Medicine feeder and medicine dispenser

摘要

A medicine feeder's drive unit includes a drive motor, a gear transmission device, an output shaft and a switcher. The gear transmission device is constituted by a normal-rotation transmission path and a reverse-rotation transmission path provided between a motor shaft of the drive motor and the output shaft. The switcher selects one of the transmission paths for output of driving power from the drive motor. Thus, a jammed tablet in the medicine feeder can be cleared upon detection thereof, and reverse rotation of a rotor can be achieved without driving the motor in a reverse rotating direction, i.e., while the motor is in normal rotation setting.

主权项

1. A medicine dispenser comprising a medicine feeder, a control circuit and a display device, wherein:
the medicine feeder is provided by a combination of a medicine dispensing cassette and a drive unit; and the dispensing cassette includes a medicine storage for storing medicine, and a rotor at a bottom portion of the medicine storage, the rotor having a rotor shaft; the drive unit including a drive motor, a gear transmission device, a switcher, a tablet counting sensor and a rotor-rotation detection sensor; the drive motor having a motor shaft rotatable in a normal rotation direction; the gear transmission device having a normal-rotation transmission path and a reverse-rotation transmission path each constituted by a predetermined quantity of gears provided between the motor shaft of the drive motor and the rotor shaft; the switcher being configured to select one of the transmission paths for output of driving power from the drive motor to the dispensing cassette, to transmit the driving power from the drive motor, via the motor shaft rotating in the normal rotation direction, to the rotor shaft for rotating the rotor shaft in a normal direction or a reverse direction; the control circuit controlling the drive unit for reverse rotation of the rotor for a predetermined period of time followed by resumption to normal rotation thereafter, upon detection of a stoppage of the rotor based on a signal from the rotor-rotation detection sensor.