JP2530204Y2 - Absolute neutral position detection sensor for vehicle steering wheel - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a sensor for detecting a neutral position of a steering wheel of various vehicles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, detection of a neutral position of a steering wheel is performed together with detection of a rotation angle of the steering wheel by a steering angle sensor 1 as shown in FIG. In the steering angle sensor 1, a large number of rotation angle detection holes 4 are arranged in a circle at equal intervals on the outer periphery of a rotating body 3 that can rotate integrally with the handle shaft 2, and rotate slightly inside thereof. One neutral position detection hole 5 is formed in the body 3, and a detector 10 is provided corresponding to the rotating body 3. The detector 10 includes photointerrupters 13 and 14 for detecting a rotation angle and a rotation direction.
And a photo-interrupter 11 for neutral position detection. When the handle (not shown) makes one rotation, the rotating body 3 also makes one rotation together with the handle shaft 2, and the neutral position detecting photo interrupter 11 makes the neutral position detection hole 5 every one rotation of the rotating body 3. Detects and outputs a neutral signal.
Therefore, the neutral signal is generated a plurality of times in the range in which the steering wheel can be rotated left and right according to the rotation speed of the steering wheel.

[0003]

Such a steering angle sensor 1 is used in various control systems, and while the system is operating, the neutral position can be detected by the rotation angle of the steering wheel and the neutral signal. Normally, when the engine of the vehicle stops, the entire control system also stops in order to save battery power.When the handle rotates when the engine stops, the handle position stored when the control system stops and the actual handle position differ.
An error occurs in the neutral position of the steering wheel detected by the control system, and there is a problem in performing good control.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a sensor which can output a neutral signal only once within a rotatable range of a steering wheel and detects an absolute neutral position of the steering wheel regardless of a stop of a control system. And

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems In view of this object, a claim is provided.
In the device according to the first aspect, the rotating body interlocking with the handle shaft and the
Neutral position detection portion provided on the rotating body of
To detect the detected part for the neutral position of the rotating body
A first neutral fixed in position corresponding to the rotating body
Absolute steering wheel of a vehicle with a
In the neutral position detection sensor, the rotation axis of the rotating body
Provided so as to be able to rotate integrally with the rotating body concentrically with
And a first gear having a smaller diameter than the rotating body;
Meshed with the first gear, and viewed from the rotation axis direction of the rotating body.
To be at least partially overlapped with the rotating body
Second gear and a new gear provided on the second gear
Neutral of the detected position for the ral position and its second gear
Corresponds to the second gear to detect the position detection target
And a second neutral position detector fixed in position by
The handle is set in the range where the handle can rotate.
Once in the neutral position, the neutral position of the rotating body
Detection target is detected by the first neutral position detection object.
Out, and the test for neutral position of the second gear
The protruding part is detected by the second neutral position detecting body.
To output each neutral signal at the same time,
The rotation ratio between the rotator and the second rotator was set.

[0006] In the invention according to claim 2, claim 1
In addition to the means of the invention, the first and second neutral
The detector for position detection was fixed to a single frame.

[0007]

According to the above-mentioned means, the invention according to claim 1 has the following features.
Neutral of the handle in the rotation range of the handle
Once in the position, the detected part for the neutral position of the rotating body
Is detected by the first neutral position detector.
In addition, the detected position for the neutral position of the second gear is set to the second position.
The neutral position detector detects
The neutral signal is output at the same time. Therefore, the news
At neutral positions, these neutral signals are
Is not output to Here, the first gear rotates
Can rotate integrally with the rotating body on the same axis as the rotating axis of the body
And a smaller diameter than the rotating body.
The first gear from the direction of the rotation axis of the rotating body.
As a result, it completely overlaps the rotating body,
The meshing second gear is the same when viewed from the rotation axis direction of the rotating body.
Is arranged so as to at least partially overlap the rotating body
The Rukoto. As a result, the conventional rotating body
Does not require much space between axes compared to pace
Therefore, the space occupied by the absolute neutral position detection sensor
Vehicles with limited sensor mounting space
Extremely effective absolute neutral position detection sensor for both
It becomes sa.

[0008] In the invention according to claim 2, the above-mentioned claim is provided.
In addition to the operation of the invention according to
The second field that was newly added together with the detector for the neutral position
To fix the detector for the neutral position in the same frame
Simplifies assembly work for each neutral position detector
Can be achieved.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a sensor for detecting an absolute neutral position of a steering wheel according to the present invention;

This sensor is incorporated in the steering angle sensor 1. A disk-shaped rotating body 3 is attached to the handle shaft 2 so as to be integrally rotatable. Along with being arranged at equal intervals in the shape,
A single neutral position detection hole 5 is formed in the rotating body 3 slightly inside. On the handle shaft 2 adjacent to the rotating body 3, a first smaller diameter than the rotating body 3 is provided.
An external gear 6 as a gear is attached so as to be integrally rotatable. An external gear 8 as a second gear is rotatably supported on a rotary shaft 7 parallel to the handle shaft 2 near the outer periphery of the rotary body 3, and a part of the external gear 8 is a part of the rotary body 3. The external gear 8 and the external gear 6 on the handle shaft 2 are meshed with each other. Therefore, external teeth
Due to the existence of the cars 6 and 8, the existing rotating body 3
It does not deviate significantly from the space occupied by
The advantages of the miniaturized sensor are maintained.

[0011] frame corresponding to the rotating body 3 and the external gear 8
A detector 10 is provided as a room. The detector 10 has a pair of photo-interrupters 11 and 12 for detecting a neutral position and photo-interrupters 13 and 14 for detecting a rotation angle and a rotation direction. The photo interrupters 11, 12, 13, and 14 are composed of light emitting elements 11a, 12a, 13a, 14a and light receiving elements 11b, 12b, 13b, 14b, respectively. Each
Photo interrupters 11, 12, 13, 14 detect the same
Since it is attached to the container 10 all at once,
Is very simple.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, when the handle (not shown) is in the neutral position, light from the light emitting element 11a in the first neutral position detecting photointerrupter 11 is neutralized on the rotating body 3. The light reaches the light receiving element 11b through the position detection hole 5, outputs a neutral signal, and emits light from the light emitting element 12a in the second neutral position detecting photointerrupter 12.
Is transmitted through the neutral position detection hole 9 of the external gear 8 to the light receiving element 12b, and outputs a neutral signal. That is, the state where the respective neutral signals are simultaneously output is the neutral position of the steering wheel. When the handle is rotated left or right from the neutral position, the handle shaft 2 rotates by the same number of rotations, and the rotating body 3 and the external gear 6 on the coaxial 2 also rotate. The rotation is transmitted to the external gear 8 on the rotation shaft 7. The rotation ratio i between the rotating body 3 and the external gear 8 is determined by the number of teeth of the external gear 6 and the number of teeth of the external gear 8.

When the rotating body 3 rotates leftward or rightward, the photointerrupters 13 and 14 for detecting the rotation angle and for detecting the rotation direction detect the rotation angle detection hole 4 of the rotating body 3.
The rotation direction and rotation angle of the handle can be detected according to the number of detections.

On the other hand, the neutral position detecting hole 5 is detected by the neutral position detecting photo interrupter 11 for each rotation of the rotating body 3 and a neutral signal is output. It occurs several times depending on the number of rotations of the handle. Further, the neutral position detecting hole 9 is detected by the neutral position detecting photo interrupter 12 every one rotation of the external gear 8, and a neutral signal is output a plurality of times within a range in which the steering wheel can be rotated left and right. In this case, as described above, the neutral signals are simultaneously output only at the neutral position of the steering wheel, and the neutral signals are not output simultaneously except at the neutral position. Rotating body 3 and external gear 8
By setting the rotation ratio i between the above, the output state of such a neutral signal can be obtained. That is, when the rotating body 3 rotates by a natural number and the detected hole 5 for neutral position reaches the position of the photo interrupter 11 for neutral position detection, the external gear 8 is not rotated by the natural number. Position detection hole 9
Are located at positions other than the neutral position detecting photointerrupter 12, and these neutral signals are not output simultaneously. Incidentally, since the maximum left and right rotation speeds in the left and right rotation range of the steering wheel are usually 2.5 rotations or less, for example, the rotation ratio i may be set to 2.66 / 1.

Therefore, in the sensor 1 according to the present embodiment, only when the steering wheel is in the absolute neutral position, the neutral signals are simultaneously output from the respective neutral position detecting photointerrupters 11 and 12, so that the control system Even if the steering wheel is rotated at the time of stop, the deviation of the neutral position as shown in the related art is eliminated, and the absolute neutral position of the steering wheel can always be reliably detected, and good control can be performed.

[0016]

[Effect of the Invention] As described in detail above, the invention according to claim 1
According to the plan , the neutral signal is output only once within the rotatable range of the steering wheel, so that the absolute neutral position of the steering wheel can be detected regardless of the stop of the control system. Also, a first gear constituting the sensor
Is integrated with the rotating body on the same axis as the rotating axis of the rotating body.
Provided rotatable and smaller in diameter than the rotating body
, The first gear is the rotation axis of the rotating body.
When viewed from the direction, it completely overlaps the rotating body,
The second gear meshing with the gear of
So that it overlaps at least partially with the rotating body
It will be arranged. As a result, the existing
Large inter-axle space compared to the space for rolling bodies
Occupancy of absolute neutral position detection sensor
Prevents space expansion and limits sensor mounting space
Absolute neutral position extremely effective for the vehicle in motion
A detection sensor can be provided. Consideration according to claim 2
According to the plan, in addition to the effect of the invention according to claim 1, there is
New detector with the first neutral position detector
The newly added second neutral position detector is
Frame for each neutral position.
The work of assembling the body can be simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a partially cut-away schematic front view of a sensor according to the present embodiment with its detector omitted, and FIG. 1B is a partial schematic front view showing a detector of the sensor.

FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b) are schematic plan sectional views each showing a neutral position detection state of a steering wheel in the sensor according to the present embodiment.

FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) are schematic plan sectional views each showing a state in which the sensor according to the present embodiment detects a left-right rotation angle of a steering wheel.

FIG. 4 is a schematic front view showing a conventional sensor.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 steering angle sensor, 2 handle shaft, 3
Rotator, the detection hole for 4 rotation angle, 5 neutral position for the detected hole, 6 a first external gear as the gear, 8 second
External teeth vehicle as second gear, 9 neutral position for the detected hole, the detector as 10 frames, 11 the neutral position detection photointerrupter (detector) 12
Photointerrupter (detector) for neutral position detection, 13, 14 Photointerrupter (detector) for rotation angle detection and rotation direction detection, i rotation ratio .

Claims (2)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A rotating body (3) interlocked with a handle shaft (2), and a neutral position detection portion provided on the rotating body (3).
(5) and the detected portion (5) for the neutral position of the rotating body (3)
The position is fixed corresponding to the rotating body (5) to detect
Absolute neutral position detection of the steering wheel of the vehicle including the first neutral position detector (11).
A rotating body which is concentric with the rotating axis of the rotating body (3).
(3) is provided so as to be integrally rotatable, and
A first gear (6) having a smaller diameter than the body (3) , meshing with the first gear (6), and rotating the rotating body (3);
At least partially with the rotating body (3) as viewed from the axis of rotation
A second gear (8) disposed so as to overlap with the second gear (8), and a neutral position test provided on the second gear (8).
Protruding part (9) and detected part for neutral position of second gear (8)
(9) corresponds to the second gear (8) to detect
The second neutral position detector (1
2) are provided on a substrate, only once in the neutral position of the steering wheel in the rotation range of the handle, the detection unit for the neutral position of the rotating rotary body (3) (5) a first neutral position detection element (1
1), the neutral position detection part (9) of the second gear (8) is detected by the second neutral position detection body (12), and the respective neutral signals are simultaneously output. , times rotary body (3) and the second
An absolute neutral position detection sensor for a steering wheel of a vehicle, wherein a rotation ratio (i) to the rotating body (8) is set. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first and second
The neutral position detectors (11, 12) are
A sensor for detecting an absolute neutral position of a steering wheel of a vehicle, the sensor being fixed to a room (10) .