanced wheel in which the center of rotation and the center of gravity are eccentric. The rotational movement of the rotating means 1 is accelerated by the speed increasing wheel train 2 to rotate the rotor of the converter A3 as a power generating mechanism to generate an alternating current. This AC is rectified by the rectifier circuit 4 and stored in the storage unit 5. In this embodiment, an electric double layer capacitor, which is a large-capacity capacitor, is used as the power storage means. Using this large-capacity capacitor as a power supply, a control circuit 6 including a crystal which is a time standard and a drive circuit 7 controlled by the control circuit 6 operate. The energy is supplied by the drive circuit 7 to operate the converter B8. The movement of the converter B8 is transmitted to the hands 10 by the speed reduction train 9 and the time is displayed.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a converter A3 as a power generation mechanism. The stator 21 is arranged so as to cover the rotor 20 including the permanent magnet 20a. The coil 22 is wound around a magnetic core 22a, and the magnetic core 22a and the stator 21 are fixed by screws 23. When the rotor 20 rotates, a starting force E and a current I expressed by the following equation are generated in the coil.

[0008]

(Equation 1)

This starting force is an alternating current having a substantially sin curve. The rotor 20 and the stator 21 enclosing the rotor 20
Are concentric circles and enclose the rotor magnet over almost the entire circumference. As a result, the force (torque) that tends to stop at a certain position of the rotor can be minimized. The fact that the stator having such a shape lowers the torque will be described in more detail. The stator 21 is formed so as to surround the rotor magnet 20a with a thin portion 21C connecting the two pole piece portions 21a and 21b and the respective pole piece portions. For example, the N magnetic pole of the rotor magnet 20a is changed from one stator pole piece 21a to the other stator pole piece 21b.
Part 21 rotating toward the stator and connecting the stator pole pieces
When reaching the vicinity of c, a part of the magnetic velocity leaks and flows toward the other stator pole piece 21b through the thin portion 21c. In other words, this means that the magnetic flux remaining on the first one-side stator pole piece 21a decreases, and consequently, the maximum pulling torque for returning the rotor to the magnetically stable point decreases. become. For example, in the case of a stator (for example, a stator disclosed in FIG. 1 of JP-A-52-80871) in which a gap is formed without the thin portion 21c, the magnetic resistance of the gap becomes extremely large. Magnetic flux tends to remain on the stator pole piece on the first side until the rotor pole exceeds its air gap, resulting in a significant increase in pulling torque. Since the magnetic flux is leaking to the stator pole piece 21b, the pulling torque is significantly reduced. Therefore, even if the unbalanced vehicle is small, the rotor can be easily started to start.

When the rotor starts rotating beyond the initial maximum pulling torque, the unbalanced vehicle continues to rotate due to inertia. However, in the latter half of the rotation, the energy is reduced and at a point where it cannot cross the pulling vehicle. The unbalanced car stops. Therefore, the smaller the torque, the wider the rotation angle of the rotor. In the configuration of the present invention, since the pull torque is small as described above, the unbalanced vehicle can be rotated further by that much, and the opening angle can be widened to secure sufficient power generation. In particular, since the unbalanced vehicle and the rotor are connected in a speed-up gear train, a slight increase in the rotation angle of the unbalanced vehicle is equivalent to several rotations in the rotor alone, which has an effect on the small power generator. Is quite large, which is a point to increase power generation efficiency. Note that the starting force E is also expected to decrease because the leakage of the magnetic flux reduces the variation dφ of the magnetic flux. However, in actuality, the torque is reduced, so that the rotation speed of the rotor is increased, and the attack force is reduced. Since the change speed 1 / dt increases, the starting force E does not substantially decrease.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view for explaining the mechanism from the rotating means 1 to the converter A3 via the speed increasing wheel train 2. Reference numeral 31 denotes an unbalanced vehicle in which the center of rotation and the center of gravity are eccentric, reference numeral 32 denotes a main plate, and reference numeral 33 denotes a bearing. Unbalanced car 3
The rotational motion caused by the imbalance of the gear train 1
a, 34 and the rotor pinion 20b result in rotational movement of the rotor-to-magnet 20a. Reference numeral 22b denotes a coil lead board on which the ends of the coil are unprocessed. The coil lead board 22b comes into contact with the rotating board 35, and the electric power induced in the coil is transmitted to the circuit.

As described above, if the torque of the rotor is small, the unbalance amount of the unbalance wheel 31 may be small. The minimum condition for starting is (rotor pull torque) <(unbalance torque of unbalanced vehicle).

Next, the configuration of a rectifier circuit for reducing the size and increasing the power generation efficiency, which is the object of the present invention, will be described.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional rectifier circuit 4.
The rectifier circuit is composed of four diodes 41.42.43.44. Reference numeral 5 denotes a power storage means, and in this embodiment, an electric double layer capacitor which is a large capacity capacitor is used. When the electric power indicated by the thin line 45 is induced in the coil 22, the current flows as indicated by the thin line and is stored in the condenser 5. When the current flows as indicated by a broken line 46, the electric power is also stored in the capacitor 5 in the same direction as at 45.

In general, full-wave rectification is considered to be more efficient than half-wave rectification. However, when this is used in a small power generator for rotating a rotor magnet in an unbalanced vehicle as the object of the present invention, Quite different. That is, when the rotor magnet is rotating, power is generated, and at the same time, an electromagnetic brake that prevents the rotation of the rotor by the generated current (induced current) flowing through the coil is also generated. Naturally, this electromagnetic brake will apparently destroy the driving energy of the unbalanced vehicle, and it will be as if you are using a slightly smaller unbalanced vehicle. In the full-wave rectification, the electromagnetic brake is applied in the entire region of the rotation of the rotor, so that the unbalanced wheel cannot exceed the pulling torque at an earlier point of rotation and stops. As a result, there is a problem that the rotation angle of the unbalanced vehicle is narrowed and the power generation efficiency is extremely deteriorated.

In the present invention, this problem has been solved by using half-wave rectification, which was conventionally considered to be inefficient. FIG. 5 shows the embodiment. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a charging circuit according to the present invention. The rotational force of the unbalanced wheel 51 is transmitted to the rotor 53 by the speed increasing train 52. The change in the magnetic field caused by the rotation of the rotor 53 is transmitted to the coil 5 via the stator 54.
5 and an induced voltage is generated at both ends of the coil. Reference numeral 57 denotes a capacitor serving as power storage means, which stores the electric power generated in the coil 55 through O ₁ and O ₂ and supplies the electric power to the clock body 56. The limiter 58 is an overcharge prevention circuit that is higher than the withstand voltage of the capacitor 57.

Reference numeral 59 denotes a diode which performs a half-wave rectification. 59 indicates that the power stored in the condenser 57 when the AC power is not
5 also serves as a backflow prevention diode for preventing the loss through. The difference between the power generation using the half-wave rectification circuit and the power generation using the full-wave rectification will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 shows a waveform of a current flowing into the electric storage means 57, and compares the conventional full-wave rectification circuit shown in FIG. 4 with the half-wave rectification by one die auto 59 shown in FIG. It is shown. Reference numeral 60 is a reference record. 61 is a generated current in the conventional rectifier circuit, 62 is a generated current in the present invention, 63 is a loss due to a voltage drop in the conventional full-wave rectifier circuit, and 64 is a voltage in the half-wave rectifier circuit according to the present invention. Loss due to drop. Conventionally, the amount of electric charge stored in the power storage device is the area covered by 61 and 63, and that according to the present invention is the area covered by 62 and 64. In this area comparison, there is almost no difference, and the power storage performance is the same. The reason why there is no difference in power storage performance even when half-wave rectification is used as compared with conventional full-wave rectification will be described below. During the half-wave rectification cutoff period (indicated by 66 in FIG. 6), no current flows through the coil 22, so that the electromagnetic brake torque applied to the rotor is small, so that the movement of the unbalun vehicle becomes faster. That is, the energy for the period 66 is stored as the kinetic energy of the unbalanced vehicle and released during power generation.
Therefore, the peak value of 62 is larger than that of 61. In addition, the rectification loss is advantageously reduced to two diodes and one half. As a result, despite the use of half-wave rectification, its power generation and storage performance is not worse than that of full-wave rectification.

When half-wave rectification is used, as described above, the kinetic energy of the unbalanced vehicle can be rotated in a higher state because of the reduced magnetic brake. It can be made large, and the rotor is turned excessively to generate power. By increasing the rotation angle to increase the rotation speed of the rotor in this way, it is possible to secure an amount of electricity comparable to full-wave rectification despite half-wave rectification, and to maintain the driving energy of the unbalanced vehicle by In addition, the rotation angle of the rotor is surely widened and the power generation efficiency is increased. In particular, since the speed increase ratio between the unbalanced vehicle and the rotor is extremely large, a slight increase in the rotation angle of the unbalanced vehicle also leads to a large rotation of the rotor, and the effect on the power generation efficiency is quite large for a small generator. Become. According to the configuration of the present invention, even if the person carrying the wristwatch makes slight movements such as desk work, the unbalanced vehicle starts immediately and the inclination of the unbalanced vehicle is linked to the effective rotation of the rotor, so that the clock is moved. Enough power to be stored.

Of course, while full-wave rectification uses four diodes, half-wave rectification requires only one die, so that it is significantly advantageous in terms of space efficiency required for small portable equipment. Needless to say. The smaller the number of devices, the easier it is to manage the reliability.

The control circuit 6, the drive circuit 7, the converter B8, the reduction gear train 9, and the pointer 10 preceding the power storage means 5 in FIG. 1 are the same as conventional ones, and well-known mechanisms are used.

In the power generator of the present embodiment, the rotor and magnet are of a thick cylindrical type and the processing is very simple, and any magnet such as a rare earth magnet can be used. Further, since the magnetic flux of the magnet is formed and taken out of a magnetic circuit by a high magnetic permeability material such as a stator and a magnetic core, the number of magnetic fluxes φ interlinking the coil is extremely large. Therefore, the power generation efficiency is greatly increased from this aspect as well. Further, in this embodiment, the magnet and the coil are arranged so as to be separated from each other in the layout, and the magnet and the coil are magnetically coupled by the plate-shaped stator, so that the assembly is easy and a thin power generator is obtained. In addition, since each element can be arranged in a distributed manner, the layout of the entire timepiece can be considered and other components such as a wheel train and a circuit can be freely arranged in a space, and the space efficiency is extremely good.

In this embodiment, a large-capacity condenser is used as the storage means. The capacitor is not a chemical reaction like a battery but a physical phenomenon, and the life of the power storage means itself is extremely long.According to the system according to the present embodiment, the same life as that of the conventional mainspring type can be obtained. A highly accurate timepiece such as a quartz timepiece can be realized without any hassle.

Further, by disposing the diode closer to the power generator than the limiter, the adverse effect of half-wave rectification when the current is cut can be absorbed to improve the charging efficiency.

The unbalanced portion 31b of the unbalanced wheel as a rotating means is not limited to this structure, but can be of course other. For example, in FIG. 3, if it is arranged on the receiver 33, it is easy to increase the amount of imbalance.

In the present embodiment, a large-capacity capacitor is used for the power storage means 5, but any power supply that can be charged may be used. For example, rechargeable lithium batteries, group electrolyte batteries, and the like have recently been put into practical use, and these are also power sources suitable for the present invention because of their large capacity and long-term reliability. Although silver batteries have some problems in long-term reliability, they can be used as power storage means.

Although the structure from the control circuit after the electric storage means to the pointer as the display means in FIG. 1 is shown in the example of the needle display, the display means may be digital display such as LCD instead of the needle.

[0028]

As described above, according to the structure of the present invention, as described above, the leakage of magnetic flux caused by connecting the stator pole pieces with thin portions is skillfully utilized, and the half-wave rectifier circuit is used. The size of the power generation device has been reduced to such an extent that it can be used in a small portable device such as a wristwatch by enabling the use of a small unbalanced vehicle. At the same time, even though a small unbalanced vehicle is used, even a small movement of a small portable device can reliably start the unbalanced vehicle and thus the rotor, and also reliably expand the rotation angle of the unbalanced vehicle to enhance the power generation effect. And a small power generation device that can be put into practical use was provided. When the small power generation device of the present invention is incorporated in a wristwatch, it is possible to generate and store enough power to drive the clock even with a slight movement such as desk work, and the small power generation that can be used in daily life The device was provided.

Further, the power generator of the present invention has a magnet and a coil which are cut off in the layout, and the magnet and the coil are magnetically coupled by a flat stator. . In addition, since the components can be arranged in a distributed manner, the layout can be freely arranged in a space of another component, for example, a circuit component in consideration of the layout of the portable device, and the space efficiency is excellent. Further, by using half-wave rectification, the number of elements can be reduced, which contributes to miniaturization.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the concept of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a power generation mechanism.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a train wheel section.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional rectifier circuit.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a charging circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a storage current waveform diagram.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Rotating means 2 ... Speed increasing means 3 ... Generating mechanism 4 ... Rectifier circuit 5 ... Power storage means 20,53 ... Rotor one 21,54 ... Stator 22 , 55

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 13, 1998

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims]

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0004

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0004]

An electronic timepiece with a power generator according to the present invention comprises: an unbalanced vehicle having a rotational center and a center of gravity eccentric;
It is composed of a coil, a plate-shaped stator, and a rotor using permanent magnets, and a mechanical-electrical converter that generates electric power by the rotational movement of the rotor, and an increase that transmits the rotation of the unbalanced wheel to the rotor by increasing the speed A speed train, rectifying means for rectifying an alternating current generated by the mechanical-electrical converter, and a power storage device for storing the current rectified by the rectifying means; It is characterized in that it is arranged coaxially with one gear constituting a wheel train, and the electromechanical converter and the speed increasing wheel train are arranged on substantially the same cross section.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0008

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0008]

As described above, according to the structure of the present invention, an unbalanced wheel having a center of rotation and an eccentric center of gravity, a coil, a plate-shaped stator, and a rotor employing a permanent magnet are provided.
A mechanical-electrical converter that generates electric power by the rotational movement of the rotor, a speed-up train that accelerates the rotation of the unbalanced wheel and transmits it to the rotor, and an alternating current generated by the mechanical-electrical converter. A rectifying means for rectifying the electric power, and a power storage device for storing the electric current rectified by the rectifying means, wherein the unbalanced vehicle is arranged coaxially with one gear constituting the speed increasing train. In addition, it is possible to provide an electronic timepiece with a power generation device that enables a thinning of the timepiece body.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H02K 7/06 H02K 7/06 Z 21/18 21/18 G

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An unbalanced wheel having an eccentric center of rotation and a center of gravity, a mechanical-electrical converter comprising a coil, a plate-shaped stator, and a rotor having a permanent magnet, and generating electric power by rotating the rotor. A speed increasing train that increases the speed of rotation of the unbalanced vehicle and transmits the speed to the rotor; a rectifier that rectifies an alternating current generated by the mechanical-electrical converter; and stores the current rectified by the rectifier. The stator made of a high magnetic permeability material has a concentric hole with the rotor, and two pole piece portions are connected so as to reduce the torque between the pole piece portions. An electronic timepiece with a power generator, wherein the electronic timepiece is formed so as to surround the entire circumference of the rotor, and each of the rectifiers is constituted by a half-wave rectifier circuit.