JP2003019988A - Headlamp for bicycle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely turn on a headlamp by will of a rider of a bicycle without limiting a material used for a body case. SOLUTION: An illuminance sensor 27 as an illuminance detecting part for detecting surrounding brightness is arranged in the body case 4 to control turning-on and turning-off of an electric lamp 11 as an emitter arranged in the body case 4 on the basis of illuminance detected by the illuminance sensor 27. A slide plate 28 as a switching means is arranged in the body case 4 for switching an intercepting state and a taking-in state of the light entering a light receiving part 27a of the illuminance sensor 27. Thus, when desiring to turn on the headlamp regardless of the surrounding brightness, the light trying to enter the light receiving part of the illuminance detecting part can be intercepted and turned on surely.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bicycle headlight that is turned on and off based on the ambient brightness.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional bicycle headlight, an illuminance sensor for detecting ambient brightness is provided in a non-transparent body case having a daylighting window formed therein so that a light receiving portion faces the daylighting window. ,
It is known that the bicycle headlight is automatically turned on when the ambient brightness detected by the illuminance sensor becomes lower than a predetermined brightness.

This bicycle headlight automatically turns on when the ambient brightness becomes lower than a predetermined illuminance and turns off when the illuminance is higher than the predetermined illuminance. Therefore, it is possible to prevent forgetting to turn on or forget to turn off the fog. Even if the surroundings are bright, such as when a problem occurs, there is a problem that the visibility is not good in front and the visibility of the position of the bicycle is poor and the driver cannot turn on the light as it is.

In order to solve this point, Japanese Patent No. 314563
No. 3 (B62J6 / 02), an illuminance sensor for detecting ambient brightness is provided in a main body case in which a daylighting window is formed, with its light-receiving portion facing the daylighting window. It is possible to turn on / off the light according to the above, and a cover is provided on the outer surface of the main body case, the cover being movable from a position where the lighting window is fully opened to a position where the lighting window is fully closed.

In this bicycle headlight, the cover adjusts the amount of light that can enter through the daylighting window to adjust the brightness of the surroundings where the bicycle headlight automatically lights up, and also to close the daylighting window. The light can be forcibly turned on regardless of the surrounding brightness, and can be turned on when the driver feels the need for lighting.

However, when a transparent member such as a transparent material, a translucent material, or a light-colored material is used for the main body case, even if the lighting window formed on the main body case is closed, Occasionally, ambient light is incident and forced lighting cannot be performed.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is to turn on and off automatically based on the brightness of the surroundings, and the material used for the main body case is not limited, and it is determined by the intention of the bicycle driver. It is an object to provide a bicycle headlight that can be reliably turned on.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A means for solving the above problems is to provide an illuminance detector for detecting ambient brightness in a main body case, and to provide the main body based on the illuminance detected by the illuminance detector. In a bicycle headlight for controlling lighting and extinguishing of a light emitting body provided in a case, switching for switching between a state of blocking light that is going to enter a light receiving unit of the illuminance detection unit and a state of capturing the light in the main body case Means are provided.

As a result, even if the main body case is formed of a translucent member, when it is desired to turn on the light regardless of the surrounding brightness, the light which is about to enter the light receiving portion of the illuminance detecting portion is blocked. It can be turned on reliably.

In the above structure, the switching means is formed with an operation portion projecting outward from the body case.

[0011] With this, it is possible to easily switch between blocking and taking in of light incident on the light receiving portion of the illuminance detection portion by the operation portion protruding from the main body case.

Further, a holder having a concave portion is provided in the main body case, and the illuminance detecting portion is held in the concave portion of the holder with the light receiving portion facing the opening side of the concave portion, and the opening of the concave portion is opened. It can be opened and closed by the switching means.

With this, it is possible to reliably block the light that is about to enter the light receiving portion of the illuminance detecting portion with a simple structure.

Further, the holder is attached to a substrate on which a control unit for controlling lighting and extinguishing of the light emitter is mounted, and the switching means is attached to a substrate holder for mounting the substrate in a main body case.

As a result, the substrate, the illuminance detecting portion, and the switching means can be mounted in the main body case in a state where they can be assembled into the substrate holder and handled integrally, rather than being individually mounted in the main body case. Can be improved.

Further, the main body case is formed of a transparent member.

Accordingly, even if the main body case is not provided with a lighting window for allowing light to enter the light receiving portion of the illuminance detection portion, the ambient brightness is detected based on the light entering inside through the main body case. Can be reliably detected in the section.

[0018]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention, which will be described below with reference to these drawings.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a bicycle headlamp (hereinafter referred to as headlamp for simplification) which is attached to a front fork of a bicycle by a bracket 2 provided on a side surface thereof, which is a hub dynamo 3 as a generator (FIG. 5). Power is supplied from. Here, the hub dynamo 3 has a structure as found in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-258673 (B60Q1 / 02),
Detailed description is omitted here.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a main body case of the headlight 1 having side eyes formed on both side surfaces thereof, and a head case 5 having translucency (here, semitransparent) having an opening on the front side as shown in FIG.
And a transparent head cap 6 that covers the opening of the head case 5.

A lower portion of the back side of the head case 5 is formed on an inclined surface 5a which descends toward the front side, and a hole 6 and a lighting window 5b are formed on the inclined surface 5a. The lighting window 5b is a transparent seal 5c. Is covered with. A boss 7 extends from the inner surface of the head case 5 to the front side at the lower peripheral edge of the hole 6.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a parabolic reflection plate arranged on the opening side of the head case 5, fitted on the inner surface of the head cap 6, and attached to the head case 5 together with the head cap 6 with a screw 9. A socket 10 is provided substantially in the center of the reflection plate 8, and a light bulb 11 (a small incandescent light bulb having a rating of about 6V and about 2.4W) serving as a main light emitting body is provided in the socket 10.
Is installed. In addition, the light bulbs 11 are provided on both sides of the reflector 8.
Is formed with a notch 12 for passing the light of (1) to the side eye.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a substrate holder for holding a substrate which will be described later, and a screw 14 is screwed into the boss 7 of the head case 5 so that the head case 5 together with a power supply plate 15 for supplying electric power from the hub dynamo 3 to the light bulb 11. Attached to.

The substrate holder 13 is composed of a partition plate 16 for partitioning the inside of the main body case 4 into front and rear, and a horizontal plate 17 extending from the partition plate 16 to the upper edge of the hole 6 of the head case 5. A holding portion 18 is formed on the upper part of the partition plate 16, and a lighting hole 19 formed at a position corresponding to the lighting window 5b is formed on the rear end side of the horizontal plate 17 along with the lighting hole 19. The square hole 20 (FIG. 2) is formed, and the square hole 20 is formed with locked portions 21a and 21b at two locations.

Reference numeral 22 denotes a control board on which control components such as an illuminance sensor 27, which will be described later, are mounted.
It is held by the holder 18 and is sandwiched between the holder 18 and the rib 23 on the back side of the head case 5.

Reference numeral 24 denotes a cylindrical holder in which a recess 25 that opens downward is formed. The opening 26 of the recess 25 is close to the upper surface of the horizontal plate 17, and the opening 26 of the recess 25 is illuminated by the horizontal plate 17. It is attached to the control board 22 so as to correspond to the hole 19. In the recess 25 of the holder 24, an illuminance sensor 27 made of Cds as an illuminance detector is provided.
Is arranged with its light receiving portion 27a facing the opening 26 side of the recess 25.

Reference numeral 28 denotes a slide plate which is attached to the periphery of the square hole 20 of the horizontal plate 17 so as to be slidable in the left-right direction. The slide plate is arranged in the head case 5 and is opaque to slide on the lower surface of the horizontal plate 17. Of the light-shielding portion 29, an operating portion 30 protruding from the light-shielding portion 29 to the outside of the head case 5 through the hole 6, and a claw extending from the upper surface of the light-shielding portion 29 and locked to the upper surface side of the peripheral edge of the square hole 20. 51 (FIG. 5) and the locked portion 21a of the square hole 20,
21 b, and a projection 52 that is selectively locked to 21 b.
This slide plate 28 is provided with one engaged portion 21a of the square hole 20.
As shown in FIG. 3, by locking the projection 52 on
9 holds the lighting hole 19 at a position to be closed, and by locking the protrusion 52 to the other locked portion 21b, the lighting hole 19 is held at a position to be released as shown in FIG.

Next, the control circuit of the headlight 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

Electric power is supplied to the bulb dynamo 3 through the rectifier circuit 31, the constant voltage circuit 32, and the lighting / extinguishing circuit 33 to the hub dynamo 3.

The rectifier circuit 31 is composed of a diode D1 and a capacitor C1. The AC voltage from the hub dynamo 3 is rectified by the diode D1 and smoothed by the capacitor C1 to form a DC voltage.

The constant voltage circuit 32 is composed of a transistor Q1, a bias resistor R1 and a zener diode ZD1, and converts the DC voltage rectified by the rectifier circuit 31 into a constant voltage.

The lighting / extinguishing circuit 33 includes resistors R2, R3, R
4 and illuminance sensor 27 illuminance sensor detection circuit 34
And a comparator circuit IC1 composed of comparators ICA and ICB
And R6 connected to the output side of the comparator ICA and the resistor R
6 and a resistor R5 connected to the negative side of the comparator ICB
And a triac TRA1 connected to the output side of the comparator ICB via a resistor R7.

To the illuminance sensor detection circuit 34, a constant voltage from the constant voltage circuit 32 is supplied between the resistors R2 and R3, and also between the resistor R4 and the illuminance sensor 27.
The reference voltage at the connection point between the resistors R2 and R3 is the comparator IC.
The voltage applied to the positive side of A, and the comparison voltage at the connection point of the resistor R4 and the illuminance sensor 27 is applied to the negative side of the comparator ICA.

The resistance value of the illuminance sensor 27 changes according to the brightness of the surroundings, and the change of the resistance value of the illuminance sensor 27 causes the comparison circuit IC1 to turn on / off the triac TRA1.

In the headlamp having the above structure, when the operation portion 30 of the slide plate 28 is operated to slide the slide plate 28 to the position where the lighting hole 19 is released, the holder 24 is moved from the lighting hole 19 to the holder 24 through the lighting window 5b. The light is taken into the concave portion 25 of the holder 24, and the ambient brightness can be detected by the illuminance sensor 27 in the concave portion 25 of the holder 24.

When traveling in this state, when the illuminance sensor 27 detects that the brightness is equal to or higher than a predetermined brightness (here, the brightness between the daytime and twilight), the lighting / extinguishing circuit 33 causes the triac. When TRA1 is turned off to cut off the power supply to the light bulb 11, the headlight 1 is turned off, and when it is detected that the brightness is lower than the predetermined brightness, the TRIAC TRA1 is turned on and the hub dynamo 3 Is supplied to the light bulb 11 to turn on the headlight 1.

On the other hand, when the slide plate 28 is operated to the position where the light collection hole 19 is closed by the light shielding portion 29, no light enters the illuminance sensor 27 and the illuminance sensor 2
It is determined in 7 that the illuminance is always less than or equal to the predetermined illuminance, and the headlight 1 is constantly lit during traveling.

In this way, the light shielding portion 29 of the slide plate 28 is
By opening and closing the lighting hole 19 in the case where the light bulb 11 is automatically turned on and off according to the ambient brightness,
It is possible to easily switch between turning on and off depending on the driver's will regardless of the surrounding brightness.

At this time, the light-shielding portion 29 provided with the lighting hole 19 in the head case 5 serves as a light-receiving portion 27a of the illuminance sensor 27.
Thus, even if the head case 5 is formed of a translucent member as described above, the light that passes through the head case 5 and enters the main body case 4 does not interfere with the illuminance sensor 27.
It is possible to reliably prevent light from entering the light receiving section 27a.

Further, since the slide plate 28 is formed with the operation portion 30 protruding outside the main body case 4, it can be easily operated from the outside and the operability can be improved.

Further, as in the above structure, the holder 24 for holding the illuminance sensor 27 is attached to the control board 22, the control board 22 is held by the board holder 13, and the slide plate 28 is attached to the board holder 13. Then, these illuminance sensor 27, holder 24, control board 2
2 and the slide plate 28 are not individually attached to the main body case 4, but can be easily attached in the main body case 4 in a state where they can be assembled to the substrate holder 13 and handled integrally, and the assembling workability can be improved.

In the above embodiment, the shading portion 29 closes the daylighting hole 19 so that it can be turned on regardless of the ambient brightness, and the shading portion 29 is slid to the position where the daylighting hole 19 is released. Therefore, the light is turned on and off automatically according to the brightness of the surroundings.However, a part of the light shielding part is formed of a translucent member and a part of it is formed of a non-translucent member. You may make it switch with the case where a light-collecting part is covered with a part which has light property, and the case where a light-permeable part is covered with a light-collecting part.

In this case, since the light-collecting hole is always closed by the light-shielding portion, it is possible to reliably prevent dust and the like from entering through the light-collecting hole, and it is possible to reliably prevent malfunction. In addition, when it is blocked by a translucent part, it can take in light from the lighting hole and automatically turn on and off according to the surrounding brightness. It can block the incoming light and always turn on.

Although the head case 5 is formed of a semitransparent member having the daylighting window 5b, it may be formed of a transparent member. In this case, even if the head case is not provided with a lighting window for taking in light, the ambient light can be stably detected by the illuminance sensor by the light entering through the transparent head case, and the desired ambient light can be detected. The headlight can be turned on and off reliably with brightness.

Although the hub dynamo is used as the power source of the headlight, other generators, batteries or the like may be used as the power source.

[0046]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, even when the main body case is formed of a translucent member, when it is desired to light the main case regardless of the ambient brightness, the light receiving section of the illuminance detecting section is provided. The light that is about to enter can be reliably blocked and turned on.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the operation portion projecting from the main body case can easily switch between blocking and taking in the light incident on the light receiving portion of the illuminance detecting portion.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to reliably block the light that is about to enter the light receiving portion of the illuminance detecting portion with a simple structure.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the substrate, the illuminance detecting portion and the switching means are not individually attached to the main body case, but are attached to the main body case in a state of being assembled to the substrate holder and integrally handled. Therefore, the assembly workability can be improved.

According to claim 5 of the present invention, even if the main body case is not provided with a lighting window for allowing light to enter into the light receiving portion of the illuminance detection portion, light is allowed to enter the inside through the main body case and the surroundings. The brightness of can be detected by the illuminance detector.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a bicycle headlamp showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the vicinity of a slide plate of the bicycle headlight.

FIG. 3 is a rear cross-sectional view of the vicinity of a slide plate of the bicycle headlight.

FIG. 4 is a rear cross-sectional view showing a state where the slide plate is slid to a position where the lighting hole is released in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view in the vicinity of a slide plate of the bicycle headlamp.

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of the bicycle headlight.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 body case 13 Board holder 11 Light bulb (main light emitter) 22 Control board 24 holder 25 Holder recess 26 Holder opening 27 Illuminance sensor (illuminance detector) 28 Slide plate (switching means) 30 Operation part

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A bicycle having an illuminance detection unit for detecting ambient brightness provided in a main body case, and controlling lighting and extinction of a light emitter provided in the main body case based on the illuminance detected by the illuminance detection unit. A bicycle headlamp, characterized in that in the main body case, a switching means is provided in the main body case for switching between a state in which light that is about to enter the light receiving portion of the illuminance detection portion is blocked and a state in which the light is taken in. . 2. The bicycle headlight according to claim 1, wherein the switching means is formed with an operation portion projecting outward from the main body case. 3. A holder in which a recess is formed is provided in the main body case, the light receiving portion is held in the recess of the holder with the illuminance detecting portion facing toward the opening side of the recess, and the opening of the recess is formed. The bicycle headlamp according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the switching means can be opened and closed. 4. The holder is attached to a substrate on which a control unit for controlling lighting and extinguishing of the light emitter is mounted, and the switching means is attached to a substrate holder for mounting the substrate in a main body case. The bicycle headlight according to claim 3. 5. The bicycle headlight according to claim 1, wherein the main body case is formed of a transparent member.