JP2005351858A - Lighting device of instrument for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a light device of instruments for a vehicle capable of improving visibility which has excellent appearance. <P>SOLUTION: The light device of the instruments for the vehicle has a plurality of LEDs 7 provided along a rotation direction of a dial plate 5 provided for the instrument on which characters corresponding to swing angle of an indicator hand and a CPU 11 for controlling to turn on/off the LEDs 7. When lighting the instruments 1 to 4, the CPU 11 turns on one of the LEDs 7 and then sequentially turns on the adjacent LED 7 with a predetermined time difference and luminance of the LEDs 7 gradually changes when turned on. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a lighting device for a vehicle instrument that turns on and off various instruments mounted on the vehicle.

  As a technique for improving visibility by lighting a speedometer or a tachometer mounted on an instrument panel (installation panel) of a vehicle, for example, it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-293163 (Patent Document 1). What is known.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the instrument described in Patent Document 1, in which a plurality of LEDs 101 are provided at positions along the scale on the back side of the dial, and the ignition switch is turned on. Rotates the pointer 102 to the full scale position, and further sequentially emits the LEDs 101, thereby obtaining a novel display effect and improving visibility.
JP 2002-302262 A

  However, in the conventional example disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, only a plurality of LEDs arranged along the scale are sequentially turned on, and the passenger is impressed as intermittent light emission, which is smooth. Therefore, there has been a demand for a lighting device capable of more innovative and smooth lighting.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an illumination device for a vehicle instrument that has a good appearance and can improve visibility. There is.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a lighting device for a vehicle instrument for lighting a meter equipped with a pointer mounted on a vehicle, and corresponds to a deflection angle of the pointer provided in the meter. A plurality of illuminating means arranged along the direction of rotation of the dial on which characters are written; and a control means for controlling turning on and off of the illuminating means, and the control means lights the instrument. In this case, after lighting one of the lighting means, the neighboring lighting means are sequentially turned on with a predetermined time difference, and the brightness is gradually changed when the lighting means is turned on. And

  The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the control means gradually increases the duty ratio of the power supplied to the illumination means by gradually increasing the brightness when the illumination means is turned on. .

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the instrument is turned off, the illumination means is turned off in a sequence opposite to the sequence in which the instrument is turned on while gradually darkening the illumination means with a predetermined time difference. It is characterized by that.

  In the invention according to claim 1 of the present application, the plurality of illumination means for lighting the instrument are sequentially turned on with a time difference, and are turned on while gradually increasing the brightness at the time of lighting. The instrument can be lighted.

  According to the second aspect of the invention, when the lighting unit is turned on, the duty ratio of the electric power supplied to the lighting unit is gradually increased, so that the brightness of the lighting unit is gradually increased and the lighting unit is turned on without a sense of incongruity. be able to.

  In the invention according to claim 3, since the illumination means mounted on each of the plural adjacent meters is sequentially turned on with a predetermined time difference, the entire display panel can be illuminated with a novel and good-looking instrument. .

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing a configuration of an instrument panel equipped with a vehicle instrument to which a lighting device according to the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a bottom view thereof.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a speedometer 1, a tachometer 2, a fuel gauge 3, and a thermometer 4 are provided in the instrument panel as vehicle gauges, and scales are written in each of the instruments 1 to 4. A dial 5 and a transparent acrylic plate 6 disposed on the front side of the dial 5 are provided.

  Then, by turning on a plurality of LEDs (illuminating means) 7 provided on the inner peripheral surface of the acrylic plate 5, light is introduced into the acrylic plate 6 to make it light, and the dials of the meters 1 to 4 are displayed. Can be lit.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a detailed configuration of the speedometer 1 among the meters 1 to 4. As shown in the drawing, on the inner peripheral surface side of the acrylic plate 6 provided in the speedometer 1, Ten LEDs 7 (7-1 to 7-10) are arranged along the inner peripheral surface.

  FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of a lighting device for a vehicle meter according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, this lighting device has a CPU (control means) 11 that performs main control, and an EEPROM 12 that stores the travel distance data of the vehicle and the lighting control mode of each LED 7.

  And it connects with each LED7 via the output part 13, Furthermore, speed data, rotation speed data, fuel residual amount data, and temperature data are input via the input part 14. FIG.

  In addition, a constant voltage power supply 14 is provided, and a DC voltage supplied from the battery power supply + B is converted into a voltage of a predetermined level (for example, 5 V) and then supplied to the CPU 11. Further, an ignition signal, “P, R, N, D, L” shift position data and various alarm data are input to the CPU 11.

  Next, the operation of the lighting device for a vehicle meter according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 and the timing chart shown in FIG.

  First, the CPU 11 determines whether or not the ignition switch of the vehicle is turned on (step ST1). When the ignition switch is turned on (YES in step ST1), the lighting control mode data stored and saved in the EEPROM 12 is read (step ST2).

  Next, the CPU 11 controls the lighting and extinguishing timing of each LED 7 and the duty ratio based on the lighting control mode (steps ST3 to ST5).

  Hereinafter, this process will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 1, each of the meters 1 to 4 is provided with a plurality of LEDs 7. As an example, taking the LED 7 of the speedometer 1 shown in FIG. 3 as an example, there are 10 LEDs 7 (7-1 to 7-10 in order from the left) on the inner peripheral side of the dial 5 of the speedometer 1. Are divided into a plurality of groups. For example, when divided from left to right, the LEDs 7-1 and 7-2 are the first group, the LEDs 7-3 and 7-4 are the second group, and the LEDs 7-9 and 7-10 are the fifth group.

  Then, the CPU 11 gradually turns on the LEDs 7 with a time difference in the order of the first group to the fifth group. That is, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the first group of LEDs 7-1 and 7-2 have a voltage having a predetermined duty ratio T1 at time t1 when the ignition switch is turned on. It is applied for a period of time, and then turns on in a continuous energized state. As a result, the LEDs 7-1 and 7-2 of the first group gradually become brighter from the light-off state and turn on.

  Similarly, as shown in FIG. 6C, at time t2, the second group of LEDs 7-3 and 7-4 are lit for a predetermined duty ratio for T1 time, and then are lit in a continuous energized state. Accordingly, the second group of LEDs 7-3 and 7-4 gradually become brighter and become fully lit after the first group of LEDs 7-1 and 7-2 are lit.

  Then, this is repeated for the third group, the fourth group,... And finally, as shown in FIG. 6 (d), the LEDs 7-9 and 7-10 of the fifth group are turned on, and all the LEDs 7 are normally set. The display state is set (step ST6). Thereafter, when the ignition switch is turned off (YES in step ST7), all the LEDs are turned off.

  Thus, by setting the duty ratio of the voltage supplied to each LED 7 (7-1 to 7-10) and the lighting timing thereof, the dial 5 is gradually brightened from the left side of the dial 5. The whole can be lit.

  Thus, in the lighting device for a vehicle meter according to the present embodiment, among the plurality of LEDs 7 provided in each of the meters 1 to 4, the LED 7 is sequentially turned on with a predetermined time difference from the one provided on the left side. Therefore, each of the instruments 1 to 4 can be lighted in a display manner that is good-looking and extremely innovative. Further, when the LED 7 is turned on, the brightness is controlled so as to gradually increase by controlling the duty ratio of the voltage supplied to the LED 7, so that extremely smooth lighting without a sudden feeling at the time of lighting is possible. .

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the point which controls the lighting timing of each LED7 at the time of lighting each meter 1-4 in synchronization with ON of an ignition switch was described, when turning off an ignition switch, the above-mentioned It is also possible to control each LED 7 to be turned off by an operation opposite to the above operation.

  That is, when each LED 7 is turned off, first, the fifth group of LEDs 7-9 and 7-10 are turned off, and when turned off, the duty ratio is controlled to gradually reduce the brightness. By sequentially performing the process of turning off the four groups of LEDs 7-7 and 7-8 and gradually reducing the brightness by controlling the duty ratio, the dial illumination can be turned off sequentially from the right side. become able to.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the case where it lights sequentially toward LED7-10 provided in the right side from LED7-1 provided in the left side of each meter 1-4 was demonstrated as an example, it is contrary to this. In addition, it is possible to sequentially light the LED 7-10 provided on the right side toward the LED 7-1 provided on the left side.

  Further, the LED 7 provided in the center of the meters 1 to 4 can be lighted first, and then the left and right LEDs 7 can be sequentially lighted toward the respective ends every time a predetermined time elapses. is there.

  Moreover, it is also possible to control to gradually increase the brightness of the LEDs 7-1 to 7-10 by gradually increasing the duty ratio when lighting the LEDs 7-1 to 7-10. By such control, it becomes possible to turn on the LEDs 7-1 to 7-10 without further discomfort.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the lighting order of the LEDs 7 is controlled for each of the meters 1 to 4 has been described. However, the LEDs 7 provided in a plurality of meters can be configured to be sequentially lit. It is.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 1, four meters, that is, a thermometer 4, a fuel meter 3, a tachometer 2, and a speedometer 1 are provided from the left side. It is also possible to light each LED 7. According to such a configuration, since the LEDs 7 are lit so as to flow from the left side to the right side in the plurality of instruments 1 to 4 mounted in the instrument panel, the lighting mode of the LED 7 that is extremely novel and attractive. It can be.

  As mentioned above, although the illuminating device of the vehicle meter of this invention was demonstrated based on embodiment of illustration, this invention is not limited to this, The structure of each part is a thing of arbitrary structures which have the same function Can be replaced.

  For example, in this embodiment, the case where the four meters of the speedometer 1, the tachometer 2, the fuel meter 3 and the thermometer 4 are turned on is described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to these. It can be applied to other instruments.

  It is extremely useful for improving the visibility at the time of instrument lighting and improving the appearance.

It is a front view which shows the structure of the meter for vehicles to which the illuminating device which concerns on this invention is applied. It is a bottom view which shows the structure of the meter for vehicles to which the illuminating device which concerns on this invention is applied. It is explanatory drawing which shows the detailed structure of the speedometer among the meters for vehicles. It is a circuit diagram which shows the structure of the illuminating device of the vehicle meter which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the processing operation of the illuminating device of the meter for vehicles which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a timing chart which shows the change of the voltage supplied to each LED. It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the conventional illuminating device.

Explanation of symbols

1 Speedometer 2 Tachometer 3 Fuel meter 4 Thermometer 5 Dial 6 Acrylic plate 7 LED (lighting means)
11 CPU (control means)
12 EEPROM
13 Output unit 14 Constant voltage power supply

Claims (3)

In a lighting device for a vehicle meter that brightens a meter with a pointer mounted on the vehicle,
A plurality of illumination means arranged along the rotation direction of the dial on which the characters corresponding to the deflection angle of the pointer provided on the meter are described;
Control means for controlling turning on and off of the illumination means,
The control means, when lighting the instrument, after lighting one of the lighting means, sequentially lighting adjacent lighting means with a predetermined time difference, and at the time of lighting means lighting, An illumination device for a vehicular instrument characterized by gradually changing brightness.   2. The vehicle instrument according to claim 1, wherein when the lighting unit is turned on, the control unit gradually increases a duty ratio of electric power supplied to the lighting unit to gradually change brightness. Lighting equipment. 2. When turning off the instrument, the illumination unit is turned off while gradually darkening with a predetermined time difference in an order opposite to the order in which the instrument is turned on. The lighting device for a vehicle instrument according to claim 2.

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