DE9100719U1 - Timer - Google Patents

Description

21 January 1991

Frontier Technology Co., Ltd. Taipei, Taiwan

T o x

The present innovation refers to a timer , as used to switch electrical consumers on and/or off at predefined times.

Known timers have a spiral spring movement or a movement clocked by an oscillator crystal to drive gears that rotate to a certain position to switch the device on or off. Such timers are disadvantageous because they are sensitive to vibrations and their accuracy can suffer even from slight impacts. In addition, the service life of the mechanical parts, especially the drive, is limited and failures occur after a certain period of operation.

The aim of this innovation is to avoid these disadvantages and to create a timer that is largely insensitive to shocks, impacts or vibrations.

Another task is that the timer has an IC board (board with at least one highly integrated switching element) with six time setting units, which affect the switching state of relays in a control unit. The setting data should be entered on a keypad and be visible on a liquid crystal display.

The solution to the problems posed is achieved by the features specified in the protection claims.

The innovation is explained further below by describing an example of implementation based on the attached drawings. It shows:

10

Fig. 1 a perspective view of a timer^

Fig. 2 the Prav."looks at the timer; !

Fig. 3 the rear view of the timer; ! Fig. 4 e~ _:e perspective exploded view of the

Timer in which the front part of the housing is controlled by both {

shown from the front as well as from the back (inside); {

Fig. 5 a circuit diagram of the timer; !

Fig. 6 the display and keypad of the timer. j

The time switch according to the invention has a housing that consists of a front housing part 1 and a bottom housing part 2, between which, when the housing parts are assembled, a circuit board shown in Fig. 4 with an IC switching element and other electrical or electronic components is held in a stable and reliable manner.

The housing is square in shape, with a cylindrical projection protruding from the front of the housing front part, in the upper area of which a display field 111 and in the lower area of which a keypad 112 are arranged. The side walls of the housing parts have inwardly projecting curved recesses at their four corners, in the area of which the rear wall 25 or base plate of the lower housing part 2 has fastening holes 21, 22, 23, 24 through which fastening screws can engage, which are easily accessible using a screwdriver due to the curved recesses. At the same time, the convex inner surfaces of the curved recesses in conjunction with corresponding curved recesses at the corners of the circuit board serve to determine its position with regard to movements in its plane.

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For positioning and precise location of the housing parts when they are joined together, flange projections < IC are formed on _the edge of the side walls of the housing front part 1, which cooperate with flange grooves on the edge of the side walls of the housing front part 2. The projections 10 interact with the grooves 20 in a form-fitting manner and force the exact alignment of the housing parts when they are joined together and also serve, if necessary , to hold the housing parts together by means of an appropriate cross-sectional design. ;

From the back wall 25 of the housing base 2, near its four corners, retaining projections 26/27 extend over the retaining projections 11, 12, 13, 14, which protrude into the interior of the housing front part 1 at the corresponding points. In the case of adjacent housing parts, the circuit board is reliably held in the housing at its four ends between these retaining projections with regard to its height, so that overall a safe and reliable fixing of the components is achieved, the stability of which is not impaired by vibrations or impacts.

Along the lower side wall of the housing base 2, contact blades or pins are arranged, which serve to connect the circuit board to external connections (Fig. 3).

The keypad 112 is shown in Fig. 6. The present timer has six sets of time setting units. In each of these units, a series of setting signals for the week, hour and minute can be entered or output. Each time setting unit can also be freely entered and the time setting unit can be made ineffective by pressing a reset key. If the data of the reset time unit are to be used again, the reset key can be used.

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SET key must be pressed again to recall the data. A CLK key in the lower left corner of the keypad shows the current time. When the TM key is pressed, the clock is placed in the timer mode for one- touch operation. When the CLK key is pressed, the display returns to the timer operation.

Looking at Fig. 5, it should be seen how the pins 20 to 25 of the IC element are connected to the keys of the keypad and the terminal pins 30, 31 are connected in series through a capacitor to filter noise. The pins 36, 38 are connected in series to an oscillator and in parallel to an adjustable capacitor, after which they are connected to a DC source VDD so that the IC element continuously receives an oscillating pulse signal which serves as a source of a second time measurement in the timer mode. The terminals 40 to 64 are connected to the liquid crystal display so that the time signal can be set digitally. The terminals 1, 2, 4 are connected to another DC source VDD and three capacitors to form a voltage stabilizing circuit. Terminals 7, 8 are connected to a trigger switch TRIC and a capacitor, where the trigger signal can switch on the trigger switch TRIC, which sets the moving contacts of relays in the control unit to the "on" position. Otherwise the contacts are in the "off" position.

Claims (3)

t;3L .&1 Protection claims 1. Timer with a housing, on the front of which a display panel (.1H) and a keypad (112) % and in the interior of which a circuit board with the electronic components is arranged, characterized in that the housing consists of a square housing lower part (2) and a correspondingly square housing upper part (1), on the latter of which a cylindrical projection is formed, in the upper end face area of which the display field (111) is arranged and in the lower end face area of which the keypad (112) is arranged, the side walls of the two housing parts (1, 2) having inwardly projecting curved recesses at the four corners, in the area of which the rear wall (25) of the housing lower part (2) has fastening holes (21, 22, 23, 24) for fastening screws, and that in the vicinity of the four corners in the housing lower part (2) inwardly projecting retaining projections (26, 27) and, opposite these, in the housing front part (1) inwardly projecting retaining projections (11, 12, 11, 14) are formed. between which there is at least a circuit board carrying an electronic switching element is held, .;. ;' : wherein a flange projection (10) is formed on the edge of the side walls of the housing front part &Idigr; X ! .&rdquor;, which, when the housing parts (1, 2) are joined together, interacts in a form-fitting manner with a flange groove (20) which is formed on the edge of the side walls of the housing lower part (2). 2. Timer according to claim 1, characterized in that in the housing lower part (2) on its lower side a row of contact blades or pins is arranged, which the elements of the circuit board with external j connections. I * < t &igr; * &igr; r « 1 t ( r tt &igr; rf** tt &igr;&ogr; rf &igr;&igr; I I I I I 3. Timer according to claims 1 and/or 2, characterized by exchangeable time setting units.