The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 08, 2001
Filed:
May. 17, 1999
John E. Banks, Arlington, TX (US);
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Grand Prairie, TX (US);
Abstract
A rotary lens positioning mechanism with lens position feedback, in one embodiment, includes a worm-gear drive motor assembly, a Geneva gear drive assembly, a lens carrier disk, and a lens position feedback means. The worm-gear drive motor assembly includes a drive motor, which for some applications can be an N-scale model-train locomotive electric drive motor, and a worm pinion gear. The lens position feedback means, in one embodiment, includes two sensors each comprising an emitter-detector light-emitting diode (LED) pair, two reflective surfaces, and a computer. As the lens carrier disk rotates, the LED emitter of the sensor emits light to the reflective surface. If the light hits a reflective surface, it is reflected back to the LED detector of the sensor, turning that particular sensor on. The on and off signals of the respective sensors are translated into binary “words” to indicate which lens is currently intersecting the light. The computer reads the binary words and compares them to a table of known lens positions to determine whether the lens carrier disk is in a desired lens position. If the lens carrier disk is in a desired position, the computer stops the lens carrier disk from rotating. If not, then the computer rotates the lens carrier disk to another lens position.