JP2011133277A - Instrument for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an instrument for a vehicle which enables coordination of the illumination and the outward appearance of the instrument for the vehicle assumed to be disposed in a plurality, by single control software, and enables simplification of manufacture and reduction of a cost load. <P>SOLUTION: The instrument for the vehicle includes a display displaying vehicle information, illumination means 2c and 2d illuminating the display, and a control means 2a controlling the illumination means 2c and 2d. The control means 2a discriminates classification of its own instrument, selects some of luminance correction values set in a plurality according to the classification of the instrument, corrects a reference luminance value by the selected luminance correction value and executes an emission luminance control of the illumination means 2d. The luminance correction values are set in a plurality as the classification of the instrument, according to the classification of a driving means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle instrument such as a tachometer, an intake pressure gauge, and an exhaust thermometer provided separately from a vehicle combination meter.

  As a conventional vehicle instrument, a speedometer, tachometer (tachometer), thermometer, and fuel gauge are attached to a dashboard, instrument panel (instrument panel), etc. separately from the existing combination meter housed in the case body An instrument called an after meter is known. As this after meter, for example, a single analog display unit is housed in a case, and has a meter and a light-emitting display for displaying single vehicle information (for example, engine speed), and the vehicle information is digitally displayed. There are instruments to display. Such an instrument is often mounted on a racing vehicle running on a circuit racetrack or the like, a supercharger, a turbo-equipped vehicle, or the like. The types of such instruments include a tachometer that monitors the engine speed, an intake pressure gauge (boost meter) that monitors the pressure in the intake manifold of the engine, an exhaust thermometer that monitors the exhaust gas temperature, and the engine oil temperature. There are an oil temperature gauge for monitoring the pressure or a hydraulic pressure gauge for monitoring the pressure of the engine oil.

  Further, the applicant of the present application has proposed a meter driving device disclosed in Patent Document 1 as a driving device for an aftermeter that is assumed to be arranged in plural. The instrument driving device proposed in Patent Document 1 includes an input port that enables input of a plurality of state signals according to vehicle information, and a single control for obtaining each measurement data according to the plurality of state signals A unit is provided to communicate between the control unit and each instrument by serial data generated by the control unit, simplifying the installation work even when a plurality of instruments are provided, and Each instrument can be attached without deteriorating the beauty of the dashboard and the instrument panel.

JP 2000-18974 A

  In recent years, a stepping motor is often used as a driving means for driving a pointer in an analog type instrument in terms of responsiveness and indication accuracy. In addition, there are analog analog instruments as conventional aftermeters that require particularly high responsiveness such as an intake pressure gauge and a tachometer, and those that do not require responsiveness such as a water temperature gauge and an oil temperature gauge. Therefore, stepping motors having different specifications such as torque may be used depending on the type of instrument. However, if different stepping motors are mounted on the circuit board and the internal structure of the instrument is different, the position of the backlight (illuminating means) that illuminates the display part of the instrument (display board and pointer in the case of an analog instrument) changes. There is. For this reason, there is a problem in that the illumination condition of the backlight with respect to the display unit changes due to the difference in the distance between the display unit and the backlight, and the lighting appearance of the adjacent aftermeters varies. In contrast, when control software corresponding to each internal structure is created for a plurality of types of aftermeters, a plurality of masks for writing these control software to a microcomputer used as a control means are required. There is a problem in that the production of the vehicle instrument is complicated and the cost load is increased.

  In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention can unify the lighting appearance of a plurality of vehicular instruments assumed to be arranged with a single control software, and can simplify the manufacturing and reduce the cost burden. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular instrument.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a vehicle instrument comprising a display unit that displays vehicle information, an illumination unit that illuminates the display unit, and a control unit that controls the illumination unit. The control means discriminates the type of its own instrument, selects one of a plurality of brightness correction values set according to the type of the instrument, and corrects the reference brightness value with the selected brightness correction value. The light emission luminance control of the illumination means is executed.

  In addition, the display unit includes a display board on which the vehicle information indicator unit is provided, a pointer that points to the indicator unit, and a driving unit that drives the pointer, and the brightness correction value is A plurality of types are set according to the type of the driving means.

  The present invention relates to a vehicular instrument that is assumed to be arranged in a plural number, and it is possible to unify the appearance of lighting with a single control software, thereby simplifying the manufacturing and reducing the cost burden.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the drive device of the meter of embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the external appearance of the analog meter in the drive device of an instrument same as the above. The flowchart figure which shows the control method of the analog meter in the drive device of an instrument same as the above.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an instrument driving apparatus in which a plurality of vehicle instruments are assumed to be arranged will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The overall configuration of the instrument driving apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the instrument driving device mainly includes a control unit 1 and an analog meter (vehicle instrument) 2.

  The control unit 1 is composed of a microcomputer, and an A / D converter that inputs each detection signal indicating vehicle information, a CPU that executes a predetermined processing operation program, a ROM that stores the processing operation program and the like, A RAM that temporarily stores data processed by the CPU, a parallel / serial conversion unit (P / S conversion unit) that converts parallel data into serial data, an EEPROM that stores various settings in a nonvolatile manner, The storage unit includes a backup RAM and the like, and a transmission unit that transmits the serial data in a predetermined cycle. When receiving each detection signal indicating the vehicle information, the control unit 1 performs a predetermined calculation process according to each detection signal, and calculates each measurement data of the vehicle information. Further, in the normal operation mode, the control unit 1 converts the model code for identifying the model of the instrument, the parallel data as the measurement data and the dimming data (reference luminance value) into serial data, and the wiring member. It transmits to the control means mentioned later of the analog meter 2 via 3a. The dimming data is calculated according to the result of detecting ambient brightness by a separately provided optical sensor, and serves as a reference value for the luminance with which the analog meter 2 should be illuminated according to the ambient brightness.

  The analog meter 2 includes a control means 2a, a drive means 2b, a pointer illumination means 2c, a display board illumination means 2d, and a setting means 2e, and a display board on which an indicator portion 2f of vehicle information is printed. This is an analog vehicle meter having an analog display unit that displays vehicle information by 2g and a pointer 2h that indicates the indicator unit 2f. The external appearance of the analog meter 2 shown in FIG. 3 shows an intake pressure gauge (turbometer).

  The control means 2a comprises a microcomputer, receives the serial data transmitted by the control unit 1, and controls the drive means 2b, the pointer illumination means section 2c and the display board illumination means 2d based on the serial data. . The control means 2a includes a connection portion that can be connected to another analog meter via the wiring member 3b, and can communicate with the serial data by connecting a plurality of vehicle meters.

  The driving means 2b is composed of a stepping motor that performs a step angle operation, and drives the pointer 2h via a rotating shaft (not shown) to instruct the indicator section 2f. The user can know the change in the measurement amount of the vehicle information by comparing and interpreting the pointer 2h and the indicator portion 2f. In the present embodiment, a plurality of different types of stepping motors are mounted as the driving unit 2b according to the type of the analog meter 2.

  The pointer illuminating means 2c is made of a light emitting element such as an LED provided on the back side of the pointer 2h, for example, and illuminates the indicating portion of the pointer 2h with the illumination light.

  The display panel illumination means 2d is made of a light emitting element such as an LED provided on the back side of the indicator portion 2f, for example, and transmits and illuminates the indicator portion 2f of the display plate 2g with the illumination light.

  The setting means 2d is composed of, for example, a dip switch or a rotary switch, and outputs a predetermined setting signal to the control means 2a according to a predetermined operation, and the type of the analog meter 2 (rotometer, intake pressure gauge, water temperature gauge, oil temperature gauge, etc.) ).

  The above-described units constitute a meter driving device.

  Next, the control method of the analog meter 2 in the illumination control process for controlling the light emission luminance of the display panel illumination unit 2d will be described with reference to FIG. Hereinafter, depending on the type of the analog meter 2, either the first stepping motor or the second stepping motor is mounted as the driving means 2b, and the internal structure of the analog meter 2 is different. As a result, the display board illumination means 2d and the display board When the indicator portion 2f is illuminated with the same light emission brightness, the meter having an internal structure in which the first stepping motor is mounted in the analog meter 2 is more than the meter in which the second stepping motor is mounted. The case where the bright lighting looks will be described.

  When the power is turned on, the control unit 2a of the analog meter 2 executes initialization control for initial setting of various functions. The control means 2a inputs the setting signal from the setting means 2d in this initialization control.

  As the illumination control process, the control means 2a first determines the type of the analog meter 2 from the setting signal in step S1, and if it is determined that the type is to mount the first stepping motor. The process proceeds to step S2.

  The control means 2a corrects the dimming data transmitted from the control unit 1 in step S2 with the first luminance correction value R1, and calculates an illumination luminance value to illuminate the indicator portion 2f according to its type. Based on this, the emission luminance control of the display panel illumination means 2d is executed. The first correction value R1 corresponds to the internal structure on which the first stepping motor is mounted, and is suitable for the internal structure on which the first stepping motor is mounted by attenuating or increasing the dimming data. The illumination brightness value obtained is obtained.

  Further, when it is determined in step S1 that the type of the analog meter 2 is mounted with the second stepping motor, the control means 2a proceeds to step S3.

  The control means 2a corrects the dimming data transmitted from the control unit 1 in step S3 with the second luminance correction value R2, and calculates an illumination luminance value to illuminate the indicator portion 2f according to its type. Based on this, the emission luminance control of the display panel illumination means 2d is executed. This second correction value R2 is applied to the internal structure mounted with the second stepping motor in which the illumination appearance of the indicator portion 2f is darker than the internal structure mounted with the first stepping motor in illumination with the same light emission luminance. It is a corresponding one, and obtains an illumination luminance value suitable for the internal structure on which the second stepping motor is mounted by attenuating or increasing the dimming data, and is a value higher than the first correction value R1. It is set (R1 <R2).

  The analog meter 2 of the present embodiment determines the type of vehicle meter by the control means 2a, selects the brightness correction values R1 and R2 that are adapted to factors that affect the lighting appearance of the internal structure, etc., and the reference brightness value Is corrected with the selected luminance correction values R1 and R2, and the light emission luminance control of the illumination means 2d is executed. By executing the above processing, it is possible to unify the lighting appearance of multiple types of vehicle instruments with different factors that affect the lighting appearance of internal structures etc. with a single control software, simplifying manufacturing and costing Can be reduced.

  In this embodiment, as the illumination unit for illuminating the analog display unit, the luminance correction values R1 and R2 corresponding to the type are selected and corrected in the light emission luminance control of the display panel illumination unit 2d. When the illumination appearance of the pointer illumination unit 2c varies depending on the type of the analog meter 2, the luminance correction value corresponding to the type may be selected and corrected in the light emission luminance control of the pointer illumination unit 2c.

  In this embodiment, the analog meter 2 is taken as an example of a vehicle meter. However, the same applies to a digital meter having a digital display unit such as a liquid crystal display panel or an organic EL panel due to a difference in light emission area (= light beam). When a plurality of illuminations with brightness are arranged, the illumination appearance of each meter may be different. Therefore, by applying the present invention to a digital meter, it is possible to unify and control the lighting appearance of a plurality of types of vehicle meters having different factors that affect the lighting appearance, simplifying manufacturing and reducing the cost burden. It becomes possible.

  The present invention relates to a vehicle instrument such as a tachometer, an intake pressure gauge, and an exhaust thermometer provided separately from the vehicle combination meter, and is particularly suitable for a vehicle instrument that is supposed to be arranged in plural.

1 Control unit 2 Analog meter (Vehicle meter)
2a Control means 2b Driving means 2c Pointer illumination means 2d Display board illumination means 2e Setting means 2f Indicator section 2g Display board 2h Pointer

Claims (2)

A vehicle instrument comprising: a display unit that displays vehicle information; an illumination unit that illuminates the display unit; and a control unit that controls the illumination unit,
The control means determines the type of its own instrument, selects one of a plurality of brightness correction values set according to the type of the instrument, corrects the reference brightness value with the selected brightness correction value, and A vehicular instrument characterized by executing emission luminance control of an illumination means. The display unit includes a display board provided with an indicator unit for the vehicle information, a pointer that instructs the indicator unit, and a driving unit that drives the pointer.
2. The vehicle instrument according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the brightness correction values are set according to a type of the driving unit as a type of the instrument.

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