GB2208919A

GB2208919A - Headlight control apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2208919A
Application number: GB8725043A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Wei Li
Original assignee: VIEW TRANSPORTATION CO Ltd
Current assignee: VIEW TRANSPORTATION CO Ltd
Priority date: 1987-08-21
Filing date: 1987-10-26
Publication date: 1989-04-19
Also published as: GB8719828D0; GB8725043D0; FR2620091A1; AU577228B1

Abstract

A synchronised headlight for use in a road vehicle, which can smoothly change its light-shedding direction in synchronism with the turning movement of the front wheels of the vehicle, by way of adopting a synchronous motor 50, mounted on the headlight frame 44 and provided with a worm along the axis thereof in operable engagement with an arcuate rack member planted on the back wall of the headlight; the actuation of the synchronous motor is effected by a sensing means 20, wired to an electric control unit 30 and controlled by the steering wheel 11 by means of a pair of engaged gears 13, 21 so that the turning of the same can swing accordingly the headlight from left to right or vice versa in consideration of the driving safety. <IMAGE>

Description

CONTROL APPARATUS The present invention relates to control apparatus.

Driving safety has been increasingly concerned by people driving road vehicles in different conditions, especially at night or in dark places; and the headlight is a portion of vital importance to a vehicle, so the improvement in the conventional headlight has been the major concern of the present inventor.

Generally, the headlights of a vehicle are fixedly mounted on the sockets respectively and can only be selectively shifted from a high beam.to a low beam or vice versa by means of a dimmer for providing the best illumination effect on the road for the driver of the vehicle to view. It is well known that the use of proper beam for illumination is vital to effectively avoid car accidents, either because the proper headlight beam can provide wider illuminated area by use of the high beam light or because the brightness of the shed light can be properly reduced by use of the low beam light for not to bother the eyes of each driver when two cars moving in opposite directions are approaching toward each other at night.

To adjust the angle of the shed light beam of the prior art headlight, there are three projected studs 1 disposed thereon, as shown in Figure 1, and the adjusting screw 2 is used to change the vertical range of the shed light beam, and the adjusting screw 3 is adopted to change the horizontal range of the scattered light beam.

However, the adjustable conventional headlight device is fixed in place, and the shed light beam thereof is always kept in a constant direction without the ability of changing in accordance with moving direction of the vehicle, especially at turns of a mountain road or curvy road, thus the driver of the vehicle can not view the road conditions at those turns clearly enough to avoid any danger or obstacle on the road ahead when driving at night; especially at a sharp turn, the driver can only see very small area of the road with conventional headlights as a result of the restriction of the fixed prior headlights; and worse yet, the wheels of the vehicle often run out of the road shoulder easily, causing car accidents very often.

The present invention provides apparatus for controlling a headlight array of a steerable vehicle, which headlight array comprises at least one headlamp, the apparatus comprising means for movably mounting the headlamp on the vehicle to enable adjustment of the direction of the headlamp beam relative to the vehicle, means for moving the headlamp relative to the vehicle to adjust the direction of the headlamp beam in a horizontal plane, means for sensing changes in the direction in which the vehicle is steered, and means operable in response to said means for sensing changes in the direction in which the vehicle is steered to move the headlamp so that the direction of the headlamp beam changes relative to the vehicle in consonance with the change in steering of the vehicle.

In the preferred emodiment, the invention provides a synchronised automobile headlight device which can shift in synchronism with the moving direction of the front wheels of a road vehicle by way of a worm which is operably engaged with an arcuate rack member disposed on the back wall of the headlight pivotably mounted on a pair of central pivots; and attached on the steering shaft is a driving gear which is in rotatable engagement with a smaller driven gear mounted on the axis of a sensing means that is further wired to a control unit with each synchronous motor planted on the headlight device connected thereto. Thus, the turning of the steering wheel can actuate the present headlight device to shift accordingly.

In another embodiment, there is provided a synchronized automobile headlight device wherein the headlight is housed in a light frame which is provided with an upper spring and a lower spring in combination with a cable wire so that the light frame can be pivotably controlled to tilt slightly up and down for effecting the adjustment of the light beam shedding angle.

By way of example, an embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagram showing the adjusting means for a conventional headlight device; Figure 2 is a diagram showing the arrangment of the present invention in an automobile; Figure 3 is a combination of diagrams showing the structure and operation mode of the present invention; Figure 4 is a diagram showing the electric wiring of the present invention; Figure 5 is a combination of diagrams showing the practical applications of the present headlight device in comparison with the conventional headlight device.

Referring to Figure 2 the preferred synchronized headlight device employs a pair of gears 13, 21 in constant engagement with each other, with the former mounted on the steering shaft 12 of the steering wheel 11, and the latter mounted on the axis of a sensing means 20 which is coupled to a control unit 30 by three terminals thereof; and each synchronous motor 50, planted on the frame 44 of the headlight 40 respectively, is also connected to said control unit 30 as shown in the diagrams A, B, C, D, of Figure 3 and Figure 2 by the three terminals thereof.The headlight 40 is provided with a pair of pivots 42 at the middle of the top and bottom sides thereof, and said pivots are also secured to said frame 44 by means of a pair of carbon bearings 45 so that said headlight 40 can be pivotably rotated in clockwise or counter clockwise manner about said pivots 42 when a worm 51 extending from the axis of said synchronous motor 50 is correspondingly actuated to drive an arcuate rack member 43 disposed on the back wall of said headlight 40. Moreover, said frame 44 is pivotably secured to a headlight mount 60 by means of two pivots 440, planted on the right and left sides of said frame 44 and located in a pair of symmetrically positioned carbon bearings 45 on said headlight mount 60 so that said frame 44 can be pivotably tilted up and down within a proper range.

The tilt mechanism of said headlight 40 is comprised of an upper elongated bias spring 461 with the cable wire 460 of a cable 46 running through the central portion thereof, and said wire 460 is fixed to the bottom and on the same side of said frame 44 as shown in Figure 3(C). By drawing said cable wire 460, the tilt adjustment of said headlight is effected.

As shown in Figure 3(D), one end of said cable 46 is connected to an adjusting means 47 by securing said cable wire 460 to a bolt member 471, with a turning knob 472 disposed at the end of said bolt 471. The turning of said knob 472 makes the bolt 471 move backward or forward so as to actuate said cable wire 460 and make said frame 44 to tilt and resume to its position as a result of the help of springs 441 and 361.

The power for the preferred embodiment directly comes from a battery 80 as shown in Figure 2 so that the start and stop, selection of automatic operation or manual operation of the preferred embodiment can be performed by means of a switch board 70 which consists of a power on/off button 71, mode selection button 72, swing-left button 73, re-set button 74, and swing-right button 75; and an in-use indicating lamp 76 as well as a mal-function indicating lamp 77 are also provided on the top left corner thereof.

When said "power on" button is pressed, the electrical power is supplied to the control unit.

With the mode selection 72 set in "automatic" status, the turning of the steering wheel 11 makes said gear 13 on said steering shaft 12 rotate, thus actuating simultaneously said gear 21 on said sensing means 20 to move. This rotation is translated into signals by said sensing means 20, which are then transmitted to said control unit 30 and to the synchronous motors 50 mounted on the right and left headlights 40 as shown in Figure 3(A); said synchronous motors 50 are actuated to drive said worm 51 which will make said headlight 40 to swing accordingly, as a result of the engagement of said worm 50 with the arcuate rack member 43 disposed on the back wall 41 of said headlight 40. Thus the headlights 40 are able to be operated in synchronism with the turning of said steering wheel 11. Moreover, the other end of said worm 51 is rotatably fixed on the wall of said headlight frame 44 by means of a carbon bearing 45, and a pair of orthogonally placed bevel gears 510 are disposed at the end of said worm 51 so to offer an optional way for the driver to reset the present headlight to its normal position in case of the electrical malfunction of the present synchronised headlight by means of a screwdriver the tip of which can be inserted in the groove 511 located at the end of the axis of one of said bevel gear 510 for adjustment.

As it is well known that the front wheels can only be operated in a limited range, i.e. 60 degrees to left and 60 degrees to right, and the total operational range is 120 degrees, with the steering wheel fully spinned at most 4 or 5 turns.

In consideration of the mechanical compatibility between said steering wheel 11 and said synchronised headlight 40, the gear ratio between said gear 13 of said steering shaft 12 and gear 21 of said sensing means 20 is precisely set, meanwhile the match between said worm 51 and said arcuated rack member 43 is also through precise calculation so that when the steering wheel 11 is turned x degrees, the present headlight 40 is able to be correspondingly rotated x degrees in the same direction. By such arrangement, the present synchronised headlight can be securely and precisely operated in accordance with the driver's need.

As shown in Figure 4, when the mode selection button 72 is set in a manual status, the press of said button 73 will make said headlight 40 swing to the left, and the press of said button 74 will reset said headlight 40 in a normal position, and the push of said button 75 makes said headlight pivot to the right. The manually operated headlights 40 can be utilised as a temporary illumination equipment by proper control. In case the control buttons or the electric circuit are out of order, said malfunction indicating lamp 77 will immediately light up, and a screwdriver can be used to bring said headlight 40 to a normal position by operating on a pair of bevel gears 510 located at the end of said worm 51.

To terminate the synchronous movement of said headlight 40, the driver has only to press said on/off button 71, and the headlight 40 is turned into a conventional one.

One feature of the preferred embodiment lies in that the direction of the shed light beam of said headlights 40 in the vertical plane can be readily changed in accordance with the road conditions by way of turning said turning knob 472 clockwise or counterclockwise, thus making said cable wire 460 of said cable 46 tensioned or released so as to tilt said headlight 40 accordingly.

Refer to Figure 5, a pair of diagrams are used to comparatively illustrate the practical usefulness of the present synchronised headlight 40 when the vehicle is particularly driven to a very sharp turn (1800 turn). In the diagram E of Figure 5, a vehicle equipped with a conventional headlight can only shed its light beam straight ahead so that the road condition at the point of the sharp turn can not be clearly viewed by the driver; in the diagram F of Figure 5 a vehicle equipped with the present synchronised headlight 40 can focus the light beam directly on the road in synchronism with the turn of the front wheels so to let the driver effectively view the road condition, thus avoiding in advance possible dangers on the road ahead at a sharp turn.

However, wide-angle spot lights are widely employed by drivers to effect the same purpose when driving on a mount route or curvy road; at night; the disadvantage of the adoption of such bright spot lights lies in that when two vehicles coming toward each other from the opposite directions, the focus light can seriously bother one or both of the drivers or their eyes, thus causing accidents easily.

It has been clearly shown that the present synchronised headlight can effectively help the driver drive safely on a mountain route or a curvy road at night, and the operation of the same is so simple and efficient that the driving safety of a vehicle is surely promoted thereby. The dexterous adjustment of the present synchronised headlight makes the same full function according to the practical need of the driver.

Claims

1. Apparatus for controling a headlight array of a steerable vehicle, which headlight array comprises at least one headlamp, the apparatus comprising means for movably mounting the headlamp on the vehicle to enable adjustment of the direction of the headlamp beam relative to the vehicle means for moving the headlamp relative to the vehicle, to adjust the direction of the headlamp beam in a horizontal plane, means for sensing changes in the direction in which the vehicle is steered, and means operable in response to said means for sensing changes in the direction in which the vehicle is steered to move the headlamp so that the direction of the headlamp beam changes relative to the vehicle in consonance with the change in steering of the vehicle.

2. A synchronised automobile headlight device wherein a gear is mounted on the steering shaft; which is in constant engagement with a gear mounted on an axis extended from a sensing means which is electrically coupled to a control unit, and said control unit is connected to a pair of synchronous motors disposed on the frame of the respective headlight so that the signals, produced as the result of rotation of said steering wheel by means of said sensing means, are transmitted to said control unit which will then activate both said synchronous motors to operate so to make the worms attached on the axes thereof to spin, and the arcuate rack member disposed on the back wall of said headlight is accordingly driven by said worm so to make said headlight to swing to left or right in accordance with the direction of rotation thereof and in synchronism with the turning movement of said steering wheel.

3. A synchronised automobile headlight as claimed in claim 2 wherein said headlight is provided with a pair of pivots on the middle of the top and bottom surface thereof, which are located within the carbon bearings respectively located on the top and bottom of said headlight frame, and an arcuate rack -member is activated to move by said worm, the headlight is able to swing to left or right accordingly.

4. A synchronised automobile headlight as claimed in claim 2 wherein said headlight frame is provided with a pair of pivots on the right and left sides thereof respectively, and said pivots are inserted into the carbon bearings planted on the left and right walls of a headlight mount in which said headlight frame is housed, and at least on one side of said frame are disposed with a pair of bias springs on the top and bottom thereof with a cable going through the central portion of said bias spring located at the bottom, and the cable wire of said cable is secured to the bottom of said frame so that by operation on said cable wire the headlight can be tilted in adjustment upward or downward in cooperation with said bias spring.

5. A synchronised automobile headlight as claimed in claim 4 wherein the other end of said cable wire is secured to an adjusting means located inside the automobile, and said cable wire is fixed to a nut-shaped member on a bolt of said adjusting means, and the external end of said bolt is provided with a turning knob so that the control of the tilt of said headlight, upward or downward, can be effected by way of operating on said turning knob as the result of the tension of said wire cable and the bias force of said bias springs.