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:
Mar. 07, 2006
Filed:
Aug. 29, 2003
Haruhiko Higuchi, Saitama, JP;
Akiyoshi Murakami, Saitama, JP;
Motoki Funahashi, Tokyo, JP;
Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In detecting power generation of an electronic timepiece having a conventional power generating unit, voltage output by the power generating unit is limited by output from a storage unit since the power generating unit and the storage means are connected when the power generation state is detected, and voltage equal to or larger than voltage output from the storage unit cannot be detected. An electronic timepiece is provided which can overcome the problem and can check an operation of the power generating unit securely irrespective of the state of the storage means. In an electronic timepiece driven by power stored from a power generating unit () into a storage unit (), the electronic timepiece includes a power generation detecting unit () that detects a power generation state of the power generating unit () and a switch unit () that separates the power generating unit () and the storage unit () when the power generation state of the power generating unit () is detected. In this case, the switch () between the power generating unit () and the storage unit () is controlled to OFF so that the output from the power generating unit () cannot be limited by the output from the storage unit ().