JPH0624892B2 - Steering interlocking meter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION << Industrial Application Field >> The present invention relates to an instrument
The present invention relates to a meter device (so-called combination meter) arranged on a panel, and particularly to a steering interlocking meter by an electronic display type meter using a display such as a CRT, a liquid crystal panel, an EL panel.

«Conventional technology» It is extremely important for a meter device of an automobile to be easy for the driver to see, and for this reason various innovations have been made in terms of layout and display technology.
One of the technical problems of this kind is the relative positional relationship among the driver's seat, the steering wheel, and the meter device, and many studies have been added ergonomically.

When the driver looks at the meter device, the steering wheel is the biggest visual obstacle. Generally, there is an arrangement in which the meter display is viewed through the upper portion of the handle within the circle.

The position of the eyes when sitting in the driver's seat and taking a driving posture varies depending on the person. If the eye position is unchanged, the position of the meter display that is easy to see is easily determined, but in reality, even if it is easy for one person to see, part of the meter display is hidden by the steering wheel and becomes difficult to see. There is.

In particular, when the position of the steering wheel is changed according to the driver by a tilt mechanism or a telescopic mechanism, it is difficult for the steering wheel to see the meter display.

Therefore, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-66579, when the position of the steering wheel is changed, the display unit of the meter device is rocked as a whole by mechanically interlocking it with the display surface. There are some that change the position of.

<< Problems to be Solved by the Invention >> In the configuration in which the display unit is mechanically interlocked with the position adjusting mechanism of the steering wheel, the number of parts is greatly increased, the structure is complicated, and the assembly is complicated. Be troublesome. In addition, it is difficult to realize an interlocking mechanism that appropriately changes the position of the display unit with respect to the change of the handle position. Further, this kind of mechanical interlocking mechanism is apt to generate a vibration noise and cause a failure.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and an object thereof is a state in which a meter display changes and is easy to see when the position of a steering wheel is changed, regardless of a mechanical position adjusting mechanism. It is to provide a steering interlocking meter that can maintain the.

<< Means for Solving Problems >> Therefore, in the present invention, first, an arbitrary figure, character, or the like is displayed on a screen that is installed on an instrument panel in front of the steering wheel and is electronically controlled. An electronic display type meter device having a display device capable of displaying and a display control means for processing various state information of the automobile and displaying it on the screen of the display device in an appropriate image pattern is adopted.

A steering wheel position detecting means for outputting a signal corresponding to the position of the position-variable steering wheel and a display size of all or a part of the display image of each information element on the screen of the display are displayed on this device. Display size changing means for changing the output of the handle position detecting means is added (see FIG. 1).

<< Operation >> When the position of the steering wheel is changed according to the driver, the change is detected by the steering wheel position detecting means and transmitted to the display size changing means. The display size changing means changes a part or all of the display image, which tends to be difficult to see by changing the position of the handle, to a state in which the display size is easily seen on the screen.

<< Example >> As shown in FIG. 2, the indicator 13 is fixedly incorporated in the instrument panel 12 in front of the steering wheel 11 so that the driver can see the indicator 12 through the upper part of the steering wheel 11 in a circle. It has a basic layout for viewing the screen.

As the display 12, a display such as a CRT, a liquid crystal, or an EL panel having a sufficient resolution and preferably capable of color display is used. The display 12 of this embodiment is an EL panel.

As shown in FIG. 3, signal processing and control for display as a meter device is performed by a display controller 14 composed of a microcomputer, and a signal from this display controller 14 is given to a driver 15 of a display 13, The display as described below is displayed on the display unit 13.

The display controller 14 is provided with various state information signals of the automobile from respective sensor systems and setting systems. The display controller 14 processes these status information signals and
This information is displayed in 3 in a predetermined image pattern. What is displayed on the display 13 is a speedometer, an octopus,
Meter, fuel meter, thermometer,
Odometer, trip meter, indicator,
There are various warning displays, automatic transaxle (AT) setting positions, etc., but in the following, for the sake of simplicity, we will focus on some displays such as the speed meter and tachometer.

A tilt mechanism is attached to the steering handle 11 of this embodiment, and the position of the handle 11 can be changed according to the driver by this mechanism.

When the lock lever of the tilt mechanism is moved to the “release” position in order to adjust the position of the handle 11, the detection switch 16 shown in FIG. 3 is turned on. When the lock lever is set to the “fixed” position to fix the position (tilt) of the handle 11, the detection switch 16 is turned off.

Further, a potentiometer 17 is attached to the movable portion of the tilt mechanism to detect the tilt angle of the steering column, that is, the position of the handle 11.

In this embodiment, the display sizes of the meters are automatically changed on the screen of the display 13 according to the output of the potentiometer 17. The display size can also be changed manually. An operation switch 18 is provided as a manual input means for that purpose. As shown in FIG. 2, the operation switch 18 is attached near the driver's seat of the instrument panel 12 so that the driver can easily operate it.

Next, a specific display example will be described. 5A and 5B show a first display example. In this example, on the screen of the display 13, there are a speed meter image 20 and a tachometer image 21 in the form of a circular pointer type meter, and between these meter images 20 and 21, there is an indicator image 22 at the AT position and a turn.・ Lamp indicator image 2
There are 3 etc. Further, the speed meter image 20 includes a trip meter image and the like.

In FIG. 5 (A), when the handle 11 at the position shown by the solid line is lowered downward by the tilt mechanism as shown by the dotted line, the upper part of the screen of the display 13 is hidden by the upper part of the handle 11 and the display is difficult to see. Become. On the contrary, by lowering the central pad 11a of the handle 11, the lower part of the screen of the display 13 can be easily seen.

In the apparatus of this embodiment, when the position of the handle 11 is lowered downward, the size of each image described above on the screen of the display 13 is reduced as shown in FIG. I try not to become an obstacle when I see the display.

An example of the processing procedure for changing the display size as described above is shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. This processing is repeatedly executed in the display controller 14 together with the main routine.

FIG. 4 shows a process for automatically changing the display size of the meters when adjusting the position of the handle 11.

First, the state of the detection switch 16 is checked (step
400). When the lock lever of the tilt mechanism is set to the “release” position when adjusting the position of the handle 11, the detection switch 16 is turned on. In this case, perform the processing after step 401,
If the switch 16 is off, the process returns to the main routine without doing anything.

In step 401, the output value of the potentiometer 17 corresponding to the position of the handle 11 is read and stored in the register A. In the next step 402, it is checked whether the value of register A matches the value of register B. Register B has been cleared to zero in the initial processing, so
Initially, NO is determined. In the next step 403, the value of register A is transferred to register B.

In the next step 404, the display size H (command information for determining the size of the image pattern) on the screen of the display 13 is calculated based on the value of the register B (that is, the current position of the handle 11). Then, in step 405, control is performed to determine the display position on the display 13 according to the calculated value H.

After that, when the step 401 → 402 is executed and the position of the handle 11 is not changed from the previous time, YES is determined in the step 402 and the display size is not changed. If the position of the handle 11 has changed from the previous time, N is returned in step 402.
It is determined to be O, and the display size is changed according to the current position of the handle 11 in the same manner as described above.

Here, the processing for changing the display size in steps 401 to 405 is performed only when the detection switch 16 is on.
Therefore, even if the output value of the potentiometer 17 changes oscillatingly due to the vehicle vibrating violently during traveling in the normal state in which the lock lever is in the “fixed” position, the image on the display 13 is affected by this. Will never sway.

FIG. 4B shows a process for manually adjusting the display size.

When the operation switch 18 is switched to the "enlargement" side, the signal S1 is output.
Is turned on, and the signal S2 is turned on when switching to the "reduction" side.

When the ON state of the signal S1 is detected in step 501, the unit amount Δh is added to the display size H (command data) in step 502.
Is added, and the flag F is set in step 503. Similarly, when the ON state of the signal S2 is detected in step 601, the unit amount Δh is subtracted from the display position H in step 602,
In step 603, the flag F is set.

Then, if the flag F is set in step 701, the display size changing process of step 702 is executed to make the display size corresponding to the corrected value of H. Further, in step 703, the flag F is reset.

In this way, each time the signal S1 or S2 is turned on by the switch 18, the image on the display 13 is enlarged or reduced by a unit amount. As a result, the driver himself can manually set the images of the meters so that they are easy to see.

In the example of FIG. 5, the entire image of the display 13 is enlarged or reduced according to the handle position, but the present invention is not limited to this, and only a required part of the displayed image is enlarged or reduced to reduce the size. You may change it. When changing the display size, the vertical enlargement / reduction ratio of the screen and the horizontal enlargement / reduction ratio may be different. Further, the center position of the image at the time of enlarging or reducing is appropriately selected and set in advance so that the image can be easily viewed.

As a mechanism for changing the position of the steering wheel, there is a telescopic mechanism in addition to the above-mentioned tilt mechanism, but the present invention can be applied according to these position adjusting mechanisms.

<< Effects of the Invention >> As described in detail above, in the steering interlocking meter according to the present invention, the meters are displayed on the display according to the set position of the steering wheel without including the mechanical interlocking mechanism. Since the size of the image is automatically changed, it is possible to easily realize a meter display that is always easy to see without the handle becoming an obstacle.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating constituent elements of the claims, FIG. 2 is an external view of an instrument panel portion according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a block of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing a processing procedure example for changing the display size, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example according to the present invention. 11 ... Steering handle 12 ... Instrument panel 13 ... Indicator 14 ... Display controller 16 ... Detection switch 17 ... Potentiometer 18 ... Operation switch

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display device fixed to a front instrument panel of a variable position steering wheel, capable of displaying arbitrary figures and characters on a screen composed of a large number of electronically controlled pixels, and an automobile. Is equipped with an electronic display type meter having display control means for processing various status information of (1) and displaying it on the screen of the display device in an appropriate image pattern, and outputs a signal corresponding to the position of the position variable steering wheel. The steering wheel position detecting means and the display size changing means for changing the display size of all or part of the display image of each information element on the screen of the display device in accordance with the output of the steering wheel position detecting means are provided. A steering interlocking meter that is characterized by that.