Electronic timepiece
US4326278A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 4, 1978 |
| Grant date | Apr 20, 1982 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 4, 1998 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG04C3/143
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An electronic timepiece having a stepping motor including a stator, rotor and coil, a driving circuit for applying driving pulses to the coil, an oscillating circuit for generating a time standard signal and a dividing circuit for dividing the time standard signal, is provided with a pulse combining circuit receptive of the output of the dividing circuit for producing a correction driving pulse having sufficient effective power to drive the motor under worst case conditions, a detector for detecting the rotation or non-rotation condition of the rotor after the application to the coil by the driving circuit of a normal driving pulse having less effective power than the correction driving pulse, and a controller for the driving circuit to apply normal driving pulses to the coil and responsive to the output of the detector to apply a correction driving pulse when a non-rotation condition is detected. The power consumption due to the pulse driving of the motor is minimized by incrementally decreasing the effective power of successive normal driving pulses and by incrementally increasing the effective power of successive normal driving pulses in response to the detection of a non-rotati…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.