JPH0466483B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an optical rotary connector device that extracts optical signals from a multicore optical fiber cable that is unwound from a drum or wound up. [Summary of the Invention] The present invention includes a ring-shaped light receiver having an arc-shaped light-receiving surface of the same number as the number of core wires of the optical fiber cable, on the opposing surface of the main body provided facing the rotating part of the optical rotary connector. At the same time, by providing a detection means for detecting the rotation angle of the rotating part, and replacing the transmission line from the light receiver with the detection means signal, the transmission of the optical signal through the rotation mechanism can be controlled depending on the direction of rotation of the optical fiber cable, and the rotation angle of the optical fiber cable. This ensures that the process can be performed reliably regardless of irregular changes in speed. [Prior Art] In recent years, multicore optical fiber cables, which can transmit larger amounts of data than coaxial cables, have come into use as signal transmission lines for video monitors for submarine exploration and robots for submarine work. FIG. 6 shows an example of a rotary connector for a conventional multi-core optical fiber cable.
Optical fiber cable 20 wound around the body of
The optical rotary connector 22 that supplies signals to the seventh
It is shown enlarged in the figure. The optical rotary connector 22 has three concave mirrors 24A, 24B, and 24C fixed therein by a support rod 23, and is coupled to a side wall 25 of the rotating drum 21 via a bearing 26. Then, the core wires 20a, 20b, 2 of the optical fiber cable 20
The end portion of 0c is fixed to the side wall 25. The outer wall of the optical rotary connector 22 has a core wire 27 of another optical fiber cable 27 for transmitting signals.
a, 27b, 27c are fixed, and this core wire 27
Optical signals output from the concave mirror 2 via lenses 28a, 28b, 28c
4A, 24B, and 24C. Therefore, no matter which position the rotating drum 21 rotates, a plurality of signals from the optical fiber cable 27 are reflected by the concave mirrors 24A, 24B, and 24C through the optical rotary connector 22, and are sent to the rotating drum 21. The signal is transmitted to each core wire 20a, 20b, 20c of the wound optical fiber cable 20. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, the rotary connector configured as described above uses a mirror to optically correct the positional shift of the transmission line due to rotation, so the reflective surface of the reflector It is necessary to maintain high accuracy, and
Since the mounting position must be precisely determined, it is extremely difficult to manufacture and is impractical. [Means for Solving the Problems] Therefore, the present invention has been made by paying attention to the above problems, and includes a multi-core structure on the circumference of one of the surfaces perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotating disk. Each of the core wires of the optical fiber cable is inserted and fixed through a hole in the direction of the rotation axis of the rotating disk so that the end surface of each core wire of the optical fiber cable is exposed. A light receiver consisting of a plurality of arc-shaped light-receiving elements constituting a ring as a whole and a rotation angle detection section are provided on the surface of the case to which the disc is rotatably fixed, and each of the plurality of arc-shaped light-receiving elements is connected to each of the above. The optical signal emitted from the end face of the core wire is received and transmitted to each of the multi-core transmission lines, and the signal from the rotation angle detection section on which the contactor fixed to the rotating disk slides is also transmitted and received. On the side, the transmission line is replaced by the signal from the rotation angle detection section to correct the positional shift of the transmission line due to the rotation of the rotating disk. It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems by providing an optical rotary connector device that can transmit signals easily and is easy to manufacture. [Operation] A plurality of arc-shaped light-receiving elements constituting a ring as a whole are installed on the surface of the case facing the rotating disk to which each core wire of a multi-core optical fiber cable is fixed on the circumference. The arrangement is such that it can receive signals, and the signals from multiple arc-shaped light receiving elements are exchanged according to the rotation of the rotating disk, so it is possible to electrically correct deviations in the transmission line due to rotation, and also to This eliminates the need for high-precision parts in manufacturing, making manufacturing easier and making mass production possible. [Example] Hereinafter, how the configuration of the present invention is actually embodied will be explained along with its operation with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a rotary connector portion of an optical rotary connector device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
Figures a and b are A-A' of the optical rotary connector,
It shows a cross section taken along line BB'. In these figures, each of the six optical fiber core wires 8 of the multicore optical fiber cable A is connected to the rotating disk 2.
are inserted and fixed into the six holes 9, respectively. The end faces of each of the six optical fiber core wires 8 are exposed on the surface of the rotating disk 2 facing the light receiver 12 provided in the case 1. Rotating disk 2
A rotating roller 3 is fixed to the outer circumference of the case 1, and the rotating roller 3 is engaged with a groove 4 provided on the inner circumference of the case 1, and the rotating disk 2 is rotated with respect to the case 1 by a mechanism not shown. freely supported. In addition, the contact 14 that is in electrical contact with the conductor plate 11 provided on the case 1 is fixed to the rotating disk 2, so that the rotation angle of the rotating disk 2 can be detected from the position of contact with the conductor plate 11. Make it. A light receiver 12 faces with a slight gap from the surface of the rotating disk 2 where the end faces of the six optical fiber core wires 8 are exposed, and the light emitted from each of the six optical fiber core wires 8 is detected. The light receiver 12 is configured to be able to receive the signal. As shown in FIG. 2a, the mounting structure of the rotating roller 3 is as shown in FIG.
Insert one end of the telescopic rod 5, rotatably attach the rotary roller 3 to the other end of the telescopic rod 5, and press the rotary roller 3 into the recess 4 provided on the inner circumference of the case 1 by the spring 7 to engage it. . Here, when the rotating disk 2 rotates, the rotating roller 3 resists the spring 7, climbs over the concave portions 4 and the peaks of the concave portions 4, and engages with the next concave portion, and the rotating disk 2 is intermittently rotated at a predetermined angle. The rotation position is regulated. Therefore, the rotary disk 2 is intermittently rotated by the rotary roller 3, and in this embodiment, six resting positions can be obtained. The configuration for determining the rotation angle of the rotating disk 2 is as shown in FIG.
The light receiving element 13 is made up of arc-shaped light receiving elements 13.
Each of these is provided at a position corresponding to each core wire of the optical fiber core wire 8. A conductor plate 11 divided into six parts having similar shapes is provided outside the light receiver 12, and a contactor 14 attached to the rotating disk 2 slides on the conductor plate 11. That is, as the rotating disk 2 rotates, the conductor plate 1 that the contactor 14 comes into contact with
Since the position of the rotating disk 2 changes, the contactor 14 detects the conductive plate 11 that is in contact with the rotating disk 2.
The rotation angle of can be known by this switching means. The area of the conductor plate 11 divided into six parts'~
Lead wires are connected to the regions ′ to ′ of the conductor plate 11 that are in contact with the contacts 14, respectively.
A high level signal appears only on the lead wire . Figure 3 shows an example of the transmission line between the light receiving section and the terminal section of case 1.
The six lead wires from the conductor plate 11 divided into six parts are input to the code converter 32, and the six lead wires from the conductor plate 11, which are divided into six parts, are inputted to the code converter 32, and the three lead wires as shown in Table 1 are input to the code converter 32. It is converted into bit codes A ₀ , A ₁ , and A ₂ .

[Table] That is, as shown in Table 2, the output of the code converter 32
The contents correspond to the rotation angle of the rotary disk 2 corresponding to .about.'.

[Table] The output of the code converter 32 in Table 2 is input in parallel to the asynchronous general-purpose receiving device (UART) 33, converted to a serial signal at the timing of the timing circuit 34, and then converted into an optical signal by the electrical-to-optical converter E/031. converted into a signal. Then, this optical signal is transmitted along with other transmission information to a terminal device having a monitor section and a control section through one transmission line of the multi-core optical fiber cable B forming the transmission line. On the other hand, the optical signal a~ which is each channel signal irradiated from the core wire 8 attached to the rotating disk 2
The light f is received by the light receiving element 13 at the corresponding position and converted into an electrical signal. These electrical signals are each converted into optical signals again by the electrical-optical converter E/031 and sent to the optical fiber cable B. When the rotating disk 2 rotates, the positions of the optical signals a to f also rotate, so that each light receiving area receiving these optical signals moves to an adjacent light receiving area. In other words, as the transmission lines corresponding to each channel made up of the multi-core optical fiber cable B move as it rotates, the transmission lines can be switched on the signal receiving side and data from the same channel can be received on the same line. You must do so. The signal used for such control is the 3-bit rotation angle detection signal sent from the UART 33 mentioned above. The optical signal transmitted through the relatively long transmission line of the optical fiber cable B is converted into an electrical signal by the optical-to-electrical converter O/E35. The simultaneously transmitted angle detection signal from the UART 33 is applied to the UART 38, and each channel signal _R to _R is applied to the line switching circuit 36. UART38
The serial 3-bit signal inputted to the decoder 37 is converted into a parallel 3-bit signal according to the timing of the timing circuit 39, and is applied to the decoder 37.
The decoder 37 converts the 3-bit signal as shown in Table 3 to create a switching control signal for the line switching circuit 36.

[Table] The line switching circuit 36 switches the six lines _R to _R from the optical-to-electrical converter 35 with the switching control signal output from the decoder 37, and outputs the signals to lines a' to f'. do. The signals on lines a' to f' are then applied to the monitor section or control section 40. Since the line switching circuit 36 switches the lines in synchronization with the rotation of the rotating disk 2, the channel signal transmitted by each optical fiber core wire 8 of the multi-core optical fiber cable A changes when the rotating disk 2 rotates. are also taken out to lines a' to f' without being confused with signals of other channels. That is, rotating disk 2
When the light receiving element 1 constituting the light receiver 12 rotates, the light receiving element 1 forming the light receiver 12
The output signal of the code converter 32 (the input signal of the decoder 37) is used to detect which of the regions 3 to 3 receives the irradiated lights a to f from the rotating disk 2, and to control the switching of the line switching circuit 36. A signal (output signal of the decoder 37) is formed to control the line switching circuit 36. As a result, as shown in Tables 1 and 2 above, even if the channel numbers a to f received by the light receiving element 13 change, the channel signals output to the lines a' to f' are switched to the line switching circuit 36. corrected,
Always a→a′, b→b′, c→c′, d→d′, e→e′
，
It is controlled so that f→f'. FIG. 4 shows a circuit example of the code converter 32. In this figure, output signals A ₂ to _{A 0} can be obtained by converting six input signals from the six divided regions ′ to ′ of the conductive plate 11 as shown in Table 2 above. For example, there is a “1” signal only at ′, and
' is a "0" signal, this "1" signal passes only through the OR gate 40, and "001" is obtained as the output signal A ₂ A ₁ A ₀ . Furthermore, when ' is "1", "1" is input to the OR gates 41 and 42, so the outputs of the OR gates 41 and 42 become "1", and the output signal A ₂ A ₁ A ₀ becomes "110". . As the general-purpose asynchronous transmitting/receiving devices (UART) 33 and 38, for example, Intersil's IC number IM6402 can be used. The decoder 37 can be constructed using a Texas Instruments IC with IC number 74LS138. FIG. 5 shows an example of the circuit of the line switching circuit 36 and the decoder 37. Configuring the decoder 37
Table 4 shows the function table of IC74LS138.

【table】

[Table] In Fig. 5, outputs Y' ₁ to Y' ₆ are output from inverter 5.
0, respectively, and applied to the line switching circuit 36 as switching control signals Y ₁ to Y ₆ . As is clear from Table 4, only one line of the switching control signals _Y1 to _Y6 is at a high level. If line Y ₁ is at high level, lines Y ₂ to _{Y 6} are at low level, so AND gate cases 611, 622, 633, 64
Only 4,655,666 is open, input line _R
~ Connect _R to output lines a′ to f′. That is,
Input line _R becomes output line a′, input line _R
are connected to output line b', and similarly input lines _R to _R are connected to output lines c' to f', respectively. A function table for such a line switching circuit 36 is shown in Table 5.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, even if the transmission line on the fixed side of the optical rotary connector is replaced with the rotation of the multi-core optical fiber cable,
The transmission line is electrically switched on the receiving side of the signal transmitted by the optical fiber cable, and the replaced transmission line is corrected at high speed, so the signal can be reliably transmitted regardless of whether the optical fiber cable rotates or stops. In addition to being able to transmit data, the configuration for switching transmission lines can be done with a simple logic circuit.
It is easy to realize, inexpensive, and mass-produced. In addition, since the rotation of the optical rotary connector is performed intermittently and a stationary position corresponding to at least the number of fiber cores is obtained, it is possible to reduce the frequency of switching of the optical cable transmission line due to rotation, and to prevent interruptions in information. It has the advantage of being less.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an optical rotary connector section showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 2 a and b are A-A in Fig. 1.
A', B-B' line cross-sectional structure diagram, Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the connection between the transmitting section and the terminal section, Figure 4 is the circuit diagram of the code converter, and Figure 5 is the circuit diagram of the line switching circuit. , FIG. 6, and FIG. 7 are explanatory diagrams of conventional optical rotary connectors. In the figure, 1 is a case of an optical rotary connector, 2 is a rotating disk of an optical rotary connector, 8 is an optical fiber core wire, 11 is a conductor plate, 12 is a light receiver, 32 is a code converter, 37 is a decoder, and 36 is a This is a line switching circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A rotating disk fixed to an end surface on a circumference equidistant from a rotation center axis so that each core wire of an n-core optical fiber cable is exposed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction. 2, and arc-shaped light receiving elements 13 that rotatably support the rotating disk 2, are arranged in a ring shape on the surface of the rotating disk in contact with the exposed end surface of the optical fiber, and have the same number as the core wires.
a case part 1 provided with a rotary disk; and a rotation angle regulating member made of a spring material that intermittently rotates the rotating disk and the case part and regulates their relative rotation angle positions to have n rest positions. An optical rotary connector is formed by means 3 and 4 and a switching means for detecting the n stationary positions, converting an electrical signal output from the switching means into digital data, and using the digital data to detect the light receiving element. The n-channel signals outputted from the rotary disk are switched, and the positional deviation of the transmission line due to the rotation of the rotating disk is corrected in stages, so that the signals of the plurality of channels are supplied to the corresponding transmission line. Characteristic optical rotary connector device.