JP6425549B2 - Rotary controller - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a transparent indicator provided on a rotary control knob, and in particular to an improved technique for improving the visibility of the indicator.

  It has been proposed in the prior art that the indicator of the knob operator is illuminated. For example, according to Patent Document 1, the following in-vehicle device rotary knob is proposed. The on-vehicle device rotation knob includes a grip portion formed of a rotatable cylindrical portion, a transparent light guide plate fixed to the cylindrical portion from the outer peripheral surface side to the front end side of the cylindrical portion, and an indicator formed of a reflecting member. Have. The light guide plate includes a light incident surface from the light source, an emission surface exposed to the surface of the cylindrical portion and emitting light from both the outer peripheral surface side and the front end side, and a reflective surface facing the outer peripheral surface side of the output surface. The reflecting member is provided on the reflecting surface in a color different from that of the cylindrical portion, and the emitting surface is a surface that is bent in the direction of the central axis of the cylindrical portion as it approaches the front end side from the outer peripheral surface side. (See, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Therefore, the exit surface is a surface that is bent in the direction of the central axis of the cylindrical portion as it approaches the front end side from the outer peripheral surface side, and light incident from the entrance surface is emitted from the exit surface through the light guide plate. It will bend toward the center of the tubular part. As a result, depending on the rotation angle of the rotary knob, the light emitting portion with a small area emits light at a strong light intensity, and the light emitting portion with a large area emits light at a relatively weak light intensity. The visibility of the indicator is the same, and the visibility of the indicator is constant regardless of the rotation angle of the rotary knob. That is, even when the knob is rotated, the visibility of the indicator unit is not changed by the rotation angle. In order to make the visibility of the on-vehicle device rotation knob constant regardless of the rotation angle, the light guide plate is designed using Snell's law.

  In addition, the following illumination structure of the dial type operation knob has been proposed. The illumination structure of the dial type operation knob is a container-like light shielding member disposed to open toward the knob tip end forming member in the knob internal space, and a light source for transmitting the light transmitting portion of the knob tip end forming member A first light source disposed inside the light shielding member on the axis of the knob side surface forming member, and a light source for emitting illumination light to be transmitted through the light transmitting portion of the knob side surface forming member; A second light source disposed on the axis of the knob side surface forming member and capable of emitting illumination light of a color different from that of the first light source; and illumination light emitted by the second light source as the knob side surface forming member A container-like light guiding member disposed in the knob internal space outside the light shielding member is provided as a member leading to the light transmitting portion (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

  According to this configuration, the light shielding member defines the knob internal space into the space inside the light shielding member and the space outside the light shielding member, so the illumination light on the tip surface portion of the operation knob and the side surface portion of the operation knob It is possible to make the illumination light of the combination of the desired illumination colors different from each other.

JP-A-2002-358853 (page 3-4, FIG. 1) JP, 2012-146457, A (page 7-12, FIG. 2)

  However, according to the first prior art, although it relates to the improvement of the visibility of the indicator, it is a rotary knob for on-vehicle equipment that requires Snell's law to make a new complicated optical design. In the second prior art, the problem is in the improvement of visibility, but this is a dial-type operation knob that newly uses a second light source that is illumination light different from the first light source. It does not use the knob or the like to improve the visibility of the indicator section. As described above, according to the prior art, these are operators that require parts different from existing parts or require a large amount of improvement man-hours and costs for the existing parts.

  The present invention has been made to solve such conventional problems, and provides a rotary operator capable of improving the visibility of the indicator portion by subjecting existing parts to simple processing. The purpose is to

  In order to achieve the above object, the inventor of the present invention has a "knob" fitted to one end of a rod capable of propagating light in the axial direction, and the light from the back surface of the "knob" is Attention was focused on the "knob portion" of the rotary operation element configured to be able to transmit light and to emit light to the surface of the "thumb portion" via the indicator portion provided in the "thumb portion". Next, it was considered to form a groove on the back side (inner side of the knob portion) of the indicator portion, and to emboss the groove. Then, they conducted intensive studies and came to obtain the following findings.

That is, when light is made incident from the light source (for example, a light emitting element such as an LED) to the other end of the rod (the end opposite to the side fitted with the knob), the light propagating in the rod is uniformly The problem of not being visible and the bright and dark parts depending on the position was solved. The problem is that when light propagating in the rod is directly incident on the "knob", unevenness occurs in the light of the indicator formed of the light transmissible member that transmits light, resulting in bright and dark parts. It looks like there is a problem with However, when a groove is formed on the back side of the indicator portion and light diffusion processing such as embossing is performed, the difference in luminous intensity between the light passing through the indicator portion disappears, and uneven light does not occur. As a result, it was confirmed that the light unevenness of the transmitted light of the indicator portion was eliminated and the visibility was improved. Moreover, forming the groove is a relatively simple processing, and is for the "knob" which is an existing part. That is, the effect of being able to improve the visibility of the indicator part has been obtained by performing simple processing on existing parts.

The present invention has a rod for transmitting light in the axial direction and a frusto-conical shape in appearance, and the back of the rod is fitted at one end thereof with the inside of the frustum, along the generatrix of the frustum. a knob body portion in which slits are formed to the center position of the upper plane, and the receiving portion of the rod and rotatable undergo other end of the rod, it can transmit light, appearance on the bus with frustoconical An indicator portion provided with a protrusion corresponding to the slit along the
The indicator body is covered with the knob body and molded and joined;
The light from the inside of the protrusion of the indicator unit is configured to be able to emit light outward through the slit of the knob main body , the protrusion serving as an indicator for the operator, and a groove on the back surface of the protrusion of the indicator unit. Formed .

  With such a configuration, when light is irradiated from the other end side of the rod, this light propagates in the rod capable of light propagation, and the light propagated in the rod has the knob portion inside (the back side ), The indicator part capable of transmitting light formed on the surface of the knob part is illuminated with light from the inside thereof. As a result, the indicator portion appears to glow on the surface. And since a groove is formed in the back of an indicator part, light diffusion processing etc. are given to the surface of this groove, for example. Then, even if the propagation light of the rod appears to have light unevenness, the light which illuminates the indicator portion from the inside appears to be uniform in its light appearance and visibility is improved. Moreover, in order to improve the visibility, only the simple processing is performed on the existing parts of the rotary operator.

According to the present invention, a configuration is proposed in which the above-mentioned groove is formed (tapered) with an inclination from the axial center direction of the rod. That is, the configuration in which the groove on the back surface of the indicator portion is formed in a tapered shape can be realized by performing injection molding processing or the like using a simple-shaped mold, and it becomes possible to give the light diffusion function. Can be adjusted intentionally. For example, it is possible to make the light pattern of the surface have a geometrical pattern by forming a repetitive pattern of peaks and valleys on the surface of the above-mentioned tapered groove or forming a sawtooth pattern. Become. The presence of the above-described geometric pattern on the back side (inner side) of the knob portion causes the indicator portion to emit light according to the geometric pattern. For this reason, it is possible to make visibility of a light emission pattern of an indicator part into a desired light emission pattern. Moreover, it is possible to form a tapered groove or to form the above-described repeated pattern of valleys and sawtooth patterns on the surface of the groove by injection molding or the like using a simple-shaped mold. .

Further, it is preferable that the surface of the groove is subjected to embossing. The emboss processing is one of surface treatments such as polishing processing that does not have a mirror finish, and is processing to physically add fine irregularities such as wrinkles (grains). This processing is preferable because it is simple and light diffusion processing which is widely used and relatively inexpensive.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an effect that the visibility of the indicator portion can be improved by performing a simple light diffusion process or the like on the existing rotary operator.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a knob 10; It is a typical drawing (assembly drawing) which shows the mode of an assembly of the knob part 10. FIG. FIG. 5 is a plan view of the knob portion 10; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the state of each cross section of the knob portion 10; They are a bottom view of knob part 10, and a perspective view by the side of a bottom. It is a schematic diagram (assembly drawing) which shows the mode of the assembly of the rotary type operation element 100. FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a rotary operator 100. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the rotary operator 100. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a rotary operator 100. They are a perspective view by the side of the bottom of knob part 10, and a sectional view of rotary operation element 101 in other examples of composition.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The rotary operators 100 and 101 according to the embodiment of the present invention are attached to a substrate or the like as an operator of an electronic musical instrument, for example. The rotary manipulator 100, 101 includes a rod 20 for transmitting light in the axial direction, a knob 10 in which the inside of the back surface of the rod 20 is fitted to one end of the rod 20, and the rod 20 is rotatable. A light receiving portion 30 for receiving the other end of the light receiving portion 20 and light from the inside of the knob portion 10 is transmitted to the outside of the knob portion 10 through an indicator portion 5 capable of transmitting light and provided on the knob portion 10; It is configured to be able to emit light. A groove 50 is formed on the back surface of the indicator portion 5 to which embossing and the like can be performed.

(Constitution)
First, the configuration of the knob 10 will be described. 1 is a perspective view of the knob 10, FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing (assembly diagram) showing the assembled state of the knob 10, FIG. 3 is a plan view of the knob 10, and FIG. 4 is a knob It is sectional drawing which shows the state of each cross section of 10, and FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the knob part 10, and a perspective view of the bottom side.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the knob portion 10 covers the indicator portion 5 made of a light transmittable member from above with the knob main body 1 made of a member that does not transmit light, thereby bonding or double-forming bonding Manufactured by etc. The knob 10 is made of, for example, an opaque ABS resin, and the indicator 5 is made of, for example, a transparent ABS resin. ABS resin is "acrylonitrile, butadiene, styrene copolymerization synthetic resin". In addition, "double molding" is also referred to as two-color molding or the like.

  The indicator part 5 is formed thick as a whole, has a conical shape with a truncated head, and has a projection 4 formed in the generatrix direction of the cone. The upper surface of the indicator portion 5 is a circular plane in plan view, and the projections 4 are continuously formed from a point near the center of the circular plane to the generatrix of the above-mentioned cone. On the other hand, the knob main body 1 is formed in a thin-walled shape as a whole and has a conical shape with its head cut off, and the upper surface thereof is a knob top plane 2 having a circular shape in plan view. Further, a slit 3 is formed on the generatrix of the knob main body 1, and the slit 3 extends to a point near the center of the knob top plane 2. Then, the knob portion 10 is manufactured by covering the indicator body 5 with the knob main body 1 and molding (for example, double molding). At this time, the projections 4 are projected outward through the slits 3. Therefore, when viewed from the outside, as shown in FIG. 1, the indicator portion 5 can only see a portion of the protrusion 4.

  In the plan view of the knob portion 10 of FIG. 3, the AA cross section, the BB cross section, and the CC cross section respectively correspond to FIG. 4A, FIG. 4B, and FIG. 4C. In the BB cross section in FIG. 4B, the space S is a space into which a rod 20 described later is fitted. Then, as can be understood with reference to the cross section AA shown in FIG. 4A and the cross section CC shown in FIG. 4C, if the rod 20 is fitted in the indicator portion 5, the axial center of the rod 20 A tapered groove 50 is formed at an angle to the direction (vertical direction in the drawing). 5 (a) is a bottom view of the knob 10, and FIG. 5 (b) is a perspective view from the bottom of the knob 10. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the groove 50 is formed on the inner side of the knob 10 on the back side of the protrusion 4. The surface of the groove 50 is subjected to light diffusion processing to cause light diffusion such as embossing.

Next, with reference to FIG. 6 to FIG. 9, the assembled state of the above-mentioned knob portion 10 and the rod 20 and the receiving portion 30 which are other parts will be described, and then the configuration of the rotary operator 100 will be described. Do. 6 is a schematic view showing the assembled state of the rotary operator 100, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the rotary operator 100, FIG. 8 is a plan view of the rotary operator 100, and FIG. 9 is a rotary operator FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the rod 20 is a long rod-like body having a circular shape in plan view, and the knob portion 10 is fitted to one end of the rod 20. That is, one end of the rod 20 is fitted to the indicator portion 5 which constitutes the inner surface of the knob portion 10. On the other hand, the other end of the rod 20 is fitted to a projection in an annular shape in plan view that protrudes on the upper surface of the receiving portion 30. The locking claws 34 (only one is shown) provided on the receiving portion 30 are fitted in the pair of locking holes 46 a and 46 b provided on the substrate 40. Furthermore, the attachment foot 32 of the receiving portion 30 is inserted into the three holes 46 formed in the substrate 40, and soldering or the like is performed on the insertion portion. And LED45 as a light source is mounted in the position on the board | substrate 40 corresponding to the planar center of the receiving part 30. As shown in FIG. Thus, the rotary operator 100 is assembled. The rod 20 is made of a material such as transparent polycarbonate, and the receiving portion 30 is made of a material such as synthetic resin.

  7 and 8 are a perspective view and a plan view, respectively, of the rotary operator 100 after assembly, and the cross section DD in FIG. 8 is as shown in FIG. In FIG. 9, hatching indicating a cross section to the rod 20 is intentionally omitted for the sake of easy understanding and the like. As shown in FIG. 9, a groove 50 is formed on the back surface of the projection 4 of the indicator portion 5, that is, inside the knob portion 10, and the surface thereof is subjected to emboss processing S. As shown in FIG. At the lower end of the rod 20, a fulcrum 22 is formed integrally with the rod body. The fulcrum portion 22 is a cylindrical protrusion in an appearance view, and the fulcrum portion 22 in the form of a projection fits into a hole provided below the center of the receiving portion 30, and the rod 20 rotates around the fulcrum portion 22. It is configured to be possible.

(Action)
The light emitted from the LED 45 is incident on a fulcrum 22 provided at the tip of the rod 20 and propagates in the axial direction of the rod 20. At this time, there are various light paths, but eventually the light is irradiated from the inside to the outside of the protrusion 4. Thus, the user can operate the rotary operator 100 while recognizing that the indicator unit 5 of the rotary operator 100 is illuminated. And since groove 50 was formed in the back side of projection 4 of indicator part 5 and light diffusion processing such as embossing was given to the surface, even if it seems that there is light unevenness in propagation light of rod 20, indicator The light which illuminates the portion 5 from the inside appears to be uniform in its light appearance, and the visibility is improved. Moreover, since the groove 50 is formed to be inclined from the axial center direction of the rod 20, it becomes easy to emboss the rotary operator 100.

  Furthermore, since the groove 50 is formed to have an inclination from the axial center direction of the rod 20, the thickness of the indicator portion 5 is reduced by that amount, which makes it possible to prevent light attenuation as much as possible. It becomes easy to process.

(Other configuration example)
FIG. 10 shows another configuration example. 10 (a) is a perspective view of the bottom side of the knob 10, and FIG. 10 (b) is a DD cross section of the rotary operator 101. FIG. In FIG. 10 (b), hatching of the cross section of the rod 20 is omitted for ease of understanding as in the case of the cross sectional view of the previous configuration example. As can be seen with reference to FIGS. 10 (a) and 10 (b), the point of forming the groove 51 on the back side of the projection 4 is the same as the configuration described above. It is characterized in that it forms a blade-like pattern.

  That is, this configuration is characterized in that the surface of the groove 51 is not subjected to embossing, and the surface of the groove 51 can be intentionally provided with a sawtooth pattern or a repeated pattern of peaks and valleys. And since the above-mentioned geometric pattern exists on the back side (inner side) of the knob part 10, the indicator part will become light according to this geometric pattern. For this reason, it is possible to improve visibility by setting the light emission of the indicator unit 5 as a desired light emission pattern. In addition, the intentional formation of a sawtooth pattern or a repetitive pattern of peaks and valleys on the surface of the groove 51 can be realized by injection molding or the like using a simple-shaped mold.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, even if the propagation light of the rod 20 seems to have light unevenness, the light that illuminates the indicator unit 5 from the inside is such that the way of light becomes uniform Since it looks like or looks like a pattern of intended light, visibility improves. Moreover, in order to improve the visibility, only the simple processing is performed on the existing rotary operator.

  The above is the embodiment of the present invention, the material and the like of each component can be appropriately selected, and the pattern intentionally provided on the surface of the groove 51 may be another pattern.

  As described above, the rotary operator of the present invention can be applied not only to the field of music devices, but also to devices that require a knob operation in other fields.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 knob main body part 2 knob top flat 3 slit 4 protrusion 5 indicator part 10 knob part 20 rod 22 fulcrum part 30 receiving part 32 attachment foot 34 locking claw 40 base plate 45 LED
46a, 46b Locking holes 50 Grooves 51 Grooves 100 Rotary controls 101 Rotary controls

Claims (5)

A rod for propagating light in the axial direction,
A knob body having an outer appearance in the shape of a truncated cone, and one end of the rod is fitted with the back inner side of the rod , and a slit is formed along the generatrix of the truncated cone to the central position of the upper flat surface of the truncated cone ,
A receiving portion for pivoting the rod to receive the other end of the rod;
An indicator portion which can transmit light, and which has a frusto-conical appearance and a protrusion corresponding to the slit along the generatrix thereof;
The indicator body is covered with the knob body and molded and joined;
The light from the inside of the protrusion of the indicator portion is configured to be able to be emitted outward through the slit of the knob main body portion , and the protrusion serves as an indicator for the operator;
A rotary operator in which a groove is formed on the back surface of the protrusion of the indicator portion . In the rotary operator according to claim 1,
The groove is
A rotary operator characterized in that it is formed to have an inclination from the axial center direction of the rod. In the rotary operator according to claim 2,
In the surface of the groove,
A rotary operator characterized in that a repeated pattern of sawtooth and valley or a sawtooth pattern is formed. The rotary operator according to any one of claims 1 and 2.
A rotary operator characterized in that light diffusion processing is performed on the surface of the groove. In the rotary operator according to claim 4,
The light diffusion process is an embossed process.

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