| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090285057 | Stepping motor drive circuit and analog electronic clock - The present invention aims to generate a proper drive pulse in accordance with a motor. A plurality of duty generating circuits each generates a signal at a duty ratio different from one another. A main drive pulse generating circuit uses an output signal of the plurality of the duty generating circuits to generate a drive pulse, and a motor driver circuit rotates and drives a stepping motor. The stepping motor drives the hands of a display unit. When a rotation detecting circuit detects that the stepping motor is not rotated, a correction drive pulse generating circuit uses a signal from one of the duty generating circuits to output a correction drive pulse, and the motor driver circuit forcedly rotates and drives the motor by the correction drive pulse. | 11-19-2009 |
| 20090316535 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic timepiece - The present invention aims to prevent a nonrotation state from being brought about even when a drive allowance is changed by variations in a stepping motor or the like. A pulse down counter circuit outputs pulse down control signal for subjecting main drive pulse to control pulse down when time is counted for a predetermined time period. When a detecting signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage detected by a rotation detecting circuit is detected at a first detection section at start of a rotation detecting time period, a control circuit resets the pulse down counter circuit. Thereby, a main drive pulse generating circuit is not subjected to control pulse down by the pulse down counter circuit, and therefore, it is prevented that the main drive pulse is subjected to pulse down unnecessarily. | 12-24-2009 |
| 20100014389 | Analogue electronic clock and motor control circuit - The present invention can rotationally drive a motor with main drive pulses corresponding to loads with the simple constitution without using a counter circuit. A control circuit, in driving a motor with a second main drive pulse, when a rotation detection signal which is indicative of the rotation of the motor is detected by a rotation detection circuit after a predetermined reference time elapses, continues rotational driving of the motor with the second main drive pulse, when the rotation detection signal is detected before the predetermined reference time elapses, changes the rotational driving of the motor with a first main drive pulse having a shorter pulse width than the second main drive pulse, and when the rotation detection signal is not detected, forcibly rotationally drives the motor with a correction drive pulse having a largest pulse width and, thereafter, rotationally drives the motor with the first main drive pulse. | 01-21-2010 |
| 20100149924 | Stepping motor controller and analog electronic timepiece - An invention allows a stepping motor to be reliably driven to rotate when initializing the driving and allows power consumption of the stepping motor to be reduced. The controller, when initializing the driving (for example, replacing a battery), controls a main drive pulse generator to drive a stepping motor using a main drive pulse having a maximum energy and sets the generation cycle of a pulse down control signal of a pulse down counter for pulsing down the main drive pulse to a first cycle to drive the stepping motor, and when pulsing down the main drive pulse to that having a predetermined energy, changes the generation cycle of the pulse down control signal of the pulse down counter to a second cycle. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100164426 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic watch - A detecting period of a stepping motor is divided into a first segment for detecting an induced signal generated at least in a second quadrant by the rotation of a rotor immediately after the driving of a main driving pulse, a second segment being provided after the first segment for detecting the induced signal in a third quadrant, and a third segment provided after the second segment and the control circuit drives the stepping motor by the predetermined fixed main driving pulse having energy not smaller than the maximum energy when a rotation detecting circuit does not detect the induced signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage in the second segment at the time of the rotational driving by the main driving pulse having the maximum energy. | 07-01-2010 |
| 20100165796 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic watch - According to a stepping motor control circuit of the invention, a rotation detecting period is divided into a first segment for detecting an induced signal generated at least in a second quadrant by the rotation of a rotor immediately after driving of a main driving pulse, a second segment being provided after the first segment for detecting the induced signal in a third quadrant, and a third segment provided after the second segment and, when a stepping motor detects the induced signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage in the first segment and the second segment, a control circuit controls a pulse down counter circuit to output a pulse down control signal. | 07-01-2010 |
| 20100172219 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic timepiece - The present invention aims to prevent a main drive pulse from being moved to a rank having a potential to cause a non-rotating state. A detection segment for detecting a rotating state of a stepping motor is divided into a first segment immediately after the drive with a main drive pulse, a second segment, and a third segment and, when the stepping motor is rotated by the main drive pulse, the main drive pulse is not changed when a detection signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage is detected at least in the first and second segments. When it is detected only in the first and third segments, or detected only in the third segment, the rank is moved upward and, when it is not detected in any segment, or detected only in the first segment, the rank is moved upward after the drive with a corrective drive pulse. When it is detected only in the second segment or detected only in the second and third segments, the rank is moved downward. | 07-08-2010 |
| 20100220556 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic watch - A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detecting means which detects an induced signal generated by rotation of a rotor of a stepping motor, and detects a rotation state of the stepping motor according to whether the induced signal exceeds a predetermined reference threshold voltage in a predetermined detection section, and a control means which controls driving of the stepping motor by using any one of a plurality of main driving pulses having energies different from each other or a correction driving pulse having energy higher than energy of each main driving pulse according to a detection result of the rotation detecting means. The control means allows the main driving pulse to be down when a rotation state, in which an extra driving force of the main driving pulse is small, continuously occurs by a predetermined first number of times, and allows the main driving pulse to be down even if the rotation state having a small extra driving force does not continuously occur by the predetermined first number of times when a rotation state having a large extra driving force is large has occurred under a condition in which at least the rotation state having the small extra driving force continuously occurs. | 09-02-2010 |
| 20100238767 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic watch - A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detecting means which detects an induced signal generated by rotation of a rotor of a stepping motor, and detects a rotation state of the stepping motor according to whether the induced signal exceeds a predetermined reference threshold voltage in a predetermined detection section, and a control means which controls driving of the stepping motor by using any one of a plurality of main driving pulses having energies different from each other or a correction driving pulse with energy higher than energy of each main driving pulse according to a detection result of the rotation detecting means. The detection section is divided into a first section immediately after driving by the main driving pulse, a second section after the first section and a third section after the second section. During the driving of the stepping motor by the main driving pulse, when the rotation detecting means has detected an induced signal exceeding a first reference threshold voltage in the first section and the second section, if an induced signal exceeding a second reference threshold voltage lower than the first reference threshold voltage is not detected in the third section, the control means drives the stepping motor by using the correction driving pulse. | 09-23-2010 |
| 20100238768 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic timepiece - A stepping motor control circuit and an analogue electronic timepiece can optimize a rank change operation of a main drive pulse by properly determining an available driving force thus realizing the reduction of the power consumption. A detection interval in which a rotation state of a stepping motor is detected is divided into a first interval immediately after driving with a main drive pulse, a second interval which comes after the first interval, and a third interval which comes after the second interval, and a rotation state is detected. A control circuit looks up an interval table which makes respective main drive pulses stored in the control circuit and a length of the second interval, sets the second interval which corresponds to energy of the present main drive pulse. A detection interval determination circuit determines the interval or the intervals in which an induction signal which exceeds a reference threshold voltage is generated. The control circuit performs a pulse control of the main drive pulse based on the determination. | 09-23-2010 |
| 20100254226 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic watch - A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detecting means for detecting an induced signal generated by rotation of a rotor of a stepping motor, and detecting a rotation state of the stepping motor according to whether the induced signal exceeds a predetermined reference threshold voltage in a predetermined detection section, and a control means for controlling driving of the stepping motor by using any one of a plurality of main driving pulses having energy different from each other or a correction driving pulse having energy higher than energy of each main driving pulse according to a detection result of the rotation detecting means. The detection section is divided into a first section immediately after driving with the main driving pulse, a second section after the first section, a third section after the second section, and a fourth section after the third section, and the control means lengthens the third section subsequent to the second section when the rotation detecting means has detected an induced signal exceeding the reference threshold voltage in the second section, and controls the driving of the stepping motor by selecting a driving pulse based on a pattern of an induced signal in the first to fourth sections. | 10-07-2010 |
| 20100270965 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic watch - A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detecting means for detecting an induced signal generated by rotation of a rotor of a stepping motor, and detecting a rotation state of the stepping motor according to whether the induced signal exceeds a predetermined reference threshold voltage in a predetermined detection section, and a control means for controlling driving of the stepping motor by using any one of a plurality of main driving pulses having energy different from each other or a correction driving pulse having energy higher than energy of each main driving pulse according to a detection result of the rotation detecting means. The detection section is divided into a first section immediately after driving with the main driving pulse, a second section after the first section, a third section after the second section, and a fourth section after the third section, and the control means lengthens at least one of the first and second sections when the rotation detecting means has detected an induced signal exceeding the reference threshold voltage in the second section. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100295499 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic timepiece - When a reset operation or the driving by a correction drive pulse P | 11-25-2010 |
| 20110002197 | Integrated circuit for electronic timepiece and electronic timepiece - In response to a system reset signal inputted into a system reset port, a control circuit sets a general-purpose port to a high level first. Then, when a mode A is set in an integrated circuit for electronic timepiece, the control circuit sets the general-purpose output port to a low level after an elapse of a first time and when a mode B is set, it sets the general-purpose output port to a low level after an elapse of a second time. In this manner, a mode information signal having a pulse width corresponding to the mode is outputted from the general-purpose output port. It thus becomes possible to reduce the size without adding a special configuration for mode confirmation and to perform a confirmation in a short time. | 01-06-2011 |
| 20110007610 | Chronograph timepiece - In a chronograph timepiece in which the chronograph hands are electrically rotated by a motor drive pulse and are mechanically zero-restoring-controlled, a basic drive control unit controls a motor so as to drive the chronograph hands when it is detected by a contact portion and a setting releasing detection portion that the setting of the chronograph hands by a setting mechanism has been released. | 01-13-2011 |
| 20110007611 | Chronograph timepiece - In response to an instruction to start time measurement given by a start/stop button, an in-phase drive control unit outputs an in-phase control signal of a predetermined time width to a drive pulse generation circuit such that a stepping motor is driven, instead of by a first drive pulse, by an initial drive pulse of a longer drive time than the drive pulse. The drive pulse generation circuit rotates the stepping motor by a motor drive signal including a plurality of in-phase main drive pulses. The stepping motor is rotated by one of the main drive pulses included by the motor drive signal to rotate the chronograph hands. | 01-13-2011 |
| 20110013492 | Chronograph timepiece - A chronograph timepiece makes it possible to make sure that it normally operates at the time of an initial starting operation such as system resetting without having to perform a difficult operation or the like. When a system reset signal is input to a system reset terminal and it is detected that initial starting has been effected, a processing unit enables a time hand and a chronograph hand to move after permitting the time hand to perform a predetermined demonstration hand movement when both a start/stop switch and a reset switch have not been simultaneously operated; when these switches have been simultaneously operated, the processing unit enables the time hand and the chronograph hand to move without permitting demonstration hand movement. | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110013493 | Chronograph timepiece - When it is judged that a chronograph second counter and a chronograph minute counter have measured a maximum measurement time, a maximum measurement control unit controls a drive pulse generation circuit so as to drive and stop a motor such that chronograph hand stops at predetermined positions. When, in this state, a restarting operation is performed on a start/stop button, a normal chronograph measurement operation is restarted. At this time, a mechanical structure has been restored to a reset state, so that even at the time of restarting after the measurement of the maximum measurement time, the load at the starting operation is the same as that of the normal operation, thus generating no sense of incongruity. | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110026370 | Chronograph timepiece - Disclosed is a chronograph timepiece in which it is possible to prevent the battery reliability service life time from being exceeded even when the period of time that the chronograph function is used is short, making it possible to prevent failure generation in the chronograph timepiece due to liquid leakage. A 24-hour counter down-counts a period of time that has elapsed starting from 24 hours, and a chronograph counter down-counts the period of time that chronograph measurement operation is performed from a predetermined time; when the count values of the 24-hour counter and the chronograph counter become equal to each other, a processing unit consumes a battery for the residual period of time of the two counters by a battery power consuming unit. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110026371 | Chronograph timepiece - Disclosed is a chronograph timepiece in which it is possible to prevent the chronograph drive timing and the magnetic field detection timing from overlapping each other to unnecessarily effect driving with correction drive pulses. A processing unit controls drive circuits so as to drive a time indication motor and a chronograph indication motor with a predetermined timing based respectively on timekeeping information obtained and chronograph measurement information obtained, and effects control such that a magnetic field detecting unit detects a magnetic field with a predetermined timing; when the drive timing for the chronograph indication motor and the magnetic field detection timing for the magnetic field detecting unit overlap each other, the processing unit changes the magnetic field detection timing for the magnetic field detecting unit so that the drive timing for the chronograph indication motor and the magnetic field detection timing for the magnetic field detecting unit may not overlap each other. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110026372 | Chronograph timepiece - Disclosed is a chronograph timepiece in which it is possible to prevent a non-rotation state at the time of first driving when chronograph measuring operation is reset during motor drive and restarting is effected. When a resetting operation is performed on a reset button during the driving of a motor and a rotation detection circuit detects non-rotation, a drive control unit controls a drive pulse generation circuit such that the control is completed without reversing the polarity of a motor drive pulse output from the drive pulse generation circuit, and that the motor is driven by a drive pulse of the same polarity as that at the time of the previous resetting in response to a starting operation performed on a start/stop button, driving the motor by the drive pulse of the same polarity at the time of restarting after the resetting. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110026375 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic timepiece - When a stepping motor is driven to rotate by a main driving pulse, if an induced signal exceeding a reference threshold voltage is detected only in a third segment, a pulse down operation is performed, and the main driving pulse is not changed when the same is detected in at least a first and the third segments. When it is detected only in a second and the third segments, a rank-up is performed without performing the driving by a correction drive pulse and, when it is not detected in at least the third segment, the rank up operation is performed after the driving by the correction driving pulse. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110080132 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic watch - The invention is intended to detect whether or not a stepping motor is rotated when being driven immediately after a pulse-down control accurately. A control unit drives the stepping motor with a first main drive pulse after the pulse-down control, and then drives the same with a correction drive pulse. A second detection circuit detects a state of rotation on the basis of a current flowing through the stepping motor when being driven with the correction drive pulse. The control circuit controls a drive pulse selection circuit so as to select the main drive pulse to be used for the next time on the basis of a result of detection of the second detection circuit. The drive pulse selection circuit rotates the stepping motor with the main drive pulse corresponding to a control signal. | 04-07-2011 |
| 20110122733 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic timepiece - A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detection portion that detects a rotation condition of a stepping motor, and a control portion that drives and controls the stepping motor by a correction drive pulse P | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110122734 | Chronograph timepiece - Disclosed is a chronograph timepiece whose chronograph hands are electrically drive-controlled and mechanically zero-restoring-controlled, wherein it possible to perform a normal operation at the time of start operation and reset operation. After a mechanical control unit releases the setting of chronograph hands in response to the start operation of a start/stop button, a contact portion is placed in a start state, and an electrical control unit starts a time measurement operation to electrically hand-movement-drive the chronograph hands, and, after a contact portion is placed in a reset state in response to a reset operation of a reset button and the electrical control unit electrically resets the time measurement operation, the mechanical control unit mechanically zero-restores and sets the chronograph hands. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110141857 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic watch - A stepping motor control circuit includes a rotation detection circuit that detects an induced signal and detects whether or not the induced signal exceeds a predetermined reference threshold voltage in a detection segment having a plurality of detection areas, and a control unit that determines the state of rotation of a stepping motor on the basis of a pattern indicating whether or not the induced signals exceed the reference threshold voltage and, on the basis of the result of detection, controls the driving of the stepping motor with anyone of a plurality of main drive pulses different from each other in energy or a correction drive pulse having larger energy than the main drive pulse. An ineffective area is provided between at least the two detection areas, and the control unit determines the state of rotation of the stepping motor without considering the induced signal. | 06-16-2011 |
| 20110158053 | Chronograph timepiece - Provided is a chronograph timepiece to perform a system reset by an easy-to-understand operation for users, including a crown, an operating unit that at least starts and resets a time period measurement, a time hand drive unit that keeps time of day based on a clock signal for electrically driving a time hand so as to indicate the timed time of day, a chronograph hand drive unit that measures a time period based on a chronograph signal in response to the start for electrically driving a chronograph hand so as to indicate a measured time period and to reset the time period measurement in response to the reset directed by the operating unit, and a control unit that resets the time hand drive unit in response to a reset directed by the crown and resets the chronograph hand drive unit in response to the reset directed by the operating unit. | 06-30-2011 |
| 20110199865 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic watch - The invention is aimed to be capable of detecting lowering of a power source without providing a circuit specific for voltage detection such as a comparator circuit. A stepping motor control circuit includes a battery configured to supply an electric power at least to a stepping motor, a rotation detection circuit configured to detect the state of rotation of the stepping motor, and a control unit configured to select an upgraded main drive pulse from a plurality of the main drive pulses having energy ranks different from each other and drive the stepping motor with the selected main drive pulse. The control unit is configured to determine that the voltage of the battery lowered to a level equal to or lower than the predetermined value when the main drive pulse reaches a maximum main drive pulse in a predetermined rank by upgrading it a number of times smaller than the predetermined number of times within a predetermined time. | 08-18-2011 |
| 20110216630 | Electronic timepiece - An electronic timepiece can reduce a burden imposed on a user who performs a manipulation for correcting the positional displacement of a pointer when a position of the pointer is displaced due to the demonstration of the pointer movement. The electronic timepiece includes: a pointer which is rotated in a first direction based on a manipulation signal corresponding to a manipulation from the outside; and a control part which performs the demonstration of the pointer movement in which the pointer is rotated in a second direction opposite to the first direction and the first direction, wherein the pointer is positioned at a position where a rotational angle in the first direction from a preset reference position is smaller than a rotational angle in a second direction from the reference position. | 09-08-2011 |
| 20110242946 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic timepiece - It is configured to include: a secondary battery as a power supply that supplies power at least to a stepping motor; a rotation detection portion that detects a rotation state of the stepping motor; a control portion that drives the stepping motor by selecting a drive pulse having energy corresponding to the rotation state of the stepping motor from a plurality of drive pulses; and a solar battery that charges the secondary battery. Upon determination that it is possible to rotate the stepping motor by an overcharge indicating drive pulse having predetermined energy, the control portion drives the stepping motor by changing a current drive pulse to an overconsuming drive pulse having larger energy than the overcharge indicating drive pulse. It thus becomes possible to suppress deterioration of a secondary battery caused by overcharge without having to provide a dedicated voltage detection circuit, such as a comparator circuit. | 10-06-2011 |
| 20110249536 | Chronograph timepiece - For a chronograph timepiece that chronograph hands are mechanically reset to zero and electrically driven, the chronograph hands are prevented from being electrically driven while being mechanically locked. A chronograph timepiece that is mechanically reset to zero includes a chronograph motor for driving a chronograph hand, a drive unit configured to drive the chronograph motor according a time measurement operation in response to a starting operation by an operating section, and a control unit configured to control the drive unit. The control unit has a rotation detecting circuit for detecting a rotation status of the chronograph motor. When the rotation detecting circuit detects that the chronograph motor is not rotated after the chronograph motor has been rotated a predetermined time period, driving the chronograph motor by the drive unit is stopped for resetting the time measurement operation. | 10-13-2011 |
| 20120014227 | Stepping motor control circuit and analog electronic timepiece - A detection interval in which the rotation status of a stepping motor is divided into a first interval immediately after driving executed by a main driving pulse, a second interval later than the first interval, and a third interval later than the second interval. The driving is executed by a correction driving pulse and the main driving pulse is increased, when a control circuit drives the stepping motor in a driving way different from a driving way at the time of exceeding a predetermined voltage in a case where the voltage of a secondary battery is lowered to be equal to or less than the predetermined voltage and when a rotation detection circuit and a detection time comparison determination circuit detect an induced signal exceeding a first reference threshold voltage in the first interval and the second interval and do not detect the induced signal exceeding a second reference threshold voltage lower than the first reference threshold voltage in the third interval. | 01-19-2012 |
| 20120044787 | Stepping motor control circuit and analogue electronic watch - The invention is intended to achieve detection of a source voltage without providing a voltage detection circuit and allow a drive stop while holding correct drive pulse information when the source voltage is lowered to a predetermined level or below. A detection segment for detecting the state of rotation of a stepping motor is divided into a plurality of segments and, when a pattern of an induced signal detected in the respective segments is a pattern which indicates that the voltage of a secondary battery is lowered to the predetermined voltage or below, the control circuit memorizes a polarity of the drive pulse used in the last driving in a polarity memory and stops the driving of the stepping motor. When the voltage of the secondary battery is restored to the predetermined voltage or higher, the driving is restarted by a main drive pulse having a polarity opposite from the polarity memorized in the polarity memory. | 02-23-2012 |
| 20120056480 | Control device, electronic apparatus, timepiece device, and control method - There are provided an operation input unit that pulls down or pulls up a signal input from an operating unit, a control unit that executes a predetermined operation according to the signal input through the operation input unit, and a power control unit that controls the control unit so as not to execute the predetermined operation and also controls the input unit so as not to pull down or pull up the signal according to a state of supplied electric power. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120057435 | Drive control apparatus, timepiece apparatus, and electronic apparatus - The invention is intended to allow a motor to be driven normally even when an output voltage of a primary power source unit varies. A motor drive control unit configured to attenuate a charge of a secondary cell by an electromotive force of a solar cell to a level lower than the charge at that moment before driving the motor, and then intensify the charge of a level higher than the charge at that moment after having driven the motor is provided. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120057436 | Electronic device, electronic device control method, and electronic device control program - An electronic device includes a primary power supply portion generating power by converting a first energy into electric energy as a second energy; a secondary power supply portion storing the electric energy obtained by the power generation; a charge detection portion detecting a state where the secondary power supply portion is not charged with the electric energy; a clocking portion clocking time and stopping display of clocked time when an operation input is detected; and a low power consumption state control portion which measures a time of a state where the operation input is detected and the charging is not performed, and stops the operation of the clocking portion when the measured time exceeds a preset time. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120057438 | Power consumption control device, timepiece device, electronic device, power consumption control method, power consumption control program - 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. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120057439 | Photovoltaic panel, wristwatch, and method of manufacturing photovoltaic panel - Provided is a photovoltaic panel in which a plurality of photovoltaic cells is electrically connected in series, and in which at least one of the photovoltaic cells is set as a non-use cell which is not electrically connected to the other photovoltaic cells and not used. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120170426 | Analogue electronic timepiece - A stepping motor for driving time hands, a stepping motor for driving a calendar, and a stepping motor for driving chronograph hands are all housed in a bottom plate of a movement of an analogue electronic timepiece. The stepping motor for driving chronograph hands is connected to a battery can via a battery pressing piece. The stepping motor for driving chronograph hands is arranged such that a larger amount of external magnetic field passes that stepping motor than the other stepping motors via the battery can and the battery pressing piece. The rotational drive of the stepping motor for driving chronograph hands can be made stable even under the presence of the external magnetic field by setting a drive force of the stepping motor for driving chronograph hands larger than the drive forces of the other stepping motors. | 07-05-2012 |
| 20120182840 | Motor drive device, timepiece device, and electronic device - A motor drive device includes a charging detection and reverse current prevention portion and a pulse selection control portion. The charging detection and reverse current prevention portion detects a charging state of a secondary battery that is charged by an electromotive force of a solar battery, the charging state indicating whether the secondary battery is being charged. The pulse selection control portion causes a first drive pulse for driving a motor to be generated and, in a case where the charging state that is detected by the charging detection and reverse current prevention portion is different after the first drive pulse has been output from what it was before the first drive pulse was output, causes a second drive pulse for driving the motor to be generated. | 07-19-2012 |
| 20120275276 | ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - A power generation unit generates electric power depending on light to be irradiated to a light receiving surface. An electricity storage unit stores the electric power generated by the power generation unit and outputs the stored electric power. A voltage detection unit detects a voltage of the electric power that is output from the electricity storage unit. A processing unit performs time measurement. A chronograph indicator points a time counted by the processing unit and is fixed by a mechanism while the time measurement is stopped. A second driving circuit drives the chronograph indicator by the use of the electric power that is output from the electricity storage unit. The processing unit drives the second driving circuit when the voltage of the electric power which is output from the electricity storage unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value. | 11-01-2012 |
| 20120287760 | STEPPING MOTOR CONTROL CIRCUIT AND ANALOG ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - A voltage detection circuit detects a voltage of a secondary cell that powers a stepping motor. A rotation detection circuit detects a rotation state of the stepping motor, and a control unit selects a main driving pulse for driving the stepping motor based on the detected rotation state from plural kinds of driving pulses having different energies. An analog display unit announces that the voltage of the secondary cell becomes a predetermined reference voltage when the voltage detection circuit detects that the voltage of the secondary cell becomes the predetermined reference voltage. When the control unit selects a predetermined main driving pulse before the voltage detection circuit detects that the voltage of the secondary cell becomes a current reference voltage, the control unit sets the reference voltage to the predetermined reference voltage higher than the current reference voltage. | 11-15-2012 |
| 20120300595 | MOTOR DRIVE DEVICE AND ANALOGUE ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - A secondary cell supplies drive power to a motor of an analogue electronic timepiece, and a state detection circuit detects whether or not a state at the time of driving the motor is a predetermined state. A cell voltage detection circuit detects a voltage of the secondary cell at intervals corresponding to a detection result by the state detection circuit. A control unit drives the motor by selecting a drive pulse of energy corresponding to a detection result of the cell voltage detection circuit out of drive pulses of different energies. When the state detection circuit detects that a state at the time of driving the motor is the predetermined state, the cell voltage detection circuit detects the voltage of the secondary cell at intervals shorter than intervals when the state detection circuit detects that the state at the time of driving the motors is not the predetermined state. | 11-29-2012 |
| 20120306428 | STEPPING MOTOR CONTROL CIRCUIT AND ANALOG ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - A control unit is provided which drives a stepping motor in a first mode in which a driving pulse is selected between one kind of main driving pulse and a correction driving pulse with energy greater than the one kind of main driving pulse in accordance with a rotation state of the stepping motor and the stepping motor is driven or a second mode in which the driving pulse is selected among plural kinds of main driving pulses and a correction driving pulse with energy greater than the plural kinds of main driving pulses in accordance with the rotation state of the stepping motor and the stepping motor is driven. The control unit switches a mode between the first and second modes depending on whether the voltage of a secondary cell serving as a power supply exceeds a switch voltage and drives the stepping motor. | 12-06-2012 |
