Registers – Miscellaneous – Numeral wheels
Patent
1996-03-08
1997-12-23
Nguyen, Matthew V.
Registers
Miscellaneous
Numeral wheels
273121D, G06K 500, A63F 730
Patent
active
057009970
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a game play media dispenser for discharging game play media such as pachinko balls (Japanese pinball) or coins and is applied to, for example, a pachinko ball dispenser for discharging balls while counting them for automatically replenishing with pachinko balls, automatically paying out pachinko balls for a winning game play, or automatically dispensing pachinko balls in a pachinko machine or a ball lending machine.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
A pachinko ball dispenser is known as a game play media dispenser for discharging game play media such as pachinko balls and coins. A conventional pachinko ball dispenser is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-267085. This conventional example dispenser comprises a ball passage for allowing pachinko balls to flow, and a gear formed with a plurality of recesses engaging pachinko balls on the outer peripheral surface and rotating while making the recesses sequentially engage with the pachinko balls flowing in the ball passage.
The gear is formed with a plurality of projections in one-to-one correspondence with the recesses. Each projection can engage a stopper driven by a solenoid, which is controlled by a drive control section. The gear stops while the stopper is engaged with one of the projections. When the stopper is detached from the projection, the gear is rotated owing to the weight of the pachinko ball. On the other hand, a count sensor for counting pachinko balls discharged through a discharge port of the ball passage is attached to the lower end of the ball passage.
If the stopper is detached from the projection, a pachinko ball in the ball passage causes the gear to rotate, and is then counted by the count sensor and discharged through the discharge port. When the actual number of discharged pachinko balls counted by the count sensor approaches the target number of discharged balls, the drive control section causes the stopper to engage with the projection intermittently for discharging pachinko balls one at a time through the discharge port.
However, in the conventional example, when the stopper is caused to engage with the projection intermittently, the engaging of the stopper with the projection may be delayed due to an operation delay of the solenoid, etc. If the engaging is delayed, the time for which the stopper is detached from the projection is prolonged, during which the gear rotates one recess or more. If the gear thus rotates, an extra pachinko ball or balls are discharged through the discharge port.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a game play media dispenser for discharging game play media, for example, pachinko balls at high speed and accurately.
To this end, according to the invention, there is provided a game play media dispenser which comprises a passage for allowing game play media to flow and a gear being formed with a plurality of recesses engaging with game play media on an outer peripheral surface and, while causing the recesses to engage with game play media flowing through the passage in sequence, rotating owing to the weight of the game play media for discharging the game play media into a discharge port of the passage, wherein as many game play media as a given number are discharged through the discharge port by controlling the rotation of the gear, characterized in that with the recesses, that discharge port; engage with at least one of the teeth and a first saving position where it does not engage with any of the teeth; engage with at least one of the teeth and a second saving position where it does not engage with any of the teeth; and the first saving position, and moving the second stopper to the second engagement position and the second saving position; and the moving operation of the second stopper performed by the drive means, that the second engagement position engages with any of the teeth before the gear rotates one recess or more after the engagement of the first stopper with the gear is released, and that med
REFERENCES:
patent: 5131655 (1992-07-01), Ugawa
patent: 5351954 (1994-10-01), Oursler et al.
patent: 5509655 (1996-04-01), Ugawa
patent: 5516104 (1996-05-01), Takemoto et al.
patent: 5517010 (1996-05-01), Takemoto et al.
Kawashima Kazunari
Takemoto Takatoshi
Kabushiki Kaisha Ace Denken
Nguyen Matthew V.
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