Electrically-operated toy

• US 9,950,269 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2014
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TOMY Company Limited
• Original Assignee: TOMY Company Limited
• Inventors: Watanabe, Kimitaka, Suimon, Yoshio
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Gene
• Assistant Examiner(s): HYLINSKI, ALYSSA MARIE
• Application Number:
  US14/407,287
• Publication Number:
  US 20160271507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,386 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 17/26 Details; Accessories drive mechanisms A63H29/00
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 29/00 Drive mechanisms for toys in general
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 29/22 Electric drives power supply through track A63H18/12

Abstract

[Problem to be Solved] To provide an electrically-operated toy that uses an electric double-layer capacitor as a main power source and yet can secure an operation duration time per charge that is long enough to fully satisfy the users who are infants, younger school children, etc.

[Solution] Provided is an electrically-operated toy that includes: an electric double-layer capacitor acting as a main power source; a movable mechanism for realizing toy functions; an electric motive power source for operating the movable mechanism; and a chopper-type step-up DC/DC converter that boosts a voltage received from the electric double-layer capacitor and supplies the voltage as a power source to at least the electric motive power source.

Claims

1. An electrically-operated toy, comprising:

an electric double-layer capacitor configured to serve as a main power source, rather than a battery, for the electrically-operated toy;

a movable mechanism for realizing functions to cause at least one component to move in the electrically-operated toy;

an electric motive power source for operating the movable mechanism;

a chopper step-up DC/DC converter for boosting a voltage received from the electric double-layer capacitor to generate a boosted voltage on an output of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter in order to supply the boosted voltage to at least the electric motive power source as a power source for the electric motive power source;

a power switch for turning on and off the power supply to the control circuit;

a short-circuit line that short-circuits a power line on an output side of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter when the power switch is off to thereby zero-reset a voltage applied to the control circuit; and

a control circuit for controlling an operation of the electric motive power source,

wherein the chopper step-up DC/DC converter is adapted to boost the voltage received from the electric double-layer capacitor to generate a boosted voltage on an output of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter in order to supply the boosted voltage to the control circuit as a power source to the control circuit, and

wherein the chopper step-up DC/DC converter has a constant voltage output function, and has a minimum input voltage that is lower than a first level of power source voltage required for actuation of the control circuit, and a constant output voltage that is higher than the first level of power source voltage required for actuation of the control circuit.

2. An electrically-operated toy, comprising:

an electric double-layer capacitor configured to serve as a main power source, rather than a battery, for the electrically-operated toy;

a movable mechanism for realizing functions to cause at least one component to move in the electrically-operated toy;

an electric motive power source for operating the movable mechanism;

a chopper step-up DC/DC converter for boosting a voltage received from the electric double-layer capacitor to generate a boosted voltage on an output of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter in order to supply the boosted voltage to at least the electric motive power source as a power source for the electric motive power source; and

a control circuit for controlling an operation of the electric motive power source,

wherein the chopper step-up DC/DC converter is adapted to boost the voltage received from the electric double-layer capacitor to generate a boosted voltage on an output of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter in order to supply the boosted voltage to the control circuit as a power source to the control circuit,

wherein the chopper step-up DC/DC converter has a constant voltage output function, and has a minimum input voltage that is lower than a first level of power source voltage required for actuation of the control circuit, and a constant output voltage that is higher than the first level of power source voltage required for actuation of the control circuit,

wherein the control circuit includes a microprocessor serving as a CPU, and

wherein the microprocessor has a built-in function of forcibly terminating program execution upon detecting that the output voltage of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter has fallen to a predetermined voltage that is preset as a value immediately before a rapid fall toward zero volts.

3. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 2, wherein

the microprocessor has a built-in function of detecting a charging voltage of the electric double-layer capacitor and changing a set output voltage value of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter according to the detected value of the charging voltage.

4. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 2,

wherein the movable mechanism includes both components of a front-wheel steering mechanism and a rear-wheel rotating mechanism for serving as car toy functions,

wherein the electric motive power source is a steering drive source for operating the front-wheel steering mechanism and a rear-wheel electric motor for operating the rear-wheel rotating mechanism, and

wherein the control circuit has a function of controlling the steering drive source and the rear-wheel electric motor according to a first control command.

5. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 4, wherein

the microprocessor has at least built-in functions of power-on reset and of controlling at least the steering drive source and the rear-wheel electric motor by decoding and executing a given control command, and

the electrically-operated toy further includes:

a power switch for turning on and off the power supply to the control circuit; and

a short-circuit line that short-circuits an electric power supply line on a secondary side of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter when the power switch is off to thereby zero-reset the voltage applied to the control circuit.

6. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 5, wherein

the microprocessor further has a built-in function of detecting a charging voltage of the electric double-layer capacitor and changing a set output voltage value of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter according to the detected value of the charging voltage.

7. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 5, wherein

the microprocessor further has built-in functions of setting a current flowing through the rear-wheel electric motor by applying a voltage pulse train to the rear-wheel electric motor, and of reducing the current flowing through the rear-wheel electric motor by changing a pulse width, pulse frequency, and/or duty ratio of the pulse train when the first control command is an energy saving command.

8. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 5, wherein

the control circuit further includes a reception demodulation IC that is configured to receive and demodulate a control command wirelessly sent by a predetermined modulation method and gives the first control command to the microprocessor, and

the microprocessor is configured to receive the first control command wirelessly sent from a predetermined remote controller through the reception demodulation IC, and to decode and execute the first control command.

9. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 2, further comprising:

a charger that is configured to be attached to and detached from the electrically-operated toy and configured to charge the electric double-layer capacitor embedded in the electrically-operated toy.

10. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 9, the charger including:

a pair of power supply terminals connected with a pair of power reception terminals on an electrically-operated toy side;

a charging power source unit being composed of one or more batteries and having an output voltage that is set to be substantially equal to a target charging voltage;

a resistor being placed on an electrical path leading from the charging power source unit to the power supply terminals and limiting a charging current flowing into the electric double-layer capacitor; and

an indicator lamp configured to light only

i) during a period in which there is electrical continuity between the pair of power supply terminals and the pair of power reception terminals and

ii) when at the same time a voltage across the pair of power supply terminals has risen to the target charging voltage.

11. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 9, the charger including:

a pair of power supply terminals connected with a pair of power reception terminals on the electrically-operated toy side;

a charging power source being composed of a manual power generator outputting a DC voltage; and

a smoothing and stabilizing circuit smoothing a voltage obtained from the charging power source unit and stabilizing the voltage to a target charging voltage.

12. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 4, further comprising:

a charger that is configured to be attached to and detached from the electrically-operated toy and is configured to charge the electric double-layer capacitor embedded in the electrically-operated toy.

13. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 12, the charger including:

pair of power supply terminals connected with a pair of power reception terminals on the side of a car toy constituting the electrically-operated toy;

a charging power source unit being composed of one or more batteries and having an output voltage that is set to be substantially equal to a target charging voltage;

resistor being placed on an electrical path leading from the charging power source unit to the power supply terminals and limiting the charging current flowing into the electric double-layer capacitor; and

an indicator lamp configured to light only

i) during a period in which there is electrical continuity between the pair of power supply terminals and the pair of power reception terminals and

ii) when at the same time a voltage across the pair of power supply terminals has risen to the target charging voltage,

wherein the pair of power supply terminals is configured as a power supply terminal receptacle or a power supply terminal plug that is provided on an external surface of a casing of a hand-held charger and that is plug-connected with a pair of power reception terminal plugs or power reception terminal receptacles provided on a bottom of a car body of the car toy in a state where rear wheels of the car toy are lifted.

14. The electrically-operated toy according to claim 12, wherein

the charger further includes

a pair of power supply terminals to be connected with a pair of power reception terminals on an electrically-operated toy side;

a charging power source unit being composed of a manual power generator outputting a DC voltage; and

a smoothing and stabilizing circuit smoothing a voltage obtained from the charging power source unit and stabilizing the voltage obtained from the charging power source unit to a target charging voltage,

wherein the pair of power supply terminals is configured as a power supply terminal receptacle or a power supply terminal plug that is provided on an external surface of a casing of a hand-held charger and that is plug-connected with a pair of power reception terminal plugs or power reception terminal receptacles provided on the bottom of the car body of the car toy in a state where the rear wheels of the car toy are lifted.

15. An electrically-operated toy that includes a non-transitory machine readable medium to store a computer program in an executable format for the electrically-operated toy that includes:

an electric double-layer capacitor configured to serve as a main power source, rather than a battery, for the electrically-operated toy;

a movable mechanism for realizing functions to cause at least one component to move in the electrically-operated toy;

an electric motive power source for operating the movable mechanism;

a control circuit for controlling an operation of the electric motive power source; and

a chopper step-up DC/DC converter for boosting a voltage received from the electric double-layer capacitor to generate a boosted voltage on an output of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter in order to supply the boosted voltage to at least the control circuit as a power source for the control circuit,

wherein the computer program is configured to cause a microprocessor included in the control circuit to function so as to forcibly terminate program execution upon detecting that an output voltage of the chopper step-up DC/DC converter has fallen to a predetermined voltage that is preset as a value immediately before a rapid fall to zero volts.