JPH027159B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an illuminance adjustment device that adjusts the illuminance of illumination.

For example, instrument lights in automobiles are configured so that they can be turned on in response to the turning on of headlights at night. However, the illuminance of the instrument lights is always constant, so in relatively dark places such as suburban roads with little lighting, the instrument lights become too bright and dazzle, making it difficult to see outside the vehicle. In relatively bright areas, the instrument lighting is too dim, making it difficult to see the instruments. One way to solve this problem is to adjust the illuminance of the lighting using a knob that is linked to a variable resistor, but the adjustment work of turning the knob is quite cumbersome for the driver and can cause problems such as a lack of attentiveness when driving. There was a problem with safe driving.

The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an illuminance adjustment device that can easily and safely adjust the illuminance using an easy-to-operate push switch.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises: a switch means for outputting at least one of an illuminance increase signal and an illuminance decrease signal; an illuminance setting means for setting illuminance data based on the input time of the output signal from the switch means; Lighting control means for outputting a lighting signal with a duty of setting a high level for m cycles out of n cycles of the reference clock signal and low level for (n-m) cycles (however, n≧m) based on the illuminance data. and an illumination means that lights up with an illuminance determined by the duty of the lighting signal.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a switch stage, which includes a switch SW1 that outputs an illuminance increase signal A, a switch SW2 that outputs an illuminance decrease signal B, and an OR circuit 2 that selects these signals. It consists of The signal selected by the OR circuit 2 is transmitted to the switch input detection circuit 4 which constitutes the illuminance setting means 3.
Output to. Then, the time clock signal CK with a sufficiently long period is generated from the time clock generator 5.
1 is output to the up-down counter circuit 6 only when the selected signal is input. Also, switch SW1
The illuminance increase signal A is the up-down counter circuit 6.
The illuminance lowering signal B is output to the UP input terminal of , and the illuminance lowering signal B is output to the DOWN input terminal. The illuminance data E counted by the up-down counter circuit 6 is output to a comparison circuit 8 constituting the lighting control means 7. The comparison circuit 8 compares the illuminance data E set by the up-down counter circuit 6 with the data F of the counter 9 counted at the timing of the clock signal CK2 from the reference clock generator 10, and calculates the duty set by the comparison circuit 8. The lighting signal G is output to the lighting drive circuit 11. The lighting drive circuit 11 controls the lighting of the lighting means 12 with an illuminance determined by the duty of the lighting signal G.

The operation of the illuminance adjusting device of the present invention configured as above will be explained.

First, it is assumed that the values of the up-down counter circuit 6 and the counter 9 are both 1 as initial values, the up-down counter circuit 6 counts 0 to 3, and the counter 9 counts 1 to 3. Now, when the switch SW1 is pressed to increase the illuminance, the illuminance increase signal A is input to the UP input terminal of the up-down counter circuit 6, and is also input to the switch input detection circuit 4 via the OR circuit 2. Switch SW
While pressing 1, the switch input detection circuit 4 generates one pulse at the timing of the time clock CK1 (rising or falling of the clock), outputs it to the up-down counter circuit 6, and is counted by the up-down counter circuit 6. Illuminance data E is 1
→It becomes 2. Furthermore, when switch SW1 is kept pressed and the next time clock CK1 is generated,
The illuminance data E of the up-down counter circuit 6 is 3
becomes. Set the upper limit of up-down counter circuit 6 to 3
Therefore, this becomes the upper limit of the illuminance, and the up-down counter circuit 6 outputs the illuminance upper limit signal C to the switch input detection circuit 4 when the illuminance increase signal A is input. Thereafter, even if the switch SW1 continues to be pressed, the switch input detection circuit 4 will not output a pulse to the up/down counter circuit 6.
On the other hand, when the switch SW2 is pressed to lower the illuminance, the illumination lowering signal B is output to the DOWN input terminal of the up-down counter circuit 6, and is also output to the switch input detection circuit 4 via the OR circuit 2. Similarly, when a pulse is generated from the switch input detection circuit 4 at the timing of time clock CK1, the up-down counter circuit 6 counts down, and the illuminance data E of the up-down counter circuit 6 is generated.
becomes 3→2. When the illuminance data E of the up-down counter circuit 6 becomes 0 and the illuminance decrease signal B is still being input, the illuminance lower limit signal D is output to the switch input detection circuit 4, and the switch input detection circuit 4 thereafter outputs a pulse. Does not occur. In this way, the output of the up-down counter circuit 6 is 0 to 3.
The illuminance data E is outputted to the comparator circuit 8. Next, the counter 9 is a ring counter that counts 1 to 3 at the timing of the reference clock CK2, and outputs the counted data F to the comparator circuit 8. And comparison circuit 8
compares the illuminance data E of the up-down counter circuit 6 with the data F of the counter 9 at the timing of the reference clock CK2. That is, when the comparison circuit 8 compares the illuminance data E of the up-down counter circuit 6 to 2, the data 1 to 3 of the counter 9 are compared in magnitude with respect to this data. It is assumed that the output of the comparator circuit 8 is expressed by the following relationship between illuminance data E and data F.

E>F→Output: Low level E≦F→Output: High level Based on this relationship, for example, 2
, the data F changes as 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, etc. and is compared in size, and as shown in Figure 2C, F = 1 and 2 are high levels, F = 3 is a low level. A signal is output from the comparator circuit 8 to the illumination drive circuit 11. In this case, two out of three periods of the reference clock CK2 are set to high level,
(3-2)=A signal whose level is low for one period is generated. That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the up-down counter circuit 6 counts from 0 to 3 and the counter 9 counts from 1 to 3, but generally the up-down counter circuit 6 counts from 0 to n and the counter 9 counts from 1 to 3.
If the up-down counter circuit 6 is configured to count up to n, and the value of the up-down counter circuit 6 at a certain point is (n≧m), a duty lighting signal is obtained that makes m cycles of the n cycles of the reference clock CK2 low. be able to. Therefore, by increasing the value of n, fine adjustment of illuminance becomes possible. This lighting signal is sent to the lighting means 12 via the lighting drive circuit 11, and the instruments are illuminated at a high level. In this way, lighting signals with different duties are obtained based on the illuminance data E, and the illuminance is adjusted.

Incidentally, since the frequency of the reference clock CK2 is such that flicker is not perceived by the human eye, the illumination intensity changes depending on the difference in duty.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment.
It goes without saying that various modifications are included within the scope of the invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, as the switch means,
Switch for increasing illuminance SW1 and switch for decreasing illuminance
Although two switches SW2 are used, one switch SW3 may be used to raise and lower the illuminance as shown in FIG. 3. In other words, the switch
The signal from SW3 is the T flip-flop circuit 13
clock input terminal T and AND circuits 14 and 15
It is input to the 1 input terminal of. Note that the data input terminal To of the T flip-flop circuit 13 is always at a high level. The output Q of the T flip-flop circuit 13 is input to other input terminals of AND circuits 14 and 15. The output of the AND circuit 14 is applied to the OR circuit 2 and the UP terminal of the up-down counter circuit 6 as the illuminance increase signal A as in FIG. 1, and the output of the AND circuit 15 is applied to the OR circuit 2 as the illuminance decrease signal B. It is applied to the DOWN terminal of the up-down counter circuit 6. With this configuration, when you press switch SW3 for the first time, switch SW
3 signal turns ON and T flip-flop circuit 1
The output Q of 3 also becomes high level, and as a result, AND
The output of the circuit 14 becomes high level. While the switch SW3 is on, the illuminance increase signal A is supplied to the illuminance setting means 3, and the illuminance increases every time the time clock CK1 occurs. On the other hand, when the switch SW3 is pressed again after canceling the illuminance increase operation, the output Q of the T flip-flop circuit 13 is inverted, and the AND circuit 15
output becomes high level, and an illuminance lowering signal B is supplied to the illuminance setting means 3. In this way, the switch
SW3 alternately outputs illuminance increase signal A and illuminance decrease signal B.
It has the advantage of being easy to operate with just one switch.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment, in which the signal from switch SW4 is applied to one input terminal of AND circuits 16 and 17.
The illuminance upper limit signal C of the up-down counter circuit 6 is applied to the R terminal of the R-S flip-flop circuit 18, and the illuminance lower limit signal D is applied to the S terminal. Output Q of R-S flip-flop circuit 18
is the other input terminal of the AND circuit 16, and the output is
The signals are applied to other input terminals of the AND circuit 17, respectively. According to such a configuration, the switch
When SW4 is pressed, if the output Q of the R-S flip-flop circuit 18 is at a high level, the AND circuit 16
The output becomes high level and an illuminance increase signal A is generated. When the switch SW4 continues to be pressed and the illuminance reaches the upper limit, the illuminance upper limit signal C is applied from the up-down counter circuit 6 to the R terminal of the R-S flip-flop circuit 18, and the output becomes high level.
AND circuit 16 outputs low level of AND circuit 1
The output of 7 becomes high level, and the illuminance lowering signal B is generated. In this way, there are advantages such as the ability to continuously increase and decrease the illuminance by continuously pressing one switch.

In addition, in any of the embodiments described above, the illuminance increase signal,
The device is configured to control the rise and fall of the illuminance using both illuminance lowering signals, but the up-down counter circuit 6 is configured to count only by addition or only by subtraction, and when the upper or lower limit is reached, If configured so that the illuminance is preset to the lower limit or upper limit, for example, the illuminance can be adjusted from the lower limit to the upper limit using only the illuminance increase signal or only the illuminance decrease signal, and when the upper limit is reached, the illuminance is automatically preset to the lower limit and then the illuminance is adjusted from the lower limit again. A unidirectional adjustment function can be provided.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an illuminance adjustment device that can easily and safely adjust illuminance using an easy-to-operate push switch.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing the output of the up-down counter circuit 6, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another embodiment, and FIG. 4 is the same. FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation and a block diagram showing another embodiment. 1... Switch means, 3... Illuminance setting means, 7
...Lighting control means, 12...Lighting means, 10...
Reference clock generator.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A switch means for outputting at least one of an illuminance increase signal and an illuminance decrease signal, an illuminance setting means for setting illuminance data based on the input time of the output signal from the switch means, and a reference clock signal based on the illuminance data. m periods out of n periods are set as high level, and (n-m) periods (however, n≧m)
1. An illuminance adjustment device comprising: a lighting control means for outputting a lighting signal with a duty that sets the lighting signal to a low level; and a lighting means for lighting with an illuminance determined by the duty of the lighting signal.