JP4557216B2 - Lamp unit for vehicle - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp unit, and more particularly to a vehicular lamp unit that enables adjustment of emission color without special circuit alteration or improvement.

  Small light bulbs are often used for small lights and position lamps that emit light on the front surface of conventional vehicle headlights. In recent years, semiconductor light emitting elements such as LEDs have been used instead of small light bulbs. The output light from such a light emitting part such as a lamp or LED is monochromatic.

  FIG. 4 is a simplified side view of a conventional small lamp. The two input terminals 21 and 22 of the small light bulb 20 are inserted into the corresponding connector terminals 31 and 32 of the vehicle-side socket 30. Connector terminals 31 and 32 in the socket 30 are connected to the input terminals 33 and 34, and two input lines are connected to the input terminals 33 and 34 to supply current.

  On the other hand, there is also a demand for various kinds of colors of output light from such small lights. This demand can be addressed, for example, by using full-color LEDs that incorporate LEDs of three primary colors RGB and control the light emission of each LED to make the emission color full color.

  However, in the vehicular lamp unit using the full color LED as described above, it is necessary to control the light emitted from each of the three primary color LEDs to control the light emission of each LED. A total of 4 lines are required. On the other hand, the conventional single-color light requires only two wires including the ground wire, so it is not easy to increase the number of current supply wires to four. It is necessary to replace the entire unit and change the circuit configuration. Absent.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp unit that enables compatible multicolor light emission instead of a normally used small lamp.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the vehicle lamp unit according to the present invention employs the following characteristic configuration.

(1) It is detachably attached to a vehicle having a control switch for controlling the blinking of the lamp by reciprocating the bar in the circumferential direction, driven by two input lines, and the vehicle is selected from a plurality of predetermined colors. A vehicle lamp unit that emits the lamp in a color selected by a passenger,
The lamp is composed of three LEDs that emit different colors.
A counter that counts the number of counter pulses input from the two input lines;
A control circuit that supplies each LED with a current corresponding to the count value in the counter,
The counter pulse becomes a logical value “0” or “1” corresponding to the reciprocation of the bar in the circumferential reciprocation operation from the control switch, and indicates the number of circumferential reciprocations of the bar. And
Wherein the control circuit controls the current supplied to each LED based on the count value, the vehicle lamp unit, characterized in that for emitting the lamp in a color corresponding to the count value.

(2) The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the counter, the control circuit, and the lamp are included in a case and include two input terminals connected to the two input lines . Lamp unit.

(3) the three LED for a vehicle lamp unit red respectively, the emit green and blue (1) or (2).

(4) The vehicle lamp unit according to any one of (1) , (2) , and (3), wherein the counter and the control circuit are configured by a microcomputer .

  According to the vehicle lamp unit of the present invention, in addition to the normally used small lamp, not only the compatible multicolor light emission is possible, but also the configuration is simplified.

  Preferred embodiments of a vehicle lamp unit according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a simplified circuit diagram of a vehicle lamp unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. The vehicular lamp unit 1 according to the present embodiment has a microcomputer 11 that executes signal processing as will be described later and a lamp 12 as a light emitting element. A counter signal is input to the counter 111 as a control signal for designating the emission color from the lamp 12 from the outside. This control signal is generated by an operation of a vehicle-mounted device or a component of a person boarding the vehicle. For example, it is possible to generate a counter signal every time a bar installed in the vicinity of a handle is turned on and blinks in the axial direction for the purpose of controlling flashing or when the bar is rotated up and down in the circumferential direction. Of course, this control signal may be an infrared signal generated at every predetermined operation of another arbitrary component such as a remote controller used in a car navigation system. In this case, a sensor for detecting the infrared signal is provided.

  The counter signal is a pulse signal, and this pulse signal is input to the counter 111 in the microcomputer 11 of the vehicle lamp unit 1, and the number of input pulse signals is counted. FIG. 2 shows a counter signal input to the counter 111, which is “1” when the counter signal is present and “0” when the counter signal is not present. The counter 111 counts and outputs the number of “1”. To do.

The count value thus counted determines the emission color emitted from the lamp 12. Figure 3 is an example of a relationship of the luminous color emitted from the count value and the lamp 12 by the counter 111 is shown.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, from count value "1" in the lamp 12 "white", count value "2" in from the lamp 12 "blue", from the lamp 12, count value "3""Thin light blue ", count value" 4 "in from the lamp 12" dark blue ", count value" 5 "from the lamp 12" blue "respectively assigned.

  The vehicle lamp unit 1 in FIG. 1 has two input terminals, which are the same as the input terminals of a normal small vehicle lamp unit. Therefore, the vehicle lamp unit 1 of the present invention can be used in place of a normal small vehicle lamp unit by using normal vehicle equipment as it is without any modification, and the usability is remarkably high.

  The counter signal is input to one of the two input terminals of the counter 111 provided on the input side of the microcomputer 11, and a power supply line is connected to the other input terminal. A capacitor 13 is connected between the other input terminal and the ground side. The power supplied in this way is supplied to each part of the vehicle lamp unit 1. A diode 14 is further connected to the other input terminal. The capacitor 13 is for holding power for a short time (2 to 3 seconds), and the diode 14 is for preventing backflow.

  The lamp 12 includes a red (R) LED 121, a green (G) LED 122, and a blue (B) LED 123 as light emission sources corresponding to the three primary colors, and the luminance of each lamp is, for example, the magnitude of a flowing current. It depends on.

Control circuit 112, based on the count value of the counter 111, for example, a current for controlling the respective intensity of LED121~123 to emit luminescent color predetermined as shown in FIG. 3 from the lamp 12 Adjust and set the current to each LED.

  In order to actually use the vehicle lamp unit according to the present invention configured as described above, after removing the two input lines of the small vehicle lamp unit installed in the lamp mounting portion of the vehicle, the small vehicle Remove the lamp unit. Instead of the small vehicle lamp unit thus removed, the vehicle lamp unit 1 is attached, and the two input terminals of the attached vehicle lamp unit 1 are originally located at the two input terminals, and are removed from the small vehicle lamp unit. Connect the input line. In this case, the signal input to the input line is a signal for instructing the number of reciprocating motions of the bar as a control switch for controlling the lighting and blinking of the lamp.

For example, when the driver wants the light emission color of the small lamp of the vehicle to be blue, the counter in the microcomputer 11 of the vehicle lamp unit 1 is generated by generating five counter pulses by reciprocating the bar five times. Input to the input terminal 111. Then, the counter 111 counts five pulses and sends a count value “5” to the control circuit 112. Control circuit 112, the emission color of the lamp 12 corresponding to the count value "5" which received the (blue) was determined from the table shown in FIG. 3, in order to emit determined color, LED 121 lamp 12 A necessary current is supplied to each of .about.123. Thus, a desired blue color is emitted from the lamp 12.

  In the above embodiment, the emission color is adjusted by changing the magnitude of the current flowing through each of the LEDs 121 to 123, but it can also be adjusted by controlling the duty ratio of the pulse signal supplied to each LED. Since the control of the magnitude of the current is analog control, the circuit is complicated. However, since the control of the duty ratio of the supply pulse is digital control, the circuit configuration is simplified.

  In the above-described embodiment, the emission colors from the lamp 12 are five colors. However, by controlling the magnitude of the current supplied to each of the three primary LEDs constituting the lamp 12 and the duty ratio of the pulse, the emission color Can be selected and set almost unlimitedly.

  The configuration and operation of the preferred embodiment of the present invention have been described in detail above. However, it should be noted that such examples are merely illustrative of the invention and do not limit the invention in any way. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that various modifications and changes can be made and various applications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

1 is a simplified circuit diagram of one embodiment of a vehicle lamp unit according to the present invention. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the counter signal in the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the correspondence of the counter value and the luminescent color of the lamp | ramp 12 in the Example of this invention. It is the simplified side view of the conventional small lamp.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle lamp unit 11 Microcomputer 12 Lamp 13 Capacitor 14 Diode 111 Counter 112 Control circuit 121-123 LED

Claims (4)

It is detachably mounted on a vehicle having a control switch that controls the blinking of the lamp by reciprocating the bar in the circumferential direction, driven by two input lines, and by a passenger of the vehicle from a plurality of predetermined colors. A vehicular lamp unit that emits the lamp in a selected color;
The lamp is composed of three LEDs that emit different colors.
A counter that counts the number of counter pulses input from the two input lines;
A control circuit that supplies each LED with a current corresponding to the count value in the counter,
The counter pulse becomes a logical value “0” or “1” corresponding to the reciprocation of the bar in the circumferential reciprocation operation from the control switch, and indicates the number of circumferential reciprocations of the bar. And
Wherein the control circuit controls the current supplied to each LED based on the count value, the vehicle lamp unit, characterized in that for emitting the lamp in a color corresponding to the count value. 2. The vehicle lamp unit according to claim 1, wherein the counter, the control circuit, and the lamp are included in a case and include two input terminals connected to the two input lines .   3. The vehicle lamp unit according to claim 1, wherein the three LEDs emit red, green, and blue light, respectively.   4. The vehicle lamp unit according to claim 1, wherein the counter and the control circuit are configured by a microcomputer.

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