Patent ID: 7554414

Claim:
A method for assisting the oscillation starting process of an electromechanical oscillator, comprising a feedback method with the following steps: a) detecting oscillator oscillations which occur in an output signal from the electromechanical oscillator; b) generating an enable signal during an oscillation of the oscillator; c) generating an excitation pulse on the basis of a detected oscillator oscillation and the enable signal; d) feeding of the excitation pulse to the electromechanical oscillator; and e) determining, with a counter which uses a clock signal, the time or times at which the enable signal causes the excitation pulse or pulses to be fed to the electromechanical oscillator, wherein a plurality of excitation pulses are fed to the electromechanical oscillator, by carrying out the feedback method repeatedly, wherein groups of excitation pulses are fed to the electromechanical oscillator periodically, with each group comprising at least one excitation pulse, wherein no excitation pulses are fed to the electromechanical oscillator during the time period between feeding of the groups of excitation pulses, wherein the time period between feeding of the groups of excitation pulses is longer than the time period between two subsequent pulses in any group of excitation pulses.