JP3075128B2 - Ball launcher - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ball launching device used for a pachinko machine or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Although a ball is fired on a pachinko board surface by a firing device, a rail is formed as a single body.

[0003]

The problem with the above prior art is that the launch distance of the ball varies.

[0004] That is, the force on the ball by the drive coil is
As shown by the line b in FIG. 2, as the ball approaches the drive coil, the suction force in the firing direction becomes stronger, and then the suction force gradually decreases toward the midpoint of the magnetic field of the drive coil. When the drive coil is energized, the suction force in the direction of sucking the sphere in the direction opposite to the firing direction, that is, in the deceleration direction, as indicated by the broken line, becomes stronger, and eventually decreases as the sphere separates.

[0005] In the conventional one, a rail for projecting a ball is formed as a single unit, and its mounting is performed with the midpoint of the magnetic field as a fulcrum, and the ball launching stop position and the ball launching direction are unbalanced in its length. Was. Therefore, for example, when the current is interrupted at a point in time when it is predicted that the point B of the line b in FIG. 2 will be reached, the downward attractive force is suddenly released. At this time, the force of the ball pushing the rail downward is released suddenly, so that the rail vibrates up and down. Therefore, the shot ball travels on the oscillating rail toward the shooting direction of the ball, and the flying distance and directionality of the ball vary.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to reduce the dispersion of the firing distance.

[0007]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides an operation unit and an operation unit connected to the operation unit.
A current control unit and a coil drive connected to the current control unit
Unit and a drive coil connected to the coil drive unit.
Yoke to which the drive coil is mounted and which has a gap
And is provided so as to penetrate into the gap of this yoke.
A first rail for firing a sphere, said first rail
Is disposed in the space, and the first
A second rail separated from the first rail on the extension of the rail
Are provided .

[0008]

With this configuration, the ball does not vibrate because the ball is separated from the vibrating first rail when the driving coil releases the suction force, that is, when the force applied to the ball changes from acceleration to deceleration. Is transmitted to the second rail, so that the shot ball travels on the non-vibrating second rail, so that the flying distance and the directionality do not vary.

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a ball such as a pachinko ball made of a magnetic material. Reference numerals 2 and 3 denote first and second electromagnets for generating magnetic force, which have first and second drive coils (hereinafter referred to as coils) 2a and 3a, respectively, and these first and second coils 2a , 3a are controlled via the coil drive unit 4. Reference numeral 5 denotes a yoke made of a magnetic core material having a high magnetic permeability, and forms a magnetic path of the first and second electromagnets 2 and 3. The opposed magnetic poles 2b of the first and second electromagnets 2 and 3 are different from the S pole and 3b are different from the N pole. Numeral 6 denotes a first rail made of a non-magnetic material.
b, 3b. Further, a second rail 10 is provided on the first rail 6 and separated from the first rail 6 in the firing direction of the ball 1. Reference numeral 7 denotes an operation unit operated by a player. The rotation angle is transmitted to a current control unit 9 by a mechanically linked angle sensor 8 (not shown). , The current flowing through the second coils 2a and 3a is increased.

That is, when the player (operator) rotates the angle sensor 8 by a predetermined angle via the operation unit 7 in such a configuration, a signal corresponding to the rotation angle is transmitted to the current control unit 9, The amount of current supplied from the coil driving unit 4 to the first and second coils 2a and 3a is determined based on the signal. This energization generates a magnetic force in the first and second electromagnets 2 and 3,
As a result, magnetic flux flows from the magnetic pole 3b of the second electromagnet 3 to the magnetic pole 2b of the first electromagnet 2, thereby generating a magnetic field as shown by the line a in FIG. As a result, a magnetic force acts on the balls 1 supplied one by one to the first rail 6 as shown by the line b in FIG. As a result, the ball 1 moves on the first rail 6 to the magnetic poles 2b, 3b.
When the ball 1 travels toward the center and the ball 1 reaches the center of the magnetic poles 2b, 3b, and the current after passing through the first and second coils 2a, 3a (or the voltage) decreases, followed by an increase. Is detected by the detection unit 13 (FIG. 4), and this signal is detected by the detection unit 1.
3 to the coil driving unit 4 and the first and second coils 2
a, 3a is cut off. Then, the ball 1 travels on the rail 6 to the left in FIG. 1 by inertia and is fired. At first, the ball 1 travels on the first rail 6 between the magnetic poles 2b, 3b, but at the same time, is also attracted downward by the magnetic pole 3b, so that the first and second coils 2a, 2a,
When the current flowing through the first rail 6 is cut off, the first rail 6 is released and the vibration is transmitted to the ball 1 running on the first rail 6. However, in this embodiment, since the first rail 6 is formed only up to the vicinity of the ball launch direction of the second coil 3a, after the current is cut off to the ball 1, the ball 1 becomes the first rail. Since the vehicle travels on the second rail 10 separated from the rail 6, the influence of the vibration of the first rail 6 is eliminated, and the variation of the firing distance is reduced. In FIG. 2, c indicates the ball speed, and d indicates the current flowing through the first and second coils 2a and 3a.

FIG. 3 shows the waveform of the driving current flowing through the driving coils 2a and 3a, and shows the respective waveforms in the state where there is no ball and the state where the ball is fired, as viewed from the magnetic field center point 15. This e of FIG.
As shown in the figure, in the ball firing state, an increase is observed at the magnetic field center point 15 following a decrease in the current.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the ball launching apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 4, a handle 7a constituting the operation unit 7 includes, in addition to the angle sensor 7b, a touch sensor 7c that is closed when the hand is touched by the handle 7a and a start switch 7d that is closed when the handle 7a is rotated. ing.

A current control unit 9 constituting the coil driving unit 4 is connected to the angle sensor 7b, and the output is supplied to the coil driving unit 4.

That is, in this embodiment, the pulse current is supplied to the first and second coils 2a and 3a as shown in FIG. 2d. The pulse current increases as the turning amount of the handle 7a increases. On the contrary, the pulse width becomes smaller.

This is because the larger the current, the faster the initial velocity of the sphere 1 to be fired.
It quickly reaches the center point 15 of b and 3b. That is, the time point e (shown in FIG. 3) at which there is an increase following the decrease in the current (or voltage) flowing through the first and second coils 2a and 3a can be detected quickly after firing. Therefore, since the energizing current is interrupted by this signal, the pulse width is reduced accordingly. Therefore, at any current value, the sphere 1 is positioned at the midpoint between the magnetic poles 2b and 3b, that is, approximately 0 on the line b in FIG.
When the point is reached, the current is cut off, and the dispersion of the firing distance is reduced.

FIG. 5 shows a coil driving section 4, in which first and second coils 2a and 3a are connected in series.
A degaussing capacitor 20 is connected in parallel to this.

The parallel connection is connected to the collector of the transistor 22 via the diode 21.

A resistor 23, a switch 24, and an angle sensor 7b are connected to the base of the transistor 22. When the handle 7a is turned to a large extent, the resistance value of the angle sensor 7b increases, and the bias of the transistor 22 increases. Thereby, the current value to the first and second coils 2a and 3a increases.

The detecting section 13 compares and inputs the amount of change of the input of the resistor 23 at the previous stage of the resistor 23 to the collector section and the base section of the transistor 22, and detects the current (or voltage) supplied to the first and second coils 2a and 3a. The time point of the increase following the decrease is detected and transmitted to the coil drive unit 4.

The high-speed switching element 25 detects a time point at which the current (or voltage) supplied to the first and second coils 2 a and 3 a increases following a decrease, and detects a point in time when a signal transmitted to the coil driving section 4 causes the transistor 22 to operate. Is configured to be cut at high speed. Further, a resistor 26 is also connected to the emitter of the transistor 22.
The constant current circuit is formed by the configuration of FIG.

That is, the drive coils 2a and 3a generate heat by repeating current supply, thereby increasing the resistance value and decreasing the current value. However, a constant current circuit is provided so that the current value does not decrease even if the resistance value increases due to the heat generation.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the shape of the magnetic field generating portion.
The shape of the yoke 5 is such that the centers of the opposed magnetic poles 2b, 3b of the second electromagnets 2, 3 are convex. That is, by adopting such a shape, the first and second coils 2a and 2a obtained when the ball 1 reaches the center of the magnetic poles 2b and 3b are obtained.
The amount of change in the current (or voltage) applied to a becomes large, and it becomes easy to detect an increase following a decrease.

Also, the first rail 6 and the second rail 10
The second rail 10 is provided in the extension direction of the first rail 6 and below. This dimension D is about 1m
m. Further, since the separated gap 30 is provided to be larger than the diameter of the ball 1 and smaller than twice the diameter of the ball, even if the ball 1 cannot reach the pachinko board surface, the ball 1 passes through the second rail 10. Even if it returns, the ball is returned from the gap 30 to the lower ball tray of the pachinko machine without returning to the firing ball stop position on the first rail 6. The first rail 6 is bent at an acute angle downward with respect to the ball firing direction. Further, since the second rail 10 has an obtuse bend toward the gap 30, the ball 1 can be returned smoothly. It is desirable that the distance E from the center 15 of the magnetic field to the end face of the first rail 6 bent at an acute angle is short in order to reduce the vibration of the first rail 6. In this embodiment, the distance E is equal to the center 15 of the magnetic field.
The distance F is substantially equal to the distance F to the stopper 6a.

Further, since the mounting portion of the first rail 6 is formed above the bobbin 3c constituting the second coil 3a, it has a function of suppressing the vibration of the first rail 6.

[0025]

As described above, according to the ball launching apparatus of the present invention, the operation unit, the current control unit connected to the operation unit,
A coil driving unit connected to the current control unit;
Drive coil connected to the
A yoke to be mounted and having a gap, and this yoke
The second is to penetrate into the void and fire the ball
1 rail, and a substantially center of the first rail is
Placed in the gap and extending the first rail
Provided with a second rail separated from the first rail.
Are as hereinbefore, and therefore when the sphere is the drive coil is opened the suction force, i.e., when the ball is subjected force is changed to deceleration from acceleration to a second rail without vibration is separated from the first rail to vibrate Since the transmitted ball is transmitted, the launched ball travels on a rail that does not vibrate, and the flight distance and directionality of the ball do not vary without attenuating the launch direction component and the left and right direction components. As a result, the dispersion of the firing distance can be made extremely small.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a ball launching device showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram showing a magnetic field and the like in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram showing a driving current of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the entire electric circuit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram mainly showing a detection unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the shape of a magnetic field generating unit in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ball 2a 1st coil 3a 2nd coil 4 Coil drive part 5 Yoke 6 First rail 7 Operation part 9 Current control part 10 Second rail 30 Clearance

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] An operation unit, a current control unit connected to the operation unit, a coil drive unit connected to the current control unit, a drive coil connected to the coil drive unit, and the drive coil A yoke that is mounted and has a gap
And is provided so as to penetrate into the gap of this yoke.
A first rail for firing a sphere, said first rail
Is disposed in the space, and the first
A second rail separated from the first rail on the extension of the rail
Ball launching device with rails . 2. The ball launching device according to claim 1, wherein a second rail is provided in an extension direction of the first rail and below the first rail. 3. The ball launching device according to claim 1, wherein a gap larger than the diameter of the ball is provided between the first rail and the second rail. 4. An end face between the first rail and the second rail and the gap is bent at an acute angle downward on the first rail side and bent at an obtuse angle downward on the second rail side. Item 2. A ball launching device according to Item 1. 5. A magnetic pole formed below a gap is provided for a coil.
Attach the bobbin and attach the first bobbin
2. The ball launching device according to claim 1, wherein a rail attachment portion is formed .