JPS62102781A - Ball projector of game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an electromagnetically driven ball firing device used in pinball game machines such as pachinko machines.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art In a pinball game machine, such as a pachinko machine, in which a game is played by firing balls, a ball firing device is used to fire pachinko balls fed into a guide rail onto a game board surface. In recent ball launchers, the U.S. 60-37370
As is known from Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-121023, many electromagnetic drive type devices are used in which a solenoid mover is used as a ball mallet.

In a ball launcher using a solenoid as described above, the drive current supplied to the solenoid coil causes
The operation of the solenoid mover is controlled.

In particular, in the ball launcher described in the above publication, in order to simplify the structure, a coil for giving launch energy to the mover and a coil for returning the mover to the initial position after launching the pachinko ball are provided. A coil is used in common. Then, the mover is moved to protrude so as to launch a pachinko ball by the first drive of the coil,
By the second drive, the mover is pulled in and returned to its initial position.

In this way, when controlling the operation of the slider with two drive pulses, the pulse width of the second drive pulse and the timing of its supply can be adjusted to match the first drive pulse by using, for example, a monomulti circuit. It is determined based on the leading edge or trailing edge of. However, in order to adjust the launch speed of the ball, the ejection speed of the slider is changed, so if one period is set for applying braking to the slider based on the first drive pulse as described above, the movement Depending on the speed, the mover may protrude or retreat more than necessary, causing it to become stuck.

For this reason, conventionally, stoppers are provided at the most protruding position and the most retracted position (initial position) of the movable element, and these stoppers restrict the movement range of the movable element.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, as mentioned above, when a stopper is used to restrict the movement range of the slider, collisions between the slider and the stopper are repeated each time the slider is operated, which significantly reduces the durability of the stopper. It must be kept high.

Particularly in pachinko machines, the ball firing device is often operated continuously for long periods of time, so if the stopper absorbs the movement of the mover, it is necessary to periodically replace the ball firing device.

The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and by improving the drive control of the solenoid, when the mover is moved, it can be moved without being affected by its moving speed. The brake is always applied to the slider at the optimum position, and when the slider is returned to its initial position, the bullet is designed to avoid impacting the stopper that regulates the stop position of the slider. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a ball launching device for a ball game machine.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, in the ball launcher of the present invention, when the drive current is continuously supplied to the coil of the solenoid while the mover is being moved forward and back, this drive current is applied to the movement of the mover. By paying attention to the fact that the current is being changed correspondingly, and continuing to supply current to the coil during the process of moving the mover, and monitoring the change in the current flowing through the coil during this time, the change in the mover The movement position of the object is detected. When the mover moves a certain amount in the protruding direction, an electromagnetic brake is applied to the mover, and when it is detected that the mover has stopped moving by the electromagnetic brake, current control is applied. The drive current supplied to the coil is controlled by actuating the al1 means to return the mover to its initial position without impact.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings.

〔Example〕

In FIG. 6, which shows a part of the front of the pachinko machine, the ball holder is connected to a ball holder 3 that is supplied from a ball introduction port 1 that communicates with a tray (not shown) to a ball holder 2, and a ball 3 that is placed on an inclined guide rail. It is located at the lower end of 4. A solenoid 5 is provided to launch the ball 3 placed at a fixed position in this manner.

The solenoid 5 has a movable element 6 that protrudes and moves to the right when the solenoid 5 is driven, and a ball mallet 7 is attached to the right side of the movable element 6.

This solenoid 5 is driven when an operating handle 8 provided on the front side of the pachinko machine is rotated.

The resistance value of the variable resistor 9 is determined according to the rotation amount of the operating handle 8, and the corresponding drive current is applied to the solenoid 5.
, the movable element 6 protrudes at a speed corresponding to the amount of operation of the operating handle 8, and the ball mallet 7 launches the ball 3. The shot ball 3 passes through the guide rail 4 and reaches a game board surface (not shown). Note that the solenoid 5 is installed at an angle as shown in the figure, and when the solenoid 5 is at rest, the mover 6 is in contact with the stopper 10 and placed at the initial position.

As shown in FIG. 1, the solenoid 5 includes two hollow cylinders 11.12 made of ferromagnetic material arranged coaxially and formed symmetrically with each other, and the hollow cylinders 11.12.
It includes a mover 6 that is movable within the cylinder, and a coil 13 wound across the hollow cylinder 11 and 12. Each of the hollow cylinders 11 and 12 constitutes a magnetic pole having a different magnetic property when a current is supplied to the coil 13. Note that the reference numeral 14 indicates an exterior made of a ferromagnetic material such as iron. Furthermore, a ball mallet 7 having a collision spring 15 fixed to its tip is fixed to one side of the mover 6.

FIG. 2 shows the relationship between the position of the slider 6 and the operating force F applied to the slider 6 when a constant drive current is applied to the coil 13 of the solenoid 5 configured as described above, and the relationship between the slider 6 and the operating force F applied to the slider 6. 6 shows the relationship between the position of 6 and the current I flowing through the coil 13. When a constant drive current is applied to the coil 13 and the mover 6 is located to the right of the intermediate position shown in FIG.
is added. As a result, the mover 6 moves to the left, but as it moves, the operating force F decreases, and when it reaches exactly the middle position, the operating force F becomes rOJ. However, since the mover 6 has inertia, the mover 6
moves to the left beyond the intermediate position. Then, as the moving element 6 passes the intermediate position, an actuation force F acts on the moving element 6 to the right. That is, after the mover 6 protrudes leftward and launches the ball 3, the above-mentioned rightward operating force is:
It acts as an electromagnetic brake for the mover 6.

Due to the action of this electromagnetic brake, the mover 6 is pulled back to the right after reaching the maximum protrusion position. Note that if the drive current continues to be supplied to the coil 13, the moving element 6 will vibrate while being attenuated, and will eventually stop at the intermediate position shown in FIG.

By the way, as described above, when the mover 6 moves within the magnetic field generated by passing a constant drive current through the coil 13, a back electromotive force is generated along with the movement of the mover 6.

This back electromotive force acts in the direction of increasing the current in the coil 13 when the slider 6 moves in a direction where the magnetic flux decreases, and when the slider 6 moves in a direction where the magnetic flux increases, the current in the coil 13 acts on the coil 13. Therefore, the current I flowing through the coil 13 exhibits a characteristic as shown by the broken line in FIG. 2, in which the current I flowing through the coil 13 becomes minimum when the movable element 6 is at the intermediate position.

In FIG. 3 showing the circuit configuration for driving the solenoid 5, by rotating the operating handle 8,
The oscillator 20 outputs pulses at a frequency of, for example, 100 pulses per minute. The pulses thus generated control the ON/OFF state of the drive transistor 21, and while the drive transistor 21 is ON, a drive current is supplied to the coil 13 of the solenoid 5 by the power supply (2). The current flowing through the coil 13 is controlled by a variable resistor 9 determined by the amount of rotation of the operating handle 8, and thereby the moving speed of the ball mallet 7, that is, the speed at which the ball 3 is launched can be adjusted.

A variable resistor 9 is used to detect the current flowing through the coil 13.
The terminal voltage of is input to the buffer amplifier 22. At the output end of the buffer amplifier 22, a capacitor 23. resistance 24
A differentiating circuit (bypass filter) 25 consisting of the following is connected, and a buffer amplifier 26 used in a saturated state is further connected to the subsequent stage. The output from the buffer amplifier 26 is inputted via a timer 27 to an inverter 28 and a cent terminal of a flip-flop circuit 30 (hereinafter referred to as FF 30). The Q terminal output of FF30 is always set to "1" at the moment of startup.
From then on, every time "1" is input to the cent terminal, rOJ
, rlJ are repeated. The output terminal of the inverter 28 and the Q terminal of the FF 30 are connected to a NAND circuit 31, and the output terminal of the NAND circuit 31 is connected to the oscillator 2o.
connected to the reset terminal of the And the oscillator 20
The trailing edge of the output pulse from the oscillator 20 is determined by the reset signal input to the oscillator 20.

Note that even if the operation handle 8 is rotated at any time and the value of the current flowing through the coil 13 changes, this change will be a change in a considerably low frequency range when compared to the time constant of the differentiator circuit 25. Therefore, such changes are cut out by the differentiating circuit 25.

Each output line 2 in FIG. The operation of the above configuration will be explained based on FIG. 4 showing the output waveforms at times 1 to 1, and FIG. 5 showing the operation of the mover 6 when the solenoid 5 is driven.

When the oscillator 20 is activated by rotating the operating handle 8, the oscillator 20 outputs a pulse as indicated by β in FIG. When the transistor 21 is turned on by this pulse, a current is supplied to the coil 13 as shown at 12. Note that when the amount of rotation of the operating handle 8 is large, the resistance value of the variable resistor 9 becomes small, so the waveform of the drive current supplied to the coil 13 becomes as shown by the two-dot chain line, and the waveform of the moving element 6 becomes smaller. Movement speed is increased.

By supplying current to the coil 13 in this way,
The mover 6 starts moving to the left, from the initial position shown in FIG. 5(A) to the intermediate position shown in FIG.
After reaching the maximum protrusion position shown in (C), it receives an actuating force in the pullback direction as shown by the arrow in (D) of the same figure, and reaches the position shown in (D) of the same figure.
It will be returned to position E). Note that the ball mallet 7 attached to the movable element 6 is configured to launch the ball 3 while the movable element 6 is on its way from the intermediate position to the maximum protrusion position.

During the movement of the mover 6, the current flowing through the coil 13 is caused by the back electromotive force to increase the current flowing through the output line 1.
The output waveform at 2 changes as shown in FIG.

That is, it exhibits the maximum pl on the way from the initial position (A) to the intermediate position (B), and becomes the minimum p2 when it reaches the intermediate position (B). Furthermore, the slider 6 moves due to inertia, passes through the intermediate position (B), is braked by the electromagnetic brake, and reaches the maximum p when it momentarily stops at the maximum protrusion position (C). .

Before and after the maximum 1'l+pl and the minimum p2, the direction of increase or decrease of the current flowing through the coil 13 changes, so the output line β via the differentiating circuit 25 and the buffer amplifier 26 changes.
The output signals at , as shown in FIG.
It becomes a binary pulse waveform of lJ. The thus binarized pulse signal is delayed by Δ by the timer 27 and then output to the set terminals of the inverter 28 and the FF 30.

The output on the output line 14 becomes "1" at the moment of startup, becomes "0" after a delay of Δ from the rise of the first pulse on the output line 13, and then reaches the minimum value at the time of the rise of the next pulse. After passing through p2, it becomes "1" after Δ. At the same time, the input signal of the inverter 28 also becomes "0", so the NAND circuit 31 has "0".
1".

A signal of "1" will be input. Therefore, N
The AND circuit 31 now outputs "0", and this signal is supplied as a reset signal to the oscillator 20. Therefore, the rOJ signal from the NAND circuit 31 determines the trailing edge of the pulse from the oscillator 20, which turns off the drive transistor 21 and cuts off the current supply to the coil 13.

At the time when the current to the coil 13 is cut off, the mover 6 is in a state where it has begun to retreat from the maximum protrusion position shown in FIG. 5(C). Therefore, during the process in which the mover 6 returns to its initial position as shown in FIG. 5(D), no electromagnetic force acts in the right direction. As a result,
The moving speed of the mover 6 in the return direction becomes slow,
A sudden collision with the stopper 10 can be avoided.

When the operating handle 8 is left in the rotational state, the oscillator 20 continues to output pulses, so the above-described operation is repeated and the ball 3 can be continuously launched. In the above-described embodiment, if Δt is obtained by slowing down the response of the puffer amplifier 26, the timer 27 can be omitted. In addition, in order to detect the current flowing through the coil 13,
In addition to using the terminal voltage of the variable resistor 9, for example, a galvanic transformer or the like may be used, and the configuration for detecting changes in current is not limited to the above-mentioned differential circuit.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the ball launcher of the present invention, by continuing to apply current to the coil of the solenoid, an electromagnetic brake is applied to the mover moving in the projecting direction, and the mover is returned to the initial position. When moving, the current flowing through the coil is controlled by utilizing the fact that the current flowing through the coil changes according to the movement of the mover. Therefore, regardless of the moving speed of the mover, the electromagnetic brake is always applied at the optimum timing, and furthermore, the energization of the coil can be controlled at the optimum timing. As a result, when returning the slider toward the initial position, the electromagnetic driving force in the returning direction can be cut off and the slider can be moved slowly to the initial position, allowing the slider and stopper to A sudden collision is avoided, and there is no need to worry about replacing the stone bar as in the past.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of the solenoid of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a characteristic diagram showing the relationship between the position of the moving element of the solenoid shown in FIG. 1, the electromagnetic operating force applied to the moving element, and the relationship between the current flowing through the coil. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration used in the present invention. FIG. 4 is a chart showing signal waveforms on each output line shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the solenoid mover. FIG. 6 is a rear view of the main parts of a pachinko machine using the present invention. 3... Ball 5... Solenoid 6... Mover 7... Ball hammer 9... Variable resistance 1
0... Stopper 13... Coil 20... Oscillator 22. 26... Puff amplifier 25... Differential circuit 28... Inverter 30... Flip-flop circuit 3I... NAND circuit.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A driving current is supplied to the coil of the solenoid for a certain period of time, and the magnetic field generated by this moves the solenoid mover from its initial position in the protrusion direction to launch the ball, and the mover moved in the protrusion direction is moved to the above-mentioned initial position. A ball firing device for a game machine that is adapted to be pulled back to a position, further comprising current detection means for detecting a change in the current flowing through the coil while the mover is moving; 1. A ball firing device for a game machine, comprising: current control means for controlling a drive current supplied to a coil. (2) The current control means is configured to cut off the drive current supplied to the coil when the point in time when the movable element is pulled back is detected based on the output signal from the current detection means. A ball firing device for a gaming machine according to claim 1. (3) The ball firing machine according to claim 2, wherein the current detection means includes a differentiating circuit and outputs a binary signal corresponding to an increase or decrease in the current flowing through the coil. Device.