JPH0310929B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, the unit operating elements of the photographing sequence, such as an aperture mechanism, a shutter mechanism, and a film winding mechanism, are divided into a plurality of groups, a motor is provided for each group, and a control circuit controls the motor of each group. This invention relates to an improvement of a multi-motor drive type camera that performs a photographing sequence by driving and controlling the motor.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, cameras that are equipped with a motor and controlled by a control circuit to perform a series of photographic sequence operations including film winding have become rapidly popular. In order to improve the productivity and reliability of such motor drive cameras, a multi-motor drive type camera is developed in which the operating elements of the shooting sequence are made into units, and the operating elements are charged and operated by motors provided in each unit. are also appearing. For example, in a single-lens reflex camera, the aperture drive unit and mirror box are driven by one motor, and the shutter unit and film winding unit are driven by another motor.
Furthermore, the shutter unit and aperture drive unit may also be driven by separate motors, or
Install the shutter unit together with the aperture drive unit, etc.
It is known to drive the film winding unit with one motor and drive the film winding unit with another motor. Also, in lens shutter cameras,
It is known that the shutter and automatic focusing mechanism are charged by one motor, and the film is wound by another motor.

In conventional multi-motor drive cameras like this, multiple motors are driven by a single power supply, and the power supply generally has a maximum load current that is set to the maximum current at startup among the multiple motors. Uses suitable batteries. For this reason, in conventional multi-motor drive type cameras, multiple motors cannot be driven at the same time and are driven sequentially to avoid duplication, resulting in a long drive time for all the multiple motors. This results in a problem that the time required for a series of photographing sequences becomes longer and the number of images taken per unit time decreases when consecutive photographs are taken.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems in multi-motor drive type cameras.The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems in multi-motor drive type cameras. In a multi-motor drive type camera that performs a photographing sequence by providing a motor for each set of motors and driving and controlling each set of motors using a control circuit, the actuating elements that can be driven are divided into different groups by overlapping the grouping of the actuating elements. The motors are divided into groups, and at least as many power supplies are provided as there are in the different groups, and the control circuit checks the consumption of these power supplies, and if none of the power supplies is consumed, the motors of the different groups are connected to the different power sources. Accordingly, the multi-motor drive type camera is characterized in that the motors are driven in duplicate, and when one of the power supplies is exhausted, the motors of the other set are controlled to be driven by the remaining power supply with shifted timing. It is in.

That is, in the multi-motor drive camera of the present invention, with the above configuration, the operating elements that can be driven redundantly are driven redundantly when none of the power supplies are exhausted, so that the time required for a series of shooting sequences can be shortened. When one power source is exhausted, the operating elements that can be redundantly driven by the remaining power source are also driven at different timings, so each power source can be used until it is exhausted.

The present invention will be explained below using illustrated examples.

1 and 3 are circuit diagrams showing embodiments of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 4 are drive time charts of the motors shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, respectively.

In the figure, C is a control circuit, BB1 and B2 are power supplies, M1 and M1' are motors driven by power supply B1, and M2 is a power supply B1 or B2 by switching.
Motors driven by T _D 1, T _D 1', T _D
12 is the motor M1, M1', M by the power supply B1.
A power transistor provided in a circuit that drives 2,
T _D 2 is a power transistor provided in a circuit that drives motor M2 by power source B 2; T _B 1, T _B
1', T _B 2 are power transistors provided in the brake circuits of motors M1, M1', M2, D1, D2
is a diode. The motors M1 or M1' and M2 are motors that drive different operating elements that can be driven in duplicate in the imaging sequence.

The difference between the embodiments of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 is that the control circuit C
The operations described below are performed by receiving power from only the power source B1 in FIG. 1, while in FIG. 3 they are performed by receiving power from both power sources B1 and B2, and In the figure, the motor M1 drives, for example, an aperture mechanism, a shutter mechanism, or a mirror mechanism, and a motor M2 drives a film winding mechanism, whereas in FIG.
Motor M1 is an aperture mechanism and shutter mechanism, motor M
Reference numeral 1' drives a mirror mechanism, and motor M2 drives a film winding mechanism. Although not shown, the input terminal of the control circuit C
A known switch means is provided in the power supply path to Vcc, which is closed in response to a release operation and kept closed by a control circuit C until the end of the photographing sequence.

In either example, the control circuit C that receives power performs a battery check on the power supplies B1 and B2 prior to starting control of the imaging sequence,
When both the batteries of the power supplies B1 and B2 are not exhausted, the power transistor T _D12 is kept in a non-conductive state to shorten the time required for the imaging sequence, as indicated by the solid line in Figures 2 and 4. Control is performed to drive the motors M1 and M2 in duplicate. Even if the motors M1 and M2 are driven in duplicate in this manner, since the motors M1 and M2 are driven by separate power supplies B1 and B2, respectively, a shortage of starting current due to parallel drive does not occur. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the control circuit C always receives power from the power source B1 or B2, whichever has the higher voltage.
There is also less risk of control failure due to voltage drop.

The control circuit C prohibits the operation of the photographing sequence or further displays the same when the battery of the power source B1 or the battery of the power source B2 is exhausted. In addition, when only the battery of the power source B2, which is easily consumed, is exhausted, just like in the conventional multi-motor drive type camera, only the power source B1 is used to operate the motors M1 and M2 in the example in Fig. 1, and the motor in the example in Fig. 3. M1, M
1' and motor M2 are sequentially driven, or the photographing sequence is also displayed. The drive shown by the two-dot chain line of the motor M2 in FIGS. 2 and 4 is the drive of the motor M1 and M
1' drive timing is shown. This allows the power sources B1 and B2 to be used until both batteries are sufficiently exhausted.

As described above, in the present invention, the power supplies for the motors that drive each of the unit actuating elements that can be driven redundantly in the photographing sequence are separate, and when none of these power supplies are exhausted, the power supplies for each motor are used. Because the camera is driven in duplicate, the time required for the shooting sequence is shortened, making it suitable for continuous snapshots, without causing problems such as insufficient starting current that occur when driving in duplicate with conventional multi-motor drive cameras. It can be a camera and also
When one power source is exhausted, the remaining power source drives all the motors as in conventional multi-motor drive cameras, so each power source can be used until it is fully exhausted.

Note that simply increasing the number of batteries in proportion to the number of power supplies for redundant drive control prevents the camera from becoming smaller and lighter. If you use 2 sets of 3 AAA batteries instead of 4 AA batteries, the shooting sequence operation will be performed without any problem even though the battery capacity and voltage will be reduced, which will actually be advantageous in terms of space. You can also get and,
Even if you use batteries as described above, the maximum current of the battery will hardly change, so even if the voltage drops, the starting current of the motor will hardly change compared to when using conventional batteries. The driving time of the system also hardly increases.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 3 are circuit diagrams showing embodiments of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 4 are drive time charts of the motors shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, respectively. C...control circuit, B1, B2...power supply, M1,
M1', M2...Motor, T _D 1, T _D 1', T _D 1
2, T _D 2, T _B 1, T _B 1', T _B 2...power transistor, D1, D2... diode.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 The unit operating elements of the photographing sequence, such as the aperture mechanism, the shutter mechanism, and the film winding mechanism, are divided into a plurality of groups, a motor is provided for each group, and the photographing sequence is performed by driving and controlling each group of motors using a control circuit. In a multi-motor drive type camera, the actuating elements are divided into different groups, and the actuating elements that can be driven redundantly are divided into different groups, and power supplies are provided at least as many times as there are different groups, and the power supplies are controlled by a control circuit. Check the consumption of the power supplies, and if none of the power supplies are consumed, the motors of the other set are redundantly driven by the different power supplies, and when one of the power supplies is consumed, the motors of the other set are driven redundantly by the different power supplies. A multi-motor drive type camera characterized in that the motors are controlled to be driven by the remaining power source at different timings.