JPH0642191B2 - XY direction input detection device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to an improvement of an XY direction input detection device used for a tracker ball, a mouse and the like.

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional XY direction input device such as a tracker ball or a mouse, a first driven roller which comes into contact with a rotatably arranged sphere and is rotated by its rotational force, A second driven roller which is in contact with the sphere and is rotated by its rotational force and whose axial direction is orthogonal to the axial direction of the first driven roller, and the rotational speeds and rotational directions of the first and second driven rollers, respectively. A rotating plate for individually detecting and first and second rotation detecting devices including a photocoupler and an encoder are housed in a casing. Then, the first and second driven rollers rotate in a predetermined direction by rolling the rotated sphere protruding from the opening of the casing, and the rotation direction and the number of rotations are detected by the first and second rotation detecting devices. The voltages of the respective components in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction are taken out as digital signals or digital signals, and these signals are input to a display device having a microcomputer configuration. Here, the first and second rotation detecting devices require the rotating plate and the photocoupler on the axial line extension of the driven roller as described above. Since a space is required in the axial direction and its surroundings for detection, there is a drawback that the entire apparatus becomes large.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The present invention was created as a result of earnest research in view of the above circumstances, and its main problem is to detect the rotation direction with a simple configuration using a sliding contact body that interlocks with a driven roller, and is highly reliable. An XY direction input detection device is provided.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to a first driven roller which comes into contact with a rotatably arranged sphere and is rotated by its rotating force, and a first driven roller which comes into contact with the above sphere and rotates by its rotating force. And a second driven roller whose axial direction is orthogonal to the axial direction of the first driven roller, a spherical body holding portion that holds the rotated spherical body together with the first and second driven rollers, and a first driven roller of the first driven roller. A first rotation detecting device for detecting a rotation amount and a rotation direction;
In the XY direction input detection device including the second rotation detection device that detects the rotation amount and the rotation direction of the driven roller, the rotation direction detection means of the first and second rotation detection devices includes one conductive member. Made of a wire material having elasticity, is wound in an annular shape at the center to form an elasticity imparting portion, and the left and right extending portions are formed into a substantially polygonal frame shape with a narrow opening at the tip, and the periphery of the driven roller is formed. A sliding portion that is fitted in a groove formed along the circumference of the surface and is capable of contacting the driven roller at a plurality of points symmetrically is provided, and the left and right tips extending from the sliding portion are separated left and right, It consists of a contact frame formed in a bilaterally symmetrical shape, and a detection unit fixed to the casing and arranged in the gap between the tips of the contact frame and having conductive parts on the left and right via an insulating base material. , Is taking technical measures.

[Action]

When the rotated sphere rotates, the driven roller rotates along with the rotation. A contact frame is in contact with the groove of the driven roller at a plurality of points symmetrically on the outer periphery. Due to the rotation of the driven roller, the contact frame in contact with the driven roller rotates in the rotation direction of the driven roller, but the tip of the contact frame abuts the conductive portion in the rotation direction of the detection unit to stop the rotation, and thereafter it is restrained. The driven roller will slide within the contact frame. As a result, the rotation direction of the driven roller can be detected by outputting a signal from the detection unit in which the tip of the contact frame collides. This contact frame may be one, and the elasticity imparting portion presses the sliding portion evenly to the left and right, so that the movement of the tip faithfully interlocks with the driven roller. Further, since the contact frame is orthogonal to the driven roller and the detecting portion is also provided on the extension line thereof, the width of the contact frame does not take a lateral direction, so that the entire apparatus can be downsized and the rotated sphere can be made relatively large. You can

【Example】

A preferred embodiment in which the XY direction input detecting device of the present invention is used for a tracker ball will be described below with reference to the drawings. The tracker ball 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 has a sphere B that is rotatably arranged in a casing 30.
And a first driven roller 21 which comes into contact with the first driven roller 21 at a slightly lower position and rotates by its rotational force, and a second driven roller 22 which comes into contact with the first driven roller 21 at the same height and is orthogonal to its axial direction.
And the sphere holder 23 is provided on the axis intersecting with the axes of the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22 at the same angle (45 °). That is, the casing 30 is composed of a lower case 31 and an upper case 32 having a large diameter opening 33 at the upper side thereof.
The entire circumference of the joint portion of the upper case 32 and the upper case 32 has a known structure in which step engagement is performed. The lower case 31 is provided with a pair of bearings 41 and 42 that bears both ends of the first driven roller 21 and a pair of bearings 51 and 52 that bears both ends of the second driven roller 22. Here, one end of the shaft of each of the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22 is formed in a conical shape, and the other end thereof has a conical receiving groove portion as a center. One of the bearing portions 41 and 51 is made of a conductive material that is embedded in the protrusion 34 of the lower case 31 and has a receiving groove G1 that bears the conical end portion. The other of the bearings 42, 52 is a receiving screw N having a conical tip that is horizontally screwed into the hole of the raised portion 35 of the lower case 31.
1 and a connection screw N2 screwed from above so as to be in contact with the receiving screw N1, and the tip of the receiving screw N1 is fitted in and supported by the receiving groove G2 of the driven roller. On the receiving groove G2 side of the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22, first and second rotation detection devices 11 and 12 for detecting the rotation amount and the rotation direction of the driven rollers are provided. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the first and second rotation detecting devices 11 and 12 have first and second driven rollers 21 and 22, respectively.
Pair of collar portions 2c, 2c provided on the peripheral surface of the receiving groove G2 side of the
A pulsar ring 2b is fitted between them. The pulsar ring 2b is provided with flanges 2c, 2 of the driven roller.
It is composed of a flange portion fitted and fixed without a gap between c and a groove-shaped base portion 2 on the peripheral surface which covers the shaft core 2a of the driven roller, and the conductive contact 3 is arranged in the circumferential direction of the groove-shaped base portion 2. It is embedded in the space and connected to the shaft core 2a. The contact frame 6 is in contact with one portion of the conductive contact 3 at four points at the same time on the groove-shaped base portion 2 which is surrounded by the pulsar rings 2b of the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22 and serves as a receiving portion. . In the case of this embodiment, the contact frame 6 is made of a conductive wire material such as one phosphor bronze wire as shown in FIG. The contact frame 6 has an elasticity imparting portion 61 formed at the tip by being wound in an annular shape at the center of the wire material, and the left and right extending portions thereof are formed into a substantially square frame shape in which the tip is narrowly opened. A sliding portion 62 is provided which is biased and comes into contact with the conductive contact 3 of the driven roller at four points, and further extending left and right extending portions are curved outward so that the left and right tips 63a and 63b are narrowed left and right. They are spaced apart and formed in a symmetrical shape when viewed from the center line in the extending direction. Therefore, the sliding portion 62 is biased inward by the elasticity imparting portion 61, so that the sliding portion 62 is pressed against the driven roller at four points. Further, the conductive contacts 3 are set in multiples corresponding to the number of contact points with the contact frame 6, and in this embodiment, 1 is set.
Two pieces are embedded in the center 2 of the peripheral surface at equal intervals. The contact frame 6 has the elasticity imparting portion 61 disposed above and the left and right tips 63a and 63b are set to face downward. In the gap between the left and right tips 63a and 63b, the lower case 31
The detection unit 7 protruding from the bottom surface of the is disposed at the center position of the gap. The detection unit 7 is provided with conductive portions 72a and 72b on the left and right sides with an insulating base material 71 interposed therebetween.
The left and right ends 63a and 63b of the contact frame 6 that rotates left and right along the rotation direction of are contactable. Next, in the present embodiment, the spherical body holding portion 23 is substantially sectional view L which is pivotally attached to the bracket projecting from the lower case 31 by being urged to the rotated spherical body B side by the coil spring S as is clearer in FIG. It consists of a lever. Due to the abutting of the spherical body holding portion 23, the rotated spherical body B is constantly urged by the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22. Further, the spring S is an escapement for preventing the force from exerting on the driven rollers 21 and 22 and the bearing portions 41, 42 and 51, 52 when the rotated sphere B is pressed very strongly downward. With the above configuration, when the rotated sphere B is rotated, the first and second driven rollers 21,
22 rotate respectively. Contact frames 6 contact the driven rollers 21 and 22 at the center 2 of the peripheral surface at four points, and the conductive contacts 3 provided on the driven rollers 21 and 22 are simultaneously in contact or non-contact at each contact position. . Further, by the rotation of the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22, the contact frame 6 which is urged and in contact with the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22 rotates in the rotation direction of the driven rollers 21 and 22, but the left and right tips 63a or 63b thereof. The rotation of the detection unit 7 is stopped by abutting against the conductive portion 72a or 72b in the rotation direction of the detection unit 7, and thereafter, the driven rollers 21, 2 are restrained in the constrained contact frame 6.
2 will slide. Then, by detecting the number of contacts between the conductive contact 3 and the contact frame 7, the first and second driven rollers 21 and 22 are detected.
The rotation speed of the detector 7 is detected, and the left and right conductive portions 72 of the detector 7 are detected.
The rotation direction of the driven rollers 21 and 22 is detected depending on which of a and 72b the tip 63a or 63b of the contact frame 6 collides with, and the contact frame 6 and the detection unit 7 conduct with each other and the rotation data is obtained. The representative signal is transmitted to the system main body. The operation of the data input circuit will be described with reference to FIG. The first driven roller 21 is connected to the conductive contact 3 through the shaft core 2a of each driven roller via the connection screw N2 connected to the power supply Vcc provided in the system body or the like via the lead wire, the receiving screw N1. Has been done. The bearing portion 42 of the second driven roller 22 is connected to the bearing portion 41 of the first driven roller 21 by a lead wire.
Similar to the above, the connection screw N2 is connected to the conductive contact 3 and the receiving screw N1 via the shaft core 2a and is in contact with the receiving screw N2.
It is connected to a lead wire via and the tip is grounded to the casing 30. Therefore, the conductive contact 3 comes into contact with the contact frame 6 and the left and right conductive parts 72a, 72 of the detection unit 7 of the contact frame 6 are contacted.
The input detection circuit C is made by touching any one of b.
Can be closed and a digital signal can be transmitted to the system body of the microcomputer configuration. That is, the input signal is detected by the first driven roller 21 depending on whether the contact frame 6 is in contact with the conductive portion 72a or 72b of the detection portion 7. It is sent to C2. Similarly, the detection signal of the second driven roller 22 is sent to the abscissa left row control circuit C3 or the abscissa right row control circuit C4. Then, the number of rotations of the driven roller is counted in each circuit, and whether the vehicle is going straight or diagonally is determined depending on whether it is rightward or leftward.
Input data in the −Y direction is processed by a known procedure and displayed on the display (see FIG. 7). Next, the first and second rotation detecting devices 11, 1 shown in FIG.
2, the contact frame 6 has the first and second driven rollers 21,
The structure is the same as that of the above embodiment except that the number of contact points with 22 is three. That is, in this case, the contact frame 6 has an elastic imparting portion 61 formed at the tip by winding it in an annular shape at the center of the wire, and the left and right extending portions of the elastic imparting portion 61 have a substantially rhombic frame shape with the tip opening narrowly. And a sliding portion 62 that is biased and comes into contact with the conductive contact 3 of the driven roller at three points, and further extends the left and right extending portions to the outside so that the left and right tips 63a and 63b have a width. It is formed in a symmetrical shape, as it is narrowly separated from each other in the left-right direction when viewed from the center line in the extending direction. In this case, since the annular portion of the elasticity imparting portion 61 is only wound once instead of being wound twice as in the case of FIG. 4, the sliding portions 62 extending to the left and right are made to be conductive on substantially the same plane. It is preferable because it can contact the contactor 3. The rest of the configuration is the same as that of the above-mentioned embodiment, so the explanation is omitted. In this embodiment, the contact frame uses one wire and the elasticity imparting portion is provided to increase the urging force. However, in the present invention, as long as the contact frame and the conductive contact are in contact with each other at any one position. Since the shape of the elasticity imparting portion is not particularly limited, the elasticity imparting portion need not be provided. Further, although the case where the XY direction input detection device is used for the tracker ball is illustrated in the present embodiment, the present invention can be similarly used in a device using a mouse or other rotated sphere.

【The invention's effect】

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it is possible to physically detect the rotation direction by sliding the contactor without providing two detection devices for detecting the rotation direction. Further, since the contact frame is composed of one piece, and the sliding portion contacts the groove of the driven frame equally to the left and right, the interlocking with the driven roller is surely performed. Further, since the contact frame locked to the driven roller and the detection unit are combined, the structure is simple, suitable for industrial mass production, and cost reduction is easy, and the structure requires a large space. Therefore, the entire device can be miniaturized as much as possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a preferred embodiment in which the XY direction input detecting device of the present invention is used for a tracker ball.
The figure is a cross-sectional view taken along line II-II, FIG. 3 is a side view showing the same, FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the same, and FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the different embodiments of the contact frame. FIG. 6 is a block circuit diagram for detecting input data in the XY directions, and FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a display system. 2 ... Groove-shaped base 2a ... Shaft core 2b ... Pulsar ring 3 ... Conductive contact 6 ... Contact frame 7 ... Detection unit 11 ... First rotation detection device 12 ... Second rotation detection device 21 ... … First driven roller 22 …… Second driven roller 30 …… Casing B …… Rotated sphere

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first driven roller which comes into contact with a rotatably arranged sphere and rotates by its rotational force, and a first driven roller which comes into contact with the above sphere and rotates due to its rotational force and has the first axial direction. Second driven roller orthogonal to the axial direction of the driven roller, a sphere holding portion that holds the rotated sphere together with the first and second driven rollers, and detects the rotation amount and rotation direction of the first driven roller. A first rotation detecting device and a second rotation detecting device for detecting the rotation amount and the rotation direction of the second driven roller, wherein the first and second rotation detecting devices are provided. The rotation direction detection means of the device is a substantially polygonal frame which is made of a single wire having conductivity and is wound in an annular shape at the center to form an elasticity imparting portion, and the left and right extension portions are narrowly opened at the ends. The driven roller A sliding portion that fits in a groove formed along the circumference on the circumferential surface and can contact the driven roller at a plurality of points symmetrically is provided, and the left and right tips extending from the sliding portion are separated left and right. A contact frame formed in a symmetrical shape, and a detection unit fixed to the casing and arranged in a gap between the tips of the contact frame and having conductive parts on the left and right via an insulating base material. X characterized by
-Y direction input detection device.