Low power, high resolution position encoder for motorized window covering
Granted: March 9, 2010
Patent Number:
7673667
A motorized window covering has a motor and a housing that holds the motor and a dc battery. When the motor is energized to move a window covering, a pulse detector counts the motor current pulses to determine the position of the window covering. A user can save a motor current pulse count corresponding to a desired position and then return the desired position from a different position by simply pressing a button on a remote control unit. Further, inaccuracies caused by motor current…
Message synchronization over a stochastic network
Granted: February 9, 2010
Patent Number:
7660366
Methods and apparatus to communicate between a local component and a remote component, where the local component is connected to the remote component using a non-deterministic communication link. A local clock is synchronized with a remote clock to within a maximum offset. A rate message from the remote component is received at the local component, where the rate message includes a first time stamp. A data rate is adjusted using the rate message when the time of the local clock…
Composite roll bearing
Granted: December 29, 2009
Patent Number:
7637664
A composite roll bearing (1), comprising an outer ring (2) and an annular inner ring (3) of groove shape in cross section having first, second, and third receiving surfaces (3a, 3b, 3c) facing the both end face inner peripheral portions (2a, 2b) and the circular inner peripheral surface (2c) of the outer ring (2) at specified intervals. A plurality of rollers (4) for thrust bearing are installed between one end face portion (2a) of the outer ring (2) and the first receiving surface (3a)…
Electromagnetic brake device for small-sized motor
Granted: November 3, 2009
Patent Number:
7612477
An electromagnetic brake device (3) is assembled to a rear end section of a small-sized motor (1). The electromagnetic brake device (3) has a rotating disc (11) fixed to a motor rotation shaft (4), a sliding disc (12) slidable in an axial direction, a coil spring (13) pressing the sliding disc (12) to the rotating disc (11), and an electromagnet (14) capable of attracting the sliding disc (12) against spring force. A circular recess (16e) is formed in the center of a rear end surface of…
Linear actuator
Granted: August 18, 2009
Patent Number:
7576456
In a linear actuator (1), on the inside of a rectangular tubular movable element (3), a linear guide (14) that supports the movable element (3) so as to be linearly movable is positioned at a center of the movable element (3), and a position detecting mechanism (20) and load attaching member (13) that sandwich the linear guide are disposed linearly in a vertical direction. This arrangement enables a center of gravity of the movable element (3) to be matched with a center of the linear…
Finger unit and multi-finger grasping mechanism
Granted: July 7, 2009
Patent Number:
7556299
A multi-finger grasping mechanism (300), comprising three two-joint finger units (1-1 to 1-3). Each two-joint finger unit further comprises a finger root part (2), a finger root side joint part (5), a finger intermediate part (3), a finger tip side joint part (6), and a finger tip part (4). The finger intermediate part (3) can be swung about the joint axis (5a) of the finger root side joint part (5), and the finger tip part (4) can be swung about the joint axis (6a) of the finger tip…
Finger unit for robot hand
Granted: July 7, 2009
Patent Number:
7556300
A finger unit of a robot hand has a first rotational actuator, a first finger joint part, a first finger linkage, a second finger joint part, and a second finger linkage that are connected in this order. A second rotational actuator is attached to the first finger linkage. The first finger linkage swivels about the first finger joint part by the first rotational actuator, and the second finger linkage swivels about the second finger joint part by the second rotational actuator. The…
Wave gear drive having high ratcheting torque tooth profile
Granted: May 12, 2009
Patent Number:
7530292
A wave gear drive (1), wherein a rigid internal gear (2) is formed in a conical gear and a flexible external gear (3) is formed in a spur gear with a module m. The number of the teeth of the external gear (3) is reduced by the quantity of 2n (n is a positive integer) less than that of the internal gear (2), and the amount of the deflection of the major axis of the elliptic rim neutral line of the external gear (3) in the cross section perpendicular to the axis of the external gear (3) in…
Method for magnetizing ring magnet and magnetic encoder
Granted: March 3, 2009
Patent Number:
7498914
An insert member (42) having an identical permeability is fitted in the circular center hole(41a) of a magnetic ring (41) which is then fitted in the circular hollow section (43a) of a fitting-over member (43) having an identical permeability. Under that state, the magnetic ring (41) is placed in a parallel magnetic field. Lines of magnetic flux passing through the magnetic ring (41) held between the insert member (42) and the fitting-over member (43) become linear without substantially…
Wave gear device
Granted: February 3, 2009
Patent Number:
7484436
A wave gear device, wherein, when a wave generator is in a low speed rotating state, a rolling bearing state is formed by a wave bearing and the wave generator and a flexible external gear are held in a relatively rotatable state and when the wave generator is in a high speed rotating state, partition pieces and split side plate pieces forming the retainer of the web bearing are displaced to the outside to stop the rotation of balls in their axes and the revolution thereof. Accordingly,…
Magnetic absolute encoder
Granted: December 30, 2008
Patent Number:
7471080
In the magnetic absolute encoder, an ordinary operating circuit and an ordinary/backup operating circuit are actuated during ordinary operation in which power is supplied from the ordinary operating power supply; the single-rotation absolute value (1) and single-rotation absolute value (2) detected by these circuits are compared by the abnormality diagnosis circuit, and the presence or absence of an abnormality is automatically judged During backup in which the ordinary operating power…
Flat hollow brushless servo motor with tool mounting hole
Granted: December 9, 2008
Patent Number:
7462967
A flat, hollow brushless servomotor (1) has a motor housing (2), housing through holes (22a, 23a) formed in a center of both end plate portions (22, 23), a rotor shaft (41) of which a portion of both ends is exposed from the through holes, a tool-mounting hole (43) that extends through a center thereof, and workpiece insertion recesses (24, 25) formed in an external surface of both end plate portions (22, 23) of the motor housing (2) by reducing the thickness thereof. A workpiece with a…
Joint mechanism for robot hand and the like
Granted: November 25, 2008
Patent Number:
7454995
A joint mechanism that can be used in an articulated finger unit of a robot hand has first and second actuators that are disposed facing each other from the front and back on either side of a perpendicular joint axle, and first and second drive bevel gears that are coaxially connected and fixed to distal ends of output axles thereof. A driven bevel gear fixedly mounted in coaxial manner on the perpendicular joint axle meshes with the first and second drive bevel gears. The perpendicular…
Multichannel pulse train transmitting apparatus
Granted: June 17, 2008
Patent Number:
7388344
In the multi-shaft driving apparatus, position command pulse trains for servomotors are generated from a motor controller and supplied to motor drivers for the respective servomotors via a multichannel pulse train transmitting apparatus. The multichannel pulse train transmitting apparatus converts the position command pulse trains supplied from the motor controller 6 to serial signals in a transmission-side converter, combines the resulting serial signals as a stream signal, and supplies…
Geared motor
Granted: May 20, 2008
Patent Number:
7375487
A motor encoder is mounted on a motor shaft of a geared motor 1, and the origin position is detected by using a Z-phase signal. An absolute value encoder with a precision that allows the number of motor rotations to be determined is mounted on an output shaft 4 of a reduction gear, and the absolute rotational position thereof is detected. When the first Z-phase signal generated in conjunction with the rotation of the motor shaft 2a is obtained at startup and at other times, the…
Driving method for galvano scanner
Granted: April 15, 2008
Patent Number:
7359102
A galvano scanner system has a galvano scanner and a scanner driver for driving the scanner, wherein a microcomputer for generating commands in which digital data representing a drive pattern of the scanner is written is mounted in the scanner driver. The microcomputer for generating commands is actuated by an external or internal trigger signal, and the digital data of the drive pattern is sequentially output. The output data is converted to an analog signal in a DA converter, and a…
Apparatus for transmitting position detection signal of multi-shaft motor
Granted: March 25, 2008
Patent Number:
7348897
An apparatus for transmitting a position detection signal of a multi-shaft motor whereby a parallel-form detection signal that is output from position-detecting devices disposed on each of a plurality of motors and used for indicating a motor rotation position can be transmitted to motor drivers for controlling the driving of the motors via a group of a small number of wires. In the apparatus for transmitting a position detection signal of a multi-shaft motor, a transmission-side…
Method and apparatus for one directional communications in bidirectional communications channel
Granted: March 11, 2008
Patent Number:
7342884
Optical transceivers used in data communications equipment are typically bidirectional and require two-way communications in order to maintain their operability. However, in some applications such as cable television, the traffic is highly unbalanced with very high bandwidth requirements in one direction and minimal bandwidth requirements in the opposite direction. Hence for such efficient and cost effective one-way communication applications, unidirectional fiber optic transceivers are…
Composite planetary device
Granted: February 19, 2008
Patent Number:
7331895
A composite planetary speed reduction device (1), wherein gears (11), (12), and (13) and rollers (21), (22), and (23) forming a planetary gear speed reduction mechanism (10) and a planetary roller speed reduction mechanism (20) are integrally rotated around a common rotating center axis, respectively. The radius of the sun roller (21) is larger by ?r1 than the radius r1 of the working pitch circle of the sun gear (11), the radius r21 of the working pitch circle of the planetary gear (12)…
Wave gear drive having widely engaging tooth profile
Granted: February 12, 2008
Patent Number:
7328632
A wave gear drive, wherein a rigid internal gear is formed in a spur gear with a module m and a flexible external gear is formed in a conical gear having an opening side front end with a module m. The number of the teeth of the external gear is reduced by the quantity of 2n (n is a positive integer) less than that of the internal gear, and the amount of the deflection of the major axis of the elliptic rim neutral line of the external gear is set to 2 ?mn (?>1) at the opening side…