JP2001141528A - Indicating instrument with gradation display - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To clearly indicate a moving range and a moving speed of a pointer by emitting light from light emitting means arranged along indicated values on a dial, while interlocked with movement of the pointer, to bring gradation. SOLUTION: This indicating instrument 1 is composed of the painter 4 moving to indicate the indicated value, the plural light emitting means Sn arranged along the indicated values on the dial, and a control means 5 for conducting control to make the light emitted at the maximum brightness from the light emitting means Sn corresponding to a position of the pointer 4 when the pointer 4 is moved, and to reduce the brightness gradually as to the light emitting means Sn of the maximum brightness after the pointer 4 is moved onto the other light emitting means Sn.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an indicating instrument for indicating an indicated value arranged on a dial by a pointer, and more particularly, to applying a gradation by emitting an EL segment in conjunction with the movement of the pointer. The present invention relates to an indicating instrument provided with a gradation display capable of clearly displaying a moving range and a moving speed of a pointer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional indicating instrument, an indicating value on a dial is indicated only by a pointer, so that the pointer has to emit light with high luminance in order to improve visibility.

It is also conceivable to increase the visibility by making the pointer thicker. In this case, however, the thicker pointer makes it unclear which indicated value is indicated by the pointer, and the accuracy is high. The indicated value could not be indicated.

Further, in the conventional indicating instrument using only the hands, there is a problem that the movement of the hands cannot be recognized unless the hands are watched continuously for a certain period of time.

In view of this, there has been proposed an indicating instrument which displays the range and speed of movement of the hands by leaving afterglow on the dial after the movement of the hands.

Here, the configuration of the conventional indicating instrument is shown in FIG.
It will be described based on.

[0007] As shown in FIG.
Is composed of a pointer 102 provided with an ultraviolet emitting portion on the back side, and a dial 104 provided with a phosphor layer 103. The phosphor layer 103 emits light when receiving ultraviolet rays and has a persistence. It is formed by a phosphor.

In the indicating instrument 101, since ultraviolet rays are emitted from the ultraviolet emitting portion on the back side of the hands, that is, on the dial side, when the hands 102 move, the phosphor layer 103 emits light, and further the afterglow of the phosphors A gradation 105 is displayed on the dial 104 depending on the nature.

[0009]

However, in the above-described gradation display using the above-mentioned conventional ultraviolet rays, when the pointer moves rapidly right and left, afterglow is displayed on both sides of the pointer as shown in FIG. Therefore, there is a problem that it becomes rather difficult to recognize the movement of the pointer.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a gradation by emitting an EL segment in conjunction with the movement of a pointer to emit light.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an indicating instrument provided with a gradation display capable of clearly displaying a moving range and a moving speed of a pointer.

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an indicating instrument provided with a gradation display for indicating an indicated value arranged on a dial by movement of a pointer. A pointer which operates to indicate the indicated value, a plurality of light emitting means arranged along the indicated value on the dial, and a position of the pointer when the pointer is moving. The light emitting means corresponding to the light emitting means emits light at the maximum brightness, and the light emitting means emitting light at the maximum brightness comprises control means for controlling the brightness so as to gradually decrease after the pointer moves onto another light emitting means. It is characterized by the following.

According to the first aspect of the invention, the gradation display linked to the hands can be performed, so that the range in which the hands have moved and the speed at which the hands move can be displayed more clearly. Therefore, visibility can be improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the control means of the indicating instrument provided with a gradation display turns off all of the light emitting means when the movement of the pointer stops.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the movement of the hands stops, the gradation display is completely erased. Therefore, even when the hands move rapidly right and left, gradation is displayed on both sides of the hands. The movement of the hands can be clearly displayed even when the hands suddenly move.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, the configuration of an indicating instrument having a gradation display according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, an indicating instrument 1 according to the present embodiment includes an igniter 2 that outputs a pulse corresponding to an engine speed.
A vehicle speed sensor 3 for detecting a vehicle speed and outputting a pulse corresponding to the vehicle speed; a control unit 5 for controlling the movement of the hands 4 and the luminance of the plurality of EL segments S1, S2,... A driving device 8 for driving the hands 4 by a stepper motor driver 6 and a stepper motor 7 based on a signal from the control means 5, an EL high voltage power supply 9 for driving EL segments, and a plurality of EL segments S1 , S2,..., And Sn, each of which includes an EL driver 10 including switching means SW1, SW2,.

Here, the EL high voltage power supply 9 is a DC 12
This is an AC voltage generated from V and drives the EL segment and outputs a zero-cross signal to the control means 5. This zero-cross signal is a signal indicating the starting point of one cycle of the AC voltage.

The respective EL segments S1, S
2,... Sn are arranged along the indicated value on the dial,
It is composed of a plurality of EL elements EL1, EL2... ELn.

Next, the operation of the indicating instrument provided with the gradation display of the present embodiment will be described.

Here, a case where a speedometer is driven will be described as an example. However, when a tachometer is driven, a pulse signal from the igniter 2 is received and driven.

First, when the vehicle speed is detected by the vehicle speed sensor 3, the vehicle speed sensor 3 outputs a pulse signal such as 16 pulses corresponding to the vehicle speed. The control means 5 having received the pulse signal outputs a pulse signal for rotating the hands 4 based on the pulse signal. When the pulse signal is input to the stepper motor driver 6, the stepper motor driver 6 performs a process of changing the input pulse signal into a pulse signal for driving the stepper motor, and outputs the pulse signal. When input to the stepper motor 7, the hands 4 rotate, and the current vehicle speed is indicated by the hands 4.

On the other hand, when a pulse signal is input from the vehicle speed sensor 3, the control means 5 drives the EL driver 10 to drive the EL driver 10.
The segments S1, S2,... Sn emit light to perform gradation display.

Here, an example of gradation display in each EL segment will be described with reference to FIG.

The high-voltage power supply 9 for EL supplies an AC voltage as shown in FIG.
ELn, EL2,...
.., ELn are grounded via the switching means SW of the EL driver 10. On the other hand, the control means 5 is connected so as to receive a zero cross signal indicating the start point of one cycle of the AC voltage from the EL high voltage power supply 9 and to control the switching means SW in synchronization with the zero cross signal. And this switching means SW
Are configured by switches SS1, SS2,..., SSn connected to EL elements EL1, EL2,.

The control means 5 controls the switches SS1, SS
2,... SSn are synchronized with the zero-cross signal to perform ON / OFF control in units of one cycle of the AC voltage. This allows
Since the voltage applied to each EL element can be thinned out in units of one cycle as shown in FIG. 4, the luminance of each EL element can be adjusted, and therefore the luminance of EL segment S can also be adjusted.

For example, in FIG. 4, since two of the four periods are thinned out, the EL element is lit at half the luminance as compared with the maximum luminance when the entire period is lit. Further, in the case where the EL element is provided with 10 levels of luminance, it is possible to emit light at the maximum luminance by lighting all of the 10 periods, and to gradually increase the luminance by increasing the period of thinning out one period at a time. Can be reduced, so that ten levels of luminance can be created.

As described above, the control means 5 can adjust the brightness of each of the EL elements EL1, EL2... ELn by controlling the switches SS1, SS2. Therefore, the brightness of the EL segment S can also be adjusted.
A gradation display linked to can be displayed.

When displaying the gradation,
First, when the control means 5 detects that the vehicle speed has changed based on the pulse signal input from the vehicle speed sensor 3, the control unit 5 causes the EL segment corresponding to the position of the pointer 4 to emit light with the maximum luminance.
The EL segment that emits light at this maximum luminance is controlled so that it gradually becomes dark after the pointer 4 moves to another EL segment. Then, the other EL segments to which the hands 4 have been moved are also illuminated at the maximum luminance, and control is performed so that the lights gradually become dark after the movement of the hands 4.
By repeating this, a gradation display as shown in FIG. 5 can be performed.

In this way, by displaying the gradation in conjunction with the movement of the pointer 4, the range in which the pointer has moved and the speed at which the pointer moves can be displayed more clearly, so that the visibility can be improved. it can.

Further, when the vehicle speed does not change and the vehicle speed becomes constant and the movement of the pointer 4 stops, the control means 5 controls the emitting EL segments S1, S2,.
Control to erase everything. When the pointer 4 starts moving again, the EL segments S1, S2,.
Also emit light again to perform gradation display.

In this way, by controlling so that all of the EL segments S1, S2... Sn are erased when the movement of the hands stops, even when the hands 4 move rapidly, gradation is displayed on both sides of the hands. Will not be done.

[0031]

As described above, the indicating instrument provided with the gradation display of the present invention displays the moving range and the moving speed of the pointer more clearly by performing the gradation display linked to the pointer. Therefore, visibility can be improved.

Further, by controlling so that all the gradation display is erased when the movement of the pointer stops, no gradation is displayed on both sides of the pointer even when the pointer moves suddenly left and right. The movement of the pointer can be clearly displayed even when is moved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an indicating instrument provided with a gradation display according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining luminance adjustment of an EL segment by a control unit 5 shown in FIG. 1;

3 is a diagram showing a waveform of an AC voltage generated by a high-voltage power supply for EL 9 shown in FIG. 1;

4 shows EL elements EL1, EL2,... EL shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a voltage waveform applied to n.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an indicating instrument provided with a gradation display according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional indicating instrument using afterglow due to ultraviolet rays.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a case where afterglow occurs on both sides of a pointer in a conventional indicating instrument.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 101 indicating instrument 2 igniter 3 vehicle speed sensor 4, 102 pointer S1, S2... Sn EL segment 5 control means 6 stepper motor driver 7 stepper motor 8 driving device 9 EL high voltage power supply SW1, SW2,. Switching means 10 EL driver EL1, EL2... ELn EL element 103 Phosphor layer 104 Dial

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yasushi Inoue 1500 Onjuku 1500, Susono-shi, Shizuoka Yazaki Sogyo Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 2F074 AA01 BB07 CC02 DD04 GG09

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An indicating instrument for indicating an indicated value arranged on a dial by movement of a pointer, a pointer operable to indicate the indicated value, and a pointer along the indicated value on the dial. A plurality of arranged light emitting means, and when the pointer is moving, the light emitting means corresponding to the position of the pointer is caused to emit light at the maximum luminance. An indicating instrument provided with a gradation display, comprising: control means for controlling the luminance to gradually decrease after moving upward. 2. The indicating instrument according to claim 1, wherein the control means turns off all of the light emitting means when the movement of the pointer stops.