JP2008097934A - Bidirectional slide switch device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a slide switch the assembling of which is easy with fewer parts, and in both directions a slide operation is available. <P>SOLUTION: By means of respective arm parts of an operation button 21 being inserted into respective hole parts 22a, 22b of a spring 22, the spring is supported at the respective arm parts, and the operation button 21 and the spring 22 are integrated. Next, by means of the operation button 21 being inserted into a slide groove part 42 installed at a lower cabinet 40, and of the spring 22 installed at the operation button 21 being housed into a spring housing part 43 of the slide groove part 42, the operation button 21 is erectedly installed at the slide groove part 42. Then, after a moving arm 31 of a slide direction detecting switch 30 is inserted into a gap part 32 formed between pinching levers 28, 29 of the operation button 21, the upper cabinet 50 is attached against the lower cabinet 40. The slide switch is thereby provided, wherein the assembling is easy with the fewer parts and a slide operation in both directions is available. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention includes, for example, a mobile phone, a PHS phone (PHS: Personal Handyphone System), a PDA device (PDA: Personal Digital Assistant), a portable game machine, a digital camera device, a video camera device, a desktop or notebook personal computer device, The present invention relates to a bidirectional slide switch device suitable for application to all electronic devices such as hard disk record devices and optical disk devices. In particular, a two-way slide switch device that can be slid in both directions along the direction of spring formation and automatically returns the operating element to the neutral position in any direction is realized with a small space and a simple structure. The present invention relates to a bidirectional slide switch device.

  Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-297183 (Patent Document 1) discloses a slide switch that facilitates assembly work. In this slide switch, a coiled spring having a total of 3/4 to 1 turn of coil windings at both ends is press-fitted and stored in the housing of the case, and the movable contact piece is mounted on the rear side. With the pressing portion facing downward, the operating body is placed so that the spring in the storage portion is disposed between the left and right pressing portions. Finally, the cover is attached to the upper surface of the case for assembly.

  As a result, the spring is housed in the housing portion of the case, and the operating body is placed so that the spring in the housing portion is disposed between the left and right pressing portions, and the cover is simply attached to the upper surface of the case. The slide switch can be easily assembled.

  In addition, the upper half and lower half of the spring have almost the same dimensions over the entire circumference, and the spring can be bent evenly regardless of where it is elastically contacted with the left and right sides of the housing. This prevents inconvenience and inconvenience that the spring is detached from the storage portion.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-297183 (page 3: FIG. 2)

  However, in the slide switch disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, the operating body and the spring are provided as separate bodies in the housing portion of the case, so that the cover or operating body is removed from the housing portion for some reason. The spring in the storage part may also come off and the spring may be lost.

  Further, the slide switch disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a single member. For this reason, when the slide switch is provided in the device, the slide switch as a single unit is provided, so that the installation space of the slide switch in the device may be increased.

  Furthermore, since the slide switch that cannot be directly designed by the designer is reflected in the appearance of the device designed by the designer, the design of the device by the designer is restricted, and the appearance of the device is also limited. May be damaged.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, is simple in configuration and assembly, does not lose a spring, and can be installed in a small space by enabling a design to be integrated with an apparatus. Another object of the present invention is to provide a bi-directional slide switch device that can prevent inconvenience that impairs the appearance of the device.

The bidirectional slide switch device according to the present invention is a means for solving the above-described problems.
A pair of arm portions provided so that the tip portions substantially oppose each other via a predetermined gap portion along the slide operation direction,
An operation knob provided to protrude in a direction substantially orthogonal to the slide operation direction;
An operator having at least
One hole is inserted into one arm of each arm of the operation element, and the other hole is inserted into the other arm of each arm.
A spring storage portion for storing a spring provided in the operation element;
By abutting against one end of the spring housed in the spring housing section, the sliding movement of the spring during the sliding operation in one direction of the operation element is suppressed, and then one of the operating elements is A first stopper provided with a groove that allows sliding movement in the direction of the first and the other end of the spring housed in the spring housing part, thereby moving the operation element in the other direction. A second stopper provided with a groove that allows sliding movement of the operating element in the other direction after suppressing sliding movement of the spring during the sliding operation, and is formed integrally with the housing. In addition, the operating element is held so that the sliding movement in both the one and the other directions is possible, and in the non-sliding operation, the slider corresponding to the one direction is held. And a slide groove for retaining the operating element in de position and substantially the intermediate position of the slide position corresponding to the other direction.

  In the present invention, the operating element and the spring are inserted by inserting one hole of the spring into one arm of the operating element and inserting the other hole of the spring into the other arm of the operating element. And unite. Then, the operation element is incorporated in the slide groove part so that the spring provided in the operation element is accommodated in the spring accommodation part of the slide groove part formed integrally with the housing.

  The slide groove portion holds the operation element so as to be slidable in both the one and the other directions, and in a non-sliding operation, a slide position corresponding to the one direction and a slide position corresponding to the other direction. The operation element is held at a position approximately in the middle.

  The present invention can be realized with a small number of parts including a spring, an operation element provided with the spring, and a slide groove portion that is integrally formed with the housing and that slidably holds the operation element in both directions. Further, at the time of assembly, it is possible to easily assemble by simply mounting the operation element integrated with the spring in the slide groove provided in the housing.

  In addition, since the pair of arm portions provided so as to face each other are inserted into the hole portions of the springs and the springs are sandwiched between the arm portions, the bi-directional slide switch device may be Even when the spring is removed, the inconvenience of losing the spring can be prevented.

  In addition, an operation element provided with a spring is attached to a slide groove provided integrally with the housing. That is, since the slide groove part integrally provided with respect to the housing | casing is used as one part which comprises the said bidirectional slide switch apparatus, the said bidirectional slide switch apparatus can be designed with a housing | casing. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the installation space of the bidirectional slide switch device.

  In addition, since the slide groove portion provided integrally with the housing is one part of the bidirectional slide switch device, the designer can use the bidirectional slide switch device as a part of the appearance of the device. The device can be designed (= the entire device including the bidirectional slide switch device can be designed). Therefore, the design of the device is restricted by the bidirectional slide switch device, and the disadvantage that the appearance of the device is impaired by the bidirectional slide switch device can be prevented.

  The present invention can be applied, for example, to a volume switch for adjusting the music volume of a mobile phone provided with a music player function.

[Configuration of mobile phone]
The cellular phone according to the embodiment of the present invention corresponds to an antenna 1 and a communication circuit 2 that perform wireless communication with a base station as shown in FIG. It has a speaker unit 3 for obtaining an acoustic output, a microphone unit 4 for collecting transmitted voices, and a display unit 5 for displaying images (moving images, still images, etc.) and characters. .

  In addition, the mobile phone includes an operation unit 6 for performing input operation of characters and the like, selection operation of a desired menu, and the like, a light emitting unit 7 (LED: Light Emitting Diode) for notifying light of incoming / outgoing calls, and the like, It has a camera unit 8 for capturing a still image or a moving image of a desired subject, and a vibration unit 9 for notifying the user of incoming / outgoing calls by vibrating the casing of the mobile phone.

  In addition to the timer 10 that counts the current time and a communication processing program (communication program) for performing wireless communication processing via the base station, this mobile phone is handled by various application programs and these application programs. Manually adjust the music volume of music content output through the memory 11 storing various data (contents), the control unit 12 that controls the entire mobile phone, and the speaker unit 3 and an earphone terminal (not shown). A volume switch 13 is provided.

  In the memory 11, an e-mail management program for controlling creation and transmission / reception of e-mail, imaging control and data processing control of the camera unit 8, and moving images and still images captured by the camera unit 8 are displayed on the display unit. 5, a camera control program for controlling display, a schedule book management program for managing a schedule book in which a user's schedule is registered, a phone book management program for managing a phone book, and music content A music player program for reproduction is stored.

Also, in the memory 11, a schedule book in which a user's desired schedule is registered, a still image (mainly a face image) of a user's acquaintance or friend, a telephone number, an e-mail address, a date of birth, and the like are registered. Phone book, music content played back based on the music player program, still image content and moving image content played back based on the viewer function of the camera control program, sent and received e-mail content, phone and An e-mail outgoing / incoming history is stored.

[Configuration of volume switch]
As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the volume switch 13 includes an operation element 21 and a spring 22 provided on the operation element 21. The operation element 21 has a rectangular plate shape, and protrudes along the longitudinal direction from each corner to one of the side areas of the narrow area corresponding to the longitudinal direction, and is opposed to each other. A pair of arm portions 23 and 24 are provided as described above. A gap portion 25 having a size of about 1/3 of the entire length of the spring 22 is provided between the tip portions 23a, 24a of the arm portions 23, 24 provided to face each other. The length obtained by adding the lengths of the arm portions 23 and 24 and the length of the gap portion 25 is substantially the same as the entire length of the spring 22.

  The spring 22 inserts the arm portion 23 of the operating element 21 into the one hole portion 22a through the gap portion 25, and inserts the arm portion 24 of the operating element 21 into the gap portion 25 into the other hole portion 22b. As shown in FIG. 2 (b), it is provided integrally with the operating element 21 in such a manner that it is supported by the arm portions 23, 24 as shown in FIG.

  Further, the operation element 21 is provided with an operation knob 26 at approximately the center of one of the large area surface portions so as to protrude in a direction orthogonal to the large area surface portion. As will be described later, the operation element 21 can be slid along the longitudinal direction of the operation element 21 via the operation knob 26.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the operation element 21 has a surface portion opposite to the surface portion on which the operation knob portion 26 is provided so as to protrude in a direction orthogonal to the surface portion. A pair of clamping levers 28 and 29 are provided along the longitudinal direction of the operation element 21. Between the one clamping lever 28 and the other clamping lever 29, as shown in FIG. 4, there is a gap portion 32 that can clamp the moving arm 31 of the sliding direction detection switch 30 that detects the sliding operation direction of the operating element 21. It has become.

  Next, FIG. 3 shows a portion where the operation element 21 of the lower casing 40 of the mobile phone is provided. As can be seen from FIG. 3, an operation knob exposure hole 41 for exposing the operation knob portion 26 of the operation element 21 to the outside of the lower casing, A slide groove portion 42 that supports the operation element 21 so as to be slidable along the longitudinal direction of the operation element 21 is provided.

  The slide groove portion 42 has a pair of slide support pieces 42a and 42b. For example, the lower housing 41 is made of a member such as ABS resin (ABS: ACRYLONITRILE, BUTADIENE, STYRENE). And is formed integrally. The slide groove 42 has a spring accommodating portion 43 that is substantially the same length as the entire length of the spring 22 and that accommodates the spring 22 provided in the operator 21 when the operator 21 is mounted. .

  The spring housing portion 43 has stoppers 43 a and 43 b that come into contact with the end portions of the spring 22. Further, the stoppers 43 a and 43 b of the spring housing portion 43 are provided with groove portions 44 and 45 that penetrate in the sliding direction of the operation element 21.

That is, the slide groove portion 42 accommodates the spring 22 provided on the operation element 21 in the spring accommodating portion 43 when the operation element 21 is mounted, and the stopper 43a or the slide groove portion 42 when the operation element 21 is slid. After the spring 43 is prevented from sliding by the stopper 43b, only the operating element 21 can be slid by the groove 44 or 45.

[Volume switch assembly process]
When assembling the volume switch 13 having such an operation element 21, first, as shown in FIG. 2A, the arm portion 23 of the operation element 21 is placed in the gap portion 25 with respect to one hole 22 a of the spring 22. 2 and the arm portion 24 of the operating element 21 is inserted into the other hole portion 22b via the gap portion 25, so that the arm portions 23 and 24 can be connected to each other as shown in FIG. The operating element 21 and the spring 22 are integrated by supporting the spring 22.

  Next, as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 3, the operation element 21 is inserted into the slide groove part 42 provided in the lower housing 40, and the spring 22 provided in the operation element 21 is inserted into the spring housing part of the slide groove part 42. 43. Accordingly, the operating element 21 is erected on the lower housing 40 in a state where the spring 22 is held in the spring storage portion 43 and is held between the slide support pieces 42 a and 42 b of the slide groove portion 42.

  Next, with the operating element 21 mounted in the slide groove 42 as described above, the sliding direction detection switch 30 is inserted into the gap 32 formed between the holding levers 28 and 29 of the operating element 21 as shown in FIG. The moving arm 31 is inserted. As a result, the moving arm 31 is clamped by the clamping levers 28 and 29, and the sliding direction is detected in accordance with the right (R) and left (L) sliding operations of the operating element 21, as indicated by arrows in FIG. The moving arm 31 of the switch 30 slides in the right direction (R) and the left direction (L).

Finally, the upper housing 50 is attached to the lower housing 40 as shown in FIG. As a result, the operation element 21 is housed in each of the casings 40 and 50 in a state where the operation knob 26 is exposed from the operation knob exposure hole 41 provided in the lower casing 40.

[Volume switch operation]
FIG. 6A shows the position of the operating element 21 when the volume switch 13 is not operated, and FIG. 6B shows the position of the operating element 21 when the volume switch is slid leftward (L). (C) shows the position of the operating element 21 when the volume switch is slid in the right direction (R).

(Operation when not in operation)
First, as can be seen from FIG. 6A, when the volume switch 13 is not operated, the spring 22 of the operating element 21 accommodated in the spring accommodating portion 43 of the slide groove portion 42 is not contracted, and the operation of the lower casing 40 is not performed. The operation knob 26 exposed from the knob exposure hole 41 is located at the approximate center of the hole 41 for exposure (intermediate position).

(Operation during volume up operation)
Next, when it is desired to increase the output volume at the time of playing music content, the user slides the operation knob 26 of the operator 21 in the left direction (L) shown in FIG. When the operation knob 26 is slid in the left direction (L), the entire operation element 21 slides in the left direction (L) along the slide groove 42 corresponding to the operation knob 26. Then, after one end of the spring 22 provided on the operating element 21 comes into contact with the stopper 43b of the sliding groove 42, the operating element 21 is still slid in the left direction (L). The spring 22 is contracted by the force applied by the sliding operation.

  Next, when the user lifts his / her finger from the operation knob 26, the spring 22 is released from the contracted state from the contracted state because it is released from the force of the sliding operation in the left direction (L) applied until then. Try to return to the state. The operating element 21 slides rightward (R) by the force of returning to the original position of the spring 22, and when the spring 22 returns from the contracted state to the original state, the non-operation shown in FIG. It automatically returns to the hour position.

  On the other hand, when the operating element 21 is slid in the left direction (L), the moving arm 31 of the sliding direction detection switch 30 held by the holding levers 28 and 29 of the operating element 21 as shown in FIG. Slid in the left direction (L). When the slide direction detection switch 30 detects the leftward (L) slide movement of the movable arm 31, the slide direction detection switch 30 supplies a detection output indicating the leftward (L) slide movement to the control unit 12 shown in FIG. . When the detection output indicating the leftward (L) slide movement is supplied from the slide direction detection switch 30, the control unit 12 recognizes that the volume increase is designated by the user, and outputs a predetermined volume. Up control.

  That is, when the user wants to increase the output volume, the user slides the operation element 21 in the left direction (L), and after the slide operation, releases the finger from the operation knob 26 of the operation element 21, thereby The operation of sliding the operation unit 21 returning to the intermediate position in the left direction (L) is repeated until a desired sound volume is obtained.

From the slide direction detection switch 30, a detection output indicating the leftward (L) sliding movement is supplied to the control unit 12 every time the user performs the leftward (L) sliding operation. The control unit 12 increases the output volume by a predetermined volume every time the detection output indicating the leftward (L) slide movement is supplied. Thus, every time the user performs the leftward (L) sliding operation, the output volume is increased by the predetermined volume.

(Operation during volume down operation)
Next, when it is desired to lower the output volume when playing music content, the user slides the operation knob 26 of the operation element 21 in the right direction (R) shown in FIG. When the operation knob 26 is slid in the right direction (R), the entire operation element 21 slides in the right direction (R) along the slide groove 42 corresponding to the operation knob 26. Then, after the other end of the spring 22 provided on the operating element 21 abuts against the stopper 43a of the sliding groove 42, the operating element 21 is still slid in the right direction (R), The spring 22 is contracted by the force applied by the sliding operation.

  Next, when the user lifts his / her finger from the operation knob 26, the spring 22 is released from the contracted state from the contracted state because the force of the slide operation in the right direction (R) applied until then is released. Try to return to the state. The operating element 21 slides leftward (L) by the force of returning to the original position of the spring 22, and when the spring 22 returns from the contracted state to the original state, the non-operation shown in FIG. It automatically returns to the hour position.

  On the other hand, when the operating element 21 is slid in the right direction (R), the moving arm 31 of the sliding direction detection switch 30 held by the holding levers 28 and 29 of the operating element 21 as shown in FIG. Slid in the right direction (R). When the slide direction detection switch 30 detects the rightward (R) slide movement of the movable arm 31, the slide direction detection switch 30 supplies a detection output indicating the rightward (R) slide movement to the control unit 12 shown in FIG. . When the detection output indicating the rightward (R) slide movement is supplied from the slide direction detection switch 30, the control unit 12 recognizes that the user has designated volume reduction, and outputs a predetermined volume. Down control.

  That is, when the user wants to reduce the output volume, the user slides the operating element 21 in the right direction (R), and after the sliding operation, releases the finger from the operation knob 26 of the operating element 21, thereby The operation of sliding the operation unit 21 returning to the intermediate position in the right direction (R) is repeated until a desired sound volume is obtained.

From the slide direction detection switch 30, a detection output indicating the rightward (R) sliding movement is supplied to the control unit 12 every time the user performs the rightward (R) sliding operation. Each time the detection output indicating the rightward (R) slide movement is supplied, the control unit 12 controls the output volume to be reduced by a predetermined volume. Thus, every time the user performs the rightward (R) slide operation, the output volume is decreased by the predetermined volume.

[Effect of the embodiment]
As is apparent from the above description, when the volume switch 13 is assembled, the mobile phone according to this embodiment inserts the arm portions 23 and 24 of the operation element 21 into the hole portions 22a and 22b of the spring 22, respectively. Thus, the arm 22 and the spring 22 are supported by the arm portions 23 and 24, and the operation element 21 and the spring 22 are integrated.

  Next, the operation element 21 is inserted into the slide groove portion 42 provided in the lower housing 40, and the spring 22 provided in the operation element 21 is accommodated in the spring accommodating portion 43 of the slide groove portion 42. The operating element 21 is erected on the slide groove 42 in a state of being stored in the storage portion 43.

  Next, with the operating element 21 mounted in the slide groove 42, the moving arm 31 of the sliding direction detection switch 30 is inserted into the gap 32 formed between the holding levers 28 and 29 of the operating element 21. The upper casing 50 is attached to the lower casing 40, and the volume switch 13 is housed in the casing.

  That is, the volume switch 13 has a simple configuration including the operating element 21 to which the spring 22 is attached, the slide groove portion 42 formed integrally with the lower housing 40, and the slide direction detection switch 30, and the operation to which the spring 22 is attached. It is possible to easily assemble by inserting the child 21 into the slide groove portion 42 of the lower housing 40 and providing the slide direction detection switch 30 for the operation member 21.

  In addition, the spring 22 is supported by being sandwiched between the arm portions 23 and 24 of the operation element 21, and once attached to the operation element 21, the spring 22 is rarely detached from the operation element 21. Even when the volume switch 13 is removed from the casing for some reason, the inconvenience of the spring 22 being lost can be prevented.

  In addition, since the slide groove portion 42 formed integrally with the lower housing 40 is one part constituting the volume switch 13, the volume switch 13 can be designed together with the housing of the mobile phone. Can do. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the installation space of the volume switch 13.

In addition, since the slide groove portion 42 formed integrally with the lower housing 40 is one part constituting the volume switch 13, the designer can design the volume switch 13 as a part of the appearance of the mobile phone. (= The entire mobile phone including the volume switch 13 can be designed.) Therefore, it is possible to prevent the disadvantage that the design of the mobile phone is restricted due to the presence of the volume switch 13, and it is possible to prevent the disadvantage that the appearance of the mobile phone is impaired by the volume switch 13.

[Modification]
In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a mobile phone has been described. The present invention may be applied to any electronic device such as a portable game machine, a digital camera device, a video camera device, a desktop or notebook personal computer device, a hard disk record device, and an optical disk device. In either case, the same effect as described above can be obtained.

  In the description of the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to the volume switch. However, the present invention also switches, for example, a key lock switch or macro / standard shooting of the camera unit. The present invention may be applied to a shooting mode switch or the like. Even in these cases, the same effect as described above can be obtained.

  Finally, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment that has been disclosed as an example of the present invention. The above-described embodiment is within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. It should be added that various changes can be made according to the design and the like even if other than the above.

1 is a block diagram of a mobile phone according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied. It is a perspective view of a volume switch operator provided in the mobile phone according to the embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows a mode that the operation element of a volume switch is mounted | worn with the slide groove part provided in the lower housing | casing of the mobile telephone used as embodiment. 4 is a perspective view showing a connection relationship between a holding lever provided on a volume switch operator and a moving arm of a slide direction detection switch 30. FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance of the volume switch provided in the mobile telephone of embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows the stop position at the time of the non-operation of the operator of a volume switch, the movement position at the time of the sliding operation to the left direction, and the movement position at the time of the sliding operation to the right direction.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Antenna, 2 Communication circuit, 3 Speaker part, 4 Microphone part, 5 Display part, 6 Operation part, 7 Light emission part (LED), 8 Camera part, 9 Vibration unit, 10 Timer, 11 Memory, 12 Control part, 13 Volume Switch, 21 operation element, 22 spring, 22a one hole part of the spring, 22b other hole part of the spring, one arm part of the 23 operation element, 23a tip part of the one arm part, 24 other arm of the operation element 24a, the tip of the other arm, the gap between the arm parts of the 25 operation element, the 26 operation knob, the 28 holding lever of the 28 operation element, the 29 holding lever of the other operation element, the 30 slide direction Detection switch, 31 Moving arm of slide direction detection switch, 32 Gap between each clamping lever, 40 Lower housing, 41 Exposing hole of the operation knob of the operating element, 42 Slide groove, 42a One slide support piece of the slide groove, 42b The other slide support piece of the slide groove, 43 Spring storage part, 43a of the slide groove One stopper, 43b The other stopper of the slide groove, 44 One groove of the slide groove, 45 The other groove of the slide groove

Claims (2)

A pair of arm portions provided so that the tip portions substantially oppose each other via a predetermined gap portion along the slide operation direction,
An operation knob provided to protrude in a direction substantially orthogonal to the slide operation direction;
An operator having at least
One hole is inserted into one arm of each arm of the operation element, and the other hole is inserted into the other arm of each arm.
A spring storage portion for storing a spring provided in the operation element;
By abutting against one end of the spring housed in the spring housing section, the sliding movement of the spring during the sliding operation in one direction of the operation element is suppressed, and then one of the operating elements is A first stopper provided with a groove that allows sliding movement in the direction of the first and the other end of the spring housed in the spring housing part, thereby moving the operation element in the other direction. A second stopper provided with a groove that allows sliding movement of the operating element in the other direction after suppressing sliding movement of the spring during the sliding operation, and is formed integrally with the housing. In addition, the operating element is held so that the sliding movement in both the one and the other directions is possible, and in the non-sliding operation, the slider corresponding to the one direction is held. De position and bidirectional slide switch apparatus having a slide groove for retaining the operating element substantially midway between a position of the slide position corresponding to the other direction. The bidirectional slide switch device according to claim 1,
The operation element has a pair of clamping levers provided so as to protrude in a substantially vertical direction with respect to the surface portion from a surface portion opposite to the surface portion on which the operation knob portion is provided,
By holding the moving arm of the slide direction detection switch with the pair of holding levers, and moving the moving arm via the holding lever according to the sliding operation of the operating element, the sliding direction of the operating element is changed. A bi-directional slide switch device that can be detected by a slide direction detection switch.

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