EP0035340A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Improved clinometer
Assignee: PA Consulting Services Ltd
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Filing: 1981-02-16
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2001-02-16
Abstract
Abstract A transducer is described which has primary application in a clinometer, detail of which is also contained in the application. The transducer comprises a hollow cylindrical housing of glass or plastics material (10) having a single electrode (12) mounted on one end face and three equal equally spaced electrodes (14, 16 and 18) on the opposite end face. The three separate capacitors having a common plate (12) control the frequency of oscillation of three oscillator circuits (30, 32 and 34) the outputs of which are compared by comparators (38, 46 and 48) and decoded by decoding circuit (40). A computing device (42) provides an output signal for an indicator (44). An audible indication of inclination for use in combination with the device is described.
Inventors
- 👤 Dexter Robert Plummer
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-03 17:39
CPC Classifications
G; G01; G01C; G01C9/00; G01C9/18; G01C9/20; G01C9/02; G01C9/06
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 11
Claim 1
Independent Claim
90 words
A transducer having electrical characteristics which flier depending on the rotation of the transducer about an axis, comprising: a housing defining a fluid chamber, the chamber having two opposed faces on which conductor means are located, there being at least two similarly shaped conductor means on one of the said opposed faces and at least one conductor means on the other opposed face, and wherein the interior of the chamber is partly filled with a liquid having a di-electric constant different from the remainder of the contents of the chamber.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
90 words
A transducer having electrical characteristics which flier depending on the rotation of the transducer about an axis, comprising: a housing defining a fluid chamber, the chamber having two opposed faces on which conductor means are located, there being at least two similarly shaped conductor means on one of the said opposed faces and at least one conductor means on the other opposed face, and wherein the interior of the chamber is partly filled with a liquid having a di-electric constant different from the remainder of the contents of the chamber.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
24 words
A transducer as set forth in claim 1 in which there are three similarly shaped conductor means on one of the said opposed faces.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
38 words
A transducer as set forth in claim 1 in which the chamber is the form of a cylindrical drum and the two plane cylindrical faces of the drum comprise the said two opposed faces of the said chamber.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
49 words
A transducer as set forth in claim 3 in which three equal and equally spaced apart segments of conductive material are arranged around one of the circular faces of the drum and a circle or annulus of conducting material is located around the other circular face of the drum.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
66 words
A transducer as set for in claim 3 in combination with electrical signal indicative of the angle through which the drum has been rotated (or the angle by which the rotated position of the transducer drum departs from a given datum) in response to the variation of capacitance produced with the rotation of the drum, the datum being defined by a particular pattern of capacitance values.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
25 words
A transducer as set forth in claim 2 in which at least the opposed faces of the chamber are formed from glass or plastics material.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
90 words
A transducer as set forth in claim 1 when fitted within a housing to form an instrument for measuring inclination, the transducer being mounted in the housing relative to a surface thereof which is to serve as a measuring surface, such that the axis of rotation of the transducer is parallel to the said measuring surface and such that tilting of the housing so that the measuring surface occupies different angles of inclination relative to the vertical, will produce an effective rotation of the transducer about its axis of rotation.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
142 words
A transducer and inclination measuring instrument as set forth in claim 7 in which there is provided electric circuit means responsive to changes in the relative capacitance of the transducer for producing alternating electric currents, the frequency of which varies with changes in capacitance of the transducer, comparator means for determining the relative frequencies of the signals from the various electrical circuits and producing difference signals therefrom, decoding circuit means for decoding the difference signals and producing digital signals for processing by a computing circuit programmes to compute from the difference signals an electrical signal having a parameter whose value varies with the angular rotation of the transducer about its axis of rotation and output means responsive to the varying parameter electrical signal from the computing circuit means, for indicating the angle of rotation of the transducer about its axis of rotation.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
42 words
A transducer and inclination measuring instrument as set forth in claim 8 in which the output means comprises a meter in which the deflection of a pointer increases with increasing rotation of the transducer about its axis of rotation from a datum.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
59 words
A transducer and measuring instrument as set forth in claim 7 further comprising circuit means responsive to an electrical signal from the transducer to produce an output signal for driving a sound producing device such as a loudspeaker, the output signal varying in content and/or frequency and/or amplitude in sympathy with variation of the level or inclination under measurement.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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