JPS637980B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (1) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a malfunction prevention device for various operation switches mounted on the steering handle of a vehicle, particularly an automobile.

(2) Prior art and its problems Recently, a wide variety of switches have been installed in automobiles for the purpose of safe driving, and a large number of switches have been installed in automobiles.

These operation switches have been developed to be mounted on the upper surface of the steering wheel as much as possible in consideration of operability during safe driving of the automobile. The structure is such that various switches can be easily operated as desired at the hand that operates the so-called handle.

However, as mentioned above, by equipping the top surface of the steering wheel with various operation switches to improve the operability of the various switches, on the other hand, when rotating the steering wheel to change the direction of the car, it is difficult to accidentally turn the steering wheel. It is easy for the hands to touch the operating switch, which leads to drawbacks such as erroneous operation, which impedes the operability of the steering wheel and poses a risk of a lack of safety.

(3) Purpose of the present invention In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present invention has been developed to solve the problem that when the steering wheel is rotated, that is, when the steering wheel is rotated beyond a predetermined rotation angle, it is possible to accidentally touch the operation part of the switch. To provide a control device for a switch of a steering wheel for a vehicle, in which an electric circuit to a load connected to the switch is not closed and malfunctions are not caused, and the operability of the steering wheel is not hindered. The purpose is to

(4) Configuration of the present invention FIG. 1 is a system block diagram showing a control device for a switch of a vehicle steering wheel according to the present invention. Below, the configuration is shown in Figures 1 and 2.
This will be explained in detail based on FIGS. 3, 4, 5, and 6.

1 is a steering wheel of a car. 2
are a plurality of various operation switches, which are attached to the center of the steering handle 1 and its periphery. Reference numeral 3 denotes an encoding circuit section which converts the respective operations of the various operation switches 2 into respective encoded signals and derives a serial output signal, and is constructed inside the central portion of the steering handle 1.

4 is an optical coupler section. The optical coupler section 4 further converts the serial output signal converted into an encoded signal by the encoding circuit section 3 into an optical signal,
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the optical coupler section 4 includes a ring-shaped light guide 4b made of a light guide material, a light emitting element 4a embedded in a predetermined position on the upper surface of the light guide 4b, and a light guide 4b. The light receiving element 4c is arranged on the outer periphery of the light receiving element 4c. The ring-shaped light guide 4b is fixed around the central axis of the steering handle 1 so as to be rotated integrally with the steering handle 1, and the light emitting element 4a is embedded in a predetermined position on the top surface. receives the serial output signal from the encoding circuit section 3 and further converts it into an optical signal. Further, the light receiving element 4c detects the optical signal from the light emitting element 4a via the light guide 4b, and inputs a serial output signal to the gate circuit 6b of the rotation determination circuit section 6 at the next stage.
5 is a rotation sensor section. The rotation sensor section 5
For example, as in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, it is composed of a rotating substrate 5a and a contact needle 5e that maintains sliding contact with a spiral resistor formed on the rotating substrate 5a. has been done.

The rotating base 5a is fixed to the lower surface of the light guide 4b and is rotated integrally with the steering handle 1, and a spiral guide groove 5b is formed on the lower surface with a predetermined number of turns, as shown in FIG. 6, for example. It is formed as follows. Furthermore, a low resistance element (hereinafter simply referred to as a "conductor") 5c and a high resistance element 5d are attached to the bottom surface of the guide groove 5b. The conductor 5c is attached only to a portion of the steering handle 1 corresponding to a predetermined rotation angle, for example, the rotation angle range X portion in FIG. 6, and the other portions are high resistance elements 5d. Of course, if the rotating board 5a is a high-resistance insulator, the provision of a high-resistance element can be omitted. Contact needle 5e
is the guide groove 5b of the rotary base plate 5a with a predetermined bias.
As shown in FIG. 6, when the steering handle 1 is in a normal position, that is, when the steering wheel 1 is in a substantially straight forward state without being rotated leftward or rightward, the guide groove 5b is pressed inwards. It is arranged so as to be located at the conductor 5c part,
The conductor 5c of the rotating board 5a is electrically connected to the conductor 5c. The contact needle 5e is thus connected to the rotation determination circuit 6 at the next stage.

6 is a rotation determination circuit section. The rotation determination circuit section 6 includes a resistor which receives a resistance change due to contact between the rotating base 5a and the contact needle 5e and converts it into a voltage change.
Voltage conversion circuit 6a and the resistance-voltage conversion circuit 6a
A gate circuit 6b that controls the serial output signal from the optical coupler section 4 depending on the presence or absence of an input from the optical coupler section 4 is configured, for example, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. A code decoding circuit section 7 receives the signal derived from the rotation determination circuit section 6, decodes the input signal, and operates the load 8 in order to drive a predetermined load. 8 is various loads corresponding to the switch 2.

(5) Effect of the present invention In FIG. 1, when a switch 2 installed on a steering wheel 1, for example a wiper switch, is operated, the signal is converted into an encoded signal by the encoder circuit section 3, and the light emitting element of the optical coupler section 4 is activated. 4a. The light emitting element 4a converts it into a predetermined optical signal and transmits it to the light receiving element 4c via the light guide 4b. The light receiving element 4c is an input to the gate circuit 6b of the judgment/discrimination circuit section 6, and the steering wheel 1
According to the rotation detection state of the rotation sensor unit 5 that detects the rotation state of If it is within X, the conductor 5c of the rotating board 5a and the contact needle 5e are in a conductive state, so the transistor of the resistance-voltage conversion circuit 6a of the rotation determination circuit section 6 is turned on, operating the gate circuit 6b, and detecting the light receiving element. A signal from 4c, for example a wiper drive signal, is input to the code decoding circuit section 7. Thus, the desired switch 2 is
A load 8, such as a wiper, is driven according to the operation.

On the other hand, when the steering wheel 1 is rotated to the left or right to change the direction of the vehicle, the contact needle 5e of the rotation sensor section 5 receives high resistance from the conductor 5c due to the rotation of the rotating board 5a. body 5d
Since the rotating board 5a and the contact needle 5e are moved to and in contact with each other, there is no conduction between the rotating board 5a and the contact needle 5e. Therefore, the transistor of the resistance-voltage conversion circuit 6a of the rotation determination circuit section 6 is in the OFF state, and the gate circuit 6b is disabled. Since it is in the activated state, the serial output signal from the light receiving element 4c is not electrically connected to the code decoding circuit 7 at the next stage and is not transmitted.

Thus, when the steering wheel 1 is rotated to the left or right in order to change the direction of the automobile, even if the switch 2 of the steering wheel 1 is accidentally touched and operated, , the operation of the rotation sensor section 5 and the rotation determination circuit section 6 prevents the load 8 from malfunctioning.

(6) Effects of the present invention (a) When changing the direction of the automobile, that is, when rotating the steering wheel, no malfunction will occur even if one's hands accidentally touch the operating parts of the various switches attached to the steering wheel. Therefore, it is possible to provide a control device for a switch of a steering wheel for a vehicle, which allows the steering wheel to be rotated easily and has higher driving safety.

(b) It can be used in various vehicles because it has a simple component structure and can be made at low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an outline of a control device for a switch of a vehicle steering wheel according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram and a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the optical coupler section, rotation sensor section, and rotation discrimination circuit section of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the optical coupler section of FIG. 1. Figure 4 shows arrow A- in Figure 3.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the A line. FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the optical coupler section and rotation sensor section of FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a bottom view of FIG. 5. 2... Switch, 3... Encoding circuit section, 4...
Optical coupler section, 5... Rotation sensor section, 6... Rotation determination circuit section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of operation switches attached to a steering wheel, an encoding circuit section that converts the operation of the operation switches into encoded signals and derives a serial output signal, and a serial output signal derived from the encoding circuit section. In a control device for a switch of a steering wheel for a vehicle, the control device includes an optical coupler section that converts a signal into an optical signal, and a code decoding circuit section that decodes the optical signal derived from the optical coupler section and drives each load. a rotation sensor section that detects the rotation of the rotation sensor section, a resistance-voltage conversion circuit that outputs a resistance change signal detected by the rotation sensor section and converts the resistance change signal into a voltage change signal, and a resistance-voltage conversion circuit that outputs a resistance change signal detected by the rotation sensor section and converts the resistance change signal into a voltage change signal; 1. A control device for a switch of a steering wheel for a vehicle, comprising a rotation determination circuit section comprising a gate circuit that is turned on and off in response to an output signal.