JP2530710Y2 - Water drop removing device for vehicle reflector - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a water drop removing device for a vehicle reflector.

[Related Art] It is often experienced that raindrops adhere to an outdoor reflector provided in a vehicle, thereby obstructing the field of view of the reflector. As a device for removing water droplets attached to the reflector, it has been attempted to provide a vibrator or a heater on the reflector. When a vibration device is used, a piezo element, which is a piezoelectric material, is used.
2. Description of the Related Art There is known a vibration device which operates by supplying a driving power supply having a high frequency and converting electric vibration into mechanical vibration by a piezo element.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] A vibrator using a piezo (piezoelectric) element requires a considerably large drive current to be supplied, for example, several Amps, and requires a high frequency. A vibrator driving power supply unit having an oscillation circuit for supplying a large capacity is required, and there is a problem that the external shape is large and the cost is too high.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a water droplet removing device having a compact vibrator driving power supply unit.

Another object of the present invention is to achieve a compact vibrator driving power supply and effective water droplet removal by prohibiting the number of times of operation of the vibration device in the water droplet removal device from being regulated to a predetermined value or less.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The object of the present invention is to provide a vibrator fixed to a vibrating plate member to vibrate the plate member, a heater for supplying heat to the plate member, and a heater for the heater. Heater power supply unit for controlling the energization of, for controlling the energization to the vibrator,
A vibrator driving power supply unit including an oscillation circuit; and an operation rate restriction prohibiting unit including an operation frequency restriction prohibiting unit that prohibits the number of times of operation of the vibrator driving power supply unit to a predetermined value or less within a power supply period of the heater. The operating rate restriction prohibiting unit includes a first timer for controlling the energizing time to the heater, a second timer for controlling the energizing time to the vibrator, and a number of operations of the second timer. Counting means for counting the number of times, and the operation number limit prohibition means, when the first timer means is operating, when the number of times of operation of the second timer means is greater than or equal to a predetermined number by the counting means, Means for prohibiting the operation of the vibrator, and the vibrator driving power supply unit is installed in the reflector housing, and the water drop removing device of the vehicular reflecting mirror is provided. It is determined.

Preferably, the heater and the vibrator are connected via the heater power supply unit and the vibrator drive power supply unit, respectively.
Are both input, and both are activated or deactivated according to the output of the switch.

In the present invention, first, the water droplet removing device is basically composed of a heater and a vibrator, and it is intended to remove water droplets as efficient droplets. It is limited to the number of times or less.

The limit on the number of times the oscillator drive power supply unit operates is defined as the total number of repetitions of a series of oscillation cycles (from start to end) of the oscillator within a certain period of time. This means that the operation of the child drive power supply unit is prohibited. For example, the operation rate of the vibrator drive power supply unit is limited in addition to the limitation of the continuous operation time in one operation command.

[Operation] By using a heater in combination with a vibrating device, the fluidity of water droplets can be increased, thereby effectively removing water droplets.

A vibrator drive power supply unit configured as an oscillating circuit and supplying a large drive current to the vibrator is provided when an operation command signal of a water droplet removing device having a predetermined operation rate or more is generated within a heater energizing period. By limiting the operation rate to a predetermined value or less by not operating the vibrator, the capacity of the device can be reduced. As the operation rate of the vibrator drive power supply unit, a practical value sufficient to drop water drops is adopted. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, this value can usually be set to 1/4 or less, and this value can be made small so that the vibrator driving power supply can be incorporated in the housing of the reflecting mirror, and the water drop can be reduced. This is a sufficient value from the viewpoint of removal.

[Embodiment] With reference to the drawings, a water drop removing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 is an electric circuit diagram showing the overall circuit configuration of an embodiment of the water droplet removing device according to the present invention. In the figure, 20 is a constant voltage circuit, the constant voltage source V supplied battery power V _B by input operation of the vehicle ignition switch 21
Supply _CC to control unit. One terminal of the water drop removal switch 1 is grounded and the other terminal is connected to the other end and the input terminal of the electronic switch 13 of the pull-down resistor 22 having one end to battery power V _B is connected.

An output terminal of the electronic switch 13 is connected to a trigger terminal which is an input terminal of the two monostable multivibrators 2 and 8. The output terminal of the first monostable multivibrator 2 is input via a resistor 3 to the base terminal of an oscillator output transistor 4 which is an NPN transistor, and
The output terminal of the second monostable multivibrator 8 is also input via the resistor 9 to the base terminal of the heater output transistor 10 which is also an NPN transistor. .

Vibrator output transistor 4 has at its emitter terminal grounded, to one terminal of the coil of the collector terminal relays 5 are respectively connected, the other terminal of the coil of the relay 5 is connected to a battery power source V _B and which, contact of the relay 5 is closed by energization of the coil, and supplies a battery power V _B to the vibrator driving power supply unit 6 having an oscillation circuit for generating a frequency of 35 kHz, thereby vibrator driving power supply unit Numeral 6 supplies a power of 35 kHz to the piezo element 7. That is, the battery power supply V _B, which is a direct current supplied to the vibrator driving power supply section 6, causes the above-described oscillation circuit to generate an alternating current of 35 kHz, and this alternating current is applied to the piezo element (oscillator) 7 to cause the piezo element to operate. Driven.

The emitter terminal of the heater output transistor 10 is grounded side, the collector terminal to the other terminal of the coil of the relay 11 whose one terminal is connected to the battery power source V _B, are respectively connected, the contacts of the relay 11 is the coil It closed by energization supplies battery power V _B to the heater 12.

The vibrator 7 and the heater 12 are each fixed to the back side of the mirror plate (plate-like member) of the reflecting mirror, and the vibrator driving power supply unit 6 having a small capacity selected by limiting the operation rate is installed in the reflecting mirror housing. Have been. By providing a vibrator power supply unit having an oscillation circuit in the reflector, the influence of noise on the control unit is minimized. In other words, electromagnetic waves are generated in the oscillation circuit when converting DC to AC, but by incorporating the oscillator drive power supply unit with the oscillation circuit in the reflector housing, the effect of this electromagnetic wave on the noise control unit Is minimized. Note that the plate-shaped member to which the vibrator is fixed may be manufactured separately from the end plate.

The output terminal of the second monostable multivibrator 8 is further connected to an input trigger terminal of a third monostable multivibrator 14, and this third monostable multivibrator 8
The output of 14 is connected to one input terminal of the AND gate circuit 19. The other input terminal of the AND gate circuit 19 is a resistor 17
And a constant voltage power supply circuit V _CC divided by a resistor 18. The output of the AND gate circuit 19 is connected to the clear terminal ▲ ▼ of the binary counter, and the binary counter 15
The outputs Q ₀ , Q ₁ , and Q ₂ are connected to input terminals A, B, and C of a binary decoder, respectively, and the output port <6> of the binary decoder is a control input for opening the electronic switch 13. ing.

In water drop removal device of the present embodiment having such a configuration, the constant-voltage power supply 20 and the ignition switch 21 is an input that caused the power supply V _CC to the constant voltage, the power supply V _CC of the constant voltage resistor 17 and The voltage is divided by the resistor 18 and input to the AND gate circuit 19. Further, when the water droplet removal switch 1 is pressed, the input signal of the electronic switch 13 changes from H level to L level, and the electronic switch 13 is closed at this time. Trigger stable multivibrators 2,8. Thus, the first monostable multivibrator 2 outputs the signal H level only for the set time of 5 seconds. This output signal is a binary counter
Power is supplied to the vibrator driving power supply 6 via the vibrator output transistor 4 and the relay 5, and the vibrator driving power supply 6 oscillates at an oscillation frequency of 35 kHz. , A current is supplied to and driven by the piezo element via a built-in output transistor. As a result, the plate member configured as a reflecting mirror continues to vibrate for 5 seconds while the output signal of the monostable multivibrator keeps the H level, and removes water droplets. The rated load current of this piezo element is about 6 Amp
The output transistor with a built-in drive power supply that supplies current directly to the piezo element can bear this 6 Amp in a short-time rating.

The second monostable multivibrator 8 triggered simultaneously with the first monostable multivibrator 2 continuously outputs the H level for the set time of 120 seconds, and outputs the H level through the heater output transistor 10 and the relay 11. A load current is supplied to the heater 12 for 120 seconds of leverage.

If the water droplet removal switch is operated again during the period of 120 seconds when the output signal of the second monostable multivibrator 8 is at the H level, the load current is again applied to the piezo element for 5 seconds while the power supply to the heater is kept as it is. Is supplied and the reflector oscillates for 5 seconds. Usually, the removal of the water droplet is completed by the vibration of the reflector two or three times.

If the output of the second monostable multivibrator 8 continues to be at the H level, and thus the switch for removing water is operated again during the period of 120 seconds during which power is supplied to the heater, the number of times becomes two. It is counted by the decimal counter 15. When the number counted by the binary counter 15 becomes 6 or more, the signal at the output port <6> of the binary decoder 16 for decoding this output is inverted from the previous L level to the H level, and the control of the electronic switch 13 is performed. Since this signal H level is inputted to the terminal and the electronic switch is opened, the operation signal of the water drop removing switch thereafter is transmitted to the electronic switch 13.
It is stopped at.

120 seconds have passed since the first operation of the water drop removal switch,
The output signal of the second monostable multivibrator 8 becomes L again.
When the signal returns to the level, the heater power is turned off by this signal, while the third monostable multivibrator 14 is triggered, and the output signal of the third monostable multivibrator 14 becomes the L level for a certain time. As a result, the AND gate circuit 19
The output signal of the binary counter 15 becomes L level within a certain period of time, and this signal is input to the ▲ ▼ terminal of the binary counter 15, so that the count value of the binary counter 15 up to that point is cleared. The outputs Q ₀ , Q ₁ and Q ₂ of the counter 15 are 0
Therefore, the output ports of the binary decoder 16 are all 0 except for <0>. Therefore, the electronic switch 13 is closed again, and the operation signal of the water drop removing switch can be transmitted.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of a water droplet removing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention using a microcomputer, and an operation flowchart in this apparatus is shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, this water droplet removing device is a switch (SW).
1, a heater power supply section 11 and a heater 12, a vibrator drive power supply section 6 and a vibrator 7, and a computer 23. The computer 23 includes an input / output device I / O, a memory, a CPU, a first timer T, and a second timer t. The operation of the water drop removing device of this embodiment is the same as that of the previous embodiment except that the control is performed by a microcomputer.

When the ignition switch of the vehicle is turned on in the water drop removing apparatus of this embodiment, the control is started by the computer 23 constituting the control section of the water drop removing apparatus of this embodiment as shown in FIG. , The first timer T, the second timer t, and the number N of times of vibrator operation are reset or set to 0 to perform initialization. It is checked whether or not the water droplet removal switch SW has been operated. When the switch is detected to be ON, power is immediately supplied to the heater and the vibrator to remove water droplets, and the first timer T and the second timer t
The time measurement at starts. First timer T as in the previous embodiment
Then, the measurement of 120 seconds is performed, and the measurement of 5 seconds is performed by the second timer t. It is determined whether the first timer T has timed out. If the time has not yet expired, it is determined whether the vibrator has been activated. If the vibrator has already been activated, the second timer t has timed out. After that, the operation of the vibrator is stopped, the second timer is reset, and the number N of times of operation of the vibrator is counted once.

If the number N of operations is still less than 6, the operation of the subsequent water droplet removal switch is monitored, and if the water droplet removal switch is operated, the vibrator is operated again. When the number N of times of operation of the vibrator is 6 or more, the operation of the vibrator is not newly started and the first timer T waits for a time-up, and the first timer T
When the time is up, the power of the heater is turned off. If the vibrator is in operation at that time, the operation of the vibrator is stopped after the end of operation. If the vibrator is not in operation at that time, the initial state is maintained. The initialization is again performed in which the first timer T, the second timer t, and the vibrator operation count N are reset or set to 0.

As described above, even if the water droplet removing switch is operated six times or more in total while the first timer T measures 120 seconds and the heater power is supplied, the operation of the vibrator is limited to six times. This prevents a failure due to insufficient capacity of the driving power supply of the vibrator.

In both the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the continuous energizing time of the heater is set to 120 seconds, and the duration of one operation of the vibrator is set to 5 seconds.
An example was given in which the operating rate of the oscillator drive power supply was limited to 1/4 or less by limiting the number of oscillator operations to 6 times or less within the heater energization time of 120 seconds. If the vibrator is operated for 10 to 15 seconds even if there is enough time, the water droplets adhering to the reflector are completely dropped, and the amount of water droplets adhering during traveling is almost no problem in about 120 seconds Therefore, it can be easily understood that the present invention is not limited to the operation time and the number of operations of the embodiment. That is, the gist of the present invention is to limit the number of times of operation of the vibrator drive power supply unit to a predetermined number or less within the heater energization period. The energization time of the heater, the operation time of the oscillator, and the operation time Various values can be adopted for the number of times.

[Effect of the Invention] In the configuration of the water droplet removing device according to the present invention, the heater and the vibrator are provided on the plate-like member of the reflector, and the operation rate of the vibrator drive power supply unit is reduced to a predetermined value or less during the energization period of the heater. The provision of the specified operation rate limiting section allows water droplets to be effectively removed, and allows the oscillator drive power supply section to be manufactured with a smaller capacity and outer shape, thereby reducing the cost of the vehicle reflector. A water drop removing device can be provided. The influence of noise on the control unit is minimized by providing the oscillator power supply unit having the oscillation circuit in the reflector housing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of an electric circuit of a water droplet removing device according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a water droplet removing device according to another embodiment of the present invention. The figure is an operation flowchart showing the operation of the water droplet removing device of FIG. 1: Drop switch 2; first monostable multivibrator 4; oscillator output transistor 6; oscillator drive power supply 7; piezo element (oscillator) 8; second monostable multivibrator 10; heater output transistor 11 ; Heater power supply unit, 12; Heater 13; Electronic switch 14; Third monostable multivibrator 15; Binary counter, 16; Binary decoder 23; CPU, T, t; Timer

Claims (2)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] A vibrator fixed to a vibrating plate member to vibrate the plate member; a heater for supplying heat to the plate member; a heater power supply for controlling energization of the heater; A vibrator drive power supply unit including an oscillation circuit for controlling energization to the vibrator; an operation frequency limit prohibition that prohibits an operation frequency of the vibrator drive power supply unit to a predetermined value or less during a heater energization period. An operating rate restriction prohibiting unit comprising means, wherein the operating rate restriction prohibiting section controls first energizing time to the heater, and a second timer controlling energizing time to the vibrator. Timer means, and counting means for counting the number of times the second timer means is operated, and the operation number restriction prohibiting means is provided with a means for counting a predetermined number of times or more by the counting means during operation of the first timer means. Serial second
Means for prohibiting the operation of the vibrator when the number of times of operation of the timer means is counted, and the vibrator driving power supply unit is installed in the reflector housing. Mirror water drop remover. 2. The heater and the vibrator both receive the output of one switch via the heater power supply unit and the vibrator drive power supply unit as inputs, and activate or deactivate them together according to the output of the switch. The water drop removing device for a vehicle reflector according to claim 1, wherein the device is activated.