Seiko Instruments Inc

Seiko Watch Kabushiki Kaisha

Seiko Epson Corporation

Seiko Watch Kabushiki Kaisha (trading As Seiko Watch Corporation)

Kazumi Sakumoto

Kosuke Yamamoto

Kenji Ogasawara

Saburo Manaka

Keishi Honmura

Hiroshi Odagiri

Akira Takakura

Kazuo Kato

Hiroshi Shimizu

Takanori Hasegawa

Tomohiro Ihashi

Keisuke Tsubata

Chiaki Nakamura

Eriko Noguchi

Masafumi Hoshino

Tokuya Akase

Tamotsu Maesawa

Susumu Fujita

Hideaki Nagatsuma

Kazuhiro Koyama

Satoshi Sakai

Tetsuya Nobe

Akihito Okumura

Ayumi Matsumoto

Masataka Shinogi

Motomu Hayakawa

Hiroyuki Masaki

Naokatsu Nosaka

Takashi Kamimoto

Shotaro Kamiyama

Osamu Sasaki

Akira Shinbo

Kotaro Watanabe

Yuichi Inoue

Masayuki Kawata

Minoru Sano

Toshiyuki Yuzuki

Naoaki Yasukawa

Hideki Nagatsuma

Takeshi Oono

Kasuke Yamamoto

An object of the invention is to prevent a positional deviation of a hand while reducing power consumption. A watch includes: a plurality of hands; a plurality of motors configured to drive or brake the plurality of hands, respectively; a pulse generation unit configured to supply, to the plurality of motors, a drive pulse for driving the hands and a lock pulse for braking the hands; and a control unit configured to control an operation mode including a normal hand movement mode and a tactile read mode, and the pulse generation unit supplies the lock pulse to the motors when the control unit shifts the operation mode to the tactile read mode.

Watch

A stepping motor control device configured to drive a stepping motor having a rotor and a coil includes: a train wheel including a load gear which has a load tooth whose rotation load is different from that of another tooth and in which the rotor has an odd number of rotation steps when the load gear rotates once, and transmitting a rotation force from the rotor to the hand; a voltage detection unit that detects an induced voltage generated at one end portion of a first end portion and a second end portion of the coil when the rotor vibrates; and a determination unit which, based on a result detected by the voltage detection unit, determines a mechanical load received by the rotor due to contact of the load tooth of the load gear with a tooth meshing with the load gear.

Stepping motor control device, movement, timepiece, and stepping motor control method

A stepping motor control device includes a driving unit that drives a stepping motor including a rotor that rotates a hand and a coil that generates a magnetic flux for rotating the rotor, a control unit that outputs, to the driving unit, a driving pulse for rotating the rotor and a swinging pulse for swinging the rotor, a voltage detecting unit that detects an induced voltage generated in the coil when the rotor vibrates, and a determining unit that determines, based on a result of the detection of the voltage detecting unit, a mechanical load received by the rotor.

A motor driving apparatus including a driving circuit for supplying a first pulse with which a first coil included in a two-phase stepping motor generates a first magnetic flux, a second pulse with which a second coil included in the stepping motor generates a second magnetic flux opposite to the first magnetic flux, a third pulse with which the first coil generates the second magnetic flux, and a fourth pulse with which the second coil generates the first magnetic flux, to the stepping motor. The driving circuit supplies the second pulse, the third pulse, and the fourth pulse in this order to the stepping motor in a state of being stopped to start the stepping motor, and supplies the first pulse, the second pulse, the third pulse, and the fourth pulse in this order to the stepping motor after starting to continuously drive the stepping motor.

Motor driving apparatus, motor driving method, and timepiece

A timepiece includes a motor control unit driving a motor for driving an indicating hand, based on an instruction signal, and a control unit receiving an instruction confirmation signal corresponding to a drive state of the motor in response to the instruction signal from the motor control unit, and determining whether or not the motor is driven in accordance with the instruction signal, based on the instruction confirmation signal.

Timepiece, motor control device, control method of timepiece, and motor control method

A proposed electronic apparatus is capable of charging a secondary battery and performing data communication using a solar cell while suppressing effects of ambient light even when the intensity of light radiated to the solar cell is low. The electronic apparatus includes a control circuitand a resistance. The control circuitreceives data based on an output voltage of a solar cell. The resistanceis connected between electrodes of the solar cell. The control circuitcontrols a resistance value of the resistancebased on whether during an operation of receiving data or not.

Electronic apparatus and control method

An electronic timepiece includes a first switch connected to a signal line, a second switch, and a one-shot pulse signal generation circuit. The first switch is inserted into the signal line. One end of the second switch is connected to the signal line at a rear stage of the first switch, and the other end of the second switch is connected to a power source. The one-shot pulse signal generation circuit generates a one-shot pulse signal by using a reference clock signal, and the second switch is controlled by the one-shot pulse signal. The timepiece device can reduce currents flowing in a pull-down resistor or a pull-up resistor when a crown switch is turned on.

Electronic timepiece

A frequency division circuit includes a first frequency division circuit which divides a frequency of a reference signal that is generated by an oscillation circuit. An input/output terminal outputs an output signal of the first frequency division circuit for testing. A selection circuit outputs as an intermediate signal one of a first intermediate signal which is input from the input/output output terminal, and a second intermediate signal which is an output signal of the first frequency division circuit. A second frequency division circuit divides a frequency of the intermediate signal output from the selection circuit. A switching time count circuit begins counting a predetermined amount of time after the second frequency division circuit starts frequency-dividing the intermediate signal and, after elapse of the predetermined amount of time, switches the intermediate signal output from the selection circuit from the first intermediate signal to the second intermediate signal.

Frequency division circuit, method of controlling frequency division circuit, and analog electronic timepiece

An electronic device includes at least an acquisition unit, an input unit, a time correction amount calculation unit, and a transmitting unit. A timepiece includes at least a receiving unit, a power storage unit, a drive unit, and a control unit. The input unit receives an input of the time displayed by the display unit of the timepiece. The time correction amount calculation unit calculates a time correction amount for correcting the time of the timepiece from a difference between the time, the input of which is received by the input unit and the current time acquired by the acquisition unit. The transmitting unit transmits the time correction amount to the timepiece by using light. The receiving unit receives the time correction amount. The power storage unit stores electricity by using power converted from the light. The drive unit drives the indicating hand. The control unit corrects the time displayed by the indicating hand, based on the time correction amount received by the receiving unit. The control unit controls a power storage period in the power storage unit and a receiving period in the receiving unit so as to receive the time correction amount in the receiving period.

Time correction system, electronic device, timepiece, and program

An electronic device includes a display part having a light source which transmits an optical signal, a direction detection part for detecting a direction of orientation of a display screen of the display part, and a controller for transmitting data by the optical signal from the display part to an electronic timepiece when the direction of orientation of the display screen detected by the detection part faces a predetermined direction.

Electronic device, communication method and recording medium

An electronic timepiece includes a solar power source, a voltage stabilizer circuit that generates a constant voltage by using power supplied from the solar power source, and a control circuit that clocks the time by driving a rotating body at first hand operation speed and at second hand operation speed which is faster than the first hand operation speed. The control circuit selects a voltage of the solar power source so as to drive the rotating body in a case of the first hand operation speed, and selects at least any one voltage of the constant voltage and the voltage of the solar power source so as to drive the rotating body in a case of the second hand operation speed.

Electronic timepiece and control method of electronic timepiece

A rotation detection circuit detects an induced current flowing through a drive coil of a stepping motor in a detection section divided into a plurality of sections, and detects a rotation state of the stepping motor on the basis of a pattern indicating whether or not the induced current exceeds a predetermined reference value in each of the sections. A control unit selects a drive pulse corresponding to the rotation state detected by the rotation detection unit, and supplies a drive current to a drive coil to rotatably drive the stepping motor. The rotation detection unit carries out detection by selecting a detection direction of the induced current in the sections after the first section on the basis of whether or not the induced current exceeding each of a plurality of reference values is detected plural times in the first section.

Stepping motor control circuit, movement, and analog electronic timepiece

A stepping motor control circuit includes: a rotation detection unit that detects a induced signal exceeding a predetermined reference threshold voltage which is generated by a stepping motor in a detection section divided into at least three sections, and detects a rotation state on the basis of a pattern indicating whether the induced signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage is detected in each of the sections; and a control unit that selects a main drive pulse depending on the rotation state detected by the rotation detection unit from a plurality of main drive pulses which are different from each other in energy, and drives the stepping motor. When the induced signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage is not detected in an initial section, the rotation detection unit detects the induced signal by shifting an end position of at least one section other than the initial section to a rear side by a predetermined amount.

Stepping motor control circuit, movement and analog electronic timepiece

A control circuit selects a drive pulse group corresponding to the detected voltage of a power cell from among plural drive pulse groups each including plural types of main drive pulses, and selects a drive pulse according to the detected condition of rotation of a stepping motor from among main drive pulses included in the selected drive pulse group or a correction drive pulse having larger energy than the main drive pulses. When the control circuit selects a main drive pulse initially by selecting the drive pulse group, the control circuit selects the main drive pulse having the largest energy in the selected drive pulse group. A drive pulse group selection circuit drives the stepping motor by the main drive pulse in the drive pulse group selected by the control circuit or the correction drive pulse via a main drive pulse output circuit and a correction drive pulse output circuit.

Stepping motor control circuit, movement, and analogue electronic timepiece

A power consumption control device includes a power consumption control unit that receives the output potential of a photovoltaic cell generating an electromotive force, receives the output potential of a secondary battery charged by the electromotive force of the photovoltaic cell, causes a timepiece device to transition to a power saving state where a clock operation of measuring time is stopped when the output potential difference of the secondary battery is not greater than a predetermined threshold value, and the secondary battery is in a non-charging state indicating a state where the output potential difference of the photovoltaic cell is not greater than the output potential difference of the secondary battery.

Growing community of inventors

Chiba, Japan

Kazumi Sakumoto