Microcontroller regulated quartz clock
First Claim
1. In a clock, the combination of a movement for rotating at least one hand about a center of an analog display, said movement comprising, a battery, a quartz crystal oscillator, a stepper motor, a gear train, a programmable microcontroller for processing pulses from said quartz crystal oscillator to turn “
- on” and
“
off”
said stepper motor during prescribed intervals of time, said analog display having at least one pair of sectors for indicating with said hand at least one pair of activities during each revolution of said hand; and
a computer program for providing a set of instructions to said microcontroller for turning said stepper motor “
on” and
“
off”
during said prescribed intervals of time.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A generic clock with a mechanically driven display, a standard quartz movement and a microcontroller which is programmed to turn mechanically driven features such as clock hands and counters “on” and “off” during prescribed intervals of time. A large number of novel derivative clocks can be produced by merely re-programming the microcontroller and making simple revisions to the mechanically driven display. During each tick of the clock, a set of instructions to the microcontoller pulses a stepper motor of the clock in short intervals to further extend the life of the clock'"'"'s battery.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. In a clock, the combination of a movement for rotating at least one hand about a center of an analog display, said movement comprising, a battery, a quartz crystal oscillator, a stepper motor, a gear train, a programmable microcontroller for processing pulses from said quartz crystal oscillator to turn “
- on” and
“
off”
said stepper motor during prescribed intervals of time, said analog display having at least one pair of sectors for indicating with said hand at least one pair of activities during each revolution of said hand; and
a computer program for providing a set of instructions to said microcontroller for turning said stepper motor “
on” and
“
off”
during said prescribed intervals of time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
- on” and
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23. In a clock of the type having a battery, a quartz crystal oscillator, a countdown divider, a stepper motor, a gear train, an analog display and at least one hand driven by said gear train, the improvement comprising a programmable microcontroller for processing pulses from said quartz crystal oscillator to rotate and stop said hand during prescribed intervals of time for indicating with said hand at least one pair of activities during each revolution of said hand, and a computer program for providing a set of instructions to said microcontroller for rotating and stopping said hand during said prescribed intervals of time to indicate the occurrences of said pair of activities during each revolution of said hand.
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24. In a clock of the type having a lithium battery, a quartz crystal oscillator for generating a 32768 Hz train of pulses, a countdown divider operatively connected to said crystal oscillator for reducing said 32768 frequency of said train of pulses to a 1 Hz. frequency, a stepper motor operatively connected to said countdown divider for driving a gear train, a gear train operatively connected to said stepper motor, and a mechanically driven hand operatively connected to said gear train, the improvement comprising:
- a programmable microcontroller operatively connected to said crystal oscillator, said countdown divider and said stepper motor; and
a computer program for providing a set of instructions to said microcontroller to execute for providing a life of said battery of at least 10 years and indicating the occurrence of at least one pair of activities during each revolution by pulsing said stepper motor during prescribed intervals of time. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
- a programmable microcontroller operatively connected to said crystal oscillator, said countdown divider and said stepper motor; and
Specification