JP2008304279A - Light-emitting indicator controller - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a light-emitting indicator controller exerting a stage effect wherein a line of light smoothly lengthens during multistage light emission from a light-emitting indicator. <P>SOLUTION: The light-emitting indicator controller is a device for controlling the light emission of the light-emitting indicator 20 provided on a meter 10 for an automobile. The indicator controller includes a plurality of light emitting means 41 to 44 placed side by side on the indicator 20 from its base part over to its end, and a control means 50 for controlling the light emission of the emitting means 41 to 44. The control means 50 is used for controlling the emitting means 41 to 44 so that light emission is performed in order from the base part side of the indicator 20 to the end side thereof and modulating the light of the emitting means 41 to 44. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a pointer for a meter device of an automobile, and more particularly to a device for performing light emission control of a pointer provided with a plurality of light emitting means.

  FIG. 4 is a front view of a conventional vehicle meter device 100. The vehicle meter device 100 includes a dial 110 on which numerals and scales are printed, a casing 120 surrounding the dial 110, and hands 131 and 132, a speedometer 140 on the left side and a speedometer 140 on the right side. A tachometer 150 is configured. This type of vehicle meter device 100 is provided with illumination means, and when it is night or dim, the numbers, scales, and pointers 131 and 132 of the instrument are illuminated to ensure visibility from the driver.

  Further, as a recent vehicle meter device, a so-called backlighting type is also known in which scales and numbers are displayed by light emission of light emitting means provided on the back side of the dial. This type of illumination can give the passengers an impression that the scales and numbers are also emitting light. Such lighting effects can enhance the design of the vehicle interior.

  Furthermore, a type in which the pointer itself emits light is known as an improvement in the design and function of the vehicle meter device. In this type of meter device 200, as shown in FIG. 5, a pointer 210 whose one end 211 is fixed to a rotating shaft 221 of a driving device 220 such as a stepping motor is linear from one end 211 toward the other end 212. Are provided with a plurality of light emitting means, four light emitting means 231 to 234 in the illustrated case. The light emitting means 231 to 234 are constituted by light emitting diodes, for example, and the light emitting means 231 to 234 are controlled to be turned on / off by the control device 240. For example, an electronic control unit (ECU) mounted on the vehicle can be used as the control device 240.

  In the meter device 200, the control device 240 can control the light emitting units 231 to 234 to emit light in the order shown in FIG. 6, for example, from one end side to the other end side of the pointer 210. That is, the control device 240 turns on the light emitting means on the base side of the pointer 210 and increases the number of light emission as time passes. Thereby, since the light line by the light emission means 231-234 changes so that it may become long gradually, the impression that the pointer of light will also extend can be given to a passenger | crew. Therefore, the design of the vehicle interior can be further enhanced.

Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose an automobile meter device having a pointer for emitting light of this kind.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-240612 JP 2004-163261 A

  However, since each of the light emitting means 231 to 234 of the meter device 200 emits light with the same brightness, and the linear light lines presented by the light emitting means 231 to 234 only extend a predetermined distance at each change time point, The length of the previous light line and the length after the change can be clearly distinguished. For this reason, the occupant cannot be given an impression that the light lines presented by the light emitting units 231 to 234 extend smoothly.

  The present invention has been created in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to provide a light emission pointer control device capable of producing an effect of smoothly extending a light line during light emission at another stage of the light emission pointer. .

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an apparatus for controlling the light emission of a pointer that emits light provided in an automobile meter, and a plurality of light emitting means arranged in parallel from the base portion of the pointer to the tip, Control means for controlling light emission of the light emitting means, and the control means controls the light emitting means to emit light in the order from the base side to the tip side of the pointer, and performs light control of the light emitting means.
In the light emission indicator control device of the present invention, the control means preferably performs dimming so that the light emission intensity of the light emission means is proportional to the number of light emission of the light emission means.

  According to the present invention, the intensity of light increases as the length of the light line exhibited by the plurality of light emitting means provided on the pointer increases. As a result, the brightness of the light line increases as the light line extends, so that it is possible to give a person who has seen the impression that the light line extends smoothly. Therefore, the design of the vehicle interior can be further improved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a vehicle meter device 10 to which a light emission pointer control device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. The vehicle meter device 10 includes a dial 11 on which numerals and scales are printed, a casing 12 that surrounds the dial 11, a pointer 20, and a stepping motor that supports one end 21 of the pointer 20 via a rotary shaft 31. And the like. In the illustrated example, the dial 11 and the housing 12 of the vehicle meter device 10 are partly cut out and a speedometer 14 is displayed. A tachometer provided with a pointer 20 and a driving device 30 is disposed beside the speedometer 14, although not shown, like the speedometer 14.

  The present embodiment includes a light emission pointer control device 1 in association with a speedometer 14 and a tachometer (not shown) pointer 20 in the vehicle meter device 10. The light emission pointer control device 1 includes four light emitting means 41 to 44 and a control device 50.

  The four light emitting units 41 to 44 are linearly arranged on the pointer surface from one end 21 of the pointer 20, that is, from the base on the rotating shaft 31 side to the other end 22, that is, the tip of the pointer 20. Yes. These light emitting means 41-44 are comprised, for example from the light emitting diode.

  The control device 50 controls the light emission sequence of the four light emitting means 41 to 44 and the dimming, that is, the light emission intensity. The light emission order of the light emitting means 41 to 44 is determined in advance as will be described later, and the control device 40 controls the light emitting means 41 to 44 according to the sequence. In addition, the control device 50 performs light control by variably controlling the light emission drive current of each light emitting diode to vary the light emission amount. The control device 50 includes, for example, an electronic control unit (ECU) 51 mounted on a vehicle, and a dimming means 52 controlled by the unit 51.

  The electronic control unit 51 controls each of the light emitting units 41 to 44 to emit light at a predetermined timing by executing software (program) previously written in a storage unit such as a ROM. At that time, the electronic control unit 51 controls the light control means 52 so that each of the light emitting means 41 to 44 emits light with a predetermined light emission intensity.

  The light control means 52 supplies the light emission means 41-44 with the light emission drive current according to the intensity | strength so that the light emission means 41-44 light-emits with desired intensity | strength. The dimming means 52 is configured as a dimming circuit that is conventionally known. For example, an inductor, a switching element, a rectifier diode, a capacitor, a current detecting shunt resistor, a voltage detecting circuit, a PWM (pulse width modulation) circuit, and the like. Consists of.

  In the present embodiment, the control device 50 performs the light emission of the plurality of light emitting units 41 to 44 in the order and dimming shown in FIG. That is, the light emission means on the base side of the pointer 20 is turned on, and the number of light emission increases as time passes. Furthermore, as the number of light emission increases, the light emission intensity of each of the light emitting means 41 to 44 increases. In addition, as a trigger of light emission of the light emitting means 41 closest to the base of the pointer 20, for example, an operation of the driver stepping on the accelerator can be triggered. In this case, if a pressure sensor or the like is attached to the accelerator, the depression of the accelerator by the driver can be detected.

  According to the light emission pointer control device 1 having the above configuration, when 0.2 [s] has elapsed since the control device 50 detected the light emission trigger, as shown in FIG. The means 41 is caused to emit light with an emission intensity of 12.5%. Subsequently, when 0.4 [s] elapses from the trigger detection, as shown in FIG. 3B, the two light emitting means 41 and 42 on the base side are each made to emit light with a light emission intensity of 25%. Further, when 0.6 [s] elapses from the detection of the trigger, as shown in FIG. 3C, the three light emitting means 41 to 43 are caused to emit light at 50% emission intensity except for the light emitting means 44 at the tip. . When 0.8 [s] has elapsed since the trigger detection, all the four light emitting units 41 to 44 are caused to emit light with a light emission intensity of 100%. The state in which the four light emitting units 41 to 44 emit light at 100% is set to be maintained until the next trigger is detected or until a predetermined time elapses.

  As described above, according to the light emission pointer control device 1 according to the present embodiment, the light lines exhibited by the four light emitting units 41 to 44 provided on the pointer 20 increase in light intensity as the length increases. . This not only changes the length before and after the light line changes length, but also increases the brightness of the light line as it extends, giving the passengers the impression that the light line extends smoothly Can do. Therefore, the design of the vehicle interior can be further improved.

  As described above, the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, the number of light emitting means provided on the pointer is not limited to four. Moreover, the above-mentioned description and the numerical value in a figure are an illustration. A light bulb may be used as the light emitting means. Furthermore, the present invention can be applied not only to the pointers of speedometers and tachometers but also to the pointers of other instruments.

It is a perspective view which shows the meter apparatus to which the light emission pointer control apparatus of this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the light emission order and light control of each light emission means by the control apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. (A)-(D) are figures which show the light emission state of the light emission means which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a front view of the conventional meter device for vehicles. It is a perspective view which shows the conventional meter pointer apparatus which light-emits. It is a figure which shows the light emission order of each light emission means by the control apparatus of FIG.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Light emission pointer control apparatus 10 Vehicle meter apparatus 11 Dial 12 Case 14 Speedometer 20 Pointer 21 One end part 30 Drive apparatus 31 Rotating shaft 41-44 Light emission means 50 Control apparatus 51 Electronic control unit 52 Light control means

Claims (3)

A device for controlling light emission of a light emitting pointer provided in an automobile meter,
A plurality of light emitting means arranged in parallel from the base of the pointer to the tip;
Control means for controlling the light emission of the light emitting means,
The light emission pointer control device, wherein the control means controls the light emission means to emit light in the order from the base side to the tip side of the pointer and performs light control of the light emission means.   2. The light emission pointer control device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs the dimming so that the light emission intensity of the light emitting unit is proportional to the number of the light emitting units emitting light.   The light emission pointer control device according to claim 1, wherein the light emitting means is a light emitting diode.

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