JPH11105623A - Stop lamp control device for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a dazzle feeling from being given to the following vehicle, by providing a light sensor detecting illuminance intensity of a light beam projected from the following vehicle toward a one's own vehicle, and a control circuit controlling a dimming circuit in accordance with a level of the detected illuminance intensity to adjust lighting luminance of a stop lamp. SOLUTION: A light sensor 1 detects illuminance intensity of a light beam projected from the following vehicle toward a one's own vehicle. In a dimming circuit 5, a relay is used, by switching a connection circuit of a stop lamp 6, for instance, at ordinary time, each lamp of the stop lamp 6 is connected in parallel to be lighted by ordinary luminance, and at dimming time, by series connection, power source voltage is divided into each lamp, dim lighting is performed. A control circuit 4 is connected to the light sensor 1, car speed sensor 2, and a light switch 3, a signal is input, in accordance therewith, the dimming circuit 5 in a rear stage is controlled, lighting luminance of the stop lamp 6 is adjusted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stop lamp control device for a vehicle which does not give a dazzling feeling to a following vehicle when the stop lamp of the own vehicle is turned on.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a vehicle is braked or stopped by a brake operation, a stop lamp is lit.
The stop lamp has a higher brightness at the time of lighting than the brightness of the other tail lamps, and may give a dazzling feeling to a following vehicle approaching the host vehicle during night driving. Therefore,
To cope with such a problem, for example,
No. 0637 has proposed a stop lamp control device for an automobile. That is, in the stop lamp control device for an automobile disclosed in the publication, a distance sensor detects an inter-vehicle distance with a following vehicle, and when the detected inter-vehicle distance becomes equal to or less than a predetermined distance, the high-mount stop lamp is activated by the circuit opening / closing means. The lights were turned off to prevent dazzling the following vehicles.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional stop lamp control device for an automobile, an expensive distance sensor must be used to detect the presence of a following vehicle approaching the own vehicle, and therefore, an economical method is required. It was not a target.
In addition, even during the daytime when it is difficult to recognize the lighting of the stop lamp, the turning off of the high-mount stop lamp is performed, so that there is a problem in safe driving. The present invention has been made to address such a problem, and detects the presence of a following vehicle approaching the own vehicle with an inexpensive detection unit.
The purpose is to control the lighting of the stop lamp in the normal state during the day when it is difficult to understand the lighting of the stop lamp, and to control the lighting of the stop lamp in accordance with the approaching state of the following vehicle at night when dazzling is felt. It is.

[0004]

The present invention provides the following means to achieve the above object. According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical sensor for detecting the illuminance of a light beam emitted from a following vehicle toward a host vehicle, and a stop lamp which controls a dimming circuit according to the illuminance level detected by the optical sensor. And a control circuit for adjusting the lighting brightness of the vehicle.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the traveling speed of the host vehicle detected by the vehicle speed sensor is lower than a predetermined speed and the illuminance level detected by the optical sensor is higher than the predetermined level, Provided is a stop lamp control device for a vehicle, wherein the control circuit includes a dimming unit that controls the dimming circuit to reduce the lighting brightness of the stop lamp.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the light switch is ON and the illuminance level detected by the optical sensor is higher than a predetermined level,
There is provided a stop lamp control device for a vehicle, the control circuit including a dimming unit for controlling the dimming circuit to reduce the lighting brightness of the stop lamp.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the light switch is ON, the traveling speed of the own vehicle detected by the vehicle speed sensor is lower than a predetermined speed, and the illuminance level detected by the optical sensor is predetermined. The present invention provides a stop lamp control device for a vehicle, wherein the control circuit includes dimming means for controlling the dimming circuit to lower the lighting brightness of the stop lamp when the level is higher than the level.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the automotive stop lamp control device according to the present invention includes an optical sensor 1, a vehicle speed sensor 2, a light switch 3, a control circuit 4, a dimming circuit 5, and a stop lamp 6. It will be described in detail.

First, the optical sensor 1 will be described. The optical sensor 1
Is a sensor for detecting the illuminance of the light beam emitted from the following vehicle toward the own vehicle, and has a sensor structure in which the directivity is sharpened by a lens or the like so as not to be sensitive to light from other than the following vehicle. .

Next, the vehicle speed sensor 2 will be described. The vehicle speed sensor 2 is a sensor that detects the traveling speed of the host vehicle, and is an existing sensor usually mounted on the vehicle.

Next, the light switch 3 will be described. The light switch 3 generally has an OFF position, a first-stage ON position for turning on a tail lamp or a night illumination lamp, and a second-stage ON position for turning on a headlamp.
This is also an existing switch normally mounted on vehicles.

Next, the control circuit 4 will be described. The control circuit 4
Is a circuit connected to the optical sensor 1, the vehicle speed sensor 2 and the light switch 3 to input a signal, to control the subsequent dimming circuit 5 according to the signal, and to adjust the lighting brightness of the stop lamp 6. 2 has a microcomputer programmed with the functions shown in the flowchart of FIG. The function will be described below with reference to FIG.

The flowchart includes a step S1 for judging whether or not a signal input from the light switch 3 is a signal indicating an ON state, and a signal indicating a traveling speed lower than a predetermined speed when the signal input from the vehicle speed sensor 2 is used. Step S2 for determining whether or not there is, and step S3 for determining whether the state of the signal input from the optical sensor 1 is stable.
Step S4 of determining whether the level of the signal input from the optical sensor 1 is higher than a predetermined level;
A step S5 of controlling the dimming circuit 5 to lower the lighting brightness of the stop lamp 6, a step S6 of judging whether or not the signal input from the vehicle speed sensor 2 is a signal indicating a traveling speed lower than a predetermined speed; Step S7 of stopping the control of the optical circuit 5 and returning the lighting luminance of the stop lamp 6 to the original luminance
Is shown.

In particular, in steps S1 to S5, it is determined that the light switch 3 is ON in step S1 (YES), and the running speed of the own vehicle detected by the vehicle speed sensor 2 in step S2 is lower than a predetermined speed. If it is determined that the light is slow (YES) and if the illuminance level detected by the optical sensor 1 is higher than a predetermined level (YES) in step S4, the "dimming flag" is set in step S5. The dimming means is configured to control the dimming circuit 5 to reduce the lighting brightness of the stop lamp 6. Incidentally, a step of monitoring the stable state of the input signal from the optical sensor 1 is incorporated as a step S3 into a series of steps constituting the dimming means.
According to 3, it is possible to check whether or not the input signal from the optical sensor 1 is really due to the light beam emitted from the following vehicle toward the own vehicle.

In addition, steps S1 to S11 constituting the dimming means are performed.
Steps S6 and S7 are provided after S5. The steps S6 and S7 control the dimming circuit 5 when the own vehicle shifts from a slow or stopped state to a normal running state. This is set in order to turn off the dimming flag and restore the lighting luminance of the stop lamp 6 to the original luminance.

Next, the dimming circuit 5 will be described. The dimming circuit 5
Is to switch the connection path of the stop lamp 6 using a relay (not shown). To divide the power supply voltage into each lamp to make the lamp dimmed, or to oscillate (not shown)
And a high-power semiconductor switch (not shown) to connect the stop lamp 6 to the connection path at a frequency of about 100 [Hz].
It has a circuit configuration in which N / OFF is performed and so-called duty control is performed to control the power applied to the stop lamp 6 to perform dimmed lighting. A circuit may be employed. The stop lamp 6 is composed of a stop lamp body provided at the rear of the vehicle and a high-mount stop lamp attached thereto.

In the above embodiment, it is not mentioned whether or not the stop lamp 6 includes a high mount stop lamp.
Dimming control of only the stop lamp main body, dimming control of only the high mount stop lamp, or dimming control of both the stop lamp main body and the high mount stop lamp (hereinafter referred to as "both lamps"). Alternatively, it may be appropriately set as desired. Stop lamp 6
In order to reduce the lighting luminance of the two lamps, whether to diminish both lamps or to completely extinguish one of the two lamps may be appropriately set as desired. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified without departing from the gist.

[0018]

Since the present invention has the above-described configuration,
During night driving, it is possible to not only prevent the following vehicle approaching the own vehicle from giving a sense of dazzling, but also detect the presence of the following vehicle approaching the own vehicle with an inexpensive detecting means, In the daytime when the lighting of the stop lamp is difficult to understand, the stop lamp is lit in a normal state, and at night when dazzling is felt, the lighting brightness of the stop lamp can be reduced according to the approaching state of the following vehicle. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an electrical block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the contents of a program written in a control circuit 4 shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Optical sensor 2 Vehicle speed sensor 3 Light switch 4 Control circuit 5 Dimming circuit 6 Stop lamp

Claims (4)

[Claims] An optical sensor (1) for detecting the illuminance of a light beam emitted from a following vehicle toward a host vehicle, and a dimming circuit (5) according to an illuminance level detected by the optical sensor (1). And a control circuit (4) for controlling the lighting brightness of the stop lamp (6). 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the traveling speed of the vehicle detected by the vehicle speed sensor is lower than a predetermined speed, and the illuminance level detected by the optical sensor is lower than the predetermined level. When the level is high, the dimming means (S2, S4, S4) controls the dimming circuit (5) to lower the lighting luminance of the stop lamp (6).
5) A stop lamp control device for an automobile, comprising a control circuit (4). 3. The invention according to claim 1, wherein the light switch (3) is in an ON state and the illuminance level detected by the optical sensor (1) is higher than a predetermined level. A stop lamp control device for a vehicle, comprising a control circuit (4) including dimming means (S1, S4, S5) for controlling a dimming circuit (5) to reduce the lighting brightness of the stop lamp (6). 4. The invention according to claim 1, wherein the light switch (3) is in an ON state, the running speed of the own vehicle detected by the vehicle speed sensor (2) is lower than a predetermined speed, and When the illuminance level detected by the sensor (1) is higher than a predetermined level, the dimming means (S1, S2, S4) for controlling the dimming circuit (5) to lower the lighting luminance of the stop lamp (6). , S5) provided in a control circuit (4).