Sensing device for a smart Rubik's cube, ball shaft, and smart Rubik's cube

Abstract

To disclose a sensing device, a ball shaft for smart Rubik's cube (Rubik's cube(R)) whose structure is significantly simplified and a smart Rubik's cube.SOLUTION: By optimizing a sensing device of a smart Rubik's cube, only two circuit boards are needed to sense rotation states in six directions, thereby changing a conventional technology that requires setting PCB boards and sensors in each direction. The smart Rubik's cube provided by the present application has a simple structure and is easy to assemble, which may reduce production costs.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of educational toys, and more particularly to a smart Rubik's cube capable of detecting its rotation state, a ball shaft constituting the smart Rubik's cube, and a sensing device provided on the ball shaft. [Background technology]

[0002] Since its invention, the Rubik's Cube has become the most popular educational toy. The smart Rubik's Cube is equipped with a sensing device inside the Rubik's Cube, which can sensitively capture and record the rotation state of each side of the Rubik's Cube, and can transmit the rotation state of the Rubik's Cube to a smart terminal device through a communication unit such as Bluetooth, and can receive control commands from the smart terminal device to realize the control of the Rubik's Cube. The smart Rubik's Cube improves the playability and fun of the Rubik's Cube and has become the first choice of many Rubik's Cube enthusiasts.

[0003] In order to sensitively detect the rotation state of each face, the smart Rubik's Cube provided by the prior art requires that sensors be placed on each of the six faces of the Rubik's Cube, as in the Chinese patent applications previously filed by the applicant with publication numbers CN111643884A and CN113624116A, and that each face of the Rubik's Cube is provided with its own individual PCB (Printed Circuit Board).

[0004] Although the smart Rubik's Cube provided by the prior art can properly detect the rotation angle of each face, it has the following drawbacks. (1) Most of the smart sensors provided by the conventional technology use metal brush sensors, which have problems of wear and close cooperation, which affect the service life of the sensor. After a long period of use, the sensor will no longer function and will not be able to accurately sense the rotation angle of the corresponding face of the Rubik's Cube, resulting in the invalidation and confusion of the sensor function. At the same time, the contact friction between the metal brushes also affects the feel. (2) The smart Rubik's cube provided by the prior art requires that sensors are arranged on separate PCBs on each of the six sides of the product, and that adjacent sides are also required to be perpendicular to each other during installation, which requires very high precision on each side, which makes the structure of the entire smart Rubik's cube complicated, increases the difficulty of installation, increases the cost of the smart Rubik's cube, and causes the price of the smart Rubik's cube to rise. After a user gets a smart Rubik's cube, the smart Rubik's cube cannot be disassembled at will. If each side cannot be reassembled according to the corresponding precision, it will have a great impact on the sensing precision and sensitivity of the sensor of the smart Rubik's cube, and at the same time, it will affect the hand feel of rotation, making it difficult for the user to repair the smart Rubik's cube, and will also reduce the motivation of users, especially young users, to explore the structure of the smart Rubik's cube. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In response to the above technical problems of the conventional smart Rubik's cube, the embodiment of the present invention provides a sensing device for a smart Rubik's cube. By improving the structure of the sensing device, there is no need to provide a PCB board and a metal brush sensor for each face, so that the structure of the ball shaft using the sensing device provided by the present application is greatly simplified, and the structure of the smart Rubik's cube using the ball shaft is greatly simplified. The embodiment of the present application further provides the above ball shaft for a smart Rubik's cube, and a smart Rubik's cube using the above ball shaft. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The first embodiment of the present invention is a sensing device for a smart Rubik's cube, which includes a main circuit board and a sub-circuit board, and a microcontroller unit is provided on the main circuit board. The main circuit board includes a first circuit board surface provided on the front side of the main circuit board and a second circuit board surface provided on the back side of the main circuit board. A plane rectangular coordinate system is constructed with the center of the first circuit board surface as the origin, the positive direction of the X axis as the first direction, the negative direction of the X axis as the third direction, the positive direction of the Y axis as the second direction, and the negative direction of the Y axis as the fourth direction. In each direction, a first electronic sensing element, a second electronic sensing element, a third electronic sensing element, a fourth electronic sensing element, and a fifth electronic sensing element are provided in the intermediate region of the second circuit board surface, each of the electronic sensing elements being communicatively connected to the microcontroller unit; the sub-circuit board is provided on a preset surface parallel to the first circuit board surface, the preset surface and the second circuit board surface are respectively located on both sides of the first circuit board surface, and the sub-circuit board is provided with a sixth electronic sensing element communicatively connected to the microcontroller unit.

[0007] The sensing device provided by the embodiment of the present invention only requires two circuit boards, a main circuit board and a sub circuit board, and does not need to precisely control the angle relationship between the two circuit boards during the assembly process. The electronic sensing element is provided on the surface of the circuit board, and at the current level of process and assembly manufacturing, each electronic sensing element can be implemented very quickly and accurately. Therefore, the sensing device provided by the present application greatly simplifies the structure, and also simplifies the assembly process of the Rubik's cube, which can improve the production efficiency of the smart Rubik's cube and reduce the cost of the smart Rubik's cube. At the same time, if the smart Rubik's cube needs to be repaired, the user can also disassemble the Rubik's cube by himself, and there is no need for complicated and precise angle adjustment procedures during reassembly, which can facilitate the user's repair and exploration of the internal structure of the smart Rubik's cube.

[0008] Based on the same inventive object, an embodiment of the present application provides a ball shaft for a smart Rubik's cube, comprising a ball shaft housing, a storage battery, a Bluetooth communication module, and a sensing device provided by the above embodiment, In the ball shaft housing, a three-dimensional coordinate system is constructed with the center of the ball shaft housing as the origin, a right rotation axis is provided in the positive direction of the X axis, a left rotation axis is provided in the negative direction of the X axis, a front rotation axis is provided in the negative direction of the Y axis, a rear rotation axis is provided in the positive direction of the Y axis, an upper rotation axis is provided in the positive direction of the Z axis, and a lower rotation axis is provided in the negative direction of the Z axis, and a positioning module is attached to each of the rotation axes. A second accommodation space for accommodating a sensing device is provided inside the ball shaft housing. The storage battery is mounted in the battery compartment, The Bluetooth communication module is communicatively connected to the microcontroller unit, and the microcontroller unit is connected to an external terminal device via the Bluetooth communication module; In the sensing device, a ball shaft for a smart Rubik's Cube is provided, wherein the first electronic sensing element corresponds to the right rotation axis, the second electronic sensing element corresponds to the rear rotation axis, the third electronic sensing element corresponds to the left rotation axis, the fourth electronic sensing element corresponds to the front rotation axis, the fifth electronic sensing element corresponds to the lower rotation axis, and the sixth electronic sensing element corresponds to the upper rotation axis.

[0009] The ball shaft for smart Rubik's cube provided by the present invention uses an optimized structure of the sensing device, so that the process requirements for assembling the sensing device are greatly reduced, the processing efficiency is improved, and the production cost is reduced. At the same time, an electronic sensing element is used to sense the positioning module mounted on the rotating shaft, so the sensing between them is non-contact, there is no wear, and there is no problem of the smart Rubik's cube not working during use.

[0010] Based on the same inventive object, an embodiment of the present application provides a smart Rubik's cube that includes a ball shaft for a smart Rubik's cube provided by the above embodiment, and further includes six center blocks, eight corner blocks, and twelve edge blocks, where one center block is provided on each rotation axis, one edge block is provided for every two adjacent center blocks, and one corner block is provided for every three adjacent edge blocks.

[0011] By improving the central ball shaft structure, the smart Rubik's cube provided by the present invention greatly reduces the assembly process requirements of the ball shaft, eliminates the need to precisely adjust the PCB angle on each side, and eliminates the need for a large amount of spot soldering, which not only improves the operational stability of the smart Rubik's cube, but also improves production efficiency, reduces production costs, and enhances the market competitiveness of the smart Rubik's cube. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] In order to more clearly describe the technical means in the embodiments of the present invention, the following briefly introduces the drawings that need to be used to describe the embodiments. The drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that a person skilled in the art can obtain other drawings based on these drawings without requiring creative labor.

[0013] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of a smart Rubik's cube provided by an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a partial exploded structural schematic diagram of a smart Rubik's cube provided by an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a partial exploded structural schematic diagram of a smart Rubik's cube provided by an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a ball shaft provided according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. [Diagram 5] 1 is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of a ball shaft provided according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is an exploded structural schematic diagram of a ball shaft provided according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 7A] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of a sensing device provided by an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 7B] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of a sensing device provided by an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 7C] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of a sensing device provided by an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 8] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the connection state between a micro control unit, an electronic sensing unit, and a magnetic positioning unit provided by an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 9] This is a schematic diagram of the connection between the Hall sensors and magnets used on each side of the Rubik's Cube. [Figure 10] 10 is a schematic diagram for explaining output values ​​of a Hall sensor when a face is rotated, taking rotation of one face as an example. FIG. [Figure 11]1 is a schematic diagram showing the rotation state of a Rubik's Cube and the operating principle of a Hall sensor. [Figure 12] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of a circuit board combined with a circuit board fixing base provided by an embodiment of the present invention; DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0014] In order to make the objectives, technical means and advantages of the present invention clearer, the technical means of the present invention will be described clearly and completely in the following by referring to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. It is clear that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, and are not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor based on the embodiments of the present invention belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

[0015] In the description of the present invention, when "first" and "second" are stated, it is merely for the purpose of distinguishing technical features and cannot be understood as implying or suggesting relative importance, implying the number of technical features described, or implying the sequential relationship of the technical features described.

[0016] In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise clearly defined, terms such as "provided" should be understood in a broad sense, and a person skilled in the art can reasonably determine the specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention by referring to the specific content of the technical means.

[0017] The inventor, as an engineer engaged in the development of smart Rubik's cubes, has provided various realization means of existing smart Rubik's cubes. Although the realization means of the smart Rubik's cubes can provide excellent smart Rubik's cube products, the inventor has also found that the process of assembling the smart Rubik's cubes in large quantities has a problem that the structure is complicated. At the same time, the assembly process of the smart Rubik's cube requires a strict process, and in the process of connecting the six PCB boards to each other, each PCB board needs to be adjusted to be perpendicular to each other, and the connection between each PCB board requires soldering, and the soldering points are small and numerous. All of these cause the processing of the smart Rubik's cube to be complicated, the production efficiency to be reduced, and the production cost to be increased.

[0018] By carefully analyzing the problems existing in the existing smart Rubik's cube, the inventor of the present application creatively provides the technical means of the present application, which can greatly simplify the structure of the sensing device for the smart Rubik's cube and greatly reduce the use of circuit boards, thus greatly reducing the material cost, and also greatly reducing the complexity of the process required for its assembly, thereby improving the efficiency of the assembly processing of the smart Rubik's cube and reducing the production cost.

[0019] As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3, the following will take a typical cubic Rubik's cube as an example to describe in detail the smart Rubik's cube provided by the embodiment of the present application. The smart Rubik's cube provided by the present application includes six faces, each face includes nine cube blocks, and the six faces include six center blocks 1, eight corner blocks 2, and twelve edge blocks 3, totaling 26 cube blocks. It further includes a ball shaft 4 located in the center and functioning as a rotation center. The center block 1 is provided on the rotation axis of each face, and as the center of rotation of the cube block on that face, its position does not change, and only one face has a color or pattern. The edge block 3 is a cube block embedded between any two center blocks, and its two faces are composed of different colors or patterns. Every three adjacent edge blocks are connected by a corner block 2. In the initial state of the Rubik's cube, the colors of each face are different, but the colors of the same face are the same. Of course, each face can also be distinguished by providing different patterns. The way to play is to disturb the cube blocks on each side so that each side can contain a different color or pattern, and finally restore them to their initial state.

[0020] As shown in Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5, the smart Rubik's cube provided by the present application has made important improvements to its ball shaft structure. The ball shaft 4 provided by the embodiment of the present application includes a ball shaft housing 41, which includes an upper half housing 411 and a lower half housing 412, and the upper half housing 411 and the lower half housing 412 are detachably connected by means of screws, buckles, etc. The upper half housing 411 and the lower half housing 412 are detachably connected to each other, so that the sensing device 5 can be built into the second housing space 44 formed inside the ball shaft housing 41.

[0021] A three-dimensional coordinate system is constructed on the ball shaft housing 41 with the ball center of the ball shaft housing 41 as the origin, and as shown in FIG. 4 (in FIG. 4, the coordinate system is moved to the outside of the ball shaft to avoid influence on each part), a right rotation shaft 421 is provided in the positive direction of the X axis, a left rotation shaft 422 is provided in the negative direction of the X axis, a front rotation shaft 423 is provided in the negative direction of the Y axis, a rear rotation shaft 424 is provided in the positive direction of the Y axis, an upper rotation shaft 425 is provided in the positive direction of the Z axis, and a lower rotation shaft 426 is provided in the negative direction of the Z axis. A positioning module 54 is attached to each of the rotation shafts 42, and the positioning module 54 rotates together with the rotation shafts 42. A second accommodation space 44 for accommodating a sensing device 5 is provided inside the ball shaft housing 41. The second storage space 44 is provided with a battery compartment 45 in which a storage battery 46 can be installed. In the embodiment of the present application, a button battery, specifically a CR2032 button battery, is used as the storage battery 46. The battery can last for 10 hours, and when the smart Rubik's cube is not used, the standby time can reach 1 year, which can meet the usage scenario of the smart Rubik's cube. The upper half housing 411 of the ball shaft housing is provided with a battery cover 47, which is detachably attached to the upper half housing. It is convenient to replace the battery by opening the battery cover 47.

[0022] In one embodiment provided by the present application, a rotating shaft mounting hole is provided in each rotating shaft direction of the illustrated ball shaft housing 41 (as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6), a through-hole is provided in the lower half of each rotating shaft 42, and the mounting of the rotating shaft and the ball shaft housing is realized by inserting the through-hole into the mounting hole. The connection method between the through-hole and the ball shaft housing may be a buckle connection or a screw connection, but is not limited thereto. In the embodiment provided by the present application, a mounting hole corresponding to the upper rotating shaft 425 is provided in the upper half housing 411, and a mounting hole corresponding to the lower rotating shaft 426 is provided in the lower half housing 412. The mounting holes of the left rotating shaft 422, the right rotating shaft 421, the front rotating shaft 423, and the rear rotating shaft 424 are divided into two parts, half of which is provided in the upper half housing 411, and the other half is provided in the lower half housing 412. The above arrangement makes the overall balance better in each direction, which is helpful for holding and operating the smart Rubik's cube.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 5, FIG. 6, and FIG. 7A-FIG. 7B, the ball shaft for the smart Rubik's cube provided by the present application further includes a sensing device 5 provided in the second accommodation space 44 in the ball shaft housing 41. The illustrated sensing device 5 includes a main circuit board 51 and a sub-circuit board 52. A microcontroller unit (not shown) is provided on the main circuit board 51, and the main circuit board 51 includes a first circuit board surface 511 provided on the front side of the main circuit board and a second circuit board surface 512 provided on the back side of the main circuit board. A plane rectangular coordinate system is constructed with the center of the first circuit board surface 51 as the origin, the positive direction of the X axis as the first direction, the negative direction of the X axis as the third direction, the positive direction of the Y axis as the second direction, and the negative direction of the Y axis as the fourth direction. In each direction, a first electronic sensing element 531, a second electronic sensing element 532, a third electronic sensing element 533, and a fourth electronic sensing element 534 are provided correspondingly, and a fifth electronic sensing element 535 is provided in the middle area of ​​the second circuit board surface 512, and each of the electronic sensing elements is communicatively connected to the microcontroller unit. The sub-circuit board 52 is provided on a preset surface parallel to the first circuit board surface 511, and the preset surface and the second circuit board surface 512 are respectively located on both sides of the first circuit board surface 511, and the sub-circuit board 52 is provided with a sixth electronic sensing element 536 communicatively connected to the microcontroller unit.

[0024] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the smart Rubik's cube further includes a first positioning module, a second positioning module, a third positioning module, a fourth positioning module, a fifth positioning module, and a sixth positioning module, which are respectively provided on the six rotation axes of the smart Rubik's cube, and each electronic sensing element is respectively sensorily positioned by the positioning module 54 on its direction. In an embodiment provided by the present invention, the electronic sensing element is a magnetic sensor, and the magnetic sensor includes, but is not limited to, one or more combinations of Hall elements, tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR), anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR), and giant magnetoresistance (GMR). The positioning modules 54 are all magnetic positioning modules. In the sensing device provided by the present application, the main circuit board is attached to the ball shaft of the smart Rubik's cube and is located at the center position of the smart Rubik's cube. Therefore, the magnetic sensor, which is the electronic sensing element, is also provided at the center position of the smart Rubik's cube, and the magnetic positioning module is provided on the rotation axis. When the magnetic positioning module, such as a magnet, mounted on the rotating shaft rotates, the magnetic field direction of the magnet also rotates as a whole, and at this time, the relationship between the magnetic field direction and the magnetic sensor changes, which causes a change in the sensed electromotive force or sensed current of the magnetic sensor, which is transmitted to the microcontroller unit, and the microcontroller unit can determine the rotation angle of the rotating shaft from the change situation or trend of the current or electromotive force.

[0025] As shown in Figures 7A-7C and 8-11, in the embodiment of the present application, the electronic sensing element is taken as an example to be a Hall sensor. As shown in Figures 8 and 9, two Hall sensors are provided on the circuit board in each rotation axis direction. The Hall sensor on the yellow side is provided on the back side of the figure shown in Figure 9, and its installation position corresponds to the white side, and is provided on the second circuit board surface of the main circuit board 51, and the Hall sensor on the white side is provided on the sub-circuit board 52. The two Hall sensors respectively detect the magnetic field direction of the magnetic positioning module on the corresponding rotation axis, and generate a sensed current or sensed electromotive force according to the detected magnetic field direction, and send it to the microcontroller unit (MCU). Therefore, once the initial state of the two Hall sensors corresponding to each face is determined (the initial state of the Hall sensors is the value determined by the corresponding relationship between the Hall sensors and the magnets obtained by the APP when the state of the smart Rubik's cube is inputted into the APP), the rotation of the subsequent cube faces rotates by 90 degrees, and each twist of one face of the Rubik's cube rotates the magnet by 90 degrees, and each Hall sensor outputs a signal of 0 or 1 to the MCU, and according to the combination of the two Hall sensors, there are a total of four combination signals (00, 01, 10, 11), which respectively represent the four different magnetic field directions of the magnet. Then, the MCU obtains the rotation angle of the Rubik's cube according to the combination of signals received from the pair of Hall sensors on the corresponding rotation axis, and updates the state of the Rubik's cube. As shown in FIG. 10, if the initial state of one face of the Rubik's Cube corresponds to a HALL value of 01, when the cube face rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise, the HALL value becomes 00, when the cube face rotates 90 degrees clockwise, the HALL value becomes 11, and when the cube face rotates 180 degrees, the HALL value becomes 10. In the above embodiment, a binary switch type Hall sensor is used as an example, but the technical means provided by the embodiment of the present application can also use a linear Hall element. When a linear Hall element is used as a sensing electronic element, after the output signal is ADC (analog-to-digital conversion) converted, information on any rotation angle, not limited to 90 degrees, can be obtained.

[0026] As shown in Figure 11, when the initial state of each cube face is determined (i.e., defined as the first state), the values ​​of the two Hall sensors of the corresponding face change according to the face that rotates. For example, when the white face rotates, the positional relationship between the Hall sensor of the white face and the magnet of the corresponding face changes, and the Hall sensor of the white face generates a corresponding value and sends it to the microcontroller unit. For the explanation of the relationship between the Hall sensor value and the magnet position, please refer to the explanation of Figure 10 above. At this time, it corresponds to the second state.

[0027] When one face of a Rubik's Cube is continuously rotated, two things can happen:

[0028] If the side rotated in the first step continues to rotate, that is, when one side rotates 180 degrees, it becomes a one-sided rotation mechanism. In the initial state of one side, it is assumed that the HALL value corresponds to 01. If one side can rotate freely and the Tps speed is greater than the hall acquisition speed, the hall cannot capture the number of 90-degree rotations. As long as the speed of the Rubik's Cube decreases and the MCU can capture the HALL value, it will back-estimate the position of one side from the HALL value of the Rubik's Cube based on Figure 10 to synchronize the state of the Rubik's Cube. This is the third state.

[0029] When rotating a surface different from that in the first step by 90 degrees, it is determined which surface is rotated by 90 degrees based on the changes in the two HALL values ​​of the corresponding surface, and the rotation direction is estimated based on the HALL initial value of that surface in the second state and Fig. 10. This is the fourth state.

[0030] After the third and fourth states are updated, they are set as the initial states. The above procedure is repeated based on the rotation of each face relative to the newly determined initial state.

[0031] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Figs. 7A to 7C and 12, the main circuit board 51 and the sub-circuit board 52 are formed of the same FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) board that is integrally connected, and the circuit connection between the main circuit board 51 and the sub-circuit board 52 is realized by a spare long-shaped connection structure 522. The main circuit board 51 and the sub-circuit board 52 can be processed on the same FPC board. A first hall sensor, a second hall sensor, a third hall sensor, and a fourth hall sensor are attached to a first circuit board surface 511 of the main circuit board 51, a fifth hall sensor is attached to the second circuit board surface 512, and a sixth hall sensor is attached to the sub-circuit board 52. Due to the flexibility of the FPC board, the positional relationship between the main circuit board 51 and the sub-circuit board 52 can be easily changed, the main circuit board and the sub-circuit board are attached to a predetermined position, and the circuit connection can be realized by the spare long-shaped connection structure 522 between them. Because it is the same FPC board, soldering between the main circuit board and the sub-circuit board is not required, which reduces the connection process required for soldering between different PCB boards in the conventional technology, and effectively improves the assembly speed of the smart Rubik's Cube.

[0032] In a preferred embodiment in which the main circuit board and the sub-circuit board are configured by the same FPC board, the preferred embodiment of the present application further provides a circuit board fixing seat 55. As shown in FIG. 12, a first fixing stand 551 is provided on the top of the circuit board fixing seat 55, and a second fixing stand 552 is provided on the bottom of the circuit board fixing seat 55, and the first fixing stand 551 is parallel to the second fixing stand 552. A first accommodating space is provided between the first fixing stand 551 and the second fixing stand 552, and a portion of the first accommodating space adjacent to the first fixing stand is provided as a battery chamber 45 for accommodating a battery, and a portion of the first accommodating space adjacent to the second fixing stand is provided as an electronic component accommodating chamber for accommodating an electronic sensing element. A through hole or blind hole for accommodating a fifth electronic sensing element is provided in the center of the second fixing stand, and the main circuit board is fixed to the second fixing stand, and the sub-circuit board is fixed to the first fixing stand. A number of cutouts are provided between the first fixed base 551 and the second fixed base 552, and by providing the cutout structure while ensuring the structural strength of the circuit board fixing base 55, the sensing device can be made lighter, i.e., the ball shaft can be made lighter, and the internal air flow can be strengthened, allowing the heat generated by the battery to be transferred to the outside of the Rubik's Cube.

[0033] The biggest advantage of using the same FPC board to make the main circuit board and the sub circuit board is that since the two circuit boards are the same board, there is no need to solder the circuits between them, which further reduces the process complexity and achieves a better assembly effect.

[0034] However, since the price of FPC materials is relatively high at present, it is possible that the use of FPC boards will become mainstream as science and technology and material technology develop in the future, but the current problem is that the cost is high. Therefore, the present application provides another embodiment.

[0035] In the second embodiment provided by the present application, a hard PCB board is used for the main circuit board 51, and a flexible circuit board FPC board is used for the sub-circuit board 52. In the sensing device provided by the present application, since the main body part is on the main circuit board 51 and the electronic sensing element and micro control unit provided thereon, a PCB board with mature technology and relatively low cost is used for the main body part, and an FPC board is used for the sub-circuit board whose arrangement position and direction need to be changed. The PCB board and the FPC board are connected via a spare long-shaped connection structure, and the PCB board is soldered between the long-shaped connection structures to realize the fixation and circuit connection between the two circuit boards.

[0036] Correspondingly, the present application further provides a corresponding circuit board fixing seat in a second circuit board embodiment, and a first fixing stand is provided on the top of the circuit board fixing seat. A first accommodating space is provided between the first fixing stand and the bottom of the circuit board fixing seat, and a part of the first accommodating space adjacent to the first fixing stand is provided as a battery chamber for accommodating a battery, and a part of the first accommodating space adjacent to the bottom of the circuit board fixing seat is provided as an electronic component accommodating chamber for accommodating an electronic sensing element. The auxiliary circuit board is fixed to the first fixing stand, and the main circuit board is fixed to the bottom of the circuit board fixing seat, and the first fixing stand is parallel to the main circuit board. Compared with the circuit board fixing seat provided by the first embodiment, the circuit board fixing seat provided by this embodiment does not need to be provided with a second fixing stand. This is because the PCB circuit board itself is a flat hard board, which can fully support various components provided thereon, and can maintain a stable shape when fixed to the circuit board fixing seat.

[0037] In another preferred embodiment provided by the present application, as shown in FIG. 6, an antenna fixing seat 62 is provided under the bottom of the circuit board fixing seat 55, that is, under the PCB board or the second fixing base 552, and the antenna 61 is fixed to the antenna fixing seat 62. The antenna fixing seat 62 and the antenna 61 are located inside the lower half housing 412 as a whole. In this way, when the entire sensing device is placed in the upper half housing, the antenna and the antenna fixing seat can balance the structural relationship inside the ball shaft. One embodiment of the antenna 61 is a Bluetooth antenna, and the antenna 61 is circuit-connected to the micro control unit. In the smart Rubik's cube provided by the present application, the micro control unit can be connected to an external terminal device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet, a server) through the antenna, so that the terminal device can easily obtain the rotation state data of the Rubik's cube detected on the smart Rubik's cube. At the same time, the terminal device can also send a control command to the micro control unit through the antenna 61.

[0038] The overall assembly process of the smart Rubik's cube provided by this application is as follows. First, according to the installation and design requirements, the micro control unit and each electronic sensing unit are mounted on the first circuit board surface 511, the second circuit board surface 512, and the sub-circuit board 52 of the main circuit board 51 respectively. In this process, since not all surfaces are provided with PCB boards, the need to precisely adjust the vertical relationship between each circuit board is eliminated, and the mature electronic component mounting process can be used, which not only improves the connection stability between each component, but also reduces the troublesome work of adjustment. At the same time, when the PCB board is used for the main circuit board and the FPC board is used for the sub-circuit board, the circuit connection between them is realized by soldering. Then, the assembled circuit board is attached to the circuit board fixing seat 55. The overall mounting and fixing of the sensing device is realized. After the entire assembled sensing device and other components such as the antenna 61 and the antenna fixing seat 62 are attached to the upper half housing or the lower half housing, the upper half housing and the lower half housing are combined to form a ball shaft. The rotation axis is attached to the ball shaft, and finally each cube block is attached to each face according to the design requirements, thereby realizing the overall assembly of the smart Rubik's cube.

[0039] The operation principle of the smart Rubik's cube provided by this application is as follows: when one face of the Rubik's cube is rotated, the rotation axis corresponding to that face rotates, and the rotation axis rotates the magnet on the rotation axis, changing the magnetic field direction of the magnet, and the change in the magnetic field direction acts on the corresponding Hall sensor to generate a correspondingly changing current or electromotive force, and transmits the current or electromotive force to the microcontroller unit, which can obtain the rotation angle of the rotation axis from the change in current or electromotive force. The microcontroller unit is connected to the smart terminal through a Bluetooth antenna, and transmits the obtained rotation state of each face to the smart terminal, and at the same time, the microcontroller unit can receive the control command transmitted from the terminal device through the antenna.

[0040] The various technical features of the above-described embodiments may be combined in any manner, and for the sake of brevity, we have not described all possible combinations of the various technical features in the above-described embodiments, but unless there is a contradiction, combinations of these technical features should be considered to be within the scope described in this specification.

[0041] Those skilled in the art can make various other corresponding modifications and variations according to the above technical means and concepts, and these modifications and variations should fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0042] 1...center block, 2...corner block, 3...edge block, 4...ball shaft, 41...ball shaft housing, 411...upper half housing, 412...lower half housing, 42...rotating shaft, 421...right rotating shaft, 422...left rotating shaft, 423...front rotating shaft, 424...rear rotating shaft, 425...upper rotating shaft, 426...lower rotating shaft, 44...second housing space, 45...battery chamber, 46...storage battery, 47...battery cover, 5...sensing device, 51. ..main circuit board, 511...first circuit board surface, 512...second circuit board surface, 52...sub-circuit board, 522...elongated connecting structure, 531...first electronic sensing element, 532...second electronic sensing element, 533...third electronic sensing element, 534...fourth electronic sensing element, 535...fifth electronic sensing element, 536...sixth electronic sensing element, 54...positioning module, 55...circuit board fixing base, 551...first fixing base, 552...second fixing base, 61...antenna, 62...antenna fixing base.

Claims

1. A sensing device for a smart Rubik's cube, comprising a main circuit board and a sub-circuit board, A microcontroller unit is provided on the main circuit board, the main circuit board includes a first circuit board surface provided on the front side of the main circuit board and a second circuit board surface provided on the back side of the main circuit board, a plane rectangular coordinate system is constructed with the center of the first circuit board surface as the origin, the positive direction of the X axis as a first direction, the negative direction of the X axis as a third direction, the positive direction of the Y axis as a second direction, and the negative direction of the Y axis as a fourth direction, and a first electronic sensing element, a second electronic sensing element, a third electronic sensing element, and a fourth electronic sensing element are provided correspondingly in each direction, and a fifth electronic sensing element is provided in an intermediate region of the second circuit board surface, and each of the electronic sensing elements is connected to the microcontroller unit so as to be able to communicate with the microcontroller unit; A sensing device for a smart Rubik's Cube, characterized in that the sub-circuit board is arranged on a preset plane parallel to the first circuit board plane, the preset plane and the second circuit board plane are respectively located on both sides of the first circuit board plane, and the sub-circuit board is provided with a sixth electronic sensing element communicatively connected to a micro control unit.

2. The sensing device of claim 1, further comprising a first positioning module, a second positioning module, a third positioning module, a fourth positioning module, a fifth positioning module, and a sixth positioning module respectively provided on six rotation axes of the smart Rubik's cube, and each electronic sensing element is sensorily positioned by the positioning module on its direction, respectively.

3. 3. The sensing device according to claim 2, wherein the main circuit board is a PCB board, the sub-circuit board is an FPC board, the FPC board has a spare long-length connection structure, and the main circuit board realizes a circuit connection with the sub-circuit board via the connection structure.

4. the circuit board fixing seat further includes a first fixing stand provided on a top of the circuit board fixing seat, a first accommodating space provided between the first fixing stand and a bottom of the circuit board fixing seat, a portion of the first accommodating space adjacent to the first fixing stand being provided as a battery chamber for accommodating a battery, and a portion of the first accommodating space adjacent to the bottom of the circuit board fixing seat being provided as an electronic component accommodating space for accommodating an electronic sensing element, 4. The sensing device according to claim 3, wherein the sub-circuit board is fixed to the first fixing base, the main circuit board is fixed to the bottom of the circuit board fixing base, and the first fixing base is parallel to the main circuit board.

5. 3. The sensing device according to claim 2, wherein the main circuit board and the sub-circuit board are configured by the same FPC that is integrally connected, and the circuit connection between the main circuit board and the sub-circuit board is realized by a spare long connection structure.

6. The circuit board fixing seat further includes a first fixing block provided on a top of the circuit board fixing seat and a second fixing block provided on a bottom of the circuit board fixing seat, the first fixing block being parallel to the second fixing block; a first accommodating space is provided between the first fixed base and the second fixed base, a portion of the first accommodating space adjacent to the first fixed base is provided as a battery chamber for accommodating a battery, and a portion of the first accommodating space adjacent to the second fixed base is provided as an electronic component accommodating chamber for accommodating an electronic sensing element, 6. The sensing device according to claim 5, wherein a through hole or blind hole for accommodating a fifth electronic sensing element is provided at the center of the second fixed base, the main circuit board is fixed to the second fixed base, and the sub-circuit board is fixed to the first fixed base.

7. A ball shaft for a smart Rubik's cube, comprising a ball shaft housing, a sensing device according to claim 6, a battery, and a Bluetooth communication module, In the ball shaft housing, a three-dimensional coordinate system is constructed with the center of the ball shaft housing as the origin, a right rotation axis is provided in the positive direction of the X axis, a left rotation axis is provided in the negative direction of the X axis, a front rotation axis is provided in the negative direction of the Y axis, a rear rotation axis is provided in the positive direction of the Y axis, an upper rotation axis is provided in the positive direction of the Z axis, and a lower rotation axis is provided in the negative direction of the Z axis, a positioning module is attached to each of the rotation axes, and a second accommodation space for accommodating a sensing device is provided inside the ball shaft housing, In the sensing device, the first electronic sensing element corresponds to the right rotation axis, the second electronic sensing element corresponds to the rear rotation axis, the third electronic sensing element corresponds to the left rotation axis, the fourth electronic sensing element corresponds to the front rotation axis, the fifth electronic sensing element corresponds to the lower rotation axis, and the sixth electronic sensing element corresponds to the upper rotation axis; The storage battery is mounted in the battery compartment, A ball shaft for a smart Rubik's Cube, characterized in that the Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication module is communicatively connected to the micro control unit, and the micro control unit is connected to an external terminal device via the Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication module.

8. The ball shaft according to claim 7, characterized in that mounting holes for mounting a rotating shaft are provided in each rotational axis direction of the ball shaft housing, the rotating shaft is fixed to the mounting hole via an insertion portion provided in the lower half to realize a connection with the ball shaft housing, and a third accommodating space for accommodating a positioning module is provided in the insertion portion.

9. The ball shaft as described in claim 8, characterized in that a battery insertion / removal opening is provided in a portion of the ball shaft housing corresponding to the battery chamber, a battery cover is provided at the battery insertion / removal opening, and the battery cover is removably connected to the ball shaft housing.

10. A smart Rubik's Cube comprising a ball shaft as described in claim 7, further comprising six center blocks, eight corner blocks, and twelve edge blocks, one center block being provided on each axis of rotation, one edge block being provided for every two adjacent center blocks, and one corner block being provided for every three adjacent edge blocks.

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